System vs Rebirth
chapter-996

"Don't chase after them. Don't let any more soldiers die here! We will clean up this battlefield and return to our city." Noel gave an instruction while waving his sword at the Spear Devil Saint.

The latter thrust his spear, causing a ripple in the air. However, the temperature dropped so dramatically that his spear was gradually covered in ice.

This was just a normal Spiritual Cold Control that had been enhanced by the True Spirit Body. The spiritual energy around the spear gradually froze as well, causing him to be unable to release his power.

Noel then struck this spear with his Sword Transmutation, but instead of the Ever Changing Emotion Sword Style, he actually combined this attack with the Ice Infusion.

The Sword Transmutation turned into an ice sword strike.

"Kh." The Spear Devil Saint was being pushed back. At the same time, the sword strike caused the ground to be covered in a thick layer of ice. If he wasn't careful, he might slip.

Still, even though he could maintain his True Spirit Body much longer than this, he didn't have enough spiritual energy to release his abilities. If he was not careful, he would end up spending all the spiritual energy away.

However, it seemed that both of them knew what to do in this situation. Yes, both of them.

Noel waved his hand, trying to release another ability.

The Spear Devil Saint hurriedly raised his spear to protect himself. However, this was actually a bait. He suddenly felt a presence coming at high speed.

The Spear Devil Saint hurriedly turned around, but he was still one step away. The red-colored lightning flashed in the corner of his eyes before his vision turned upside down, looking at his own headless body.

Yes. The one coming for him was Anna. She stopped next to Noel while asking, "What are we going to do now? Chase them?"

Although she was curious about the True Spirit Body, it was better to focus on the matter at hand first. She had come here after killing the Superior Demon, so she was quite exhausted.

"How much spiritual energy do you have left?" Noel asked.

"About thirty percent. How about you?"

"Five to ten percent."

"So, we're not going to chase after them?" Anna thought that they had the advantage of having two True Spirit Body users, while Qiel was heavily injured. However, it didn't change the fact that Qiel's True Spirit Body hadn't worn off.

Hence, Noel shook his head. "No. If we chase after them, we'll have a lot of casualties here. Use five percent of your power to kill all the demons here. Do it within three minutes. We still need to head to another place."

"Another place?" Anna furrowed her eyebrows.

"Yeah. I got a mission from Ardagan about solving the hidden danger of the city."

"Hidden danger?" Anna had heard about the power of the system. It seemed that there was another thing lurking around. Was it the yellow flower? Was it the demon tree? Or was it something else?

Since the system had given him that kind of mission, Anna stopped talking and turned around. While going, she said, "One minute is enough."

Noel smiled. Although he wanted to do it as well, he didn't have a lot of energy left. He had to conserve it to resolve the hidden danger or at least bluff his way out of it.

In the meantime, he checked on the missions he got earlier.

[Mission: Kill the Two Devil Saints.]

[Description: Show the newbie Devil Saints the strength of Noel Ardagan.]

[Reward: 2 Special Ardagan Sword Techniques.]

He had completed one of the missions, so he immediately retrieved the rewards, wondering what they were.

[You've acquired Three Purity Swords.]

[You've acquired Divine Slash.]

"!!!" Noel felt something different from the sudden influx of information. Normally, it would just be knowledge, mostly words or images of the forms.

However, this time, he saw a scene.

In that scene, the person was swinging his sword in front of a lake. Whenever he swung the sword down, the water in the lake split into two.

"This is…" Noel sucked a cold breath. "The image from the Divine Slash! This is actually the sword technique that my ancestor used to split a mountain in half. Even with the system, it doesn't really allow me to reach mastery.

"It's not just about the form of spiritual energy control… The technique actually takes into account the movement of the muscle and other things. It's already beyond the scope of the system. That's why Ardagan showed me that scene." Noel didn't expect that there would be something that the system couldn't give me a mastery of.

Now that he thought about it, considering it a 'Divine' technique was probably justified. The Sword Transmutation looked similar, but their essence was different.

