CHAPTER 113: VENGEANCE AND THE SHATTERED GATE

The furious charge of the royal guards mercilessly crushed the battered butchers in their path.

The clerics' Holy Barriers, initially a strong defensive measure, now steamrolled all enemies underfoot with the momentum of the entire formation behind them. What few high-ranking demons remained, like the butchers, were utterly destroyed.

The royal guards charged forward without hesitation, advancing along the path cleared by the Celionor Meteor earlier. Nothing was able to stand against the coordinated assault of the entire formation.

Their relentless advance soon brought them to the scorched grounds surrounding the Hellgate. Around the Hellgate lay a domain corrupted by its unique field—a hellish wasteland ablaze with roaring flames, where molten lava surged faintly beneath the scorched earth.

In this fiery region teeming with intense activity, the Hellgate's guardians emerged. Rather than launch attacks, these hellfire elementals focused on protecting the gate.

The humanoid elementals were composed of both fire and rock and were even capable of flight. They possessed far more explosive energy than regular fire elementals while retaining the durability and resilience of earth elementals.

As soon as the royal guards stepped into the scorched zone, the wandering hellfire elementals swiftly converged on them.

The colossal hellfire elementals raised their fiery, rock-infused arms toward the guards and launched parts of their burning, rocky limbs as projectiles.

"Expand the shield!" the lieutenant ordered immediately. The shield surrounding the formation, conjured by the magicians, rapidly grew in size as it absorbed more magic and intercepted the flaming projectiles hurtling toward them.

The hellfire elementals' attacks struck the shield with intense explosions, causing it to tremble violently and almost crumble.

"Abandon this shield and deploy a new one!" the lieutenant calmly ordered the magicians.

Hellfire elementals were exceedingly powerful demons from hell, capable of unleashing terrifyingly destructive elemental attacks by sacrificing parts of their own bodies.

Although this fighting style was limited by their endurance and left them relatively fragile, their sheer destructiveness was undeniable.

Engaging these hellfire elementals in prolonged combat was an unwise choice. The lieutenant's strategy was straightforward: ignore the obstructing elementals and directly annihilate the source of it all—the Hellgate itself.

The magicians reacted swiftly, discarding the shattering barrier and immediately erecting a new one that enveloped the entire formation.

The abandoned shield swiftly disintegrated under the hellfire elementals' relentless bombardment, but it managed to neutralize a wave of incoming attacks by triggering chain reactions among the projectiles, detonating them harmlessly in the air before they could reach the force.

By the time the next wave of projectiles arrived, the magicians had already constructed a new shield with which to intercept the barrage.

This tactic was similar to the reactive armor used in tanks, which absorbed and nullified attacks by sacrificing their outer layers.

However, unlike tanks, the magicians could regenerate their "armor" repeatedly.

They cast new shields time and time again, holding off the barrage of attacks from the hellfire elementals from all directions.

Constantly channeling magic and reconstructing these shields in their mindscapes drained the mages rapidly.

Many had nosebleeds; all were pale and getting paler, a clear sign of their exhaustion.

Yet their relentless efforts maintained the integrity of the shield, ensuring that the entire formation could push forward through the swarm of hellfire elementals without being pinned down by their overwhelming barrage.

The clerics' Holy Barriers crushed and scattered any hellfire elementals blocking their path.

Despite the fact that their bodies detonated upon their destruction, the clerics' sturdy barriers were able to withstand those explosions and absorb the impact entirely.

Compared to the magicians who had to fend off attacks from every direction, the clerics could focus merely on the forefront. Their stronger, directed defenses held firm, enabling them to pulverize the hellfire elementals before them and allow the formation to advance forward relentlessly.

Finally, the Hellgate was within reach. A bright yellow barrier enveloped the fiery spatial rift hovering in mid-air.

The entire formation halted, no longer pressing forward. At the same time, the hellfire elementals launched their fiercest assault yet. Elemental explosions converged on the force from all directions.

Now that the clerics no longer needed to maintain a Holy Barrier at the front of the formation, they joined the magicians in defending against the relentless bombardment. Even so, the sheer volume of attacks made it increasingly difficult to maintain their defenses.

The shields wavered, but neither the clerics nor the magicians showed any sign of giving up. Their expressions were calm and determined as they focused on protecting the formation.

"Get ready!" the knight commander roared in fury. He raised his enormous sword.

