Demonic Madness

With Adrosiean's command, the army swiftly slaughtered the remaining orcs. Adrosiean ignored the screams and cries of the dying orcs and activated the crown of Aryumaya.

"I will take you pitiful souls. Although you orcs are prideful and rejected my offer, I will still allow you to serve me in your death."

Adrosiean extended his hand.

"Damn. I really sound like a hypocrite. Whatever."

Adrosiean coughed awkwardly and chanted.

"Arise proud warriors of the dead. Embrace my blessing and fight in the name of your true master!"

Dark clouds shrouded as the lifeless bodies of the orcs started moving again. Black shadowy threads came out of the orc chieftain's head as it attached back to the body. The orc chieftain's eyes opened as he got up.

The undead orcs held their weapons and gathered around Adrosiean. Adrosiean took out his ledger of collection and placed all of them inside.

He also collected all their souls inside the orb of souls for his future meals and other purposes.

"This is quite a large village. There were more than two thousands orcs altogether."

Adrosiean nodded in satisfaction. Normally the orc villages had around five hundred to a thousand orcs in this world's standard. This particular settlement had more than two thousands orcs. In terms of the normal standard, this was a lot.

"No wonder they dared fight back against me. The orc chieftain is also quite strong. He is far stronger than the solar knight from before. It seems he must had united the orcs from the nearby villages using his strength."

Adrosiean guessed. It was normal for the weak to go under the strong especially for the orcs who worshipped the strong.

With this orc chieftain's strength, it was not strange that he might had forcefully annexed the other orc villages.

"Still they overestimated themselves. If only the orc chieftain was a little bit smarter."

Adrosiean shook his head. He even had to summon several abyssal guards because he did not want to lose too many of the Crimson Cross members. These demonic cultists had their own unique uses.

A few of them dying was not a problem. But Adrosiean did not want to lose too many of them in these insignificant battles.

"My legion is growing quite well. If this continue, I won't have to worry about the incoming battle with the dragon."

Adrosiean had met a lot of demi-human villages and many beasts on his way. Adrosiean took the ones who surrendered to him as his minions while killing the rest who did not submit.

He had transformed their corpses into his undead soldiers while taking away all the souls. Using his overwhelming strength, Adrosiean's legion grew larger as time passed with both living and the dead.

"What an efficient way of building up an army."

Adrosiean chuckled. He activated his skills and summoned a lot of flying demons like gargoyles and red fiends to look for more villages and beasts.

After a while, Adrosiean's lips curled up into a sinister smile as one of the flying demons found a large village of ogres.

"Move out. To the next target!"

_ _ _ _ _

Inside the crimson forest,

"Push forward! We are the vanguard of this world. Give your lives for the sake of humanity. The future of this world depends on us!"

The solar alliance vanguard army was engaging in a fierce battle against the demons and corrupted beasts. The alliance army had been getting attacked nonstop ever since they stepped foot into the crimson forest.

A large number of demons and corrupted beasts were appearing from all directions and madly charging at the alliance army.

"Shields to the front! Spears up! Archers fire at will! Solar knights push forward! Don't let them break through the formation!"

Leanora shouted several commands to the army as she cut down the demons one after another. She was busy commanding the army and fighting at the front with the other solar knights to hold the line.

"Captain. There are a lot of demons and corrupted beasts but we do not see any sign of the demom lord. Did the demon lord already left the crimson forest?"

One of the solar knights said to Leanora. Although there were a large amount of demons, the alliance army had not seen or faced any high level demons yet.

"That's a possibility. But we cannot be certain yet. We are only at the outer part of the crimson forest. We need to push deeper to confirm."

Abyssal guards were not making any moves because of Azralion's orders. Even the succubuses and other mid tier demons were not deployed and on stand by.

Since the solar alliance army was still at the outer part of the crimson forest, Azralion was still waiting patiently.

Azralion did not rashly dispatch any of the abyssal guards and only sending low tier demons towards the alliance army to probe their strength.

Although the numbers of demons that was attacking the vanguard army was large, they were all expendables to Azralion.

