System vs Rebirth

Looking at the incoming boulders, Noel was thinking about several things. This was the true siege warfare from the demon army. He knew that it would happen again in the future, so he had to prepare a weapon that could shoot down those boulders.

These boulders were also a double-edged sword. Precisely because Noel knew that he had formed an ice lotus above his head.

The petals flew toward the giant rocks and froze them upon impact. Not only were they covered with thick ice, but the momentum also stopped, causing the rocks to fall right in that area and crushing a lot of demons.

He didn't bother to see the result as he had to extinguish his own fire.

The water that a demon released into the air earlier rained the fire down, but the fire didn't seem to be affected. There was no sign of it weakening. In fact, it continued to spread.

This was Noel's Undying Fire. Unless the demon concentrated all their power on stopping the fire one area at a time, it would be impossible to extinguish his fire.

More and more demons continued moving toward him. Multiple Advanced Level Demons suddenly released their own attacks into the air, letting it curve parabolically toward Noel.

He had seen this type of attack multiple times during his time in the Demon Banner Army. At that time, the Demon Banner Army used the wall as well as the enchantment within the wall to withstand it.

Now that he didn't have that enchantment, he wondered what kind of thing could stop this type of attack.

He wanted to use the Ice Mirrors, but they would only stop the attack. He wanted to use all kinds of attacks to act as a double-edged sword against the demons.

Unfortunately for him, some things were better to be shot down before the impact. Even if it couldn't harm the demons, they wouldn't lose a soldier with a bold and risky strategy.

Hence, a pair of fire wings appeared on his back. With a single flap of the wings, multiple flames were shot to the sky, skillfully hitting those attacks.

Still, this was an army of a few thousands. The number of Advanced Level Demons among them was rather high. Even with the fire feathers, he couldn't stop every single one of them.

Some of the attacks ended up reaching his position. Some of them missed the targets and ended up hitting the ground outside the wall, which killed some demons.

Some of them hit the wall, causing it to vibrate. However, the barrier was extremely sturdy and withstood the attacks without even a single scratch on it. Three attacks ended up hitting inside the wall, which destroyed a part of their camp.

This was Noel's concern, considering the city would be the target.

Most of the time, they created a tall wall in order for the attacks to hit the wall instead of the town. So, Noel took note of this result as well.

As for himself, he had shot down all the attacks that would come in his direction, so he remained still the whole time.

Even though Noel wanted to use all his abilities, he thought about using the Supreme Devil Organization to report something false. And he was still gravely injured, so it wouldn't be wise to show everything.

However, there was one more reason why Noel hadn't made any big moves except for the first one. He was wondering if the Supreme Devil Organization would send their Devil Saints on this mission.

While their mission seemed to be worsening his injuries, they should know that killing him would be more beneficial.

So, he had been focusing on the horizon, making sure that Qiel wasn't among the enemies. After all, her power was far more terrifying in a battle like this.

…

As he predicted, the Supreme Devil Organization was watching him from afar. They couldn't help but gasp when they saw how Noel killed hundreds of demons just by spreading his fire. In fact, they felt like they would be in trouble if they crossed the blaze.

"What should we do? We can't extinguish that fire."

"It's fine. The headquarters have told us that his fire is special, so we just have to report all this later. As for what we're going to do with him, we still have a lot of demons to deal with. spare. Let's continue wearing him out. Once he begins showing any sign of weakening, we'll lure him out."

"Got it."

The people from the Supreme Devil Organization didn't step up even when they saw numerous demons dying. In fact, they had prepared a lot of things to force Noel.

And their plans began to take shape, starting with what happened within Noel's camp.

"Hmm?!" Noel raised his eyebrows when there was a crumbling sound coming from within the camp.

Even the knights couldn't help but turn their heads to the inside, finding a centipede breaking through their camp by digging the ground.

Without hesitation, a knight from the Moon Temple jumped off the wall and sliced this big centipede, killing it in one blow.

However, more and more demons appear from the hole. In fact, the one he killed earlier was not the only centipede. Three more centipedes broke through and created a hole within them.

Noel's expression darkened. If the enemies utilized this kind of attack in order to infiltrate their city, it would become even more troublesome. In fact, Noel wasn't the only one who thought about this.

The Saintess experienced this kind of tactic for the first time. She hurriedly formed another barrier to block the hole as the temple knights killed the other demons, stopping them from spreading.

Seeing that the reserve had been deployed, the Supreme Devil Organization stepped up their game by sending another wave of demons. It didn't come from the ground this time. Instead, it was a few crocodiles and frogs appearing from the water. Some fish even came out just to spurt out a lot of pressurized water.

