Chapter 207: Chapter 165: Prisoner_1
When fighting, Duanmu Huai always believed in being swift, accurate, and ruthless. Due to his size, Duanmu Huai couldn’t really resort to sneaking attacks during battle. Therefore, his best strategy was always to charge directly at them, intimidate his opponents, and disrupt their gathering while they still hadn’t fully react.
As for other things…he’d figure it out after the disruption!!
As it turned out, Duanmu Huai’s strategy worked magnificently. The individuals busy with the ritual completely didn’t see coming the heavy stone door being violently smashed open, giving them quite the fright. Before they could snap out of it, Duanmu Huai, with the assistance of his jetpack, catapulted into the air, crashed into the ritual area like a massive stone flung from a trebuchet. Then he gripped his war hammer tightly and swung it hard, sending several ritual participants flying against the wall, where they fell silent after their cries of agony.
A few robed men standing by reacted to this and rushed towards Duanmu Huai with their weapons. However, fast as they were, their weapons did no good against the sturdy power armor, not even leaving a scratch despite the clanging noises.
Seizing this opportunity, Duanmu Huai once again wheeled both his hands around holding the war hammer, sending other enemies at his sides flying.
Meanwhile, with angry barks, several black evil hounds lunged at him from all directions. But even before they could show their brutality, Duanmu Huai kicked them into meat paste with just one foot.
With the participants of the ritual cleared out by Duanmu Huai, the ongoing ritual was undeniably interrupted. The blood flowing around started to boil, and the floating blood-red crystal in the center started to gradually darken and fall to the ground.
“You damned bastard!!”
Seeing this, the robed man on the high platform let out a roar. He threw up his hands, his eyes shining brightly. As the robed man made his move, all the graves around them exploded one after another. Following that, dozens of pale-white, gruesome creatures emerged, looking like a blend of human and bat with their bodies all draped in dead skin that you could almost see the green, robust blood vessels inside, devoid of any fresh blood, wriggling about.
The faces of these monsters also resembled the hybrid of human and bat. Though they still had features of human faces, their teeth, ears, and mouth all looked like those of bats.
Seeing one of the monsters, Old Bent screamed out loud. He grabbed Greiya tightly with one hand, pointed at the front with the other, his face pale and his body trembling.
Though they had already guessed that the missing villagers wouldn’t find a good end, they didn’t expect them to be transformed into these grotesque creatures!
Accompanying the appearance of these monsters, countless undead soldiers emerged. The scattered white bones on the ground, as if attracted by some powerful force, started to condense rapidly, forming numerous skeleton soldiers, completely surrounding Duanmu Huai.
Seeing all this, the robed man showed a chillingly ruthless smile.
“Damned human, how dare you interrupt my ritual. Now, feel the real taste of desolation……”
But he didn’t finish what he was saying. Duanmu Huai glanced around his surrounding undead army and monsters, sneered and raised his right foot for a heavy stomp!
Centered on Duanmu Huai, a holy power-infused, pure white flame burst out instantly, filling the entire hall in the blink of an eye. Under the impact of Soul Flame, all the surrounding undead and monsters fell to the ground in an instant. The blinding brilliance forced the taken-by-surprise robed man to instinctively raise his hand to his face.
The robed man scorched by Soul Flame fell to his knees, groaning in pain. Then his body was suddenly covered by pitch-black fog, and his clothes completely dissolved in that instant. What replaced it was a tall, black figure with the head like a goat and bat wings, revealing its sharp fangs as it opened its mouth.
“You, how do you dare…….!!!”
However, the robed man’s rage ended right there.
Because at that exact moment, Duanmu Huai, who had rushed in front of the robed man, raised his war hammer and smashed it down hard on his distorted, dog-like, goat-like head.
The robed man’s head burst like a watermelon, his body shivered before entirely turning into a pool of blood water.
