I watch dozens of red-cored demons, dressed head to toe in metallic black armor, step out from the rift. Some carry longswords, others shields, and a few wield axes and hammers.
Their horns vary in height and length, with colors ranging from black to brown to red. The exposed skin on some demons shares these color tones. Even their heights and builds differ—some standing near human height at 2 meters, while others tower up to 5 or even 6 meters tall.
These are all arch demons, ranging from level 5000 to 9000, and their sharp eyes scan the darkness of night with ease, spreading out in multiple directions.
The constant flow of red cores halts after about four dozen demons emerge, and then an orange-cored demon steps through.
It moves forward, raising its arms to begin giving orders to the surrounding demons.
At such a distance, with the interference of the abyss, the True Core-level fight happening in front of me, and the thousands of kilometers between us, I can only make out a few words.
"Survey the lands, and report back the throne's approximate opening time!"
"I want threat levels calculated! This world is located in a 3rd Class Natural Mana Zone. There shouldn't even be enough mana here to create a fully matured Stage 2 labyrinth."
"Scope out potential nearby threats and secure this land to begin the base builds!"
"Lord Vermillion will be expecting your scouting results back in 15 minutes!"
The demons split into two groups.
Some spread out to begin surveying the outside of the abyss as it slowly seeps inward toward the tower, while others get into formation and start glowing white and purple.
At first, my eyes widen as I mistake this purple glow for something similar to the ring I'm wearing, but the longer I look, the more intriguing it becomes.
Their Demon Cores all glow and vibrate with this light purple sensation, and a material emanates from their bodies, giving off the radiation of Qi in the back of my mind, while also simulating the sensation I feel when someone uses Soul Energy.
No mana is being used in these movements, and it clicks in my head what they're using once the base of a structure begins to form on the desert floor.
"Demonic Soul Energy..." I whisper to myself.
It appears that just as mana and Qi can combine to create a far more powerful base, Demonic Energy and Qi can do the same. Demons on this world are usually too weak when they form labyrinth contracts to obtain such a substance, so they're all mana-based creatures here. Only a small portion are capable of wielding demonic energy through their cores, and even less have ever even seen Qi.
However, every single one of these demons is using both of them combined, to an exceptional degree. They are the elite force Pluto spoke of seeing when he was young, an army of Demons lead by the Vermillion family called the Red Cored Demonic Knights...
—
As this unfolds in my mind's eye, the spar between Ember and Abby continues.
In Ember's hybrid form, their speed and battle IQ are similar, but it's clear Ember has far more raw power.
Even the attacks Abby lands only scratch his natural scaled armor, while Ember's attacks can't land either, as Abby's body allows them to seep through like nothing.
Every time her Immortal body is tested, I feel a faint warm ripple of energy coming from her, hitting me and everything in our surroundings. I'm over a kilometer away, and it is very faint, but I zero in on it with my All-Seeing Eye as the battle goes on and discover that energy is being expended and ejected each time. The explanation for how it works is almost as strange as the pulses from Maria's core.
Ember yells again as they both fly back after a rapid series of exchanges.
"Alright, if I can't land a hit on you with this, I'll be thoroughly impressed!"
His body glows with a yellow and golden radiance, growing in size.
The scales multiply, covering the remaining exposed skin, while his clawed hands and feet grow larger.
His tail extends and thickens, while above it, two obsidian-black wings sprout with crimson red undersides.
His True Core's silky divine light pulses outward, imbuing his entire form as it grows tens of meters long, giving it a shimmering mythical glow.
He lets out a roar, emitting the full power of his aura, dominating the battlefield with multiple times the pressure from moments ago.
Abby remains unaffected, using her second ranked up buff.
She yells back, "Come at me with everything you've got!"
She deactivates her earth magic and puts away her daggers, focusing purely on defense.
There were no marks on Ember's hybrid form, so attempting to attack this form seems pointless. Right now, they're testing the effectiveness of her Immortal form.
The two forces move forward, and I watch Ember's claws move first as he releases a wave of bright divine flames.
On contact, Abby's green body ripples, and an even hotter wave of pure mana pulses out. Yet again, she's completely unscathed from Ember's full-force direct attack.
The black and red dragon's laugh echoes throughout the air as their exchanges continue, with him releasing flames and deadly strikes her way.
