'They're too calm…'
Zauren did not like what he saw. An uneasy feeling swept over his ethereal black body.
'Is the boy somehow alive?' the corrupt demon pondered once again, glancing at the abyss of nothingness in the distance.
"Was this your plan?"
Zauren glanced back at Drakmor's party, where the figure dressed entirely in white looked on coldly.
The corrupted demon could sense the coldness in her intent and the murderous glint in her eyes.
Zauren grinned, exposing his creepy maws for all to see. He was wrong. Alexander's friends weren't calm; they were pissed!
He looked at the other two, clad in red and grey, and saw the same murderous intent in their eyes.
They were itching to act!
"HAHAHA...!"
Julia clenched her fists and gritted her teeth under her cloak. The rage boiling within her demanded an outlet, and Zauren was the perfect dump site!
'Don't do anything rash, Julia.' Cassandra's voice broke through her seething rage. 'That monster is still stronger than us. Focus on Alex's essence flowing through you.'
That was the only thing keeping them sane.
Alexander was his essence, and his essence was him. So long as his essence flowed through their being, Alex was not dead.
More so for Julia, who could feel her engagement ring exude calming energies that soothed her psyche, warmly washing over her.
But they had tried reaching him, only to get radio silence in return. He was there and not there at the same time.
The feeling was very strange to them. Unfortunately for them, they had no idea what to do with that knowledge.
'She's right,' the redhead added, his tone deadly calm. 'Alexander has gone missing before… And if there is one thing we know about his disappearances, it's that he always comes back.'
Ross could see the pitch-black spot near their universe and could pretty much guess what had happened.
But he refused to believe what was in front of his eyes. He had hope in his best friend; Alex would not fall!
'Our focus right now…'
The redhead shifted his gaze from the laughing maniac to the only being he believed would do something. 'Our focus should be on getting Lord Drakmor to help us protect our universe.'
Losing their universe would mean losing everything they had ever known. Alexander's return would not matter then; they would be empty shells with no will to live.
"A well thought-out plan, don't you agree?" Zauren snapped out of his own world and replied. "Simple, but effective. The boy was very predictable, after all."
A cold energy swept over Drakmor and the other Enforcers. Without looking, they knew its source.
Julia was seething behind that cloak of hers. However, the fact that the three remained in place instead of acting out impressed them.
'Is the boy really gone?' Velmyra asked her colleagues.
'Nothing is certain.' Drakmor answered, glancing at Julia.
He didn't know about his colleagues, but he still got the same feeling when he looked at them.
The dragon knew that was not their own strength, and could only mean Alexander was somehow alive.
'But now that we're here…' Drakmor shared with his colleagues, shifting his gaze back to Zauren.
"We had a difficult time flushing you out of your hiding hole. But you're here now…" Drakmor squinted his eyes, his fists clenched.
"Is that right…?" Zauren, on the other hand, found Drakmor's words amusing.
But then, several regions of the void warped and twisted, as thousands of Chief Enforcers materialised.
Some unhesitantly went to aid those who were already engaged with void creatures, relieving the burden on them.
The corrupted demon's expression hardly changed as he observed all of this. He did, however, turn to gaze at the universe now encircled by Enforcers.
Drakmor had reached out to the other chiefs to get them here, personally asking and assigning Enforcers who he was sure weren't corrupted.
He picked four out of the hundreds who had appeared on the day Alexander met them. After all, if they were corrupted, Alexander would have exposed them then.
"This is our mess to begin with," Drakmor continued. "It's only right for us to bring an end to it."
The void trembled as the Veilwalkers put the void on lockdown.
Julia, Ross and Cassandra focused on the Veilwalkers who had appeared around their universe and heaved sighs of relief.
The four Veilwalkers were putting a powerful ward around the universe, keeping out the abyss of nothingness.
Ross was glad he didn't have to point it out; Drakmor was far more conscientious than he thought.
"Haha, you're right." Zauren laughed carefreely. "But we've done this before. What makes you think the outcome will be any different?"
"Back then, we had no idea the kind of mess we had created." One of the newly arrived chiefs replied.
"We can't allow you to continue whatever it is that you're doing."
"We may not be a match for your new master, but we can put you down."
"The Supreme One left a functioning reality to us. We cannot fail him."
One by one, the chiefs shared their sentiments, their bodies flaring wildly with untamed power.
