Sadin arched his back, keeping his eye glued on this sudden intruder. After being empowered by Naia’s avatar, he should already be far stronger than any person within Aganth yet this person before him was sending chills down his spine.

“Stand down. This will only end one way.” Verim had his hand holding the handle of his blade, ready to unsheathe it if need be.

[Name: Verim Censer

Essence: Revelation Stage

Affinity Level: 19%

Combat Power: 1253]

“Censer, huh?” Sadin narrowed his eyes, he had heard rumors of such a dominant family before. The Censer family was a very oppressive force all over the land. It had branch families set up in both the Vis Empire and Salvo empire. Their swordsmanship was something even he was quite interested in. “You’re not half bad.”

For someone to catch Sadin's eye meant that they truly were strong.

“It’s not that difficult, Sadin. Just spare this guy's life and you can go on your merry way.”

Sadin tried to summon Slyph’s and Naia’s avatars yet they won’t respond to him. They were actively refusing his summons. This confused him, never before had this situation occurred even against someone who was a Great Being. Yet now, Verim, who wasn't a Great Being, was forcing his contracted spirits to stay their hand.

The subtle differences in space was something people from the Genesis Foundation were very sensitive to. From their multitude of experiences from mastering their special power, such changes were obvious. Verim noticed Sadin attempting to summon the Great Spirits he had contracted.

Verim shook his head. “Don’t bother. Entities beyond this world cannot hope to compete with us. Unlike you, their true bodies aren’t in this world. They’ll only harm themselves if they come into contact with me.”

[???]

Closing one of his eyes, a symbol appeared on the other. It was the very symbol of the Genesis Foundation. Sadin couldn’t understand just what kind of power this was. It was beyond what his current understanding of the world was. For the first time, he felt helpless against an enemy.

Unfortunately, Sadin’s not the type of person to bend his knee. He was the type of person who wouldn’t just give up if he didn’t experience it himself. “Then I’ll just have to do it myself.”

[Great Favor: Great Spirit of Fire | Gain Combat Power: +64,637 | Sadin: 122,585]

[Ignis Wrath | Gain Combat Power: +34,853 | Sadin: 157,438]

Sadin’s body morphed into a great molten being, greater than anything he had ever formed before. The sheer size of his body was enough to dwarf Aganth. Even those Ascendant Realm experts turned their heads to see such a monster suddenly appear within the city.

Verim sighed. “Always troublesome outsiders. They can just never keep still. Well, at least you're better than those ragtag of fools thinking they have any sort of power.”

The very air burst into fire, turning all the surrounding buildings into ash. It had caused so much destruction that even bystanders were starting to feel the sheer power of such a terrifying force. Weston had to make his move, creating another barrier within Aganth to protect the humans from such scorching heat.

[Flowing Swordsmanship | Gain Combat Power: +??? | Verim: ???]

“As with the currents of heat, it cannot flow from one medium to another without a path.” Verim unsheathed his sword and simply cut in front of him. A seemingly simple slash that created a vacuum where heat couldn’t permeate into it.

Looking behind him, Xeril was rendered unconscious. His body was heavily injured but it was clear that he was still alive, albeit barely. Verim took out a small case from within his pocket. It was a dark blue box, engraved with golden seams. Opening it made the air smell of fragrant lilies.

Within it was a singular translucent pill. Verim grabbed it and placed it in Xeril’s mouth, making it dissolve almost instantaneously. In real-time, Xeril’s body recovered from all the bruises and cuts his body had. Even his missing pinky finger grew back. At the end of the process, Xeril was back to normal, even healing his injury from forcefully breaking through to the Awakened Stage.

If not for his extremely tattered clothes, he would’ve looked normal.

Despite such a magical scene within this small enclosed bubble, the outside world was a grim contrast. It had been raining hellfire, aiming to strike Verim down where he stood. As these orbs of pure fiery destruction went past the boundary that Verim had created, they were quickly snuffed out.

