Chapter 596: The Whisper’s of a Domain

Countless cannons popped in the distance.

The air filled with a roar as Asmodeus’s magic spread like a bomb. Thick crimson mist clung together, twisting its cracks and knitting them shut with pulsing veins of blood forming a dense barrier dome.

Da-Dang!

Da-Dang Dang!

Gasps broke out along the wall.

Red walls quivered with blood as they absorbed the force of the enemy’s cannons.

Even the most seasoned demon knights froze for a moment at the unnatural yet beautiful sight. The chokingly sweet smell flooded the port. But the moment they realised the barrier remained standing after taking a volley… the fear in their eyes faded and became something sharper.

Rage.

Courage.

On the water, the enemy’s front line slowed, their helmsman pulling back instinctively as the unnatural crimson glow rolled over the waves. Orders shouted from their decks cracked through the air, voices rising above the sea wind.

“Hold!”

“Ignore their foul tricks!”

“Keep the lines, lower the sails!”

Nerves tingled at the mass of red glowing with an eerie light, but their leaders tried to hold things together.

But Asmodeus saw.

His gleaming blue eyes saw everything.

“Renya!” His voice, like a blade, spread through the port, causing many knights to shake. “Keep the southern wall focused on attacking their small ships. I don’t want a single boarding craft reaching the port!”

“Yes, my lord!”

“Archer’s light your arrows — staggered fire! Don’t waste arrows on their hulls, aim for the masts and sails!”

The demon knights skilled with bows remained in the capital, so instead, Renya and Velvet gathered adventurers and those who could hit targets from a certain distance away.

Some held crossbows, others longbows.

But all of them watched the red-tinged horizon with a fierce glare.

Their bows lifted.

Drawn

“FIRE!”

Hundreds of flaming arrows flew through the air in a beautiful volley. Upon reaching the barrier walls, people swallowed deep breaths; however, the arrows passed through as if the dome didn’t exist in the first place.

“Ballista crews — keep aiming for their rudders!” He turned, eyes locking on the catapult operators. “Catapults — target their war barges. If you can’t sink them, smash the gun decks to splinters!”

Even while shouting orders, guiding his men, Asmodeus kept his palm lifted, feeding blood into the barrier. Each cannonball or spell flung caused the surface to crack. His blood seeps into that gap and repairs it instantly.

Behind his eyes, Serena’s voice lingered — Promise me you’ll come back safe.

I will, he thought, grinding his teeth.

“Darling, stop please!”

A voice brought Asmodeus back to reality.

With each new layer, his blood added to the barrier, and Asmodeus looked sicker and paler. Only a few droplets of blood reinforced the barrier, but after a while those droplets became cupfuls… and now he lacked blood.

The enemy flagship shifted position in the distance, its massive silhouette cutting across the horizon. For a moment, the pale morning light caught on its hull, revealing the blacksteel plating and the gaping rows of gunports.

A horn sounded from the water.

The Duke’s ships began to close again.

The first new salvo hit seconds later, the barrier shuddering like a struck drum. But this time, the red veins flared brighter, dulling the impacts into muffled thuds instead of bone-rattling crashes.

A cheer went up from the western wall.

Asmodeus didn’t smile. “Save it. The fight’s not won yet.”

He flexed his wings and spread his legs, tensing his muscles. Braced for the stress the barrier placed on him. His eyes narrowed as he watched the demon knights braced with shields, archers knocking arrows, and the siege crews preparing ropes and loading ammunition.

In the sky above, black specks broke away from the wall.

Velvet’s squad, climbing high to dive on the enemy from above, their bodies wearing light armour, a simple bodysuit and nothing else.

The blood barriers glow reflected in every weapon, every eye.

The sea was red, and so was the sky.

“Good…” Asmodeus muttered, feeling the beat of the enemy’s approach in the vibrations under his boots. “Let them come.”

***

The first true clash came one hour into the battle.

Velvet’s squad dropped like thunderbolts from the cloud cover, their wings slicing the air. Black-armored knights tore through the top decks of a gunship, ripping out its gunners before they could reload. Arrows from the wall cut down sailors racing to man the cannons. One of the smaller enemy vessels listed hard to port, smoke boiling from its midsection as a ballista bolt tore through its magazine.

BOOM!

