"Shit," she hissed under her breath, realizing what was happening. "It's a Divine power crystal..."
Her fear overtook her, and without a second thought, she spun on her heel and started running. "Run! Everyone, run!" she shouted, her voice sharp and filled with urgency.
She slammed her comms unit, sending out rapid-fire orders to the Bio-Mechanical soldiers and any other mechanical forces still scattered across the battlefield.
"Get the hell out of here! Fall back to the second layer!" Her voice was barely steady as she tore through the ruins, putting as much distance between herself and the rising flame phantom.
Behind her, the Bio-Mechanical soldiers immediately began retreating, their massive Dreadscale Wyrms rumbling as they charged away.
Even though every instinct screamed at her to run faster, to put as much distance as possible between herself and that phantom, Selina forced herself to stop.
She stopped to look back; she knew the fear she experienced earlier should be some kind of passive mental attack exerted by Divine creatures on low-level life forms.
"Damn that old Half-Drow," Selina spat, with anger, it didn't take long for her to piece together what was happening.
The divine power stored in the golden crystal had combined with the remnant consciousness from the broken statue.
That fool of a Half-Drow Leader had managed to pull off one final trick before vanishing. He had summoned the real consciousness of the Goddess he worshipped to destroy them all.
"If only I had known he possessed a Divine Power Crystal, I would have acted more aggressively to get my hands on one myself," She could feel it now—an aura of raw, divine power.
Even for her or any other high-level officials of the Shadow Society, getting their hands on a Divine Power Crystal is not so easy, just because only Divine creatures can create these things.
It's kind of like an Innate ability of the Divine Creatures that others cannot copy, but these Divine crystals can be used for many purposes, with endless applications.
She doesn't know how much power was left in the Divine Power Crystal that the Half Drow used to escape from the void space, but even the residual energy was enough to make her sweat.
The flame goddess hadn't even fully awakened her consciousness yet, but the just weight of her presence was enough to nearly paralyze Selina.
If the phantom were fully awake and faced that attack before unless it was her true body, the current clone would have been dead already.
"What the hell is happening again?" Sid growled, his eyes narrowing as he ran with others.
Before anyone could answer him, a massive wave of fire surged across the battlefield, its scorching heat sweeping through the air like a tidal wave, cutting through the dense fog that had clouded their vision.
The firestorm revealed the carnage below—smoldering ruins, molten debris, and charred bodies littering the ground.
Ram's breath caught in his throat as the scene he saw after reaching the second floor stunned him.
There, standing at the center of the destruction, was a towering figure—a massive humanoid fire demon.
Its body was made of molten lava, and with every swing of its enormous arms sent another wave of searing flames across the battlefield, incinerating everything in its path.
"Oh my God..." Ram muttered under his breath, his eyes wide with disbelief.
Mai's gaze hardened, "That's no ordinary fire elemental... It's a goddamn demon." Even from this distance, Ram and others could feel the heat on their skin.
Just as the fire phantom's consciousness seemed on the verge of fully awakening, its movements came to a sudden stop.
The phantom tilted its head toward the sky. Its body pulsed with rage and confusion.
"Roar," then, a deafening, primal roar erupted from its burning maw, echoing across the ruins, making everyone that escaped hold their ears.
It was as if the phantom was challenging something unseen—an entity beyond comprehension.
While everyone watching, they felt the weight of the air change. An immense pressure began to build, descending from the surrounding void, crashing down upon the fire phantom's body like an invisible mountain.
The phantom's flames flickered violently, its body distorting under the weight of whatever force now opposed it.
Selina watched in disbelief as the indomitable flame phantom struggled under the force of this unknown pressure, its fire dimming ever so slightly, as though it was being subdued by an overwhelming power.
She allowed herself a brief sigh of relief. "Finally," she muttered, her voice laced with both exhaustion and a bitter edge from losing a large number of Mechanical soldiers without gaining anything back. "The Divine Spirit Tree's taking action."
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