Chapter 771 - 771: A fundamentally different kind of fight (part 1)

Seeing Ereth's frown turning into an ugly expression, Daimon whose body was clad in bright yellow, red, sky blue, bright green, copper and dark blood red colored energies, smirked behind his mask.

"What happened, did someone spit on your face or what?", he said as he extended his right hand which resulted in white bright light and deep black haze energies to appear at his side.

You might recognize those energies and those words, because they are the ones of those two, that's right, Daimon was now able to use Sera and Laila's energies, but more importantly, that specific sentence.

Neither Daimon nor Ereth were directly observing the fights of their companions, they could somewhat tell how things were going based on the energy peaks coming from the different directions, but unless they sent their consciousness there, like earlier with Ereth's copy and Daimon's energy projections, they had no way to know what was being directly spoken and done by their respective teammates in specific, well, teammates for Daimon, subordinates for Ereth.

So, you might wonder how come Daimon spoke the exact same words of Sera to Ereth a second ago, and the answer lies in the bright white light energy that was floating at Daimon's right side, Daimon had gained a new interesting capacity by obtaining his seventh and eight external energies from allies, he could receive information they wanted him to hear, through them.

It's not that Sera send him a message or anything of the like, she didn't send her energy at Daimon's battlefield given that she was now receiving her reward, Sera just strongly wanted him to know about how their fight went and that was transmitted to Daimon when he manifested Sera's energy.

"Or is it perhaps someone just "cut" the benefits you were supposed to get regardless of what happened to those subordinates of yours?", added Daimon once again hinting at the intel he got from Sera's energy, which made Ereth grit his teeth.

"Masked Bastard, what did you do", slowly said Ereth word by word while glaring at Daimon as he thought.

'Not only the black fierce royal sea lineage power I distributed to those four, but even the "close ones dying" enhancement failed to come to me, even the one from Gregor, I only got the minimal boost of the "allied soldiers dying", but how did he do it, I have been carefully keeping tabs on him, did he receive help from the blood prison realm, or is it the megalodon general who is messing with me…', as if he was hit by a bolt out of the blue, Ereth was reminded of what he probably considered his most displeasing experience ever, when he had his system severed from him by Freya and her user.

"So that's why you allowed Freya to devour that angel, you wanted to use her severing ability to…", unfortunately his moment of inspiration led him to a wrong conclusion, not that he could be blamed since he didn't put Sera and Laila in his eyes originally.

"Don't fool yourself, you were bested by those two through and through, it is as simple as that", casually said Daimon, normally he wouldn't clarify things because it would be more beneficial to let Ereth fail to know the actual reason of the loss he suffered, but Daimon honestly wanted those two to get the credit they deserved for their achievements after seeing how their fight went through their energies.

On the other hand, it's not that just being "honest" the enemy would believe him, that was the best part of this, he has tricked the hero in front of him before, so whether he says the truth or not, it would be taken as a lie in most cases, like right now.

"Nonsense!", exclaimed Ereth, he could still believe that Sera and Laila would manage to defeat the seconds in command, the first included, however being able to kill them and messing up with his arrangements are two completely different things.

Like Sera said, they were tired because at the end of their fight they aimed not at the first, but directly at Ereth, well, Laila started doing it in small doses since earlier, that doesn't mean she is stronger than Sera, it was because her concept allowed her to, that being said her plan did reach its climax after she had almost reached her prime.

As a "villain", Laila messed with the minds of the seconds in command, starting with the fourth and then causing inner conflict between the third and the second with the first, she undermined Ereth's image in the minds of the seconds in command, because every time the first wanted them to stop being a bother, he resorted to the same excuse "That's what lord Ereth wanted".

Then, you remember how the first instead of cleanly and silently getting rid of the other seconds in command, basically killed them head on while also telling them to their faces that such a thing was the plan from the very beginning.

