“Yes, it’s you, Detective.”
“But…”
“There’s still 1 minute and 40 seconds.”
The doctor reminded him.
Xia De pursed his lips and asked rapidly, “Are you sure you can still deal with that Balrog after I pull out that sword? I don’t want to release another Balrog on Sicar Mountain just for a relic. Only God knows how many problems Middsburg at the foot of the mountain is facing right now; this place doesn’t need demons to make the story more interesting.”
“Don’t worry, that sword’s damage to demons is beyond my imagination. Although I haven’t identified the sword’s origin yet, I’m certain that the Balrog, sealed for hundreds of years, is definitely in a weakened state.”
Although the doctor had been forced to flee by the sword just now, he still looked very confident.
“There’s still over a minute left, so alright. I’ll pull the sword, you’re responsible for devouring the Balrog, and then immediately jump into the door.”
“No problem.”
So, Xia De cautiously approached. Because Xia De himself didn’t possess demonic power, the longsword remained unresponsive even as Xia De reached out his hand towards the sparking bonfire.
“Doctor, I’m going to do it!”
Xia De shouted, then quickly reached out, gripped the hilt, and pulled upwards with force, but the sword didn’t budge:
“I can’t seem to pull it out!”
“Put on the Demon Hunter Seal!”
The doctor reminded him, and from the sound of his voice, he was slowly approaching.
So Xia De put the Demon Hunter Seal ring on his right-hand finger, stood with his legs slightly apart in front of the bonfire, and gripped the warm hilt with both hands simultaneously. Perhaps because he was wearing the ring this time, some blurry images quickly flashed before Xia De.
He saw the scene when the rope bridge in front of him was not yet broken, and he saw a human Ring術士 holding a longsword, directly facing the giant Evil Spirit demon in the mountain belly, which was glowing red from the flames on the Balrog’s body.
Just seeing the true form of the Arsonist-Sokfis in this blurry image made Xia De feel as if his skin was being burned; Ancient Evil Spirits were indeed no joke:
“Is this a memory left by the sword’s previous owner? He wants to tell future generations what is sealed here. Unfortunately, I still have to pull the sword.”
He thought to himself, taking a deep breath, and then lowering his center of gravity. He pulled with both hands, then his shoulders led his arms, his arms led his wrists, and his wrists led his palms, gradually applying more force. It was extremely heavy; this sword was heavier than any item Xia De had ever tried to lift. But as he held his breath and lifted the sword upwards, he clearly felt the sword actually move.
Another blurry image flashed before his eyes, overlapping with the large empty cavern in the mountain belly in front of him, except that it was very bright there at that time, and the broken bridge was still intact.
A pretty woman in a fiery red long dress, Xia De was almost certain she was a Witch, stood by the bridge looking at this place:
“I am Violet Marshall, the Thirteenth-Order Witch and ruler of Witten. This sword was found in the mountain, a relic left by a past hero. It is the key to solving the Gap problem in the future. I leave it here; future generations may use it, but they must return it promptly when problems arise in the Gap.”
The fifth epoch language entered his ears, and the image disappeared. This seemed to be a message from the Witch Emperor of the fifth epoch, but this also meant that the sword in his hand had other uses, and Xia De could not possess it for long.
“However, is the passage on the mountainside of the Gap here?”
Before Xia De could figure it out, as the sword blade gradually lifted from the bonfire Ashes, more and more sparks rapidly appeared in the bonfire, which originally had only sporadic sparks, and connected into flames, licking at Xia De’s trouser legs.
The temperature here was getting higher and higher, but Xia De wasn’t sure if this was an illusion caused by his anxiety.
He only knew that at this moment, his face was flushed, and he didn’t dare to exhale the breath he was holding in his mouth, otherwise the sword, which seemed to be wrestling with him, would definitely fall immediately.
A bell sound suddenly rang in the empty cavern; it was the ritual Xia De had set up in advance, which was ineffective against Doctor Schneider but effective against other demons, taking effect. This also meant that the Balrog, sealed by a High-Ring Sorcerer a hundred years ago with a relic-level longsword, was about to completely break free from its seal:
“Doctor, hurry, there are forty seconds left!”
As he spoke, another series of images flashed before his eyes. This time, the images were more chaotic, scenes of the longsword’s past wielders killing enemies. Xia De even saw the old man he met at the party among them; he had even wielded this sword. But as an ordinary person, he probably hadn’t unleashed much of the sword’s power.
“Detective, although I am not some ancient hero, today, let me demonstrate a thirty-second kill of a Balrog! Get out of the way quickly!”
“Okay!”
