In the heat of the battle, a bright light shone and for just a few seconds everyone stopped fighting and turned their attention towards the direction of the light. There they saw the five disciples of the death mage, two already defeated, the third chained to the ground while the other two injured, trying to get on their feet. At the center was a young charming gold haired youth with a crucifix tattoo on his biceps and torn white robes. Even though blood flowed down his throat and he kept coughing out blood repeatedly, he still looked happy and proud of his achievement. The youth turned his attention the battle going on everywhere just to notice that everyone had already stopped fighting, staring at him. He saw those bronze realm female oracle members he was trying to impress earlier and he shot them a sweet smile. The youth whispered something which shook the hearts of everyone on the side of the n.o.bles.

"Freedom..." He said before he finally exploded. Taking out all five disciples of the death mage who were close to him. Thanks to the barrier Dimitris set earlier, no one else was close by so the destruction was contained. The fact that Dimitris panicked at such an important moment and forgot to order his silver realm undead puppets to end the paladin before he exploded simply showed how inexperienced he is in battle.

"FREEDOM!!!!"

The brave act of this paladin touched the hearts of everyone on the side of the n.o.bles and they faced their enemies with anger and rage boiling in their hearts while they fought fiercely. Those who were at the brink of death mimicked the selfless act of the paladin and blew themselves up, not minding if the possessed the light magic or not. A single person killed close to a hundred people with this suicidal act and the paladin's present in the battle roared viciously charging into battle, slaying their foes in the large numbers.

The members of the palace of death were moved by this incident too, the death of all five disciples of the death mage was a huge slap to their faces. it simply portrayed the death of the death mages possible successors and they were not planning to let this slide. They all roared in anger and charged in viciously, planning to kill their enemies up to the last person.

Soon the battlefield was filled with blood and with each step, water splas.h.i.+ng sounds were made. The battle turned into a grudge match between sworn enemies not planning to stop until one side is completely annihilated, people who watched the war from afar were horrified and some couldn't even continue watching.

................................................

Flying above the endless sea's with Demos consciousness as their navigator, Derik, Cyrus and Kaido struggled against gold level flying magic beasts. The moment they stepped out of the continent, they realized that their home was literarily the safest place. Countless monsters as powerful as the four ancient elemental dragons kept a.s.saulting them and even now the were forced to battle close to a hundred. They finally realized that there was some sort of force preventing these magic beasts from entering the continent, a supernatural force keeping them safe all this while. 

Their lives were at stake here!

Derik hid within a black sh.e.l.l created by his power, simultaneously defending against the a.s.sault of two beasts, he felt anxious and found it hard to focus since he could feel his domain draw in more souls. His domain was like a black hole, greedily consuming the souls of all those who died in battle, he could feel different kinds of soul been sucked in, all belonging to those who belonged to his sect and those whom he was not sure of. He knew something big was happening in the empire but hated the fact he couldn't return. After he left the continent and flew towards an unknown location for weeks, he could not make contact with his undead, and even access to his domain was cut off. 

The feeling was magical and unexpected, but there was nothing he could do.

Since the angel of death was also busy with its preparations for war with the creator, he couldn't contact it for information and could only gaze at the illusion planted in their head by the guardian spirit to lead them to their destination. This was completely frustrating!

Xiu!

Suddenly images of five people crossed Derik's mind, these were the five people he rescued from the underground laboratory of the holy church and took them in as his family. He wasn't sure if these people were actually dead and he strongly kicked against those thoughts but something told him he was wrong. Lost in his thoughts he saw a vision of his favorite, Dimitris walking towards him with a cheerful smile

"Dimitris" Derik muttered and reached for the kid but the boy vanished only after giving him a warm smile.

Derik's black heart shattered at this moment and he felt like crying out loud for the very first time in a while, all he wanted to do at this point is go home and check on these people but that was clearly impossible. 

"I WILL KILL THEM ALL! ALL OF THEM, I SWEAR IT!!!!" Derik bellowed furiously as the barrier set around him exploded violently, pus.h.i.+ng the two bird-like magic beasts away.

He lunged towards the one at the left and with his death scythe in his hand, he split that one in half!

Swis.h.!.+

Derik's lower half was severed from the main body in just a blink of an eye. Without caring for his condition, Derik turned to meet the gaze of the second bird responsible for this and opened his mouth wide. From it, a large beam of death energy exploded and consumed the beast.

At that time, Derik's lower half had miraculously reattached itself to his body. Allowing him to continue with another slas.h.i.+ng attack, splitting the second beast in two. Derik's sudden outburst of rage surprised Cyrus and Kaido, leaving them confused for a while but when their eyes met with Derik's pitch black eyes, they saw emotions they have never witnessed before in those eyes.

It wasn't anger… It was sorrow.

"Aaaaaaaagh!!!!!!!" Derik roared, turning into a beam of darkish purple light and charging into the group of monsters heading their way, all he wanted to do at this point is kill.

Meanwhile, the other two understood something has happened back home and for Derik to be moved to this extent, it had to be related to those five kids he took in as his family.

"Dumb fools, when we return to the empire, Derik will surely burn it to the ground… No one will be spared…" Kaido lamented.

"Be it a hundred years or a thousand, it doesn't matter… Derik will surely vent out his anger on the empire.. he will definitely kill everyone and everything responsible for this… the empire has lost his protection for good this time… its only natural I withdraw mine as well" Cyrus said with a rueful sigh.