System vs Rebirth

The Water Lord furrowed his eyebrows while controlling the elemental.

"What is going on… What is that ice?" The Water Lord noticed Noel's ice crystals but even if he wanted to check them, he couldn't move from his position.

"The situation is stable right now. Should I go to check on the situation? But the city is still under attack. I don't know what's going on inside the city, but it's clear that the demons somehow make their way in."

The Water Lord was assessing the situation carefully. Unfortunately, no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't connect anything. How could he even think of the possibility of the Void Arbiter interfering with the war?

The Water Lord was waiting for the order so that he could go to a different spot, either to suppress the demons inside the city or check the ice crystal.

However, the order never came.

"What's going on with the high command? Are they blind? Can't they see the situation within the city?" The Water Lord gritted his teeth.

To his surprise, he suddenly heard cheers erupting in a few parts of the city.

"Ooohh!"

The kind of cheers definitely were not the work of a single person. There should be at least a hundred or so.

The Water Lord didn't know that Howard had actually come back to reinforce the inner city.

But his shock didn't end there. Just two minutes after that cheer, lightning sparked from the woods behind the demons.

In an instant, a figure appeared behind the snail, slashing the snail into two, including its shell.

The snail shrieked, but soon the sound died down.

"Anna Stargaze?" The Water Lord sucked a cold breath. She actually appeared out of nowhere and struck down a Superior Demon.

However, Anna didn't bother to look at him. Instead, her eyes were locked onto the serpent that he had been stopping this whole time.

"Her goal is…" The Water Lord hurriedly controlled the water elemental to hug the snake, covering it with water. "Go, Anna Stargaze!"

Unfortunately, Anna had unleashed all the energy that she had charged into her blade. In the end, she could only form a spear in her hand and toss it to the serpent.

*Shaa!* The serpent spat out the poison to melt the attack. Sadly for the serpent, the lightning spear pierced through, losing half of its power.

The moment the lightning spear touched the water, it instantly spread to the surrounding area.

*Shaaa!* The serpent was electrocuted. It felt like the inside was being reduced to ashes. At the same time, the water elemental that held him down also shattered due to Anna's power.

"Huu…" The Water Lord panted a few times. If he didn't release his power at the last second, he would be injured as well. Still, the consumption of summoning another elemental was extremely great. Yet, the last attack didn't kill the snake.

It was struggling with the excruciating pain, but it hadn't died yet. So, the Water Lord hurriedly summoned another water elemental to kill this serpent.

Unfortunately, Anna had to go back to the woods to regroup with Noel.

The Water Lord didn't understand what was going on, but he tried to kill the serpent as this was his only chance.

What he didn't know was that Noel and Anna would come out of the woods together.

"That's…" The Water Lord looked at Noel's figures. Just like Anna, it seemed that he had transformed. "True Spirit Body?!"

"Water Lord!" Noel pointed at the snake.

The Water Lord realized what Noel wanted. That was right. They had to kill this serpent.

Because of the sneak attack earlier, Anna's remaining energy was only enough for one more strike. But Noel had told her to kill the Demon Tree. In other words, Noel would be the one killing this serpent.

Although he didn't know the arrangements, it was clear that Noel intended to kill the serpent.

So, the Water Lord used the water elemental body to swallow the snake.

"Explode!" Noel shouted.

The Water Lord instinctively trusted Noel's judgment and caused the water to explode, splattering it everywhere.

After that, Noel waved his hand. "Frozen Domain!"

A thick layer of ice instantly covered the ground and spread in all directions. When it touched the demons' feet, it spread up and froze the entire body. The water coming from the elemental made it even easier for Noel to freeze them.

The Superior Demon Snake as well as a hundred demons were frozen in an instant as the west battlefield had turned into an icy plain.

Even the barrier that the saintess made was frozen a little bit.

Noel was thankful for his assistance, but with this, he didn't have any more spiritual energy left in his body. His transformation was being undone.

Just like Dimitri said, he definitely felt his spirit veins were broken due to the intense burden of the True Spirit Body.

But that didn't matter. As expected of Duke Briton, he instantly recognized the power and sent forth the flying squads. They released all the explosive balls they had to cover Noel.

