It was a simple self-destruct device. Once the enemies began following the balloon, the decoys must destroy the "Farsight" to avoid an embarra.s.sing situation where the demons became too occupied by the novel device instead of chasing the witches.

There was a loud explosion just as Lightning touched sea. With a flash, the sky lit up.

Lightning looked up and saw the airbag puff up and become a huge red fireball with a bright orange color in the middle with dark red smoke rolling on the edges. The flames, like the setting sun, stayed ablaze for quite a long time.

She watched a demon come too close to the roaring flames. It flipped over and set itself on fire before falling to the sea with its mount.

The other four demons, who fled from the smoke below, sprang up toward Lightning.

Until now, everything had been going as planned.

The demons were not that clever after all.

Lightning raised the corner of her mouth and flew close to the sea towards the forest.

The plan was to lead them to the depth of the woods where Leaf could control everything.

Everything was ready in the hunting ground, and Leaf was waiting quietly for the demons to fall into the trap.

The dense branches, vines and saw gra.s.s would inevitably be a nightmare for the enemies

—if they could dream.

...

Sylvie used the Eye of Magic to search the ambush area. The woods under Leaf's control glowed green. From the sky, it was like a flask had embedded in the earth with its mouth facing toward the Swirling Sea while its neck remained several kilometers away.

Despite feeling dizzy, she scanned the inner part of every tree. The numerous details swarming around her head caused great pain. Sylvie finally found Agatha who hid in a large tree close to the mouth of the flask.

"Why did you come here?" The trunk cracked open as Maggie fell to the earth. Agatha poked out her head and asked, "Was the plan for enticing demons unsuccessful?"

"No, it worked. Five demons followed." She jumped down from the mount's back and lifted the white-haired little girl who had returned to her human form. Sylvie hid in the tree hastily. "But three of them are different!"

"What's the difference?"

Sylvie detailed the odd demons she had seen and found Agatha in shock.

Her heart sank. "Are they difficult to deal with?"

Agatha took a long time to recollect herself and then said with an anxious look. "The demons with ropes are Fearsome Demons, they are horrible killers to common people. But witches don't need to fear them, as long as we avoid looking them in the eye. Underneath their charred face hides the real eyes of Fearsome Demons."

"I see," Sylvie muttered. In ancient witches' stories, their enemies would be terrified immediately by these demons and then they would feel afraid, timid, confused and desperate. A mortal troop of around 100 men could often be routed by only three or four fearsome demons. Most people were too fearful to think. They just knelt down in tremor waiting to be slain. Even if the G.o.d's Stone of Retaliation could weaken this effect greatly, it could not remove such feelings completely. The demons seemed to be born with this ability to control people's emotions, and no obvious fluctuation of their magic power could be perceived.

"What about the Armored Demon? It can fly alone, is it the Lord of h.e.l.l?"

"No!" Agatha spoke in a rough low voice. "If your description is correct, my guess is that it's probably a Senior Demon. We're in trouble."

"Senior Demon?" Sylvie was bewildered.

"The Union knows little about them, except that they possess many abilities and look like humans, except they are much larger. Both their strength and magic power are quite strong." She swallowed hard. "It's said that only Transcendents can compete against them."

"Transcendents? We don't even have an Extraordinary now." Sylvie was nervous. "Inform Leaf to stop this plan. We should retreat and meet the First Army."

Agatha bit her lip. "It can fly alone because of the Stone of Flight. In fact, it's not a big problem if there's only Lightning and Maggie because they can fly. However, we're impossible to escape from their attack once we're out of Leaf's protection. Although I've never seen a real Senior Demon, I was told by Alice before that witches must be concentrated on fighting with these crafty and strong demons, or we're likely to die because of just a tiny miss."

She beat the trunk until Leaf's voice came from above. "I'm listening. What's up?"

Agatha said firmly, "The plan has changed. Please inform all the witches we are changing from plan A to plan B. Let Nightingale watch over the Armored Demon. Don't hesitate to kill it if Anna gets the chance."

Plan B meant dropping the pan of capturing and using the Sigil of G.o.d's Will to wipe out all the enemies.

"Will we really combat with the Senior Demon?" Sylvie could not help holding Maggie tight.

"Escape only leads to death while there will be a chance to survive if we try our best to combat with them." Agatha spoke slowly. "A Senior Demon always comes out with a number of other demons, but now they just have two Fearsome Demons as the guards. So we are likely to win even if there isn't a Transcendent!"

"I see Lightning," Leaf said again. "They're coming."

"Shh..."

Sylvie held her breath. She heard roaring sounds from the treetop, and then she heard heavy objects falling to the ground in front.

The sounds of the demons' rapid paces echoed in the jungle, and soon died away. Only the Devilbeasts' low roar remained.

"How is it going now?"

"The Armored Demon hasn't landed yet and it's still following Lightning. The other demons left their mounts outside the woods and followed her too. Wait! A demon is missing." Sylvie looked carefully at the surroundings. "There were only three Devilbeasts left near us."

"Good! Let me kill these fool reptiles first so that they can't escape even if they want to." Agatha opened the crack. "You're not a combat-witch. Please just stay hidden here."

"But they can fly!" Sylvie worried. "What if they want to escape by flying?

"Take it easy." She looked at the little girl who wanted to join. "Don't worry. We have Maggie."

...

A "Devilbeast" suddenly fell from the sky, appeared behind them, spread its wings while rotating its tail and roared loudly at the three Devilbeasts.

They were distracted immediately.

To Sylvie's surprise, the three Devilbeasts imitated Maggie and also spread their wings and wagged their tails, as if they were dancing! In order to gain more performance s.p.a.ce, they pushed each other and refused to back off.

Were they entertaining her?

On the other side, Agatha snuck out of the forest. A layer of white ice crystal formed on the ground.