Damien knew that his cultivators would the three generals in control. Their job was to stall the army while Damien fought the Emperor. He didn't need to raise a large army and drink deeply from his grey core. The elder dragon was more than enough. It was currently on the ground ravaging the enemy troops. Even though Damien and his cultivators killed thousands their were millions of troops. Damien could kill most of not all alone but he wanted to see if he could use this time to unlock his own bloodline.
The woman was battling the brute general. She had her entire focus in him. Her other clones protected her back and blind side. The brute general was extremely powerful and his strength continued to rise as he battled. She had a calm stoic face. He dash inside of her defenses with his powerful body while doing vertical slash with his claymore which was a feint for a punch and obliterated the woman's natural defenses and sent the clones mangled body indented into earth like a meteorite. The brute was indeed powerful and matched her in strength soon. Yet, she had cultivation techniques that directly attacked internal organs. "Deception fist!" Her punches blurred and made contact with his exposed back. He was sent flying in the direction of the clone yet he crashed trough several building gushing blood out of his mouth and massive bruises on his back.
Meanwhile the silver haired young teen had his opponent on the ropes early in the battle. The Hellion general used his powerful strength to fire bolts from his powerful bow he retrieved from an Elven queens body. Yet none of his arrows could penetrate his enemies armor. The generals ability to sense mana from his enemies and counter attack was his greatest ability yet he felt NO mana from this human boy. The general felt like he was shooting sticks at a steel wall. After his quiver emptied the blond hair youth shot thousands of ice spikes on either side of the general and flash stepped in close. The general tried to grab for his daggers but found it hard to move. He felt like his blood was freezing over.
The the closer he got to the general it began to cover the ground creating a frozen tundra around him. He had not chance to properly react due to his useless powers. The general began to panic but was instantly seeing the world upside down as his head fell from his body. "The moment you let me close you lost. If your blood is frozen then all your speed is useless. Your only mistake was me as an enemy. CRYO ATOM SLASH!" He slashed and the generals atoms froze over and burst leaving a kaleidoscope of light reflecting off of the morning sunrise. Damien had to admit this kid was badass. "Master said to never leave anything behind that can be used for resurrection."
The woman clone, with the bow who was nearby shot another light bolt at the brute blasting him to the ground again. She wanted to watch the last battle with the old man. He secretly looked up to him and wanted to make sure she didn't have to step in. "A bit of overkill don't you think, Talcio?" She said smirking to the teen."
"Deena, your enemy is still alive." Talcio responded.
"Well hes not so easy and I'm watching the old man. Someone may have to make sure he can hold his own." She responded.
"Old man Talon will be fine. He has been a warrior longer than our grandparents. He will be fine."
It was true. it was clear the old man had the underhand. He simply dodged with his hands behind his back and only used his feet and had his eyes closed. The old man was still training. He was using sword intent on his legs and counter the lightening strikes of the plate armored generals. The general seen that his comrade was obliterated by a child. He upped his battle prowess. The general had literal fought hundreds of thousands of battles and used every technique he knew. Finally, he caught the old man unawares.
When the old mans legs both came, the world slowed. The blade move in fractions of seconds for the old man. He could sense the sword intent of his enemy and it was very weak. He felt the disturbance in the atmosphere. He felt the sword splitting the particles in the air. The moment the sword penetrated his flesh, the particles penetrated his body and spread to his brain and he had his moment of enlightenment. A loud crack was heard like was heard followed by an audible shattering sound.
Their was a massive explosion around the old man. He glowed a bright golden light. The general and his sword was stuck like it was lodged in a wall. The gold light dimmed and the old mans body glowed bright blue. He was lightening incarnate. The sword the general held heated up and shattered. The old man threw a simple looking punch and the generals body exploded. The old man broke through to the final soul stage and is ready to push through to the immortal ranks. His strength is still psuedo-immortal strength due to the bloodline. Damien who is already an immortal wondered how powerful would he be able to become if he unlocked his bloodline. He also noticed something with tho old mans breakthrough.
He decided to try the something. The old man and these three were true cultivators. Damien had the system which made things much easier for him. Yet, all of this feels like a tutorial period for something much worse. Damien had ominous feels ever since he had become a Demi-God. Almost like everything he was doing was for naught. He had a universe of more powerful gods and enemies. How could he outgrow them?
