Across the wilderness, raging flames lit up the sky.
A vast expanse of hellfire trapped more than twenty elves within its ring. Countless demons surged forth from the blaze, lunging fearlessly at the elves.
Watching the demonic tide rush toward them, Catherine calmly drew her bow and released.
Myriad beams of starlight burst from her grasp, pinning sheets of demons dead to the ground. A massive black panther stood guard at her side, fending off stray arrows and spells from every direction so Catherine could concentrate on annihilating the fiends.
The elves accompanying Catherine were all powerful individuals as well. Their archery and spells were just as fierce, unleashing a barrage of attacks that kept the surging wave of demons firmly suppressed.
Though there was no immediate danger yet, the hellfire showed not the slightest sign of dying down.
The demons that had fallen already numbered in the thousands, yet the speed at which they poured forth did not diminish in the least.
The elves were already beginning to tire. If these demons continued without end, they would likely be unable to hold out.
Plunged so abruptly into such dire straits, the elves began to suspect this was a trap laid by Anbaixiu.
An elven guard urged Catherine, "Your Majesty, please leave this place first! We've fallen into that lich's trap! He had no intention of negotiating at all—he just wanted a chance to assassinate Your Majesty!"
Catherine, too, had her doubts. Could the lich's offer of negotiations truly be a farce, his real aim being to kill her, the Elven Queen?
Because the capital of the City of Alchemy was in ruins and the kingdom's entire teleportation circle network had collapsed, the elves could not take a continental circle straight to their destination. They had been forced to teleport to the border between the two realms first and then travel swiftly by magical means.
And this route had been arranged by the other party.
Serving as the intermediary between both sides, Anbaixiu had planned a route for both the desert dwarves and the elves that "would not cause misunderstandings." Catherine had trusted the "sincerity" Anbaixiu had previously displayed, and had cooperated by traveling along this path.
She had never imagined they would suddenly walk into an ambush just as they were about to arrive.
It was definitely premeditated; otherwise, it would have been impossible to open a semi-permanent Gate of Hell in this location.
The Gate of Hell warped the surrounding space, preventing even Catherine from escaping via teleportation magic. Endless demons surged from the hellfire, steadily grinding down their strength.
Viewed from this angle, the likelihood that he had deliberately engineered a trap was exceptionally high.
Yet on closer thought, Catherine felt something was off. If the true goal was to intercept and kill her, would they rely merely on these low-ranking demons?
Although the demons before them were numerous, most were merely winged dretches roughly the height of dwarves. Their scrawny bodies were no stronger than ordinary beasts, armed only with sharp claws and teeth; had they lacked wings, their combat strength would hardly have surpassed that of wild dogs.
Every now and then, a few chasmes were mingled among the dretches. These monsters looked like grotesque amalgams of humans and flies; revolting as they were, they could cast simple spells, making them exceptionally cunning and troublesome fiends.
While the battle looked as though the elves were being pressed hard, Catherine had not yet used her full strength. Never mind her legendary spells—merely summoning a giant eagle would be enough to carry her away; these demons could not stop her. Catherine was trapped here only because she was protecting the other elves.
"Do not urge me to leave. If their target were truly me, they wouldn't rely on such meager means. Steel yourselves—we are breaking out."
Catherine gathered her magical power and began chanting swiftly.
The black panther shielded Catherine tightly behind it, using its own body to block the demons' attacks.
In just a few seconds, several wounds opened across the panther's flesh, yet the beast guarded Catherine without yielding a single inch until her spell was complete.
A translucent magical barrier rapidly expanded amid the demons. Every fiend engulfed within it froze in place as though turned to ice.
A Transmutation spell—Time Stop!
Within the boundary, everything except the caster fell into a state of frozen time.
A massive section of the surging demon army was instantly gouged away, opening a tremendous gap.
Dozens of motes of light flew from Catherine and sank into the elves' bodies. Normally, only the caster was immune to the effects of Time Stop, but Catherine's legendary boon, "Selfless Sharing," allowed her to bestow this immunity upon the other elves.
"Now!"
Catherine mounted the black panther and charged toward the frozen boundary, the other elves following close behind as they plunged into the field together.
The frozen demons were completely unable to resist, helpless as the elves' sharp blades sliced through their forms and tore their flesh asunder.
The demons' scalding, foul-smelling blood splattered outward, only to be locked midair by the Time Stop effect.
Wherever the elves passed, they carved out a corridor strewn with severed flesh and blood.
The demons outside the barrier attempted to intercept them, but the moment they brushed against the boundary, they too were frozen. Trying to bypass the barrier to encircle the elves once more, they simply could not match their quarry's speed.
Catherine had already led the elves out of the encirclement. So long as they ran a few hundred meters farther, they would slip beyond the influence of the Gate of Hell and be able to use teleportation magic.
Yet the ambushers had not prepared only this much. Just as Catherine stepped out of the temporal boundary, great plumes of magma welled up from the ground, hellfire soared into the sky, and four towering balors climbed out of the molten rock, blocking Catherine's path.
Balors were renowned greater demons even within the depths of Hell. Massive in stature and wielding flaming swords and whips, they symbolized the most ancient evil. Throwing themselves into battle with hatred and fury, they could reduce any enemy to ash with their flames.
The moment these four balors appeared, their fiery auras enveloped an area of a hundred meters, plunging the elves into blistering heat.
