The bodies of the dead painted a grim sight, the explosion had ripped their bodies apart in a gruesome display, and they bled and died like mortals. There was nothing noble about their passing and if not for the strength of mind born from living an extremely long time, many of the mages and gods here would be sickened to their stomachs.

This battle was supposed to be the same as the many they had fought countless times before, and now the threat of death was before them in all its glory and horror. More than a few of them began to go mad.

Before in the rush of battle and the frenzy that came with it, the thought of true death had not settled into their Spirit, but now it had, and few liked it.

Oddly this realization did not deter them, in fact, it was the opposite. When placed against a wall with no chances of fleeing or salvation, anyone would fight back. Most of them realized that if they stayed back on the dimension, they would be kited to death, and only embarking on the bridge would grant them the possibility of slaying their foe.

Of course, there were a few cowards whose fear of death took over their common sense. They did not last long.

Any Will Holder here was an accurate judge of emotion, and they could easily see the minds of their lesser swaying towards undesirable paths. A swift cleansing was undertaken, killing hundreds of thousands, the message was clear, fight for a chance of survival, or die.

Any rebellion ended before it could begin. It was a solemn army with thoughts filled with darkness and fear that flew towards the Twilight Bridge.

With the dissipation of the endless army of the undead and the frightening toll the previous battle had taken on the group, their numbers were no longer endless. The most populous were the demons, holding more than ninety-nine percent of the entire number, then the gods, and finally, Archmages, who barely numbered a few thousand.

In total, they barely amounted to a hundred million troops left. It was shocking that the might of the entire universe had been reduced to this extent.

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“It was never supposed to be like this, we fielded an Immortal army that should be able to resurrect from their ashes a thousand times if needed. How could all this go wrong?” the armored figure of Golgoth squeezed his hands right, his thoughts in disarray, he turned to his left and snapped at Minerva, “Organize your ranks better, every moment that abomination lives is another chance for something to go wrong. So much of our troops wasted on unchecked barbarity.”

The Demon King snorted, “Barbarity? You are one to talk Golgoth, you whose entire path is nothing but barbarous.” the milky white eyes of Minerva were filled with anger before a sort of calm entered them and she spoke softly to the disgruntled figure,

“They are demons, they would battle the way they were born to battle. Besides, among all of us here, we are actually the party with an army to field, your so-called undead horde is nothing but ashes, so I would mind my words Golgoth. Your bargaining chips get increasingly light and your allies… hahaha, do you even have allies at this point?”

“You…”

“Silence,” the Third Prince snapped, “They can battle the way they want Golgoth. It is clear that by the end killing him would be the task for the Will Holders here. I have analyzed the strength of his blows, and they are stupendous. Let the rabble drain him to nothingness, if we are lucky… no, he would inevitably get injured or grow tired, and then we would have our chance.” 𝓯𝘦𝘸𝘯𝘰𝓿.𝒸ℴ𝑚

Minerva glowered at the Third Prince, “You would use my demons as fodder.”

He replied, “Yes,” without blinking an eye, “In a battle like this they should be grateful they were able to be of use. Still don’t let their lives go away for cheap, you have permission to take any resources left on the battlefield and increase their odds of survival.”

Turning to Golgoth he whispered directly into his consciousness, making the armored figure cringe, the words of Third in his mind were an unwelcome invasion “Summon Second, he should be done with the rituals, we would need his powers here.”

The armored figure shivered in disgust, “Is that necessary?” he fingered his broken blade which was slowly healing as it spat out the streams of purple light infecting it, “Second would be needed to ensure the direction of the transfer goes smoothly. Whatever happens here, at least our primary aim has been satisfied.”

The Third Prince turned to Golgoth and then smiled, “As you would have noticed…” he allowed the lights of three Wills to stream around his fingers, We have no need of a controller with the powers in my grasp, I rather we have the presence of one more Will Holder than a Controller we don’t need. Also don’t for a second think we can succeed without killing that bastard, with your negligence he has seen the vault, and even if he does not understand everything, he knows enough to be dangerous. His death is not one for consideration, it is a necessity.”

Golgoth cursed internally, he was hoping that with the assistance of Second, he might be able to claw his way towards salvation. The feeling of being between two unstoppable forces filled his dead heart and he nearly choked.

“I will summon him this instant.”

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Rowan looked at his fist, it was unmarked, and he had barely felt any sort of sensation when he punched the weapon of the demon general. That was him barely using ten percent of his strength. The blow might seem simple on the surface but Rowan had wrapped the weapon in an Aura of Ascension so the Axe did not shatter into nothingness when he punched it.

He had only released the Aura of Ascension when the Axe had nearly reached the surface of his broken dimension, or the weapon would have just continued pushing into the earth, before breaching his dimension.

He had noticed that wielding Ascension instead of Eruption was a thousand times easier, whether it was a result of his Titles or the evolved ability itself, the power was not fighting him for control, it was yearning to be used.

Without even activating it, Ascension had wrapped around his body, enhancing his innate forcefield that had grown to incredible heights, still, his forcefield was dormant, and before he could activate his Telekinesis ability, he would need to become more than a mortal.

‘Not yet,’ Rowan thought, ‘the big fishes have to smell blood in the water before they move,’ looking at the enemies arrayed at the edge of his bridge, Rowan’s beautiful face suddenly looked crestfallen, ‘With such weak fodder, how am I expected to bleed?’

At this time, the Archmages and the gods had reached the edge of the Twilight Bridge, and a form of arrangement was swiftly being implemented. The mad rush that announced the onset of the battle had been discarded for a new approach.

These were immortals and Rowan did not have to wait for long before the first series of heavy steps fell on his bridge. His eyes widened in interest as what was being brought forward to challenge him.

“Perhaps, this battle might hold unexpected surprises for him.”

This was all warm up before his fight with the Will Holders below, but there was no reason he could not enjoy the fight itself.

“Come for me… Try as much as possible to make me bleed!”

The madness of the Primordial Ouroboros was beginning to manifest in his heart and Rowan’s smile transformed to a grin.