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Chapter 47

In the middle of the Phoenix Lands, where the heavenly Pure spirit energy flowed in heavy waves through the swamp like area. Hundreds of thousands of Acolytes guarded the borders and the surrounding area. The Wooden-Thunder family was all too glad to have most of its forces here as they would grow at a phenomenal rate. and they paid the mercs and Small families that helped guard it with some of the rare treasures it produced. Only a Few miles from the center where a Giant temple like building sat, it’s spires reaching into the sky in a green and navy blue glory, it’s well carved out exterior grand and awe inspiring, a Portal half a mile in diameter opened up over the thick brush of the wet lands and swamps. It was immediately felt by every being for thousands of miles around, and several wild beasts scattered, Afraid of the shear energy and power the portal radiated. Lightning struck randomly all around the energy filled space it created, and time almost seamed to slow near it. What was even more confusing was that the energy it was putting out was Chaos spirit energy. Instantly those with contact and treasures that could communicate to the Wooden-Thunder family higher ups began to message them. This was an attack! And a big one from the size and use of that portal.

"Everyone through! But don't close the gate!" An amplified voice shouted. And then the Demons waiting on the other side of the portal began to poor through like a river of ugly bodies, hundreds of thousands of them. The majority were demons in the deity realm. The hoard flew at lightning speed following a masked figure with a Deathly smile. His long coated hood was pure white and hung down to shade his face from the light. His mask was solid black and covered his entire likeness except for his mouth which was filled with crooked and yellowed teeth. "Here they come!" Gabe shouted like thunder as millions of Channelers began teleporting and flying in front of the temple treasure store from all over the Treasure land. Five Deity Acolytes with General stripes led them. More and more started to pore into the mass, some from different families with great amounts of treasure armor on their person, others wearing mercenary garb that was worth fortunes all by itself. They all hovered in a protective formation around the Temple like a mass of guardian angels. Gabe called his hoard to a halt, he didn't want to leave the gate open long as it was drawing Massive amounts of energy from the treasure land behind them and the longer that went on the worse it would hurt the Greenwood family. but maybe he could scare these people out of their hopeless fight and less innocents would have to perish. "Move or die!!" Gabe's voice flowed through the Twelve demons surrounding him with shields and was amplified by their god like powers so that he could be heard for a hundred miles at the least, To anyone near him it was like being struck by a weapon made of sound and vibrated their whole body till it itched inside. "Who are you! Why have you dared attack the Wooden-Thunder family!" Shouted back a Powerful general who was even now preparing a ball of lightning energy that could easily down another Deity realm Channeler if it hit directly. Gabe smiled. "I am..." He paused. He assumed that after this he would be famous for all the wrong reasons, might as well play it for all it had. Infamy had it’s uses and so did showmanship. "Dread-song!! King of the demons and master of Hell!!! No force can stand against me or mine. So step aside. All we want is the girl." He could almost feel the fear of those in the mass of Channelers. A hoard of Deity realm demons was unheard of. Even a pair of deity Realm demons were not seen together, any demon that powerful ether struck out to rule their own hoard or ascended. Why would they stay? and a hoard led by a weak tyke realm Channeler was ridiculous. Who was this man, to control an entire hoard? And how did he know about the Girl? Only a fraction of the people here even knew about her. "We will do Nothing!" The general shouted. "So leave or be destroyed!" Already more portals were being opened and strong and powerful Channelers were stepping through to help. Gabe almost laughed when he saw Cindy join them. Her eyes bulged, first at the hoard and then at him, who’s realm was hidden to look tiny but who stood at the front like the leader. The Acolytes with her from Quiff's estate also had unbelieving looks about them. "If any of you want to join me! do so now and i will allow you to live! But I warn you if you don't you will all die here and now!" Gabe watched, the fear of the mass was dwindling as Large groups started poring in from various portals. They may have the numbers, but Gabe was well aware they didn't have the power. Demons were hard to handle even at the Totem realm, or the avatar realm. At the deity realm they were considered unquestionable powerhouses. "Fine!" Was Gabe’s last word before mental messaging his demon leaders. In the blink of an eye the entire hoard shot forward in beams of light past Gabe and his twelve guardians, and met the force head on. Gabe had never witnessed a Family war before, and had only ever seen a few paintings of Deity realm beings fighting. But nothing except the real thing could prepare him for the sudden battle that broke out.

