Chapter 566: Time to Hunt
"Hmm?"
Even though Evan was better than Arthur at commanding, in the end, he was just one person. His eyes could not be everywhere at once.
Arthur noticed a Divine Human battalion making a steady advance towards a critical checkpoint—a narrow pass between two mountains. If they managed to seize it, they could split the demon army in half and disrupt the entire front line.
"The central pass is our lifeline. We can’t let them take it."
One of the Demon Generals noticed this as well and spoke, his tone calm but urgent.
"Summon the Drakon Guard from the eastern front and have them reinforce the chokepoint."
"The dragon riders are perfect for a shock assault."
Two others concurred with the first’s words, and this drew Evan’s attention towards this point and the boy nodded.
"Let them hit the Divines with everything they’ve got—fire, claws, and teeth. They need to break their momentum."
The order was quickly relayed and within seconds, the projections of the Drakon Guard began to shift on the map, their dragon mounts flying low over the terrain as they made their way toward the pass.
"There!"
A Demon General’s exclamation had them zooming in on a sector and they saw a regiment of gods who had broken off from the main force and were moving towards a seemingly undefended village area.
"They’re falling for our trap."
Hearing the Demon general’s words, Arthur’s eyes glinted and he spoke.
"The 3rd Legion is nearby, is it not? Have them lie in wait inside the village and rig every building with fire runes."
His lips curled up into a disconcerting grin, as he continued.
"When the gods arrive, they’ll be met with an explosive welcome. While they’re disoriented, the legion will strike."
Evan’s fingers flew over the controls sending messages via the radios, and soon the Third Demon Legion was moving into position, their forms vanishing into the village’s shadows as they prepared their trap.
The battlefield map continued to shift and change as the battles raged on and the two boys continued orchestrating the movements of their forces with precision.
They gave orders to the dragons, instructing them to rain fire down on the enemy’s rear lines, creating chaos and confusion. The dark elves were sent to conduct night-time raids, their arrows tipped with poison that even Transcendents wouldn’t wanna be anywhere near.
At one point, Evan spotted a squadron of enemy cavalry attempting to flank the demon army from the east.
"Arthur, we’ve got a problem on the eastern flank. If that cavalry breaks through, they’ll reach our command centre."
"Divert the 5th Legion’s 3rd Brigade from their current position. Have them take the long way around and hit the cavalry from behind. We’ll trap them between our forces and crush them before they reac-!"
Arthur stopped mid-sentence, his gaze narrowing as he focused on the map and everyone could see why. The war magic projection on the circular table suddenly flickered and crimson red markers began to appear, signalling the presence of new, extremely powerful enemies.
What’s more, these markers had tiny wing motifs on them.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop as every demon general fell silent, their eyes locked on the growing cluster of markers.
"Transcendent Angels have appeared."
Arthur finally announced, his voice low and edged with a hint of anticipation. The demon generals exchanged uneasy glances.
Toverus was an angel-dominated world, and for this to be the case, the angels had to be its strongest forces by a considerable margin.
The reason why many of these Generals were still here was because they were conserving their strength to fight the Level 900+ angels, and now the time had come.
One turned to Arthur, and the sight he saw sent a chill down his spine.
Arthur’s lips curled into an evil grin. His eyes glimmered with a predatory gleam, and his voice dripped with an unsettling mix of excitement and desire.
"Time to hunt."
Silence reigned supreme and the demon generals, hardened warriors all looked at the boy incredulously.
The way he spoke so casually of hunting Transcendents—the strongest mortals around—was terrifying. He was pretty much the only Sovereign in the entire universe who could dare speak of such a thing without the slightest hint of fear.
Arthur had been waiting for the Transcendents as they were the ones with the ’Book of Truth’ Replica in their possession.
Now they had appeared, he stepped back from the command table and turned to Evan, who nodded in understanding, knowing he would be left to manage the battlefield in Arthur’s absence.
"I’ll leave the rest to you, Evan. Keep them busy."
Arthur’s tone was confident, almost playful, as if this was just another game to him. Evan’s calm demeanour was unshaken and he just nodded.
"I’ve got this. Go have your fun."
Without another word, Arthur vanished from the command centre, his figure dissolving into nothing as he teleported directly to the battlefield where the Transcendent Angels had appeared.
Demon generals scrambled out as well, taking the teleportation waypoints hidden underground in numerous points on the battlefields.
◇ ◇ ◇
Angels, demons, humans, gods, elves, dark elves, and dragons—all clashed in a brutal struggle for supremacy on this maelstrom of chaos called a battlefield.
The ground shook with the force of mighty blows, explosions ringing out each second and the air crackled with the energies of divine and demonic powers.
It was amidst this tumult, that a sudden shift occurred—one that began to turn the tide of battle.
