Due to the need to guard against a possible demon army ambush and the fact that Azrael would need to travel to other nearby military towns for support, he didn't immediately unleash his full power.
Even so, his arrival had thrown the demon army in Gaza Town into complete disarray.
Of course, the primary reason was the fear inspired by Chris's ghost.
Ignoring the already chaotic demons in the distance, Azrael focused his attention on the demonized Lore Cardian beneath the city wall.
"A Diamond-level demonized Lore Cardian?"
Azrael could tell from his aura that the opponent was terrifyingly powerful. An ordinary Diamond-level being would have been no match for him, whether demon or Lore Cardian.
Clearly, compared to Li Gang's initial imperfections, the demon army's technology had been vastly improved.
Combined with recent events, Azrael instantly considered a possibility.
"Jin must have contributed as well."
"It just doesn't look like the technology he's looking for."
Long ago, Azrael had already given Jin the demonization technology he'd tampered with.
Everything that followed was just as he'd expected. Missing crucial information, Jin's development of this technology was slow.
But after Azrael left the Crimson Oath Society, Jin surely realized there were flaws with the technology he'd submitted.
After all, after so much research, and with the recent entanglement with the demon army, it wasn't surprising that a breakthrough would emerge through the combined efforts of both sides.
However, judging by Jin's previous appearance on the shores of Velkairos, still in human form, he likely wasn't interested in this technology.
Of course, it was also possible that there weren't any suitable Master-level demon wreckage available.
"Lord Azrael, do you know the identity of that demon down there?"
Petrovna noticed Azrael lost in thought.
The girl wasn't stupid, a fool wouldn't be able to become a Diamond-level Lore Cardian. She simply had low emotional intelligence.
To put it nicely, she was forthright.
Petrovna's voice brought Azrael back to reality, but he didn't respond. Instead, he looked at Jacob beside him. "Senior Brother, this is the product of a demonization experiment. You should be able to tell, right?"
Jacob shook his head slightly.
He was initially shocked by the khaki figure's strength, but as a veteran Diamond-level Lore Cardian, he quickly calmed down.
Unlike Azrael, who had encountered Li Gang before, Jacob didn't recognize the other person's identity, simply thinking he was a powerful demon.
Azrael was somewhat surprised by this, but he didn't dwell on such trivial matters. "Never mind, let's control him first."
"I think the other masters and their companions might be of some use," he said, preparing to use his cards to control them.
Just then, Petrovna, who was listening in confusion, hurriedly said, "Lord Azrael, what is this demonization experiment you're talking about?"
She was anxious, feeling like an outsider, unable to get a word in.
Upon hearing this, Azrael reassured her, "Your Highness, a copy of the relevant information will be provided to the Empire later. Don't worry."
This was understandable. As allies, the Empire of Aetherlight didn't need to be secretive about this kind of information.
However, Petrovna was not satisfied.
The Empire was the Empire, and she was herself. So, didn't she still know nothing?
It made her seem like a mascot.
Although, in Azrael's mind, the girl was a mascot.
But since Azrael had said so, the girl had no reason to press the issue. She simply said, somewhat glumly, "Then I'll trouble you, Mr. Azrael."
Azrael could certainly sense Petrovna's tantrum, but he wasn't her babysitter, so he wasn't prepared to consider her feelings on such a trivial matter.
By then, the khaki-colored figure beneath the walls of Gaza Town had also sensed the developments behind them.
But for him, the situation was now impossible to reverse.
If he advanced, he alone would be unable to defeat Gaza Town's defenses.
If he retreated, he would desperately seek out the master behind him.
Fortunately, his worries would soon cease.
"Hehehe," a faint laugh echoed from behind the khaki-colored figure, causing him to turn sharply.
But before he could see the source, a massive, pitch-black fist blazed straight at his face, its frenzied force trembling with power.
"A Diamond-grade card?!"
Seeing this, the khaki figure's pupils shrank, and he immediately prepared to summon his own cards to block.
