Emma was the leader of the grim riders, a squad of rapid response cavalry. They were used to respond to threats rapidly and were usually assigned to missions that involved going behind enemy lines or capturing targets. When they got within the range of Greenwood they caught sight of the blood angels. The two groups had some history together. Due to constant fighting between the angels and devils, they eventually met on a battlefield a few months ago. Since then Emma has a grudge to set with Renzo.

Renzo saw Emma and cursed his bad luck, she knew his moves, that meant he couldn't surprise her with his trump cards. Seeing that they were down an angel and another one was missing a wing and an arm. He wasn't confident about winning and was aware of the strength of their spirit beasts. But his pride wouldn't let him retreat. Seeing how the situation was getting out of hand, he looked at Greenwood.

They couldn't spare any angels to go and need all the manpower they could get.

He then made up his mind and decided to do a spell over Greenwood that could hopefully damage the bloodline holder or at least expose his position. It would drain him of some power to do a high tier stage 3 area of effect spell. Even if it might increase his chances of losing against Emma he wasted some of his primordial energy. He wanted to accomplish the mission his emperor gave him or at least prove that he tried.

He turned his body towards Greenwood and raised his right hand, opening his palms. He then did an incantation,

"Rain of Judgement Descend!"

He then closed his hand into a fist. In the skies over Greenwood, thousands upon thousands of golden spears appeared out of thin air. If you looked up at the skies all you could see is gold! Then the spears shot towards Greenwood from above at high speeds. The spears were going at 600 mph (965 km/h). When the spears hit houses, the house would start to explode chunks of wood everywhere like a grenade. One of the spears hit a person on the shoulder, half of his body was instantly destroyed. Then another spear hit the other side of his body causing the remaining part of his body to explode, he was no more.

The ground was shaking and craters formed everytime a golden spear pierced the ground. The attack only lasted but a moment before it was over. If you looked at the town from above all you saw was ruin. All the houses were destroyed, the walls of the city where all in ruin. There where spears all over the ground, it looked like the back of a porcupine. There were very little places where the spears missed.

About 95% of the cities population had been killed and the city was no more. It would cease to exist after today. Renzo wasn't happy about it, he wanted to take his time and slowly kill the people of the town. The grim riders had forced his hand and he was frowning, shaking his head in heartache, he turns his attention to Emma.

The grim riders saw the state of Greenwood and where angry! Their mission was to take the bloodline holder and return if they failed then they wouldn't be able to return. Emma turned towards a devil.

"I want you to head to the town and find if the bloodline holder survived!"

The devil nods his head and split from the group heading towards the town. One angel was about to intercept him but was stopped by Renzo.

"Forget it, we tried. We need everyone here to fight off the grim riders."

The angel nodded in understanding, instead, he went to pick the angel that passed out. He did a minor healing spell and woke the angel up. She was naked but didn't seem embarrassed as she created a gold piece of clothing using a spell. She put it on and picked up here sword as she went to the back of the group. They got into rows of 3 creating a defensive square formation.

Renzo was surprised that Emma would decrease her fighting force by allowing one of the devils to leave for Greenwood. He didn't know the reason but he was delighted that their force was about even. The grim riders where only 50 feet away as they got into a triangle formation there swords raised to the side ready to swing.

The grim riders activated a spell together which allowed them to summon a humongous sea of black fire in front of them. It stretched out to 90 meters, it was the shape of a huge blade. Renzo saw this and shouted.

"Shield wall!"

Renzo summoned a golden square shield that stretched out for a 100 meters. He was in front of the group, then the rest of the angels summoned smaller shields that surrounded them in every direction. Covering themselves in a circle covering every angle possible as they met the charge head-on. The moment the black fire meets the shield there was defining the sound. You could see a shockwave spread out as the black fire sword hit the golden shield. The sound of metal hitting metal ringed out. There where cracks forming and the sounds of metal shattering. The square shield was on the brink of breaking.

