Birth of the Demonic Sword

Daniel was aware of the Demons' mindset, so he shot directly toward the Royals. A white light came out of his figure and covered the area with a thick aura that seeped through every surface.

The intensity of Daniel's aura increased as he neared the powerhouses, and even the sky began to suffer under the effects of his individuality.

The air slowly vanished, and cracks opened in the sky as Daniel's light destabilized its structure. It seemed that he could even affect the laws in the environment when he went all-out.

The Royals retreated while launching their spells. The three powerhouses relied on their techniques to slow down Daniel's advance, but dizziness soon invaded their mind and made them lose control of their abilities.

Ice began to spread under their feet. The Royals weren't aware of what was happening around them. They didn't even notice that their legs had fused with the chunk of ice under them.

They were utterly defenseless, and Daniel only needed to touch them with his light to deliver a fatal blow.

A wave of golden flames engulfed the Royals and fended off the white light when Daniel's halo was about to touch the three powerhouses.

The fire didn't hurt the Royals. It acted as protection meant to give them time to retreat. Third Prince and Second Princess had launched it to save their powerful assets.

Yet, the flames didn't manage to shake off the Demons' influence thoroughly. They had fended off Daniel's light and gave them some clarity back, but Flying Demon's ice remained unaffected by that fire.

"Not so fast," Flying Demon said as he and his lover reached Daniel's position.

The trio glanced at the three powerhouses still engulfed in the golden flames before looking toward the Royals in the distance. Third Prince and Second Princess could only reply with an ugly expression to their gazes.

Flying Demon raised his hand, Daniel pointed his palm toward his enemies, and Dreaming Demon closed her eyes to unfold her consciousness.

The Hive's trio was about to unleash their offensive on the trapped Royals, but Third Prince and Second Princess acted before their attacks were ready.

The three Royals began to scream in pain as part of the golden flames burned them. The Hive's trio remained speechless when they saw the powerhouses leaving the ice to escape through the fire.

It wasn't hard to understand how the three had pulled that off. Third Prince and Second Princess had saved their underlings by turning their legs into ashes.

Flying Demon and Daniel wanted to chase after the departing Royals, but Dreaming Demon gestured them to stop. Her consciousness was still inside the area, so she could see part of what waited for them ahead of that region.

Surpassing the golden flames wasn't a problem. Third Prince and Second Princess had become stronger after King Elbas' departure, but they were still against some of the world's best gaseous stage cultivators.

Yet, Dreaming Demon sensed some danger coming from the region where the three Royals were escaping. She felt that her group might not be able to cross it easily.

"Let's focus on the coast," Dreaming Demon eventually announced as she opened her eyes and retracted part of her consciousness.

She didn't need to explain anything to her two companions. Both of them were aware of her abilities and trusted her judgment. There had to be a good reason if she had decided to stop the chase.

The trio's eyes moved north at that point. The monster's charge had helped all the battlefields, but cultivators were still struggling to defeat the defensive formations.

"One each," Dreaming Demon said before flying toward True Speed's region.

Flying Demon winked at Daniel before flying toward Elder Laura's battlefield, and the latter pretended not to understand his gesture when he gazed at the remaining fights. There was only Faith to help on that side of the coast, so Daniel flew toward her.

Once the reinforcements arrived, the situations on those battlefields utterly changed.

True Speed had continued to crush armored puppets since the beginning of the invasion. The Royals had even avoided to target him with the golden spears because his movement technique was too troublesome to deal with.

The expert from the Shandal Empire would escape. Using the golden spears against him was a waste of resources.

True Speed didn't manage to destroy many puppets. He had to use all his physical strength to make one of them crumble, but they used battle formations that often limited how often he could attack.

Moreover, the puppets had started to counter his physical strength by assembling more pieces of armor. They only needed to gather the materials from the destroyed golems to build better ones.

True Speed continued to fight even in that situation. He didn't care if he now needed two or three blows to deal with a puppet. He would still remain on the battlefield because his organization needed his efforts.

The Shandal Empire was the weakest among the world's forces, and it also had worse growth. Both the Hive and the Council had seen cultivators advance to powerhouses' rank even if the three of them had shared those centuries of isolation inside the separate dimension.

Even the Elbas family had managed to produce more powerhouses. The Royals' methods weren't orthodox, but that still didn't justify the Empire's low growth.

True Speed could only believe that the Shandal Empire had a flawed foundation at that point. He didn't know if Shandal's influence had something to do with it, but he needed to give his organization a home if he wanted to find and fix those flaws.

That was why he couldn't leave the battlefield no matter what. He had to seize regions where the Empire could prosper and improve its mindset as an organization.

The puppets suddenly stopped moving when Dreaming Demon reached True Speed's battlefield. The cultivator from the Empire wanted to complain when he sensed her, but he decided to remain silent.

There was no need to discuss who would own that region if they were to work together. The priority was to capture it.

Dreaming Demon glanced at him before nodding and closing her eyes. She had understood that True Speed wouldn't object to the two of them fighting together, so she decided to become sober.

Her consciousness spread in the environment and seeped inside the puppets' structure. Still, they were powerful enough to hinder Dreaming Demon's influence, so she focused on stripping them off their armors.

The puppets' armors shattered. Metallic shards fell toward the ground and revealed the unpolished torso and legs of those golems. The Royals didn't even bother to finish them since they had to wear protections all the time.

True Speed didn't let go of that chance and sprinted forward. The puppets usually tried to rely on their strong defense to encircle him after enduring one of his kicks, but the situation had changed now.

The puppets weren't much for him without their armors. A kick was more than enough to kill one of them.

True Speed ran through the puppet army and kicked everything he found. He didn't bother to maximize his momentum anymore since they were defenseless, so he could focus on taking care of them as quickly as he could.

Half of the army had fallen apart when the puppets understood that they had lost their armors.