Chapter 54
Chapter 54: Gradual Completion of the Plot
After Uland escaped with the remaining elven troops, this encounter evolved into a pursuit.
Out of his greed for souls, Xeron certainly did not want to let any enemies escape. However, this place was in the elves’ sphere of influence after all, and Uland was much more familiar with the terrain. After he led his troops into the forest, Xeron quickly lost their trail.
Druids were worshipers and defenders of nature. They protected nature, and nature would also protect them in turn. Thus, once Uland entered the forest, the entire forest was helping him cover his tracks. The lush foliage of tall trees shook their leaves off, and the entire sky of falling leaves blocked the view. Grass suddenly grew wildly and covered the trails of the elven troops. Brambles spread in the forest, blocking all the forest trails, hindering the demons from passing.
Under these circumstances, the elves escaped successfully, causing Xeron to roar angrily.
Although he set the forest ablaze in anger, not only did it not help, it instead blocked the paths of the demon army. While demons did not fear flames, it did not mean that they would not be hurt by flames. Thus, in the end, Xeron could only awkwardly stop the pursuit and return with his troops.
The demon army needed to reorganize as well. Before the forest fire died down, they could not progress, so they could only clear the battlefield first.
While the elves had lost many of their soldiers in the battle, the demons were not doing much better. Many demons were killed and expelled. If not for Xeron’s magic being more powerful than Uland’s, the consequences of this battle would have been unthinkable.
The number of souls that Xeron finally got was around six hundred, but Roy had quietly snatched one hundred and forty souls on the battlefield, which was quite a lot. Doing the math, it meant that the elves had lost at least around eight hundred people. But because Uland had escaped, Xeron did not know how many troops there were and thus did not doubt this figure at all.
The larger the battle, the more souls Roy could siphon off. In any case, since there were loopholes in the demon contract, why would he treat himself unfairly?
After Xeron handed over Roy’s share, Roy obtained a total of two hundred souls in this battle. In addition, with the souls that he had before, he now had almost three hundred.
This number was unimaginable for him in the Abyss of the Demon World. In the Abyss, he had to fight on his own, and it would take him a month to reach this number. But here, he had participated in a few battles and obtained this many. It seemed there was a reason why demons loved wars.
Three hundred souls sounded like a lot, but it was insufficient for Roy’s plans because the hundred or so souls that Xeron had given him were small souls and had little soul power.
Fortunately, it was foreseeable that Xeron and his troops would fight more battles with the elves, and Roy still had many opportunities to continue accumulating souls.
Uland’s appearance further confirmed that the elves were gathering toward their capital. As long as Xeron continued to advance, he would continue encountering them. Now, the only thing that left Roy worried was that Xeron’s troops would decrease as they fought more. Regardless of how formidable Xeron’s magic was, it was impossible to have no losses in battle. The more casualties there were, the more danger Roy would be in during the battles. It would then not be so easy to snatch souls anymore.
After thinking about it, Roy decided that he should persuade Xeron to find a way to replenish his troops.
However, Roy had clearly underestimated the scheming and fighting between these high-rank demons. When Roy mentioned that they had lost too many soldiers and were at a disadvantage for their next move, Xeron immediately made a decision and asked for help nearby!
If he waited for Ignatius’s reinforcements from the demon city, Xeron’s army would have to stop and wait a long time. Xeron wanted to maintain his current pace of grabbing souls, so he laid his eyes on Rashka’s army. Although there was a considerable distance between them, it was still closer than the demon city.
Xeron wanted to use the excuse of suffering huge losses from fighting the main force of the elven army to send someone to ask Rashka to transfer some troops over!
This sly move left Roy dumbfounded and feeling that Xeron was unscrupulous!
Setting aside the fact that Rashka’s army had not received more reinforcements from Ignatius, even if he had it, Xeron’s trick would have immediately turned Rashka’s advantage into nothing.
No wonder Roy’s instigation had worked. These things seemed to happen frequently among the high-rank demons…
Actually, come to think of it, having such a massive pool of manpower in the Abyss means that the demons can continuously summon more troops. But what about the other races? They rely on birth, cultivating, training to build up their military strength. Their disparity with the demons isn’t only a bit. Under these circumstances, the only reason why this world isn’t completely occupied by the demons is that these leading high-rank demons have a lot of infighting.
After realizing this, Roy immediately knew that he could not be the person delivering this letter to Rashka!
He had initially thought of making a trip to Rashka’s side in order to cook up a story that ‘confirmed’ that Rashka and Ignatius were in cahoots. But now that he knew there was infighting among the three of them, he understood that he could not become involved.
Xeron could send someone to ask for reinforcements, but what if Rashka did not want to compromise his own interests and was unwilling to send any?
Declining the request was still all right. What was worrying was that Rashka would directly kill the messenger and pretend that he did receive the message. Later, upon confrontation, he could blame it on the elves, saying that the messenger was intercepted by the elves. If Roy were to deliver the letter, he might become the unlucky one…
Don’t doubt. In the Abyss, it was always best to assume demons had the most evil intentions…
Xeron initially wanted to send Roy, but Roy made use of his identity as a low-rank demon to decline. Xeron thought that it made sense, so he sent an evil spirit to deliver the letter.
If Rashka were to agree to send the reinforcements, it was more suitable for a middle-rank demon to bring them back. With Roy, the middle-rank demons would likely not obey his orders and hurry back…
Once the evil spirit left, Roy cautiously asked Xeron what he would do if Rashka did not give the reinforcements. However, this did not bother Xeron.
Roy guessed that he had an even faster way to get reinforcements—draw a magic formation on the spot and summon the demons. The only downside was that it would consume a lot of Xeron’s magic power. He could recover his magic slowly, but during the war, there might be severe consequences if he had no magic power left. Thus, this method was probably the last resort, and he would only use it if his losses were too great.
In any case, after reorganizing the army, Roy followed Xeron’s army and continued the march.
Only, even Roy did not expect it. It was as though even the heavens were helping him, and his guess became true!
After two weeks, they saw neither the reinforcements from Rashka nor the evil spirit that went to deliver the letter…