Cale immediately retreated. There was no way for his stage 6 bone dagger to pierce such a defense.

Same for Davis and Elena.

Black Rose foresaw an impeding doom. All her plans were now useless. In this closed space, there was no way in hell they could outrun an ex Shadow envoy.

“If only, he was still a Shadow Envoy.” She told herself.

Nilus saw the whole scene. He saw Cale and the others retreating with pale faces. He guessed that the plan was aborted and that they were running for their lives.

He sighed.

He decided to try and see if an Asura’s barrier could not be eaten by his green aura.

Energy was still energy for him no matter what form it took.

If he could get through the armor, then the heart was as good as in his hands. A soul at the Asura level was worth all the of the remaining Shadow envoys on the list and more.

He was too greedy at this point.

In his mind, there was no possible escape route the moment they decided to enter this place.

As he ran towards the uproariously laughing Bran Cobb who was saying: “You kids think that I am that easy to kill huh. Well, what do you know? That puny arrow just made me realize that I had reached the Asura level. How lucky am I?Thank you so much. I’ve been hiding for way too long. It is time that I finally enjoy a proper kill. I will kill every Shadow envoys they send after you. ”

As the other talked, Nilus who had the second stage gauntlet on his right hand, willed a bundle of green aura to come out of his soul core and protect the gauntlet.

The gauntlet was now shining green. He then willed the aura on the gauntlet to sprout a short blade just in front of his fist.

He ignored Cale screaming words like: retreat, he is an Asura now and there is nothing you can do.

He punched Bran Cobb who thought he was seeing a dead man. A desperate dead man. The last struggle for one’s life.

He let himself be hit just to see the desperate Nilus struggle even more for his life.

It was a mistake.

The blade made of green aura had entered the chest of Bran Cobb.

The green aura around the gauntlet was absorbing Bran Cobb’s red aura like crazy as the blade turned into a sponge.

“Even a stage 5 of my species can kill an Asura. This is something unheard of even for a creature of the dark. Even vampires who eat aura and store it in their blood to survive are nowhere near this monstrous. If I was not born a human, I would be considered a vampire subspecies. Or are vampires a subspecies of someone like me. Our powers match but we store the energy we eat differently.” Cale was thinking as he let the core inside the gauntlet drink the soul energy of Cobb.

He had just cut through Cobb like cutting through butter. Cobb was already dead the moment that his soul was being sucked away by the gauntlet. He did not even have the time to struggle.

As for Nilus, he had just staked his life on the possible outcome that the green aura could eat anything it was given if there was contact.

He had been wondering how the other member of his species that introduced him to this power did to enter an object without really doing so. That was what aura did. It was formless until given form and could go through anything without damaging it. He knew it was just an ability that the man had acquired and possibly at the Divine level or before. An ability that allowed his body tempered by the green aura to take the formless shape of aura and go unhindered through anything.

He just thought of mimicking the ability by just using an aura that fed on aura. The same green aura. It was the same thing. If their shared power was to eat all kinds of energy, then it meant that defenses made of energy were useless the moment that the green aura touched them.

He could not become formless but he could use the green aura to achieve the same result.

When he made the blade, it was just an image. It was not solidified. Yet it crossed all the barriers in front of it without resistance.

That was his wager.

To just let his formless aura, enter his target.

It worked beyond his expectations.

From his point of view, his aura’s ability had been unlocked the moment he got it. it was to absorb any kind of energy just like he painstakingly did with his mouth before. He would not have to look like a fool anymore.

As for his tracking ability, he guessed that it had something to do with his soul directly.

The rest of the team couldn’t see past Nilus’s back.

They knew something was wrong when they saw that there was no reaction from Cobb.

Cale was the first to arrive next to Nilus. He had followed his suicidal friend hoping to fight one last fight alongside him.

The scene he was witnessing filled him with dread.

He arrived to see Nilus finishing to pump all of Cobb’s energy. He could not see the soul but he could see the red aura being sucked in the green aura.

Cale was inwardly relieved as he whispered: “Well, good job in saving us all. No one else saw it this time. They will be too happy to learn that the are still alive along with the lie we tell them.”

“Actually, I just gambled with the fact that this would work. Or not. If he saw me as a serious opponent and used all his power at once. I never would’ve survived.” Nilus said.

“Just tell them that you used a potent poison on him. They’ll believe you. I think. Poison masters that can kill Asuras are as numerous as Divine kings. Less than a handful.” Cale suggested.

After hearing the news, the rest of the team crowded on the body with skeptic faces.

For Davis and Elena, it was just a godsend to have a poison master on their team rather than as an enemy. They had survived the encounter and was the most important.

Black Rose, on the other hand, was analyzing everything she could see from the back and found nothing alarming. Even as she went back to the intelligence reports on the Silent owl, coupled with time she spent with Nilus during the raids and the mission, it was weird how his victims always died without a single wound.

