The battle went a lot easier after the death of the Spirit King. Watching their leader crumble within seconds of the ambush, the morale of the other Demons died down almost instantly, so much so that Daimen expected that they would have given up and surrendered had they not seen a possibility of winning.

  As it was, while the monsters controlled by Daskar surpassed them in quantity, the demons still led when it came to quality.

  Daimen's entrance turned the lever more in their favor, comfortably occupying six armored demons all on his lonesome, despite his one-arm handicap. Mind demons wielded many types of powers, but their innate capabilities came first amongst everything. He felt blades of mind essence assault his mind as they rose cyclones of burning flame to melt the skin off his bones.

  Daimen swiped his spear, an arc of destruction sweeping out and dispersing the flames, releasing shockwaves of flames that sent the demons reeling back.

  The earth opened up and out came spears of thickened earth, lined with stripes of burning red lava. In the split second that they appeared, Daimen felt an urge to jump into those spears, subtle at first but then it became forceful when he failed to jump in at the first instance.

  A wall of grey essence rose between him and the assaulting spears, turning the spears to dust as they went through. Daimen was already turning his attention to the origin of those attacks, a half halo of black holes materializing above his head as he created distance between himself and his assailants.

  The demons only had a split second to glance from him to the tiny holes of darkness hovering over his head, before caution and fear took them, spurring them to flee.

  Of course, they couldn't do that without consequence, as shown when one of Daimen's beams caught one in the foot, carving out the dwarf's leg, even through the earthen armor that had been raised earlier on to shield the creature.

  He stepped down beside the creature, a quick thrust to the skull, his spear tip infused with burning gray essence, and the demon's struggles ceased immediately.

  Unfortunately, he was given no reprieve. Daimen hopped back into the air, the wind turning him aside just fast enough to miss the flurry of whistles that blasted past his previous location. Behind him, the earth roared and multiple cracks filled the air as more than two dozen trees tilted to the ground, having been split cleanly in half.

  Those trees would have withstood a punch from him.

  His eyes snapped around, catching a female dwarf levitating above the ground with a literal armory of metal weapons hovering around her. A great cleaver was gripped in her thick grubby hands as she glared down at him.

  Their eyes met and Daimen sneered as she gestured forwards, sending half her armory racing towards him. He snorted, directing his beams of destruction to target those weapons. He poured more power into them, smirking as the air was suddenly filled with the sights of half-vaporized weapons falling onto the ground.

  Of course, the demon wasn't going to stop there. Those half-vaporized weapons were still weapons, after all. They could still be salvaged, and he was proven right when the demons gestured upwards, raising the half-destroyed projectiles back into the air and sending them right back after him.

  “Okay this has gone on long enough,” Daimen growled as he slammed the butt end of his spear hard against the ground, unleashing a tide of invisible golden energy that rippled outward, leaving the earth unaffected but influencing those still connected to it.

  The demons that had been encircling him, content to let him duel the metal affinity dwarf while they schemed and sneaked closer, all found themselves screaming as the equivalent of a bonfire lit up within them.

  Funnily enough, Daimen's main target was unaffected since it was hovering above the ground, with no part of its body touching the earth.

  Its partners, on the other hand? They crumbled to the ground, tearing at their skin in evident agony as they sought to get rid of what was afflicting them.

  This wasn't going to kill them, Daimen knew. Soul essence, spread out like this, would do nothing but inflict grievous agony and wounds, all spiritual. Unfortunately for them, soul essence was not all he had in his repertoire.

  The beams that had been countering the assailing storms of metal weapons suddenly stopped and turned away, their energies swiveling towards the agony-stricken infernal creatures writhing on the ground.

  His only battle capable opponent realized quickly what he was attempting, and sought to protect its comrades by directing its metallic swarm to serve as a shield for the downed creatures.

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  As each weapon slammed against the other, forming a metal blockade to safeguard the other demons, Daimen smirked as he poured in more energy, turning the finger-width beams into arm-sized thundering pressure.

  They punched through the metal walls, each beam carving a hole through with enough force that they sent the shields scattering—most turning into metal sludge that dripped onto the earth—and then carved their way through the skulls of the screaming opponents, killing the demons within, as Daimen had directed.

  Four bodies ceased their movements in the next second, and Daimen smiled, without a second glance, turning his attention to the floating demon.

  The creature’s eyes widened, and then it almost bulged out when a constellation of crackling grey stars began appearing behind him, each pulsing with devastating power.

