Gross felt a chill on his scalp and immediately prostrated himself, dodging the fatal shockwave. He waited a few seconds, confirmed it was safe, and then stood up.
The area around the fortress was a mess, with demon corpses everywhere. Hellfire torn in two by the shockwave, imps crushed to death by the shockwave, and Doom Guards crushed by the city walls.
After a quick count, he found that less than half of the demons he led remained. The rest had perished in the recent shockwave.
"Gross, there's an artifact inside the fortress." Marmotius's voice echoed in his ear, "If you can seize that artifact and present it to the Master, the Master will surely forgive you. Don't worry, after releasing such powerful magic, that artifact should need a long time to recover its power."
Gross was tempted, but he remained vigilant, "Marmotius, you're being so kind?"
Marmotius chuckled, "I admit there will be some risk in acquiring the artifact; the Elves in the city haven't given up resisting. Whether you can get the artifact depends on yourself."
Hearing him say that, Gross finally relaxed. If Marmotius had said there was no risk at all, he would definitely be deceiving him.
Risk was normal; after all, the Elves had killed so many Burning Legion troops at once, so the risk certainly wouldn't be small. Otherwise, Marmotius would definitely have acted himself.
However, Gross still decided to take a gamble; as a High-ranking Demon, even if he was killed, he could return to the Twisting Nether to resurrect. According to the Burning Legion's rules, after being resurrected, all past mistakes would not be punished. But if he were to be a coward, he would suffer torment from the Destruction Demons. Those Destruction Demons could even torment Titans, and demons would certainly rather die than live in their hands.
"Charge in! Don't let any Elf escape!"
Gross leaped into the air, issuing the command for a full assault. Then he flapped his wings, flying directly over the half-collapsed city wall.
His Doom Guards and Demon Guards also spread their wings and followed.
After entering the fortress, Gross and his army used their aerial advantage to launch a surprise attack on the Elves. Using the momentum of their dives, they grabbed the Alpha Squad warriors and threw them against the walls of the Mage Tower.
The Alpha Squad warriors unleashed their final two consecutive ice spells, but they couldn't stop the countless demons. Soon, all of them were thrown against the wall, their eyes rolling back, and the intense pain caused them to pass out.
The demons, unaware of the warriors' fine armor, thought they had all been killed.
Gross left a squad of demons to clear the battlefield, then personally led the demons upwards along the Mage Tower. Due to their excessive weight, they flew halfway before being forced to jump through a window into the Mage Tower, rushing up the Mage Tower's stairs towards the top.
Intense Arcane fluctuations emanated from the top of the Mage Tower, making Gross very certain that the artifact was definitely at the top of the Mage Tower.
Soon, Gross crashed through the wooden door leading to the top of the tower and rushed onto the platform.
He raised his weapon and charged in the direction of the Arcane fluctuations.
However, halfway through his charge, he was tackled to the ground by a massive figure.
It was a transparent snow leopard, baring its sharp fangs and biting fiercely into his neck.
The soul-deep pain made Gross scream.
Gross began to resist, and in the process of struggling, he saw Elves one by one bypassing him and rushing towards the army behind him.
"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!" "Whoosh…"
A series of fireballs flew past nearby, accompanied by countless arrows, disrupting the demons' formation.
"Lord Dubrakan, please leave his soul to me!"
A fawning voice came, and the Elf Mage walked over, holding a spellbook in his hand.
Dubrakan, seeing him, eased his bite. Just as Gross thought he could escape, the Mage conjured a Soul Blade and plunged it into his forehead.
Gross watched his soul being pulled out and screamed in terror. But he found he couldn't make a sound at all; whether it was a scream or a cry for help, no one around could hear him.
Mejia stored Gross's soul, replacing a depleted Troll body on the Soul-Stealing Scroll.
"Tsk tsk, the power of this soul is quite something; it's even stronger than twenty-five Troll souls."
"That's a demon general, of course he's powerful!"
Metri walked over and introduced the demon to Mejia, "He's the demon commander who has been attacking us for the past half month."
"No wonder!" Mejia said indifferently, in his eyes, the only difference between a commander and an ordinary demon was the amount of power they provided.
Antaria emerged from the portal, quickly moved to the edge of the platform, and waved her staff to protect all the Elves inside the fortress, both living and dead.
Nalarex: "Quick, immediately assist the injured."
The Druids immediately followed, rushing to the platform's door. Navoli and Draksa had already led the warriors in driving the demons off the platform.
The upgraded UmbraEdge and Soul Blade, now artifacts, displayed powerful offensive capabilities; ordinary demons were no match for them. In front of them was Karna, constantly moving through the shadows, always appearing where the demons least expected him, striking them down with a single blow.
Demon corpses constantly fell from the stairs, hitting the ground with loud thuds.
The demons left on the ground to clear the battlefield watched their comrades' bodies fall like raindrops, their psychological pressure steadily rising.
"Boom!"
A huge fireball shot up into the sky, becoming the final straw that broke the demons' will.
The demons could no longer withstand the psychological pressure and turned to flee. But the Kaldorei clearly had no intention of letting them go so easily; a squad of Rangers stood at the edge of the platform, continuously firing their crossbows at them.
Marmotius tapped his temples with a sharp finger, "I knew the Elves had a backup plan; I just didn't expect it to be so fierce. So many artifacts, it's almost comparable to a Mage's collection."
After more than two hundred years of warfare and development, the Mages of Sin'dorei had become wealthy. Influenced by Gale, they were also keen on creating artifacts, and although they were all made from enchanted thorium ingots, they also incorporated other metals, making them somewhat better than artifacts made purely from enchanted thorium ingots.
Every Archmage had several artifacts stored in their treasury.
As a result, they never got to use them themselves, and now they all benefited the Burning Legion. It was with hundreds of artifacts that the Burning Legion managed to sever the connection between the Well of Eternity and the Mages.
This was also why Marmotius incited Gross to seize aluneth; aluneth was more powerful than most artifacts, and with it, the portal would become even more stable.
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