From Hogwarts to Strixhaven.

Chapter 644 Reveal
When the overwhelming swarm of gluttonous insects rose again from the canyon, carrying with it a foul and filthy evil aura, and pressed down on the Crusader camp like a materialized doom, a commotion immediately broke out in the Crusader's temporary camp built on the small hill.

Despite the officers' loud shouts and orders, the new recruits from Nerozian managed to hold their weapons and barely manage to stand firm.

"This isn't the first time you've faced demons! Show some backbone!" The deputy enforcer of the Claw Knights' method of boosting morale wasn't limited to shouting. "Hold your positions! No one is allowed to retreat a single step! Your military advisor entrusted me with organizing the defense for this very moment! You bunch of bastards, barely better than chicks, listen up! Retreat or be executed!"

The hell knights, clad in black armor, stood beside the dwarf suffering from discoloration. Their weapons clashed, producing a clanging metallic sound, before they shouted in unison, "Retreat or be killed!"

Whether it was fear or discipline that brought the situation under control, the unrest at the Crusader's temporary camp was brought under control.

"Something's not right. Why haven't these insects attacked yet?" Reverend Sheryl Sohir, standing beside the medical team priest, muttered to himself. He had witnessed the swarms of insects from Descari before and knew that these gluttonous insects were monsters that never understood tactical thinking and only knew how to swarm forward indiscriminately. But now, the swarms of gluttonous insects that had risen from the canyon were not attacking the temporary camp below, but instead were circling above the heads of the Crusaders.

The answer to the question is very simple, because the gluttonous insects that the Crusaders saw were not gluttonous insects at all. Perhaps some insects were mixed in with them that had been scattered from the canyon, but the vast majority were still illusions controlled by Ivy.

The controlled phantoms would certainly obey Ivy's orders without question, but the scattered gluttonous insects mixed into the phantom swarm would not so obediently circle around the Crusaders' heads.

Several gluttonous insects flew out from the huge swarm of insects above the heads of the Crusaders and charged downwards.

The Crusader warriors stood ready, but only a few scattered ranged attacks were launched. This was quite understandable; ranged attacks with projectiles couldn't be aimed directly upwards. Although the Gluttonous Insects were several times the size of ordinary locusts, the largest individuals were only the size of a palm. Hitting such targets with crossbow bolts was virtually impossible. Moreover, once the projectiles lost their kinetic energy, they would fall back to the ground. Facing enemies directly above, the missed arrows could easily become weapons used to kill friendly fire.

The shouts of the Crusaders rang out in the makeshift camp, and some had already begun to engage the insects, but most of those who had not been attacked continued to stare at the huge swarm of insects hovering in the air.

Enveloped by the swarm of phantom insects, Ivy could clearly see that the gluttonous insects charging towards the Crusader's temporary camp had a very unified objective: the supply depot in one corner of the position.

Without the Queen's guidance, these gluttonous insects shouldn't have launched such targeted attacks. The only reasonable explanation Ivy could think of was that there was something in the Crusader's supply depot that attracted the gluttonous insects.

For example, items contaminated with the pheromones of the Taotie insect.

"Ah—get away from me! You damned bugs!" A scream pierced the air as the halfling historian Nura leaped out from under the truck where he was hiding, frantically jumping and scrambling to escape the relentless gluttonous bugs. In his panic, he even pulled out a bottle of flaming glue and threw it at the bugs in the air.

Just as the Crusader commanders had feared, Nura's alchemical artifacts, which she threw into the air, did not hit any enemies but instead landed on top of a large pile of supplies.

The fragile glass bottle vanished in an instant, and the viscous alchemical ointment ignited into flames the moment it came into contact with the air.

Ivy, who was in the air, saw it clearly and smiled coldly: "So you've finally given yourself away."

The swarm of Taotie insects that blotted out the sun no longer circled the Crusader camp, but instead huddled together and rushed straight towards the tent at the very center of the temporary camp.

The Crusader field commanders immediately shouted orders to their men to remain calm and to stay in their fighting positions.

