The first battle between the forces of Aterna and devils erupted following the killing strike from the huge formation. The allied army went through corpses and rivers of blood to strike at the remaining devils. But contrary to expectations, there was no fear among the devils left. They all looked at the coming wave of different soldiers and their eyes contained anger, malice and a hint of contempt. They were the devil's army. While they were not part of the main attacking force and were usually involved in information gathering, they were still part of a super force that spanned the 26 dimensions. They had been through countless planes and had seen tertiary planes countless many times.

How was it possible for them to be scared by just this measly plane?

The devil army was a huge force and joining it was not easy. Each person who joined was the best among his peers. Even before one joined the army, they were sent into planar wars. Only the ones who could survive through the planar battles were accepted. Thus, even the new recruits were veteran warriors who could kill without blinking an eye. The devils all maintained a circular formation and started attacking from all sides. While the Aterna army was huge, the Devils were much better equipped and had good teamwork. They would cover each other's backs in the battle collectively showing power beyond their numbers.

Most importantly, the devil army was a true raiding army. In the lives of these soldiers, there was no fear of death. It was especially so for the ones with lower cultivation. The lifespan of these soldiers was only around a few thousand years. While it was much longer than Aterna's mortals, in the scope of the 26 domains, a few thousand years was hardly significant. Ascendants would have regular secluded cultivation sessions that long. But, these soldiers had still fought with their heart and soul for the devils' army. All of this was for a single reason - benefits. The chance to live longer, the chance to become stronger.

Greed was the vice of all intelligence. As long as any intelligent being possessed limited resources, greed would always be present in their hearts. Even divine cultivators, who could rule above all else would throw away all pretences if the benefits were big enough. Immortality was a fleeting dream and countless walked the path of cultivation. But how many had succeeded? None!

Even divine powerhouses could and had been killed. Was immortality possible? Perhaps it was, perhaps not. No one had become an immortal since the dawn of intelligence in the law ocean. But no one had ever reached the highest possible peak either. Thus, what fuelled these cultivators was greed, or one might say hope! But while cultivators chased after immortality, the path would constantly make them aware of their own mortality. The heart of an expert chased after immortality but was unafraid of death. After all, death was the natural end of all life. One might say that living endlessly was the opposite of death - the definition of eternity. But, it was an illusion. To ants who lived for a few days, humans who could live for a hundred years were already eternal. To humans, the cultivators who lived for a few thousand years were eternal. To cultivators like these, the condensation experts who could live for a few million years were eternal. But what about the ascendants and divinities? Naturally, they too had a lifespan. Time was unrelenting. Law of time was one of the supreme laws. How could simple law marks win against it? Even the cultivators who cultivated the law of time were not eternal.

After all, cultivating a law did not mean being inert to it. Or else, the devil ancestor who had great command over the laws of death would have become immortal. Considering all this, it was not surprising that these devils could face their deaths resolutely.

On the other side, the Aterna army had been created only 10 years ago and the number of battles that they had fought was null. The combat strength of the soldiers was not uniform and while the level of military effectiveness was quite good in the army, it was not comparable to their opponents. But they too were not afraid of death! This was a battle for survival for them. For their families, their races and their beliefs and traditions, these soldiers were willing to face their death.

As the armies began their battle, the devil powerhouses came down to the ground. They had already spent a huge amount of law energy and this was definitely going to be a hindrance.

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Michael and the other immortals all attacked with great teamwork. The battles between them heated up.

There were two demi-ascendants that posed a formidable challenge. But this was not the end of the devil powerhouses. The vice-captains all had condensation realm cultivation, either in terms of body or soul. Each of them was comparable in combat strength to the stronger immortals like Kevin Kross. Thus, while the number of powerhouses on the devil's side were lower, they were still able to hold on their own.

The battle raged for hours!

On the battlefield, many experts showed incredible results.

First was Michael's older brother - Leonor Rageberg. His military command was extraordinary and his company of devil-slayers killed many devils one after another. His every move seemed to contain a hint of law - the law of mountains! This was the level Leonor had reached by his own training in the devil slayers army. And his insights were much higher compared to Ambrose or Remeus. In fact, his level was probably sufficient to breakthrough into law-conception realm already. He was knowingly suppressing his breakthrough because he wanted to gain insight into a more powerful law - the living mountain law. Laws were the fundamental components that built up the world including the law ocean, planes and even living beings. Everything resulted from the complex interaction of laws.

For example - a body made of flesh and blood contained the working of many laws - life, blood, strength, reality, cohesion, order, ...

Each and everything in the world resulted from the interaction between laws. The living mountain law was a similar law produced by a complex specific interaction of two laws - the law of earth and the law of life. The law of life was a grand law and the law of earth was a major law. The law of living mountain was actually pretty close to the power of a grand law. While the law of mountains was only a minor law.

Others to note were definitely Michael's three knights. Each of them was like a ferocious beast that had been let out after tasting blood. They all fought on the frontlines with their lives constantly in danger. But as they fought in this life and death battle, their techniques became more and more refined and natural. This was not the kind of progress that everyone could make. Michael, for example, was not very good at internalizing his battle techniques. His fighting techniques did not flow naturally but were a deliberate effort. As a result, he constantly amassed injuries in his battles. Michael's style was to win with overwhelming strength. When he fought people with the same power-level, he was beaten badly. It was not that Michael got scared of his opponents. But, he was not a natural fighter. He could not bring out his entire strength in battle.

But this was only if Michael was fighting alone. But currently, he was fighting the two demi-humans along with many other immortals. As the battle continued for hours, the armies on both sides were constantly exhausted. But the allied army could switch between their personnel while the devil army had to keep on fighting. It soon became apparent that the devil army was going to lose due to their exhaustion. But even the powerhouses were being pressurised by the Aterna powerhouses. Thus, they had no way to retreat. Aterna army was not fighting to win. They were fighting to kill.

Kill all the devils!

This was the only objective that these people had. Kill everyone so that they can't send out any information. Aterna overlords were prepared to pay any price for that. Thus, the allied army disregarded their losses and after 10 hours of battle, all but a few of the devil powerhouses were killed.

The ones who chose to surrender were also not spared. After the harrowing battle, only a handful of the devil powerhouses were left. The entire battlefield was riddled with corpses of soldiers from both the armies.

While the devils had much lesser numbers, they still managed to kill around 2 million soldiers of the army. Out of every three from Aterna army, one was dead. This was a huge loss. After all, this was not even the main attacking army of the devils. But, the fact that Aterna won completely still remained true. The devils did not find the leisure to contact their headquarters and were all ultimately slain. Even the powerhouses died after another large battle.

Among the immortals, around 30 died. This had caused the power-level of the plane to drop significantly. But all this was worth it. Because, the devils were dead - thoroughly and completely.

The battle came to an end after that. What was left was to loot the corpses. The devils almost all had their own space rings. This was pretty inconceivable to Michael and the rest but it seemed that space rings were a common entity in the worlds beyond. Almost all the devil soldiers had great wealth. Just their energy stones could probably keep up the cultivation requirements of the entire plane for a few decades.

The scavenging teams were organised and the entire battlefield was raided for a long time. The armours, weapons, space rings and anything of value was taken away and reorganised. The haul from the battle was almost enough to offset the sacrifice of the dead ones. The resources were compiled and then were distributed. The entire process took some time. Meanwhile, something big happened.