Chapter 406 - The Final City (1/2)

As the decapitated corpses of the five strongest figures of Silver Hoof City laid before him, Aurus took a look at how much his comprehension over his Epiphany had improved after killing all of the inhabitants of Silver Hoof City. Fortunately, the amount of progress he had obtained from this city was similar to the previous city he had destroyed. Gaining 7 more levels from this city, his level of comprehension over the Epiphany of Tempest was now at Level 61, which meant that he was more or less two-thirds of the way to reaching the maximum comprehension level for his Epiphany.

After trying to take control over the strength that he had obtained after reaching Level 61 in his comprehension, the primal instinct in Aurus's body gauged that he would only need to destroy one more city before having enough confidence to head towards the larger settlements and escape unscathed, even with strong beings fighting against him. Of course, the only settlements larger than the cities were provinces and kingdoms, so that meant his next target after this final city were the provinces.

With that in mind, he didn't waste any more time as he activated [Zenith Nihility Dash] to its limit, teleporting to the nearest city from Silver Hoof City.

In the meantime, while Aurus was making his way to the last city he would destroy before trying to digest his experiences again, all of the cities near Silver Hoof City had finally received the news regarding Aurus's return, prompting all of them to plan accordingly after learning from Silver Hoof City that another city, Nachthexen City, had been destroyed before Aurus headed to Silver Hoof City.

Of course, the first thought in every city leader's minds was to evacuate all of the innocent people to the larger settlements. Unfortunately, they couldn't really prepare for something like that within hours as the travel time from their cities to the provinces or the Seraph Kingdom took a few days to over a week.

With that, the leaders were left with no choice but to make sure that none of those that had no ability to fight would be able to leave their houses. As for those cities that had underground bunkers due to how their territories were, their leaders asked them to head down to the underground bunkers and only move out if they were given the go signal.

As for the military personnel of those cities, a meeting among the higher-ups was done in order to plan how they would stall or fight against Aurus. In the end, most of them had come up with plans that would allow them to stall him for minutes, which allowed the possibility of reinforcements to arrive, but in the end, they all knew at the back of their minds that it was inevitable for them to die.

It was unknown as to how the various cities had done it while Aurus was making his way to the next city, but a rough communication network had been established between the various cities that were near Silver Hoof and Nachthexen City. Although it wouldn't allow the city leaders to talk to each other in real time, it still had the function of alerting the other cities if one city was destroyed.

With all of that prepared, Aurus had eventually arrived a couple of kilometers away from a city, noticing how there were more guards guarding the entrance gates of the city than the previous two cities he had entered. Pondering over it for a bit, he eventually came to the conclusion that the previous city he had destroyed had alerted the other cities of his return to destroying settlements.

Although it made him slightly angry, he knew that it was just a matter of course. Placing the thoughts of getting mad at the people he had killed in the previous city behind, he decided to enter the city from another route, deciding to scale up the decently high walls of the city he had chosen, which was named Vallachia City after looking at the large sign over the city's entrance.

Making sure that none of the guards would see him, he decided to teleport over the wall before appearing in one of the various alleyways in the city. After that, he took a look at the streets to see if they were any inhabitants moving around, only to find out that none of them could be seen at all.

Thinking about it for a bit, Aurus had arrived at two conclusions. The first conclusion he had arrived at was the thought of the city barring their citizens from leaving their houses. If that were to be the case, then he could just employ the same tactic he used in the first city he destroyed, or exploit something that covered the whole city like the sewage system in Silver Hoof City.

As for the second conclusion, he thought that the city leaders had told the citizens to evacuate, only leaving a few people to symbolically protect the city from his destruction. To Aurus, this conclusion was the one he didn't like since that meant he had to destroy more cities, which would end up taking more time.

With that, he went ahead and broke into one of the houses, only to find out that no person was inside it. A few seconds later, he broke into another house, yet the same result had appeared. Slightly becoming angry as to how the city was stopping him from improving faster, he could not help but have the urge of heading to the center of the city before killing the city's leader in front of the remaining people in the city.

Fortunately for Aurus, while he was making way to the center of the city, he heard the sounds of people murmuring from one of the vents near the city's main road, prompting him to take a small peek into it. As for what he found after taking a peek, it was the fact that the city had a few bunkers underground.

Inwardly letting out a sigh of relief as he thought that he wouldn't have to destroy another city to arrive at the same point, he gradually made his way to the center, only to be greeted by the sight of multiple military personnel in an orderly formation.

At the very front of this formation was a middle-aged man in a slightly disheveled military uniform. Nevertheless, with one glance, it was apparent that the middle-aged man had multiple years of experience in the battlefield, exuding an intangible aura that dwarfed most of the intangible auras radiated by the other people.

”Listen, men!” he shouted. ”Stand and follow command! Our blood shall be shed for the homeland!”

”Heed our motherland's call for we shall brace for the storm!” the formation said in response, prompting the middle-aged man to nod as he continued, ”Vallachia City shall never give in, for there is no surrender! ”

”We shall force The Great Calamity to retreat and into defeat,” the formation said, which made the middle-aged man sternly nod, proud that he had instilled a sort of discipline into the city's military. However, his pride was short-lived as a small dagger made out of wind made its way through the formation, piercing through his forehead.