Just moments before the black cloud formed by the gluttonous insect swarm crashed into the camp, Ivy, wearing a star-patterned cloak, suddenly appeared in the center of the camp and raised her mithril staff high.

The next second, thousands of rainbow lights converged into a torrent, surging upwards and striking the sky-covering swarm of Taotie insects head-on.

The gluttonous insects that made up the black cloud screamed as they were dissolved by the rainbow light, and the clusters of black clouds fled in all directions.

There were no corpses or remains. The towering, rainbow-colored beam of light completely pierced through the black clouds formed by the gluttonous insects, then connected the rusty clouds within the World's Sorrow area with the desolate land, leaving behind a magnificent rainbow bridge.

The light emitted by the rainbow bridge not only made the swarm of insects in the air disappear, but also illuminated another group of demons hidden in the sky.

It was a group of gargoyles, no different from the flying demons that had attacked the two knightly orders earlier.

Ivy stopped casting her spell and shouted to bring the Crusader warriors to their feet: "Crusaders! Prepare for battle!"

"Lord Doom!" cried the orc paladin Erabes in delight. "What should we do!"

"Take your men and wipe out the remaining gluttonous insects, and put out the fire at the supply depot!" Ivy issued the order methodically.

"Sohir! Have the priests heal the warriors and prepare to defend against evil divine magic!"

"Yes, sir!" Sheryl's priestess called out to her companions, "Field medics! Follow me!"

"Regil! Bring a squad of your best men to my side! The rest of you, stand by and get your weapons ready! Ranged units, draw your weapons—fire freely from the 9 o'clock position!" Ivy continued to shout, his voice echoing like thunder across the camp with the aid of magic. Just hearing his voice was enough to calm the inexperienced recruits. Witnessing his feat of destroying the swarm of gluttonous insects with magic, these young warriors, whose morale had been greatly boosted, were filled with boundless enthusiasm and began to act with fervor and tension.

Whoosh.

Whoosh...

Like a rain that gradually intensifies, the arrows fired from the Crusader's makeshift positions grew increasingly dense, launching an attack on the gargoyles in the west, who were not yet ready to charge.

Demons are never of one mind. In the absence of the World's Tragedy, these demons fight armies from other higher planes, and in their spare time, they also fight among demon lords.

Only because of the alliance between Descari and Baffom, the demons who arrived in the material plane of Grallion through the World's Sorrow did not fight each other to the death as they did in the Abyss.

But expecting gargoyles to cooperate with gluttonous insects in an attack is pure fantasy. Even if gargoyles could attack without targeting their own teammates, gluttonous insects might not have that ability. Their brains, which can only process the word "eat," cannot distinguish between teammates. If they were on the same battlefield, the gargoyles would definitely be eaten along with the gluttonous insects.

Therefore, these gargoyles lying in ambush near the Crusader's temporary camp were actually waiting for the swarm of gluttonous insects to leave or be defeated.

If the Crusaders fail to win, the Gargoyles' attack will directly turn into an offensive against Cannaburi. If the Crusaders achieve final victory, they will launch an attack while the enemy is suffering heavy casualties, thus completely ending the Fifth Holy War.

However, the gargoyle commander hadn't anticipated the third scenario: the Crusaders not only defeated the gluttonous swarm but also suffered almost no casualties. Moreover, Ivy's magic exposed the gargoyles' disguise, putting the force, which had intended to reap the benefits, into a passive and defensive position.

The gargoyles' commander is named Nugennis, a half-soul-eating demon and a follower of the demon lord Kabuliri.

Kabuliri is a demon lord who governs ghouls, graves, and the secrets of the dead. He is said to be the first humanoid to commit cannibalism, and in legend, he was once an elf. Having consumed the flesh of his own brother, he became the first ghoul in the history of Grallion, and was reborn as a demon lord in a vast graveyard created for him in the abyss.

As a follower of Kabuliri, Nugenis's attack on the Crusaders was not without reason. Besides the chaotic nature of demons, it was also at the behest of the ghoul king Kabuliri.

