Nobody knows how to be a villain better than me.

The scorching heat that burned flesh and eroded the soul caused Scáthach, who was restricting Samael's movements, to groan incessantly.

"You idiot! Wake up!"

Seeing Samael raise his arm, trying to break free from the control of the gun cage, the Queen of the Shadow Kingdom immediately locked her best friend's limbs and shouted coldly, constantly reminding the ancient serpent to suppress Levadin's demonic nature.

"Ancient runes, the power bound in my name, answer my call, display supreme wisdom and majesty—the Prison of the Gods!"

Just as the two sides were locked in a stalemate, Skadi, wielding a magic wand, arrived riding the wind and snow, causing the temperature to plummet. With a solemn chant, ice pillars rose from the ground, forming an ice crystal prison based on the gun cage, completely freezing the arm and the flaming magic sword outside.

However, the ice cage that the Goddess of Winter had been maintaining with all her might was rapidly melting under the demonic flames of Levadin.

For a time, even with the combined power of Skadi and Scáthach, they were unable to suppress Samael's power.

"Step aside!"

A suppressed murmur came from within the great god's cage, which was inscribed with runes. Scáthach and Skadi were surprised to find that Samael had regained some of his senses after being stimulated by the ice and snow.

Out of trust, the two instinctively withdrew and left.

"Crack!"

The moment they separated, a crisp snapping sound rang out. Scáthach and Skadi looked up in astonishment, stunned by the severed arm that Samael had broken off, which was frozen along with the Flaming Demon Sword.

"I was saying, could we seal this thing away first? By the way, I think I can still be saved..."

Samael grimaced and hissed, offering a resentful reminder. Scáthach and Skadi then realized what was happening and immediately devised the forbidden spell [Great God's Cage] to seal the Flaming Demon Sword, now devoid of its magical source, inside an ice box, which they then conveniently placed in the Land of Shadows for safekeeping.

"No wonder I got so used to Levadin after I started using it in Greece, and I hardly ever let go of it. I never expected that this thing's magic would lead me to unleash its power step by step. It truly lives up to its reputation as the magic sword that cut down the World Tree and destroyed the Norse."

Under the influence of immortality, the flesh and bones on his severed arm began to regenerate.

Reflecting on the subtle, imperceptible influences, the ancient serpent seemed to ponder. Considering the origin of this thing, it couldn't help but twitch its lips and curse inwardly.

Loki, you jerk...

I caught a cold during the seasonal change, and also have rhinitis and a headache, so I went to bed early.

Sorry, the temperature has dropped these past few days due to the changing seasons, and I've been staying up late a lot. Before I knew it, my old rhinitis flared up, and I had a terrible headache. I got an injection and took some medicine, thinking I'd just take a nap, but I ended up sleeping through the night.

Okay, I'll take a break and update at a different time, before 10 PM tonight. I'll update three times today. If I break my promise, I'll do the same as last time and send a 100 RMB red envelope to the full subscription group.

Chapter 166 The Locust Demon Army

The Flame Demon Sword Levadin originated from the sword wielded by the Flame Giant King Surt, and is also known as the [End of the Planet] and the [Branch of Destruction].

In order to prevent Ragnarok from coming, Samael, Loki, and Odin conspired to defeat Surtur, the fire giant king, and the Flame Sword eventually fell into Loki's hands.

But as everyone knows, Loki, the god of trickery and mischief, has always had a "mischievous" streak.

In order to be able to wield this flaming demon sword, he actually chanted a rune spell at the gates of Niflheim, the land of ice and mist, and reforged Levadin.

Loki not only infused it with his own power, but also placed nine seals on Levadin after it was forged to reduce its power so that he could control it.

However, the Blazing Demon Sword is even higher in rank than Odin's Gungnir, the eternal spear. It is the weapon of giants, the weapon of gods, and the very harbinger of destruction, foreshadowing the collapse of the World Tree Yggdrasil and the twilight of the Nine Realms.

Its mission is destruction and annihilation, so it cannot be easily tamed; it has only temporarily restrained its ferocity.

Therefore, Loki's reforging infused him with the calamity factor that caused Ragnarok, making Levadin even stronger.

His nine seals, while weakening the normal power of the Flaming Demon Sword, also made it more deceptive.

Furthermore, Levadin possesses special attack effects against gods and life, and can decompose matter back into pure ether, continuously providing fuel for the Flaming Demon Sword to break through the seal, burn everything, and incinerate the world.

During this process, the Blazing Demon Sword will both nourish its host, displaying extraordinary power, and continuously erode the user.

After Samael landed on the Peloponnese, he only casually used this thing as a weapon to conceal his identity and to get by on his journey to Athens.

Unexpectedly, Levadin became more and more adept at using it. Loki's nine seals, due to the shared bloodline, were extremely weak against Samael, and the reforging effect made it easier to create a resonance between the user and the weapon.

As the ancient serpent became increasingly reliant on the powerful destructive force of the Flaming Demon Sword, it used it more and more frequently.

