His eyes are filled with hope, but his body still trembles with fear.

This man was captured by an unknown rising kingdom in the Dark Continent by a force that easily defeated two of their strongest A-Class hunters and dozens of elite B-Class hunters in seconds.

Now, he's face to face with me, a man who tortured information out of his allies for hours without any remorse.

Even if I freed him from his golden collar, it seems he's still unsure if he's now just being shackled to another tyrant.

All of his thoughts are racing around now, but I can read them as clear as day, like the odd mental block from before is gone.

I completely change my tone, smile, then deactivate my intimidation and gravity magic.

"Very good. Tell me everything you know about the Apex Region and the reason you attacked me, and I'll consider letting you live a free life away from me and the Association if you wish."

His eyes light up, and the words start flowing.

I stand above him and listen with my arms crossed, and every word that comes out of his mouth is followed by plumes of green mist from my lie detector skill telling me it's true.

After about 15 minutes of talking, I send a telepathy wave to Abby, asking her to fully restore him.

Then, I walk to the next cell and do it all over again.

One by one, I use Divine Energy enforced Soul Energy to break the bonds of the Sun God's Curse Mark on every one of the captives.

Two out of the ten resist my attack and grasp onto the Soul Energy that is connected to their being.

It feels very similar to the time when I used my Soul Energy for the first time to extract the Lich King's lingering Orange essence.

Unfortunately, the two that resist my help are burned to a crisp from the inside out due to the violent nature of my Soul Energy's flame aspect.

The eight that let the process transpire form links of loyalty the moment their curses are lifted, and one after another they spill every bit of knowledge about the attack and the association that they can.

Unlike the aftermath of the Lich King's Curse, these men and women aren't in coma-like states.

From what I've gathered after all of their explanations, the curse mark works as a mental collar, making them follow orders no matter what they are, and their minds don't understand that these actions are not their own thoughts.

While they go about the rest of their days and lives normally, once an order is given by the Sun God, they will follow it without question, like it is their own inner thoughts rationalizing them to do so.

The power makes me shiver every time the next hunter explains the same feeling.

Some of them are even breaking down crying and praising me, asking for forgiveness because they themselves didn't understand that it was happening until right now when the veil was lifted.

Even in their shocked state, each of them pieces together valuable information about the day of the attack.

I can visibly see it in my mind after all of the vivid explanations. My teammates listen closely and step in to ask questions too as they're extremely invested in these details.

The night before the attack, a dozen hunters all met inside the same dark room with the oval-shaped table and only one figure sitting behind it.

It was the 2 high-level A-Class fighters and the 10 B-Class Elites here with collars on.

Mr. Freeman gave them all a briefing, describing the actual details of the mission. Telling the best hunters in the Apex Region that there is a rising human threat in the Dark Continent who goes by the name of The Flame Emperor.

For the sake of peace and continued control over the Dark Continent's resources, each and every one of these golden-collared guards was ordered to take over the city, plunder the valuables, and kill anyone that continued staying loyal to this rogue force.

The common word amongst all of them is that those hunters without collars were never briefed on the reality of the event, only those who the Director had full control over knew the real dark plot behind this event.

They were meant to set up a new station here, take over the profitable dungeons, and put their own craftsmen in charge of continuing the trade deals.

Just like the un-collared hunters said before, most of this information was gathered by low-level spies that live in Solara and the outer cities within Sector 1.

They must just be intertwined with your everyday traders that come by the city.

It's how they knew about the dome, the Flame Emperor's name, the plentiful dungeons, and many other details about my land.

However, the Inner Circle, my high-powered teammates are not well known at all.

We don't show our power to the public, and none of them know our true faces or names.

Even the defeat of the Dark One that ruled over Valor City is only known in a very tight-knit community of original members of the City.

This attack against us from the Association is the first public display of the Crimson City's true power, and with thousands of eyes on the event, word will travel fast of the Flame Emperor's strength.

