While behind a curtain of light, Franz drew a magic circle on the ground with the help of his staff. This circle, taking the shape of an inverted Pentagram, was large enough to encompass him, and the golden-haired mage wasn't supported by crystals.
"Supreme sun illuminating the world with your light, bestow your power upon me!"
The bright yellow color concentrating over Franz first entered the magic circle, then reached his staff, and from the bright stone at its tip, directed itself towards Joshua. As the bright yellow light exited the transparent crystal at the tip of the staff, it split into seven different colors, and all of them, advancing from different directions, merged once again over the Hell King.
"Blood Dome!"
Joshua tried to protect himself from the magic attack with the technique passed from Mora to Nafız and from her to him, and he was successful in the first moments too, but the lights continuing to fall hadn't given up. Concentrating at seven different points, they continued to burn the energy barrier consisting of red mist. Joshua had to focus all his attention here, and at the same time, he was resisting Nympha's attack.
When the power he transferred to the energy weapons decreased, the pressure on the forces of the Companions of Light and the Mercenaries weakened; the soldiers under the shield supported by the two generals began to march again. The Companions of Light mages were protecting Franz, their leader had neutralized their arch-enemy, and it was the Mercenaries' turn to take the stage.
"Speed up!"
"Your target is the Hell Army!"
The soldiers, accelerating their steps, began to run a few seconds later. The generals were running at the very front and were contributing to suppressing the Hell King by continuously sending attacks from their weapons.
When they were ten steps away from reaching the Blood Dome, Joshua could easily hear the words the soldiers said to encourage each other; the last line of defense protecting the twenty-thousand-strong army under attack was about to fall.
"Uigeadail Eireachdail!"
Following the voice coming from the blind spot left behind the Hell King, the darkness that revealed itself first wrapped around the surface of the Blood Dome and, before a breath passed, descended like a nightmare upon the five-thousand-strong army along with the two generals.
The energy weapons were returning to their former effectiveness; the target of the attacks passing over the Mercenary unit covered with a black shroud were the Companions of Light mages. The power suppressing Joshua seconds ago was now being battered by Master Leonardo's latest model energy weapons.
"Die, bastard!"
"I want to die, isn't there anyone to kill me!"
Even though the screams rising from within the darkness couldn't be heard by the others due to the noise the energy weapons made, they could be heard by Balbazar and Alaben. Another cry, scream, and exclamations difficult to define were rising from every direction.
The generals, lowering their weapons, were trying to understand what happened; they had never seen or heard such a thing before, but these actions of theirs would come to an end with the axe blow landing on Alaben's armor. As blood flowing in two lines from his eyes wet his cheeks, a soldier struck the equipment adorned with turquoise stones once again.
"You arrogant son of a bitch! Did you think you were the shit just because you became a general?"
When he delivered two more blows one after another, the general, carrying a heavy machete and always wandering around ready to explode, couldn't move a muscle. If Balbazar's twin swords didn't cut the soldier's arms, it looked like he would continue to take blows forever.
"What are you doing, why aren't you protecting yourself?"
Bowing his head, Alaben looked at the soldier cursing him even while lying on the ground, and then gave the answer to his counterpart whose eyebrows resembled a long train track.
"We come from the same town with this man; we even took the exam required to become a Mercenary together. I always protected him like my brother; as my rank rose, I pulled him up too, but he was attacking to kill me just a moment ago!"
Balbazar paid close attention to the screams rising around him. This wasn't a neutralization or restriction technique; the soldiers were killing either each other or themselves.
"Alaben, attack a point within the darkness with all your might, and I will help you too. If we can't get out of here, our end will be like the others too!"
The two generals tasked by the Mercenaries to protect the Death Pass had taken all variables into account, but they had forgotten the Dark Element user member of the Elemental Ten. The emergence of the woman, who had painted a faded image since the beginning of the battle and hadn't made an attack even once, ensured that the ceaselessly changing balances shifted to the Hell Realm side once again.
"Siomha, you hadn't told me you could use your power on living beings this comfortably!"
When Joshua no longer had to exert effort to stop the light attack on the Blood Dome, he was comfortably restraining both Nympha and the Companions of Light forces, and used his increased attention to call out to the druid warrior.
"I am experiencing my first battle after the Prize Dungeon; I am also trying to discover what I can do right now, but we better hurry up!"
Seeing that the girl, who was continuously providing dark energy reinforcement from the magic circle beneath her feet, had difficulty speaking, Joshua didn't disturb her anymore. He had enough information about the druid warriors from the chats they had before the battle; this was the reason he defeated the enemy forces at every move.
Judging by the Hell King's reaction, it was obvious he didn't expect the soldiers trapped with Dark Energy to lose themselves to this degree. Perhaps he only intended for them to remain immobile, but it was impossible to say he wasn't pleased with the result.
"I can hold them for five more minutes at most!"
Siomha spoke rapidly and closed her eyes, focusing solely on the magic she applied. Joshua inside the blood-red armor stopped shattering Nympha's attacks, let the Blood Dome block them, and raised his two hands towards the air.
Enough soldiers had died; it was time for the blood in their bodies to turn into weapons. The Hell King wasn't a Necromancer forming his army using dead bodies, but he managed to usurp the blood of those whose bodily integrity was compromised.
As an hour was about to pass since the battle started, red lines bringing death began to form in the area where the five thousand soldiers were. Those who managed to stay alive despite losing their sanity were falling one by one; even the two generals focused solely on saving their own lives.
While the heavy machete and twin swords glowed with elemental energies, their armors were shattering due to the blows they took. The two Generals fighting back to back weren't even in a state to think they made a mistake by leaving the Death Pass; they were walking on the knife-edge between life and death.
The sounds decreased; as the darkness left its place to the daylight, a handful of people remained of the five-thousand-strong unit. The generals were exhausted; even though Joshua couldn't manage to add it to all of them, he had managed to add the Sonic Explosions identifying with him into many Blood Needles.
Those who set out to take his head were having to fight to not lose their lives; they had all understood the difference between hiding behind the Death Pass and taking the battlefield to stand before the Hell King.
Alaben and Balbazar retreated to the side of the Companions of Light mages, leaving five thousand dead soldiers behind them, and this situation was tailor-made for Siomha, who had finished catching her breath. As long as it wasn't on a large scale, she could continue using her dark energy; the target of the corpses rising from the ground was the Lands of Light mages.
Even if they had no skills to use weapons or make any elemental attack, even their appearances were enough to demoralize the enemy. The Mercenaries watching the battle from the walls of the Death Pass were seeing that their end could be like this.
Minutes were passing, the rhythm of the battle wasn't changing. The defending side retreating step by step had no chance of winning left, but the Hell Realm Army under Joshua's leadership continued to act cautiously.
When intense fluctuations began to occur on the surface of the Guardian Angel Will Remnant the Companions of Water used, they intensified their attacks. If they had such a trump card, the other four societies on the battlefield must have had it too, and if they were a little late, the Companions of Water forces would be wiped out.
"Spenta Armaiti"
"Spenta Mainyu"
"Ksatra Vairya"
First Ventus with green hair, then Solo, and finally Ignis shattered the crystals at the tips of their staffs. Half an hour before the large cannons of the Death Pass were fired, they played their last trump cards.