Chapter 45: Nervous?
Alseace stood at the front with Sierra while Elena and the others Guildmasters were behind them. Sierra took a deep breath as she looked at the vortex, and then she touched the vortex. Alseace got teleported into the vortex, and the others immediately touched the vortex as well and followed them into the vortex.
Estian and dozens of B-Ranks Agents watched the raid teams enter the portal one by one. They were nervous and prayed to God so the raid teams could clear the vortex and at least half of them came back alive.
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[Seventh Archduke of Hell]
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[Difficulty: Death Wish]
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[Objective: The Seventh Archduke of Demons or the Archdemon is preparing for an invasion to your world, Dasmein. Numerous infamous and strong demons have been summoned to join the fight, and they are currently gathering more and more demon armies. Defeat every single one of them or there will be no end of the demons]
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[Failed Condition: On the full moon, the Seventh Archduke will open a portal and attack Dasmein. Once a demon has entered Dasmein, a bridge is made, and demons could easily enter Dasmein and destroy it]
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[Reward: Exclusive Optional Box]
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[Timer: 17 Days 00 Hours 00 minutes 00 seconds]
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A blood-red sky and the dark clouds that covered it. The wind was so dry and hot that it made everyone who got struck by it feel so thirsty. The heat was bearable for the first few minutes, but then it got hotter and made everyone remove their breastplates.
"It's fucking hot in here..." Ando said as he removed his leather jacket and put it over his right shoulder.
"It's a desert, what did you expect?" Nero glanced at Ando with his eyebrows raised.
The sand was red with hills and cliffs surrounding it, and there were rocky mountains in the distance, covering the sky. They had no idea where they were, but they knew for sure they weren't in a place where a human being lived.
Everyone started to get heatstroke, but suddenly the heat disappeared and got replaced by chill winds. They all looked around and realized it was Mihangel who did that and cooled down the temperature around them.
The difference in the temperature made clouds of thick mist around them, and Nero blew the mist away from them so they could see. But suddenly thunders started to rumble above them, and hot rain started to pour at them.
Sierra looked at the sky, and suddenly she jumped high into the sky and floated in the air. They had never seen anyone that could float in the air, so they all paid attention to her and wondered what she was trying to do.
"Listen up. You must have thought about where we are, and who we are dealing with. So I'll keep it short and make it understandable for everyone," Sierra paused as she looked down at everyone. "We are currently in the Archdukedom, and we are simply fighting a whole demon army of the Archduke," Sierra explained.
"Those who have forgotten or haven't heard about what's and who Archduke is, he's like the demon who govern other demons. He's powerful enough to kill every single one of you with only a lift of his finger," Sierra said and looked at everyone's worried expression. "But that's none of your concern because I'm the one who's going to deal with him. All you have to do is to take care of the other demons," Sierra pointed out.
"Miss Red, how many demons that we going to deal with?" Elenoir asked as she looked up.
Sierra turned around and looked into the distance where she saw black towers behind the mountain. She closed her eyes and furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to concentrate as if she could sense them from where she was.
"1 against 120, that's the difference in number from us to the demons," Sierra answered as she opened her eyes. "Before you ask how strong they are, they're at least 2 or 3 ranks above you," Sierra pointed out and looked at everyone below her.
Mihangel and the others looked at each other and realized they really needed to work together if they wanted to survive. Sierra then landed in front of Alseace while the others started discussing the plan they had prepared. She then ordered everyone to start moving since they were quite far away from Archdukedom.
On their way to the Archdukedom, they were having difficulty with heatstroke and fatigue from walking on sand. It took quite a lot of effort by walking on it and the sand was hot which made their greaves, boots, and shoes take the heat in and damage their feet.
Sierra suddenly raised her right hand and clenched it. Everyone stopped walking and immediately held their weapons as they looked at their surroundings. They felt the sand moving down as if it was being sucked into the ground in front of them. Then suddenly, a giant sandworm went to the surface as it screeched and it was deafening.
Mihangel and Elenoir ran to the front and past Sierra. They both glanced at each other and nodded their heads. Mihangel leaped toward the sandworm and as soon as he landed near the sandworm, he put his hands on the sand. The whole area in front of him got turned into ice in an instant. The sandworm's body slowly froze and got frostbite from the cold.
Elenoir drew her sword and used [Lightning Trail] to move toward the sandworm in an instant. While the sandworm was struggling to fight off the cold and the ice on its body, she slashed through the sandworm's head over and over like flashes of lightning.
