A few moments ago.
As soon as they saw Qiel leading a lot of demons away, Noel couldn't help but furrow his eyebrows.
"Noel! We have to stop them. If they bring out more reinforcement, especially the ones that Damian has blocked… I'm afraid that we will be in trouble."
Noel's expression remained calm as if everything had gone according to plan.
"Anna. I want you and Dimitri to chase after them. Bring the two squad leaders to lead the soldiers and buy us some time."
"So, we only have to stop those people for a few hours while we're killing all the demons here?" Anna asked.
"No. You just have to give us ten minutes or so. Our real target remains the same. Qiel and Laufey have to die in this battle. You should be able to figure out the rest, so get going immediately. Also, I will inform you when I am about to arrive. That's the signal to unleash your True Spirit Body."
"A signal?" There was no way they could signal each other on a battlefield, especially if they were not near each other. However, there was something that could actually give the signal. She couldn't help but raise her left hand, looking at the ring on her finger.
That was right. They had this pair of rings that the Sword Saint gave them in the past. These rings could release a signal to each other. Although it was only a blinking light, it didn't change the fact that it would be extremely useful in a battle like this.
"I understand. If I only have to stall for time, I can fight to the fullest."
"No. You just have to bring up the matter related to the Ardagan Family's secret without telling the whole thing."
"Are you sure it will work?" Anna couldn't help but furrow her eyebrows.
"On Qiel? No. That's why Dimitri has to separate Qiel from the rest so that she doesn't influence them. As for Laufey, he might be a good schemer, but his vision is too narrow on a battlefield like this. That's why he will think that it's not possible for me to help you. Hence. That's the only thing you need to buy time from Laufey. I have told you everything. Figure out the rest for yourself since we don't have a lot of time."
"Alright." Anna nodded with a serious expression before waving to Dimitri. "I'm ready."
Both of them didn't hesitate to jump off the wall, gathering the soldiers.
Meanwhile, Noel moved to Grandell and said, "Tell Duke Briton to take command on the wall. He should be able to outwit Laufey, and he will take care of the wall until we return. Use everyone as he sees fit. Aerton will become his deputy.
"After telling him, you go to Howard and tell him that we will utilize the ghost squad to strike them. Prepare yourself to die because we are going to annihilate some Devil Saints."
"Yes, sir!" Grandell acknowledged the order and hurriedly rushed to handle the problem.
Meanwhile, Noel jumped off the wall, heading back to his mansion. It wasn't that he was trying to get some rest.
Instead, he turned on a few mechanisms hidden underneath his mansion, opening a secret tunnel underneath the mansion.
This tunnel led to a hidden opening on the north beyond the demon army. In fact, Noel had asked Anna to take care of this job personally because he knew he would use it sooner or later.
Inside the tunnel, the remaining thirty elite soldiers as well as a total of a hundred normal soldiers had been waiting for him.
"My lord!" They hurriedly went to their knees, greeting Noel.
"Are all of you ready? This will become a decisive moment. Prepare to fight as if you were a beast and we shall cut down some Devil Saints. If we manage to win this, the rest of the demons won't be a problem."
"Y-yes, sir! We are prepared to lay down our lives for you."
Noel had reinforced the tunnel with runes, but it seemed that the demon tree and other demons had truly caused some damage. Although it didn't fall apart, he noticed a few cracks here and there.
Fortunately, they didn't know about this tunnel. In fact, all his plans had been stopping them from finding this place.
When the underground demons dug up the ground, they would bump to this 'hard rock.' Normally, they would report it to the higher-ups, but Theo utilized the water wall so that their focus would shift to the water instead of the tunnel.
Anna also fought the other demon tree on the side, far away from the tunnel. Last but not least, there was the other demon tree that Noel killed as quickly as possible.
With all these plans, Qiel failed to notice the tunnel underneath the battlefield.
And all these soldiers had been waiting for their turn. At first, he thought about utilizing them to set up an ambush when Qiel was about to escape. But this moment wasn't bad at all.
"Let's go. We only have five minutes to reach the other side of the tunnel and another five minutes to attack our enemies from behind. I will be supervising our army, but Howard will be the commander of this army with Grandell as his deputy. Understood?"
"Ha!" The soldiers responded.
"Move out!" Noel shouted as he led the way to the other side of the tunnel.
