For the moment, Dyon didn't tell Donari about his abilities as a key wielder, so they all believed they had to slowly make their way forward. In line with that, Dyon let them do most of the fighting along with his clones, of course.
It made sense that Donari didn't understand the full scope of his abilities, after all, he didn't exactly earn the key in a normal way. He would have to enter the top floor of the outer tower for him to learn their full scope.
Truth be told, Dyon's clones were too powerful under normal circumstances to find a challenge here. It was only because Dyon purposely lowered their percent from 15, to under 1% of his current power. Dyon thought that he might as well get some training in while dealing with the monotonous task. After all, campaigns lasted anywhere from three to six months depending on the quadrant, universe, gate, and amount of maintenance needed.
That said, the most rigorous part about Dyon's training wasn't his clones, but his use of his divine sense. Not only was it taxing to continuously keep tabs on a stretch of land 20 000 km away, controlling his wills at that distance was nothing more than a pipe dream.
Normally, Dyon's range would be limited to a couple dozen kilometers at the most. However, that only referred to the end point where his wills would have any meaningful impact. At past that distance, his wills were weaker than even a level 1 will.
Still, Dyon found that manipulating such weak wills, especially at this distance, gave him a unique view… He was forced to understand the essence of the will to a deeper level so as to make the best use of their weakened versions. It was similar to how Dyon often decided to use wills at a lower level than his absolute limit, except this was far more profound.
It was unfortunate that his Master wasn't here to confirm his suspicions, but, it seemed that not only was using divine sense to evoke wills useful in combat, it was also great for increasing control. Dyon felt that his progress in the past few weeks was akin to months of practice before.
Dyon didn't blame his master for not thinking of this method, though. After all, the secret was written in the [Dao of Array Alchemy]. If everyone knew its uses, it wouldn't be much a legend, now would it.
Now, Dyon felt like he could manipulate third level intents with the proficiency of a pseudo-dao formation expert which was unprecedented in and of itself. Still, he had his soul to thank for that.
Just like this, another two months passed, making it just a few days away from three months since they had entered the gate.
Dyon couldn't help but be impressed by the perseverance the kids showed. He could count on his two hands the number of hours of rest he had allowed them in the past nearly three months, yet they kept trudging forward.
'It's all because of him, huh…' Dyon's divine sense trained on Prince Nova with a bit of admiration gleaming in his eye.
Their group would have collapsed a dozen separate times had he not held them together.
Although they were practically children leading the way, that didn't mean there weren't older, less talented individuals among them. In fact, there were plenty of those well over 20 and 30 years of age making up their ranks, many of whom saw it fit to attempt to undermine Prince Nova's authority.
If it was Dyon, especially after those voices of discontent caused some irredeemable deaths, he would have simply killed them. But, this Prince Nova took a far calmer, more naïve approach than he would. Still, Dyon couldn't knock it because it was working.
By now, they were just a kilometer or so away from the tower. The fact it took them 3 months to travel just 90 or so kilometers as martial artists – a distance even a mortal would be able to cross in a couple days of walking – was a testament to the challenge Dyon had given them.
'I'll remember your faces for when I conquer your universes,' Dyon thought with a slight smile.
"Alright!" Dyon hopped up from his spot of meditation, looking around to see the haggard Donari and the rest of the disciples.
Dyon felt a little bad looking at how tired they were, especially when he saw the petite Sophia covered in sweat and blood.
They too had barely moved a hundred kilometers and faced the same trials and tribulations as the 99 universe army. However, it was due to Dyon pushing them like this that they broke their limits again and again. They might hate him now, but they'd come to appreciate it later.
As expected, Dyon received more than a little anger in return after he explained the key wielding abilities to Donari, but he simply chuckled it away.
Soon, they had teleported across the gate…
**
Prince Nova and his allies dragged their feet. After pushing themselves to the limit for three months, it was no surprise that they were each at the end of their ropes. But, thinking about just how important their mission was, turning back was simply not an option…
Seeing the end of the forest ahead, the light in their eyes was once more rekindled. Maybe they could actually get some rest this time around.
However, reality was too cruel… Because the first thing Prince Nova saw when he looked past the final tree was an army of 200 000.
Dyon smiled lightly while looking at their flustered faces. As he expected, because they never had a key wielder of their own, how could they know about the abilities of the key wielder? Such information would have gotten lost throughout their generations. After all, it had been a long time since the situation of Soul Rending Quadrant was normal.
That said, what Dyon felt was a smile of appreciation toward talent, the youths found to a mocking one.
"You…" Prince Nova whispered under his breath, but he kept his thoughts to himself.
He had wanted to blame Dyon for their troubles, but when he checked the front man's cultivation, it was even lower than his own. After all, Dyon was a 12th stage essence gatherer, but Prince Nova was already a Pseudo-Saint. It was difficult for him to give credit to someone he thought was weaker than him.
"Form up!" Prince Nova roared. He didn't know why the enemy wasn't taking advantage of their disarray, but he knew he couldn't miss this opportunity.
Technically speaking, their strategic advantage couldn't be understated.
To Dyon's back, there was a massive cliff reaching more than a kilometer downward, while to their back, there was a forest.
This was to be expected, every Epistemic Tower Gate was identical at its center, meaning there was a massive circular hole that the pillar like tower resided in and a forest that surrounded it all. It was just that this forest was far more dangerous than Dyon's home universe's.
Still, Dyon didn't do anything as the 99 universe army scrambled to form a semblance of a formation.
'Hm… The martial world's military tactics still leave a lot to be desired, but it seems that they are far better than the Uidah. But… Not good enough.'
Obviously Dyon wasn't worried about the terrain disadvantage or else he wouldn't have had Donari teleport them here. It may be true that the enemy could retreat and they couldn't, but… Did he really need to retreat? In fact, looking at these haggard teenagers, he felt kind of bad.
Dyon looked back toward the 50 disciples that had followed him. "You guys just rest here, there's no reason to come. I don't plan on massacring them."
"But!" Donari wanted to protect but Dyon gave him a stern gaze that made him swallow his words.
Dyon stepped forward, stretching out his limbs. After months of focusing on his wills, he hadn't exercised his body in a while.
Unfortunately, since he didn't want to kill these youngsters, he also couldn't show them his full power. However, that hardly mattered.
With a step, he flashed forward, followed by 200 000 clones.
Prince Nova's face hardened. 'Is this timing a coincidence? Did I make a mistake?'
He had thought that his opponent was making a mistake by not attacking them immediately, but somehow they were even more disorganized than when they started. Because of Prince Nova's hasty order to form up, everyone was scrambling. At least beforehand they were all facing the same direction, now they couldn't even boast that fact. However, Prince Nova could only watch as his disorderly army was rammed with thousands of enemies.