Meanwhile, the Three Purity Sword excelled in fast movement which allowed him to produce three slashes in a single movement. The system didn't show him the scene like the one with the Divine Slash, but it was clear that this technique was extremely high level. He could even incorporate three different emotions at once with this technique, making it unpredictable.

While he was resting, he realized that Anna was about to be done.

Since there were no more Superior Demons, Howard could go all out and trim down the enemies. Grandell and the others also showed unprecedented growth.

But more importantly, Anna completely obliterated the enemy.

"Die!" Anna roared while swinging her sword. Every time she swung her blade, a few demons died. Coupled with her speed, a minute should allow her to kill more than five hundred demons.

Howard also used that momentum to push back the demons, exterminating them.

It took them two minutes to kill every single demon in the area.

And Noel immediately gathered Anna, Howard, and Grandell.

"How is our side?" Noel asked.

Grandell reported, "I don't have the exact number, but there are approximately 30-40 casualties, mostly on normal soldiers. A lot are injured, but there should be no threat to their lives."

"What shall we do now, my lord?" Howard asked.

Noel thought for a moment. "Can the soldiers still fight?"

"Only half of the original numbers can still fight." Howard nodded. The other half was either dead or gravely injured, so this should be a reasonable number.

"Anna. You will come with me and observe the situation from outside."

"We're going to ambush them from behind?" Anna raised her eyebrows. Although this method was good, they needed a large number to mess up the demon army.

In fact, Howard and Grandell expected them to flank them from behind. However, it seemed that their lord had a different opinion.

"No. Howard and Grandell will lead the group back to the city through the underground tunnel. Send the soldiers who can still fight onto the wall and coordinate with Duke Briton. Anna and I have to do something else."

"Understood." Grandell and Howard bowed their heads, acknowledging the order. They immediately turned around and assembled the soldiers. Some brought the deceased, some helped the injured, while the rest protected the entire group.

Noel was sad to see a lot of people dying. After all, he only hasreturn a few hundred soldiers currently. Having lost close to ten percent of it was a significant loss.

But if they managed to survive this attack, they could get a total of three thousand soldiers according to the law.

So, they had to endure the last part of the battle.

Just like Qiel predicted, having a night battle would be dangerous even for Noel. The demons had better eyesight during the night, but Noel had prepared another thing for this.

In that case, there was only one thing he needed to do, which was solve the hidden danger.

While watching the soldiers returning, Anna asked, "What is this hidden danger the system is talking about?"

"I'm not sure. The system doesn't disclose anything to me, but this should be enough of a hint for us to know that the battle is not over yet."

"So, what are we going to do? Shouldn't we go back to the city with the soldiers to find that hidden danger?"

"No. Even if you attack the inner side of the city, they still need demons to do so. I don't think they will send any people inside."

"To avoid being found out?"

"Yeah. In that case, the Water Lord can still step forward to handle them while Aurelia is releasing all her strength to keep the rest of the demons away. The kids and Rose are there too. So, sending the rest of the soldiers back to the city should be enough. Our only problem is how they are considered a hidden danger."

"!!!" Anna picked up the hint and gasped. "So, you're assuming that the hidden danger is coming from the outside?"

"Not necessarily. They might have hidden these demons under our noses, but in the end, they need a human to control them, right? They have to go outside to avoid getting caught."

"Oh! We don't know the method yet, but we should be sure that they are outside. Or at least, wait until everything is finished and leave. That's why we will go around to observe the battlefield from afar."

"There you have it." Noel nodded.

"Let's go then. I will loop around the east and take the longer path since I have more energy than you. We'll meet in the south."

Noel agreed with a smile.

…

While they were discussing it, things had progressed rapidly the moment Anna led the army out of the city.

"What is going on? How can they suddenly appear inside the city? Do we have a traitor?" Duke Briton dropped his jaw in panic, looking at the city instead of the battlefield. He could see several clouds of dust that signified the rampaging demons. However, the barrier was still intact, which made no sense.