Chapter 1 The Beginning

Gregory returned to his desk and continued studying the dark red crystal, seemingly unconcerned by the commotion outside. In truth, the commotion was insignificant: lava demons were not rare in this space. One could encounter these low-intelligence elemental creatures at any time while passing through areas where lava flowed. The Scar of the Demon was located at the confluence of exposed underground lava flows, so naturally, lava demons would frequently emerge. However, these creatures were incapable of scaling the Scar of the Demon’s steep outer walls. Their only threat to the soldiers came from their violent activity and the release of molten rock vapor when they melted the rock walls. These poisonous gases would surge out of the Scar of the Demon, and even trained soldiers with mastery of various spells could be harmed if they were careless.

But the suppression of these poisonous gases was the responsibility of the mages.

The door to the room was pushed open, and an old man in a purple silk robe, holding a staff, walked in. He was one of the high-ranking commanders of the human mage corps.

“Master Lufaan,” Gregory stood up to greet him, “There is a large number of lava demons active below the Scar of the Demon. The poisonous vapor may break through the barrier set up by the mages. I hope you can personally suppress it later.”

“A small matter,” the old man called Master Lufaan nodded. He was also one of the veterans of the Allied Forces and a close friend of Gregory, so there was no need for formality. Seeing the dark red crystal on Gregory's desk, he couldn't help but ask, "Still studying this? Any progress?"

"No progress, nothing but a short clip," Gregory shook his head. "I almost suspect it's just a joke."

"This is part of the Mad Demon King's magic sword, genuine," Lufaan stared at the dark red crystal on the table, a glimmer in his eyes. "And we have confirmed the residual Demon King aura on the crystal; it cannot be faked. It must be something the Mad Demon King carried with him before his fall. I just don't know what that crazy demon intended to leave these messages... his thinking is truly unfathomable."

"Hmph, intention? A simple scheme," Gregory's lips curled in a sneer. "It's nothing more than wanting to plunge the Allied Forces into prolonged infighting and chaos. He knew how attractive a secret that could grant dominion over the world would be, so he simply threw this secret to us before he died, and we are destined not to ignore it. And as long as the human heart is a factor, we can't destroy or seal this crystal—it's just a scheme."

Lufaan quietly looked at the crystal, closing his eyes slightly: "Yes, a scheme. The other six heroes all know it's a scheme, but none of them can help themselves. Alas, the human heart… you are also deeply involved. But then again, do you really believe there is such a divine artifact? What if in the end we find out that everything is just a lie made up by the Mad Demon King, this joke would be too much—this crystal is real, but the artifact mentioned in the crystal image may not be."

"I believe it," Gregory smiled. "Otherwise, no one can explain where the Mad Demon King's power came from..."

Before he could finish, a violent explosion suddenly rang out from outside, directly interrupting the rest of his sentence.

"What's going on?" Gregory and Lufaan were both shocked and quickly ran to the window, only to find flames soaring into the sky in the distance. The soldiers in the camp were frantically preparing for battle, and in those distant flames, countless huge demons were appearing out of thin air!

Surrounded by the demon troops was a primal hellhound, more than five meters tall. The hellhound was covered in heavy rock armor, its eyes were blood-red, and boiling blood dripped from its fangs. "It" raised its head and let out a long howl at the red planet, its voice shaking the heart: "Awoo—w..."

The last half of the syllable seemed to be swallowed back.

But Gregory didn't have time to investigate what happened to that half syllable. The bloody aura rushing towards him instantly made him realize that this was a group of elite demons with countless lives on their hands, and the armor decorations on those demons were clearly the insignia of the Serrated Legion!

"Demons have invaded the main camp?!" Lufaan was shocked. "Could it be that a high-level warlock controlled by demons has infiltrated, and someone opened a portal in the military camp?!"

At that moment, the door was pushed open again, and a guard with a panicked face rushed into the room: "General! The Serrated Demon Legion has appeared in the east!"

"Quickly engage! Protect the eastern mage tower!" Gregory ordered loudly. "Sound the alarm throughout the camp, and notify the nearby elven and orc legions to come and assist!"

At this moment, the towering flames in the east of the military camp had not subsided, and more demons were constantly appearing out of thin air in the flames. These were obviously elite soldiers being teleported, but the Allied Forces had never heard of this kind of flame portal: the way the demons appeared was completely different from the regular warlock summons.

But now was not the time to investigate such details—those demons that appeared out of thin air were forming formations, striding towards the camp, a demon siege!

The piercing alarm sounded throughout the camp. The Allied soldiers, who had experienced ten years of war, were elite troops. Even in the face of this demon legion that had descended from the sky, they would not panic. Countless warriors immediately gathered from the camp to meet the enemy. The distance between the two sides was rapidly shortening, and it looked like a fierce battle was about to break out in the main camp of the Allied Forces!

The old mage Lufaan had already run to support the mage corps, while Gregory watched the distant flames and explosions with clenched fists. He felt that the way those demons appeared and their speed were a bit strange, but the bloody aura rushing towards him made him realize the seriousness of the situation.

The lava demon riot in the Scar of the Demon… the demon siege…

The two events instantly connected in Gregory’s mind. He suddenly realized that this was a premeditated raid! It was an attack that the cunning abyss demon Serrated had been brewing for who knows how long. So what were the targets of these demons?

Gregory instantly thought of the dark red crystal, but he quickly realized that Serrated should not know that the crystal was currently in this area. He looked at the direction the demons were advancing and suddenly realized that in front of them was none other than the Platinum Obelisk where the Pope was located!

The bloodline factor belonging to the paladin in Gregory’s bones finally took over. He suddenly grabbed the weapon beside him and prepared to rush out to defend the Platinum Obelisk, but before leaving the room, he saw the dark red crystal on the table.

Although there seemed to be no other secrets in the crystal, he still had to guard against someone taking advantage of the chaos to steal it. Gregory turned back and put the crystal into a large metal box beside the wall and activated the magical lock that even Lufaan couldn't unlock. The metal box made a series of strange noises, and finally a pile of strange iron-gray arms grew out from all sides, merging with the walls and floor of the room.

After doing all this, Gregory rushed out in a hurry, calling his guards to rush to the front line together.

After Gregory left, the window of the room suddenly opened without wind, and Hao Ren and Lanina sneaked in like ghosts.

"Thanks to your charm, you were able to deceive all the soldiers along the way," Hao Ren first praised the succubus beside him. "Didn't you say you haven't practiced charm much?"

"I haven't practiced, but I should have some instinct, and they are just ordinary soldiers, so it's not difficult to deal with," Lanina's face was a little strange. "Stop talking about this, I'm getting goosebumps..."

Hao Ren chuckled and quickly sneaked to the metal box in the corner: "I just saw him put the crystal in here—are you really sure that crystal is from Izhaks's magic sword back then?"

"Absolutely, I personally inlaid it back then, but unfortunately, the magic sword was lost during the final battle," Lanina said, squatting in front of the metal box, frowning at the magic runes floating on the surface of the box. "Damn... it's a secret lock made by the elves and dwarves together."

"Can't open it?" Hao Ren was surprised.

Lanina shook her head: "If it's an ordinary lock, it's easy to deal with, but a secret lock can only be opened with a specific rune formula, and you can't see any information related to those runes before opening it."

Hao Ren frowned when he heard this. He shook the box and found that this thing had "grown" together with the entire room, so he took out his silver alloy spear from his personal space: "You step back, I remember this spearhead has an ion welding function... It doesn't matter if you can't open the lock, we can move the box away."

Lanina: "?"