Augustus, City Lord's Manor.
A banquet, much like a regular council meeting, was currently underway—one of the most common forms of social gathering among the upper echelons of Augustus.
But the one held within the City Lord's Manor tonight was of particularly high status.
Not only was the City Lord himself present, but even the local heads of the Magic Council and the Adventurers' Guild had shown up.
Officials of various ranks and numerous high-ranking Mages filled the grand hall—it was a gathering of true powerhouses.
In the midst of pleasant conversation, just as the City Lord raised his cup for a sip, a sudden change in the skies caught his attention.
His relaxed expression instantly twisted into a grimace, and he accidentally crushed the cup in his hand into dust.
He wasn't the only one. The heads of the Magic Council and the Adventurers' Guild beside him, along with several other high-ranking Mages, all showed equally alarmed expressions.
A deeply ominous feeling surged in their hearts.
Before anyone could speak—
In the next moment, over a dozen beams of light tore through space and arrived simultaneously, erupting with devastating power.
In less than a tenth of a second, the City Lord's Manor—spanning over a hundred acres—was flattened into fine powder by a violent explosion.
All that remained was a crater hundreds of meters deep, with not a trace of any building left.
If the destructive force hadn't been deliberately confined within a specific range…
Just that single strike would have cost the lives of at least a million civilians in the city.
As for those caught in the direct blast—
Other than a handful of quick-reacting powerhouses or influential figures with protective artifacts, everyone else in the manor was instantly annihilated.
They didn't even have a chance to struggle.
Some likely died without even realizing something had gone wrong, perishing before they could feel pain.
"Damn it… goddamn bastards…"
Once the energy had mostly dissipated, the survivors finally emerged.
Of the twenty or so who lived, three or four were heavily injured, and the rest bore varying degrees of wounds. If not for the defensive systems built into the City Lord's Manor absorbing a large portion of the damage, there would have been even fewer survivors.
None of them stopped to tend to their wounds or grieve for the fallen. Instead, they quickly regrouped and scanned their surroundings, wary of another ambush.
But the moment they took in their environment, a chill sank into their bones.
A dense black fog had descended from the skies, casting the entire area into a world of darkness. The starlight above and the lights from nearby buildings were completely swallowed.
It was a domain-type spell akin to a Polluted Zone, one that greatly reduced the world's suppressive force on demons—allowing them to fight with their full power.
On top of that, it came with a slew of debilitating side effects:
Light absorption, flesh decay, fear propagation, poisonous air...
Under these conditions, ordinary civilians and low-ranking mages were practically blind and deaf, subjected to constant magical assaults that caused widespread casualties—fueling the domain's expansion.
A chorus of chaos echoed across the city.
Shouts, roars, explosions...
The very order of the city had collapsed.
And these top officials—those meant to lead the city—now found themselves utterly helpless.
Because they barely had time to look after themselves. Over a dozen demons, the weakest of which were at High-Rank, had already surrounded the area—some openly, others lurking in the shadows.
All of them were staring them down with vicious eyes.
The City Lord's expression was grim as he spoke in a low voice, "Someone has betrayed our World. Otherwise, they could never have infiltrated so deeply, let alone alter the city's barrier system from within…"
He knew very well—only five or six people even had access to the city's defensive arrays. But figuring out who had betrayed them wasn't easy. These were all individuals of high status—logically, they had no reason to betray their class.
The head of the Adventurers' Guild, after surveying the area and analyzing the situation, solemnly pulled out a handful of rare potions from his dimensional ring and tossed them to the others. "Now's not the time to argue. First, we fight our way out. Take these potions."
At a glance, they recognized the potions—they were powerful stimulants that could temporarily boost vitality or potential in exchange for long-term cost.
The more severely wounded and weaker ones didn't hesitate. They exchanged glances, then downed the potions without delay.
In normal times, they might've paused to consider the side effects. But now, there was no time.
They were the weakest link. If they didn't act decisively, they'd only become the enemy's breakthrough point.
The stronger ones didn't take the potions right away but stored them away for a critical moment.
