CHAPTER 241: THE GATE IS CLOSE

A blue light so massive it dazzled the eyes shone brightly enough to illuminate even the darkness of night, and then every person within the teleportation circle was transported to the area where the battle between life and death would take place.

In the blink of an eye, millions of soldiers, thousands of commanders, dozens of kings and queens, two emperors, and an empress were all transported to the barrier.

The entrance to Hell would be made in a short time.

It was impossible to see outside from inside the barrier. No demons were coming out of the barrier. This continent, surrounded by flames and ice, seemed calmer than ever before.

Atlas was already ready. The army of millions of soldiers waiting for his command was ready. Everything was completely ready.

Atlas looked directly at Juliet beside him and gently took her hand, saying, "Everything will be okay."

Juliet had already come to her senses. The ancient woman hated herself for putting Atlas’s life in danger, but there was nothing she could do now. Absolutely nothing.

As seconds turned into minutes and minutes chased each other, the clock struck two in the morning, and the order was given. Thousands of signal flares were launched into the sky, and with the explosions of the flares, the footsteps of millions of soldiers echoed across the continent.

Atlas and Juliet had entered the barrier. As soon as they entered the barrier, Atlas realised that this area was much larger than he had imagined. This meant that a dimensional spell had been used.

Hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of soldiers began to enter behind the two.

The footsteps managed to awaken the Sages, who were lying there as if unconscious.

Beelzebub was nowhere to be seen. It made sense to say that the ancient demon had returned to the demon gate. Nevertheless, it was possible to see that the two ancient demons left behind were being tortured. The two were nailed to the ground right in front of the demonic passage. It seemed as though all the blood on the ground had been spilt because of them.

Each Sage, and of course Eva and a few aura masters, looked directly at Atlas, who was standing almost in the middle of the area. Each of them was angry, but there was more fear than anger within them—a tremendous fear.

Although the Sages had been harmed by the forced theft of Lucifer’s essence and magic, they had still been harmed. Each of them had been pushed to the brink of death, and now they were waiting to be tortured.

Atlas looked around at the demons in the area without waiting a second, and then saw that there were perhaps more demons in the area than he could count.

At that moment, Atlas’s eyes locked onto Cassandra. The sight of his beautiful Cassandra at that moment was infuriating, heartbreaking, and, to put it bluntly, tragic.

Cassandra’s clothes were almost completely torn to shreds. It would not be wrong to say that the Ancient Woman was nearly half-naked, with wounds on her body and fatigue in her eyes.

Still, Atlas could see the loving gaze in the depths of Cassandra’s eyes.

[I will always be by your side and support you.]

[I will always be by your side and support you.]

[I will always be by your side and support you.]

[I will always be by your side and support you.]

Cassandra’s words echoed repeatedly in Atlas’s mind.

Eva kept telling her little brother with her eyes to leave, but it was useless; Atlas had already drawn the Holy Sword Delusion.

At the same time, Atlas made a sign to Juliet, and the ancient woman instantly disappeared.

Beelzebub seemed to have made a mistake. He had left every Sage and aura master alive here. Though expecting anything less from a demon trying to steal Lucifer’s sin—the sin of pride—would be completely foolish.

Juliet managed to release all the Sages and aura masters within a minute, despite the pain she was in, and the entire group managed to reunite.

Atlas directly gave Cassandra a few pieces of clothing, embraced her sister tightly, and at that moment, something crossed his mind...

Everything... had been so quick and easy, hadn’t it?

As he questioned this, the enormous barrier, which perhaps contained millions of soldiers, suddenly turned from blue to red, the colour Bellatrix and Constantine had created it in, and then a sound like a heartbeat began to be heard:

’BA-DUMP!!’

’BA-DUMP!!’

"BA-DUMP!!"

"BA-DUMP!!"

Atlas was acutely aware that something big was coming.

Whatever it was, it was something big.

As Atlas thought this, sounds began to rise from within the demonic passage. Thousands of screams, mostly sounding like they belonged to women, seemed to be tearing through the air. They were truly deafening sounds.

Not only that, but the barrier that Constantine and Bellatrix had created together began to crack, and with that, an unimaginable number of demons began to emerge from both sides of the demonic gateway.

At that moment, Atlas’s Holy Sword Delusion rose to its feet, and Atlas shouted, ’ATTACK!!!’

Juliet immediately covered each Sage with her magic and tried to pull them out of the barrier, but each of them, led by Cordelia, stopped her.

There was no way they could escape from here at this moment.

Atlas charged forward without even glancing at the Sages or his sister and the aura masters. Within seconds, the area had once again turned into a battlefield.

Atlas managed to attack a different demon every second, but he still couldn’t avoid taking damage. Occasionally, he managed to inflict a few shallow, superficial cuts.

The demons in front of him weren’t as powerful as the ancient demons, but they were still incredibly strong.

Aveline was right beside Atlas, incredibly angry, using only her claws to split the demons’ bodies in two.

It was an incredibly disgusting sight, but despite being incredibly disgusting, it was also incredibly refreshing.

Seeing the demons fall one by one was truly joyful.

Atlas realised he couldn’t wait any longer, so without a moment’s hesitation, he activated the ’Dead Plains’ ability Gaia had given him.

He managed to instantly boost the strength, agility, and endurance of every person he considered part of his unit by 15%, and did the opposite to the demons, reducing their strength, agility, and endurance skills by 15%.

There were dozens of soldiers within thirty metres, and although the ability wasn’t that powerful, it still worked because as soon as he used it, the number of demons around him began to decrease steadily.

There were still thousands, even tens of thousands of demons on the battlefield, but at least on one side of the battlefield, their numbers were steadily decreasing.

They hadn’t been eliminated yet, but at least they were managing to survive on the friendly side.

Aveline, who managed to get a buff from the opened area, really looked more frightening than her father, Cosmo. Of course, Aveline would not forgive the demons who managed to capture her son Constantine and tried to harm her other son, Atlas.

Atlas, whose body was healing automatically, was trying to run towards the area where the demon gate was located.

Perhaps hundreds, perhaps thousands of runes would be needed, but in the end, Luke himself knew... This gate could be shattered and reduced to pieces.

Everything could end successfully before Beelzebub returned. It was possible.

Despite only a few minutes having passed, each of the Sages seemed to have returned to the battle. Their power was greatly diminished; it was clear that Beelzebub had inflicted immense damage on them. Fortunately, their magical rings remained intact, but they were so severely wounded that even their best efforts were only a fraction of Atlas’s power.

Even Bellatrix, who was the weakest after Juliet in her previous state, would have been a hundred thousand, perhaps two hundred thousand times stronger than Atlas.

Still, their current state was enough to make them the strongest individuals in the area, of course. Within minutes, the number of demons in the area had dropped to a third of the number that had emerged from the demon gate.

Even at the moment when the Sages had fallen to their weakest state in their lives, what they could do was both terrifying and awe-inspiring.

The movements had intensified. The commanders, advancing alongside the soldiers who were still entering the barrier and eliminating the demons one by one, were casting their spells around them.

Everyone was doing everything they could to get Atlas to the demon gate as quickly as possible.

This had been successful.

After only a twenty-minute battle, Atlas had indeed managed to reach the demon gate.

Still, the demons continued to emerge from the passageway, and Atlas could not kill them all on his own.

However, he did not even need to attempt to do so.

As he was preparing the Strike and Destruction runes, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg.

A pain he couldn’t understand the reason for...