Second World

Leavemealone rushed forward. His fiery fist was positioned low. It almost touched the ground. He reached Jack and brought his fist up, just as Isaac's halberd came slashing down.

The image of an eastern dragon and its roar followed his rising fist. The fiery fist and the blade of the halberd collided. Leavemealone was thrown to the ground by the impact, but Isaac's halberd was also smashed away. Isaac himself backstepped a few times from the force.

"Yo, thanks for the save!" Leavemealone heard Jack's voice. Strangely, it didn't come from down there where Jack was. It came from his back.

Leavemealone turned around and saw another Jack there, fighting other opponents. Not far ahead, another Jack with golden wings was flying around trying to get close to Marcus while being bombarded by spells.

Leavemealone had never seen Jack use Double Clone before. What he knew was Jack's Body Double, but the copies from that spell couldn't fight enemies, so he was rather astounded when he saw this scene.

"Hey! No time to be daydreaming!" Jack who was on the ground rose and said to him. "You hold this vampire down. I need to deal with that vampire chick."

Jack ran toward where Zara was, leaving Leavemealone with Isaac.

"What…?!" Leavemealone looked at Jack going away in disbelief. He was already having trouble fighting Xenos. This Isaac had an even higher level than Xenos. He couldn't use the Nine Yin Abyssal Finger often. Like Jack who couldn't use the Nine Yin Phantom Sword continuously, Leavemealone also experienced the same thing.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw Xenos coming at him again.

"F*ck!!" He cursed. He used his Tiger Brawler's level 70 skill, Tiger King's Dominance. This skill applied debuffs on all the enemies around him. The debuffs included reducing the attributes, the damage the enemy could inflict, and their defenses. Now that he was amid the enemy's rank, this skill hit almost all the enemies.

He then followed with Tiger Multi Strikes. His body split into multiple images, similar to the multi-sided strikes Xenos had pulled earlier. The Tiger Multi Strikes produced more images and dealt higher damage.

The skill hit all the enemies that surrounded him and stopped them from advancing. He knew he wouldn't be able to survive with so many powerful opponents attacking him, but he wouldn't just give up. He would try to last for as long as possible. He just hoped Jack didn't take too long time to deal with Marcus.

While Leavemealone was having that bleak thought, a big explosion shook the hall. Everyone turned to where the explosion had occurred, which was the door where Jack and the others had entered from.

The door was no longer there. In its place was a huge hole. A hole where its edges were still melting. Flames spread around the floor near the hole. Floating in these flames was a tall high demon, the archdemon lord.

"Hell, yeah! Reinforcement has arrived!" Jack exclaimed after seeing the archdemon lord. That archdemon lord must have just finished dispatching all the blood guards outside.

The archdemon lord didn't waste any time. It cast one of its spells, the Blade of Doom. The colossal blade of fire sliced through the floor, leaving a trail of fire.

"Shit!" Jack cursed when he saw the blade's trajectory. It was heading to Marcus, but Jack was coincidentally in the way when he was going for Zara. He quickly jumped to the side. The archdemon lord didn't care if it hit its conjurer during the battle.

Marcus quickly cast a defensive spell when the blade of doom cut through some of the dead vampire elders and their summons. A giant shield of light materialized in front of him. The blade of doom hit the shield and the shield was cut in two. But before it was cut, a giant translucent wall materialized between Marcus and his light shield. That was Phantasm Wall cast by Zara.

The Blade of Doom had expended a portion of its energy destroying Marcus' celestial shield. When it hit Zara's Phantasm Wall, it destroyed the wall but the blade itself was also spent. Marcus was safe.

Marcus didn't feel safe, though. That archdemon lord was an eternal grade. Even if it was nine levels lower than him, it was still an opponent stronger than him.

He sent a mental command to Zara who then cast a seven-runes spell.

"Forced Unsummon!" Leavemealone recognized the spell. Master once used it against his Lesser Tiger God Manifestation in the past.

The spell hit the archdemon lord, but it didn't disappear.

"Hah! Don't you think my intelligence stat is that much lower than you!" Jack exclaimed. If Zara failed to banish Therras previously, she was sure as hell wouldn't be able to banish the archdemon lord.

"The forced unsummon has another effect if it fails to banish the summoned creature," Peniel told Jack.

"What effect?" Jack asked.

"His duration will be halved!"

"What?" Jack checked his pendant. It was true. The archdemon lord's normal duration was one hour. There should still be a bit over half an hour left. Now its duration was only three minutes.

"Crap!" He cursed. He didn't think the archdemon lord could finish this fight in three minutes.

He did a quick thinking. His copy with the gold dragon wings changed his flight path and flew back to where Arlcard was. While flying back, he noticed that Cain's smoke form had separated from Arlcard.

Using the path cleared by the Archdemon Lord's Blade of Doom, Arlcard and Cain rushed ahead. The dead vampire elders quickly returned to block that path, but the two had gotten close enough. The sight of Marcus being so close sent Cain into a frenzy. Its smoke form lashed out and forced its way forward. It even left its host, Arlcard, behind, because Arlcard was being hindered by the dead vampire elders.

Cain couldn't survive for long without Arlcard but the elder spirit seemed to have thrown caution to the winds. It slapped the obstacles in its way as it forced its way toward Marcus.