Chapter 284 — Puppet City

The sand surrounding the black gate tumbled.

As if a creature beyond the gate’s capacity was attempting to break through it, the whole structure shook violently.

The next moment, though, the trembling ceased. The creature on the other side had succeeded.

As soon as they appeared, Liora’s eyes shrank. On the other hand, the eyes of everyone else in the room, including the almost dead True Devil, flashed with undisguised excitement.

They believed that they had survived! With that person’s appearance, no danger would ever befall them!

Or at the very least, these were their thoughts for a brief moment.

Unfortunately, reality often turned out cruel.

The moment she spotted the visitor’s arrival, Liora understood that there was no time to hesitate.

Immediately, her previous movements resumed.

With a thrust, the Spear of Divine Punishment passed through her opponent’s skull, allowing the mist around it to wash over their bare bones.

Divine Punishment—this term was not to be used lightly, and the spear’s power was clear evidence of this.

The moment its glowing tip penetrated the skull, the True Devil’s indestructible body began to break.

Within a heartbeat, it had shattered, broken apart to its lowest particles.

Similarly, the True Devil’s soul was also revealed to the outside world, entering Liora’s body on its own before being converted into Evolution Points.

Her actions seemed troublesome, but the decisiveness Liora displayed made them extremely quick.

The creature who had just arrived had no time to recover from the teleportation, much less prevent her from slaughtering the True Devil.

By the time it understood what was happening, it was already too late. One of the six True Devils was already dead.

"Hmph!", a cold snort echoed throughout this space.

The angry hum made the demi-plane itself tremble, as if unable to contain its boundless power.

Liora’s face grew solemn as she turned her head and stared at this new opponent.

Previously, they had been described as a creature. However, their appearance said otherwise.

The visitor’s form was that of a floating miniature city, with tall walls, luxurious buildings, and tiny humanoid figures walking through its streets.

If anyone familiar with Bloodflower City were here, they would recognize that this city looked extremely similar to it.

No! "Pretty similar" was a vague way of putting it.

In fact, the miniature city was an exact replica of Bloodflower City, down to its most downtrodden residents.

Liora’s eyes only stayed for a brief moment on the city itself, though. The next second, her attention shifted to the space right above it.

There, a small claw could be seen, with three fingers, rough bark-like skin, and sharp, long nails.

Countless threads flew out of the claw’s fingertips, falling down and binding around the tiny residents of the miniature city.

Five bigger threads reached out of the city and wrapped around the five remaining True Devils, while the last thread was still in the middle of being torn apart.

This phenomenon, coupled with the strange feeling that had arisen in Liora’s heart, made her form a guess regarding what was happening.

"A mechanical city?", she questioned before shaking her head.

"No. A city of puppets...", she muttered.

While Liora was deep in thought, the five True Devils were not idle. After expending some more effort, they finally succeeded in dealing with the weapons besieging them.

However, they no longer attacked Liora. Instead, they rushed towards the floating city, only stopping when they landed right beside it.

They did not need to communicate with the claw’s owner.

The moment they stopped, they placed their hands on the city’s walls as their demonic energy surged.

The miniature city shook as its gate opened wide, causing the air around it to collapse.

The countless tiny people walking in its streets seemed to have received an order from their superior. In unison, they all rushed towards the gate and walked out of it.

Their figures grew bigger as they stepped out of the city. Similarly, their auras also grew stronger, reaching the Lesser Devil stage in the blink of an eye.

Then, as if they had been preparing for this opportunity for a long time, they brandished their respective weapons and marched towards Liora.

Before Liora could react, she was surrounded by Lesser Devils.

Some of them she could recognize.

They were the innkeeper of the inn she had stayed at, the pedestrians she had come across in the city, and even the guards protecting the Demon Colosseum.

As if they were all part of a trained army, they cooperated to attack her.

"In most cases, a True Devil will never die at the hands of a Lesser Devil."

"After all, the difference in power and life levels between them is humongous."

"It’s similar to arguing that an ordinary ant could kill a human or even an elephant...", Liora thought.

"However, everything has a limit... If there are enough Lesser Devils and their cooperation is good enough, they can slowly consume a True Devil and eventually slay them."

Her current situation fitted that scenario.

Thousands, if not tens of thousands, Lesser Devils were all rushing in her direction, attacking her from all directions and rendering her unable to evade.

Such a number had already reached a certain limit.

Even True Devils at the peak of this stage would have trouble confronting this army. Most of them would choose to escape rather than fight against it.

However, Liora shook her head.

"Unfortunately for you, I’m not an ordinary True Devil..."

"Using a large number of people may trouble other True Devils, but it is far from enough to kill me.", Liora stated, her words seemingly addressed at her opponent.

Finished speaking, she brought her hand forward.

Instantly, the skin at the center of her palm parted, and countless threads shot out from the dark space within, similar to the ones growing out of the claw.

They followed gravity’s force and fell onto the ground, soon disappearing into the earth.

At first, nothing happened. It was as if Liora’s activation of her ability had resulted in a failure.

Even the floating city in the distance paused for a moment and shook, as if mocking her.

But the next second, the entire demi-plane began to shake.

The earth beneath her trembled violently and turned over, while countless creatures suddenly jumped out.

These creatures were made out of fire elements and looked similar to the ones they had met outside, down to their ability to conceal their own aura.

However, if anyone were to take a deeper look at them, they would soon discover that their bodies were actually composed solely of densely-packed Devil Runes.