All the Darkness in the ground and air around the superiors seemed to be rushing towards them, fueling their defenses. Thicker and darker scales were growing with each passing moment.

So much Darkness and mana was being spent into trying to block the Pox that the superiors weren’t even visible any more. Thick clouds and walls of Darkness were covering them in their entirety.

And yet, in spite of their desperate efforts, the Pox seemed to be winning. The layers of defenses were burning almost as soon as they were put up.

The first superior couldn’t assist them either. Even though he was the one attacking James, it now felt like he was the one that was trapped.

If he stopped attacking James in order to help his allies, then James would attack him. And yet, if he didn’t help them, he would surely be next in line.

But he didn’t have the chance to contemplate a solution to this conundrum any longer.

Without even a shriek or a sound, the two superiors’ bodies fell to the ground. Withered and drained, not even a thud was heard. The bodies turned into dust, as if they had never even existed.

The first superior was now all alone. Not even the legions of inferior agents were left.

His eyes widened in horror as he realized the fated that awaited him as the dust of his fallen comrades was flowing towards him, touching his skin, filling his nostrils.

“Garantep, come out! Now is not the time for politics or power play! Together we are stronger!” The superior shouted, while still keeping his beam focused on James, not daring to stop it for even a second.

The Pox’s cloud began making its way towards the superior.

“Garantep! You’ve watched us all die while doing nothing! At least save me! Together we can kill them all!” The superior shouted desperately as the cloud was darting towards him.

A laugh suddenly echoed throughout the city. The mere vibrations of the sound were causing earthquakes, the buildings shaking as if they were about to collapse.

The superior’s eyes widened in shock, but then rage began to fill them. “You selfish bastard! I’ll show you, I’ll defeat them all by myself! And then I’ll blow myself up and you’ll get nothing!”

As if the rage granted him strength, the superior turned towards the cloud and fought it head-on. He screamed, and the beam he was firing became even more potent, to the point it was even able to melt part of the cloud.

But the amount of energy the cloud had consumed made it far too powerful to be defeated just like that.

Waves of crimson energies were shooting forth, trying to block the beam before it could even reach the cloud.

Surprisingly though, despite all the energy it had consumed, the cloud actually began losing.

But James wasn’t about to let the cloud do all the work. Seeing as the superior was too busy with the cloud to deal with him, James prepared ten whole empowered Javelins, taking his sweet time to make them as powerful as possible.

When the Javelins felt ready, James launched them into the superior’s back without mercy.

The immense amount of energy the Javelins emanated was impossible to miss. Even with his back turned, the superior felt it.

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He tried to dodge, but the cloud followed him. Waves of crimson energy from the cloud, along with the swift Javelins were relentlessly pursuing him even as he was contorting his body to try and avoid them, his beam blocking anything that came close.

But there were just too many things coming at him.

Several large explosions rang out one after the other. But nobody could see what happened. Clouds of dust and smoke were whirling uncontrollably, covering the sky and obfuscating everything that was happening within.

Even after enhancing their sight with mana, no one could see anything inside. There were just too many energies flying around, the Pox and the Javelins alone were enough to overwhelm one’s senses.

James didn’t know what to do. He could prepare some more Javelins, but he wanted to preserve as much energy as possible. He had plenty of mana left by any mage’s standards, but after hearing that laugh that would’ve turned a normal person’s insides into soup with the sheer force of its echo, he knew he needed to save every ounce of mana he had.

The dust clouds didn’t seem to subside though. He didn’t know in what state the superior was. Was the Pox winning, and the dust clouds were just a consequence of the superior’s last efforts to stay alive? Or was his weapon being disabled as he stood by and watched?

He could feel that around a third of his mana reserves were gone. That still left him plenty of mana. And yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling of impending doom. The strength of that laugh alone told him that the person behind it was likely stronger than the rest of the agents put together, several times over.

He had seen the evidence of this hierarchy and inequality of power even among the superiors. But it looked like things were a lot worse than he thought.

Still, if he had to face two strong enemies at the same time, that would make it even worse. He had to make sure the superior was dead.

Deciding not to hesitate any more, James prepared another ten Javelins, and sent them into the whirlwind of dust clouds to snuff out any lives that could still be in there.

Ten more explosions rang out one after the other. That many Javelins would’ve killed any creature James had ever seen up until now.

And yet, nothing fell out of the dust clouds. Unless the reason for it was that the superior’s body had already turned into dust, then that only meant that he was still alive. And James really doubted that he would be turned into dust so easily. James clearly sensed the difference between him and the other superiors, it was like night and day. It was like they were different species. His appearance alone highlighted the great difference between him and the rest of them. The Darkness that enveloped him made it seem like you were staring into the void itself, it was like space and time collapsed around him, not even light being able to escape.

James didn’t hesitate, and he conjured twenty more empowered Javelins. No matter how strong Garantep was, and no matter how much it seemed like he wouldn’t intervene before the superior was dead, James just couldn’t risk it. He couldn’t risk having to fight both of them at the same time.

He launched the twenty Javelins, and twenty more explosions rang out, the sheer force of the explosions causing an earthquake of their own. Dozens of buildings were shattered as they couldn’t endure the repeated stress of countless explosions.

But no body fell to the ground. The superior still seemed to be alive. After so many explosions, he still didn’t die.

James didn’t know what to do, so decided to consult with his group, since he also wanted to check how they were doing.

“Guys, are you all right?” He asked.

“We’re fine.” Lunaris replied with a warm smile, immediately sending a healing wave towards James to soothe him. “It seems odd that the guy won’t die though.”

James nodded. “I know. Thirty Javelins and the Pox, and the guy still didn’t fall. I’m a bit worried to be honest.”

“What’s there to worry about?” Denmac laughed excitedly. “You’ve killed hundreds of them! Nothing can beat you! After seeing what you did to them, I’m sure you can beat pretty much anything!” Outwardly, any trace of fear within Denmac seemed to have been erased by James’s repeated displays of strength. And yet, his hands were involuntarily trembling.

“No.” Helios shook his head as he stared carefully at the dust clouds. “It’s not like that. It seems agent society is even more brutal than we thought.”

“I’ve been thinking the same thing.” Lunaris added. “The difference between them is stupefying.”

Helios and Lunaris looked at James. “You’ve been thinking it too, haven’t you?” Lunaris asked.

“Yes.” James nodded. “It seems like the strongest agents are thousands of times stronger than an ordinary one. This guy, who is the strongest among the superiors, seems to be dozens of times stronger than the next in line.”

James didn’t continue, but everybody was thinking the same thing. If this guy is dozens of times stronger than the guy below him, than just how much stronger was Garantep?