In the central region of the Aldridge Empire, Kurus City was under attack. This was the first large scale abyss demon incursion in the history of the continent. The original 100,000 defenders of the city had already been wiped out by the abyss demons.
A short distance away from the walls, an enormous abyss teleportation array floated in the air. It looked like a black hole, from which abyss demons poured out into the world like a swarm of locusts. A portal of such magnitude required the collaboration of an Abyss Creator with a World Destructor, either a Demon God or an Evil God. The two parties would have to form a contract while being present on either end of the portal.
If this dimension’s Dimensional Creator God still existed, this portal wouldn’t have been able to survive for long. The Creator God would be able to close the Abyss portal, forcing the Abyss Creator and World Destructor to switch locations. However, according to one of the Abyss Creators, Mechanical Empress Andulisna, the Dimensional Creator had been missing for a long time already and would not interfere with this situation.
Bella didn’t know how Andulisna’s territory in the Abyss Continent looked like. Earlier, when they had made the contract, she had already been waiting for Bella on the road. Bella also didn’t have any idea about exactly what kind of abyssal beings were under the control of Andulisna.
There were many different types and species of Abyss Demons; the ones currently assaulting Kurus City belonged to Abyss Demonic Insect Race. The race was known for using their enormous numbers to defeat their opponents. Their associated Abyss Creator was the Insect Empress Vicky Hill. She was a restless Abyss Creator, arrogant too. Whenever World Destructor members visited her region of the abyss, she would constantly slight them. If it weren’t for the fact that her numerous subordinates made her useful, the upper-level members of the World Destructors would have annihilated her territory already.
However, Vicky Hill wasn’t a gone case. She knew that she couldn’t wholly offend the World Destructors. Still, she would always treat them with small slights whenever they came to recruit manpower. For example, she would only ever grant them cannon fodder demons, never elites. This behavior caused many World Destructors to despise her.
Most Demon Gods and Evil Gods of the World Destructors could create their own dark demons. However, these creations wouldn’t be able to fight in high-level battles—they were too weak. Even Bella’s origin form, Sacred Demon God Samantha, who could create some of the most powerful minions among all of the Demon Gods, still went to the Abyss to recruit soldiers.
Neighboring the Insect Race’s continent was the Mechanical Race, who was currently helping Bella. Normally, the Mechanical Race would only appear in dimensions with advanced technology. Mechanical Empress Andulisna was like the dark version of the Mechanical Creator Andrea. Bella daydreamed how good it would be if the two were actually sisters; that way, she could conquer Andulisna with the same methods that she used on Andrea.
Large numbers of mechanical abyss demons poured out of the teleportation array. Leading the charge, moving with startling swiftness, was a mechanical abyss demon that looked like an alien from Earth’s <Alien> movie. However, it’s body was even larger than the one in the movie. Similarly, it had a metallic exoskeleton and wielded large scythe limbs.
The only difference between the two was that the Abyss Aliens didn’t possess parasitic nor infectious abilities. They couldn’t grow and burst from inside a human’s chest. Nevertheless, since the opponent was the Abyss Insect Race, parasitic and infectious abilities would be ineffective. That’s why Mechanical Empress Andulisna did not send her special alien demons, which possessed infection abilities.
Behind the alien demons came a flood of various sci-fi styled abyss demons. Some were entirely red, while others looked like mechanical spiders, which were specialized Abyss Chariots. The largest demons were the Abyss Fortress and Abyss Strongholds.
The Abyss Fortresses looked like white scorpions, while the Abyss Strongholds possessed extremely strong heads, harder than diamonds. They looked like normal abyss demons with outsized heads, and their main purpose was to charge the enemy head on.
Bella was standing aboard the “Sky Ark”, the flagship of the Grim Airship Fleet. She studied Andulisna’s forces through a spyglass and was shocked by what she saw. The sense of the creatures below coming straight from a movie set made Bella feel incredulous.
Bella felt that these demons were on the wrong movie set too. The Abyss Aliens were fine, but the Abyss Chariots were clearly designed to combat tanks and other armored vehicles. The Abyss Fortresses’ large claws looked as if they were meant to tear apart giant mechs, while the Abyss Strongholds could easily charge into warships. They should’ve been battling the mechanical creations of Mechanical Creator Andrea.
