Bam!
A Five-Star Invader slammed a wall to smithereens, raging as he bellowed, "My brother is dead!"
He glared at the Four-Star Invader before him, "Grunto! You said the peak powers of the 24 Rings are only the level of our Two Stars. Then, how the heck is Brunnul dead? He might be lacking, but he's still at Five Stars."
"Based on my data, there exist two entities in the 24 Rings that are terrifying. The Genesis Hero and the Contained Villain. But even they shouldn't have been able to kill Brunnul." Grunto, the Four-Star Invader spoke. He was the Special Advisor to the Five-Star Invader, an Invasion Expert that had accomplished countless feats in other worlds.
"Find out the cause quickly, Grunto. Otherwise, off with your head." The Five-Star Invader glared, unable to rein in his anger.
"Please leave it to me." Despite the threat to his life, Grunto maintained his calm and exited the meeting room.
"Lord Wannul is angry as usual." He muttered before entering a special tower that was so tall it reached the clouds.
Wannul was one of the strongest Five-Stars among the Invaders, having personally destroyed countless worlds. In his body swirled powers from various worlds that he had invaded and absorbed.
Hunter, Hero, Demon Lord, Cultivator, etc., he possessed the energy and power system of countless worlds.
Moreover, depending on the power system he employed, he could alter his appearance, which was something all Invaders were capable of.
One Star and Two Star Invaders were only capable of camouflaging themselves to blend in with the invaded worlds. They typically took on the appearances of races innately hated by those worlds.
But in Stencil's world, that didn't work due to her powers that resisted such falsities. Therefore, they had to arrive in their original appearance.
Three Star Invaders could steal more than one power from the invaded world.
But Four Star and Five Star Invaders were on a whole other level, capable of not only stealing the powers they wished but were even capable of sharing their powers with the natives of the invaded worlds.
And they were the ones responsible for the creation of Cults in the target worlds whose populace did more damage and weakened that world's resistance to external entities like the Invaders.
Grunto arrived within the tower, staring at the data relayed by the Invaders cluttered on the barrier of the Hero World, frowning in response.
'Even though Lord Brunnul was curious about the 24 Rings, I still investigated beforehand and determined that he didn't have any enemies there. But, just what the heck is this?' He stared at the data sent by the Invaders that had witnessed the fight between the Five Star Invader, Lord Brunnul, and Compass Carburettor.
The two were at a standoff before suddenly, Lord Brunnul's face paled in response as his strength continued to fall at a noticeable rate. Moreover, his physique began to morph and turned more and more humane as time passed.
A couple of minutes later, Lord Brunnul became no different from a weak human mortal, "H-How is this possible?"
Following that, Compass Carburettor snapped his finger before Lord Brunnul regained all his strength. He fought against the opponent after that but something akin to sunlight slammed into his tentacled creature that instantly became a puddle, following which he too became one, killed in a fraction of a second.
Hiss!
Upon compiling the data, Grunto was alarmed, "Who the heck is this guy? How come he's so strong? This isn't someone we can handle."
But, just before he was about to make a report to Lord Wannul about this, Grunto noticed that the mysterious sunlight energy had also damaged the barrier of the world. "Hmm, that energy could easily damage the barrier of 24 Rings."
24 Rings was the name Grunto gave to Stencil's Hero World, symbolised by the 24 heavenly rings that constantly revolved around the world to form a protective barrier, barring all foreign entry.
And indeed, it was thanks to these 24 rings that the Invaders struggled to invade that world. They had to concentrate their efforts to penetrate the barrier, which allowed the natives to concentrate their forces at the spots and easily take care of the Invaders.
In other worlds, Invaders cropped up all over the place, blending with the natives to wreak havoc while the stronger Invaders even set up cults, causing the natives themselves to be destructive to their world.
But nothing was possible in this world thanks to the 24 rings, hence why it gave that world the name 24 Rings.
Currently, due to the resistance it displayed, 24 Rings was gaining fame in the Invader World, causing the attention of countless Five Star Invaders to be directed at it.
Grunto spent a few hours collating all the data that was available before returning to the meeting room, presenting them to Lord Wannul, "Lord, it was as I feared. The one that dealt with Lord Brunnul was the Contained Villain."
"Contained Villain?" Lord Wannul frowned in response, "He was supposed to be strong, but not on the level of Brunnul, right? Wait a second…"
His eyes widened in realisation, "Contained Villain…I see, so he had been sealed all along."
"Yes, the ones we gathered data about from all the expeditions were just his fragments running loose and wreaking havoc." Grunto played the compiled video, eliciting gasps of shock from those in the meeting room, "The one that dealt with Lord Brunnul was the real deal, the main body."
"Hmm…" Lord Wannul stared at the video in silence before announcing solemnly, "Even I don't dare think I'll win against him. That Brunnul, he didn't even manage to make the opponent reveal his cards. He died in vain."
"Lord, what do we do now?" One of the Invaders in the meeting room asked, "The other Lords too are focusing on 24 Rings now. If they were to head there, wouldn't they all be killed by the Contained Villain?"
"Seems there's just one way." Lord Wannul stood up and announced, "I will inform the heavens about this."
He then stared at Grunto, "What is your take on this, Special Advisor Grunto?"
"It's necessary, Lord." Grunto nodded in response, "We are mere probing pieces for the heavens to invade and devour. The presence of the Contained Villain makes the 24 Rings a great delicacy."
Nodding in response, Lord Wannul closed his eyes and began to pray, emanating a tremendous volume of starlight that caused a portal to open as an eye revealed itself.