Laila might have needed the help of Sera's darkness to finally surpass the mental defenses of the first, but she was the one who guided things to develop that way, and the result was a second, third and fourth who died with a maybe not new emotion in their hearts, but a new target for it, hatred which was directed at none other than Ereth.

Therefore, they couldn't be considered "close ones" to Ereth anymore, and thus the benefit he should have gotten through their deaths was nullified.

Of course, this only applied to the second, third and fourth, the first was aware of the plan and regardless of his life or death he was fixed as someone "close" to Ereth, because he had received a part of Ereth for his transformation.

The reason as to why the first was so "unique" was not only the latent potential of the material from which he originated, but also that he received the original black fierce sea royal lineage that Ereth developed on himself, previous to the global raid.

Like Sera and Laila had deduced, Ereth and Karla were the king and queen of the black fierce sea shark lineage, but for them that was just a temporary power they used to get by during their worst moment, once they took over their current bodies, they had no use for said lineage, so they used it for the subordinates instead.

The one of Karla was distributed among the normal subordinates and the seconds in command from the second and above, the first however received Ereth's lineage and that's how their dynamic was stablished.

And that is where Sera entered the scene, since her friend had already slapped one of Ereth's cheeks, she did the same on the other one, how so, well, you remember that "dual brilliant judgement swords" technique which despite not hitting the first, still caused him to expel blood from his mouth, nose, eyes and ears, it was with that.

Previously the girl from the church of light only had the "fairness" sword, with which she could even things to a certain extent between her side and the enemy's one, however she later received the "justice" sword from her friend, and with it, she didn't need to stop at evening things up, but could put them to "trial".

Because you see, while it is true that unlike the first, those two didn't directly receive power from Daimon, they did share a connection with him, which indeed helped them get stronger, just like the first did with Ereth, the nature of said connections and the way they grew stronger due to them was completely different, but the result was the same.

So, with just the "fairness" sword, Sera was unable to do anything about that, because just like how it was seen when she weakened the enemy's domains, based on the fact that they weren't using theirs, that sword worked based in comparations.

But with the "justice" one as well, the nature of her technique changed, now the process grew much more complex but also much more powerful, it was a proper trial where it was judged whose connection was worthy of remaining and naturally, Sera's connection with Daimon thoroughly won, and so the one between the first and Ereth was completely severed, that's what caused the backslash that the first suffered.

So, you see, unlike Laila who worked on the long term to achieve her goal like a good villain, Sera went with a straightforward hero approach for hers, different process equally good results.

In fact, had it not been because the first had absorbed the lineage distributed to the second, third and fourth which originated in Karla, he would have died right there, but that was fine, since those two weren't satisfied with just slapping Ereth on the face, they even "spat" on him by obliterating said lineage which was concentrated on the trident of the first.

"Is that so, I mean, you gave those guys "freedom of thought" because you know that emotionless dolls have lower battle prowess in comparison, so why is it hard to believe that my friends thoroughly destroyed your slaves", casually said Daimon as he made those two's energies twirl around him, to then mockingly add.

"Ah right, there was also something about a trident with a design that kept appearing here and there, I hope you don't mind that Sera completely erased it".

"Masked bastard!", that seemed to touch a nerve, considering that Ereth turned into a grey-blue mana star which rushed at Daimon who answered by exploding in eight different types of energies as he met the hero head on.

"Booooom!", a loud explosion engulfed the battlefield as those two clashed, but let's put a stop to this battle for the time being and go to the next fight, because it's been a while since we have seen the star of that battlefield shine on screen.

Naturally we are talking about the vampire mother Aisha, but to better picture her fight we have to return in time to even before Sera and Laila's battle had started.

…

Following Ereth's orders, the seconds in command numbered from five to sixteen flew alongside Arlion, that was twelve early-stage Arch mages and one peak Archknight, since Arlion despite having taken over the erudite-looking Terry, was a knight.

"We should be far enough, let's start already", said Arlion to which the fifth among the seconds in command directly shook his head.

"We are too close, the fight might be a nuisance to Lord Ereth, let's move a few more kilometers away", he said, which made Arlion grit his teeth.

