Using this war as a starting point, a horrifying Magic Array was taking shape. Its cost would be hundreds of millions of lives across multiple territories. The ritual was already too large to stop easily.
Augustus stared at the distant sky where a corner of the Shard was already broken. Dragons circled there, their strange roars carrying across the air. He frowned deeply. "He's too impatient," he said. "You'd better make sure your preparations can handle that dragon. It's almost here."
"Relax," Elfido replied calmly. "The blasphemous demon weapon embryo infused with the power of the gods is almost fully grown. With these souls and resentments as nourishment, it should hold out for a while."
"Even with the Bronze Dragon, and half the authority of two other high level dragon species, plus your support and mine, we still can't defeat that monster?" Augustus asked. "What exactly is it?"
"That can wait," Elfido said. "There's no time now, Your Majesty." He pointed toward the distance with a smile. A strange wind was blowing in from far away.
At the edge of the horizon, deep darkness had begun to spread. It stained the sky as it advanced, slow but unstoppable. The beginning of everything was at the edge of the battlefield.
There were long range archers, mages, and mercenary groups watching the situation there, though the fighting was still intense. Under the influence of the rituals, a hot blooded Troll fought wildly among the crowd. Then he felt something change.
A cold snowflake landed on his head, different from the heat of blood around him. At first, he ignored it. But the cold wind grew stronger, snowflakes multiplied, and the light around him dimmed quickly.
He stopped swinging his club and looked up. Around him, others did the same. At last, they understood where that rare moment of clarity had come from.
It was not only the freezing wind and the snow that was forming into a Blizzard. It was fear. Pure, instinctive fear.
The sky had been swallowed by complete darkness without anyone noticing when it happened. The clouds churned like a screaming face, and even the wind sounded like solid wailing. The sight alone made people tremble.
"What is this?" someone shouted. Their first thought was that someone had cast a massive Magic affecting the weather. But when mages tried to respond, they found they could not influence the sky at all.
Pouring rain froze into piercing snow. The howling wind felt like it carried blades within it. Some people lowered their weapons without realizing it, and that silence spread outward.
"Wooo…" A long, terrifying wind howled, like the call of some vast monster. Some even felt the impact of a giant landing, not with their ears, but directly in their minds.
A towering tornado took shape, and the surrounding disasters grew worse by the second. Some Demonkind were frozen solid by the cold wind and snow. Others were roasted by sudden bursts of lightning vapor that struck without warning.
Lightning flashed within the black sky. Except for the mad center of the battlefield, everyone else abandoned the fight. They followed the most basic instinct of all living beings when facing fear. They ran.
This was no natural weather. Something terrifying was approaching, rolling closer and closer. That much was certain.
"Boom!" A declaration of arrival came in the form of roaring Lightning Magic. A spear of lightning and fire fell from the sky like judgment itself, turning night into blinding day for an instant.
In that single moment before anyone could react, tens of thousands of Demonkind were reduced to ash. The delayed vacuum effect then tore through the area, scattering the remains as dust that vanished into the air.
The expanding shockwave and scorching light swept across the entire battlefield, mixed with countless screams. Panic replaced all remaining order.
"What was that?" people cried. "What is that thing? A monster!" Every eye turned upward.
They saw it then. With footsteps far too light for its size, wings stretching to the horizon, its face impossible to see, it looked like an evil god. A colossal black cloud beast formed entirely of storm, ice, and Lightning Magic advanced slowly.
They finally understood the meaning carried by the wind around them. It was the wailing of those near death, and the despair of facing something that could not be resisted. Fear pressed down on every soul.
With its arrival came disasters without end. Lightning fire fell from the sky, deathly storms tore across the land, and though its steps seemed light, each one carved bottomless trenches and triggered earthquakes that swallowed countless people.
Then, without warning, the Mountain of Blades and Sea of Fire appeared. Ice fields and frozen plains rose up, while emotions sank into suffocating despair. Without realizing it, minds slid toward the hopelessness of the Abyss, dragged down with the souls carried in the wind.
"Roar…" The being released a low sound. Compressed wind pressure surged outward, twisting as it spread. Mountains trembled as it rushed forward and slammed into the battlefield.
In an instant, a massive fan shaped area was wiped clean. Nothing remained there. Everything that had once existed was reduced to fine dust.
"…Where is he?" Augustus murmured, staring blankly at the scene. Realization struck him, and he turned sharply. Elfido was already gone.
He looked back toward the approaching black cloud giant. His heart sank as he felt its gaze settle on him. The dragon had already chosen its target.
Augustus's face darkened at once. So this time, the one who had to stand on the front line for the Lord really was him. That bastard was supporting from behind with rituals, but running away this fast was too much.
Augustus had expected this outcome, but was it really necessary? Just sensing the sign of the other party approaching, and he already fled. Yet when Augustus used his own power to sense the presence across from him, his expression changed again.
This was not a simple storm at all, but a massive Ritual Magic fused with resentment. Judging by the scale of that power, had this thing slaughtered every Demonkind along the way to get here? The amount of resentment was nearing hundreds of millions. Augustus felt like he understood Elfido a little better now.
Even though he himself was about to sacrifice hundreds of millions of lives to strengthen his combat power, even though he had the Blasphemous Demon Weapon supported by Elfido, massive ritual bonuses, and the terrain advantage of his own domain. Just from sensing the other side's presence, he felt a pressure he had not felt in a long time.
Fear? That was impossible. "Truly a monster."
He felt the surrounding elements and Magic being steadily dragged out of control by the other party, surging into violent torrents. The entrance and presence were indeed overwhelming. "But I am an emperor. What is there to fear? Dragon, today I will test you myself."
Augustus knew that with his current power, he could not defeat that dragon. But now, at the very least, he could clash a few times. He remained cautious and decided to test the other side's rough level right here.
The ritual was activated. Although most people on the battlefield were already dead, the main source of power for the ritual was not here, but in several other territories.
Blood-red pillars of light rose from every temple and altar that worshiped demon gods, dense enough to pierce the sky. The pillars bloomed in the air, branching like trees, and before the remaining Demonkind could even figure out what was happening, unbearable pain seized their bodies.
Their flesh seemed to peel and turn inside out, blood pouring from every possible opening. Souls, blood, and flesh rose together with the crimson pillars amid screams. In that brief moment, deaths surged by the millions, and even powerful figures failed to escape, bursting apart from the inside under Rend.
The power formed from vast amounts of Magic, blood, and souls was drawn by the ritual into the Iron Coffin beneath the battlefield, where endless resentment had accumulated. It abruptly rose to the now empty surface, where everything was already dead, and then spread out.
"Clang… crack…" Like a massive door opening, inside was only a pool of thick darkness that moved like a living thing, surging out and devouring everything around it.
As the black tide poured forth, a strange black sculpture appeared within, its body seemingly wrapped in layers of earth and stone. The tide continued to swirl like a vortex as more power flowed in, stone fragments falling away to reveal a corner of blood-red beneath.
It moved. "Roar…"
The Blasphemous Demon Weapon was a creation forged by Elfido through secret rituals that linked Abyssal Darkness and the power of the gods. In essence, it was only a puppet, a suit of armor, a vessel for power. Every inch of it was forcibly built from countless corpses and souls, nourished by the faith and blood of devoted believers and anointed followers, then stacked into dense circuits and ritual patterns through precise blasphemous techniques.