In a throne room of a castle in the territory of the Sphinx Dukedom, there was a virtual map showing the state of the continent and the demonic horde that was razing everything on its path. There were three people and two of them were discussing.
One of the people arguing was Oliver, with his impressive wings made of lava, but unlike his usual imposing attitude, he was adopting a defensive posture against the words of the man in front of him.
The man was young and his face was very delicate. His hair was black and his body looked weak but the power inside it was not any least inferior to the one in Oliver. He had three pairs of wings on his back that were made of black fog.
The wings seem to be able to hide the existence of the man to the point that, if you were not strong enough, you could not see him even if he was in front of you. But that was not all. There was extremely destructive energy running through them.
Oliver was very arrogant, but the reason for the man lashing out to him was something he could not excuse himself from so easily.
He was very strong and his army had twenty-seven Rank 4 individuals and hundreds of thousands of Heavenly race members, but the first encounter with the demonic horde has cost him greatly.
Counting the Angel of Supremacy that died trying to close the portal, he has lost nine of his Rank 4 warriors, and more than twenty thousand Heavenly race members and the worst part was that every single one of those deaths became fuel for the demons, increasing their power.
The Angelic Paragon and the other two Rank 4 Angels that escaped were severely injured and they would not be able to fight anytime soon. So his military might had weakened by a third and if he were to fight on his own with the demonic horde now, he will fail so he was forced to ask for the help of the other two Dukes.
At the start, the Dukes were very happy to help him. Since like any member of the Heavenly race, they loath any type of fiend and they value greatly the life of their people. But just before this meeting, where they were supposed to decide how to fight against the demonic horde, Martin discovered about the prophecy and the fact about Oliver hiding it from him.
He did nothing to control his anger, and the moment he met Oliver, he immediately started to criticize him.
"If you weren't so selfish, then so many of our people would not have died!" The man's words were very harsh, especially when they are said to a member of the Heavenly race.
Even though he tried to maintain his control, Oliver finally lost his calm when he heard those words.
"Martin, you hypocrite bastard! If you had been in my situation you would have done the same. So don't think you can act so mighty now!" Oliver's wings unfolded completely and the natural energies of the world raged along with them.
The man named Martin was not a peaceful person, and when he saw Oliver's action, his wings also unfolded, making the natural energies on his side extremely volatile.
"You dare to speak like that to me after what you have done!" Martin's expression was fierce as the energy in his body surged.
Before the two of them could do anything, a voice was heard.
"Enough!"
Accompanying the voice, a soft power appeared and unlike the one that both Oliver and Martin were generating, its momentum was very unimpressive but it made the natural energy inside the room return to their normal state, taking away control from the other two.
Both Oliver and Martin looked at the third person inside the room, and unlike the way they behaved among themselves, neither of them dared to be aggressive with him, especially when they see those eyes, one black, and the other white.
The third Duke was a mature man with a muscular body. He had short white hair and a beard that accentuates his age. But despite that, the vitality and life force in his body burned with just as much power as the other two. This made clear that the man's looks were not due to the passage of time affecting him, but due to him preferring to be seen like that.
On his back, there were three pairs of wings made of sword blades, with the three of the left being dark blue in color and the ones in the right dark red.
His name was Tomas, the most powerful of the three Dukes, and the strongest man in the world.
"The most important matter right now is to handle the demonic horde before more of our people die. Everything else can be handled after that," his words made both Oliver and Martin look at each other and nod.
"Good. Oliver, I assume that you went to ask The Seven about the Archangel's birth. What did they tell you?"
Oliver was not surprised with the man knowing about his trip since when it came to information about an Archangel, The Seven are the ones with the greatest knowledge.
"They refused to answer me at the beginning. But when I spoke to them about the prophecy, they told me that when the Archangel feels the death of his people, he will wake to deliver punishment."
The three of them were very smart and understood that the true reason why an Archangel will be born sooner than it should, was not something so simple. But they could see some clues in the message they obtained.
Tomas closed his eyes for a moment and then spoke.
"We can assume that the two first parts of the prophecy, the ones speaking about the race of destruction inside the world and the door of chaos, have already been fulfilled. Martin, have your divinators found anything about the location of the force hiding?"
"Nothing yet. They have been extremely cautious. After the opening of the portal to the Abyss, not a single trace of them has appeared."
The was hate and helplessness in Martin's eyes as he thought about the enemy that had hurt them so much and yet they don't know anything about them.
"We cannot wait to find them before we handle the demonic threat. The number of our people that have died and become food to those things has been too much. Oliver, with the soldiers we brought and your people, what is our current military strength? Also how powerful is the demonic horde currently?"
Tomas was frowning as he made calculations in his head and knew that the answer he would get was not a good one.
"Currently we have thirty-eight Rank 4 warriors, of which seventeen, including us, are Angelic Paragons. As for those at Rank 3 and below, they reach fifty-nine thousand. On the demon horde side, they have forty-two Rank 4 and two and a half million weaker demons," Oliver frowned as he reported that information.
Both Tomas and Martin have ten generals just like Oliver who are Rank 4 Angelic Paragons. But unlike him, who needed to handle the threat of the Fallen in his domain, the other two have complete control over their lands, so they have sent most of their powerful warriors to invade other worlds and having them come back in time for the fight was not realistic.
The most problematic point was the millions of weaker demons that could slaughter their troops and then disturb those at Rank 4.
Even though a group of Rank 4 Angelic Paragons could kill all of the weaker demons if they are given enough time, they will have to use a great amount of energy and that will put them in a very dangerous position when they fight against those demons at Rank 4.
Seeing that neither of the other two had a solution for the endless horde, Oliver sighed and made a red crystal appear.
"I call it Volcano Eruption. |It will greatly increase the power and the energy pool of every member of our race at Rank 3 and below, for an entire day but after that, they will be weakened for a month. It was something I obtained not long ago and the quantity I have stored should be barely enough for the entire army to use once."
The Volcano Eruptions were very important for Oliver, and he would have preferred not to use it. But the battle was too important and could determine the fate of the continent.
Martin and Tomas were surprised about the crystal's abilities and although they were very curious, they knew that Oliver would not reveal more information about it.
"With that, the battle on the ground is handled. I will fight against the Deathmask Dragon and the Abyssfire Demon Phoenix, and the rest can determine their opponent according to their strengths."
From Tomas's body, a very sharp force was generated that was not only very powerful but also unpredictable.
He knew that if they want to win the battle, he will have to handle the two most powerful demons and although even for him, the danger was great, there was no fear in his heart.
Oliver and Martin knew of Tomas's capabilities, so they accepted his plan.
"Although it would have been excellent if we could kill them all, the difference in power between us is too little. Our goal is to defeat them and send the horde away from the populated land of the continent. We will march in a day and we will intercept them before they reach the next city."
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