As they made their way down the street, they kept their heads down, not wanting to draw attention. The presence of guards amped up the closer they got to the center of the city, and they were soon being forced to take side roads and hop over buildings to get there unseen.

They reached the city center a few minutes later, pausing on the top of a building. Now that the public address was over, the crowd was gone, revealing the warded entrance to the building. A faint purple shimmer coated the entire palace, and the glow was brightest around the doorway. As they had been told, a large opalescent crystal could be seen in the center of the hallway, the source of the light.

As they watched, Jonathan saw a few guards troop in and out, unconcerned by the aura surrounding the building. It looked like certain people could be made exempt from the restriction. As the guards rounded the corner, Jonathan leaped down, landing like a cat. His Dexterity, which was approaching the second threshold, was at such a level that he could make a landing in full armor and make barely any noise at all. Meanwhile, Edgar simply floated down.

With a quick hand signal at Edgar, Jonathan raced forwards, towards the entrance. He flitted from side to side, using his stamina abilities to conceal his motion. To all but the most powerful of Tier 2s, he would have been a blur.

By the time he reached the entrance, he was ready for a fight. He simply stepped through the light, and into the hallway. A group of guards staggered to their feet, from where they had been having a presumably illicit drinking game. It seemed that even in a city where food and drink were almost nonexistent, alcohol still served a purpose. However, the guards were too slow for Jonathan.

He tensed his legs and sent his stamina to them, before flashing forwards like a streak of light. He smashed through the bodies of his foes, each hand splattering the Uthraki, sending detonations of Voidlight through their bodies. He turned around a moment later and brought his fist down on the crystal. The crystal shattered with a light tinkling noise, and the purple shield dissipated into motes of light.

A titanic roar of rage rose up from the center of the castle, no doubt from the city lord. Jonathan and Edgar kept moving, hearing the noises of footsteps behind them as the members of the Guild trooped on in. It seemed that they either had some sort of obfuscation ability, or a teleportation one, as Jonathan had not seen or heard them until this moment.

Guards started to file out into the hallway, forming up in front of Jonathan and Edgar. Edgar simply snapped his fingers, and the guards were unbalanced by waves of wind. These basic guards were weaker than even the Uthraki with the ear necklace had been, which was strange. Perhaps he had simply been off shift or something, as Jonathan doubted a being that strong would simply be allowed to live unaffiliated in the city.

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These Uthraki were over level 160, but compared to Jonathan, they were nothing. He likely was many times stronger than them, in terms of his stats and abilities. It was hardly fair. Their bodies turned into bloody mist and chunks of metal as he methodically butchered his way through. Essence rushed in, but not nearly enough for a level. The System definitely had something to do with how much one was rewarded for a kill, as this should have been enough to rank him up. Perhaps it was something to do with the challenge of a fight.

At this point, killing legions of similarly leveled fighters was not much of a challenge for him. It was not even a workout. As such, the System must have determined that he was not working hard enough for his essence, and simply took it. That seemed like the sort of thing the greedy universe spanning AI would do. Especially considering it was him. If not for his habit of killing higher leveled opponents, he would be stuck.

Jonathan slammed and punched his way through the milling throng of guards, followed in close pursuit by Edgar, who cleared the way with his wind abilities. Corpses were lifted into the air and were thrown out the door, a very disconcerting sight to say the least. The guild members had not made their move yet, instead content to enter behind their allies. More and more guards streamed towards the invading force, but they were dealt with in the same way. However, this did not last forever.

About fifty feet down the hallway, it opened up into a small courtyard with an ornately designed statue of the city lord standing in the center. Unlike most of the city, it was not cast out of black obsidian. Jonathan ignored it, instead focusing on the trio of clearly high leveled fighters that were facing him.

They were dressed in far more powerful armor than the other guards had been, which meant that they were probably higher rank than the previous guards. They faced off against Jonathan and his allies, with cocky grins on their faces, which were not covered by their armor. That would prove to be a mistake.

One of them, clutching a serrated greatsword, stepped forwards, gathering power around her blade. The woman was massive, a block of hulking muscle and steel that seemed equipped to break down a city wall in a single charge. She laughed, a low, guttural noise, and then slashed with her sword. The blade cut through the air like a razor, shaving a piece of the world out of place, or so it seemed.

A glowing red slash was left hovering in the air, which opened wider and wider over time. A moment later, a burst of red hot lava poured out, compressed into a blade-like shape by the small size of the aperture.

Jonathan dodged the attack, which streaked by, widening over time. It cut through the ground, melting the highly durable obsidian. Tartarus was a treasure trove of high leveled materials, and this entire building was made from Tier 2 resources. It was not enough to render it completely immune to attack, but it was still able to prevent the slash from taking out the entire building.