Alexander gritted his teeth. He was in the process of taking the key. He actually didn't have the plan to open this realm so soon but with the way things were going right now, he had to change his plan. He had to recover his past strength faster.
He could feel it. The state of the Holy Lands, the demon army, and the Bringers of Calamity. War was going to erupt soon. It wasn't an ordinary war where only mortals were the participants. It would be a war between those gods.
He should have a minimum of seven shackles strength if he wanted to survive.
"Argh!!"
A streak of blood flows down from the corner of Alexander's mouth. He felt his strength leaving his body at high speed.
BOOM!!!
The ground shook heavily and a powerful energy fluctuations swept out like a raging tide.
"This...?" Alexander's eyes shrunk as he looked above. He saw dark clouds in the sky flashing black lightning.
"This power... This fluctuation... There's no doubt that it is an Archetype?!"
He turned his head and saw Souta's figure which was covered in black lightning. Souta was tearing the flesh of the fourth stage sandworm with a look of ecstasy on his face. The third stage sandworm couldn't even fight back at all. Their proudly tough bodies were easily destroyed by the violent black lightning.
It was easy to guess that Souta was playing with them. Yep, even a normal intermediate fourth stage sandworm was just a plaything for him. He was too powerful beyond common sense.
"Archetype...? How?!" Alexander suddenly felt a headache as he held his head. "Argh! Damnit! I just remember Archetype and now it's being deleted from my memories... Who the hell place a curse on all Archetype techniques?! Fuck! I gotta hurry up and reach Five Shackles Realm!"
Alexander ignored the pain as he decided to put the matter of Archetype in the back of his mind. No matter how much he tried to remember the Archetype, some sort of mysterious force would erase all the information of Archetype in his mind. That's why he decided to think about it once he reached the Fifth Shackles Realm, the level where the mysterious force wouldn't be able to delete the information.
BOOM!!
Black lightning flooded the whole area. The fourth stage sandworm wailed loudly but Souta simply swung the vajra sword in his hand.
The energy blade absorbed the black lightning before it tore the sandworm apart. It couldn't do anything but accept its fate. Its death was inevitable ever since it decided to face Souta.
"Ah~ it feels so good..."
Souta stood at the top of the fourth stage sandworm's corpse. He had an ecstatic look on his face while staring at the dark clouds. He basks himself in the strange feeling in his heart.
It lasted for a whole two minutes before he returned to his calm look. The dark clouds disappeared but the lingering best feram in the area made this place hazardous for ordinary people.
"I've calmed down... It felt refreshing."
Souta muttered as he placed back the vajra sword in its sheath. He looked at the corpses of the sandworms. He wanted to take some spoils but their bodies were utterly destroyed. Even their monster orbs were shattered so Souta couldn't collect them.
"Huh?"
Souta suddenly turned around. He focused his attention on the east as his [Crimson Perception] detected a group of creatures approaching this place.
"So the battle before attracted the attention of other creatures... But from this blood flow... It seems that they are humans or demis."
He turned to look at Alexander and found that he wasn't finished taking the key. From the looks of it, it would take a lot of time. Well, it doesn't matter. Souta's job was to protect him.
Hmm...? Another group...
Souta raised his eyebrows as he sensed another group in the west. He could only smile wryly as he knew why these folks were all coming in this direction. It was because he got carried away and played with the sandworms.
"I'm not excited right now... My nerves are all calm after experiencing the sandworms. I should be able to calmly fight right now."
Souta closed his eyes as he stretched his arms. His emotional instability was too much of a wild card. He couldn't fight the way he wanted if it spiked up.
"They are here..."
Souta calmly opened his eyes. In the opposite direction of him, a group of thirty-one people had arrived at the field. The group stared at him as they slowly examined the area.
Thirty one people weren't in one group. They were divided into two groups. They were from Night Light Association and Thunder Hall. The people that were leading them were Casti and Hermo. Both of them were promising young experts of the top factions in Spring Land.
Hermo was twenty-five years old. He was a disciple of the Grand Elder of the Thunder Hall. He had spiky yellow hair and an arrogant look on his face.
Casti was a woman wearing a black veil that covered half of her face. She was twenty-six years old this year and was famous in the entire Spring Land for her mastery of dark and light attributes.
The two of them were the future of their respective organizations. They were expected to take up a huge role in the Spring Land in the next few years.
"Tsk! It seems that the battle is finished! It looks like they found a treasure in this place! What a good timing!" Hermo laughed wickedly after he saw Alexander.
"Young master, we need to be careful. The lingering energy in the atmosphere is intense. We expected them to be stronger than a group of monsters." An old man whispered to Hermo.
"I know but we had a great advantage in terms of numbers plus they just fought so their energy reserves aren't full." Hermo laughed. He turned to Casti and asked, "What do say, Casti? Should we combine our group and take whatever treasure is in their hands?"
"It's a great proposal, young master Hermo." Casti smiled faintly underneath her veil.
Souta raised his eyebrows with interest seeing their confident looks. They didn't even bother to hide their conversation using an isolation barrier so Souta heard all of it.
'My energy reserves aren't full? Yep, but I have two energy reserves... No, three if I included the mana in the parasites. Plus...' Souta's eyes adjusted as he looked at their mana pool. 'Their combined mana pool is only equal to the current energy I have in the monster orb.'
Well, it doesn't matter if Souta's energy reserve was higher than theirs since they have a bunch of potions and pills that they could use to replenish their mana. They also had some treasures that they could use.
Everything.
[Galaxy Eyes] saw everything on their bodies. The level of their weapons, armor, artifacts, mana pool, or power levels. Everything was laid open before Souta's pair of eyes. Some of them even had concealing artifacts but it didn't work against the all-seeing [Galaxy Eyes].
'Eh~ Oopps! I need to calm down.' Souta quickly covered his face with his hand. He was getting carried away and a smile was forming on his face again.
"Huff..." He took a deep breath and asked, "Are you guys finished talking to each other? If don't come the others will arrive sooner."
He pointed at his back. In that direction, the other group would arrive here in just a few seconds.
"I just want to inform you that a bunch of monsters is heading this way. I actually don't want to fight. I just wanted to take it easy."
Souta said nonchalantly. It doesn't matter if a fight broke out or not but he preferred to stay here quietly without doing anything. He just calmed down so he didn't want his emotion to go out of control.
"Huh?! What is this guy saying?!" Hermo said angrily as he glared at Souta.
"He's right. There are a group of monsters." Casti said as she glanced in the direction where Souta pointed before.
"Haaa!" Hermo and the others looked over.
They saw a group of sandworms swimming through the sands. Each of them was carrying a powerful aura that made the air vibrate.
Souta sighed when he saw the sandworms.
"Guess there's no other choice."
He slowly pulled out the vajra sword from its sheath. His aura skyrocketed in the blink of an eye as his clothes fluttered in the air. Beads of blood slowly floated as black mist seeped out of his body. The gravitational field appeared once again as Souta activated the Second Mode.
His aura shook Hermo and Casti's group. They stared at him with wide eyes as they didn't expect him to be a monster. So the energy they felt before came from him.
Even the group of sandworms was forced to stop. The oppressive aura stunned them for a second.
"Thirty one here and nineteen at the back... A total of fifty creatures. Come. I'm gonna demolish everyone."
Souta looked at them coldly as he activated his [Serpent Dominance] ability.
"No, my shadows will be enough."