Duanmu Huai put away his war hammer, nodding in satisfaction. At present, there wasn’t a single living enemy remaining in the hall. Those mutated monsters and undead soldiers were all burnt to a crisp by the Soul Flame, and the one who orchestrated it all —— the robed man had his head smashed thoroughly by Duanmu Huai’s hammer. Well, while he wasn’t sure what that guy was doing, at least for now, he seemed to have stopped his further actions.
“Are you alright, Mr. knight?”
Right at this moment, Greiya and Old Bent cautiously entered the ritual hall. Looking at the scene around them, they couldn’t help but gasp. After all, describing this place as strewn with dead bodies wouldn’t be the slightest exaggeration, and the fact that this was all done by Duanmu Huai alone was even more…unbelievable.
“I’m fine, this kind of trick still can’t trouble me.”
Duanmu Huai shook his head. To him, the enemies on this continent were basically unchallenging. Well…if he were seeking a challenge, perhaps he would need to fight the demon god in the Obliteration Domain.
“However, speaking of which, what exactly are these guys trying to do with such a big fuss?”
Duanmu Huai looked at the headless monster curiously. Just when he was about to search for some clues around to figure out what these people were doing, all of a sudden, a voice rang out.
“If you wish to know, I can help you, the mighty Steel Warrior.”
Hearing the voice, Duanmu Huai looked up, only to find a man in a dark blue robe locked in a corner cell of the hall. He looked thin and exhausted.
“Praise Stendarr, it seems I’m indeed blessed.”
Duanmu Huai approached the cage, curiously examining the other party.
“I am the Watchman of Stendar, Grey Pasht.”
“The Watchman of Stendar, oh………”
Hearing the other’s response, Duanmu Huai thought for a moment before nodding with a sudden realization.
In the Empire of this continent, there are nine officially designated deities, also known as the Nine Spirits.
Time Dragon God Akatosh.
God of Reincarnation Arkay.
Goddess of Beauty Dibella.
God of Wisdom Julianos.
Goddess of Love, Mara.
God of Justice, Stendar.
God of Prosperity, Zenithar.
And…… the unfortunate Talos, the God of Man and War, forbidden by elves.
Certainly, aside from these nine officially designated spirits, there are sixteen demon gods, but that’s not presently important.
The Watchmen of Stendar are followers of the Hand of Justice, Stendar, mainly responsible for hunting demon beasts, including vampires, undead, werewolves, and the like… Yes, they could be considered colleagues of the Judges.
And then, Grey shared his experiences with Duanmu Huai – like all Watchmen, Grey had been tracking and killing vampires. However, on his journey, he was suddenly besieged by a group of vampires. Grey’s comrades were killed, and he was captured and brought here. According to Grey, these vampires seemed to need the heart of devout followers for their blasphemous and evil rituals. However, now it seemed… there was likely no continuation of these rituals.
“Do you know what they intend to do?”
“I don’t know about that, but I know what that thing is.”
While saying this, Grey looked towards the mysterious artifact dropped in the center of the ritual site, a stone sculpture resembling the sun. In the middle of the sculpture, the crystal part was radiating a gloomy red light.
“That is the Star of Azura, a divine artifact of the Demon God Azura, used for storing and trapping souls.”
“So, these vampires plan on imprisoning human souls?”
“It’s not that simple.”
“According to my observations, these vampires seem to be aiming to transform the Star of Azura into a special container… this ritual was the preparation for that. As for what they really want to do… probably no one knows.”
“So, what do we do now?”
Duanmu Huai stepped forward, picking up the Star of Azura that had fallen on the ground. Now this strange object was still shimmering with a bright red light around it, much like the flow of fresh blood.
“I suggest you return it to Azura for her to purify this star. Regardless of what the vampires want to do with it, Azura can stop them.”
“Are you sure? Isn’t Azura a demon god?”
If Duanmu Huai remembered correctly, Azura was one of the sixteen demon gods …….
“Although Azura is a demon god, she is not an evil deity. Whatever these vampires want to do, Azura will certainly not allow them to succeed.”
After hearing Grey’s words, Duanmu Huai pondered for a moment and then nodded.
“Then let’s go see this demon god.”
If need be, they could always fight.