Finally, recently, the Fiery Demon Sword, which had been relentlessly reaping lives, suffered a backlash that nearly caused him to lose control and set the entire Hot Spring Pass on fire.

Fortunately, Scáthach and Skadi arrived in time, noticed something was wrong, and together suppressed Levadin's demonic nature and awakened Samael, who had just been corrupted.

With a decisive and hardcore "holding back" maneuver, the Ancient Serpent finally managed to lock the restless Flaming Demon Sword back into its little dark room.

Come to think of it, I'd almost forgotten I used to be a rifleman...

However, the collections that are casually pulled out are all bottomless pits. Is this a lucky debuff for the spearman?

Samael complained about Loki's instigation while using his immortality to regenerate limbs.

Meanwhile, on the devastated battlefield of Thermopylae, the heavily damaged Persian army began to retreat like a tide, shrinking back to their camp.

Samael turned to look at the remnants of the Spartan army, numbering less than a hundred, behind him. His gaze gradually moved beyond the horizon, looking up at the billowing sea fog. Just as his gaze hesitated, a somber, muffled horn sounded from the clouds.

woo~~

At the same time, a fierce wind swept through, dark clouds gathered, the sun's radiance was blocked and obscured, the world suddenly darkened, a huge magic circle formed, and several meteors condensed from it, falling to the ground while burning fiercely.

boom!

In an instant, the earth shook violently, a huge crater appeared in Tanbei Canyon, and a thick column of black smoke shot into the sky.

Dozens of seconds later, thick black smoke, obscuring the sky, rapidly spread towards Wenquanguan.

hum! ! !

The eerie tremors in the air rose and fell, making one feel nauseous, as if hearing faint, low humming and murmurs in one's ear.

Something's wrong! A blizzard has frozen everything in its path!

Skadi gracefully stepped forward, her wand drawing runes that manipulated the aether in mid-air, instantly unleashing a chilling blizzard that froze the spreading black mist ahead, causing the moisture to condense into ice in the blink of an eye.

Bang bang bang!

Immediately, the black mist that first spread to the vicinity was followed by a series of clattering and crashing sounds.

"Look! What is this?"

As the Goddess of Winter frowned, she raised her hand and grasped several ice crystals mixed with black spots that had fallen to the ground. She glanced at them with disgust, then turned and showed them to Samael and Scáthach.

Within the crystal-clear, deep blue ice crystals were fist-sized, pitch-black demonic insects. They resembled locusts, with wings covered in ferocious patterns, horn-like structures on their heads that looked like golden crowns, and faces that resembled the wailing of a human dying.

Even more bizarrely, this thing has hair like a woman's hair, teeth like a lion's teeth, and armor on its chest that emits an iron-like luster and a metallic tremor.

They have tails like scorpions, and the venomous stings on their tails are terrifying.

Meanwhile, increasingly intense tremors continued to emanate from within the ice crystals.

At this moment, as the black mist that shrouded Tanbei Canyon dissipated, what appeared before everyone's eyes was bare sand and gravel and a fragmented surface.

On the murky, salty water, a host of dead fish and rotten shrimp floated. The barren land was devoid of any greenery, and all the vegetation had been completely devoured as the black fog swept through.

"Crack!"

Cracks appeared in the ice crystals, and a ferocious demonic insect broke free of half its body, emitting a sharp hiss, trying to rush up and bite the living creature in front of it.

puff!puff!

However, before these fist-sized creatures could even bare their teeth and poisonous hooks, Samael and Scáthach simultaneously clenched their fists and crushed the struggling demonic insects and the remaining ice crystals in their palms.

With its formidable vitality and terrifying aggression, this is no ordinary species, but a special creation that does not belong to the basic ecology of Earth.

Only the Origin God, who possesses the power of creation, can do this.

Realizing the crux of the problem, Samael frowned, and a comparative record matching this biological characteristic immediately came to mind.

"It's Abaddon, the Locust Demon Army! A special creation summoned from the earth by the Doomsday Horn, used to create famine and punish humanity!"

Click! Click! Click!

Just as the ancient serpent was explaining the origin of these monsters, the sound of fine ice crystals shattering rose and fell. The locust demon army that had broken free swept outwards like black smoke, devouring the greenery along the way and even gnawing the rocks to pieces.

Samael glanced deeply at the Persian camp, his gaze dark, and made a cold decision.

"Block Thermopylae Pass and annihilate these locust swarms first! Don't let them spread!"

The three stood back to back, blocking the gap, and tacitly stirred the etheric tides to blockade and annihilate the nearby locust demon army.

Chapter 167 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Bang bang bang!

The three, led by Skadi, formed a cone-shaped formation. Along the way, the frozen snow raged, and the dense army of locust demons was successively imprisoned within clusters of ice crystals. The demonic spears in the hands of Samael and Skadi emitted thousands of points of cold light, shattering all these apocalyptic creations within the reach of divine power.

