### Chapter 112: The Cataclysm’s Might (Part 2)
At the end of the blazing winds, above the smoldering scorched earth at the town’s center, a massive mushroom cloud still lingered, transformed into a pitch-black pillar of smoke several dozen meters wide. Thick black smoke slowly ascended into the gray sky, with its top nearly touching the rolling dark clouds. Below the smoke, a fiery pit threatened to engulf anyone who dared approach, created by meteorites of infernal fire crashing down.
It seemed the air was still getting hotter.
Outside the deep pit, amidst the swirling mist, the crimson devilish girl had knelt down again in front of the swordsman.
With meticulous care, she was slowly tearing strips from the Pope Knight’s cloak pulled from his back, gently wrapping the fabric around his injured wrist and chest. Her slow and careful manner, with a serious yet expressionless face, made her appear quite clumsy, a stark contrast to her currently terrifying appearance.
But the girl was unfazed, as if nothing had happened just moments ago.
After a while, the thunder of iron hooves approached from the west, accompanied by a flickering golden light. Horned horses gradually appeared on the outskirts of the scorched earth—one, two… soon there were dozens, then hundreds. Knights clad in golden armor formed ranks outside the land scorched by fire, using the light barrier of divine miracles to shield themselves from the intense heat. Amid the chaotic shouts, someone stared blankly at the terrible pit, and not long after, they all began to spot the girl’s figure off in the distance.
“Is that…?”
“Where is our vanguard? Captain Saron, Cleric Larick? Where did they all go?!”
“Your Holiness, there seems to be no sign of heretics! Where are the enemies? And the Pope Knights—”
Amidst the noisy confusion, someone shouted. Aresta’s bloodshot eyes were fixated on the center of the scorched earth, his expression as gloomy as a storm cloud, rendered speechless.
Gradually, more people followed his gaze and spotted a peculiar, small black figure in the blistering heat. It wavered in the dispersing ice mist, as if slowly rising.
“Who… is that?”
“Too far to see clearly…”
“What! Are there heretics over there?!”
“No, no…”
“That… black shape doesn’t look much like a person…”
Whoosh—
From a distance, they heard the wind of flapping wings.
The black figure was three to five hundred meters away. With the mist obscuring their view, they could barely see fiery wings suddenly spread from her back, fluttering like strands of white hair. It seemed another figure lay in front of her, but they couldn’t make out who it was; everyone was still trying to wrap their heads around what they were witnessing.
In the next moment, thick ice walls suddenly rose up, encircling the dark figure and the person lying before her, vanishing from sight.
“Frost Order…”
“That’s not one of ours—!!”
“Prepare the Grace’s Scales for battle!!!”
In the thrumming wave of soldiers, urgent shouts erupted. The Holy Cross flag fluttered in the fierce wind, the mighty hooves of horned horses pounded back and forth in the soft earth. The vanguard had already raised swords and shields at the edge of the scorched earth, while more knights rushed in from behind. The golden tide of armor formed ranks, and in the next instant, a wind howled from the gray sky above.
They looked up.
Boom!
The thunder cracked, practically exploding in their ears. A startling red serpent sliced through the tumultuous clouds, bathing the dark sky in crimson. Amidst that bl**d-red hue, the knights spotted a mysterious figure clad in black armor, with horn-like protrusions, hair flowing wildly, and enormous bat-like wings blazing behind her, hovering not far above them, gazing down with scarlet eyes.
It was like a demon drooling over her prey.
“Enemy attack, enemy attack!!!”
“Vanguard, unsheathe your swords! Prepare the Sin Barrier—”
“Face the enemy!”
This scene caused the knights from the Grace’s Scales to have their scalps tingle, a chill shooting straight up their spines. Some were stunned, but after all, they were the most elite warriors of the Holy Church; more quickly reacted, with the two captains at the forefront commanding the flag bearers. Behind them, clerics from the Faith Organization shot brilliant golden beams into the sky.
Even though to the soldiers, the enemy ahead seemed almost unimaginable.
The fearsome figure that suddenly appeared from the thunder was neither a ruthless villain nor the expected wretched heretics. It vaguely resembled a girl, but the first thought that struck everyone when the creature appeared in the sky was the chilling word “demon.”
And these knights, battle-hardened warriors who had defeated bandits and buried heretics—some had even faced the abyss—yet at this moment, confronted with this terrifying demon simply hovering above them, infused with an overwhelming pressure, none could immediately come up with a plan.
They had no experience dealing with such an unknown, not even time to ponder what it was.
But the soldiers still sprang into action as fast as they could. Not even those trembling with anxiety or nearly pointing their swords at their comrades could shake the collective determination to fight. In an instant, they prepared to confront the demon head-on.
Long spears were raised, sturdy shields positioned, the horned horses reared their front hooves, trumpeting loudly. Golden light spread through the crowd, as more knights surged from behind, forming ranks. The First Knights Order, the “Grace’s Scales,” displayed the toughness expected of an elite corps. Even with fewer than a thousand present, their fierce spirit was enough to intimidate an enemy army of even ten thousand.
Yet Aresta suddenly fell silent in this moment.
As the thunder faded, he stared at the demonic figure suspended in the gray sky, his bloodshot eyes vacant for what felt like an eternity, oblivious even to those calling out beside him. Then, as if he had spotted something unbelievable, his eyes widened, and his cracked lips began to tremble.
“No way…”
His voice was hoarse, like there was something lodged in his throat: “It’s actually…”
Aresta recognized who that demon was.
He clearly saw her cold, delicately featured face.
However, before he could recover from the deep shock and confusion in his heart, above them, the thin veil of the Sin Barrier quickly spread amidst the hum of miracles, and from behind the ranks, dozens of holy lances were unleashed in unison, hurtling through the air toward that black demon.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—
The piercing attack came in an instant.
And just as the light of the holy lances reached her, the demon remained still, expressionless.
She merely raised her right hand gently.
Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack!
With a resounding noise of compressing ice, astonishing frost suddenly gathered from the sky. Shards of ice swirled around as if drawn by a vortex, converging before the demon and quickly forming a curved ice wall. Countless holy lances collided against that wall, producing thuds that echoed densely, embedding themselves deeply, their momentum halted as they stuck into the ice barrier.
Then, the ice wall collapsed from above, and the black demon reappeared before all eyes.
Her eyes gleamed with an even more blinding scarlet glow.
