The Death Lord's eyes narrowed in the face of this assault.
He suddenly poured mana into his body and abandoned his human form, becoming a Dark Phoenix in all its glory.
Skreeee!
He let out a powerful war cry as he furiously flapped his wings. A tornado of purple-black mana formed around him, blocking the rain of bullets as they fell.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
As the bullets made contact with the swirling barrier, they exploded into showers of light. At the point of contact, a clear negative reaction was taking place, making the mana bullets volatile and dispersing them.
Damien observed it carefully, realizing the reason for this phenomenon.
'Should it be called Law Discordance?'
The Death Lord's barrier was made of a very specific Death Law concept that Damien wasn't familiar with, and it was repelling his own Life Law like a magnet with the same polarity.
It was the complete opposite of a Law Resonance like Samsara Intent, and if it was something the Death Lord could wield consciously…
'It's too early to make assumptions.'
Damien brought Freya and Hel out together and aimed them at the barrier, combining his Life and Death mana to shoot bullets of True Samsara into the barrier.
Xiu! Xiu! Xiu!
The bullets flew unhindered and sunk into the Death Law Barrier.
'Hm?'
Damien's brow immediately raised in curiosity.
'It's still…clashing?'
It seemed in that instant, Damien's Samsara Intent clashed against something else, another combination of Life and Death Laws, but not quite the same as Samsara.
'That's dangerous. I shouldn't let him utilize that.'
If he continued using Samsara, it was inevitable for their collision to take a long time, and what Beast Emperor Star lacked most was time.
As such, Damien was limited to only Spacetime in this battle.
But…was that ever really a limitation?
'Let's try this out.'
'Transmission.'
Damien vanished.
Skreeee!
The Death Lord let out a powerful war cry as he furiously flapped his wings. A tornado of purple-black mana formed around him, blocking the rain of bullets as they fell.
A sword slashed out.
'Void Sword Art Sixth Form: Worldbreaker'
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Mirage sliced into the forming tornado and dispersed it to nothingness. Its path continued until it slammed into the Death Lord's back, releasing all of its pent-up mana and crushing him into the earth below.
Damien stood in the air above, panting heavily.
"Haa…haa…haa…"
'So…it's possible.'
Damien's eyes shone with excitement.
In that moment, he hadn't just teleported.
No, in that moment, he truly traveled through space and time and arrived less than a second in the past to cut down the Death Lord before he formed his strange tornado.
It was an extremely complicated maneuver, and while its nuances needed further definition, the Death Lord's rising figure didn't allot any time to do so.
Huu…
Damien took a deep breath and opened a black hole behind him, swallowing the ambient mana to replenish himself before he returned to battle.
'It's too early to be excited.'
Transmission, a useful killing move that was completely ineffective in the middle of a battle.
Damien hadn't used it properly because he didn't quite understand how to use it properly yet, but now that he'd experienced it, he could improve in the future.
'The first test run is done. Let's continue.'
Damien rushed into the air, away from his enemy, as he spread his arms into the air.
'Void Breathing: Domain of Reminiscence.'
Damien's eyes were dyed black, becoming portals of blackness in his face. His mana spread for several kilometers into the surroundings, shifting Spacetime in a strange and imperceptible manner.
A string of pitch-black mana pierced the Death Lord's spiritual world and spread its webs, connecting to his deepest memories and drawing them into reality.
The space changed.
A dark world manifested itself, ridden with chaos and destruction.
The Death Lord's eyes turned hazy as he fell into the illusion.
This apocalyptic worldscape wasn't a random image. No, it was a setting drawn from the core of the Death Lord's being.
This was a scene that tormented him ever since childhood.
This was the memory of his original world, a long-destroyed vestige of the past.
***
While Damien experimented with new attacks and fought the Death Lord, the situation on the rest of the planet continued to proceed.
Elena's armies conquered the Kunpeng Clan and attacked the Tyrant Clan, while Elena herself slowly wore the two Territory Lords down in combat.
Hedrick got closer and closer to the Black Dragon Clan's ruling powers, who, despite his siege on their base, didn't deign to move and deal with him personally. With the current progression of events, his mana would run out within the next few minutes.
The battle at the palace only became fiercer with time. Now that 3 minutes had passed since Damien and Astoria arrived in the world, the clash was taking place in full force, with the most powerful combatants facing off to determine the final outcome.
And separated from all three battlefields, Astoria had her own struggle. She fought with all her strength, expertly utilizing Vector Control and Dimensional Magic to support her Golden Dragon Techniques, conserving her mana as much as possible as she battled her way through the Dark Phoenix Clan's forces.
It was difficult. The Dark Phoenix Clan was skilled in both Death and Fire Laws, and when these two laws were combined, they became a true force to be reckoned with.
Even with her newly acquired abilities, Astoria couldn't avoid injury.
"Keuk…!"
Astoria coughed out a mouthful of blood as she took the attack of a late-stage 4th class powerhouse, avoiding a fatal blow from another in the process.
Her hands moved restlessly, creating seal after seal to form Dimensional Cages that separated the thousands of enemies into smaller portions for her to devour one after another, however, the number of late-stage powerhouses made it difficult for her to maneuver freely.
'Dammit!' She exclaimed inwardly as her eyes darted around the surroundings.
Since Damien trusted her to win this battle, it meant there was absolutely a method for her to do so.
However, to this point, she had still yet to figure out what it was!
'My spatial skills are supportive, they were never meant to be my main form of attack.' She thought to herself as she analyzed the things Damien prioritized during their lessons.
'I am the descendant of a Godbeast, and my body is that of a future Godbeast. If I want to exert my full power, I need to learn how to harness it!'
Astoria racked her brain as she dodged and blocked as many attacks as possible, wearing her opponents down slowly.
Fate, just how was she supposed to harness it?
She could use Fate Lines to sever people's worldly ties, and she could cover her body in golden aura to enhance herself, but even as a Golden Dragon, Astoria was never able to fully understand the concept of Fate.
Astoria suddenly understood what Damien wanted from her.
Through this battle, she needed to have a breakthrough and learn to harness fate.
That wasn't only the key to winning this battle, but also…
It was the key to saving the world!
