The Calamity of the Flame Demons

The stranger looked up, staring in shock at everything.

—The billowing, grayish-black smoke surged upwards, concealing deep red and golden flames within.

Not far in front of him, the Silver and Tin Palace began to spew out large amounts of dust and smoke from its center, and the entire building gradually crumbled and collapsed.

Even the buildings reinforced by the Preservationist offered no resistance. The entire structure seemed to be being chewed and devoured by some kind of Magic Creature, emitting a creaking, acidic sound. It crumbled and collapsed piece by piece, accompanied by the tremors of the ground.

The strange monocle-like glasses on the stranger's face, resembling a microscope, automatically rotated and extended, giving him a completely new perspective: heat spread throughout the entire building, like the roots of a plant tightly embracing a clod of soil. And not far away, a gigantic humanoid figure, so scorching hot that the stranger dared not look directly at it even through the layers of walls, gradually rose up.

It is slowly absorbing the entire Silver and Tin Palace, growing larger and larger at a visible rate.

It has earth and stone as its bones and raging fire as its flesh.

A lava giant, sculpted from molten metal and rock, grows larger and larger as it draws "material" from its surroundings within the contracting flames.

—That was the Flame Demon!

The two powerful Star Antimony experts who appeared on screen during the plot's introduction were actually very familiar to Mo Ke. They were both acquaintances of his.

One of them was his mentor in the Spirit Tower; the other was a senior colleague with whom he had a fairly good relationship, Lieutenant General Leo Karl. Not long ago, he had entered the same advancement ritual as him, resulting in Carl breaking his leg.

Although Stranger was not Demon Scholar, his intense curiosity led him to question Lieutenant General Karl about why there was "another soul" inside him.

Lieutenant General Karl had no reservations about this and directly told Stranger the truth: when these Demon Scholar advanced to Demon Avatar, a demon seed began to appear within their bodies.

They are all incredibly powerful Greater Demon, powerful allies that normal Demon Scholar cannot obtain through summoning or contracts. Simply extracting power from them can grant supernatural power comparable to that of a fourth-level energy affinity.

When Demon Avatar first reaches the Fourth Level, it is still in an inert state. If it is killed at this time, the demon within it will usually only release twisted power.

But once they reach the Fifth Level, these demons will be activated... just like an egg that initially only has a yolk, turning into a mature embryo that is about to hatch into a chick, with feathers and flesh already growing inside.

Demon Avatar must have its demonic activity controlled through rituals or curses, otherwise it may easily go out of control.

If they are about to die, these Fifth Level powerhouses will directly enter the Ritual Array to restrain the demons. In this way, when they die and the demons break free of their bodies, these demons can be directly sealed or banished. They can even be contracted by their own students, becoming powerful allies to them.

If they are accidentally killed, the out-of-control demon will teach the murderer a lesson—although the sealed demons have great hatred for their host, it does not mean that they will be grateful to the enemy who released them.

These first-generation demons possessed all the memories, knowledge, and emotions of their hosts from birth to death. Rather than being demons, they were more like another demonized personality born after the host had been branded with the Great Sin Imprint.

Although they are actually two different souls, they share some similarities in personality.

General Karl also told Stranger that the correct path for Demon Scholar to advance is to overcome the odds again upon reaching the Sixth Level and completely devour the demonic personality within him.

When two personalities merge into one, it's like two selves overlapping. Only then can one truly control this power and become a genuine "Demon Avatar."

And clearly, this Balrog is a product of something "less than perfect." It is proof of General Karl's death.

When General Karl was killed and the Balrog burst forth, his enemies must have already been consumed by the out-of-control flames.

But after it defeats its enemies, Star Antimony will become its new and only enemy—

It was the legacy of Star Antimony that taught General Karl how to suppress himself, how to restrain himself, and how to continuously draw power from within him. Having been bound for so many years, his hatred for Star Antimony far outweighed everything else...

But perhaps that's precisely why he's temporarily safe, because it has no intention of destroying Avalon. The stranger thought to himself.

After all, his current role is that of a Court Alchemist in Avalon. This, ironically, makes his situation safer.

If there's one person the Flame Demon most wants to attack right now... it can only be his own mentor.

—That is, Mr. Bruzwick, codenamed "The Advisor." He is the old man in the black robe.

