The Illicitous Dungeon

As morning arrived, all the women in the city who could see mana saw the enormous phenomenon over the horizon.

I giant pillar of blood colored mana burst into the clouds. This pillar pierced through the black storm clouds and caused them to rapidly dispel, giving way to the first rays of the morning sun.

Styx watched this from the Lagoon Porter City walls with a stern expression. The demons were close, and this giant mana pillar was a threatening reminder that their capabilities weren't just horde tactics of mindless lesser demons.

Even in the far distant Whitecliff City, Rebecca Euklid looked out the window and towards where the demon army was with her eyes aglow.

Several thousand adventurers and mercenaries signed up for the emergency quest posted in the guilds. People from all sides of life were equipped in armor and robes, with swords and staves, ready to defend the city.

The demons would not let these people off regardless, so they figured they may as well at least bet their lives on a small fortune. If they died and the defence succeeded, that money would at least go to their wives or children. A standard family could live for a couple of years off two gold if they budgeted it, and that amount would only go up with the more demons they killed.

They all held special mana devices which were paired to their mana and would record the number and strength of demons they killed based on their earned experience. This would later be used to verify their war merits, whether they were alive or dead at the time.

~~~~~

⠀

The storm had cleared and left a bright blue spring sky throughout the day, but a thick dread still hung over Lagoon Porter City. A dense cloud of dirt and faint roars were ever getting closer to the city.

All the defensive manaburst cannons were armed and pointed towards the incoming army. With several giant mana shafts below the city, even though their mana generation wasn't at full capacity, they provided the cannons with a thick flow of mana.

Styx would be able to fire these cannons far faster than the previous Duke Ashburn could.

As dusk begun to settle in, the demon army and Styx finally came into conflict. No words were exchanged between the two sides, nor did Styx show any hesitation or mercy.

The demons screeched an screamed, the larger demonic creatures roaring and stomping their feet. Between the land demons and those in the air, they formed what looked like a giant curtain that threatened to swarm over the city like a tsunami.

The fully charged manaburst cannons roared and shot giant blasts of condensed mana charges. The city walls glowed blue momentarily as rampaging mana exploded through the demon camp. Hundreds of demons were killed with each explosion, but even this seemed to be but several grains of sand on a beach

"Defensive formation! Ultra-range archers and mages, target the enemy formations at will. Focus on the giant demonic beasts first!" Styx's expression hardened as he shouted out across the city wall, an magic device in his hand to further amplify his voice.

The commanders of the battlefield led the adventurer's and dungeon residents to stamp their feet and shout in sync to boost their morale. Styx's monsters, which formed a tsunami in their own right, also roared at the enemy army.

The demons were still several kilometers away, and they had to cross that distance before they could truly lay siege to the city. The entire time they had to deal with Styx's counterattacks too.

The demons roared back in defiance and increased their speed to a sprint. Any fallen demon, or even those that were simply too slow and weak, were trampled into shattered bones and meat without mercy.

The two dozen Fourth Step demon commanders each controlled a division of demons, that was then divided into even further subdivisions. The cannon fodder served to attract attention of the resistance as they charged, using their bodies to protect the stronger, more intelligent main demonic force.

The two forced were like impenetrable walls that were coming closer and closer to one another, the empty space in between filled with bolts of lightning and fire, arrows and ballista bolts, spears and blood curses, meteors and explosive bursts of mana.

Along the city wall, defenders and tanks lined up with shields to protect the rangers and mages behind them. Spectral castle walls and golden floating shields hovered in front of the defenders, protecting them for thrown tridents, blood magic, and poison arrows.

It was pure chaos as each side tried to break the other.

Once the distance became short enough, the air forces finally clashed too. Styx's flying monsters flew into the imps and other demonic monstrosities. Many riders putting their lives on the line to support these monsters in taking air supremacy.

Styx furrowed his brows and controlled the manaburst cannons to stop at this point, their barrels starting to deform whilst their internal structure threatened to have a catastrophic malfunction.

This gave the demons the leeway they needed to cross the final distance.

Styx still held more tricks up his sleeve as he wanted to kill as many demons as possible before the melee confrontation. By his side where several Monster Lord and their envoys.

Aura had lost the competition with Everest and was forced to remain in the dungeon and protect Styx's core in case a portion of the demon army attacked the dungeon. The dungeon was Styx's heart and must be protected at all costs.

Therefore, it was Everest beside him whilst Dragon and Peacock were also present. Loreley and Ygralea were also on the wall around him, but they were mostly unbothered by the war and didn't actively participate in it.

"Are Heaven and The Void not going to help?" Styx asked the two envoys without any sort of expectation.

"This is your war, not ours," Loreley and Ygralea shook their heads in unison and answered much to Styx's expectation.

Heaven were a deterrent, but unless he was to provide an equivalent worth to them, they would not interfere in his battles directly. If he was to die, that was merely all he amounted to in the eyes of the two megalithic forces.

"Allow me," Dragon sarcastically drawled as he transformed into his true form, a gigantic white dragon with silverish white pupils.

The sudden appearance of the dragon that dwarfed the city wall brought a momentary lull to the battefield as everyone reeled in shock.

On the demon's side, when the Fourth Step commanders saw the Monster Lord, their chest immediately clenched in panic. The pressure of not just a Fifth Step existence, but on at <Lv. 96> too, exuded and enormous amount of terror upon everyone.

One of the commanders, a violet haired female in mage robes and with a giant gnarled staff in hand sent innumerable demonic runes between the two armies to form a shield. The hellfire on her curled horns lit up even brighter as she channelled her mana through her body

"Hide or evade," the demoness hissed across her allies. "That is a Monster Lord. This enemy has Fifth Step existences in its army!!"

The succubus commander dived into the ground like it was made of water alongside a large portion of her battalion. They weren't physically strong so they would never be able to defend against the attack of a peak mortal life form that is close to godhood.

War was just a game of numbers and tactics, but this trend broke down once Fifth Step existences were involved.

Dragon's enormous head reeled over the city wall and inhaled a giant breath of air before breathing out a tsunami of pure white flames that turned the dusk battlefield brighter than the midday sun.

Everyone was forced to shield their eyes or have their retinas burned out before the flames. The demons responded much like a stirred up bees nest, desperate to get into the city before Dragon attacked again.

Everest wasn't cannon fodder either and gazed down at them with a gaze colder than arctic ice. Countless invisible but razor sharp thread covered the wall and city gates. They were all connected to her fingers, which she could control with the smallest movements.

Whilst Peacock, Loreley and Ygralea weren't partaking in the battle, they would still kill any demon that landed on the castle wall and attacked them.