The resonant interference stirred up by Tier 9 mana caused the original barrier of Naicalis Palace's Regency Hall to tremble violently.
Scarlet thunder coiled around the open space at the center of the hall, turning the palace's transparent protective barrier into an illusion that manifested and began to crumble. A shadowy aura permeated the air as the eroded and warped barrier revealed its true form, gradually turning into layered barricades sealing the Regency Hall.
At opposite ends of the royal palace hall, silver-white and blood-red mana stood in stark contrast. Fall Lord Caliera was using every ounce of her strength to suppress Fourth Progenitor Eduardo.
Originally, Caliera had prayed that a great demon would be the first to awaken, helping her wake more great demons and seal off Fourth Progenitor Eduardo.
"Impossible..."
Fall Lord Caliera's eyes widened.
The worst had happened.
A Blood Clan Progenitor had actually managed to wake from her illusion so quickly.
She had never imagined that a creature could exist who could virtually ignore the Fallen Land of Gentle Slumber cast with her full power.
"Nothing is impossible. It is simply that I have no dreams beyond my reach."
Tenth Progenitor Marquis Ulysses chuckled softly. Reaching out with a light touch, he dismantled a thin layer of the barrier within the palace.
Without the precise control of the Fall Lord who held authority over it, the energy of the protective barrier in Naicalis Palace's Throne Room was nothing more than clumps of unguided mana.
Clearly, the Fall Lord was in terrible condition right now, utterly unable to take on another opponent.
Ulysses floated down from the seating platform, the tips of his toes touching the ground, and walked across the vacant oval plaza at the center of the Regency Hall toward the throne dais.
"Tenth Progenitor...!"
Seeing the unnatural look in Marquis Ulysses's eyes, Fall Lord Caliera felt a chill creeping over her.
This was a monster beyond her understanding.
She finally understood. From the very beginning, the Blood Clan had calculated that this progenitor could completely counter her innate magic.
Duke Eduardo's self-destruction had merely been an opening gambit.
The Blood Clan knew that aside from evading it with spatial magic, her innate magic was virtually unavoidable, so they had prepared a corresponding countermeasure.
Even if Duke Eduardo failed to detonate himself, his suicide attack would force out Caliera's innate magic, indiscriminately locking down all the demons present.
And once she unleashed the Fallen Land of Gentle Slumber, the Tenth Progenitor would become the only creature present capable of free movement!
"Fall Lord, unraveling your magic is actually quite simple. If the dream you create bores me even more than reality, why would I ever indulge in it?" Tenth Progenitor Marquis Ulysses murmured as he strode toward the throne.
"Then let us see whether you breach the barrier first, or a great demon awakens before you can." Caliera kept her head down, the backs of her hands trembling faintly, though she tried her best to keep her voice calm.
"The True Night Lord, upon whom Your Excellency placed such high hopes, does not seem likely to awaken anytime soon. That will leave me plenty of time to take the princess away," Tenth Progenitor Ulysses said politely, looking at Fall Lord Caliera.
The palace barrier could momentarily slow Tenth Progenitor Marquis Ulysses's steps, but he dismantled each layer in swift succession.
He did it so quickly that he appeared to be merely strolling through the hall. The Fall Lord had no hope that the True Night Lord would awaken in time to help her.
In perhaps mere dozens of seconds, he would reach the dais before the throne!
"Rest assured, Fall Lord, I will not disrupt your suppression of Duke Eduardo. My only target is her." Tenth Progenitor Ulysses smiled, turning his gaze toward Hyperion asleep on the throne.
Caliera's spell was extraordinarily effective on the princess.
Now there was no need to worry about her resisting or fleeing.
With his blood authority, he could effortlessly create whatever Tier 8 flying creature he needed to swallow them up and carry him and the princess out of the Demon King City of Naicalis in broad daylight.
For him, if given a choice, he certainly had no desire to be blown to ashes by the Fourth Progenitor's Tier 9 [Blood Annihilation].
"No! If you dare come any closer, I swear I will tear you to pieces at all costs!" Fall Lord Caliera shouted fiercely, like a lioness protecting her cub.
"Heh heh."
Tenth Progenitor Ulysses only chuckled softly.
His eyes seemed to ask Caliera: was she willing to risk letting Fourth Progenitor Duke Eduardo break free and blow every great demon in the palace to death, or would she helplessly watch him carry the princess away?
Ulysses knew better than anyone which choice the Fall Lord would make.
If Fall Lord Caliera were distracted for even an instant, it would likely cause a flaw in Duke Eduardo's illusion of the Fallen Land of Gentle Slumber.
Faced with a choice between the core strength of the Demon King's Army and the princess, the Fall Lord could only choose the army.
Even if the Fourth Progenitor fell here, no matter how many demons he took down with him, it did not truly matter.
Before coming to the Demon Realm, Fourth Progenitor Eduardo had already used his origin blood to heal the Second Progenitor with everything he had.
Their Second Progenitor, who had been heavily wounded by the Demon King, would now recover many years ahead of schedule.
Originally, Fourth Progenitor Eduardo had already not been at full strength. Wiping out all the great demons in the Demon King's Castle in one fell swoop would be a total victory if successful.
And without the key to their ancestral land, the demons' efforts to suppress the Fourth Progenitor would exhaust their full strength and wear them down over time.
Even if the detonation failed, trading a weakened Fourth Progenitor for the princess—the final key to the demons' ancestral land—would achieve their goal just the same.
The Blood Clan would control the sole key, take the demon princess back to the Horning Empire to become a breeding tool, and produce more keys for them.
