A fog of purplish-black blood spewed out from every single pore of his body as he seemed to simultaneously explode into fireworks. The forbidden technique was directly cancelled.

Shua!

The next instant, Tolaen flew out from the blood fog before quickly retreating. His expression was one of horror, and he was dripping blood everywhere, looking extremely tragic.

In that instant, he had felt the shadow of death.

Ever since he entered the Beyond Grade A realm, Tolaen had never felt his life being threatened so strongly. However, this attack seemed to have awakened his memories, allowing him to feel the taste of fear again.

Just that one attack had evaporated almost twenty percent of his HP. A Beyond Grade A’s total HP was usually around two to three million, so this was a heavy blow. There were even negative status effects, as the explosion of death energy almost made his cells completely collapse. This terrified Tolaen to no end.

Hila’s Esper Ability was far beyond his wildest imagination!

At this moment, Tolaen looked at Hila from afar, full of trepidation in his eyes.

[Death’s Erosion] had resulted in him obtaining heavy injuries, but with the detonation, the stacks of Death’s Erosion had also been cleared, so Tolaen’s regeneration went back to normal. The injuries covering his body gradually healed, and his HP increased.

However, his max HP had dropped by about ten percent, and it was an irreversible decrease.

Hila would not sit back and let her opponent recover, so she borrowed the chance while Tolaen was in a confused state to stun him, stopping his retreat, before launching a storm like barrage, her death energy sweeping across the sky.

Tolaen could not understand how Hila’s Esper Ability worked, so he could only play a cat-and-mouse game, retreating whenever Hila approached. He did not dare advance aggressively like before, opting to only throw spells from a distance while brushing up on his shields, not willing to be hit by the death energy once again.

The situation instantly reversed, the pursuer becoming the pursued. Tolaen ran away while Hila chased after his butt.

The power of this move also gave Austin a nasty shock.

“Such a fierce newcomer? Eh… what can I say…”

He had worried that Hila would be tainted by the Polluted Blood, but he did not expect the tides to turn in just a moment.

“If it was me…”

Austin could not help but substitute himself in the battle and found that he would probably not have gotten off easily. Although he had various spells to remove any negative statuses, the erosion of the death energy was endless, and no matter how many times it was purified, the energy would still be attached to his body. The only solution was to not get hit by her Death’s Erosion.

In this case, while some Beyond Grade As would not lose to Hila, they would fear the repercussions of their actions, and this would affect their performance.

Tolaen was currently in this state. After being frightened by Hila’s burst attack, he became extra careful, choosing to be more defensive.

If he forced a close combat, he would expose his body, so it was better to kite her. However, his range would not outstrip hers; thus, there was no way to win at all, placing him in a difficult situation.

Tolaen secretly cried. This time, he had really kicked a metal plate!

Hila, however, did not care about her opponent’s psychological tricks. Since Tolaen was defending, she took the chance to attack and use Tolaen as a human target.

Boom boom boom!

Magic shields continuously shattered, like layers being peeled off an onion. It looked as though Hila was single-handedly thrashing Tolaen.

But it seemed that despite his ragged state, this Beyond Grade A mage Tolaen was not just for show. Supported by his massive mana reserves, magic shields continued to appear, barely blocking Hila’s frenzied attack.

This has become a war of attrition. Whoever’s strength is greater will win! Although I’m in a passive state, it’s not as if I have no chance of winning. I’ll see if her energy is higher or mine!

Tolaen felt his spirits being boosted.

The True Liberation of the Demon Race allowed one’s cells to generate more energy, and with both of them being new Beyond Grade As, he believed that his species had the advantage and could hold out for a longer period.

Hila’s brows furrowed as she also realized this point.

“Hmm… the expenditure in battle is not on my side.”

With her death energy being so powerful, the expenditure was naturally huge as well. Hila did not have many energy regaining skills, and her main recovery method was to recover her energy through killing. Because it was a spar, there were no soldiers to turn into her nourishment.