The knights all roared in unison, channeling their fighting spirit to the peak. The flow of energy that linked all the knights together intensified.

All the gathered fighting spirit converged on the knight commander, who stood at the core of the formation. The immense energy materialized into a towering armored giant resembling the commander, with a massive sword in hand.

The colossal sword began to hum and tremble with raw energy.

"Take this!" With a thunderous cry, the knight commander swung his blade in a mighty circular slash. A colossal blade of energy radiated outward, obliterating all nearby hellfire elementals in a devastating arc.

The knight commander's primary target was the yellow barrier surrounding the Hellgate.

Upon impact, a violent clash erupted as the fighting spirit—a force immune to the Hellgate's field—tore through the protective barrier.

Though incredibly sturdy and capable of withstanding even spells of war like the Libius Arcane Cannon, the Hellgate's barrier finally shattered under the concentrated might of the knights' combined fighting spirit. It split in two before dissolving entirely, revealing the unprotected Hellgate.

The royal guards had no means of sealing a spatial rift. Their strength lay in destruction and direct combat, not the intricate tasks required to handle such phenomena.

The fiery, rippling rift hovered vulnerably before them, yet they lacked the means to close it. Meanwhile, the hellfire elementals continued their relentless assault. The shield protecting the formation began to crumble.

But the guards were never meant to fight alone. Their allies had arrived—the Nightblades' vanguard, which had broken through the demonic siege around the city.

This elite unit, composed of experts in handling spatial rifts and interdimensional invasions, quickly moved into position to deal with the now-exposed Hellgate.

"Prepare to destroy the spatial anchors!"

"Understood!"

When the Hellgate above the city walls shattered and dissipated, the entire capital heaved a collective sigh of relief. Cheers of victory and survival erupted, spreading across the city like wildfire.

Though much of the city lay in ruins, its inhabitants were captivated by the sight of the collapsing Hellgate, oblivious to the quiet turmoil in a secluded alley.

Hela emerged from an underground passage used by the capital's "rats," clutching her head. Her beautiful face twisted in pain as though a part of her mind had been ripped away.

Her condition was dire. Something was struggling for control of her body. She fought desperately to resist it, leaving her unable to muster even half of her usual strength.

"Master... I must help Master. He's gravely injured... I have to return to the manor," Hela murmured, her mind clouded but driven by an unshakable determination to aid her master, Colin.

She couldn't explain her fixation. Perhaps it was loyalty. She just knew that she couldn't lose to the fellow trying to seize control of her body.

She rushed through the alleyway, knowing that she had to avoid any attention while heading toward her destination as quickly as she could. Though her mind was a mess, her body was strong enough to retain physical function.

Stumbling through the alley, Hela moved urgently, aware that she might fall unconscious at any moment. She had to reach her destination quickly.

Just as she approached a familiar hidden passage, her instincts flared in warning. She made an abortive leap backwards.

The pain and dizziness in Hela's mind severely hampered her reaction speed. Even though she sensed the danger and responded swiftly, she still couldn't completely avoid the sudden attack.

The ground cracked open. From beneath the street tiles, a massive hand formed of soil and rocks emerged, gripping Hela's foot tightly.

"Who's there?!" Before Hela could react, a figure with red-hot skin flaring with heat leaped down from the rooftop of a nearby alleyway and threw a punch directly at her head.

Hela raised her hand to block the blow, but her hurried defense was no match for her attacker's well-prepared strike. Her wrist cracked as it dislocated, and she was sent tumbling backward.

Despite being ensnared by the trap and struck by a sudden ambush, Hela hadn't given up. Her exceptional agility allowed her to quickly stabilize herself mid-fall, but her assailant wasn't about to give her any breathing room.

Before she could fully regain her footing, a powerful knee strike slammed into her abdomen. The sheer force of the blow sent her flying, shattering the rocky hand that had been gripping her ankle.

She spun through the air several times before crashing into the wall on the other side of the alley. The searing pain in her abdomen momentarily cleared her mind—she had several broken ribs, and significant damage to her internal organs.

"You!" Hela quickly raised her head. When she saw the figure charging at her again with a cold, murderous expression, she couldn't help but cry out in shock. Her attacker was none other than Wang Yu, the new member of the special ops team she had previously ambushed.