It only took Elena 3 seconds to heavily injure the sandworm by and blinded its eyes and cut its neck and head dozens of times. The sandworm was wiggling as it screeched, and so Mihangel froze its inside through the open wound that Elenoir had created and then created ice spikes from the inside. He destroyed the giant sandworm's body into pieces like ice cubes. Elenoir did the final blow and cut off the sandworm's head.
[0.001924% EXP]
Alseace looked at the amount of EXP he got and calculated how strong it was. If an Elite Knight from back then was worth two times more than that, that meant the sandworm was at least a 9th or even a 10th Atonement. He then thought about how strong the demon army would be if a random monster was that strong.
"Nervous?" Sierra asked as she sighed.
"Yes, very," Alseace answered as he looked at the reward status screen that he hadn't chosen. He decided to take the [Random Unique Scroll Box] from it.
[Random Unique Skill Scroll: A scroll that contains an Uncommon, Rare, or Unique skill. The chance of each rarity is 33%, and the skill that will be obtained is random]
"I hope I got something useful," Alseace said as he opened the scroll and tore it in half.
[You have learned a new [Unique] skill!]
[You have learned [Affinity: Holy] skill!]
[Affinity: Holy: A skill that allows the Candidate to control, create, and use Holy Element]
Everyone heard the ripping sound and they were looking at Alseace and the purple scroll in his hands. They knew it was a valuable one since there were only a few skill scrolls with a purple color. That scroll alone was worth at least 10 million dollars and people would pay for that even though it was expensive.
"What did you get?" Sierra asked with her arms crossed.
"Something that can make me feel a bit relieved," Alseace answered. He then leaned toward Sierra's ear and whispered the skill that he got from the skill scroll.
Sierra laughed so hard and it sounded so genuine that it made everyone terrified. She then cleared her throat and glanced at those who were staring at them, and that alone was enough to make them look away.
"I don't know if you're very lucky and it's a coincidence, or that someone or something is making it happens for you," Sierra said as she chuckled. "Anyway, it makes things easier for both of us. Shall we go now?" Sierra asked as she fixed her gloves.
Alseace nodded his head as he looked at his new skill on his status screen, and then he followed Sierra from behind. He looked back and saw everyone looking at them because they knew where those two were going, and prayed for their safety.
"We should start moving as well, and let's split the raid teams into big 5 teams as we planned. Before we go, does anyone have a change of mind?" Elenoir asked as she looked at Mihangel and the other Guildmasters.
They shook their heads and decided to stick with the plan, but Elenoir noticed Violette's expression that seemed displeasure about it.
"You don't want to be paired with Carazen's men?" Elenoir asked with her left eyebrow raised.
Violette was surprised when she was confronted out of nowhere which caught her off guard. It automatically made everyone look at her and judgingly stared at her.
"No, it's nothing like that, I'm just..." Violette said but immediately got interrupted.
"It's alright, let's switch with my team. I'll join them instead, and you can team up with Katya's team," Elenoir said as she fixed her coat that was over her shoulders. "I don't mind if some of you can't work together, so please tell me if you can't work with certain people. Don't force yourself to work with the people you don't like since you're already in a shitty situation," Elenoir explained as she looked at Louvenia and Katya.
"Come, Vio," Katya said as she tilted her head toward the spot next to her.
Violette nodded and informed her team and guild members about the change in the plan. She and all her teams switched to Elenoir's teams immediately. Although it sounded like nobody wanted to team up with the Vendetta Guild and Armel, they were fine with it since they ended up teaming up with the strongest Candidate in Dasmein.
The first team was Katya, Gratya, and Violette teams with 246 A-Rank Candidates and 4 S-Rank Candidates. Katya, Gratya, Violette, and Violette's Vice, Cunig Martialus.
The second team was Mihangel and Ackerly's teams with 154 A-Rank Candidates and 6 S-Rank Candidates. Mihangel, Armel, Ackerly, Ackerly's Vice, Rhys Pierce.
The third team was Lucretia and Louvenia teams with 176 A-Rank Candidates and 4 S-Rank Candidates. Lucretia, Sebastian, Louvenia, and Louvenia's Vice, Atestasia Doniela.
The fourth team was Ando, Nero, and Hunter's teams. 204 A-Rank and 4 S-Rank Candidates. Ando, Nero, Hunter, and Hunter's Vice, Viccas Carino.
The fifth team was Elenoir and Lazuli's teams. 148 A-Rank Candidates and 2 S-Rank Candidates. Elenoir and Lazuli himself.
"Good luck, everyone," Elenoir said as she looked at all the Guildmasters.
They all nodded and went their separate ways to kill every demon that they would see.