Kahglia wasn't impervious to the cloud of death lingering around the Flesh Golem, but she was a lot more resistant to it than Toz. Not to mention how she didn't have to subject her entire body to the cloud of death when fighting the Flesh Golem. Since the cloud formed a fluffy layer around the Flesh Golem, she only had to push her hands and forearms through the spell to hit the Flesh Golem.
But since the cloud boosted the Flesh Golem's strength and, most of all, its regenerative capacity, Kahglia felt that it was a little futile even trying to attack the Flesh Golem. She would have considered attacking the lich since it was the one who had made the cloud. But after casting the spell, the lich didn't control it anymore. So, removing the lich would only prevent anything similar from happening again. And it wasn't even certain that the lich had any more tricks up its sleeves.
Attacking the lich just to make sure nothing similar happened in the future would come at the risk of the Flesh Golem grouping up again and either taking out Toz or attacking her together. And with the Flesh Golem already covered in the cloud of death, Kahglia didn't think it was worth the risk, especially when the mana storm was already doing its best to prevent any mages from using magic.
The battle turned into a stalemate pretty quickly. The Flesh Golem and Kaghlia traded blows, but nothing happened. And Toz kept bombarding the Death Knight, who kept defending without taking much if any, damage. The mana storm seemed to have found a spot it enjoyed as it stayed in place in what had been the Tribe of Death's war camp without interfering with the clash of giants and Toz.
However, after a while, a change occurred in the battle and on the battlefield. And it wasn't just the battlefield where Toz and the others fought. The change spread out and covered the entire plane.
Toz felt his spine tingle as if hit by lightning, and he quickly flashed away from the Death Knight so that he could survey the area. However, the Death Knight, Kahglia, and Flesh Golem also sensed that something was wrong and halted their movements.
It was impossible to tell what had happened at first. It almost felt as if the air had been changed all at once without anyone noticing. But that wasn't it, and as more and more time passed in tense silence, the ominous feeling covering the entire plane grew stronger.
All the troops, combatants, beasts, and whatever else was still alive felt the pressure and grew silent in fear.
Eventually, trickles of light seeped through the ground, where the craters and scars of combat were deep enough. And from a bird's eye view, it would have been possible to see that the traces of red light formed what looked like a magic circle that spanned the entire plane.
As the light grew stronger, it began pulsating in waves that moved toward the center of the battlefield, which wasn't far from where Toz and the others fought.
The light in the center of the plane deepened in color and grew stronger, but it also became more concentrated. Eventually, it looked like the ground itself in the center had become a crimson red.
While the magic circle continued converging in the center of the battlefield, the pressure of the mana it used rendered everyone on the battlefield incapable of moving. Of course, Toz and the three giants were among the exceptions. But so was Derada, General Scoll's subordinate.
However, none of them made a move, despite being able to. Their fight had been put on hold until the magic circle finished whatever it was doing. And they would decide what to do after the magic's effects were revealed.
But based on how ominous the magic looked and felt, they would probably have to put an indefinite hold on their battle.
And as the magic became clearer, it was obvious, even if it wasn't necessary due to both sides' reactions, that neither the Alliance of Kingdoms nor the Tribe of Death was behind it. The magic that covered the entire plane carried a tangy, iron-like, and bloody feel that, combined with the malice, pointed toward the fact that it was blood magic using demonic energy as the base.
The Alliance of Kingdoms didn't use demonic energy. They used pure mana of various attributes. And while the Tribe of Death used demonic energy, they didn't use blood magic. But there was one transcendent faction of demons renowned for their blood magic.
"The Tribe of Blood."
Kahglia's subconscious whisper helped Toz put a relatively obvious name to the people responsible for the secret plotting he had discovered. However, he didn't know what to think about the extreme way they had chosen to join the battle. There were also a few pieces that didn't quite align, and Toz's curious mind was eager to put them together with the first clue he had, at the time unknowingly, stumbled upon inside the Treblor Forest.
The fact that the demons used the same slave collars as the humans inside the Alliance of Kingdoms.
If it had been a standardized model of slave collars, it could have checked out. But the models were exactly the same. The only difference was that the collars in Treblor were fitted for beasts while the ones in the war were made for humans, but Toz could tell that they were made by the same person. Beltor, the cursemaster.
Since Beltor was officially affiliated with the Starsling Kingdom, Toz first suspected that they had betrayed the human realm and started cooperating with the demons. But their attitude and pride, however unlikeable, made that a very unlikely scenario.
Then, Toz found out that the Redire Kingdom was located next to the Starsling Kingdom, and the place where Beltor's Platform was, wasn't far from the border. That was the thing that first made Toz suspect the Redire Kingdom.
And then, when Lucy revealed the spies within the Redire Kingdom's troops, Toz's suspicions were all but confirmed.
But how, why, and who were all questions left unanswered.
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