Let the Fight Begin

Li Feng was not at all curious that the energy source of the defensive array protecting Sefrak Abbey was Faith Power. After all, this was the Middle Ages, when the Church's influence surpassed every kingdom. What was so strange about a dominant Church gathering some Faith Power to protect an abbey? It was perfectly normal.

Besides, the abbey contained a genuine spellbook. Having mysterious forces as a means of defense was only to be expected.

When Beman knocked on the door and received no response, Kay had no choice but to climb over the wall into the abbey and open the main gate for everyone.

As the convoy entered the abbey, everyone except Li Feng, who had expected this, wondered why such a huge abbey did not have a single person in sight.

Inside the Prison Wagon, the Demon surveyed the surrounding buildings with a half-smile, completely ignoring Li Feng's right hand as it moved toward his longsword.

At some point, Mordo had also gripped his Short Staff, ready to fight at any moment.

The movements of Li Feng and Mordo made Beman and Felson feel the air filling with the scent of gunpowder. After exchanging glances, they drew their Crusader Swords, watching Li Feng and Mordo while remaining on guard against the witch in the Prison Wagon.

Before long, the group arrived at the church entrance. Before Felson had even tied up the horses, the Priest at the side rushed impatiently into the church. Beman followed after him with a helpless look.

For a moment, only Li Feng, Mordo, Felson—who held his Crusader Sword with both hands and stayed on constant alert—and the utterly bewildered Kay remained in the small square before the church.

Li Feng looked at Felson, then at Mordo. Drawing his Magic Longsword, he pointed it at the Demon and said to Felson, "Honorable Knight, could you point your sword at the Demon locked in that cage? You keep aiming it at me, and it's making me nervous."

A Demon? Hadn't the Church said she was a Dark Witch?

Felson frowned in confusion. "What did you say?"

Inside the Prison Wagon, the Demon had planned to wait until the Priest retrieved The Key of Solomon before revealing his true form. He had not expected the student to whom he had taught dark magic for days to expose his identity in a single sentence.

The Demon covertly glanced at Hegma, who sat in the driver's seat of the Prison Wagon, then suddenly burst into laughter. Amid a gust of wind, his blazing hands seized the bars of the wagon as he tried to melt the cage imprisoning him. "For centuries, you have hanged, burned, and crucified all who stood in the way of your wealth and power. We of Hell thank you for sending us so many delicious wronged souls, giving us enough strength to breach Hell's defenses. Now, are you ready to welcome—"

Before the Demon could finish, Li Feng's Magic Longsword suddenly erupted in blazing flames. He slashed at the Demon and said, "If you want to fight, then fight. Why the hell are you babbling? Do you know I make tens of thousands a minute? I'd have to be sick in the head to stand here chatting with you."

Felson was already dumbstruck. Instinctively, he pointed his Crusader Sword at the witch, who was about to emerge from the Prison Wagon and had already revealed some Demonic traits.

Kay was not much better off. Carrying his Crusader Sword, he rushed into the church to call Beman out for backup.

Felson considered himself well-traveled after years of battle, but he had truly never seen such a rare creature as a Demon.

Felson glanced at Li Feng, who was hacking at the Demon with his longsword, and muttered softly, "Now I'll have a story to tell when I return home. And it'll be one I experienced myself."

Felson then turned to Mordo and said, "That longsword in your companion's hand obviously looks magical. What about you? What's your profession? A Monk? Are you going to punch the Demon in the face?"

Mordo shot Felson a sidelong glance, activated the Short Staff-shaped Magic Artifact in his hand, and lashed it like a whip toward Hegma, who lay quietly in the driver's seat of the Prison Wagon.

Although Felson believed Anna was a Demon, he could not understand why Mordo was attacking the innocent Hegma and wanted to stop him. But before Felson could speak, Hegma flipped aside with an agility no human should possess, dodging the Magic Artifact's strike. Landing on all fours like a lizard, he flicked out a forked tongue and cursed, "Damn demon hunter! Don't you know this body has already suffered enough? How could you bring yourself to whip a corpse?"

Well, Mordo did not need to explain anything. Felson could see that Hegma had already been possessed by a Demon. Still, I'm a Knight. If you want me to chop people up, I've been doing it for more than ten years and I'm pretty good at it. But chopping Demons is a job I'm taking on for the first time, so don't complain if I don't do it well.

Li Feng narrowed his eyes at Hegma and suddenly understood. "So that's why those wolves only bit you half to death before leaving. The real Hegma had already kicked the bucket back then, and you took the opportunity to steal his body."

Mordo remembered Li Feng's words that Sefrak could use a special ritual to eliminate the Plague in this world, so he had not dared to attack at full strength, afraid that he might accidentally kill the Demon.

After forcing Hegma to reveal his true form, he stopped attacking. He merely kept his eyes fixed on Hegma, remaining on guard. Deep down, Mordo regretted not bringing all his equipment when he crossed over. I was careless. This Demon possessing Hegma actually crawled out of Hell in its true body, and it's even slightly stronger than me.

After entering the church, Beman and the Priest discovered that everyone inside had died from the Plague. Just as the Priest was on the verge of a mental breakdown, he finally found a Priest with only half a breath left. Under that dying Priest's guidance, Beman found the target of their journey: The Key of Solomon.

