Chapter 1048 - Movements (1/2)

Seeing this, Traveler’s eyes narrowed slightly. “I’ve come at the right time.”

According to the information provided by the Super Star Cluster alliance, Black Star was someone who loved accepting challenges. Yet, he was not coming out, not even sending out his Lord’s Avatar to fight him. This meant that Sorokin’s information was right. Hila was being attacked at this very moment, and Black Star had to protect her with his Lord’s Avatar. He could not focus on too many fights at once.

Apostle Weapons and mechanical armies could fight multiple battles at the same time, but one could only descend onto one Lord’s Avatar at a time.

“Black Star isn’t even using his Apostle Weapons to fight me, so it looks like Sorokin guessed correctly. Black Star has taken his main army away and has been pretending to be in his base.

“Since Dragon Emperor will be the one accepting the challenge, I’ll have to quickly deal with her and force Black Star to fight me. Even if he only sends a mechanical army to fight me, I’ll still have achieved my goal and divided his attention.”

In order to be done with the battle quickly, he had to use special tactics that would not be considered inside the perimeters of sparring. He would definitely offend Black Star by doing this.

However, Traveler did not care much about it. His relationship with some Super Star Cluster Civilizations was very special, exceeding the importance of his personal interests. On the surface, he was accepting a mission and doing his job. However, the truth was that as long as this would help the Civilization he belonged to, he would do everything in his power to succeed.

The Super Star Cluster alliance hoped that the church or the federation’s mission would succeed. They wanted these Beyond Grade As to fight each other and did not want to see them united. The Beyond Grade As being united looked like it was problematic for the three Universal Civilizations but beneficial for the Super Star Clusters, but that depended on the timing of it. For now, this was not what the Super Star Cluster civilizations wanted to see.

In the eyes of the Super Star Cluster civilizations, Beyond Grade As were important tools they could make use of, but there were not enough Beyond Grade As in this era. Therefore, even if they were united, they had very limited value to these Super Star Cluster civilizations.

The Super Star Cluster alliance hoped to find a more suitable timing where the universe had more than enough Beyond Grade As. By then, they would even encourage and aid the Beyond Grade As to be united. Therefore, they did not want this opportunity to come this soon when the timing was not right.

Other than to balance the power dynamics, there was another reason the Super Star Cluster alliance wanted to do this—they were worried that if the Beyond Grade As became united too early, it would force the three Universal Civilizations to carry out another elimination, another ‘Tragedy of the Pinnacles’. If and when that happened, the three Universal Civilizations would definitely deal with the outsiders first. Therefore, the allies of the Super Star Cluster alliance would be massacred with an excuse once again, and they would be the ones suffering from it.

Traveler silently waited for a while. Finally, Ames flew out from the base.

“You want to challenge Black Star? What’s your motive?” Ames narrowed her eyes.

“It’s nothing but respect for the strong. I want to challenge those standing at the peak. There’s no motive to speak of.” Traveler remained calm.

“You’re related to what’s happening to Hila, aren’t you?”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” Traveler shook his head.

“Humph, chat sh*t.”

A green light flashed past Ames’ eyes, and a Force Field erupted from her body, grabbing onto numerous satellite tiles to bash onto Traveler.

Traveler remained calm and held his staff with both hands. Fog-like magic energy splashed out and turned into rune arrays of different sizes, fusing together and forming an enormous rune shield that looked as complex and exquisite as the mechanical parts of a mechanical watch, blocking the path of the satellite tiles.

Ka-cha!

Multiple satellites clashed onto the rune shield, creating cracks, but could not go further. At the same time, Ames extended her arm forward from afar, aimed at Traveler, and pulled heavily. A powerful force of absorption suddenly appeared and pulled Traveler toward her.

While being dragged through midair, energy sprayed out from Traveler’s body as he stabilized himself. He then cast a string of powerful spells instantly. Multidimensional energy turned into spells that quickly dashed past where Ames was standing but missed.

With a space ripple, she had already changed her location using Void Hyperdrive and approached Traveler’s back. She raised her brows, glared at Traveler’s back, and shot a shockwave from between her brows.

The next second, Traveler’s body was fixed in midair, and he could not move.

Force Field: Gaze of the Dragon!

The moment she locked the enemy’s movements, Ames’s long leg whipped horizontally, sending out a wave of Force Field right toward Traveler’s back.

Force Field energy that was sent out from her own body was the most powerful, and she had condensed this wave of Force Field into a thin line, rendering it dangerously sharp. It looked like she used her leg to launch a blade shockwave.

Force Field: Sweeping Blade!

Swoosh!

The blade Force Field slashed right across and actually cut Traveler in two.

