Damned Healer-Chapter 540: Mortal Pressure

Everyone went silent.

After that move, all the power from Gaia that Darian had received vanished. That technique worked like a summon: he asked Gaia for power, and she gave it to him a single time; once it ended, he couldn’t get more.

Still, Darian was delighted. Those three idiots had fallen right into his game.

He planned all of this the moment he heard about the Heavenly Tribulation. Sure, with the Golems’ secret technique, it was way easier, but the result would probably have been the same without it.

Now, the three immortals should have lost one-third of their immortal souls and suffered absurd damage. Of course, they’d never die to something like this and would naturally recover over time.

But it wouldn’t be fast, and they’d suffer sharp soul-pain for a while. Even better... they’d have to focus on healing, and wouldn’t act personally for a while. No matter how much hatred they felt for Darian because of this, they’d be forced to give him some time.

*BOOM!*

Almost immediately after the destruction of the three souls, the Heavenly Annihilation roared at full power again.

All the enemy survivors fell into despair.

"Don’t panic." Suddenly, Darian’s icy voice echoed above them.

Darian looked down. Extreme fury flashed in his eyes as he remembered all the lifeless Golem bodies scattered across that tribe.

"Pathetic trash."

With a simple wave of his hand, he released his black power in a way different from what he was used to. A black wave fell over those below.

Unfortunately for them, thanks to the three immortals, everyone had run and grouped together, thinking they’d be safe. But in reality, they were running straight into a cliff.

No one could react. Darian snorted, focusing and manipulating the black power, based on the slightly distant memories from when he was taken over by the Heart Demon. (Chapter 283)

*Whooosh!*

The black power twisted and ignited like a flame, swallowing all 700 who were perfectly grouped together.

"AAAAAAAH!!"

Countless screams of pure agony echoed from every direction.

Those black flames burned their bodies and souls in a grotesque and fast way, as if melting everything in the most painful manner imaginable.

In just a few seconds, the screams turned into a terrifying silence.

The Golems and the allies watched everything from afar, and even they had horrified expressions. They watched those people simply "melt" and vanish. It was a quick death, but a truly cruel one.

As for Darian, he took a deep breath. Doing that was extremely exhausting and consumed all his black power at once.

That method of using black power he learned from his Heart Demon, didn’t have great offensive capacity and wasn’t useful for direct battles; that’s why he never used it again.

But with the targets pressured by the Heavenly Annihilation and their bodies already extremely wounded, they had zero chance to resist.

It was as if that flame took advantage of their weakness. The more terrified and injured they were, the more effective and powerful the flame became. Even if some still had strength to fight back, with everyone so scared and grouped up, the power accumulated and grew until it devoured them.

’I’ll call it Nightmare Flames.’

*BOOM!*

Darian was jolted and dropped from the skies.

He landed calmly on the ground. The lightning was still focusing on him, hitting him again.

The second and last objective was successfully completed. His eyes turned to the skies. Only surviving that Annihilation was left.

Suddenly, the lightning stopped.

The people below took a deep breath, relieved. They could hardly believe that actually...

"First phase is over." Darian’s voice snapped them back in fear.

The skies roared again, as if responding to his words. Then the lightning gathered just below the clouds.

They merged, taking several forms and becoming more and more solid.

In seconds, the skies were covered by countless thunderous figures. They had all sorts of sizes and shapes: some humanoid, others colossal beasts.

All those figures had imposing and resentful auras, roaring like demons from hell, hungry for life.

"Get ready to fight! The easy part is over!"

Darian’s voice echoed again, leaving everyone stunned. Was the earlier part the easy one?

"These are copies of the will of people who died to the wrath of the heavens in the past. They’re not real people, but they have a certain level of skill and combat power." Darian explained lightly, then turned to everyone.

"What the hell are you all waiting for?! Awel trained you to fight, not to just stand there resisting, didn’t she?"

Everyone jumped and drew their weapons. In fact, that little girl had spent days organizing them to fight in a group battle. Not that ’first phase’, which was just a matter of endurance.

Darian already knew these things would appear and had prepared them for it.

*ROAR!!!!*

All the thunderous creatures descended from the skies with devastating force.

Darian moved upward, toward the clouds. That way, most of those figures would focus on him, easing the pressure on those below.

"KILL!"

Tetoya shouted, commanding his people. Czaza and Saelus did the same.