As soon as they reached a certain range, Anna jumped onto the top of the wall.

"Woah?!" The soldiers were startled, but Anna said, "This is your lord. Hurry up and protect him!"

The soldiers hurriedly regained their composure as one of the officers commanded, "Form a protective barrier and make sure not a single demon can enter. We have to escort our Lord back!"

"Sorry for letting you do this." Noel apologized in a low tone to Anna. Even after fighting for so long, Anna still had one more important role left.

"Don't worry. I will be with you soon." Anna smiled as she jumped to the top of the wall near Andreas. "Andreas!"

Andreas was confused about why he was being called, but when he turned around, he saw Anna charging her power into her sword.

In that instant, Andreas switched his stance.

He had been cutting the soul of this tree to the point where there were only six roots left that the tree could use.

Since Anna was here to deliver a killing blow, there was only one thing to do.

"My grandfather is the one teaching me this, but I guess it's a perfect time to use it." Andreas smiled. "Timeless Soul."

When the six roots tried to impale him, Andreas disappeared or more accurately split into six.

The demon tree was dumbfounded by the souls, but that one second of hesitation allowed the six souls to slash the six roots, incapacitating it.

With the roots falling to the ground, Anna leaped from the wall at lightning speed.

The demon tree tried to move its branches, but it was too late. Anna had reached the tree and drawn her blade.

"Raging Thunder Slash."

With a single draw of her blade, the lightning was unleashed like a bolt of natural lightning. It was fast and destructive, splitting the tree into two. The lightning even started a fire on the bottom of the tree which soon spread to the entire body.

"Haa… Ha…" Anna panted a few times. She had exhausted all her energy as her transformation was undone.

"With this, the battle should tip in our favor. They have lost all the Devil Saints and a lot of Superior Demons." Anna smirked.

This should be enough to kill the enemy, but all of a sudden, the tree moved once again just like the other demons.

"!!!" Anna raised her head, seeing that the branches continued expanding and turning toward her as if they were ready to impale her.

As if expecting this, Andreas appeared next to the tree and cut the yellow flower that sprouted the moment the demon tree was defeated.

"I hope that you are more careful than this," said Andreas while holding the flower that he cut earlier. After that, he carried Anna and jumped back to the top of the wall as if nothing important had happened.

"Is that the flower controlling the demons?" Anna asked.

"Yeah. I'm going to study a bit of its soul later. I should be able to get some useful information whether for myself or the Ardagan Family." Andreas nodded while lowering Anna. "I don't have to carry you all the way, right?"

"It's fine. Just leave me here. I believe that the situation is going to tip over right now."

"In that case…" Andreas looked down, wondering what he should do next.

After seeing three Superior Demons die under Anna and Noel's ambushes, Duke Briton hurriedly shouted, "Tell the Gem Lord that he doesn't need to hold back anymore. It's time to flatten

—"

Before he finished his words, Noel's voice echoed in his ears. "No. Not yet. The enemies are still fighting with all their might. We have to let them continue to gather more data. Besides, I'm sure that they are waiting until dark. I also have prepared something for them, which is a perfect time to test it."

"What? Shouldn't we strike while the iron is hot?" Duke Briton asked.

"No. The enemy is most likely trying to learn our battlefield. I am not sure, but there should be a demon that is currently in training to become a commander like Qiel. That's why we have to do this."

"So, the demon learns a weird thing, thinking it's a normal thing?"

"Yeah."

"But that's just your speculation." Duke Briton couldn't believe it, considering it was simply too absurd.

However, Noel shook his head. "I have been fighting the demons and the Supreme Devil Organization ever since I joined the Demon Banner Army. In the Muivell Kingdom, I know their behavior better than you, Duke Briton."

Duke Briton fell silent for a moment before shouting, "Maintain the attrition warfare. We'll reduce their number as much as possible. Tell the Water Lord to recover his stamina and Paladin Aurelia to take over the entire west side."

However, there was actually another surprise for Noel.

In just an hour after his return, he would receive a notification from Ardagan regarding his mission.

[Mission: Kill Sniper Devil Saint (Complete)]

[Description: Kill Qiel, the brain of the Supreme Devil Organization.]

[Reward: An Advanced Rune (One Category of Choice).]