Even if all of them died, Azralion could summon more of them easily. He had abundant items and necessary resources given by Adrosiean.

Normally Azralion would charge towards the alliance army and eliminate them by himself. Azralion was after all a demon.

Although Azralion was different from lower tier demons and possessed great intelligence, he was still an archdemon from the pride branch who looked down on others. Azralion was confident that he could eradicate this vanguard army singlehandedly.

Azralion had several legendary items that Adrosiean granted him. Because of that Azralion's strength had raised to a whole new level. In the game, the NPC enemies rarely wield complete sets of legendary grade items.

Here in this world, there were no limitations from the system. Azralion felt his powers overflowing like never before.

However because of Adrosiean's orders, Azralion composed himself and stayed defensive. His orders were not to massacre all humans. He was here to buy time for Adrosiean.

As an archdemon, Azralion possessed great intelligence and could naturally made plans and fight using various strategies.

The vanguard army was still in the outer parts of the crimson forest. With the help of the mages, the soldiers were barely able to resist the deadly fog and move forward.

However the army was getting assaulted by waves after waves of demons and corrupted beasts constantly. Thus, their process was extremely slow.

The deeper they went, the thicker the toxic fog became. It was harder for the mages to shield the whole alliance army as the fog intensified.

"If the demon lord is not here, we have to search for the surroundings of the Crenoth kingdom. But it is not our duty. There are others for that role.

We might be able to catch him if we are fast. But we need to scour the forest first and make sure he is not here."

Leanora answered to the solar knight. As long as the demon lord was not here, Leanora was confident that she could defeat the remnant demons. She believed in her strength. After all, Leanora was one of the strongest in the whole continent.

The duty of this vanguard army was to confirm whether the demon lord was still inside the crimson forest or not.

After the vanguard army confirmed that the demon lord is still inside the crimson forest, the whole army would immediately retreat and wait for their reinforcements while encircling the forest to make sure the demon lord does not escape.

If the demom lord could not be found inside the crimson forest, the vanguard army was to purge the corruption and the demon remnants inside the crimsom forest while the other troops from the solar alliance search for the demon lord thoroughly starting from the surroundings of the Crenoth kingdom.

As long as the demon lord was not present, the solar alliance judged that the vanguard army was more than enough to clean up the demon remnants. After all the solar knights and elite knights from the Crenoth kingdom were not just for show.

Although the alliance army was being attacked continuously, they were able to march forward thanks to the solar knights acting like a spear head. Slowly but surely they were be able to advance deeper into the forest.

"Keep pushing forward!"

"For solar alliance!"

The deeper the alliance army got into the forest, the more demons and corrupted beasts they encountered. The numbers seemed endless but the vanguard army preserved.

"Stop! We will establish a camp here to act as a defensive base."

After the vanguard army had reached quite far into the crimson forest, Leanora ordered. By setting up a defensive base here, this part of the crimson forest will become a shallow area for humanity. It will also become easier for the solar alliance to attack or retreat in the future.

The vanguard army stopped their march and set up a base camp. They fortified the base by building defensive walls and watchtowers around the camp.

The mages from Solarstras Empire installed a magic device at the middle of the camp and deployed a defensive magic barrier around the camp. The magic device had the appearance of a large orb.

When injected mana into it, a thin magic barrier spread out from within and stopped the poisonous fog from entering the camp. This barrier cannot stop the enemies from entering. It's function was only to stop the deadly fog.

But because of that, the range was greatly increased. The barrier could barely shield the whole camp from the deadly fog. If they want to expand the size of the camp, they would need more of these magic orbs.

But the current range was enough for now. Four mages had to pour their mana into the magic orb at all times to keep it functional.

With this, everyone in the vanguard army could finally take a breather. The soldiers can now confidently inhale the air around them without worries.

However the whole vanguard army including Leanora did not realize all of their movements were being closely watched and monitored.

"Oh? The humans stopped moving forward?"

At the heart of the crimson forest, a pair of red eyes flickered with amusement.