The maid squad is too strong, what use is there for me, the Demon King?

"Shh... crackle..." The sound of death grinding against each other erupted from beneath the sand all around.

boom! boom! boom!

Countless light yellowish-brown Soul-Scorching Scorpions burst forth from the sand, forming a writhing, terrifying carpet, interspersed with several gigantic, jet-black scorpion lords.

The moment the scorpion swarm surged, the low-ranking black-robed attendants moved. Their movements were perfectly synchronized, like a battle-hardened killing machine, without the slightest hesitation or confusion.

Two of the waiters suddenly stepped forward, crossed their arms in front of their chests, and uttered short, low syllables.

The shadow energy around them fluctuated violently, and two slightly thinner but wider purplish-black energy shields instantly condensed and connected in front of them, forming an arc-shaped barrier that barely blocked the first wave of scorpion swarms coming from the side and rear.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A dense crash sounded.

The small Soul-Burning Scorpion's pincers and stinger slammed into the energy shield, creating ripples that caused the shield to flicker violently, clearly unable to hold for long. However, this bought precious moments for its companions behind it.

The other three attendants emerged from the shadows of the shield-bearer like phantoms. Their hands were not empty; they held oddly shaped short-handled scythes or poisoned daggers made of some kind of matte black metal, their blades gleaming with a cold, purplish-black luster.

Their movements were far less agile than Sita's, but they possessed a kind of efficient and deadly simplicity.

A waiter gave a low shout, and the short-handled scythe in his hand drew a cold, purplish-black arc, slicing several small scorpions that were trying to bypass the shield in half, as if harvesting ears of wheat.

Another waiter, like a viper emerging from its hole, precisely pierced the gap at the joint of a scorpion-head breastplate with his dagger. With a flick of his wrist, a burst of purplish-black corrosive magic erupted, instantly destroying its internal structure.

The third waiter focused on pinpoint kills, flicking out fine, hair-like shadow needles imbued with a faint purplish-black magic from his fingertips, precisely pinning down any scorpions that tried to sneak out from the cracks in the sand to launch a sneak attack.

Their teamwork was seamless; they each performed their duties—defense, attack, and clearing the field—like a precise gear train, efficiently eliminating threats from the flanks and keeping large swarms of small scorpions at bay, thus relieving pressure on the core battlefield.

Meanwhile, the large scorpion swarms and lords that launched the main attack from the front suffered a devastating blow.

"Clean up."

Sita's icy voice was like a sharp blade drawn from its sheath.

Faced with the surging swarm of small scorpions, she didn't even draw the weapon she was hiding.

With hands gracefully clasped together in front of him, palms facing each other, the tips of his ten fingers glowed with a purplish-black light like stars.

Om-!

A visible, violently twisted, purplish-black spatial rift, like a curtain forcibly torn open by an invisible giant hand, instantly opened horizontally in front of her.

The crack was no wider than an arm's length, yet it stretched for tens of meters. The swarm of Soul-Burning Scorpions charging at the forefront seemed to have crashed into an invisible wall covered with sharp serrations.

"Chichichichi——!"

The sound of cutting rang out in quick succession. Those palm-sized scorpions, along with their hard shells, sharp pincers, and deadly stingers, shattered and disintegrated silently like fragile glass the moment they came into contact with the cracks.

It turned into countless tiny, shimmering fragments, which were then completely swallowed and annihilated by the spatial turbulence surging from the crack.

The terrifying swarm of insects was brutally cut off and swallowed up by this horizontal crack.

The crack, like a greedy maw, continuously devoured the scorpions that surged forward, clearing a fan-shaped safe zone for the team.

"Meow! Annoying little bug!" Aita's orange-gold vertical pupils burned with fighting spirit, temporarily putting the stinging pain of her wounds behind her.

Faced with a swarm of small scorpions that circled around the crack and emerged from behind the flank dunes, as well as a scorpion lord that sprang up from the sand directly in front of her, wielding a battering ram-like giant claw, she made her move.

Her figure instantly transformed into a leaping orange streak of light, her bare feet leaving scorching afterimages on the burning sand. Her movements were incredibly agile, as if she were dancing on the edge of a knife.

The dark purple claw shadows rained down like a storm, with ten fingers extending into sharp, dark purple claws like poisoned daggers. At this moment, the tips of the claws were also surrounded by condensed dark purple magic power, tearing through the air and emitting a piercing shriek.

The small scorpions that pounced at her were instantly and precisely dismembered and sent flying, like butter sliced ​​by a hot knife, by her ghostly speed and sharp claws.

Her carapace shattered, and venom splattered, yet it couldn't touch her at all.

Her fluffy orange cat tail acted like a precise rudder during high-speed movement, allowing her to traverse the undulating sand dunes as if walking on flat ground.

Facing the scorpion lord that charged like a small mountain, Sita showed no fear, her orange-gold vertical pupils locking onto the joint of the giant claw.

"Get out of my way, meow!" she yelled, her body suddenly twisting at a right angle against the force of her momentum as she charged forward, narrowly avoiding the sweeping attack of the giant claw.

At the same time, the claws, leaving behind purplish-black afterimages that tore through space, fiercely crossed and slashed at the Scorpion Lord's relatively vulnerable joints.

Snap! Rip—!

The sounds of shattering and shell tearing rang out. Dark purple-black corrosive magic surged wildly into the claw marks.

The Scorpion Lord let out a painful hiss as one of its massive pincers was forcibly severed, the purplish-black magic spreading like a venomous snake from the broken end.

Without pausing, Aita used the momentum to leap into the air, her orange hair billowing like a burning flag in the sandstorm. With the immense force of her fall, her other claw slammed into the Scorpion Lord's compound eye, which gleamed with a ghostly red light.

The battle ended as abruptly as it had begun.

Sita maintained the crack until the last small scorpion that rushed in was swallowed up. She clasped her hands together, and the crack silently closed, as if it had never existed. All that remained was a fan-shaped area of ​​sand that had been completely "sweeped" clean, without even a trace of the scorpion.

Sita landed lightly back on the sand, shaking off the small amount of sticky liquid and sand that clung to her claws. The scorpion lord she had been focusing on had been reduced to a pile of broken carapaces and burnt remains, with lingering purplish-black magic power swirling around the broken pieces.

The other large scorpion lords, seemingly intimidated by the West Tower Rift and the ferocious attacks of Shadow Claw, let out uneasy hisses and led the remaining scorpion swarms back into the sand, disappearing without a trace.

The desert was silent once more, the wind howling as it swept the sand.

Gray's paused steps had long since returned to normal, and he continued steadily toward the blazing sun in the east.

Sita, Aita, and the lower-ranking servants who had disappeared back into the background quickly followed, as if the battle had just been a routine cleanup.

Their shadows stretched long under the blazing sun, cast across the vast expanse of sand like silent, complete arrows pointing toward the unknown east.