“Pull back, recover and heal your wounds!” Velvet held a simple spear in her hand, calling to the demon knights who flew back to the port. “Two deaths… seven wounded. This isn’t good.”

Despite this, cheers broke out across the western wall.

Two boats sank.

A moment to celebrate.

That is, until the sea began to darken as if someone had poured a hundred thousand gallons of ink, which started to spread and reduce the red hue.

This darkness… wasn’t clouds, smoke and something thicker… like oil.

Asmodeus’s eyes narrowed as the sky crackled with lightning.

As the two powers came together, the sea stirred with high waves, which clashed against the stone walls.

“He’s here…”

The temperature dropped sharply. The horizon seemed to pulse like a heartbeat before breaking into a ripple of darkness rolling out from the enemy flagship. And then the air screamed as if in pain.

From that ripple, vast shapes formed slowly, ten of them. Each one a spear longer than the tallest watchtower, forged from solid night. Their edges glimmered faintly with gold, not from the sun, but from the divine sigils carved into them.

The Grand Duke’s divine power.

Ten gigantic black spears hovered in the air.

“RAISE YOUR DAMN SHIELDS!” Asmodeus roared like a beast, flying through the nearest gap in the line and stepping in front of the people on the wall, both palms pushed towards the barrier.

“…”

This fucker…

The first spear hit the blood barrier like a hammer on glass and exploded in a flash of black and red. The impact didn’t just crack the magic but tore it open, sending shards of crimson light tumbling into the sea. The sound was deafening, a bass howl that rattled teeth and made the sky itself shiver.

Two more spears followed in the same heartbeat.

Bang!

Bang!

Their explosion shook the barrier, giant shards of blood falling into the ocean, creating small waves that washed over the enemy fleet. Asmodeus coughed blood, as he struggled to knit the broken veins together… the living barrier was struggling. His blood boiled, his body screamed through his nerves, demanding more power and sacrifice.

And he gave it.

A raw, broken shout left his throat as he clenched both hands, blood oozing from the gaps, filling more divine aura into the cracks.

However… the fourth spear came straight for him.

Through the broken barrier.

FWOOSH!

Asmodeus shifted at the last instant, catching the black shaft with both hands.

“W-What!?”

The force hurled him back, almost smashing into the second wall, his boots grinding into the stone floor. His fingers sank into the divine spear, groaning in agony as the shadows devoured his flesh, burning like acid.

Too strong…

With muscles tense and his teeth clenched, he desperately gripped the spear and spun before sending it howling back towards the Grand Duke.

Before he could celebrate, the next spear shot past his shoulder and detonated in the city behind him. BOOM! The explosion spread into the sky with a massive cloud of dust… ripping the buildings in its wake apart.

The smell of smoke filled his nose.

The blood barrier dimmed.

“Renya… the barrier is going to fall! Protect yourselves!”

Asmodeus leaned against the wall, and with his hand, clenched tight, which shattered the dome into thousands of blood shields. He focused his eyes and senses on the black spears… layering them with blood shards into the correct shape to defend from them.

“Fall back to the second wall!” Renya’s voice cracked across the battlements. “Keep firing, but don’t let them through the breach!”

More spears rained down, each one would have easily punctured the crimson dome; however, these new shields exploded with black and red light. Shaking the very earth and seafront as waves reached four feet tall.

After a battle of attrition, the sound came.

A sharp crack like ice when it meets extreme heat.

The last barrier shattered.

“Ugh…”

Asmodeus fell to his knee, eyes watching the distant fleet… but to his amusement, the Grand Duke who flung twenty or more spears at him also collapsed, held up by his troops.

“Victory…”

He managed to exhaust a large portion of the Grand Duke’s Divine aura.

Not to mention…

After being forced to fight for so long, maintaining the barrier became second nature. Asmodeus felt confident that the next time, he might just be able to control it with a gesture instead of constantly feeding his blood.

Beyond the breach, the fleet surged forward, their gunports opening wide. The war barges were close enough now that Asmodeus could see the gold-trimmed armour of their elite guard.

The Grand Duke grasped a sword and glared at Asmodeus.

In response, he flicked his wings to remove the dirt, dust and sweat with a smirk.

“So be it.”

The real fight had just begun.

“Let’s fight!”