By performing the act of blasphemy, Nugenis can transform the living into ghouls. This means destroying the Crusaders' faith, driving them to devour each other in terror, and then establishing a faith belonging to Kabuliri on the land of the Fallen World.

Therefore, Nugenis preferred to see a group of defeated Crusader soldiers rather than high-spirited and eager warriors.

"Damn it! This is a trap! Retreat!" Nugenis deflected an arrow and roared at his men, "That bitch, Menagu! I knew she was up to no good!"

After a brief period of panic, the gargoyles, whose forms had been exposed by Ivy's rainbow light, flapped their wings and flew higher to avoid the arrows shot from below.

However, Ivy had no intention of letting them off so easily.

The World's Lament is a bleak land of death, where the weather is violent and unpredictable. Weather as calm and conducive to marching as it is today is a rare treat.

However, both sides on the battlefield, whether it was Nugenis leading a large number of gargoyles or the Crusaders who kept throwing arrows at the gargoyles, felt a gentle breeze brushing against their faces.

The gentle breeze turned into a gale in an instant.

The gale-force winds swept up rusty clouds, pulling them into a massive, funnel-shaped storm.

After a period of research, Ivy has figured out a way to deal with demonic spell resistance.

These demons possess a vast amount of magical power within their bodies, and this excessive concentration of magic adhering to their skin surface causes spells targeting them to become ineffective.

In other words, the demon's spell resistance does not resist the magic itself, but rather makes these spells untargetable.

What Ivy needs to do is transform target skills into area-of-effect skills, using a larger effective range to cover the effect of making a single target untargetable.

Unfortunately, area-of-effect spells usually mean that the power is dispersed, and demons can also use their physical strength to avoid some of the damage caused by magic.

Just like the fire breath Ivy used in the Grey Camp, although it can indeed damage demons, the abyssal resistance and thick skin allow most demons with some strength to survive the dragon fire.

However, the spell Ivy is currently casting is not aimed at causing damage, but is a simple restriction spell.

Instead of trying to tame the raging and furious elemental forces within the World's Lament, Ivy indiscriminately ignited their fury, guiding them to form a massive tornado that bound the gargoyles floating nearby.

These demons, with their rock-like skin, have ample resistance to blunt force damage, but they still need to use their wings to ride the gales in order to fly.

Even Nugennis, the leader, was unable to abandon his troops and flee when the tornado enveloped the area.

Nugenis saw several gargoyles trying to fight the storm get swept up in it and then disappear in a spinning motion, realizing he had to give the order. He gritted his teeth and shouted, "Gargoyle Form!"

Upon receiving the order, the gargoyles used their wings to cover themselves, reducing the surface area exposed to the wind on their stone bodies, which were much denser than air, and crashed heavily to the ground.

Ivy, who held her staff high to maintain the magic, swung it forcefully with one hand, like swinging a knife: "Crusaders! Advance! Destroy them!"

The Crusaders, having formed battle lines, moved slowly. At the forefront were knights clad in plate armor, drawn from various knightly orders serving the Holy War, approaching the enemy with heavy steps.

Nugenis and the ghouls were caught in the middle between the Crusaders and the tornadoes, finding themselves in a complete dilemma. However, for the demons, choosing between the might of nature and mortal soldiers was not a difficult choice.

Led by Nugenis, the half-soul-eating demon, the demons launched a counter-charge, charging towards the Crusaders.

“Lord Doom.” The knight who led the Crusader attack was not Regil. He followed the instructions given by Ivy when she first appeared, gathered a squad of elite Hell Knights, and crossed the defensive line to come to Ivy’s side.

Ivy deactivated the amplification spell, making her voice no longer sound like distant thunder: "Find the historian Nura Dandehua sent by the Queen. She is a spy hidden in our army. If necessary, you can decide for yourself how to deal with her. However... try to capture her alive."

“Ah, I was just wondering why you didn’t send your most elite troops to the front lines…” Regil’s half-white eyes swept over Ivy, revealing an expression that could barely be called appreciation. “Yes, Your Excellency Doom. Our troops need a public execution to boost morale and restore discipline. I assure you, you will see a living Nura Dandehua.”

(End of this chapter)