I, the prince in distress, send money

Chapter 552 The Demon's Headache

Just as the firelight and clamor of the beachhead could be faintly heard through the distorted woodland, deep within the Crystal Song Woodland, on a completely corrupted clearing, the air was distorted by the high temperature.

This place was once a sacred forest spot where the elves held their summer solstice celebrations, but now stands a blasphemous altar built of black boulders and twisted metal, constantly pulsating with fel energy.

Beside the altar, a tall figure stood silently.

It is over three meters tall, covered with a thick, dark red carapace that looks like cooled lava, with sharp bone spurs growing from its joints.

Its head resembles that of a goat, but is even more ferocious, with an inextinguishable green evil fire burning on its curved horns, and a sharp spearhead that gleams with a cold light at the tip of its thick tail.

It is the demon lord in charge of destroying the World Tree... Grossag the Doomhammer.

Grossag's burning vertical pupils seemed to pierce through the dense but withered and decaying trees, clearly "seeing" everything that was happening on the distant beach.

It saw how those humans stormed onto the beach in a brutal and unreasonable manner, how they quickly organized themselves and built defenses amidst the chaos, and even more so, how, in that brief skirmish, those humans displayed a fanaticism far beyond that of ordinary species and... a contempt for death.

A familiar feeling, one that it utterly loathed and even vaguely horrified, gradually took root in its mind, which was filled with destructive desires.

"This aura...this fighting style..."

Grossag's deep growl rolled in his throat, the sound like two rough rocks rubbing against each other.

"Disregarding casualties, advancing feverishly, even... willing to die?"

It recalled a long time ago, in a world where demons had once been defeated, but were instead pushed back by a group of fearless humans and driven into the abyss...

The creatures Grossage is seeing now are remarkably similar to the group of humans from before.

Using all sorts of unbelievable tactics and seemingly endless life force, they relentlessly wore down and crushed its vanguard, ultimately causing the conquest to fail. Many of the great demons and demon lords who led the army died.

At the time, Grossag was a mid-level demon, and it participated in the battle and miraculously survived.

The memory of the battle was unpleasant, filled with frustration and an incomprehensible sense of absurdity.

In endless battles and conquests, demons have witnessed countless brave or cowardly souls, but only those beings who regard death as a temporary inconvenience and battle as a kind of revelry have made these demons, who live by spreading fear and destruction, feel uneasy.

"Impossible... how could he be here..."

Grossag's pupils suddenly contracted as it stared intently at the direction of the beachhead, especially at the statue being assembled, which exuded an unsettling aura of order and machinery.

"It's them?"

It finally realized that its unique style of operation, its reckless advance that disregarded the casualty ratio, and its efficient and rapid approach to both construction and destruction, all of which seemed like child's play, closely overlapped with the shadows of several failures it was reluctant to mention deep in its memory.

A mixture of rage, apprehension, and a barely perceptible fear shattered Grossage's previous composure and disdain.

It originally thought this was just a lucky human fleet with some special weapons, a piece of meat that was about to be devoured.

But now it realizes that it may have stirred up an extremely troublesome hornet's nest.

"These damned locusts, which shouldn't exist in any world, how did they get here? Is it for the World Tree?"

Grossag slammed his armor-plated fist against the altar beside him in frustration, sending shards of stone flying and fel energy scattering everywhere.

"Or is it simply for the sake of the demon?"

It knew that if it really was those guys, then the tactics it had used to deal with ordinary elves and human armies would be completely ineffective.

A war of attrition?

The opponent is not afraid of attrition at all.

Intimidation tactics? The other side probably isn't provocative enough.

A decapitation strike?

Even if you kill their leader, another one, or even several, might appear the next day!
"We must change our strategy..."

Grossag forced itself to calm down, its burning eyes fixed on the brightly lit beach, a vicious and cautious plan beginning to brew in its mind.

"We can't let them gain a foothold, especially that... respawn point."

Grossag recalled lessons from other worlds and knew that this building, called the Resurrection Point, was extremely important to these guys.

Once they establish stable resurrection and supply points, these inhuman beings can become like a true natural disaster, endless and relentless, until they completely overwhelm the demon army.

"Summon all high-ranking demons and cease their pointless, small-scale harassment of the elves..."

It issued a low, spiritual command to the empty shadows.

"We need a real, devastating blow to tear through their defenses and destroy that idol before their damn respawn point is fully activated!"

It raised its head, looked towards Mooncrown City, then glanced at the beach, its eyes blazing with malevolent fire.

"And those long-eared elves... We must stop them from further allying with these guys. It seems it's time to let the corrupt heart beat sooner rather than later."

Grossag realized that the battle in Mooncrown City had completely slipped out of its control because of these unexpected and unpredictable enemies.

A battle far more brutal and chaotic than anticipated is about to erupt on this cursed coast and woodland.

This time, it faced not noble but stubborn elves, nor brave but death-fearing humans, but a group of mad beings who treated war as a game and demons as experience and equipment.

This feeling was something that this Lord of Destruction hadn't experienced in a long time, and it was quite troublesome.

The fact that these guys are here means that there are more natural disasters waiting to appear behind them, as well as some being standing behind the natural disasters.

Even when powerful beings in the abyss mention that being, they often do so with an indescribable... aversion and avoidance.

Grossagna's chest, covered by a thick armor, heaved violently, not from exhaustion, but from a long-forgotten emotion called "pressure."

Even the flickering of the evil fire in its burning vertical pupils appeared somewhat chaotic.

"This is troublesome...this is really troublesome..."

It hissed softly, as if trying to convince itself to accept this unfortunate reality, and also recalled the demon lord who was surrounded and beaten by humans until he was like a dead dog.

"Roar……"

Grossag let out a low growl of irritation, the sound waves causing the surrounding withered trees to tremble and turn to ashes.

Headache.

Yes, it's a headache on a purely psychological and strategic level.

It would rather face a well-equipped and disciplined army of elves, or a raging ancient dragon, at least those enemies know fear, know how to weigh the pros and cons, and know how to retreat.

But these self-proclaimed calamities of the players... they seem to know only fun and goals, while death is merely a trivial stumbling block on the path between the two.

In fact, the more they died, the more interested they became in demons.

Grossage is now starting to wonder what these guys are after...

(End of this chapter)