The battlefield on the north side of the canyon was enveloped in a whirlwind of destruction.
Pillars of light burst forth from the ground, dragons made entirely of mana wreaked havoc among the devil worshippers, space distorted and swallowed those who couldn't avoid its grasp, and arcs of lightning incinerated those who were left behind.
In the middle of it all, Damien and Long Chen stood only a few meters apart, circling each other and attacking relentlessly without interfering with each other's momentum.
From the way they were fighting together, it would seem as if they had been doing so for years. Not one person would guess that this level of synergy was born from only a handful of spars against each other.
Seeing how terrifying their prowess was, many more devil worshippers ram towards them to help their suffering comrades out of such a perilous situation, but to no avail.
Any attack they threw would start rapidly losing speed when it entered a 10-meter radius of the duo and those that somehow made it passed that barrier were returned to their senders with even more force than they originally had.
Slowly but surely, the number of 500 or so devil worshippers was cut down to a little over 300, with most of the work being the contribution of Damien and Long Chen.
Noticing that they were on the final stretch, the duo looked at each other and grinned. Damien expanded his vector field to keep out any interference before inhaling mana into his throat.
As for Long Chen, he thrust his sword into the ground, causing a golden dragon larger than any other he had produced thus far to appear.
The duo stood back to back, and without another second of delay, released massive beams of dragon's breath using their own methods.
They directed their attacks in half circles, causing the entire 360° radius around them to be filled with beams of scorching light. One was bitch black while the other was gold, but they worked in tandem to destroy a common foe.
The number of devil worshippers who survived the massive attack was even less than before, making it much easier for the other cultivators who had joined the raid to kill their enemies.
***
In the air above the raging battlefield, the two leaders stood opposite each other, watching the scene with indifference painting their expressions.
"Your people are dying. Do you not plan to help them?" Shen Li inquired.
"If their deaths can further our cause, they should die happily. Otherwise, they are useless." Du Feng responded.
Shen Li glared at this opponent that he couldn't read whatsoever, but soon gave up on having any sort of peaceful interaction.
"How about we take our battle out of this canyon. Its destruction doesn't mean anything good for either of us." Shen Li proposed.
Du Feng thought for a second before nodding. He didn't desire the needless sacrifice of his people, as they still had more use.
The two leaders flew out of the canyon, uninhibited by the bloody fog that killed so many cultivators on their way in. Shortly after, massive earthquakes shook the entire region of the Northern Continent.
***
It didn't take more than 2 hours after Damien and Long Chen's combined assault began for the raid group to completely wipe out the devil worshippers they were facing.
The bottom of the canyon was filled with black blood and slime from the lifeless corpses that littered the ground. Even the corpses of the cultivators had been corroded and corrupted by the liquids.
As a light silence and an aura of relief swept the crowd, they finally felt the massive rumbles of the earth that had been drowned out by their own battle.
Peering up at the sky above, they were able to notice bright flashes of light and dispersing mana, clear signs that another intense fight was taking place.
As Damien tried to understand the course of the battle on the surface, Zara approached him from behind and stood next to him. She had also been fighting on her own throughout this battle, consuming her enemies to enhance her strength.
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"Damien, something feels weird about those people." She transmitted into his head. She didn't want to talk in front of such a large crowd, especially about things they didn't need to hear.
It could be said that Zara was maturing on her own while Damien continued to blaze his path forward. Even if she was still plenty innocent, it wasn't near as much as before.
Damien ran his hand through her silky fur as he urged her to continue. "What kind of weird?"
"They felt familiar somehow," she answered, "like I've met them before somewhere."
"Hmm," Damien pondered. "Maybe it's because of the Nox we met in Apeiron. Well, we can think about it deeply later and figure it out."
Zara nodded lightly before returning back to his shadow. Inwardly, she was genuinely happy that he didn't discard the weird feeling she was having as some one-time occurrence.
Turning to Long Chen, a slight grin formed on Damien's face. "How many?"
"Including the dragon's breath, my total is 112. And you?"
Damien's grin widened even more. "123."
Long Chen's face soured quickly hearing the number, and even after checking with Little Flame, who had been watching the entire fight, he couldn't find any discrepancies.
"Damn it." He cursed. The mischievous grin on Damien's face didn't help his situation one but.
"Anyway, should we head up and see what's going on up there?" Long Chen mentioned, trying to change the subject.
But Damien wouldn't let him off so easily. "Hm? I feel like you just said something but for some reason, I didn't hear it. Mind repeating yourself?"
Long Chen's face began to burn in shame. Not once had he, the scion of the Long clan, been forced into a situation like this.
"Should we go check on the situation on the surface, B-b-boss." He finally said through clenched teeth, stumbling a bit to get the words out of his mouth.
"Hahahaha!" Damien roared with laughter. "That's right, I'm your boss now!"
When he noticed the strange looks they were getting from the other cultivators in the room, his laughter only became more rambunctious.
Putting his arm around Long Chen's shoulder, he raised his voice so the others could hear him.
"Everyone! This right here is the scion of the Long clan in the Central Continent, Long Chen! And as of today, I, Damien Void, am his boss! Hahahaha!"
Long Chen wanted to push Damien away, but at this point, anything he did would be used against him.
He glared hatefully at Damien while vowing that one day he would repay this grievance. Not just in kind, but tenfold. He even began brainstorming the different punishments he could have Damien do.
While they were joking around, the rest of the raid force also generally recuperated enough to leave their area. Not to mention, the rumbling and quaking of the earth around them had only become more pronounced as time passed.
Those who had beasts mounted them while the rest flew to the skies with their own power. Just like with their leader, the bloody fog didn't impede their ascent.
The most likely scenario was that it had to be activated manually.
And as the group finally reached the precipice of the canyon, their eyes became focused on a scene of devastation.