Verity’s blood ran cold. He had never seen them before, but the horns, the blood red eyes, and the oppressive killing intent they exuded gave them away immediately.

  There they were.

  The demons.

  Shaken, but still sound of mind, Verity’s synapses fired, and he shouted, “RUNNN!!!!”

  But of course, Azazel would not let them go so easily. “Stop.”

  [The sub-skill -Indomitable Will- is in full effect. You are resisting the effect of an outside force.]

  They all froze, and the best Verity could do, despite his resistance skill, was move his eyes. Evidently, Azazel was in a league of his own, and it was to a point that his words were more than a simple immobilization spell.

  Even Hoshino, who was mid-flight, completely froze in the air. It was as if her magic itself had listened to the demon.

  A terrifying power befitting a Triune-ranked demon.

  Azazel took one step forward, Bel following closely behind him.

  He scanned the adventurers, who did not even have the freedom to move their lips.

  His expression was unreadable, impassive. It was as if he was looking upon a group of bugs, too far below him to even feel anything toward them. Eventually, he raised his hand and pointed to the half-conscious Knight Jerin. “Retrieve that one, kill the rest.”

  Bel smiled, and Verity began to panic. “Of course, Lord Azazel.”

  Because he was closest, Bel approached Marco, the giant of muscles. He advanced slowly, leisurely, revelling in the suspense it created. Bel could see the turmoil in the adventurers as his clawed hands slowly neared Marco’s flesh. Truly, Bel enjoyed tormenting the weak.

  Bel lifted his head to look Marco in the eyes. “Aren’t you too big for a weakling?”

  Then, in a movement that was almost hard to follow, the demon shot for Marco’s chest.

  His friends could not intervene, and due to Azazel’s power, Marco could not move to evade or defend himself.

  Even his tempered flesh, strong enough to shatter blades, would give way to Bel’s claws with little to no resistance.

  There was no escape. Verity, Felicia, Hoshino, and even Midnight wanted to scream, but were forced to remain silent. Without a doubt, Marco could not evade this blow.

  So he would not evade it.

  ‘[Adamantine Body]!’

  In that moment, Marco’s skin turned from a tanned beige to glinting, viridescent green. It was so dazzling that the skill might as well have been called [Jade Body].

  CLANG

  Bel’s claws bounced on his torso, leaving nothing more than a small scratch. The demon stepped back from the recoil, his eyes widening. “What is this!” Bel shouted, but of course, Marco could not provide an answer.

  Bel then looked behind him, where Azazel stood.

  His facial expression had not shifted in the slightest, but when Bel met his blood red eyes, a cold dread coiled in his chest.

  Bel grit his teeth. Lord Azazel would not accept failure. He raised both of his claws, and stared Marco in the eyes.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  ‘Ha! Didn’t expect that, did you? Hit me all you like, it won’t even leave a dent!’

  While Marco had not made enough progress to obtain his third class skill like Verity and Felicia, this was his achievement. With his master’s guidance, he had learned to momentarily evolve the common Martial Artist skill [Iron Body] to the epic skill [Adamantine Body].

  Adamantine was well-known as one of the toughest metals to ever exist, which meant that even a demon like Bel would have to go through great lengths to pierce Marco's flesh for as long as the skill was active. This, in turn, meant that as it stood, Marco was effectively invincible.

  It certainly would have been a cheat skill, if not for its crippling drawbacks.

  While the Martial Emperor could use it at will with no issues, it was not the same for Marco. First, he had to be completely still before, and while using the skill, or it would deactivate. This was not an issue in the current situation, as he was unable to move regardless.

  Second, the mana consumption was simply ridiculous. At most, he could keep it active for a maximum of two minutes before entering a state of mana depletion.

  And third, it still hurt like hell when he was hit!!

  CLANG

  When Bel attacked him again, Marco would have winced if he could.

  Currently, Bel was stubbornly refusing to use Words to kill the immobile and defenseless Marco, at least not in front of Lord Azazel. To him, doing such a thing would have been… embarrassing, to say the least.

  This gave Marco more time to think of his next move, if there even was a next move.

  A bit further away, Felicia was having a fierce argument. ‘Erilsa!! Please! You have to do something!! You can’t just let him die!’