But in the next moment, the stranger's expression suddenly changed.

Because he heard it—the sound of the Flame Demon pounding the ground with its fists.

In an instant, the earth shook violently. Buildings trembled, crumbled, and collapsed. The knights' panic and shouts suddenly echoed from within the building.

The alchemist's magical monocle kept contracting, curling, and refocusing, locking onto one soul after another that was consumed by the flames.

Through his strange, X-Ray Vision, which could make anything non-supernatural transparent, he easily saw that the flames were spreading from the giant's fists, like the roots of a plant, or like a snake or a centipede.

They burrowed into the walls and the earth, and as the buildings shook and crumbled, they suddenly emerged from the cracks to attack the knights.

No, their targets aren't just knights!

Even ordinary people, and servants working in the palace, were devoured by the fiery serpents, letting out shrill screams.

Even the Fourth Level arbitrators were almost powerless against it. Their defensive spells were easily pierced, and their blessed metal armor melted like paper.

... What's going on?! The stranger shuddered in fright.

Fortunately, shortly after landing, he packed his things as soon as he could, wanting to escape. He put all the materials and potions he needed for his spells into a brown leather briefcase.

He grabbed the box and ran. Just as he reached the door, a knight charged at him.

"Master Nobel, please leave immediately!"

He was very nervous, raising his sword to aim at a slender fire snake crawling out from the corner of the wall: "I'll cover your retreat—"

"Don't let it break!"

The stranger grabbed the knight's shoulder, almost screaming, "Anyway... run! Run together!"

At that moment, the knight belatedly sheathed his sword and prepared to leave.

A fiery snake, long prepared, shot out from the corner of the wall and rushed towards us.

Like a flaming arrow, or a hunting dog.

The sword the knight instinctively raised was easily burned with a hole that kept widening, like a newspaper scorched through the middle by flames. He instinctively turned his head away, saving his life—the fire serpent shot directly into the ceiling, causing molten steel to drip from it.

In that fleeting moment, the lingering heat from their brush made his helmet scorching hot, causing him to scream—his left cheek felt like it was being branded onto a hot plate, sizzling and crackling. The stranger could even faintly smell the aroma of roasted meat.

But the knight's energy and perseverance are extraordinary.

He wasn't killed immediately, but he caught his breath after catching his breath.

Seeing the "Master Nobel" scurrying away at a snail's pace, he finally couldn't stand it anymore and rushed over to pick up the stranger and carry him on his back.

The stranger immediately felt the armor become scorching hot—like being exposed to the blazing sun for hours at midday in the middle of summer. Even with the robe providing insulation, the stranger couldn't help but let out a scream of pain from the heat.

Even so, he held onto his suitcase tightly and refused to let go.

The two of them screamed in pain as they ran out of the Silver and Tin Palace.

They saw it clearly—a knight on their escape route, trying to cut a fire serpent that was attacking him, was instead pierced through the chest by the serpent.

Flames continued to erupt from the gaps in his armor, and his screams lasted only a moment before vanishing completely. He soon stopped struggling in agony and became quiet. The flames erupting from the gaps in his armor, however, grew increasingly steady and still.

The metal armor had become half-melted—using Nobel's monocle, the stranger could clearly see that the person's soul had been forged into a completely new form by the flames.

It was as if his soul had been parasitized by a fire serpent, or as if a block of refined steel had been melted down and mixed with bone powder. Traces of the original could still be seen, but he was clearly no longer the same person.

Burning knights, burning servants, burning skeletons—more and more people gathered. Their clothes and weapons were ablaze, yet they remained intact and unburnt.

The flames on their bodies were golden-red, and they each held weapons formed from purplish-blue flames. Where their eyes should have been, they had transformed into two burning, purplish-black flames.

As they burn, the human-owned portions decrease at a visible rate.

First came the skin and hair, then the flesh and blood. Even the skeleton that remained continued to burn, transforming into ever-growing flames. In the end, only a blurry humanoid figure remained, reduced to pure elemental matter.

The Fiery Demon at the very center of the Silver and Tin Palace had shrunk to about half its original size. It still maintained its posture with its fists touching the ground, and the entire Silver and Tin Palace was engulfed in its flames, gradually beginning to burn fiercely.

And so, a "Flame Demon Legion" was created from nothing!