Chapter 57: Flames from the Abyss

Koda looked at the monster before him, and the corners of his mouth slowly curled up.

He was looking forward to it. He wanted to see how this creature would behave when it met its old kin.

"Heavens, the demons are back!"

The dwarf warriors guarding the kingdom’s passage had rested for less than half a day.

The demon army that had retreated earlier surged up again from the far end of the darkness.

The moment the dwarves spotted the demons, the whispers of terrible, corrupting darkness began to echo in every dwarf’s ear.

They were survivors of the last fight for the tunnel, the lucky ones who had lived through the demons’ claws. But they were also victims of the plague called the "Demon Calamity."

The effect of demons in battle was not only physical. So far, no living creature had fought demons and kept a whole and healthy mind. Their souls, their reason, even their will to fight were mostly eaten away by the war.

Koda’s War Sight could not show him the state of their minds in plain facts. But he could tell from the warriors’ faces.

"Dwarf Father above!"

"Why are there still so many of them?"

"The ones we killed before could have been piled into two small mountains..."

At the far end of the passage, the corpses of the last wave of demons had not yet been buried. And the two small mountains of dead were proof enough of the dwarves’ courage.

But sadly, imps were cheap to make, and Koda used that fully.

With a subordinate base now supplying him, his five Hatching Pools ran almost at full strength. Every minute, several new imps were born in his land.

So to Koda, the imps’ casualties had truly become small, insignificant numbers.

"Don’t be afraid!"

General Maes Copperhammer, who had come to the front line in person, shouted.

He knew the demons well enough by now, and without hesitation he had his attendants lead more than a dozen earth dragons out of the army’s camp.

"This time we have enough earth dragons. With them here, the demons cannot cross our line!"

The earth dragons were the dwarves’ best weapon against demons at this narrow pass. So when Maes said so, many dwarves perked up.

These dwarves were the earlier reserves. Unlike the pale-faced survivors, they had never seen the horror of demons, so they were easier to rouse.

But their fire and excitement would soon be doused by cruel reality.

* * *

"They’re coming! They’re surging up!"

In the dark, the dwarves needed no torches to see countless crimson eyes rushing wildly at them from below the steps.

Those eyes were full of malice, greed and cruelty. Just seeing them was enough to unsettle anyone.

But before the imps could get close, the earth dragons at the edge of the passage had already begun to spit dragonfire.

In an instant, streams of fire from the huge tunnel entrance wove together into a dense net.

Every demon touched by the net was set ablaze almost at once, and died howling.

"Ha, it’s useless, you cursed monsters."

Maes Copperhammer sneered as he watched the imps burn below.

"On ground like this, as long as the earth dragons are here, you will never get up this slope."

This time, to hold the precious kingdom passage more securely, Maes had asked the king for even more of his valuable earth dragons.

He had lost one in the last battle, but the generous king clearly did not care about one earth dragon. After all, the dwarf kingdom kept them as special livestock, and it owned more than a dozen.

But Maes and his soldiers had not been happy for long when they noticed something.

In the middle of the passage, a few faint streaks of black and red were glowing.

And in the next moment, from the middle of the demon army, fire began to shoot out too.

But it was not like the red dragonfire the earth dragons spat. The fire in the demon army was a nearly black, purple-red flame!

And these purple-red flames did not take the shape of dragonfire. They were more like fireballs, one after another.

"Danger!"

Maes reacted quickly. He pulled back and dragged his adjutant and attendants with him as much as he could.

But two attendants and the earth dragons beside them were still struck squarely by the purple-red fireballs.

And what Maes could not believe was that this purple-red fire could spread, just like dragonfire!

Yet the two spread in different ways.

"Aaaah! The fire, the fire is getting under my skin!"

An attendant with half his face scorched screamed. Like a madman, he tore off the armor and padding that protected him.

Only when he had taken off his armor did the other dwarves understand, from the wounds exposed on him, how terrible those strange purple-red flames were.

"Sizzle!"

"Please, please, dig them out!"

As the fire kept burning his skin, the man’s skin vanished at a speed that was almost like "collapsing." And as the skin vanished, the flames burning him kept burning inward.

In less than two seconds, every dwarf there, including General Maes Copperhammer, clearly saw countless purple-red flames devour the attendant’s skin, sink into his body, and burn through the rest of his working organs.

Perhaps it was this strange sensation that made him babble, before he died, about fire getting under his skin.

Unlike ordinary fire, the abyssal flame did not ignite everything it touched. It burned inward!

It was strongly corrosive!

"Aaaargh!"

The other earth dragons struck by the abyssal fire screamed as well.

Under its corrosion, these strange beasts, who carried a trace of true dragon blood, began to die one after another. Their fragile organs and skin were eaten away by the abyssal fire just the same!

Seeing this horror, the general looked in panic toward the entrance of the passage.

There, an abyssal earth dragon, held on Karolith’s chain, slowly opened its mouth and aimed it at him.

And inside that twisted, deformed mouth, a purple-red flame was gathering...