Around the crater on the ground, where the Hellinger Castle once stood, the seesaw battle continued, with more and more bloodshed as each minute went by. The biggest contributor to casualties was the creatures from the gaps, who, although quite powerful individually, seemed to lack the ability to deliver power blows to the Defilers and had to rely on repeated attacks or especially charged ones. The humans, on the other hand, though possessing greater individual powers to wound, incapacitate and slay the Defilers, were decreasing in numbers due to the growing casualties and the lack of new forces joining in on the battle.

Right now, the humans on the ground were divided into three groups around the crater - one group was led by Josephine Wong and her former teammates from the Grant Academy; The second was led by Nameless and Pei, with their chanting monks and enchanted sword wielding exorcists with some other combatants alongside them; and the third group was led by Bruj, Lady Ryleen and a man wearing a smooth and hardened mask, now with cracks and spots of blood all over.

The sky was filled with flying creatures from the gaps and Defilers who could fly. These creatures crashed into each other, slashed and tore each other apart using their talons, claws and spiked tails and incinerated each other using energy beams. Tze Cha and Xyn were the busiest amongst all of those who were fighting against the Defilers, and the ones probably with the most egregious of injuries and wounds. One could easily lose count of how many Defilers, whether low tier or mid tier, they had disposed of, yet they continued to fight with ferocity and did not show any signs of holding back or worries.

“Are the elementals even coming?” Professor Barnes, whose body armor had multiple completely broken areas, one missing shoulder plate and his greatsword broken with only two thirds of its length and many chips along the edge. “The waves seemed to have slowed down for a bit, but we couldn;t hold much longer if no more new forces were coming in.”

“Focus on us!” Glenda Grimes raised her voice, still panting with her hands and arms quivering: “The intelligence is true - the more Defilers we slay, the slower and in smaller numbers will they be able to come through that portal - those creatures are attracting much of the forces anyways, we just need to hang on!”

“We still have one more volley to go. And they’re ready.” Josephine Wong told her team after communicating with the crew that manned the enchanted artillery: “We need to wait for the optimal time to use them.”

“I’m just afraid that there may not be an optimal moment.” Professor Dorothea Clarkson shook her head, her previously meticulously combed hair now in a mess and she had a slash wound on her right cheek that just stopped bleeding: “Don’t you see it? Somehow the waves in which they come have become less obvious, and they seem to be just pouring out constantly. Might be due to the portal they are using being narrowed and their waves are being throttled by it.”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A loud buzzing sound came from the side of Nameless and Pei, a beam of golden light shot through the sky, and in a short moment, the shadow of a giant buddha wearing a golden and red robe appeared on the battlefield. And right at the center of this shadow Buddha's forehead, was Nameless, whose heavily injured body was temporarily “patched up” by pieces of solidified golden energy.

With the chantings of scriptures echoing from within the energy-constructed body of the shadow and the arcane words and symbols made of the same golden energy flowing inside the shadow, the golden shadow buddha unleashed a charged palm strike at the depth of the crater - not at any particular Defiler, but at the dark orb, the portal itself through which the Defilers came.

“Boom!” The palm of the shadow buddha was shattered upon impact when the palm strike landed true, and tens of tiny cracks rapidly expanded from its broken wrist upward toward its body and its head. But with the control and Nameless and the supply of energy from the chanting monks, who though suffered losses in numbers due to the front lines of defense being breached a couple of times, did not move at all and still maintained in perfect unison with their chants, the body of the shadow buddhe was being repaired slowly but steadily.

This palm strike did not do much damage, if any, to the dark orb. But it did release a golden shockwave into the air that swept through almost half of the Defilers on the battlefield, and it seemed to have slowed or even halted the movements of them for a very brief moment.

“Just need a quick tuning! This time we can do it!” Pei laughed out loud as she drew an energy symbol with her left hand, powering through the excruciating pain from the wound on her right shoulder where her right arm was: “Nameless, use my beads!”

The group of exorcists behind Pei started making hand seals along with Pei, and within just a few seconds, Pei finished her symbol, and the spells from the exorcists behind her floated forward and merged into it. Pei bit the tip of her tongue, tapping into and conjuring up her energy and power in her mind and soul, then spit a few droplets of blood onto the symbol.

The symbol, now coated in a bright red layer of glow, flew towards the golden shadow buddha and became a bracelet of prayer beads that wrapped around its right wrist.

“Behold the oath and grand wish of the Kṣitigarbha, I shall venture into the abyss. My body, my blood, my flesh and my soul are up for the taking, and I shall not rest until there’s no suffering.” Nameless chanted a small verse from a scripture of his own thoughts and revelations, then raised his right arm in the air.

The golden shadow buddha raised its right arm, with the ring of beads on its wrist and its fingers grabbing some of the beads in its palm.

A blinding golden light exploded from the dark orb as the right fist of the buddha made contact with it. A powerful vibration pulsated from it, yet it created no disturbance to those who were fighting against the Defilers. The Defilers, on the other hand, all seemed to be struck with some kind of affliction - the less powerful among them just dropped on the ground and turned into ashes, and the rest had their movements interrupted, seemingly by pain and certain addition of weight and restraint to their bodies and powers.