NOVPUBNigel held a dagger, its pitch-black blade faintly gleaming with a red light, as if it had been gathering power for a long time.
He didn’t wait for Perlman to react, the blade already whistling through the air.
To everyone’s surprise, the target of his strike was none other than Perlman!
Aitio seized the opportunity, a cascade of ice-blue lightning striking down from the sky, nearly freezing the very earth solid.
"Oh? Nigel?"
Perlman gently caught Nigel’s dagger with his cane, speaking in an astonished tone.
The ice lightning, too, was effortlessly blocked with his other hand.
Even facing Nigel and Aitio together, he seemed at ease.
After blocking Nigel’s blade, the windows of the banquet hall shattered behind him like falling rain, and clear cuts appeared in the walls of the mansion, which began to collapse.
Amidst the sound of collapsing, a downpour began to fall from the sky, soaking Nigel’s brown hair as there was no longer any mansion to provide cover.
"Teacher, it is you who have fallen."
Nigel’s voice was resolute and hoarse, just as when he had decapitated his sworn sister — ready now, too, to kill his own mentor,
"I only know that a dangerous guy from the Demon Race cannot become a friend."
He roared as he drew his blade and dove.
No matter the magnitude of the sin, he was ready to bear it, determined not to let his teacher make another mistake.
"To raise your hand against your master, do you not feel the slightest bit of guilt?"
Perlman asked with a smile.
No matter how the rain swirled, it couldn’t reach his immediate vicinity.
He parried Nigel’s attacks with his cane, just as he had done many years ago when he trained Nigel in swordsmanship.
"..."
Nigel stopped talking, fighting with all his focus.
"I am both gratified and saddened." 𝔫𝖔𝔳𝖕𝖚𝔟.𝔠𝔬𝖒
Perlman shook his head in disappointment, his gaze growing colder by the second, certain that no words would sway Nigel now.
Immediately afterward,
Nigel, as if controlled by some spirit, awkwardly lunged directly toward Perlman’s cane.
Aitio wanted to shield him with an ice crystal.
"Don’t worry about me!"
Nigel roared, straining with all his might to twist his wrist. Accompanying the sound of breaking bones, he positioned his short sword in front, his stance majestic as he built a solid barrier for Aitio with nothing but his own flesh and blood.
Understanding his intentions, Aitio, this time, gathered an even more terrifying chill from the ruins of the mansion at the center.
The clouds churned, and snowflakes fell, as if the entirety of Poson’s Demon World was about to be engulfed by an unprecedented blizzard.
Perlman looked mildly surprised.
Uncountable ice spears whizzed from all directions, every single one razor-sharp, actually sealing off Perlman’s psychokinesis with this barrage from the heavens.
The next second, the earth shattered!
Countless threads of ice-blue lightning descended from the sky, intertwining with the ground’s ice spears to form a net, aiming to imprison Perlman forever within this icy purgatory.
Unconcerned about his injuries, Nigel led the charge, his dagger dancing, turning into a flurry of blades, and, along with Aitio’s ice and lightning from behind, his assault grew ever more ferocious.
In the blink of an eye, psychokinesis, ice crystals, and crimson shadows collided and intertwined in the dark rainy night!
Wherever this force traveled, buildings collapsed, streets cracked, and the very center of District 10 seemed on the verge of toppling in this massive battle!
...
Several kilometers away from the center of the battlefield, atop a skyscraper.
Thunder roared, and fierce winds howled.
Two figures stood there, holding their breath and gazing intently at the cataclysmic battle unfolding in the distance.
The night sky, drenched by the torrential rain, was stained a peculiar purplish-red, as if it were the last vestige before the end of days.
In the heart of that eighth-order battlefield, Parlony’s Demon World District 10 was enveloped in an icy purgatory.
The city trembled as the land itself in the clash between them.
The lords of District 7 and District 8, Astrophel and Eureka, still hesitated, observing the battle from a distance on a Ferris wheel, without joining the fray.
Even at such a distance, they could clearly feel the terror of that power.
With every collision of mental force against the ice and thunder, a gale would stir in the void, whipping their clothes into a wild flutter.
They felt an unprecedented sense of oppression, as if the world was about to crumble under the clash of the two eighth-order members of the Demon Tribe.
"Is this an eighth-order battle?"
Astrophel muttered to himself, his voice filled with bewilderment.
"Indeed, this is the realm of gods. I can’t imagine if two beings at the pinnacle of the eighth-order were to fight, whether the entire Parlony’s Demon World would be turned into ash in a short period of time..."
Eureka said with a trembling voice.
Firstly, it would be difficult for them to extricate themselves if they rushed into such a battlefield, and secondly, they were also hesitant.
Perlman and Aitio held opposing views; they originally wanted to support Perlman in restoring the glory of the Demon Tribe.
But after Nigel’s words, they also felt that the guy who seemed to be actively spreading curses was very dangerous, and if they were to submit to him, their destinies would be uncertain.
"If the three Secret Keys in the hands of the three great officals of The Senate were all obtained, then the city defenses of Floral City Pariel would fall under Perlman’s control, and then there would really be no chance of winning."
Eureka, the lord of District 8, analyzed.
"I’ll listen to you."
Astrophel shook his head.
The entire South Bank was now full of berserk members of the Demon Tribe, and the city’s defense barriers were already overloaded.
But the task force, army, and police were already combating the berserk demons across Floral City.
If before the barrier’s restoration, an eighth-order demon from the South Bank got hold of the Secret Key and went to the defense nucleus of South Bank District 1 to alter the commands, everything would come to an end.
Likewise, there was no one in the south capable of confronting an eighth-order demon at the moment.
"Nigel and Aitio’s conditions for victory are to defeat Lord Perlman and the mysterious demon before Floral City falls," Eureka continued in a grave voice.
The battle for the city’s defenses of Floral City, comparable to an eighth-order Shadow World, had begun.
And all Perlman needed to do was to hold off Aitio and Nigel in District 10 of Parlony’s Demon World, and wait for the mysterious demon to obtain the Secret Key; the South Bank would inevitably fall.
The fighting prowess of the two sides was not equal.
Aitio was not to mention trying to go to the South Bank to put out the fire; he couldn’t even get past Perlman.
Nor was it known how many cards Perlman and the mysterious demon still had up their sleeves; it seemed they were just toying with Aitio and the others for now.
"Is there really no way for Nigel’s side to win?"
Astrophel shifted his gaze from the distant battlefield to Eureka beside him.
When it came to the revival of the Demon Tribe, he harbored both expectation and doubt, as well as fear.
He was somewhat wary of the mysterious demon who controlled "Parlony’s Grudge Record."
Facing that kind of Demon King, both he and Eureka might have to submit, but it was hard to tell whether it would mean submitting to a tyrant.
"In this situation, we just wait for everything to blow up."
Eureka sighed.
Neither of them wanted to fight anyway.
There was no benefit to fighting, and they might even risk their own lives.
"Unless the Goddess of Destiny makes a joke."
All Eureka could do was to murmur hopelessly.