Thulon also activated all his power and joined the Golems, starting a brave fight. It wasn’t a miracle; he was still the same inexperienced young guy from before; but his will to fight and win had to prevail there, or he and many of his race would die.

The trial continued for several hours.

As time passed, everyone grew more and more shocked. Was there no end to that? Everyone, without exception, was completely covered in blood and wounded. Every drop of their energy and power was being used, but everything was running out.

After six hours, no other lifeform manifested.

Many collapsed on the ground, completely exhausted. Everyone was panting heavily, extremely relieved.

The tactic Darian told Awel to teach them worked. The Golems were like shields, while the Spiritual Guardians were the spear that killed. That combination, with hundreds more Golems to rotate in, proved very efficient. No one died.

"Second phase is over."

Darian’s calm voice rang in their ears again. But... it sounded like the whisper of the devil, cursing them.

Even Tetoya felt shaky and desperate. That was too much, it was impossible to survive something like that. How many phases still existed?

Darian smiled inwardly. They had no idea that this Heavenly Annihilation didn’t even have half the power it should have. That was because the Temple of the Golem God, which was the heavens’ will, was there.

That place was connected to it, giving a different kind of protection to the area. Darian was sure, feeling above, that half the power from the clouds was dispersing before falling.

And also, the target of that Annihilation was him. Even with the heavens wanting to kill him at all costs, the world’s laws and rules couldn’t be broken completely. That power level couldn’t surpass a limit, based on Darian’s own power.

Of course, if those three idiot immortals had used all the power of their souls, the Annihilation’s level would increase to destroy them.

In short, that was a lighter version of the Heavenly Annihilation, and even so, it was already terrifying.

"What exactly are you complaining about?" Darian spoke soberly. "Look at your bodies. You just went through an almost physical rebirth."

Everyone only now turned their eyes to themselves, and their eyes widened in shock.

When they fought the endless thunderous figures, defeating them made them explode into runes of light that automatically moved and were absorbed into everyone’s bodies. Only now did they realize how frightening the benefits of all that were. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

**BUZZZ!!**

In that moment, everyone saw something massive forming in the center of the clouds.

Darian swallowed hard, feeling all the annihilation’s power move to a single point.

A massive sphere of white light appeared. It was like a white sun in the middle of the black clouds. Everyone on the ground felt chills from head to toe.

Then... the sphere changed, gaining a multicolored shine.

Soon, they saw it split into five, losing its spherical shape. It stretched out, as if they were now five dragons moving and dancing through the clouds. Each ’dragon’ had a different color.

"Life-Lightnings..." Darian murmured, recognizing it because of that book.

In the beginning of a planet’s formation, when no life existed yet, those five lightnings naturally appeared and struck the land, as if spreading the seeds of life there.

Each one represented one of the five natural elements in their purest and absolute form.

Darian took a deep breath, sensing the terrible power each one had.

"Golems, it’s time to use everything!" Darian roared as he leapt toward the skies.

All the Golems below, even extremely exhausted, stood up and pulled out a vial with liquid inside. They absorbed everything quickly.

The 200 Spiritual Guardians knew what to do and ran to a single location, grouping together.

The Golems moved, surrounding them in a large circle. There were thousands of Golems. They all roared, and the universe’s Qi moved toward them.

In that instant, high-level earth runes appeared above, creating a colossal shield and anchoring themselves into the ground. It was like a dome of earth.

This was why Darian needed the Golems’ help for his plans to work perfectly. Without them, his 200 allies were doomed and would never survive.

He knew the power of earth, when pushed to the max, had very high natural resistance... but obviously, it still wouldn’t be enough.

The main point was that all the Golems had a strong connection to the heavens’ will. Now they would use themselves as shields to protect everyone. As long as the focus of the power wasn’t directly on them, Darian was certain they wouldn’t die and would still save their allies.

Darian was hundreds of meters up high, extremely close to the five life-lightnings.

He gestured, and his three daggers floated around him.

"Tir, Eleri, Awel. My survival depends on you."

Darian muttered with a tense voice.

They were the five natural elements. Each one of his partners would take one, matching their own element. As for Darian, he would have to deal alone with the ones equivalent to Fire and Thunder.

He was confident the three could handle theirs. As for him... he was feeling a mortal pressure; not even his physique would help much in this task.

The world went silent.

Right after, the five Life-Lightnings focused on Darian and shot toward him in a killing strike.