Chapter 36 – Clashing Sides

Important things:

Lazarus = Lowest ranked artifacts

[Fragment Realm] = Elite at lv.30, Transient – lv75 and Human God – lv 120

[Mystical Realm] = Justicar – Lv. 170, Vizier – Lv. 250 and Alpha – Lv. 310

[Divine Realm] = Exarch – Lv. 380, Neophyte – Lv. 490 and Zelix – Lv. 560

[Heavenly Realm = Coming soon..........maybe...}

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As soon as dawn arrived, Lucifer departed from the shed, as he eyed the shores; the tides wildly eroded them.

The dark clouds covered the entire continent signaling a disaster to come and barely a trickle of light could get through. Creating a golem he mentally ordered it to start a fire while he headed into a nearby forest to hunt for a few beasts.

The beasts within the forest were highly intelligent and ambushes were common. Lucifer slaughtered them by making precise incisions on their necks, his speed was many times faster so they didn`t have an opportunity to evade even a single one of his strikes, collecting their attribute cores he decided to give them to the girls because they barely benefited him anymore.

He needed cores of higher purity.

Lucifer carried four carcasses of the wolves, back to the shed where they were roasted on a stick under the flame. The golem had completed the tasks perfectly. The rich scent of cooked meat aroused the girls and male expert out of their sleep, as it was still early morning.

After their hurried breakfast; they quickly followed behind the male expert as he led them through dense overgrown forest. As the expert directed them through a route in the forest, everyone had become vigilant due to frequent surprise attacks by beasts.

A heavy rainstorm erupted bathing the surroundings they often made turns within the forest; until they reached at its edges from there they could perceive an enormous mountain range.

In this region, the mountains were covered with a thick blanket of snow and the heavy rainstorm mixed with snow continuously showered down. Lucifer covering the girls with an earth essence layer and preceded onwards, sometimes hail stones would fall at harsh speeds inflicting significant damage if anyone got hit.

The peaks of the mountains could hardly be seen as they were covered with a thick white fog. In a hidden spot between the mountain range; a narrow flight of steps led to the top. As they proceeded on the pathway, the male expert and the girls had their mana pool suppressed completely, having to rely only on physical effort to walk up without mana enhancements.

The suppressant had a slight effect on Lucifer making him a little uncomfortable. Climbing quarter of the mountain caused the girls to pant rigorously, the male expert wheezed but not to the extent the girls were at. On the other hand, Lucifer was not perturbed the least. His body was extremely durable so he could make do even without mana.

After ten days they finally made it to the top, the male expert was completely exhausted. The girls had to be hoisted by Lucifer, halfway on the stairs. The suppressant effect was dispersed at the peak and their strength was slowly returning.

As Lucifer viewed the surrounding; he saw houses of varying shapes built on the peaks, a few ancient dojos also appeared and at the furthest back a large palace came into view, it was entirely made with mana infused marble stone. The male expert raced towards the palace following a certain route.

Lucifer rejuvenated the girls with his mana, following behind the male expert they went through a stone path that lead them directly to the palace. Along the way vampires, dhampirs, reptilian`s and different subspecies looked at them with interest, It was a gathering of diverse demonic races.

Outside the palace; Lucifer felt presence`s of ten experts at the Alpha rank and above, they too had felt his presence. Two experts appeared outside the palace entrance, as they saw the flask in the male expert’s hand, their expressions turned jubilant but quickly turned wary as they looked at Lucifer.

They guided Lucifer and the male expert into the palace, the interiors was beautifully decorated with mosaics and sculptures of beautiful beasts, and a large rack; displayed weapons which emitted intimidating auras. The palace was divided into three levels with a staircase connecting all of them, two more experts revealed themselves after they got off on the first level. The four experts in total surrounded them, directing them towards the third level while severely observing Lucifer.

The girls looked disturbed because of the aura radiated by the experts around them. On the other hand; Lucifer seemed calm because if he was in any danger he could escape along with the girls in a wormhole. Moreover, he didn`t sense any killing intent.

As the five male experts along with Lucifer stood before an intricately carved wooden door, which opened to reveal a woman wearing spectacles and dressed in a white kimono with flowers embroidered on it. Giving a glance at the flask she immediately snatched it before retreating back into the room.

They all waited for a while outside of the room; before a thick amount of light essence could be felt enveloping the room, the light essence after a moment faded away. At that instance an overpowering aura was released from inside it was at a similar level to Brigitte`s but weaker.

The door finally swung open to reveal two females; one a dark elf and the other a vampire. Six other male and female experts appeared beside Lucifer. The girls and the elven expert kneeled before them.

The pressure they radiated was noble and majestic and would make you subconsciously want to bow down before them. Lucifer didn`t care, so what if they were stronger than him he couldn`t care less. The females looked at him with a scrutinizing gaze before a heavy pressure entirely shifted onto him.

There was a large gulf between Lucifer and the females but he was still unyielding, the pressure grew more intense but the ooze slowly broiled within his body, as if anticipating a bloodbath. Lucifer focus remained resolute under the enormous pressure, if it was anyone else just the pressure alone would be enough to cause them to break.

They grew astonished as he continued to endure the growing pressure which was almost at the peak stages of the Alpha rank. Finally, withdrawing the pressure they faces contained an indescribable look.

“?!”

They seemed mystified by the anomaly before them. The broiling ooze went dormant after the pressure was gone; Lucifer stepped back, staring intensely at them. He could only assume that their strength was below Brigitte.

