Chapter 56: The Lonely Lord, the Berserker, the Brave Heart!

"Lord, first of all, I must correct you. Taking the entire underworld together, there aren't even 80 demon legions—there are 69 in total!

"With that bitch Catherine's strength, she can mobilize at most 4 legions, which is roughly a little over 2,000 demons. My Lord is exaggerating."

The demon named Moses corrected Su Mu's fundamental misconception with a deadpan expression.

"Besides, the number of dark elf mages isn't 6,000 either. A rough estimate would be only 1,000. My Lord is trying to scare people a bit," the demon named Flame Fiend added.

*Damn it!* Su Mu cursed inwardly. These two demons sure knew a lot, but undermining the lord's dignity right to his face was a bit uncalled for, wasn't it?

Had they never heard that honest kids get beaten to death?

"This lord was asking whether you are afraid, not about the enemy's military strength," Su Mu said, purposely putting on a stern face to reprimand them.

The two demons exchanged glances and replied in unison: "The radiance of death forever illuminates the land, and dying in battle is the highest honor for a knight. We are constantly awaiting the descent of that moment."

No way, were they actually this chivalrous?

Su Mu looked with suspicion at the two demon knights before him. Being demons, they shouldn't possess such moral standards.

"If my territory is breached—and I mean *if*—you two wouldn't just run away, would you?" Su Mu asked a rather pointless question.

He was eager to know if these two genuinely possessed a sense of chivalry, or if such things only existed in novels.

The two demon knights looked at each other again and burst out laughing simultaneously: "When we run away, we will definitely take the Lord with us."

"Hahaha!" Su Mu laughed heartily as well, finding the two demons quite amusing. Given their ability to joke and laugh in the face of death, they were absolute veteran scoundrels.

And right now, warriors like these were precisely what he needed.

"Seriously, have you guys ever participated in the Dark Tide, and if so, how many times?"

After chatting for a while, Su Mu decided the two demons had a decent moral character for demons, so he handed each of them a piece of magic gum-tree leaf. The group squatted together beneath the God Tree of War to chat.

Magic gum-tree leaves only grew in the dark world. They tasted like chewing gum when eaten and had an invigorating effect.

Su Mu had previously only read about them in textbooks, but when he cleared out Wang Yu's castle last time, he found a few boxes and looted them along with the rest.

"Participated twice, I suppose. Back then, our brothers were still little squad leaders under the Demon Princess—"

Moses chewed lazily on the gum-tree leaf while answering Su Mu's question, then suddenly paused, turning his head to shoot Su Mu a wary look.

"Why is the Lord asking this? You wouldn't happen to be thinking of avenging your deceased human compatriots, would you? We've never killed humans; our campaigns were mainly directed against the barbarian tribes.

"Those good-for-nothing pieces of trash actually dared to defy the Demon King's rule, so the Demon King wanted to teach them a lesson."

"Hoh, rest assured. Even if you had killed humans in the past, this lord would let bygones be bygones. I'm just curious about how the demon legions actually fight," Su Mu chuckled, comforting his subordinates.

"Charging. There is no other combat method, just charging. Coming down from the sky and rushing up from the ground all at once—we basically have no opponents.

"You also know our demon physiques are extremely powerful. Generally, after a single charge, the opponents are destroyed by us, so there's no need for any tactics," Moses stated bluntly.

Su Mu nodded gently, already formulating a strategy to deal with the demons in his mind.

If it were a mass charge, magic energy cannons should be able to handle it. He wasn't afraid of them forming dense formations; what he worried about was them launching dispersed attacks.

"Go on, do demons have any weaknesses?" Su Mu continued to probe.

"Magic cores. Piercing the magic core can kill a demon, but every demon's magic core is different. Some are in their eyes, some in their hearts, and some in other parts..."

"Still, even killing a demon is useless. The Great Demon King has the ability to resurrect demons..."

"Actually, all of us demons were created by the Great Demon King. A polluted soul, a magic core, and sufficient energy allow the Great Demon King to forge a demon."

"There are countless evil souls locked away in the underworld, so as long as there are enough magic cores, the Great Demon King can create an infinite number of demons. As for where the magic cores come from, however, we have no way of knowing."

Through his conversation with Moses, Su Mu finally grasped the secrets of the demon race. At the same time, he keenly felt how difficult demons were to deal with. Coupled with those terrifying Great Demon Kings, Su Mu was deeply struck by the might of the dark forces.

"So the Lord is right here. We've been looking for you to report on something."

A loud laugh suddenly rang out from behind Su Mu, accompanied by a dull, earth-shaking rumble.

The chieftain of the Panda tribe, leading several panda warriors mounted on giant pandas over three meters tall, rushed toward Su Mu like a gale.

"Lord, I just went to the edge of the territory and killed a few vampires, and I wanted to report it to you."

Soon, Pangu and the others arrived at Su Mu's side. Pangu nimbly leaped off the panda's back and tossed several dead vampire bats right at Su Mu's feet.

Su Mu frowned slightly and asked, "You actually stepped outside the range of the Holy Light? Didn't you see that our territory is already surrounded by dark creatures on all sides, and there are even four powerful overlord-grade entities staring at us in the sky?"

Pangu was stunned. "So what? Who told these damned vampires not to know what's good for them and skulk around our territory?

"What of overlord-grade entities? Overlord entities are a dime a dozen in the dark world. If we were too scared to fight just because we saw a powerful entity, our panda warriors might as well go find a cliff and jump off."

Looking at the righteous indignation of Chieftain Pangu, Su Mu didn't know what to say for a moment, and could only silently give him a rating in his heart: *True warriors who aren't afraid of death.*

"Chieftain Pangu, do you think we can win this war?" Taking a deep breath, Su Mu asked the question he cared about most. He wanted to know this old senior's perspective on the battle.

"We can't win," Pangu immediately replied with certainty.

Su Mu was taken aback and said with dissatisfaction, "Since we can't win, you still dare to hunt dark creatures? Aren't you afraid these pieces of trash will wipe us out right now?"

"Kill them all, die in battle. Even if we all perish, we must leave the most painful memory possible for these invaders, and tell this world that we once existed."

Hearing the panda chieftain's reply, Su Mu felt a surge of profound respect.

Perhaps this was the tradition of the panda race—rather die standing than live on one's knees. It deeply resonated with Su Mu.

Su Mu chuckled. "Don't be so pessimistic. Who says we're bound to lose? Perhaps right at the start of the war, a surprise will descend."

Scarcely had his voice faded when a powerful surge of energy suddenly rippled through the air, and a blinding light erupted from a certain spot within the territory.

Suddenly, a battle angel soared into the sky.

Their features were as handsome as a flawless work of art, and their eyes were as clear as a lake in the sky.

Clad in golden armor, they were enveloped in sacred light.

Four giant wings slowly unfurled, the feathers as white as snow yet shimmering with a metallic luster.

A pale blue longsword was gripped in their hand, representing justice and punishment.