Souta designated this man, Gremina, the most dangerous Two Shackles Realm expert that he saw. He was stronger than the average squad leader from Athen's Champion by a lot.
His instinct as a monster was screaming. He should run away as far as possible from this man.
If Souta really couldn't handle this man then he would run away. Using his release form at this moment would only weaken him in the next battle.
This was just a side quest. This was just the first battle so he couldn't use his release form carelessly. He would have to fight Three, Four, or Five Shackles Realm experts when they raided the main base of the Red Matter Association.
Completing that quest was much more important than this side quest.
The release form of fourth stage was several times stronger than third stage monsters. But that cheat skill has side effects on his body, especially since he just evolved a few weeks ago.
Just like how he felt exhausted when he used the release form when he just reached the third stage back then. The side effects slowly disappeared as he advanced through the third stage reaching intermediate, high, and peak stages.
The same could be said to the fourth stage. So the side effect was still strong at his current level. It was much stronger than that time.
This was the reason why the current release form could be only used in emergency situations.
If he couldn't run away from this elf, then he would use it to save his life.
This was the first battle. A clean-up for the upcoming war in Mirror Lake. If he was exhausted or weakened then he wouldn't be able to contribute to promote their squadron. Also, there's a huge chance that he wouldn't receive any cards as a reward.
As for this side quest, the rewards were fixed. He would only receive skill points, attribute points, and experience points. There's nothing more and less.
That's why using his ace this early will be a loss for him in the upcoming battle.
'You should run away.' Saya suggested.
Even Saya could feel the dangerous aura around Gremina.
'But it's your responsibility to stop the activation of the golem. The Tenth Grain War will suffer huge casualties but it will be hard to do so if that elf is blocking our path.' Saya said.
'Yeah, it will be difficult. I wanted to contribute high in the main battle to raise my achievements so I can't use my release form.' Souta said to her as he slowly took a step back.
'Promotion of your squad, huh? If you want to prevent more casualties then you should go all out, but it also means that you will not be able to participate in the main battle. You will only become a backup personnel if you got exhausted in fighting here.' Saya said.
'I'm sorry for the others but I still think that I should run for now.'
Souta was rooted on the spot. A dangerous aura was creeping on his body.
"I'm sorry but you have to die right now. I can't let anyone know where I'm from." Gremina said in a cold tone.
"Who are you? And why are you in Red Matter Association?" Souta asked even though he already knew the answer.
The purple snake tattoo on the elf's chest was familiar to him. It was the cult and believers of Yamata no Orochi. A powerful and sealed monster lord that once suffered a defeat at the hands of Susanoo.
The Eight Serpent Cult.
They only had one goal. And that was to unseal Yamata no Orochi.
"You don't need to know, monster. Or do you want me to call you warrior of Athena?" Gremina said as he stepped forward. "You can use your release form but I don't think that will work."
"What do you mean?" Souta narrowed his eyes.
No matter how strong this elf is, in the end, he's still a person at Two Shackles Realm.
Souta estimated that he could even fight someone at higher stages of Two Shackles Realm with his release form. If he added his [Yin Yang Bracelet], then he could probably fight this elf till the end.
The only thing that worried him... was the unknown sensation that he felt. It was strange and weird. He could hardly explain it.
"You probably think that you can fight me in your release form. That's right, you can fight me alone so you're not wrong but I have an ability that let me defeat someone at a higher level than me." Gremina explained. "Using this ability, I killed someone at Fifth Shackles Realm before."
It was absurd. A Two Shackles Realm killing someone at Fifth Shackles Realm was insane. Especially, since both of them were at their peak.
Souta only managed to kill someone at SSS-rank because of the side effects from sealing Teacher Bargan. Their stats had degraded and they lost all of their energy. Even the protective field that was preventing lower-level people to harm them was gone.
But Gremina was saying that he killed someone at SSS-rank without all those advantages like Souta.
It was impossible but Souta could tell that he wasn't lying. His [Galaxy Eyes] was telling him that Gremina wasn't lying to him. All the words that come out of his mouth were the truth.
"I'll let you know why they called me Future Cutter!"
A huge amount of energy burst out of Souta's body. He tried to escape but unknown energy hold his body on the spot. His eyes lose its light and his senses slowly disappeared.
'Souta! Souta! What happened to you?! Hey! Can you hear me?!' Saya anxiously shouted.
Her partner couldn't hear her anymore. No matter how much she shouted it was useless. It was like Souta was unconscious.
Ohm!
A portal appeared above Souta's head.
...
Chaos was everywhere in the Fone Kingdom. Battles were rampant and countless people had died.
The battle between Red Matter and Athen's Champion killed countless innocent people. Some of the civilians managed to evacuate on time. They were hiding in a place that only they know.
They were scared. They were waiting for the battle to finish. It doesn't matter who wins anymore. They just wanted to finish the battle as soon as possible or else the people that will die will only increase.
Boom!!
A powerful aura swept out in the entire kingdom. People below B-rank collapsed instantly. The pressure was heavy and without enough power, they couldn't withstand it. They could only die.
As for the people from B-rank to S-rank. They could barely hold on to their senses. Their bodies couldn't move no matter how much they tried.
It was like death was hanging on their head.
"W-What the hell?!"
"I can't move!!"
"Ugh! This is..."
Carmel, who was fighting the four Three Shackles Realms of Red Matter, suddenly stopped moving. He looked around with widely opened eyes.
"This is a pressure from a fifth stage monster?!"
Even the experts from Red Matter Association stopped moving. They were wary about the powerful monsters that suddenly appeared.
A monster at fifth stage. Only people at SSS-rank and Hero-rank had the right to stand in front of it. In other words, unless a person was above Three Shackles they couldn't hope to stop a monster of this level.
Killing it was also impossible. They needed a party of SSS-rank.
As for the high-level and peak-level fifth stage, Hero-rank was needed.
...
"Future Cutter is my nickname and ability at the same time."
Gremina looked at the unconscious Souta in front of him. Then, he stared at the huge portal above.
"I have the power to cut someone's future. So, I will summon your future from five years ahead and slay it with my own hands."
'Future? This is a dangerous technique! He's trying to divide the time and create a separate world for it. The Imperium will not tolerate it.' Saya said inwardly.
She then recalled that the rules were broken. The inhabitants of this world had the right to create new rules. At the very least, this ability should have a huge backlash.
Gremima's aura grew stronger. He was going to slay Souta's future self. Five years ahead, so he would also gain a power five years from the future.
Boom!
His aura grew stronger and it eventually reached Six Shackles Realm. He was only a Two Shackles Realm at this moment but five years later he would gain this power. So he was quite happy with his potential.
With only this, he didn't have the power to slay his opponent's future self.
But his ability had other effects. Alongside with the power of his future, he will gain a plus one thousand percent boost in his overall power.
This was the reason why he could slay someone's future.
This ability had a lot of limitations. Like how he couldn't summon a future of a god.
He had another limitation. Using this ability lets Gremina borrow power from his future self too. So if he chooses ten years and his future in that time was god, he couldn't borrow it.
The same could be said if he's opponent were god in that time. He would detect it so he will adjust the time.
He would suffer a huge backlash from trying to borrow or summon a god. His existence would disappear. That's why he was only choosing one to five years of time.
He was cautious.
"Now, let me slay your future self," Gremina said as he looked at the sleeping figure that appeared above Souta's head.
