At the frontline exploration base of the Black Star Army in the Emerald Star Cluster…

In the bright, empty training room, Hila was levitating in midair, her eyes closed and breathing slow. A red brilliance surrounded her body, and the energy fluctuations she emitted made the high collared cloak of the Crimson Snake uniform flutter like dancing black and red clouds.

In front of her floated a deep red ball of concentrated death energy, and suspended in the middle was a faint golden glow. Golden blood vessel-like threads radiated from that glow, spreading throughout the ball.

At this moment, Hila’s brows suddenly frowned, and the energy ball in front of her boiled as though a violent chemical reaction had occurred. It exploded, the death energy reverberating across the room.

“We failed again, Sis.”

Aurora’s annoyed voice sounded in Hila’s mind.

“It’s okay. It’s not your fault.” Hila shook her head.

With the qualitative change in one’s Esper Ability’s strength, control, and other characteristics, the Esper would be able to bring out and develop more uses for this ability.

Because there existed an exclusive vitality link between the two, after Aurora entered the Calamity Grade, this link was further strengthened, giving birth to a two-way telepathic channel for them to communicate with each other.

As for the transmission of life energy, this was originally limited by the distance. Right now, their personal project was to develop an energy transmission channel that would ignore the factor of distance. However, they had not succeeded yet and were still looking for a method.

Now that Aurora had entered the Calamity Grade, Hila reckoned that she could protect herself. Thus, she no longer restricted Aurora, allowing her to utilize the abilities and life energy freely.

“Sis, actually, the life link that ignores distance already has an embryonic form. The life energy is constantly emitted from my side, but it cannot be transmitted to yours.”

“It’s not a complete failure.” Hila nodded. “Actually, I did receive a small amount of life energy, but the energy loss is too severe, which limits me to only receiving one ten thousandth of it. The way I see it, most of your energy seems to be absorbed by an unknown secondary dimension, and that secondary dimension has a weak connection with me, which is why I could feel its presence.”

“Is that so? I didn’t feel anything.” Aurora was surprised.

“I only sensed this when I advanced to the Beyond Grade A realm. I think that if we wish to complete the link, we need to first solve this obstacle. I previously sent my death energy into this secondary dimension, but once it entered, it was cut off from me entirely. I’m afraid I’ll need to find time to go there in person. I always feel that it has some secret related to us. Call it the intuition of a Beyond Grade A.”

As she spoke, Hila shook her head and lifted her finger. There was a bright golden light floating on her fingertip, about the size of a peanut. This was the life energy she had obtained from Aurora.

With just her eyes, she manipulated the sesame-sized particles of death energy into this cluster of life energy, and the next moment, a brilliant light flashed as the two energies melted together. The red and golden light spots merged into a light spot with the color of orange gold.

“Sis, did you succeed?”

“Nope, I’m still exploring the ratio needed to successful fusion. Right now, I can only merge this small amount of energy.”

Hila lightly breathed out. She had tried to fuse their energies a long time ago, but due to their lack of control over their Esper abilities, they had never succeeded. At that time, they had thought that it was a conflict in their energy natures that caused this.

However, now that Hila was in the Beyond Grade A realm and Aurora had also entered the Calamity Grade, Hila reattempted the combination, only to find out that their energies were actually combinable, but they were unstable and required powerful manipulation abilities to maintain the balance.

After the fusion, it would turn into an orangey-gold light cluster, with different characteristics. Although the healing and killing effects were still present, these two characteristics were not strengthened but in fact weakened. Hila had not yet studied the special effects the fused energy would have.

At this moment, a communication request sounded.

Beep beep!

A virtual screen appeared, and the vice-captain’s image popped up. The shock on his face had not faded as he said, “Your Excellency, the Pope of the Arcane Church wishes to speak to you. Should I transfer the call over?”

Hila’s pupils shrank.

For someone seated at the very top to come knocking, Hila thought it was surprising.

She thought for a while before saying, “Transfer it.”

Very quickly, the screen in front of her changed to the shadow of the Pope.

The three Universal Civilizations often had their leaders appear in the news, so Hila naturally knew who he was. Thus, her expression was indifferent as she spoke.

“May I know your intention in looking for me?”

Because of the conflict between the Arcane Church and the Black Star Army, Hila did not bother showing much respect.

The Pope did not bother beating around the bush either. “I would like to invite you to join our Arcane Church.”

“The leader of a Universal Civilization actually came to personally invite me, I’m really flattered… If Black Star was here, that’s what he would say.” Hila remained impassive. “But I’m not him.”