She had not entered Beyond Grade A long ago, so she did not have the time to learn many Energy Training Techniques. Thus, her energy limit was her restraining factor.

With a thought, Hila changed her tactics, and the death energy gathered in her palm, turning into a vortex-like shape. She exhibited a new skill.

[Abyss of the Dead!]

A weird spiritual wave suddenly spread out, and all the people around saw stars as their vision swam.

Their surroundings disappeared, replaced with only themselves, trapped within darkness with only a small beam of light at the top, as though they had fallen into a deep well.

“Argh!”

From below, countless screams pierced the ear. When one looked down, all they would see was translucent gray faces, containing all sorts of creatures and possessing all shapes and sizes, packed together.

Every face was contorted in pain and horror, screaming in different tones. The sea of faces was endless like the ocean, and this lent a strange type of horror to the scene. This would give most people a shock to their mental states, maybe even causing insanity.

These faces were all from the soul fragments of people killed by Hila. Their essence was integrated into her powers to help her grow, and the residue of the soul fragments would be deposited, forming this Abyss of the Dead.

At this moment, the faces suddenly stopped screaming, their eyes staring straight ahead. They all repeated a single sentence in uniform, forming a grand sound wave, much like an ethereal everlasting echo.

“Merge with us… be one with us…”

The next instant, countless hands stretched out from the sea of faces like tentacles. They were connected to each other like links in a chain, and they continued to extend and thicken, clinging to everyone’s legs as they grabbed them and pulled them down.

“Let me go!”

“Help!”

“Don’t grab that place!”

A sense of falling could be felt, and many screamed as they struggled.

The next moment, the scene in front of their eyes shattered like glass.

Many of the people who had covered their eyes hurriedly opened their fingers, observing the surroundings through the gaps between their fingers. They discovered that they were back to where they had been originally, as though everything that had just happened was an illusion.

Everyone broke out in cold sweat.

However, these spectators were all only affected by the aftereffects, and Tolaen was the true target. It was unknown what horror he saw, but his entire figure was frozen stiff, and he had halted all actions, just as though his Sanity[1] was completely depleted.

Upon getting a closer look, everyone was shocked to discover that there was actually an ethereal shadow coming out of Tolaen. This was his spiritual body, and he was being pulled out and struggling madly in midair.

If the onlookers could see his status bar currently, they would discover that he was being spammed by [Chaos], [Fear], and [Stunned] statuses.

The death energy naturally came with a spiritual attribute, and Hila had obtained a unique attacking method for the spirit. The [Abyss of the Dead] skill was a mind control technique that could pull out the soul of a target. Both sides would wage a war of mental states, causing the other party to temporarily lose control of their body.

As such, his magic shields were not replenished, and the countless death energy rays directly bombarded Tolaen’s body, smashing his body into a bloody mess.

“Stop!” Tolaen’s spiritual body was still struggling to get rid of the [Abyss of the Dead], and seeing this scenario, he could not help but feel his heart breaking.

That was his own body!

Being unable to control it, he could only watch his opponent ill-treat it. Seeing that he was about to turn into meat paste, he got anxious.

Hila, however, turned a deaf ear, as though she had made up her mind to make some Tolaen meat sauce this very moment.

Seeing this, Tolaen felt his heart chill. He immediately screamed, “Stop! Stop! I surrender!”

He only wanted a good battle record and was not willing to risk his life to this extent!

Hila narrowed her eyes before twirling her body. A burst of death energy burst out, directly knock Tolaen away and cancelling the effect of [Abyss of the Dead].

Tolaen’s spirit got rid of the restrictions and returned to his body.

The next moment, he was completely wracked with pain, and his spirit was even weaker, obviously having received heavy injuries.

“With such injuries, it might take me several years to recover…”

Tolaen’s expression was ashen, and he immediately retreated while glancing warily at Hila, as though afraid she would pursue him.

