The successful breakthrough had made Emery return to his peak state and strengthen himself further. Now that he had taken a step forward into the mid stage of rank 9, he could clearly feel the strengthened connection to the elements he had affinity for, especially the Darkness and Earth elements.
Looking at the sight of thousands or so Abyss creatures charging at him with bloodthirsty gazes, Emery raised both his hands high in the air and started to swing them around. The empty air above the sandy plains began to distort slightly and darken following the movement of Emery's hands.
A large portion of the yellow plain was shaken, as a powerful surging wave of dark ash began swirling above it and crashing into every creature in its path. Those who were unlucky enough to be engulfed by this wave of dark ash were immediately killed and their bodies separated into unrecognizable pieces.
[Ash Blast]
Spplaaattt! Spllattt! Splaatt!
The spectacle of slaughter where countless bloody body parts scattered everywhere was left in the wake of the ash.
In spite of how it looked, [Ash Blast] was not a wind element spell.
It was a spell that took form in the distortion of space that was filled with the pulse of Earth. Its might was so powerful that stage 1 and stage 2 Abyss creatures could do nothing but surrender themselves to inevitable death. Even stage 3 Abyss creatures could not be unscathed when confronted with it.
Dozens of stage 3 Abyss creatures that were able to walk through the ashes were quickly stopped by Arcana's ability. Not caring about their injured bodies, they turned around and charged at the other Abyss creatures that were still moving.
With the cooperation between their spells, even though they numbered in the thousands, no Abyss creature was able to step into the area 10 meters in front of them. All of them without exception died, either by Emery's deadly spell or by their own brethren, who were bewitched by Arcana's eye.
Fifteen minutes. It took mere fifteen minutes to turn the yellow plains to red, a field full of corpses. In the midst of this brutal scene, suddenly a scream of frustration rang out clearly in the air.
"Arrrghhh! Not even 10,000 points!" Arcana said, displeased.
Unfortunately for the kid-looking acolyte, no one paid any attention to him. Emery ignored him, as he was busy checking the breakthrough his body had just gone through.
Within his spirit cores, a total of 8 pillars have been beautifully erected on his two foundations. Emery was about to nod in satisfaction when he suddenly noticed that the unique pillar, the one labeled [undefined], appeared to have more red cracks than before.
It didn't take a genius to guess that it was bad news for him.
As the pillar itself was formed because of his innate [Spirit Devour] ability, this time must have something to do with how he devoured the stage 5 creature.
It seemed he needed to put his plan of gaining more spirit force by devouring creatures on hold until he learnt more about his Devour pillar.
It wouldn't be too late to wait once he was absolutely sure it was safe to proceed. After all, it wasn't as if the Andora planet was the only planet in existence. There were still many other planets with a plethora of creatures for him to devour.
For now, he just needed to make sure to tread the safe path.
Moments later, while he was contemplating how he should treat the peculiar pillar he had erected, Emery discovered that more hordes of Abyss creatures were coming towards his location from the north.
"Yes!" Arcana responded excitedly. "More's coming!"
Based on Arcana's words, his ability still seemed to echo to the other Abyss creatures wandering around this area. Therefore he was sure that more would come. Emery just nodded when he heard this.
As long as they came when he wasn't in a helpless state like before, Emery found the hordes of bloodthirsty Abyss creatures charging at him to be quite convenient. After all, not only would he gain points from killing them, he could also take advantage of this fighting opportunity to adapt to his newly increased strength.
A few minutes later, the horde of Abyss creatures Emery had detected in the north finally arrived within his line of sight. Thousands of them encroached the horizon with their presence. Emery of course had to prepare a 'gift' to welcome their arrival.
However, just as he was about to generously send out the spells he had prepared, Emery sensed that two figures were approaching from the south. Needless to say, his Spirit Reading quickly told him who they were.
Swissshhhh!
A huge bird rapidly flew towards where Emery was. Two beautiful girls could be seen sitting on its back and when they saw the Abyss creatures were just a distance away, they quickly took action.
The one with blazing red hair jumped down from the bird's back and in mid-air cast [Hellfire], sending out a huge sphere of black fire that successfully killed dozens of approaching Abyss creatures. A wall of black flames appeared where the spell landed, preventing more Abyss creatures from getting any closer.
The other girl, on the other hand, flew past the two and further with the bird. It didn't take long for her to arrive right above the horde, making a phenomenon swiftly manifest in the sky, as she began casting her powerful [Storm Haze] spell.
In a matter of a few seconds, the clouds on the yellow plains above the horde darkened. It was quickly followed by heavy rain that blinded sight and rumblings of thunder with lightning striking the creatures on the ground.
Zappp! Zappp! Zappp!
The two girls were naturally Annara and Klea, with the participation of two more powerhouses, blood once again drenched the plains as the Abyss creatures were slaughtered like livestock. They were unable to put up any meaningful struggle, and the number of bodies on the plains increased once again.
When the battle was over, Annara, who was the closest, quickly approached Emery while looking at Arcana suspiciously.
"Annara, why are you here?" Emery asked, as the two of them should be cleaning up the Abyss nest by now.
"You should ask this question to your girlfriend instead," replied Annara, rolling her eyes. "She thought you were in danger and insisted on coming here."
A moment later, Klea's mount came descending from the sky and the girl walked towards Emery with a worried face. Seeing her expression, Emery said, "What's wrong, Klea? Why are you here?"
Klea seemed to heave a sigh of relief when she saw nothing was wrong with him.
Apparently, just a few hours ago, the thirty Mineralized Warriors accompanying Klea's group suddenly turned to ashes. Seeing the peculiar sight, she quickly thought Emery was in trouble and rushed to find him.
The issue Emery had with his core earlier did cause the supply of spirit energy to be cut off for a while, so such a thing was to be expected.
"Don't worry. I'm fine. In fact, I am more than fine." Emery said with a smile. ᴀʟ ʟ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ full.com
It was at this moment the three finally realized Emery had broken through to the middle stage. As a matter of fact, Arcana was the most surprised among them. He had only left Emery for a few hours and the latter had a breakthrough in his cultivation. This revelation created more fear and respect in him for Emery.
Realizing the sudden disappearance of his summons must have troubled his friends Thrax and Chumo, Emery created a new batch of Mineralized Warriors.
Now that his affinity for Earth and Darkness element had undergone an increase, he believed there would definitely be an improvement to his summons.