The people of Suven had to stay in their homes instead of roaming outside. The heavy snowfall intensified with each second. It added a grayish-foggy glamor to the entire kingdom. The mournful cry of wolves echoed through the vault still-silence of the trees. A huffing wind rose up then, stirring the roofs of the wooden homes. A tinkling sound resonated as the blocks of ice pearls dropped onto the roofs. The sound was like the glassy clinking of a champagne flute, lilting and clear. Even the cultivators felt the bone-chilling coldness in the air. The snowfall passed over us, and the sound intensified. The noise of snow falling was like the phut-phut-phut that ripened nuts make when they hit the ground. It wasn't the soft, sodden, swollen drops of spring but more like ball bearings were hitting the canvas roof with force. One could also hear an occasional ker-plunking sound. It was caused by the ice gathered on the tent falling to the ground in a great swash of release.
Michael stared at the storm getting worse through the window in his room. The storm didn't rage only outside but also inside of him. He received the news of Spirit child's disappearance from Azazel. The only silver lining was Azazel told him Noah was on the island and most probably searching for the child. As he was pondering everything, Gaya entered the room.
"I heard what happened from Azazel," Gaya grabbed his hand, consoling him.
"Do you think we should start searching for the child?" asked Gaya.
Michael shook his head.
"No,"
His answer truly surprised Gaya. She expected that even if he didn't personally search for the child, he would ask one of his subordinates to find the child. Contrary to her expectation, Michael outright refused to search for the child.
"I didn't drag this battle out to leave everything in the middle. Maxim Barnes is getting closer to triggering his heavenly tribulation,"
"I have a feeling the thusians took the child to use it as a hostage," said Gaya.
"If that's the case, we'll find the child soon," said Michael.
"But what will you do Michael? What will you choose, the child or your revenge?"
"Revenge," Michael didn't even take a few seconds. The hatred ran deep inside Michael to the point he didn't even care about the spirit child. No matter what, he would destroy Thusia. Since Michael told Victoria if she harmed his people in any way, he would reveal the existence of the Cosmic stream to the outside world. It was highly unlikely Victoria had something to do with the spirit child's disappearance. She was not stupid enough to jeopardize the Cosmic stream. Even King Maxim restricted himself from harming Michael's people in Elon because of Michael's threat.
"Fortunately, I don't have to choose. I fully believe Noah would save the child. Besides, I told Lailah don't let the child come in my way," said Michael.
"My Lord, our attack on the Diamond valley is over. Our new allies safely retreated to their hideouts," Michael heard Azazel's voice in his head.
"Good," Michael nodded. He then turned his head to look Gaya in the eyes.
"You have to meet our new allies and make sure they fall in line,"
"What about him?" asked Gaya.
"I'll allow him to live for now. I don't think he'd be interested in serving us,"
Gaya exhaled deeply. She slowly cupped his face and gently kissed him on the forehead.
"Just think about the spirit child's matter, okay? Seeing the child in person and making a decision is way different and difficult,"
"I know," Michael said. He slowly leaned forward to lock his lips with Gaya's when he sensed a powerful threat in his Environmental Scanning Map.
He immediately cast the Wind Blast. The force of wind shot out of Michael's hand, blasting Gaya several meters away from him. As soon as he sent Gaya flying, a bright beam of energy shot through the glass and hit Michael. Thanks to the Responsive shield and Michael's quick reflex, the energy beam grazed the side of his chest instead of penetrating.
The side of the wall slowly crumbled down due to the energy beam's power. Gaya immediately jumped to her feet. She wanted to dash forward,
"Go away," Michael ordered Gaya.
"I'll take care of this," said Michael, slowly standing up from the ground. Meanwhile, the soldiers in the castle quickly rushed outside, hearing the commotion. An unnatural sound of thunder rumbling reverberated through the sky. Because of the storm, the soldiers couldn't see the man floating in the sky above the castle. Michael cracked his neck. Without lingering inside the castle, he dashed outside through the hole in the room.
As soon as he exited the room, he saw an elf floating in the sky. Glistening energy balls danced above the elf's palms. The elf looked at Michael's chest with the torn cloth. He snickered,
"I need to work on my aim," said the elf.
"You made a mistake coming here," said Michael. The elf's Half Immortal stage level 5 cultivation didn't scare Michael. In fact, Michael felt pity for the elf. He could have lived a long life as a Half Immortal. Instead, the elf chose to embrace the sweet death by attacking Michael.
