"Whoosh!" The sound of the ocean's roar echoed between dimensions, as it seemed a great sea had been conjured within the dimensional space. In an instant, Doom found himself surrounded by an endless ocean.
"Sizzle!" However, despite the vast oceanic magic Doom had unleashed, it still couldn't fully withstand Dautai's Hellfire. The water visibly evaporated into steam, reducing the ocean's size.
Despite seeing his conjured waters shrink, Doom remained calm. His wrist continued manipulating the water, and under his magic, the steam condensed back into water droplets, which flowed back into the ocean.
This meant that while Doom's magic couldn't overpower Dautai's Hellfire directly, it could hold its ground, with Doom cleverly conserving magical energy to achieve maximum results in the short term.
Constantine, on the other hand, wasn't faring as well. Though his reaction was quicker than Doom's, he lacked elemental magic. Instead, he relied on the traditional spells of Kamar-Taj. Despite his defenses being formidable, they weren't enough to withstand the relentless assault of Dautai's Hellfire.
Constantine's expression darkened as he rapidly cast spell after spell, summoning grotesque creatures from different dimensions through his magic circles. However, one by one, these creatures perished under the flames of Hellfire.
In essence, Constantine's strategy wasn't fundamentally different from Doom's, but Constantine was expending far more magical energy. Doom, by using the transformative properties of water, minimized his energy expenditure, while Constantine had no such luxury and was forced to rely on raw power to endure.
Constantine had recently gained strength from the Reality Stone but had yet to fully master his newfound abilities. As a result, his magical reserves paled in comparison to Dautai's. Even with Doom's support, they were struggling.
Dautai, even after losing some power to the one-eyed dragon earlier, still had enough strength to suppress both Constantine and Doom. It was clear now that Constantine had miscalculated—had he not hesitated when the dragon was still present, their battle against Dautai would have been far easier. Having a frontliner like the dragon would have made a huge difference, as the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj, despite their close-combat proficiency, were still fundamentally fragile.
Thankfully, Constantine and Doom weren't alone. Numerous students from Kamar-Taj were still nearby, and their strength had also increased dramatically thanks to the Reality Stone. While not quite as powerful as Constantine or Doom, they were still formidable in battle.
Previously, Doom and Constantine were the strongest individuals at Kamar-Taj. Now, even the weakest students had leveled up to this same tier of power, a testament to just how much the Reality Stone had enhanced Kamar-Taj's collective might.
With their newfound strength, the students, led by Wong, Baron Mordo, and Kaecilius, had already wiped out the Hell Lords and demons that had accompanied Dautai. They now turned their focus toward Dautai himself, launching an attack in his direction.
Normally, battles involving a Lord-level being like Dautai were strictly hierarchical. Non-Lord entities couldn't interfere. But with Mordo and the others now at least on the cusp of Lord-level power, they were capable of participating.
And Dautai, while strong, wasn't invincible. Had he been truly powerful, he would have already crushed Doom and Constantine instead of being stuck in a prolonged struggle with them.
The key advantage of Kamar-Taj's sorcerers lay in the fact that their magic was unified in origin. This unity allowed their combined powers to merge far more efficiently than the chaotic forces of Hell.
Just as Mordo and the others had done, they channeled their magical energy into Doom and Constantine through magical arrays. Instantly, the power that had been suppressing Doom and Constantine surged, swelling up.
"Sizzle!" The ocean that had been held back by the Hellfire now surged with power, dousing large swathes of the fire. The temperature around Doom dropped drastically as he regained the ability to go on the offensive. Water once again transformed into ice, freezing the Hellfire and creeping toward Dautai.
"Hmm?!" Dautai was taken aback. He had never seen Kamar-Taj use such a tactic before, and it caught him completely off guard.
Although the Earth Dimension had long been under Kamar-Taj's protection, and though Hell had clashed with Kamar-Taj countless times, those battles had always been handled by the Ancient One. Her power had been so immense that she never had to resort to such teamwork tactics. Her own strength was sufficient to handle most Hell Lords.
If there had ever been a Hell Lord so powerful that not even the Ancient One could counter with the Time Stone, then the collective strength of Kamar-Taj's students wouldn't have made any difference either.
But now, Kamar-Taj's students had grown powerful enough together to create something akin to a Skyfather-level entity!
"Not bad. It looks like they might actually win. But the question is whether they can kill this Hell Lord..." Robert observed as Dautai was encased in ice, nodding slightly. However, he didn't think the students of Kamar-Taj could finish Dautai off.
Hell Lords had incredibly resilient life forces, and Dautai's strength wasn't far below that of the Kamar-Taj students. While they could suppress him, it wasn't enough to deal a fatal blow unless they used some kind of forbidden magic.
"Crack!" Just as expected, the ice sealing Dautai began to crack. His body was covered in frost, and his movements were somewhat sluggish, but the fiery red energy coursing through him quickly dispelled Doom's icy magic.
