Chương 958

The instant everyone begins to look for these strange outliers of Demonic Soldiers with invisible auras is the same instant that they all begin to move from their positions. At first, they were only watching from stable areas of deep space or appearing at random battlefields, but never making any hostile moves.

In the total ranks of millions of Imperial Soldiers, there are less than a hundred of these strange elites, but once spotted it is clear to see they have all teleported to the battlefields of the Knights and Commanders that are killing their troops. They do not have instant teleportation crystals; instead, they burst through deep space using High Quality Ether Glyphs to propel them forward with reality bending speed. They are capable of crossing large percentages of the galaxy in mere seconds.

Yet, they only move in straight lines, and their bodies become consumed with layers of white glyphs, allowing them to phase right through entire stars. It is like a manual and less instant version of a dungeon walker jump, but recreated with ether, and played out on a galactic scale. Many of these Elite Soldiers, when they arrive at their destinations, take up to a full minute to adapt and adjust to their new locations. The glyphs around their bodies spin rapidly, and their eyes look blank.

The cooldown time on this ability lasts far longer than the travel time itself. Many seem to have predicted this side effect and have transported themselves to star systems where they predict the Knights and Commanders will move next. They have the data too and know which soldiers have more faulty armor. Plus, it is quite easy to study the past few thousand battles already and see what pattern of attack the humans have been implementing. The first to see one close up and personal is Fisher.

Just after detonating another Demon that had a small hairline fracture in his chestplate, the water-wielding swordsman breaks his next luminite crystal that is traded through the World Wide Connectivity interface from Bri, and he disappears to find himself 29 star systems away surrounding a bright yellow sun. Instantly, he locks onto his target and compares the data to what he sees and spots the faded glyph right near the back of this mindless Demonic Soldier's neck.

"Another easy kill..." he whispers, propelling himself forward and charging up his blade to one-shot this enemy. Yet, once he comes within about a hundred million kilometers, a very strange aura pours through his senses. Nothing in the actual divine thread count or gravity of the atmosphere in this star system shifts, but every single one of his danger senses blares in his mind. His vibrations all pull back into his body, and he does not follow through with his strike at all.

Instead, he makes a 90-degree turn away from the trajectory he was headed. Fisher has no idea what he's feeling but knows it must be related to all the alerts and warnings of irregular demons that have been coming through lately. In the next moment, the Demonic Soldier he was tasked to take out explodes on its own. It happens in an extremely strange manner, with a perfect hole pulsing through its chest, like its body and cores have been deleted from reality.

There is an explosion of white energy that fills the entire star system with light moments after, but this water mage still senses a threat coming his way. His eyes open wide as all of the energy in the air is avoiding a single invisible orb that rockets toward him.

"That's it... Primordial Aura..." He recalls the data shared of Jay and Samir's battle, and desperately tries to dodge this attack because he's certain with all of the stats in this entire galaxy, he couldn't survive whatever this is in his current state. Fisher's heightened instincts in this moment make out another celestial body in the massive explosion of glyphs that is repelling the energy wave, and it is in the shape of another Demon. Its entire body is covered in a bubble of this Primordial Aura.

The creature looks at him with a cold glare and holds a pointed spear in his hand. Millions of glyphs are swirling around it, and the density of invisible aura is building up around its tip. No noise is heard and no recoil at all is visible, but the glyphs do flash and spin faster every time an attack is sent out over the next few seconds. Over a dozen orbs of invisible aura start to fly through the air, blocking off all areas of escape.

Every foresight reading Fisher sees is of himself being torn apart and evaporated by these waves of unblockable aura. The blue-eyed mage crushes a luminite crystal and teleports to another planet 14 star systems away. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"We have an emergency. These irregulars... they're attacking... and they're too strong... I can't even begin to fight back in my current state," he remarks while sending this footage to the Admins. A streak of white light appears at the other side of this desolate red sun star system, leaving a trail across the dark void of deep space from where he came. The Demon with a spear appears but takes nearly half a minute to cool down and begin approaching Fisher.

In this time, he tries to find any weaknesses, but this Elite's armor is flawless; there isn't a single glyph or array out of place. The Primordial Aura surrounding him is like an additional defensive system. Thousands of full-powered blue serpents filled with Soul Energy, True Yellow Divine Threads, and Noble Grade Vibrations are sent at this Demon while it is frozen and gaining its bearings. Yet, everything is devoured by the Primordial Aura.

