Zeke observed the knights and soldiers cheering at the sight of the massive phoenix hovering in the sky.
"Good. It seems the morale boost is working properly."
The enormous phoenix was none other than the Tyrant.
Zeke had used the power of the Realm of Illusions to overlay the Tyrant's form with that of Raven, the phoenix.
Woooong—
The phoenix cry from Raven, perched atop the Tyrant's head, echoed across the entire battlefield.
The mystical phoenix cry lifted the allies' spirits and made the monsters hesitate in their advance.
At the same time, flames erupted where the monsters gathered.
Whoosh!
To others, it looked as if fire spontaneously ignited wherever the phoenix flew, but in reality, it was the flames the Tyrant spewed.
As the rear lines burst into flames, the advancing monsters panicked and fled, causing their formation to collapse.
The Dorta Republic Knight Order did not miss the opening.
"Let's sweep away the monsters!"
The knights, who had been pushed back by the overwhelming numbers, reformed their ranks and charged forward.
In an instant, the atmosphere on the battlefield shifted.
As he watched this, the skull mage, unlike before, drew a staff adorned with a skull from his robes.
"Behold the authority of the great 'Lord of the Abyss'! And tremble in fear!" Woooong!
A red light flashed from the eyes of the skull on the staff and poured toward the undead monsters.
Growl!
The undead monsters, which had merely been reanimated corpses shuffling about, began to transform powerfully under the authority of the Lord of the Abyss.
Crunch!
As they changed, the undead monsters took on forms clad in bone armor, their eyes glowing red as they charged toward the ramparts.
Rooaaar!
The monsters empowered by the constellation's authority were on an entirely different level from before.
When Zeke saw this, he addressed the system. "System! Can I set Defense Mode here right now?" A message appeared before Zeke's eyes.
[The current Defense Mode zone range is the fortress. Defense Mode can only be set within that designated range.]
The casino city was a metropolis comparable to Atlas.
It seemed impossible to cover the entire area with Defense Mode.
Zeke swallowed his disappointment and issued a command to the system.
"Execute the zone only up to the designated range. Deploy the Guardians and Golem Knights."
[Building Defense Mode in the arbitrarily designated zone per the administrator's command.]
[Guardian Horus, Idas, and Lynceus will be deployed to the appropriate zone.]
[Golem Knights with completed recovery are available for deployment. Shall they be arbitrarily designated?]
"The Golem Knights are recovered too? Perfect. Auto-designate them as well."
[Auto-designation complete. Executing Defense Mode in the designated zone.]
A Defense Mode zone appeared before Zeke's eyes, and the Guardians were summoned to the auto-designated points.
Woooong!
The largest, Guardian Horus, was positioned atop the city gate, with Guardian Idas and Lynceus flanking it on either side.
The Golem Knights were deployed to key areas where monsters climbed, raising their shields to block the enemies and aid the knights and soldiers.
As he watched this, Hades also summoned his Guardians to support the Golem Knights.
Moments later, Guardian Horus, fully positioned on the ramparts, opened its mouth wide and unleashed a massive beam of light toward the monsters.
Boom boom boom boom!
The light from Horus swept away the monsters in one fell swoop.
When the knights saw this, they raised their swords and shouted.
"The Knight of Salvation is with us!"
"In the name of the great Zeke Draker, we shall judge our enemies!"
The cheering knights felt as if they had become holy knights waging a crusade alongside legendary heroes.
And then it happened.
Thud thud thud thud!
Reinforcements from the Dorta Republic began arriving on the battlefield one after another.
The monsters' numbers were still vast, but as forces poured in from all sides, the tide of battle began to turn once more.
Zeke let out a lion's roar toward the troops and shouted.
"The wicked enemies fear our swords and spears! The sacred light protects us! We shall vanquish them with valor!"
As soon as his words ended, Zeke launched the light of the Sacred Radiance Technique into the sky.
Those defending the city saw the light created by Zeke, and their morale soared, erupting in even greater cheers.
