Chapter 396: Aiming for the Cities (1/2)

While Erudis made his way back to Mercuria Continent, talking with Vytalis and Mannelyn regarding their next plans involving Aurus as an organization, Aurus, on the other hand, was hastily moving in the direction opposite Erudis. Well, to be more exact, he had only done a few teleports with [Zenith Nihility Dash] activated. Nevertheless, the gap between the two was already around 50 kilometers or so after those teleports. With Erudis heading back to Mercuria Continent, the gap was just getting bigger by the minute.

Not sensing any danger from his surroundings anymore, Aurus could not help but let out a sigh of relief and satisfaction as it was the first time he had fought against someone so strong. Then again, he also considered both Vytalis and Mannelyn as strong beings, given how they were able to withstand quite a number of his attacks. In any case, the two still paled in comparison to Erudis, who was more or less left unscathed unless he used his greatest skills.

”I need…to get even stronger,” Aurus muttered to himself, a rare occasion given how his mind had already been taken over by the primal instinct. But surprisingly, his primal instinct agreed on this thought, prompting Aurus to think of his next plan regarding the destruction of the cities.

At the moment, all of the decoys he had created to attack Erudis in that final blow had been deactivated. If he dared to attack a town with such a flashy skill like that, then it wouldn't be surprising if he was chased to the ends of the earth within minutes. Nevertheless, he did not think the same for the buffs that he still had activated.

They weren't flashy at all, so he had no need to deactivate it. Then again, the amount of energy each buff consumed reduced the amount of energy Aurus could work with. With that, he deactivated a great portion of the buffs he still had activated, only leaving [Dark Universal Blade] and [Zenith Nihility Dash], two active skills that were given to him by the Supreme Ruler of the Void.

As he left them activated, he could not help but recall one of the passive skills in his arsenal, namely [Blessing of the Void's Ruler], the one he had obtained from the Area 52 Inheritance. It was gifted to him by the Supreme Ruler of the Void after showing a surprisingly high level of power while still being an S-grade Inanimate. Recalling what the description of that passive skill was, he eventually remembered that it allowed him to adjust the power of the active skills he currently had activated. With that, he reduced the output for [Dark Universal Blade] to the lowest it could go for now as he wasn't anywhere near a town just yet.

Thinking about towns, he then returned his train of thought to his plan regarding the destruction of the cities. Of course, at his full power, he would be able to destroy the cities without  a problem. But then again, the primal instinct thought that it would be better for him to hide a great portion of his strength in the off chance strong beings come and apprehend him. With that, it was as if the decision was already made.

Pondering in silence for a bit, he then decided that he would go ahead and destroy around eight or so more towns in one go before heading to a secluded area to digest the great boost in his strength. Given how only a few people remained in Darkstone Town after he took his time to adjust to his strength, the primal instinct thought it was better for him to go ahead and catch the towns off guard, allowing him to absorb all of the experience from the inhabitants of that town.

With that, he increased the amount of energy he allocated to [Zenith Nihility Dash] to around double or triple or what it originally was, increasing the distance at which he could teleport to. Surprisingly, even though the distance between each teleport of his was now farther than it was before, he could not find any town at all even within a couple of minutes. Realizing this, he could not help but wonder as to how far he was from the nearest town, summoning a screen to show him a map of the continent.

Of course, it was the primal instinct controlling him, making him imitate the sound of one clicking their tongue after he realized that the fight between him and Vytalis and Mannelyn, as well as the fight between him and Erudis nearly brought him to one edge of the continent. Closing the screen, he then increased the amount of energy to ten times of what he originally allocated to [Zenith Nihility Dash], only reducing it by a slight amount to achieve a slight surplus in his rate of recovery.

Thankfully, with a general direction in mind, it did not take long for him to arrive in front of a town. Luckily for Aurus, it was also a town that was far away from the first two towns he had destroyed. Then again, judging by how the townspeople walked along the streets, there had already been some rumors circulating throughout the town that their town might be the next target.

Well, unfortunately for them, that was the truth. Shifting all of the allocated energy from [Zenith Nihility Dash] to [Dark Universal Blade], Aurus then teleported himself to a higher altitude, not giving the townspeople on the ground any chance for them to realize what was happening before it was too late. Conjuring a massive ball of wind, a hint of darkness circulated around it, showing how its attack power was enhanced due to Aurus's control over the void.

After he had made sure that the ball was filled to the brim with his energy, he then threw it towards the center of the town as he reduced the energy he allocated to the two skills, allowing him to recover his energy back to its peak at great speeds. In the meantime, a great portion of the townspeople on the bottom could only see a large green ball making its way to their town, wondering what its purpose remained. Sadly, they wouldn't be able to find out as the sheer pressure of the ball alone was enough to destroy them.

Bang!

With the augmentation in attack power brought by the enhanced [Dark Universal Blade], the crater that resulted from the collision of the green ball and the town was more than enough to crush the town that was previously erected there to turn into rubble…or at least, the part that barely survived. As for how large the crater was, it was at least two to three times larger than the previous craters he had made. Even the cracks that formed from the explosion were many times larger, making one wonder if the cracks were there in the first place.

Surprisingly, while he examined the place, checking there were still any survivors in the place, he eventually found one that left the place unscathed. Though, to be more specific, this person was just heading back to his home, only to see his town get turned into nothingness a few seconds later. Left in a state of shock, he kneeled on the ground as he dropped the bag of items he had bought from a nearby village. The only moment the man snapped back to reality was when Aurus appeared in front of him, being surrounded by a massive amount of Wind energy particles.