Chapter 426 Quartering the Lands
Chapter 426 Quartering the Lands
The lands within their respective Sanctuaries were split up like a pie, sliced into quarters with two diagonals. With that, four almost equal zones were created.
What? What about mine?
I didn't bother to select somewhere to use my Sanctuary and decided to save it for later. After all, it's bothersome to move your set location to a different one later.
Anyway, after setting their boundaries, the four God Tamers quickly activated their Sanctuaries. Fortunately, the function doesn't automatically select an area and instead requires the tamer to manually select the land they want to be included under their control.
Due to this way of splitting their territories, Heaven's Republic ended up getting split into four sanctuaries at the same time. Other lucky kingdoms were divided into two sanctuaries at most.
After the setup was complete, each one of them quickly modified their land to make it a lot easier to defend.
For example, Zeshion created a complex landscape heading further south in an attempt to make it harder for the demons to pass through. Ajax added a forest ahead of his territory. Vermeil created deep cliffs whose bottom couldn't be seen and spread them all over the place. Lastly, Blanc simply created a steep, solid metal mountain range ahead of her land and forced the demons to go either toward Ajax or Vermeil's areas.
"..."
Well, it's true that Blanc isn't fit for direct battles, but... Her method looked the nastiest among the four of them. She's basically dumping most of the work onto the two beside her!
"Anyway, with this, our defenses should be strengthened greatly."
The next problem, or rather, the biggest problem now, is how to handle the Void Beast.
"Ember, do you think you can strip its defenses easily?"
If we are to fight it, the first worry we should have is whether our attacks will even work on it. As a Void Beast, it should have powerful protection around it, making most attacks basically ineffective and useless.
Ember didn't even have to think before shaking her head.
"Even as I am right now, I'm afraid I can't do it, Master..."
She looked sad, even disappointed, that her power wasn't enough to neutralize the Void Beast. It was fine, however, since I already guessed that was the case.
"So, our first task would be how to neutralize its Void-Powered Defenses."
Back when we helped Fatima destroy one, we used a "poison" that disturbed its energy flow, weakening its control over energy, before smashing it with Ember's Void-element-infused attack.
Even a weakened Void Beast required such extreme preparations before we could finally defeat it.
This time, the enemy is a newborn one. There's a miniscule possibility that it still couldn't control its powers that well, but with how unlucky I usually am, there's no hope for that happening.
Everyone started to pitch in with their own ideas, trying to think of ways to fight and destroy the Void Beast. However, in the end, we came to the conclusion that only by using an extravagant attack infused by Void Energy, whose users are limited to only Ember and Alpha, as far as I know, can we have hope of defeating it.
Using Fatima's artillery form, we can fire a shell loaded with Void energy and reinforced with Void Powers at the Void Beast. At least, we can ensure a direct hit using that method.
The only problem left would be how heavy the damage would be after the attack. If it only managed to scratch it, then our defeat would eventually come, no matter how we struggled.
But then, Fang's casual remark caused a spark in my stalling brain. After a few back and forths, throwing ideas, and clarifying details, I finally nodded my head with a confident smile.
"Right! We can use that!"
And so, to follow the plan we came up with, the first thing to do is to wipe out the annoyances around it. The god-level demons, along with the other small fries, would get in the way of the battle with the Void Beast.
So, to avoid complications with the plan, we decided to wipe them out.
---
After the short meeting, we split up into a total of seven groups.
Ember, going toward the north alone. Fang, heading to the northeast; Fatima to the southeast; Igni to the south; the pair of Hekate and Minerva to the southwest; and the trio of Fina, Judy, and Yorm toward the northwest.
All six teams were there to hunt down as many god-level demons as they could, all for our plans against the Void Beast to come to fruition.
Me? I was off toward the most dangerous position... or not. I actually teleported toward the back of the demon swarm alone. As they were heading north, the southernmost end of their formation was where the stragglers, the weaker ones, were located.
"Although I wanted to locate their commander or something similar, I guess thinning out their numbers is the top priority."
Whoever it was that was giving commands to the demons must be within their ranks, but I haven't seen a single demon that stood out from the rest.
Anyway, I fixed my gaze ahead of me.
There were already a few god-level demons that noticed my presence and were coming straight toward me.
"..."
Even back when we were fighting behind Azrael, I had already noticed this, but...
"These demons feel like they've been upgraded haphazardly... They can't even use their basic domains."
I didn't really mind it at first, but thinking back about it, it was weird.
"Were their mental facilities lowered to the limit, enough that they can't even use their domains? They're like mass-
produced cannon fodder!"
As expected, even after the demons came within range, they didn't use any of their domains. They just attacked me directly using their bodies or weapons, waving without even a hint of creativity or cunning.
*Sigh*
I heaved a sigh as I twisted my body, dodging each attack as they came. They were so uncoordinated that most of their attacks got entangled with each other, making it a lot easier to evade.
"I guess I'll just practice the new skills I gained from the girls."
While dodging the attacks and weaving through the barrage, I managed to close the distance to a dinosaur-like zombie demon. It was big, but that's all it had to offer. I jumped up, reached its back, and placed my palm right behind its cranium.
"[Collapsing Stars]!"
As I muttered the skill's name, the dinosaur-like zombie's head was smashed as if an invisible, powerful, giant hand clapped with the head in between its two palms.
I checked the damage, correlated it with the energy consumption, and nodded lightly.
"Hmmm... Pretty useful."