1950 Chapter 1950. Breaking Out of Prison
John started casting Summon the Eastern Lord after finishing summoning the mighty ape. The summoning spells of the Western and Eastern Lords had intricate runes in their spell formations, so it took him some time to complete the summoning. The time needed to cast these two spells was worth it, though. Once the mighty ape and the mutated saurian emerged, he could pretty much leave the fight to those two.
However, he didn't do so. He continued casting and summoning his other minions. They were the avatar incarnation, giant lizard, dirt golems, Fae, Armored Feral Tiger, and Water Elemental. Together with Steve, these summons formed a perimeter around John, Purple Mist, and Trinity Dawn.
John's Monster Overlord had a similar passive ability to Badass' Hell Ruler. All their summons were immune to being controlled or dispelled. Additionally, his Avatar Incarnation no longer had a duration. Its cooldown only began when the avatar was destroyed.
John's avatar was equipped with the best equipment. Its equipment's grades were mostly unique and a few legendary. This was thanks to Jack, Wilted, and Chris. Hence, his avatar didn't lose to a mythical-grade monster. It could even outdo one because it could use multiple martial arts following John's instructions.
After John summoned all his available minions, Steve used Eternal Guardian's level 60 skill, Eternal Barriers. This skill placed a barrier on all allies within a 50-meter radius. The barriers absorbed a total of 100,000 damage. Those protected by the barriers were immune to status effects while these barriers were active.
Steve positioned himself so the mighty ape and the mutated saurian received the barriers as well. With those barriers, the two lords became more aggressive as they forwent their defense.
The mighty ape and the mutated saurian coordinated well with each other. The ape was fast and agile. It was also cunning. It kicked the crustacean demon in the saurian's direction. The saurian matched the move by jumping onto the crustacean demon's back and biting its neck. The ape then caught the demon mantis again before it flew up. The demon mantis retaliated using its blades, but Steve's barrier on the ape absorbed the slashes. The ape slammed the demon mantis back to the ground.
Jet had a portion of his iron mammoths returned to deal with the centipedes as he and the others resumed attacking the trapped Beelzebub. Among them, Fierce Flame was the one who never stopped hitting the devil. The Dead Eye Ace improved her range. Her range was more than common gunners. Her extreme long-range and flexible maneuverability allowed her to move away from any demon bugs coming her way and continue to fire at Beelzebub.
The hieracosphynx was back and was attacking Beelzebub in melee. Beelzebub retaliated by using his long legs and by casting spells. But as long as he was trapped, his option was limited. His goat face scowled as he uttered a frustrated growl. The brave lion and the Hieracosphynx kept pouncing at him.
Jet moved in a circle around the devil to sneak in some attacks. He had been looking for a chance to execute his Seven Injuries Fists without any luck. It was difficult to locate Beelzebub's weak points. The ones he had identified were scattered at opposite ends of the devil's vast body. Although Beelzebub couldn't move away, he was not exactly still. His sharp legs moved fast at hitting incoming melee enemies. Jet had to be careful not to get impaled by these legs. There was no way he could execute his signature martial arts under this condition.
Beelzebub started casting a spell. The casting took longer than usual. John, who saw the spell formation, exclaimed, "Be careful! He is casting the Extinguishing Chaos Flash!"
Giant Steve, who heard, immediately repositioned himself to make sure Trinity was behind him. He was ready to block using Eternal Wall. As for Jet and the melee combatants. They were fast, and they were close. They could easily circle Beelzebub when he cast the spell. That way, they wouldn't get hit.
They watched Beelzebub's scowling face as he cast the spell. They thought this was good. They had pushed the devil until he acted based on emotions. This made him prone to mistakes, like what he did now. The way they saw it, the devil was wasting this powerful spell.
However, Beelzebub's scowling face turned to a sinister grin just before his spell formation was completed. They noticed then something atop the devil's head. They only noticed because a second spell formation appeared there. Something that looked like a caterpillar was there. This caterpillar was the one casting the second spell formation.
"That… Damn it! He is concealing another summon!" John exclaimed.
Unlike normal caterpillars, this one had hard carapaces covering each segment of its body. The carapaces were filled with dark horns. The caterpillar's head displayed a human face with two long demonic horns. This caterpillar demon was the Pit Fiend. It was a level 95 eternal demon.
