Although he didn't let them rest, Ebony had been unable to catch them off guard, even when they were dizzy and mentally slowed by deep exposure to his mana. Not to mention, they were starting to figure out a way to utilise their mana and push his out. It wasn't difficult for them when their magic bodies were so tough.

Now he could only push mana into them when he touched them with a weapon or himself and no longer through a mana thread.

[Blade Demon Lvl 762/ Demon of Greed Lvl 762]

[Thermal Demon Lvl 778 / Infernal Regret Lvl 778]

Balanced levels for a combatant sometimes represented that their combat style completely mixed many skills, and Ebony's experience was that these people were stronger in comparison with non-balanced levels, just due to the synergy between classes.

"Human. Don't struggle, and we will make it painless. The Chief may even make it enjoyable for you. Be obedient and the Chief will let you experience the greatest ecstasy you will ever feel in your life." The Blade Demon didn't immediately attack.

Both of them stood straight, acting unaffected by his mana now that they had got their bearings and pulled themselves out of the hasty aura suppression.

"…" He felt no reason to converse when their intent was already obvious.

The flaming demon silently agreed with his stance as they ignored the Blade Demon's words.

That bought him all the time he needed to swap out the flames on Dusk and Icicle into Coreflames of Sequester.

Once again, he was stumped by how fluent and fast he was with imbuing and bringing out the effects of his Will into his ice mana and flames. It was similar to changing mindset from being in the heat of slaughtering monsters to the calm of kayaking during his honeymoon. Although his mindset always sat outside these emotions imbuing Will or changing Will from one form to another used to take a lot more than a couple of milliseconds.

The tree growing on his Turtle Fort began its abscission phase. Gravitationally anchored, they were hard to push away using shockwaves or wind pressure.

They patter onto the Demons' body, and two chibi images of their faces are registered in his mind. They were visibly relieved when they felt their mana melt away his spell and ignored the petals to beat him up.

The Blade Demon suppressed him with pure skill, Tier 6 Mastery, and it wasn't just any user of the sword. This Blade Demon would have some of his teachers from Cinderash beat in pure skill with a weapon. It was able to see all of Ebony's feints, counter his Shades and never caught off guard when he conjured an ice armament together with his Shade to empower a Shade's force.

He didn't know who told them to bring a demon specialising in fire or heat but…they seem to misunderstand that fire can melt ice. The Thermal demon did more than futile throwing fireballs at him, it was able to raise the internal temperature of anything his skills touch, till they pop.

It was an interesting Aspect. It forced Icicle to burst open, but only the tip that contacted his curved black blade. That was regrown in moments.

By the looks of it, he may not necessarily be exempt from the skill if his skin is touched. Aspects worked differently from normal mana-based spells after all. They were like Intent of mana-based spells, strong but stiff. And if it fails, there is no effect.

Shi Ling could turn him into diamond. It didn't feel like time to try if this Demon could thermally ignite him from within.

Ebony found the Thermal Demon feinting a touch before it stepped back, towards one of the struggling Demons who were. He let the Blade Demon's attacks slice deep into his flesh to chase the Thermal Demon. The currently suppressed Demons just needed a fraction of a second freed from his spell or mana to actively come up with a mana defence, and he wouldn't be able to seal them effectively anymore.

'I thought these are properly evolved Emperors, but I guess they're amongst the weaker lot.' Ebony was freshly evolved; these Demons must be amongst the weak if they couldn't directly overpower him.

In terms of pure speed and power, they weren't all that impressive compared to the Demon of Power. Barely any faster or stronger than he was, and he was still weakened.

Their fighting style was one-note. While there was nothing wrong with specialising in cutting things up very well or igniting things up well. They haven't cut or pop him and were ignoring the petals they were getting hit by. They should've long figured something weird was up when his flames were disappearing on contact.

Perhaps they were overly confident that his mana would not do anything to their bodies.

'First time testing Sequester and all…' Ebony decided to activate the Will that should be hidden in his taret without pumping too much mana into his targets. Since he didn't know if it was working or if the flames truly dug into his target. Using it against the Demon of Power was subconscious.

A causal 300 million points of mana should be enough for a test.

The blade demon had the honour of being the first.

