System vs Rebirth

While killing the demons, Noel couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when the demons cleared up the trees so that Noel could see everything behind them.

And among those demons, Noel could see a giant boar. Its height reached three meters. If it rammed its giant body, it might not be able to destroy the barrier, but it would shake the barrier.

However, what piqued Noel's interest was not the boar, but the people standing on top of it. There were two Spirit Grandmasters standing on top of the boar. The fact that they could do that indicated their identities. And they were not the only ones who could be seen.

As the trees were cleared up, a few more people were spotted. 

"This is…" Noel frowned. It was clear that they wanted Noel to come out of the barrier. If they didn't manage to separate Noel from Layla, it would be impossible to do anything to him.

On the one hand, Noel should capture them and interrogate them for information. On the other hand, he wasn't so foolish as to fall into their trap. 

He could just kill all these demons first before chasing after them. Even if they ran away, he could still go after their base. Though, he doubted there was anything useful. In the end, what Noel wanted was to kill all these demons since they were the ones threatening his territory.

Even the Third Prince couldn't say anything if he just said that these people ran away and he couldn't chase after them because of his condition. 

Noel smiled at them as though he provoked them by not falling into their traps.

The people from the organization didn't seem to be rushing even though a lot of demons had fallen and Noel had no sign of coming out. It seemed that he was so sure that they could make Noel leave.

"As expected, everything has gone according to Madam Qiel's plan," One of the Devil Bishops said while squinting his eyes. "He wouldn't fall for our provocation and endanger himself."

"Does that mean we still have to make our way through that fire? Although we have demons to spare, that fire can't be suppressed." 

"I told you earlier that everything has gone according to Madam Qiel's plan, right? She knew that he wouldn't leave, so we just had to force him." He shook his head and shouted down. "Get ready to direct the flower."

"Where?"

"That way." The Devil Bishop pointed to the south.

The guy didn't know why it had to be this direction, but he still followed the instruction. He took out the powder and spread it to the south as if signaling the demons to change directions. 

The flowers on top of the demon's heads suddenly faced to the south. 

Noel and his group had killed around seven hundred to eight hundred demons. There were still one and a half thousand demons surrounding them as if it were to lock them down. However, the rest of the demons actually turned to the south and ignored everything.

"Huh?!" Noel frowned. He couldn't see why the Supreme Devil Organization turned that way. If their original purpose was to stall him here and attack the city, it would be useless. After all, he still had the Sword Arbiter as well as Dimitri protecting two of his cities.

He soon remembered the discussion they had earlier, regarding the organization's aim in stalling him.

That was right. Noel had expected that the Supreme Devil Organization was planning to link a hint in their base to the villages in their surroundings, so Noel overworked himself. 

But it seemed that he made a slight miscalculation. Instead of leaving a clue to stall him, the Supreme Devil Organization was planning to destroy the village with this army.

On the one hand, it wasn't really a big loss if a village was destroyed. But Noel wanted to create a second layer of defense by using the village, so it would be troublesome if there was one village destroyed. 

The village could be rebuilt, but the trust was quite hard to restore.

"So, that's what they want." Noel clicked his tongue. If they crossed the river and went a bit further to the south, they would find the village. This was the only chance for Noel to stop them.

After properly considering his plan, Noel shouted, "Grandell! I will leave this place to you. I'm going to chase after them."

"!!!" Grandell, who had just stabbed a demon, kicked the body away and turned to Noel. "But, Sir, your condition!" 

"I don't have time to explain it. I'm going!" Noel shouted. Without waiting for Grandell to respond, Noel took off into the air and flew within a safe distance from the demons on the ground. 

In that instant, the demons couldn't help but raise their heads. Those, who had a ranged ability, especially the Advanced Level Demons and Peak Level Demons were planning to shoot him down. 

Noel had no choice but to boost his speed further so that their attacks would reach him too late as he had flown past them. 

But the moment Noel sped up, the Devil Bishops and Devil Inspectors targeted their attacks. Even if they were not at the level of Qiel, this was the exact reason why they were chosen for this mission.

One of the Spirit Grandmasters summoned a few flying swords and released them toward Noel. Another Devil Bishop split his Spiritual Energy into multiple light balls and shot Noel. Other Devil Bishops and Devil Inspectors used their respective abilities to attack Noel. 

Noel flew to the left, trying to avoid it, but a lot of these attacks actually curved and followed him. 

"What?" Noel gritted his teeth. 

"My lord!" Grandell shouted in panic. 

Noel kept flying like a bird, avoiding the attacks. However, no matter how many times he changed direction, they kept chasing after him. Only those that hit another attack ended up destroying each other. 

But a lot more were coming after him.

While flying, Noel waved his finger at the giant boar, releasing his Undying Phoenix. 

"Dodge it!" The people on the boar hurriedly hopped onto another demon, watching how the phoenix blasted the top of the boar before the flame devoured it. 

