Chapter 280: The Girl Triggers an Emergency World Quest

“Watch out!”

Behind Su Nian, Amy and Lise—the two girls whose pretty faces had turned deathly pale from fear—let out simultaneous screams of despair.

They stared in disbelief at the scene, utterly unable to accept that Su Nian, who had time and again shielded them like an invincible goddess, was now being pierced by that grotesque bone spear!

In an instant.

Two faint yet incomparably pure streams of magic power suddenly rippled into existence around Su Nian. 

One burned hot like the blazing summer sun, the other glowed warm like the first light of dawn.

The next second a tiny orange-red fireball, no bigger than a fingernail, trembled as it floated from Lise’s fingertip. 

Carrying every ounce of the girl’s courage and fervent wish, it flew toward the ferocious demon elite captain.

And at the same time Amy squeezed her eyes shut, tears streaming down her face. 

In the depths of overwhelming empathy and sorrow, a soft orb of light emerged from her palm and instinctively drifted toward the wounded soldiers nearby, releasing a faint, almost negligible healing aura.

Awakened magic power!

In this life-or-death moment of absolute desperation, the two girls had simultaneously received heaven’s favor.

Yet reality was cruel.

That freshly awakened, feeble magic was, to a battle-hardened demon elite captain, no more than a gentle breeze across his face.

The fireball in which Lise had poured all her hope struck his bone armor and merely burst into a small cluster of sparks before quietly extinguishing.

The crisis continued.

The demon elite captain, bone spear raised, flashed a trace of contempt in his scarlet beast-like eyes. 

The spear tip was about to pierce the chest of the breathtakingly beautiful girl before him, who resembled a goddess of the stars.

At that moment.

Beneath the magical curtain of Academy City, countless citizens watched this heart-shattering scene through photography crystal orbs.

Time seemed to stretch infinitely.

Everyone held their breath. 

Many timid girls had already squeezed their eyes shut, unable to watch any longer.

The sharp bone spear grew rapidly larger in every viewer’s pupils. 

Its eerie green toxic glow seemed to pierce through the magical projection itself, stabbing straight into the depths of every watching soul.

Was this astonishing, hope-inspiring Miss Su Nian—having just ignited everyone’s hope—truly about to fall like a meteor before the eyes of the world?

Right then a low, stern shout rang beside Su Nian’s ear, “Anyone who dares harm her dies!”

The voice wasn’t deafening, yet it carried an unquestionable will—as commanding as an imperial decree that brooked no disobedience—immediately drowning out every clamor on the battlefield.

In the next instant, the black figure who had been slaughtering ahead suddenly blurred, transforming into a streak of light too fast for the eye to follow.

He crossed a dozen meters in a heartbeat.

Like an immovable mountain, he resolutely planted himself in front of Su Nian.

Spatial magic!

Chu Tian’s tall, upright back completely enveloped the slender girl’s figure, cutting off every danger and prying gaze.

The Starlight Ruling Sword in his hand erupted with unprecedentedly brilliant starlight.

The blade hummed, its clear, soul-piercing sword chant rang out.

Countless illusory stars swirled around it, instantly weaving into an impenetrable curtain of stellar radiance.

“Boom—!”

The demon captain’s all-out, life-burning strike collided head-on with the sword curtain.

The deafening roar of clashing energies shook the air.

A violent shockwave exploded outward like a hurricane, hurling nearby debris and demon corpses into the air.

The hard metal deck plating was gouged into deep furrows, screeching horribly as it was torn apart.

Su Nian was entirely shielded behind the horned demon’s towering frame.

She only felt a fierce gust scrape across her cheek, whipping her golden hair at the temples into wild disarray.

In the wind, she could even smell the distinctive scent coming from him—a mix of the sweet-acrid tang of demon blood and a faint, cool fragrance.

A scent she knew all too well.

It was the scent of nights at Shadowmoon Manor, of countless moments of humiliation and surrender deeply branded into her memory.

What the hell?

This horned demon bastard had suddenly used spatial magic to block in front of her?

Su Nian’s mind went blank.

Her sky-blue eyes widened slightly, reflecting his broad, solid back.

From the looks of it, this guy really wasn’t with the demons raiding the floating fortress.

He had even saved her… so maybe he wasn’t all that bad after all…

Heh.

The thought had barely surfaced before Su Nian ruthlessly crushed it.

She had been perfectly confident she could block this attack with her S-rank magic—and even counter-kill him.

Who needed this horned demon bastard to save her?

Hmph!

But… for some reason, the sudden feeling of being protected from behind…

It felt strangely… wonderful.

Her heart gave a soft, unexpected thump.

Su Nian’s cheeks flushed with an uncontrollable trace of warmth.

“Ding! Host’s favorability toward the horned demon +3.”

The crisp system notification sounded in her mind like a bucket of ice water.

“Current favorability: –36.”

‘Huh? Favorability went up again?! Nooo……’

***

On the other side, the demon captain knocked back several steps and let out an unwilling roar.

