Vol 3. Chapter 120: Large-Scale Retreat

Although Nick was one of the Church's three Archbishops, the main reasons he had risen to such a lofty position were still his family's influence and immense financial resources. To most people within the Church, his family was undoubtedly a colossal existence.

But,

to that unfathomable Pope, it meant virtually nothing...

Whether Nick lived or died,

to tell the truth, His Holiness the Pope didn't particularly care.

Nick had absolutely no confidence that His Holiness would come to save him.

But at this moment, surrounded by a Demon King-class monster and a horde of Abyss Demons, they had only one way left if they wanted to survive.

Moreover,

even if His Holiness didn't care whether they lived or died, and didn't even care about that fellow Bai Xiaozou, he should still act for the sake of saving the Child of Destiny. After all, the Child of Destiny was simply far too important to the Asumos Church and to this entire world...

‘I can only... take the gamble!’

Taking a deep breath, Nick abruptly gripped the ring in his hand and mobilized what little Holy Aura he had left, intending to activate the ring's power and summon the supreme ruler of the Church.

Only that existence could deal with an overpowered Demon King-class Abyss Demon like Flame Prison.

However,

just as Nick was preparing to race against time, the Archbishop's movements abruptly froze. His pale-blue eyes filled with blank astonishment as he turned around in confusion, completely at a loss.

Because,

at this very moment, Nick was stunned to discover that the terrifying horde of Abyss Demons that had been about to charge them from behind and devour every last member of the Church had inexplicably stopped attacking?

Under the bewildered gazes of Nick and the other members of the Asumos Church, the Abyss Demons simply... stopped their charge and ended their attack.

That unstoppable tide of Abyss Demons, powerful enough to engulf the enormous city of Skyvault and utterly destroy it, had actually stopped its advance at this moment as though someone had cast time-freezing magic upon it.

They even

began to retreat......

???

!!!

“Wh... What is going on?! Why... why are they retreating?”

Nick wore an expression as though he had begun doubting reality itself.

Abyss Demons despised all living creatures. Until every last enemy had been tortured and killed, they would absolutely never stop.

That could practically be called common knowledge throughout the world.

Yet at this very moment, that common knowledge had been shattered.

Faced with people like them, whose bodies contained dense Holy Aura, these Abyss Demons had actually given up attacking? Instead, they had turned around and left?

What the fuck was going on?

Am I fucking dreaming?

Faced with something so utterly contrary to common sense and impossible to understand no matter how he thought about it, Nick couldn't help fiercely pinching his own thigh, using the pain to keep himself ‘awake’ and confirm that everything before his eyes wasn't a dream.

And while he remained utterly bewildered, the knights of the Asumos Church couldn't help turning their gazes toward the even greater threat behind them—the Demon King-class existence......

However, when they turned around to look at the Flame Demon King,

they were astonished to discover that this Demon King-class monster, which could effortlessly crush them all, had likewise made no move to attack. At some unknown point, it had even spread its enormous flaming wings that seemed to blot out the sky.

The next moment, under everyone's dumbfounded gazes, surrounded by a storm of crimson Shadow of Silence Power, the flame demon abruptly soared into the air.

Flame Prison

was publicly recognized throughout human society as a mobile natural disaster.

Although her strength was roughly equal to Sword Demon's, humans were clearly more terrified of Flame Prison. The reason was simple: whenever this Demon King-class existence appeared, she would directly transform everything around her into an endless scorching **. Every living creature would be reduced to ashes beneath the searing heat of those karmic flames.

Even their souls would be burned away completely.

Without a doubt, Flame Prison possessed destructive power terrifying enough to make people tremble merely upon hearing her name.

Therefore, the instant Flame Prison appeared, practically everyone from the Asumos Church other than Archbishop Nick had already abandoned all hope of survival. With Flame Prison appearing here, the entirety of Skyvault would probably soon be transformed into a boundless inferno.

To avoid being burned alive amid indescribable agony, quite a few members of the Asumos Church whose wills weren't strong enough had even directly plunged swords into their own chests.

They would rather commit suicide than be swallowed by Flame Prison's karmic flames.

Yet now?

Flame Prison hadn't attacked them at all. She hadn't unleashed the sea of flames that countless people feared, either. Instead, she had simply flown into the sky and... left? Just like that, she was flying north?!

