After positioning themselves, the two gatekeepers heard the noise of a falling object. They looked out for the source of it, and they went terrified once they saw what the falling object was.
“Philip!”
At the base of the right tower, their colleague, Philip, was lying on the surface. Not only did he fall off the tower, which was meters in height, but a meter-long, ominous black stake-like object pierced his chest, cleanly penetrated his steel armor, and tore his flesh and bones.
In an instant, Philip lost his life as his heart was crushed by a Level 4 Dark Magic spell, the Black Spear. Seeing his miserable fate, the two men could not help but cry his name as they were aware of his lifeless state.
But they had practically accepted his fate and focused their whole attention on the one who made that atrocious attack. That scene made the two guards fear the one who cast that spell, as dark magic was commonly branded as taboo magic to practice.
“Ahhh—!!”
A few seconds after Philip died, an agonizing cry rang from one of the towers. Soon after, another body fell to the surface once again. By that time, a charred corpse had been dropped in front of the two proud yet shivering knights of the empire.
“What the hell is happening here?!”
“I don’t know! But as loyal knights to the Emperor, we have to protect this place and stop whatever it is at all costs!”
As they were steeling their courage and resolve, not one but two bodies fell from the towers. They took a glance at the fallen corpses only to find out that each of them had either a black spear embedded in their chest or had turned crisp alive.
Gulp.
The two broke into sweat and made audible gulps as their four colleagues bit the dust in a flash. Those fallen knights were not weak to begin with, they would not be assigned to guard one of the most secured places on the continent if they were not.
If there were someone or something that could defeat those knights so easily that they were killed in an instant like a fly, they were right behind those sturdy metal gates. That was why they were very cautious about the threat level of the ones responsible for their brief peril.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Loud and powerful percussive noises rang out through the vicinity as something was persistently hitting the gates. If that continued, the gates would surely give up and be destroyed, which would make a wide entrance for the ones behind them.
When that happened, their fates had been sealed; both of them utterly knew that. Firming up the grip of his spear, one of them bravely opened his mouth and told something to his companion.
“Young one, you should retreat from here and inform the others! Don’t worry, I will buy you a little time!”
“B-but I cannot just leave you here?!”
“There should be one to survive and relay the message, and it’s you!”
The area of the Imperial Prison was vast, and there were only two gates constructed: the front gate, which was the main gate, and the rear gate. Due to that, there were guarding posts throughout the area.
The most guarded places were the containment facilities themselves, since the purpose of the prison was to guard the convicted criminals so that the city remained peaceful. On the walls, only the four cardinal directions were guarded, so the distances between them were great.
“But…”
“Just go already. I have lived enough, and if I were to die, I want to die fighting for the empire!”
“…Yes, sir!”
“That is the spirit, kiddo!”
Without a little doubt in his mind, the younger one turned his back and ran at full throttle toward the nearest facility. Once he reached a certain distance, the other knight let out a tired sigh of relief and focused on the gates.
Crash!
After a moment of banging, the gates finally got destroyed, and dust clouded the whole entrance, making the knight only see the silhouettes of the ones behind. Once the dust was subdued, huge figures gradually manifested before the middle-aged knight.
With heights of at least eight feet, three humanoid beings with inhuman traits stood under the arc of the entrance. Black skins, red eyes, ram horns curled up from their temples, sharp fangs and claws, and a pair of black bat wings sprouted out of their backs.
“Archdevils, huh? Now I understand why you are so powerful. It’s been so long since I’ve encountered one.”
The knight recognized the identities of the attackers, as they had seen one before, but was terrified by it and made a run for his money. The ones who attacked the prison were demonic beings called Archdevils.
Archdevils were A-ranked monsters that evolved from B-ranked Devils and C-ranked Imps before that. Devil races were spiritual beings that were resistant to physical attacks and specialized in magic attacks, especially fire and dark elements.
Devils were so rare to encounter since there was only one way for them to exist: the casting of a devil summoning spell, a spell that summoned a creature from the underworld.
There were two tiers of devil summoning: Dark Magic Level 6: Devil Call and Level 8: Greater Devil Call. Imps and Devils could be summoned via the Devil Call, while the Greater Devil Call conjured the Archdevils.
All the summoned devils were at a fixed level, depending on the race. Imps were fixed at Level 200, Devils at Level 300, and Archdevils were summoned with Level 400 attributes.
The knight was around Level 400, and there were three Level 400 monsters in front of him; that was a total of over a thousand levels, almost thrice of his attributes. But despite facing a huge disadvantage, the knight did not fall back and resolved to fight the devils all by himself.
“Hwaaa! Hundred Pierce!”
“Gwahh!!”
Without hesitation, the knight unleashed his most powerful technique. He dashed forward to one of the devils before he executed a Level 8 Spear Art technique and began stabbing the devil a hundred times all over its body.
He was aware that they were resistant to physical attacks, but he knew that they were taking damage from them. With that, he could at least damage the devil a little as he bought time for his companion.
(At least I bought him some time.)
That was what he thought before two fireballs came to engulf him.𝒷𝒹ℴ𝓿𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