Over two minutes pass with dozens of attacks. Every time Abby tanks the hits, I feel hotter and hotter waves of energy radiating from her body.
—
In my mind's eye, I continue to watch the demons build their square shaped structure from Demonic Soul Energy, while others circle the abyss.
I could intervene, but they're about to hit the apex of their battle, and Abby's physique is finally reacting to Ember's blows in a way that's pushing it to its limit.
The demons present could be taken out in seconds if I flew over, but I don't see them as a threat. It's best not to disturb the flow state of the battle before me.
The heat waves from their fight grow so intense that I back up another kilometer.
Meanwhile, some of the red-cored demon scouts report back to their orange-cored leader. I can only make out two of their responses, as the divine radiation interference here grows more intense.
"Commander! The perimeter is secure—no ascended demonic beasts or humans within 100 kilometers on either side."
"31 planet hours—this is the approximate time of the awakening!"
The orange-cored commander nods, then turns to walk back through the open rift.
Less than a minute later, multiple orange cores emerge from the rift.
My heart rate speeds up as I see the sheer number of demons with bright orange cores walking out into the desert of the Dark Continent. I count over a dozen, and the hundreds of red-cored demons following them are even more absurd sight.
Over a dozen commanders begin giving the hundreds of red-cored demons orders, repeating the process of surveying the abyss and building symmetrical bases a few kilometers apart—one for each orange core.
—
I consider breaking the news to the fighters before me, but the heat waves coming off them continue to rise as Abby's energy form glows brighter with every second.
Her speed is increasing exponentially, and it feels like she's converting stagnant energy in her body into a boost for her movement speed.
As my All-Seeing Eye enhanced vision tracks her, it looks like she's experiencing a breakthrough, similar to the one I had when fighting Sebastian the True Core. I had strategically selected areas of my greater form to alter its density, enlarging for higher attack power or compacting for greater speed.
It seems Abby is doing the same, making portions of her body less immune to attacks where she isn't being hit, using that energy to propel herself through the air faster.
—
Once the hordes of orange and red cores stop flowing from the rift, six yellow-cored demons walk out next.
This finally gets my attention, and I open a telepathic link with both Ember and Abby, no longer caring if I break their flow state.
"We have company... Demons are emerging from a rift near the abyss-"
These demons are all level 9000 to 9900, and every single one of them possess enough divine energy to surpass the apex region's director. Two of them are newly awakened True Cores, while the other four have such large yellow cores that it looks like they're about to collapse into True Cores at any moment...
Instinctively, I activate my greater form, and begin to send a warning through the open telepathy channel to my other teammates, but a seventh demon walks out, and the rift closes behind it.
I stop before I fully get the message out, as for the first time in a long time, I'm unable to get a reading on a being's status.
All that comes back are question marks and purple text that makes no sense.
Another heavy True Core demon emerges from the rift, its gravity signature many times larger than any True Core I've ever seen. The only similar reading I've ever felt is the divine flames in central. Its eyes pulsing white and yellow, sending a wave of perception throughout the entire Dark Continent.
With it comes a domineering pressure, and I don't need to say a word to Abby or Ember—they feel it too.
The pulse travels far beyond us, deep into the 8 Great Regions, Raven's territory, and even further, beyond my senses.
The demon stands tall, inspecting the structures being built, then orders the yellow cores to construct one of their own.
This demon stands over 10 meters tall, with bright shimmering red horns jutting from its forehead, jet-black skin, and obsidian armor that shimmers to match. Its face bears a noble, all-knowing expression.
Once its subordinates get to work, it stares west, shifting its gaze slightly three times before moving its sight toward the south to look directly at me and send a wave of perception laced with a nasty aura of intimidation.
From over 3000 kilometers away, the psychic attack hits me, rattling my entire being.
My vision blurs for a split second, severing my long range perception and telepathy channels while an intense pain like pins and needles ripples through my body. I feel I've just looked into the soul of an evil god of war filled with nothing but bloodlust and ruthless killing intent.
The cool outer image of the noble demon is very deceiving.
About 2 seconds later, I manage to recover by instantly activating all my buffs, and concentrating on my self regeneration skill to cleanse the dreadful aura from my mind and body.
However, once my long range vision returns all I see is the demon lose interest and turn away from me to look at the towering throne within the abyss.
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Author's Note:
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