During these seven years, hundreds of Neo-Demons have come from the Magi World to the Beta Heavenly World. Their jobs were to take control of the land owned by the Daybreak Clan and harvest their resources.
As for the Sunlight Champions that came to war, they all returned to the Daybreak Magic Tower. The reason for sending them back was that there is where the Sunlight Core, which is fundamental for their training, is present.
The goal why Zatiel had brought them to war was to test them, to see who of them was worthy of becoming a Neo-Demons, and what he has seen was extremely satisfying. But there is a problem with the bloodlines they needed.
Most of them do not have an ancient heritage that could be harvest through atavism, so Zatiel needed to find suitable bloodlines for them and until he does, it better that they increase their power has Sunlight Champions since the path itself is meant to improve the speed of Neo-Demons training.
Right now all of the Neo-Demons that entered this world when the war started were in the Fiend Essence Extraction Chamber.
Including Dante, the number of Rank 1 Neo-Demons that remained alive after the Ten Tower Formation was established were thirty-four.
Thanks to the constant battles, the huge amount of resources at their disposal plus the help of pieces of Fallen Star and the chamber all of them have reached Rank 2.
They had been constantly increasing their energy pool with the Abyss Aura extracted from those demons and their Elemental Bloodline Marrow with the captives from the Heavenly race.
This was the reason why they had so many corpses of Angels to be able to impale ten thousand of them over these years.
The demons that were flayed and chained to the wall were been constantly replaced except for those at Rank 3.
Zatiel had managed to secure a great number of demons over the years and had bought the ones owned by the other members of the council.
Rank 1 and 2 demons could be replaced easily, but those at Rank 3 could not. Every time these demons were about to succumb due to the drain of their energy and vitality, Zatiel will heal them and allow them to rest until they could be used again.
Luckily for those demons, they were essentially brain dead, or else these would have to experience this perpetual cycle of torture.
In the center of the chamber, there were Zatiel, Sophia, Ezequiel, Kilo, and Rax. They were surrounding the unconscious Rank 4 Angelic Paragon, Martin.
The five of them had an immense amount of power running inside their bodies and consciousness. They were all giving a great sense of stability, clearly depicting that any damage done due to the accelerated training and use of Blood Essence Combustion was mended.
During these years Zatiel had remained almost every single day inside the chamber and his strength has increased considerably but the greatest improved he had was not as a Neo-Demon but in his Animus path.
Becoming a Rank 2 Animus was not very hard since he had hundreds of brains at his disposal to increase his Mind Force and his proficiency in the disciplines was very advanced, especially in Clairsentience.
But there was something different about Zatiel's Animus path, that even the Mind Ruler race did not have. That was the mantle of invisible Will Aura that was covering his body.
Will Aura is a form of using Mind Force, that Zatiel was able to employ thanks to the Path Technique known as The Will That Guides The Heart.
The Will That Guides The Heart has a multitude of uses, most of them focused on increasing the power of the body.
As a Rank 2 Animus, Zatiel could currently use the Aspect of Endurance that creates a mantle of Will Aura around the entire body increasing his defense and attack, and the Aspect of Fortitude that consists on increasing the output of Will Aura, this amplifies the physical abilities by a huge margin, but it also spends an immense amount of Mind Force.
The Aspect of Endurance and the Aspect of Fortitude, are the two most elementary uses of Will Aura, but they are fundamental as one progress as an Animus and trains The Will That Guides The Heart.
The rest has also become very powerful but it was not Ezequiel or Sophia, the ones who battle power obtained the greatest increase. That feat belonged to Rax and Kilo who had advanced their bloodline to Rank 5, transforming it into a King bloodline.
They were still weaker than the other two Neo-Demons with Emperor bloodlines but the difference has diminished greatly. Unfortunately for the two of them, the Metallic Dragon bloodline reaches its peak at Rank 5 and their atavism technique will be no longer of use.
Of course, as Neo-Demons, Kilo and Rax will not be subjected to any type of bloodline shackle, and they can improve it by assimilating other bloodlines into the Bloodline Heart, but they have to be careful.
The information that they obtained from the Chaotic-Core when their Bloodline Heart was finished stipulated that using inferior bloodlines will have negative effects, so they must assimilate another King bloodline or better yet an Emperor.
