Chapter 357: The Flame Demon Reduced to Ashes

Bypassing the allied warriors at the front, Gurgalu casually swung his club, smashing a terrified Demon's head to pieces. The five legendary practitioners quickly closed in on the Steel Golems that had thrust into the Demon horde.

"Haaah!"

Right before reaching the fray, Gurgalu leaped high into the air, plunging toward the cluster of Demons. Mid-flight, he hoisted the massive Totem Pillar and smashed it ruthlessly into the earth.

Boom!

The moment the Totem Pillar struck the ground, the soil rippled outward in all directions like ocean waves. The surrounding Demons stumbled and tumbled to the earth.

He wasn't finished. Gurgalu activated the magic within the Totem Pillar. The four-meter-tall pillar, as thick as a grown man's waist, erupted with a dense swarm of dark runes. These runes flowed across its surface like water—seemingly chaotic, yet moving to a hidden rhythm.

Legendary Shockwave!

A golden halo appeared on the Totem Pillar and expanded rapidly, sweeping in all directions like a continually growing ring.

Every Demon touched by the ring spat blood and flew backward. A Legendary Rank Level shockwave could directly rupture an enemy's internal organs, its destructive power scaling with proximity. After traveling thirty meters, its force waned significantly, injuring the Demons but no longer remaining lethal.

From above, a magnificent two-headed ogre stood beside the Totem Pillar radiating golden runes. Around the Ogre, rings of Demon corpses had collapsed, resembling petals unfurling from the center of a flower.

The surviving Demons outside these "petals" scattered as if fleeing a plague, distancing themselves from this Ogre who had descended like a demonic god.

With his immense destructive power and a stature even taller than the golems, Gurgalu successfully drew the attention of the Demon commander, the Flame Demon Hakamda. The gazes of the two Legendary-Rank beings cut through the chaotic battlefield and clashed, practically throwing sparks.

"Five Legendary-Rank enemies! Uya! Go stop the golems! The rest of you, with me! Lord Modi will love their heads!"

"Yes!"

The legendary succubus broke formation, sprinting toward the Steel Golems currently slaughtering their way through the ranks. The other four Legendary Demons followed the Flame Demon Hakamda, charging straight for Gurgalu.

"Splitting your forces? Fine by me!"

Gurgalu channeled a surge of mana into the Totem Pillar, activating its second spell. The complex runes on its surface flew off and began swirling rapidly around it.

Legendary Mass Inspire Spell: Ogre!

A peculiar magical fluctuation rippled in all directions, sinking directly into the bodies of any Ogres it touched.

Empowered by the Inspire Spell, the Ogres acted as if injected with adrenaline. Their minds sharpened, their reflexes quickened, and their physical strength surged significantly.

Unlike the shockwave, this mass Inspire Spell was a wide-area buff specifically targeting Ogres. While the individual enhancement wasn't overwhelmingly strong, applying it simultaneously to five thousand Ogres elevated their collective combat power to a whole new level. The only drawback was that the Totem Pillar could not be moved while the spell remained active.

As the pillar's owner, Gurgalu received an even greater boost. Overflowing with battle lust, he hefted the Combat Staff of Caucasus and charged at the Flame Demon. Bellowing, the Flame Demon rushed to meet him, wielding a flaming greatsword in one hand and a Blazing Whip in the other. Meanwhile, the remaining Legendary Demons and legendary powerhouses paired off against each other.

The Combat Staff of Caucasus and the Flame Demon's greatsword violently collided, sending a shower of sparks flying.

The moment they clashed, the Flame Demon's arm split open. It was horrified. How could this flesh-and-blood creature possess such immense physical strength? He was practically a miniature demonic dragon.

Likewise, the sheer heat radiating from the Flame Demon forced Gurgalu to squint.

The Flame Demon's body was forged from rock, its veins pumping with magma. The terrifying heat distorted the surrounding air into a hazy mirage. If he hadn't prepared magical defenses before the battle, Gurgalu's skin would have blistered just from being near it.

"Demon! I will be the one to end your life! Remember my name!"

"Gurgalu!!!"

Roaring his name, Gurgalu surged with power and shoved the Flame Demon back. Gur took control of the body, swinging the massive staff in a wide arc to bash the Demon, while Garu rapidly chanted a spell.

This was the true terror of a two-headed ogre. Their enemies always faced a Warrior and a Mage combined, cooperating with flawless synchronization.

A fatal sense of crisis welled up in the Flame Demon's heart. It retreated rapidly, launching a cross-shaped blast of fire at Gurgalu as it fell back.