The powers of the gods began to falter.
Their divinity, the main source of damage against the demons began to wane and their Existence Realms dropped by stages or entire realms.
Even Level 900s felt their power drop by at least 20 levels each, and for those below them, some saw an up to 100 Level drop in power!
Legends became Epics once more, Sovereigns became Legends once more, and weaker Transcendents became Peak Sovereigns once more.
Divinity conjured barriers flickered, and the infusions on their weapons dulled.
In stark contrast, the demons found their attacks empowered by an unknown negative energy that negated divinity, allowing them to deal more damage to the gods since their divinity barriers and defences were cut open by this energy.
This was the Blessing of Anti-Divinity.
Conversely, the gods began to deal less damage to the demons, as the anti-divinity covering them granted them extra resilience against divine attacks. It faltered just like any normal energy coating when faced with repeated normal magic and aura attacks, but against divinity, it seemed indestructible.
Demon blades cut deeper, their flames burned hotter, and their magic struck with powerful force.
Amid this upheaval, a colossal blood orb materialized in the sky, conjured from the spilt blood of many corpses on this battlefield. Before anyone could even do anything about it, the orb descended with meteoric force, crashing into the battlefield with a deafening roar.
The impact obliterated thousands of angels and divine humans in an instant, leaving behind a crater of blood and flames. From the heart of the explosion, a figure emerged, wreathed in the crimson energy of the law of blood and surrounded by the dying screams of his enemies.
"The Vampire! Stelan!"
One of the Transcendent Angel Generals cried out and in response, Stelan conjured a sword from the blood flowing out of his wrist and shouted back.
"I’m not a vampire—I’m a godslayer!"
With those words, he charged at the Angel Commander, his blood slicing through the air with lethal intent.
The Angel Commander, roused his holy light and fire magic to meet Stelan’s clash head-on, summoning a blade of blazing sword of radiant flames.
His radiant sword clashed against Stelan’s blood-forged blade in a dazzling display. Stelan quickly employed the laws of death, forcing the Angel back to escape the dark red mist that emanated from his body.
"You...!"
The Angel’s eyes widened in shock when he felt the law energy Stelan emanated. It was the same kind he radiated—that of a being who had stepped onto the path of law comprehension.
"You’ve become a Transcendent!"
"You’re not the only one who has become stronger recently."
Stelan responded and charged at him once more, forcing the angel to unleash a torrent of fire, intending to consume Stelan in a purifying blaze.
The godslayer remained undeterred, his blood magic absorbing the flames and twisting them into a searing red inferno that he sent back at his foe. The Angel barely managed to deflect the attack, but Stelan was already upon him, his sword a blur of deadly arcs.
As they fought, another Angel General, one of the battlefield’s strategic minds, scanned the chaos around him with growing unease.
He knew of Stelan since the man had a small bit of fame on the Interstellar Stage, and his home world—Prime World Nienope—was one with gods allied to the Angel Kings of Toverus.
The angel’s eyes darted through the carnage happening around, searching for the real godslayer threat here.
Stelan’s presence here in a World far away from Nienope was no coincidence, someone had brought him here.
’Every Gozonian Battlefield Stelan has appeared on in the past year was always accompanied by his presence!
If I’m not wrong, he’s the one who placed that negative energy buff on the demons! Those missiles I received reports about must have been him too!’
Still, this was a war to take control of an entire planet. There were numerous battlefields, each spanning hundreds of thousands of square kilometres in area and that person could be on any one of them.
’The Gozonians said they’d be collaborating with him to attack Battlefront worlds during their Summit...’
And now, the blessing of anti-divinity confirmed that he was here, somewhere.
The Angel was right, he was indeed present, and he was wreaking havoc.
While Stelan pushed the Angel Commander back with his blood and death magic, Stelan’s boss was turning thousands of Divine Humans into skeletons.
Literally.
Arthur’s Null broke down their skin and flesh on a sub-atomic level, leaving nothing but pieces of their skeletons behind.
The boy had just unleashed a full-powered Seismic Surge on one battlefield, before summoning a few dozen godslayers from Stelan’s world and breaking open a Cosmic Gate to another.
On a side note, Arthur’s Gates were created as a result of his own spatial power, and not with the Cosmic Teleporter.
Immediately he appeared, he turned towards a High-Rank angel fighting off three High-Rank demons and scanned them, detecting no abnormal cosmic energy signatures.
’Not him.’
Without hesitation, he dashed forward and attacked the angel from behind, stabbing Lostvayne into their back and unleashing a point-blank Extreme Nothingness.
The Angel’s upper body exploded into pieces of blood and flesh, covering the two demons he was fighting in gore.
Arthur then rewound time to get rid of the blood on him, before jumping off and dashing towards the next High-Rank angel.
