Volume 5, Chapter 60 – Annihilation of the Seven Demon Generals

“All at once? Hmph, what arrogance!”

A Demon General with no physical form, like a mass of black miasma, stood out.

[Wind of Exploration] showed that besides the Demon General of Absolute Death and another female Demon General who were at the Seventh Tier, the remaining two were at the Sixth Tier. This black miasma was one of them.

It was worth noting that, judging from the voice alone, this Demon General was likely a woman.

“Don’t be rash. This is the Eldest Princess of Silvar. She’s hard to deal with.”

“The Eldest Princess? It’s not her father. What’s there to be afraid of? Absolute Death, when did you become such a coward?”

The black miasma shouted dismissively.

On the other side, Fia couldn’t help but frown.

“I allowed you to discuss tactics, not to chat. You’d better tell me your names, so that your names can be matched with your corpses after you die.”

“They are Fear, Greed, and Watcher, Lady Fia.”

Abruptly, the magnetic male voice of the Demon General of Knowledge appeared beside Fia. He had indeed disappeared from her sight, but only visually. The Seventh-Tier Forbidden Spell [Obsidian Eye] he possessed allowed him to disappear from others’ vision. Even Fia couldn’t detect his existence without using [See Through] after [Hyper-computation].

Fia’s expression changed slightly.

“Why are you still here?”

“Lady Fia, our teleportation between Demon Generals must use the other as a coordinate. Now that all of them are here, rather than flying back slowly, I’d rather spend a little more time here to witness your magic. The spell you used to deal with Gluttony is unheard of to me. I believe that staying here will help broaden my horizons.”

“Wait, you mean the teleportation magic you used to bring them here can only use a Demon General as a coordinate?”

“Precisely.”

Ugh…

In that instant, Fia understood why the Demon General of Absolute Death could teleport back and forth over hundreds of kilometers. It was because they were using an ability to summon each other. And the disgusting man she had killed was the Demon General of Lust, which was why the two armies, hundreds of kilometers apart, could maintain constant contact—besides teleporting, they could also establish ultra-long-range telepathic communication.

Furthermore, it meant she couldn’t learn the teleportation magic she longed for from him.

The magic of the World Tree Continent is too difficult to use.

The last shred of thought of letting the Demon Generals live a little longer disappeared. Fia clicked her tongue as if shooing away a fly. She took out the Cloud Moon of the Illusory Sea and pointed it at the black miasma called the Demon General of Fear.

Let’s start with this one.

As if sensing her ill intentions, the Demon General of Fear’s aura became fierce. Although the miserable state of the Demon General of Gluttony was right before her eyes, she believed it was just an illusion. Gluttony was the most physically resilient of all the Demon Generals. No one could cut off most of his arms and then blow off his lower body. That was just a fool’s dream.

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“You think you can deceive me with a mere illusion spell! I’ll tear off your mask right now!”

Her body swelled rapidly, and in just an instant, she turned into a black wind filled with death and rushed straight at Fia. If this were a grassland, one would definitely see large swathes of green grass rapidly wither as she advanced.

The Demon General of Fear fed on fear. To enhance that feeling, she had abandoned her physical body and become a special, semi-undead life form. Anything that touched her would be stripped of its life force by the negative life she possessed. Her very existence was a mobile, high-tier necromancy spell. Simply put, she only needed to enlarge her body to cover a city, and she could transform into a forbidden spell, gradually turning the entire city into a city of the dead.

“Lady Fia, be careful! She will drain your life force!”

The Demon General of Knowledge’s slightly panicked voice sounded. Although he didn’t think Fia would lose, after all, as long as one was slightly faster, one could dodge her attack. But if Fia were injured as a result and took her anger out on him, the situation would become terrible.

An attack that drains life force?

Looking at the oncoming Demon General of Fear, Fia thought for a moment. Her speed, which seemed to be just a flash to an outsider, was no different from a child’s stumbling walk in her eyes. What she cared about was the form of the attack. She had seen descriptions of undead creatures in the Eldest Princess’s library.