Energy shock waves like Nothing he'd ever seen before shook the land and blasted away trees and dirt like dust. Most of the higher realm Channelers tried to throw up shields around their fighting to protect their lesser counter parts from the power, but There were too many Deity realm Demons to shield. Blasts of multicolored energy Waves struck flying channelers and ether killed them on the spot or launched them out of the sky. Many of Gabe's demons fell into that category, but he had told a portion of his forces to guard them as best they could while fighting. And only brought some of his demons that were below Avatar Realm since they would mostly just get in the way like the humans were doing. Gabe watched from his bubble of protection that didn't even rock when blast waves hit it, as shields, fists, and energy beams were thrown at lightning speed and almost made him dizzy to watch. Fighters would lock arms with demons and begin martial fights in the air that were too fast to see, and long range moves with lightning and Earth were spun everywhere. A group of water Deity Channelers hovered back from the war and focused their powers together to create a Mile long focused Water dragon that started to swallow demons whole and tried to digest them. Gabe laughed as it exploded from the inside as one of his demons used a poison cloud that burst it's stomach and expanded over the whole area, many Low level Channelers started dropping to the ground dead from contact. But none of his demons were bothered at all. Poison was the one immunity almost all Demons had. "Take me to the temple door, we don't have to Finnish this." Gabe ordered and his twelve guardian demons zipped under the mess of fighting completely unhindered. Who would want to confront Twelve Powerhouses when they were already losing the fight against the hoard. The infiltration force Gabe had made with him in the center stopped in front of the temple door after brushing off any long distance attacks like rain water. All the brush and ground around here was decimated, but the temple was untouched. Any time a force wave struck it an energy shield blocked it. "My favorite part is when the morons try to use their poison or fire moves on us." The demon to Gabe's left said with a smile at the blood and carnage above them. Some of the demons around him chuckled with venomous grins. he hadn't realized how much they had been enjoying the massacre, killing so many Humans like chattel was really not Gabe’s idea of a good time. "Just see if you can punch a hole through the shield." Gabe said. His demons immediately began to Push their power into a focused point on the shield and expand it. They were his top men, the very best of the very best of all his hoard. And the power they wielded was indomitable.

A small opening began to grow on the clear almost invisible force shield that Gabe could feel with his soul sense. It reached about the size of the door, before a focused Blast of Space energy struck the shield around Gabe and his demons and burned their vision white for a second before Cindy appeared in front of them. "Dread-Song!" She shouted with an ugly snarl. Gabe only grinned at her. "Hello child, I'm glad your here. How have you been?" Gabe spoke with a very distorted and very creepy voice that made her shiver. Cindy didn't answer him and four other Acolytes flew in behind her. They weren’t the only one’s tasked to target Gabe and stop him in fact the were sent by a general with a hundred others in their group, but these five were the only ones who made it through the demon hoard alive, the entire hoard going all out to keep anyone from getting to Gabe and his force. "How the heck did you subdue an entire demon army?" One of them asked incredulous. He was a tall dark handsome kind of tough guy, with short cropped hair And a playful smile. "Wait, this can't be the Boss this guy is mountains too weak." A short Acolyte with long Light brown hair stated. She looked at him with curiosity. The tall one laughed. “idiot! He’s clearly using a technique to only make it look like he’s a tyke realm, there’s no way he’s under the Deity Realm.” Cindy held up a hand to quiet them. "It doesn't matter, kill him. Kill him now and this hoard just might scatter." "Yeah! We're gonna turn your face into a wrinkly space pouch!" The tall one shouted. All of them then proceeded to create long blades out of their spirit energy. These Acolytes were all from Quiff’s branch of the Wooden-thunder family and Gabe had met them all before. If it was not for his enchanted Cloak and mask they most certainly would recognize his Spirit signature. But he had used almost thirty million Gold rings and the threat of a few Deity Realm Demons to buy these treasures from a black market dealer that often made deals with Afell and the hoard. The Man hadn’t wanted to sell them as they were the clothes he was personally wearing at the time to hide his identity, but Thirty Million gold rings and a life threat as well as a few other treasures and a single almighty Dragon bone from Star-stone’s inner space got the deal done with almost no feelings hurt. Gabe had not come out on top with that deal, but he needed these rare aura hiding clothes urgently. Or his ability to break Spirit contracts might come to light.

