Chapter 278 — Destination Reached

For a moment, the lava making up the Lava Giant and the crimson flames created through Elemental Affinity collided.

Continuous thunderous booms echoed as the sound spread throughout the desert.

The two similar yet distinct flames fought for a couple of seconds, producing sparks and smaller fires which flew everywhere.

It was only a few moments later that the confrontation between them finally came to an end.

Following a cackle, the crimson flames went out and revealed the Lava Giant hidden beneath them.

However, its current state was quite embarrassing.

Most of its body had dissolved, and chunks of it fell down, striking the earth below.

Its aura fluctuated, sometimes weak and sometimes strong, having obviously been seriously injured.

Seeing the current state of the opponent, the Slave Lord did not let this opportunity pass.

The black chains shot out under her control and whipped at the already injured Lava Giant.

Each collision wiped out another part of its body.

Hundreds of blows later, when the last blow landed, it was completely extinguished.

In mere moments, the Lava Giant had died under the joint efforts of the Slave Lord and Liora, as if it were not a True Devil but a weak being.

However, things were not over just yet.

After landing the final blow on the Lava Giant, the Slave Lord did not become immersed in the glory.

The bloody screams of her subordinates were still clear in her mind, letting her know that she could not relax just yet.

Under Liora’s gaze, the Slave Lord turned around and began targeting the weak flaming creatures, saving as many of her subordinates as she could.

Liora did not choose to participate.

She merely glanced at Alpha and gestured for her to do as she pleased before arriving at the place where the Lava Giant had died.

Reaching down, she picked up the spar left behind after its death, and the earlier scene replayed in her mind.

The fireball’s power was still surprising to her.

"The Four Elements Method is indeed quite interesting..."

"Although Elemental Affinity sounds unimpressive, its power is quite high. Its usefulness is not that far behind the World Devourers’ Devour."

One had to know that Liora had only swallowed objects related to fire so far, and thus could mainly control fire elements for now.

Yet, it was still so strong.

What would happen if she practiced this Method to its fullest, and was able to control other elements too?

"Obtaining objects related to the other elements should be put on the agenda.", Liora thought, secretly noting this down.

By the time she finished her thoughts, the battle in the desert had ended. With the Slave Lord taking action, it didn’t take long for these enemies to meet their demise.

However, this True Devil was far from happy.

Less than 40% of the original slave army members remained, with the remaining more than half dead.

"If you had taken action from the start, we would have suffered far fewer losses."

"At the very least, you should have killed those weaklings before helping me deal with the Lava Giant.", she voiced her complaints towards Liora.

In response, Liora shook her head and denied it.

"My abilities are related to flames and fire elements. These beings naturally counter me."

"If I want to deal with them, I have to take action with all my strength.", she explained.

Hearing these words, which were quite similar to what she had claimed during the fight, the Slave Lord calmed down.

In fact, in her opinion, this was indeed the truth.

During the previous fight with the Violence Lord, she had already judged that Liora’s race was most likely related to flames, perhaps being a mutant Flame Devil.

Since that was the case, it made sense that she would be weak when facing creatures born from fire.

Seeing that the Slave Lord was lost in thought and seemed to have believed her, Liora didn’t try to convince her anymore.

After she collected the spars left behind by the flaming creatures, she looked at the Slave Lord and questioned:

"Are we going to venture deeper into the desert? Or should we turn back and find some other cannon fodder?"

The Slave Lord didn’t rush to respond.

Various emotions alternated on her face as she considered the situation, with anger, hesitation, and reluctance being the most apparent.

In the end, though, she made a surprising decision.

"We are already very close to the Hollow’s center."

"Now that we know there are such enemies and we’re alert, dealing with them will be much easier.", she stated.

--

The Slave Lord’s words proved to be true.

As the team turned around and continued on their journey, they faced various attacks from these bizarre creatures.

Each one was led by a True Devil, but under the tacit cooperation between Liora and the Slave Lord, they managed to deal with them after expending some effort.

In the most violent and dangerous attack, three True Devils appeared and attacked the group at the same time.

Fortunately, besides possessing the ability to conceal their presence, these creatures were not very strong at the same stage. After an uneventful battle, the two women managed to kill them.

--

"We are finally out!", a relieved voice rang in Liora’s ears, while the temperature around her decreased at a rapid pace.

Lowering her head, she discovered that her feet were no longer stepping in sand.

Clearly, after a few days of walking, the group had left the dangerous desert behind them.

Liora couldn’t help but take a look at the Slave Lord and the army behind her as she thought of this.

It was said to be an army, but it was actually no more.

By the time they had gotten out of the desert, only five slaves remained alive.

This meant that hundreds of Lesser Devils had died in the span of a few days, without even leaving behind a whole corpse.

"Sure enough, the Demon World is not a kind place for the weak.", Liora muttered inwardly.

"Could it be that this is the reason why the Will of the Demon World does not allow Lesser Devils to invade other worlds?"

"If they had the ability, which Lesser Devil would choose to stay here and become cannon fodder for their Lord?"

These inexplicable thoughts couldn’t help but emerge in Liora’s mind.

For the first time, she felt pretty lucky to have descended to the world of Knights and taken the opportunity to grow there.

Otherwise, her fate might not have been any better than that of these people.