Damien felt extremely thankful for the relationship of absolute trust shared by the Phoenix Clan Matriarchs and their daughters. If it wasn't for this, it would've taken far too long for him to gain their trust.
But Feng Qing'er and Lunaria were generally smart people. With Damien's explanation, along with his pulling them into the Sanctuary, they were able to understand the severity of the situation easily.
After all, something like the Sanctuary was a card that Damien would never show to people he didn't have absolute trust in, and no matter how much Feng Qing'er didn't want to admit it, she knew she wasn't included in that group.
With Feng Qing'er by his side, Damien was able to gain the Fire Phoenix Clan's cooperation within no time just like how he had done with the Ice Phoenix Clan. Messengers and guides were dispatched in an instant to gather all their forces into the palace.
And while it happened, Damien used Warp to return to the White Dragon Grotto's Worm Level. After arriving, he immediately left the grotto. To gather all the forces it held in one place, the only option was to leave and utilize the space of the mountain it resides on.
And the scene in front of him was just that. Tens of thousands of dragonkin and a few hundred True Dragons lined up in an orderly fashion with the White Dragon King at their head.
"Are all the preparations done?" He asked as he arrived next to the White Dragon King.
"Yes. Everyone has been gathered and everything we needed to take has been stored in space rings. Now, show me how you plan to get us all out of the mountain range."
Damien nodded. "Senior, they probably won't listen to my words so I'd like you to tell them not to resist my mana."
The White Dragon King agreed. Using mana to amplify his voice, he passed the order down to all his subordinates.
Damien closed his eyes and concentrated. It was his first time transporting such a large number of people, but with his current capabilities, it should be possible.
'This is the smallest force among the four I'm taking in, so it'll be the best practice for when I have to do the same for the rest.'
His mana spread like a blanket and slowly moved through the crowd. Space distorted as a large amount of spatial essence congregated on the location.
Due to the rapid mana drain he was experiencing, Damien was forced to cancel his time pseudo-domain. It couldn't be helped, but it only made him rush even more.
His mana soon reached the very ends of the crowd, encapsulating the whole of the White Dragon Grotto's population within it. In that instant, Damien's eyes shot open.
Bang!
The sheer weight of his mana caused space to crack. Starting from the ones nearest to him, the dragonkin and dragons of the grotto began disappearing in the hundreds.
A stream of mana leaked from Damien and specially took care of the White Dragon King, sending him ahead of the rest so he could organize them once they were inside the Sanctuary.
At the same time, Damien sent a mental message to Lucius, using him to familiarize the new residents with the old ones.
From hundreds to thousands, thousands to tens of thousands, the residents of the White Dragon Grotto vanished in droves until finally, Damien was the only one left standing in the cold air of the Endless Snow Mountain.
"Haa…haa…how…annoying…"
He was short of breath from just this, so how was he going to deal with the other two? It seemed he needed to make more preparations.
His awareness spread down the mountain and he flashes away, appearing in a cave where a relatively large beast tribe resided.
"Although I want to apologize since you guys will die so suddenly like this, you were going to meet the same fate anyway so it is what it is."
He began a slaughter. The beast tribe couldn't even last a few minutes against his newfound strength before being devoured to replenish his stamina.
"Ahh, much better. Now all that's left is…"
Bang!
A large swirling black hole appeared behind his back, sucking in all the ambient mana in the vicinity. And once his mana was also brought back to its peak capacity, he used Warp and arrived at the Ice Phoenix Palace.
He didn't waste too many words. Since Lunaria had already been to the Sanctuary, albeit for a brief amount of time, she had roughly explained it to her mother.
The same process repeated once more, but this time, the number of people had increased to over a hundred thousand.
Although the amount of pure-blooded phoenixes wasn't larger than a few thousand, the lesser phoenix variants were of a far greater number.
The Phoenix Clans were prideful, but they were also benevolent to a fault. They didn't look down on those lesser Phoenix variants but instead took them under their wings.
Because their pride also encompassed giving a home to those who had been born of their blood and lineage.
By the time Damien was finished transporting the Ice Phoenix Clan and their subsidiaries into the Sanctuary, he was far more worn out than he was when he did the same with the White Dragon Grotto.
If it wasn't for him replenishing his mana and stamina to their full capacity beforehand, it would've been impossible.
And just like before, he found a beast tribe to slaughter for his nutrition. But the size and number were great enough to be called a clan at this point.
'And just like that, I've exterminated whole clans like it's nothing…I'm really becoming a monster.'
But for the sake of his goal, it was necessary. And when he considered that these clans would all be naturally exterminated as collateral of the battle to come, he no longer felt any remorse for his actions.
Instead, he focused on recovering himself and returned to the Fire Phoenix Clan's palace.
It was taking too long.
To transport the two clans of the Endless Snow Mountain and recuperate from his fatigue, it had taken around 10 minutes.
Including the time he had spent already, he only had around 10 minutes left until his deadline.
'I'll be cutting it close…no, I might not make it in time…'
He couldn't focus on it. He could only rush with everything he had to complete his task. If he focused on the deadline, the situation would feel too hopeless for him to stay as motivated as he was now.
So he repeated the process.
He transported the Fire Phoenix Clan to the Sanctuary and slaughtered another beast clan to sustain himself.
But it wasn't enough. He traveled around the Endless Flame Mountain for as long as he could within his time crunch and slaughtered multiple beast clans, using his Void Physique to stock the excess energy he gained instead of immediately using it to replenish himself.
After all, from here on was where it got serious.
The three clans he had taken in so far were large enough to be prominent even in the entire 3000 Beast Mountain Range, but when compared to the population of elves present under the World Tree, they were nothing.
After all, while the numbers he had transported so far totaled around 300,000, the number of elves was well into the millions.