However, the next moment, the oncoming giant fist suddenly opened its five fingers and grasped him fiercely.
The disparity in strength left the khaki figure with no chance of resistance.
With the battle now under his control, Azrael wasn't about to make the same mistake.
He feared a direct battle would damage the walls of Gaza Town, so he had Luffy capture him instead.
Whoosh,
As the demonized Lore Cardian was captured by Luffy, a pitch-black crescent-shaped slash instantly swept across the sky, splitting the thick clouds in two.
The demonized Lore Cardian watched the crescent-shaped slash brush past him and fly off into the distance, cold sweat breaking out across his body.
"What's going on?! Is this really a Diamond-grade card?!"
Without a moment's thought, he immediately summoned all his cards.
Yet, at that moment, countless dark fist shadows shattered the clouds, instantly suppressing him.
"Damn it, let's fight!"
The demonized Lore Cardian had barely uttered this thought when another crescent-shaped celestial blast silently slashed through his body.
The battle was over. Not even a few minutes had passed.
Of course, to Azrael, who had successfully severed the tail of the Nation-Destroying Fox and killed Chris, the demonized Lore Cardian outside the city was just a slightly stronger ant.
It would be strange if a three-hundred-round battle were truly necessary.
Watching the battle subside in the distance, Petrovna opened her mouth slightly. "Lord Azrael, you..."
The girl had originally assumed Tempest's comment that Azrael could be considered a Master Lore Cardian was due to the White-Bearded Liann card.
But now it seemed otherwise.
Compared to Petrovna, who was already mentally prepared, the Lore Cardians of Gaza Town present were already in a daze.
Where had they ever seen such a scene of Diamond-level people being slaughtered like pigs?
Jacob turned his head mechanically and looked at the calm junior brother beside him.
The figure in his memory who had fled in panic at the hands of the Diamond-level demon Ruth slowly overlapped with the figure who did not take Diamond-level people seriously at this moment.
Ignoring the complicated expression of his senior brother, Azrael took back all his cards. "Then Senior Brother, I'll leave the aftermath to you."
"I have to go support other places."
Hearing this, Jacob came back to his senses immediately. He took a deep breath to calm his somewhat excited mood and said solemnly, "Leave this to me."
"Be safe, Junior Brother."
Hearing his senior brother's concern, Azrael smiled faintly and immediately disappeared.
He didn't take Petrovna with him.
Seeing herself left behind, Petrovna was stunned for a moment, then stamped her foot angrily. "Hmph, Azrael must have done this on purpose."
Jacob pretended not to hear the noble girl's complaint and said calmly, "Your Highness, I'll take you back to the city to rest."
At this point, Petrovna had no other choice. She couldn't run around alone, so she could only say with a hint of emotion, "Then I'll trouble you, Jacob."
After leaving Gaza Town, Azrael rushed to Shunagakure.
With Shiraori's assistance, he didn't spend much time.
Unlike Gaza Town, the pressure on Shunagakure wasn't that great. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto alone suppressed it, even without Azrael's other cards.
Of course, the [Kaka Jūmanokushi Daisōjin] was also extremely useful against group enemies, and in this kind of battlefield environment, it could create a terrifying snowball effect.
At this moment, the demons that had attacked Gaza Town not long ago appeared before Shunagakure.
They appeared like dead spirits.
What followed was no different from what happened in Gaza Town. After Chris's ghost appeared, the demon army lost its will to fight.
After defeating the demon army, Azrael, standing in midair, nodded to the still-unresponsive Northern Defense Army on the city wall. He then vanished, leaving the group of Lore Cardians staring at each other in bewilderment.
After a long pause, the Shunagakure commander whispered, somewhat bewilderedly, "Is that sir our Empire's newly promoted Master Lore Cardian? I've never heard of him before."
He was met with dead silence. Clearly no one present could answer his question.
