The wizards made preparations and positioned themselves on various points of a magic circle with a pillar with a crystal orb at the center.
Various stones emitting dark energy were placed in a certain arrangement, and the crystal orb began to glow brightly.
The young man was still covered in dragon blood and stood right in front of the orb.
He gave a strange chant, and the energy around him grew denser as the orb suddenly flashed a bright light and projected an image over it.
The young man waited and finally saw could see another light being projected back.
A tall man was shown. He had a long white beard and a dark coat, and he held a large staff nearby.
“I see that you selected a powerful mage as a host. You agreed to make him the strongest mage but took his mind and body in exchange for this. Quite cunning.”
“Diablo. What business do you have?”
“Is it you that’s attacking me? I doubt it. You must have recently possessed that body going by the signs of life in him.”
“Attacking you? Is it an Afarit? I can tell you, none among the Dark Djins have risen to power. I am the first. Although quite a few will probably rise soon.”
“Then I have a wager for you, Mephistophles. In fact, we can call on our other brother, Baalzebub, for this. I have found a power host with tremendous abilities. Their lineage belongs to the summoners of old.”
“Summoners?!”
“Yes. This body belongs to such a lineage. Even now, his soul hides in the deep parts of this body as it refuses to give in. I fear that the Afarit that is bearing its fangs at me seek to take control of this lineage and has sent his forces to attack me! Skeleton Knights have risen and have been spotted along with wraiths in my kingdom! I fear that this Afarit has achieved so much more in such little time.”
“Wraiths and skeleton knights?! That’s quite a predicament. So you want us, three brothers, to temporarily team up to defeat this Afarit? Why should I do this? He can fight you and lose his forces. By the time his forces even gets remotely close to my location, he will already be hard-pressed. After all, to defeat you, they would need an army of their own.” Mephistophles laughed.
“If you don’t ally with me now, your death is assured. This Afarit will definitely be the king of this planet because he found a powerful host! He ambushed me. He hasn’t even completed merging with the body and only revealed a very, very small portion of his soul that he seemed human! But this Afarit took half of my soul!”
Mephistophles was stunned.
“Half of your soul…? Wait. That poor state you are in is not a lie?”
Diablo then took out a meaty piece taken from the dragon.
“Fire Wyrm!”
“I only regained this much after eating a slumbering Fire Wyrm, which is the secret king of this forest.”
“Hmp. It seems the heavens are against your ascension, Diablo. To think that such a tremendous advantage would be wasted. But how did the assassin halve your soul? You said it yourself. He was too weak.”
“I was distracted. But as to how he halved my soul, it is through Dark Brimstone.”
Mephistopheles’s expression changed into horror.
“DARK BRIMSTONE!?”
“Yes. Not only that, but this Afarit has powerful soul weapons. After weakening me, he launched various attacks that used his evil minions to reveal the vampires and rituals. I thought my minions created chaos in the kingdom! This Afarit must have come to this planet earlier. During my summoning, he sabotaged my soul transfer. The spatial storms I faced during the transfer invoked my rage toward my minions, and I didn’t sense his approach. And at that moment, the assassin attacked and halved my soul and even sealed it! I cannot even sense where my other soul is!” Diablo explained.
“Dark Brimstone?!” Mephisto cursed again. He still was stunned at the appearance of such an element.
“Dark Fire Afarit in a Brimstone cultivator! And he managed to deal with such an attack already! So this means he has taken over a genius cultivator.”
“Genius and loaded. He escaped by using the distorted space of my arrival and a strange artifact that I couldn’t understand. It's possible that it was a soul weapon with the ability to control Time/Space element. He got away. I didn’t even saw his face! It all happened so fast! This means that he has half of my soul, and if we don’t act now, he may grow strong enough to devour it!”
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Mephistophles continued to frown.
“You must have some spies over our region. I have received strange reports of a Skeleton army marching. How they suddenly appeared, I do not know. But as you can see, I am about to lose my foothold in my kingdom. This Afarit can win without even losing a tenth of whatever army he has.”
Mephistophles nodded.
“I have heard of the reports from my many spies in Martsirt. They witnessed the Skeleton army and reported to me the cultivation levels than those skeletons have. I thought that they were yours and would attack the kingdom, but instead, they attacked the mine under your control.”
