The Pupil Demon was on the same level as Isabella, making him an evenly matched opponent.

The Northern Marshal was somewhat weaker, but he possessed a unique advantage of his own—and that was his greatest reliance, the very reason he had confidence in capturing the Empress.

Overall, Isabella could defeat any one of the opponents mentioned above.

At the same time, however, she would have to fight with everything she had against any one of them.

Now, two opponents she couldn't afford to underestimate in the slightest had appeared before her at once. That was bad news.

“Why don't you two attack together?”

Isabella wanted to provoke them into fighting separately.

Even if they attacked her at the same time, that wasn't the most important issue. The key was to make sure they couldn't coordinate with each other.

“Attack together? I don't think that's necessary...”

The Northern Marshal was successfully provoked. But just as he took a step forward, a purple arm reached out from beside him.

“What are you doing? Do you want to die?”

Even after the Northern Marshal glared at him, the Pupil Demon didn't get angry. Instead, he patiently tried to persuade him:

“The process is never the most important thing. You seem pretty fixated on the Empress. You want to obtain her, don't you?

As it happens, I also want to see Dibiles destroyed. Our interests are completely aligned.”

“So what? Are you trying to get friendly with me and call yourself my companion?”

“There’s nothing wrong with being companions until we achieve our respective goals!”

No matter how you looked at it, the Pupil Demon had once been a leader among demons. Compared with the Northern Marshal, who had always preferred acting alone, his sense of the bigger picture was undoubtedly stronger.

Thinking about it carefully, the Pupil Demon was actually the more cautious one.

Given the current situation, he could have waited until Isabella and the Northern Marshal had fought each other to mutual exhaustion, then stepped in and swiftly ended the battle.

With a battle of attrition, the Pupil Demon’s odds of victory would have been at least eighty percent.

But he hadn't chosen to do that.

Unlike in the past, when the Pupil Demon had numerous subordinates, he had come alone this time.

In other words—

if he failed, not only would he be unable to get his revenge, he might very well be dragged down with it.

Precisely because he couldn't afford to lose even once, he had no choice but to be this cautious, terrified that some accident would give Isabella a chance to kill him in return.

He wasn't willing to accept it even if his odds were ninety percent, let alone merely eighty.

“It has to be a guaranteed victory! I think you can't afford to lose either. Joining forces with me will do you nothing but good.”

That was all the Pupil Demon had to say. Whether the other man accepted his suggestion was no longer something he could control.

Isabella was also extremely concerned about whether the two enemies would join forces.

She hadn't attacked while the Pupil Demon was talking because she was worried that her actions might cause the enemies, who were currently fighting separately, to unite.

A moment later, in front of both the Pupil Demon and Isabella, the Northern Marshal gave the expected answer:

“No need. I have absolute confidence that I won't lose. I don't need help from a demon!”

Reality had proven more than once that—

whether someone chose to take risks had nothing to do with their strength and little to do with their circumstances. It was mainly determined by their personality.

The Northern Marshal's answer disappointed the Pupil Demon, but the latter didn't give up.

Even without saying another word, he had no intention of letting the Northern Marshal fight Isabella alone.

Then, the moment the Northern Marshal launched his attack, the Pupil Demon made a brief observation and swiftly coordinated with him.

Cooperation didn't necessarily have to be a mutual effort from both sides.

If one side was strong enough, then even if their teammate charged recklessly from start to finish, the opponent's situation would be little different from facing a coordinated assault.

The Pupil Demon didn't attack directly. Instead, he provided ingenious support.

Once he had worked out his battle plan, he used one of his abilities as a member of the demon race.

In the next instant, a figure appeared before Isabella—one that only she could see.

“My hateful daughter, are you really going to attack your own mother?”

The person who suddenly appeared before Isabella was a blond woman dressed in magnificent clothes, her every movement exuding nobility.

From her appearance to her tone of voice, the woman was exactly like the former Empress.

Faced with the woman who had given birth to her, Isabella's attack instinctively faltered for a split second.

But in the next moment, her eyes returned to their previous look. Her right hand dropped, guiding the tip of the holy banner forward and piercing through the target before her.

There was nothing she couldn't bring herself to strike. She knew that her mother had died long ago.

Even if she hadn't been allowed to remain by her mother's side at the time, that didn't change the fact that the former Empress had been buried beneath the earth many years ago.

Since her real mother had long since passed away, the one who had appeared just now had to be an impostor.

With that thought in mind, Isabella immediately noticed that no blood flowed from the place where the banner's tip had pierced, nor did her palm feel as though it had struck anything solid.

After her body was pierced through, the displeased woman's figure vanished.

From this, Isabella determined that the “mother” from before had been an illusion created by the enemy!

If the Northern Marshal possessed the ability to create illusions, he would have used it earlier. There was no reason to wait until now.

Based on that, Isabella concluded:

The one who had caused the illusion to appear had to be that demon.

If her mother had maintained a close relationship with her daughter while she was alive, then even if Isabella had been able to strike just now, her hesitation would have lasted much longer.

