Chapter 58: Smoke Demon Knight

The showdown between the Great Eye and Shugin was poised on a knife’s edge, yet Wang Yu noticed something amiss with Charles.

This usually carefree and boisterous fellow was trembling uncontrollably; though he wore a mask of forced composure, his face had turned a ghastly, unnatural shade of pale.

"What’s wrong with you?" Wang Yu didn't take him for the type to suffer from stage fright at a moment like this.

Judging by Charles’s previous conduct, his psychological fortitude was far superior to Edward’s.

"De... demons..." Charles’s voice stuttered, his struggle to suppress his emotions evident, though he was failing miserably.

Charles pointed a shaking finger at the lantern hanging from Shugin’s waist.

Wang Yu knew Charles possessed a keen nose for the scent of demons and devils, but could the mere presence of such things trigger a reaction this severe?

It was baffling, but it was Charles’s own business; their acquaintance had not yet reached the point where he could pry into such matters.

Wang Yu shifted his gaze to the lantern at Shugin’s waist.

Because his Ripple energy was suppressed, Wang Yu could not use it to probe the captain’s lantern, but with his naked eye, he too detected something wrong.

Inside the captain’s lantern, something seemed to be writhing incessantly; the burning light did not originate from lamp oil, but from the combustion of these strange, shifting entities.

"Those things... in there... they’re all de... demons." Charles’s voice continued to quiver, a truly bizarre reaction.

"Catch your breath, that’s our captain," Edward said, patting Charles on the back. Even Edward found his companion’s strange reaction to the demons unsettling.

*Snap.* A crisp sound rang out as Charles abruptly slapped himself across the face, and his trembling ceased.

"Whew, sorry about that. Old habit." Having struck himself, Charles looked much better, his tremors gone.

"Enough. Stay alert. Don't let your guard down just because the captain is here. Edward and I will hold the front; you’re responsible for dealing the most significant damage."

Wang Yu didn't know what Charles was playing at, but they were in the heat of battle; there was no time for idle chatter or investigating the past.

With a practiced division of labor, Charles and Edward took their positions.

The three of them had no real bond; their trust was limited to that of professional colleagues.

Yet, Wang Yu’s arrangement was sound, and even among those one does not trust, one must ensure absolute faith in their comrades during combat.

Those who could not manage this had long since perished, undone by the lapses and disconnects born of such distrust; they would never have survived this long.

In seconds, the three adjusted their states and positions, focusing their full attention on the Great Eye, which remained shrouded even beneath the lantern’s glow.

At that very moment, the duel between Shugin and the Great Eye officially began. The first to strike was Shugin!

Dragging his massive axe behind him, his body surged with battle aura as violent as a raging torrent. The sheer power of his movement caused the axe to tear through the ground, emitting a series of sharp screeches and sparks.

"This is... at least the level of a high-ranking official knight, surely..." Wang Yu gauged the captain’s speed and strength, realizing his estimate was likely an understatement.

The Great Eye showed no particular reaction to Shugin’s ferocious assault; it simply stared at him, showing no intention of moving.

But the Eye’s stillness did not mean it was idle. A ripple of Void energy radiated from its center, carrying an immense, immeasurable vitality.

The life force within this Void ripple acted like a sponge upon all matter it touched, seeping directly into everything in its path.

The surrounding masonry, the soil of the earth, and even the air itself were transformed by this wave.

"Kee-kee-kee, gah, oh-oh-oh-oh!" Strange shrieks erupted from the surroundings, identical to the sounds they had heard upon entering.

"These things have come to life?!" Edward watched the scene unfold in shock.

"By the Light God," Charles whispered, equally incredulous.

Wherever the ripple passed, inanimate matter began to stir with life, granted by the "Source of Life," Elfin.

Stone surfaces peeled away to reveal writhing flesh beneath; jellyfish-like entities materialized in the air, blinking with strange, bloodshot eyes.

