Chapter 356

Chapter 356: Second Spine

When the Guardian with wings of a high-ranking demon issued the order, the male Leader immediately seized the opportunity.

He not only withdrew the aerial fleet from interference but also pulled back ground troops, maintaining only superficial defense without genuine resistance.

After all, the Guardian had commanded: “Let them enter. Leave Midi and his group to me.”

Though this implied the Guardian intended to kill leaders like Midi, Fina, and Alice, allowing the accompanying four thousand troops through seemed harmless.

Instantly, the pressure on Midi’s forces lessened dramatically, their advance accelerating.

Midi briefly suspected hidden traps ahead, but scouts’ reports and the All-Seeing Demon’s surveillance confirmed his worries were unfounded.

Prepared for ambushes, Midi ordered his troops to march faster without hesitation.

The four-thousand-strong army soon reached the First Spine of the Behemoth.

To the tiny humans on the colossal beast’s back, this terrain appeared as undulating hills with mountains, rivers, and watersheds, while the distant misty peaks marked the Second Spine.

Like the Treant Jungle, the First Spine teemed with magical beasts raised by Heart-Seizing Demons.

Though the Leader had withdrawn his forces, these beasts remained unaffected by orders, fiercely guarding their territories against invaders.

Among them, besides hordes of warped Treants, the strongest was an Eye Demon—not the All-Seeing Demon, but a subspecies called the Commander’s Eye.

The Commander’s Eye ranked as the deadliest known Eye Demon variant.

It wielded multiple times the power of ordinary Eye Demons, its grotesque form defying description—resembling a fleshy tree with a mouth on its torso and eye-tipped branches.

Unlike its cousin the All-Seeing Demon, the Commander’s Eye boasted extreme resistance to mind-related abilities, functioning like a Thought Capturer among Eye Demons.

Midi’s normally unstoppable mental powers proved nearly useless here.

The creature’s defensive power stood equally formidable in both physical and magical aspects.

While Midi’s Golden-Red Sword Lights could normally shred through warship armor, they now barely scratched the Commander’s blackened hide despite relentless assault.

Fina’s warship-piercing Magic Beams got deflected by the Eye’s rapid defensive spells, failing to land clean hits.

Even Alice’s attacks lost their edge this time.

Her red demon “Rose Hound” had maintained near-invincibility not through offensive might but by avoiding damage—physical strikes passed through its mist-like body while magical assaults became its nourishment.

But now it faced its natural counter.

As an Eye Demon, the Commander’s Eye naturally possessed their signature eyeball ray attack.

Unlike the reconnaissance-focused All-Seeing Demon, this battle-specialized variant could unleash five eyeball rays simultaneously.

These rays weren’t physical or magical attacks but pure disintegration energy dissolving all matter.

The Rose Hound couldn’t absorb these beams—instead, they tore through its crimson mist-form, leaving five gaping voids.

The massive red wolf beneath Alice shuddered violently, releasing an ear-splitting roar of pain.

For the first time since its birth, it was injured!

Pain, fear, unease—all these unfamiliar negative emotions flooded into the Rose Hound’s mind, nearly overwhelming its control.

This violent emotional backlash also struck Alice, the Summoner girl, causing her harm.

Chaos erupted instantly.

“Full assault!” Midi suppressed his churning emotions and barked the order.

The disciplined warriors of the Hawk Brigade surged forward under his command, attacking the Commander’s Eye head-on.

Like an iron tide, they charged repeatedly, hammering the creature in relentless waves.

Blades hacked at the Commander’s Eye’s armored cruiser-like torso, leaving white gashes even when they couldn’t pierce through.

Magicians burned through their last reserves of magic, unleashing continuous barrages.

Though her Magic Beams kept deflecting, Fina kept firing—if only to distract their foe.

Gritting through internal injuries, Alice shifted tactics. Instead of summoning specialized creatures like the Rose Hound, she called forth high-tier elemental Elves to join the frontal assault.

Twenty minutes of this desperate onslaught finally toppled the Commander’s Eye—but at a cost.

Midi’s forces had lost a fifth of their numbers.

Eight hundred lives extinguished in the Star Ocean’s depths.

“One general’s triumph is built on ten thousand bones.” Surveying the blood-soaked field, Midi tasted war’s bitter cruelty anew.

He also remembered: during his past life’s journey through the First Spine, a mighty sea beast—not this abyssal Commander’s Eye—had guarded these lands.

The All-Seeing Demon’s sudden appearance confirmed history was changing.

No time for grief or reflection. Until final victory, every action must push forward.

After brief reorganization, the vanguard marched onward, leaving the First Spine’s hills and their fallen foe behind.

Ahead loomed the Second Spine—jagged mountains housing the Blue Truth Sect’s stronghold.

Here, conventional warfare failed. Narrow paths choked formations. A few defenders could trap entire armies.

Worse, Sharp Winds howled through an anti-flight magic array rooted in the mountain’s magic veins. These gales shredded anything airborne—whether descending troops or bombardment attempts—like the impassable Sea Bottom between Arad and the Sea of Clouds.

Midi deployed his main force elsewhere with the aerial warships, taking only thirty elite Thought Capturers deeper.

These warriors bore Mind Maze training and ample resources—all mid-level at minimum, some nearing senior rank.

Fina and Alice wore mind-blocking earrings that had repelled even the temples’ leader’s psychic attacks, granting them top-tier Thought Capturer resistance.

Midi himself, empowered by the Sea Emperor’s heritage, surpassed even that.

Yet the supreme expert’s power dwarfed expectations.

The first kilometer passed normally. Then psychic pressure thickened like ocean depths, crushing lungs with each step.

No illusions. No tricks. Just raw psychic energy bending reality.

By the kilometer’s end, the thirty Thought Capturers froze like statues. Midi dismissed them, pressing onward with only Fina and Alice.