The Duke’s Eldest Son Escaped to the Military
chapter-231

Chapter 231: Phantom Tree (2)

TL: Pai_

The demon grinned as he looked at Iron and Terrion.

To him, both of them seemed like delicious prey.

-Who should I kill first?

The demon murmured while rubbing his chin as if he were genuinely contemplating the decision.

Most of the demons of Hell, disappointed by the ruined plans of the Phantom Tree, wanted to kill the God’s Apostle who had interfered with their schemes.

But that was just their perspective, not that of the demon who had been summoned here.

-Losers who couldn’t be summoned, get lost.

Ignoring the incessant whining of his comrades who kept murmuring in his ears, the demon made a face of irritation.

-From now on, any bastards who interfere will be annihilated as soon as I return.

With the demon’s warning, the whining voices disappeared in an instant.

Satisfied, the demon quickly crossed his arms and took a defensive stance.

In that moment, Terrion’s figure vanished, aiming for the demon’s heart with a thrust as fast as light.

A surprise attack targeting a moment of carelessness.

But Terrion’s sword did not pierce the demon’s heart.

Kuwoong!

The demon caught Terrion’s full-powered thrust head-on.

Receiving the thrust with both hands, purple sparks shot out of the demon’s eyes.

Terrion swiftly evaded and attempted to thrust his sword once again.

-How unfortunate. Did you exhaust too much strength destroying the Phantom Tree?

As the demon said this, he flung Terrion away as he attempted another attack.

Compared to the strikes Terrion had unleashed at the Hell Gate, this one was somewhat disappointing.

Clicking his tongue in dissatisfaction, the demon turned his head and blocked Iron’s surprise attack, who had tried to strike him from behind.

-Is the summoning time only 30 minutes? What a pity. Really a pity.

Despite the sacrifice of the Phantom Tree, the time the demon could remain in this world was a mere 30 minutes.

Moreover, he was in a situation where his power was restricted.

Since he held a high rank even in Hell, the system had imposed ‘restrictions’ on him.

But in a way, that made it even better.

On this continent, there was no one other than the gods who could stand against him, so these restrictions only served to heighten his excitement.

-I’ll enjoy this to the fullest!

Unless the ‘Apocalypse’ occurred, the chances of him returning to this place were slim.

Thus, this time was precious.

There were no longer any fools in Hell daring to challenge him.

Yet, the humans before him did not know who he was.

Moreover, the restrictions on his power only added to his thrill.

Since it wasn’t that he was voluntarily restraining his power, but rather that his actual strength had been reduced, it made the battle feel more real.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

-More! More! More! Try harder!

He pushed Iron and Terrion to their limits, testing them in every possible way.

With the mindset of “I wonder if they can withstand this,” he unleashed even stronger power and continued to press them.

The demon, expecting to see how far they could go, pursued Iron and Terrion with an eager expression.

But that time did not last long.

-What a pity!

Terrion tried to use his ultimate technique by pushing himself too hard, but its power did not fully materialize.

Iron’s Aura Blade, which had been fused with Divine Power, was also starting to crack.

It had already been well past the limit since they severed the roots of the Phantom Tree, and the same level of power was no longer there.

Kwaang!

“Guh…”

In less than ten minutes, Terrion, who had become a wreck, was sent flying far away, suffering internal injuries and fainting.

Iron, too, was barely holding on with his Divine Power, but he no longer had the strength to continue.

The demon was difficult to deal with even when he was in perfect condition, but having expended all his power on the Phantom Tree, Iron had nothing left to face the demon.

-What a pity.

The demon looked at Iron with a regretful expression.

As an God’s Apostle, he had expected more, but Iron had used up too much strength on the Phantom Tree.

-Tsk! If only you could spread your wings one more time… What a pity.

The wings Iron had displayed when he severed the roots of the Phantom Tree.

The demon wanted to see them once more, but Iron no longer had that strength left.

Iron, who had survived countless crises, had held out stubbornly, but the demon’s power was simply too overwhelming.