The elf, on the other hand, did not respond. He directly shot another beam from his hand. Michael swayed his body to the side, evading the beam. But the caste walls were not very fortunate. The beam destroyed the walls. Several cracks formed all over the castle. Moreover, the soldiers were sent flying just by the sheer force of the beam. Michael was surprised. To him, the energy beam wasn't deadly. However, the mortal soldiers couldn't even withstand the shockwave created by the beam. Michael realized why everyone feared a battle between two Immortals.
"Let me guess, the thusians sent you," said Michael.
Once again, the elf shot Michael with another energy beam. The beam created an otherworldly whistling sound as it soared through the sky. Michael felt the temperature around him rise by several degrees. Besides, the beam distorted the space around him. The lightning bolts had an even more powerful effect, but Michael hadn't felt the effects of his spell-like his opponents.
Michael dashed out of the beam's trajectory.
"You have to do better than that," Michael snickered. Instead of waiting for the elf to fire another energy beam, Michael flew away from the castle. The elf quickly flew behind Michael. While chasing Michael, the elf kept firing at Michael. Both of them used their speed spells. Soon, the elf started to fire a couple of energy beams simultaneously. Michael immediately retrieved his black shield. He turned around, blocking the energy beam with the shield. The moment the white energy beam and the black shield collided, it created a powerful shock wave. An eerie sound was several times more powerful and threatening than a thunderclap that echoed through the sky. As a result of blocking the oncoming energy beam with the shield, Michael was pushed with such force that his speed increased several times. It was like a nitrous boost to Michael's speed. His hand went numb, but he kept using the shield to reach his destination faster.
The elf was relentless. Even after seeing Michael blocking his attacks, he continued to bombard Michael with the energy beams. To be honest, the elf was surprised by how sturdy the shield was. He wanted to get his hands on the shield. The elf had no idea Michael was three levels stronger than him because Michael paid the system to lower his cultivation level. As far as the elf was concerned, Michael was at Half Immortal stage level 2. Each time Michael blocked the energy beam with the shield, he was pushed back fifty to a hundred meters back in lightning speed.
The shield began to turn lava orange on the edges due to the energy beam's heat. Michael's hands felt numb.
"Nice shield," The elf said. His words echoed through the air like a thunderclap. The unfortunate village lost their houses when Michael blocked another energy beam with the shield. Soon, Michael felt the energy in the atmosphere distort violently. As a result, the grayish winter clouds turned dark. The stormy wind blew with enough speed to uproot several trees in the forest. When he fought, this was the first time Michael had seen such an effect on the environment. He could only imagine what would happen if two Immortals battled it out.
Now Michael realized why everyone, including the Guardians and the Council of Immortals, feared fighting the rogue immortals. They might win against the rogue immortal, but the collateral damage would be rather grave. The elf's eyes glistened with battle lust. As Michael expected, the elf slowly lost his sense of location. If he hadn't, he would have realized they were getting closer and closer to the island of Itholan. Victoria and Booth planned to finish Ghost by sending a Half Immortal. However, Michael outsmarted them by bringing their Half Immortal to their own kingdom to fight. Since Michael had taken over the Golden Port, he targeted the Diamond Valley.
Seeing Michael blocking his energy beams with the shield nonstop, the elf clapped his hands together. The thunderous clap produced a shock wave pushing Michael back and making him lose his balance. The elf's hands lit up as Michael sensed the elf's energy fluctuations around him skyrocket. Additionally, Michale heard an otherworldly whistling sound in the air.
Michael's grip on the shield became tighter as he knew the next energy beam would be several times more powerful than the earlier ones. The moment the elf shot the energy beam, it lit up the entire dark sky. Michael heard a thunderous explosion from the elf's hands as though several grenades had gone off at the same time. The energy beam soared through the sky, cutting the sound barrier itself.
Michael quickly grabbed the shield with his two hands and blocked the energy beam because the beam was too fast. Even if he had cast the Silenes, he couldn't have evaded the beam. Hence, Michael blocked the energy beam. The black shield turned orange and flew out of Michael's hands. But before flying out of his hand, the shield blocked the beam. The beam collided with the shield's surface and split into several beams. Each of the beams went in a different direction. The beams which hit the ground destroyed everything they touched. Houses crumbled down like cookies, trees turned into ashes, and citizens of thusian got obliterated into nothing.
The people screamed in utter fear. They ran for cover while flames engulfed the buildings. Even the armored soldiers weren't spared by the beams. The reflected beams lost almost half their power, but they were still powerful enough to kill a Core Formation stage soldier who also wore metal plate armor.
