When the sky-covering swarm of undead flying insects swept past, the demons across this rotting grassland met with disaster.
Ange Watson's choice of location was spot-on, as the demons remaining here were all strays and outcasts running like beaten dogs.
Demons had no concept of order, making violent infighting a daily occurrence.
Those defeated by their own kin yet spared from being devoured would flee to remote, wretched environments to lie low.
This shattered realm under the chaotic black sun was vast, but finding a peaceful refuge was by no means easy.
This putrid prairie was one such place, filled with rotting, stinking muck and countless parasites, yet completely barren of useful resources.
The demons elsewhere were busy swarming through various portals to invade other worlds, leaving them no time or inclination to bother with this wasteland of garbage.
Consequently, there were few demons on this grassland, and most were weak and craven, quickly wiped out by the undead insects.
However, Ange Watson discovered a peculiar zone roughly thirty kilometers from the portal where undead insects were dying in droves, the casualty count climbing at an alarming rate.
This indicated that the demons in that sector were exceedingly powerful—not something frail suicide units like undead insects could deal with.
Ange Watson estimated that demons with high resistance to dark magic were present; stripped of their virulent toxicity, the undead flying insects possessed virtually no offensive power.
In that case, send in the elites to clean them out.
Ange Watson promptly ordered Melina to lead a vanguard of new-model undead troops to purge the area.
Melina originally had only regular Death Knights at her disposal; this heavy cavalry boasted immense shock power and could contend with most demons.
To ensure total success, however, Ange Watson reinforced her with a small undead warship and two unusual, colossal undead.
These were the very "box-carrying" giant undead that Bel had failed to make sense of earlier.
They also possessed multilegged structures, but compared to the insect hives, these undead were considerably smaller and far faster, barely able to keep pace with the charging Death Knights.
The putrid grassland was flat and open with gentle swells, so Melina led her forces in an all-out gallop, rapidly closing in on the suspected demon convergence point.
The undead warship arrived first, projecting the full scene below through its magic mirror.
One look was enough for Ange Watson to understand why the undead insects had failed to inflict any damage: below lay a colossal spider nest.
Webs covered the ground in dense layers, and spider eggs of varying sizes formed unnatural mounds across the plain. Countless burrows had apparently been excavated within, descending to an unknown depth.
Thousands of spider demons were frantically spewing silk, netting the undead insects darting past.
Undead insects tasted awful, however, so the spider demons merely ensnared them rather than stuffing them straight into their maws.
Melina saw the sight as well and immediately ordered the Death Knights to change course.
A spider nest like this not only countered the flying insects, but would also disrupt a cavalry charge. These were no ordinary cobwebs, but demon-spun hunting snares; the spider demons were larger even than the Death Knights, and the webbing was likely tougher than steel cable. Ramming headlong into it would cost the Death Knights dearly.
The Death Knight battalion halted five kilometers from the spider nest, mopping up nearby pests like quasits along the way, and brought the two massive box-bearing undead to a stop.
Like the hives, the halted box-undead plunged their thick legs deep into the earth as the gargantuan chests on their backs split open.
There were no honeycomb-like cavities inside, only row upon row of magic mirrors embedded in flesh.
Hundreds of large magic mirrors unfolded like solar panels, transforming the massive box into an oversized reflective array.
Two colossal mirror arrays, forty to fifty meters across, deployed fully, and immense magical energy began to coalesce across their surfaces.
After only a few seconds of charging, the first streak of flame erupted from the mirrors, followed immediately by a second... Hundreds of magic mirrors cast spells in relentless succession, unleashing dozens of upgraded Fireballs toward the distance in mere moments.
The spells converged in midair, raining down like a storm of fiery meteors toward the spider nest miles away.
Under the watchful eye of the undead warship, countless celestial fires rained down, blanketing a full quarter of the spider nest.
Though Fireball was only a third-ring spell, these were clearly enhanced by multiple special effects; not only was the range absurd, but the blast power far outstripped the original.
The spider nest instantly erupted in flames. Webbing tougher than rebar was not fireproof, and even the thickest strands could not endure the relentless blaze.