"There are more coming!" The Temple Knights shouted. They had to split their forces into two. The first group took care of the demons that managed to infiltrate their camp while the other group stopped the attacks from the water.

The Saintess wanted to help them, but she was also pressured from her side. The only thing she could do was seal the hole with her barrier to stop more demons from coming. Though, she believed that the demons would dig to another place.

It would have been easier if she could actually just isolate this place with a spherical barrier, but that wasn't what Noel wanted.

When things couldn't get worse, the flying demons that had been hovering in the air finally began their moves.

They flew past the demons and released their respective attacks to harm the Saintess, Noel or any of the knights.

Noel flapped his wings, using the fire gale to blow away their attacks. The heat also affected some of them as their skin started melting.

Flying demons, amphibians, and underground demons. He seemed to have underestimated the potential of a demon army.

He couldn't help but wonder how his ancestor repelled all this demon from his city. After all, the demons were controlled by a Demon King, who was said to outsmart him.

When Noel was thinking, a few demons were climbing the wall. They stacked up in front of the walls and the surviving demons climbed on top of their kin's dead bodies.

This was only an army of thousands of demons. His city might have to endure more than ten thousand demons, so he had to find a way to stop them from climbing the wall this way as well. They might even be more dangerous than a human army since they could do the unthinkable.

There were a lot of things he had to do once he returned to the main city.

But before he could do all that, he had to eliminate all these demons.

"This is getting dangerous." Noel muttered.

One of the demons managed to climb the wall and hurriedly rush toward Noel, ready to pounce on him.

Without hesitation, Noel summoned the Flame Devil. A huge fire avatar emerged from his back and grabbed the demon, melting its body completely.

After that, the Flame Devil bent its body forward and grabbed all the corpses as well as a few surviving demons to melt them down so that other demons couldn't use them to climb the wall.

When Noel had shifted a part of his attention to the demons underneath him, the Supreme Devil Organization ordered the demons to launch another volley of attack.

Noel clicked his tongue. While maintaining the Fire Devil, Noel formed a few Spiritual Barrier Runes to block the incoming attacks.

However, the Flame Devil's movement seemed to become sluggish. A few Advanced Level Demon and a Peak Level Bison suddenly appeared in the front line. Some of the low level demons actually used their bodies to bulldoze everything on its path so that the stronger demons wouldn't be harmed by the fire.

Those Advanced Level Demons were climbing the bodies before the Flame Devil melted them down. Their target wasn't Noel. Instead, it was the Flame Devil.

They covered their bodies with Spiritual Energy. Some of them even released crescent-shaped attacks or beams to destroy the Flame Devil's body.

The fire avatar wasn't that easy to beat. Even when the attack affected its body, the Flame Devil grabbed their bodies to kill them. Still, there was one Peak Level Demon that had been waiting for the right time.

When the Flame Devil got weaker, the Peak Level Bison charged ahead.

The barrier should be enough to stop the charge, but surprisingly, the bison actually hit the lump of bodies before him and launched it into the air.

"Ooooaaahh!" It let out a roar as if telling the demons to do something.

Some of the Mid Level and Advanced Level Demons actually used those bodies to propel themselves above the wall so that they would surround Noel once they fell.

Noel wouldn't allow such a thing as he hurriedly flapped his wings once again to release the Fire Gale that would push them away. Some of the demons that could release a wing also helped neutralize Noel's attack.

Ultimately, three demons managed to reach the wall and rush to Noel.

Noel used his wing to wrap two of them in flame, but the last one managed to reach him. Noel grabbed the last demon with his hands before launching it with a Rune Blast.

Some of the demons also continued moving unpredictably, causing Noel to have a lot of information to process.

The people from the Supreme Devil Organization couldn't help but laugh. "Can you see that?"

"He is starting to get overwhelmed."

"Yeah. Is this really the so-called Noel Ardagan who is said to have eliminated multiple Grandmasters when he was only a Spirit Master?"

"It must be because of the injuries. He is amazing to be able to release that level of power with that kind of injury."

"We should just come straight to him and kill him."

"No. Madam Qiel ordered us to avoid a direct confrontation. Besides, the Saintess hasn't done anything yet. If the situation becomes more dangerous, there's a chance that she will isolate all of them by creating an enclosed barrier. When that happens, we won't be able to lure him out."

"So, we're going to separate him from the Saintess first?"

"Yeah. Since we've weakened him enough, let's begin."

The people from the Supreme Devil Organization continued to the next phase, which was to show themselves.

Little did they know, everything was just an act from Noel. While it was true that he started getting overwhelmed, if he were to release his full strength, the demons would be crushed.

However, he still had to act extremely weak since he was sure that was the only way to make the organization show itself.

Both Noel and the organization had forgotten about one more variable that could upset the battlefield.