Sadin melted the very surroundings in order to bury Verim in magma yet he couldn’t. All the molten rock he gathered just couldn’t do anything against Verim’s small bubble.

Verim looked over to Sadin from within this small space.

“Are you done? You haven’t mastered anything at all. You've just been throwing anything you’ve learned against the wall. Such a waste.” Verim’s disappointed words irked Sadin. “You had so much potential as well.”

Verim took out his sword, a simple longsword that hadn’t been enhanced by any powerful magic. It was a commoner’s blade. “Amateur, Novice, Experienced.” Verim stretched his limbs, taking the first stance. This was the first form of [Flowing Swordsmanship]. He then proceeded to do the second and third stances.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Advanced. Master. Ascendant.” Verim performed the fourth, fifth, and sixth stances. He was going through all of his mastery.

“The first six levels of Mastery. And after those levels are beyond even me.” Verim slowly sheathed his common long sword back into his scabbard. He had finished his routine.

“Yet from the looks of it, you’ve only managed to reach the Novice Mastery. What a joke. If you had tried, you could’ve already reached Advanced Mastery in such a short amount of time.”

Incomprehensible roars came from within Sadin’s monstrous form. His gigantic magma body kept on raining attacks on Verim yet it could never reach him.

[Flowing Swordsmanship: Seal Slash]

Verim had finally attacked Sadin. From the moment he laid his sword out, his very figure disappeared. In the very next moment, Sadin could feel his body… slipping away. He had been slashed directly in the middle.

From his head to his chest, all the way down to his stomach, he had been cut. Everything was slowly drifting away as his very understanding of the world was disappearing. It was over, he was losing consciousness.

Verim’s figure had reappeared directly where he had been standing the entire time. His attack was so terrifying that the world did not dare to pry upon it using its bare eyes. The great fiery monster that had suddenly sprouted within Aganth had been slain just as quickly.

“Hmm?” Verim had taken both Bargom and Xeril away into another space when he turned back. “I guess you’re not as reckless as I thought. But you should've thought about what would happen after you come back to life. Fortunately, I'm not particularly fond of bloodshed. Think about it next time you die.”

Verim's words seemed to have been spoken to the wind. The battles continued on, ignorant of what happened here. The aftermath of their battle continued to spread havoc everywhere else. Hours passed by as a small rumbling came from the ground where Sadin fell.

[Phoenix Rebirth | Lose Combat Power: -??? | Sadin: 1]

From within the ashes, Sadin’s human body sprouted out. Despite the destruction he had caused, the culprit of leading Aganth a step closer to destruction had come back to life. Even with the amount of molten buildings he had caused, his mind was focused on something else.

“What the fuck was that?” Sammuel was breathing in and out, trying to catch his breath. He had lost the majority of his power. Never before had he felt this weak.

It was only at this point that Sylph and Naia returned. Without such a force like Verim here, they could finally return to Sadin’s side.

“You’re alive?” Sylph poked Sadin’s cheek and checked his eyes. “Wow, you’re actually still alive! That’s great news.”

Naia tilted her head depressingly. “What she meant to say was that… you should’ve died there. No wonder Sylph’s taken a liking to you, you play around too much. Seeing your disgustingly pathetic Mastery of your abilities makes me want to puke. [Perfect Affinity] and this is as far as you’ve gotten? Perhaps the other outsiders might be more useful in this world.”

“Don’t be like that Naia. He can do whatever he wants.” Sylph landed on Sadin’s head, ignoring his currently weakened state. "Now go! Fight on! There's still much to be done and seen!"

“Don’t think Sylph’s on your side, mortal. You’re nothing more than entertainment for her. It will do you well to keep that in mind.” Naia shrugged her shoulders and kept quiet.

Sadin had narrowly escaped death. He didn’t understand just how drastic the difference was. It was completely absurd. Just how could someone on the same level as him ruin him so easily? He could even strike down Ascendant Realm experts when he actually lost to someone on the same level as him.

