However they were not dead yet. It took time to fully kill all these soldiers and mages. Adrosiean's Tide of Darkness was created to trap his enemies and slowly killing them like eroding and dissolving them in acid.
The whole fortress was covered in darkness as all the living beings inside were slowly consumed by it. However, Adrosiean did not destroy the fortress itself. It would take more time and also unnecessary.
After about an hour, the darkness retracted and returned back to Adrosiean's Gem of Eternal Darkness. Nothing was left alive. But the fortress was completely intact.
Even the weapons and armors of the soldiers and mages were left unscathed. Only living beings seemed to be disappeared. The eternal darkness had only targeted the living.
Moreover, the eternal darkness did not leave behind any corpses. It had completely consumed them all. Adrosiean felt that it was quite a waste since the bodies of the mages were useful ingredients for making liches and mage type undeads.
But at least the souls remained. Adrosiean captured all the roaming souls and stored them all for his meals. The souls were inside his control field to begin with. Thus, it was very easy to capture them and he gained quite a lot of new souls.
Adrosiean's Tide of Darkness was publicly recognized as his signature ultimate skill and trump card. Of cause, it was only the public opinion and not his true trump card.
Adrosiean had other attacks and skills that better than the Tide of Darkness. Furthermore, why would it be called a trump card if everyone already knew about it?
This so called trump card was only a cover for his real ultimate skills. Tide of Darkness contained a large amount of raw power. It can absorb many attacks as well as trap the enemies endlessly. It seemed overpowered to the normal players.
However to the experience high ranked players and top players, Adrosiean's Tide of Darkness was way too outdated and very easy to counter.
Tide of Darkness consumes a lot of energies. It basically releases the accumulated eternal darkness stored inside the mythical item and fill up the surroundings with it. In order to fill up a wide range of space, Adrosiean needed a large amount of mana and energy.
To counter the Tide of Darkness, his opponents just have to move away from it's range for a period of time. Although the expansion speed of the eternal darkness was quite fast, the players also had various teleportation skills and movement skills.
Even if Adrosiean restricted their movements and teleportations with his control skills, the players could still use short distance teleportation skills like Blinks and Short Warps. There were more than hundreds of skills for movement alone in the game.
Vesta cannot resist Adrosiean's control skills because he was far too low level compared to Adrosiean and also inexperienced in dealing with these skills.
But to the high ranked players and top players of the same level, Adrosiean cannot fully restrict their movements even with the help of the Gem of Eternal Darkness. With enough skill and experience, it was not difficult to escape from the Tide of Darkness.
After everything was over, Adrosiean deactivated his skills. All the control skills that were isolating the Fortress of Thunder from the outside world disappeared. Adrosiean raised his hand and a cluster of black flames appeared. He shot out the black fireball and blast opened the fortress gate.
Adrosiean then ordered his armies to pass through the fortress. Derroth roared as he led the massive army of demonic humans, demi-humans, monsters and beasts towards the other side.
However they had to be quick. The six elemental fortress were closely connected and always communicating each other through the magical devices.
More than an hour without any responses would definitely raise suspicions. Some of the troops from the other fortresses might even be already on their way to check.
Because of that, Adrosiean did not even take the exclusive magical devices from the Fortress of Thunder. Although there might be new technology unique to this world, he had little time.
Adrosiean had plenty of legendary grade items. These low tier devices were nothing to him. He only wanted to study the possible new technologies exclusive to this world.
However, Adrosiean was not a hurry in this aspect. It was not too late to get the new technology it in a later time when he was fully established. Adrosiean was very sensible and patient in this aspect.
_ _ _ _ _
Inside the crimson forest,
The vanguard army had reached their destination. The soldiers at the front looked at the source of the corruption with the horrifying gazes.
It was a blood red crystal floating at the middle of an ancient looking demonic altar. A large amount of toxic fog was being released from the red crystal without stopping.
This demonic altar was constructed and worshipped by the Crimson Cross in the past. Now it was under Azralion's control.
