'It's working,' Uriel thought with an excited smile on his face. His plan was succeeding.
At first, he had his doubts, but now he could see it. He could see how the army was beginning to act as a single entity with hundreds of arms, hundreds of heads, and hundreds of limbs that were weapons.
The army became a unit, and that unit kept the abominations at bay. Whether they realized it or not, their movements became more polished, more complex, seeking rapid destruction.
And all thanks to his Supreme Echo.
Will was an amazing weapon. Originally, he planned to use Skadi if the situation called for it, for example, if a Great Creature or several Titans appeared. However, he remembered that in the Antarctica war, the Valor army under the domain of the Sword Supreme became perfect warriors in battle.
So he replicated it.
Although Skadi was only a remnant of essence created by the Spell, she was a Supreme creature with will, a participant in a war that might have lasted centuries.
Her will was war itself. In fact, all aspects of war: massacre, slaughter, ruin, and death. That made it a vast domain.
Uriel shuddered. He truly would have died if Skadi hadn't been so wounded when Shade killed her.
An entity with that much combat experience, a will sharpened for millennia, was an invaluable resource.
Under Skadi's will, the army of no more than about ten thousand people acted united and in concert, reducing casualties enormously.
Mountains of corpses of Awakened, Fallen, and weak Corrupted abominations piled on top of each other, while parts of the mountains had disappeared, burying hundreds of abominations under hundreds of tons of rock.
Uriel glanced at his Echo. Her long scarlet hair swayed in the wind, her impassive gaze fixed on the battle unfolding before her without flinching in the slightest.
Uriel felt a little pity for the Echo, though only a little. She didn't yet have a soul like Soul or Gunlaug had. He didn't know about the Dark Knight, as it was an inferior creation of the Stone Saints, but he supposed it should have one.
Shaking his head, he pushed those thoughts aside. He would think about all this later. For now, he had to keep watching the battle and see what the motionless Corrupted creatures were planning.
Uriel felt it.
Finally, the abominations moved.
Doing the same, he looked at his Echo, who remained motionless, and without saying a word, he jumped from the wall. His fall lasted only a few seconds until he landed on the snow-covered ground, kicking up a large amount of it.
Holding White Flower in his hand, he advanced to join the combat. After all, he was supposed to be the face of the army, so he had to be at the front and do what he did best.
An unprecedented massacre.
Moving through the darkness, Uriel observed the army of abominations before him. When he appeared on the battlefield, thousands of human voices rose in a new, invigorating battle cry.
The morale on the battlefield rose surprisingly; determination strengthened.
Feeling the excited atmosphere, Uriel smiled. He smiled with pride and arrogance. The darkness around him, following his emotion, rippled and reacted.
The abominations, without hesitation, lunged forward, only for dozens of black spikes to emerge from the ground moments later, impaling the abominations in vital points and eliminating them.
The Spell's voice continued whispering in his mind, and the Nightmare's call still affected him, but he didn't care. There was only one thought in his head: kill.
The army, seeing that display of power from the Lord of Darkness, was encouraged. This caused their attacks to become more furious and full of hatred against the abominations that attacked them. For every human who died fighting, ten abominations fell.
The abominations surrounded Uriel, who didn't care. He continued cutting, hitting, and killing the abominations that emerged to attack him without stopping. The darkness materialized and molded into enormous sharp tentacles that pierced, grabbed, and destroyed the abominations without any mercy or hesitation.
Taking a leap, he swung White Flower, cutting the body of an abomination as well as its soul. Avoiding a claw swipe, he kicked the head of another Awakened abomination, destroying it instantly.
Taking a great leap, Uriel created two black crow wings on his back that kept him in the air. Darkness wrapped around his fist, which grew, filling with sharp spikes. Without hesitation, he let it fall. The fist, over twenty meters in diameter, impacted the ground, opening cracks while simultaneously killing the abominations beneath his attack.
Uriel clicked his tongue. He could sense the Corrupted abominations getting closer.
Immediately, he called his Dark Knight, which had been fighting in another area.
The taciturn knight materialized beside him, holding his enormous sword with unequaled ease.
"Eliminate the most numerous abominations," he ordered.
His Transcendent creature didn't respond and only disappeared in a blur of speed. An instant later, multiple abominations were cut down instantly.
With that solved, Uriel rose into the sky, adopting the Stone Saint form. His Memory quickly adapted its size.
Uriel looked at the mountains, which suddenly exploded, launching enormous fragments that he stopped by raising a wall of darkness.
The fragments fell to the ground without harming the army. Finally, he saw them. There were seven Nightmare Creatures, each of the Corrupted rank.
From what he could sense, there were two Corrupted Demons, two Corrupted Devils, two Corrupted Tyrants, and one Corrupted Terror resembling a parasite that controlled the other six Corrupted.
"So, seven against one..." Uriel smiled.
"Fair enough for me."
The Corrupted were undoubtedly large, exceeding ten meters, but size meant absolutely nothing in battle.
Shade lunged forward, wielding White Flower while Wyvern's Fang materialized in his other hand.
Uriel launched an attack that was blocked by the rock-made Corrupted Demon, which managed to resist the attack, although it suffered great damage to its soul as a result.
Immediately after, the two Corrupted Devils launched their attacks—a mix of icy breath and fire intermingled.
Uriel moved his manifestation just enough to avoid the attack. Although his manifestation took damage, he repaired it with more darkness.
'This is a bit complicated,' Uriel thought.
"Oh, come on, Uriel, cheer up, you can do it," he heard Shade's voice in his mind.
'I thought you were asleep.'
"And miss all the fun? Never!" he replied.
Uriel looked at the six abominations controlled by a Corrupted Terror. He wondered if his destiny was always to kill things stronger than himself, but he set that aside. He didn't have time to curse the Spell or destiny.
"Alright, imbeciles! Let's play. The first to die loses!" he bellowed forcefully from within his Dark Manifestation.
Uriel successfully avoided another sea of flames while using darkness to create enormous chains that bound the two Corrupted Demons. At the same time, he focused on his most immediate threat: the Tyrants.
The first Corrupted Tyrant was a mix between a centipede and a humanoid torso made of bones and skulls that rose up, marching forward.
Wielding White Flower, he launched a powerful attack that the Tyrant blocked with large horns resembling hard branches.
Applying more pressure to the sword, it cut through the Corrupted Tyrant's horn, sinking into its skull.
Focused on his attack, Uriel couldn't react in time when his manifestation's head was devoured by large jaws.
Looking up, he saw the second Corrupted Tyrant: a titanic black serpent with purple eyes full of madness and malice.
The serpent wrapped itself around his manifestation.
But Uriel didn't care. Discarding the Dark Manifestation, he slipped away from the serpent into an open area where he rebuilt the Stone Saint's body.
Creating a spear of darkness, he hurled it at the serpent, which slithered away, avoiding the weapon. But that was all he needed. Running, he grabbed Wyvern's Fang. Imbuing the sword with his essence, it turned pure black. The serpent lunged forward, only to be decapitated by a single slash that separated its head, which flew dozens of meters until it violently crashed to the ground.
[You have killed—]
Ignoring the Spell's voice, he received a charge from one of the two Corrupted Devils that sent him flying far away.
Regaining his footing, he created black tendrils that wrapped around the body of the devil that spat fire.
That left only the Tyrant and the Devil.
The two Corrupted Demons were still struggling against their bindings, which only widened and became more resistant, preventing them from moving.
Uriel dismissed White Flower and resummoned it. His essence was being spent quickly, but he still had plenty to burn.