It had been a few hours since the demon managed to invoke a large scale magic formation, not unlike the ritual which brought it into this plane of existence in the first place. Since then Dax didn't have the time to stand still for even a single moment, as the demon had somehow transplanted some part of its domain unto the ruins of the former magic academy. After that the archangels who Dax had originally been supporting turned mostly useless as they had a really hard time gathering mana from the air and form them into spells, greatly reducing both their offensive and defensive output. To make matters worse the large concentration of ambient corrupted mana started creating lesser demons which endlessly swarmed outwards in an attempt to devour everything they came across.

"I see it!"

As Solaris wielded a rifle to spray down an approaching demon with what could only be described as 'adequate', Dax took the moment to reload. Crouching down Dax braced his rifle in the pit of his knee as he removed the magazine, but before he could insert a new one he was rudely interrupted.

"Dax!"

[I see it! f.u.c.k off ugly!]

Drawing his pistol Dax emptied half its magazine into the mouth of a creature he could only describe as a poodle sized mouth filled with about a million teeth, he holstered his pistol and finished reloading his weapon.

[Jesus they don't f.u.c.king let up do they!? Splash 5 seconds!]

Calling out to warn Solaris, Dax took cover as artillery pelted their surroundings.

"More of that please!"

Seeing the pure amount of destruction unleashed by the railgun artillery, Solaris couldn't help but complain that there weren't more of it.

[I'm already tasking everything available, the demons are rus.h.i.+ng out in every direction, not just this one!]

While Dax continued moving down demons together with Solaris, Apollo and Hemera fought with the demon but unlike earlier, they were now on the defensive.

"ASPECT OF THE OLD ONES: h.e.l.lFIRE!"

Being in its prime element, the demon now had no issue formatting offensive spells. Calling on the ones it served to grant it power, the demon summoned a sphere of flame which seemed to absorb the surrounding light. The corrupted flame shot forth like it was propelled by a railgun, barely missing Hemera who lost one of her feet to the extreme heat.

"GHA!-"

As Hemera screamed out in pain she channelled mana into her spear when she noticed that the rest of her leg was being corrupted by the malignant flame, then without hesitation she cut off her afflicted leg at the thigh before the flame could consume her.

"Javelin formation: Lightning spear of the prophet!"

Meanwhile Apollo didn't let his comrade's injury go to waste, forming a golden spear of light which he threw at the demon with his immense strength. But the spell had very little effect however, as the demon only scoffed at the attempt to injure it before it flicked the spear aside and summoned a truly ma.s.sive greatsword that its tentacles wrapped around. The 10 meters long and 3 meter wide black greatsword looked like it was alive, with red veins and runic formations which pulsed in some ominous pattern. Doing a practice swing with the sword, the demon's smile widened before it disappeared from sight.

"s.h.i.+!-"

"DIE!"

Reappearing right in front of Apollo, the demon swung down its greatsword in an attempt to cleave the 10 winged archangel in half down the middle but right as it mustered the strength and started to bring the sword downwards a t.i.tanium penetrator hit and deflected the sword away.

[Back off!]

listening to Dax's command for once, both Apollo and Hemera challenged mana into their wings and shoot off the ground to open up the range. Right on cue a swarm of high velocity SATGM's swarmed the demon, but sadly they were mostly ineffective as the demon had no issue creating a swarm of hexagon s.h.i.+elds to defend it all around.

[Okay this is not working… Any ideas?]

Seeing how they were constantly getting pushed back, Dax realized they had to do something, or he would soon be forced to nuke the entire area in an attempt to stop the swarm of demons from taking over the continent.

"We need to call for backup. Even if we lose the sanctuary as a result, we can not allow this malignant corruption to spread, we must not allow it to create a beachhead."

The reason Hemera and Apollo were alone in responding to Dax's call for aid even he told them that a demon had been summoned was due to the hostile sanctuaries. Even if demons were the mortal enemies of all angels, the sanctuaries were not naive enough to believe that rivals wouldn't attack them the very second they committed too many resources towards fighting a demon infestation. After All there was no point in fighting a fair fight.

"Dax can't you destroy its physical form?"

While healing her leg Hemera remembered what Dax had talked about before the fight, making the orbital marine bloom a bloodthirst and confident smile as his will to battle renewed. 

[I can! Give me an opening and prepare to back off the moment I say so, Solaris I need your help!]

"Got it!"

Springing into action the angels all placed their trust in the orbital marine, as they knew he wouldn't make promises he couldn't keep in such situations.

"HMM… A TRULY FUTILE STRUGGLE!"

Seeing how the puny angels feel back then seemed to rally around something, the demon only showed a highly s.a.d.i.s.tic smile. Demon's confidence stemmed from the fact that it had managed to drag a part of its domain to the mortal plain, greatly boosting its offensive and defensive abilities as countless of its kin swarmed into the mortal realm every second. Even as its kin was being cut down just as fast as they sp.a.w.ned, the demon concluded that the puny mortals would try one last desperate offensive which it judged to be a truly futile struggle.

"COME ENTERTAIN ME, I WILL FEAST ON YOUR SOULS!"

Planting his sword down into the ground as he spread out a presence like an experienced general how had seen endless war, the demon awaited for the mortal's final struggle.