Seven and a half feet tall demon clad in a full black armor stood still in front of the blood red crystal like an unmoving guardian. Despite not moving an inch, it was radiating fearsome demonic aura that could suffocate the weaker soldiers.
Leanora had never seen this kind of demon before. Although Leanora was experienced and had fought many demons before, the abyssal guards were not something that could be seen normally.
Abyssal guards were the elite guards of the high tier demons. To command them, one has to be at least at the level of an archdemon or above.
The abyssal guards never appeared on their own because of their role in the demon society. In the game, the appearance of the abyssal guards meant that there was a high tier demon nearby. Of cause, Leanora had no knowledge know it.
But Leanora could still sense that this armored demon was a completely different level from the other demons they had fought before. The soldiers felt a sense of dread just by looking at it.
"Be careful. This is not like anything we faced before. Don't attack by yourself."
Leanora warned while holding her sword tightly.
Moreover, there were thousands of demons and corrupted beasts around the altar. All of them were bowing and prostrating themselves towards the altar like they were worshipping it. It was somewhat a terrifying sight to see.
"What are they doing? Are they worshipping that ancient altar?"
"So many demons, is this the reason that we did not encounter any of them on our way? Were they here this entire time?"
The soldiers gasped in a look of disbelief and horror. Demons were known for their ferocity and aggressiveness. It was not a common sight to see these chaotic demons being so obedient. To be able to fully control the demons, one has to be at least a demon lord or above.
"Did you confirm it? Is this the source of this forest's corruption?"
Leanora turned to the mage captain and asked.
"This altar releases tremendous amount of demonic energies every second. This had to be the cause of the corruption."
The mage captain answered. However, he did not dare to cast any detection spells to check because it might alarm the demons. Although the vanguard army was just behind, the demons and corrupted beasts did not turn to attack them. They were like unmoving statues that were worshipping the altar.
"Captain, your orders?"
A solar knight asked Leanora for her decision. Leanora thought for a moment before ordering the vanguard army to form into a tight formation.
Without the intervention of the demons and corrupted beasts, the alliance army was able to went into the best formation for an easier attack.
After everyone was in their place, Leanora signaled the mages and archers to attack. Magic spells and arrows shot towards the demons and killed many of them in the first round.
After getting attacked from behind, the demons and corrupted beasts finally got up and turn around to attack the vanguard army in a frenzy.
The alliance army clashed with the demons and corrupted beasts. This time, the soldiers were in a better shape because they were well prepared and in a tight defensive formation. They were able to resist the attacks more easily and in a deadlock.
At this moment, the abyssal guard slowly opened his eyes.
"Captain, that thing finally moved!"
A solar knight warned. The abyssal guard raised it's hand. A cluster of fire burst out as he shot out a fireball. However it was not a normal fireball.
"It's hell fire! Mages protect the front lines!"
Leanora shouted. Hell fire was extremely powerful. It was considered the deadliest fire along with the black flames. Furthermore the hell fire from an elite demon was bound to be stronger than normal. The mages hurriedly casted a shield.
The hell fireball exploded on the magic shield and produced a loud noise. The dust slowly cleared as it revealed the magic shield with several cracks. With many mages working together, they successfully blocked the hell fire.
Seeing his attack was blocked, the abyssal guard turn around and extended his hand towards the blood red crystal. Several rays of demonic energies from the blood crystal flowed towards the abyssal guard's hand.
"What is it doing?"
"It look like it is absorbing the demonic energy from the crystal!"
Leanora had a bad feeling. She thought of the blood red crystal as some kind of demonic artifact. She wanted to stop the abyssal guard from whatever it was attempting to do but she cannot leave the formation and charge alone.
After some times, the abyssal guard turned back and shot out a ball of hell fire again. The mages shouted and unitedly casted the magic shield like the last time.
However this time, the hell fireball directly broke through the magic shield and blasted dozens of soldiers at the front lines.
Many soldiers instantly turned into ashes while the nearby troops also suffered heavy injuries from the impact.
Furthermore the powerful shockwave, blinded the senses of many human soldiers temporarily. A gap was formed in the alliance army's formation. The demons and corrupted beasts made use of the situation and charged forward.