Before the fallen could take another step, a sequence of arrays lit up beneath its feet. Although none of the Masters specialised in arrays, they had acquired treasures and insights into the art over the years to set up several types of suppression arrays effective at their level. These arrays simultaneously unleashed a myriad of negative effects which would be enough to push any of the five Masters one step away from death, but they could only slow down the movements of the fallen. It was a disappointing result; however, the Masters quickly moved on to the next step of their plan.
"Minor Five Element Formation, activate!"
Each of the five Masters took a position in the sky around the fallen to form a pentagram in the way of the five elements. The Storm Sky Manor Master took the position of 'wind', the Lava Stream Sect Master took the position of 'fire', the Maiden Academy Master took the position of 'water', and the two Masters of the Argentwave clan took the positions of 'earth' and 'metal'.
It was not a coincidence that these five Masters happened to each specialise in one of the five elements. Although the true significance was still unknown when Silver City was first founded, it was clear that the other four cities each focused on a specific element, so the first mayor also invited organisations that practised elemental techniques. The Minor Five Element Formation was obtained to capitalise on this gathering of elements. It was a trump card of Silver City, and with growing deterioration in the relations between the top major forces and the mayoral clan, it rarely saw a chance to be used until now.
Once the Minor Five Element Formation was activated, each of the five Masters was elevated to the late Master Realm and could feel their control over each of their respective elements strengthen several times over. They grew more confident in their ability to contain the fallen and didn't waste any more time before attacking.
"Cloud Palm!"
"Volcanic Slash!"
"Crash of a Thousand Waves."
"Jaws of the Earthly Beast!"
"Silver Prison."
The five spells struck the fallen head-on and seemed to deal lethal damage to the creature, but once the spells were done, the fallen recovered effortlessly as if it had never been wounded to begin with.
"What a freakish level of regeneration!"
"No, it's even worse. It didn't take any damage from our spells, so there was no injury to recover from."
"Then how do we defeat it?"
"It's coming!"
While the Masters were discussing how to fight the beast, it reacted to their provocation by extending the sharp tips of its wings to attack them. The pointy tentacles that extended from its wings were quick, but not so much that the Masters couldn't dodge them. After evading one of them, the Storm Sky Manor Master struck the tentacle with a wind spell. The spell easily split the tentacle, but the two ends soon reunited to become whole again.
"Its form is fluid!"
With this message from the Storm Sky Manor Master, the other Masters tried to burn, freeze, crystallise and crush the fallen, but none of their attacks left any lasting damage, while the tentacles became harder to deal with.
"What is this?! How could none of our attacks have any effect?"
"It would be best to assume normal techniques have no effect on it. Everyone, open your domains!"
For cultivators, domain techniques were considered the strongest and often served as trump cards. There were countless known domain techniques, but they were all characterised by the ability to impose a rule on a region of space. Theoretically, a cultivator could learn a domain at any stage, but it was said that a domain could only begin to show its true worth once one became a Master.
The five Masters quickly agreed to the idea of using their domains and activated them above the fallen.
"Cloudy Sky Domain."
"Raining Lava Domain."
"Ice Mirror Palace."
"Ancient Behemoth Domain."
"Silvery White Dream."
The clouds darkened and turned red with lava, mirrors of ice surrounded the fallen, a gigantic creature made of the earth grew to face it, and a silver fog engulfed both. Captured by the five domains, the fallen screeched in pain as its body was eroded by the natural laws that each domain utilised. Since awakening inside the Spirit Nest, this was the third time that it had felt such pain. Finally realising that the five tiny beings floating around it were threats, the fallen fired enough black beams from its tentacles to fill the sky. The Masters were all able to evade or block the black beams, so the infuriated fallen resorted to its new ability.
The Argentwave Master, who was also a former mayor of Silver City, focused on controlling the earthen beast to restrain the fallen. Though the effects were small, their domains were proving effective in damaging the creature, so there was a chance of victory if they could endure for long enough. The former mayor evaded another of the fallen's tentacles, but suddenly, it slammed into his barrier and flung him towards the fallen. The former mayor quickly realised that the tentacle had pierced through space to attack him, but that knowledge couldn't help him now.
Before he could control the direction of his movement, he entered into the region of the multi-layered domains and suffered the same effects as the fallen, with the exception of the suppression of the earthen beast.
"Gah!"
"Elder Brother!"
"Don't stop! If we release our domains, we can't restrain it!"
Restricted by the domains, the former mayor was soon devoured by the fallen. With his death, the Minor Five Element Formation was broken and their domains weakened by a significant degree. The combination of the remaining four domains was still able to chip away at the fallen, but by piercing through space with its tentacles, the fallen could attack them from unpredictable angles, making it difficult to focus. Another unfortunate fact was that the fallen's flesh became firmer after eating the former mayor. Its tentacles could still be severed with some effort, but it took longer to cut through them while they recovered at the same rate.
The Masters prepared themselves for a tough attrition battle; however, the fallen had no need to fear such a fight. It widened its mouth and swallowed the vitality of the land at a feverish pace. As the land lost colour before collapsing under the weight of the city, the Sky Realm experts sensing the battle from afar picked up on the danger.
"We can't stay here any longer. Retreat!"
"But, if we move any farther, we won't be able to tell what's happening in the battle."
"And if we stay here we'll die and feed that thing. Retreat, that's an order."
"... Yes, Senior Inspector."
Senior Inspector Han also knew that they would become ignorant of the state of the battle if they retreated further, but it was better than making those Masters' efforts be in vain.
If even those distant experts could sense the danger, then naturally so could the four Masters.
"This wicked beast! We must kill it before it devours the entire region!"
"If we could do that, then we already would have!"
To resist the pull on their life force, the Masters had to remove some focus from containing the fallen. Sensing this drop in resistance, the fallen used the vitality it had stolen from the land to rapidly grow in size. The Masters immediately reacted to this move, but the fallen's growth far outpaced their efforts to restrain it. The creature soon broke out of the confines of the layered domains before the Masters could stop it.
It was damaged all over, but the damage didn't slow its attacks. The Masters had employed the full power of their respective domains, so they weren't able to redeploy them so soon afterwards, and the fallen wouldn't give them the chance either. With its ability to teleport its body through space and tentacles that seemed endless, the fallen caged them within the bounds of its tentacles in a short time. The tentacles were still weak enough that the Masters could pierce through them with little effort, but the tentacles regenerated faster than they could break through their encirclement, and the fallen concentrated its life-drain ability on them, so they were beginning to lose scant amounts of their vitality. Before they knew it, the Masters had been caught in the fallen's domain and faced what seemed to be impending death.
Then suddenly, a fiery spear as bright as the sun pierced through the fallen and opened the way to light for the four Masters.
"You've eaten too much. It's time to spit it out!"