As Mortimer disappeared from the skies over Payton, Minos instantly fell toward the imperial palace, his level quickly dropping from level 72 to 71 and then to 70 in a matter of seconds.
The surrounding area still had many attacks, coloring the local skies. Still, at that instant, no one was paying attention to them.
Everyone had seen how Mortimer had escaped at the last moment. But, at the same time, Minos could not bear to continue fighting.
So while they thought how unfortunate it was that that enemy had managed to escape in time, they also had the good feeling of realizing they were not so helpless.
With Minos by their side, they could even risk the life of a level 80 Spiritual Sage!
With that, while most of those attacks in the area were heading toward the last remaining black hole, the people there began celebrating today's victory.
"Hahaha, we did it! We really did it!"
"I didn't think it would be so easy..."
"Don't tell me about it... I thought I would die a few times in this fight, but surprisingly I didn't even come close to that!"
The battle had been hard. Every person involved, except for Minos, could have died at the slightest distraction. But compared to the rough idea of facing someone with spatial manipulation skills, everything had happened on a level below what these local experts had expected.
Amidst this, the supreme elder of House Edwardstone was shocked by the powers displayed by Minos, which had far exceeded what he had expected.
To him, Minos was more or less at his level. But the truth was that the confrontations Emperor Stuart had to show the world his strength were battles that he did not plan to exterminate his opponents.
However, Minos was fighting to kill this time and therefore had shown 100% of his current abilities!
Upon learning about this, the regent felt happy that he had not lost to Mortimer but also a little melancholy. With such power, Minos would have even greater influence. Even if Harold returned, this state could no longer be on equal footing with the Black Plain!
"Sigh...
Ah, times really are changing." He lamented in a low voice as he watched the Empress stop Minos' fall and place him on the ground next to Ruth and Gloria.
"Minos, are you okay?" Isabella was there too, impressed but also worried for him.
Minos was not injured, just exhausted from having used all his power against Mortimer moments ago when he forcefully tried to absorb that Spiritual Sage's body with the fifth black hole.
Unfortunately, Mortimer had used all his abilities to escape death just as Minos' provisional level was crumbling. Consequently, everything ended before Emperor Stuart finished his opponent.
Considering the few seconds he would need to succeed, Minos couldn't help but feel terrible.
'Damn it!
That was close!'
He looked at Isabella and the other women in his surroundings and sighed. "I'm fine... It's just a shame we couldn't finish that damn thing."
"Yeah... He got away at the last moment." Gloria commented, also regretting their only failure in this fight.
"What do we do now?" Ruth asked. "With him having escaped, we're back to zero... I'm afraid we'll have to go through all that again."
The people in the surroundings were a little apprehensive about this and were silent at these words.
But then, Minos disagreed with his wife. "It's not that simple.
Mortimer escaped, and that is bad, true. However, he did not escape unharmed!"
...
Hundreds of kilometers away from Payton, on one of the flying islands with a camp of the Saints Killing Sect...
A hole in space appeared over this place, making all the camp members look up with doubt, not understanding what was happening.
According to the plans of their supreme leader, he was going to attack Payton and then take the imperial capital.
In other words, Mortimer had no plans to return to this place any time soon, and naturally, everyone in there frowned and feared trouble at the sight of that wormhole opening.
Regardless of who was behind it, this would not be good!
As they could already sense, these men and women allied or subordinate to Mortimer soon saw an unexpected scene unfold in front of them.
Mortimer's body fell out of that wormhole in a matter of fractions of a second, revealing a considerably destroyed body.
Mortimer's face was pale, with blood marks all over various parts of his chest armor. But what was striking about this weakened man in free fall was the state of his aura and body.
Mortimer had almost wholly lost his two legs, but also his hands, and almost completely lost his left arm.
At the same time, these were no ordinary injuries. On the contrary, each of them was irreparable, as the black hole from Minos destroyed those physical parts of him and ruined the part of this man's soul responsible for these limbs.
Consequently, even if Mortimer recovered one day, he would never be able to regenerate his arms and legs!
Anything would be useless to him. Even possessing someone's body with whole arms and legs would not allow him to manipulate those parts of his body again.
However, that was not the worst of it!
The worst had been the damage to Mortimer's cultivation base, which, only by a miracle, had not been crippled. However, in his situation, anyone who saw him would realize that all the progress this man might have made at the 9th stage could be forgotten.
From now on, it would be useless for him to cultivate or use cultivation resources. His level would remain at level 80 for the rest of his days!
Gulp!
'How can this be?' The first of the high-level Spiritual Saints to come near Mortimer's fallen body wondered, not understanding how the powerful level 80 Spiritual Sage in front of him had ended up like this.
'Hadn't he just gone to attack the imperial palace? Why did that happen?' Another person wondered as she landed next to that fellow.
'Where are the others? Why is the sect master alone?' One of the elders of the Saints Killing Sect began to break into a cold sweat, foreseeing the worst.
Amid this, as much as he was extremely injured, Mortimer was aware that his condition was terrible and that he would never fully recover from this experience.
In this situation, he once again regretted his haste and underestimated Minos!
'Disgrace!
How could this happen to me? Just when I had everything I needed... If only I had been more careful!
I should have slowly killed the local leaders without showing myself...
If that had happened...' He began to imagine the endless possibilities he would have had if he had gone his separate ways.
But it was useless to think about ifs now that the milk had been spilled and all was lost.
He knew this, but during his initial moment of doom, he would think about it for the next few days as he accumulated all his hatred for Minos for the future.