The Pit Fiend was much smaller than the other eternal-grade demons Beelzebub summoned, but it didn't mean it was less dangerous. It specialized in spellcasting. This Pit Fiend was summoned right after Beelzebub summoned the eyeball spider demon. But because it was so small, nobody noticed. It hid among Beelzebub's carapaces and waited until it was time to act.
The spell cast by the Pit Fiend was completed before Beelzebub's spell. The spell it cast was Telekinesis. Its telekinesis was a fully-maxed one. It affected five targets.
The Pit Fiend targeted Jet, the Brave Lion, the Hieracosphynx, and two nearby iron mammoths. All targets were caught by the spell except for Jet. The old martial artist sensed the incoming spell. His mastery of mana sense was already keen. Combined with his current stats, which granted him fast reaction and speed, he managed to escape getting ensnared by the spell. He continued to backflip and move at high speed so the spell couldn't lock on him.
The Pit Fiend gave up trying to catch Jet and redirected its spell to another iron mammoth. The Pit Fiend's intelligent stat was very high. His spell easily overpowered the five. They were brought directly in front of Beelzebub, who was grinning as he completed his spell formation.
"Shit…!" Jet cursed as he watched his pet helplessly.
The spell formation burst with heavy dark purple light. The five held by telekinesis were drowned by this light.
Giant Steve was about to use his Eternal Wall, but he noticed at the last instant that the dark purple light was heading in a different direction. The Extinguishing Chaos Flash traveled very far. The dark purple beam went past several of Jet's iron mammoths before hitting someone in the distance. They understood then that Beelzebub didn't aim his spell randomly.
The one Beelzebub aimed at was Fierce Flame. Under Beelzebub's telepathic instruction, the Pit Fiend used telekinesis to line up its prey in Fierce Flame's direction. This way, Beelzebub could take out as many of his enemies with one shot.
After the Extinguishing Chaos Flash ended, only the Hieracosphynx was alive with critical HP. The others hit by the nine-rune spell had perished.
Beelzebub didn't let up. He cast another spell, the Catastrophic Earth Wave. The earth churned as the wave headed in Trinity's direction.
Steve went forward and blocked the wave using Sentinel's Impenetrable Wall. Because of the Living Fortress, the wave stopped after hitting his wall. He still toppled over because the ground underneath him was roiling due to the aftereffect of the wave.
When he was down, the Pit Fiend unleashed its next spell, the Dark Plaguing Spears. Beelzebub followed up with Drilling Rock Spears. Spinning dark spears and earth spears rushed toward Trinity from all sides. John, Purple Mist, and the lesser angel couldn't block all these spears. Even when they did, the spears had high penetrative abilities. The spears went past them and struck Trinity behind them.
The spears didn't kill them because of Purple Mist's Sanctuary, but they did cause enough pain to Trinity that her concentration wavered.
Beelzebub could feel the wall of light trapping him getting weaker. He immediately stabbed his six legs into the wall and pushed.
"Graahh…!!!"
His carapaces opened. Violent winds burst out from the opened gaps. This violent wind caused an explosive shockwave that radiated out. The force further destabilized the wall of light until it was finally torn. The flaring rune diagram on the ground fizzled out.
"Hahaha! Do you think you can trap the great Beelzebub? Think again!"
The carapace behind him opened again. This time, six translucent slim wings came out. They beat at a speed imperceptible to normal eyes. The devil's heavy body started to lift off.
"I will enjoy seeing you all get devoured by my children," Beelzebub said savagely. More demon flies flew out of his body as he gained altitude.
He suddenly sensed a surge of mana from directly above him.
"What…?!" He turned and saw John hovering too close to him. John's staff was aiming at him.
"Do you think you can get off that easily?" John said with a sneer.
A huge muscular human with purple skin and a goatee materialized next to John. This muscular human didn't waste time sending Beelzebub a punch once it appeared. His advancing fist caused a windy shockwave. When this fist connected with Beelzebub's head, it created an even more powerful shockwave.
Beelzebub flew straight into the ground again from the mighty punch. When he landed, the ground alighted. A wall of light similar to before reappeared around him.
"No… No!" Beelzebub shouted when the wall of light confined him again.