Dyon's original plan was to have the demon generals share their soul power like he and Ri did. This required a base level of trust, something they should have had after fighting so many wars together, but, aside from that, it also required expert level control – a level of control that increased manifold for each additional demon general that helped. In addition to this, to lower the level of difficulty of melding souls, the soul strength of the demon generals had to be similar. Knowing this, only lower level demon generals were of any help.
At first, Dyon and Kaeda had only wanted the help of one other demon general. That would have kept the difficulty at the lowest level possible. But, it became clear very quickly that this wouldn't be possible. Even two demon generals couldn't replicate Dyon's efficacy with the ancient Elvin techniques, something that they found absolutely ridiculous, but was true nonetheless.
What the demon generals came to learn was that their successor's soul strength far outmatched theirs. Dyon had a saint level soul while the lower level Essence Gathering demon generals still had meridian formation level souls in most cases. They simply couldn't compare. This didn't mean that Dyon was more powerful than his lower essence gathering Demon Generals. After all, they still had their own powerful wills, their energy cultivation, as well as their body cultivation. But, when it came to soul cultivation and techniques, Dyon was unmatched.
Unfortunately, with this being the case, Kaeda had no choice but to keep adding to the amount of Demon Generals in their palm to back formation. However, she had been capped at three. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't control anymore than the output of three more demon generals. This, of course, was still much faster than her alone. But, in the end, it wasn't fast enough. It would still take a few more days at that rate.
But, that was when Dyon sensed Arios outside of the ring. When Dyon had first come to the Elvin Kingdom, he had tried to send out an array through the dimensions. This had ended with his being knocked unconscious for months, but it had also proved that even at that lower soul level, Dyon had the talent to send his soul power out through dimensions.
However, sending out your 6th sense through dimensions was obviously an easier task than drawing an array through dimensions.
When Dyon had seen that the problem Kaeda was having was soul control, he immediately knew that Arios was the solution to the problem. But, the issue was that Arios wasn't here, he had been sent off to his family. And, he couldn't use Alidor's soul control because Alidor was still a step weaker than Dyon's demon generals since he was still in the meridian formation stage – which meant his soul was even weaker than that.
Hoping against hope, Dyon diverted small bits of his 6th sense to check the situation outside of the ring. He wanted to get out to the World Tournament as quickly as possible. He was itching to battle and to see Madeleine.
In the end, Dyon's efforts had been rewarded and Arios came.
At first, some might have been confused. Why would Arios fix their soul control problems? But, Dyon didn't have time to explain it to them. All he said were a few simple words. "You're in charge of soul control." Then Dyon's clone disappeared.
A few of the smarter Demon Generals immediately caught on. Amongst those of similar soul power to them, Arios was without a doubt the one with the most soul control. Why? Because of the Sicarius family death technique.
Arios had the ability to quite literally cut his soul off from his body and fake his death. This was a technique that Ava had also used in an attempt to escape Baal. But, Arios' proficiency was on a completely other level. He had used it when Tammy had attacked him in the Elvin Kingdom. This was because he could tell that Tammy was struggling with something inwardly, so he had chosen to make it easy on her – this was of course on top of the fact he had a good impression of Tammy and they had had a good relationship. What Arios didn't know, of course, was what Tammy had subjected his little sister to.
This aside, the Sicarius family technique required soul control of an unprecedented level. Arios, being able to completely disconnect, and then reconnect, his soul from his body was without a doubt the best option to control the souls of so many. And Dyon was proven to be right.
Soon, tens of demon generals stood together, fueling Kaeda and curing Dyon at a rate note seen before.
Just hours later, Dyon's grin came coupled with the fluttering of his eyes as he woke up.
Seeing hundreds of pairs of eyes looking at him with a mixture of happiness and awe, he smiled. "Thank you." After months of not using his voice, it came out hoarse. But, he got his message across.
Kaeda blushed profusely. Unlike many of the other Demon Generals, she was quite shy. In fact, when Dyon had chosen her as a Vice Commander just because of her music will, it had been questionable. These were the same question Kaeda had dealt with all her life – especially when the Demon Sage had chosen her as a demon general. But, she pushed through it.
That said, she couldn't help but blush under Dyon's kind words of thanks. "There's no need to thank us, successor." Kaeda kept her head lowered.
"Ugh," Dyon tried to get up, but immediately slumped back downward.
Arios slipped by Kaeda's shying figure to kneel beside Dyon, a serious expression on his features. "Don't move." He said sternly.
Arios slowly lifted Dyon's arm from his side before sucking in a deep breath.
After months of focusing on flushing Dyon's body of the odd red crystals, there had been no opportunity to handle the wound that had caused it all in the first place.
"I'm not doctor… But… Green skin isn't healthy, right?" Arios cringed. The idea of a martial artist becoming infected was ridiculous, it wouldn't happen. Or, at the very least, it shouldn't.
Dyon winced as his arm was raised, but gently pushed Arios away anyway. Leaping upwards, Dyon took a look at his side.
The wound itself was narrow and only about three inches wide, but Dyon could feel that it was very deep. The green Arios was referring to was the sickening green veins that pumped to and from the wound.
Dyon could tell that it wasn't infected because there was no pus. In fact, the veins were probably his body's way of rehabilitating itself. When a person was injured, a flood of blood would come to area carrying all sorts of this needed for curing. Usually, that would also come with swelling. But, Dyon's body hadn't been able to swell because it was crystallized. In fact, his veins only just now began to pump blood properly, causing a stream of blood to begin to slide down his side.
"I don't have time for this…" Dyon circulated his aurora and energy cultivation. Wounds became more difficult to heal the more powerful the attack was and the more powerful the body was. Unfortunately, Dyon's body had recently become much stronger and the attack he had suffered was without a doubt powerful. The good news was that he now had a Saint level soul, so his Aurora worked at unprecedented speeds. The bad news was that it would still take a few more hours. But, he didn't care.
Dyon's finger lit itself, causing a blaze of fire to send flickers of heat into his surroundings. Barely gritting his teeth, he brought the flame to his wound, sealing it off and stopping the blood.
Kaeda blinked. "Successor, if you do that before we check for internal injuries, you may bleed out from the inside."
Dyon nodded. "You're right."
Under the shocked gazes of the demon generals, Dyon torso began to glow.
Arios could only shake his head. He only knew a handful of people who would light their insides with fire will like this when there was a better solution to be had. The demon sage and Dyon happened to be two of them…
"Maniacs…"
Dyon chuckled as his eyes flashed with purple-gold. "Sorry, can I trouble one of you to bandage me up?" A long and thick length of cotton bandages appeared in Dyon's hand.
Arios sighed. "You'd better be able to make them pay for what they've done in this state."
A flash of seriousness crossed Dyon's eyes. For Arios to say such a thing, it was clear that something had happened.
"If I didn't give them this handicap, this tournament wouldn't even be suspenseful."