Almost all of the mechanical abyss demons under Andulisna appeared to be made of metal; they were like mechanical life forms. However, she didn’t bring any flying demons to the battle. Instead, there was a large group of metal-shelled mechanical demons that only possessed a large, singular eye.
These demons were known as “Abyssal Eyes” and were infamous in the Abyss for their ability to fire powerful light beams from their fearsome eyes. They were a nightmarish existence to any aerial units. As soon as they appeared, countless red beams crisscrossed the sky, sweeping through the ranks of Abyssal Blood-Sucking Mosquitoes and Abyss Poison Moths. Wherever the rays passed, only ashes remained.
Bella could feel the heat of the lasers from her airship. It was a good thing that the Abyssal Eyes knew that the Grim Airship Fleet was on their side; otherwise, the fleet would be easily reduced to cinders as well.
The Abyss Insect Demons that had been assaulting Kurus City redirected their assault, charging at the newly arrived Mechanical Race Abyss Demons. The Mechanical Demons temporarily had an advantage in the initial clash. However, over Angus City, a black cloud of Insect Demons rose into the sky and rushed toward the battlefield.
The Abyssal Army Ants also began scurrying over to reinforce the battlefield. The surviving humans in Kurus City couldn’t watch this Abyssal Demon battle play out without doing anything. They mistakenly thought that the incoming Mechanical Abyss Demons were enemy reinforcements. They were already barely holding the walls; with the addition of so many strange and fearsome Mechanical Demons, they had no hope for victory.
The humans hurried toward the rear gate of Kurus City. Of the forces from the prior assault on the city, only large amounts of Abyss Crypt Insects were left inside. The Abyssal Poison Moths and Abyss Bloodthirsty Mantises had already flown out of the city. The humans thought that they had left to regroup with the incoming Mechanical Abyss Demons; if they didn’t escape now, they would no longer have the chance.
To them, the Grim Airship Fleet in the sky was their last hope. Many humans were waving at the airships, hoping that they would lower a ladder for them to escape on. The ground was teeming with Abyss Crypt Insects right now, so the sky was the safest place to be.
However, the airship fleet ignored them. Instead, they flew off toward a certain windmill outside of the city. Besides the “Sky Ark”, all of the airships were at full capacity already. The flagship would not board outsiders, while the other airships were all manned by Skeleton Firearm Soldiers. If those humans really came up, then their Three Views would collapse.
If they were rescued by skeletons, these humans’ Three Views would crumble apart. For the good of the humans of Kurus City, Bella decided to ignore their pleas for aid.
At a certain windmill outside of Kurus City, Olsylvia Academy’s students were bitterly defending against wave after wave of Abyss Crypt Insects under the leadership of God Chosen Knight Scott. The windmill was surrounded by the corpses of their trophies of war.
Although no one had died yet, there were many injured. Besides Scott, who possessed the Golden Finger for protection, the others were covered in wounds of varying severity. These physical wounds weren’t the worst of it; the main problem was that the Crypt Insects also possessed a psyche attack. If the battle went on for much longer, there would be a good chance that some students’ psyches would collapse.
Scott’s face was covered in sweat; his divine-artifact armor was stained dark red by the blood of abyss demons. As he watched the neverending waves of Abyss Crypt Insects approach, his heart wavered, and even his movements stiffened. It was only himself and the other members of Lisha’s Demon Squad that remained on the front lines. They were “Berserker War Demon” Bartus, “The Enchanter” Hayden, and “Hand of Resurrection” Wolff. The rest of Scott’s companions from this world had all been frightened to the point of hiding in the windmill farm’s central region.
The Crypt Insects were relentless, utilizing “human wave tactics” to try to smother the defenders. Scott was regretful—this wasn’t at all how he imagined the events would unfold. The script was all wrong.
The Abyss Crypt Insects were practically identical to their Earthen counterpart, cockroaches. They could never be fully exterminated. Furthermore, the abyssification of the surroundings had progressed greatly. The affinity restriction of the abyss prevented any magic not of the light attribute from being used. Not even a simple fireball could be cast.
Without the support of magic, no matter how strong the martial professions were, they would eventually become exhausted. If he knew things would reach this point, Scott would have never decided to defend this shitty windmill. He would’ve swallowed his pride and returned to Kurus City to combine forces with God Chosen Mage Adelaide and his group of magicians. Either that, or he would have gone to the back to group up with God Chosen Holy Sword Akmans, who was commanding a guerrilla war. Anything was better than his current situation.