However, most of the magical barrage landed on empty ground; accuracy was evidently lacking.
Yet before the spider demons could react, the undead kilometers away began adjusting their firing angles using footage relayed by the undead warship. Another salvo of Fireballs roared forth, this time blanketing more than half the nest.
This barrage tore countless spider demons to pieces.
Demons possessed formidable magic resistance, but even they could not withstand such dense, saturated bombardment.
Mages capable of casting such amplified Fireballs were exceedingly rare, and getting them to coordinate so seamlessly across such vast distances was even less plausible.
A formed corps of wizards required an entire kingdom to maintain, and even in Hell, they would be elites among elites.
Yet these two folding-box undead cost barely a hundred thousand or so soul coins, pieced together from demon carcasses. The only drawback was the sheer expense of battle: that single salvo alone would have bankrupted a devil lord like Melina.
Fortunately, while Melina had little wealth, her father was extraordinarily rich.
The Fireball bombardment showed no sign of stopping, relentlessly pounding the area for ten straight minutes.
It ended not because the funds ran dry, but because sustained casting generated heat faster than the constructs could cool down. The magic mirrors embedded in the two undead shattered one after another, leaving the constructs charred and battle-damaged.
Still, the results were glorious. Ten minutes of non-stop shelling had completely eradicated the spider nest. Throngs of spider demons lay blasted to ash, and the surviving remnants either fled for their lives or charged madly toward Melina's position.
Only the strong had survived. These spider demons charged with alarming speed, soon closing the distance to the undead army.
They could spit webbing from dozens of meters away, but without the sprawling web networks accumulated over years, the Death Knights had nothing to fear from basic demon tactics.
Melina led the Death Knights in a charge. Dark magic linked before the formation into a razor-sharp spearhead, tearing through the sparse webbing and trampling straight through.
No matter how large the spider demons were, they could not halt a mass cavalry charge on the open plains; the instant impact shattered them to pieces, spraying ichor everywhere.
Before long, the Death Knights had cut down the vast majority of the hundred-odd spider demons with negligible casualties.
It was a resounding victory.
Yet just as Melina charged down the final few spider demons, the situation shifted abruptly. When her lance struck the body of the largest spider demon, it failed to pierce the swollen abdomen, instead sinking deep as if plunging into mud.
And not just Melina—the Death Knights charging alongside her met the same fate.
These last few spider demons suddenly melted into foul-smelling slime, swallowing the charging Death Knights whole.
Plumes of corrosive smoke hissed upward as the ensnared Death Knights were rapidly digested, reduced to fleshy, purulent sludge. The venomous necrotic blight of the undead had no effect on the slime; rather, it became nourishment.
The scattered slime squirmed and coalesced, swelling into a mound over ten meters high.
Ange Watson watched in shock. "What is that thing?!"
Anbaixiu quickly cautioned him, "That's a yochlol, a powerful demon and typically a handmaiden of Lolth the Spider Queen. It seems that after Lolth was dealt with by the Elven Gods, not only did her allies flee, but so did her former servants. Be careful. This yochlol possesses quasi-deity power—treat it as a lesser deity."
Ange Watson hurriedly asked, "Then Lady Melina..."
Melina was the daughter of this devil archduke, yet now she was swallowed by a deity-class yochlol; this was disastrous.
Ange Watson worried it would derail the operation, but Anbaixiu said calmly, "Forget Melina. Right now she is just a soldier on the battlefield. Do your job as commander and direct your troops as you see fit!"
Ange Watson frowned, sensing something amiss, but he knew his superior possessed secrets beyond count. Better to focus on his own duties than pry into Anbaixiu's plans. Issuing a series of commands, Ange Watson directed another nearby squad to reinforce the area, then turned his attention back to deployment in other sectors.
The undead host had only just launched its opening gambit; the war was far from over.
As supreme commander, he did not need to micromanage every unit, but rather fulfill his strategic objectives as quickly as possible.
He had to bring the entire undead host through before the main demon forces caught on, establish temporary defensive footholds, set up the stage for the new undead units to display their full potential, and deal the demons a crushing blow.
