After the Meteor Swarm was sealed away, the battle in the sky officially erupted.
Normally, if Dilla's true body had come in person, even though Eli Carlos and the others had the advantage in numbers, they would still have had to immediately scatter and flee for their lives.
Great demons who held official seats possessed legendary combat power, enough to easily crush any non-legendary individual.
But the one that had descended here was only an incarnation body. Many of its methods could not be fully used. On top of that, the three-person teleportation team worked together with extraordinary coordination, and they had long since prepared for the possibility of a great demon descending.
So it was not as though they had no chance to fight.
The three exchanged a glance, and there was not much retreat in their eyes.
Anyone capable of becoming an epic powerhouse was no ordinary figure. They were not the kind of people who could be scared off by Dilla's name alone.
Seeing the eager look in their eyes, Dilla's lips curved into a faint smile.
For a great demon, finding a suitable opponent was not easy either.
Especially while deep inside the Monster Kingdom, the only opponents who could usually match it were a few of its colleagues.
And among them, there were several lunatics that even Dilla, as the Ninth Seat, wanted to avoid.
After all, it craved fierce enough battles—not one-sided abuse where it only got beaten.
Several of the other great demons spent years in closed-door training, forcing it to suppress its own combative nature.
So when it heard that war had reignited at the border, even though its true body could not cross the frontier, it had still volunteered to come and oversee the front line.
"I hope you can bring me a little more fun. Don't die too easily."
After saying that, it vanished from where it stood in a flash.
Archbishop Milo Dalton reacted with divine speed. Almost the instant the battle broke out, three streams of holy fire blessed everyone except Eli, who already had his own enhancement.
From the moment he heard Dilla's name, he had been quietly chanting in preparation.
At the same time, the golden scepter in Eli Carlos's hand struck downward.
In an instant, his aura linked together with Milo Dalton's and Mabel Burns's.
Looking closely, their Domains formed a firm triangular structure, like three legs of a tripod.
Although there was a considerable age gap between the three of them—especially Mabel Burns, who had not even been born when Eli and Milo had already become famous—and when Milo Dalton became archbishop, Eli himself had still only been a young man, the three of them possessed excellent teamwork.
Otherwise, they would not so often move as a small team.
Their Domains appeared independent, yet there was no sense of conflict. Instead, they merged into a seamless whole.
It was as if a vast, flowing golden kingdom had appeared in the sky.
This was their greatest confidence, the reason they still showed no fear despite knowing they might face a great demon's incarnation.
With the combined power of the three, their Domain had reached a higher level. It also could not be broken through one point at a time; any attack would be shared by all three together.
Dilla's voice rang out.
"Decree: Wither."
In an instant, countless pale torrents poured down from overhead with magnificent force.
The majestic golden kingdom seemed to have been thrown into fast-forward. The faces of its people gradually grew weathered, while its resplendent palaces, temples, streets, and marketplaces began collapsing.
This was two completely different top-tier epic Domains crushing against one another.
The danger contained within was beyond what ordinary people could imagine.
Even a transcendent who reached this place would probably be ground into dust in an instant.
But in the next moment, buildings inside the golden kingdom rose from the ground again like bamboo shoots after rain.
The city gates opened wide, and tens of thousands of golden phantom cavalry formed a torrent, charging toward the great demon in the sky.
Elsewhere, Spellweaver Erich Zevier and the Green Dragon Queen locked eyes, hatred flashing between them.
There was no need to explain the Spellweaver's hatred. The dragon had killed his wife and children. The Green Dragon Queen likewise hated Erich deeply.
In her smooth and triumphant dragon life, she had rarely encountered true life-and-death crises.
Clearly, those three human epic powerhouses had been invited by this man before her. Because of him, she had been forced to join the demon race.
To ordinary monsters, becoming a demon might be the supreme honor of a lifetime, but to a true dragon, it was not the same.
On one hand, as a borderland lord, she had originally enjoyed considerable autonomy. Within her territory, all life and death had been decided by her alone. Even this war had only been something she cooperated with because she saw profit in it. Now that she had joined the demon race, she would be part of the Demon King's army from now on, and in name, she would be beneath someone else.
