Chapter 134: Chapter 99: The Demon’s Scheme: Corrupted Transformation
Stein’s laughter was ecstatic, his features contorting with madness. He knelt on the ground, piously listening to the evil whispers of his master, the Ten Thousand Changes Demon Monarch.
A murky, viscous black liquid continuously seeped from his skin. The Mighty Power of a Venerable Great Demon condensed into an esoteric barrier of dark runes, wrapping around his body like a cocoon.
Malformed tentacles, like those of an octopus, extended from his arms. The skeletal structure of his head twisted and warped. His mouth split wide, teeth falling out one by one, replaced by a long, narrow, dark yellow crow’s beak.
His spine tore through muscle and skin, sprouting wings covered in black feathers. Connected to the nerves of his vertebrae, they stretched outwards, like a fledgling’s.
The ominous Demon Power swept across the Verne Bridge like a shadowy wind, chilling to the bone.
At that moment, even the war’s meatgrinder on the Verne Bridge ground to a halt.
Raider Knights, the Auxiliary Army, the Defense Army.
They lowered their weapons, staring in shock at Stein, who was transforming into a Void Demon!
The four members of the Wolf Guard were thunderstruck, frozen in place.
It all happened too fast, catching them completely off guard. They couldn’t accept that the spiritual leader of their Battle Group would so brazenly embrace the power of a Demon.
But this was only the beginning.
As Stein began to transform, the seeds of transformation—long ago planted by Grand Lord Kles and Stein deep within the bodies of numerous Raider Knights—began to sprout.
Everything that was happening on the Verne Bridge was also unfolding on the front lines, three hundred meters from Caster Monastery.
Within the army besieging the Monastery, hundreds of Raider Knights let out hysterical, agonized screams. They fell to their knees, watching in terror as their own bodies began to mutate.
Malformed tentacles grew from their muscles, their bones twisted and warped, and black feathers burst through their flesh, like fledgling crows breaking from their shells.
"AARGH—!"
"What is this?! My hand, my face!"
A Raider Knight fell to the ground, struggling desperately in agony. He clawed at the tentacles sprouting from his arms, trying to tear off the Anti-Magic Steel Armor that had fused with his body.
"Kill me, kill me..."
This sudden turn of events left the Mortal Soldiers on the front lines and the few untransformed Raider Knights completely stunned, staring at each other in disbelief.
Like a spreading plague, as the Raider Knights transformed into Demons, the grotesque corruption began to spread to the Raider Auxiliary Army. Large numbers of Mortal Soldiers fell to their knees, ceaselessly vomiting black blood.
They could clearly feel something about to hatch from their chests, trying to crawl out of their mouths. The sheer agony was unbearable!
In an instant, the Upper City District, once echoing with earth-shattering war cries, fell into an abrupt, dead silence. All that remained were the agonized wails of corrupting transformations and the piercing shrieks of newborn Demons.
Until a voice, filled with utter fury yet as clear as a whisper in the ear, appeared in the mind of every soldier.
"I am Combat Priest Raphael! This is a demonic plot to seize our world! It is a massive conspiracy! Soldiers who can still fight, take up your arms!"
"Kill these transforming Demon Eggs! We absolutely cannot allow them to complete their corruption and transformation!"
Raphael’s face was ashen. Everything he had once seen in his visions of the future was now coming to pass, bit by bit.
He finally understood why the Thousand-Change Monarch would spare no effort to corrupt the Seventeenth, and why Grand Lord Kles would launch an aerial landing at any cost.
In those ethereal visions, he had not only seen the death and fall of this world, but also the rise of the Vengeful Angels, a Battle Group, and a world.
He could see these future visions, but so could the Formless Divine Monarch and its Great Demons.
The true nature of this war was never about fighting for the Radiant Holy Artifact. It was about the Demons of the Void Realm trying to utterly corrupt and slaughter Reinhardt and the Divine Emperor’s warriors before they could rise!
As soon as Raphael exposed the true purpose of the battle, the few Raider Knights who had not yet been corrupted immediately reacted. With swift strokes, they raised their swords and cut down their former comrades.
The Defense Army commander on the Caster Monastery front line broke out in a cold sweat, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably. He roared his command, "Kill those Demon Eggs! Kill as many as you can! Don’t let them hatch!"
Raphael led the charge, a Mind Storm like a bolt of white lightning tearing apart a Raider Knight who was about to complete his transformation.
At the same time, he cast a worried glance toward the Verne Bridge, a kilometer away.
Because he could not accept the ending in his visions of the future.
A Demon breaking the wings of a Vengeful Angel and hanging his corpse from the Radiant Holy Image on the roof of Caster Monastery.
And this world, under the Demon’s corrosion, detaching from the material cosmos and falling completely into the Void Storm, into the world of Demons...
「At this moment.」
Governor Ullrich, who had been taking refuge inside the Monastery and desperately guarding the Radiant Beacon, finally received a response from the Imperial Legion.
It was a grim voice, its tone filled with the air of the Upper Ranks, of one who held great power.
"This is Sedon. I have received your request for aid. An hour ago, massive Void Storms appeared around the Seventeenth. Reinforcements will be delayed.
"ETA is three hours and twenty minutes, Holy City Standard Time. Hold your position and await support."
Upon hearing the voice from the Imperial Legion through the Radiant Beacon, Ullrich, who was advanced in years and had lived a full, eventful life, nearly burst into tears.
He tried to speak with the person on the other side of the beacon, but interference from the Void Storms cut off their connection completely.
All that came through the Radiant Beacon was the decadent music of a phantom world, corrosive to the mind.
Terrified, Ullrich scrambled to cut the power supply to the beacon.
「Meanwhile.」
On the Verne Steel Bridge Corridor.
Some members of the Auxiliary Army who had completed their transformation had become grotesque hybrids of octopuses and crows. They shrieked as they lunged at any living thing around them.
At that moment, the Raider Knights were completely split into three factions.
First, the Knights who were untouched by the corruption’s stain. Their faces were filled with fury as they cursed the betrayal of Stein and their Great Lord! Though they had pledged allegiance to Grand Lord Kles and refused to stand with the corrupt and decadent Empire, they were even more unwilling to sell their souls to Demons!
Second, the Raider Knights who had been corrupted. They reveled completely in the power of the Ten Thousand Changes Demon Monarch.
Finally, a very small number of corrupted Knights. They begged their former Battle Brothers, even the Mortal Soldiers, to kill them, preferring death to becoming a Demon’s lackey.
Stein’s Demon Ascension Ceremony was not yet complete.
But he was extremely satisfied with this Demon Power from the Void Realm. Now a grotesque crow-like monster, he stared cruelly at Reinhardt, his mocking voice no longer human.
"Everything is going according to my master’s plan, Knight. I will show you the meaning of true despair. Heh heh heh..."
Reinhardt’s expression was grim and merciless.
He simply slung the Black War Axe onto his back and slowly drew the unremarkable, ancient-looking longsword—the Divine Emperor’s Fury.