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Gabe had seen theses Channelers Practice their sword arts in the Training room and they were experts, but it didn't matter. Only a fool would challenge Twelve Deity realm demons with a lesser number. One of which was a fire channeler. Demons weren’t always immune to fire, but over half of them had the trait, and the one’s that made it to Deity realm almost always were. Gabe snapped his fingers. And the demons around him all used powerful channeling. One used a death lightning bolt that Cindy was too slow to dodge, another summoned a Chaos fairy. The little red fairy was made of pure perfect Chaos spirit energy, and was fast enough to latch onto the throat of one of Gabe's enemies. The moment it was on good enough, it exploded in a unholy burst of power. Popping the man's head off like a cork with red wine going everywhere and flooring the rest of the group. Cindy stumbled back to her feet but not before Gabe's strongest guard released a thousand tiny bug sized Shrunken heads in an advanced version of Gabe's Life sucking move, this demon had a very weird quirk that caused him to learn Human channeling instead of just natural demon traits. It was the reason he was in Gabe’s mind the strongest of all the demons in the hoard, he had the power of a Demon and the ability Range of a Channeler. most demons were just to lazy to follow such a path when their own natural traits were just as strong and required no effort to learn. The shrunken heads latched onto all of the group and immediately began to weaken them. There was a reason Gabe chose these pacific twelve as his guards, they were some of the most powerful and well trained of his hoard and they worked well together where no other demon could. He'd had them practicing their Team work while they stayed in his inner room, and their shielding ability. He may have only had them in there for less than a month, but on the inside decades had gone by of them just training and following his orders.

As hard as they tried Cindy's group just couldn't escape the Shrunken heads and as they struggled slowly being drained of their life force and dazed from the explosion, Gabe walked right by them and entered the temple door that had been blasted off its hinges when that Chaos fairy bomb had gone off. The first room was big and made of solid steal with several runes written everywhere along them. "Wait." Gabe said and his demons stopped. "You." He pointed to the demon directly behind him. "Break formation and take the Family Crests off of the Channelers behind us." The demon instantly obeyed and came back smiling with blood on his hands holding five Necklaces with crests on them, all of which were covered in blood. Gabe rolled his eyes, he had forgotten to order the demon to kill them painlessly. "OK, I want seven of you to stay here and guard anything that tries to come through the door. Don't venture even a step further into the treasure store. Five of you put on the family crests and stay around me." Gabe had a deep feeling there were traps and protections set up everywhere in here. Hopefully all of them could be bypassed with the family crest.

Walking through the treasure store briskly Gabe and his guard's foot steps echoed through the chambers. There were seven hall ways leading from the main room and Gabe knew he'd have to search each one. "Well start with the right." Gabe said and they marched to the right hall way. There was a group of runes next to the wall and Gabe read them easily enough, it was a trap that required some kind of key. "Keep marching." Gabe didn't have time to look for a key. His group walked through the hall and seven bolts of powerful Deity killing lightning hit the shield around them. "Still holding strong master." One of the demons informed Gabe as the ventured deeper through the hall, this Demon shield was a thing of beauty. Eventually they came to a pair of Low level Avatar guards that didn't even have time to attack them once before the demon to Gabe's left exploded their bodies from the inside out with his aura. "Hey!" Gabe shouted. "I wanted to integrate them!" He could have done this a lot quicker if they knew where the Alter was. "Sorry master." The demon said with a look of being pleased with himself. Gabe would have to start cracking down on these monsters. They clearly thought he was too weak of a leader. When this was over he would make them regret that thought. Demon’s acted tough but they feared pain just as much if not more than any other race.

Passed the now dead guards was a chamber of treasures with some on pedestals and guarded by shields, some in boxes hidden from sight. All of which were Heavenly treasures. And worth hundreds of millions of Gold rings, some more then even that. it was a large room and took them ten minutes to search completely, but they didn't find Seygo or the Alter. "We should take these treasures master." One of Gabe's demons said. Gabe was inclined to agree, but each one had a shield around it and runes that spelled trouble. "We don't have time. Lets go back!" Gabe hated leaving without some of these Rare beauties but Until he had Seygo he wasn't willing to waste the time prying them out of here. This war he had started was messy, and countless things could go wrong any minute. Time was of the essence.

