Chapter 36: Ten Minutes to Midnight

As the illusion wall fell, the scene outside snapped into sharp view in the three’s night vision.

The Hidden Mantis Demon was long gone, whether it had shifted back into stealth or slipped into the trees.

But the danger now was far more than a single Hidden Mantis Demon.

Under the trio’s terrified gaze.

Dozens of meters from the cave mouth, the woods were packed with enemy figures.

They held demon muskets with bayonets, some prone, some crouched, some standing, forming a dense firing line. Every barrel pointed at the three.

Countless scarlet eyes burned in the darkness, their madness nearly ready to tear into flesh.

These were an uncountable mass of demon soldiers. They had already crept into a wide encirclement, muskets cocked and waiting.

“Get down!”

Luka’s scalp prickled. He shouted on pure reflex and threw himself at the ground.

Boom, boom, boom!

The instant his body hit the dirt, a deafening volley erupted all at once. Bullets screamed overhead, stinging his eardrums and making the back of his head tighten.

“Shield!”

Luka raised his shield at once, sealing himself inside.

Demon bullets came down like a rainstorm, a howling metal torrent that poured without mercy into the safehouse.

The stone walls took the brutal barrage, rumbling and shuddering. Chunks of rock and dust sprayed in all directions, cracking against the shield.

Hum, hum, hum.

That was the sound of demon bolts slamming into the barrier and being flung off by the force field.

Even with Luka pressing his small frame low and shrinking the shield to a paper-thin film, a stream of bullets still clipped past, raking lines across it.

Several stray rounds went straight for his head. The shield caught them and turned them away.

More deadly than the bullets were the furniture fragments blasted apart inside the safehouse. Mixed with gravel, dirt, and shrapnel, they slammed into him, rattling the shield to its breaking point.

He lay flat, craning his neck to find Moye and Alesia.

What eased his heart was the sight of them hugging the ground, bodies flat, shields up, holding off the rain of bullets and debris.

Their reactions were no slower than his.

Whoosh!

The illusion wall snapped back into place.

Alesia had managed to reactivate it in the chaos, trying to block the demon soldiers’ view.

The tactic worked. Fire through the illusion lost some accuracy, and the sweep of bullets across the floor thinned noticeably.

So even though the Sky-Space Eye Demon could see through the illusion, it couldn’t pass their exact position to every soldier through mental speech alone.

The pressure on his shield dropped a little, and Luka breathed easier. He worked one arm under his body, pulled the pocket watch from his chest, and checked the time.

Eleven fifty.

Ten more minutes before the save point and the rewind count refreshed.

He had to survive these last ten minutes to set up his desperate counterattack.

Through the thundering roar, Moye’s voice reached him.

“We can’t stay trapped in this tiny room waiting to die! We have to break out! Fly into the sky and escape!”

“The further up we go, the denser the fire!” Alesia shouted after her. “Dolonia’s shield won’t hold!”

Alesia grabbed a rock and threw it toward the exit.

The rock barely covered two meters before it blew apart with a bang.

“Then we don’t just die here!” Moye yelled. “We’ll put up a shield together and carry Luka out flying!”

“Fine, let’s do it!” Alesia answered.

They made up their minds. No more hesitation. Pushing aside rubble and charging through the storm of gunfire, they crawled toward Luka in the corner.

Luka heard their exchange and his heart seized. “Wait! Don’t come over yet!” he shouted.

They stopped. “What is it?”

“We can’t go out yet! Hold for ten more minutes!” Luka roared to make himself heard over the noise. “We have to wait until twelve! Then we move!”

“What!” Moye and Alesia both exclaimed.

They looked at each other, then back and forth between Luka and the cave mouth, clearly uncertain.

“Trust me!” Luka gritted his teeth. “Think of something. Just hold on a little longer!”

Judging by the density of the fire, there were at least a few hundred-strong companies outside. Five or six hundred demon soldiers were keeping up a steady stream of fire at the safehouse.

Charging into that crossfire was near certain death.

And he had no idea what the situation outside was like. Besides the soldiers and the Hidden Mantis Demon, there could be more traps.

Acting before the rewind count refreshed was too dangerous.

Even if he himself got lucky and escaped with Moye and Alesia shielding him.

If either of the two died, it would be absolutely unacceptable.

Remember, the moment the rewind count refreshed at midnight, the save point updated with it.

If Moye or Alesia died within these ten minutes, they would be truly dead. No way to save them.

He couldn’t allow that.

So he had to survive these final ten minutes.

Luckily, Moye and Alesia trusted him greatly.

After hearing his absurd request, they traded a glance and didn’t ask why. They simply began trying everything they could to keep themselves alive.

Luka found himself wedged in the corner behind them, and the pressure on his failing shield dropped dramatically.

Alesia summoned her void pack and started pulling out a mess of pots, pans, bowls, and all kinds of junk, piling it in front of them as makeshift cover.

Too bad most of it wasn’t sturdy enough. It was blown to pieces within moments.

Luka even saw a doll get its limbs shot off, its cute head flying away in the breeze.

Moye, meanwhile, was like a big frog pressed to the ground, flailing around. Her long limbs scooped up furniture fragments, dirt, and gravel in front of her, trying to stack up cover to dampen the bullets.

But those things were no better than Alesia’s scrap. They were shot through and blasted apart in short order, and the shrapnel rattled against Moye’s shield.

“What kind of crap do you keep in your void pack?! Not a single useful thing!” Moye yelled in frustration. “Couldn’t you have stashed some solid demon-iron rods or something?”

“Mind your own business, you brainless loudmouth!” Alesia snapped through her teeth. “The most useful thing just went into your dog belly earlier. Where was your complaint then?”

“Alesia, I’ll f*cking…”

Boom, boom, boom!

A sudden burst of gunfire made Moye swallow the rest of her words.

They had no more energy for fighting each other. All they could do was push their magic into their shields, trying to block the stray shots and flying debris, buying whatever time they could.

Luka watched the cracks spreading across their shields and felt his heart burn.

The hands on his watch still crept with agonizing slowness.

Eleven fifty-three.

Only three minutes had passed and they were already at their limit. What were they supposed to do for the remaining seven?

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