Satisfied with this description, I now understand the true motive behind the Director's attack. However, I want more information about the Association itself.

I continue to interrogate them more, asking questions about their training methods, secret facilities, and any extra information about Mr. Freeman that they know, but the results aren't exactly what I expected.

The Apex Region seems to have many different zones, and only certified personnel are allowed in each zone.

These B-Class Elites are only allowed to train in the B-Class dungeons, and the only way to find them is through a transportation system that is shrouded in mystery.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Just like when I was inside the moving mana shielded rooms during the exams, and it felt as though the cube I was standing in was moving from random location to random location on some kind of rail system; this is all these hunters know too.

They are as blind to the inner workings of the Association as me...

None of them have any idea what the yellow energy Mr. Freeman uses is, they just called it cursed energy, so trying to talk to them about Divine or Soul Energy turns out to be useless.

In the meantime, Abby restores them all to perfect health, I give them food and water from my storage, but after we're done here; I put their mana blocking cuffs back on and close the cells.

While I walk out with my teammates I swing the pink crystal ring of keys around my finger.

"They may have been forced to do what they did, but they still did it.... I need some more time to think about their futures. Their punishments will be decided in 5 days as well."

We walk out the front door to be greeted again by the man and woman. I toss them the keys back and smile.

"We're all done here, treat them nicely until I return. Seems they weren't as bad as we thought, and were very cooperative today."

I turn to my teammates once we get far enough away from the prison and feel the presence in my shadow stirring.

"How about we go spar out in the desert away from the city. I want to see how far you've come for myself; and there are a few training options I want to talk over with you to get your opinions on."

We all turn and fly even further away from the city, following the edge of the dark abyss as a guide and making our way another 100km away from any sign of trade routes or civilization.

Once we settle down in an open clearing, I speak up.

"Come at me with everything you've got. Let's see what you can do. Don't hold back, I can handle it."

Then I put my fists up in the air as the 4 glowing teammates around me pull out their weapons.

Fisher smirks, putting a similar fighting stance to Monk's up in the air and letting his manifested blue serpent Soul Energy flow out of him.. "You sure? I'll give you everything if that's really what you want!"

Lydia pulls out her katana, and it's glowing with white light. Her Soul Energy Tiger surrounds her body and the desert sand below starts to turn pristine white.

Abby glows green and spears start to circle around her while Maria pulls out her sword and a dense royal blue energy form erupts from her chest to grow ten times her size.

I allow my own Soul Energy to power my movements and strengthen it with yellow threads of Divine Energy.

I don't activate my greater form, and don't pull out any extra weapons to prove a point as they all come at me with everything they have.

The first attack I block with a simple open palm is Fisher's, catching his punch and using a wall of red soul energy covered in yellow threads around it to completely stop his manifestation of a serpent in its tracks, then making contact with his main body using a powerful blow with the same hand to send him flying backward.

From the other direction, Lydia's blade comes straight for my back.

I gracefully turn while in the motion of blocking Fisher's move and dodge her strike within millimeters, twisting around her body and landing the same open palm to her back sending her flying in the opposite direction.

Less than a tenth of a second later, I jump upward to avoid 6 bright green spears spinning in circles coming my way. Using flight to bounce through the sky with ease, feeling as though I'm as light as a feather while closing my distance between myself and Abby in the next instant.

Her eyes widen as I use the same simple open palm thrust at her chest while she's in her immortal form.

The Soul Energy from my attack shouldn't be able to harm her at all. In this moment, nothing should be able to.

However, the yellow threads that make my form heavier, more rooted in reality, are so strong that she's pushed backward from the blast.

The Soul Energy itself didn't do a thing, phasing through her and doing no damage at all, however the mass of my body covered in divine matter that is stronger than reality itself makes an impact with where her body should be and does physical damage.

I turn in mid air the moment my attack hits to see a massive ice goddess' blade coming down toward me.

Full of confidence, I push my hand up to stop it.