As planned, Howard and Grandell also entered the tunnel a few minutes later and caught up with their speed.
The moment they reached the other side, they opened up the exit and led all the soldiers outside.
"Follow me." Noel hurriedly led them behind the demon army, following Laufey.
The reason he was so confident this trick would succeed was because of Duke Briton. At first, he was a bit skeptical about Duke Briton and originally wanted Howard to be in charge while bringing Andreas with him.
However, he was quite surprised that Duke Briton was that good on the battlefield. Despite having retired, it seemed that his skills hadn't gone rusty.
Hence, he could feel assured of leaving the battlefield to him. Howard could go with him since he would be more adept at commanding the army.
Of course, Anna had also done a good job of buying all the time they needed. As he expected, Laufey truly had a narrow vision for a battlefield, allowing him to hit the demon army from behind.
"Howard. Take care of the demons, especially that tiger. I will be fighting those Devil Saints." Noel leaped into the sky and summoned his wings.
"Did you hear that man? We would be killing all these demons. Show your guts!" Howard moved forward and summoned his big avatar to make his presence known. Because the demons were too focused on Anna, they didn't have time to look back, allowing the soldiers to massacre a portion of them.
"Kill!"
"For the Ardagan Family!"
"Show them our power!"
Laufey wanted to turn around, but Anna hurriedly closed in, charging her blade with blood-colored lightning. Laufey had no choice but to activate his True Spirit Body as well.
"True Spirit Body!" Laufey's body began to transform. There were a few weird red lines appearing all over his body as if they were made of blood. There was a demonic tail coming from his back, but there wasn't much transformation other than those two.
All of a sudden, the red lightning began to move in a weird direction as if it were trying to avoid Laufey.
"!!!" Anna noticed the difference and hurriedly leaped back.
"Devil Blood Body." Laufey raised his left hand, cut his thumb with his nail, and let a blood droplet fall to the ground. "Blood Domain!"
"!!!" Anna hurriedly stomped the ground with all her might as the droplet from earlier expanded, dyeing the ground red. All of a sudden, numerous spikes emerged from the red ground, impaling a few demons.
"What?" Anna was surprised. Luckily, he destroyed the ground in front of her, causing the expansion to stop. If it continued moving toward the soldiers, they would have no power to stop him.
"Your True Spirit Body seems to be related to blood as well. But as the ruler of blood, I will show you what it means to be the sovereign!" Laufey glared at Anna. He actually formed his sword with another droplet and leaped toward Anna. The blood that he got from the demons empowered his abilities.
When he struck Anna's blade, he actually launched her into the air before landing back more than ten meters away from them.
It showed how much Laufey had increased his strength. At the same time, every time Anna released her lightning, the lightning actually avoided Laufey as if the blood were refusing to fight this person.
"No matter what you do, it's impossible to defeat me. Your element won't be able to touch me." Laufey released all his frustration and planned to settle this problem with Anna.
The other two Devil Saints also planned to help Laufey end this battle as soon as possible.
However, Noel had reached them. He first used the Ice Mirror to block their path before summoning the Undying Phoenix and exploding it in front of them.
The two Devil Saints had no choice but to stop as Noel landed between them and Laufey. Even with that disadvantage, Noel believed that Anna could still win against Laufey. All he needed to do was trust her.
"Your opponent is me." Noel declared.
The tiger seemed to be trying to create an opportunity for the two Devil Saints as it was charging at Noel, pouncing on him.
When it was about to arrive, a pair of giant hands grabbed the tiger from behind and threw it to the side.
It was Howard with his avatar. "No one shall interfere with my lord's fight."
Noel smiled. He glanced at Anna for a bit as if telling her that she would leave Laufey to her.
At the same time, he was speaking to Ardagan. 'Come on, buddy. You haven't given me any missions related to this war despite preparing for so long. Give me a mission like killing Laufey or winning the war.'
[Heisk.]
There was only a single response every time. It seemed that he had to wait for Heisk since according to the Spiritual Energy Reserve Theory that Ardagan and Heisk told him, the True Spirit Body would definitely use up a large portion. If Ardagan gave him several missions like Noel wanted, it would cause a fundamental issue within Noel.
That was why he didn't have any missions related to the war yet.
Noel could only sigh. At the very least, his main target remained the same. This was something he had to do even if he didn't get any missions.
"Ice Transformation."
