Chapter 229: Abyss Dogs

The appearance of the DemiGods of the abyss on the battlefield had alarmed every major power in every kingdom, and none of them wasted time acting.

They'd already been busy coordinating the fight against the Hollows and the general chaos unfolding across every kingdom, but with the DemiGods now entering the battle, all of that had suddenly become secondary. They needed to deal with the them first, because if they couldn't stop them, nothing else would matter anyway.

The King of Solren had just finished dealing with a Paragon rank Hollow and hadn't even had time to recover from his injuries when he sensed a powerful presence appearing to the east of the kingdom.

He sensed several more in other directions, far from his own kingdom, and it didn't take him long to understand exactly what he was feeling.

'Damn it. As if things weren't bad enough already,' he thought, frustrated, sensing the clear gap in power between himself and these new arrivals.

He understood immediately that they were DemiGods, beings above him in raw strength, beings he couldn't hope to defeat. And that was exactly what frustrated him most.

Still, even without hope of driving them back, he could at least try to limit the damage, and, if possible, find some way to deal with them.

He had been King of Solren for centuries now, and he'd spent much of that time growing stronger, burning through rare resources at a tremendous rate just to gain even a little more strength.

He'd reached Paragon rank in just over a century, a feat so rare that only a handful of beings had ever achieved it so quickly.

But after that, his progress became much slower, another full century just to reach the peak of the Early-Stage, two more centuries to reach the peak of Mid-Stage, and now, after three more centuries, he still hadn't reached the peak of Advanced-Stage.

Among the rulers of human territory, he was undoubtedly one of the strongest, but even so, he remained far, far from being able to defeat a Demi God.

That realization had kept him on edge all this time, the awareness that he was still powerless against beings of that level. The incident a year ago, which had destroyed the capital of a duchy and involved the appearance of a Demigod, had only reminded him of this.

Yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make any progress. He didn't understand what he was missing, and he had no idea why his growth had stagnated at this level.

He wasn't sure what else to do, but he knew one thing for certain, the time to grow stronger was over. All he could do now was grit his teeth and fight with everything he had, because the alternative was to wait for the human kingdoms to be wiped out, and eventually, for him to be wiped out along with them.

He shot forward at tremendous speed, trying to use his Wind Affinity to connect with the region of his kingdom under threat, hoping to intervene and slow down the destruction that being was sure to cause before he could arrive, but he quickly realized he couldn't access it in that area at all.

It was as if the entire area had been restricted, no longer under his control, but under the control of something stronger.

'This isn't good. At this rate, I won't make it in time,' he thought, frustrated, pushing his strength to its limit to close the distance. He was essentially crossing the entire length of his kingdom, and even at his current speed, it would still take him several minutes. Normally, that would have been incredibly fast, but right now, it simply wasn't enough.

His frustration continued to grow as he could already sense the being beginning to act, but right as he registered that, his senses picked up on something else.

'Wait, this is...!'

His senses caught another presence appearing in that same area, a powerful presence, and a familiar one. Very familiar.

He came to an abrupt halt in midair, the sudden stop sending a thunderous boom rolling across the sky, followed by a powerful gust of wind that scattered the nearby clouds. But he paid it no mind, he was far too shocked, and perhaps even a little terrified.

'That woman... she's decided to join the battle too,' he thought, making sure he'd sensed correctly.

And he had.

Normally, even the faintest trace of that being's presence within his kingdom would have made him tremble with fear. But this time, perhaps for the first time in his entire life, he felt genuinely relieved to sense that presence appear.

And how could he not? From what he could tell, that woman had clearly decided to take care of this DemiGod herself.

And just as he'd sensed, the DemiGod, on the verge of unleashing chaos over the land below, stopped, Its instincts activated abruptly as they sensed another being appear nearby.

It was no ordinary being. Quite the opposite, it was powerful, powerful enough to make it sense danger. Its head snapped around, its enormous eye fixing on a seemingly empty point in the air just above the forest.

There was nothing there, in that moment. But soon, something began to change.

Reality seemed to distort, and before long, a fracture appeared.

The eye stayed locked on the fracture as a woman stepped out of it, unhurried, as calm as if she'd simply stepped into a park rather than a battlefield.

Evangeline appeared in the skies above the forest near Ashwick, her gaze seeming to take in the entire scene, the city, the surrounding territories, in a single glance.

At last, her eyes settled on the colossal being suspended in the air before her, watching her with clear caution, and she smiled.

"And here I was hoping to find a worthy opponent. Seems you Abyss dogs have gotten weaker over time," she said, words that seemed to provoke a reaction from the DemiGod.

"You... who are you? Why do I sense the void energy coming from you?" the being said, clearly able to detect the strong void energy within her.

It didn't take it long to understand why. What confused it was precisely the way the woman treated it, which it couldn't seem to understand.

She was clearly a Hollow or something close to it, yet from her words, it was clear that she wasn't on their side. In fact, she had come here to fight them.

That made no sense to the DemiGod, leaving it confused.

"Who am I? There's no need for you to know that. After all, you won't live long enough to remember my name."