The Pope slowly continued. “We’ve looked into you, and you’re someone who values and pursues strength. The Arcane Church can help to give you incredible strength. I…”

“It’s alright. I reject your offer.” Hila did not even wish to listen on and refused flatly.

“… So long as you join as an ally, you can state any conditions.”

“Not interested.”

The Pope paused, expressionless. “The reason you insist on following Black Star, is it because of your own personal feelings?”

“Nothing to do with you.”

The Pope nodded. “My offer will stand. If you happen to have a change in heart, the Arcane Church will forever welcome you with open arms.”

He then ended the communication.

Looking at the darkened screen, Hila could not help but frown.

The Arcane Church’s Pope had personally appeared, which meant that he had more sincerity than the Crimson Dynasty. However, this could be because of their relationship as enemies, which would require him to step up if he wanted to poach her.

If it was an ordinary Beyond Grade A that had received such a treatment, they would likely have accepted it on the spot. However, she would not consider leaving the Black Star Army for the time being. Thus, no matter how good the offer, she did not hesitate to refuse.

…

On the other end, there was a fleet of spaceships making their way toward the Black Star stronghold in the Emerald Star Cluster.

The insignia of the fleet represented a small mercenary group, but it actually carried several Beyond Grade A combatants from the Arcane Church.

‘Child of Light’ Sagman glanced at his communicator. “The Pope’s intentions have been conveyed. The poaching has failed. We can begin our operation.”

The Arcane Church had long prepared both plans. During this time, the Beyond Grade As had assembled, and if the Pope failed to persuade her, they would strike and eliminate Hila, preventing any mishaps in the future.

“The situation now is beneficial to us, as both the dynasty and Black Star have yet to discover that we have assembled. It’s best to do a quick battle and make no mistakes like before,” Taylor said.

In the past, it would have taken the Beyond Grade As a long time to gather because of the different Star Fields, so any action would have been discovered a long time ago. However, because a large number of them were in the Flickering World, they were close to each other, facilitating their actions. Before their enemy discovered them, they could take action whilst they were unaware.

“It’s best to shift Hila away from the stronghold. Otherwise, the allies of the dynasty can quickly support her through the stargate.”

“Then we’ll leave this job to you, Tolaen. You go provoke Hila and draw her out. The further the better,” Sagman said.

Tolaen paused for a while, his heart unwilling. In the end, he gritted his teeth and said, “Let me try.”

“Well, if Hila does not accept the challenge, we will first destroy the stronghold’s stargate. It’s a pity that Sun Hunter will not be able to participate in that activity. Taylor, you’re a Mage with more flexible means. Destroying the stargate will be left to you and me.” Sagman hesitated, before continuing in a deep tone. “As for the Lord’s Avatar of Black Star that will be beside Hila…”

At this moment, the doppelganger of Kasuyi, which had always been silent, said, “I’ll hold him off.”

The Arcane Church had brought out enough benefits to allow Kasuyi to participate in this operation. However, he did not like the act of besieging others or bullying newcomers, so he merely sent a doppelganger over as insurance.

“Alright, we have no guarantee of beating Black Star’s avatar. Only you will be able to suppress him.” Sagman nodded.

“It’s a pity that His Excellency Wuornos could not appear as well, or else killing Hila would only be a matter of seconds,” ‘Desolate Beast’ Mercer muttered.

“Stop imagining things. Wuornos will never leave the Temple of God. He will not involve himself in vulgar mortal affairs.” Taylor shook his head.

The six of them present were ‘Child of Light’ Sagman, ‘World Gate’ Taylor, ‘Desolate Beast’ Mercer, ‘Red Devil’ Tolaen, a doppelganger of Kasuyi, and a Lord’s Avatar of a Mechanic.

The nature of Kasuyi’s doppelganger was similar to the Lord’s Avatar of the Mechanic class, which carried a part of the body’s combat power. It could not be compared to the quasi-Beyond Grade A doppelganger ability of EsGod.

Such a lineup just to deal with Hila, this was truly overkill.

However, the difference between this and the battle at Planet Lighthouse was that the allies from the dynasty were missing, and Black Star’s true body would also not be present, which meant the absence of the Spacetime Amber. The Arcane Church thought that this situation was favorable, not to mention that their target was Hila, who was easier to deal with than the cockroach that was Black Star.

Kasuyi’s doppelganger turned his head away to look out of the porthole, declining to continue the conversation with the rest.

“Manison, you probably wouldn’t make a move right… If Hila dies, Black Star will certainly go crazy… Hehe, such a difficult choice this time.

“You’re not suitable to act, and I understand, so let me take your place in this show.

“With me around, she will not die.”