As he was about to activate the orb, he looked at what the Blood God had planned for him. Just as he did, his eyes opened wide with shock.
In front of him, an array of thin needles flew toward him with great speed. He tried to activate the orb in a hurry, but the needles reached him before that. They drilled through his body, leaving hundreds of tiny holes in them.
After a second, blood started to seep out of the holes and stained his golden robe. He coughed a mouthful of blood and looked down. As he understood his current condition, he slowly started falling down.
He tried to muster the aura to activate the Great Lightning Eruption Bead but he simply couldn't. His body no longer moved any part and his consciousness slowly faded as well. Before he completely fell to the ground, he could see the face of the person who killed him - the Blood God.
Once the body fell to the ground, the blood and aura inside it seeped out into an orb like before. Dmitri recovered from being kicked deep into the wall of the mountain and got out. He seemed slightly injured but not too much. As he limped toward where Leo was, he noticed the orb in his hands.
Leo looked at him and saw that he seemed a little interested in it.
"Do you want it? It is a good gift considering this happened because of you," Leo said.
"I can't accept this, my liege. You killed the man. It is only right that you use it and not me."
Leo ignored his words and tossed the orb at Dmitri. Without looking back, he walked forward. In front of him, there was the fleeing army that had gotten a mile away while they were fighting. There was a general waiting for him to be ready to get a report.
The general quickly flew to him and bowed. "I greet the Blood God! The Bandit King stood no chance against you," he said.
Leo regained control over the body at this point and asked what the status of the battle was.
"Where are our forces?"
"The elites are all heading back after taking care of the fleeing Aura Knights. As for the people below the 6th Circle, none of them are strong enough to fly at an altitude high enough to cross you. All of them are still fleeing toward our army. The faster Aura Knights should be encountering them by now."
"How many people have escaped?"
"None, so far, my liege. We have successfully taken care of all the generals who tried to flee by air. We assume that no one escaped from this side and the army can take care of the people exiting the ravine," the general said.
"Good. Now, I want to take care of the army in person. Let's go," Leo said. His mouth unknowingly curved into a small smile as he flew toward the fleeing army. The general flew right behind him while Dmitri quickly took in the orb.
Leo was unconcerned about whether his subordinate was right next to him or not. At this stage, the battle was essentially over. Only the weak soldiers were left.
Within a few seconds, he was hovering over the back of the army. They were all concerned about running forward that they didn't know they had a huge threat looming behind their backs. The horde of soldiers was pushing forward with no regard for the people in the front.
It was tame compared to the sight a few minutes ago but it still showed the dysfunctional state of their army. As they were running, they heard a chant.
"I see the exit!" A soldier in the far front shouted.
His shout was not audible to anyone in the back except for Leo. However, the people in the front repeated it once they heard him.
"There is an exit nearby!"
Half a minute later, the entire army was full of hope now that the exit was in sight. As they were filled with the optimism of escaping, a gigantic spear pummeled through the hundreds of soldiers in the back.
The aura wave it brought along with it dragged the corpses in its direction. The spear seemed to have no intention of slowing down and kept rushing forward. It only stopped after running through more than 3000 men.
When someone looked back to see what the aura behind them was, they saw a wave of corpses being hurled at them.
"Brace!"
The thousands of corpses flew at the soldiers, pushing them forward with so much force that they couldn't stop themselves. More than 2000 soldiers fell down because of this.
Leo stepped on top of the wall of corpses and walked forward. As he took the next step, he noticed that the ground below him was moving. He looked down and saw that the body he was stepping on was still alive.
His leg instinctively pressed down, killing the body instantly. He raised his hand the blood and aura within the corpses started to rise up. It compiled into a large orb in his hand which he consumed without any hesitation.
When he did, he felt the familiar sensation of the rush of aura. His eye gained a faint hint of a red hue which seemed negligible. Along with that, he also got the previous urge to kill more people.
"Run! It's the Blood God!" The people who saw this screamed. Everyone started running faster than before which he ignored. He was concentrated on the pile he was standing on. The majority of the people there were still alive.
As he was thinking that, Dmitri landed behind him.
"I can take care of these soldiers, my liege. You can go ahead and kill those ants in front of you."
"Thank you, Dmitri. You are always so... dependable," he said in a daze.
His body floated back into the air and shot toward the running soldiers. He put himself in the middle of the running crowd without any concern that the momentum would push him away. His spear was out and thirsty for blood, but he put it away before he landed. Instead of that, he took out a halberd.
It was the same halberd he had seen in the statue outside the first temple he went to. He swung it a single time, releasing a wave of aura that spread out around him. With a single swing, he decapitated a hundred people.
The blood and aura of these people automatically rose and formed an orb that shot to his hand. He consumed it without any change in his attacks. To him, creating the orbs and absorbing them started to become a very familiar process.
At this point, the people in the front finally exited the ravine. They seemed very excited since they could finally try to run away from the demons behind them. However, the minute they exited the gorge, they encountered a more frightening horror.
"Soldiers! Kill!" A loud shout came from a person on top of an Aura Beast at the helm of the army.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
His command set off the army and they started chanting the word. Each word struck the hearts of the people who just exited the valley with fear.