“They attacked the mine?!” Diablo was stunned.
“… You didn’t know?”
“My men have made no report! There were several powerful mages stationed in that mine. But now I understand. Those mages should have long been here. It seems the Afarit is prepared. My only advantage now is that he didn’t sense the Fire Wyrm in this cave. Mephistophles. If I fall, this Afarit will be too strong for you. We have to make an alliance now and crush his men! I will concentrate on devouring this Fire Wyrm and reforge a stronger body. I have sent some of my team to attack the town of Merkley. But If they attacked the mine, then that Skeleton Army could be here and will hinder my plans.”
“I will contact Beelzebub. He can send some of his men, and I will send some of my elites as well. Concentrate on defending your space.”
“I need to move to Merkley. If I can’t have those souls, I have to hinder that Afarit from taking control of it!”
“I shall see what I can do. I can entice the nearby kingdoms. Perhaps some of them have found a secret warp pad there and can send more forces to wage war against those skeletons. A skeleton army will mean that a Necromancer of great power is here. It will definitely make the nations wary.”
“Then I will have to thank you, brother.”
“Focus on getting stronger. I am helping you out, for you are the strongest demon among us in terms of strength. We shall deal with this Brimstone demon and go back to killing each other.”
“With pleasure.” Diablo laughed as he walked away, and the vision ended.
Out in the woods, Dyne’s team has settled on their plans. Three teams would move out.
Dyne acquired a special compass that points to another assigned or marked compass. These were objects that many mercenaries and knights of positions carry so that their location could be tracked. Dyne had his compass marked to three other compasses, which the leader of each team carried.
The main army consisting of Leoric, Ardnula, and the many knights who have fallen under the spell of Leoric would chase after and ambush the Kong apes from the back.
The scouting party who later act as the team to assassinate, sabotage, and perform subterfuge missions behind enemy lines consisted of Jaden, Amorien, Zehir, Chad, Usslys, and Emera.
The team that would rush towards Merkley consisted of Ishreth, Zehir, Chrone, and all the priests who followed him. There were other kights recruited in the Catacombs of Heroes and some other knights that Dyne led out when they escaped Martsirt. These people would escort the non-cultivating women and children they brought out so that the Serpentari could not target them.
“You will follow Amorien towards the path headed to Merkley. And once you get close, you will all split up. I will have to leave you guys now, scale the mountains, and use a shorter path to meet up with Rena. Truthfully, you all could benefit from my trip to my world. But your responsibilities on this side of the world are more important. I don’t know how many days I might be gone. But I should be able to bring back more allies when I return here. So I suggest thinking of a long and drawn-out battle. There is a possibility that more of the Afarit’s allies will appear here. So always consider the worst-case scenario.” Dyne instructed.
“Don’t worry about the Skeletons. I will study more and more about the dark arts. These books you gave me are quite interesting.” Leoric smiled.
“Jaden. Do whatever you think is necessary. Your priority is, of course, the protection of the town of Merkley. So if ever you and your team find the need to move elsewhere, do so.”
“I have studied the strategies you have shown and taught us. With Emera now controlling all the wights, our assassinations and attacks will be easier. Rest assured, we can create chaos and delay this war. And long to test this new flame blade.” Jaden’s expression was rather stoic. But Dyne knew he was excited to fight.
“Keep cultivating. You’ve found something about your true power, Jaden. Keep at it. Chrone, Ishreth, and Zehir… I trust you to defend Merkley. They are rather low in their cultivation, so educate them. Build up that city so that it can be stronger and beware of the mid-level town of Trithefert. They should have a being similar to the Afarit. And while the Afarit in the forest is stronger since he has more resources acquired from the Serpentari and enjoyed the privilege of being in a town like Martsirt, these beings have powers that break common sense. Be wary. Keep in mind the fake identities I told you.”
“We will be sure to act beyond your expectations, Lord Dyne.” Ishreth bowed.
“Arya may go with me on my trip or stay on the location where I left Rena, depending on the status of Rena’s group. Save the message talismans for emergencies. And… be careful.” Dyne gave his last instructions.
“Lord Dyne. We are adults. We should be saying that to you.” Amorien laughed.
“See you guys. Arya. Let’s move!” Dyne rushed onwards with Arya and began to use his grappling hook to scale the nearby mountains, and ran towards the cliff.