"Where's your previous condescending expression, huh?" Han bellowed as the sea of green flames buried Krune within, causing the other party to struggle.
He flailed his Star Hammer, unleashing sparks of lightning that continued to destroy the green flames.
And right as he activated his Star Ring and was about to take action, Su Daiyu aimed attacks at him using her Imperial Arms—Moon Flower.
Two of the six petals flew towards him, their edges sharp, cutting through his layer of defense, sending him flying away.
Every time he planned to use his Star Ring to go on the offensive, she would disrupt him, causing him to remain on the defensive. After all, Su Daiyu not only had her Demon powers to rely upon but also her Imperial Arms.
So, Krune had to use all his power just to remain alive. The reason he was doing so was to keep both the Demons busy. He was aware of their strength, knowing very well that the battle would become a lost cause the moment one of them joined the war front.
That was why he got on their nerves, causing them to target him with top priority. After all, it wasn't just here that the war was happening.
This was where the majority of the armies from both sides were stationed. Then again, small groups infiltrated both sides to engage in guerilla tactics.
As the Empire's territory was vast, they had a lot to defend. So, the Police Force was having a tough time, constantly on the move to keep everything stable.
Thanks to the Cloud Whale, they had the advantage of mobility and were able to keep up with the Yin Beasts. Thanks to his training and with the Empire sparing no lack of resources to train them, the heads of each town/city among the Police Force were already capable of flight.
On top of that, there were many who were able to travel at frightening speeds thanks to the wind currents generated by their Cloud Whales. Thanks to that, they were able to fight against the Nightmares that infiltrated the Empire at this time to sow seeds of chaos.
There were also some Yin Beasts that had been hiding in the uncharted forest territory within the Empire. At this moment, they poured out one after another, causing every town and city to enter a state of siege warfare.
So, even though it seemed like they had a lot of trump cards, they were all being used as a spare to defend the Empire.
Wang Hao had also been posted on the defensive as a trump card against the Nightmares. There were four Police Officers that accompanied him, acting to transport him from one city to another while also supporting him during fights.
As for the Emperor, he was personally fighting more than ten Nightmares that appeared within the capital mysteriously.
All of this happened during Krune's fight.
…
The moment the ships made an appearance, the legendary Yin Beast, Yin Ghost, smirked as its figure disappeared, speeding through the air, undetectable, looking no different from a crow.
It then arrived at the capital, entering a large building as it swiftly killed the people living there. It then slowly undressed, revealing a beating heart that was shaped like a tree trunk.
Connected to the ends of the nerves extending from the heart were tiny ghastly flames. They were similar to what the tavern owner had collected before.
The Yin Ghost had been doing the same throughout the Empire, collecting negative emotions using the lantern that it had personally refined using its body.
The process was similar to the creation of a Demon Army but was more discrete. On top of that, it had only one function, and that was to nurture Nightmares.
After the flame within the lantern grew to its limit, the respective human possessing it would bring it to the Yin Ghost that collected the flames. After that, it would condense the flames into a ghost fire within its body.
Normally, a ghost fire wasn't a Nightmare. It had a special means in which it was able to condense dozens of ghost fires into one, which would birth a Nightmare.
Due to this ability, it had been collecting ghost fires all along, the process spanning centuries, all in hopes of one day freeing its lord, the Ancient Demon whom it had pledged an allegiance towards.
As ghost fires, they weren't detected by Daxia Ting. As it was aware of this type of Imperial Arms, the Yin Ghost had been storing the ghost fires in its body all this time, planning to one day release them when there were enough to overthrow the Empire.
Fortunately for it, the birth of the second Demon allowed it to finalize its plans faster. When war erupted, most of the Empire's forces were stationed at the war front, causing the defensive line in the capital to be at its weakest.
With that, it had enough means to destroy them now, beginning to condense the ghost fires into Nightmares.
One after another, Nightmares gushed out of the building, terrorizing the populace, causing all the stationed Imperial Meisters to be alarmed. After all, the enemy appeared from their midst.
Almost thirty Nightmares had appeared all of a sudden, spreading out throughout the capital as the Yin Ghost appeared within an aristocratic family, kidnapping two of their Ghost Appeasers.
It knocked them out and began to pour ghost fires into them, condensing the Nightmare from within, externally overwhelming the minds of the Ghost Appeasers. Therefore, the moment the Nightmare formed in them, the possession was done while the minds of the Ghost Appeasers shattered in response.
It instantly created two Demons, bringing them with it as they infiltrated the Imperial Palace once the Emperor came out to attack the Nightmares.
Thunderclouds formed in the skies as bolts of lightning slammed onto the nightmares, wounding them severely with every hit, quickly beginning to kill through them.
"They won't last long against this… human." The Yin Ghost scowled, knowing very well that the Nightmares would at most be able to injure the Emperor after killing through all other Imperial Meisters.
But, as long as the Emperor was alive, it won't have long for its plans to be completed. "However, as long as I free my Lord, everything would change. Even back then, my Lord was stronger than the first Emperor, a Star Imperial Meister that was a lot stronger than the current Emperor."
Thinking as such, the Yin Ghost accompanied the two Demons and sneaked into the Imperial Palace, quickly heading underground, having long since detected the place of the seal.