Chapter 258

“Haah!”

The sword flashed, and a rain of blood spread out, forcing the dark spirits to scream and retreat.

It was an overwhelmingly powerful blood magic technique.

But that wasn’t all.

“Everyone, take my blood and fight with all your strength!”

The blood Idrinne scattered spread to Marquis Schupen and the five commanders.

“What are you doing?!”

They shouted in outrage but quickly fell silent.

As Idrinne’s blood seeped into their bodies, vitality surged within them.

‘She’s infused life energy into her blood. To be able to use it like this in battle…’

There was also an unexpected player stepping up: Mari.

[Oh ho ho, kids? There are some pesky flies buzzing around here. How about I rip their mouths open?]

By contract, Mari couldn’t directly aid Chris with her own power.

Instead, she commanded the lower demons she had subdued in the Death Cube to take on Langham’s dark spirits.

‘She’s used summoned ghosts to assist before.’

And these weren’t ordinary demons.

[Understood… Lord.]

[We obey your command, Lord.]

Chris watched the demons following Mari’s orders with a stunned expression.

‘Aren’t these demons way too strong? There’s even a seventh-rank demon here.’

Among them were the four-sworded Dullahan, an Elder Death Knight, and even the highest-ranked seventh-rank demon, Death Lord—all obeying Mari’s commands.

And they did so with a hint of fear!

Seeing the top-tier demons nervously watching the pure-faced banshee was utterly absurd.

‘What on earth…’

Chris shook his head.

This wasn’t the time to dwell on it.

‘My role is the most important.’

He wasn’t just sitting idly behind them.

Chris held the key role.

Whoosh!

Watching the attacks flying in from Marquis Langham, Chris unfolded his “Canvas of Possibilities.”

Exploiting a demon’s weakness was never easy.

Especially since Langham was a powerful, top-tier demon.

He was on a completely different level than the weak demons who borrowed demonic energy.

His openings were minuscule.

Even Marquis Schupen and the five commanders couldn’t strike those gaps every time.

‘But with the Canvas, it’s possible.’

The Canvas was an infinite potential drawn in darkness.

It allowed Chris to adapt his abilities to the situation.

Healing, holy light, deadly poison, and now blood magic.

Combining all these with the power of darkness, he crafted the perfect counter each time, blocking Langham’s attacks.

“Begging a demon for power, and this is all you’ve got? Even selling your soul to a demon isn’t enough for you.”

“Shut up.”

“I’m the one who’ll be falling into Gehenna soon, so you better shut your mouth. If you’re going to live as a twisted papa’s boy, you might as well beg the head of the family with tears. I was born an idiot anyway.”

Marquis Schupen, listening, added coldly,

“To be honest, I thought you were an idiot too, Langham. A greedy fool who doesn’t know his place.”

“You bastards…!”

Langham finally lost his temper and raised his voice, but then something unexpected happened.

Drip.

Black, dead blood trickled from his nose.

He was starting to reach his limit, unable to withstand the demonic energy!

“Hold on just a little longer! Victory is ours!”

Sensing the tide turning, their side’s morale surged, while Langham’s movements grew sluggish.

Then Chris struck the decisive blow.

“Mari, use the demons to block the dark spirits! Lia, restrain him with blood magic binding! Marquis and the five commanders, unleash the Binding Seal Formation with all your might!”

“He won’t hold out much longer.”

“That’s fine! We only need a moment!”

The group threw everything into binding Langham’s movements, and Chris raised his hand.

A massive magic circle began to glow around them.

It was the sealing formation they had set up earlier to trap Langham!

With Langham’s strength waning, they seized the opportunity to activate it anew.

Flash!

The holy relic and the cursed relic each emitted bright light and pitch-black darkness, forming a sealing formation that weakened the demonic energy.

“!!”

Langham’s face paled, and he staggered.

This formation didn’t just weaken demonic energy.

Through the cursed relic, it amplified the power of pure magic.

In other words, it was a magic circle created by the demons to counter demons.

The group gained even greater strength and pressed Langham back.

The battle was clearly tipping in Chris’s favor.

“How dare you…! I’ll kill you all!!”

A fierce surge of demonic energy erupted.

Langham unleashed a powerful burst, aiming to turn the tide.

Though blood trickled from his nose, ears, and mouth, he didn’t stop.

“I’ll turn you all into blood!”

Everyone’s faces hardened.

Suddenly, an unexpected event occurred.

Whoosh. Thud!

From Langham’s shadow, a black spear shot up and pierced his chest.

“!!”

Langham’s eyes widened.

“…What?”

From the shadows, a figure emerged.

It was Yulian!

Using the elves’ secret art of spirit transformation, she had become a shadow spirit and waited for the perfect moment to strike.

“Die, demon.”

Flash!

The spear piercing Langham’s chest was a weapon formed from Yulian’s spirit.

Inside Langham’s body, fire, ice, and lightning surged all at once.

“Kraaaah!!!”

Langham screamed, and Marquis Schupen and the five commanders moved in.

