Lucifer, Who Guides Evil – 4

The red eye floating in the sky was only there for a very brief moment. By the time I thought I might have seen it wrong and checked the sky again, it had already disappeared a long time ago.

To dismiss it as ‘did I see it wrong?’ felt quite unsettling.

Anyway, the sky was blood-red, and there was even something red rising, similar to the sun and moon, so I wanted to believe I had seen it wrong, but there were more than one or two things that bothered me about it.

While I was lost in thought, Lucifer powerfully threw the root spear he held in his hand. He threw it so hard that it sounded like a cannon firing.

It was the opening pattern of Phase 2.

A massive pillar formed by intertwined tree roots shot forward like an arrow. The spear was even imbued with the demonic dark-red aura unique to demons.

The sharply pointed spearhead tore through the nearby air and flew in at an incredible speed. I cleared my mind of distractions. Now was the time to focus on battle again.

I clenched my left hand, preparing to cast dark magic. Along with the feeling of my stamina draining, a black magic circle appeared on my left hand. The sound of the spearhead cutting through the air grew distinctly closer.

I extended my left hand at the exact right moment. The spear, which had been flying as if to pierce everything at its impact point, was sucked into the magic circle drawn on my hand, disintegrated, and was absorbed.

I pulled my arm back. My tightly clenched fist trembled. An ominous black aura, visible at a glance, completely enveloped my forearm and surged.

Lucifer, who had created another massive spear made of tree roots, landed with a thud. His wings flapped powerfully behind his back.

At the same time, from the bubbling river of blood, an arm entangled with tree roots suddenly appeared. The owner of the arm soon revealed itself.

It was something almost the same size as me, as if Lucifer’s form had been shrunk to half its size. Its entire body was covered in tree roots, and it also held a spear in its right hand.

However, unlike the main body, which had at least one eye on its face, nothing was visible on that guy’s face. It was strange that it could even see forward like that.

Blood dripped from its body. Steam rose in wisps.

‘One more, for now.’

Perhaps the developer wanted to emphasize the Demon King concept, as it was a guy that was summoned only in Phase 2.

And it wasn’t just one. Three more guys, similar in appearance to the first one that popped out, staggered out.

They blocked the space between Lucifer and me, then successively aimed their weapons at me. The weapons they held were also different.

The first one that appeared had a spear, the second one had a longsword and shield, the third one had a greatsword, and the last one had a giant bow.

‘Dealing with them shouldn’t be a big problem.’

With my current specs, that would be the case. Dealing with them itself would be enough with four or five hits from the enchanted Wingless Nightmare. That hadn’t changed even in Dark Lord mode.

The real problem was that, unlike vanilla, in Dark Lord mode, those guys would continuously be replenished until the phase was cleared. Not just up to four, but even more than that.

If I roughly left them alone, I might have to fight a legion of dozens of clones.

I changed the attribute of the Wingless Nightmare. The blade returned to a grayish hue. I placed my left hand, still emanating an ominous aura, on the upper part of the crossguard and pushed it upwards as if stroking it.

Black flames erupted where my hand had brushed past. Thanks to the magic, which was ashes to ashes, the firepower was further enhanced, so the flames were fiercer than before.

Lucifer extended the hand holding the spear. Taking that as a signal, three of them rushed in at once. The one holding the bow was an exception, as he remained in place, drawing his bowstring.

‘The one in front first.’

I finished my calculations and moved slightly. At the same time the one with the bow aimed at me, it was a position where the backs of the heads of the other guys rushing from the front would be exposed. In response to that action, the bowstring also twisted slightly sideways.

Because these guys had the characteristic of swinging their weapons like crazy, regardless of whether allies were nearby or not.

With a *pyut* sound, an arrow was fired. Their foolish intelligence remained the same, as instead of piercing me, the arrow embedded itself in the back of the head of the guy furthest back, who was in the same line of fire.

While the guy who had been approaching with a greatsword was suddenly attacked by his own side, and staggered, bowing his head deeply, I took a few steps forward.

And taking advantage of the moment the guy with the sword was about to swing his weapon, I quickly retreated. The sword tip narrowly cut through the air. While he was regaining his posture, I swung the Wingless Nightmare.

Black flames burrowed past the shield and burned the tree roots. The dried-up, burnt roots fell to the ground in a shower.

Now it was time for an attack to come from behind. Without even checking, I rolled sideways and got out of the way. As soon as I did, a spear was thrust into the spot where I had been.

With a *tung!* sound, the spearhead hit the innocent shield and bounced off. The guy with the spear staggered due to the recoil.

Right in front of me, a greatsword was raised with both hands. One of the clones, who had recovered somehow, had raised it. He prepared to swing it. I rolled out of the way one more time.

The greatsword, swung diagonally, struck the ribs of the spear-wielding guy instead of me. A sound of something breaking was heard, and the body of the guy who was hit by the greatsword floated into the air.

The tree-root human, whose body was bent like the symbol ‘