The sudden Abyss Demon attack,

the inexplicable large-scale retreat,

for the surviving members of the Asumos Church, it felt as though their hearts had been dragged through an entire roller coaster ride—one moment in hell, the next in heaven. And what would come after that, nobody knew......

But right now,

it seemed

they had survived?

......

......

‘The Abyss Demon horde... is retreating?’

Watching the crimson demon gradually disappear into the distance, along with the boundless, densely packed horde of Abyss Demons, and feeling the terrifying pressure of Shadow of Silence Power gradually recede, everyone within the ruined city of Skyvault—whether they had been fighting desperately, fleeing for their lives, or simply lying down and waiting to die—wore expressions of utter disbelief.

Although they didn't know why the Abyss Demon horde and Flame Prison had appeared in Skyvault, nor did they understand why the enemy had suddenly retreated,

the survivors inside Skyvault no longer had the energy to ponder those questions.

After a brief moment of stunned silence,

those who had practically been swallowed by the abyss of despair suddenly burst free from that mire of hopelessness, their emotions shooting straight into the heavens.

‘We... we... we survived?!’

The feeling of rising from hell straight into heaven filled countless people with unprecedented ecstasy. Overwhelmed by the joy of surviving such a catastrophe, quite a few people simply fainted from excitement.

Most of those who remained also felt an enormous weight lift from their shoulders as the pressure of imminent death disappeared. They collapsed directly onto the ruins and stretched out their arms, tightly embracing whatever surviving relatives or companions happened to be nearby.

The previous atmosphere of despair and suffocating oppression vanished completely amid the sounds of everyone's celebration.

Even the Venerable of the Holy Tower and the Lord of Golden City couldn't help dropping to their knees in relief. After all, if the Abyss Demon horde had retreated even slightly later, they might have been buried beneath the combined assault of dozens of Seventh-Tier Abyss Demons......

And just as nearly every survivor was rejoicing and beginning to mourn the dead,

Anmutu, the Second Prince of the Crimson Leaf Empire, wore an entirely different, solemn expression. Despite being gravely wounded and having nearly lost too much blood, he continued staring intently toward the north—the direction in which Flame Prison had departed.

‘Something about this feels wrong......’

Recalling the scene when Flame Prison had burst out from underground earlier, Anmutu couldn't help frowning.

Aside from those who had been so close that Flame Prison's overwhelming presence had practically frightened them out of their wits, nearly every sufficiently powerful expert had noticed one detail: when Flame Prison broke out of the underground prison, countless fragments of golden metal had scattered through the sky, along with magic-sealing stones specifically designed for ‘Restraining Formations’......

‘Flame Prison was imprisoned beneath Skyvault?’

Considering that after breaking out from underground, Flame Prison had let out a roar that sounded almost like a cry of ‘finally seeing daylight again,’ this had been Anmutu's first thought upon witnessing the scene.

In fact, Anmutu wasn't the only one. Countless powerful individuals had arrived at the same conclusion. Some even began suspecting that the reason the Abyss Demons had launched such a massive assault on Skyvault was precisely because Xue Tianao had imprisoned Flame Prison.

After all, this would also explain why the Abyss Demon horde had suddenly launched an attack of such enormous scale after several hundred years, as well as why they had immediately retreated once Flame Prison broke free from her restraints......

Almost instinctively, quite a few people placed the blame squarely on Xue Tianao.

However,

Anmutu didn't agree.

‘Xue Tianao defeated Flame Prison.’

After observing Xue Tianao's behavior for so long today, Anmutu had already begun doubting this claim.

Putting everything else aside,

with his extraordinarily powerful perception, merely judging from the residual pressure released when Flame Prison broke through the earth just now, her aura had already been stronger than the aura Xue Tianao had unleashed under the enhancement of divine power in Anmutu's memories.

An Abyss Demon this powerful, and Xue Tianao had not only defeated her but even locked her beneath the Imperial Capital?

What kind of joke was that?!

One had to understand that capturing someone alive was far more difficult than simply killing them!

Connecting this with how orderly and coordinated the earlier Abyss Demon assault had been, a terrifying possibility suddenly surfaced in Anmutu's mind.

‘Flame Prison deliberately allowed herself to be imprisoned......’

If that was really the case,

then the claim the Asumos Church had spent hundreds of years spreading—that Abyss Demons were all mindless monsters that acted purely on instinct......

was complete fucking bullshit!

Those monsters weren't just capable of thinking—

they were fucking smart!