"Yes, it's you, Detective."
"But... ... "
"One minute and 40 seconds left."
The doctor reminded.
Xia De pursed his lips and asked quickly:
"Are you sure you can still deal with the Balrog after I pull out the sword? I don't want to release another Balrog on Mount Sikar just for a relic. Only God knows how many problems Midhill Castle at the foot of the mountain is facing now. There is no need for demons here to make the story more interesting."
“Don’t worry, the damage that sword can do to the demon is beyond my imagination. Although I haven’t recognized the origin of the sword yet, I can be sure that the Flame Demon, who has been sealed for hundreds of years, is definitely in a weakened state.”
Even though the doctor had just been forced to flee by the sword, he still looked confident.
"There's still more than a minute left... Oh, all right then. I'll draw my sword, and you'll swallow up the Balrog and then jump into the door immediately."
"no problem.."
So, Shade approached carefully. Because Shade himself did not have the power of the devil, the long sword did not react until Shade stretched out his hand in front of the bonfire with sparks.
"Doctor, I'm going to take action!"
Xia De shouted, then quickly reached out and grasped the hilt of the sword, pushing upward, but the sword did not move at all:
“I can’t seem to pull it out!”
"Put on the Demon Hunting Seal!"
The doctor warned that judging from the sound, he was slowly approaching.
So Shade put the seal ring on the finger of his right hand, stood in front of the campfire with his legs slightly apart, and held the warm hilt of the sword with both hands. It seemed that because he was wearing the ring this time, some blurry images flashed quickly in front of Shade's eyes.
He saw the scene before the rope bridge in front of him broke, and saw the human ring warlock holding a long sword, facing the huge evil demon in the mountain belly that was illuminated red by the flames of the fire demon.
Just by seeing the true form of the arsonist, Sokephis, in this blurry picture, Shade actually felt as if his skin was being burned. The ancient evil spirits were no joke:
"Is this the memory left by the previous owner of this sword? He wanted to tell the later generations what is sealed here. Unfortunately, I still have to draw the sword."
He thought to himself, took a deep breath, and lowered his body weight. He exerted force with both hands, and then his shoulders drove his arms, his arms drove his wrists, and his wrists drove his palms, adding force little by little. It was very heavy. This sword was heavier than anything Shade had ever tried to lift. But as he held his breath and lifted the sword up, he clearly felt that the sword was really moving.
Another blurry picture flashed before my eyes, and that picture overlapped with the huge hole in the mountain in front of me, except that it was very bright here at that time, and the broken bridge was still intact.
A beautiful woman in a fiery red dress, whom Shade was almost certain was a witch, was standing by the bridge and looking at this place:
"I am Violet Marshall, the 13th-rank witch and ruler of Witton. This sword was found in the mountains and is a legacy of past heroes. It is the key to solving the problems in the narrow space in the future. I leave it here, and those who come after me can use it, but they must return it in time when problems arise in the narrow space."
The language of the Fifth Age entered his ears, and the picture disappeared. This seemed to be a message from the Witch Emperor of the Fifth Age, but it also meant that the sword in his hand had other uses, and Shade could not possess it for long.
"But, could it be that the narrow passage on the mountainside is right here?"
Before Shade could figure it out, as the sword was gradually lifted from the ashes, more and more sparks quickly appeared in the campfire, which originally had only sporadic sparks, and connected with each other to form flames, licking Shade's trouser legs.
The temperature here was getting higher and higher, but Shade was not sure whether it was an illusion caused by his anxiety.
He only knew that his face was flushed red at this moment, and he didn't dare to exhale the breath he was holding in his mouth, otherwise the sword that seemed to be wrestling with him would definitely fall down immediately.
The sound of bells suddenly rang in the empty cave. It was the ritual that Shade had arranged in advance, which was ineffective against Dr. Schneider but effective against other demons. This meant that the Balrog, which had been sealed by a high-level warlock with a relic-level longsword a hundred years ago, was about to completely break free from the seal:
"Doctor, hurry up, forty seconds left!"
As he spoke, another series of images flashed before his eyes. This time, the images were even more chaotic, with scenes of former owners of the sword killing their enemies. Even among them, Xia De saw the old man he met at the cocktail party. He had also held this sword. But as an ordinary person, he probably didn't use the sword's power to its fullest.
"Detective, I'm not some ancient hero, but today, let me show you how to kill a fire demon in thirty seconds! Get out of the way!"
"good!"