If she spoke with other true dragon lords of the same level, she would be laughed at.
On the other hand, and what she dreaded most, was that everyone knew the Demon King's methods were unfathomable. Joining the demon race might come with the risk of being "brainwashed." The best example was the demon council today.
Whether they were great demons with official seats or ordinary demon council members, all of them were utterly loyal to the Demon King.
Could there really be nothing wrong with that?
But it was already too late to say anything now. In order to win the support of several powerful races, the Demon King would not forcibly conscript powerful beings like true dragons, titan-blooded giants, liches, and others into the demon race.
But if those beings agreed on their own, then there was nothing to be done.
Even if legendary individuals from those factions learned of it, they would not have much to say. That was the power of nominal consent.
What was more, the green dragon Aesselas knew full well that under these circumstances, no ancient dragon among the chromatics would stand up for her.
If it were the more harmonious metallic dragons, that might have been possible. But chromatic dragons were all selfish creatures. They would only worry that the Demon King's extortion might eventually affect them, and only in that kind of situation might they unite in resistance.
But in a special case like this, they would most likely turn a blind eye. There was no need to provoke the powerful Demon King for the sake of an unfamiliar adult green dragon.
Aesselas had nowhere to vent this stifled frustration. She did not dare direct it at the Demon King or the great demon Dilla, and the three human epic powerhouses working together were clearly not opponents she could defeat now.
So she could only vent it all on the Spellweaver, the source of everything.
"Die!"
Hundreds of dark green poison dragons once again surged out around her.
Seeing this, Spellweaver Erich Zevier did not panic.
He was the person who understood Aesselas best. More importantly, he was now blessed by the Wish power of a Level 18 Archbishop.
And while it looked as though the green dragon had not spent much energy just now, in truth, her momentum had already been greatly shaken by the Meteor Swarm that could have killed her.
For epic powerhouses like them, momentum was also an extremely important factor in determining the course of victory or defeat.
The people on the ground could no longer perceive the battle in the sky.
Once battle exceeded a certain level, ordinary people without sufficient strength could not even observe it.
Epic powerhouses possessed too many methods to isolate space and move their battlefield into special realms.
Even the most primitive flesh-against-flesh physical combat could become impossible to observe simply because the speed exceeded what human eyes could capture.
Unless an epic powerhouse deliberately launched a massacre against ordinary life, ordinary people might not see anything at all.
But right now, neither Eli Carlos's trio nor the great demon Dilla had any interest in that. The Spellweaver only had eyes for the green dragon. Perhaps Aesselas might have intentionally slaughtered ordinary soldiers, but she had now been stripped of her Domain power, meaning her most advantageous wide-area killing weapon had been banned.
On top of that, she was constrained by the power of deception and could not evade the Spellweaver's attacks.
This battle was therefore split into two entirely different battlefields.
Several days passed in the blink of an eye.
As the war continued, the once-vibrant plain had become riddled with scars. Deep and shallow craters were everywhere.
Near the ground, flocks of scavenging vultures and crows circled.
On the ground, swarms of flies lingered around the corpses.
Real war was not grand and magnificent. Once the initial tension and excitement faded, what came soon after was numbness.
Every day, familiar people nearby might die in silence.
Only after being rotated down from the wall, while eating, would someone notice that a person who used to appear in their sight every day had vanished.
Wave after wave of attack and defense. After the monster army was repelled, it gathered again, as if there would never be an end.
As the monster army left dense piles of corpses behind and receded like the tide, the members of the Red Dragon Company let out breaths of relief. After receiving the regional commander's order, the exhausted group finally began slowly descending from the wall.
Albena supported Alia, whose body had gone slightly weak.
She had released too many spells all at once just now and had overdrawn herself somewhat. Her skin, already fair to begin with, now carried an unhealthy pallor.
"Are you all right, Alia?"
"Don't worry." Alia took a deep breath and waved a hand, reassuring the kind-hearted big woman in the team. "I just used too much nature power. I'll recover after resting for a bit. It's not a serious problem."
The war had dragged on for so many days that even the normally lively Alia now had a tired look in her eyes.
Of course, behind that exhaustion, there was also a lingering worry that would not disappear.
