The moment Alice's Castle of Eternal Ice manifested in the center of the ancient capital, Violet and the other Lord figured that they had to go all out, otherwise, they might not only fail their mission but die as well.
Failure was still acceptable. They could try capturing Michael once again at a later point in time. However, death was permanent. Neither Violet nor Beast, or the Lord of the Energy Seal wanted to die.
Violet retrieved dozens of Common Energy Stones and crushed them into pieces, resulting in a burst of energy to flood the surroundings. The Reverse Energy Seal placed on her sucked in a tremendous amount of the compressed, purified energy, allowing her to relieve the Storm of Bladed Strings with several thousands violet strings. She then added a Legacy Technique to further reinforce the power of her Soultrait. As a result, the bladed strings cut deep into the Castle of Eternal ice, slowly breaking the structure apart.
Unfortunately, Alice didn't stay idle as the Castle of Eternal Ice was being attacked. She manifested thousands of Ice Swords and by tapping into the power that had temporarily merged with the Castle of Eternal Ice, Alice could strengthen the compressed Ice Swords by applying a trace of Enhancement, Reinforced Sword Qi, and Extraction on them.
Alice's precise control of her Soultrait permitted her to control thousands of Ice Swords with great precision. She transformed the swords into an ice storm of Swords, which she threw toward the Storm of Bladed Strings.
Due to the amplification caused by Enhancement, Reinforced Sword Qi, and Extraction, Alice's Sword Ice Storm was strong enough to cut through Violet's bladed strings.
"How can you be this strong?!?" Violet screamed at the top of her lungs, unable to understand how a young woman such as Alice could be stronger than her. She was dozens of years older than Alice, yet the disparity in their power level was this vast. How could that be?
"Being old doesn't automatically mean that you're strong. You've grown rusty after acquiring enough power to be on par with other races. Your wealth and the strength of your territory might be exceptional, but you stopped practicing your Soultrait. I can tell that you haven't participated in a real battle of life-and-death for decades. All you do is exploit others with your dominance and wealth," Alice shouted, her voice thundering through the Castle of Eternal Ice, "That's also why your own people have begun to loathe you, Veronica Park."
Violet, or Veronica Park, frowned deeply. The veil of invisibility shrouded her expression and identity, yet all Alice required to find out the real identity of her opponent was her Soultrait, Inheritance Technique and the Legacy she used. Veronica Park was far from weak. She was a powerhouse at the Peak of the 5th Tier. She had a territory after attaining the rank of a Duchess with thousands of Awakened following her commands. But despite all of that, Veronica Park was weaker than Alice Zenovia.
Alice was one of the youngest Tier-5 powerhouses of the human race. She was the youngest Duchess and it was only a matter of time before she acquired the title of a Queen. Her territory was expanding rapidly, and the Will of the Origin Expanse acknowledged this.
Veronica Park grit her teeth and was just about to unleash a barrage of ten thousand Bladed Strings when the Lord of the Energy Seal appeared next to her. His right arm was coated in spatial energy, a portal forming to his left.
"We failed. Let's leave for now," He urged, ignoring Veronica Park's struggle as his left arm coiled around her waist. He pulled her toward him and was just about to jump into the spatial portal that was supposed to transport them to a safe spot when the scene around the ancient capital changed.
The fabric of space and time twisted and everything that had been destroyed in the battle of the Lords was repaired at once. Alice's Castle of Eternal Ice dispersed, revealing Alice and Michael smiling from ear to ear.
"I was already wondering when you guys would appear…" Michael complained lightly, his vibrant eyes staring at a spot behind Veronica and the other Lord.
Just as Michael's voice reverberated through the vicinity, the spatial portal burst apart, destroying the two Lords' last means of escape.
Veronica and the Lord of the Energy Seal turned around, their eyes widened in shock as a crowd of close to 100 powerhouses emerged out of nowhere.
The War Priestess and the Berserker's Chieftain were leading the group of powerhouses, their expressions filled with anger and disgust.
Two old men stepped forward. They walked through the air and stopped next to the Chieftain and War Priestess, their eyes overflowing with disappointment.
"It's just like you predicted," One of the old men said to the other, who was none other than Kraft Viton. He could only sigh deeply.