Bang!

“Guh…”

The full-power horizontal slash was blocked by the violet beams shooting from the demon’s eyes and ended up getting lodged into the Phantom Tree.

-My excitement is fading. It’s a pity, but I guess it’s time to finish this.

The demon clicked his tongue in disappointment and slowly walked towards Iron.

He savored the recent battle, relishing the time he had spent out of Hell after so long.

Once he returned to Hell, his life would once again be filled with nothing but boredom.

Perhaps it was the thought of Hell that made him feel increasingly irritated, causing his steps towards Iron to slow down.

Nevertheless, time passed, and as he was bound by the contract to fulfill the Phantom Tree’s wish, the demon swung his hand to kill Iron.

Ziiing!

A violet energy gathered at the tip of his index finger.

As it compressed to its limit and was about to fly toward Iron in an instant, a massive ice spear shot towards the demon.

-Another human?

The demon looked up at the sky as he noticed the attack.

There was no doubt that the person had reached an extraordinary level for a human.

But compared to the two humans he had just fought, this one fell short.

Moreover, it was just one person.

-Just get lost.

The demon, thinking that this was only going to add to his frustration, gathered his strength to kill the mage instantly.

But just then, another human appeared.

And it didn’t stop there—one after another, powerful individuals began to appear, attacking the demon.

As the Phantom Tree died and the Divine Beasts freed from the evil spirits cleared the path, the vanguard that had been heading towards the Phantom Tree immediately launched an assault on the demon who was trying to kill Iron.

From the Master Muradin to the Southern Commander and the Central Commander, they began a coordinated attack from the start.

They could tell at a glance that this being had extraordinary power, and considering he had incapacitated both Iron and Terrion, they knew they had to go all out from the beginning.

-Not bad.

There weren’t just one, but four humans who were quite worthy of fighting.

These beings were giving their all to attack him in order to save God’s Apostle.

-Good!

How long could they protect God’s Apostle from him?

Could they hold out until he was reverse-summoned? The very thought of it was entertaining.

“Kuk! This monster.”

Muradin grit his teeth as he saw the demon easily deflect his full-powered attack and even launch a counterattack.

The other Masters felt the same.

The Eastern Commander, who had come to the Phantom Tree despite pushing himself too hard, unleashed his full power with his freezing magic, and the Southern Commander struck with lightning magic. Yet the demon extinguished all of it with his violet energy while fending off the attacks from Muradin and the Central Commander.

Still, maybe because there were four Masters attacking together, the demon, monstrous as he was, began to be pushed back little by little.

-Good! Good! Try to block me more!

As if craving stronger stimulation, the demon unleashed even greater power towards the Masters.

Though not as entertaining as Iron and Terrion, it seemed they were still amusing enough as he moved aggressively.

Just then, a fortress cannon loaded with an enormous amount of mana fired directly at the demon.

Kuuuung!

The demon took the massive beam of light head-on, a blast that even a Master would not dare to withstand.

But the monstrous being endured even that.

Airships that had appeared in the sky unleashed a barrage of mana cannons towards the Phantom Tree and the demon.

As the giant trees retreated from the Phantom Tree’s shadow, the Empire’s forces were able to reach the Phantom Tree’s location.

A relentless assault from countless airships.

But the demon’s power was overwhelming.

Before long, a formation of knights had taken up position, and large-scale spells from mages rained down, but the demon handled it all alone.

And still, he had enough leeway to smile, his lips curling upwards.

-Quite an entertaining diversion.

The demon, who had taken the first powerful blast of the fortress cannon directly, looked at his partially melted arm and smiled.

Even though he could have dodged it, the demon took the hit on purpose to assess its power and nodded in satisfaction.

The attacks were quite satisfying.

It was a power that briefly satisfied his constant thirst for new opponents and challengers.

But that, too, was coming to an end.

-It seems time is up already.

The demon, having endured countless attacks, now sensed that this diversion was about to conclude.

