The battle was intense, leaving the area around in ruins, but thanks to Ying Yue's solid defense, Lauren's powerful attacks, and Hui Zhong's support, the Demon Empress was having trouble dealing with them swiftly. Having Ying Yue in front of her whenever she wanted to attack other people and Lauren and his dragon attacking continuously with powerful attacks was frustrating.
The worst thing was that whenever she thought that she had managed to deal with those two, Hui Zhong coordinated with the 1 000 Transcendence realm undead to send myriads of skills in her way, giving enough time for Ying Yue and Lauren to begin attacking again.
The Demon Empress was becoming more annoyed and restless as time went on because Tatyana was successfully gathering enough energy for her big skill.
The Demon Empress knew that even with all these buffs on the undead summons, her superior cultivation, defense, regeneration, and strength guaranteed that she would be able to win eventually. However, the amount of energy Tatyana was gathering was giving her bad vibes and she didn't dare relax for a second. The Demon Empress remembered the Demon Emperor and thought, 'Is Burxis still fighting with that oversized lizard? How could he be held back by only one dragon!?'
What the demon Empress didn't know was that Tian Long could fight against all the summons she was currently fighting with ease. He was the indisputable number two in Tatyana's army, even above Tatyana herself when it came to destructive power.
Therefore, even if the Demon Emperor, Burxis, was stronger than the Demon Empress, he wasn't able to finish Tian Long off easily. Moreover, the [Underworld Gate] range was so vast that it affected Tian Long up there in space where they were currently fighting, boosting his strength a notch higher.
After 40 minutes had passed since the beginning of the battle, The Demon Empress became apprehensive. She hadn't reached her level out of luck; no one has. Therefore, she understood that Tatyana was stronger than they anticipated, and right now, they were gathering all the flags that had their defeat on them, one at a time. 'Even if her attacks aren't dangerous for Burxis and me, we can't deal with her fast enough. If a battle against a summoner goes on for so much time, they can easily overcome cultivation levels to fight against various enemies of the same level...'
After analyzing things for a while, she decided to retreat even if it hurt her pride. She had been observing the battlefield between the Transcendent realm cultivators, Demon Monarchs, and legendary beasts. Even if some Demon Monarchs had died during this time, there had been more deaths on the beast and human cultivator side, so she was more or less satisfied.
She communicated with Burxis through a soul link, lowering the intensity of her attacks not to get caught by surprise as she had been before. 'Burxis, if you aren't able to finish that lizard off in ten minutes and help me here, we should begin to plan a retreat.'
The Demon Emperor's rumbling voice responded in her mind. 'Why do you say that, Nimune? And forget about finishing him off, his body is just too resilient, and his skills are extremely powerful. Not to mention ten minutes, I think that to kill him completely, I would need one month at least.'
Nimune grimaced and explained. 'Swept your divine sense across our fighting zone for a second. Tatyana is gathering a ton of energy, and I have a bad hunch about it. The worst thing is that I can't interrupt her because her summons are truly too annoying.'
As if reiterating her statement, something hit her side with high strength at that moment.
*Bang!*
Lauren's lance had landed on her side, sending her flying for tens of kilometers. She was mostly uninjured, but it was extremely annoying. 'That fucking dragon knight has become too strong after that red aura wrapped around him. Fuck all his descendants!'
She flashed toward him and used a skill to create an enormous crescent that bloated the sky. But Ying Yue intercepted it and used a skill herself to blast that crescent away. The Demon Empress roared angrily, "Annoying woman, I want to hear your screams and eat your flesh!"
She felt extremely suffocated because their perfect coordination left her unable to do anything. The Demon Empress, Nimune, transmitted to Burxis. 'We are retreating. We both are being held back by her current summons. If she summons what she is preparing to summon, we will truly be in danger. Our subordinates have managed to kill almost 200 of the cultivators on that side, I think that is quite an accomplishment for the moment, and it will weaken some races enough to create internal struggle. We can always amplify this tempting the weakest side.'
Burxis answered, 'We will do as you say; your instincts have always been accurate. However, if we want to do that, we will need personnel. Give me five minutes to get this lizard away from me, and I will help retreat the Demon Monarchs, maintain Tatyana and her summons occupied for that time.'
Nimune transmitted an affirmative message, and she began preparing to retreat, going full into a defensive battle.
Ying Yue noticed the change in Nimune's attacks, so she communicated with the rest. 'Pay attention to her and be careful; she has drastically changed her attack pattern. She may be preparing something.'
Hui Zhong said, 'How about you activate the formation that the Empress Prepared? We should be able to damage her badly with it.'
Ying Yue rushed toward Nimune and managed to sneak a sword strike to her side.
*BANG!*
Nimune's giant body slid in the air, and her eyes locked onto Ying Yue with rage. She then thrust her sword forward, and an enormous beam of corrosive energy shot toward Ying Yue. Ying Yue created tens of black-green bone walls in its way, all glowing with a golden light.
*BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!*
The beam destroyed all of them with horrendous might and landed on Ying Yue, weakened. However, Ying Yue's current body was extremely resilient. Therefore, the attack that should have incapacitated her for a while only blasted her away with her skin corroding. The golden aura around her regenerated her extremely fast, letting Ying Yue join the fight again almost instantly.
Ying Yue shrugged off the pain and answered Hui Zhong, 'That formation is a killing formation; if I use it now, it will only hurt her badly, and we will lose a card to protect the Empress. Remember our objective, Zhong. It is to hold her back, not kill her.'
Hui Zhong answered instantly, 'Understood.'
Hui Zhong prepared an attack with the thousand troops behind him while Lauren, his dragon, and Ying Yue kept her at bay.
Four minutes later, the sky was shrouded with countless enormous bone lances surrounded by a black-green aura. Then Hui Zhong waved his hand, and all the attacks sped toward Nimune like rain with terrifying energy around them. "[Unending Abyssal Bone Lance Rain]."
"SCRAM!" Nimune shouted, hitting Lauren and Ying Yue strongly and getting them off her. She looked at the bones raining on her, and her sword exploded with green fumes.
In the next instant, her sword's afterimages surrounded her, blasting the bone lances that came near her into pieces with incredible speed. She also protected herself from those she couldn't destroy with her armored wings.
After defending against that attack, she had finished charging her energy and shouted. "[DEMON SOVEREIGN CORROSIVE NOVA]."
A green sphere burst from her and consumed the surrounding area with increasing speed. Ying Yue, Lauren, Hui Zhong, and the other 1 000 summons grouped up before Tatyana and used all the defensive skills available to them. Different colored bone walls, darkness domes, green bone pillars, black skeletal hands, bone cages, and flesh walls continuously appeared between Tatyana and the corrosive nova.
The enormous corrosive nova that carried the world's laws smashed against the defensive perimeter in a catastrophic explosion. The nova melted all the domes, walls, and other defensive measures, advancing uninterruptedly. The lower-level undead defenses were obliterated, weakening the nova slightly, and it collided with the last fortifications coming from Ying Yue, Hui Zhong, and Lauren and the Dragon Breath that the dragon charged during this time.
*BOOOOOM!*
The collision made the earth tremble, the sky dim, and the world shriek with pain as the four undead creatures felt like an asteroid smashed into their barriers. However, with the combined effort of the four, they were able to block the land-changing nova and avoid it hitting Tatyana.
When they managed to block the attack, they looked toward the place where Nimune was, only to find it empty. They became extremely alert and commanded all the undead to spread around and search for her. Their divine senses swept across the land, the air, and underground, searching for the Demon Empress without going too far from Tatyana. The last thing they wanted was an ambush happening when they left their side.
They even sent 10 of the Transcendent Realm summons to scout the surroundings, not caring if they are destroyed. They just wanted to find where the Demon Empress went. However, they weren't successful in finding her, making them frown worriedly.
Tatyana opened her eyes, confused about the suddenly silent surroundings. She saw her undead looking around alertly. Ying Yue appeared beside her and said with a weird face. "Umm…. Empress, I think The Demon Empress ran away."
Tatyana didn't stop gathering energy and looked at Ying Yue with a stupefied face. "Ying Yue, it is not a good time to joke around. We are fighting someone equal to us."
Ying Yue's face became even weirder, and she said, "I'm not joking, Empress. After a powerful attack, the Demon Empress's aura disappeared; no matter how we search around, we can't find a single trace of her."
And as if wanting to confirm Ying Yue's observations, Tian Long appeared above them, casting a giant shadow on them. He had scales ripped off across his body and large burning gashes across his body. A part of his right wing was almost cut in half, and one of his two horns was cracked like a spider web after being hit by something. Moreover, his tail and claws were visibly chipped after clashing against the Demon Emperor's sword so many times.
However, even if the superficial damage looked horrendous, he was quite in good shape, and his body was regenerating at a visible speed. Tian Long had heard Ying Yue, so he said to Tatyana. "It is true, Tatyana. Even the Demon Emperor retreated with their remaining army. They managed to kill about 50 humans and 15 beasts from our side. And about 140 humans from outside our alliance."
Tatyana looked at them, still not believing them. 'A Demon Emperor and Empress retreating? Since when? Their arrogance normally goes so high that they rather die than admit they are weaker than someone!'
Tatyana slowed down her summoning and used a part of the energy to activate the skill called [Future Sight]. She normally used this skill passively to look two seconds into the future with extreme precision. However, Tatyana could also activate it consciously to look further into the future with less accuracy. After observing from 10 seconds up to one hour in the future, she didn't see the Demon Empress and Emperor appearing again and confirming her summons' words.
Tatyana's face became strange, still finding it unbelievable. Then, she looked at herself and the continental destroying energy amount around her, not knowing what to do with it. It was truly a lot of energy, black-green colored, and combined with a subtle red aura. The space was warping around her, cracking, and shattering, only to regenerate and start that cycle again.
Tatyana stopped gathering energy and controlled it, asking. "What do I do with this energy? It seems like a waste letting it disperse just like that."
Her summons got thoughtful and each proposed their options.