A little bit earlier, a huge army of Mages waited near the border of the Lightning Manor.
There were thousands upon thousands.
When the war started, everyone looked with excitement toward the northwest.
There, they saw a humongous barrier with a big six and two stars on it.
Early Ancestral Mage Realm.
"What a peculiar choice," a woman with black hair and black robes muttered with a grin.
Everyone else respectfully stood behind her.
She was the general of this entire war for the Judgment Palace.
She was one of the Mage Kings belonging to Kali.
Since there was only a single attacking point for the Judgment Palace currently, the Mage King didn't have a lot to overlook and plan.
Her entire job was to take this Zone and then maybe a couple more. After that, the actual strategists could take over since it would turn into more of a normal war instead of a singular duel.
"An Early Ancestral Mage," she said with a chuckle as she looked at the distant Shang.
Right now, she could see with her Spirit Sense since the barrier was still transparent.
Shang exhibited quite an impressive aura. Under normal circumstances, she would think that Shang was someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense.
However, since there were plenty of ways to disguise and change one's aura, she didn't really trust it.
Maybe this was actually a sacrificial lamb to gain information?
Just winning the battle in the Defender Flag wasn't enough. One also had to place an Attack Flag after that.
It was also possible that the Lightning Manor actually readied all their Defender Flags for this position, ramming down one of them after the other.
Everyone knew that this territory would be the biggest hotspot.
Sending someone with a fourfold Spirit Sense into battle anywhere else would almost certainly guarantee a victory, but sending one of those into this Zone was extremely dangerous.
Was someone like that defending this spot?
Maybe.
"Any volunteers?" the Mage King asked.
The group consisting of Early Ancestral Mages looked at each other.
The less powerful Ancestral Mages looked at the more powerful ones.
"I'll go," one of them, standing near the back, said.
The Mage King inspected the person that had spoken up and snickered. "Sure," she said with a snicker. "Go ahead."
"Thank you," the volunteer said before shooting into the sky and flying into the barrier.
The barrier quickly closed up, hiding the inside from any onlookers.
The Mage King just slowly shook her head with a smile.
"Idiot," she said.
The person that had entered was someone that didn't directly belong to the Judgment Palace.
He was a volunteer.
He definitely wasn't weak. If he tried to, he could enter the Judgment Palace.
But he wasn't someone that could possibly win such a battle.
However, the Mage King didn't care.
Her army was bursting with people wanting to charge into the Lightning Manor.
She could throw Mages at this Defender Flag, and it wouldn't matter.
But in a way, she also understood why these people were so keen on volunteering.
After all, anyone that won a battle in this territory would receive one Grade Eight Mana Crystal.
It was a ridiculously high bounty.
Inside the barrier, Shang noticed that the barrier had clouded over, which meant that his opponent had entered.
Sadly, due to the size of the territory, Shang didn't see his opponent yet.
The barrier had a radius of 5,000 kilometers, and Shang's Spirit Sense had a radius of 3,000 kilometers.
It would take a bit for the opponent to enter his Spirit Sense.
Surprisingly, it took over two minutes for Shang's opponent to enter his Spirit Sense.
Shang could see why.
His opponent was moving slowly while trying to hide with a Spell that made him look like a cloud of sand.
Shang could see that his opponent had a twofold Spirit Sense and that he was most likely in the upper half of people with twofold Spirit Senses.
But just like the Mage King, Shang didn't trust his senses.
What if this was a Cloud from the Judgment Palace in disguise?
Shang slowly stood up and readied his Subsis.
He very slowly moved it backward.
For just a second, Shang stood still as he fully concentrated.
SHING!
The Subsis thrust forward three times in rapid succession!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Inside the cloud of sand, the shards of a broken Mana Shield scattered, and a black shadow appeared for just a tiny instant.
The next moment, the cloud of dust dispersed, revealing a person with brown hair and brown robes.
The person's eyes were opened wide in confusion.
It was like nothing made sense to them.
What was this?
Where were they?
Who were they?
Some seconds later, they just moved their head around in confusion, looking at their surroundings.
This was a forest.
Why were they in a forest?
Oh, there was a bird.
What a cute bird.
Wait, what were they doing?
They didn't remember.
Oh, a bird!
That was nice.
Shang watched the confused man looking back and forth.
'Seems like he didn't disguise his aura,' Shang thought.
Just now, Shang had unleashed a pinpoint burst of Death Mana with the Concept of Purgatory on that Mage's head, focusing everything on his mind.
This essentially turned the man into someone with late-stage Alzheimer's disease and severe dementia.
This guy was gone.
He was alive, but his mind had been reduced to nearly nothing.
Shang calmly refilled his Death Mana as the confused man just looked at all the interesting things in his surroundings.
Some time later, Shang sat down again and entered his inner world.
He summoned a beast and fought against it.
Why was Shang doing this?
Well, Shang's job was to keep this territory safe, and he was doing just that.
As long as a fight was going on, nobody was allowed to enter or exit this territory.
Naturally, there was an upper limit to how long a fight could go.
The limit was one week.
If both combatants still lived after one week, they would both be killed by the barrier.
This long limit had been implemented so that even the closest fights would find a victor.
Naturally, Shang would wait for nearly the full week before killing his opponent.
Until then, the confused man could wander around the wilderness all he wanted.
The sheer pressure of his Mana stopped all the slightly dangerous beasts from getting close to him.
For this week, Shang would just train in his inner world.
A couple of hours later, the Mage King of the Judgment Palace realized what was going on and sighed.
"I knew this was going to happen."
"Well, prepare for a long wait, everyone," she said as she leaned back in the air like she was sitting in a chair.
