Chapter 120 - Target

While invisible, Ryan and Alissa moved toward that castle. Although they didn't notice from far away, when they entered that city, they confirmed several things. First of all, the place was completely desert, which only showed them that Baal was a demon able to summon demons from another dimension. The second thing they confirmed was the fate of the worlds' inhabitants who failed at fighting against the invasion. Half of the city was in ruins, and they couldn't feel a single presence of anything close to demons or any other species. Given that the shape of the houses was pretty similar to the humans of Earth, Ryan thought they were supposed pretty similar to humans, but it was hard to tell since here and there, Ryan found certain tools that had magic stones engraved in them. Unfortunately, those magic stones lost their power a long time ago.

"This is weird, we exterminated his army, but he didn't send any other demon to fight us after that," Alissa said.

"Most likely, he already knows that we are planning to attack him, and thus, he is conserving his strength."

That fight was going to be a pain in the ass for Ryan. Fighting in a confined place was something that he was used to, but only against small numbers of enemies. Even though the castle was massive, Ryan's range already surpassed the size of any conventional room.

"Orgar, how do you think this Ball guy will proceed with this battle?" Alissa asked. "Will he really wait for us to knock down his castle?"

"It is Baal… Unless he is a unicellular lifeform, he will not do something that stupid. My instincts are telling me that he will attack once you get on his range. I will bet that he will attack once you are five hundred meters away from the castle."

Ryan didn't know if he was thankful for the fact that the fight wouldn't happen inside the castle or if he would feel annoyed that once again, he won't have the chance to deal the first strike. In any case, Orgar's words really hit the mark. When Alissa and Ryan got around that range, a purple beam came from the castle and destroyed everything on its way. Even from that distance, the power of that attack was something, but Ryan had the chance to dodge. For some reason, Alissa just turned into a dragon and blocked the attack with her right hand.

Although Ryan thought that was some kind of magic that would have some kind of debuff as an extra effect, the purple ray made Alissa, even in her transformed form being pushed back quite a bit. Their foe continued to fire that spell for quite a while, but after noticing that Alissa was only using a single hand, he stopped. Unfortunately, in the next moment, Ryan saw a dark cloud leaving the castle… another army of demons.

Ryan never did that before, but he decided to cast Flame Arrows with both hands hoping that would help him attack faster, and somehow… it did. Demons began to explode left and right, and even those who didn't get hit were forced to slow down due to the explosions. That bought Ryan so many times that he didn't see his mana bar getting empty. It was all thanks to his Active Spiritual Recovery.

"It looks like you have things under control here," Alissa said and then began to fly. "So, it is my turn to greet this Ball demon."

Strangely enough, Alissa didn't fly toward the castle. She just flew upward and then stopped at some point. Suddenly, the atmosphere stopped when she opened her mouth. A dark sphere of fire began to grow in front of her, and even though Ryan was a hundred meters away, the heat was distorting his vision. Even the demons were unable to keep flying with all that heat… it was like a sun was right above them.

"I guess I am not the only one who can charge attacks like that."

Even though Ryan was making a comparison, the difference in power of his attacks and with that was obvious. Suddenly, a shadow left the castle and flew toward Alissa. The shadow was pretty big, and even though Ryan was busy slaying demons, he had the chance to look at it. As expected, the demon was very different from the games Ryan saw the creature, but it still was terrifying. The beast was like five meters tall and had the body of the hulk. It was quite weird since Baal had summoning magic. Regardless, the demon didn't have a weapon in its hands, but its body had several spikes like in the back of its hands, elbows, and knees. The demon had four wings, and they were blood-like red.

Even though the attack wasn't ready, Alissa was forced to fire. For some reason, when the ball of dark fire hit the demon, it stopped. Ryan couldn't even look at it due to its power, but he could imagine the demon trying to hold back the attack. Still, the clash didn't last even a few seconds. The demon did something, and Alissa's attack exploded, and a small dark fireball began to hit and destroy the rest of the city.

A few seconds after that, Baal could be seen, and there wasn't a single wound on its body… now more than ever, Ryan concluded that he was an opponent that he couldn't defeat right now. Just like with Alissa, he couldn't even use Appraisal on him. Well, he could, but the skill always failed.

"To think that a dragon would side with the humans," Baal said. "Even though your power is above most of your species, you dishonor them."

"Watch your tongue, vicious beast. I did not side with the humans. I sided with a single human."

"The number doesn't matter," Baal said and then looked at Ryan for a second. "Still, it looks like I underestimated the worms known as humans. Did you give your powers to him too?"

"No."

"That is good, then," Baal said and then disappeared before he reappeared, flying toward Ryan.