With his plan failed, the representative of the Astenora Empire gritted his teeth as he could only watch the Solarstras Empire raising their influence.
At this moment, the solar emperor glanced at him and suddenly said.
"How about the Astenora Empire? With the humanity at stake, I request the cooperation of the Astenora Empire. As a fellow empire, we should shoulder the burden for the humanity."
The Astenora Empire looked at the solar emperor with a puzzled look. The Solarstras Empire was far stronger than the Astenora Empire.
This was just eliminating the demon remnants. The Solarstras Empire's troops were more than enough. There was no way they would require the help of Astenora Empire for something like this.
"Please dispatch your troops. For the sake of the continent, Astenora Empire will help right? Or are you in cahoots with the demons?"
The solar emperor smiled and said.
"This..."
The representative of the Astenora Empire was lost for words. It was clear solar emperor was just messing with him as entertainment.
But he was just a representative. He did not dare to retort back to the emperor of the most powerful nation on the continent. Moreover, if they reject, the Astenora Empire might look like they were siding with the demons.
With the persuasion from the solar emperor, the Astenora Empire agreed to send their troops despite being not part of the alliance.
The troops they sent won't be much. The solar emperor know it too. This was more of a humiliation. The representative of the Astenora Empire gritted his teeth and ended the meeting.
_ _ _ _ _
Back to the present,
Rufardo and the alliance army spread out and gradually close into the forest. They faced no opposition whatsoever on the way. The encirclement was getting narrower as time passed.
Although they still could not find a single cult member, Rufardo did not feel strange about this situation. He felt that the demon worshippers might be cowering in a corner in fear or trying to escape.
But since the encirclement was complete, Rufardo did not afraid of the cultists slipping through his hands. No matter what, they will find them sooner or later.
However at this moment, loud terrifying howls suddenly came out of the deep forest. The bodies of the soldiers trembled in fear as their legs halted advancing. The soldiers looked at each other in dilemma.
"We are near. Everyone raise your guards. Keep narrowing down the encirclement!"
A shouting command from Rufardo could be heard as he stepped forward. The soldiers regain their consciousness. With a solar knight commanding them, the soldiers had greater confidence.
However, before they could get deeper into the forest, they heard sounds of creatures running towards them at a high speed.
"They are coming. Prepare yourselves."
Rufardo warned. The soldiers tightly gripped their weapons with nervousness. The sounds of creatures running towards them got nearer and nearer. Finally, the soldiers at the front saw the appearance of the incoming creatures.
These creatures resembled giant wolves. Lava leaking like saliva from their mouths. Their fiery fur were blazing with flames.
The soldiers gasped in fear when they saw the terrifying appearance of the demonic hounds. Some even had the thoughts of running away.
"Hellhounds!"
Rufardo exclaimed. As one of the elite knights from the Solarstras Empire, Rufardo was naturally knowledgeable about demons. He instantly recognized these creatures with just one look.
Hellhounds are the demonic dogs from the demon world that can breath hell flames from their mouths.
Although hellhounds were one of the lowest ranked demons in the demon society, they are still demon species who lived in the fiery plains of the demon world.
Normal soldiers would have a hard time killing them. Even for the skilled warriors, hellhounds are not easy opponents. They could die without a proper corpse if they get careless.
Of cause it was not impossible to kill hellhounds. They are only low level demonic creatures. Hellhounds are just troublesome to deal with. Their bodies are very agile and their flames are deadly.
Rufardo was not surprised. As the largest demonic cult in the kingdom, having some hellhounds as guard dogs was nothing strange to him. He had seen many demonic cultists summoned hellhounds before.
"Spread out. Don't stay in one place. It will make you an easy target for their flame breath. Use your numbers and surround them. There won't be many of them."
Rufardo shouted and commanded the army. The soldiers quickly moved at his orders. With several soldiers working together, the first hellhound was easily killed followed by the next.
The army had a surge of morale. Their losses were small. However before they could heave a sigh of relief, another wave of demons appeared in their sights.
This time, the scale was completely different from before. Not only a larger numbers of hellhounds, there were also many demons with various appearances mixed within including humanoid demons.
"Hellhounds, gargoyles, imps, horned demons, screeching devils, red fiends and even succubuses!"
Rufardo was taken aback. There were various kinds of demons coming towards them that even someone like him did not know some of their species.
"And this many? Impossible! This is a whole demonic army! What the hell is going on?"
Rufardo's eyes widen in shock, soon followed by a great fear as his thoughts ran wild. He was an elite of Solarstras Empire who was trained to deal with various situations. But even he was greatly shaken.
"This is certainly not the work of some cultists from a third rate kingdom!"
Rufardo was certain. He felt a chill down in his spines just by thinking of the reason for the appearance of this demonic army.
There were about a thousand of demons and demonic creatures combined. This large amount of demons was not something some demonic cultists could summon and command.
Even the most powerful cultists in history could only command around a hundred demons at most and that was already a feat that could pass down in history.
The demons rarely obey humans. They thought of humans as lesser beings. Not to mention the demons, even the lowest tier demonic creatures like hellhounds and gargoyles will never obey their masters fully.
Hellhounds and gargoyles are not some dogs and birds that humans can tame. These demonic creatures will always defy the summoner more or less.
Commanding several hundreds of them at once was almost impossible for any humans, let alone more than a thousand including far more powerful demons.
The only ones who could fully control this many demons and demonic creatures were the high ranking demons like the demon dukes or the demon lords themselves.
The Crenoth kingdom and the Astenora Empire had sent out five thousands soldiers each totaling an army of ten thousands soldiers. Their numbers greatly surpassed the demons ten to one.
However, most of them were only normal low rank soldiers. They did not have much experience of fighting against the demons.
The two army commanders of the Crenoth kingdom's army and Astenora Empire's army might be stronger than normal but they were not at the level of elites like Rufardo.
As for the Solarstras Empire, only Rufardo was sent out. Previously, sending ten thousand soldiers with a solar knight was already overkill in the eyes of the nations. After all, this was only for surrounding and eliminating a pesky demonic cult for them.
The main reason of the Solarstras Empire sending out a solar knight was only to keep the Astenora Empire's army in check in case of them having ulterior motives.
Solar knights were recognized as the strongest troops in the continent. Each one of them were elites of elites and possessed the strength of a small army by themselves.
Rufardo had no time to think about anything and drew his sword. This was completely different from normal weapons. The sword itself was illuminating with yellow sunlight.
This sword was forged with the exclusive technology of the Solarstras Empire and known as the solar weapon. The solar weapons were said to be contained the power of the sun itself.
The power of the solar weapons were further enhanced under the sunlight. Thus, the solar knights preferred to fight in day times rather than night where there was no sun.
"Sun Slash!"
Rufardo swung the sword and unleashed a wave of crescent yellowish aura sword slash towards the incoming demons.
Around four low tier demonic creatures at the front instantly cut into half by Rufardo's aura sword slash.
"Do not fear! Send these demons back to hell. Show them what you are made of."
Rufardo raised his sword and yelled a command to the army.
"For the sake of humanity. For your families. We must eliminate the demons here. For humanity!"
Solar knights were symbols of strength and power for low ranking soldiers. Rufardo successfully raised the morale of the entire army.
"For humanity!"
"For humanity!"
The human soldiers cheered as their morales surged. With a solar knight fighting alongside them, they had greater confidence. They raised their weapons and charged towards the demonic army.
The two armies collided.