"It's already been more than ten days…"
After descending the steps from the wall, she suddenly turned and looked toward the Emerald Forest behind the city wall, sighing without context.
The others immediately understood what she meant.
Before Gauss left, he had said that if everything went smoothly, he should return within ten days.
At first, none of them had been too worried.
After all, ever since each of them had joined the team, the strength Gauss displayed had won them over completely.
There seemed to be a power about him that made people feel at ease, as though no matter what danger he faced, he could resolve it with calm confidence.
Whether it was the red dragon before it joined the team, the transcendent dragon priestess, his lone charge against thousands outside Grayrock Town, or that terrifying centaur, none of them had brought him down.
Because of that, they had developed an almost mysterious trust in Gauss's strength.
But as time passed, unease began growing in their hearts.
No matter how reliable Gauss looked, in reality he was only a young man in his early twenties. Even inside the Red Dragon Company, he was the youngest among them.
Compared to ordinary adventurers outside, people his age might still be wandering around villages, facing only a few goblins, slimes, and enemies of that sort. But Gauss had now gone alone into an unknown forbidden zone for humans.
What he might encounter there, neither the guild higher-ups nor Gauss himself had known before he set out.
"Lord Gauss is so strong. He'll definitely turn danger into safety."
"Maybe he was just delayed taking a detour."
"Or maybe he hasn't found the lair of those dragon whelps yet and is still gathering information."
The group spoke one after another, as though saying these guesses out loud enough times could turn them into reality.
When they returned to the Red Dragon Company's camp, many people's numb faces were written with exhaustion.
"Five more dead."
Luna carried a tray over to the campfire where Alia and the others sat and spoke softly.
Although they had been assigned to a relatively safe defensive area, casualties in the Red Dragon Company were still unavoidable.
A stray arrow, the aftershock of an impact spreading from overhead, or even collapsing from exhaustion and falling off the wall could take someone's life.
However, the Red Dragon Company had not gained nothing during this period.
This war had made the whole team's spirit and momentum more solid, and many people's strength had improved considerably through bloody battle.
Surely, once the war ended or paused for a time, many members would welcome breakthroughs.
And during these days, every day had brought many solo adventurers or elite adventurer squads who had come because of the Red Dragon Company's reputation, requesting to join.
Those people who could survive on such a dangerous battlefield often possessed quite good strength and coordination.
In other words, as long as they made it through, the Red Dragon Company would undergo a complete transformation after being tempered by war—both in overall strength and reputation.
They might go from being a mid-sized city adventuring company to overtaking others on a curve, breaking into the ranks of large adventuring companies in one leap, completing a path that would take other groups ten years, or even decades.
"By the way, Serandur, you need to control yourself."
"What happened just now was too dangerous."
The others looked toward the half-serpent with concern.
If anyone in the team worried them most besides Gauss, who had gone out alone to carry out a special commission, it was undoubtedly Serandur.
Serandur's strength had been growing very quickly over these days.
Of course, that should have been a good thing.
But the speed seemed a little too fast.
Alia and the others had caught him several times jumping down from the wall alone to engage the monsters below in close combat.
If they had not called out and awakened his consciousness, they even suspected he might have charged straight into the main force of the monster army in one breath.
That was no longer the behavior a healer should have. In terms of ferocity, he surpassed even berserkers.
"I… I understand."
Serandur paused briefly, then closed his eyes and nodded.
He could naturally feel that increasingly wild power inside him.
Gauss's departure seemed to have allowed the monster suppressed within his body to begin stirring again.
But on the other hand, he deeply understood how important powerful strength was during a complicated time like war.
The monster inside him could indeed allow him to erupt with strength far beyond what he should possess.
And he could feel that its potential was far from limited to this.
With Gauss temporarily absent, Serandur felt he needed to stand up and shoulder more responsibility.
He did not want Gauss to return only to hear bad news.
And in truth, he was not the only one who carried that anxiety. Alia and the others were often pushing themselves to the point of complete exhaustion too, constantly drinking all kinds of potions, trying to squeeze every last bit of potential from their bodies.
For geniuses, war was also the best proving ground.