Second World

1925  Chapter 1925. Satan’s Return

It was more than half a day since Jack arrived at Hydrurond Southern Front. He fought together with the defenders. He equipped his Warrior King title, which gave his soldiers a boost. Adding the enhancement of his sovereign powers, the defenders could push back against the demons who outnumbered them.

Domon's team stayed close to Jack. With Jack leading them, this martial artist team became the tip of the spear piercing through the demons' formation. Linda adjusted the army's formation to center around this team and caused the demons' formation to crumble.

Jack took this chance to use the War God's Army, the set skill from the God of Courage's Divine Armor. One thousand warriors in golden armor joined the battlefield. Each one had a wings tool. They could fight enemies on land or in the air. These golden warriors excelled at fighting enemies at close range but could also cast spells.

These golden warriors ranged from level 88 special elite to level 98 mythical. The strongest followed Jack's level. Jack was close to reaching level 98 when he left Chris' secret garden. Considering he was among his army, this half-day battle granted him lots of exp points. This allowed him to level up.

Through Duke Alfredo, Jack learned that the defenders at Hydrurond Northern Front were retreating. Hence, he summoned his royal agents over.

He only summoned eight out of his twelve royal agents. This was because the other four died less than a week ago. These four were Amy, Jonathan, Robinson, and Nerd Bungie. They were still on their way back to the battlefield. Jack could bring these four to him instantly using his King Badge, but he chose not to. The Soul-securing Shrine had a cooldown of one week. He didn't want these four to die again before their life insurance coverage was activated again.

When his royal agents appeared before him, he was glad about their improvements. Thanks to the fast-leveling advantage, these two and a half months of constant battles had pushed his royal agents to stand amongst the strongest natives of this world.

Almost everyone from his royal agents died once or twice during this war. Only three people hadn't died since the war started. These three were Tetsuo, Eyrene, and Elayne. Hence, these three had the most improvement. Jack was glad nothing befell Tetsuo because he was the only one of his royal agents whose life was not insured.

Of the eight he had summoned to join this battleground, Duke Alfredo was level 89, Laurent was level 88, Lindsey was 84, Howard was 83, Eyrene was 91, Elayne was 80, Hatori was 87, and Tetsuo was level 93.

Jack was especially fascinated by Tetsuo. His insectoid beast form combined with the savage techno suit turned him into something Jack thought to be very cool. Hence, he always tried to stay close to this royal agent of his. He had no problem doing that since his speed didn't lose to Tetsuo. This, in turn, slightly irritated Tetsuo. He always preferred to fight solo. Having Jack tailing him and the others tailing Jack made it so that he never fought alone.

But after a while, he learned to cope with them. Jack was used to team battles so he could synchronize well with almost anyone. Tetsuo didn't feel Jack disrupted his battle style.

"Soul Beaammmm…!!!" Tetsuo shouted as he discharged his offensive skill. n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"So cool!" Jack exclaimed. He imitated Tetsuo, "Mana Beaammm…!!!"

Tetsuo glanced at Jack. He could tolerate Jack's assistance. But this mimicking…, perhaps it would take him some more time before he could cozy up to this young king's behavior.

Tetsuo ignored Jack. He charged at the high demon who was down on the ground due to his soul beam. That high demon's HP was low. Tetsuo aimed to land a finishing blow on it. His fist was glowing a bright silver.

Tetsuo exclaimed as he neared his target, "This fist of mine is flaring bright! Its shining light shows me the path to defeat my enemies! Erupting Soul Punchhh…!!!"

His shining fist punched straight into the high demon's chest. The glow became brighter.

"Explode!" Tetsuo yelled at the same time the glow did as his statement. The high demon's body erupted when its HP was zeroed.

"Holy shit! That tops everything else! I wish I had recorded that with a recording stone!" Jack exclaimed after seeing the scene. Peniel facepalmed upon hearing the remark.

"I won't lose! Take this ultimate slash!" Jack slashed his sword at a nearby demon while yelling, "Neo galaxy extreme hyper slash!!!"

Warpath, who was nearby, cursed, "F*ck! That was just a normal slash. Why shout such fancy words…?"

All the royal agents received new skills or spells from their level-ups. Three notable spells Jack witnessed during the battle were the Reaper's Curse from Elayne, Phantasm Titan from Duke Alfredo, and Lethal Shadow from Hatori.