The experts all got up after a gesture by the two females, they were bewildered by Lucifer's action thinking he would be crushed by the pressure but now they looked at him as if he was a monster.

However at the moment,, a blow horn sounded, the experts grew tense before a large shout jolted them.

“THE ELVEN ARMY IS ATTACKING!”

The two females vanished from the spot; Lucifer using his wormhole ability appeared above the palace along with the two females. They looked at him once again with bafflement because they didn`t feel a trace of his presence before he appeared.

Lucifer increased his brain synapses to enhance his visual acuity; a few hundred kilometers away a large army of elven experts headed their way, ranked attribute beasts were mixed among them. Weapons of every kind were employed by the army, and at the very front a male and female couple exuded the same aura as the two females beside him.

“YOU TWO BASTARDS GET READY WE ARE FINALLY GOING TO TAKE THE SOUL PEARL!”

The other side bellowed, the two females beside Lucifer grew a bit tense because they hadn`t expected this assault. During the five years Lucifer was missing, the Black Lotus clan acquired one of the Blight series’ the Soul Pearl, the special effect of the weapon was to absorb the souls of the dead to empower its user. Right now, the Soul Pearl was stowed in a treasury within the palace only accessible by the two females.

The army was drawing closer by the second, all the experts within demonic continent rushed into the skies with their own methods, forming an army a bit bigger than the opposing side, ranked core beasts were mixed with the army. Experts who had familiars such as sprites, beast spirits summoned them by their sides.

Gathering of experts caused an influx of mana and essence, everybody`s faces were grim but resolute. At the front of the group a female commandeered the army; as he saw her face he instantly knew who she was.

Her features had changed a lot in these past five years, a black tail danced behind her and four wings spread from her back, golden patterns were engraved onto them. Silia`s red hair had grown darker in intensity and reached her waist also her body had become more ravishing.

A thick black armor adorned her body while she wielded her large bastard sword with one hand; her presence had grown more formidable over the years.

Silia calmly ordered the army around, above her a manifested avatar hovered, a knight with dual swords. The army followed her commands without hesitation; she had garnered a lot of trust looking at their reactions.

“Will you help us?” the two females by his side asked, they somewhat felt having him by their side would increase the chances for victory.

He smiled gently before nodding it was a full scale war; the kind he used to excel at. During the battle he could harvest a lot of abilities and essence cores. So he had no plans to drop this opportunity, however, he also had no plans to fight the heavenly realm experts because he was not at strong enough to engage them yet.

Appearing back into the palace he told the girls to go back to the Be`cout city in the sandy region where he had first freed them from because they would easily get killed in such large scale battles due to their lack of experience. Also Be`cout city was safe for them now because they were god-ranked experts and could easily dispose of the people who attacked them. He gave them a bag full of platinum coins to last them for 10 years.

Creating a wormhole he warmly told them to step in, seeing their expressions they were very reluctant but they still obeyed. They palace was now empty as everyone had gathered in the skies above.

Experts drank various elixirs and potions trying to raise their chances of survival. Several experts wielded Lazarus ranked artifacts.

Lucifer selected a light black armor from an expert who was giving them out. He covered his face with a black helm, only revealing his blue slits that emitted sheer coldness. The temperature around him dropped because he had settled into his war mood, experts around him shivered by his mere presence.

Lucifer felt at peace in this atmosphere, the fear, the panic and most of all death exhilarated him.

His brain synapses were at its peak and the black ooze in his blood stream roiled, awakened by the blood thirst around.

All the experts unified in a triangular formation prepared for the incoming onslaught, Silia and the two females were at the very front. Standing beside Silia Lucifer got into position.

Silia looked at him feeling a sense of familiarity before reverting back, and soon the approaching army was within sight. Their aura was brimming, lighting up the dark sky. Thunder resounded all around and a heavy torrent of rain followed, the winds howled as if it was engaging along with them.

Everything grew deadly silent as both the armies faced each other, not a whisper could be heard. The blood thirst released by both sides was overpowering. Lucifer wielded his twin daggers, but he chose not to use chaotic essence because it would draw to much attention towards him.

The essence fragments in his mana pool thrummed in anticipation, essence flooded out of them heading towards the serpentine tattoo. It had already reached the later stages of its progression.

The four heavenly realm experts faced each other gathering their specific attribute essence around them. All four of them had an attribute core and exceled in a particular essence. The two females beside him released Lighting and wind essence while the opposing side experts released earth and fire.

The two females beside Lucifer held onto sabers, which were enveloped in their essence. The opponent female heavenly realm expert wielded a crossbow; the arrows were made of earth essence to increase the damage. The opponent male expert wielded a large hammer embedded with fire essence.

Simultaneously all four of them manifested their soul avatar; the male had a large silver striped tiger which exuded oppressive might. The female`s avatar was a cyclops with a great sword and shield.

Beside Lucifer the two females released their avatar, two giant golden knights with one holding a dragon shaped bow and the other a two handed silver spear.

Each of their weapons discharged extraordinary power, and the essence contained within them could devastate all those below the heavenly realm with ease. The armies off both sides were waiting for the signal from their commanders, their pent up morale had reached its peak.

“KILL!”

Both sides screamed at once, thousands of experts rushed at each other. Lucifer visual acuity had increased because of his accelerated brain synapses so everyone except the heavenly realm experts seemed to be moving in slow motion.

Frigid essence surrounded his body while he flew with wind essence underneath his feet. Under his helm he grinned, once again his apathetic demeanor overtook him.

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:kwak:

*Sniff* school is starting in five days..................