  Erilsa shook her head. ‘I was only tasked with protecting you… And saving that human is not the optimal way to do that…’

  Felicia’s eyes became bloodshot. ‘Oh yeah!? Then I’ll bite my tongue and die right here if you do nothing!! If I channel Aura into my mouth I can do it! You know I can!’

  Erilsa sighed. ‘How ridiculous… you will do no such a thing. It’s just one human…’

  Taking it as a challenge, Felicia channeled Aura to her mouth, and her jaw twitched. Thankfully, she was turned away from Azazel, and the demon was too focused on Bel and Marco to care.

  She slowly stuck out her tongue, and she prepared a violent burst of Aura that would snap her jaw onto it.

  Erilsa, still hidden, frowned. ‘...You’re bluffing.’

  ‘Watch me!’

  Her Aura exploded in the muscles of her jaw, and Erilsa’s eyes widened. ‘Stop!’

  Felicia stopped. ‘Still think I’m bluffing?’

  Erilsa clicked her tongue. She had a plan already, but it seemed she’d need to expedite it, lest the crazy human the Queen had put her in charge of bit her own tongue and died.

  ‘There is a way to escape, without the demons being able to give chase...’ Erilsa began. ‘I’m sure you’ve noticed, but this chamber is different from the ones you’ve seen until now… ‘

  Felicia took time to analyze what she could see. Indeed, strange inscriptions were etched into the earth below her feet, and although it had been eroded by the passage of time, the chamber seemed to have once been decorated with banners, carpets, pillars, and much more.

  Erilsa continued. ‘The demons won’t know this… but this was likely once a dwarven lair…and there are two facts that always remain true for all dwarves…their homes are never without surprises…and they hate intruders.’

  Erilsa knew dwarven lairs to contain all sorts of traps and hidden mechanisms. She still needed more time to understand how to activate the one she needed, but she already understood what the inscriptions below them represented.

  It was a set of dwarven runes meant for a long-distance warp gate.

  A technology that the dwarves had invented, and that the humans had ultimately stolen from them. In fact, the artifact Cardinal Farey had used was a miniaturized version of this dwarven technology.

  Erilsa might have been able to decipher it with a bit more time, but that was no longer possible. The jade covered human would run out of mana soon, or be killed by the demon if he decided to take it seriously.

  So, Erilsa revealed her true form, and without wasting a beat, shot a beam of concentrated mana at Bel.

  It curved around Macro, and threatened to completely annihilate the young demon, but the beam was blocked by Azazel before it could do so.

  For the first time, a faint smile curved Azazel's lips. “A spirit mutt. How unsig–.”

  A booming voice echoed in the chamber, interrupting him, and inscriptions etched onto the pillars began to shimmer.

  It seemed Erilsa’s appearance had triggered something.

  Hostile intruder detected

  Activating defense mechanisms

  Purpose: Eliminate

  All those present looked to the ceiling, where the voice seemed to originate.

  Error – 70% of defense mechanisms have failed to activate

  Re-calculating

  Activating only essential mechanisms

  Error - The strength of the intruders surpasses the capacity of available defense mechanisms

  Verity wanted to frown. ‘What the hell is going on??’

  Permission to engage extermination procedures requested

  The voice paused for a moment, awaiting an answer, but when it received none, it resumed its announcements.

  Absence of administrative authority confirmed, as per the protocol, the last-issued directive will take priority

  Permission granted

  Engaging extermination protocol

  The atmosphere in the chamber shifted. The room went silent. Then, with a synchronized hiss of steam, the pillars groaned and shifted. The ground trembled, the inscriptions all around the intruders shimmered, and finally, nine steel golems emerged from the pillars supporting the room.

  Their frames, made of polished steel and likely concealing unimaginable weaponry, towered above even the likes of Marco.

  And even then, they were dwarfed by the golem that emerged from the pillar standing in the center of the chamber. That one…seemed entirely different, in a league of its own. Its eyes glowed with an azure hue and the pressure it exuded was comparable to Azazel, or perhaps even more oppressive.

  Cold sweat rolled down the temples of Verity and his companion. The only ones who kept their composure were Erilsa, and the demons themselves.

  Bel frowned, still shaken by Erilsa’s preemptive attack. “To think such a thing existed in this place…”

  Azazael clicked his tongue. “At last…” he glared at the golems. ‘but these toys are…unsavory.”

  Erilsa let out a low growl. ‘This might have gone from bad to worse…’

  Guardians, obey your primary directive : Terminate the intruders