Gurgalu instantly triggered the defensive magic embedded in his armor. An earthen Magic Shield materialized directly in the path of the fiery cross. The two collided, and the fierce glare of the explosion separated the two combatants.

Feeling the blast of hot wind, the Flame Demon secretly breathed a sigh of relief. With the explosion blocking the way, there was no way the Ogre could rush through.

But Gurgalu never intended to close the distance. Without warning, earthy magical ropes shot out from the exploding flames, darting toward the Flame Demon like a nest of thrashing vipers.

Magic: Animate Rope — Empowered Mass!

The Flame Demon was scared out of its wits. A single animated rope was nothing—any Mid-Tier Mage could cast that. But ten such ropes simultaneously was beyond the reach of an ordinary spellcaster. The two-headed ogre's casting tier was definitely at the Master Tier or higher, perhaps even a Legendary Mage.

Countless thoughts flashed through the Flame Demon's mind in an instant. Pushing its internal energy to the limit, fierce flames erupted across its skin, transforming it into a gigantic, blazing fireball.

Gurgalu raised a foot and stomped ruthlessly on the ground, channeling a massive surge of energy deep into the earth.

Combat Art: War Stomp!

War Stomp was one of the few crowd-control arts available to Warrior classes, capable of stunning enemies within a specific radius. When executed by a Legendary Rank Warrior, its power was absolutely staggering.

Unable to react in time, the Flame Demon grew dizzy. The flow of its internal energy was severed, and the flames coating its body snuffed out. The magical ropes swiftly bound it, wrapping it up like a tight parcel before violently dragging it backward.

Hauled by the Ogre's immense strength, the stunned Flame Demon flew straight toward Gurgalu.

Though dizzy, the Flame Demon retained its consciousness. Sensing its body hurtling toward the enemy, terror gripped its mind, and it struggled frantically to dispel the stunning energy.

Finally, it regained control of its body. The internal fires erupted once more. Fiery light, dense with energy, burst through the gaps in the ropes, incinerating the binds back into raw mana in the blink of an eye.

But it was too late. The Flame Demon saw the shadow of a staff crashing down on its head, and a second later, all went dark.

Its body was reduced to dust by Greater Disjunction, turning into ash that scattered on the wind.

"Hmph! What a waste!"

Gurgalu muttered with a hint of dissatisfaction. Greater Disjunction had a seven-day cooldown; using it on a single Legendary Flame Demon truly felt like a waste.

However, just like its ultimate evolutionary form—the Bano Flame Demon—this creature would self-destruct upon death. While the blast wouldn't be nearly as exaggerated as a Bano Flame Demon's, it was still enough to injure him.

Obviously, Gurgalu had no desire to be injured. And in the end, he wasn't.

All of this unfolded within a mere three seconds. While the battles between the other legendary powerhouses were just beginning, Gurgalu's fight was already over.

The back-and-forth clashes across the field paused as if someone had hit a button. The entire battlefield fell silent.

"Hakamda was killed instantly?!"

The Legendary Demons currently engaged with their opponents found it utterly unbelievable, yet they were forced to accept the truth. Sheer panic gripped them. The only reason Hakamda had been appointed supreme commander of this outpost was because its strength stood a tier above the rest.

If the Ogre could instantly slay the Flame Demon, then the weaker Legendary Demons would be even more fragile before him.

In truth, while Gurgalu was exceedingly strong, he wasn't genuinely at the level where he could casually one-shot a Legendary Demon. A large part of this overwhelming result came down to the downright absurd enchantments on the Combat Staff of Caucasus.

But beyond the staff's ridiculous enchantments, Gurgalu's raw strength still far eclipsed the Flame Demon's.

As a Level 17 Ogre, simultaneously holding the classes of Level 21 Legendary Rank Warrior and Level 21 Legendary Mage, Gurgalu was a monster far beyond what any ordinary Legendary Demon could handle. By the time the Flame Demon realized this, it was already too late.

Seeing the Flame Demon destroyed in seconds, the succubus attacking the Steel Golems—Uya—reacted the fastest, silently vanishing into the Demon horde.

When the Legendary Demons calling for backup noticed her disappearance, panic overtook them, and they cursed vehemently as they tried to shake off their opponents.

No one who reached the Legendary stage was a fool.

The legendary powerhouses on the White Castle side knew victory was at hand. They poured everything into every strike, doing all they could to pin down their foes until Gurgalu could back them up.

Ultimately, the remaining four Legendary Demons were forced into a desperate, trading life for life style of combat. This successfully deterred the White Castle powerhouses just long enough for them to use their various means of escape.