Ebony didn't expect his white flames to burst out with so much intensity that it blasted out a few kilometres in every direction and bathed his mobile fortress and all the demons in range.

'Ting' 'you have killed [Blade Demon Lvl 762 | Demon of Greed Lvl 762] enemy 250 levels or more above your own. Experience concentration too high to dilute completely, additional experience gained.'

'Hmm….why so fragile? Sequester is more destructive than I thought. I didn't forget to include the Will for Preservation though. Was it overwhelmed by the volume of mana or was the demon just too weak? But I barely used any mana…he must have been too weak, maybe he's more prone to mana or magical damage compared to physical.''

Coreflame of Sequester worked perfectly. He didn't think he would succeed on the first practical application. Instead of wondering when this would become a Skill, he grew the intention to turn these 3 Coreflames into a Skill. He didn't even need to consider, when this became a Skill he would push it to his fourth Core Skill slot.

A Will-based infusion that linked to all his flame-based skills would be the support his flames needed.

'Sequester and Preservation are working perfectly. Let's test Diametric Unity. This guy's coincidentally a user of heat.' Watching the Thermal Demon walk out of the white flames in undisguised anger and disgust, Ebony pulled back the flames on Dusk and Icicle and rushed Diametric Unity through them instead.

Cross guarding the overhead slash from the Thermal Demon, it smiled as if Ebony messed up by getting both of them in physical contact.

Even his Perennial Everfrost Armament around Dusk exploded into ice fragments and steam. To his attacker's surprise and Ebony's intrigue, his whitish flames bulged like a sudden influx of air was pumped into a balloon before these flames got back to their original shape and form.

By itself, his flames might have dissipated or lost their cold. Diametric Unity seemed to have successfully absorbed the heat that was being produced internally. But only barely. It seemed his Will wasn't that potent and might be overloaded if the heat was too sudden or intense.

'None of them holds a candle to any of the Boiler Knights. A shame.' They weren't that weak, all things considered. Just a little insufficient for him to feel the need to drag the battle out for training or Prime himself back to proper control.

Ebony set off his kick with Diametric Unity's energy and it was like adding an explosive to his kick, though it didn't do much damage to the Demon's skin. He tried to activate half of the Sequester within the Thermal Demon so that it could be sealed instead of instantly killing him like the blade demon but that didn't seem possible when a similarly sized blast took it out.

'Note to self, I can't set half of the mana I injected and all of it would go off.'

On the bright side, the Thermal Demon still survived. He must have much better resistance to cold or mana damage compared to the Blade Demon. He also punched less mana into the Thermal Demon since it kept a distance, and Ebony was forced into a defensive position by the Blade Demon.

Despite thinking these Demons were weak amongst Emperors, the truth was that he used all the power at his disposal. Fully Domain Augmented with his new baseline, yet they were still slightly superior in strength. Worse of all, he underestimated how much Will all of his Coreflames, especially Sequester, required. It might be his first practically attempt using them but it was wholly inefficient usage to have his Will drop to 40% in such a short duration.

If he hadn't evolved, instead of cuts and bruises, he'd probably have to sacrifice limbs. Xin could transmute even if she couldn't dodge. That would also explain why she was so drained that she lost weight.

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'I wouldn't have been able to use it before my evolution? Doesn't sound right, am I using it differently than I initially designed it for, or did I ramp it up subconsciously since I was facing something stronger?'

Ebony unsealed one of the other demons and got into a punch-down with them.

After going through all the Demons one-on-one and finding them to be of a similar strength and skill level, he had them completely sealed. Weakened, they were easier to keep sealed. Reducing his mana and Will upkeep.

Ebony went back to the Power Demon and did the same but this one was clearly a cut above the 6 newcomers. Be it skill, power or pure battle instinct. It did not dumbly touch or take Ebony's flames of Sequester.

It could react to changes in gravitational strength and direction at the drop of a hat, beating even Xin's reaction speed with her foresight. Vibrational amplified reflections and impacts are dealt with instinctively with a shiver of its muscles. Perhaps one of its defensive Aspect skills. Ebony needed to know more about how Aspects worked to be sure.

When none of his Coreflames were used so he could recover his Will, he noticed that his flames could barely dig through skin. Ice projectiles and weaponry couldn't mark its skin. Petals bathed the Demon, but it merely roared in annoyance to put his flames out.