For Nilus to say that he was a poison master was perfectly justified.

After a while, Black Rose bluntly said: “We will bring the body back to the nearest branch. As for his belongings, Nilus earned them all. I trust that there are no objections.”

No one objected.

Cale stayed behind to help Nilus search the chamber. As for the rest of the team, all three brought Cobb’s corpse to the Assassin’s Guild branch inside Southwall city.

Inside the underground chamber.

Nilus was playing with a short sword. It was the 9th stage aura weapon that belonged to the dead Cobb.

“What would be the price of such a thing?” Nilus asked.

“Almost 4,000,000 gold coins. Why? Do you really want to sell it?” Cale was finding it hard to see such a good weapon being sold.

Nilus gave the short sword to Cale: “Keep it for me or else it might end up in my stomach. This green aura of mine is dangerous. We will sell the short sword to the Assassin guild after we leave.”

“What do you want to do with all these aura crystals he left behind?” Cale asked.

Just as he finished his question, the gauntlet on Nilus’s right hand flashed and released a green aura that encompassed all the aura crystals in the room. All that was left after a few moments were empty crystals.

“Your gauntlet reached the 5th stage?” Cale asked with a shocked face.

“Yes. The soul of an Asura is too rich in energy.” Nilus said.

“You plan on turning a simple gauntlet into a divine weapon? That is a waste. But with your weird powers, you are already lethal enough without a weapon.” Cale complained.

They finally left the underground chamber and headed for the Assassin’s guild branch to sell Cobb’s short sword and meet with the others.

Royal capital, Crystal Province.

King Elizar’s palace.

Elizar was taking a stroll with his wife, Kerri.

Elizar’s stats

Aura: stage 11

Body: stage 11

Weapon : Divine stage(stage 12)

The Achard family had ruled Greenwick for hundreds of years. Every king was carefully chosen to replace the last one. As they grew to become immortal, the duty of a king was boring, to say the least.

Even if every successor was carefully chosen, it was always biased towards a direct decedent of the previous king.

After King Alek reached the divine stage in all areas, he left the throne to his eldest son, Wayne Achard, and retired.

Wayne was the eldest of three.

Wayne’s son Elizar was the eldest of five.

All branches of the Achard family were urged to reach the divine stage of their bodies and they all did, eventually. It was an immortal family. That was a wish of King Alek. He wanted to produce as many divine immortal soldiers as possible.

No other Kingdom on the continent could match such a powerful lineup.

A young man arrived at their side. He was having trouble catching his breath. The couple smiled and stopped.

Kerri said: “Aldus, what are you doing here? You should be with your tutor.”

Aldus Achard. Kerri’s second child.

Aldus’ stats

Age: 20

Aura: stage 10

Body: stage 10

Weapon: stage 10

“Dad, there is a hero by the name of Silent Owl, who goes around killing our businesses. He was born in the Hornraven Noble family. He is Rose’s big brother.”

“Rose? I did not know that she had such an interesting big brother. I thought he was born a cripple.” Kerri the queen said.

Elizar said: “I know about Nilus Hornraven. The nobles have been complaining all over the country. They are using him as a scapegoat. The usual supply of aura crystals is dwindling every day Nilus and his team decide to raid the harvesting facilities but I know that the nobles are using this situation to keep a considerable amount of aura crystals for themselves. The Assassin guild is also behind this. That wretched guild is exploiting Nilus’s and the noble’s short-sightedness.” Elizar said with a helpless voice.

“Are going to send the divine executors to kill him?” Aldus asked.

“The masses will condemn us. He is their hero after all. We are not supposed to kill him, but encourage him and even help him. What they do not know is that what we do is a necessary evil. We’ve been preparing the continent for the next invasion. The nearest Darkcloud continent is being ruled by the creatures of the dark and the remaining humans on their continent are only cattle to them.” He said before he continued: “Grandfather Alek is a refugee from the Darkcloud continent. The last of his clan. He made it to this continent by a fluke. Only some creatures of the dark can survive the caprices of the ocean to get here. He foresaw the same thing happening here and used his clan’s heirloom treasure, the divine fire sword, to take over this country. He made an example of every dark creature on the continent and all the other kingdoms followed. At the first great summit, he explained the situation to all countries. For humanity to survive this next war, every action towards that goal is justified.”

“Father. Let me go and apprehend him. He has no idea what he is doing. Even the nobles are too greedy to realize that they are killing us.” Aldus pleaded.

“Grandfather Alek knows and he is bored right now. He will go teach Nilus a thing or two about being a hero.” Elizar said.

The nearby Kerri said: “There’s no need to worry about your girlfriend’s brother. Just let your Great-grandfather handle it.”

A smile appeared on Aldus Achard face. He ran back to where he had come from leaving his parents in a gust of wind.