"Does it look like I am a lackey of that guy, why would I care if he finds my fight annoying, I don't want to lose much time here, because there is…", before Arlion could finish his sentence, a pretty but fierce voice interrupted him.

"I agree, I have much more important things to do, like spending time with my darling after being separated for so long, so, begone trash".

"Boooom!", with those words, a loud explosion drew the attention of Arlion who looked at a silver lighting that just had… pierced the head of one of the seconds in command.

"…"

"Thud!", a dull sound broke the chilling silence that had covered the battlefield as the headless corpse of one of the twelve seconds in command landed on a piece of floating ground, making its bones shatter and blood spill all over the place.

"Tenth!!!", shouted the fifth among the seconds in command.

"Hoh, so that guy was your support specialist, I simply chose him to die first on a whim, I guess now that I'm with my darling, luck is on my side~", casually said Aisha as she pointed her hand frontwards.

While the seconds in command as well as Arlion were wondering how the hell did she know that the tenth was the support, given that he didn't even have the chance to use a spell before dying, the answer was simple, she used her blood reading to observe the blood spilled by the tenth's corpse and obtained intel from it, since there was no obstacle between the blood and her eyes.

What's more, she also learned about the capacity of Ereth's subordinates to replicate and have their spells replicated by their other companions, and found it annoying, so she decided to thin down their numbers now that she had the chance.

"Boooom!", impossibly hard to follow, streams of silver lightning were shot from Aisha's palm, yes "streams" as in plural, a total of four to be more accurate, which seemed to flash before they landed on four seconds in command, making their whole upper bodies explode on the spot.

"Spread, you fools!", finally reacting, Arlion gave the order for the group to split, which amusingly enough resulted in a couple of the seconds in command to not only split from the group but also to try and return back to Ereth's side, only for them to clash against a silver wall that had appeared out of nowhere.

"Hsssss!", the moment those two made contact with the silver wall, arcs of electricity were produced by it.

"Aghhhh!", the electricity zapped those guys resulting in them screaming for a moment, before their chests and heads exploded in silver flames, that was another two seconds in command dead.

In case you have forgotten, Aisha's lightning can produce insanely high heat, she fought against that girl with the variant affinity of magma and was able to burn her molten rock with her lightning, as one would expect from the warrior branch of the day walker vampire race, which unfortunately it's not Daimon's case as the lack of attack power of his silver white energy, suggested.

"I-I can't contact lord Ereth!", exclaimed the eight, it was not Aisha's intention, but the ones who died were the seconds in command from the tenth all the way to the sixteenth, for a total of seven, which left the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth alive but horrified.

"It's a barrier, when did she create such large barrier!", added the seventh, now that they looked around, far into the distance they could see a translucent silver wall isolating them from every direction.

The word "large" doesn't make justice to the spherical barrier that Aisha had created, the thing was huge, having a diameter that surpassed the thirty-kilometer mark.

In case you don't consider it such a big thing for a battle at Arch rank level, take into account that such a large barrier could contain the domains of all the twelve seconds in command as well as Arlion's battle avatar, and still have a large space for Aisha to freely move.

"Of course, I can't have you getting in the way of my darling, so no one will know what happened here", said Aisha as she had silver wings sprout out of her back.

"Hssssss!", silver clouds appeared high into the sky to then release a rain of silver lightning upon the area where the remaining seconds in command as well as Arlion, were floating currently.

"Black Sea Current Step!", the fifth who had the fastest reaction time used a movement spell and turned into a black flash, which was replicated by the other seconds in command.

"White Wave Breaking Step", Arlion used his movement martial art as well, because though he was sure he could block those lightnings with his battle aura protection with ease, his instincts still warned him of danger.

And the reason for it was revealed the next second, when the seconds in command arrived at their new location, the seventh was the one in the most central area where Aisha's lightning was aimed at, so he was the last in the black flash in which the seconds in command had turned when they escaped, and so his right hand was caught by the lightning that was pouring down from the sky.