A whip ablaze with hellfire lashed out, tightly coiling around the black panther beneath Catherine.
The panther's charge was brought to an abrupt halt by the balor. Flames scorched its flesh, wrenching an agonized howl from the beast.
Catherine vaulted nimbly off the panther's back. Before she even touched down, she dismissed the panther's summoning, while simultaneously drawing her bow and nocking an arrow, loosing it at the nearest balor.
Starlight condensed upon the shaft. The moment it left the string, it shattered into ten thousand rays of radiance, engulfing the balor.
The balor let out an agonized roar. Catherine's single arrow riddled its body with countless holes, its heavy hellish armor tearing like paper.
Though one balor was grievously wounded by the arrow, the other three cared nothing for their comrade's life or death. Flaming whips were already cracking toward Catherine. She could only dodge while returning fire against the demons.
Yet the balors had grown wiser. Facing Catherine's arrows, they simply used teleportation to evade them.
Empowered by the Gate of Hell, the balors cast teleportation as if it cost no mana at all, forcibly turning a band of raging berserkers into elusive assassins.
Catherine tried several times, but could only inflict minor wounds on them. While she managed to keep the demons pinned down, the other elves could not endure.
The balors possessed innate fire auras that scorched the surrounding environment, continually burning every mortal creature in range.
Catherine's magical equipment was sufficient to resist this fire damage, but the other elves could not withstand the stacked auras of four balors.
Their hair began to curl, their faces flushed bright crimson, and some found their weapons heated to the point of being almost impossible to hold.
Catherine had no choice but to cast a Transmutation spell to manipulate the weather, causing heavy snow to fall from the sky.
Snowflakes drifted down, melting into mist before they even touched the ground, blanketing the surroundings. Though the snow could not completely quench the flames on the balors, it neutralized most of their fiery auras and shrouded the battlefield in dense fog, blinding the enemy's vision.
While it seemed as though both sides had been blinded, the balors hissed continuously in the damp mist, allowing Catherine to pinpoint their locations purely by sound.
She drew her longbow to full draw and released a dazzling arrow.
This time, it was no shower of myriad stars, but an arrow compressed to the absolute extreme.
The magical projectile struck a balor's head with pinpoint accuracy, shearing off half of its skull.
The towering demon crashed to the ground. Blinded by the mist, it had failed to escape through teleportation in time.
Just as Catherine prepared to aim at the second balor, the earth shuddered once more. More magma gushed forth, and another three balors crawled out from beneath the ground.
Unending heat dispersed the fog, turning the battlefield back into a sea of fire.
Not only that, but the Time Stop barrier had finally dissipated, and the surging swarm of lesser demons began encircling them anew.
"Your Majesty, pay no more heed to us! Hurry and escape!"
The elves knew they were burdening their queen, each filled with profound shame.
They could only blame these demons for being too treacherous, using a Gate of Hell to lay an ambush that not only granted immense terrain advantage but also disrupted the elves' spellcasting. Only legendary figures could remain unaffected in such an environment.
Had they been granted even a little preparation—merely half an hour's forewarning—they would never have been beaten into such a wretched state.
Yet war was just that cruel to the weak. They had no choice but to admit they were dead weight to their queen. If this drag continued, Catherine's mana would eventually be drained dry as well.
Looking at the elves resigned to die, Catherine felt a sharp stab of agony in her heart.
She had clearly come to save people, yet was she only sending more elves to a pointless death?
Catherine sank into despair. Even if she still had a chance to flee, she no longer wanted to run. The elven race had long ceased to have any future.
Watching the demons closing in and the elves beside her suffering in the searing heat, Catherine parted her lips, unable to suppress the urge to tell them the truth. At the very least, let them understand what they were dying for.
"Everyone, the truth about this..."
Just as Catherine was about to reveal the truth to them all, a balor suddenly let out a wretched shriek.
Turning to look, she saw green magical energy coiling around the towering fiend. Its magma-like flesh cooled and collapsed at a visible rate, ultimately turning into a half-rotted corpse.
Then, the blue light of soul fire ignited in the balor's hollow eye sockets. Heaving its greatsword, it swung viciously at its former comrade.
Catherine recognized this as a high-tier necromantic spell—Finger of Death.
It slew the target and instantly transformed it into a zombie.
Yet balors possessed immense magic resistance; under normal circumstances, Finger of Death could never take effect on such a demon.
Catherine looked up at the sky in astonishment. Bathed in the moonlight, a dark-haired youth sat upon a dazzling throne.
Anbaixiu's voice drifted down from midair: "My apologies, Queen Catherine. There was a slight issue with my reception arrangements. Rest assured, however—I shall handle these mishaps."
The demons on the ground roared toward the heavens, countless fireballs streaking toward the youth as if to swallow him whole.
Anbaixiu snapped his fingers lightly. An Antimagic Field expanded beneath the throne, completely annihilating every incoming fireball.
Immediately after, strange rustling sounds rose all around. The corpses of the fallen demons were twitching.
One, two... a massive swarm of demon corpses scrambled to their feet, baring fangs and brandishing claws as they pounced on their former companions.
It was the simplest spell to raise zombies, yet amplified by the Golden Throne, Anbaixiu raised tens of thousands of zombies in a single breath.
Now, it was the demons who were hopelessly outnumbered.
Chapter 121