The sand vortex was still a good distance away but I had the feeling that it was speeding up. Around it, a dozen shadows could be seen jumping around and firing various fire, light, and wind spells at it.
They had to be the guards of the oasis who were trying to hinder the disaster from coming closer to the town. Red whistled and the figures retreated and joined us at the edge of the oasis.
They were all bunny people with dark skin and white fluffy hair. The urge to fluff their hair was raging on in me but I suppressed it. Now was not the time for fluffing. After making sure no one was still near the sand vortex Red looks to me.
"Can you find them without being noticed?"
"I'd need more time for that. If I did a quick sweep they'd surely notice."
"It cannot be helped then. Abel, please find and take them out after I attack. Rose and Aurelia, please assist him. I'll take care of that dumb sandstorm."
Red pulled his greatsword out from thin air and prepared his swing. All his focus converged on the sword and red glowing wisps of aura began to hover around the blade. The wisps of aura became more clustered around the blade and slowly began to appear all over Red's body. The faint aura he had been giving off merged with the one from the sword becoming one entity.
Gradually, the blade was raised. The vortex of sand was now only about a hundred meters away and I could feel the winds created by the suction trying to pull us closer. Only Red was unaffected, he was entirely wrapped in flowing wisps of red aura that the winds couldn't penetrate.
With a quick leap, Red closed in on the vortex. Shrill whistles sounded as the winds and sand scraped across the aura around him. The sword in his hand seemed to suddenly gain incredible weight as if an entire world was contained inside it.
The swing looked simple but it was filled with a devastating amount of power. The pressure generated by the descending blade blew away the sand and revealed a smaller vortex formed by shining divine power. As if in fear of the blade the vortex trembled and accelerated.
The vortex of divine power was spinning faster and faster, desperately trying to draw sand from the ground in order to increase its offensive strength. However, all the sand was firmly pressed against the ground by the pressure of Red's swing.
Then, the blade touched the vortex and cleaved through it effortlessly heading straight for the core where the divine power was the densest.
Right when the blade met the core of the vortex I rapidly expanded my mind. I did this in the simplest and fastest way possible. My mind extended like a tidal wave. Simultaneously, Rose summoned a protective shield around the oasis while Aurelia did the same for the bunny people beside us. Without those shields, they would be feeling great mental pressure now.
My mind quickly found many presences hidden deep in the sand or pretending to be nothing but a breeze or sunlight. I could feel some of the cautious and more powerful ones disappear immediately as my mind swept over them. The others were a bit slower, still focused on Red's swing.
I transmitted their locations to Rose and Aurelia along with the request to keep their bodies intact. Only three seconds had passed since Red had moved from his original position. With a small boom, the core of the vortex was destroyed and it was time for me to move.
The gods here seemed to be light, wind, and sand element gods. Just like everyone here their elements were dependant on the environment. Aurelia burst with magic power as a giant storm cloud appeared in the sky.
All light was blocked out and the breeze was dispersed by strong gusts.
The gods hidden in those elements were rudely ejected from their cover. There they were, hovering in the air still confused why they were suddenly visible. Before they could realize what was going on, I locked onto them all.
"Eternal darkness, devour!"
Darkness poured out from my body like a terrifying beast set free. It expanded quickly and soon encompassed the entire area assaulting the gods and tore them apart.
There were still the gods that were hiding but I left those to Rose and Aurelia while focusing on extracting everything the gods within my darkness had to offer. Almost anything from a god was worth something and since we were killing them any way they could at least be of some use.
In the meantime, the gods hidden in the sand wanted to flee but only some of them got away before a torrent of life force poured down on them. As the life force touched the sand a magical transformation occurred and the sand became rich soil. Their element was sand so becoming one with the soil wasn't within their capability.
They too were forced back into their physical forms but unlike the ones in the wind or light, these ones were now buried below the earth. Some of them had animal forms that allowed them to with some difficulty burrow away. The others were trapped and ensnared by roots that grew out of nowhere and as they struggled they felt their movements slow down. The time it took for them to destroy one root was enough for three new ones to latch onto them.
In their minds, it was the roots that were moving at incredible speed but in reality, they were trapped inside the time domain Aurelia had sneakily deployed. Under the continuous assault of the roots, they began to exhaust themselves.
As those gods struggled against Rose and Aurelia holding them down I finished refining the gods with my darkness. Collecting the refined materials I moved the writhing darkness into the earth to also devour and refine the sand element gods.