The lowest point of the sword that Shade had forcibly pulled out was only a fingernail away from the rekindled embers. The bonfire that was about to completely ignite Shade's clothes also became more and more fierce.
He held his breath and used up his last bit of strength to pull the sword out completely. Strangely enough, when the blade was completely out of the ashes of the bonfire, the weight of the sword suddenly returned to normal, so that Shade, who failed to retract his strength in time, fell backwards.
But as he fell backwards, Shad's figure disappeared in front of the campfire, causing the giant obsidian-like hand that stretched out from the campfire with burning flames and rolling magma to lose its target.
"Doctor, it's up to you. There are 36 seconds left."
Shade, who had retreated to the entrance of the passage using the leap of Ragnarok, shouted. The blade of the sword in his hand was no longer glowing, but the runes on the sword, which meant my heart is clear and the sword can slay demons, still glowed bright yellow in the dim firelight.
Without waiting for the doctor to respond, the sturdy arm that had just tried to grab Shade retracted into the rekindled embers. In just a blink of an eye, the entire bonfire had turned into a fierce stream of fire, suddenly flying up from the broken bridge at the edge of the stone platform, and finally landing on the platform in the center of the large void.
“Roar~”
The astonishing roar even made Xia De feel that the ground was shaking. At the same time, fierce flames were splashing in all directions, illuminating the entire large hole in the mountain belly with a fiery red color.
Amid the roar, the flames that fell on the central platform gradually took shape, and a humanoid creature with two arms, about 20 feet (6.1m) tall, gradually emerged from the flames. Shade's ears immediately felt tinnitus, and the temperature of his whole body was rising. The ancient evil spirit really appeared before his eyes.
"Doctor, 29 seconds, can you handle it?"
"No problem. This thing was originally over 100 feet tall. It's now so weak that it can barely maintain its shape."
The demon, whose appearance could not be seen clearly in the flames, swung his right arm amidst the astonishing roar, and the dazzling flame whip swung in the air, leaving a stream of fire to illuminate the surroundings. With the sound of a sonic boom, the flame whip hit Dr. Schneider, who had already reached the edge of the broken bridge on the stone platform, where the bonfire had been.
Xia De couldn't see the doctor's expression from the back. He could only see that the doctor seemed to have grown taller out of thin air, and his right arm, which had become heavy at some point, stretched forward and actually grasped the end of the flaming whip.
Sparks flew everywhere, even splashing in front of Shade. The fire and heat made it almost impossible for him to open his eyes, and the roaring sound from the stone platform in the distance was even more terrifying.
The doctor who faced this ancient evil spirit simply wrapped the flaming whip around his arm and spoke in an extremely calm voice:
"Detective, I devoured an evil spirit known for its power in the winter of 1850 - the brain-eating demon Bynguluns."
With his human body wrestling with the devil, spider web-like cracks appeared on the stone platform under his feet, but the doctor remained motionless:
"And then there was the human pus I devoured in the late summer of 1853."
The bright stream of fire followed the long whip of fire and rushed into the doctor's right hand. The doctor seemed to swell up again, and the long stream of fire wrapped around his body, making him look extremely magical at the moment.
"In addition, in the early spring of 1847, when I went to Carsenrick for an academic conference, I encountered the terrifying demon insect Julwinter in Nimness City."
An invisible air current swept around with the doctor as the center, and the angry roar of the fire demon was actually filled with a hint of fear.
A long sword shaped by flames appeared in its left hand. The length of the sword alone exceeded the doctor's height at the moment. The sword was thrown out by the demon and thrown at the doctor who was absorbing its power.
Seeing this, Xia De threw a dazzling arc of light at the long sword. The flying speed of the Silver Moon Slash was much faster than that of the flaming long sword, and the two collided in front of the doctor. As the fragments of the Silver Moon and the light spots of the flame splashed in all directions, the two were almost destroyed together. However, the fragments of the Silver Moon were scattered all around, while the light spots of the flame all rushed towards the doctor's body.
Being able to defeat this sword, of course, does not mean that Xia De is strong enough to fight against the Flame Demon, but that the evil spirit demon, which was already extremely weak due to being sealed for many years, was almost sucked dry by the doctor. The doctor at the peak of the five rings was able to confront the Flame Demon head-on, not only because he restrained the opponent, but also because the opponent was really weak.
In just a few seconds, because of the doctor's absorption, the flames on the surface of the fire demon's body dimmed and were about to go out. At the same time, its size was shrinking, and the roaring sound could only echo unwillingly in the big hole.