Better the fear you know than the unknown in this situation. There's a lot to fear in the demon realm if you're weak. And those are known sources of fear. If you constantly fear the unknown then you will die of fear. That is a real possibility because of the existence of demons of fear who can empower themselves with fear.
So fear is a very harmful luxury for the weak. No matter the amount of dread that they felt, the army commander's presence held the soldiers in line. They didn't bolt away, but that's all they could manage right now. When Aeternus got within shouting distance of the fortress, the army commander was the one to ask for Aeternus's purpose since no one else could ask and his vice-commanders didn't dare do anything without his consent.
"What brings you here, the ominous reaper?" Danazel asked proudly with his chest all puffed out and his height of 3.9 meters fully displayed.
NAME: Danazel
RACE: Demon of Pride.
BLOODLINE/SIN: Pride.
DEMON RANK: High-Rank Demon.
HEALTH: 100%
STAMINA: 100%
MANA: 6837
SIN ENERGY: 5185
ATTACK RATING: Physique:180. Spirit:180 MAGIC:180
DEFENSE RATING: Physique:180 Spirit:180. MAGIC:180.
SIN ABILITY: Power Of Pride(EPIC)- +9 boosts to whatever stat you are lacking in a confrontation).
Armor of Pride(LEGENDARY)- Ability that reduces the effectiveness of any ability that you have resolved before by 70%)
STATUS: Feeling Smug.
Unlike Alkazhi that needed time to power up, Danazel is an all-rounder ready to do battle at any time. His first sin ability shores up any weakness, and his second ability reduces powers and abilities that he has overcome before. Only something well above his power level and new to him could be a threat to him. But if that thing doesn't kill him now, it will likely never do. Whatever doesn't kill him, makes him stronger.
Aeternus answered, "Danazel is it. I'm taking this fortress. Begone if you care for your life."
Actually, that's not what he wants. He wants to fight and kill Danazel. Ideally, he would prefer it if Danazel comes out and they fight but he knows that's not going to happen. Danazel might be a demon of pride but he isn't foolish. So instead, he will go for the one thing that Danazel must care about. Either Danazel fights then or not.
Meanwhile, Danazel didn't feel creeped out that the ominous reaper knew his name. No, he felt very angry and frankly insulted instead. But he kept his cool, something fishy must be going on here or the ominous reaper is one bat-shit crazy demon.
So he asked coldly. "Oh yeah, you and what army?"
Here he is, a lord of a fortress behind the defense of his fortress and with ten thousand mid-rank demons in his army. He has a network of alliance that can come to his rescue, for a price of course, if he is ganged upon. And yet, one mid-rank demon full of himself or highly confident is telling him to scram without a fight.
'He must have confidence in something. I just need to experience it once and I'll become stronger.' Danazel thought to himself.
There's no way he will just run away like that and give up what is his. He had to see and experience what it is. His confidence lay in the fact that his power rating could reach 225. No ordinary high-rank demon can reach that level and the extraordinary high-rank demons stronger than that have failed in killing him or else he won't be standing here alive, well, and feeling smug.
Aeternus didn't answer, he continued to approach the fortress. He had said his piece, now was the time for action.
Danazel shouted to his soldiers, "Attack him. Kill him now and put an end to this nonsense."
He would kill the Ominous Reaper, then he would get his loot. He has archers, spell casters, cannons, ballista, and catapults ready at the top of the walls. The fortress is a structure 500 meters long on each side, its four walls are 50m high and 20m thick. It was built with the lives of thousands of mid-rank demons and highly durable abyssal stone. Only a betrayal, the assassination of the commander, or the attack of several high-rank demons can overcome its defenses.
Every means at Danazel's disposal rained down on the line figure that his Aeternus. Arrows, spells, and cannon fire were shot at him. In response, he dropped his claymore into the ground and commanded it to grow. The claymore sank into the ground as it grew taller and wider. It protected him from the barrage. Danazel's mouth was wide enough to swallow a cannonball.
"My turn." Aeternus' divine sense informed the attackers.
Chaos spells started to form in the air. They were copies of the magical attacks that they shot at him, except they were three times in number and very much powerful. It was like high-rank demons three times the amount of the mid-rank demons that shot spells were attacking the fortress. That's without adding the advantage of chaos energy over mana.
These conjurations that he created with chaos energy are in the form of the original spells except they are black and smoking. He couldn't create this many attacks on his own with chaos energy but his sin ability helped him with that. It is another thing to see if he could control it though.
His soul ordered the attack to rain down on the wall of the fortress. The attacks bombarded the top of the walls and even extended into the fortress. Explosions rang out as the chaos spells wreaked havoc. The orderly formation made it easier for the spells to cause maximum damage. Soldiers and siege weapons on this side of the walls were destroyed. The durable stone prevented the fortress itself from taking any damage but it had begun to burn. Black flames were spreading all around and burning everything.
Danazel exclaimed in shock when he saw the large thing that appeared in front of Aeternus like a shield that protected him. But now he is barking orders and trying to keep morale up but his army was in shambles. The fire couldn't be put out and it was still spreading. The fire was black and gloomy like the stuff covering the ominous reaper's body.
'Has he always been on fire? Is this his trump card? How did he do it?' Danazel asked himself.
He has a lot of questions swirling in his mind but doesn't have the leisure to have them answered. His demon soldiers were crying and trying to flee. He couldn't wrap his head around what had just happened but he had to keep the army together. Then he heard a loud boom and he felt the support beneath his feet going down. His mind realized what was going on immediately. The wall was crumbling. A lot more questions popped up in his mind but the most pertinent one is, 'How did he do it?'
There could only be one person responsible for this but his attention had left the ominous reaper while he was trying to extinguish the black flames and keep his army together. The wall was supposed to be very difficult to break. They didn't make it 20 meters thick for it to breach so easily.
Aeternus had retrieved his claymore. He focused on it and compressed chaos energy with his soul force. Then he lifted and brought it down on the wall. He increased its length and weight as the claymore came down on the wall. It tore through the walls easily before unloading the compressed chaos energy within it. The resulting explosion from deep within the wall broke its structural integrity and made it crumble.
The explosion didn't create flying rock shards. Chaos energy within the explosion caused everything to turn to ashes. A large hole was created within the wall from which more chaotic flames spread throughout the walls causing it to crumble. The claymore shrank and returned to Aeternus' hands. Then Aeternus dashed into the fortresses over the ruins of the wall.
He aimed straight for the castle. He created more flames that he spread wantonly along his way to the castle. Most of Danazel's wealth will be stored there. He made his actions eye-catching and aim obvious so that Danazel will be able to pinpoint his position among the chaos and come to stop him. If Danazel doesn't come to stop him then he will have to be content with the death of thousands of mid-rank demons and the goodies that Danazel has been hoarding. One cannot eat their cake and have it too.
Danazel appeared to stop him when he reached 100m of the castle. He roared at Aeternus, "What have you done?"
'Looks like I get to eat my cake and have it.' Aeternus chuckled to himself.
He would have licked his lips or grinned if he had a mouth. For now, he will settle with the increase in the intensity of the glow of his eyes.
"You will pay for what you've done. Nothing but your life will do." Danazel promised gory vengeance as he hefted his twin flamming hammers and lunged for Aeternus.