Chapter 315 315 - Crumble
"God-tier summon: Archangel!" Following Michael's words, a tear between realms appeared in the sky above the Forest.
Peering in through the gap, an eyeball emitted light brighter than the sun, blinding any and all who dared inspect the Archangel with their own eyes. Shielding their eyes with tinted visors, the human adventurers along with Razor made great use of this opportunity to sneak into the demonic camps.
Blinded completely and even groaning on the ground from the effect of the holy light, not only were the demons hurt but their skins were burning like charcoal. The only problem they were to run into was in case the demons hiding inside the tents decided to come out with some sort of protection against the holy light.
"The cage quick!" Seeing how the demons were burning up alive, Razor made haste towards Greta's cage so she could be kidnapped before being burned to a crisp by the light.
On their way there, however, something caught Razor's attention. And even as his soldiers went on ahead towards Greta, he stood frozen by the infirmary tent to check up on something. Remembering back to his encounters with Haruki and his companions, Asuka was definitely a healer and so were the other two demi-cats, thus if there was any place they were hiding it was bound to be here.
"Sir Razor!" Called one of the adventurers.
Quickly turning his gaze to them, Razor yelled out in response.
"Go ahead, and get that demon general, I have someone else here to take care of!" With that, he drew his saber and stabbed into the sealed entrance to the expansive tent. Slowly running his blade from up to down, he left a giant hole in the tent that let the light finally creep inside.
The first thing he heard from inside, were screams of countless demons burning up already. To him, those screams were a sweet melody that he'd longed to hear for a while. Slashing through the entrance, he quickly headed inside, and what met him on the other end put a wide smile on his face.
"Lulu! Miasmic flytrap! Attack him!" Locking her eyes with his, Asuka sent her familiars to strike the weapon out of Razor's hands.
Athena and Alice too tried to get a few swings on Razor with their sharp claws, but before they could reach and swing, Razor used his own ability to render their strikes useless.
"Reality alter: Wither!" In the blink of an eye, the two familiars wrinkled up and shrunk in size. Even the claws of both Alice and Athena aged to the point where they couldn't lift a single finger.
Looking down at their hands left as floppy as rubber, both the demi-cats began to pant excessively as their hearts built up a panic attack. Seeing how things were getting out of hand, Asuka made yet another attempt to distance themselves from the approaching war general.
'The other demons are as good as dead, I have to do this!' Her levels already drained by Haruki, Asuka didn't have many options at her disposal. Staring into the general's eyes, she not only used her allure as a succubus but also the ability to charm as a demon fox.
"Charm!" She announced, her eyes glowing a mix of violet and golden.
For the briefest of moments, Razor seemed surprised, almost lost in her gaze even, but that didn't last long when he slapped Asuka's face with the back of his hands. Falling down from the strike, she felt her mouth pooling with blood.
'W-why do I-' Feeling weaker than ever, Asuka's vision grew blurry with each passing moment. Not long after, she noticed Athena and Alice's body falling beside her as well. Each one of them drained for their levels by their master had no chance to put up a fight against Razor, and since neither Haruki nor Asmodia was here, the chances of them slipping through his fingers were even slimmer.
Clenching her weakened fist, Asuka glared up at the general with her eyes burning in deep rage. However, with but a kick to the face, her hatred was extinguished like a weak, flickering flame.
"Now sleep," was what she last heard as her mind drifted away.
The rest of Razor's plans went exactly as expected. The adventurers managed to grab the near-dead Greta from her cage along with opening the cages for the captured demi-human so they could retreat once the light in the sky disappeared. Thankfully, the demi-humans were only affected by the light visually and their bodies didn't burn, unlike the demons, thus if needed they could easily be convinced to join the rebellion against Haruki later.
"Michael, send the demi-human battalion, we're escaping with the haul," Razor conveyed to Michael through their ethereal link.
'I'm undoing the summon then, get back quick before Asmodia or Haruki return.' Michael responded before undoing the giant holy summon in the sky.
By the time the light retreated, the demonic camps were left ablaze with bodies, and only the demi-humans survived the archangel's assaulting gaze. Soon enough they too will be gone from the accused place, and by that time, both Haruki and Asmodia will be on their way back to the camp.
***
Not too long before the operation by Michael and Razor, Asmodia had just arrived at the tribe's villages and was making sure everything ran as intended. All the soldiers were stuffing the demi-humans into cages which were then dragged along with horses in the direction of their camp. But as the blinding sight of the archangel was revealed, not even Asmodia could keep herself moving.
Limited in power in the clone from Haruki, she could feel the burn on her skin but could do nothing about it. Even so, she tried to gaze into the archangel's gaze, trying to figure out exactly what was happening. However, the only thing she could realize before her body turned to dust was that there was only one person in this world who could summon such a monster besides Atlas.
"Michael?" She mumbled as her clone burned to ashes.
Her soul parted from the body, was pulled through the realms, and plunged back into Haruki, just as it had been stated in their contract. Plunged into Haruki not long after his quarrel with Deus and Serena, her soul forced the two unconscious. Collapsing before the queen of goblins and Serena, Haruki was quickly taken to Fay and Stella in the adjacent lab since only Fay could resolve matters of the soul.
"What the hell?" The moment the two walked into the vessel creation lab, Fay was left utterly shocked by the sight of Haruki's body being carried between the queen and Serena.
"What happened to him?!" Asked Stella, pale as a ghost.
The two quickly rushed towards him and got Haruki in their own hands before guiding him towards a table. Having Serena clean everything off of it, Fay and her daughter laid Haruki on it and swiftly backed away wondering exactly what had happened.
"First Deus and Maricella stormed in on her for whatever reason and now this, what in the world are you guys doing out there?" Having just shooed off the two demon lords, Fay wasn't in the most forgiving mood at the moment.
"Something is going on and I have no clue," Serena replied, her grip on reality slipping as things kept getting progressively chaotic.
"I…I don't have anything to add either," just as lost as Serena, the goblin queen decided to stay quiet. "Clones, kidnapped soldiers, master falling unconscious all of a sudden, what in the…"
"Mother, let's just find a way to wake father up first?" Growing increasingly anxious the longer Haruki stayed unconscious, Stella urged Fay to awaken him.
Taking just a moment to let it all sink in, Fay shut her eyes and heaved deep breaths. After a few deep breaths, she opened her eyes back up, shifted her gaze to Stella, and nodded.
"Alright, I'll see what I can do," Saying that, Fay began casting a soul inspection spell to make sure Haruki's soul was working fine and well.
In the meantime, the other watched from afar hoping everything would be done soon. Either way, things were about to get much worse the moment they figured out about Asuka's kidnapping along with the demi-cats and Greta, not to mention the control over Riley's mind by the prince of hell, all because this time after being revived through his contract with Asmodia, Haruki had stripped all power for himself. Truly something only a self-devouring serpent can muster.
"I think he'll be okay," done with the checkup, Fay could feel Asmodia's soul inside Haruki but nothing else out of the ordinary. "He's just unconscious, I still don't know why though."
Unaware that Haruki had left Asmodia back at the demon camps instead of bringing her here alongside him, Fay assumed nothing was wrong, and thus nobody would go on top to check what was happening back at their camps. Even Hawthorn who was known to be omnipresent couldn't possibly know what had transpired since the prince of hell was blocking all mental links between Atlas and Feral lands.