In a forest surrounding inside the elven kingdom, there was a nest of slavers and traffickers. They would live in a small establishment and had guards all around. A dilapidated castle stood at the centre of the establishment. The elven cities were all like this. They were created in between forests and did not have roads connecting them. The elves were a race that was very close to nature and thus, they usually travelled through the forest. One would not find many agricultural fields inside the elven kingdom. It was because the elves depended on the forests around their cities to hunt and gather food. As the population was very low, there was no need to systematically use the land that they had.

This establishment was in a now abandoned city. Diros was currently enjoying his life. Several female slaves could be seen around him, all naked and serving him. This was the pleasure of life that only someone with power could enjoy. In Aterna, strength was foremost. Thus, an expert could have a harem and even take on partners irrespective of whether their partners wanted the same thing. While there were many experts who refrained from such heavy-handed actions for the fear of their reputations, almost all experts had pleasure centres managed secretly. And Diros was the supplier of these centres.

Elves were in the highest demand and Diros would train them through the use of drugs and various soul techniques to turn them into obedient slaves. Selling these slaves to the different experts gave him plenty of wealth. With wealth, he acquired resources to grow more powerful. This was the life he was living. He was backed by an immortal from the royal family - Ragnar Leslachis. He was the same expert who had made a bet with Paul. Losing the bet had put a dent in his finances and he had asked Diros to increase the scope of his activities.

As a result, thousands of elven women and a few hundred men were currently at this base being "trained". Their screams and moans were audible throughout the place.

But something drastic happened suddenly. Diros could feel three powerful presences heading towards his direction from the sky. As soon as he looked up, the roof of the castle caved in and three people appeared with a bang! The floor tiles broke and a crater was formed! The slaves were quite weak and were badly mangled due to the shockwaves. The entire castle shook!

Diros immediately attacked these people. But, that was a feint. He was already considering ways to escape. He could feel all three were in perfect realm. And he could not see their faces! The battle began and the walls of the castle tumbled down! The entire castle looked like it would fall apart! Keep in mind that this castle had been reinforced with energy crystals. Or else, it would have turned to dust in a battle of such level.

Diros' assistant rushed into his room only to find a naked Diros trying his best to survive the onslaught of three experts. He was at the peak of saint realm. He could just barely step in a battle of this level. He had to do something. Or else, his master might really die! As he charged into the battle, another peak saint entered. He was the leader of guards. He had already sent his subordinate to the nearest post to call for reinforcements. As these two joined the fray, Paul separated from Diros and started attacking these two. Diros had already been injured by their siege.

The elves were a long living race and had great cultivation talent. But they were not an individually strong race. In fact, elves and humans were comparable in the same realm. Thus, an injured Diros was no match for his two attackers. The two peak saints could also not get past their opponent as they entered a stalemate. Their only hope was for reinforcements to arrive.

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Michael was currently facing a saint realm expert. He had been waiting for the guy on the route to the elven army post. After all, they had all the time in the world to strategize. He knew that they would win as long as the reinforcements did not arrive. The saint too saw Michael blocking his way. He could see that the person in front of him was in early emperor realm but his body seemed to be filled with the explosive energy of late emperor realm expert. The person's height was quite small as well. He naturally assumed that it was a dwarf!

Who could blame him for not thinking about a human child when he faced Michael who had hidden his appearance?

But, he was not too worried. He just needed to get past the guy. Thus, he charged at extreme speed towards Michael and threw a punch to his head.

Saints were formidable existence not because of the power they wielded. The saint realm was different from the three lower realms. Saints had ignited their vital force. This gave them longer lives. It also gave them a better functioning body. It was not only the strength that dramatically increased but also their perception, mental speed, explosive strength and much more. In such a realm, they held absolute advantages against lower realm experts.

There were many geniuses like Roland who could fight early emperors when they were late kings but there were extremely few rare geniuses that could fight early saint as late emperor. Even Michael as he was now was not qualified to fight with just his body. But, with soul cultivation added, he did not fear early saints.

Through observation and prediction, he blocked the upcoming punch with an arm-guard. A boom sounded in the forest and Michael's arm was thrown backwards. But, at the same time, he had thrown in a punch. The punch carried a tremendous amount of soul energy! And Michael had also used his persona to add huge amounts of death energy to the blow! Even saints could not avoid such a well-timed blow.

Besides, there were no soul energy fluctuations coming off Michael. How was he to know that Micahel's soul energy was flowing through his body?

As soon as his attack made contact, the soul energy mixed with terrifying amounts of death energy went inside the saint's body and attacked his soul. A terrible pain assaulted his senses. With the pain came a sense of tiredness! Due to the death energy, he could not use his own energy to defend even as Michael's energy destroyed his soul. This was a terrifying application of death energy. It would make the soul sluggish and would prevent your opponent from putting up their defences!

The saint's soul was totally destroyed as he vomited a mouthful of blood and died.

One hit kill!

It was not the first time Michael had killed a saint. But what was different was that this was a frontal battle and not an assassination. Last time, Michael had won due to luck and element of surprise. It did not make him qualified to fight saints. He would have died for sure.

But now, he was able to kill saints. He looked at his arm. Though there were a bruise and a minor crack in the bone, it was rapidly healing with life energy and he would be back to normal in a few minutes. The saint's attack should have at least destroyed his arm. But, Michael had rapidly condensed his strength through the Flowing River Art in his hands to increase his defence before the blow landed. Thus, his injuries could be called fairly minor for killing a saint.

