Tomas's actions carried immense consequences on the battlefield, especially on the side of those at the Soul Forging Rank.
It is true that despite having killed the Deathmask Dragon and fatally injured the Abyssfire Demon Phoenix, the equilibrium between the battle power of both armies remained the same because he was flung to the void as his strength reached a level that threatened the world itself.
But due to the unruly and chaotic nature of demons, the moment the two more powerful of them were no longer present to command them, the organization between those at Rank 4 broke immediately.
Those demons who were losing their battle against the Rank 4 Heavenly race members chose to escape, and those who were winning started to attack like crazy beasts without care for the situation around them.
Both Dukes knew that although letting those Rank 4 demons escape would help them in their battle against the rest, it would also mean that they will slaughter and devour all the Heavenly race members in their path before they are found and killed.
Oliver and Martin attacked without care for their injuries and commanded the rest of the Soul Forging existences to chase after the ones that tried to escape.
Little by little, the demonic horde and those Rank 4 demons in the sky were pushed to the east of the continent, to the location of a region known as the Void Canyon.
This was a dangerous land on the continent. A desolate place with no valuable resource and unsuitable for the growth of life as the natural energy of the world was in disarray and the level of pollution would kill normal Rank 1 life forms.
It took an incredible amount of effort, and both Dukes suffered injuries so serious that it affected their souls. But they were able to pull the demons very deep into the canyon before retreating.
Once they were in the periphery of the canyon, both Oliver and Martin took dozens of white orbs from their personal storage space and threw them to the ground making a white curtain appear.
The curtain started to extend until it formed a dome that covered the entire Void Canyon, trapping all the demons inside.
The curtain was known as Heavenly Guard, and even with the immense wealth that the Dukes had amassed as the leaders of the world, making it big enough to cover the entire canyon was very expensive for them and they were only able to do it once.
The Heavenly Guard will only be able to resist the attacks of those Rank 4 demons for around two months, but the goal of it was never to contain them forever.
The time will be enough for Tomas to return to the world and start healing his wounds, and since they no longer had their leaders, the Dukes hoped that the demons would start to fight and kill each other since there are no other life forms in there but themselves.
Despite having won the battle, no one in the army was celebrating. This was due to the great number of casualties and the fact that some of the Rank 4 demons had managed to escape despite the great effort of the Soul Forging existences of the Heavenly race.
There was also the fact that hundreds of thousands of demons that had separated from the horde long ago and had filled the continent and finding them all was going to be very difficult.
On the faces of Martin and Oliver, there was immense rage and frustration. They had lost twelve Soul Forging existences and less than a third of the army on the ground remained.
And the reason for their hatred was the force that had opened a portal into the Abyss and had caused hundreds of thousands of casualties and was still hiding. They still had no clue about their location.
...
Inside the forcefield of the magic tower, all the Magi, Sunlight Champions, and Neo-Demons were discussing the immense energy they felt not too long ago that was accompanied by the entire continent shaking.
The Rank 1 and 2 Magi were all smiling and thanking their lucky stars that they were ordered not to perform investigations.
They did not know what was happening exactly, but it was clear that a battle between incredibly powerful individuals had happened and if they were found by them, then even if they want to die, they will have to wait for suffering the horrible torture of having their souls searched and all of their memories extracted.
Those Rank 3 Magi had thoughtful expressions as they looked at the top floor of the magic tower where the man who forbade them to leave was and they were curious about how he knew that the situation in the continent would be so volatile.
They understood that their previous action had made the relationship between them hostile, and most of them were trying to think of a way to fix it.
There were also those that when they saw Zatiel's abilities, it only made their resentment against him grow, but they were smart enough to hide it.
Zatiel had also noticed the immense power that was released when Tomas released an attack powerful enough to destroy a considerable part of the continent.
But, unlike the rest, his experiences were much greater. So after making some calculations and having an educated guess about the situation on the continent and that of the man that made it tremble, he returned to his training.
He was healing the wounds in the Heavenly race's wings which he had obtained when he attacked the city of Berrak and he also engraving the rune of Heavenly Polymorph on the skin of Rank 3 Magic Creatures.
His hands were moving with such proficiency that it was hard to believe that he had split his mind, and most of his concentration was on his Animus training.
As a Rank 1 Animus, his Mind Force had reached the level that allowed it to take the form of an invisible aura surrounding Zatiel body.
The normal path of training of an Animus is focused on their disciplines and at Rank 1, they start to gain true proficiency in three of them, which are Psychometabolism, Telepathy, and Clairsentience.
There is another path of training for an Animus that was created by Zatiel when he was the Incarnation of Death and Destruction, which he decided to call 'The Will That Guides the Heart', and that primarily focuses on increased physical power.
It was purely theoretical since he was not an Animus in his previous life, but it should be able to greatly increase his battle power.
But since it will only be truly effective when his Rank as an Animus and Neo-Demon are equal, he had not trained it yet.
His main focus right now was in Clairsentience, in a specific display of this discipline that takes the form of a spell known as True Strike.
By using that spell, Zatiel would be able to extend his awareness a fraction of a second into the future, allowing him to predict his opponent's next movement and giving him the ability to respond with a counterattack if possible or going into defensive position if it was necessary.
There were several restrictions in this power as it would only allow Zatiel to see the action of the enemy he was focusing on and not the ones in the surroundings. Like anything related to the use of time, it was extremely exhausting, and only using it a couple of times would be enough to deplete his Mind Force.
But its uses are plenty and the advantage it could give in battle was great, especially in a melee fight where you are right next to your opponent and the fight can be decided in an instant.
The training of True Strike was very difficult but Zatiel practiced every day, and the only time he rested was when his Mind Force was depleted and he was forced to sleep a couple of hours before starting again.
He would occasionally make some of the automatons that were created to protect the tower fight against him, focusing on using Clairsentience at all times to predict their movements and dodge their attack and when the time was right, use True Strike, he performed a counterattack that temporarily incapacitated them.
The days pass by, and his abilities continue growing, reaching a point that Zatiel is sure that if he would have to face that Angelic Paragon again, he would not end up in such a wretched situation where he could barely move.
He received a pleasant surprise as his proficiency in Clairsentience increased. His ability to detect danger was enhanced greatly and if he focused all of his power on it and maintained his concentration for a long time, he could predict events that could be dangerous for him.
It was very subtle and difficult to perceive, but he felt that there was something or someone that is trying to find him and if he left the cloaking force of the magic tower, his life would be in danger.
'A group of divinators or some special artifact is being used to track my location, or maybe both. They must hate my guts due to the people they have lost. But who cares, my goal has always been exterminating all of them from this world, so why will I care for their anger?'
Absolute indifference was on Zatiel's face, while he thought of his enemies and the hundreds of thousands of deaths that his action had caused them.
The sourc𝗲 of this content is fre(e)webnovel