Michael was not sure what the other groups were doing, but the energy shares reaching his War Rune increased exponentially suddenly.
Dozens of energy shares nourished his War Rune every few seconds, slowly increasing its refinement degree.
The sensation of growing stronger without the need to do something was extraordinary. It was addicting. Michael wasn't too worried either. He sensed that Hiraku and the Warlock Centaurs were fine and that most energy shares reached him through Zeroa.
The interesting thing about that was that Zeroa hadn't established a proper Link of Loyalty with Michael for a long time. She had a Taming Bond with Michael as his tamed monster, but she wasn't 'part of his territory' officially. That changed when the Elementals requested to be more integrated into Michael's territory.
Michael formed a Link of Loyalty with all Elementals, including Zeroa, who wreaked havoc somewhere on the other side of the Savannah's center. He had no idea what she was doing, but Michael could gauge that the Elemental Empress and the Valyrs were doing something more dangerous than Hiraku and the Warlock Centaurs. At least, that was what the influx of energy shares indicated.
"She will be fine," Michael mumbled, his attention drifting to Hiraku and the Warlock Centaurs, "But what am I going to do with the juvenile Awakened? Monster cubs are still fine, but juvenile Awakened? That can become quite troublesome."
Michael didn't have much time to think about what to do when Hiraku called. He allowed the juvenile Awakened and monster cubs into his territory, but he was not too sure what to do now.
Fortunately, he didn't have to think about that too much. He had a very naughty Lord to kill first.
The Kalivera Lord was currently located in one of his mid-sized settlements, screwing with a few Awakened. Apparently, that was one of the Kalivera Lord's hobbies.
His strength didn't increase much after he ascended to a Higher Lifeform, yet he used the status as a Higher Lifeform to gain various benefits. He suppressed his people and forced them to do things they loathed.
Michael was not in favor of such behavior, but it didn't matter, at this point. He would kill the Kalivera Lord soon.
Upon reaching the mid-sized settlement by jumping through space a few dozen times, Michael focused on replenishing his used-up energy reserves. He released the Extraction Aura and used his energy absorption technique to speed up the process. Thereafter, he activated Spirit Eyes with enough origin energy to see what was hidden from everyone else.
'A spatial lock.' Michael pinpointed almost instantaneously when he saw the semi-translucent dome that covered the entire settlement and some of the land around.
It was a little bit unfortunate that there was a spatial lock since he wouldn't be able to use Cosmic Stride properly. The spatial lock was not perfect because the device used the lowest form of spatial restrictions to reduce energy consumption as much as possible, but Michael couldn't teleport everyone inside the settlement.
That was a shame as it would take away the surprise effect.
Michael tilted his head and thought of something.
"Wait here," He commanded before using Cosmic Stride to circle the spatial lock's dome.
Michael didn't waste much time. He continued using Spirit Eyes and circled the spatial lock dome with quick jumps to satisfy his curiosity.
'It's symmetric. That makes everything a lot easier,'
If the dome's shape was a little bit more complicated, Michael would have a harder time. Fortunately, a symmetric dome was likely the easiest to maintain.
Michael used Enhancement on Spirit Eyes and jumped high up into the air with Cosmic Stride. A large Qi Sword manifested underfoot as he reached the desired altitude.
It consumed a little mental power to maintain the Qi Sword and keep it from getting pulled to the ground, but Michael had gone through worse. Levitating mid-air with a Qi Sword didn't seem like a particularly difficult task at this point.
Michael observed the mid-sized settlement from a bird's point of view. It didn't take long to find the center of the symmetric dome. A large building towered in the center of the settlement. The building was surrounded by smaller buildings, but it attracted Michael's interest nonetheless. The energy congregating within the building was several times higher than the surroundings.
'Found you!'
The corner of Michael's lip curled upward.
"If you're already paying the exorbitant price to maintain the active costs of the spatial lock, you should be generous enough to fork out enough money to create a permanent protection barrier as well, idiot!"
There was no use in being stingy after spending a fortune to keep the spatial lock dome activated. To the Kalivera Lord's misfortune, he wasn't smart enough to do so. He contemplated that the spatial lock and the guards were enough to block all potential threats.
'What an idiot.'
Michael closed his eyes for a moment and gathered some of the altered energies that had been accumulated within the Elemental Spheres. He used thunder and lightning power alongside several other types of energy to form a large cloud above the settlement. The appearance of the cloud attracted some attention, but it was not impossible for a storm to brew all of a sudden.
The weather in the Origin Expanse was odd at times, after all.
Michael gathered lightning power within the clouds, slowly compressing them while also using Insert to add several layers of Enhancement to the fray.
The lightning currents within the clouds crackled and thundered through the surroundings. They threatened to escape Michael's control at times, but he managed to keep the bolts of lightning under control.
They intertwined with one another and grew larger. Stronger.
'This is much harder than it looks,' Michael cursed in his mind as he influenced the movements of the bolts of lightning. He made a few minor adjustments and 'convinced' the bolts of lightning to move in a particular direction.
Finally, he released the reinforced bolt of lightning upon the mid-sized settlement.
The bolt crackled through the sky as it burst down. It crashed heavily into the large building in the center of the community and shrouded it entirely. Explosions resounded through the vicinity while the semi-transparent dome dispersed.
The spatial restriction was lifted, and chaos ensued following the destructive power of the reinforced bolt of lightning.
Michael used this opportunity to use Cosmic Stride. He appeared next to his people shrouded them in a golden light and used Cosmic Stride a second moment to appear in a large room with a queen-sized bed and a dozen women. The women were naked and some of them looked like they'd been beaten up quite frequently. However, Michael and his people didn't pay any attention to them.
Their eyes lingered on the Kalivera who was hurriedly putting on some pants.
The Kalivera Master heard the explosion and jumped up from the bed to find out what was happening. He was in such a hurry that he didn't even notice Michael, the Forest Elves, and the rest as they appeared in the room.
One of the women, on the other hand, noticed them. She screamed at the top of her lungs, alarming the Kalivera Lord. His head flicked to the intruders, killing intent flickering in his eyes.
He was just about to summon his Artifacts and charge at the intruders when he noticed that something was amiss. Something felt wrong.
His hair stood up to its end and he instinctively turned around only to lock eyes with Michael's vibrant golden eyes.
"Too late."
A silver blade flashed past his eyes.
The Kalivera Lord's head separated from his neck a moment later.
'That was number one.'