Once granted life, these grotesque creatures went mad in service to their master.

Bricks tore themselves from houses, sprouting insect-like limbs to scuttle across the ground.

They bared fangs that had sprouted from within, spitting out crimson tongues lined with fine barbs as they charged toward Wang Yu’s group.

"Watch out! Prepare for combat!" Edward’s roar preceded him, the shield-bearing knight already bracing himself in front of Wang Yu and Charles.

Shugin was undoubtedly the primary force in this battle, but these monsters, animated by the "Source of Life," made no distinction between enemies.

The brick-flesh hybrids, the strange aerial jellyfish, and the creeping mounds of meat that had risen from the soil—these nauseating creations became the Great Eye’s enforcers. They let out deafening, frenzied screams as they charged the four, the majority targeting Shugin.

But a small portion surged toward the three newcomers.

Shugin did not falter. He crushed stone beneath his boots, charging headlong into the tide of animated horrors toward the Great Eye.

His long coat billowed behind him as he swung his axe, alternating hands with rhythmic precision. *Puff, puff, puff, puff!* The sound of flesh being severed never ceased.

The great axe swept from right to left, low to high; as it reached the center, his right hand released, his left took over, and he swung it downward with blinding speed before the right hand reclaimed it.

The axe circled his body, a merciless meat grinder for any animated horror that dared approach. The flesh born of this dark vitality was fragile before the circular, blade-like motion of the great axe.

Flesh was torn asunder, carapaces shattered with ease. The monsters were like a tidal wave, and the brutal Shugin simply carved his way through the ocean of gore.

While Shugin broke through the heavy obstacles with apparent ease, Wang Yu and his companions found themselves in a much tougher spot.

The entities that seemed so fragile before Shugin’s might proved incredibly tenacious against the three of them.

*Bang!* Edward’s shield smashed a brick-flesh insect into the air.

The insect’s carapace scraped against the ground, cracking a floor tile, but the fissures and wounds on its own shell healed with terrifying speed.

Shaking off its dizziness, the insect leaped back into the fray, rejoining the assault on the three.

"Damn it! These things have the same regenerative abilities as those meat-mounds!" Edward cursed.

Having just swatted one away, he tried to retract his shield, only to find it ensnared by a bloody slime formed from mud.

He pulled hard, successfully retracting the shield, but the bloody slime—now sprouting sharp, bony spikes—came with it.

The spikes rose high, snapping shut like a giant maw aiming for Edward’s head.

*Thwack!* A limb from one of the insects shot through the air, piercing the slime’s body.

The fleshy slime disintegrated instantly, collapsing into a puddle of foul, pulpy meat.

Wang Yu, having just cleaved a brick-flesh insect in two, had snatched up its limb and hurled it like a dart.

His expression was one of mild surprise. "The core of the slime is still there?"

He had only thrown the limb to help Edward out of a tight spot.

His target had been a murky, semi-transparent area within the slime’s body where a solid mass was visible.

That was the core—a small but vital point. Once destroyed, the entire slime would collapse.

These creatures should have been nothing more than twisted husks, forcibly infused with massive amounts of Void energy by the "Source of Life." Regardless of their appearance, they were essentially dead matter granted artificial life; they shouldn't have possessed the weaknesses of the creatures they mimicked.

Yet, Wang Yu’s casual attempt to pierce the core had succeeded.

The bloody slime had collapsed, unlike the brick-flesh insects or the meat-mounds, which constantly drew on Void energy to regenerate.

"Why is that...?" Wang Yu fell into a brief contemplation.

Even as he pondered, his hands did not slow. Sword flashing, he cut through the air, bisecting the charging brick-flesh insects.

Wang Yu was more cautious now. These insects, which were the most numerous and relatively easiest to handle, required time to recover once cleaved in two, rendering them unable to attack.