However, the next moment, the two halves of Traveler suddenly shrank and turned into mojo puppets, while further away, a small puppet that looked to be made of clay appeared out of nowhere and quickly shapeshifted into Traveler.

“Puppet Replacement Spell, a simple little trick,” Traveler said calmly.

Ames, however, was slightly frowning. She had known Austin for a very long time and had some knowledge about magic.

The Puppet Replacement Spell was a little known spell of the Alchemy and Curse Branch, but it had a massive side effect. When reflected in the interface, every time someone cast the Puppet Replacement Spell, their health and energy would decrease by fifty percent, and all their attributes would also decrease by twenty percent. This was an extremely costly spell.

Due to its limited value, usually, only low-grade Mages would use it to save their own lives, while high Grade Mages had many defensive methods and would not use spells like this at all.

For example, a Beyond Grade A would have dozens of methods to dodge or block that attack earlier, and even getting hit by it would not be as horrible as the side effects of the Puppet Replacement Spell. Therefore, Ames felt that Traveler had done this for a reason.

As she observed more carefully, she realized that Traveler was strangely giving off a different vibe. He seemed to have a very faint creepy smile on his face, and she felt he became more corrupt and eviler.

“Tsk, Force Field Control is one of the most common Esper Abilities. It’s very rare for someone to be able to become a Beyond Grade A with it. You’re really talented in controlling your Esper Ability. One day, maybe you can improve this Esper Ability to its extreme form, the Super High Risk Esper Ability—Force Control. Although the difference is only one word, its meaning is a world of difference.” As Traveler gave off a different vibe, he became more talkative too.

“Something’s off.” Ames became more cautious and alert. She clenched her fist, shattering a corner of a satellite tile, and then controlled the broken pieces to fly out like a meteor rain.

Force Field: Dragon’s Breath Shooting Star Fist!

While using spells to block the attacks, Traveler was also observing a faint mark on the back of his hand. There was a faint purple evil glow inside his crystal yellow eyes.

“There’s not enough life force. More is needed…”

The two of them fought intensely outside Black Star Palace. Traveler’s way of fighting was extremely strange. He occasionally seemed to purposely get hit by Ames’ attacks. Ames showed the multiple uses of Force Field, including restraining, explosions, and slashes.

While training with Hila around the universe, Ames had improved as well. She had better control of her Esper Ability.

While the two of them were fighting, Herlous, who was watching in the watchtower, secretly commanded the fleet to leave in different directions and form an enormous encirclement.

“Everyone focus,” Herlous said with a deep voice. “Preheat the spacetime stabilization device. When I give the order, activate it and trap Traveler here.”

When the matter involved their Deputy Army Commander, no one cared about nobility anymore. Even Ames did not want to fight Traveler by herself.

It did not matter whether this was a misunderstanding; it was best to deal with Traveler first. Ames’ main goal in fighting him was to force all his attention on her so that the fleet would be able to deploy traps secretly, in case he opened a teleportation gate and escaped.

…

At the same time, the dynasty received Han Xiao’s message and started moving instantly. The Beyond Grade As who were in the dynasty’s territory received their missions, departed from their own territories, and headed toward the stargate stations.

Inside Kant’s ship, the few Beyond Grade As who had gathered urgently this time were all discussing their mission.

“The church really doesn’t learn. During the Planet Lighthouse battle more than twenty years ago, I… and Black Star taught them a lesson, and less than thirty years later, they’re here causing trouble again.” Beyoni curled his lips. A few fire sparkles jumped out between his teeth.

“This movement by them is very sudden. Their target is Hila, and we’re the only ones close by. It’s best for us to quickly head over.” Kant was serious about the matter.

Most of the dynasty’s allies were given territories in the Flickering World and were taking part in the free competition. They were too far away and would not make it in time.

Currently, the Beyond Grade As remaining in the dynasty’s territory would be able to reach the battlefield the quickest, and they were Kant’s Lord’s Avatar; Ravenlaude, who was recovering from his injury; the slacker, Beyoni; and Kohler, who had nothing to do.

“I heard Kasuyi’s doppelganger is there too. Isn’t that a little dangerous?” Kohler whispered.

Kant’s huge eyes glared at him and said, “Don’t be such a coward. With me here, what’s there to be afraid of? I can fight the entire church on my own!”

“Really?” Kohler’s face was filled with doubts.

“Of course not, but can you just let me say it?” Kant rolled his eyes. “If I were that capable, even Clotti would be my follower.”

Ravenlaude stayed silent with a conflicted expression.

Not long ago, he had been beaten up by Han Xiao, so he was not very willing to help.