Undead creatures were the opposite of normal life. Normal life had an energy called life force or vitality. Once it was completely exhausted, the creature’s life would come to an end. Similarly, undead creatures, as things that were already dead, relied on an energy called negative life. Once that was exhausted, the undead creature would be completely dead.

In addition, the most interesting thing about them was that an undead creature could not be killed by another undead creature. Even if one skeleton used a sword to shatter another, the shattered skeleton would gradually recover under the drive of negative life. And even if its bones were completely crushed and burned to ashes, the negative life would turn its consciousness into a pure energy body like a ghost.

Therefore, there was only one way for an undead creature to seek death: find a normal, living being to kill it, and use the normal life force to cancel out the negative life. Only then could it truly die.

It was precisely for this reason that undead creatures were extremely difficult to deal with, yet only the elves were troubled by them.

The former was because an elf warrior had to retreat and rest after fighting an undead creature for a while to slowly recover their lost life force. The latter was because most areas of the World Tree Continent had abnormally abundant life force. Even a normally growing plant had a trace of vitality.

For example, if a low-level skeleton appeared in a primeval forest without any protection, the vast life force of the forest would instantly engulf it and turn it into a pile of dust. Therefore, undead creatures only appeared in the Netherworld, where there were no living things, suitable for them to survive.

Fia had been in the World Tree Continent for half a year, but as an elf, she had no experience fighting undead creatures. It was something that would be laughed at if it got out. Now that a high-tier undead creature was right in front of her, she could test what this so-called negative life erosion felt like—the books described it as cold, chilling, and an instinctive desire to get away.

Without using [Bee-Shield Forcefield] or [Celestial Aegis], Fia hovered in the air. She completely ignored the Demon General of Knowledge’s anxious urging. After waiting for what seemed to her a long time, the black wind finally brushed against her skin.

Although it was a bit chilly, it was no different from an evening breeze. She didn’t feel anything special.

This only lasted for less than a second. As if scalding hot water had been poured on her, the Demon General of Fear let out a piercing, terrified scream, and retreated in panic at a much faster speed than when she had arrived.

“Wh-what is this!!”

Visibly, her body had shrunk by a large margin.

“What a terrifying life force. Even an undead of Fear’s magnitude was almost extinguished…”

Changing his previous anxiety, the Demon General of Knowledge exclaimed in amazement. If he had a human face, he would surely have his eyes wide and his jaw on the floor in an exaggerated expression.

An ordinary person, if enveloped by her, would not only have their life force rapidly drained, but the intense fear would also make them unable to move. However, the situation was the complete opposite with Fia. The Demon General’s negative life was like ice meeting lava, rapidly melting. Fia was unharmed, but the Demon General of Fear was so frightened that she was rapidly retreating.

He could swear that this was the first time in his life he had seen this. The Demon General of Fear’s characteristics were similar to Gluttony’s. Her vast negative life was accumulated entirely by killing. To date, she has killed hundreds of thousands of people. Yet, the negative life of hundreds of thousands was defeated in front of an underage elf princess—to say it was a defeat was to beautify it. It should be described as collapsing, unable to withstand a single blow. It seemed that this elf girl’s vitality was far greater than that of hundreds of thousands of people.

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An incarnation of the Holy Tree? Or is her true form a god from another world?

Besides this answer, he could not find a more suitable explanation. He had once heard Laplace’s Demon praise the elf princess as a great mechanical god, but because he didn’t understand what that was, he had dismissed the statement as nonsense. Now, it seemed, it was just his own ignorance.

“Extinguished? You mean she’s dying?”

“Yes. Most of her negative life has been consumed. It will be impossible to replenish it without several decades.”

“Then undead creatures are too easy to deal with.”

She hadn’t felt the characteristic coldness of her life force being drained. If undead were so easy to deal with, wouldn’t a casual stroll through the Netherworld later greatly alleviate the pressure on Silvar’s southern defensive line?