"Impressive," Doom remarked with a touch of admiration as he watched Dautai gradually shrug off the frost. He then turned to Constantine and shouted, "He's about to break free! I'll buy you some time—can you summon another big one so we can take him down together?"
"That's going to be tough," Constantine replied, shaking his head slowly. Summoning another powerful ally wasn't as easy as signing a contract. Convincing a Skyfather-level entity from another dimension wasn't something you could do on a whim.
Using magic to forcibly bind a creature's power meant that the summoning wouldn't produce anything stronger than Constantine himself, making it useless in this battle.
"Look out! Get out of the way!" Constantine's eyes suddenly widened, and both he and Doom yelled at the same time.
Their warning wasn't directed at each other, but at Baron Mordo. Dautai had quickly realized that the Kamar-Taj students were channeling their power into Doom and Constantine. Now recovered, he charged straight toward Mordo, seeking to eliminate the source of their reinforcement.
"Swish!"
"Buzz!"
Both Constantine and Doom reacted swiftly, sending chains of magic and ice to bind Dautai. Yet even though they managed to momentarily restrain him, Dautai powered through, reaching Mordo in no time.
Luckily, Mordo's reflexes were sharp. In an instant, he summoned a fiery portal before him, intending to teleport Dautai away.
"Snap!" To Mordo's surprise, Dautai's body did enter the portal, but he didn't disappear. Just as Mordo attempted to close the portal, Dautai's massive hands gripped the edges of the gateway, holding it open. A terrifying surge of hellish energy erupted from Dautai, forcefully keeping the portal from closing.
Mordo's eyes widened in disbelief as he watched Dautai's body reverse itself, with a face forming on the back of his head. His entire form emerged grotesquely from the portal.
The normally razor-sharp edges of the portal couldn't harm Dautai at all. It wasn't that Dautai was so powerful he could ignore spatial magic, but rather that Mordo's portal lacked the sheer strength to properly sever anything of Dautai's caliber.
"What?!" Mordo was dumbfounded. The portal spell was one of Kamar-Taj's signature techniques. Constantine had long coveted it, yet had never been able to master it. Every student of Kamar-Taj knew how lethal the edges of these portals could be. They could cut through almost anything, and no living creature had ever dared challenge their power.
Yet Dautai had done just that, shattering Mordo's understanding of the spell and leaving him frozen in place, unable to evade the oncoming attack.
"Swoosh!" Fortunately, Wong reacted quickly. A portal opened beneath Mordo's feet, whisking him away just as Dautai's attack reached him.
"Annoying pests!" Dautai bellowed as he unleashed a fresh wave of Hellfire toward Wong.
"Swoosh!" Wong calmly exchanged glances with Kaecilius, and the two prepared to open a portal to absorb Dautai's Hellfire, planning to send it back at him—a classic "return to sender" trick.
Wong had truly mastered the use of the portal spell, turning it into an art. But no matter how skilled someone was, if the power difference was too great, their tricks became ineffective.
The Hellfire overwhelmed Wong's portal in an instant, shattering it. Wong turned pale, his normally stout frame swaying under the strain.
Thankfully, Doom and Constantine intervened just in time, stepping between Dautai and the students of Kamar-Taj.
"Send us your power! Retreat into the pocket dimension!" Constantine ordered Mordo and the others as he lashed out with a magical whip toward Dautai.
Dautai frowned, dodging the whip, but as he did, the students vanished.
Behind Constantine and Doom, countless magical arrays materialized, fed by the students' collective power.
At that moment, Constantine's whip transformed. Sharp spears shot out from it, targeting Dautai's body.
"Hmm?!" Dautai quickly conjured a fiery sword to slash at the spears.
"Crack!" However, just as the flames roared to life, ice formed beneath Dautai's feet, quickly spreading and slowing his movements.
"Thunk!"
"Thunk!"
"Thunk!"
The delay was enough. Constantine's magical spears struck, piercing Dautai's body, turning him into a pincushion. Blood spurted from his wounds as the spears embedded themselves deep into his flesh.
It was clear now—Doom and Constantine, empowered by the students, were capable of suppressing Dautai. Without the worry of protecting the students, they had Dautai on the ropes.
Yet Dautai, despite the blood pouring from him, showed no signs of panic or desperation. Instead, he looked at Doom and Constantine with pity in his eyes and said, "You've done well. Before, when my strength was leaking away slowly, he couldn't sense it. But now, by interfering with his prey, you've sealed your fate. It seems Kamar-Taj's legacy will end today..."
"Buzz!" As Dautai's words echoed in the air, a terrifying power erupted from his blood, forming a gateway to Hell. From the other side of the portal, a far more menacing presence began to emerge.
"So this Hell Lord isn't even the one behind all this? Interesting... Looks like I'll finally get my chance to join the fight!" Robert's eyes lit up with excitement, his battle intent surging as the true threat began to reveal itself.
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