When the skull mage saw this, he sensed the situation turning increasingly unfavorable.
For a high-rank demonkind like him, failing to conquer a single human city with this many forces was unacceptable to his pride.
"These worm-like humans are being annoyingly persistent." He raised the skull staff high into the sky once more.
Then, black smoke began to billow thickly from the skull's eyes.
The emitted black smoke coalesced and formed a massive hole in the sky.
When Zeke saw the black hole created by the skull mage, he drew his green sword and called out to Arataso.
"Arataso, what the hell is that guy doing?"
Arataso, who had been exhausted from using his power after a long time and had fallen asleep inside the sword, woke from his light slumber at Zeke's call.
"Ugh, what now... Huh?"
Only then did Arataso snap to attention, startled by the ominous energy around them.
"What? Isn't that Nebilos?"
Nebilos was one of the trusted vassals of the Lord of the Abyss among Abaddon's highrank demonkind, serving as an inspector.
When Arataso saw the black hole created by Nebilos, he cried out in alarm.
"Crazy! That's the entrance to the Bottomless Pit!"
As soon as Arataso spoke, something began to crawl out from the black hole.
Growl!
Beasts of the Bottomless Pit, with grotesque tentacles and bizarre wings, revealed themselves.
The beasts of the Bottomless Pit, which fed on the abyssal demonic energy from its depths, had appearances as horrific as deep-sea creatures.
But despite their terrifying forms, these were merely the lowest-tier prey for other predators within the Bottomless Pit.
Even so, they possessed power incomparable to the monsters of the phenomenal world.
Nebilos swung the skull staff and commanded the beasts of the Bottomless Pit.
"Destroy everything these worm-like humans have built! Show them the power of the great 'Lord of the Abyss'!"
Screeech!
The beasts that emerged from the entrance flapped their wings, their grotesque tentacles writhing as they dripped black ichor, and took to the air.
As the beasts thrashed their tentacles, spraying acidic venom in all directions, the venom fell like rain upon the battlefield.
Sizzle—
The acidic venom from the beasts also rained down on the monsters charging toward the gate. Groooar!
The vicious venom melted everything in its path, friend and foe alike.
When Zeke saw this, he gripped his chain-linked hammer and swung it.
"These annoying bastards. Why don't they just give up already..." This was a clear difference between humans and demons.
In battles of the phenomenal world, surrender was common once the tide turned.
But demon battles had no such thing.
They fought fiercely until one side was completely shattered.
Zeke muttered irritably before he hurled the hammer infused with the power of the Sacred Radiance Technique toward the beasts of the Bottomless Pit.
Whoosh!
The hammer, laden with immense force, flew swiftly toward the beasts of the Bottomless Pit.
A beast extended a tentacle to block Zeke's hammer.
But the tentacle disintegrated into ash upon contact with the hammer, forcing the beast of the Bottomless Pit to retreat in panic.
It had instinctively sensed the tremendous power within the hammer.
But the hammer pursued the retreating beast as if it had eyes.
Crunch!
The hammer pierced straight through the bodies of the beasts.
Zeke did not stop there; he channeled lightning into the chain.
Crackle!
The lightning infused with the power of light incinerated the beasts' bodies, and the fragments of the shattered beasts rained down.
It was not as difficult to deal with as expected, but the problem was that this was far from over.
Crunch!
From the entrance opened by Nebilos, other beasts of the Bottomless Pit fought each other to emerge, squeezing their bodies out.
As Zeke pondered how to handle them, the fighting beasts suddenly let out grotesque cries and were dragged backward.
Moments later, a massive creature resembling a crocodile thrust its long snout forward and began forcing its way out of the Bottomless Pit's hole.
Groooaaar!
The crocodile-like beast roared, its vibration spreading across the entire battlefield.
Zeke gritted his teeth at the sight of the enormous beast from the Bottomless Pit.
"If that thing gets out, the city will fall in no time."