Zauren watched and listened as his former colleagues spoke in turns. He found every bit of it amusing.
But…
"Since you guys have made up your minds, why not?" Zauren taunted. "You lot are a thorn at my side, anyway. Getting rid of you now would be ideal."
Slowly, tension built around them, making the void tremble. Colleagues now stood against one another, ready to fight to the death.
'This won't end well for us…' Cassandra shared with the others grimly. 'Remember the last time these guys fought?'
Julia and Ross did not need the reminder, but they understood what the catwoman was hinting at.
They might be protected against the shockwaves, but without Alexander present, who knew what could go wrong?
Any moment now, and the void would explode. The thought alone made the catwoman very anxious.
However, before anything could go wrong, her point of view changed, momentarily surprising her.
She looked to Julia and Ross, finding them close by. The dragon and the others, however, were not by their side.
'We've been moved.' Ross stated the obvious, looking below him.
The Enforcers had moved them into the ward protecting their universe. In the far distance was one of the chiefs tasked with protecting their universe.
Looking farther ahead, the trio spotted the corrupted demon and his companions, who looked back at them with ominous grins.
"Don't worry, kids. I'll be coming for you next." Zauren taunted them, making Julia grit her teeth and clench her fists.
'I hate this…' Julia inwardly cursed.
'We all do, Julia.' Ross could understand how Julia was feeling. 'But Veilwalkers are a different breed compared to regular beings like us.'
BOOM…!
"Hahaha…!"
The void exploded as the Enforcers finally clashed. Zauren and his companions had vanished from their original position.
The two Immortals did not even bother to follow the fight after reacting to the first explosion of energy.
Moreover, the fighting had disappeared from their sensory range. The battle had shifted stages before they could even take a glance.
Cassandra, on the other hand, observed how the initial shockwaves crashed into the protective ward the Enforcers had conjured.
'Will it truly hold back that vile essence?' the catwoman thought anxiously, swallowing hard. 'Alexander… wherever you are, you better hurry up.'
Drakmor, Ignarok and two other chiefs: a seraphim by the name Azreal and a phoenix by the name Feng Xiaotian.
Two dragons, an angel and a fire phoenix. They combined their might and purification characteristics to deal with their corrupted demon.
Each Enforcer had a protective ward around their bodies, shielding them from the corruptive essence Zauren used.
Unfortunately for them, their shields could only do so much. The corrupted essence was highly aggressive and ruthlessly adhesive, forcing Drakmor and his colleagues to change their wards constantly.
With swift and brutal exchanges that constantly shook the void, their battle was one for the ages.
However, despite the numerical advantage the Chiefs had, Zauren proved to be a difficult opponent.
His strikes were heavy, carrying enough force to rupture high-level universes with ease. His energy blasts had to be avoided at all costs, or they risked being corrupted.
"Hahaha! Is that all you got?!"
Drakmor and the others gritted their teeth in frustration. Although they landed multiple hits on the bastard, their follow-ups were slow.
Dealing with the corrupted essence in addition to dealing damage to Zauren made their job twice as hard.
With the regenerative prowess of their kind, a picosecond was all it took for Zauren to recover, whereas they had to fight off the essence that had stuck to them, delaying their own recovery.
"You'll have to do better than that!"
As the Enforcers closed in on Zauren for another strike, the corrupted demon spun around and unleashed a torrential wave of corrupted essence.
'Shit!'
The Enforcers swiftly conjured protective shields to block the sudden surge, forcing them to retreat under the roaring waves.
'This is getting nowhere, Drakmor!' The phoenix roared through their connection. 'And Azrael's light is as useless as our flames!'
Open wounds exposing their essence littered their bodies. And some had lingering traces of the demon's corruptive essence.
Their situation was bleak, and the rest of their colleagues did not fare any better. 'Damn it! If only we had a way to deal with that essence!'
After managing to fight back the surge of corrupted essence, Drakmor and his colleagues came to a halt.
They surrounded the corrupted demon, but their situation was not as it seemed. Their breath came out in heavy, desperate pants, as if they were deprived of air.
"How was the warm-up?" The demon flashed his colleagues a sinister grin, taking pleasure in seeing their wretched forms.
Zauren had the upper hand in this fight, and they all knew it. If nothing changed soon, Drakmor and the other Enforcers could kiss their pure lives goodbye.