He took a deep breath, glanced at the charred expanse of earth in the distance, and ordered the still-dazed Lore Cardian beside him, "What are you still standing there for? Go clean up the battlefield!"
As his words fell, everyone present, as if waking from a dream, quickly responded, "Yes!"
Besides Shunagakure and Gaza Town, several smaller strongholds in the area were also under siege by the demon army.
Some had taken care of the threats on their own, while others were only saved after Azrael's arrival.
A large number of demons fled as soon as he arrived, as if they had seen some plague.
Seeing this scene, Azrael couldn't help but frown slightly. "Is the news spreading so quickly?"
He knew the demon army had its own intelligence system. After all, Ulquiorra had been labeled a "High-Risk Target" during his time in the Northern Defense Army.
Not to mention Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto.
Unfortunately, what the demon army didn't know was that Yamamoto was, strictly speaking, only one of Azrael's main forces.
"This is insane! How did this group of outsiders gain another Master-level warrior?"
"Can the commanders truly control the situation?"
Fear spread through the demon army.
At some point, hunter and prey had silently switched roles.
The demon army command center.
The commanders immediately received the unexpected news of a Master-level presence on the front lines.
"I see," the commander, shrouded in darkness, muttered to himself as realization dawned on him. "Could this be why the Empire of Aetherlight was willing to ally with Tsarist Russia?"
"But why wasn't there any news?"
A Diamond-level Lore Cardian's breakthrough to the Master level was no small feat; intelligence should have leaked long ago.
The mist-shrouded white-robed demon, his expression impassive, waved his sleeve, and a smooth mirror appeared in the air. "This is the footage from my men. Take a look!"
Upon hearing this, the commanders held their breath and began to scrutinize the mirrored image with rapt attention.
However, perhaps because the demon filming the scene was utterly terrified, the camera was shaking violently, and occasional rapid gasps could be heard, making the visual experience extremely poor.
A scream echoed from the screen as the demon, fleeing for its life, stumbled to the ground.
Then came a frantic crawl, constantly glancing back as it crawled.
It was then that the several military leaders present finally caught sight of the real target: an elderly man with a white beard and a bald head, draped in a large haori.
Upon seeing Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's face, the same thought flashed through the minds of the soldiers, "I've never seen this card before."
"And what are these wreckages?"
Looking at the charred skeletons strewn across the battlefield, they frowned.
With this little information, they had no way of judging the enemy's strength.
But soon, something startled them.
"Am I seeing this correctly? Did he drag our fallen back to the battlefield?" the darkness-shrouded military leader muttered in disbelief.
The scene in the mirror abruptly stopped, and a deathly silence fell.
After a long moment, the demon army's military leader in charge of experiments spoke up. "I do know some information about the owner of this card. Jin shared it with me."
"But..."
"He was only a Diamond-level Lore Cardian not long ago."
He tossed an electronic device onto the field, and a screen of light appeared before everyone.
The screen displayed a scene of Azrael's battle with the Nation-Destroying Fox Demon.
The demons watched the entire battle in silence, their expressions shifting.
"He's reached the Master level so quickly?"
Even the usually calm white-robed demon had a hint of surprise on his face.
After a moment, the white-armored female demon, who had been silent the entire time, suddenly said, "Let's call this card [Death Corpse]."
"Hold your men back from attacking for the next two days to prevent him from using them as rations."
"Also, inform Jin that his backup plan is ready to be used."
Since they weren't present, several demon army leaders mistook Yamamoto for the Master-level combatant reported, and even believed the elder's abilities were related to death and summoning.
They had no idea that Yamamoto wasn't a Master-level card, and his abilities had little to do with death.
Azrael was certainly not a Master-level Lore Cardian.
This was a case of killing the rat and avoiding the vase.
But even if he knew, Azrael wouldn't take it to heart.
He'd rather others think he was a Diamond-level Lore Cardian who was using overwhelming power to bully others.
After all, the last person to do this was Chris, and now the grass on his grave was three meters high.