The grim riders where stopped by the shield as they jerked back. Not giving up, they kept pushing forward slowly, pouring more primordial energy into their attack. Every step they took forward, meant that the black sword was piercing deeper into the square shield. Renzo knew that shield won't last for another 10 seconds. But he had a plan, he signaled to the angels behind him and sent a secret message using energy. He then focused back on the shield, he then crossed his fingers and did an incantation.

"Recall"

He was then teleported high up into the air, he flapped his wings staying in the air. Then he blew up the shield wall forcing the explosion forward. This pushed the grim riders back a bit reducing their speed giving the angels time to set their plan in motion. The moment before it exploded the angels split into two groups one went too far right and other far left. They were far enough to avoid the charge, then they did a combined spell and forming a thin sharp string that was low enough to hit the ankles of the spirit beasts. It went from the right side to the left side, both sides where being held into place by 4 angels each.

The grim riders had too much momentum to stop and when they saw the angels split up it was too late. All their spirit beast fell face forward onto the ground. Their legs had been chopped off. The riders jumped up into the air to avoid falling onto the ground. Up in the air, Renzo pushed his palm forward, a golden wall with spikes was conjured, it was 50 meters long. The wall fell toward the grim riders up in the air, some like Emma where able to escape by flying fast enough or doing some spells.

All the spirit beast where crushed and three unlucky devils where crushed to death. Emma got her men to regroup as she looked at the wall with spikes that disappeared. She could see the crushed bodies of her comrades. Her eyes were burning with rage as she tried to control herself from rampaging.

Even though the blood angels had killed three devils they were running low on primordial energy. They had to pour enough energy into the string so it wouldn't break from a full charge from a high-level spirit beast. Renzo was down to half his remaining energy, he had taken the brunt of the assault from the black fire spear.

Emma and her squad had a lot more energy left. Emma looked at Renzo up in the air and gave an order for her men to split into two and assault the two squads of angels before she flew up into the air. She had her two long curved silver swords drawn out. She poured her elemental energy into the blades covering them in a black fire.

Renzo knew that she would come at him alone. He pulled out his longsword as it shined in a golden light, he also poured his elemental energy into the blade. He flapped his wings and plunged straight down to Emma.

Renzo swung his sword to the left sending a beam of golden light toward Emma. Emma swung her two blades into an "X" sending beams of black fire. The attack canceled each other out.

"I see you're predictable as ever Emma!" Renzo laughs as he's about to come face to face with Emma.

Emma looks at Renzo with a sinister smile.

"Are those your last words!"

Up in the air, their two blades met creating shockwaves from their attack. The sound of metal rings and beams of energy are shot out between the two. The two are evenly matched, having a hard time getting an advantage over the over. Renzo swings with heavy blows, every attack causing shockwaves in the air. Emma outmaneuvers and uses here faster speed to dodge every attack.

She counterattacks but Renzo reflexes are fast enough to block her attacks. She uses one blade to attack and another to block, flying through the air.

Down on the ground, a devil catches an angel by surprise. The devil swings his sword that's covered in black flames. The blade cuts the angels head off and a fire starts to burn away at his flesh. The devil left himself exposed to a counter attack as an angel stabs his sword into a weak spot on his armor. Stabbing him in the stomach, the blade is covered in light energy which starts to burn away the devil's organs the longer inside. The angel pulls out the blade and cuts of the devils head.

The fighting on the ground is more vicious because they're bunched up together. Any moment that you land an attack on your enemy you leave yourself open to a counter attack by your enemies allies. This is the reason why only a minute after fighting only 3 angles and 2 devils were left alive.

Just when the fighting was reaching its climax in the air and on the ground the screams of a spirit beast is heard near the forest of Greenwood. Then a huge black and white tiger that's at the level of a cultivator in the early sovereign realm (stage 4 level 1) is thrown out from the forest. The tiger has its body cut in half at the stomach, its intestines spilling out. It's still alive as it tries to crawl its upper body away with fear in its eyes.

