Demon War

All Stars was a cage for angels and a grave for demons. As an unprecedented feast commenced, the most ravenous monsters of this world tore away their polite, dignified masks and raised their most hideous butcher knives against one another. No matter how long they had lived, how high their achievements reached, or how grand their dreams were, sorcerers were fundamentally despicable creatures to their very core. Because they were humble, because they were weak, they were insatiably greedy and stole authority. Yet if they did not share in devouring the greatest corpse, how could mere ants ever gaze upon the supreme vista? If they did not rip off the mask of benevolence and morality, how could the weak ever taste true might? They knew full well that they represented neither justice nor goodness, which was precisely why they styled themselves demons. Better than anyone, they knew the Prime Angel was the preserver of the world's balance; better than anyone, they knew what immense turbulence the fall of the Prime Angel would provoke; and better than anyone, they had received the greatest share of grace from the Prime Angel—every time the Prime Angel extended a bit of goodwill to the world, those standing at the very pinnacle always reaped the greatest benefit before it was diluted down through layer after layer below. Yet from the moment they learned of the Prime Angel's existence, the murderous intent in their hearts had never wavered. Was immortality enough? Was ruling the earth enough? Was governing the Kingdom of Heaven enough? Never! Ever! Enough! "Sigh..." A bloody cavity burst open in Yejian's chest. In that momentary lapse of consciousness, both of his eyeballs shattered like glass marbles. His left arm, left leg, and right leg were torn away, and multiple blooms of blood erupted across his body as he plummeted toward the earth like a broken doll. Demons never hesitated to kick someone while they were down or bully the weak; a loser deserved to be trampled into the dust, never to rise again for eternity! Despite suffering such torture, despite being the very first eliminated from the game, not the slightest trace of anger or sorrow appeared on this little boy's face. Staring into the sky with hollow sockets trailing tears of blood, he spoke calmly, "For now, I'll leave the victory in your hands. I'll take it back soon enough." Demon Yejian, dead! *Hum.* Three demons landed together on the roof of the Canaan. Longyuan held two battle-axes, maintaining his Shadow Evil Dragonkin form. Lehuai was hardly bare-handed, his arms equipped with a pair of blazing armblades. Only Yinzhi still wore her puffy cake dress, empty-handed as though she were out on an excursion. Yejian's exit was an important milestone, signifying that the demon war was entering its second stage. From the moment the battle began, they knew Yejian would inevitably be the first to fall; without any need for signals, they had tacitly driven him down a dead-end street together. It was not that Yejian's true strength was inferior to theirs. The problem was that this battle gave them no way to display their real power at all; everyone was restricted to a sorcerer's sorcery spirit loadout. Even with the magic arts granted by their followers' sorcery spirit transformations, a legendary-level clash was obviously far too childish for them. To make an analogy, they were like a group of adults hacking at each other with paper weapons. There was damage, and careless mistakes could still prove fatal, but overall, the entire battle remained within their calculations. What truly determined victory or defeat was mana. Whoever exhausted their spirits first was eliminated. Consequently, everyone's battle strategy boiled down to a math problem that even a child could understand: how to expend the least amount of mana while draining the most mana from the other enemies. Yejian's greatest flaw lay in the fact that Tiramisu's magic art after sorcery spirit transformation, "Death God Walker," possessed zero defensive capability. Although its damage was extraordinarily high and its coverage was broad, the other demons could easily offset the lethal force of "Death God Walker" at minimal cost. Longyuan's magic art "Traveler Mode" allowed unlimited teleportation, while Lehuai's magic art "Too Late" could delay any attack. "Death God Walker" was utterly meaningless against them. Meanwhile, Yinzhi's magic art "Break All Methods" was rather unique. Strictly speaking, it possessed no offensive combat power whatsoever, because its effect simply permitted all fist-and-claw miracles to interact with intangible phenomena—such as fire, such as time, such as deathly aura. If Amilo had used "Break All Methods," he would