Yellin Ishtar's cold gaze pierced Peter and Howard, whose bodies were paralyzed by the poison.
The bloodline ability users and Draker knights behind them searched for any opening to move, but the swords held by the Ishtar mystics to their throats radiated sharp killing intent.
Yellin Ishtar looked at Howard and said,
"Wherever you go, there are always these rat bastards. Himmel, tell them how we in
Ishtar deal with those who betray the family."
Himmel glared at Howard with eyes as if she were looking at a bug and said,
"We cut off their arms and legs, smear their whole bodies with honey, and throw them into a pit of fire ants under the hot sun." Fire ants had very mild venom.
Because of that, even as the ants swarmed over their bodies and tore at their flesh, the victims suffered excruciating pain but did not die.
In Ishtar, traitors were never allowed an easy death.
Yellin Ishtar approached Howard, pressing Anexiʼs Dagger to his throat, and said,
"I'm curious how Draker handles traitors."
Howard trembled in fear, oblivious to Yellin Ishtar's beauty, and desperately racked his brain.
'Who would do this... No way, Kali? Did that bitch betray me!'
But he could not come to a conclusion easily. From Kali's position, having helped eliminate Zeke, she still needed his support to gain the elders' backing.
He could not figure out why Kali would go out of her way to use Ishtar to take him down.
Boom boom boom!
An explosion roared from outside once more.
Yellin Ishtar gestured to Himmel, who pulled a small vial from her bosom and smashed it on the floor.
Sizzle—
The vial shattered, releasing purple smoke from within.
The bloodline ability users and Draker knights in the room, subdued as they were, had no choice but to inhale the smoke.
"Urk!"
Soon, they staggered backward.
And in that moment, something burst out from the violet smoke.
Raaargh!
It was a monster of a form they had never seen before, charging at them.
The bloodline ability users and knights swung their swords and unleashed their abilities in surprise at the monster.
Boom boom boom—
A powerful aura blade flew toward the monster.
The monster's head fell, and it collapsed, spilling blood.
But immediately, another monster leaped out from behind.
The room filled to the brim with monsters from all directions.
"Die! Die!"
The Draker knights and bloodline ability users slashed at the monsters appearing everywhere.
The room had become a scene beyond a slaughterhouse.
The knights and bloodline ability users, having inhaled the hallucinogen created by Ishtar's secret arts, saw each other as monsters and fought to the death.
"Raaargh!"
"Die! Die!"
Himmel quickly opened the door and herded them outside.
The knights and bloodline ability users, fleeing the hallucination of pursuing monsters, sowed even more chaos in the underground facility.
Peter and Howard, who had been injected with the antidote beforehand, could only tremble in their rigid bodies as they watched the carnage.
Once all the knights and bloodline ability users in the room had left, the Ishtar mystics moved to escort the two men out.
"That way!"
But at that moment, Nostra Family combat agents stationed in the underground facility rushed in to rescue their executive, Peter.
Boom boom boom!
They unleashed their bloodline abilities to crush the Ishtar mystics.
At the same time, they opened the cages they had brought, releasing ferocious chimeras.
Roooaaar!
Chimeras of horrific appearance, seemingly stitched together from the limbs of various monsters, charged at the Ishtar mystics.
Yellin Ishtar stepped forward then, gripping Anexiʼs Dagger and leaping into the air.
Whoosh!
Riding the wind conjured by the wind spirit, Yellin Ishtar channeled chakra into the dagger and cleaved a chimera in a single stroke.
Slash—
The chimera split straight from head to toe and collapsed, parting to either side.
The Black Ravens operatives, too, moved swiftly, scaling the walls to subdue the combat agents using their bloodline abilities.
It was then, as the Ishtar side began to gain the upper hand.
Boom boom boom boom—
The entire corridor was engulfed in flames.
Yellin Ishtar saw the oncoming blaze and shouted,
"Get down!"
She summoned the earth elemental and in an instant erected an earthen wall.
The sturdy earthen wall blocked the flames, allowing the Ishtar mystics to survive unscathed, but the bloodline ability users and chimeras outside were swept up in the fire and reduced to ash.
Rumble rumble rumble!
Yellin Ishtar peered through the crumbling earthen wall at whatever had unleashed the flames.
'That thing...'
Surrounded by flames, it was a being with two horns and red skin.
