From his awakening till this moment, Damien had come across a significant amount of different races. He'd met the elves, who, although looked human in appearance—except for their ears— carried themselves as a separate race from humans. Where most humans were brutish and barbaric, an elf was the opposite: Regal and Majestic. They carried themselves with such pride they often looked down on humans as no different from animals. That had resulted in no small amount of wars being fought just because some human royalty got slighted by the cutting tongue of an elf.

He'd met the dragons. Large and majestic creatures who radiated might merely from their presence. While at times they were violent and prone to quick and animalistic wrath, they were still recognized worldwide as a supreme race, even by the proud elves.

He'd also met the beastkins. Creatures born without sapience but at some point in their lives gained the ability to think and speak like the other supreme races. Their race came with a myriad number of species, making it impossible to truly give them a fair grade.

He'd met the dwarves, a very reclusive race who usually preferred the permanent darkness of their underground tunnels to the brightness of the surface. They were hardly seen out of their forges other than to trade weapons with the surface dwellers. However, just like every other race, there were oddities. Some dwarves having taken up contracts on the surface as mercenaries and crafters for top-tier nations and organizations

The thing that barred their way was a race Damien had never come across before. It had the head of a bird, a raven, to be exact, with a black plume falling over the shoulders of a humanoid body...a body which was so thick and packed with powerful muscle that the air warped at its proximity. It had human legs, with five toes, and aside from the claw tipped fingers, the only thing differentiating it was the head. Its beak was raised in what Damien recognized as a haughty gesture, a sign of superiority, and on its black surface were three dots of silver in a line that led up towards twin blazing orbs gazing down on them like they were insects.

From its back erupted twin curtain of wings, so wide they blotted out the view of the passageway behind it.

"Save me the trouble of cleaning up your filth," it said. "Return to your cage."

Nalon stepped forward, saying nothing.

"Psst, Damien," Keilan shoved Damien on the ribs. "Is that a man chicken?"

Eye twitching, Damien shoved back. "Shut up." He paused, and then added. "No, it's a chicken man."

"It's a man chicken," his brother argued back. "Look at it; it's made of chicken first and then man after. So, Chicken. Man."

"No," this time, Damien turned towards his brother. "It's a man chi—"

"Will you both cut it out," Gray hissed. "You're drawing attention to yourselves."

Damien forced himself not to jump, slowly turning forward to see that multiple eyes had been drawn in by their little argument.

Vanis's eyebrows were raised, with his lips tugging a little to the side in a failed attempt to look unamused. Nalon rewarded them with a brief glare before turning back towards the man chicken, who didn't even look at them, having never taken its eyes away from Nalon.

"I will not repeat myself," it said.

"Can you handle it?" Vanis said to Nalon, ignoring the man chicken.

"It's a third domain," Nalon said.

"Is that a no?"

Nalon snorted. "I was qualified enough to be made your warder, Vanis. A third domain shouldn't be too much of a problem for me."

"Such brazenness," the man chicken said, its voice reverberating down the entire hall, shaking loose a few rocks from the walls. "I shall enjoy dismantling you."

Damien didn't have time to blink before he and the rest of the former prisoners were all enveloped by a wave of crimson, shielding them from the aftermath as Nalon and the man bird crashed into each other, shattering the passageway and carving out a massive crater.

[Well, now we have our way out,] Gray quipped, amidst a rain of sand and falling rock, which parted to reveal a cloudless sky of black, filled with tiny pinpricks of light.

Damien had seen a lot of great battles in his life. He'd even fought in some. Battles that were so great they changed the layout of the land, completely leveling mountains and creating new ones. He'd participated in battles that had dried up and shifted the paths of rivers. Heck, his last battle had destroyed a massive portion of a city which was home to millions. And yet... And yet, he hadn't seen anything come close to what was happening right in from of him.

He felt the pressure as the two Spirit Kings clashed. Not spiritual pressure, no. This was a consequence of the ambient essence being cowed. Their every exchange visibly warped the world, twisting and folding it in such an unnatural way that had him turning away his eyes lest he suffer the migraine he could feel coming.