The people of Suven had to stay in their homes instead of roaming outside. The heavy snowfall intensified with each second. It added a grayish-foggy glamor to the entire kingdom. The mournful cry of wolves echoed through the vault still-silence of the trees. A huffing wind rose up then, stirring the roofs of the wooden homes. A tinkling sound resonated as the blocks of ice pearls dropped onto the roofs. The sound was like the glassy clinking of a champagne flute, lilting and clear. Even the cultivators felt the bone-chilling coldness in the air. The snowfall passed over us, and the sound intensified. The noise of snow falling was like the phut-phut-phut that ripened nuts make when they hit the ground. It wasn't the soft, sodden, swollen drops of spring but more like ball bearings were hitting the canvas roof with force. One could also hear an occasional ker-plunking sound. It was caused by the ice gathered on the tent falling to the ground in a great swash of release.
Michael stared at the storm getting worse through the window in his room. The storm didn't rage only outside but also inside of him. He received the news of Spirit child's disappearance from Azazel. The only silver lining was Azazel told him Noah was on the island and most probably searching for the child. As he was pondering everything, Gaya entered the room.
"I heard what happened from Azazel," Gaya grabbed his hand, consoling him.
"Do you think we should start searching for the child?" asked Gaya.
Michael shook his head.
"No,"
His answer truly surprised Gaya. She expected that even if he didn't personally search for the child, he would ask one of his subordinates to find the child. Contrary to her expectation, Michael outright refused to search for the child.
"I didn't drag this battle out to leave everything in the middle. Maxim Barnes is getting closer to triggering his heavenly tribulation,"
"I have a feeling the thusians took the child to use it as a hostage," said Gaya.
"If that's the case, we'll find the child soon," said Michael.
"But what will you do Michael? What will you choose, the child or your revenge?"
"Revenge," Michael didn't even take a few seconds. The hatred ran deep inside Michael to the point he didn't even care about the spirit child. No matter what, he would destroy Thusia. Since Michael told Victoria if she harmed his people in any way, he would reveal the existence of the Cosmic stream to the outside world. It was highly unlikely Victoria had something to do with the spirit child's disappearance. She was not stupid enough to jeopardize the Cosmic stream. Even King Maxim restricted himself from harming Michael's people in Elon because of Michael's threat.
"Fortunately, I don't have to choose. I fully believe Noah would save the child. Besides, I told Lailah don't let the child come in my way," said Michael.
"My Lord, our attack on the Diamond valley is over. Our new allies safely retreated to their hideouts," Michael heard Azazel's voice in his head.
"Good," Michael nodded. He then turned his head to look Gaya in the eyes.
"You have to meet our new allies and make sure they fall in line,"
"What about him?" asked Gaya.
"I'll allow him to live for now. I don't think he'd be interested in serving us,"
Gaya exhaled deeply. She slowly cupped his face and gently kissed him on the forehead.
"Just think about the spirit child's matter, okay? Seeing the child in person and making a decision is way different and difficult,"
"I know," Michael said. He slowly leaned forward to lock his lips with Gaya's when he sensed a powerful threat in his Environmental Scanning Map.
He immediately cast the Wind Blast. The force of wind shot out of Michael's hand, blasting Gaya several meters away from him. As soon as he sent Gaya flying, a bright beam of energy shot through the glass and hit Michael. Thanks to the Responsive shield and Michael's quick reflex, the energy beam grazed the side of his chest instead of penetrating.
The side of the wall slowly crumbled down due to the energy beam's power. Gaya immediately jumped to her feet. She wanted to dash forward,
"Go away," Michael ordered Gaya.
"I'll take care of this," said Michael, slowly standing up from the ground. Meanwhile, the soldiers in the castle quickly rushed outside, hearing the commotion. An unnatural sound of thunder rumbling reverberated through the sky. Because of the storm, the soldiers couldn't see the man floating in the sky above the castle. Michael cracked his neck. Without lingering inside the castle, he dashed outside through the hole in the room.
As soon as he exited the room, he saw an elf floating in the sky. Glistening energy balls danced above the elf's palms. The elf looked at Michael's chest with the torn cloth. He snickered,
"I need to work on my aim," said the elf.
"You made a mistake coming here," said Michael. The elf's Half Immortal stage level 5 cultivation didn't scare Michael. In fact, Michael felt pity for the elf. He could have lived a long life as a Half Immortal. Instead, the elf chose to embrace the sweet death by attacking Michael.
