Zehmud was about to attack again until he saw a faint light in Aldred's eyes. Suddenly, he couldn't even move a single inch of his muscle.
"You… What did you do to me?"
Aldred slowly approached the man. With a smile, he put the tip of the blade dangerously close to Zehmud's neck.
Sweat began to form on Zehmud's forehead. "I cannot have this. How can you defeat me? You! You're just a new Diamond Rank. I have become a Diamond Rank before you were even born."
"Maybe that's the limit of your talent."
Zehmud gritted his teeth in anger. "I may be defeated but I refused to be insulted by you!"
"What are you going to do about it?"
That statement made him realize that he was in a hopeless situation. Aldred was right. What was he going to do about it?
Zehmud's face turned dark as he looked down.
"I actually am just playing with you. Letting our subordinates fight and all that. Those things are useless if you don't have real power yourself. Sure you can send your armies to conquer distant kingdom, but what if a powerful enemy knocked on your doorstep? I see my army as external tools, but you are delusional enough to see them as your own power."
Aldred stared at Zehmud. "That is why you lose."
Zehmud was silent at first, but he began to giggle. And then he burst into laughter.
"Have you become mad?"
Zehmud smiled. "No. I am completely sane, and you have fallen to my trap."
Aldred quickly stabbed his neck and beheaded him before the sky violently shook and thundered.
Giant dark-red pillars came down and crashed onto the ground in a circle formation with Aldred in the center. Aldred vanished from the spot, sprinting away, but the pillars shot out a transparent energy that prevent him from leaving.
Aldred touched the energy. It worked like a barrier, and he couldn't get pass through it. He channeled his mana into his right arm and then slammed his fist into the barrier.
Boom!
Smoke came out of his fist, but the barrier was still intact.
"It's useless."
Aldred turned around. A group of 15 Diamond Ranks floated down and gracefully landed on the ground. They all looked at him, and their intentions were very clear to Aldred—they wanted to kill him.
So this was the trap. He smiled when he realized that somebody manage to fool the Empress. He believed Edeline was a strategist, but she wasn't omniscience so of course she would make mistakes.
"Killing you will make the Empress pay a huge price."
"Then why don't you come here and do it?" Aldred said.
"We thought of a better option. Join us, Aldred."
Aldred was silent for a few seconds before he burst into laughter. "Are you stupid? Join you? You're the losing side. Don't forget that the Dragon have tried to kill me multiple times during my journey to obtain the treasure."
"Old wounds close, new friendship bloom."
"The only thing that bloom is my sword up in your ass."
"Fighting 15 of us is a death punishment. You think the Empress is on your side?"
"Don't try to poison me with words. I am not that naive nor foolish. I have seen many things during my journey."
"Then you should have seen through her ploys, Aldred. Think about it. The Empress send you to Zehmud, and now you are trapped here."
"You think the Empress wanted me death?"
"And you really think she wanted to share the throne with you? She had enough of men telling her what to do. She is enemy to all male. She sent you here to die along with us."
"Think about it, Aldred. You think the Empress is foolish enough for sending you to your death unless she intended to?"
"Like I said. I wouldn't be fooled by mere words."
"You really wanted to fight 15 of us?"
"I can fight 15 of at once at any time of the day."
"Arrogance! This will be your end, Aldred. I hate to dirty my own hand to do the Empress' dirty work, but we will have to kill you here."
"Stop trying to convince me to point my sword towards my own allies. You brute-headed fucktard are too stupid for that."
Aldred raised his blade and it flickered with red aura. Suddenly, thousands copies of him appeared and rushed towards the enemies.
"Clones?"
"How is this possible. All of them have the same power as the original?"
"Wait, no. Those are fake. They don't have the same power."
A man took a rock and threw it at the clone, it burst into blood immediately.
"These clones are weak, but we can't detect which one is the real one."
The diamond Ranks kept on killing the clones by the hundred. But each clone could create tens of copy of itself. So instead of decreasing in numbers, Aldred's copy increased even more.
The clones did not bring any threat by themselves, but they acted as decoys for Aldred to take an opportunity to attack.
Suddenly, one of the Diamond Rank's arm was cut off.
"Fucking bastard!" The man grew the arm back, but four Phantom Doomblade struck at him from different direction and powerful fire energy injected into his body. The man screamed and exploded.
"Fuck! Stick together! Don't let him take a chance to isolate us."
Right after that statement, a 2 meter long red spear pierced through his chest. The man quickly turned around and swung his axe, killing a hundred clones at once. But a chain began to wrap around his neck.
"Help him!"
The other 13 Diamond Ranks rushed towards him to help. One man slapped the chain away, and rushed towards Aldred. They exchanged a few attacks, but out of nowhere, a blade came swinging and cut off his arm.
The man screamed in pain. "This pain… what is this power. It's nothing like I have ever felt before!"
Usually, Diamond Ranks were immune to physical pain. They still could feel it, but it was more like a pinch to them. Only when they received Aldred's attack did they feel that their heads were stirred by the pain.
"Dragon's Gaze!"
A powerful pressure struck them down, giving Aldred a chance to attack. Immediately, Four Aldred beheaded four Diamond Ranks at the same time, and then vanished into the crowds of fake copies.
"Bastard!"
Suddenly, all the fake copies vanished, and there was only one Aldred standing 20 meters ahead of them.
The 10 Diamond Ranks were bloodied and wounded. Aldred had occasionally struck them at random to confuse who his real target was.
Even though there were 15 of them, they were completely played.
But the 10 Diamond Ranks were still confidence.
"After all of that, you must have run out of mana to use. It doesn't matter if you kill 5 of us, killing you will be worth it."
"That's the mistake you make. You see, I never run out of mana."
"Bullshit!"
"I have nothing to speak with you. Let me show you what I obtain from Pharder." An Eternal Mana Crystal appeared in his hand.
The ten Diamond Ranks were shocked.
"So it was true. Pharder really did have an Eternal Mana Crystal."