-

Their final struggle came about a minute later, when all of a sudden the railgun and orbital artillery Dax had been using to stop the lesser demons from spilling out from the academy was re tasked towards the demon. The demon responded by forming countless purple hexagonal s.h.i.+elds which floated in the air all around his domain and shattered the first light of dawn like a stained gla.s.s mural, stopping all but an insignificant amount of the railgun artillery from doing any harm.

"ENOUGH!"

Only seeing the orbital high energy lasers like a slight irritation even as multiple of them did their best to melt it, the demon pointed a gathering of tentacles towards the sky before corrupted mana surged towards the demon.

"ASPECT OF THE OLD ONES: GÁE BULG!"

With the spell completing a bright red and thin crystal formed above the demon before it shot towards the stars, reaching low orbit in mere seconds before it burst apart and sent out about a million thorns which spread throughout the vacuum like an infection. When the countless thorns reached the orbital high energy lasers they burst apart, shattering the constellation and silencing Dax's...o...b..tal artillery until unaffected satellites were in a position to attack. Dax was barely fazed when the demon wiped out a large part of his...o...b..tal a.s.sets, after all, it was still within acceptable margins. 

[Hemera!]

"I see it!"

As a gap was created one of the angles rushed forward, channelling a dense amount of mana into a potent offensive spell.

"Javelin formation: Righteous cleansing!"

Blasting right through a myriad of hexagonal defensive s.h.i.+elds, Hemera carved a path forward that she rushed flying low over the ground with her spear forward.

"INSOLENT!"

Seeing a large part of its defensives being destroyed as one of the puny angles rushed towards it, the demon believed its opponents had simply run out of ideas and simply charged towards their death.

"ASPECT OF THE OLD ONES: GÁE BU- PROTECTION OF YOUG'AFLI!"

Charging an offensive spell to wipe out the puny angels, the demon realized that there was something wrong at the very last second, channelling a potent defensive formation.

"Tch."

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Apollo failed to slay the demon as his spear strike fruitlessly buried itself in the demons protective field. Apollo had managed to close the range almost unnoticed thanks to a last minute feint conducted by Dax, by fitting the archangels s.h.i.+ny armour with an AR projector, it was transformed into a crude cloaking device.

"Solaris!"

Seeing his attack had failed, Apollo retreated as he ducked into cover and Solaris appeared a few meters behind him with her spear in hand. 

"Take this!"

As the demon's defensive spell dissipated, Solaris challenged most of her mana into her spear as she threw it towards the demon like a javelin.

"ARRGH!"

Making a split second decision, the demon sacrificed the most of its one arm in a desperate defence. As long as it could outlast this last desperate a.s.sault the demon would size victory, or so it believed. 

[Apollo pull back now!]

Seeing that they had brought enough time, Dax formed a slight smile as the G05 Juggernaut appeared behind Dax and opened up its cargo ramp where an AEHWP high calibre Guardian-G097 indirect fire railgun carrier was securely fastened.

FIRE MISSION RECEIVED.

TYPE: SINGLE TARGET HVT ELIMINATION.

HARD TARGET ACQUIRED, LOAD UHV-APFSDS.

RANGE TO TARGET: 672 METERS.

FUSE: NULL.

ANTI MATERIAL MODE 92: FULL CHARGE.

FIRE AT WILL.

With a range of under a kilometre, the 205mm t.i.tanium penetrator instantly hit its target. Scoring a direct hit most of the demon's upper torso was instantly vaporized, but it simply refused to die. 

"I WILL NOT BE BESTED BY PETTY PARLOR TRICKS!"

With a miss of pure rage and corrupted mana, the demon instantly reformed its flesh as it challenged an offensive spell.

"ASPECT OF THE OLD ONES: h.e.l.lFIRE!"

Targeting the strange craft which hovered in the air, a dark sphere of flame shot out towards it and almost instantly reached its target.

[Yeah, no. It's called the Juggernaut for a reason.]

Seeing the sphere of flame strike his craft, Dax was not at all worried about it as a high pitched hum slowly drowned out the countless demons.

[Target acquired, commence direct targeting gravitational two stage compression.]

All of a sudden time seemed to come to a still around the demon as the world ground to an eerie halt and the demons very ma.s.s was weaponized against it. Before it found out what was happening, the demon was ripped apart at an atomic level, then violently recompressed into the size of a soccer ball. However, even as the demon was outright annihilated, it still lived. With a dwindling of the corrupted mana in the area, the demon violently overcame the gravitational compression and somehow locked down the Juggernauts ability to crush it once more. What graced its countless eyes when it reformed made the demon realize its mistake, it had no more capacity to form defensive or offensive spell, with a straight line through its prior formed defensives.

[Now f.u.c.k off for good!]

Launching a canister of redmatter using a specialized weapon, Dax's smile bloomed fully when the canister deployed in mid air, sending out a black cloud of all eating nanomachines which destroyed the demons material form for the final time.

[Use this moment to purify the area, I'll slay the rest of the lesser demons!]

"Right!"

"On it!"

As the angels started work on a purification ritual, Dax and his drones ruthlessly wiped out the rest of the demon.

[Area suppressed, demon eliminated. Time for the cleanup..]