Kay hurried into the church and pointed at its entrance. "Quick! The Dark Witch has turned into a Demon. Mordo and Austin are confronting them outside."

Them? There was more than one Demon?

Beman tossed the spellbook of Solomon from the desk to the Priest, grabbed his longsword, and ran out of the church.

The moment Beman and the other two ran out of the church, Mordo, who had been watching the surroundings, instantly unleashed the spell he had long prepared, enveloping everyone present—including the Demons—within the Mirror Dimension.

Before Beman and the others could understand what was happening, Mordo charged at Hegma with his Short Staff glowing with magical light and ordered, "Dibochak, begin the ritual immediately. Li Feng, focus on the Demon's clone. Leave this one, the one daring enough to leave Hell in its true body, to me."

The instant the Mirror Dimension enveloped Hegma, he knew he was in trouble. This Otherspace, which could instantly sever his connection with Hell, had cut off his Mana supply. From then on, every bit of Mana he used was gone for good.

This was not what he had planned. Look, this was a spatial spell. No matter how you looked at it, it was not some common street magic, right? I knew Li Feng, who was fighting my clone alongside Beman in the distance, could use Space Spells. But how could you use Space Spells too? This made no sense.

In one corner of the Mirror Dimension, Felson had originally wanted to help. But he saw that the Demon dodged Li Feng's longsword while directly taking Beman's ordinary weapon head-on. That sight told Felson that his weapon would be equally useless against the Demon, so he might as well honestly guard the Priest, who was flipping through the book to find a way to kill Demons.

Li Feng spent a long time before finally landing a strike on the Demon, and it was only a graze. This displeased him greatly. As he wildly slashed at the Demon, he said to Beman, "See? I told you long ago to teach me swordsmanship. If I had skills like yours, this Demon would already be chopped into mince and made into pie filling."

Beman used his longsword to restrict the Demon's movements so that Li Feng's flaming blade could hit it, while cursing, "Then why did you only come to learn swordsmanship from me recently? If you had come ten years earlier, I'd be drinking on the side and watching you chop up Demons by now. Look at that utterly terrible aim of yours. Even the presbyopic old granny next door to Felson's house, who walks with a cane, can chop more accurately than you."

The Demon: "..." Brothers, we're fighting right now. Could you two please shut up?

After forcing the Demon back again, Beman said helplessly, "My weapon can't hurt the Demon. Li Feng, do you have any ideas?"

"Splash Holy Water on the sword, or..." Li Feng handed his Magic Longsword to Beman, then smiled and pulled out Magic Playing Cards from his pocket. "Use my sword."

"As for me," Li Feng said, holding a playing card between the index and middle fingers of each hand, "I still prefer a Mage's way of fighting."

With that, Li Feng instantly flicked the two playing cards toward the Demon. Beman looked at the longsword in his hand, whose flames had weakened but not gone out, said, "Fine sword," and charged at the Demon.

With Beman wielding a magic weapon and Li Feng constantly slapping playing cards into the Demon's face from the side, the Demon was covered in wounds after only a few evasions. Unable to maintain its clone any longer, it died in bitter resentment.

Only after destroying one clone did Li Feng finally spare the attention to look at Mordo, who had been mostly defending against Hegma's attacks while occasionally counterattacking with a few strikes.

When the clone vanished, Hegma noticed Li Feng and said in a rough voice, "Li Feng, my student. Such a perfect body. I taught you so many spells. Why didn't you practice a single one?"

The Demon's words effectively stirred Beman and the others' suspicions. Other than the Priest, who glanced at Li Feng before lowering his head to continue chanting with a Cross in hand, the remaining three all pointed their longswords at Li Feng.

In response, Li Feng pulled a playing card from his pocket and looked at Beman. "Buddy, pointing my own sword at me is a bit uncool, isn't it?"

After saying that, Li Feng fired the playing card at Hegma and said, "You did teach me quite a few spells, but which of those spells didn't have problems? Either they could tempt my mind, or they could locate my position after I practiced them. Were you teaching me spells, or asking for my number so you could force contact whenever you wanted?"

Scratching his head, Li Feng lowered his eyes to glance at his Little Belly and said to Hegma, "You showed up in your true body because you wanted to take my body, so you could use all your power in this world whenever you wanted?"

The Priest was the most helpless person present, because he realized that he had been chanting for ages without getting any reaction from the Demon at all. That was clearly not normal.

The Demon scoffed at this. A spell like this, where anyone holding The Key of Solomon could make it work just by reciting an incantation, was more accurately called a divine art.

The book was like a telephone, the incantation was like a phone number and distress signal, and faith was the phone line. Chanting a spell was like calling God. Once God saw the number you had dialed, He would understand what kind of outside assistance you wanted and send the corresponding energy down the phone line to the caller.

Of course, before sending out a distress signal, you first had to know what help you wanted. It was like calling 10086 and asking, "I want to check the balance on my China Unicom card." How was the other party supposed to answer that?

There was another problem as well, and it was why the Demon was so disdainful: before making a call, could you please check whether your phone had any signal?

Mordo's Mirror Dimension had already cut off Hegma's connection to Hell. How the hell was your God supposed to receive the Priest's call for help?