  He brought down his hand, and the ground heaved as stars fell onto them, sundering the earth and all who stood over it.

  More than one demon was killed, with a bit of friendly fire here and there that reduced a monster or two into roasted meat and blackened bones, just like the demons assaulting them.

  His attack did more than that, it seemed. As Daimen turned his attention away from the half-burnt corpse of the metallic dwarf, he noted that not a small amount of white-robed devourers—Allayers, as Daskar had called them—were on the ground, clearly having been pushed out of whatever trance they'd been in when Daimen tore up the earth.

  And with them came their prisoners, whose eyes snapped open as the wardens who had held them back disappeared from their posts.

  It was like a chain reaction. Demons pulled out of whatever trance they'd been in, and in so doing set free who they'd been holding.

  Daskar seemed to realize this, as the monsters suddenly changed direction, a part of the swarm attacking the other Mind Allayers still in trance.

  Daimen smiled like a man who'd just seen all he'd worked for come to fruition, and he walked a few meters back, content to let the freed prisoners deal with their captors.

  “Protect me, Daskar,” he said, having full faith that the demon would hear.

  And as the demons were pulled out of whatever mindscape they'd been keeping the prisoners trapped in, Daimen dived into his own mind realm.

  The world felt expansive as he stepped back into it, the borders had expanded further, stretching outwards into the distance. The tiny island of thickened power he'd stood on was now a vast landscape.

  Even his presence here felt more powerful, more oppressive.

  He smiled. “Now this is something I would very much appreciate.”

  Daimen didn't have to wait long for the first demon to appear. The Mind demons, as he'd studied for the past several months he'd been here, were oddly predictable. Daimen reckoned this only applied to the Cannon fodder, a theory that was proven true anytime he looked at Daskar and how the incubi operated.

  Remove the vessel of a mind demon and watch it panic in sheer powerlessness. This was made all the more apparent when they were up against opponents whose minds could not be so easily conquered. In such an instance, the demon would do anything to feel any kind of physical strength again, including jumping right into the first open mind it sensed, disregarding every caution whatsoever.

  Daimen reckoned the escaped prisoners would not be so foolish as to open their minds to any runaway mind demon, regardless of whether their lives were at risk or not.

  The monsters were already subservient to a different master, one whose control over them was so unassailable even a Spirit King had failed to snatch them.

  Which left the only other person on the field, one who was so foolish that he'd brazenly opened his mind, arrogantly inviting the demons in.

  Daimen.

  And of course, the creatures heard and took his invitation with boisterous excitement.

  They appeared in his mindscape, having fled the vengeful prisoners who'd most likely destroyed their vessels by now. And out of the fry pan, they jumped straight into the fire, with oil dripping all over their bodies.

  And Daimen made a light snack of them.

  Unlike the real world, he was enormously powerful here. Outside, a couple of powerful Spirit lords could give him pause when working in perfect sync. But here, Daimen could boast that he'd downed a Spirit King without long lasting injury… or any injury at all.

  The demons realized their errors a bit too soon, but by then it was too late. They tried to flee, but Daimen had already drawn down the walls surrounding his mind, trapping them in with him.

  Most fled, running into the distance to escape him. There were of course the brave ones, and those were the ones Daimen took down first, ridding them of their consciousness as he moved from one to the other.

  He moved on to the others when he was done with his immediate quarries, equally making short work of them.

  In ten minutes, his mental space once again became empty.

  Stepping out of it, however, rewarded him with the sight of a giant serpent coiled around him, its body so large that he became instantly certain it could swallow him without much strain.

  What was more odd, however, was that the creature was not facing him. Its face was turned outward, body posture oddly protective. That was the only reason he didn't blast it to smithereens the second he'd registered it.

  That, and the sight of it as it faced off against a small crowd of people, a mix of humans and the other races, all of whom Damien was certain weren't demons.

  “Let him go, creature,” a human who, as Damien quickly realized, had appointed himself the leader of the rescued group. “Let him go and I will spare you the humiliation of an agonizing death.”

  “I so detest that word,” the serpent replied, voice slipping through his mind gate to appear inside his mind. But that unfortunate discovery was shadowed by the realization that hit Daimen like a speeding cart. He recognized that voice.

  He turned slowly to regard the serpent. “Daskar?”

  It–he, turned around to meet Damien's eyes, and even though his expression was indecipherable given the shape he was taking, Damien could still feel the boredom radiating off of him.

  “Hello, human. I hope your vacation was relaxing? Now, if you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you would take control of your unappreciative kin."