Then a man with light brown skin and black hair that was spiked to the sidewalks out of the forest. The clothes he was wearing was ripped into many pieces, there where claw marks everywhere. He almost looked like a beggar that was only wearing scraps for clothing.

The strange thing was that there wasn't a single scratch or signs of bleeding on the guy. Also on some parts of his body that were exposed were tattoos of different kinds of weapons like swords, axes, spears. Each weapon was surrounded in a circle by ancient words. There was no weapons or armor on the man. This man's name was Sergio. Sergio cracked his head to side as he looked at the tiger.

"You motherf*cker look what you did to my clothes. Do you know how expansive this was! Of course, you don't! Since that's the case, why don't you give me your fu*ckin fur, so I can make myself a new one." There was rage coming from his voice as he looked at the tiger, cracking his knuckles, ready for a fight.

Sergio had almost forgotten the reason why he traveled through a dangerous forest filled with spirit beasts just to get here. When then he sensed the presence of Renzo and Emma. He looked up in the air and then looked at his surroundings.

Since Sergio wasn't leaking any of his presences and was looking like a beggar. And the tiger was on death's door they didn't draw too much attention. He was ignored, some of the angels and devils gave a second look towards the tiger. But since they were in a heated battle they went back to fighting.

"I swear that if I traveled all the way for nothing then I'm going to burn down this whole damn forest!" He then sensed the presence of the azure demon fox but he could also feel the presence of a devil near the same area

Sergio sighs with relief as he reluctantly looked away from the tiger and went towards the destroyed town. He was so fast that he reached the town in a second, he was so fast that it looked like teleportation. He reached a destroyed house and saw Luca crying as he held pieces of fabric in his hands. He kept repeating the word mom and dad over and over again in agony. There was also John who was next to Luca but John didn't look sad at all. If anything there was a pleasurable expression that he was trying to suppress. But there were tears coming from his eyes, it was strange.

Sergio was about to get Luca when he saw John transform into a devil. This immediately brought everyone's attention now that his presences were no longer hidden. A devil that was inside the town immediately ran to their location.

"Damn, more work."

Sergio warmed up his shoulders as he felt the devil close in. He didn't want to deal with the hassle of fighting after what he went through in the forest. He was fighting every step of the way and wanted to relax. He saw the devil coming and wanted to tell him that he just wanted the fox demon and leave. But before he could say anything the devil swings his sword at him.

"Out of the way lowly human!"

Sergio just shrugged his shoulders, he tried. Sergio thought that since this devil wants to die then so be it. He knew that he would draw the devil's wrath once he killed this one. The devil was a few feet away when a black double-headed battle axe appeared out of nowhere in Sergio's hands.

Sergio didn't even try to dodge and threw his battle axe. Fast! To fast for the devil to see as the axe hit him in the chest. The devil was sent flying back, he felt like he got hit by a mountain. He was launched 600 meters away as the battle axe went through his chest and through his back. The devil's chest had an enormous hole, big enough to fit a small tire in his chest.

The battle axe kept shooting through the air and went through the city walls. It kept going until it hit an angel that was fighting a devil outside the city. The axe hit the angel in the back and almost went all the way through, finally getting stuck in the angel's body. The axe was sticking out the front part of the angel's armor. The angel fell on the floor with a pool of blood forming near her dead body.

"Damn all talk and no show, too weak!" Sergio mocked as he looked at his clothes more worried about what he was going to wear.

Renzo and Emma finally noticed Johns presences and retreated from each other. The shock in their eyes was hard to hide. Their mouth was wide open in surprise as they tried to understand how a human could be this powerful. They had checked and the human wasn't a bloodline holder. Even more surprising was that he didn't have an elemental affinity! Without elemental affinity, you can't cast spells! At the same time, Emma and Renzo said,

"WHO ARE YOU!"

Sergio just ignored them as he walked towards Luca casually.