Broken lair

Emanuel took a few steps back, the one in front of him was not the same Nicola he had found in the auction hall. The demon fox in front of him had his face darkened by the flames that still ignited the fields on his back, making his walk even more sinister.

Nine white tails dangled on his back like poisonous snakes ready to strike at any moment, his body was covered in black armor close to his body, only his seven crowned horns were visible outside it.

Nicola resembled an asura from hell, a god of death who came to take the lives of the people below him. Nicola suddenly disappeared from where he was, as if it were an illusion since the beginning.

Emanuel turned around in place with his sword extended looking for where he was, his nervousness made him look cloudy and fear made the sword tremble in his hands. His thirst blinded by vengeance and honor brought him to the brink of destruction.

A sharp dagger touched Emanuel's throat while others aimed at his fatal points behind his back. "You must suffer, but torture or death will not be enough for you. You will suffer more than your grandson." Nicola said before erasing the old man, just as Nicola did with Augusto, he nailed the dagger and sent a pulse of darkness directly into Emanuel's dantian, making his cultivation go to zero again. Emanuel passed out before Nicola even hit him.

The orders were the same, to arrest Emanuel inside the space artifact and then Nicola got ready to speak to his group. The four were back in the tower, or what was left of it actually, Kin and Gin were better off because of their defensive artifacts but the other two looked deplorable.

Tuatha was a small spark gray flame that seemed to be able to be extinguished at any time, while Tyris had lost an arm and several scales in the process. Nicola looked deeply at the four and spoke. "Today I failed deeply with you, I couldn't go back in time to save you. I apologize for that." Nicola apologized to them with their heads down. "I will understand if none of you want to follow me anymore." He let the phrase hang in the air.

The first to respond was the wisp. A weak, childish voice spoke vibrated in the air as if it were tired, the color of the small gray fire sphere changed to a pink and purple color before announcing. "You gave me home and friends, you gave me freedom and knowledge. I have nowhere else to go except Nicola." He said and the soblings nodded in agreement. Nicola looked at Tyris hoping she would give her answer, too.

She raised her missing arm and looked at him. "I'm going to miss that arm, I hope Mr. Nicola can find me a worthy replacement for him. After all, scales grow again, but arms don't. Hahahahah!" The snake woman said laughing, which made Nicola smile too, embracing the four with his arms and tails.

Aka, Kiiro and Midori were damaged in the battle and nearly broke their cores to provide energy for the barriers. The magic cores have a self-healing ability built into them, but the damage was so vast that it would take some time for them to recover again. The loss suffered by Nicola in that exchange was very great, the mines were destroyed, the harvest fields were still on fire, the tower suffered damage that was beyond repair. The only worthy undead left were hydra and balor, as well as less than a dozen minor undead

[Number of undead servants 08/150]

His ability to control minor undead was reduced by deactivating the three AIs that helped him control them. "Only eight remain ..." Nicola whined. He was still helping to heal his companions who were there, but he took the opportunity to check out the system.

He had given pills to everyone and along with Gin applied healing magic to close everyone's wounds. Tuatha slowly returned to his normal size with the collection of mana from the surrounding environment, Nicola had even offered him some mana stones to recover faster but it would still take some time for him to get well. His flame size was the same as a melon, Nicola believed that in a few weeks he would be in his best condition again.

[Number of demon servants 01/09]

Nicola looked out the window and saw the little beetle outside. It looked like he had collected the dead bodies of his fallen comrades in one corner and was now eating their bodies. Nicola found this act strange, beetles were natural scavengers, he knew, but cannibals too? He tried not to think about it too much and let the beetle finish its meal. Losing the sulfur beetles was a big blow to his ability to gather information and keep alert.