The army of the Heart Alliance took twenty minutes to get out of the camp and properly assemble themselves. So they were all confused about how they weren't attacked yet.
What they saw was that the Blood Shrine army was a mile away from them, waiting for them. They didn't seem interested in attacking first at all and this made the general in command a little uneasy.
The Fire Queen and Fire King rose into the air and looked in the direction of the army. They saw the two powers facing off each other but not attacking first. They quickly flew there to make sure that the battle wouldn't start without them.
When they got there, they felt a powerful aura in front of them. In the sky, the Blood God was staring at them with his cold eyes. He had a spear in his hands instead of the renowned halberd.
"If he is here, then the two will be coming here to help us. We just need to stall for time. For someone like them, they would only take a couple of minutes or less to get here," the Fire Queen whispered to her husband.
He nodded while flying up into the air.
"Blood God! The famed Aura Knight who rose to fame after slaughtering an entire kingdom. What can I do for you?" The Fire King greeted Leo.
"If you could offer your head without any hassle, that would be appreciated," Leo returned a joking comment.
"I am afraid I cannot do that. But I can offer something else. An alliance and a traitor. If I offer you the traitor, the Death Bringer, then would you consider joining me to conquer the rest of this battlefield?"
Leo laughed for a second before realizing something. The person in front of him still believed that Dmitri wasn't on his side. That opened up a completely new set of possibilities. He would only need to stall till Dmitri came and the Fire King would then think that he had the advantage.
"Keep talking. Why would an alliance with you be of any benefit to me? I can destroy the Elementals and Gloves by myself," he said.
"You are mistaken about that. The Elementals are a combination of five kingdoms, each contributing a single 8th Circle Aura Knight as well as 100,000 soldiers. There are numerous 7th Circle Aura Knights in that mix. It would be far too difficult to take them down by yourself.
As for the Gloves, they only have three 8th Circle Aura Knights, but their leader is in the Late Stage, making him the strongest person on this battlefield. But we only need to wait for them to erode each other off and we can take care of the remaining forces."
Leo was going to keep talking, but he realized that a strong force was approaching from the ravine. It was Dmitri, which meant he no longer had to keep dragging the talk.
"I appreciate your offer, but I think I can manage without you."
The Fire King smirked. "Your judgment is bad, but it won't matter. I was only dragging the time out and now that the Death Bringer is here, we won't need to stall anymore."
He looked down at the vast army and shouted.
"Fire Kingdom! Attack!"
Leo responded quickly to that.
"Retreat!"
His command puzzled all the people present. Why was he trying to evade the fight that he started?
Following his command, a hundred men on aura beasts exited the army. It seemed surprising that they were able to fit the aura beasts inside the army and bring them out with ease. These hundred men started retreating in the direction they came from while the huge army lay in their positions.
When they saw this, both the Fire King and Fire Queen realized what happened. They hadn't paid enough attention to the army because the Blood God was present. Once they did, they immediately recognized the usage of an illusion array.
"The army isn't here? Then where could it be?" The Fire King was puzzled. As he said that, Dmitri flew close to the three people. The Fire Queen greeted him instantly.
"Death Bringer! You came! But where is the Bandit King?" She asked him.
Dmitri looked at Leo and the Fire King who were both looking at him. Leo nodded at him which seemed to convey all he needed to know.
"He is dead."
"Dead?"
She never got an answer to her question. Her head was sliced off by Dmitri before she could react. She believed that he was still on her side and didn't expect an attack from him. Given that he was also stronger than her, she couldn't do anything to stop her death.
The Fire King's eyes widened.
"Blaine!" He shouted and was about to go to catch her while she was falling, but an attack from behind stopped him from doing that. In front of him, the Blood God was stopping him from moving forward.
He looked back again at the falling head of his wife when he saw that the Death Bringer was keeping both the head and the body in the air. What he saw only saddened him more. All the aura and blood were sucked out of his wife and absorbed by Dmitri.
Once that happened, the body was left to drop onto the ground. It fell without anyone to stop it. Even the 7th Circle General on the ground was too afraid to do anything in front of the Death Bringer and Blood God.
The body fell all the way to the ground until it hit it and splattered into a pile of blood and flesh. The Fire King winced and looked back at Leo.
"Fire Kingdom! Attack the two people at the top! Don't worry about the crossfire and the army in front of you! Only attack the two enemies!"
His shouts triggered the entire army who took out their ranged weapon if they had any. Those who had bows nocked their arrows and quickly released them at the Blood God.
Dmitri saw this and flew toward them. He waved his hand, creating a huge dome with his blood aura. It surrounded Leo, him, and the Fire King as well. The arrows struck the dome and bounced back without doing any damage to it.
Some threw their spears and swords into the air but it didn't affect the dome at all. The only attacks which seemed to make an impact were that of the remaining 7th Circle Aura Knight. His attacks created a small crack in the dome which disappeared only a second away.
"I can keep the barrier for around 5 minutes, my liege. I hope that you can finish the fight by then," he said to Leo.
"Of course. He isn't as much of a threat," Leo said.
The Fire King looked at Leo bitterly but didn't try to refute his arrogant claim. What he said was completely true. The Blood God was already known to be stronger than people in his realm, and the Fire King was a minor stage less than him. His chances of victory were bordering zero.
