Kingdom of Night

Chapter 2: Darkness Descends 2

"Battle axe!" Neo reminded the two gendarmes who were struggling to get up.

Today's event was a grand political show, so the gendarmes were fully armored. Though they took a hit, the war pod's shrapnel had a hard time penetrating their 'Fortress II' armor. Unless extremely unlucky, they would only be lightly injured.

However, a quick glance revealed a disappointing sight. One gendarme was too slow to rise and made the foolish decision to draw his sword against the 'Black Butcher' emerging from the war pod. Neo's reminder was pointless.

The other gendarme played dead, hoping to avoid danger. But with demons' sensitivity to life force, such a trick was futile.

The first gendarme's attack was ignored by the Black Butcher, who decapitated him with a massive flaming chain axe. The second gendarme was pinned to the ground by the axe's searing spike.

The 'Black Butcher' was the name given to obsidian guards, fierce vanguard warriors of the hellish demon army, strong, brutal, and cunning. Unless faced with a holy knight or templar, even a fifth-level warrior would struggle to defeat these fiery stone giants in a one-on-one fight.

A few months ago, Neo had experienced a brutal fight where ten third-level warriors barely defeated one fifth-level warrior. The battle was so fierce that only two survived, both carried out of the arena. Neo spent two months recovering, while the other lost the right to fight forever. Since then, Neo had a clear understanding of fifth-level warriors' power and knew he had to run far from the Black Butcher.

However, Neo's plan to escape amidst the chaos proved quite difficult to execute.

Thud! Thud! Thud! The bolts from the crossbows were powerful and sharp, embedding themselves deeply into the stone slabs. The Storm Crossbows with their wolf-fang arrows were famous in Sault City, second only to the black iron mines. These crossbows, with their dual-string and triple-bolt mechanism, were handled by at least level-3 archers.

If it were just one Storm Crossbow archer, Neo might have had some confidence in dodging the bolts. But with five archers targeting him, crossing the wide, open plaza under their aim was truly challenging.

Neo cursed his luck. Despite the situation, these archers were relentlessly targeting him. As dozens of wolf-fang bolts rained down on him, Neo had to dodge with utmost effort, looking extremely disheveled, and was eventually forced back near the execution platform. The entire plaza offered no other cover, giving Neo only a brief moment to catch his breath.

During this brief respite, Neo was silently grateful that the Black Butcher was distracted by the enraptured screams of the noblewomen on the northern high platform and hadn't bothered him. Suddenly, he heard a sharp whistling sound from the sky.

"Another war egg?" Neo didn't even bother to look up. He took a deep breath and dashed out.

While dodging the bolts earlier, Neo had already memorized the positions of the five archers. He thought to himself, "This time, no matter what, I have to get out of this plaza."

Boom! The entire execution platform exploded into pieces. A massive guillotine blade, weighing over a hundred pounds, whizzed past just twenty centimeters above Neo's head, sparking as it landed several meters away on the basalt slabs. If Neo hadn't been forced to run on all fours like a beast due to his shackles, this flying guillotine could have sliced him in half.

Seven years of gladiatorial training had forged Neo's iron will. The flying guillotine didn't scare him. However, when he instinctively glanced back, he couldn't stay calm.

Black flames were raging, consuming everything around them, including the floor. At the center of the flames, on top of a three-headed dragon Hell Beast, stood a beautiful demoness clad in dark golden armor of the Fallen God. Her eyes glowed with a sinister green light, and she watched Neo with a smirk.

Neo's heart sank. This demoness's appearance and aura, in the era of the Fallen God, might have been considered low-ranking. But a millennium later, she was the stuff of legends, mentioned only in the epic tales of the Radiant Church or in dusty tomes on demonology. A being of her level, like a Radiant Church's Saint, was almost mythical. Neo could guess with his heels that killing him would be as easy as squashing a bug for her.

"Heh heh, descendant of the slave dogs," the demoness's voice was not loud, but to Neo, it felt like it resonated from the depths of his soul, whispering in his ear.

The ancient and obscure infernal language, inherently potent with curse power, awakened the demonic imprint deep within Neo's bloodline, making his blood boil, his life force burn, and an overwhelming desire to drink blood to quench his thirst.

"Bloodlust rage... No! The Dark Werewolf is neither a demonic beast nor anyone's loyal dog!" Neo knew that if he didn't resist, he would lose himself entirely, becoming a mindless, savage beast. To him, that fate was worse than death.

His face elongated, fangs and claws emerged rapidly, and his mane grew wildly...

"Argh, owoo..."

Mid-run, Neo transformed into his werewolf form.

Snap! Snap! The black iron shackles, after a brief, excruciating groan, finally broke.

"Come here, doggy," the demoness called out to Neo with a smile. "Hmm?"

After Neo transformed, his body wasn't surrounded by the usual blood-red, violent aura. Instead, the tips of his fur glowed with a silvery-blue light, and his eyes were a cold, frosty color rather than the frenzied red.

"Interesting," the demoness muttered. She waved her hand, and a skull enveloped in green light and black smoke formed in the air, howling as it flew towards Neo. Despite Neo's desperate attempts to dodge, the skull hit him, erupting into an evil flame that shot skyward. The surrounding floor sizzled and corroded, leaving pits and holes.

Neo collapsed, seemingly lifeless.

But in the next moment, Neo sprang up again, sprinting away.

"Hmm?" The demoness's eyes flashed with surprise. Neo's resilience to the 'Cursed Soul' was truly unexpected. Even among the Radiant Church's bishops, few could resist it. For this to happen to a werewolf with an awakened demonic bloodline was beyond belief.

Thud, thud, thud!

At that moment, three Holy Light arrows shot towards the demoness, the powerful holy energy stinging her skin from a distance.

"Hmph!" With a snort, the demoness launched three dark arrows to intercept the Holy Light arrows. Black and white sparks exploded like fireworks.

Roar... The Hell Beast roared, its body shuddering, nearly throwing the demoness off. After the Holy Light arrows, two shadow arrows followed, imbued with Holy Light Incineration and Holy Light Burst spells. They broke through the black flame barrier, with one hitting the Hell Beast's neck, creating a large, bleeding wound.

The demoness, enraged by the unexpected hit, focused her attention on the archers. But she didn't intend to let Neo go either. She cast two more Cursed Souls, reviving the two gendarmes killed by the Black Butcher. The revived soldiers, now in undead form, emitted painful groans, dropped to all fours, and chased after Neo like beasts.

"Children of the Holy Light..." The demoness nonchalantly deflected more Holy Light arrows, then shot a dark light at the Hell Beast's wound, rapidly healing it.

Meanwhile, two figures, wrapped in golden light, flew from the tower, heading deeper into the academy. This tower was part of the Radiant Academy, located in the northwest of the Black Iron Plaza. The two Holy Archers had been tasked with distracting the demoness to buy more time for Sault City's VIPs to evacuate. Unexpectedly, Neo's survival from the Cursed Soul had saved his life by chance.

The demoness watched the retreating figures, her eyes gleaming with a dark light. The Curse Eye was her innate skill; no one had ever escaped her once she locked onto them. "Killing them too quickly wouldn't be fun..."