The battle between the four strongest members of both factions, extended for almost a hour, without stopping. The Demon Patriarch and the Vice Patriarch had a superior reserve of Law Energy, despite it being less formidable than Cursed Energy or Heavenly Energy, thus they lasted more.
It was clear however, that the City Lord and Xi Riyu were on the losing side. Despite having more techniques to show, the difference between a Spiritual God and a Demigod was simply too big. In fact several other major faction members, also joined the fight to keep it at a tie between the factions.
While the Demon Sanctuary had Spiritual Gods, they did not have a variety of members, their strongest members besides the Demon Patriarch and Vice Patriarch, were at the Peak of the Demigod Rank, but they all were strong at merely one art, all of them excelling at fighting, the Underground City was different.
For example one of the people who jumped to help the City Lord and Xi Riyu was the White Tiger Family's strongest Demigod, Zhi Qiye, who used his White Tiger Family's strongest technique to give him an extraordinary boost in power, allowing him to fight the Demon Patriarch for several minutes, inflicting him several wounds.
The situation continued for around a week, both sides were exhausted. Over five hundred thousand deaths could be counted when both sides were put together, which was a massive number. Such a loss had never been recorded in the history of the Underground Region before, let alone the Underground City.
At the same time, more and more earthquakes could be felt, indicating that the seal of the Sovereign was weakening. The Sovereign was sealed by the Supreme Leader at the start of the Age of Darkness, since then the seal had been steadily weakening with each passing decade, to the point where it could barely hold him.
The aim of Tong Zhong, was to defeat the Devil Monarch and get the only remaining thing which stopped the seal from fully getting destroyed, the Seal's Key. The Seal's location had been found out several decades previously, but it would still be an immense struggle to actually go there.
The Demon Patriarch was engaging in another fight with the City Lord, who was way more tired than he was."Enough is enough. You are not the only one with an Artifact which can use Heavenly Energy boy." The Demon Patriarch took out a black stone, or rather a Dark Stone, with weird runes over it, the same one he had used against the White Monarch a week ago!
The City Lord knitted his eyebrows,he could sense Heavenly Energy inside the Dark Stone, but it did not seem to hold a really formidable amount of it, why did the Demon Patriarch sound so confident about it then? The Demon Patriarch swung the Dark Stone forward, as a grin emerged on his aged face.
'The fool… He does not understand the power of this Dark Stone… It is capable of storing all my power for a very long time, and then I can use it on my enemies, I used a special resource to create Heavenly Energy for it, and I've been storing it for so long… There is no way you won't die!'
The City Lord brought the Artifact he possessed, a Spear forward, very cautious about that Dark Stone, he did not know what effects it could have on the battle between the two of them. The Dark Stone had a single tear on its surface, which started to shine in a white color, almost blinding him.
The City Lord had to withdraw the spear, and put one hand close to his eyes, he could not endure the amount of blinding light appearing from the Dark Stone, however that was a mistake he shouldn't have done, as the Dark Stone suddenly burst with a massive amount of Heavenly Energy, attacking him.
The sound of bones shattering could be heard across the battlefield. Silence engulfed the surroundings, as both factions were curious to see what had happened to the City Lord… was he perhaps dead? The Demon Sanctuary started to let out battle cries, still not sure of the ending, but wanting to gain some morale.
The dust and smoke started to disappear, revealing a shocking scene. The City Lord was covered in blood, from his forehead to his toes. He was also missing an arm, the one which he was not holding the spear with, blood spurting out of it, he seemingly looked to be dead at the moment!
His expression was dark, no one could see if he was dead or alive currently, he was also not breathing. Seconds felt like hours for the faction of the Underground City, if the City Lord died right now, their chances of winning the war would be dramatically lowered to almost zero, that was not a good thing.
The Spear in the City Lord's hands started to glow less and less with Heavenly Energy, indicating he was dying, Xi Riyu roared, as he pushed all his Cursed Energy out, and started to fly towards the City Lord, his complexion was filled with anger, "YOU CANNOT DIE HERE YOU FUCKING BASTARD!"
The City Lord himself was feeling hopeless. He could not even sense the pain of being covered in blood, with several wounds on his body and missing a limb. He just felt empty. Had he always been so fragile?
He wanted to give up… He had served the city for several decades, doing his best to improve the condition of living in the Underground City… Someone else could take over for him now, his son was not that young… Yes… He could just rest and die, he had done enough. He felt incredibly angry over the shameless old coot, but in the end all it amounted to was an intense sense of helplessness.
His ears were not working anymore… What was everyone trying to tell him? "Die…" Were they telling him to die? Ah… So even his friends knew in what pain he was, a slight smile emerged on his face,"Don't…" What was that? Were they telling him to die or not? The City Lord was confused.
"DON'T DIE YOU BASTARD! THE CITY NEEDS YOU!"
The City Lord was reminded of something his late father had told him,"Men do not cry, men do not surrender, men do not disappoint their family… However the most important thing is that… Men should never give up on living! LIFE IS IMPORTANT MY BOY!" He felt something enter his body as he unleashed a final roar.
MOVE! MOVE! The City Lord started to roar inside his mind, however no matter how much he wanted, his limbs did not move. His heart slowly started to beat slower and slower, was this going to be the end for him,"NO! I DO NOT WANT IT TO END LIKE THIS! MOVE, YOU FUCKING BODY!"
"Poor Man…"A voice echoed from beneath a cliff. People tried to hang on to the cliff to somehorious scene would find it funny how people could get voluntarily get a better look at the person responsible for the stray quote. Any spectator to the incredibly hilarious scene would find it difficult to believe how people could get baited so easily.