Chapter 569 - 428: The Duke’s Helplessness and the Second Campaign Against the "Black King

However, these attacks were utterly feeble against the Hill Giants’ defensive line, which stood like a wall of steel.

The Giants didn’t even need to use their Battle Hammers. They simply stood shoulder to shoulder, and a single volley of Javelins was enough to turn any enemy charge into a laughable, suicidal performance.

The Moonlight Knight Order’s Earth Dragon Knight Squad and Knight Brigade were like the sharpest of scalpels. On Ed’s command, they repeatedly pierced and split the enemy lines from the front and flanks, throwing any Demon Legions that tried to assemble into complete disarray.

From the very beginning, the war was completely one-sided.

At dusk, the setting sun hung over the western ridgeline.

The army of Black Stone Territory had finally arrived at its destination.

It was a stretch of high ground.

In the very center of the high ground stood a silent, ancient tree. It was hundreds of meters tall, and its entire body was a strange, dark red.

Its gnarled trunk, coiling like a Giant Dragon, supported a massive crown that, like a great canopy, blotted out the sky for several kilometers in every direction.

That was the Dragon Blood Ancient Tree.

At this moment, however...

The high ground was packed to the brim with a boundless, swarming Demon Legion, so dense that nothing could pass through.

At the foot of the high ground was a dense Dogman Legion, numbering at least ten thousand strong.

They clutched crude Stone Spears and Wooden Shields, their eyes glinting with a chaotic, fanatical light.

Behind them stood the larger and stronger Jackal Wolfman Legion, baring sharp fangs and letting out waves of low growls.

Earth Dragons, Demon Wolves, Giant Bears...

All manner of massive Magical Beasts, radiating ferocious auras, were interspersed among these cannon-fodder legions.

The sky above was blotted out entirely.

Hundreds of Bat Dragons and Griffins circled and shrieked in the air.

And behind them, a vast flock of Red Fire Demon Crows formed a dark cloud. In the dim twilight, their crimson eyes glimmered like countless will-o’-the-wisps.

In total, the Demon Legion numbered over twenty thousand.

And at the peak of the high ground...

A colossal Black Dragon, over a hundred meters long and covered in gleaming, obsidian-like scales, lay coiled here.

It was the ruler of this mountain range: the Black King.

Its Dark Gold, lava-like vertical pupils stared coldly down at the human army slowly forming up below.

It had led its Demon Legion here and had been waiting for a long time.

Below the high ground, a murderous aura filled the air.

The Knights gripped their Long Spears, their sharp gazes piercing through the visors of their helms, locked on the swarming demon army atop the high ground.

War was imminent.

The air felt as if it had solidified, so heavy it was hard to breathe.

Kado walked to Raylo’s side. His hands were massive, and the muscles on his arms bulged like the gnarled roots of an ancient tree.

"My Lord."

His voice rumbled in Raylo’s ear like distant thunder.

"Give the order!"

A blazing will to fight burned in his eyes.

Behind him, all the Hill Giants awaited the sound of the Horn to charge.

They yearned to use the Battle Hammers in their hands to smash these ugly Demons into pulp.

Raylo’s gaze swept over the tide of the Demon Legion on the high ground, finally settling on the Black Dragon, the Black King, at its peak.

Over twenty thousand Demons.

That was more than a dozen times the size of the army Black Stone Territory had brought on this expedition.

If they launched a frontal assault, even if they ultimately won, his Giant Legion and Moonlight Knight Order would inevitably pay a devastating price.

Raylo had no intention of letting his men die for nothing.

Slowly, he shook his head.

"No,"

he said.

"In this war, not a single warrior from Black Stone Territory will bleed or die."

Kado started, a look of confusion on his face.

Raylo didn’t explain.

He raised his head, his gaze piercing the dim canopy of the sky toward the chaotic heavens obscured by the Demons.

Then, he voiced his summons to the sky.

"Your Excellency, Astra."

Atop the high ground, tens of thousands of Demons let out deafening roars and snarls, filled with provocation.

They brandished their Weapons, venting their bloodlust and fanaticism in the most primitive, savage way.

The wave of sound rolled on, a physical tide sweeping toward the human army below.

However, at that very moment...

Without any warning, everything changed.

The sky suddenly darkened.

A vast, terrifying pressure, filled with majesty, poured down from the clouds ten thousand meters above like a flood from a broken dam!

VMMMMM!

In that instant, the entire world went silent.

The earth-shattering roars and snarls of the tens of thousands of Demons stopped abruptly.

It was as if an unseen hand had viciously seized them all by the throat.

Atop the high ground, the more than twenty thousand arrogant Demons—whether the fearless Kobolds, the savage and bloodthirsty Jackal-Wolf Folk, or the massive Earth Dragons and Giant Bears...

Their bodies suddenly went rigid.

The fanatical, chaotic light in their eyes was instantly replaced by a primal fear, one that sprang from the depths of their bloodline, from the very bottom of their souls.

THUD!

THUD! THUD!

Swarms of Demons fell like fields of reaped wheat. Their legs gave out, and they uncontrollably knelt or prostrated themselves on the ground.

Their bodies trembled uncontrollably.

They buried their heads deep in the cold, hard earth.

They didn’t even have the courage to lift their heads and glimpse the source of that terrifying pressure.

Before this world-ending pressure, their so-called "numerical advantage" had become a colossal joke.

In the face of Catastrophe Level might, numbers were meaningless.

The sky.

The thick, chaotic clouds were slowly torn asunder by an unseen force.

A colossal dragon’s body, winding like a mountain range, slowly emerged from behind the sundered clouds.

It had appeared.

Its thousand-meter-long body blotted out the sky.

A pair of enormous Dragon Wings, seemingly woven from thunderclouds and Lightning, beat slowly behind it.

Its enormous, Sun-like eyes looked down with indifference upon the prostrate masses below, who were no more than ants.

Its Catastrophe Level pressure was released without reservation.

The entire world trembled and submitted before it.

Atop the high ground.

The Black King was the only one who did not immediately fall to his knees.

As a Domain Level Peak Black Dragon, its powerful body and proud soul allowed it to barely remain standing under the world-ending pressure.

But that was all it could do—stand.

Its Dark Gold vertical pupils stared fixedly at the immense, invincible figure in the sky, filled with endless horror and fear.

’Catastrophe Level!’

’It’s a Catastrophe Level Giant Dragon!’

The Black King let out a defiant roar.

It frantically stirred the Dragon Power within its body, trying to resist the terrifying pressure that made its very soul tremble.

It held its proud head high, defiant.

’I will never submit!’

However...

Astra’s colossal form slowly descended from the sky.

There was no wind, no thunder.

It simply... descended.

But when its massive, mountain-like claw landed gently on the open ground before the Black King...

BOOM!

Centered on Astra’s landing point, the ground for several kilometers in every direction suddenly caved in!

Countless massive fissures spread wildly outward at a speed visible to the naked eye.

And as for the Black King, who had been struggling to resist...

Its massive body shuddered violently.

Before this irresistible, terrifying Power—like the weight of the entire world pressing down—its stubbornly raised head...

THUMP.

...was slammed hard into the ground.

Dust flew into the air.

Shards of rock scattered everywhere.

Silence.

A deathly silence.

It was as if the entire world had been put on pause.

Atop the high ground, tens of thousands of Demons lay prostrate, trembling, not daring to draw a single breath.

Below the high ground, the army of Black Stone Territory was similarly stunned beyond words by the Miracle unfolding before their eyes.

A Giant Dragon descended from the heavens, and tens of thousands of Demons bowed their heads.