He didn't understand how the mana-less roar managed to exhaust his flames and cause his petals to disperse.

Phantom's Flicker usually catches everyone off guard the first time they see it, but he was never able to utilise the Demon's blind spots, and it could catch him every time. With his vastly increased muscle density, he should be able to evolve his favoured movement skill with the Shi Clan skill now. Flicker had turned into more of a repositioning skill rather than pure speed. He could work on that but positioning was one of his fortes and he was used to fighting stronger, faster opponents anyway.

When the Demon was about to rip his head off, Ebony had the mana that he had already injected into the Demon when it was sealed burst and sealed it again.

After two minutes, he recovered from the vitality weakness and let the Demon out again. Perfection might not exist, but he aimed for nothing less when it came to bodily control.

Deadly combat was the fastest way to learning how to move one's body. Definitely much faster than shadow boxing.

At the fifth try, the Demon didn't attack him as aggressively anymore.

That was disappointing.

It didn't stop trying to break free from his seal, but it never tried to converse or negotiate. Was it also less capable of speech than the blade demon?

Without that edge, that intent to kill him. Ebony lost interest and just kept him sealed to train his sealing skill.

'Outside of learning my new reach and strength, my technique is changing in real time. Potential is an addictive drug.' He had not felt such rapid growth since his skill levels reached their soft limits before he evolved. Now that he had evolved and every part of him had increased in Potential, he felt new ideas and improvements just sinking in.

It almost made him confident enough to think that he could get his Tier 5 Phantom Shade Sovereign Arts to a Tier 6 Ascendent Art soon enough.

'Now I need a mage opponent for better spell refinement.' Ebony was on the lookout for new opponents while his Turtle Fort was on the move towards Tidal.

These 6 Demons felt like a scout party. Mallory confirmed that they didn't seem as strong as the Demon they fought before Ebony arrived, and the bulk of their fighting force should be closer to this Power Demon's strength. At least for the Demons.

The humans or people of various races are mostly Kings.

Xin was already awake, sitting by Athena's frozen statue while chugging hot stew.

"Yvette and Muse might have a way. If not, I can hire the services of a soul doctor of sorts." Ebony got Eidolon to search, but he came up with two public figures within the Hex Region that was known for their abilities dealing with souls, related to healing. One was a Saint, a few Sectors away, who doesn't sell any sort of services. The other was a monster that gained intelligence, expelled its Worldcore's essence and was now the sole member of its new race. It was also known to be extremely violent to all other races.

Ebony then recalled that the Ning Saintess should be around. Anything to do with the mind shouldn't be an issue, even if she wasn't a healer.

"I'm not worried." She muttered. A coin was lying on the floor in front of her.

That was new.

He didn't ask before she explained that it was from Kong Jing to assist her instinctual divination. While Dusk did show him that Kong Jing returned, it did not show him what they did or talked about inside his house.

Hector was more injured than he'd seem and wasn't waking up even with Mallory's healing efforts.

Mana poisoning more severe than Ebony turning to ice dust.

He had apparently used some kind of 12 elemental enhancement for a split second and killed two of the Demons. The reason the space and air around this city was so chaotic in mana that it prevented callstones from working was thanks to his punch.

Ebony didn't see any large holes, so he assumed the punch was aimed towards the sky or glanced off the city barrier.

"He was mad. It was pretty intense." Xin talked about the emotions she sensed when Hector showed off.

"Do you know why?"

"….They extracted Apa's soul and put it into a gem. But Apa's body is too good to throw or destroy. I hear they are trying to…domesticate his soul before putting it back into his body."

"I see. Where is this soul gem now?"

"Lacuna Expanse. They have a base there. We don't know who is leading this operation, but this Ecstasy Lord guy is higher up their ladder. With his ability to meddle with souls, he might just be holding onto all the souls they've collected. The Demons seem to follow his orders, but I'm not too sure about the soul puppets." Mallory answered.

"Is Muse okay?"

"She was the first to be targeted, currently protected by our family in Tidal."

"So she's under house arrest." Ebony nodded in understanding. Other than Yvette, Muse seemed to be the only one who could heal or handle souls throughout Elcra. Maybe some Elves could do the same, but he didn't know any. So Xin asked the only Elf present in their entourage for him, "Hey you, any Elven elders of yours that use soul magic or manipulate souls?"