Once the Blood Clan army conquered Purgatory City Pasqual, they could seize control of the demons' ancestral land, and by then, no race on this earth would be able to stand in the way of the Blood Moon's golden age.
"Princess!"
Seeing Tenth Progenitor Ulysses drawing ever closer with no one to stop him, Caliera called out in a voice tinged with helplessness, desperate to awaken Hyperion.
If only Hyperion could wake up, she could at least flee; Caliera knew the princess was very good at running away.
Yet Hyperion remained deeply trapped in her dream. Tears brimmed at the corners of her eyes, and her lips murmured softly, as though she had fallen deeper into the land of gentle slumber than anyone else.
"Give up, Fall Lord. Having dreams is a blessing. At least she is not like me, finding even reality devoid of meaning." Tenth Progenitor Marquis Ulysses approached methodically, a hint of melancholy in his eyes. "Then again, precisely because of that, destroying her is a sublime art in itself. It has been a long time since I found such splendid material."
He had recognized it the very first moment he laid eyes on Hyperion.
The princess was pure as fallen snow. If life was a journey, she had felt despair and loneliness yet managed to dispel them. Dignified, brave, and kind, possessing a beauty worthy of being cherished in one's palms, she was exquisite raw material.
If she were thoroughly destroyed from soul to flesh, it would surely become an incomparable tragedy, leaving the observer with an unforgettable stir in their heart.
"If you fail to walk out of the Demon King's Castle alive today, I swear I will grant you the deepest, cruelest terror imaginable!!" Fall Lord Caliera said, her voice shaking.
She was beginning to understand the Blood Clan's scheme. In the worst-case scenario, they were willing to trade the Fourth Progenitor for the princess.
The fangs the Blood Clan had bared without warning gave the demons no room to breathe.
From the very beginning, the Blood Clan had never intended to negotiate peace.
They only wanted to accelerate their annexation of the northern continent.
If all the great demons gathered here died, the demons were all but doomed to defeat.
Yet if the princess was taken away, the consequences would be equally catastrophic!
"Oh? Then I am truly frightened." Tenth Progenitor Marquis Ulysses laughed in feigned submission, his tone devoid of the slightest fear.
"True Night Lord! Esmod, wake up!" Fall Lord Caliera called out without hope.
Although some great demons present had undergone resistance training against her Fallen Land of Gentle Slumber, every demon had a limit against it.
After all, a creature with a completely flawless heart did not exist in Caliera's knowledge.
No one could be completely free of desires, without a single dream they wished to fulfill.
At full power, it was a flawless illusion more real than reality itself, completely sealing away the victim's memories and any clues that might reveal it to be a dream.
Under the maximum-power Fallen Land of Gentle Slumber Caliera was currently channeling to forcibly restrain Fourth Progenitor Eduardo, not a single great demon could withstand it!
Sadly, it was all in vain.
A supreme illusion like the Fallen Land of Gentle Slumber could never be broken by shouting from the outside.
That was the cruel reality.
As the master of this magic, Fall Lord Caliera understood this better than anyone.
The palace suddenly fell silent.
Caliera, holding on with the last of her strength, seemed to have finally grown weary.
The last spark of hope burned through her eyes, only to plummet into darkness.
The ripples from the shattering barriers were as fragile as her prayers.
Before she had even had the chance to grow close to the princess she had just acknowledged, she was going to lose her.
Caliera hung her head in near despair.
All she could do was wait as Marquis Ulysses swiftly closed the distance.
Perhaps this was the demon race's destiny.
And yet.
Just at that moment.
"..."
Tenth Progenitor Ulysses, who had been advancing steadily across the dark-brown carpet, suddenly came to a halt.
A figure walked out from the side, stepping directly into Ulysses's path.
He raised his gaze, his emerald eyes just as clear and lucid.
Both figures carried a restrained, divine radiance.
"To think that you, too, could break free so quickly." Ulysses brought his palms together in surprise, offering praise to the demon before him.
"You flatter me," Lanqi sighed, glancing back at Hyperion sleeping peacefully on the throne.
This time, he really had been incapacitated for a brief moment, waking up several seconds later than this vampire.
It seemed that after returning from the Northern Continent, he was no longer at the peak of his former days.
Still, against the fellow before him, his current self was more than enough.
"You probably don't have any dreams you wish to fulfill either, do you? That must be why you broke out so quickly." Marquis Ulysses was in no hurry to break through the remaining barriers now. Instead, a surge of curiosity toward the demon in front of him welled within him.
Rarely did he encounter a being who could understand him—or rather, an existence standing in the very same realm.
Only creatures whose hearts were either empty to the extreme or fulfilled to the extreme could ignore magic like the Fallen Land of Gentle Slumber.
And whether empty or fulfilled to the utmost, both paths led to the same end: they no longer harbored beautiful dreams.
"Perhaps," Lanqi said indifferently. He simply stopped concealing his aura as a great demon. The radiant fissure-like patterns blooming across his body faintly exhibited the qualities of a quasi-king.
"Then what meaning is there in standing before me?" Tenth Progenitor Ulysses took another step forward.
He was not deceived by the other party's outward great demon features.
Fourth Progenitor Eduardo had clearly told him that this great demon was merely Tier 4; as long as he broke through the barriers, he could crush him with a flip of his hand.
Hearing Ulysses's words, Lanqi smiled as well. When a headmaster disciplined an unruly student, duty itself was the meaning.
Instead of fleeing, he walked toward Ulysses.
"Though I may have no dreams of my own, I can protect hers."
Like the final knight defending the throne and the princess, only his brilliantly glowing demonic silhouette and the emerald luminescence swaying in his eyes remained unmistakably clear.
Chapter 583