Chapter 40: The Power of Demons (1)

In just a few breaths, the flames surrounding the Fire-Forged Demon became unstable and began to weaken, shifting from their intense crimson hue to a faint, dim yellow glow.
“Damn it, what kind of ability is this?”
“Hehe! It was originally meant for your master, the sorcerer, but it’s just as good for you now!”
At that moment, the sorcerer Gao Man, who had been hiding in the shadows, held a silver demon emblem. Seeing the situation turn unfavorable, he immediately tried to recall the Fire-Forged Demon back to the abyss.
Cautious by nature, he never acted without a backup plan. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have managed to escape repeatedly from the Inquisition, a renowned religious tribunal on the continent dedicated to hunting heretics and demons, and make his way from the commercial kingdom of Solon in the southern part of the continent to the cold, remote northern lands.
But how could Donald let such a valuable asset slip away? With a demon right before his eyes, if he could absorb its power, he would finally become a true demon hunter, able to use those heroic innate abilities and his ultimate skill—demon transformation. By then, he would have risen from the mid-black iron rank to a strength comparable to that of high bronze rank.
“Shaman, use purification magic to bind this demon! Don’t let it escape back to the abyss!”
At Donald’s shout, the shaman priest with a beast’s head waved his staff, and a pale blue light enveloped the Fire-Forged Demon.
“Ahh… you damned humans! I’ll tear you apart piece by piece, chew on your soul, and devour your flesh!”
As the demon screamed in agony, pure energy began to destroy its body from within, causing its surface to bulge with veins and inflicting severe damage. This was still a silver-ranked Fire-Forged Demon; if it were a bronze-ranked demon, the damage would be even worse—just like the Blade Demon before, the magical energy would instantly tear it to shreds.
The effect of purification magic was to dispel all magical effects from the target, temporarily immobilizing them for about 3 seconds. Even after regaining mobility, their speed would be greatly reduced, leaving them sluggish. However, their speed would gradually recover within 15 seconds. If the target was too powerful, this time would be significantly shortened.
Additionally, this spell dealt massive damage to summoned units—twice as much as when Donald used his Veto Staff.

Seeing that Fireburn Demon was trapped and severely injured, while the other two Dog Demons were already covered in wounds from the spider monster’s attacks and captured by its webs, the two mages who had hoped to distract some of the enemy forces were completely unable to intervene. From the start, they had been overwhelmed by those weak summoned creatures and had almost no chance to fight back.

“Two useless wretches!” The sorcerer cursed loudly, forced to jump out of his hiding place, activate his Magic Flame Shield, and then attempt to use dark magic to attack the enemies and rescue his contracted demon. Fireburn Demon was his greatest reliance; if he lost him here, he would be weakened for at least a year, during which time he would be at a severe disadvantage if confronted by enemies of Justice Hand.

“That’s exactly who I’ve been waiting for!”

Seeing the sorcerer finally appear, Donald laughed heartily and launched another attack using his Magic Burn skill.

The sorcerer felt his magical energy suddenly burning rapidly, causing continuous damage to his body. This magic-draining skill shocked Goman greatly. He tried to use a dark spell while his magic was still being depleted, but found that his spells also failed—without any backlash from failure and producing no effect at all. He didn’t realize this was the effect of another skill of the Magic Destroyer summoned by Donald: Magic Theft. This skill could steal spells being cast by magical units and transfer beneficial spells from enemy units to nearby allied units, or transfer harmful spells from allied units to nearby enemy units.

Realizing that all his enemies, aside from the summoned creatures, were spellcasters, Donald had planned to summon the Magic Destroyer from the start. Now, it seemed these elf warriors were proving to be more effective than expected. Combined with his own Hunter class’s Magic Burn skill, they could effectively counter all spellcasters below the Silver rank—provided they didn’t let the enemy cast the first spell first.

With dark magic failing and his magic burning rapidly, Goman’s heart sank. Knowing his interception plan had completely failed, he weighed the importance of his own life against that of the Silver Demon. The sorcerer resolutely gave up the idea of rescuing Fireburn Demon. With a roar, his body began to swell at a visible speed.

In just a few seconds, the sorcerer tore apart his clothes and transformed into a giant nine feet tall—nearly a head larger than the Fire-Burning Demon. His dark golden diamond-shaped pupils, fierce spiral horns on his head, and dark blue scales on his body made it clear he was by no means an ordinary human.

From the sorcerer’s appearance to his decisive transformation, not even ten seconds had passed, and the effect of mana combustion still continued. Seeing this, Donald assumed he was about to launch a desperate attack and became fully alert, ordering his summoned creatures to prepare for defense while launching their own attacks.

However, the sorcerer’s transformation was driven by the power of his innate bloodline, not magical skills. Most sorcerers possessed chaotic or evil bloodlines, often originating from powerful creatures from beyond their own world, such as evil beasts or demons.

As a result, the magic theft ability used by the Magic Destroyer had no effect at all. The weak attacks from the shaman priests, who served as support units, were like mere tickles against him.

To everyone’s surprise, the sorcerer, now in the form of a ferocious monster, not only failed to attack them but also feinted before attempting to flee the battlefield.

“Trying to run?”

Seeing the sorcerer attempt to escape while still casting spells, Donald had no choice but to stop burning his mana. He immediately unleashed his most powerful offensive spell, a Level 2 spell called Wind Arrows.

With his soul level elevated and mental strength greatly enhanced, Donald became more skilled in using this spell. Not only did his casting speed increase significantly, shortening the incantation time by nearly half, but he also managed to create three arrows made of air, which whirled toward the sorcerer with a sharp shriek.

One of the Wind Arrows, created by high pressure, missed its target and was dodged, but the other two struck the sorcerer’s back and waist as he fled. Despite the scales protecting his back, they pierced through them, creating two blood holes. When a Level 2 spell was cast by a mage as powerful as Donald, its offensive power was naturally incomparable to the weak spells of the shaman priests.

The sorcerer let out a groan but continued running without pause. Thanks to the incredible jumping power of his transformed lower body, he quickly left the battlefield and disappeared in just a few steps.

“This guy’s escape ability is even stronger than his attacking skills. Next time, I must prepare more summoned creatures with control skills!”

After shaking his head and speaking, he suddenly noticed a faint glow at the spot where the sorcerer had been hit. Recalling the earlier scene, it seemed that when the Wind Arrow struck the sorcerer, something had fallen off his body.