A single round of sunflame dragon's breath was enough for all four Demon Generals to meet their end. Damien didn't even get the time to collect the efforts of all his provocation after he became disillusioned by their weakness.
Of course, they weren't idiots who would simply stand still and allow him to hit them, but using vector control and spatial manipulation to increase gravity around them and lower their mobility was more than enough to solve this problem.
Thinking about it though, this was the first time Damien actually moved his head when he used dragon's breath, causing the beam to cover a wider area. It was a good find that he didn't have to be stationary while using the attack, but it wasn't anything he hadn't figured out already.
After finishing, Damien started moving northwest in the direction of Darknorth. The entire time, he never even set foot near Scheherazade, which he was supposed to be protecting.
It's not like he needed the gratitude of those natives, and he didn't need to take a break before moving on either, so it was pointless to go there.
Damien's figure flashed in and out of existence as he made his way over to Darknorth. Although the 1-meter limit on teleportation got annoying when he needed to travel fast like this, it at least allowed him to train his fine control more than he had in the past.
Also, since he was using lightning to boost his speed as well, it allowed him to practice the elemental fusion he had been trying to achieve recently.
Like this, Damien traveled to Darknorth, arriving at the city 5 hours of constant teleporting.
"So this is Darknorth, huh." He muttered to himself as he looked at the small city in front of him. It truly did possess a somewhat dark aura around it, which was probably its namesake.
"Those guys haven't arrived here yet. The demon army is still pretty far away too."
He couldn't sense the demons even when he spread his awareness to its far reaches, but he didn't think it'd take them too long to arrive.
The only reason he made it so early was because the entire confrontation between him and the Demon Generals didn't last more than five minutes.
"Darknorth is the farthest of the three cities from Astoria, and considering how the army hadn't reached Scheherazade yet when I caught up to them, the demon city is also probably somewhere in that same area."
It was a logical deduction. Thinking that he had to go back to Astoria and look for the demon city later, Damien sat down where he stood.
"Not like I'm in a hurry. 5 hours of constant teleporting can get annoying."
He still had around half his mana pool left, but he decided to fill it up to the brim while he waited for Feng Qing'er and Qing Tan. With his future plans, he'd have no problems reaching the White Star, let alone a Black Star that was needed to pass. His star was already bright purple and on the verge of spilling over, so the contribution points didn't interest him.
Since Feng Qing'er and Qing Tan were farther away, it'd take them longer to arrive. As for the Demon army, he didn't care if they got here first. He'd just stall them or use them to practice spatial lock until the other two arrived.
Thinking thus far, Damien began meditating, revolving the Void Essence in his body to hasten his absorption speed tenfold.
And time passed like this.
"Awww~ I thought I'd be first!"
A playful voice woke him from his meditation. When he opened his eyes, he saw Qing Tan standing in front of him with a smile on her face.
"You were fast." He replied blandly, causing her to slightly frown.
"What's with the attitude? Did something hurt your feelings?" She joked.
"Yeah, it did."
"Eh?"
She wasn't expecting such a straight answer from him. She didn't even know how to respond. That is, until he spoke again.
"Sigh, I just realized how weak the Demon Generals are. I want a good fight, but I don't know if I'll get one. If I use this same standard to judge the Commanders, I'm sure to not get one at all."
Qing Tan's eyes widened. That's what was bothering him?
"Pfft…!"
A short giggle left her mouth, which she quickly suppressed, but in the end, she couldn't control it. Qing Tan was almost rolling on the floor with laughter at such an answer.
'He's not so different from me.' She thought inwardly. A thrillseeker, someone who acted because they wanted to have fun. This kind of person was the most interesting.
While the two were chatting, Feng Qing'er also reached their location.
"Dammit! I finished them off so quickly, so why did you two make it here before me?" She muttered with a frown.
"Eh? Isn't it a distance thing? You were the farthest away from Darknorth. Besides, he can teleport and I can also do something similar, so our movement speeds outstrip yours."
"Tch."
Hearing such a logical answer, Feng Qing'er couldn't find anything to fault. In the end, she could only turn her head to the side and pout.
Naturally, this caused Qing Tan to burst into another fit of laughter.
But Damien couldn't bring himself to laugh with her, despite the fact that he also found Feng Qing'er's behavior amusing.
"Why aren't they here yet?"
By all intents and purposes, the Demon army headed for Darknorth should have arrived already. Not even recently, but long ago.
Damien frowned. Even without his danger sense, it was clear that something was wrong with the current situation.
He spread his awareness to its limit once again, and what he saw made his expression turn ugly.
"Shit…"
The Demon army had come. There was no doubt about it. The problem was, there were no abominations within that army.
What he saw on the horizon was an amalgamation of inky black aura that clouded the heaven and earth. Thousands of Captains, tens of Generals, and three beings that radiated a stronger aura than all of the previous forces combined.
"So the Commanders have finally decided to show themselves." Qing Tan muttered. It seemed her awareness had also been spread.
"So what if they're Commanders? Even if they're stronger than the Generals, they aren't anything we can't handle alone."
But Damien shook his head at her statement. "Sure, if it was only Commanders it'd be an easy fight. But with tens of Generals who will, without a doubt, go out of their way to annoy us during the battle, it gets much trickier."
"Then can't we just ask for help from the geniuses within the city?" Qing Tan asked.
Feng Qing'er scoffed. "You saw how useless they were during the battle at Astoria. They were struggling while dealing with 10 Captains, so how do you expect them to deal with Generals?"
"Hm? But these aren't the same low-rate geniuses that were in Astoria. I mean, sure they won't compare to the three of us, but the fact that they didn't cling to your, Miss Queen's, golden thigh proves that they should have some grit right?"
"Hmm, well it's not like we have a choice either way. From the way they have their auras blazing before they even got here, and also the fact that they sent exactly 3 Commanders, it's obvious that we're their targets. We won't have time to deal with the small fries."
"We'll do what we can. That's all I can say. If things are looking bad, we run."
"There's a famous scholar by the name of 21 Savage who said these beautiful words: I'd rather be broke in jail than be dead and rich. We can get all the contribution points we want as long as we're alive."
"That scholar's words are wise. We have a similar saying, it's better to be a living dog than a dead lion. In any case, let's grab the geniuses within the city. It's time to prepare for this fight."
Damien gazed at the horizon with a gleam in his eyes. He had a feeling. A feeling that the fight he was craving was on that horizon, beckoning him.
Damien's pupils flashed in a blood-red light. His fangs and claws elongated. His battle lust had come out full force in anticipation.