They took the next two hall Ways with the same result, the guards to those refused to talk even after a lot of pain and threat of death. Gabe didn't really try his best interrogating them as they were Acolytes and if they said anything they would die right away from breach of contract, not to mention even if they did try to say something they might not be able to even get it out before the Heavens struck them. Plus he figured it would take more time than just searching each room to torture them that far. Finally he tried the middle hallway and immediately stumbled into trouble. "Agahagag!!!" A shout of anger and power from a group of Channelers echoed into Gabe's ears as a beam of three different types of energy Slammed into his shield with blinding light and extreme force. It was powerful and Cracks began to appear on the red tinged force shield as Gabe's demons strained with everything they had to hold up against the lasting beam. Their lives on the line if it broke. "Go back to hell you Bastards!!!" A woman's voice shouted at them. Gabe watched with a gate scroll ready encase the shield continued to give and he had to evacuate. "Die!" A man screamed with her. Before the beam suddenly stopped cold and the cracks on Gabe's shield instantly repaired. Three Deity realm Channelers stood in front of them, one woman to the right and two men with smoking hands to the left. "It didn't even break thier..." The shocked man didn't get to finish his statement as a thin beam of death energy struck out from Gabe’s left hand demon and burnt a Hole through his throat. The other man and the woman immediately tried to run when they saw it, but Gabe's demons hit them with a pair of Dark flame bullets, demons could use dark fire as well If they found a treasure candle. The two yelled simultaneously as they were hit in the back too weak from their unison attack to flee at full speed, they had put all their eggs in one basket with this one. Their Bodies smoked as they tried to get back up, but They were quickly finished off by a death bolt each. Watching his demons plow through these Deity realm Channelers like water, Gabe reevaluated the power of his hoard. These demons were not like acolytes, they weren’t obligated to stay on primeway for a thousand or two thousand years after the Deity realm. Afell had used his power over them to keep them here indefinitely, hundreds of thousands of years still slowly gaining power still slowly growing as all beasts and demons do. These demons were at the very pique of power, likely some of the strongest deity Realm monsters on all of primeway. "Good job fellas." Gabe said, ignoring the bodies on the floor as he walked passed them smiling about what he had just realized. He felt cold causing so much destruction here without hesitation... but this family was preparing to sacrifice a human being for their own gain. He chuckled venomously as he walked towards a pair of sealed doors, if they had taken anyone else they would have gotten away with this unpunished. But Gabe had a bit of a sore spot about them now. and he had a feeling this wasn't over with the Wooden-Thunder family. "Dam, it's trapped to collapse if it's forced to open." He grunted reading the incredibly strong and impressive runes. "That's no problem master, We'll just shield the opening." One of the demons said. Gabe cringed. "That would mean leaving one of you here to hold it open wouldn't it? I don't like the way this is going." He was very cautious about losing any more guards especially after that last attack. If the number dropped too low some of this places traps might actually work on their demon shield.

But there was no way around it, Gabe finally caved and ordered one of his demon guards to hold the walls and ceiling on both sides of the entrance as soon as the door was open. Then had His other servant use the Chaos fairy to blow off the reinforced door. Boooom!!! The blast echoed off the walls and rattled Gabe's ears. The door exploded inward and slid across the smooth stone floor of a large chamber. Gabe saw shields already up around the opening and scorched walls, and nodded to the demon they would leave there to hold it all in place, already the entire thing was cracked and ready to give, and Gabe knew once it did the runes powering it would also seal the rubble in place making it increasingly difficult to pass. They walked through and into a real temple room, with stained glass windows lighting the place and beautiful painted murals everywhere. The windows of course did not actually lead outside but just gave off their own light from the walls and no ceiling. "They made it through, Blow the trap!" The voice of a middle aged man across the huge room shouted. He and two other Deity realm Channelers, along with three Avatar and totem channelers stood staring at them with fear. They knew anything that could get this far was impossibly strong. Gabe didn't even have time to look down before a vortex opened up underneath them and began to suck the demons around him into it.