He looked at the humans who had surrounded him and the Phantom Tree.

While he had intentionally held back, only using minimal force to fend off the humans’ attacks, this was not just for the sake of his own amusement. In truth, it was to gather as many humans here as possible.

The Phantom Tree, having sacrificed itself to summon the demon, had one wish: to kill as many humans as possible.

The primary target was, of course, the God’s Apostle, but since many humans needed to be killed as well, the demon decided to finish them all at once.

-Now, be annihilated.

As he spoke, the demon unfurled his black wings for the first time.

In that moment, the surrounding area filled with violet energy, which began to condense into a powerful force.

Sensing this, the commanders and Master Muradin gave everything they had to stop it, but it was already too late.

The condensed violet energy began to split into thousands, no, tens of thousands of pieces, ready to annihilate the humans in an instant.

-Hm?

A powerful Divine Power was detected coming from the direction of the Phantom Tree.

It pushed back the demon’s highly condensed violet energy in real-time.

The demon’s expression hardened as he watched this.

It made no sense that the power of a demon in a high position in Hell was being pushed back by mere divine power emitted by God’s Apostle.

Kwadeuk!

An unknown power hidden in the massive light of divine power.

It started breaking down the condensed balls of violet energy one by one.

-Ha… haha! So that was it!

Wind wrapped in divine power.

Despite the fact that his power was being obliterated in real-time by the Divine Power-infused wind, the demon was thrilled.

Even though this situation could lead to him failing to fulfill the Phantom Tree’s wish and suffering a severe penalty for breach of contract, he found it all too enjoyable.

He preferred this unpredictable situation—where the outcome was uncertain until the very end—far more than a predetermined victory, even if it meant facing possible defeat.

A collision occurred between the devastating violet energy and the storm imbued with radiant white light.

Before anyone realized it, the wind imbued with light began pushing the humans back and directly clashed with the violet energy surrounding the Phantom Tree.

During this time, Iron, who had briefly lost consciousness, gradually started to regain his senses.

“Umm…”

As Iron struggled to open his eyes, a series of notification sounds echoed in his ears, as if waiting for him to wake up.

[Something that had been dormant within the Phantom Tree awakens in response to your Divine Power.]

[You have met the minimum criteria to resonate with ?????.]

– ????? has temporarily formed a provisional contract with you.

Something of unknown identity.

It had formed a provisional contract with him while he was unconscious, and now it was fighting against the overwhelmingly powerful demon.

Though it was weak, it used Iron’s Divine Power to oppose the violet energy.

However, it was clear that because this was not its original power, it was gradually being pushed back by the demon’s force.

Seeing this, Iron focused his mind on the faintly connected thread.

The moment he completely entrusted his body to the entity that had formed a provisional contract with him, allowing it to fully use his power, Iron’s consciousness temporarily expanded.

‘The sky?’

An endless expanse of sky stretched out before him, its vastness beyond comprehension.

From within, he observed everything.

In that moment, Iron realized that this was the perspective of whatever entity had formed the provisional contract with him.

With a sense of becoming one with nature, he channeled the energy of the sky to strike down the foreign violet aura.

Kuuuung!

A massive storm of light tore through the countless violet orbs, grinding them down and enveloping the demon.

However, the demon of Hell ultimately couldn’t break through the violet energy and was annihilated.

-Hahaha! Interesting! So interesting! Is this what you wanted?

Despite his body being covered in blood, the demon of Hell laughed brightly.

-Is the time up? This time, it’s my loss.

As the demon spoke, he watched as his body slowly turned to dust.

He had been so absorbed in his enjoyment that the time allotted for his descent to this world through the Phantom Tree had run out.

As he returned to Hell, he would have to face the consequences of breaking the contract.

Yet, despite this, he was satisfied.

-No matter what, I’ll return again. So… make it even more entertaining next time.

The demon, smiling brightly, looked at Iron and the ‘something’ within him before disappearing back to Hell.

****