Not only that, but the appearance of the Abyss Mechanical Demons gave Scott a fright. This was his first time seeing them, and he was so shocked that he was almost injured by a couple of Crypt Insects. He thought that those mechanical demons were in the wrong movie. Before Scott had transmigrated, he had seen <Alien>. Seeing similar forms to the movie in this world shook him to the core. He really didn’t want to fight these alienesque demons.
“Brother Scott, we should retreat… we can’t hold much longer.”
“Okay… No, we have to stand strong until the last moment. Victory will be ours… ours…”
“There are airships over there; we’re saved… It’s… it’s Duchess Bellina’s forces…”
Bella’s Grim Airship Fleet had appeared above the windmill farm. With a roar of cannon, the Crypt Insects swarming the ground were blasted apart. With such a vicious bombardment, the main gate of the windmill was temporarily clear of demons.
However, Scott and the others’ dreams of rescue were shattered when no ladders were dropped. Instead, supplies floated down on small parachutes, and that was it. The “Sky Ark” looked like it was going to turn around and fly off. To them, it looked like Bella was planning to leave.
“No way… Why won’t you save us… Duchess Bellina is really… I had thought…”
“Big Bro Scott, let’s retreat. Duchess Bellina sent us a teleportation circle. It’s linked to Garcia City.”
“Right, Duchess Bellina must want to avoid those new abyss demons that appeared! Did you guys see those strange beams of light?”
The para dropped supplies included emergency medicine, magic potions, and antidotes. The most valuable item, though, was the mass teleportation magic scroll that Magic Knight Lisha had made in the past. Once they ripped the scroll, it would teleport over a hundred people to the distant Garcia City.
Garcia City was located near the capital of the Aldridge Empire. If it fell, the capital would be in danger. Right now, that was the safest place to flee to. Too bad Scott had wanted to meet Duchess Bellina on the “Sky Ark”.
According to the novels of Earth, Scott was 99% certain that someone as beautiful and capable as Duchess Bellina should be part of the Protagonist’s harem. As long as he was able to meet her face to face, he could sweet-talk her and fall into her arms in “gratitude”. Then, if he was lucky, perhaps even the entire Grim Airship Fleet would become his property.
However, obviously, Bella was the one percent. She was simply saving Scott along the way. If she knew his inner thoughts, the para dropped supplies would have been exploding barrels instead! After all, in such a chaotic battlefield, who would know if they died to the demons or to other people.
Bartus, Hayden, and Wolff looked at the mass teleportation scroll with complicated expressions. They recognized it as being created by their former companion and captain, Magic Dragon Knight Lisha.
It was likely that she was on the “Sky Ark” floating above them. The fact that she hadn’t come out to see them was probably her intention to end their relationship. This was her last act as their former captain, to rescue her once subordinates. From now on, everyone would go their separate ways, with all debts settled.
They were not girls like assassin Lola. Bella wouldn’t try to forcefully recruit them. This end was already preordained. If Scott wasn’t an idiot, he would use the scroll to escape. Bella commanded her forces to return toward Kurus City.
In the distance, the vanguards of the Abyss Mechanical Race and the Abyss Insect Race met in a spray of flesh and blood, the battle reaching a fevered pitch. With their numeric superiority, the Insect Demons were able to hold against the charge. They were waiting for their reinforcements to arrive. Bella didn’t want to get embroiled in the fighting; she still had something else to take care of.
As the fleet passed over the city, Bella dropped packages to Akmans and Adelaide. Their contents were the same as she had given to Scott. One was the man who had sold her the Great Evil Slaying Sword; the other was her roommate, Ariel’s, little brother. Bella still needed these Saviors to attract the attention of the Twelve Demon Kings.
The Grim Airship Fleet’s new target was the mansion of the head of Kurus City, Earl Kirk the Sixth. His family had controlled this city for six generations. It would be strange if they didn’t have any hidden treasures. Bella’s nasty habit of “robbing during a fire” had reared its ugly head once again. After all, if those treasures were going to be buried in the ruins of the city anyways, it would be better if Bella “rescued” them instead.