The Reaper's Curse was an AOE spell. It cursed all enemies in the target location. The reaper's apparitions appeared above the targets, clinging onto them. The stats and speed of the cursed enemies were lowered. Ten minutes after this spell was cast, affected enemies received a 50% chance of triggering an instant death. Those lucky enough to survive would not escape scot-free. They received 1000% chaos damage instead.

As for Duke Alfredo's Phantasm Titan, it was a summoning spell. It summoned an illusory humanoid giant. It served as a perfect tank while the duke and other spellcasters cast offensive spells from behind it.

Hatori's Lethal Shadow was the weaker version of Red Death's Death Shadow. The skill enabled him to blend in shadowy areas and attack undetected from the shadows. He wasn't protected if he received attacks while in hiding, though. The speed and damage increase were also lower than Death Shadow.

Jack himself refrained from using big skills, in case Satan showed himself. With his mastery over form manipulation, even his basic, advanced, and normal elite skills were deadly enough, but he used Remote Magic Field and Double Clones. He also used AOE skills like Perpetual Lightning Judgement, which was more effective when used against groups of enemies.

He sent his clones out in different directions to assist the army. The effect of Jack's Warrior King title was doubled for any Themisphere soldiers in his direct vicinity. It turned out that being in his clones' direct vicinity also worked, so Linda readjusted the troops' formation to follow these clones' movements.

The mobile fortress advanced following the troops' successful push. The healing from the rune tree helped the troops survive even when they focused on the offensive.

Therras and Spark were by Jack's sides.

Therras was level 93. Jack didn't call him out all the time when he was inside Chris' training cave. This was so he received most of the exp points, but he did call his pet out till it was level 90. After that, Jack only used pet food to level his pet. He had bought a lot of pet food before he departed to Chris' secret garden.

When he ran out of pet food, Jack asked Chris for some. It turned out Chris had lots of legendary-grade pet food. At first, Chris didn't want to share. Not long after, Wilted came to ask for those pet food. Jack was behind Wilted, grinning like a fool. Chris gave the pet food while grumbling.

Chris' legendary-grade pet food gave tons of exp points to pets. That's how Therras could increase three levels by relying only on pet food. Jack told Jet about this. Jet also went to ask for some, with Wilted by his side.

As for Spark, since Storm Breaker was level 99, it was at its highest potential. It used two of its skills in the battle. One was the Soul and Chaos Eye Beam. The silver and dark purple beam pierced through multiple enemies. Its strength didn't diminish even after going through many enemies. The damage it dealt to the demons at the beam's furthest end was the same as the one hit the first time.

Spark's second skill was an AOE skill that hit a large area. The ten wing blades detached from his back and flew in a circle at high speed. These wing blades created a hurricane of blades that struck all enemies within range.

Spark still had several other skills, but they were single-target skills with long durations. Like Jack, it refrained from using this skill in case Satan showed up.

Jack also summoned the gold dragon from his bloodline's power and had it aid the army.

While they fought, one incident caught Jack's attention. The incident was when Domon, who was fighting nearby, used Weapon Master's Ki Strike. This skill normally generated an energy blast that hit everyone in a cone-shaped area directly ahead of the user. But when Domon used it, the energy blast didn't spread like it normally would. It instead shot out in a more focused pillar shape. As a result, the energy was more compact, and it traveled further. This energy pillar hit one of the giant demonic abominations and severed its arm.

"Gramps! You can use form manipulation as well?" Jack asked with surprise.

"Form manipulation? This is what this technique is called?" Domon asked.

"Uh… I just named it myself," Jack answered. "Since when did you start training this technique?"

"Since I saw you do it several hours ago," Domon answered.

Jack clicked his tongue. "Grandmaster martial artist is truly something else. It takes me days of training before I can even start using form manipulation on the easiest skill."

Domon chuckled. "Don't get discouraged. I've studied mana manipulation much longer than you. My understanding of mana is deeper than you, so if I can achieve what you did, it is not something surprising. You, on the other hand, have only learned mana manipulation not long ago. To reach this mastery and create a new technique, I dare say you have gone further than any martial artist I know. That includes me."

Those who were on Domon's team were all martial artists. They all knew what Domon said was not a flattery from a grandfather to a grandson, but a proud commendation from a teacher to a disciple. None of those there denied Domon's claim. Even Warpath, who still bore a slight grudge, accepted that Jack was a better martial artist.

As the battle raged on, they suddenly heard a commotion from behind. They turned back and saw one part of the defensive walls blew up in a fiery explosion. Multiple fireballs rained down on many other parts of the walls while a colossal being stood where the first explosion was. That colossal being was Satan.