“Unleash the Shackles of Darkness!”

Flash!

Another secret technique of the dark magic army to face an overwhelmingly strong foe.

Centered on Schupen’s magic, the five commanders’ magic formed a formation that engulfed Marquis Langham.

Still reeling from Yulian’s strike, Langham was helplessly bound.

“Th-this…!”

Langham tried to summon his magic to break free, but it was too late.

“It’s over.”

Darkness infused Chris’s sword.

It wasn’t just any dark magic weapon.

It was a blade imbued with the will to eradicate evil.

In an instant, terror filled Langham’s eyes.

Flash! Thrust!

Chris’s sword pierced Langham’s chest.

“N-no… this can’t be…”

Was it regret for unfulfilled greed?

Langham’s eyes widened, but it was too late.

Slowly, the light faded.

He was dead.

Once a towering figure as the second-in-command of the dark magic faction, his death was pitifully ignoble.

‘It’s over.’

Chris exhaled and looked at his companions.

“Everyone, well done. Let’s tend to the wounded first…”

But as he spoke, his expression suddenly stiffened.

A chilling sense of dread swept over him.

It was an instinctive premonition.

“What’s wrong, Your Highness?”

Marquis Schupen and the five commanders looked puzzled.

They hadn’t noticed the anomaly yet.

Chris’s soul was on a different level from theirs, so he alone sensed the danger.

Idrinne, the second-highest in spiritual rank, also stiffened.

“This is…?”

Chris and Idrinne locked eyes.

A terrifying sense of foreboding seemed to engulf their very souls.

“Everyone, get ready to evade…!”

But it was too late.

Flash.

The light returned to Langham’s fading eyes.

But it was a completely different light.

His entire eye, even the whites, were stained with a sinister darkness.

Chris realized the nature of this phenomenon and was horrified.

‘Demonic Corruption!!’

More than just absorbing demonic energy, this was the ultimate secret art of the mystical magic faction—where the demon devours the soul itself.

‘So the mystical magic faction was involved from the start?’

It seemed this was their plan all along.

Once Langham died, the demon would consume his soul.

Demonic Corruption requires a top-tier demon’s soul capable of withstanding demonic energy as a vessel.

In the end, Langham was just a sacrifice for the mystical magic faction.

‘We have to get out of here.’

Of course, even if the demon devoured the soul, there were many restrictions, so it couldn’t fully unleash its true power.

Its actual strength was far below that of Patera, whom they had faced before.

‘Still, there’s no chance of winning. With Patera, we could exploit his mental weaknesses, but with someone corrupted like this, that’s impossible.’

Their only option was to hold out until the demon’s power was forcibly recalled back to Gehenna due to the laws of causality.

But before they could move, Langham—or rather, the ‘demon’—acted first.

Goooooo!!!

A hellish scream echoed as if rising from the abyss.

Turning his darkened eyes toward them,

“!!”

Everyone froze stiff.

Like mice caught in a snake’s gaze, not a single finger could move.

They gritted their teeth and summoned their magic, but it was useless.

‘This isn’t just overwhelming energy suppressing our bodies. It’s spiritual pressure.’

Chris swallowed hard.

The demon wasn’t done.

Kurururu.

With the sound of cracking, black energy began to rise from the ground.

‘Crystallized Evil Qi!’

The evil qi seeping from the earth was relatively diluted.

The closer to Gehenna’s center, the denser and visibly blacker it became.

And now, that terrifying evil qi was being summoned here.

“Everyone, shield your minds with magic!”

“Ugh…!!”

A terrible, intrusive presence pierced through their mental defenses, and everyone groaned in agony.

“No… If this keeps up, we’re all going to die.”

Chris hurriedly checked on his companions.

Marquis Shupen and Captain Oh were overwhelmed by the spiritual pressure, unable to lend any support.

“Am I the only one who can move right now?”

Chris’s soul rank was originally at the half-demon level. After absorbing Dokjeong, his rank had risen even higher, making it somewhat easier for him to withstand the spiritual pressure.

Still, taking down the demon-infested Langham alone was impossible.

Then, unexpectedly, a voice spoke up.

“I’m here too…”

“!!”

It was Lia—no, Idrinne.

The demon corrupting Langham was at most a sixth-rank lesser demon. While even a lesser demon was no match for an ordinary mortal, the demon contracted by Idrinne was a ‘Great Rank’ entity, which explained her ability to resist the spiritual pressure.

Idrinne bit her lip tightly.

“If I use the power granted by my demon, I could probably take down that demon…”

But by contract, she was only allowed to use her demon’s power to protect the Blood Sword Maga, so she couldn’t unleash it now.

“Still, I’ll do whatever I can to support Grand Duke Christian. We’re friends, after all!”

On top of that, Yulian was also able to move.

Currently, Yulian’s contractor was none other than Chris himself, and it seemed he was affected by Chris’s soul rank.

However, he could barely move and was unlikely to be able to join the fight.

“What should I do…?”

Chris swallowed hard.

They were trapped in a desperate situation with no clear way out.