Chapter 70: Triumph
The last exchanges of Hannah and Baltimore had seen the battlefield giving the both of them more fighting space despite the several dozen meters they had already had.
The sudden spike in Hannah's power had been felt by all and when the woman finally went for her last move, turning herself into a literal blinding sun, nearly everyone had been blinded by the intense flash of light that came off her.
For a few seconds, enemies pulled back from one another as they found themselves blinded, their hearts pounding as they were forced to listen to the powerful and terrifying blast that was generated as Baltimore's attack made a collision without being able to see a thing
For most, the world seemed like it was ending and in that instance many were reminded of the strength of beings in the third order, reminded of the reason why the third order was a significant realm in one's ranking journey.
When the blinding effects from Hannah's technique started wearing off, everyone began rapidly blinking their eyes, first confirming the positions of their opponents and then with haste looking towards the area that contained their respective leaders.
On the nearly half a kilometre expanse of land that had been left to the two leaders, many gulped as they saw the deep wide gaping hole that had been drilled by what was most definitely the effect of Baltimore's attack.
The darkness of the night making the hole seem like a bottomless pit, and this hole would have been the highlight of the recent exchange if it wasn't for the fact that the body of the golden armoured woman who should have been in it or beside it was nowhere to be found.
Instead, when people looked towards Baltimore's last location, they saw the man holding his staff and standing tall, his huge figure intimidating and radiating power with the only imperfection there being the blinking blade which was sticking out of the left side of his chest, a blade which originated from a sword that was being held by a winged golden female who was similarly blinking.
The entire battlefield was immediately filled with shock when they saw this, their mind unable to comprehend what was going on, but for the two combatants who had fully come to the end of their encounter with each other, they were in their own separate world.
With his staff in hand, despite the sword in his chest Baltimore arrogantly looked to the few stars in the sky and spoke.
"How? Space magic is something for those in the unbound realm, how could you have teleported."
With her sword inserted into Baltimore, Hannah had her body pressed against the back huge form of the demon, her head barely reaching up to his arms.
The female commander heard the words, she heard his question and the shock and disbelief which they contained and she without a second thought ignored it and focused on dispersing every trace of life in Baltimore while at the same time gritting her teeth to keep herself on her feet and also keeping her eyes on the other demon who was still casually seated on his throne, seeming to have no plans to make a move to save his dying colleague.
Despite seeing a winged Hannah with a sword in Baltimore, many even the humans believed that the battle was still far from over and this was due to the calm and undisturbed image the man put up in that situation,
The battles all around halfheartedly continued as nearly everyone split a bit of their attention to keep track of their leaders, and it was only when hard grunt left Baltimore's lips and he fell to his knees that the true realization of what was happening settled in the minds of everyone.
For the second time that night, all the fights around seized as with shocked expressions they all watched Hannah's smaller figure stand tall above the demon that had seemed all-powerful and devouring.
With her dented amour, bleeding and fatigued face and messy hair, the toughness of the battle the woman had just been through could be clearly seen by everyone.
Though she didn't have the time or grace to look up at the soldiers around her, Hannah could feel their gaze, looks of amazement and reverence and though the feeling of accomplishment threatened to swell within her, she held it down and focused on her opponent, after all a slip up from her at this crucial time was all Baltimore needed to turn to tide of this situation and unleash all the unused strength that lay in his unholy body.
With Hannah remaining stoic, a sort of tension was built into the air and it was only seconds after Baltimore's raised head slumped, this signifying that his life force had fully been dispersed that Hannah decided to end it all.
With a powerful roar, her blinking body releasing one last bright light, Hannah pulled her blade out of Baltimore, made a quick spin and then next second had the head of the sovereign demon flying in the air, a spurt of dark red blood shooting out of his neck, some of it splashing on Hannah but she did not care.
"Arghhhhh, kill them all" Hannah roared as the wings which had appeared on her back shattered into numerous golden particles and floated away while her body stopped blinking.
As Hannah roared, the feelings of Triumph that she felt reverberated throughout her entire army and when she gave the order for blood, her soldiers all let out a shout and fiercely engaged the enemy, their fears and worries temporarily forgotten as they fed off the victory of their commander, using it to fuel their strength and desire to see tomorrow.
...…..
"Hmmm, it's almost time" Blake muttered in the darkness of the night looking down at the battle raging in the distance
"Master this is just flat-out stupid and you being excessively greedy for power, you don't need to do this, it's a pointless risk.
The Villagers will serve you excellently, your current plan is just pure madness. A method of suicide." Kate who was a step behind Blake said but he gave her no reply.
All that mattered to Blake was that Kate had agreed with him that the quality and power of the demon he would become would be far greater if he used ranked beings for his evolution rather than weak humans.
"Lena, say something" Kate said turning to Lena who was seated on a log without bother but the woman just shrugged her shoulders.
Back at the camp, Lena had felt how deeply immersed Blake had been in his thoughts and if after all that brainstorming, he thought it was in his best interest to use ranked beings as sacrifices for his evolution, then there was no stopping him
"Kate perhaps you should just let it go and trust in him" Lena said, but her words only served to burst Kate's dam as she began raining down talks of how there was nothing to trust in Blake's nonsensical idea.