The Citadel Wide holograms go dark, and confusion spreads through the tens of millions of lords that were forcefully pulled from their daily lives by a mandatory avatar command to watch. "What happened? Did they turn off the broadcast?" "The Demon won... that must be it..." "No way! You saw The Ogre Conglomeration Head and High Orc Leader take out the dragon in a single attack. They couldn't have lost!" "Yeah! Berserkers don't go down so easily either... That warrior and the human dodged the Citadel Lords' attack, and even landed an attack back..." "But this is a Noble... he's probably just toying with them... we've all seen the public matches before..." "True. Maybe it really is over..." "Is he really going to kill all of the remaining Lords left in their races? Are the humans, ogres, orcs, and berserker giants done for...? Not a single reading shows up in their surveillance systems or dueling room high tech monitors. Only a small group of servants that have followed Andras since back before he was given this position as Citadel Lord understand what is going on. "He's using that move again... I thought the family head forbid it." "Yeah, but if you look at the ether readings before our systems went dark... it looks was his only choice. Those Warlords are stronger than—" "Don't finish that sentence! There are no Lower Lifeforms stronger than a Noble Demon." "Y-You're right. This is merely a part of Andras' plan. He must be concealing his power so he can torture them beyond what the public should see." While these servants discuss, the consensus inside the dueling room is completely different. Torvak and Asic still fall down from the sky, but their senses are far too honed with recently refined mental ether that has been waiting to be used to its maximum potential. Translucent white orbs of energy expand from their minds, and cover the entirety of the dueling room. Identical pulses of perception pulse out from Ember and Zashen who zero in on the Noble Demon from both sides. This Demonic Domain of Darkness loses its efficacy almost instantly, as everyone in the room now appears as perfect white outlines in the vision of the 4 warlords. Two blades of wind magic are the first attacks to come within range of the Demon while lightning and shards of blood stone rain from the sky. Ember charges up balls of fire in his fists, but watches closely for an opening, as he knows sending attacks off from this distance and this power level is quite useless... His thoughts become reality as the three-pronged spear in the demon's hand is spun around, making the dark crystal collide with both of the wind crescents coming his way. They collide and explode, but no sound can be heard within the abyss, the only tell that Zashen's attacks have been blocked is the dispersing ether energy that trails behind the Demon as it points its spear at the berserker and lets out a beam of dark energy. The Berserker's first instincts are to dodge, but it seems the demon's speed and power has increased by at least 3 times since the lights went out; the kilometer-tall berserker giant only has time to block with both of its blades crossed in front of its head. Zashen lets out a battle cry while he is pushed back, but none of the other warlords can hear him; only see their strongest close-range fighter be sent flying back dozens of kilometers by a ruthless beam. At the same time, the Noble Demon uses its Shadow Step skill to move around in this darkness without any limitation. No bounce points are necessary, all it has to do is pick a place in the dueling room it desires and it is there before anyone can blink again. It shows this off by disappearing and reappearing in between the thousands of lighting and stone attacks coming down upon it. The ether-infused outline of this monster blips all over the room, impossible for even the Warlords' advanced Ether senses to track within this strange Abyss. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. The lightning and earth wielders narrow and tighten their attacks inward as the demon approaches, but its teleportation speed is too fast to adjust fully, and it's only hit by a single-digit number of stray attacks before the Demon is right between the two of them. Unlike the dragon who took the entire force of Torvak's lightning to probe a point, Andras still has the entire strength of his custom Premium-grade defenses active. The blood stone shards that collide with his weak points are eaten away by the demonic cloud that surrounds him before any of the mental attacks can make their way into his true being. Still, both Warlords swing their soul Weapons with no fear. Yet, it doesn't do much at all. Asic's two-sided axe is stopped by the tip of the Demon's crystal spear, while Torvak's club is stopped by the butt end of the staff on the other end. Shockwaves of ether erupt from their clash, and the demon is struck by hundreds of lightning bolts and stone shards, but the culmination of these wounds only cracks his armor just slightly; nowhere near as destructive as the attack Zashen pulled off at the start of their fight. Andras floats before the warlords as good as new, now with newfound rage and reason for them to be erased from existence and never see the light of day to spread the word of this noble's disgrace. However, on the 4th side of the room, the human in its astral form has not thrown a single attack since this stage of the battle began. While this demon thinks the human must be blinded by its dark power, and hasn't jumped in because it can't see, reality is quite the opposite. Ember begins taking steps forward and his Astral Form grows. All that can be seen are his hands growing into sharp claws and a long pointed tail emerging from his back as he activates his Hybrid Dragon Form.