For the first time, she felt grateful that she hadn't had a good mother.

Because the Pupil Demon was deliberately controlling the situation, the Northern Marshal wasn't affected by the illusion at all.

Even so, the Northern Marshal could infer what the demon had done from his opponent's abnormal pause earlier.

“What a pointless thing to do!”

The one receiving support still refused to appreciate it. It seemed being the Pupil Demon's teammate was pretty difficult...

The Pupil Demon specialized in illusions. Unlike Cai's hypnosis, his illusions didn't require the target to stare into his eyes.

As long as his eyes remained unharmed and his attention wasn't suddenly diverted, anything he looked at would be affected by his illusion.

His eyes allowed him to capture scenes from every direction. His vision had no such thing as a “blind spot.”

Therefore, he could cast illusions on targets in any position. The best way to avoid being affected was to keep a considerable distance from him.

However, maintaining that distance inevitably meant retreating.

Isabella had nowhere left to retreat. The imperial palace stood behind her, and she couldn't simply abandon this place.

For a moment, she tried fighting with her eyes closed.

But that still didn't work. Even with her eyes shut tight, she could still “see” the illusion.

The illusion hindering her wasn't something she saw through her eyes. It was transmitted directly into the depths of her mind by the enemy.

As long as the Pupil Demon remained alive, and as long as Isabella retained consciousness, the illusion could never disappear.

What's more—

she hadn't trained to fight with her eyes closed very often. Although she could fight without relying on her vision, her strength would drop considerably under those conditions.

The Northern Marshal wasn't an opponent she could defeat with her eyes shut. And that wasn't even counting the Pupil Demon, who was watching hungrily from the side while creating illusions.

With no other choice, Isabella could only act as though nothing had happened.

She continued attacking the Northern Marshal, wanting to kill one opponent first as quickly as possible.

“Your Majesty, I don't feel like working lately. Can I take my leave early?”

The second figure to appear before her was an illusion of Sister Glasses.

To be honest, Isabella hesitated longer when facing this illusion than she had with the previous one.

But even when faced with someone so close and important to her, the holy banner still came crashing down a moment later.

After breaking through the illusion for the second time, Isabella was attacked by the Northern Marshal while she was distracted.

Although she promptly raised the holy banner to block the attack, she hadn't focused all her strength on defense, and was forced backward when the exchange ended.

Crack!

As her feet retreated step by step, her back slammed into the palace wall, instantly crushing its surface.

Fighting two against one really was putting her under some pressure.

Fortunately, although she was at a disadvantage, the victor had yet to be decided.

Isabella immediately stepped forward, still locking onto the Northern Marshal as she attacked.

The reason she kept choosing this target was that she had considered the situation carefully.

Compared with the Pupil Demon, who was on the same level as her, the Northern Marshal was weaker. If she wanted to end the battle quickly, she could only do so against him.

She had prepared herself to break through any illusion, but this time, what stood in her way was—

“Disciple, why are you pointing your weapon at your master?”

Standing between her and the Northern Marshal was an illusion whose appearance was exactly the same as Wang Xiaole's.

“Damn demon, don't use cheap tricks like this!”

Today, Isabella lost her temper for the first time. Even when she had heard the Northern Marshal speak rudely earlier, she hadn't been this angry.

The illusion, which possessed no self-awareness, didn't stop speaking.

“You seem to have been working hard lately. Put down your weapon, take a break, and chat with your master for a while.”

“Don't speak to me in her tone!”

Having been scolded twice in succession, the Pupil Demon had no idea who the Empress meant by “her.”

He created illusions based on the thoughts hidden in his target's subconscious.

When he did so, even he himself had no idea whom the target affected by the illusion was actually seeing.

If there was one thing the Pupil Demon knew for certain, it was this:

Right now, he had pushed his illusion technique to its absolute limit.

Therefore, the person the Empress was seeing had to be the one she valued most deep within her subconscious!

Just as the Pupil Demon was thinking and saying:

“If you have the guts, then stab your weapon down!

You know, don't you? Illusions are very weak. All you have to do is move a finger, and you can make the nuisance in front of you disappear.”

As though he were offering a kind suggestion, the Pupil Demon deliberately reminded Isabella of this—and shouted it loudly enough for her to hear.

“Destroying it is destroying it! This is just—just...”

But unlike her tough words, Isabella's movements became more sluggish than ever.

No matter how much she denied it on the surface, no matter how many times she told herself deep down that “it was fake,” she still couldn't bring herself to strike.

She knew:

That person had helped the royal family wipe out the Council of Elders and turned the tide when the beastkin army had reached the capital.

That person was the partner with whom she had formed a bond, and the master before whom she could reveal her weakness.

For some unknown reason, she felt an extraordinary sense of security whenever she was beside that person. And for reasons she couldn't explain, her heart only raced when she faced that person.

That person's meaning to her alone was different. Even if he was an impostor, what was special would always remain special...