Second World

Jack's HP continued to decrease as his soul was burnt. He couldn't do anything because his mind was a mess. The agony was a thousand times more painful than anything he had ever experienced.

Luckily, Peniel was not affected by the mental assault. She immediately used Invulnerability when Jack's HP went to critical.

The Invulnerability protected Jack from everything, including mind attacks. It cleared Jack's thoughts and broke the archdemon's hold on his mind.

But the aftereffect was still there. Jack's mind was slow in responding when the archdemon reformed his flaming saber and stabbed it into him. Fortunately, the invulnerability had not yet ended.

Jack finally got his shit together before the Invulnerability ended. He used Gold Dragon Vitality, recovering all his HP and also doubling his max HP.

His attributes also increased from that skill. However, he still couldn't manage to push the archdemon off him. The archdemon's hand that was pressing his body to the floor was like a giant clamp.

The archdemon repeated his stab. Luckily, Jack still had the Lightning God Suit. Its protection mitigated much of the damage.

As he was struggling, a gigantic phantom fist slammed the archdemon's face. The phantom fist was Alfredo's Phantasm Fist. It failed to force the archdemon to release Jack but it did cause the archdemon to reel to the side. An exploding bolt struck the same face almost a second after.

Jack then saw Jonathan appear with his halberd covered by earth, forming a giant earth mallet. Jonathan had managed to take down the Ice Demon Fiend with others' help. Jonathan slammed his earth mallet into the archdemon's head which was already reeling. The archdemon's hand finally left Jack's body.

Jack immediately followed by making a double kick-up while pushing his body off the ground, striking the archdemon on the chin.

The archdemon was forced back from all those attacks. A shadow then slammed onto him, followed by multiple slashes. Arlcard zapped around the archdemon at incredible speed, his rapier slashed non-stop as he kept the archdemon occupied.

Jack retreated. His mind was still hazy. Jonathan stayed near him to provide protection. Alfredo and Dimitri continued supporting Arlcard from a distance.

"What the hell was that just now?" Jack asked Peniel.

"Soul burn," Peniel answered. "You are lucky. That skill has a chance for an instant kill."

"Why does it transform?"

"That is Demonization. A transformation skill similar to your Beast Form. If non-demon used this skill. It will turn the user into a demon. If it's a demon. Well, it turns the demon into a more powerful demon."

"Horse arse. It never gets boring when I'm with you," Jonathan cursed after hearing it. "Can you still fight?"

"I can," Jack said. "But my beast form will be ending soon. We need to finish this fast."

"The archdemon's HP had gone down to nearly half. I say you people have done a great job doing that in such a short time," Peniel commented.

"Great job is not enough if it isn't done. That archdemon has HP recovery, we can't stop pressing," Jack said while thinking quickly. Arlcard wasn't faring very well. The transformed archdemon was stronger than when it was still the normal size.

Jack then said to Jonathan. "Jonathan, I might need you to take on that archdemon for a while."

"What?! Are you serious?" Jonathan asked with wide eyes.

Jack nodded with a serious expression.

"... All right. Everything for you, Your Majesty," Jonathan said.

"I appreciate it, Jonathan," Jack clapped Jonathan's shoulder. He then relayed his plan to the others mentally.

"Time to use the big guns. Let's do it!" Jack exclaimed and ran to the edge of the dome's wall.

Duke Alfredo cast Summon Asura before doing the same as Jack. The four-armed asura immediately ran to face the archdemon.

Arlcard used Shadow Clone. His clone continued fighting the archdemon while he distanced himself.

Jack, Alfredo, and Arlcard put as much distance from the archdemon as possible but in three different directions.

Jack cast Accelerate on all five of them. Arlcard cast Shadow Veil on Jonathan. The shadow veil protected Jonathan as he joined Arlcard's clone and Alfredo's Asura in keeping the archdemon busy. Dimitri continued to rain bolts on the archdemon from afar.

Then, many runic symbols appeared around Jack and Arlcard. At the same time, Duke Alfredo cast a spell that formed a very large runic symbol.

Jack and Arlcard were using their rune techniques while Alfredo cast a mega spell.

Rune techniques and mega spells had one other weakness aside from the long-casting time. They had to remain immobile. They couldn't move around and cast it like normal spells no matter how solid their concentration was. Hence, getting attacked and being forced to move would easily cancel the process.

Jack knew only rune techniques or mega spells could push the tide in their favor, but the archdemon won't let them have the required time to complete the long process. Even with Accelerate, it would still not be fast enough.

Hence, he had the three of them, who had rune techniques and mega spells, positioned as far away from each other. If the archdemon wanted to stop them, it would need to choose which one to disrupt. In this way, two of them, or at least one could complete the process.

Jonathan was protected by Arlcard's Shadow Veil, but that was not enough protection. The archdemon easily smashed aside Jonathan's earth hammer with its flaming saber. Then with the other hand, it smacked Jonathan into the ground. Jonathan's HP went down a huge chunk.

Dimitri activated a skill, Repeating Shot. His crossbows fired rapid shots continuously, but this skill required him to be stationary. He was like holding a gatling gun after activating the skill.

The bolts from this skill had a knockback ability, but the archdemon's strength was simply too high that it completely ignored the knockback effect.

The archdemon used brute strength and forced its way through the asura's many weapons. Its fist punched the asura's chest hard, sending it flying. The archdemon's flaming whip then reappeared and caught Arlcard's shadow clone before flinging it away.

With the obstacles temporarily removed, it looked between the three in the distance. From the rune symbols around the three, it could see their intentions. It didn't take long to decide. It stretched its two hands aiming at Jack and Alfredo. These two hands fired bolts of dark crimson energy.

Its bat wings then flapped and it shot at high speed toward the one it considered to be the highest menace, Arlcard.