It was like she was reading his mind.

"Hmph, I have nothing to say to a Xeng." The Grandmaster [Verdant Life Bow Lvl 500 / Botanic Extraordinaire Lvl 500 / Mana Adjudicator Lvl 500] had his brows nearly stuck together when he was rudely addressed.

No one was in the best of moods now. Other than Ebony, who was unaffected since he just woke up today. He wasn't able to feel the weight of the death of a city and its populace like they did.

Although there weren't many Elves in comparison to humans or any other races dominant on Elcra, they were still extremely abundant compared to the Xengs. Ebony got more interested in why they hated the Xengs so much every time they met one that acted in the same fashion. Did one of the Clan or the older generation murder a whole lot of Elves or something?

That shouldn't be the case.

They might live and breathe combat, but they didn't go around killing people for no reason.

Ebony had met quite a few of the Xengs and met almost every Second Gen from every Clan except the Wen Clan. He can't claim to know it all, but he felt that he had a good idea how to tell a bloodthirsty killer apart from a battle maniac.

Xin didn't react in any way, which led Mallory's diffusion to be simpler than she expected. The Elf was 'kind' enough to impolitely answer the Crown Princess's questions.

While the Elves in their Domain did not have any family specialising in souls, they had a couple of families that dealt with spirits. Not Spirit as a life form, but spirit in energy. The distinction wasn't so important right now, but spirit was tied to one soul more tightly than one's mind was tied to their soul. The Elf went on to express his knowledge about how spirit was tied to the mind more tightly compared to the soul, and how these three energies were very complicated in how they melded with each other.

They had skills that could target souls just like Ebony's roar, but none could manipulate souls directly.

After months, the Empire had already lost. They didn't lose Tidal or their foundation, but with so many people dead, cities and towns lost. Lure has already achieved part of their goal of taking souls.

Yet there were billions more in Tidal and it didn't look like Lure was about to stop before taking an actual bite of what they came for.

At this time, Sophia finally called. But she called Xin and not Ebony. She probably didn't know he was done with his evolution.

As expected from the sp—business partner, he found. Her information-gathering skills seemed to be even better than Mallory's and her elite team of bodyguards. The Eclipse Guards were supposedly also espionage experts.

In all likelihood, with one of the Soul Lord's subjects here. It was under their directive to target a fat lamb and the melting pot of souls that Elcra contained. At least that was what it appeared to be. Sophia caught rumours that this was an attack on Oplot.

Friction between the Wandering Celestial Monastery and Angel from Lure had her retaliating in every way she could.

In the ex-spy's opinion, this might as well be the truth, and there was no need to search for a deeper reason.

As Hex was extremely far away from their region of influence, they didn't send a large force over. Sophia complained about outdated information, but still sent a long report in text form over Eidolon. There was no way Xin would read that.

Listening to her in silence, Ebony grabbed Xin's wrist and cut in, "How's your training going?"

"….It's going well." Sophia could hide the surprise in her voice well.

"Good. I'll check that soon. How's Na?"

"He's back in the Dungeon to recuperate. The parasitic plant is still a bit underevolved and can't sustain him outside the dungeon for more than a week."

"Can you beat Na yet?"

"No…But I can hold my own against him if he's outside!"

To be fair, Na, as the personification or golem of a dungeon, was very similar to one of his Apparitions. However, within the dungeon, it had a resource pool that no person could match on the planet. Assuming the Saintesses were off the planet right now, and excluding any Saint or higher-ranked Spirits that can travel here from the Spirit Realm.

It was growing faster than just about any Dungeon around. Ebony wondered if Na had any King-ranked monsters yet, but doubted it even with its growth rate. It was limited by the people and creatures that entered it, and the ambient mana outside its portal.

While Na should be able to protect Sophia from the average Elcrian King, he wasn't so sure about these Kings from Lure.

'Wait a minute…' Ebony saw the Emperors he had sealed. "Call me if something happens, I'll be back in a moment."

Ebony had some good grub to deliver to his good friend Dungeon. If he fought them inside, Na could learn their skills too. If Na could copy their Aspects, Ebony could learn how that works too.

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