Their world doesn't need gods.

“It’s actually the Amethyst Vine… Run!”

The man with glasses dropped the expensive magic device and immediately warned the frivolous junior.

Amethyst Vine is an extremely rare plant-type monster. It is currently only found in the glacier caves in the north of the empire. It is a super dangerous monster with a racial rarity rating of S.

Although its physiological structure is similar to that of plants, this monster is extremely brutal in nature.

There has never been a case in history where a monster like this could be tamed directly using a puppet contract.

All the Amethyst Vine puppets are alchemical imitations summoned from the Pseudo-Gate of Life.

The man with glasses had thought in the past that it would be great if he could study this kind of monster.

Until his mentor was completely sucked dry by this horrible monster when he went to the north of the empire.

Research and achievements are minor matters; the most important thing is your life.

But before the man with glasses could run away, his descendant was entangled by the vines in the center of the flower.

The purple vines tightly strangled the younger generation's neck and gradually wrapped around his whole body.

The crystal-clear vines pierced out deadly capillaries and began to absorb the blood, body fluids, and magic power of the younger generation...

Everything she could suck away.

The man with glasses fell to the ground in horror, watching his junior struggle, die, and finally turn into a tattered mummy.

"Huhu~ This human doesn't taste good at all. His blood smells like junk food. This guy must have eaten and drunk a lot of weird things, and he never restrained himself when playing with women, right?"

The voice of a strange girl suddenly sounded in the room.

The man with glasses looked at the middle of the petals in confusion, and a beautiful girl with purple hair and wearing a thin white dress appeared.

He had never heard that such a thing would grow out of the amethyst vine.

"Oh, by the way, Lady Luna told me not to eat humans randomly, but this guy should be fine, right?"

The girl licked her lips and gave a seductive smile to the man with glasses.

That look was clearly the look of a predator looking at its prey...

In the next few hours, the large laboratory that the Duke of Opold's family had spent several generations to build was completely destroyed by the amethyst vines.

All the researchers working in the laboratory were also eaten by her.

As for the humans who were captured as research materials, they were taken in by other members of the New Demon King Army.

After making sure there was no prey in the laboratory, the Amethyst Vine opened its body.

Countless huge crystal vines spread out from behind the crystal vines, breaking through the thick ceiling and reaching the surface.

Directly above the laboratory is the Noble Street of the Duke of Opold's capital.

The amethyst vine was like a raging beast, wantonly destroying nearby buildings and streets.

When she saw the targets and their families on the blacklist, she would attack them mercilessly, killing them like playing with her prey.

After destroying most of the surrounding area and killing the guards who were getting in the way, the Amethyst Vine put away its recently acquired human form and began to move towards the direction of the Duke of Opold's mansion...

There, was her next main meal.

?◇?◇?◇?◇?

—A certain unfortunate soldier of the Duke of Leopold’s family—

In a fortress in the Dukedom of Oppold.

Two soldiers on guard were chatting to kill time during the boring night.

This fortress is not only a duchy, but also an important military stronghold in the empire.

However, due to its location in the heart of the central part of the empire, this military fortress is rarely used in peacetime. Most of the time it is only used to station troops and dock magical warships in case of emergency.

Normally, there are a large number of soldiers stationed in this military fortress, but the defense is quite loose.

It was also because of the recent tense situation in the imperial capital that the commander of the fortress adjusted the guards' shift schedule and symbolically increased the defense.

The actual situation was that the guards just gathered together to complain about their superiors, and not many of them stood guard seriously.

"Ah~ Next month it's my turn to rest... Phew, I can finally go home."

Guard A sighed and complained to his companion, Guard B.

Guard A was born into a civilian family. Because of his rough personality and inability to please his superiors, he was often assigned to difficult tasks.

This time, I didn’t get a single rest day for half a year, and I didn’t go home for the entire six months.

"Hehe~ Maybe if you stay in the fortress for half a year, your wife back home will even have a second child."

Guard B said to Guard A with a wicked smile.

"Stop talking nonsense like that."

Guard A glared at his colleague fiercely.

If word got out that his wife was cheating on him, it would be even more difficult for him to survive in the army in the future.

"Okay, okay, don't be angry, I was just joking. After we get back, I'll treat you to the pub I mentioned earlier. The waitresses there are young and pretty, aren't they better than your wife?"

"your treat?"

Guard A did not refuse, but asked Guard B instead.

"If it's just for one night, I'll pay for you as an apology, okay?"

"Tsk, since you said so, I'll give you a little face and accept it reluctantly... Wait, wait a minute, is there something flying in the sky?!"