Unfortunately, the remaining Demon Generals did not give her time to think. They seized the opportunity of her distraction. The Demon Generals of Absolute Death and Greed attacked her from the left and right, respectively. At the same time, the Demon General of Fear, who was rapidly retreating, was not idle. She began to chant, and a void gate, a good twenty meters high, suddenly appeared in the cloud-covered sky.

Probably to summon something.

It’s more important to deal with the other two first.

The Demon General of Greed’s appearance was similar to a half-dragonoid, but his hands and legs were in the form of dragon claws, and he was wielding a ridiculously large hammer as a weapon, charging at Fia. On the other side, the Demon General of Absolute Death was thrusting at her with a close-combat spell—a long spear formed by countless tiny black snakes. It was worth noting that the spear’s indistinct appearance seemed to indicate that his attack was unusual.

Although I don’t know what kind of attack it is, using the safest method is never wrong.

Kill them first.

Fia used [Mental Shock] on both of them, then added [Enchanted Blade] to Laevateinn and slashed at the head of the Demon General of Greed on the right. As for the one on the left, because he was attached to Chazo, he had to live a little longer.

However, to her surprise, just as she swung her sword and the spell was about to hit them, the two suddenly swapped places in mid-air. The sword that was originally aimed at Greed was now aimed at Absolute Death. Then, the spell hit both of them, and they were both stunned for a moment.

If she killed him, Tilulu wouldn’t be able to kill her enemy with her own hands. Fia had no choice but to withdraw her sword at the last moment.

This also allowed the two to continue their attack after recovering from their brief stupor. Seeing the surprise in Fia’s eyes, the Demon General of Greed’s expression became ferocious. In his view, Fia had been thrown into confusion by their swap. He could almost see the scene of him smashing her to pieces.

“Didn’t expect that, did you! We Demon Generals can teleport instantly!”

Just as Nola had faced before, as long as the two agreed, they could instantly swap places. Here, Greed’s attack was a physical one, while the indistinct snake spear in Absolute Death’s hand was a spell that directly attacked the soul. Even with a defensive spell, it was difficult to block something with no physical form.

So, putting aside the fact that Fia hadn’t seen through their plan, even if she had and had used a physical defense spell and a soul defense spell respectively, now that they had swapped places, all her preparations would have been in vain.

However, as soon as his words fell, he felt a coldness on his neck. The next second, his ferocious expression gradually turned to disbelief, because he saw his lower body swinging a large hammer at Fia, but the place where his head should have been was empty, with only a smooth cross-section.

What happened…

A strong ringing exploded in his brain. He wanted to speak, but nothing came out. In the end, he just saw his hammer-wielding body being blocked by Fia with a blue light shield. Then, as if hit by something, his body was sent flying, falling straight to the ground like a kite with a broken string.

This was, of course, the result of Fia using [Mental Shock] in conjunction with Laevateinn in the nick of time.

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The reaction speed of the Demon Generals was indeed fast. Even if Fia swung her weapon, there was a risk that they would catch its trajectory. But as long as she used mental magic, even the strongest dynamic vision would be useless.

After cutting off his head, Fia followed up with a third [Mental Shock] at the Demon General of Absolute Death on the other side. He seemed to have seen the moment of Greed’s death, his expression frozen in shock and panic. Fia used [Telekinesis] to grab his neck, but his resistance to mental magic was increasing. Before she could grab him, his eyes regained their clarity.

But he didn’t care about attacking her. Or rather, the scene of Greed being instantly killed was the last straw that broke his will to fight. He completely realized that he was no match for Fia.

He fled at high speed, shouting to his companions—the only remaining, uninjured companion on the field, a beautiful woman in a white priest’s robe with a full figure. She looked more like a high-ranking healer in a human church than a demon.

“Watcher! Aren’t you going to help!”

“I refuse. I will not lay hands on a young girl.”

The Watcher, holding a golden staff, refused with a straight face.

“You’re betraying us too—”

“She’s just making a wise choice. It’s time to end this.”