After cleaving through these vermin, he paid particular attention to their regeneration, only to find that a small fraction of them did not revive; instead, they collapsed into nothingness, much like the flesh slime had...

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow. In a flash, he caught onto something.

It was at this exact moment that the gathering creatures reached a peak. An air jellyfish had somehow silently drifted into Wang Yu’s range of perception.

Formed of nothing but air, the jellyfish was noiseless and virtually undetectable, even managing to deceive Wang Yu’s naked eye until it finally entered the heavily suppressed range of his ripple perception.

"Not good!" Alarm bells rang out in his mind. Through the lens of his ripple perception, a terrifyingly immense surge of void energy was condensing inside the thing.

Stamping his foot down, Wang Yu threw himself directly into a backward roll, but he was still a fraction too slow. The void fluctuation had already gathered before entering his perception, and now, it erupted entirely.

"Boom!" Void energy swept outward as the peculiar fluctuation rippled through the air the moment the air jellyfish exploded.

Swept by this wave, every bloody slime or flesh vermin gathering around Wang Yu that was still moving exploded instantly.

The sheer power of these flesh bombs was terrifying; masonry shattered, and massive craters immediately scarred the ground, blasted open by the meat explosions.

And as fate would have it, a vast multitude of these life-endowed creatures had congregated right around Wang Yu.

Edward had mostly been swatting them away, leaving few around himself, but Wang Yu was entirely engulfed by the blast.

The massive explosion shrouded Wang Yu’s position in a blood-red mist, and a heavy, pungent stench spread through the air.

Wang Yu’s backward roll had completely failed to get him out of harm's way. The explosion had hit him squarely, and against power of this magnitude, an intermediate apprentice knight would likely face grim odds.

As the blood-red mist dispersed, Wang Yu’s figure emerged. A barrier emitting a white glow faded and shattered on his body, while a Tarot card drawn with the pattern of The Chariot broke and fell to pieces.

Looking somewhat surprised at the surroundings cleared by the blast, he realized the singular explosion had wiped out the other life-endowed creatures instead, leaving him completely unscathed.

An invisible barrier still remained unbroken on the surface of his body—his own hastily cast Witchcraft: Barrier—but as for those two layers of shields that had blocked the real damage...

Wang Yu looked toward Chire and Edward, and the two nodded in response.

Understanding the gesture, Wang Yu nodded back. The two barriers that had suddenly appeared to protect him had come from Chire’s flying 'Chariot' Tarot card and Edward’s knight secret technique, 'Iron Solari'.

Flashing a satisfied smile, he knew these two colleagues were comrades-in-arms to whom he could entrust his back.

Suddenly realizing something, Wang Yu whipped his head around, but the moment he began to turn, what he feared had already come to pass.

"Boom!" An explosion incomparably larger than the one beside Wang Yu erupted. The scarlet mist instantly swept through the entire street, painting it in a single shade of red.

Debris flew wild. Under the force of the blast, the stones carried terrifying power, clattering against Wang Yu’s Witchcraft: Barrier and instantly piercing the inherently frail protection.

A few pebbles zipped past, cutting several bloody gashes onto Wang Yu’s face.

Edward had already pinned Chire, the physically frail mage, beneath his body, shielding them both with his shield to withstand the aftershocks of the explosion.

They stared grimly toward the epicenter of the blast, which was covered in a thick layer of scarlet blood mist, rendering the situation inside invisible.

It was a terrible state of affairs. Just as Wang Yu had guessed, the air jellyfish had detonated all of the life-endowed creatures around Shugain at once, triggering an explosion dozens or hundreds of times greater than the one here.

If the aftershocks were this severe, the power at the center... was unimaginable.

He had confidence in Shugain’s strength, but if Shugain possessed only the physique of an official knight, he might have vanished without a trace beneath this explosion, just like the buildings within a dozen meters...

Yet right at that moment, Edward suddenly noticed that Chire, whom he was pinning down, seemed a bit off; the fellow had started trembling again.