The elf, on the other hand, did not respond. He directly shot another beam from his hand. Michael swayed his body to the side, evading the beam. But the caste walls were not very fortunate. The beam destroyed the walls. Several cracks formed all over the castle. Moreover, the soldiers were sent flying just by the sheer force of the beam. Michael was surprised. To him, the energy beam wasn't deadly. However, the mortal soldiers couldn't even withstand the shockwave created by the beam. Michael realized why everyone feared a battle between two Immortals.
"Let me guess, the thusians sent you," said Michael.
Once again, the elf shot Michael with another energy beam. The beam created an otherworldly whistling sound as it soared through the sky. Michael felt the temperature around him rise by several degrees. Besides, the beam distorted the space around him. The lightning bolts had an even more powerful effect, but Michael hadn't felt the effects of his spell-like his opponents.
Michael dashed out of the beam's trajectory.
"You have to do better than that," Michael snickered. Instead of waiting for the elf to fire another energy beam, Michael flew away from the castle. The elf quickly flew behind Michael. While chasing Michael, the elf kept firing at Michael. Both of them used their speed spells. Soon, the elf started to fire a couple of energy beams simultaneously. Michael immediately retrieved his black shield. He turned around, blocking the energy beam with the shield. The moment the white energy beam and the black shield collided, it created a powerful shock wave. An eerie sound was several times more powerful and threatening than a thunderclap that echoed through the sky. As a result of blocking the oncoming energy beam with the shield, Michael was pushed with such force that his speed increased several times. It was like a nitrous boost to Michael's speed. His hand went numb, but he kept using the shield to reach his destination faster.
The elf was relentless. Even after seeing Michael blocking his attacks, he continued to bombard Michael with the energy beams. To be honest, the elf was surprised by how sturdy the shield was. He wanted to get his hands on the shield. The elf had no idea Michael was three levels stronger than him because Michael paid the system to lower his cultivation level. As far as the elf was concerned, Michael was at Half Immortal stage level 2. Each time Michael blocked the energy beam with the shield, he was pushed back fifty to a hundred meters back in lightning speed.
The shield began to turn lava orange on the edges due to the energy beam's heat. Michael's hands felt numb.
"Nice shield," The elf said. His words echoed through the air like a thunderclap. The unfortunate village lost their houses when Michael blocked another energy beam with the shield. Soon, Michael felt the energy in the atmosphere distort violently. As a result, the grayish winter clouds turned dark. The stormy wind blew with enough speed to uproot several trees in the forest. When he fought, this was the first time Michael had seen such an effect on the environment. He could only imagine what would happen if two Immortals battled it out.
Now Michael realized why everyone, including the Guardians and the Council of Immortals, feared fighting the rogue immortals. They might win against the rogue immortal, but the collateral damage would be rather grave. The elf's eyes glistened with battle lust. As Michael expected, the elf slowly lost his sense of location. If he hadn't, he would have realized they were getting closer and closer to the island of Itholan. Victoria and Booth planned to finish Ghost by sending a Half Immortal. However, Michael outsmarted them by bringing their Half Immortal to their own kingdom to fight. Since Michael had taken over the Golden Port, he targeted the Diamond Valley.
Seeing Michael blocking his energy beams with the shield nonstop, the elf clapped his hands together. The thunderous clap produced a shock wave pushing Michael back and making him lose his balance. The elf's hands lit up as Michael sensed the elf's energy fluctuations around him skyrocket. Additionally, Michale heard an otherworldly whistling sound in the air.
Michael's grip on the shield became tighter as he knew the next energy beam would be several times more powerful than the earlier ones. The moment the elf shot the energy beam, it lit up the entire dark sky. Michael heard a thunderous explosion from the elf's hands as though several grenades had gone off at the same time. The energy beam soared through the sky, cutting the sound barrier itself.
Michael quickly grabbed the shield with his two hands and blocked the energy beam because the beam was too fast. Even if he had cast the Silenes, he couldn't have evaded the beam. Hence, Michael blocked the energy beam. The black shield turned orange and flew out of Michael's hands. But before flying out of his hand, the shield blocked the beam. The beam collided with the shield's surface and split into several beams. Each of the beams went in a different direction. The beams which hit the ground destroyed everything they touched. Houses crumbled down like cookies, trees turned into ashes, and citizens of thusian got obliterated into nothing.
The people screamed in utter fear. They ran for cover while flames engulfed the buildings. Even the armored soldiers weren't spared by the beams. The reflected beams lost almost half their power, but they were still powerful enough to kill a Core Formation stage soldier who also wore metal plate armor.