Only one unlucky Legendary Demon was targeted by Gurgalu. Ganged up on by several legendary powerhouses, it held out for half a minute before falling in deep resentment.

With the Legendary Demons either dead or fleeing, the Demon Army lost its backbone. The battle instantly shifted from a clash between two armies into a one-sided slaughter.

Standing on the battlefield, Demon corpses were piled atop one another, and their blood pooled into small puddles on the ground. Gurgalu scanned the area, extremely satisfied to see very few bodies belonging to White Castle soldiers.

"Sman Wolfheart! Take your men and search the Demon camp. If you don't find anything, burn it to the ground!"

"Yes!"

"Lomana Ironfeather! Take your kin and secure the perimeter. I don't want to hear about any more casualties."

"Everyone else, sweep the battlefield! Treat the wounded! Tally the casualties!"

Gurgalu barked out order after order, and the messengers relayed the legion commander's directives to every corner of the army.

The gnolls and hyenas scoured the battlefield, occasionally delivering a final strike to any Demon still clinging to life. They then piled the Demon corpses together, waiting for the Mage Corps to collect them with Dimensional Bags.

The harpies took to the skies in groups of three, circling the battlefield in patrols and scouting the surroundings to ensure the sweeping army wouldn't be ambushed.

Sman Wolfheart led a detachment of gnoll light cavalry toward the nearby encampment to search the abandoned Demon grounds.

A group of mages gathered around the downed golems, conducting post-battle inspections. Since the golems had charged at the absolute vanguard and drawn most of the enemy fire, many were now missing arms and legs. The mages sorted them out, packing away the intact units for continued use, while the damaged ones would be repaired once they returned to the fortress.

Meanwhile, the Ogre legion huddled together to rest. No one had any complaints about this; after all, they had anchored the most dangerous positions and exhausted an enormous amount of stamina.

Each unit handled its respective duties, and the battlefield cleanup proceeded in an orderly fashion.

It didn't take long for the post-battle tallies to be finalized.

The White Castle Army had annihilated a total of 41,244 Demons of various types. This included two Legendary Demons (one of which left no corpse), 84 Master-Tier Demons, and 3,060 High-Tier Demons. The rest were Mid-Tier Demons.

Their own casualties amounted to 1,752 soldiers. Of these fewer than two thousand casualties, the vast majority were only injuries; slightly over a hundred were actual fatalities.

When he heard the Ogres had suffered over eight hundred casualties, Gurgalu frowned, but his expression quickly smoothed out.

The Demon Army was utterly fearless in the face of death and had roamed the multiverse for years rarely meeting a match. To achieve a result like this was already remarkable. If not for the superb quality of the armor forged by the gray dwarves, the terrifying Ogre army's casualties would have doubled.

Taking heavier losses than the Ogres was the golem legion. Out of thirty Steel Golems, five were completely scrapped, and seventeen suffered damage requiring repairs. A third of the one hundred Rock Golems had fallen, and nearly three hundred of the five hundred Clay Golems were destroyed.

Shortly after the battle results were tabulated, Sman Wolfheart returned with the troops who had searched the Demon camp.

Riding a swift hyena, Sman Wolfheart reined his mount in front of Gurgalu and dismounted.

"Legion Commander, there were no major discoveries in the Demon camp. We only found the bones of some adventurers and a few weapons."

"Alright. Return to your unit."

Gurgalu scanned his surroundings. While they had been cleaning the battlefield, the wounded and the spoils of war had all been handled, and the three suns on the horizon were beginning to slant westward.

After such an intense clash, the golem legion had suffered heavy damage, and the army itself was fatigued. Continuing to fight now would result in massive casualties and would be highly unwise.

"Horn blower! Sound the ox-horn trumpet. We return to the fortress."

Beside Gurgalu, a massive Ogre unhooked an ox-horn trumpet from his waist and pressed it to his lips. Puffing out his cheeks, he blew, sending a desolate, resonant blast echoing far into the distance.

Hearing the resonant call, the soldiers on the battlefield visibly relaxed. It was the signal to return to base. The patrolling harpies also began flying back.

Once their formations were in order, Gurgalu gave the command, and the army began its march toward Blackrock Fortress.

Seen from the sky, the vast army stretched out like a long snake, marching with clear purpose in a single direction. Behind them, the burning Demon camp sent columns of fire and thick black smoke billowing into the sky.

The plant life in the Abyss wasn't highly flammable, so Gurgalu wasn't worried about starting a wildfire. In fact, if the blaze did spread and burn some of the wild Demons in the wasteland to death, he would be quite pleased.

The invisible Gold Dragon glanced at the burning camp, then turned and flew toward the three suns sinking in the west.