Damien immediately scoffed.
“Isn’t it a bit too shameless to ask me that after you beat me to a pulp? Have some conscience, would you?”
“Hahaha! Conscience, huh. What use is that in the face of power?”
“Yeah, yeah. The same old villain speech I’ve heard a hundred times over. No need to finish your words, I don’t want to hear it.”
With the lull in their fight, Damien’s regeneration was finally able to show its worth. The injuries in his body were closing at a rapid rate, but since he was covered in blood, Polius didn’t seem to notice.
Damien stood up, making sure that he emphasized his difficulty in doing it so he could keep Polius’s guard lowered. But even with this, his fighting intent was still raging.
“You still want to continue in your condition? Are you a masochist or something?” Polius truly couldn’t understand Damien.
What was the point in standing up again? What was the point of this fight at all? Honestly, Polius never once regarded it as a critical fight even when he felt the threat of death.
After all, with his Lord’s protection, he didn’t see any chance of losing.
“Say, why are you so committed to your Lord? You should be smart enough to know that you’re nothing but a slave right? What’s the point in living like that? Besides, weren’t you born in this realm? It’s not like you even need power to live here anyway.”
Damien was truly curious about it. To him, it all seemed illogical. Luckily for him, Polius seemed to be in a talkative mood.
“Is there a need for any reason? The Lord is the one who raised me from birth. The Lord is the one who provided me with the life and the status I have now. The Lord is the one who will free us from this realm one day! At that time, who will be able to stand in front of us?! We will rule over everything!”
Damien quietly listened to his rant. In his opinion, no matter how strong this Demon Commander was, he was too naive.
The Demon Commanders grew up within the Primordial Undying Realm. And with the atmosphere of this realm, it was honestly impossible to cultivate to the level they had reached.
It was obviously by design. Why were humans unable to cultivate? Why were the beasts within the realm so weak? Even the trial, which required the geniuses to constantly kill, was relatively easy if one just slaughtered all the weak beasts around for an entire year.
The strongest non-demonic beings in this realm were at the peak of second class. If one wanted to truly excel in the trial, or if they wanted to gain actual benefits within the Trial World besides the right to gain entry to the next trial, they would be forced to face the demons.
Everything was clicking into place in Damien’s head as he continued to think about it.
The Demon God, the Lord Polius was trying to convince him to serve, was obviously a Nox. And judging from all the presented facts, he was a Nox so powerful that Damien couldn’t even fathom it.
If the Primordial Undying Realm wasn’t actually built as a secret realm, but to contain that Nox, wouldn’t everything else make sense?
The environment stunted growth, so the Nox’s lackeys wouldn’t be able to grow. Their only option was to feed on the Nox’s power for strength, and that would in turn keep the Nox in check without allowing him too much freedom to interfere with the proceedings in the realm.
The Demons would also be weaker than those at the same level since their power and even their comprehension were borrowed from the Nox. With the restriction that limited people to 3rd class, it would be entirely possible for the Demons to be defeated.
So, when geniuses entered the realm, the Primordial Undying Tree would be able to borrow their strength to strike a critical blow to the Demons, which would then cause the Nox to lose a portion of its power.
The only thing that didn’t fit Damien’s calculations was the Demons’ overall strength. Although Damien was able to fight somewhat evenly against Polius, he didn’t think others would be the same.
He was even worried for Feng Qing’er and Qing Tan, as he had no assurance that they’d survive if they were assaulted in the same way he just was.
The chances of heaven-defying geniuses like the three of them appearing in the realm didn’t seem that high, especially when the realm only opened every 10,000 years. He could only chalk it up to the Primordial Undying Tree making a mistake.
Still, realizing that the Demons used outside power to reach their current heights took a weight off Damien’s shoulders. If it was like that, then even if it took some work, he was confident he had a chance at winning this fight.
Small black wisps continued to radiate from Damien’s body as he thought through everything. Due to the fact that the inky black substance around Polius still had some lingering fear of the essence, he was able to stand uninterrupted during the process.
But of course, the Void Essence wasn’t just there for show. It had only been around a minute since Polius’s rant, but Damien could already feel that he had replenished around half his mana capacity.
If that’s all he had, it was still fine. It just meant that he had to end this fight fast. Looking back up at Polius, he slowly wiped the blood off his eyelids.
“Now then,” he grinned. “Should we start round 2?”
***
Damien and Polius had already moved many kilometers away from the main battlefield, but those fighting on it had hardly noticed.
Those fifty geniuses were constantly letting out waves upon waves of massive elemental attacks that impacted the Demon army, while the Demon Captains counterattacked with their own skills.
As for the Demon Generals, a few squads had been put together to keep them occupied until the three aces of their group became free to help them.
As Damien had expected, the most these geniuses could do was hold back the Demon Generals. But for some reason, they didn’t seem to be facing as much strain as they should have expected.
There was definitely something odd happening on the battlefield, but unfortunately, there wasn’t a single person who had the time to even realize it.
***
Skree!
A piercing cry rang through the air a few kilometers away from the main battlefield. A shimmering reddish orange Phoenix flapped its wings domineeringly as it continuously shot out waves of feathers and Phoenix phantoms towards its opponent.
But the inky black substance covering her opponent seemed to ward her flames away with ease.
In fact, the Phoenix herself was already riddled with wounds. She wasn’t even able to maintain her human transformation anymore, using her true form to fight instead.
That’s right. This Phoenix was none other than Feng Qing’er. As Damien had expected, she was having a far more difficult time with her opponent than she originally expected.
Skree!
Another fierce cry rang out as the clouds in the sky were dyed red. Hundreds of flaming balls and swords fell from the clouds like comets, heading straight for Kroa.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The inky substance moved with its own will, extending and contracting to dodge and parry any flames that got close to it.
But she already knew this would happen. Feng Qing’er flapped her wings powerfully and shot forward, body slamming into Kroa.
Boom!
The impact force sent her flying backwards. Feng Qing’er chased after her with zeal, countless flaming feathers heading her charge and blotting out the sky above.
Kroa was no longer able to distinguish between the flaming feathers and the Phoenix hiding within them.
Crack!
The ground cracked as dozens of flaming pillars shot up and encased Kroa’s body within. These pillars didn’t seem to have any goal besides restricting her movements.
Bang!
Feng Qing’er’s body shot through the flame curtain and impacted Kroa once again, but this time, she was prepared.
The black substance latched onto Feng Qing’er’s body and swung her around. Using her as a shield, it charged through the flames and escaped the imprisonment of the flame columns.
Boom!
Feng Qing’er’s body was slammed into the ground. The flames burning around her had dimmed considerably.
“How’s that, you damn bird bitch! Who’s the ugly one now?!”
Kroa laughed madly as the black substance began spreading over Feng Qing’er’s injured body. Just like it tried to do with Damien, it was attempting to devour her alive.
But unlike Damien, Feng Qing’er didn’t have Void Essence to ward it off.