The two Mages on the left tower noticed Shang running towards them with his emblem held high. They were not entirely sure why a weak barbarian came to help them. After all, going into close combat with the Abominations was a death sentence. One explosion and Zero would become nothing.
However, they also didn't care much. He was a barbarian. If he managed to make one Abomination explode, he would have already contributed far more than he was worth in their minds.
The Mages kept assaulting the Abominations as Shang got closer.
"Why are you running to our tower?!" one of the Mages shouted in frustration as he saw Shang ignore the Abominations and run towards the tower. "Deal with the Abominations!"
"I have special orders!" Shang shouted as he came closer.
At the same time, Shang tried to connect to the Abominations with his mind. There was some kind of connection between them, and Shang was sure that he could communicate with them.
After all, the Commander Stage Abomination immediately strengthened Shang when he wanted it to strengthen him.
Maybe that also worked with other things?
Shang activated his Domain of Entropy a little bit, and the connection strengthened.
It was like Shang was connected to all the Abominations in the surroundings.
Shang imagined a picture of the two towers inside his mind. Then, he associated the left tower with apathy and the right tower with anger.
As Shang was doing that, he entered the tower's door. There was a powerful barrier around the tower, but the Mages didn't see him as their enemy. Sure, they were annoyed that Shang was entering the tower, but he also showed the emblem of Researcher Veral. Because of that, he easily passed the barrier.
Also, so what if Shang was here? They were Early True Mages. Shang was some Peak Fighter Stage barbarian. Even the strongest barbarian in the world might not be able to win against them, and Shang was definitely not the strongest barbarian in the world.
As Shang shot up the stairs, the Abominations began to change course. Instead of mindlessly charging at both towers, they focused on the right tower.
They completely ignored the attacks from the left tower, which killed several Abominations, and fully focused on charging to the right tower.
The four Mages on the towers realized that this was a problem.
They could deal with Abominations charging at both towers, but if they focused on only one, that tower might fall, leaving only one remaining!
Shang reached the top of the tower and the two Mages.
One of them glared with anger at Shang. "What are you doing here?! You are supposed to- "
BOOOM!
Silence.
The Mage that had just shouted at Shang aggressively was cut into two pieces by Shang's gigantic sword!
He had barely noticed the attack before it hit him.
Even with such a heavy weapon, Shang's speed was absolutely terrifying!
In fact, Shang's body had become so powerful that he could wield his gigantic sword like a normal-sized one. He could easily swing it with one arm.
The True Mage hadn't had his Mana Shield active since there had been no immediate danger close to him, which had spelled his doom.
When the other Mage saw that his comrade had died, shock was quickly replaced by rage.
In an instant, he activated his Mana Shield.
BOOOM!
Shang's legs exploded with ice as his speed reached new heights. The tower was small, and the Mage was very close to him.
Just when the Mage had activated his Mana Shield, Shang had already reached him.
The amount of Mana an Early True Mage had was scary, and they recovered their Mana at insane speeds due to Mana Tranquility. Getting through a Mana Shield cast by such a Mage was beyond difficult, especially if that Mage was a level above Shang.
As Shang reached the Mage, his opponent began to prepare several Spells. Shang wouldn't be able to get through the Mana Shield in an instant.
Shang swung his gigantic Sword at the Mage's Mana Shield.
CRRRRR!
Suddenly, Shang's sword began to release violent black flames, leaving behind a black arc in the air.
The Mage was concentrating on his Spell and didn't pay attention to Shang's attack. After all, he was safe behind his Mana Shield.
And then, Shang's sword hit the Mana Shield.
BANG! CRACK!
The sword was stopped for just a tiny instant before the Mana Shield broke into pieces, sapping the Mage of all his Mana.
It happened so fast that the Mage couldn't even react.
Shang's burning sword cut through the Mage's body, setting his entire body on fire.
Just one second later, the Mage's body turned to ash and scattered to the winds.
Shang had killed two Mages one level above him in just an instant. It wasn't a fair fight, but he had killed them regardless.
BANG!
As the second Mage's Space Ring was destroyed, all his belongings suddenly appeared around the place where he had just been.
Shang immediately shoved all the loot into his inner world. He had no time to look at it, and he also didn't know if there were trackers on it. Because of that, he put all of it into his inner world instead of his new Space Ring. As long as the loot was inside his inner world, the Mages probably wouldn't be able to find it.
After pocketing the first Mage's Space Ring, Shang used some of the leftover flames from Sword to incinerate his body. He didn't want to leave any trace of his escape behind.
Originally, he had planned on making his escape public. After all, there was no way to keep it a secret.
But now, there was another option.
What if Shang died to an Abomination?
As the attacks from the left tower stopped, the Abominations managed to get closer to the right tower.
The Mages on the right tower fell into a panic.
Why was the other tower not attacking?!
The Mages shouted and cursed at the left tower, but when the Abominations reached the right tower, they jumped out of the tower and fled.
However, there was no place to run.
The Mages shot a couple more Spells, but eventually, a General Stage Abomination reached them and exploded.
BOOOOOOM!
The explosion had been nearly a hundred meters wide, and it had turned the two Mages and all their belongings into nothing.
When Shang saw that the other Mages were dead, he jumped out of the tower with his new sword.
In order to kill the second Mage quickly, Shang had activated Sword's Entropy, which made it smaller by quite a bit.
The balance of Sword's components had been askew ever since it had absorbed so much ore at once. It had even said that it could only absorb Fire Mana due to that.
But by activating Entropy, Sword managed to burn off the irregularities inside itself, returning to a balanced state.
Right now, Sword was no longer the absolutely gigantic blade it had just been. Instead, Sword returned to its larger but not gigantic form.
It was about 1.5 meters long, which wasn't nearly as monstrously large as its earlier 2.5-meter-long state.
After Shang reached the ground, he ordered two Abominations to charge at the two towers.
When the two of them reached the towers, they detonated themselves, decimating the two towers.
At the same time, Shang canceled the Magic Contract inside his mind regarding the special mission. The Mages of the Grandmountain Kingdom would know that the contract had been destroyed and where Shang was, but they wouldn't know why it had been broken.
Shang could have also just died.
Shang timed the cancelation of the contract just right.
And then, Shang charged toward the huge lake, the Tide Serpent Zone.
BOOOOOM!
Shang heard a rather close explosion of a Commander Stage Abomination, and he looked over.
At that moment, Shang saw a black shadow with red eyes rapidly moving toward the Abominations near Shang.
Shang immediately knew what that was.
The Plague Rat had reached this place!
