Chapter 729 - 718: Dealing with the Empire’s Enemies
Chapter 729: Chapter 718: Dealing with the Empire’s Enemies
The battle between the two Empire Princes, Darean and Visarius, lasted a full three days.
Darean didn’t have many bloodline followers, but Visarius’ forces were equally not numerous, with the main troops concentrated on the Circular Fortress over there.
After the initial fierce battle, both sides realized they couldn’t quickly determine a victory or defeat, so they tacitly lowered the intensity of combat.
Therefore, even after three days, both sides kept casualties within a certain range.
Visarius swung the tip of his sword, splitting a giant bat daring to approach in half: "Darean, you’ve lived for so many years, and this is the state of your brain? Just a few outsiders speak a bit, and you come with these assets to die?"
"It’s not just any ’outsiders’," Darean painfully watched the fallen giant bat, gritting his teeth, "Besides, I’m not betraying! With the Demon King’s return, he’s the real master of the Empire, the betrayal lies with you!"
"You’ve chosen the wrong side, get ready for Your Majesty’s reckoning."
Just then, two bats flew in from different directions, left and right, almost simultaneously landing on him and Darean’s arms.
The two Princes exchanged a glance from a distance and then both unfolded the message brought by the bats.
Darean glanced down; the letter contained only a few lines.
After reading, he looked at it again, then laughed loudly!
He laughed so hard that he bent over, confusing the bloodline followers around him to turn their heads in bewilderment.
Visarius also finished reading the letter, his hand dropped, and the letter slipped from his fingers, flipping in the wind and landing in the mud.
A layer of disbelief surfaced on his face, as if he didn’t recognize the words on the paper, or perhaps he recognized them but refused to comprehend them.
Then the layer of disbelief shattered, revealing what lay beneath—fear.
Back then, Mortis’ usurpation, he was one of the masterminds, which is also why Mortis trusted him over Darean in dealing with the Demon King.
But now... Mortis has been killed by the Demon King?!
With nearly half of the Empire’s help, even the Demon King should...
However, facts are facts.
Before everybody’s eyes, Visarius suddenly tore off his cloak, transforming into a bat, swiftly flying eastward, leaving behind bewildered bloodline followers and soldiers.
"Hahaha, Visarius! Visarius!" Darean laughed even louder at this sight, "If I chose the wrong side, what about you? You ran quite decisively!"
And further afar, Gray and other members of the Demon Race, quietly observing this scene, couldn’t help but have a guess form in their hearts—even though they still weren’t clear what happened—The Empire is about to change!
...
After the Demon King returned to the throne, he issued an ultimatum in the name of the Emperor of the Empire to the remaining pillars of the Empire.
Eleanor unsurprisingly decisively submitted, and the precarious Duke Levi, upon receiving a promise of Imperial support, also surrendered.
Darean hurried up to pay homage to the Demon King.
Half-demon Virelis, taking the opportunity to meet the Demon King, suddenly launched a sneak attack, and after being disciplined by the Demon King, settled down.
As for Sigmund guarding High Castle Fortress, after the Demon King promised to resolve his bloodline promotion issue, he ultimately chose to surrender.
Thus, the Empire teetering on the edge of collapse thankfully didn’t explode into larger chaos due to merely swapping Emperors.
However, this still couldn’t change the Empire’s current predicament.
Taking back his Empire and analyzing all available intelligence, the Demon King discovered that the Empire’s greatest enemy was Puki.
Not the human Puki Master, but Puki, mushrooms, the fungal mat itself!
During the period in hiding, the Demon King researched Puki in considerable depth.
In just a few years, it occupied over half the world, completely altering the continent’s landscape.
This rate of progress could never be explained by mere "low-level Demon" mutation; in the Demon King’s view, it seemed more like the handiwork of a God.
Moreover, those diverse advanced skills on Puki’s body...
"Greed, huh? But why can it affect all Puki?" reflecting on various intelligence, the Demon King pondered different possibilities but couldn’t find a reasonable answer.
Regardless, Puki clearly has become the Empire’s greatest enemy now.
The northern fungal mat continues to spread towards the Empire’s central region, even if Fungus Castle is busy digesting the occupied territory without continuing south; just clearing the spreading fungal mat is already giving those cities a headache.
There are even instances where cities couldn’t block the fungal mat’s spread, leading to a situation where mycelium grows throughout the city, and the local lord simply abandons the city and retreated.
If no action is taken to prevent it, the Empire being overtaken by the fungal mat is only a matter of time, at which point the Demon King’s plan will naturally be untenable.
Therefore, new magic instrument design blueprints were disseminated to various border city fortresses through the Empire’s Communication Crystal.
These instruments have only two functions.
To gather magic power around the city artificially creating a high-magic environment conducive to Slime mass birth.
Then, through a control device associated with the instrument, soldiers holding the control device within a certain range of the instrument could drive the Slimes to move.
Unlike those red and green double-colored Slimes falling from the sky in the Circular Fortress, these newly spawned Slimes were generally below Level 10, effectively non-combatant.
But they could eat the fungal mat.
No special control was needed; simply driving them onto the fungal mat and they would instinctively eat the fungal mat, even from underground.
Even if those mycelium had high corrosion resistance, they were ultimately not immune.
With these Slime controllers set up in cities, soldiers and laborers tirelessly clearing the fungal mat daily finally had a sigh of relief.
At least the scenario of being forced to abandon cities due to the fungal mat has disappeared.
But stopping the northern fungal mat is not enough, thanks to a certain "clever Duke," the Empire also has a large bomb made of fungal mat—Eleanor’s territory.
Aware of Puki’s dangers, the Demon King certainly couldn’t allow such a bomb to stay within the Empire.
Moreover, those so-called Blood Beast Factories indeed failed to give the Demon King any favorable impression of this place.
Thus, after stabilizing the Empire’s internal situation slightly, Eleanor received news that the Demon King would send envoys to reorganize her territory—clear the fungal mat and dismantle the Blood Beast Factory.
Aware of Puki’s dangers, the Demon King certainly couldn’t allow such a bomb to stay within the Empire.
Moreover, those so-called Blood Beast Factories indeed failed to give the Demon King any favorable impression of this place.
Thus, after slightly stabilizing the Empire’s internal situation, Eleanor received news that the Demon King would send envoys to reorganize her territory—clear the fungal mat, and dismantle the Blood Beast Factory.