[Status: Phoenix Rebirth | Lose Combat Power: ??? | Sadin: 1]

Now he was forced into a weakened state for an extremely long period of time. He could barely move his body right now. If anything he was at the mercy of any being that came to find him. “I haven’t even found the Hatchling yet! Dammit!” He forced himself to clench his fist and slammed it on the ground.

“Hatchling?” A voice from a young woman sounded from the distance. Sadin viciously looked up to see it was a girl with fiery red hair, perfectly encompassing the currently chaotic scene. Embers of flame rained down from the skies due to his previous actions.

“Who the hell are you?” Sadin was wary. At the very least it was a human so there was a chance that he wouldn’t die here again.

“Jynnette.” She went over to Sadin’s side and looked down on him. “Are you one of the reinforcements from the Vis Empire or the Salvo Empire?”

“So what if I am?”

Jynnette covered her mouth as she looked to the side, trying to make sense of the current scenario. “What’s your goal here?”

“To save you lot, apparently.” Sadin grinned. “But that’s not what I’m here for. I’m here to kill all those bastards that have that Great Demon’s blessing. And that Hatchling in the meanwhile.”

A short gasp escaped Jynnette’s mouth. “You’re coming with me, Contractor of the Great Spirits.” She ignored the two floating beings on top of Sadin and grabbed his collar.

“I like this one.” Sylph stared up at Jynnette and giggled.

~~~

[Status: Blessing Exhaustion]

[Status: Mana Exhaustion]

Sammuel kneeled down on the battlefield. He was unable to move his body any further. “That’s the last time I’m going all out using [Ego: Base]. I’ve learned that lesson.”

Sammuel was completely weakened with [Ego: Runic Bear] and [Ego: Base] being unusable.

[Switch Ego: Brazen Wulf | Ego: Black-Winged Albatross]

[Combat Power: 8,538]

Sammuel felt his mana reserves and stamina completely return to him. He was switching out to a fully healed identity. This was one of his greatest weapons. To be fully healed so quickly was a blessing inside a battlefield.

“I finally have a Revelation Stage [Ego].” Sammuel felt satisfied for a brief moment before he felt something odd pile up within his body. It was as if his body was straining itself to keep himself steady. “What the…”

The sensation was akin to wearing clothes that kept shrinking, limiting his body further and further until it suffocated him. A drastically painful sensation.

[Switch Ego: Black-Winged Albatross]

Sammuel had an inkling of what it was and behold, it truly was what he had expected. [Ego: Brazen Wulf] was straining his body in a way that he couldn’t bear it. Sammuel didn’t want to accept it but this was reality, he could only use Revelation Stage [Ego] for a limited period of time before his body started breaking apart.

“I have a few theories why this is the case but the most plausible one is that… [Ego: Base] needs to be in the same realm for me to handle it. I’ve seen [Conditions] specifically relate to [Ego: Base] which makes the most sense. Does that mean that I’ll have to… what a blunder.” Sammuel felt a headache coming.

He was a fool for believing that nothing would go wrong.

[Ego: Base] was currently heavily injured, and unable to be used in combat. This meant that despite having so much power, he had to make do with trying to understand what the requirements were.

[Breakthrough Condition: See the world | Reward: Reach Star Quality 3]

“What does this even mean?” Sammuel didn’t understand. He already had a Revelation Stage [Ego] but that didn’t help him understand at all. Just what could the difference be?

“I can’t keep thinking about this. I need to start making my move, we’re running out of time.” Sammuel looked up at the skies where Alyur was still using one destructive more after another. She had never stopped for a single moment this entire time.

If not for the barrier, Aganth would’ve been wiped out several times over. Such was the power of a Great Being.

“To break the barrier… I’ll have to sneak inside the Reuge Institution and destroy the core.” Sammuel’s heart turned heavy. “A traitor to humanity. At this point, what’s even right anymore?”

Sammuel had made his choice, he was going to pull through to the very end.