Jonathan had no wish to wait for whatever Geb was planning to come to fruition, and he brought his Domain to bear. The metaphysical construct of his own will and expertise slammed down upon the titan of a man before him, driving him to one knee. Another Domain rose up to meet his own, but it was merely the domain of a normal Pathway skill. Despite the fact that it was likely far higher than his own mastery, it was still weaker. The only thing that could contest Jonathan’s Domain at this point was the power of a Master ranked skill, or that of another Advanced Pathway skill.

He strode forwards, riding out the violent bucking of the monster beneath him to reach his quarry. Then he pulled back his fist and punched, driving his opponent off the back of the centipede. As Geb fell, suspended in the air for a brief moment, he was cut off from the majority of his elemental power.

Jonathan dove off the side of the monster and brought his fists together, imbuing them with Maw of the Void. Raising them above his head, he brought them down in a hammerfist attack, blazing with the ephemeral energy of consumption itself. Geb saw the purple fire as it descended, blazing like a distant star. What he did not see was the far larger sphere of colorless energy that surrounded it.

Jonathan let out a roar as he slammed his fists into the man’s flesh. There was a thunderous boom as the elemental coating came apart, revealing a far more average looking man within it. Then the Void detonated, and a wave of consumption rocketed outwards, eating through his flesh.

Jonathan could tell that the man would have been a far harder fight had he not possessed the powerset he did, but with the Void, most forms of armor were rendered useless. He beset Geb with a barrage of strikes as he fell, eating through the remainder of the man’s protections. In the few seconds that it took for him to reach the ground, the fighter was already dead.

Jonathan landed nimbly beside the battered corpse, and turned his gaze to the rest of the battle. With the death of its master, the centipede had gone truly berserk, laying around itself with its jet of fire and its natural weapons.

Jonathan left it to Hushar and Edgar, who were already engaging the beast. The two fighters were far more powerful compared to where they had been during the final fight of the Ash Heaps, and Jonathan sometimes found that hard to remember. They were still a lot weaker than he was, but they were comparable in strength, from their Legendary classes. As such, Jonathan felt confident leaving them to fight against the centipede. It was a far stronger opponent than the rest of the enemy army, but still pitiful compared to Jonathan and his two lieutenants.

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Instead, he directed his attention to the army before him. There were about ten thousand soldiers arrayed against his own forces, each of which was at a decently high level. Most of them were around level 260, but they doubtless were far more standardized in their strength than the elites that Jonathan had fought. He guessed that most of them only possessed a Rare class, or perhaps an Epic one if they were unusually talented.

Jonathan cared little about divisions in power among those who were basically ants to him. Instead, he simply engaged them in battle. His gauntlets glowed with potency as he launched himself towards the enemy lines, every fiber in his being ready for slaughter.

As Jonathan fought, he was watched from all sides by clones of Slothari, each taking the shape of a lowly insect, too small to be seen by most, and too ordinary to be noticed by those who could detect them. She was busy getting a good read on Jonathan’s true power.

The boy, no, the man, was almost as strong as she was, even though his level was lower. At least, if all she took into account was stats and skills. Her own unique physiology brought many bonuses to the table that nobody else could match. The circle lords were perfectly engineered monsters, designed with the ideal of raw power in mind. They were supposed to be unbeatable by anyone at their Tier, and perhaps even above. Slothari was strong enough to kill most low Tier 4s with ease, at least those on the more average end of the spectrum of power. That way, even if someone decided to ascend, they would still die.

She was eagerly watching Jonathan as he fought and utterly dominated the elites of her realm. The one thing that billions of years of life largely unopposed by worthy opponents brought was boredom. Even with unique changes made to her psyche to combat this, she was still in search of a good fight. For her entire tenure as the Ooze Queen of Mire, she had been undisputedly the apex existence. Unlike Granath, she had quashed the resistance against her from the fools who had thought to make the Hells into a better place with ease, using her shapeshifting abilities to infiltrate their ranks and destroy them from within.

It was because of this experience that she was so interested in Jonathan. With his strength and unprecedented success on the long path to being the Hellbreaker, he must have had some contact with members of the shadowy organization that had plagued the early years of the Hells. Even if not with their members, then with their teachings.