He had to close that gate as quickly as possible.
If the gate to the Bottomless Pit opened wider, even stronger beasts could emerge.
It was then.
Hades flew to Zeke's side, wearing an exasperated expression as he spoke to Zeke.
"I came to sightsee the Eastern Continent, and what kind of mess is this?"
"I'm sorry about that. But for now, dealing with that is the priority."
"I know. Hmm, that hole seems to be summoned by demonic authority... If it's that, I think I can do something about it."
Zeke was startled by Hades's words.
"How?"
"By applying the formula I researched while trapped in Blanca, I can reverse the summoning rite and close the hole." Zeke nodded at Hades's words.
"Understood. Then what should I do?"
"While I analyze it and apply the formula, keep that damn skeleton from widening the gate any further."
At Hades's words, Zeke gripped his hammer and Roland, charging toward Nebilos as he shouted.
"Got it. I leave it to you! Lord Hades!"
Hades grumbled as he conjured a control window in the air and began analyzing the hole to the Bottomless Pit from which the beasts tried to emerge.
To buy time, Zeke rushed swiftly toward Nebilos.
Whoosh!
The hammer Zeke hurled with all his might flew, crackling with light and lightning.
Boom boom boom boom!
A powerful explosion of light erupted, but Nebilos quickly teleported and reappeared leisurely elsewhere.
He then aimed his staff at Zeke.
"Insolent human."
Muttering in dissatisfaction, he cast a curse toward Zeke.
Cursed energy enveloped Zeke's body, but it had no effect.
The curse-lifting treatment skill had activated, nullifying the curse.
When Nebilos saw his curse fail, his blue ghostfire flared brighter.
"You're no ordinary human."
Zeke pointed his sword at Nebilos and said.
"If you're a lich, then quietly return to being a corpse. Stop causing unnecessary trouble."
At Zeke's provocation, Nebilos's ghostfire flickered wildly.
Arataso, who had been watching the situation since awakening, said to Zeke.
"How did you know he hates being called a lich? You're a master at provocation."
"Anyone could tell just by looking at him." Zeke smirked in response.
But Nebilos was a demon, not just a skeleton in appearance.
As a noble of the demon realm with a title from Abaddon, Nebilos could not tolerate Zeke's provocation tarnishing his honor and flew into a rage.
"I shall grant you the most horrific death!"
He raised the skull staff and pointed it at Zeke.
The skull's mouth gaped wide and spewed blue smoke.
Zeke sensed an ominous energy from the blue smoke and released his summon of Bucephalus, swiftly conjuring the blade of radiant light.
Then, the blue smoke coalesced and formed a massive blue skull in the air.
"What the hell is that, Arataso?"
Arataso replied in a voice of disbelief.
"That's... the , a forbidden weapon even in the demon realm. My god, to see it in person."
Zeke was shocked by Arataso's words.
"A forbidden weapon in the demon realm? What the hell is it?"
As he asked, the blue skull's mouth opened wide and let out a scream toward Zeke.
Screeeeech!
A powerful sonic wave beyond human hearing shook Zeke's insides.
"Ugh."
If Zeke hadn't possessed the healing factor that allowed instant self-recovery, he would have collapsed, bleeding from all seven orifices.
Arataso said to Zeke.
"They agreed not to use it because the damage extends to surrounding areas.
Experiencing it firsthand is truly horrific."
Thanks to the healing factor, he recovered quickly, but his head still spun.
Zeke calmly advanced step by step toward the blue skull that continued to emit sonic waves at him.
Nebilos could only be astonished as he watched Zeke.
"A human enduring this attack? Unbelievable!"
He raised the skull staff and unleashed magic toward Zeke.
Black spears shot out and flew toward Zeke.
Zeke swung Roland to deflect all the black spears, then hurled the sword with force.
"Hah!"
Roland, infused with the blade of radiant light, streaked like a meteor, piercing the blue skull and embedding precisely in the center of Nebilos's chest behind it.