The Record of Unusual Creatures

The demon king’s army swarmed out of the Stellar Spire and swept over the territory of the Council of Elders. At every point on the broken, floating platform, the demon hunters of the council were routed on all fronts, even if they retreated into the void beyond the floating platform. There were lots of winged demons in the demon king’s army. The ethereals and elven mages also excelled in aerial combat like they were born to fly. They knew how to fight in the air better than the demon hunters: they came from a broken world where floating continents and deranged gravity environments were everywhere.

A small group of demon hunters was finally cornered. They were the elite of the elite, and had held on until now under the siege of an army dozens of times their size. A high-ranking demon hunter—most likely a grandmaster—was holding a long, silver sword, which was blazing with sacred flames. He was fighting off the attacks of numerous demons and human warriors. His roar thundered throughout the battlefield, “Don’t back off! Kill them all! All otherworldlings must be erased!”

The ordinary legion was no match for this grandmaster. Even without weapons, the grandmaster was far better than any ordinary warrior in close combat. The grandmaster led a large group of high-ranking demon hunters as they lunged to the left and right. The demonic legion could only form a line of defense to try to prevent the enemy from breaking through. The situation on the battlefield suddenly came to a deadlock.

But soon, the impasse was broken. A tall demoness walked out of the legion gracefully. She was carrying two long, slender swords that were dripping with blood. Even though she looked several times more delicate than the strong demon warriors around her, all the demon warriors bowed their heads when she appeared.

Even the demon hunter was drawn to the demoness. They got into formation and looked at their opponent with alert faces. Since there was no such demon on Earth to refer to, they could only speculate about Lanina’s abilities and ethnicity.

“Are you their leader? Lanina approached the grandmaster, pointing her sword at him. “You are brave enough to fight with me. Now, raise your sword and fight for your glory.”

“Demon hunters don’t bargain with monsters like you, and you don’t deserve to talk to me about glory.” The demon hunter’s eyes were filled with blood, and his expression was distorted. “You lowly creatures deserve nothing more than to be burned to death and be used as firewood!”

“Well, I think it’s quite comfortable to be roasting on a stake,” Lanina said and shrugged. “In that case throw all that glory aside. Just tell me, do you dare fight with me?”

The grandmaster demon hunter spat and slowly raised his long sword. Flames were burning brightly on the blade. “I’m gonna kill you!”

In the face of the heavy blow, Lanina did not panic. She moved briskly to avoid the direct strike and fought the demon hunter’s attacks with her swords. This was followed by a series of lunges at her opponent with both swords in her hands. The swords collided fiercely in the air, and their attacks were so fast and furious that the clashing swords sounded like a long squeal.

One was a veteran demon hunter with a thousand years of combat experience; one was a demon swordswoman who had fought her way through numerous battlefields in the world. The battle quickly turned white-hot.

Lanina, however, clearly did not have the upper hand. She was, after all, a military strategist. She was not trained to be a warrior, so her body was not as strong as those demon warriors. But Lanina did not look nervous. She just kept her tempo and drew her opponent’s attention. Then, she retreated abruptly and yelled, “Alright, now!”

“What…” The demon hunter was stunned. He thought he was a shoo-in, but then he turned around and saw that he had been led into the demons’ battle array. His own men were completely separated from him.

The surrounding demonic defenders and human warriors immediately swarmed in after hearing Lanina’s order. Apparently, they were all well-prepared for this. The demon hunter was caught off guard and physically consumed. He did not have any helping hand, and he was soon captured on the spot with little chance of resistance.

Loud shouting and yelling came from the distance. Finally, the remaining demon hunters of the Council of Elders were defeated. After they lost a strong leader, their defenses fell apart immediately.

“You shameless monster!” The demon hunter was pressed to the ground by two warriors and his body was wrapped in a magic chain. He glared at Lanina, furious and cursing, “You demon! Freak! Is this a fair duel?!”

“I tricked you,” said Lanina as she wiped her sword.

“Despicable! Shameless!”

“Of course, I’m a demon, okay!” Lanina lifted her leg and kicked the noisy guy unconscious. “I’m super professional!”

Heavy footsteps came from the side; it was the Lord of the Abyss. The demon officer looked down at Lanina as well as the demon hunter who had been knocked out, and thundered, “To be honest, it really wasn’t fair.”

Lanina gave the Lord of the Abyss the side-eye and said, “As a demon, can you be a little more professional?”

It would have been quite awkward if Hao Ren had heard what she just said.

A crisis was dissolved by the demon king’s army. The gate of the Stellar Spire was back in the hands of the “normal demon hunters”. Although the gate’s defenses had been completely destroyed, at least for a short time, the Council of Elders would not send anyone there to die.

The guards near the gate began to clear the battlefield and treat the wounded. Countless watchful eyes continuously scanned the demon king’s army. At the same time, more demons and otherworldling soldiers kept coming out of the hole at the top of the Stellar Spire. There were serious-looking human soldiers, grumpy and noisy dwarves, as well as lively elves.

The demon hunters were instinctively alarmed when they saw the demons, but they were shocked when they saw the righteous-looking human paladins and the lively elves. The atmosphere near the platform became strange.

Hao Ren and the gang approached Lanina. Y’zaks looked at his adopted daughter and asked, “I thought I was going to have to go to the South Pole to find you. Lost your way again?”

Lanina shook her head and said, “No, we just had a little trouble when we tried to get into the gate.”

“What trouble?”

“Those big guys couldn’t get into the gate.” Lanina looked at the Lord of the Abyss who was four to five-meters-tall, the gigantic obsidian golems, and a few giant demonic beasts who were burning with raging flames. “Actually, they could have tried to squeeze in, but it was too slow.”

Hao Ren suddenly had a bad feeling and asked, “So… how did you get in here?”

“So we took some time to… Well, a part of the castle wall has been torn down,” Lanina answered honestly and hastened to explain, “It was approved of course.”

Everyone looked at each other and White Flame had a pretty interesting expression. Hao Ren patted White Flame on the shoulder, trying to comfort her. “It’s okay. Your hometown’s already ruined by the war. Now it’s just the gate…”

Vivian muttered to Lily, “I don’t understand. Landlord clearly can’t say anything nice, why is he so confident about comforting others?”

“He’s just like you. You’re so poor, but you’re still confident enough to say that you can pay the rent,” Lily said.

Hao Ren had a chance to ask some questions after several commanders had introduced themselves to the chief demon hunter. He found Master Teuton and asked, “What was that white light?”

Master Teuton looked up at the deep, dark space in the distance and answered solemnly, “I’m afraid that’s… Some of the weapons in the Netherrealm Clock Tower have gathered enough energy. If I’m not mistaken, that was the power of the Judgement Bolt.”