Second World

1923  Chapter 1923. Satan’s Absence

The petty guy John was cursing was battling the demons at Hydrurond's Southern Front.

Earlier, Jack was ready to rush at Satan when he came out of Chris' portal. But after flying around, he was surprised not to see Satan anywhere on the battlefield. When he went and asked Tip at the mobile fortress, Tip informed him Satan had been absent since a couple of days ago.

The absence could have been a prime opportunity to cut down the number of the demon troops, but it turned out it was easier said than done. Satan's army was composed of many high-level demons. The defenders had also suffered many casualties after the prolonged battle. Even without Satan, they could only hold the demon army at a stalemate.

Eoranth was not available. He suffered a grave wound several days earlier from his battle with Satan. He had retreated to heal. Honuren was also wounded at the same time as Eoranth, but his wound wasn't as grave. After one day of rest, he returned to the front line.

Satan probably did that to them because he planned to be away from the battlefield. Why he left, nobody knew. It was frightening enough to learn that Satan could easily wound them if he wanted. This meant he hadn't been serious all this time.

The mobile fortress itself was in shambles. It had many cracks along its walls and several broken legs. Linda no longer had the mobile fortress on the front line. She kept it behind the troops and used its siege weapons to support them.

After learning the news, Jack considered whether he should stay or go help fight the devil on the other fronts. He decided to stay. Satan could return any moment. He had been assigned this front, so this place was his responsibility.

The Themisphere soldiers were fired up seeing their king. Their morale increased. Jack also took the chance to enter the mobile throne room and spent some ruling powers to activate some of his sovereign powers. One of which was the War Rally, which increased all soldiers' attributes for one day.

Throughout the two and half months of training inside Chris' Secret Garden, Jack regularly manage the affairs of the monarch system. Thus, he continued to be awarded merit points and ruling powers.

His sovereign level was already close to level 19 when he departed to Chris' Secret Garden. The gained merit points during these two and half months pushed him up to the highest level, sovereign level 20.

He could still receive merit points after reaching sovereign level 20, but his sovereign level could not level up anymore. Excess merit points could be converted into ruling powers, with the exchange rate of 10,000 merit points for 1 ruling power.

Each of his sovereign level-ups gave him another sovereign power. As Peniel previously informed, the two last sovereign powers catered to wartime.

At level 19, he gained Justification for War. This sovereign power could last throughout the entire war. Activation of this power cost 50 ruling powers. Afterward, an upkeep of 1 ruling power per day was needed to keep the power active.

This Justification for War kept the minimum morale of Themisphere troops at 50. As long as this power was active, the morale wouldn't go lower than that, no matter how bad the war went. The increase rate of morale was doubled. A small victory would increase the troops' morale higher than it normally would. Aside from that, all Themisphere forces received a boost in their stats. This increase not only affected the Themisphere soldiers but also the native human adventurers and human outworlders.

The last sovereign power gained at sovereign level 20 was War God Blessing. This sovereign power was similar to War Rally, which had a duration and cooldown. It cost 50 ruling powers. This sovereign power lasted one day with a cooldown of one week.

Upon activation, all Themisphere soldiers received a power-up in terms of damage, defense, speed, and skill's cooldown reduction. All soldiers below the mythical grade also received a passive HP recovery. As for the mythical grade and above, their natural HP recovery was doubled.

These two sovereign powers consumed many ruling powers, but Jack had an abundance of them. He gained many ruling powers from the affairs and level-ups. He also exchanged all excess merit points for ruling powers. Peniel had advised him about these two sovereign powers beforehand, so he saved an adequate number of ruling powers for them.

There was no discernible effect when he used Justification for War. But when he used War God Blessing, a red aura enshrouded every Themisphere soldier. They did not only receive a boost indicated in the power's descriptions, but they also felt an indescribable zeal when the red aura enveloped them. They felt as if all their worry and fear were something of a distant past.

The fearsome demons ahead of them no longer seemed terrifying. They uttered a thundering war cry and pushed forward. Their fervor advance instead caused the demons to falter. Unbeknownst to them, the red aura also had a small chance of causing fear affliction to the opponents.

When Jack came back to the roof of the mobile fortress' keep, Linda said to him, "We could have used this enhancement in earlier battles." n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"I just got to max sovereign level a few days ago," Jack replied.

"Will you head to the front line?" Tip asked.

"Yes. When can you call our guild army again?"

"The cooldown will be completed in around two more days."

Jack nodded. He asked another question, "Do you know where my gramp is?"

Tip pointed to a spot on his map.

"Let me know if Satan shows up on your map," Jack said.

"Will do," Tip replied.

Jack took to the sky and left the mobile fortress. He flew toward the location where Tip said his grandfather was. On his way, he saw everyone fighting fiercely. The War God Blessing had injected a dose of enthusiasm into them.

He caught sight of Duchess Isabelle. The duchess' missing arm had regrown. He was glad the duchess wasn't hurt again in this war. He hoped it would stay that way. He also saw Themisphere ghost kings. At first, he didn't recognize Theridan among the combatants. He realized then that Theridan was in a different form.

Theridan was in beast form. His beast form was a humanoid creature with features similar to the Therras Beast. Terraxx was fighting by his side. When Terraxx went into bipedal mode from the Ultimate Beast, it and Theridan looked almost identical, except Theridan was smaller.

He reached the spot where Tip said his grandfather was, but he didn't find the old man there. Domon must have moved to a different place. Jack didn't find this surprising. The situation on the battlefield changed all the time.

He flew around and searched. He finally found Domon. He was with a team filled with martial artists. They were far ahead. This was probably because the troops started pushing back after he activated the kingdom enhancements. Domon and the others advanced with the troops.

He approached them and was surprised to see Long among Domon's team. He ended up greeting Long first before his grandfather.

"Yo! Fancy meeting you here," Jack landed next to Long. He also used Flame Strike to strike a nearby demon into the ground. He stepped on that demon and just stood there, preventing the demon from getting up. "It's good seeing you turning a new leaf."

Long turned to Jack. He grunted and turned away without saying anything.

"The hell with that attitude? Are you asking for another beating?" Jack asked.

"Come at me anytime you like!" Long responded this time.

"You ask for it!" Jack exclaimed.

Domon came in between the two before things got out of hand. "Stop it, you two! Have you forgotten we are in the middle of a battle? There are plenty of opponents around. Stop fighting among ourselves!"

"He started it!" Jack defended himself.

"You are the one who provoked me first," Long returned.

"When did I provoke you?!"

"You talked to me."

"…"

"F*ck you! Are you saying nobody is allowed to speak to you?!" Jack yelled.

"I said stop! Long, you and Wong fight over there," Domon commanded.

Long grunted, but he didn't oppose when Wong led him away.

Warpath, who had been following Domon, asked Jack while pointing down, "Are you going to deal with that demon?"

The demon Jack was stepping on was still struggling to get back up. It couldn't resist Jack's strength.

Jack swung his sword down. He used Fighter's Power Swing. This basic skill normally created a wide energy burst that hit multiple opponents, but Jack condensed the energy into a narrow area along his blade. His sword sliced the demon's neck and instant-killed it by decapitation.

Warpath was astonished by the feat. The HP bar from the slain demon was nearly full before Jack's swing. He was sure the swing just now wasn't a big skill. He was confused as to how Jack pulled that instant kill.

On the other hand, Domon went into deep contemplation. His understanding of mana allowed him to grasp what Jack had done with that single swing.