"Her lightning hurts so damn…", the seventh who had healed his burnt hand with his water mana suddenly stopped speaking, well, he couldn't have continued even if he wanted to, because his head exploded.

"Black Sea Current Step!!!", shouted the ninth this time, making the whole group flash away once again.

'What happened, only his hand took damage so why did he die?', wondered Arlion as he flashed towards Aisha before he suddenly changed directions after an absurd idea appeared in his mind "was it because he used water mana?', he thought.

Arlion thought that maybe the silver haired woman's lightning energy, violently reacted to the seventh's water affinity mana, and while his water battle aura was of a different orientation and had different properties, he preferred to use the seconds in command to test it, instead of putting himself in danger of course.

"Aghhh, help!", this time it was the eight the one who was grazed by Aisha's lightning which burned his left leg, but the panic in his voice wasn't caused by that, but because even after using his earth mana which is supposed to be effective against lightning, the sensation of dread that was invading him didn't lessen in the slightest.

"Boooom!", and effectively, the head of the eighth also exploded the next second, leaving behind only the fifth, sixth and ninth among the seconds in command, as well as Arlion who was even more confused than before, as his theory of water mana causing a negative reaction on Aisha's lightning energy was proven wrong.

"Sixth, Ninth, use your domains!" said the fifth as he gathered exploded in black water and earth mana, Ereth naturally had a reason to separate the seconds in commands in such specific groups, while the fifth wasn't like the first, the "material" which was used to create him was a rare one which had affinities that usually opposed the each other, water and earth in this case, so his domain was perfect as the base of the fierce sea one that will be produced once they worked together.

"Black Sea and Seabed Domain!", or at least that should have been the case, the fifth's eyes contracted like needles as he realized that… his domain was not activating.

Mana that had the size of his domain did gather around him and all, but the thing was not taking form, so he had to actively keep all that mana at his side and he wasn't gaining the protection and boost that he would have obtained if that was his domain.

"What's going on, I can't use my domain!", exclaimed both the sixth and the ninth, they were in a worse situation than the fifth, they couldn't even gather half of the mana that would normally conform their domain.

"Of course not, what was connecting you with that guy is being blocked by my "Demonite Field", so it's only normal that you can't manifest them, since you don't have them", casually said Aisha.

That silver energy barrier was called "demonite field" and yeah, in case you wonder "demonite" is supposed to be a metal, one that doesn't exist in reality, whose concept was created by Aisha as the reward of her metal affinity related challenge, you surely remember that Aisha's innate ability allows her to replicate the special properties of metals and other minerals she has studied, through her mana, right.

Well, she was doing that but with her energy and the concept of that special metal she created as her reward, of course Aisha couldn't just say "Hey, give me a metal that kills any enemy, regardless of realm" or things like that, she had to have knowledge about the effect she wanted to imprint into said material.

And so, she went with the mana suppressive effect of antinite from the four galaxies, the battle aura suppressive effect of the sea devil ore which could be found in Neptune, mana conductivity from orichalcum, the purifying and strong power against negative oriented things from mithril and lastly the absorption and energy storing power of the unknown metal out of which Disaster was conformed, combined it all and named it "Demonite" in honor to her beloved Daimon.

Said metal didn't exist in the real world of course, though Disaster could probably attain all of the mentioned properties after having eaten enough of the required materials in the future, but Aisha could give her metal energy the demonite's properties and that projected into a huge barrier, is what prevented even Ereth from knowing what happened to Arlion's subordinates which were sent to attack Aisha before.

"She can block a chosen one's power!", said the fifth who couldn't remain calm anymore.

And that was just Aisha's metal affinity reward, the lightning one was equally outrageous though, it was a property called "Lightning doesn't need to strike twice", as for the effect, you have seen it in action already, it caused instant death to anyone who was less than half as powerful as Aisha upon being reached by her lightning, regardless of how much damage her attack caused to the enemy.