The thick bone armor across his chest had completely shattered. 

Deep, bone-exposing gashes crisscrossed grotesquely, and thick, pitch-black demon blood gushed from his mouth and nose like an opened floodgate.

He knew he would die here today.

Yet in those scarlet beast eyes burning with the last flames of life, there was not a shred of fear.

Instead, they gleamed with a near-mad, fulfilled determination.

Sneering, in the final moment before his body collapsed entirely, he fiercely pulled a diamond-shaped crystal stone that flickered with ominous blood-red light from his chest.

With the last ounce of strength he had left, he crushed it.

The strange crystal was covered in faintly pulsing vein-like patterns, radiating an evil, soul-freezing palpitation.

“For my lord! For the glory of the demon race!”

With his hoarse, fanatical shout, the blood-crystal let out a piercing, eardrum-shattering wail.

It shattered on command but this was not the end.

It was the beginning of something far more terrifying, far more hopeless.

This was the final trump card bestowed upon the raiding force by a supreme “demon general”-rank powerhouse of the demon race’s upper echelon.

[Key of the Nether Realm].

Once the assault on the floating fortress’s core magic array failed completely, this demonic artifact could be activated at any cost.

It would forcibly tear apart the fragile spatial barrier, forcibly creating a stable gate connecting directly to the depths of the demon realm and summoning an endless tide of demon troops to descend.

The hoarse, zealous cry had not yet faded into the howling cold wind.

The shattered blood-crystal turned into countless scarlet motes of light. 

Instead of dispersing, they were suddenly drawn inward by some invisible, grand power, collapsing toward the center and coalescing.

The next moment a terrifying spatial fluctuation that made souls tremble erupted from the demon captain’s corpse and spread in all directions.

Without warning, the sky directly above the floating fortress was ripped open by a shocking pitch-black fissure.

This was not clouds being torn apart by raw force.

It was space itself—brutally, unreasonably shredded by an overwhelming, tyrannical power.

The edges of the tear shimmered with distorted, blood-like flowing crimson light. 

It expanded rapidly, and expanded again.

In the blink of an eye, it became a sky-obscuring gate of darkness—like a despairing demonic eye hanging across the cold night sky.

Beyond the gate lay bottomless, pure blackness.

As though it connected directly to some abyss of endless wails and despair, it exuded a thick, almost tangible stench of sulfur and rotting flesh.

‘A teleportation gate!’

The words exploded in Su Nian’s mind, nearly stopping her heart.

Immediately after.

From within that colossal dark gate came roars and howls like an avalanche and tsunami combined.

It was the demon army.

Countless grotesque, bloodthirsty demon soldiers surged out like a breached black flood from the unfathomable gate.

They flapped variously shaped ugly bat wings, brandished weapons wreathed in sickly green demonic flames, and unleashed earth-shaking roars.

Dense and innumerable, they blotted out the stars and moon, completely shrouding the grand floating fortress beneath a vast, death-scented shadow.

The temperature in the air plummeted by more than ten degrees.

Icy killing intent and thick despair flooded over the floating fortress like a tangible tide, instantly drowning everyone on the deck.

The faint spark of hope that had just risen was utterly crushed by this apocalyptic sight.

“It’s over…”

A soldier who had only just been healed by holy light stared blankly at the sky. 

His longsword clattered to the deck.

His eyes held nothing but endless ashen despair.

“Help!!”

“No! I don’t want to die!!”

The remaining nobles screamed even more shrilly than before. 

They completely broke down—some collapsed to the ground, others rushed madly toward the fortress edge as if they wanted to leap from this ten-thousand-foot height to find release.

Chaos, panic, despair.

In this moment, they reached their peak.

“A spatial teleportation gate?”

Chu Tian, still standing protectively in front of Su Nian, spoke with rare gravity in his voice.

He pulled her even deeper behind him. 

That broad back almost completely concealed her slender form.

“They’ve even brought out something like this… It seems the demon race is dead set on destroying this fortress.”

Su Nian’s heart sank to rock bottom.

She could feel the body of the horned demon bastard in front of her tense in that instant.

It looked like even this guy was getting serious—no longer relaxed enough to tease her…

The situation seemed very bad.

“Ding! Emergency world quest triggered: Descent of the Demon Race Teleportation Gate!”

“Quest objective: Survive the demon army’s assault, find a way to close the teleportation gate, and save the city’s residents.”

“Quest rewards: Determined by task evaluation grade. B-grade evaluation rewards 3,000,000 humiliation value and one freely chosen S-rank skill. If human casualties and city destruction can be minimized, A-grade or S-grade rewards may be obtained.”

…

‘A world-class quest!’

Since she received the system, this was one of the rare, genuinely serious tasks it had issued.

Even a B-grade evaluation gave three million humiliation value and an S-rank skill.

If she could achieve an S-grade evaluation, there would surely be far more—perhaps ten million humiliation value!

As long as she could complete this quest…

The goal of becoming a deity and breaking free from this horned demon bastard would take a massive stride forward!