Zateil was analyzing the four them and he was very satisfied with their improvement.
'A.I. Chip, scan the five of us.'
As usual, after Zatiel command, the voice of the chip was heard and the information was sent to his mind.
[Bip... scanning targets
Name: Zatiel Daybreak
Race: Neo-Demon (Rank 2 Daybreak bloodline) / Animus ( Rank 2)
Strength: 128.4
Physique: 246.6
Speed: 159.9
Abyss Aura: 254.2
Sun Force: 261.5
Mind Force: 134.5
Elemental Bloodline Marrow. 61.2% completed
Name: Ezequiel
Race: Neo-Demon (Rank 2 Storm Titan bloodline)
Strength: 221.4
Physique: 258.2
Speed: 100.2
Abyss Aura: 252.9
Elemental Bloodline Marrow. 60.8% completed
Name: Sophia
Race: Neo-Demon (Rank 2 Styx Dragon bloodline)
Strength: 112.1
Physique: 199.2
Speed: 145.2
Abyss Aura: 261.2
Elemental Bloodline Marrow. 62.4% completed
Name: Rax
Race: Neo-Demon (Rank 2 Metallic Dragon Bloodline)
Strength: 188.2
Physique: 203.1
Speed: 139.4
Abyss Aura: 250.7
Elemental Bloodline Marrow. 60.3% completed
Name: Kilo
Race: Neo-Demon (Rank 2 Metallic Dragon Bloodline)
Strength: 192.2
Physique: 200.1
Speed: 141.4
Abyss Aura: 252.3
Elemental Bloodline Marrow. 60.1% completed
Note: All targets have finished transforming the marrow in all of their bones to Elemental Bloodline Marrow with the exception of their spine.]
To reach the peak of Rank 2, the Abyss Aura of a Neo-Demon must have reached over two hundred and fifty and have 100% completion in their Elemental Bloodline Marrow. Zatiel case was special but by ingestion immense amount of Rank 3 Magic Creatures over the years, he had managed to reach the required amount of Sun Force.
Fulfilling the first goal was easy with the Fiend Essence Extract Chamber constantly pumping refined Abyss Aura into their Chaotic-Cores, but the conversion of their marrow was something different.
Each of them has consumed the energy of hundreds of warrior of the Heavenly race with their Heaven Swallowing rune, but now that they have reached the part where they will have to transform their spine, the energy of Rank 1 and 2 Angels is no longer useful.
Right now they all could be considered to be Master Rank 2 Neo-Demons.
But Zatiel wanted to advance to the next level and that is where the Duke of the Heavenly race enters.
Martin's entire body was covered in runes. These were very similar to the Heaven Swallowing rune on the Neo-Demons hands, and its sole purpose was to slow down the bloodline combustion of the Rank 4 Angelic Paragon.
The amount of power a Soul Forging existences has inside his body and soul is hundreds of times greater to the one of a Rank 3 life form. It is like the difference between an ocean and a river.
Zatiel knows that even if the process of bloodline combustion is slowed down if he alone acts a great part of the energy will be lost due to his inability to absorb it all. So he had decided that the five of them, the head of the spear of the Neo-Demon race, will be absorbing it together.
"You can start." Zatiel looks at the four of them and gives the command.
Ezequiel, Sophia, Rax, and Kilo were completely concentrated on this task. They are very clear how incredibly valuable the energy inside this Rank 4 Angelic Paragon.
They focus all of their power in their hands and use it to pierce at the stomach of Martin. Even though this was a soft part of the body and the magical defenses of the Angelic Paragon were deactivated, it still took a great effort for them to pierce his skin.
Martin's face contorted due to the pain, but Zatiel was not worried that he could wake up due to the pain and trauma.
Before he did this, he had asked both Heinz and Totto to use their power to harm the soul of the Duke and then use their laws to imprison it, so he could not wake up by himself.
Seeing that the rest were on position, Zatiel closes his eyes and actives Aspect of Fortitude, greatly enhancing the mantle of Will Aura around him and then he concentrates all of it on his hands.
Focusing all of his power on his arms, he buries his hands on the Angelic Paragon chest breaking his rib cage and then piercing his heart.
