Seeing what Byrius and the other O’Brien disciples were planning, Mathias, Lauriella, and Kimika all took action at once.
Though the weakest in realm, Kimika appeared to be the fastest of the three. Her killing intent soared as she seemed to teleport, appearing at the rear of the group blocking off the path of Kimai.
“I refuse to believe that a mere early saint can stop me!” O’Brien’s 8th disciple roared as he summoned his spear from his storage ring and thrust it forward with all his might.
An overbearing heat wave suddenly assaulted Kimika as the air seemed to distort, creating the image of hundreds of spears aiming to riddle her body with hundreds of holes.
The moment she saw Kimai’s attack, she instantly understood that the man had comprehended the Law of Fire’s Profound Mystery of Mirages. Unfortunately, for the spear-wielding saint, as realistic as it appeared to the naked eye, Kimika had long since learnt not to rely solely on her eyes.
By listening to the symphony of the air, she could tell exactly what was happening around her without even opening her eyes. Every subtle shift in the air was automatically fed back to her mind. As a result, Kimika was able to ignore all the fake spears and focus only on the 30 real ones.
Despite being so much weaker than her opponent, Kimika’s eyes didn’t flicker as she calmly waved her sword hundreds of times in the space of a second, but instead of aiming for Kimai himself, she chose to target his spear, allowing her to barely knock each of his strikes off target.
Though it took a while to explain, everything happened in a fraction of a second.
By the time Kimai realised he’d done no damage to this seemingly weak saint, Wukong had just completed his third step.
He was so taken aback by Kimika’s skill with the sword that he’d actually been slow in reacting to the third bolt of lightning.
The moment Kimai moved to block Wukong’s descending bolt of lightning, Kimika slashed her sword across her body from left to right.
“[Void Rend]!” Kimika said with a cold indifference that made her opponent’s heart shudder.
Kimai’s eyes constricted as he saw Kimika’s blade tearing through the fabric of space. In that moment, he understood that, if nothing else, he couldn’t allow Kimika’s strike to land.
Knowing it was do or die, he hurriedly transitioned from defence to offence, allowing Wukong’s attack to strike him on the crown of his head as his battle-qi roared to life, burning the air and anything else that dared stand in his way.
With the threat of death pressing down on him, Kimai managed to subconsciously comprehend his second profound mystery – the profound mystery of heat; unfortunately, just as his spear took flight, his ears were assaulted by the roar of thunder.
It was only a fraction of a fraction of a second, but by the time he shook off its effects, he found his vision spinning as he intermittently caught sight of his headless body.
Just like that, another of O’Brien’s disciples met their end, their numbers going from nine to eight, but Kimika didn’t spare him another glance as her body vanished, looking for her next opponent.
The other eight disciples hadn’t even realised that another of their brothers had just fallen. Each of them was facing a threat that prevented them from even considering splitting their attention.
Three of them had been targeted by Mathias, whilst Lauriella had targeted the other five. With both husband and wife immediately deciding to lock their targets in their [Pseudo-Godrealms].
The moment she sensed Mathias appear behind her, Talana’s heart froze. Though she wasn’t sure, she couldn’t help but expect the worst – that Mathias’ comprehension really had reached the deity realm.
She was so scared that, in that moment, she had even forgotten to move, but when she sensed the ‘destruction’ of her 11th sister, her brows momentarily furrowed before she erupted in a boisterous laughter filled with relief.
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In that moment, she realised that Mathias’s comprehension really had only reached the level of a prime saint. If it had gone past that, with how much he wanted to kill them all, there was no way he would still be holding back.
Unfortunately, that relief was short-lived. She was brought back to reality by the death of her sixth brother.
Though she had hit the nail on the head with her deduction, with his [Pseudo-Godrealm], Mathias’ power had stepped into the realms of prime saints.
Coming to that realisation, Talana’s body shot back explosively, creating as much space between her and the enemy as possible.
Mathias could guess what she was planning, but as soon as he had finished with O’Brien’s sixth disciple, instead of chasing after Talana to try and stop her from forcibly destroying his domain, he lifted his war cleaver and calmly slashed from top to bottom. “[Sundering Decimation]!”
Mathias’s voice had barely left his mouth when a terrifyingly powerful, grey, crescent-shaped axe light radiating pure destruction shot forth.
