Chapter 164: The death of the demons. The iced tea increased mana reserves, regeneration, and magical power by thirty percent, making King Aldric much less worried about his energy expenditure during the prolonged assault on the demon’s barrier. Immediately after consuming the magical enhancement, both attackers’ spells became significantly more powerful. The barrier, which had been holding steady under their previous assault, began showing visible cracks as the enhanced magical attacks overwhelmed its defensive capabilities. The red dome shattered with a sound like breaking crystal, its protective energy dissipating as the master-level demon’s mana finally proved insufficient to maintain the shield against archmage-level and master-level succubus assault, despite burning through his life-force. At that moment, Baron Richard’s eyes fell upon Noah for the first time since the chamber doors had opened. His face contorted with rage and betrayal as realization crashed over him like a physical blow. "YOU!" he screamed, pointing an accusatory finger at the young merchant. "You set me up! You knew the king personally. Otherwise, how could you bring him directly to our secret meeting? You followed me, you damn rat!" ... The baron’s political mind finally grasped the scope of Noah’s deception. The mysterious shopkeeper hadn’t been a helpless victim to extort; he had been a deliberate agent working to expose their conspiracy from the very beginning! "You played me like a fool! Everything was a trap!" Richard continued raging, his voice breaking with fury and madness. But his angry revelation came too late to change their hopeless situation. With their protective barrier destroyed and their coordinated attack interrupted, the extremists found themselves facing archmage-level opposition without adequate preparation. The battle that followed was swift and brutal. King Aldric’s wind magic tore through the apprentice and adept-rank demons with devastating efficiency, while Lola’s master-level spells eliminated multiple targets simultaneously. The corrupt nobles, lacking any significant magical power, could only watch in terror as their extremist allies fell around them like wheat before a scythe. Within minutes, every adept-rank demon lay dead or dying, their blood pooling on the stone floor of the underground chamber. The few surviving apprentice-rank operatives cowered in corners, too terrified to continue fighting against such overwhelming opposition. Seeing the complete destruction of his forces, the master-level demon leader made the same choice his guards had made earlier. His eyes blazed with fanatical determination as he refused to accept capture or interrogation by human authorities. "For the true demon kingdom!" he roared, placing his hands over his mana core with desperate resolve. "Death before submission to inferior humans!" The demon began expanding rapidly as he deliberately destabilised his own magical core, his body swelling grotesquely as contained energy built toward catastrophic release. But unlike the smaller explosions from the adept-rank guards earlier, a master-level demon’s self-destruction represented exponentially greater destructive potential. The explosion, when it came, was a hundred times more powerful than the adept-rank demons. The underground chamber was filled with blinding light and devastating force as the demon’s mana core detonated with the energy of a small magical bomb. King Aldric and Lola immediately recognised the mortal danger such an explosion represented to their less-protected companions. Working together with urgency, they combined their magical abilities to create a defensive barrier around Noah, Princess Elara, and the surviving corrupt nobles. The protective shield absorbed the worst of the blast, though the chamber walls cracked and debris rained down from the ceiling as the magical explosion tested the structural integrity of the entire underground facility. When the light faded and the dust settled, they found themselves alive but shaken within their magical protection. The master-level demon had been completely obliterated by his own desperate gambit, leaving nothing but a crater where he had made his final stand. The surviving corrupt nobles, Baron Richard, the viscount, and several others, cowered within the protective barrier, their faces pale with terror as they realised their extremist allies were all dead while they remained at the mercy of royal justice. "Don’t get any weird ideas, we protected you only to ensure proper execution later," King Aldric informed the trembling traitors with cold authority. "You will all be executed publicly in the main streets, as befits those who commit treason against the kingdom." The underground conspiracy had been shattered, its leaders dead and its human collaborators captured for public justice. But the fanatical dedication shown by the extremist demons served as a sobering reminder of the ideological threat that still faced both kingdoms. The evidence recorded by Zephyra’s Eye would ensure that justice was swift and public, while the destruction of this particular cell would send a clear message to any other nobles contemplating collaboration with enemies of the human kingdom. ... On their way back to the human kingdom, Noah glanced at the captured human nobles with undisguised disgust. The sight of Baron Richard and his fellow conspirators filled him with revulsion that transcended mere disappointment. To sell your own people for mere profits was truly disgusting. These men had betrayed their oaths, their kingdom, and their fellow citizens for nothing more than personal gain and extremist gold. Baron Richard and the other traitors all bore looks of complete despair on their faces. The reality of their situation had finally penetrated their shock; they were bound for public execution as convicted traitors, with no hope of escape or leniency. Magic cuffs forged by the king himself ensured their compliance during the journey back to face royal justice. The enchanted restraints carried a deadly warning: if any prisoner dared to move outside the bounds of their magical prison, they would immediately lose a limb to precisely controlled wind magic. The threat wasn’t idle intimidation. King Aldric’s reputation for following through on such promises meant every captured noble understood exactly what would happen if they attempted escape or resistance. Their faces reflected the hopelessness of men who had gambled everything on a conspiracy that had been thoroughly exposed and decisively crushed. As they approached the kingdom’s main gate, the scene that greeted the guards was so shocking that it left them momentarily speechless. Their beloved king was returning with a group of high-ranking nobles bound in magical restraints like common criminals.