No one expected Ange Watson's army of a million to flatten the entire Abyss, but he had to inflict casualties several times their own number and turn this shattered realm into a demon graveyard.
As for the trapped Melina, she would have to resolve it herself. Ange Watson trusted that Anbaixiu had made special arrangements, so there was no need to worry about her safety.
What Ange Watson had not anticipated was that the solution would prove far simpler than he imagined.
After Melina was engulfed by the yochlol, she was not instantly digested like the other Death Knights; instead, within moments, she broke free from inside the colossal monstrosity.
Dark magic, concentrated to the absolute extreme, enveloped Melina's body, forming blades that tore through the yochlol's belly to carve her a way out.
Having just broken free, instead of retreating, Melina wheeled her steed around and charged back at the deity-class yochlol.
Like a squirming mass of rotting sludge, the yochlol sprouted dozens of tentacles that whipped toward Melina.
Yet no matter how dense the tentacles were, Melina slipped past them with effortless ease. Riding her zombie horse past the yochlol's flank, the blade of her lance carved a long gash across the base of its body.
The dark magic steadily eroded the yochlol's vitality, stalling the regeneration of the wound for several seconds before it could begin to heal.
By then, Melina had circled halfway around the creature, leaving even more wounds across its form.
To fight a war of attrition against a yochlol seemed utterly foolish.
A yochlol had virtually no vital spots; only the core buried deep within served as its true vital organ, while the outer slime regenerated no matter how many times it was cleaved. For Melina to pit her own magical energy against a deity-class yochlol, dodging non-stop while keeping up a barrage of counterattacks, was practically suicide.
Yet remarkably, Melina remained untouched amid the yochlol's onslaught. The flailing storm of dozens of tentacles failed to graze even a strand of her hair, repeatedly tangling into knots as they hit each other.
The yochlol let out an enraged roar, and immense psionic force swept across the battlefield.
This was its psychic attack—mind-affecting magic was an innate racial talent of the yochlol.
Mental power coalesced into a tangible shockwave, striking everything in the vicinity indiscriminately. This was not something agility could evade; one had to endure it purely through sheer willpower.
The tempestuous psychic shock pressed visible indentations into the surrounding grassland, yet when it struck Melina, it was like a gentle breeze against her face, completely harmless.
Ange Watson took another look, sighing inwardly. *Truly the child of a top-tier powerhouse.* Melina had to be bristling with enchanted heirlooms and artifacts to shrug off a psionic assault of that magnitude.
Melina held out for two or three minutes until the relief forces arrived.
Three undead warships materialized in the skies above and commenced long-range bombardment against the yochlol.
The magical artillery rained down on the yochlol, only to collide with an invisible barrier. Most of the blasts dissipated harmlessly, and the few that struck its body failed to pierce the dense slime.
Such was the power of a deity. Most mortal means were utterly useless against them, and even saturated magical strikes had their efficacy severely blunted.
Yet the assault was not entirely futile. If only one in a hundred blasts caused minor harm, then fire a thousand—or ten thousand!
These attacks originated from Anbaixiu's magic mirrors; so long as enough money was burned, the undead warships would never lack mana.
While the warships pinned down the yochlol, a translucent figure quietly slipped onto the battlefield.
Paluriel had arrived.
In Her right hand rested a crimson gemstone dagger, Her eyes fixed intently upon the yochlol before Her.
Enraged by the continuous bombardment, the yochlol roared and finally exposed its core: a crimson eyeball. It intended to use the core's power to forcefully dominate the souls aboard the undead warships.
For a deity, controlling mortals was not difficult, but it required total concentration.
Under constant fire, only by unleashing mind control directly through its core could the yochlol seize control of the ships in the shortest possible time.
The instant the yochlol's core was exposed, Paluriel hurled the dagger in Her hand.
The dagger ripped silently through space, reappearing embedded straight in the yochlol's core.
With a wet pop, the crimson eyeball exploded, and the colossal yochlol collapsed in a heap.
Melina looked at the slain yochlol and gave Paluriel a thumbs-up.
Paluriel, however, regarded Melina with a perplexed gaze.
Melina seemed... a little unusual today.
Chapter 627