All of his attacks disappear into thin air and never even make it to hit his armor. The instant this Demon's eyes regain their life and look his way, Fisher crushes another luminite crystal to get to safety. He stares down at the [Rank Up] notification in his status, breathing heavily, then sends a telepathic message to Lydia, "I'm going to need some cover... a distraction long enough for me to rank up. I'm against an enemy I can't defeat..."

Messages come back in Fisher's mind, showing Lydia's last minute or so, blipping through the galaxy running from an Axe Wielder that has the exact same Primordial Aura flowing around his body.

"I'd love to help if I wasn't in the same position as you..." All of the Crimson Army start sending visuals of these same Demons chasing them around, to every new star system they try to save from the marching Imperial Guards. Instantly, no one is able to defend their attacks any longer. The only warriors capable of taking the Imperial Soldiers down are being hunted by the Elites. – In the Green Zone, the front line of Demonic forces is brutally killed.

Hundreds of explosions light up the entire Green Zone with high-quality residue and fractured glyphs. They all burst through every single Citadel, like enormous holograms. The low-quality ether, Demonic Essence, and small portions of Celestial Energy that were inside the Demons' cores, however, all collide with the ether defense arrays around these floating cities. It makes them all shake, and many citizens pass out from the pressure that leaks through.

The only Citadel that isn't affected by these waves is the fortress. It stays completely still, like nothing out of the ordinary is happening around it. Even the high-quality glyphs shatter into pieces when they hit its ancient defensive arrays. The three generals that are deep in their fights take advantage of the massive amounts of ether in the air.

Those that they can absorb become extremely potent in the air, filling their Soul Energy Cores with millions of units of extremely refined low-quality ether per second, and with small amounts of Celestial Energy in the mix, it begins converting their cores to become entirely medium quality ether. All of the borrowed Celestial Grade Skills begin working with far greater efficiency, and their victory seems like it will be quite easy.

Even the White Griffin and Zashen activate their greater forms and achieve a few kills of their own, attacking the most fragile Imperial Demons. All five attackers have surpassed level 100, 000 and have glowing [Rank Up] options available for themselves too, but they are still in the heat of battle. Raven is the deepest into enemy lines. Arie attacks from a distance, and those from the Grand Citadel are not as aggressive as her. This dual-wielding swordswoman has killed over a hundred Imperial Demons herself.

The raw strength and speed difference is far greater than those fighters in the Lower Realm, and the manual tear through space to get here has damaged the armor of many more Demons than below as well. Almost a full third of their army has some kind of defect that can be exploited. The shockwaves of high-quality glyphs from their dying kin also send them flying through the air, forcing them to correct their positioning after every blast. The glyphs do not phase through them.

Some even break apart, and their armor self-destructs itself if the kills are close enough together. However, many Demons still have flawless armor, and the battle plan for killing them is still unknown. Full-powered attacks have been tested on them, and none have even made a scratch or moved a glyph out of place. However, after attacking them, the Mindless Demons do not fight back. They just march forward like the generals and elites are of no threat. It seems there is no danger at all...

until Raven's instincts begin screaming into her mind to run away. She is in her stealth dimension, completely invisible, and on her way toward the next demon with a small armor fracture in his right knee. Yet, she feels like there is a horrible wave of fire coming toward her back. There is no actual heat and no bends in the atmosphere, but it is just her brain making up emotions to deal with the invisible and unsensible danger approaching.

With foresight enabled, she starts to see an endless amount of gruesome deaths she's about to experience no matter what path she takes. Her stealth dimension should make her untouchable. Not even a close-up full-powered explosion from these dying demons hurt a hair on her, despite being inside their bodies during the blast. Yet, visions of enormous holes deleting her from existence play over and over with no options of saving her in sight.

She manages to turn her head in the direction it is coming from and sees the source. It's one of the anomalies that everyone has begun to find in the Lower Realm. They are managing to buy themselves time by star system hopping, but that isn't exactly an option for Raven right now. She sees possibilities of using the fast travel perk available for generals and teleporting away from danger to a far side of the zone, but that wouldn't last for long. She could easily be followed.

She even begins to think of teleporting up to the Cyan Zone where Abby's fast travel location is available, but is unaware of the risks of hopping zones like that without preparation... not to mention, if they left this place now, it would have no one to defend it. Hundreds of millions of Lords would lose their lives, and the mana-based forces in the Upper Realm would be obliterated without question.

She tries to link her mind to Arie and Ava, but is surprised to find they both send out a probe for a connection at the same time. The visuals of Elite Imperial Demons that are clearly intelligent and unlike the rest come into each other's minds. Every single one of them is being attacked with Primordial Aura right now and has no logical path to victory.