Zone 9, the floating islands...
Souta smiled inwardly as he tightly clenched his fists. He knew that taking his equipment wouldn't be too easy.
The floating islands covers an area of 5,300,567 square kilometers. It was comparable to a continent on some planets. The floating islands were enormous as lava was floating out of it making a horrific scene along with the red background.
The Magna demi and the forces of the Council were trying to occupy this zone because of its rich resources. The rare metals and herbs could be found in any of the islands.
The group traveled from island to island avoiding the eyes of the two sides. It was too soon to make an appearance and he didn't want to confront them while he haven't found the location of his equipment.
Aside from the magna race and Council, the group also avoided some of the islands that houses extremely powerful monsters. The Molten Junua was a monster with a height of ten meters. It has a head of a lion, its hair was sharp thin metals, and its body was covered in a red exoskeleton made for swimming through magma.
It was a territorial monster that attack any creature that entered its nest. As long as they didn't enter its territory, the Molten Junua wouldn't initiate an attack. That's why the magna race and Council avoided the territory of this certain monster.
...
The group found a rocky island and they decided to rest in this place.
"It's been a few days since we entered this planet. I don't think I could stay here in my whole life. Just looking at the scenery around me could already give me depressions." Eztein sighed as he lay down on his back. Even if he looked at the sky, all he could see was just a layer of dark red clouds with lightning flashing every second.
"It's also hot here," Amanda said from the side.
"Although our bodies could handle it, 400 degrees celsius is still too much. Well, it's pretty good to train it. Our body would adapt to this temperature if we stay here for too long. If that happens, opponents that use fire attribute would be easy for us." Franklin said with a smile.
"We wouldn't stay here for too long. Tomorrow, we're going to start moving without care." Souta said.
"Oh, so a battle is going to start. Hey, I like it." The smile on Franklin's face grew wider.
Suddenly, Elder Guan joined the conversation.
"I don't think we have to wait that long." Elder Guan said as he turned his head and stared at the sky.
"Hmm...?" Souta stood up and looked in the direction where Elder Guan was looking. His eyes adjusted and he saw a group of people flying in his direction.
Those people weren't magna demi. Aside from magna demi, the other race could only come from the Council.
"The Council is here. Prepare yourself." Souta said to his people.
Alice, Franklin, Amanda, and Eztein quickly stood up and silently gather their energy. They were preparing for combat since the other side came from the Council.
Souta narrowed his eyes as he saw through the people from the other side.
'Three S-rank, fifteen A-rank, and thirty-three B-rank experts. One of them completely solidified the mana pool. It means a peak S-rank.' He said inwardly as he assessed the power level.
Then, about the combat skills? He wouldn't doubt that the enemy's combat skill was high as he knew that the forces of the Council were fighting the magna race. In short, they had rich experience in life and death battles compared to the witches.
But how did the Council know about their location? He was pretty careful in traversing this land so that no one would notice their group.
Souta opened his eyes widely as he felt that someone was trying to connect to the transmission talisman on his pocket.
Don't tell me...?
He quickly took out the talisman and connected the call. As soon as the call was connected, he heard Torkez's voice.
"This is bad, Souta! I think that the organization you called Council is attacking us! They are launching a direct attack at our fortress!!"
Alice, Franklin, Amanda, Eztein, and Elder Guan turned their head in surprise. They heard Torkez's report and just like him they couldn't believe that the Council found their location quickly.
"Shit! How many people are attacking us? And how our forces could fare against them?" Souta quickly asked.
"We're somehow lucky! The witches and Eilish's forces are helping us repel the enemy but I don't think that we can stay here anymore! If we stay here any longer then the enemy would only bring out enough forces to wipe us out at that time!" Torkez said.
Before Souta replied to Torkez, he ordered Alice, Franklin, and Eztein to stop those people in the sky first.
"Alice, Franklin, and Eztein... I'll hold them back for now. If you can take them out then finish them as quickly as you can."
"I understand."
Alice nodded before she pulled out her spear and flew into the sky.
Franklin and Eztein followed her.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
"Torkez, just hold on for a while. I'm going to finish what I need to do quickly. Use everything that you can to repel the enemies." Souta said to Torkez.
He didn't want to leave this planet without taking the equipment that he used in the game. Him, coming to this planet would be useless if he didn't get what he wanted. He already knew that it wouldn't be easy but to think that the council would discover them easily was beyond his expectations.
"Souta, are we going to leave this planet now?" Amanda asked.
"No, we still have some time. Let's go and kill those people quickly. We don't have that much time." Souta said to her before he flew into the sky.
Elder Guan sighed and turned to Amanda, "Young Miss, stay here. There's no Extinction Realm in the other group so it would be easy for me."
"I understand." Amanda nodded.
Swoosh!
With Elder Guan's help, the group finished all the people from the council in just a few minutes. With just three S-rank, they couldn't stop the power of a shackled realm expert.
It was easy.
'I'm really glad that he came along with us.' Souta said inwardly as he glanced at the elder. In his hand, the leader of the enemy group was spewing blood out of his mouth.
He turned to the man in his hand and asked, "How did you people find us in this place?"
"Haha, there's no need to be surprised. You monster choose to oppose the Council without knowing its capabilities. We have people that are monitoring the movements of the Magna folks and you entered in their detection range." The man laughed as he explained everything to the ignorant monster.
'Sensory type...? I don't think that their range is that huge. Maybe, they have hundreds of sensory types and boosted their ability with an artifact.' Souta narrowed his eyes. Although he knew the Council in the game, it was impossible for him to know everything about it.
"The moment we detect you we contacted the higher-ups and ordered us to capture you."
"Capture us? Are you sure that you are here to capture us not kill us?" Souta asked with a confused expression.
"Haha, I'm just an official in this place. I don't know what's happening in the main headquarters or what are they planning. But it seems that they wanted to know some of the information that you have and from the looks of it, it's very important for them." The man laughed.
"Tsk!" Souta clicked his tongue in annoyance. He raised his sword and stabbed it on the neck of the man.
Putchi!
The man fell down as he drew his last breath.
Alice gazed at the man with a cold look and asked, "Souta, how is it? Are we going to continue?"
"Yes, we're not going back. The Council will block our way from now on and they knew our location so it's time for us to take an initiative." Souta looked at them.
He divided the group into two. The first group was Alice, Eztein, and Franklin while the second group only had Amanda and Elder Guan. Although Amanda was weak, Elder Guan was unbelievably powerful to the point that he could beat the first group alone.
Souta and Alice could only keep up with a shackled realm like Rowan because Eilish had severely injured him. If Rowan was at his peak, the two of them wouldn't stand a chance.
"Wreak havoc and attack the floating islands of the Council! Distract them as much as you can!" Souta said in a firm tone. His expression said that he wouldn't take no for an answer.
"No problem for me, in fact, I couldn't wish for more," Franklin smirked.
"I'll try to contribute but what are you going to do?" Elder Guan asked.
"Nothing, there are some chores that I need to finish." Souta waved his hand. "After I finish what I need to do, we will go back so distract the prying eyes of the council."