Never in her wildest dreams had she expected it to be Wang Yu. As she saw him coming at her with another full-force punch aimed at her head, she desperately dodged. His fist grazed past her ear, smashing into the wall and breaking several bricks.

Hela couldn't believe how strong Wang Yu had gotten. The latter had activated Bloodburn Drive at full power, and his newfound strength was far beyond that he had displayed before.

But her shock wouldn't save her life. What she thought about Wang Yu didn't matter. What mattered, at least to him, was securing her death.

The blood that Wang Yu had secretly planted within Hela, which served as both a tracker and a mark of vengeance, had rendered escape impossible for her. As long as she was within range, there was no way she could evade his relentless pursuit.

Avia, who was cooperating with Wang Yu, wasn't about to give Hela any chances to dodge.

The brick wall behind Hela suddenly came to life. A few bricks shot forward, striking the back of her head before she could react. Hela stumbled, dizzy from the blow and unable to recover in time.

That brief moment of dizziness sealed her fate. Wang Yu, who had just withdrawn his fist from the brick wall, wasted no time delivering a powerful right hook to Hela's face. The sound of cracking bones filled the air as blood and teeth flew everywhere. Hela was sent rolling to the ground.

Wang Yu had no habit of leaving enemies alive. He quickly advanced, aiming to finish off the now-unconscious Hela with a killing blow.

But just as he moved in for the kill, space rippled. Hela disappeared before his eyes and reappeared in the middle of the street.

Despite what should have been a severe concussion, Hela suddenly stood up. She stared at Wang Yu, who continued to charge at her with murderous intent, neither pausing nor showing obvious signs of surprise at her teleportation.

"Damn servant! Your ridiculous loyalty—you're trying to save me, yet you fight me for control of the body. Now look at the mess we're in!" Colin's voice was filled with frustration. Hela had been his contingency plan, but she had fiercely resisted his attempts to take control of her body.

Hela was determined to help Mr. Colin recover and refused to let his consciousness take over hers, completely unaware that the very consciousness she was rejecting was precisely that of her master.

Colin had originally planned to find another opportunity to seize control of her mind, only to be interrupted by Wang Yu and Avia's sudden ambush. Their relentless traps and attacks had been about to kill Hela, who was hardly weak by any measure.

Forced into action, Colin took over Hela's body while she was unconscious, using what little strength remained to evade Wang Yu's pursuit. Group Suggestion was his last resort.

"Stop! You wouldn't want to kill a noblewoman's servant in the middle of the street, would you?" Colin called out to Wang Yu in Hela's voice.

Bloodied and battered, she was the perfect picture of a victim of assault. Colin had drained what remained of his mental energy to influence the minds of the street's residents with wizardry.

Wang Yu heard "Hela's" words and glanced around. The residents around him were all staring at him strangely, as if he really were a vile man trying to kill the innocent servant of a noblewoman.

Their unmasked disdain, fear, and anger were palpable. There was no doubt that if he killed Hela now, they would rise against him.

Colin felt a surge of relief. His spell had worked! The Nightblade surely would hesitate to kill her now. After all, killing the innocent came with severe repercussions, especially when it came to the kingdom's laws.

However, Wang Yu's fist didn't falter in the slightest. With a dull thud, he shattered Hela's skull in a single punch. Her wide, shocked eyes stared blankly as blood sprayed everywhere. Without pause, he broke her neck cleanly with a kick enhanced with fighting spirit.

After confirming that Hela was dead with a quick scan using his ripples, Wang Yu turned and bolted toward the alleyway, ignoring the furious shouting and calls for justice from the crowd behind him.

Back on Earth, public opinion might have mattered, but here in Aleisterre, he was a member of the Nightblades. His word was law. It was ridiculous to think that Captain Hugin, the Professor, or Fang would punish him over this.

And even if this incident were to affect him, Wang Yu would have killed Hela without hesitation. Her threats against him and Avia had sealed her fate. All he needed was an opportunity to strike...

As for why he was fleeing, it was simply to avoid unnecessary trouble. Wang Yu dashed away, carrying the smiling girl waiting for him in the alley on his back. Someone else could deal with the clueless residents—a quick explanation to his captain and the Professor would suffice.

What Wang Yu didn't notice was Hela's dying body. Colin hadn't been shocked by his decisiveness, but by something else entirely. With her dying breath, Hela looked toward Wang Yu and Avia as she struggled to speak. Her lips had silently formed the word "key."