CHAPTER 233: HELL BREAK LOSE

Even if Cassandra was not there, everyone in this world was under her command, and she was not exaggerating when she said this; she was truly referring to every single vampire.

Atlas’s order went directly to Sullivan Leonardi and his entire lineage.

The Vampire Duke Sullivan, who had settled on one of the eastern continents, had mobilised the nearly two million vampires under his command within days.

Vampires were a race that did not need food or water; mana was sufficient for them. Contrary to expectations, the sun did not harm them, but their proximity to Nyx made them extra powerful at night.

Meanwhile, every force of the Epsilon Empire had been mobilised, and the Akairon Kingdom had become a bridge between the Epsilon Empire and the High Elf Kingdom of Bijoux.

Every day, hundreds of thousands of people passed through the Akairon Kingdom, and war preparations were becoming increasingly serious.

Atlas had directly taught the use of the Strike and Destruction runes to those he knew and believed capable of using them.

Among these individuals were Aether and Aelia Epsilon, Emma Fort, Thalia Bijoux, Lucia, Lisa and Lyra Leonardi, Irene Luis and Irene Fang, Globe Academy professors, and several important nobles.

Atlas was not alone; he had millions of people under his command, and he was not exaggerating when he said this—millions of people were indeed acting solely on his orders.

He was no longer the child who had come to the academy a few years ago. He was now someone backed by the support of the 7 Sages and every aura master who existed at his sister’s request, and he was a Duke of the Epsilon Empire.

That wasn’t all. Nyx’s ’Church of the Night’ was directly under Atlas’s command. After all, Atlas was already as valuable as a goddess in their eyes, and that made everything easier.

The Church of the Night was the largest church in the world, and they served the most powerful being behind the creator of existence. And that person, Nyx, had only one shadow on the world at that moment:

Atlas.

This had mobilised the church’s army of millions.

The orders were clear: destroy every demon you see.

Atlas had taken Emma and every soldier capable of performing well in battle directly under his command.

The First Division of the Old Empire Army, now under Atlas’ command, consisted of 60 high-ranking mages and over 3,000 pure-blooded vampires who had chosen to serve Atlas as their lord.

Atlas now held the power to destroy an entire country.

They had begun advancing toward their first target region. More accurately, they were already within their target area. The far northwestern corner of the Epsilon Empire—the most remote and coldest region, as some called it—the port city of Shorekeeper was now under demonic occupation.

An army exceeding three thousand had directly moved out from the Shadowfall Palace region.

The screams rising from within the city could be heard from a great distance. Atlas had lunged forward and officially jumped off the cliff where Shadowfall Palace stood.

There was only one thing on his mind, and that was to kill every demon in his path.

That was precisely why he had used his aura and mana simultaneously, straining every fibre of his being to shout:

"NO DEMON SHALL SURVIVE! THIS IS A DIRECT ORDER!!!"

With Atlas’s words, every soldier under his command scattered throughout the city. Each of them had rushed forward to carry out the orders they had been given and was eager to do whatever it took.

Every second, more demons were emerging from the ten different gates that had opened outside the city.

Atlas had not expected so many gates to open. He did not even know how they had opened, but that was not something he needed to worry about now. If the mortals retreated now, there would be nothing else they could do.

Atlas had given Lynx, who had come with him, a direct order. This order was to take every person in Shorekeeper City to the secret passages and protect them there. He didn’t want to see the danger of this, that is, the people he had turned from slaves into his citizens dying.

He didn’t want to allow any of the hundreds of thousands of half-human, half-demon, elf, human, and dwarf race members to die.

Still, there were already thousands of casualties.

Of course, this was no excuse to stop.

When Atlas fell from the cliff into the city, he took steady steps forward and began fighting without hesitation, driven by the single thought in his mind.

The Holy Sword Delusion in his hand glowed with savagery, and the multicoloured flames emanating from his body and the pitch-black aura of death merged with the bright crimson blood and death aura on his sword.

To say that he resembled a demon more than demons would certainly not be a lie.

The vampires were divided into two groups based on information from Lynx. One thousand five hundred of them were directly responsible for protecting the people, while the other thousand five hundred vampires continued to slaughter demons.

The vampires’ magic, the waves of blood flying around, and much more had already begun to form a sea of carnage.

The Blood Field abilities, which rose as high as the sky, and many others, were on full display.

Low-level demons, dozens of metres tall, were falling onto buildings, and every second, another hundred demons were being slain.

Still, Atlas was aware. Everything would continue until the gates closed, so he had to act—and act quickly.

With steady yet swift steps, he began running toward the nearest gate, which was nearly sixteen kilometres away.

The gate was not too far away, but it was not exactly close either. The vastness of Shorekeeper City was causing trouble for others for the first time.

Atlas needed to act faster and reach the first gate as soon as possible.

With every second he got closer to the gate, stronger demons appeared before him, but this was not a problem for him. At this point, it would take seriously high-ranking demons to defeat Atlas, and it was clear that this was not possible at the moment. The gates were too weak for that. Either all 12 gates would break at once, allowing 12 high-ranking demons to emerge from within, or everything would continue as it was.

Atlas’s goal was clear; he had to advance towards the gate.

On the other side, in the area where the main battle had begun, strange things were happening.

"ON THE OTHER SIDE, ADVANCE!!!"

This voice was coming from Cassandra herself.

Each Sage and aura master was covered in blood, and though they were still energetic, the demon bodies around them showed how long they had been hunting demons.

While Atlas was trying to close the gates on the other side, they were facing ancient-tier demons and tens of thousands of high-tier demons on top of that.

Cordelia and Cosmo were directly facing Beelzebub himself. Cassandra and Talon were facing Asmodeus and Belphegor. The others were trying to fight the remaining ancient demons.

Eva and a few aura masters by her side had begun hunting the high-ranking demons directly. Blood was everywhere, literally. On the ground, within the barrier, a sea of blood had formed, reaching metres in height.

No one in this life would have thought that Cosmo and Cordelia would work together, but it happened anyway, and the funny and bad thing was that both Cosmo and Cordelia were struggling against Beelzebub.

Being the second most powerful demon after Lucifer, his power had increased exponentially after devouring everything he wanted in the demon realm to become stronger.

The only thing holding him back was that Beelzebub was stronger in Atlas’s previous life, meaning that Beelzebub was not currently at full potential.

Everything was in a dangerous situation because, unlike demons, Sages would tire. Perhaps their mana would not run out, but eventually they would indeed tire.

If that happened and the potential for war diminished, everything would become terrible. There would be no chance of victory, and demons would try to take over the world.

That is... Everyone thought so.

Still, there was one thing every Sage had forgotten. They had completely forgotten about the pill Atlas had obtained from an important person long ago.

[A pill you can use when everyone is in danger, when everyone you love is being dragged to their deathbed.]

Lucifer’s words were similar to this, and the Sages had forgotten them.

Whatever happened, this would be their last line of defence, and the only one who remembered it was Atlas.

So if the Sages were captured or, worse yet, killed, there would be no reason for Atlas not to use this pill.

Only time would tell what would happen, but for now, the only thing to do was to continue the attack.

Cosmo gathered a massive ball of flame in his throat and sent it towards Beelzebub, while Cordelia supported him with her magic, instantly increasing the power of the flames hundreds of times over.

They were worried that they would not be able to kill Beelzebub, so they wanted to at least weaken him.