Yellin Ishtar realized it was not human, but demonkind.
'Even the Nostra Family is summoning demonkind?'
She had heard from Zeke about a group of dark mages called Narak who summoned demonkind.
But those she faced now were the Nostra Family, and the being before her seemed to be demonkind indeed.
The flame-wreathed demonkind opened its maw wide.
"Grooo."
Flames flickered once more in its mouth.
Yellin Ishtar gathered her focus to erect another earthen wall, but she could not be sure it would hold against an even stronger blaze.
She shouted to Himmel,
"While I hold it off, take them and get out of here!" In Ishtar, a superior's command was absolute.
Himmel gritted her teeth at Yellin Ishtar's words but nodded and immediately dashed for the exit with her subordinates.
Soon, the demonkind spewed flames again.
Boom boom boom boom!
Yellin Ishtar raised the earthen wall to block the blaze.
Rumble rumble rumble!
The flames from the demonkind pressed hard against the wall Yellin Ishtar had erected. "Urk!"
Yellin Ishtar summoned the wind spirit as well, creating a vacuum barrier.
But the demonkind's flames ignored it, baring savage fangs and surging toward her.
Yellin Ishtar stood on the verge of being engulfed by the blaze.
Seeing Himmel's unit vanish from sight, Yellin Ishtar clenched her teeth.
'I need to retreat all at once.'
If she did not pull back to a spot beyond the flames' reach in one go, she would be swept away.
Yellin Ishtar steadied her breathing.
In that instant, the flames shattered the earthen wall and rushed at her.
Whoosh—
Yellin Ishtar swiftly retreated, trying to escape the flames' range.
But then, something unexpected happened.
The flames that had burrowed into the floor erupted behind her, closing in from front and back in an instant.
The crimson blaze gaped like the maw of a magical beast, seeking to devour Yellin Ishtar.
"Urk!"
Yellin Ishtar twisted her body in haste to evade, but the flames moved faster.
The demonic conflagration enveloped her.
Roar roar roar!
Yellin Ishtar squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the demonkind's fire to incinerate her.
But even after a moment passed, she felt nothing on her body.
She opened her eyes and looked ahead.
A black back stood before her.
Zeke Draker, holding the Holy Sword Ascalon, shielded her from the flames.
'Sir Zeke Draker?'
Whoosh whooooosh!
Zeke Draker manipulated the flames with his Authority: Flame, ensuring they did not reach Yellin Ishtar.
It was a blaze hot enough to melt stone walls, but it proved useless against Zeke Draker.
He swung his hand, seizing the flames, and said to Yellin Ishtar,
"Rest for a moment, Lady Yellin Ishtar. I'll clean up that thing and catch up." Leaving Yellin Ishtar behind, Zeke Draker advanced forward.
The demonkind unleashed a fierce blast of flames at Zeke Draker once more.
Boom boom boom boom!
But Zeke Draker raised his left hand and blocked the demonkind's flames effortlessly again.
It was as if the flames were being sucked into his palm.
Watching this, Zeke Draker addressed the demonkind.
"You must be confident in your fire play."
Rumble rumble!
Soon, Zeke Draker unleashed the Elemental Sword: Chamber of Firepower from his hand.
An icy blue azure flame rose from his body.
"Then let's play as much as you want." Boom boom boom boom boom!
The azure flame surging from Zeke Draker devoured the demonkind's flames and raced forward at tremendous speed.
Raaaagh!
The demonkind roared and spewed more flames, but it could not stop the azure flame.
Soon, the azure flame clung to the demonkind's limbs.
Sizzle sizzle sizzle—
A flame demon from the Flame Demon Clan, highly resistant to fire, burned.
Kiiiaaagh!
The sensation of "burning," something it had never experienced before, brought excruciating pain and terror to the flame demon.
It struggled to control its burning body and tried to flee the area.
But that was impossible.
Slash—
Zeke Draker's thrust with Ascalon severed the flame demon's legs.
Thud!
The flame demon collapsed to the floor, writhing in agony from the azure flame consuming its body and letting out groans.
Zeke Draker approached, pressing his foot on the demonkind's throat, and looked down at it with cold eyes.
"So even the Nostra Family is summoning demonkind. Everyone's pulling out all the stops with demonkind these days."
He shone the light of holy spirit qi on the flame demon.