Seeing this, Hila took in the death energy back into her body before glancing at Tolaen and transmitting her thoughts in an icy tone.

“Scram.”

Hearing this, Tolaen was furious, but he was afraid of Hila and dared not attack.

“Hila, right? I’ll remember you!”

He gritted his teeth and flew back to the Arcane Church’s fleet.

To say that he was not frustrated would be a blatant lie. Tolaen actually wanted to earn some accolades for himself and use Ames as his stepping stone, but he had ended up as someone else’s stepping stone, giving them a glowing battle record.

This trip was nothing but a pure waste, and his mental state even got injured, which would take a long time to recover.

Since he had already lost, and in front of Black Star at that, he did not dare say anything. If Black Star actually took his arrogant words seriously, then he would definitely not be able to live.

“You’re not stopping him?” Ames threw Han Xiao a glance.

“He already lost. Let’s not make things difficult for him.” Han Xiao shrugged.

Tolaen was a strange combination of reckless arrogance and cautiousness. Since he did not make things difficult for Han Xiao, his serious injuries from Hila were enough. Just the reduced life span would give Tolaen endless regret in accepting her challenge.

Since the other party was on the receiving end of bad luck, Han Xiao was in a good mood and could not be bothered to pick a fight.

Glancing at Hila, who was slowly flying back, Han Xiao laughed as he spoke to Ames.

“The news of today’s battle will soon spread out, and other forces will soon know that there’s another new Beyond Grade A in the universe.”

“It’s finally time for you to experience a headache.” Ames smiled.

“What headache?”

“Hehe, remember how you wanted to create an independent group right after you reached the Beyond Grade A realm? Do you think that Hila will stay by your side?” Ames’ mouth curled up. “Do you think that a Beyond Grade A will willingly follow under you?”

“50/50.” Han Xiao did not deny it. “Even if she chooses to be independent, our relationship will still exist, and we’re still allies. The worst scenario is still good news.”

At that moment, a portal appeared beside them, and Austin flew out with a smile.

“Congratulations, Black Star. Your officer has risen to Beyond Grade A, and there are now six of us in the Shattered Star Ring. I think Psyker is going to shut himself in this time.”

“Hasn’t he already shut himself in for a long time?” Ames laughed.

As they chatted, Hila slowly landed on the dock and walked over. Austin’s eyes lit up, and he went up to introduce himself and converse. He loved meeting new people.

Hila and Austin could be said to be acquainted, but due to the difference in power levels, they only had an impression of each other. Now, they were finally communicating on equal footing.

She responded with a few cursory words, still maintaining her cold attitude, but Austin did not mind, and after laying his foundation of friendship, he bade farewell to everyone.

Han Xiao gazed at the closing portal and could not help thinking to himself, The movie watcher is finally gone…

At this moment, Hila turned her head over to see Han Xiao’s avatar. Pausing for a moment, she commented, “I’ll come to you for a talk when I return.”

“I’ll wait for you in the headquarters.” Han Xiao nodded.

He knew that Hila wanted to discuss her future. For an old friend like her, it was unsuitable to talk about such a matter with his avatar.

Hila nodded and turned to leave. She felt that there was nothing worth discussing with the avatar; a hunk of metal could not compare to the hunk in real life.

At the same time, Bennett received the report that the enemy had been repelled by Hila and heaved a sigh of relief.

Reading the report, the ease on his face turned into gratitude.

Hila has also become a Beyond Grade A?

That means there are two Beyond Grade As that appeared on Planet Aquamarine….

What are the odds?

This is the fortune of Planet Aquamarine!

Bennett could not help but sigh. Thinking of the old enemy he had spent half his life fighting against, he felt complex.

While you certainly did many wrongs, to have someone like you responsible for nurturing two good seeds for our planet, your merit is incalculable…

[1] For those of you who want to know more about Sanity, check out the game ‘Don’t Starve Together’. #notsponsored