The lowest part of the sword blade, forcibly pulled out by Xia De with brute force, was only a fingernail’s distance from completely leaving the Ashes that had begun to reignite. And the bonfire, which was about to completely ignite Xia De’s clothes, grew even fiercer.
He held his breath and used his last ounce of strength to fully pull out the longsword in his hand. What was very strange was that when the blade completely detached from the bonfire’s Ashes, the sword’s weight suddenly returned to normal, causing Xia De to fall backward as he couldn’t retract his strength in time.
But as he fell backward, Xia De’s figure disappeared from in front of the bonfire, causing the giant hand, like obsidian, burning with flames and rolling with magma, that immediately reached out from the bonfire, to lose its target.
“Doctor, it’s your turn, there are 36 seconds left.”
Xia De, who had retreated to the passage entrance using Raglai's Leap, shouted. The sword he held was no longer glowing, but the runes on the sword, meaning “My heart is clear, my sword slays demons,” still glowed bright yellow in the dim firelight.
Before the doctor could give Xia De any response, the thick arm that had just tried to grab Xia De retracted into the reignited Ashes. In just the blink of an eye, the entire bonfire had turned into a fierce stream of fire, suddenly flying from the broken bridge at the edge of the stone platform and finally landing on the platform in the center of the large empty cavern.
“Roar~”
That astonishing roar even made Xia De feel the ground Vibration. At the same time, fierce flames splattered in all directions, turning the entire mountain belly cavern fiery red.
Amidst the roar, the flames that landed on the central platform gradually took shape; a bipedal humanoid creature about 20 feet (6.1 m) tall was gradually emerging from the flames. Xia De’s ears immediately began to ring, and his entire body temperature rose; an Ancient Evil Spirit had truly appeared before his eyes.
“Doctor, 29 seconds, can you handle it?”
“No problem, this thing’s original height exceeded 100 feet; it’s now so weak it can barely maintain its form.”
The demon, whose form was unclear in the flames, swung its right arm amidst the astonishing roar, and a dazzling fiery whip danced in the air, leaving a stream of fire that illuminated the surroundings. With a sonic boom, the fiery whip struck Doctor Schneider, who had already reached the edge of the stone platform’s broken bridge, where the bonfire had been.
Xia De couldn’t see the doctor’s expression from behind him; he could only see that the doctor seemed to have grown a section taller out of thin air, and his right arm, which had become thick and heavy at some point, stretched forward and actually gripped the end of the fiery whip.
Sparks flew everywhere, even splattering in front of Xia De. The firelight and heat made it almost impossible for him to open his eyes, and the roaring from the distant stone platform was even more terrifying.
The doctor, facing this Ancient Evil Spirit directly, merely wrapped the fiery whip around his arm, his voice incredibly calm:
“Detective, in the winter of 1850, I devoured a Evil Spirit known for its power—the Brain-Eating Demon Baingulens.”
Wrestling with the demon using a human body, spiderweb-like cracks had already appeared on the surface of the stone platform beneath his feet, but the doctor remained motionless:
“And then, in the late summer of 1853, I devoured Human Pus.”
A dazzling stream of fire, following the fiery whip, surged into the doctor’s right hand. The doctor seemed to swell up another circle, and at the same time, the continuous stream of fire wrapped around his body, making him look incredibly mystical at this moment.
“Plus, in the early spring of 1847, when I went to Carson Rick for an academic conference, I encountered the Terrifying Demonic Worm Juer Winter in Nimnes City.”
Invisible air currents swept outwards from the doctor as their center, and a hint of fear was added to the Balrog’s angry roar.
Its left hand produced a longsword shaped from flames. The length of the sword itself exceeded the doctor’s current height. The sword was thrown by the demon, hurled towards the doctor, who was absorbing its power.
Seeing this, Xia De hurled a dazzling arc of light towards the longsword. The Silver Moon Slash flew much faster than the fiery longsword, and the two collided in front of the doctor. As fragments of the Silver Moon and specks of firelight splattered in all directions, the two almost mutually annihilated each other. But the fragments of the Silver Moon scattered everywhere, while the specks of firelight all surged into the doctor’s body.
Being able to defeat this sword, of course, did not mean that Xia De’s strength could already contend with the Balrog. Instead, it was because the Evil Spirit demon, already incredibly weak from years of sealing, was now almost completely drained by the doctor. The PentaCircle peak doctor could directly contend with the Balrog, not only because he countered it, but also because the opponent was truly very weak.
In just a few short seconds, due to the doctor’s absorption, the flames on the Balrog’s body surface dimmed and were about to extinguish, and at the same time, its size continued to shrink, its roaring voice finally only echoing unwillingly in the large empty cavern.
