Jia Xiu sensed a powerful, gloomy, yet not evil magic—one with a sense of emptiness—descending upon the Flame Demon.
The instant he shouted for everyone to fall back, the others reacted at once. They blinked away, putting distance between themselves and it, while casually sealing the place where the Flame Demon had fallen beneath several layers of defensive spells, locking it down inside and out so that nothing could enter or leave.
Everyone's first thought was that the Flame Demon was about to self-destruct.
That had been one of the troublesome traits of Flame Demons on the battlefield. Whenever they wished, they could ignite themselves in a body-burning explosion, with power surpassing the strongest spell they could cast while alive.
And the angrier they were, the greater the blast.
Given this Flame Demon's rage, coupled with the magic it had regained in the night, its self-destruction would absolutely be terrifying.
Yet even after everyone had retreated far away and layered shields had surrounded it, there was no sign of an explosion for a long while.
It looked as though nothing had happened.
"Uh... I've never seen a Flame Demon self-destruct before. Do they normally take this long to blow up?"
Jia Xiu was rather puzzled.
Even without researching it, just thinking it through made no sense. If a self-destruct attack came with such a massive delay that gave people plenty of time to flee, what was the point of self-destructing?
It would just be setting off fireworks for fun.
There was no way it could have become a skill that had caused the allied forces no small amount of trouble throughout past wars.
At Jia Xiu's words, the others also relaxed somewhat from the tense atmosphere earlier.
"It really shouldn't be this slow," Margaret said. "Could it be out of