They—he and the other escapees—were surrounded by an orb of shifting crimson energy, watching through it as Nalon exchanged blows with the bird Spirit King, who had a sea of some kind of essence stretching far behind it.

A domain, Damien recognized.

From the domain erupted a thousand blades of cutting essence, firing both at Nalon and those behind him. Fearing for the worst, Damien stepped back, shoulders squared just in case they also needed to fight. He knew there was nothing he could do in a battle of this magnitude, which would definitely lead to his death. Thankfully, the only good thing about stepping into a fight like this was that he'd be dead before he knew what hit him.

Nalon waved his staff and Damien watched with amazement as a sliver of energy peeled off from the orb, the tendrils forming into a wall of Crimson lightning. And when the blades hit, they simply evaporated with a loud popping sound, sending quakes down into the crater they were in.

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In response, a large fist made of the same crimson essence manifested over Nalon, its shape going as far as the elbow. And with a great pressure that saw their domain-crafted shield jostle slightly, Nalon sent it against the bird thing, causing another explosion that wiped out another large swath of earth.

[He can't keep this up for long,] Gray spoke up, drawing the attention of both Vanis and Keilan.

By now, they'd already destroyed so much land Damien couldn't see the end of the crater, even with his spirit lord-enhanced vision. The battle kept digging them deeper and deeper into the earth.

"Why?" Damien asked.

[Unlike the Aveanii over there, Nalon isn't making full use of his domain, which is why he's on the defensive. And while that might work for the moment, his defenses will eventually give, if not against this Aveanii then against another.] Gray said, and for some reason, looked at Vanis for back up.

The other man smiled slightly, a nod of acknowledgment going to Gray.

"Your minder is correct," he said. "Nalon is a second domain Spirit King, while the Aveanii is a third. Fighting a higher-tiered individual with such a significant crutch as failing to utilize your domain properly is a recipe eventual disaster. " He then smiled devilishly. "Which is why Nalon won't be fighting him to the death. This is just a stalling tactic."

Damien was just about to ask who they were stalling for when the sky tore, the ripping sound tearing into Damien's ears like clothes shredding. And then a mass of crimson energy poured in, swallowing the dark skies and replacing it with an ocean of roiling lightning spreading so far that his eyes could only take in a fraction of its size.

Like the beat of a thousand drums, thunder boomed, shaking the world in such fury that the two dueling spirit lords immediately ceased their fight, retreating away from each other. That was the last attention Damien paid them.

The previously dark world was painted a bloody crimson as red lightning flashed all over.

That was when the pressure came.

Power of such breathtaking strength descended on the world with such crushing power that this time Damien grunted, forced down on his knees so fast he felt his bone crack. He felt like a dozen mountains had been stacked onto his shoulders, crushing him down slowly and excruciatingly. He wasn't the only one, everyone else crashing down on their knees, with the two Spirit Kings managing to do it with somewhat grace.

Through the pain of his cracked knees, Damien heard Vanis's voice. "Uncle."

He looked back in shock; what sort of family members did this guy have? He was about to voice out his thoughts when the world heaved, and something else rose in challenge.

Instantly, the orb rose into the sky. "We can't stay here any longer," Nalon said, the orb parting as he stepped inside. His opponent didn't contest.

"Why?" Damien couldn't help but ask.

[Because, one Divine King has just made an entrance,] Gray answered. [The Aveanii's has also responded.]

And just like that, the ground warped, going from bare, barren rock to a mass of brown essence, with tiny wisps of energy rising off of it. In the distance, so far Damien shouldn't have been able to see, but for some reason could, a bird man stood.

It stood calmly in the center of its domain, which matched the crimson one In size — judging from what Damien could see. He felt its attention brushed over them as they flew, blacking out his mind for a moment, but it didn't act, pegging them as insignificant. Instead, its beaked face turned upwards towards the roiling crimson sky.