Without any warning, Fia’s voice appeared above him. Already smelling death, he had no choice but to shift his target, pinning his hopes on the still-living Demon General of Fear on the other side. But to his horror, she, who should have been summoning a bone dragon in the air, not only did not reply to him, but also actively walked towards the large, twenty-meter-high summoning circle, intending to escape.

Cowards, all of them!

Howling in anger in his heart, he could already feel a cold and sharp thing pressed against the back of his head. Instinct told him it was a fatal weapon. He raised his hands, not daring to look back. Not caring about face, he pleaded with a trembling voice, holding on to a sliver of hope.

“Wh-what do you want? We can negotiate, anything!”

“Oh?”

Sensing that Fia seemed interested, hope appeared on his face.

“You want to know about the Elf God, right? He’s wreaking havoc in your country…”

“He’s already dead. I killed him.”

“You—God-slayer?!”

As if not seeing his shock, Fia’s expression became incomparably cold.

“I only want one thing from you.”

“Wh-what is it?”

“Your life.”

Without giving him a chance to speak, Fia used [Mind Blast] on him at close range. In an instant, he was like a broken doll. His neck snapped to the side, and his eyes instantly lost their light.

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Then, Fia followed up with a [Flame Wheel] at the Demon General of Fear, who was trying to escape in the air. The terrifying fireball, with a diameter of over two hundred meters, instantly swallowed both her and her teleportation circle. The soaring flames from the explosion seemed to create a second sun.

Well then, only one left.

Fia looked at the Watcher, dressed as a female priest, not far away. Perhaps it was her imagination, but she thought she saw a blush of intoxication and fanaticism on her face.

“You’re not going to attack me?”

“I would not lay my hands on a young girl as cold and beautiful as you. More importantly, may I swear allegiance to you, like Knowledge did?”

Swear allegiance? We don’t even know each other.

However, this priestess had not attacked her. It was better to spare her life for now and ask Knowledge about her later.

The coldness on Fia’s face gradually disappeared. She waved her hand.

“As long as you don’t suddenly break your staff. Also, my relationship with Knowledge is just one of cooperation. He is not my servant.”

“…Break my staff? A strange thing to say. But as long as you allow me to stay here for a while, I am content. Thank you very much.”

Nodding in tacit agreement, Fia spread the golden wings formed by elements on her back and slowly descended towards the battlefield below. Because of the magic that had seemed to destroy the earth, the soldiers on both sides had stopped fighting and were staring blankly at the sky.

When they saw that the person who had landed was neither Nola nor Chazo, their expressions were filled with confusion. Although the existence of the Demon General of Gluttony let them know that there had been an accident in the duel, they had not expected a fourth person to appear.

Facing the soldiers’ confusion, Fia simply used [Telekinesis] to pinch Chazo’s neck and held him up high, as if for display.

“Chazo Lian has been defeated by me! Soldiers who support the Lionfolk, surrender or die! You can only choose one!”

Her high-pitched voice echoed across the battlefield. The originally silent field quickly became noisy. Most people’s reaction was to be at a loss. Only the soldiers of the Holy Son Faction were filled with joy, tears of survival in their eyes.

“Last time! Surrender or die!”

With those words, two [Flame Wheels], each with a diameter of over two hundred meters, appeared in the sky. The terrifying, apocalyptic explosions instantly shattered the psychological defenses of the Lionfolk soldiers. At first, only a few scattered soldiers threw down their weapons. Then, like a line of falling dominoes, the clanging of countless abandoned weapons echoed across the plains. The soldiers, as if their lives depended on it, desperately fled in a direction away from Fia.

The war was over.

Fia’s tense expression slowly relaxed.

“But my problems aren’t over yet…”

How to deal with Tilulu’s love for her was a real headache. It was better to honestly tell Claire what had happened today and ask for her opinion. To be loved by one’s own daughter was too absurd.

“It’s time to go, Knowledge, and the priestess over there.”

Waving her hand helplessly, Fia used [Telekinesis] to lift Chazo and slowly flew back to the city.