Talana had only just destroyed Mathias’ domain when she sensed Mathias’ attack approaching her.
Aside from the few times she’d been lucky enough to watch a battle at the deity level, this was by far the strongest attack she’d ever witnessed.
She was just about to dodge when the sound of thunder rang in her ears, faintly disorientating her, and another bolt of lightning descended from the sky, snaking down till it struck her on the head.
Previously, Mathias’ domain had effectively shielded her from Wukong’s [Tribulation Steps], but Wukong had never stopped. In fact, he seemed to have entered a trance-like state.
Between the grief caused by seeing Ace suffering and then facing the people who were causing it, his soul had faced enough stimulation to enter sudden enlightenment.
Not only had his comprehension of lightning’s profound mystery of movement reached the prime saint level, but…
“Argh!” Talana grunted as her face paled slightly due to her soul receiving a jolt.
It wasn’t just her. Of the five targeted by Lauriella, she had managed to kill three, one of whom was Magnar, O’Brien’s 3rd disciple.
The difference between those targeted by Lauriella and those targeted by Mathias was that whilst Talana and her two juniors were overwhelmed by fear of the unknown, not knowing the limits of Mathias’ strength, the five trapped by Lauriella’s [Pseudo-Godrealm] all knew exactly how powerful Lauriella was.
Whilst a prime saint was far more powerful than each of them individually, together, they stood a chance, provided they destroyed her domain.
Unfortunately, by the time they succeeded, only Byrius and his 4th brother, Wendell, remained.
But like Talana, as they escaped, they too were hit by Wukong’s sixth lightning strike.
With his improved insights into the profound mystery of movement, the speed of each bolt reached a level you’d expect to see from a peak saint, but what was most impressive was that during his enlightenment, he had actually managed to not only grasp a trace amount of lightning’s profound mystery of judgement but also fuse it with his insights into the mystery of movement, giving each of his lightning bolts the ability to attack the soul of his targets – at least in part.
Still, the power of his soul was only faintly approaching the saint realm. His strike was far from enough to do any lasting damage to three peak saints of this level.
Even though they were nowhere near out of danger, whether it was Byrius or Wendell, they both turned to Wukong – who had only just awoken from his enlightenment – in disbelief.
That last strike, although it was only barely, could genuinely threaten them.
A mortal with the ability to threaten three peak saints…
They couldn’t help but wonder how so many monsters could gather under one roof.
The worst part was that if not for their choosing to reveal themselves of their own free will, no one would have any idea…
“For daring to target this king’s family, you all deserve death!” Wukong growled as he raised his foot for the seventh time. “[Tribulation Step – Seventh Ste…”
Before Wukong could finish his attack, Byrius attacked once more, this time not holding back – Wukong was way too dangerous to take lightly any longer!
Wukong moved like a bolt of lightning, easily evading Byrius’ strike, but unfortunately, with his technique interrupted, he would no longer be able to continue without starting again from the first step – something he very much doubted would be possible anymore.
“Argh!” Wendell grunted suddenly as he was sent flying.
Whilst Byrius had been busy with Wukong, Lazerim and Kimika had shown seamless teamwork to target O’Brien’s fourth disciple.
Unfortunately, he was far stronger than either of them and had still been in a relatively alert state, despite being distracted by Wukong.
At the same time, Mathias’ last strike was virtually on top of Talana, and due to Wukong’s interference, it was far too late to dodge.
At that moment, as her life began to flash before her eyes, she was struck by a moment of enlightenment, which in turn allowed her to draw strength from the earth beneath her feet to increase her own power.
Previously, like Byrius, Talana had been at the very peak of the saint realm, not even half a step from becoming a prime saint, but now…
Talana calmly swung her axe, but as it moved, space seemed to distort around her blade. As her earthen-battle-qi-covered axe met Mathias’ attack, she somehow managed to shatter it with what appeared to be nothing but raw power.
Though she was sent skidding back with a trickle of blood seeping out the corner of her mouth, she survived. That wasn’t the only thing of note…
“HAHAHA,” Talana’s ecstatic laugh rang through the battlefield, causing everyone to stop and stare at her. “I should really thank you! Because of you, I too have finally become a prime saint!”