"Don't tell me he thinks the Captain is dead and started shaking out of fear... Hiss, but with this power, it really is..." Edward thought to himself.

"No, wait, this guy's shaking has another meaning..."

Realizing something, Edward released Chire and turned his gaze toward the area covered by the scarlet blood mist.

"Smoke..." A single word slipped from Wang Yu’s mouth, his eyes already fixed on the scene. Yes, it was smoke.

Within that bloody mist, the light of the Captain's lantern appeared first, followed immediately by an endless torrent of smoke billowing out from the crimson fog.

The smoke gushed forth, forcing its way out of the bloody mist and ravenously devouring the thick red fog.

Swirling through the bloody mist, the smoke gathered it all together, which was then forcefully sucked inward by something in one fell swoop.

As the red mist was continuously eaten away, the scene inside grew clearer.

Through the swirling smoke, Wang Yu saw a figure composed of vapor holding a giant axe coated in blood-red, standing calmly amidst the ruin, completely unharmed.

An opening cracked on the lantern, and the smoke swirled the bloody mist inside, quickly sweeping all the crimson fog away.

The lantern snapped shut, and several faint sighs of satisfaction and belches could be heard within.

"Sm... Smoke Demon," Chire’s trembling voice came from behind Edward. His face was terribly pale; his specific reaction to demons had flared up again.

Wang Yu watched as Shugain’s smoke-like body gradually materialized into solid flesh once more.

And the vapor swirling around Shugain was also reabsorbed into the lantern. Was that vapor the so-called "Smoke Demon"?

It appeared Shugain had used the smoke-shifting ability of a certain demon inside the lantern to disregard the explosion entirely.

The manifestation and power of Shugain’s ability allowed Wang Yu to recall a well-known, formidable inner potential from his memory that matched it perfectly.

It was an object of imitation for a certain secret technique he had accidentally come across while browsing the secret books of the Grand Library: Inner Potential: Evil Spirit Possession...

"Enslaving demons and forcefully wielding their power... what terrifying might. No wonder the Professor was so confident, and no wonder Chire, this demon radar, reacted so strongly," Wang Yu muttered to himself.

Then, he shouted loudly toward Shugain, "Captain! Look closely at the pupil of that eyeball! That's not a real pupil; it should be a slime! Destroy that core, and you can heavily damage this thing!"

This was a conclusion Wang Yu had drawn based on his previous discovery and the Goblin incident. All these life-endowed creatures possessed a core similar to a slime, which was very strange.

Considering that the objects worshipping these strange deities—presumably created by Seiwentan—seemed to be brainless entities, like Lady Night’s Goblins.

Furthermore, Lady Night had mentioned that these brainless things could even corrupt the deities themselves. To make a bold assumption, was this "Source of Life: Elfin" in the same situation as Lady Night...

Except the thing worshipping It wasn't some goblin, but rather... a slime?

Recalling the dark green pupil of that giant eye, which resembled a flowing gel, wasn't that thing just a slime? It absolutely was.

Shugain showed no intention of stopping, but his actions indicated he had already heard Wang Yu’s words.

Pulling a cigar—not a pipe—from his pocket, he struck it hard against the axe handle, using sheer force and speed to ignite it. Taking a deep drag, smoke billowed from his nostrils and mouth.

He ignored the life-endowed creatures that were beginning to reappear under the influence of the Source of Life after the area had been cleared by the blast.

The lantern opened. As it did, the smoke Shugain exhaled began to reshape and writhe, as if it too had been endowed with life.

They coiled up Shugain’s body, piecing together bit by bit to construct a giant armor of smoke, wrapping Shugain entirely within the vapor.

Then, the smoke gradually condensed, revealing a towering, three-meter-tall colossus inside. A giant knightly armor made entirely of smoke stood upon the earth, holding a massive axe woven of vapor.

Evil Spirit Possession: Smoke Demon Knight.