Sizzle sizzle—
The flame demon's skin bubbled upon exposure to the holy spirit qi.
But then, something astonishing happened.
Crack!
Cracks formed in the red skin of the flame demon, and it began to shatter.
'What is this?'
Zeke Draker sensed something off as he looked at the writhing flame demon under his foot.
True demonkind, when struck by the Holy Sword Ascalon or holy spirit qi, felt great pain but their bodies turned to ash and scattered, unlike this.
This flame demon's reaction was different.
Faced with a situation he had never seen before, Zeke Draker asked Arataso.
'Is this thing really demonkind?'
Arataso's voice echoed in response.
'It's not demonkind.'
'What? Not demonkind?'
'Yes, it's human. Just possessed by a demonkind soul.'
'A demonkind soul possessing a human? Not a summoning?'
Hearing Arataso, Zeke Draker was reminded once again that this was none other than the Nostra Family's laboratory.
'These bastards...'
Zeke Draker immediately used Dragonʼs Wisdom to read the flame demon's information.
Relevant details flooded into his mind in an instant.
From the absorbed information, Zeke Draker realized the true nature of this flame demon.
'Crazy bastards. Using a fire-affinity bloodline ability user as a medium to summon a mid-rank demonkind?'
It was an unheard-of summoning method.
The typical way to summon demonkind involved drawing a summoning circle, paying a price to the demonkind, and allowing their soul from the Demon Realm to incarnate and dwell in the phenomenal world.
Thus, demonkind manifested in the phenomenal world were in a state akin to fixed spirits.
But the Nostra Family used a different approach.
They injected enhancers made from corrupted sacred blood into ability users with powers matching the desired demonkind, boosting their physical and bloodline abilities, then possessed the demonkind soul into that body.
This way, though the soul was demonkind, the body was human, bypassing karma restrictions and allowing mid-rank or higher demonkind to descend into the phenomenal world.
A demonkind possessing a phenomenal world human body absorbed souls directly without karma limits, greatly increasing their power.
'To create such an experimental subject...'
The flame demon, its body burned by the azure flame, soon crumbled to ash and scattered.
However, as the current situation showed, the drawback of this method was that since the human body and demonkind soul fused, any damage to the body severely affected the demonkind's true form as well.
The demonkind hit by Zeke Draker's azure flame had undoubtedly suffered near-fatal shock to its soul.
Zeke Draker imagined what would happen if Narak obtained the Nostra Family's research.
'Narak could use this to summon high-rank demonkind or above.'
Narak had already summoned a top-tier demonkind like Anastasia.
Narak's method required greater sacrifices for stronger demonkind, but the Nostra Family's way significantly reduced the summoning cost compared to Narak's.
'If they created an army of mid-rank demonkind at full strength...' The central continent would surely collapse without holding out.
Feeling a chill down his spine, Zeke Draker thought he needed to completely destroy this laboratory.
For now, he approached the fallen Yellin Ishtar.
"Lady Yellin Ishtar, are you alright?"
Yellin Ishtar, seeing Zeke Draker casually subdue the demonkind that had unleashed such powerful flames, felt herself shrinking smaller and smaller.
'To stand beside Sir Zeke Draker... I need to become stronger than I am now.' Among her peers in Ishtar, no warrior could match her.
Thus, Yellin Ishtar had never known her own limits.
But venturing into the world and witnessing Zeke Draker, she realized she had been arrogant.
'I'll train harder and next time, I'll definitely stand shoulder to shoulder with Sir Zeke Draker.'
Yellin Ishtar burned with the resolve to grow stronger.
Zeke Draker spoke to the silently nodding Yellin Ishtar.
"Please go ahead, Lady Yellin Ishtar. I'll collapse this place completely and follow." Yellin Ishtar could not bring herself to say she would stay and fight together.
With her current skill, she would only be a hindrance to Zeke Draker.
Reluctantly, she nodded and said,
"…Be careful, Sir Zeke Draker." As Yellin Ishtar turned to leave.
Boom boom boom boom!
The corridor she was about to pass through collapsed entirely, and something had crashed into it.
Zeke Draker noticed it was a massive turtle-shaped magical beast and was startled.
'Dool?'
Dool, one of the Four Fiends which was said to be at the pinnacle of magical beasts, lay there in a battered state.