However, none of them noticed the fleeting exchange of glances between the Guild Master and a demon standing at the center of the enemy's formation—Gewa.
---
Elsewhere, hidden within Augustus and still attempting to seduce more followers, the dark god Zanell had sensed the change in the city's barriers even faster than the City Lord.
Ignoring even those by his side like Sarah, his body instantly transformed into a stream of light and shot toward the sky—trying to escape before the barrier fully activated.
But this barrier, modified by Gewa, activated far faster than Zanell anticipated.
He smashed right into it.
Without a sound, a formless force blocked him completely.
Not only was flight impossible—even teleportation was locked.
The sheer power of the barrier couldn't be broken by the Demigod strength of this avatar in a short amount of time.
Frustrated, he turned back toward the city, sensing the growing presence of demons.
His expression darkened, but in the end, he returned to where Sarah and the others were waiting.
Under their confused gazes, he said solemnly, "The demons of the Abyss have invaded. The barrier's been rewritten—they've cut off every exit. They plan to slaughter every resident here and convert this entire place into a Polluted Zone, making it a new foothold for their descent."
At his words, Sarah and the others immediately turned pale.
As natives of this world, they didn't need Zanell to elaborate—they knew exactly what demons did under such conditions.
They'd already seen it happen hundreds of times in the past century alone.
If the demons succeeded, then everyone here, regardless of status, would die—sacrificed to fuel the Abyss.
Zanell didn't give them time to dwell on it. His tone turned sharp. "Get ready—we're going to support the defenders."
"Support? Support who?" Sarah asked, confused.
Feeling the presence of nearly two hundred demons scattered across the city, Zanell's face twitched. "Naturally, we're going to aid the city's strongest. Without their cooperation, we don't stand a chance of escaping."
And so—
The group, which had originally been plotting how to corrupt the nobility of Augustus, reluctantly stood up.
They headed straight for the City Lord's Manor.
That was where the strongest fighters were gathered.
And those fighters were bound to be the city's ruling elite. Only with their help could they get vital intel.
---
As for Orsaga and his three companions, they were now standing in the plaza directly outside the library.
Each of them had returned to their true forms—some eerie, some ferocious, some majestic, others grotesque.
Even their mere presence instilled fear in all who saw them.
That was the natural trait of high-level lifeforms.
But none drew more attention than Orsaga himself.
Standing at a towering fifteen meters tall, his body brimmed with the bloodline of a Flame Demon Lord. He didn't need to do anything—just by standing still, he radiated temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees. He was like a walking inferno, burning everything nearby.
Any ordinary person who came within a hundred meters would be instantly incinerated.
And worse yet, those who gazed upon his unhidden true form had to pass repeated sanity checks. The faint of heart would suffer mental breakdowns or go insane on the spot.
Even the other three demons beside him felt uneasy, giving him a wide berth.
Not that Orsaga cared.
After stretching his long-dormant body, he turned his gaze toward the trembling city guards several hundred meters away.
They were the local patrol tasked with keeping peace in the district.
While technically considered professionals, their combat strength was laughable.
Seeing their hesitation—whether to flee or stay—Orsaga casually extended one of his four wings.
With a single flap—
A deafening boom erupted.
A mighty gust howled across the plaza, sweeping up the guards along with nearby buildings and hurling them into the sky.
Even the ground was gouged, leaving behind a trench hundreds of meters long and several meters deep.
Done with casual ease, Orsaga chuckled as though he had merely stirred up some dust. "Staring at our true forms and still not running? I'll admit that takes guts. I'll let you die painlessly for that."
Then he turned to the other three demons and said, "Let's break the library's outer wards together. Otherwise, they'll be a real nuisance."
"Agreed."
Though wariness lingered in their eyes, the other three nodded.
At present, Orsaga clearly had the power to threaten them. But under the terms of their Abyssal contract, they were currently allies, and neither side could harm the other.
So while they were cautious of him, they weren't overly on edge.
____
T/N:
Hello everyone! My Patreon is just $3 — a perfect opportunity to access 70+ advanced chapters and support the translation.
🔗 patreon.com/user?u=79514336
Or simply search Translator-Sama on Patreon