At this time the brute burst out of the buildings sending debris everywhere. Deena's clones surrounded her original who had a sword. The teen in ice armor and the old man landed between them.
"Congratulations, old man and you didn't break a bine or anything!" Deena said with a playful smile, completely opposite of her previous stoic personality while she battled. The teen seemed that nothing could faze him. He must have seen a lot in his short years. His eyes showed his journey. Yet, even he spoke. "Amazing." Was all he said with a tiny smirk.
The old man, who reverted back to his normal self. "I don't need any thanks from little punks like you two! Don't you two still have a enemy to defeat. You two should be able to handle him." The old man quickly turned away and poorly his is blush and smile. He then sat down and cultivated to recover.
They both nodded and smiled. They knew what he meant. They needed to keep fighting. They let the brute power up to his max strength except his speed increased drastically also. His aura also had a faint green glow that further empowered him. The general blurred from his spot and slammed his fist into the teen who also activated his full power. The brutes fist regenerated too fast for the ice and his fist slammed into the teen who body flew meter away impacting the ground hard and painfully. The teen didn't even flinch from the pain and jumped back up coughing out a mouth full of blood.
He then kicked at the original who let the foot impact her body as she activated her natural flames cultivation technique. She slashed her hand surrounded by flame at the foot that kicked her and was sent flying herself. The clones began attacking in unison as a distractions. Whatever the green aura was kept increasing the brute generals speed and power. The battle continued for long minutes. With the cultivation duo finally being blown back except with mortal injuries. All of the clones had been lied and only the original was left. Until the clones are reabsorbed by the original they will remain. This lead Damien to believe there were actually 21 Deenas when she activate her bloodline.
Damien wanted to step, but looked at the old man who simple shook his head. Damien wondered if he had overestimated the cultivation abilities of his comrades. The teen was knocked back and standing with only one sword and was missing an arm and a slash across his body that looked fatal. Deena currently had a hole in her gut and her cultivation was the reason why her gut weren't spilling out but blood poured from her mouth like a fountain of red.
Damien could sense their lifeforces almost completely deplete. Before Damien could move the General shot two green blast at the two that moved faster than even Damien could see but what Damien thought was going to happen didn't. Right before impact of the strange aura skill, both cultivators glowed bright gold similar to the way old man Talon had. When the rays were seconds from impacted the duo they both changed. Deena appeared as a red humanoid. Her hair was made of fire and her entire body had a light red tinted. Fire covered her like an elaborate robe. She had wings of fiery feathers that came out of her back. The wing at the last second blocked the aura and bashing it out of existence.
Talcio's skin became powerful blue scales worthy of an adult elder dragon. He body became part elder dragon. He shared all the strengths of an adult elder dragon the second strongest dragon in existence. His eyes were light blue with slit pupils similar to a lizard. He had fangs in his mouth and a couple of large veiny blue wings that came out if his own back. He had a long massive tail with a scaled spike on the end. One has claw like hands came up and blocked the blast before squeezing it out of existence.
The brute gasped and before he could do anything else he was instantly bombarded boarded by nonstop unnaturally dense ice lances from one side and the other countless blue fire balls bombard the brute general. For a few seconds until the continued the increase and decrease the temperature in the impact. A large explosion let out where the techniques impacted and when the smoke cleared there was nothing left of the general except a pile of gore.
All of their injuries healed and they both tested their wings and flew to the old man. Who simply looked them both up and down. "Show offs." They knew their fight was over and the rest was to be left for Damien. They sat and cultivated to recover their power and get acclimated to their breakthroughs along with the old man.
Now it was Damien's turn to face the Emperor.
He needed a cheat somewhere but where...how?
Damien filled his mind with rage and anger. He was going to die facing gods and his kid would never know what happened to him. She would believe he had left her for nothing. She'd grow up thinking shes wasn't good enough or that she was worthless. This drastically raised Damien killing intent. He needed something to destroy and he targeted the palace with a finger. He summoned his sword intent and slashed toward the palace intending to vertically split the mountain in half. This was when the Emperor decided to enter the battlefield.
"YOU DARE! HUMAN!!!"