"If someone knows about the greed of our race…then it's me," He mumbled, "It's not something to be proud about, Hugo."
Hugo, the other old man, could only agree, "A certain degree of greed is good. It motivates us to grow stronger and exceed our limits. Unfortunately, too few can handle the greed that is growing in the core of their hearts. The stronger they grow the more they desire."
Veronica and the other Lord stared blankly at the crowd of powerhouses, realization dawning upon them.
"All of this…" Veronica mumbled, clearly at a loss of words.
"All of this was a trap, yep," Kraft Viton said, patting Hugo's back, "His Illusions have grown much stronger than before. Don't you think so?"
"We never had a chance to escape with Michael…did we?" The Lord of the Energy Seal asked rhetorically.
Kraft Viton didn't pay any attention to him. He merely shrugged and glanced over to Michael.
'To think that he managed to escape without our help. He stayed calm throughout the entire incident and didn't even think once about waiting for us to rescue him.'
It had been quite a while since Kraft Viton came up with a simple plan to capture those who lost the fight against the greed that had accumulated in their hearts. Kraft Viton gave Michael an emergency crystal, which used a different frequency than the crystal watch and the Runic Gate. Crushing the emergency crystal alerted Kraft Viton, who forwarded the emergency situation to the Chieftain and War Priestess. And both of them had already been waiting for this moment.
Everyone knew that some households of the High Society would be unwilling to leave Michael alone. They wanted him for themselves, and planned to use him as their personal asset to grow stronger. It was only a matter of time before the first families grew impatient.
Despite that, nobody expected Michael to be strong enough to be able to escape the confinement of four Lords that easily. Alice did an exceptional job distracting the Lords, even finishing one of them, but it was still not easy to escape the violet strings of Veronica Park, as a Lowest Tier-3 Lord, at that.
"That was intense," Michael mumbled, tapping his chest lightly.
His heartbeat was erratic and the excitement still hadn't died down. For a moment he had grown worried amid the battle because Kraft Viton and his reinforcement had been nowhere in his range of sight, but the worries dispersed when he witnessed the true extent of Alice's power. Her display of power was terrifying, to put simply. It demonstrated quite easily how strong Alice was and that the disparity in strength between Higher Lifeforms was tremendous.
Michael was not certain how strong the Soultraits of the four attacking Lords had been but he knew that each of them was a Tier-5 Lord. Alice was currently a Tier-5 Lord as well, however, her attacks had been several times stronger than theirs.
"Your Soultraits are pretty powerful. No wonder you're stronger than Killian at this point," Alice remarked. She wanted to sound nonchalant but the astonishment in her voice exposed her true feelings.
She was certain that she hadn't been as strong as Michael when she was 19-years-old. It took her years to study Frozen Kingdom and reach her current level. Alice studied her Soultrait for years and she had yet to find its true potential. Yet, Michael was in ownership of half a dozen or more powerful Soultraits while being so young.
Even if he didn't procure more Soultraits for himself, studying the Soultraits he possessed was already more than enough to become one of the strongest powerhouses of the human race. That was scary, and it showed the potential of Michael's first Soultrait.
If he could produce more powerhouses like himself that meant he could create his own High Society. It was dangerous…and an opportunity.
Alice understood why some households of the High Society would want to kidnap Michael. Getting hold of Michael and his powers meant that a household could reach the top of the High Society within years. In fact, one might be able to overthrow the High Society and become the sole rulers of the entire Tritan Alliance.
No matter how Alice looked at it, Michael's power was too unique and tempting.
"I should be stronger than Killian since I've advanced to Tier-3 recently. But I think he will advance to a Higher Lifeform in a few weeks. He's been postponing his advancement to reach a higher mastery of his Soultrait and Inheritance Technique. Well…and to participate in the Interdimensional Flag War," Michael responded with a shrug.
"He will be stronger than me once he advances to a Higher Lifeform. Meanwhile, my power level won't increase drastically for the next few months. I have other things to take care of. I need to earn a fortune, after all."
Michael was not in a rush to grow stronger than Killian. If anything, Michael hoped that Killian Zeus would grow much stronger. That way, he had another sparring partner who was willing to go all-out against him.
That sounded interesting…right?