But at this moment, from the bottomless pit of Tanbei Canyon, locust hordes kept emerging, their numbers growing larger and larger, covering the sky and the earth, numbering in the millions!

Upon seeing this, Scáthach frowned, and red and black aether swirled and rose around her. Seven high walls appeared in the shadows, and a chilling aura of death spread and swept in all directions.

"The wisdom that sees into the abyss, the primordial runes manifest here! The kingdom bound by my name, descend! — The gate to the demonic realm overflowing with death!"

Amidst the solemn chanting, the Queen of the Shadow Kingdom knelt and leaped into the air, standing tall. The two gates of the Shadow Kingdom, with their jagged edges carved entirely from mountain rocks and inscribed with 24 primordial runes, slowly opened. Around them, a massive, inverted vortex of red and black ethereal tides, as if tangible, swallowed up the locust army that filled the sky, engulfing most of it.

boom!

After the abyss's secret realm devoured the million-strong locust army in the air, it slammed its gates shut.

You scourges that wreak havoc on the world, go back to where you belong!

At the same time, Scáthach cast her deep gaze at the black smoke that was constantly rising from the canyon, carrying countless locust demon armies. Her brows were stern, and with a cold snort, she leaned her muscular body back, stretching it into an exaggerated arc like a bowstring. The thorny demon spear in her hand burst forth with scarlet ethereal flames.

Pierce! Surge! — The Gae Bolg Alternative!

As the Queen of the Shadow Kingdom uttered the weapon's true name and hurled it forward with overwhelming force, the abyss crater struck head-on collapsed instantly, filled with rubble, and a massive mushroom cloud rose from the burst of crimson light.

After this attack, the once overwhelming army of locusts was reduced to a few scattered individuals.

Without Scáthach's support, Samael and Skadi, while covering most sectors, inevitably allowed some to slip through the net and fly towards Thermopylae behind them. The Spartan defenders, already at their last gasp, found themselves in dire straits.

Upon seeing this, the ancient snake frowned and turned to ask a question.

What was the outcome of the battle in the Sea of ​​Chaos?

"A great victory! We have wiped out two-thirds of the Persian naval fleet, but the remaining enemy ships and soldiers are still putting up a fierce resistance. In the short term, our army will not be able to break through the blockade head-on and complete the encirclement."

Scáthach landed on her knees, her spear of death thorns swirling in a circular motion, sweeping away the hundreds of locusts that had surrounded her. She responded thoughtfully and tacitly explained the current situation.

Samael thrust his spear diagonally, piercing through the two human-faced locusts that had broken through the crimson spear net. He glanced at the chaotic sea, his eyes flashing.

"Where are the Egyptian ships?"

"No trace of them has been found at present..."

Scáthach looked back at what she had seen and shook her head slightly.

After a moment's thought, Samael made a decisive arrangement.

"Order:

First, Odysseus took over the war, leading the deep-sea fleet and the Greek navy to blockade the Chaos Sea, clearing out the remaining Persian warships while cutting off the Persian army's retreat.

Second, the Amazon warriors, Athenian hoplites, and Viking warships withdrew from the battlefield, landed from the flank, and reinforced Thermopylae, immediately plugging the gap, replacing the Spartans, and rebuilding the defensive line.

Third, Anna and the Argo landed at Thermopylae and established a high altar on the spot. With the added strength of the local faith, they unleashed a suppression spell to expand their territory, completely sealing off the bottomless pit of Tambey Canyon and cutting off the source of the locust army!

Hundreds of runes summoned before Skadi shot out with a wave of her wand, blasting the human-faced locusts into fragmented dust.

After briefly clearing out the nearby demonic insects, the Goddess of Winter seemed thoughtful and turned to ask a question.

"Are you planning to trap all the Persians here and let them die?"

"That's right, since we're already here, let's not leave!"

As the battlefield cleared slightly, Samael stepped over the corpses of human-faced locusts scattered on the ground, and his gaze toward the Persian army camp took on a colder edge.

They blocked Thermopylae by land, sealing off the Persians' northward advance.

They swept away the Persian warships at sea, cutting off the Persians' retreat route.

He ordered the Roman Empire and the Celts to send troops from the Land of Nothingness to destroy the Persian Pantheon and destroy the homeland foundation of the Persian gods.

At the same time, a great altar was built on the spot, and with the help of local beliefs, the foundation of the Greek gods was consolidated, and the divine power that he and Anna could exert was amplified. Through gradual encroachment, this also further weakened the Persian gods' ability to fight in foreign lands.

With this combination of tactics, as long as they are patient, they can wear down the Persian army's morale and trap them like turtles in a jar.

As for why patience is needed...

On the one hand, the Egyptian fleet had not yet surrendered and their attitude was unclear, so Samael needed to be wary of Ramses II.

On the other hand, Thermopylae is now quite vulnerable. He needs to redeploy his troops and improve the blockade. Otherwise, if the Persians break out by sea or land at all costs, he may not be able to completely intercept them.