"Xirou," the Aveanii said, its voice so deep the air quailed at the sound of it. "Why Are You Here?"

In response, another voice answered, coming from nowhere and everywhere. It brought with it the promise of destruction, of utter annihilation. Nalon's orb-shaped domain cracked at the sound of it, leaving the man with a grunt, a piece of his body cracking into dust. "You Have Something Of Mine, Je'Ruh. I Am Here To Collect."

The only warning they got was a deep thrum, a sound that shook Damien to the bones. And then a sea of crimson lightning fell, dousing the world in destruction.

Rising fast into the sky, Damien watched as the mass of roiling earth essence rose, forming into a low dome that took in the lightning impact without a flinch.

It was swift in its response.

Tendrils of earth essence began twisting, snaking out from their positions towards others. For as far as Damien's eyes could take in, he watched those tendrils twists into the shape of needles, twenty foot long and pointed at the sky. Hundreds and thousands manifesting every second.

"We won't survive this," Damien said with wide eyes, watching as a single one of those needles, which brimmed with pressure equivalent to a peak tier Spirit lord. And there were thousands upon thousands rising alongside it.

Nalon grunted, adjusting his footing. "Hold on," he said, and then he slammed his palm onto the surface of his domain orb.

Damien felt the mass of energy being poured into the domain, so great that a single minute of it was three times his soul well.

And then they fired.

Damien didn't see them move, but he felt the displaced air from their passage. The orb shook heavily as Nalon navigated it away from the mass of invisible needles, somehow seemingly able to see them.

Damien closed his eyes, tightening his grip on Keilan. Wait, when did he do that? It didn't matter, he was soon going to die, and at a young age at that.

Why, why did it have to end so soon? He had a lot of things to accomplish. Adrian was still far away, probably in tears from their absence. Damien couldn't die. He didn't want to die.

He gritted his teeth as a something tore through the side of the orb, shattering it into motes of energies. And he had to block out his hearing to the screams that sounded as some of their group were blown away.

He felt pressure on his hand as Keilan also tightened his grip. "Dame?"

"What?" Damien grunted without opening his eyes.

"You need to open your eyes."

"Why?"

Keilan shook him. "Just do it. I think you might want to see this." He whispered. "Definitely, you'll want to see this."

Tentatively, Damien peeled open his eyelids, watching as spikes of lightning streaked down, seemingly at random, but wherever they licked, explosions resounded, leaving behind rocks and sand to fall back down.

"How are we not dead?" He whispered.

"The Verille Master is lending us his protection," Nalon said.

Damien looked at Vanis, who snorted and then pointed upwards.

And then Damien saw him.

He was a man of middling look, with a black, ruffled hair and twin burning crimson orbs located where his eyes should be. His lips were spread wide in a manic grin as he gazed down at the Aveanii Divine King.

The man punched down on the mass of roiling lightning he was standing on, and then the rain of lightning ceased. Damien was about to take a deep, relieved breath when all of a sudden, giant red beams of destruction crashed down on the earth, tearing and punching through the dome protection set up by the Aveanii Divine King.

The Aveanii waved its hands in a contemptuous manner, erasing its failed defenses. Its next act almost popped out Damien's eyes.

From the ocean of crushing earth essence, something crawled out. At first, it was a single arm, clawing through the mass. Soon, another arm followed, then a head, a body, and finally an Aveanii came up. Damien instinctively recognized it as an elemental, judging as the makeup of its form was constructed purely out of earth essence.

Within three seconds, a million Aveanii elementals had already risen, wings spread wide with bared weapons in their hands. And they continued growing.

"Good," The Verille Divine King smiled. "Atleast You Aren't Going To Be A Bore."

And then elementals in his own image, made out of crimson lightning, came into existence.

Of all the beings manifested, on both sides, Spirit lords made up the majority, and not weak ones either. There were a few Spirit Kings Damien took notice of, but those ones stayed back, hovering behind their Divine kings.

With an unheard Command, both armies fell into each other.