After avoiding the Undying Phoenix, the people continued attacking Noel. 

"Tsk!" Noel was in a pinch. Even though he could attack them, their distance was too far since Noel had to fly high enough to avoid getting attacked by other demons. But it also meant that the people from the organization could avoid his attack easily. 

All of a sudden, a flying demon dove down from an even higher altitude, appearing behind Noel out of nowhere.

"!!!" Noel turned around and saw the appearance of the demon. It turned out to be an eagle, a Peak Level Demon on top of that. 

He hurriedly covered his entire body with the fire wings. The right side was attacked by the eagle while the left side was hit by the homing attacks from those people.

He expanded the wings and burned everything that touched their surface. It showed the absolute strength of the Undying Fire, but that didn't matter. 

When Noel successfully defended himself, the eagle suddenly rushed through the fire wings and dove to the ground.

"!!!" Noel got hit by the eagle's head. Despite its skin burning, the eagle was actually trying to drag him to the ground. "You!" 

Noel gritted his teeth and tried to kill the demons with his fire. He even used the Flame Scale to melt everything that touched him as well as the Flame Conjuring to form a pair of giant hands that ripped the eagle's wings apart before tossing the eagle away. 

Unfortunately for him, the eagle had done its job. Noel managed to flip his wings two times, but it wasn't enough to stop his momentum. It only reduced the impact when he hit the ground. 

"Attack!" The Devil Bishop shouted excitedly, thinking that he could kill Noel Ardagan. 

Noel was on his knees, clutching his chest. Even his fire wings were flickering as if Noel had a hard time maintaining them due to his internal injuries. 

The Devil Bishops and Devil Inspectors released their attacks. The demons surrounded him and pounced together. 

"My lord!" Grandell shouted while jumping off the wall. He was going to cut his way through these demons to protect Noel.

However, it wasn't that easy to defeat Noel. A huge fire avatar appeared once again. This time, Noel poured everything he had into the Flame Devil, causing its reemergence followed by a blast that knocked the demons away.

The intense heat was burning the demons alive. The Flame Devil used one hand to melt the incoming attacks from Devil Bishops and Devil Inspectors while sweeping the demons with the other hand. 

"Roar!" The flame devil let out a huge roar to scare them. 

It looked like Noel was safe, but on the ground, Noel suddenly covered his mouth before coughing up blood. The fire that had been burning around Layla's barrier started to disappear as though Noel couldn't control it anymore. 

"Gah!" Noel coughed a few times; his face was still down so the people from the organization couldn't see his expression. 

Still, it was enough to show Noel's current condition. The Devil Bishop thought he could finally kill the famous Noel Ardagan, so he shouted, "He's about to die. Unleash all your power and suppress that fire avatar. Once it's gone, we'll kill him!"

The people from the organization became even more energetic. Grandell was struggling to create a path. In fact, the demons started to overwhelm him with their numbers. The other knights rushed toward him so that they could create a path together to their master. 

However, none of them had enough time to reach Noel. No matter how they struggled, it would be impossible for Noel to come out of this alive.

Among all the people on the battlefield, there was only one person who remained calm the whole time. 

From people's perspectives, she might not know what was happening because she was too focused on her task. What they didn't know was that she was still aware of everything around her and could still talk inwardly.

When she heard all those screams, Layla couldn't help but mutter in her mind, 'His acting is so brilliant that I would definitely fall for it if he didn't tell me.'

That was right, Layla actually knew what happened. It wasn't just Noel's condition that was fully recovered, she also knew that Noel had another plan, which was to plant this sight in their memories.

…

An hour ago.

Layla couldn't help but ask, "Say… I'm going to play along with your charade, but do you mind telling me what you're going to do? At least, I know which one is real and which one is fake."

"Well, depending on the situation, it might change. But I will try to create a situation where I become desperate enough and get kind of… defeated. Of course, I will struggle for my life."

"Are you going to injure yourself to make this even more believable?" 

"Of course not." Noel took out a thumb-sized ball and secretly showed it to her. He placed it on her hand since she couldn't see. 

"What is this? It's squishy like a liquid."

Noel whispered, "Tomato juice."

"…" That answer alone was enough to know what Noel was planning to do. He wanted to use it to create fake blood to show his injury.

…

When Layla recalled that conversation, she couldn't help but think, 'To fool your enemies, you need to fool your allies first. Grandell and the others don't know about this, which makes his condition more believable. With his desperate struggle, he would have no choice but to retreat. That's probably what's going to happen next.'

When Layla thought that Noel was about to fly away, she suddenly felt the temperature become a bit warmer. The sunlight brightened as feathers started falling from the sky.

There was a woman floating in the sky with a pair of angelic wings.

Layla made a wry smile. 'Is this a good or bad time to make your appearance, Aurelia?'