Chapter 165: War casualties
Chapter 165: War casualties
Heinz acted immediately when he saw Tomas fusing with his Law Avatar. He used Void Disruption to appear beside Zatiel and then covered the three Neo-Demons with his consciousness before teleporting far away from the tower.
Tomas saw as this happened but he did not try to pursue them. His current power will allow him to easily defeat Heinz, but he knew that the cultivator should be able to fuse with his Law Avatar by the law comprehension he was displaying in their battle.
The Angelic Paragon thought that Heinz would at least try to stop him and the fact that he discarded the tower without hesitation confused him, but he did not have much time so he focused on his mission.
The power of the tower was growing and the Angelic Paragon knew it would be a matter of minutes before it was completed.
Tomas’ wings were able to cut space creating a portal in which he entered. Just as space was healing itself, another rupture appeared beside the tower in the sky.
It took a second but Tomas was able to exit from it and without delay, he sent a beam of sword light into the tower, disintegrating it along with all the automatons in it.
Heinz, Zatiel, and Ezequiel were able to see this from a distance. That was the tower they just fought to protect with everything they had and now it was destroyed in an instant, but they were calm as if the tower itself was worthless.
Tomas was focusing on Heinz and when he saw his complete lack of interest in the tower, his confusion grew even stronger. Unfortunately for him, his time was running out and the power of the world was already acting on him.
He appeared beside Robert and Marvin and covered both of them with his wings, before breaking space again and entering in it with the two Rank 3 Angelic Paragons.
If he were to leave them behind, Tomas was sure that Heinz would imprison them. If that were to happen, their lives will be under the cultivator’s control.
Despite the severe damage done to his body and soul, Tomas did not feel any regret. Without the towers, the Magi will never be a true threat against them and once the demons are killed, they will be able to focus all their attention on them and use their numeric advantage to purge them from this world.
Heinz was calm but the power in his body was ready to burst in case of anything and he only relaxed when he saw Tomas breaking space and leaving.
“He did not find it even with his current power and control over the laws. It is normal, our action had filled him with confusion and the time he had left before being thrown out into the void was too little.”
Zatiel had also his attention on the Angelic Paragon. If his soul had reached Rank 5, then he would have noticed it, but fusing with your Law Avatar only increases your power.
The Neo-Demon looked at the destroyed tower and the crater left from the Angelic Paragon attack, but if you follow his sight, you will notice that he was actually looking at the ground under it.
A great accumulation of energy could be felt from the ground where Zatiel was looking and a moment later, a force field started to appear and extended into the sky.
Tomas had managed to reach a safe distance with Robert and Marvin before no longer being able to resist the power of the world and being sent to the void. As if a cruel joke, the last thing the Angelic Paragon saw was the force field he had risked his future to prevent, begin to form.
There was nothing Tomas could do, and a sense of disappointment and failure was filling his heart.
The same was happening in the other five locations. All the Angelic Paragon had managed to either destroy or at least disable the towers, which should have prevented them from creating those force fields but like in a nightmare, their worst fear was happening in front of their eyes and there was nothing they could do to stop it.
They were not the only ones who were confused since most of the Magi army and Daybreak clan also did not understand what was happening.
Their mission was to protect the tower until the automaton controlled by those Soul Forging existences finished their job, but as the fight was reaching its peak and heavy casualties started to appear, they were told to make a tactical retreat and focus on guarding their lives.
It was only when Zatiel saw the force field rise and knew that it would soon fuse with the others making the part of the continent covered by it something dominated solely by them that he truly relaxed.
A smile appeared on his face as he saw his plan working.
The towers in the ground were decoys from the beginning whose only function was to hide the energy generated by the true towers being built hundreds of kilometers under them.
This task was taken care of by those weaker Rank 1, who had been ordered to hide their activities from everyone else
They had spent weeks making tunnels for thousands of kilometers before reaching their destination, where they started to build the true towers.
Their mission was not truly safe, despite not being carried on the battlefield. If those Rank 4 Angelic Paragon had detected the true tower, they would only have needed to send a powerful attack to the ground and create an earthquake that would have killed them all.
But since only those at Rank 4 and a few others knew the truth, the army fought with everything they have, so their actions plus the fact that there was an actual tower in their sight, was enough to mislead the Heavenly race.
They were enjoying the feeling of victory when all of a sudden both Zatiel and Heinz looked at the direction where the tower that was being protected by the Daybreak clan was.
Heinz felt how the sword tattoo he had left in Dante was used and, thanks to the Primordialis-Core, Zatiel was able to realize that fourteen Rank 1 Neo-Demons had died, all of them at the same time, just now.
Immense coldness appeared in Zatiel eyes when this happened but he did not lose control over his emotions.
He analyzed the force field near him and when he saw that it was powerful enough and that it will be able to protect the tower from any sort of incursion long enough to send aid, he spoke to Heinz.
“Let’s go.”
Heinz acted immediately and covered them with his consciousness before starting to teleport where the Daybreak Clan was supposed to be.
Zatiel did not waste time. He uses his core to verify the condition of Dante, Rax, and Kilo and communicate with them.
Casualties were to be expected in a battle like this, after all, even he was in danger of death when he fought against that Master Rank 3 Angelic Paragon, but he had made arrangements to ensure the safety of his people.
By only having him, Ezequiel, and Sophia protecting one tower, he was able to focus all of his people in the other accompanied by a Master Rank 3 Magus.
More important yet, he had put Zitra, who was the strongest Rank 4 after Heinz, as part of the duo designed to protect it.
Less than four Neo-Demons had died before this, as for the Sunlight Champions, although he could not track them, their casualties should have also been very low. The fact that fourteen Neo-Demons died in the same moment meant that the attacker must have been someone at Rank 4.
It did not take long for Zatiel to establish a link with Dante.
“Tell me exactly what happened,” Zatiel’s voice was calm, but it only made the coldness in it feel stronger.
“It was the Duke named Oliver who attacked us. When he saw the force field rising, for some reason, he concentrated on me. More specifically, on my Eye of Life and Creation, and thanks to my Animus abilities I had, I was able to feel the immense hatred he had. It happened very fast and I do not know how he did it, but his power increased tremendously and he was able to get near me. Luckily I was able to fend him off with my sword tattoo and then teleport with it.”
There was immense hate in Dante’s voice. He also knows about the death of their people thanks to the Sun Tadpole and his memory allowed him to see the face of all of those who died.
“How was he able to get near any of you? What happened with the Magi?” Killing intent was present in Zatiel’s voice.
When the task was given, he had made the importance of protecting his clan very clear to those Rank 4 Magi.
Zatiel could accept the Neo-Demons and Sunlight Champions dying in battle since that was the risk every warrior accepts when he goes to war, but being butchered without being able to resist due to the lack of concern by the higher-ups was not something he would allow.
He couldn’t care less for their status and power, if they let his people die, he will kill them both.