Guard A was just about to act reluctant and accept Guard B's invitation.

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw many black spots shaking in the night sky behind Guard B.

The weather tonight is not particularly good and the moonlight is very dim.

Guard A was not sure whether he had seen it wrong.

"There's nothing there. Are your eyes blurry? That's why I said you shouldn't have drunk that bottle of wine..."

Guard B turned around and looked in the direction Guard A pointed.

Before he could say anything, a huge explosion was heard in the ears of both of them.

The entire fortress was engulfed in flames in an instant...

Guards A and B immediately panicked and planned to sound the alarm.

But there was a sudden explosion next to the two of them, and the huge impact blew them off the city wall.

The black spots seen by Guard A are actually the new Demon King's army trained by Luna and Sylvia.

They used the grenade launchers provided by the artificial intelligence Hestia to indiscriminately pour ammunition on the fortress below until the entire fortress was completely engulfed in the flames of the explosion.

These grenades are also special products, and their effects imitate A+ attack magic, Cursefire Burst.

Rather than considering using completely unknown weapons, Duke Opold and the others would definitely think that it would be more impactful to have a group of people who could use A+-level attack magic at will attack the fortress.

More than 90% of the troops stationed in the fortress suffered casualties, and all the magic battleships were destroyed.

The new Demon King's army disappeared into the night just as silently as when they came.

?◇?◇?◇?◇?

—Philip, Duke of Leopold—

Philip walked tiredly in the corridor of the Imperial Mansion, heading to the study.

Erica was assassinated on her way back to the imperial capital, and he had successfully dealt with the incident by cutting off his tail to survive.

While other members of the faction were busy planning the assassination of Erica, Philip had already begun planning who in the faction should be pushed out as a scapegoat in order to save his life if the assassination failed.

Although Philip's style of action is extremely radical, it does not mean that he is a reckless fool.

If he had been reckless, he would not have been able to inherit the Duke of Leopold's family and live to this day.

Even if the plan to assassinate Erica fails, although there will be huge losses, it is not entirely a bad thing for Duke Leopold.

Leopold showed Erica that he had a strong military force and was fully capable of launching a desperate war to help Charles usurp the throne.

Just this alone can restrain many of Erica's actions.

The prerequisite is that everything goes as smoothly as Duke Opold planned.

Erica's guards almost wiped out the 500 mercenaries disguised as thieves sent by Duke Opold, and also repelled the 3,000 imperial capital defense forces that had been bribed in advance by faction members.

It is said that just two girls from Illya Arya easily turned the tide of the battle.

Now those two have replaced Vivian from Netherworld and become Erica's guards...

What made Duke Opold even more worried was that there were reports of attacks by unknown monsters in the territory.

The losses were extremely heavy. The capital's Noble Street was half destroyed, and the Duke of Opold's residence was completely reduced to ruins. The number of noble casualties was close to 500.

This incident seriously affected Philip's authority in his own territory.

Philip guessed that this matter was most likely the work of the Duke of Electra's family.

However, the location where the monster appeared was extremely subtle, and it happened to be located in the puppet research room underground in the capital.

If Duke Opold investigates this matter thoroughly, he might accidentally expose the fact that his family has been conducting illegal puppet research.

And the reason why the Elect family chose to attack here was probably to threaten Philip, saying that they had something on him.

He is a duke, a man who will become the prime minister of the empire in the future, but he can only swallow his anger!

At the same time, not only the Duke of Opold's house, but also many fortresses guarded by the nobles of the Duke of Opold's faction were attacked by unknown forces and almost completely destroyed.

This incident also led to Philip being impeached by Erica and others.

They criticized Duke Opold for not protecting the imperial territory that he was supposed to protect as a nobleman with a fiefdom.

It was obvious that all this was caused by that girl Erica herself.

(Tsk, now even the military advantage has been reversed... Damn it, I have to think of a way, if this continues I will definitely lose.)

Philip opened the door and walked into his study.

His attention was soon attracted by two foreign objects placed on the desk.

There were two human heads, the heads of Philip's second daughter and her husband, placed on Philip's desk.

There was also a letter on the table stained with the blood of two people.

Just by seeing this, Philip guessed what was going on.

The husband of Philip's second daughter was the one who secretly helped members of the Duke of Leopold's faction to contact the commander of the defense force.

Philip's second daughter suggested that the killer be hidden in the defense force in case of emergency and be ready to assassinate Erica.

Philip picked up the letter tremblingly and began to read it.