BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
"Haha, it's always been more fun like this!"
"Hmph, stop talking and keep fighting!"
"Tch, you're such a buzzkill!"
With Damien's arrival, the battle situation took a complete turn.
Hedrick was already a monster in his own right, but with Damien providing him infinite stamina and mana recovery, as well as supporting his back so he could focus on the strongest enemies, he became a whole different beast.
His spear was like a cannon. Each of its blows slayed several tens of troops at the 4th and 5th revolution. Whenever he clashed with those at the 6th or 7th revolution, he only needed a few moves before they were cut down like the rest.
'What is he? A really strong High Commander, or a genuine Executioner?' Damien wondered as he flew through the air, throwing his hand forward and commanding the ambient mana.
'Spacetime Waves.'
Space suddenly thickened like molasses, forcing the movements of all forces to halt or slow.
"Why are you targeting your allies?!" Hedrick roared.
"Chill, I already have it covered," Damien responded, appearing behind him and tapping him on the shoulder.
A small crest appeared on his body, and as it pulsed, Hedrick found that the surrounding spatial solidification no longer affected him.
"Hmph, I suppose you're somewhat competent."
"Sheesh, the requirements for 'competent' are high, huh. Are you a siscon or something?"
"What is that?"
"Ehm, don't worry about it."
Damien teleported away and returned to controlling his skill.
If it was a mere solidification of space, why would he name it after water?
Damien pushed his fingers through the air like he was parting water, and along with his movements, the environment shifted.
Flora grew and died, the land expanded and contracted, and as the Black Dragon Reserve Army was pushed back and separated, the landscape experienced 100 years of change and became something completely different.
New hills and valleys populated the area, giving Hedrick and Damien another tactical advantage over their enemies.
"What're you waiting for? Kill!" Damien exclaimed.
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Hedrick yelled back.
He shot forward like a golden comet and rose into the air, lifting his spear above his head and shouting:
"Divine Thrust!"
His trajectory changed. He crashed straight down with immense momentum, his spear pointed at the ground. As slammed into the earth a few meters from several different groups of separated enemies, he thrust the spear forward and dug it into the ground.
BOOOOOOOOM!
One of the newly created hills was shattered to pieces, its rocks tearing through the bodies of several Black Dragons. The following shockwave turned the organs of many more into meatpaste and directly separated the strong from the weak.
"Nice move, but you should probably rename it!" Damien shouted as he passed by and slashed with Mirage, cutting a few 1st and 2nd revolution masters in half.
"Why?" Hedrick questioned, following his lead and killing the enemies that tried to approach them from behind.
"Because it sounds like something a cringey smut protagonist would say!" Damien responded with a grin.
"What is smut?" Hedrick asked.
"Ehm, don't worry about it."
Damien followed the script and teleported away to attack a different enemy group, but his attention wasn't quite on the battle.
'Hedrick filled me in, but it really is strange that they aren't moving. Could it be…'
Damien activated his All-Seeing Eyes and peered through the walls of the final room of the base that remained intact like a nuclear shelter.
The walls were several feet thick and made of a strange material that blurred Damien's perception, but the All-Seeing eyes had reached a level of just barely piercing reality. As long as Damien made the effort, anything could become clear.
And as his vision pierced the bunker-like room…
"Fuck, it's a trap!"
…the realization immediately hit him.
"What do you mean it's a trap?!" Hedrick roared.
"I mean it's a fucking trap! There's nobody in that damn room!"
"What?!"
Hedrick gritted his teeth in anger. Even if it was nonsensical, he couldn't doubt Damien's perception after seeing him in battle. With the way he kept suck precise track of the enemy's position and strength when he separated them, it was impossible for his perception to be lacking.
If what he said was true, then…!
'They're aiming for the palace!'
Damien and Hedrick realized it instantly.
"We have to go!"
"But we can't leave until we take care of this. I can teleport us out, but if these troops start attacking the common people, the recovery of the Fate Clouds will be interrupted again."
"Then…"
"Go big or go home. Even if we destroy everything in the vicinity, I can revert it to normal afterwards."
"Good!"
Damien grinned and glanced down at the battlefield.
He could see the Black Dragons scrambling to regroup and escape. It wasn't hard to realize what Hedrick was planning from watching his actions.
"Stay here for a while." He said with a smirk.
He clenched his fist and twisted space away from the existing dimension, folding and molding it into thousands of complexly intertwined Dimensional Cages.
Even if it was a Supreme, they'd need at least half a second to break out.
And as everyone knew, for an expert, half a second was…
Hedrick stood in the air with a sun in his hands. Its golden light obscured everything for several tens of thousands of kilometers, and the sheer waves of power emanating from it caused space to rip and tear strangely.
'Hmm, it's fun, but it doesn't quite have the umph I'm looking for.' Damien thought to himself.
'I guess I should take the opportunity to try that out…?'
The 4th technique to be tested today, Damien was going to make it count.
Hel appeared in his right hand.
'Samsara Gun Art, First Apocalypse…'
Hedrick released his golden sun.
Furious waves of heat burned the atmosphere as it collided with the ground. Tens of thousands of kilometers of land were burned to the point where nothing could ever survive on its soil.
The enemy soldiers put up as many barriers and protective measures as possible, but when facing such a massive attack that used all of an Executioner's mana to carry out, it was impossible to escape unscathed…
Especially when the strongest troops here were merely on the same level as him!
Screams and painful roars rang out as the Black Dragons tried to escape, but just after the first impact…
A second wave came.
Damien shot a single bullet from Hel's barrel. It was a murky grey color uncharacteristic of both life and death.
The bullet submerged into the earth below without making much noise at all.
Until the time was right.
VOOM!
A wave of grey mana spread throughout the Dimensional Cage and slammed against its barriers.
'Extermination.'
Damien beckoned for death.
And death answered his call.
Anyone that was touched by the mana wave turned to ashes and dispersed into the wind.
Even the greatest High Commanders and Executioners fell prey to this death wave, as they had already been critically injured by Hedrick just moments before.
The entire mana reserve of an Executioner and Damien's monstrous mana capacity… was truly a heretically powerful combination.