For a moment, I feel a truly bizarre weight pushing down on me, like the longer I wait to push back the heavier it will become.

My muscles strain for a moment, and I'm stuck standing in place for a few fractions of a second before I channel all of my soul energy and divine threads away from other portions of my body to push into my palm.

Now, I push back upward with enough force to push the ice blade away. Then, jump upward and plunge through her greater form with nothing but a Soul Energy Barrier strengthened with Divine threads to break through the attack and hit Maria's real body with the same blow I did to everyone else, easily overpowering her.

It may have been an error to hold back here at first, I did so not to hurt any of my teammates, but I used enough power to show there was an overwhelming difference.

I power down, standing in the middle of the four of them defeated on the ground around me.

While they weren't life-threatening blows, I still hit them hard enough to shock their systems and give them a taste of what Divine Energy can do.

I yell out for each of them to hear.

"Again! I want you to come at me with everything, aim to kill. If you think those A-Class hunters you fended off were strong, you have no idea what kind of monster we're dealing with. My power is minuscule compared to the Director that runs the 8 Great Regions. We have to get stronger."

I prepare to give them all regeneration potions or share my skill with them, because each of the blows I landed left yellow thread residue in their bodies.

However, a bright green Restoration Circle spreads out beneath Abby's feet, and it covers the entire battlefield.

Green energy surges into all 4 of them at once, and I watch the foreign yellow thread be torn out of their bodies similar to the soft heal technique that Nat used, but much faster and it's more efficient.

I smile and put my fists back up while the 4 of them come back at me with their weapons and Soul Energy on full power.

Colorful Blue, Green, White, Red, and Yellow lights all flash through the desert as the landscape is destroyed everywhere we spar.

About 30 minutes go by, and the fighting only gets more and more intense.

They slowly realize that I really meant it when I said they can come at me with everything they have. At first they were all hesitant to actually hurt me, but it soon becomes clear that the power gap between us has grown so much that they can really let loose and use everything they have.

This is the first time I believe any of them have been able to do an exercise like this.

Every time they break through and learn new techniques while battling all out, I up the intensity little by little to make sure they never win; having to think of new ways to fight back and continuously gain the upper hand.

In less than half an hour their fighting styles drastically improve, and they become far more confident in situations where decisions need to be made within tenths or even hundredths of a second.

While their basic combat training goes on, my mind is racing for more ideas on how we can all improve.

While I was thinking inside the [Mind Palace] everything seemed perfectly aligned and clear.

I had options to farm in the top floors of the labyrinth, to have us all gain a few trillion more MCP. It would definitely make each of us much stronger, but wouldn't bring us to levels that are magnitudes higher, which is where we need to be.

The level of a strength gap that they have below me right now is similar to the power gap I felt between the Director and myself.

I had thoughts of giving them my red, orange, and even yellow cores that I farmed to try and awaken cores like myself, but there are a few problems with that too.

The first is that there isn't enough time. It would take weeks for them to awaken up to the yellow core state in the best-case scenario.

The second is that even if they made it to a yellow core in time, we would still have the same issue. I'm recreating the battle right now that would happen if we fought against a stronger opponent of such immense strength.

It's like the swarms of orange-cored insects fighting against a yellow-cored lizard, no matter how I look at things; the power gap is far too high.

I can't tell if the Director's mana control is just that much higher than mine after decades of training, or if there is a second stage to the yellow core that I'm unaware of.

All I do know is that there is something that I'm missing, and I need to figure out what it is...

Another half hour passes, and we finally stop our sparring to take a break.

The realization that we all have a long way to go has fully washed over us, and even more ideas start to come out from them too as we rest and take a load off sitting in the sand as the sun continues to beat down on us overhead and the hungry abyss swirls in the distance.

My shadow becomes restless again once our spars are over, like it's trying to communicate with me.

I grin and look at each of my teammates while standing up and preparing to activate my dark magic.

"This may sound crazy at first, but hear me out. I know someone who may have the knowledge we need to get stronger..."