Fifth Chapter: Luring the Enemy

…

The Longview One, carrying Wendy and Sylvie, flew towards the Whirlpool Sea, with Lightning and Maggie escorting on either side of the gondola, ready to retrieve the two at any time.

This time, their mission was not to scout the demons' camp, so they didn't need to fly so high. As long as they bypassed the snow-capped mountains, Sylvie could see through the rocky cliffs of the shore, directly at the Eye Demon entrenched on top of the Black Stone Tower.

According to Agatha, the Eye Demon didn't need to actually "see" the other party. As long as someone noticed it, it could sense the other's presence and pinpoint their location. This type of demon had caused extremely heavy casualties to the Holy Guard's assault troops – whether infiltrating stealthily or descending from the sky, it was difficult to avoid its detection. Only by fighting blindfolded could one avoid alarming it.

Of course, not looking was also an option, but the Eye Demon was generally perched on the highest point of the camp, making it hard not to notice.

"How is it? Did you see anything?" Lightning flew over and asked.

"I need to get closer, otherwise I can't hold on for long," Sylvie rubbed her eyes. The Magic Eye consumed a lot of energy when penetrating obstacles, and the observation range would also be shortened. She had carefully focused her detection vision into a straight line, but when the details of the cross-sections of the cliffs were revealed one by one, she still felt dizzy.

"I got it," Wendy conjured a gust of crosswind, "Hold on tight."

The rocky beach gradually became clearer, and a thin red mist appeared in front of everyone. Even under the clear blue sky, the mist was still pressing down on the cliffs, but the color was much lighter than the last time they saw it.

Sylvie concentrated again, and the soil in her field of vision was finally replaced by viscous mist. Tower-like buildings loomed in the red mist, like an abandoned world.

She quickly found the stoutest Black Stone Spire.

Compared to the accidental encounter last time, this time it was deliberate – alarming the demons and luring them to launch a pursuit. Sylvie didn't want to be an explorer. Unlike Lightning, who was always full of energy, she just wanted to live a peaceful life. But the War of Divine Will was a fate that couldn't be avoided. Even if she didn't like twists and turns, she couldn't stay out of it. Just as she had agreed to Tilly's request to go to Border Town to observe whether Roland was controlled by witches, when Roland announced his plan, she had only hesitated for a moment before agreeing.

Before, she was for the entire sisterhood of Sleeping Island, but this time it was for the Witch Union and His Majesty's entire kingdom.

Sylvie took a deep breath and moved her gaze upward.

In an instant, hundreds of eyeballs appeared in her field of vision – the black, soft-bodied monster was still lying in the same place, as if it had never moved. Even its limbs were fused with the top of the tower, as if they had grown out of the stone. The dense eyeballs simultaneously turned their direction, and Sylvie could even see her own reflected face in the dark eyes!

This feeling made her hair stand on end, and a chill instantly ran down her spine.

"They're coming!" she shouted, interrupting her ability.

"Let's go!"

"Awoo!" Maggie instantly transformed into a huge Terrorbeast, and with a roll, she stopped steadily below the gondola. Sylvie jumped down and landed on her broad back, while Lightning carried Wendy, following closely behind, and flew towards the Misty Forest together. Compared to the nervous panic last time, this time they were fully prepared – the empty hydrogen balloon would become a conspicuous marker to guide the meeting between the two sides. Afterwards, according to the plan, Lightning would return to this place alone, luring the demons to go deeper.

Taking advantage of this gap, Sylvie turned her head and looked back.

Five black dots appeared above the cliffs, a number higher than Agatha had predicted, but not exceeding the warning red line.

However, under the observation of the Magic Eye, she noticed something was wrong.

Among the five pursuers, only four were riding Terrorbeasts, and two of the demons were significantly different from the Mad Demons – they didn't have burly bodies and thick arms, and they weren't wearing patchwork of animal skins and iron armor, but colorful robes that reflected rainbow-like light under the sun. Sylvie couldn't even tell what these robes were made of. The bottom of the robes surged

Non-stop, as if hiding countless poisonous snakes.

Their heads were also a circle larger than the Mad Demons, but there were no obvious facial features. Their faces looked like they had a huge scar, with red folds spreading out from the middle to all sides, as bizarre as could be.

When she turned her attention to the last demon, she couldn't help but pause for a moment.

The opponent was wearing heavy and exquisite armor, and carried a two-handed greatsword behind him, which looked extremely heavy, but he flew through the air like lightning, following behind the four Terrorbeasts, without losing any speed.

His face was also completely covered by a helmet, and not the skull helmet worn by the Mad Demons, but more like a metal creation – like the armor covering his whole body, the helmet had delicate patterns and carvings on both sides, and sharp spikes extended from the top, looking like a miniature Black Stone Tower. The parts that should have been eyes flickered with red light, appearing xieè and狰狞. (Evil and ferocious.)

What kind of demon is this?

A huge wave surged in Sylvie's heart. Agatha didn't mention how to deal with this situation. Should they still implement the capture according to the original plan?

A strong sense of unease enveloped her.

The two landed in the depths of the forest one after the other. As soon as she climbed off Maggie's back, she saw a golden figure soaring into the sky, flying towards the balloon at several times the speed of when she came.

It was too late to stop it now.

After hesitating for a long time, Sylvie felt that she had to tell Agatha this information. She patted Maggie's wings, "Take me to the ambush area!"

"What's wrong?" Wendy jogged over, "Shouldn't we be going to meet up with the First Army next?"

According to the drill, the two's abilities were not very helpful in curbing the demons. In order to reduce unnecessary risks, they should stay away from the main battlefield as soon as possible after completing the lure mission and move towards the First Army's defense line on their own.

"I saw strange demons," Sylvie shook her head, "The enemies are not just Mad Demons, I have to inform everyone!"

"But the ambush area is very big, awoo!" Maggie lay down, "Even if you go over, you may not be able to find them immediately."

"It's okay, just take me there," she climbed back onto the beast's back, turned her head and looked at Wendy, "You go to the river first, I'll be back soon."

…

Lightning increased her speed to the extreme, the wind whistling past her ears, the ground beneath her quickly shrinking. Forests, rivers and beaches instantly turned into clusters of blurred colors and distorted lines.

She had to rush back to the area where the hydrogen balloon was located before the demons, pretending to be fleeing in a panic to lure the enemies to chase.

When the vast sea occupied most of her field of vision, the Longview One finally appeared in front of her. At the same time, she also saw the figures of the attacking demons.