Levitating. Damien watched the massively tall shadow behemoth turn into motes of energy, energy which then began to disperse, returning to the world.

That was the thing with killing spirit lords, once dead, their astral images would then disperse back into the world, returning back the energy used in its creation.

Destroying another's astral image was only possible if you were vastly stronger than them and wielded a truly destructive energy, like Damien. That didn't mean it was easy at all, as Damien had expended massive amounts of energy just to partially destroy Elora's. The rest crumbled when she couldn't protect herself any further.

He floated down to the unconscious woman. Looking at her, he could sense that she wouldn't be advancing any further in her paths, telling from how non existent her astral image was, he could only sense a tiny part, which was still unconsciously protected. She wouldn't die.

Destroying a spirit lord's image didn't necessarily mean their deaths, as it was still just a part of their cultivation, a truly important part, but still just a part nonetheless. They would mostly just suffer the setback of temporarily losing stages in their cultivation if their images weren't almost completely destroyed. Looking at Elora now, he could sense she had suffered more. Her passive aura had taken a massive decrease, going from her current level and being reduced back to the threshold of spirit lord, putting her on the strength level of newly born spirit lords.

She could still advance by conceptual understanding, but her body and spirit would never move past spirit lord.

Pulling out a green health potion from his dimensional storage, he was just about to administer it when a voice greeted him, he had been aware of their approach for miles.

"This one greets the lord," He turned around to see a woman with black hair and eyes, judging from the tattoo on her shoulder, he identified her as one of Cirin's monarch realm cultivators. She was accompanied by chosen Ymal who kept looking around as if he couldn't believe the damage that had been done to the city.

He nodded to her in acknowledgement and was about to get back to what he was doing when he was interrupted again.

Appearing with a boom and displaced air, almost blowing Ymal away if not for the monarch's quick reaction that saved him, Keilan said, yelling. "A few days! I left you for a few days and what did you do? You go and start a fight, decimating a city and killing an empire's spirit lord," He pointed to the city that was now basically rubble and the torn body parts of Igor shadowblight scattered on the ground. "And then leave another with a terminated cultivation!" He then gestured at the unconscious snake lady.

"In my defence I did give them a warning," Damien teleported in the still screaming empire spy, waving his hands and killing the snake coiled around him. "I told this one to deliver a warning to his superiors not to interfere in my business, and what did they do? They went ahead and attacked the city, knowing full well my interest in it." He said.

"Are you surprised?! They are the empire for crying out loud! They don't listen to any warnings until it gets beaten deep into their skulls," Keilan yelled.

"That's what i did! I did beat it into their skulls!" Damien yelled back.

They both stopped, having remembered that they were not alone and they were supposed to act as mysterious otherworldly figures instead of arguing like children.

Sighing, Keilan said. "You know that the empire would have sensed the death of their spirit lord, heck, the world's rulers would have sensed this fight and the subsequent death that followed, we can't take that kind of heat right now."

"I'm not going into hiding again," Damien said, face hardening.

Covering his face and sighing, Keilan said. "We'll talk about this later," He gestured at the potion in Damien's hand and then to Elora. "Why do you want to heal her? Don't tell me you're banking on her gratitude and adoration for you saving her life after you ended her cultivation?"

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"No," Damien snorted, laughing. "That'll be a sight to see, the great poison mistress becoming my adoring fan. No, what I plan to do is to turn her into my very own messenger. It crossed my mind that they might not take seriously a message delivered by a mere lord cultivator, a cultivator who they perceived as a betrayer," He said. "The warnings might stick if it was being delivered by a member of their higher echelons."

He poured the potion into her mouth, it wouldn't heal any spiritual injuries, only the physical ones and any temporary backlash would be cured.

Sure enough, her wounds began closing and she began showing signs of stirring.

Addressing the monarch. "What do you want?" He asked.

Clearly nervous at being addressed directly but still showing discipline and speaking clearly, she said. "I wanted to inquire if the lord needs any help or errands delivered," Damien raised an eyebrow in surprise. Not every day did he see a spirit lord being offered help by a monarch cultivator.

"I don't know about needing help but I need a message delivered," He said. "Go back and inform your queen what has happened here and that i said she should hope for peace but be prepared for war,"

The monarch nodded, taking Ymal with her, they left.

"Now, for your own errand," Damien said, turning to the awakened spirit lady. "Knowing your emperor, he'd have already sent a force the moment he sensed your loss," He said. "Or he might even be leading such force by himself. Hopefully, I won't be here when they arrive. What I want you to do is deliver a warning, the same one I gave your spy here," He pointed at the inert spy, having gone unconscious from the pain of being continuously injected with painful venom. "Inform anybody that comes to investigate that should they interfere anymore in my interests, they wouldn't like my reply," He pointed at her to indicate his point.

He turned to leave when he was addressed.

"Please kill me, I can't go back like this," The great Elora Darkfang, mistress of poison and terror of the night begged.

Looking back, he replied. "What aim would killing you achieve for me," He nodded at the unconscious spy. "If you die, my message would still get delivered, but it wouldn't carry the weight that It could have carried had you delivered it, so be a good girl and wait till your people come for you, after you've delivered my message you can go kill yourself, I don't care."

Turning back, he began making his way back to the city.

"Why are you heading back there? it's nothing but rubble." Keilan said, following him.

"Before we parted, I told you I was being drawn to somewhere, well, this is it and I'm not leaving until i discover what drew me to this city," Damien replied. Reaching where the city walls had been placed before it was turned to rubble, they floated off the grounds and began heading into the middle of the city, where they could see the temple, partially collapsed.

Looking at the city, it was unrecognisable from the city of a few hours ago. Most of it had either turned to rubble from the shockwaves released during the fight or had turned to sludge, courtesy of Elora's image vomit-fest.

"Damn, you guys really did a number on this one, and you didn't even summon your own image," Keilan said.

"I was mostly trying to buy time for the people to flee, couldn't add more destruction by summoning my image, besides it wasn't needed," Damien said.

"They must have been smart people to have fled the city quickly, and summoning your own image definitely wouldn't have left anything remaining of the city," Keilan replied.

They continued until they got to the middle of the city, levitating over the temple. Part of the temple was already rubble, the other side showed cracks running around it.

Damien waved his hands, channelling energy, both the intact and the destroyed parts of the temple were turned to dust, wind blowing it away to reveal a large hole bored deep into the ground.

From what he could sense, the hole went deep into the ground for miles, opening up into a small empty cavern. He spread his senses deeper into the cavern until his senses reached a spot that darkened to his senses, blocked from the outside.

He and Keilan looked at each other, coming to an agreement, they both jumped into the hole, the wind rushing past them as they fell deeper. They fell for minutes until they reached the cavern, crossing into it, they firmly but softly touched the ground.

The room was dark but at their level of cultivation, natural darkness wasn't an obstacle anymore.

The cavern was empty except for two objects which were levitating off the ground. Runes were drawn on the ground in a circle around the objects. He could see layers of runes drawn to shroud, contain and redirect. He assumed they were redirected to the same identical runes drawn somewhere in the city to collect and power the city. Now that most of the city was destroyed, the runes certainly included, there was no place to redirect the energy to, which explained the energy buildup and the runes which were quickly eroding. It would take only a few months for the runes to completely erode, the side effects? Probably another decimation of the region.

Getting closer, he sensed clearly what was only faint at the cavern's entrance.

"An energy buildup at this stage could completely level the city, give it a few months and this whole continent could go through another calamity, probably sinking the entire continent," Keilan said, sighing. "The world spirit would not be pleased."

"Yes, I will not," A voice said, quietly yet carrying the weight of a WORLD