After killing the elf, Michael sped along to reach the encampment. The fight in the castle was still going on. The guards had shifted the slaves in training out of the castle. These people were looking around with fear filled eyes. There was desperation in their eyes as they looked for any possible ways to escape. They had never thought that the people they revered as their protectors would throw them as slaves to other races. To be betrayed by their idols! It was a very painful feeling.

At that time, Michael reached the encampment.

Who are you? Identify yourself!

A guard said after pointing his weapon at Michael.

When Michael looked at the expressions of these slaves, he felt boundless anger! His wrath seemed to swallow his sanity!

He remembered the atrocities of devils when he looked at these victims. The devils were also perverse. When they conquered an area, they would use the races as objects of victory. They raped women and men. They humiliated the commoners. They did not even spare the children!

Looking at these helpless people made him feel the anger he had reserved for the devils. His aura changed! A violent aura started surging out from him and the physical power, soul energy and death energy started surrounding him and revolving around him at high speeds. The air itself started rattling as if an omen for something bad going to happen.

The guards felt a sense of danger like never before. This was the wrath of an expert! While the assailant was in early emperor realm, the sense of danger that came from him surpassed their vice-captain. There was also something eerie about this person. It was as if he was death incarnate! The death energy surrounding Michael made him look like death incarnate.

Before the guards could do anything, Michael rushed in with full force. His soul energy mixed with death energy and formed a storm. The storm ripped through the guards. All the guards in king realm instantly died! A whole 20 people dead before the battle could begin. The emperors coughed out blood. This was an area-wide attack. Michael could kill any emperor with his soul arts if he focused on a single opponent. But to injure all emperors with an area-wide attack was different.

Even before the guards could regain their vision, Michael attacked the first person standing alive. It was the guard that had pointed his weapon. His fist went through the guard's ribs. A wild amount of death-soul energy entered his body destroying his soul. At the same time, a tyrannical physical energy passed into his body from Michael's martial art. His upper body exploded as if hit by a giant hammer! The innards and organs splattered all around forming a gruesome scene! His head, detached from his torso flew in the middle of the slaves inciting cries of fear.

The rest of the guards felt fear. This was being killed in body and soul! Michael did not stop as he started moving from one target to another. The guards too attacked together to kill this fiend.

Micahel seemed to transform into a storm of blood! Whenever he attacked, a guard would be killed brutally with their bodies and souls imploding. This was a scene the slaves would never forget. Michael seemed like a demon from the depths of hell! He was bathed in his blood and the blood of his enemies. All emperor realm experts were killed in a very short amount of time.

In his rage, Michael had thrown caution in the wind and just relied on his body for defence. Had he fought sensibly, he could have come out unscathed. After all, only his close combat soul art was sufficient for killing these guards. He could have defended with his Flowing River Art.

But in his anger, his fighting efficiency had been reduced. Michael also felt that killing them with their bodies intact was showing them mercy.

After killing all the guards, he went ahead to release all the slaves. He told them

While we belong to different races, we are from the same plane and are all intelligent beings. I just did not want to see you all suffering in front of my eyes. You all are free to go.

Little did he know that many years later, the line that he had spoken casually would become a guiding philosophy in the war against the devils!

The elves looked at him in fear and awe. There was a small amount of gratitude hidden in their eyes as well. They swiftly ran away after being freed.

Michael decided to wait for the ancestors to come meanwhile healing his injuries.

A few minutes later, the three ancestors emerged from the castle. They too had different injuries but none were life-threatening. As soon as they saw the battlefield, they were shocked. None of these people had died a decent death. They simultaneously looked at Michael with deep fear in their eyes.

Michael was small right now and not too powerful. Still, this battle felt like some ruthless expert had slaughtered these people. They shuddered to think about what he would become in the future. But at the same time, they were relieved as well. The reason they had chosen to support Michael was due to his wisdom more than his talent. Previous Crown Princes of humans were also talented but they did not have practical skills. Their chances of surviving on their own in the world were too little. Thus they were kept in the confines of the race. They were greenhouse experts! This was the main reason they never managed to become immortal. Each immortal was a powerful existence who had moved through rivers of blood. There were no greenhouse immortals!

Michael was everything one could ask for. Due to his great talent, people failed to see his firm heart and intelligence. They did not know how terrifying he was! It was not his talent. A person like Michael was bound to rise. It did not matter as to how talented he was. He could survive, scheme, had no problems killing when necessary. He was practically an expert in the way he did things.

Having a junior like this filled the three of them with hope. They all felt confident that not only would Michael become an immortal, but he would be a hegemon who would be a pillar for humanity and the empire.

They did not say anything and called the tamed bird. After that, they quickly fled from the scene. It was only many hours later that the decimation was reported. Ragnar's shout shook the elven royal castle and was heard in the entire city. The mortals all started bleeding from their ears. They only knew that an immortal was extremely angry.

In the midst of all this, Michael fired the beacon for finishing the mission. Inside the tower, the elder at mission counter stood up in shock. A full point mission had been reported to be complete. He immediately sent people to confirm, to the location that he had received. The news was confirmed and 50 points were alotted to Michael's name placing his name third on the ranking list of the final test. The ones above him were naturally - Kndriff Kross and Ashley Leslachis.

All of them had a full 50 points in the wealth section. It was at this time that the ranking list was hung in the tower. It was also sent to all the kingdoms. Apparently, Michael was the last person to finish the mission. Also, for the first time in the tower's history, a human had received full points for wealth!

This rose the curtains to what would be recalled as the legendary test of the tower in which the greatest genius of Aterna emerged.