The armies inside the Lotus Tower were starting to rush out, but could twenty thousand really fight against this many? Even with the advantage of the death qi?

Bas and Liska stood proudly in the air, looking down at Dyon and Ri with disdain. It was finally time for their revenge. Few in their lives had ever disrespected them as much as Dyon and Ri had, so, it was about time they died.

Dyon sighed, patting Ri’s head and leaning forward to plant a kiss on her forehead.

“Remember what I said, little feu glace. Your man won’t die so easily. The demon generals will protect you. Command them well. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Before Ri could reach out to stop Dyon, he had already flashed away from her, his footsteps carrying him to a position right between the approaching army and the scrambling Lotus alliance.

‘Alright. Apparently, you think it’s cool to play games with people’s lives… So, let me break in your game for you.’

Dyon’s aurora blazed around him, a raging tempest of golden flames erupting into life.

Slowly, the flames turned a purple gold as Dyon pushed it harder toward its peak.

The aurora flames grew larger and larger. Fifty meters. One hundred meters. Two hundred meters.

BOOM!

Dyon’s humanoid manifestation burst into being, looming over the approaching army with malice as Dyon’s soul stage raged into the peak of the Essence stage.

‘Since you’re an ancient game, you’re built on an array, aren’t you?’

BOOM!

A massive tree made of obsidian appeared behind Dyon’s humanoid manifestation, spreading out its roots hundreds of meters outward before digging into the ground.

Dyon was in a world of his own. The approaching army continued to charge forward, their bestial natures not in the least afraid of Dyon’s display of power.

Behind him, Ri watched with tears in her eyes as more and more of the Lotus alliance armies rushed out of the tower an into awkward formations. The only relatively organized army was Dyon and Ri’s, and that was only because the demon generals had instinctively followed Dyon’s orders and were already thinking of Ri as their commander.

Dyon grit his teeth as he spread the roots of the tree to the max. “You’re supposed to be good at finding energy sources, right? WELL FIND ME A WEAK POINT! NOW!”

Blood spilled from Dyon as wounds began to open up on his body. The strain of pushing his manifestations so far was getting to him. The roots had already passed the kilometer mark!

Suddenly Dyon’s eyes flashed. ‘There!’

Wings burst from Dyon’s back as wind will careened him toward a spot in the ground a few hundred meters from himself.

And then… he aimed his everything toward that point…

BOOM!

Dyon’s aurora flames burst into the grey ground, cracking it in a blaze of golden light.

The earth shook violently, even the sky looked like it was falling as booming thunder seemed to want to strike Dyon down for blaspheming the gate.

‘Kiss my ass.’ Dyon looked at the sky defiantly, not regretting his actions in the least as the ground split apart, raging toward the coming army.

Just as he had expected, the space around towers were special and had added protection. As a result, the cracks didn’t even reach within half a kilometer of them, but, that didn’t stop the cracks from engulfing portions of the oncoming army.

Death qi erupted from the ground, instantly burning hundreds at a time to ashes.

Screams that seemed to come straight from the depths of hell itself filled the battle field. Skin cracked and blistered, eyes bulged and popped, bones crumbled under their own weight… Death qi was truly menacing.

Dyon watched in the sky, panting heavily. It was impossible for him to escape these death qi surges, a wall of death qi had already surrounded him… he could only vaguely see Ri’s worried expression through the endless black. Worst part was, he could tell that the game was already repairing itself, clearly prepared for cases like this – meaning he couldn’t take the whole enemy army with him. .

‘I can’t just stand still and wait.’ Thought Dyon. ‘I need to take advantage of this crack and hide in space…’ The only way to deal with a flaw in this game was to use the flaw to his advantage.

Almost as if on que, a raging tempest of death qi stormed toward Dyon, intent on killing him.

Dyon flashed to the side, the twinkling silver and black of his space will coating him as he did something inexplicable.

“NO!” Ri shook violently as she watched Dyon dive down into the crack. She wanted to break down, but she suddenly felt Arios’ strong hand squeeze her shoulder.

Ri looked back with tears twinkling in her eyes. A hundred demon generals. Nine hundred Elvin orphans. Each and every one with determined expressions on their faces as they watched Dyon take out half of an army of nearly a million by himself.

“Our commander has done well. Now it’s our turn.” Arios said stoically, looking out at the slowly closing crack.

Aeson watched from a distance as Ri wiped her tears. He could only clench his fists in anger. Anger at himself being so useless. He felt it should be him sacrificing for Ri. And yet, Dyon did it so easily – without even a second thought.

‘You have my respect…’ Aeson thought quietly. Steeling himself in preparation for the battle ahead.

In the distance, Bas and Liska could only watch as half of their army disappeared. Once standing at almost a million, they had less than four hundred thousand now. How would they even explain such a loss? Could they blame it on the death qi? Many of those they lost were part of their very own beast clans!

Bas grit his teeth, watching as the crack Dyon dove into slowly closed, ‘Stay dead. You absolute eyesore.’

Liska suddenly giggled, causing Bas to look toward her. “Husband, why are you so agitated. Sure, we lost many. But, isn’t four hundred thousand still twenty times more than twenty thousand? We’ll crush them just the same. And, if we follow Master Guatama’s plan, the death qi won’t even affect us anymore! What is there to be worried about.”

Seeing Bas still had a worried expression, Liska gently stroked his crotch, tippy toeing to coo in his ear. “I’ll even let you have me and the fox girl at the same time. Doesn’t that sound like something my king would want?”

Bas’ eyes snapped toward Ri who was standing in the distance, a terrible grin appearing on his face.

Updated from 𝑖𝘳.𝒸ℴ𝑚