likely have used fist-and-claw miracles to shatter someone else's intangible miracles, like pulverizing a wave of Sword Qi with a single punch. But in Yinzhi's hands, the magic art of "Break All Methods" revealed its true terrifying edge. Relying on her profound understanding of sorcery, she could dismantle all of an enemy's offensives using miracles that consumed minimal mana. Her hands were no longer hands; they were precise, ruthless scalpels! Faced with the undefeated teleportation of Longyuan, the ultimate defense of Lehuai, and the seamless offense and defense of Yinzhi, Yejian—who was forced into relentless assault—quickly burned through his mana and fell on the spot. Yet Yejian was no pushover either. Even if he could not win a war of attrition, he had managed to drain three-quarters of the three demons' mana before his exit. Therefore, in the second round, the demons tacitly abandoned long-range aerial combat, which consumed immense mana, and entered into close-quarters melee—a style that cost less energy but was far more perilous! Without any warning, Longyuan and Lehuai suddenly ganged up on Yinzhi, blazing armblades and battle-axes cleaving together toward the seemingly delicate girl. Yinzhi arched backward, hands planting against the train roof, and swung her legs like razors in an exquisite arc, slicing upward toward the two of them! In the next instant, Longyuan teleported into the sky above and chopped down toward Yinzhi; Yinzhi shifted her kicks to shave toward Lehuai; and Lehuai altered his trajectory to slash toward Longyuan! *Clang! Clang! Clang!* After several rounds of ferocious exchanges, all three demons were wounded, their internal organs ruptured. Yet in a flash, they healed their injuries with miracles. Even in a melee, they continuously hunted for opportunities to inflict lethal harm with miracle magic arts while keeping their defensive mana expenditure as low as possible. Taking wounds had become an acceptable trade-off. Healing, movement, offense, defense, alliances, backstabs... Countless tactics were calculated and plotted in their minds. They continually weighed the balance of power, teaming up against whoever held the advantage and crushing whoever fell behind. The battered train plunged into the torrential downpour of the northern plains. The fractures in the Astral Canopy had begun to take effect, and anomalous weather was about to engulf the world. But that no longer mattered, for before the rain stopped, this world would meet its final judgment. The raging storm failed to hinder the white-hot battle in the slightest; even the curtain of rain was repeatedly severed by the demons. Inside the carriage, the Supreme Holy Grail was mostly condensed, and the shimmering light of Rose's transformation drifted upward past the roof, illuminating the wild yet icy eyes of the demons. "You know me," Yinzhi said, her hands blurring into afterimages as though she held the entire sky of rain within her palms. "Once I attain the supreme realm, I'll share what I've gained and help you step into the seventh layer of the Void Realm too! "If we keep fighting, even the winner will be battered and vulnerable. What if that girl Starry snatches the Supreme Holy Grail back? Wouldn't it be better for you two to back down now? I'll make sure to remember your contributions. Surely you can trust my character, right?" "I'm sure you would offer conditions we couldn't refuse, sucking us dry to the very marrow of our bones while never letting us achieve what we desire." Lehuai's blazing armblades sliced through the rain, churning up boiling steam. "If we don't want to take risks, I suggest we split the Supreme Holy Grail equally, and trade for the rest after we return." "That's not out of the question either." Yinzhi put on a pensive expression. "Longyuan, what do you think?" "I don't have time for this nonsense," Longyuan replied, his battle-axes screeching against the train roof. "To be spewing lies that everyone knows nobody believes at a moment like this! "How could a throne ever be shared? How could sovereign authority ever compromise? Only those who shoulder Hell are angels; only those who destroy order are demons! "Let us use our very flesh and blood to consecrate the passing of this great era!" The flaming armblades flared brighter, the maiden's slender hands turned more ethereal, and the heavy battle-axes grew increasingly savage. Their movements became fiercer and far more reckless, actively dragging the battle into a quagmire from which none could escape. Every demon realized that continuing this war of attrition might end in mutual destruction; only by plunging into utter chaos could anyone seize the fleeting chance of victory! Lehuai, dead!