The soldiers around him screamed at him, including his allies, but he could not listen. His body was racked with pain, not only due to the damage to his soul but also because of the sheer amount of energy currently flowing into him. If he didn’t release it, he would simply explode. He needed a way to release the excess energy before it destroyed his body completely.

And there was only one thing that could compete with Chaos.

“Order!”

While Liam’s right hand, which touched the forcefield, was devoured in darkness, his left hand started to shine brighter than a star. Its golden light dyed the entire world, but it still felt considerably weaker than the darkness. Liam slammed his left hand on the forcefield as well, releasing all the energy he could in the shape of Order. The golden light ground against the forcefield, creating multiple cracks and slipping through them.

For another two seconds, this equilibrium was maintained.

“Argh!”

Then, it was shattered. Chaos’ devouring was simply too great. Order could not keep up. Why couldn’t it keep up?

‘I need something else. I need another way to release this energy!’

It was then. He had an idea.

Like a thunderbolt struck his mind, Liam remembered. He had one technique more fitting for pouring everything into it than anything else.

“Singularity!”

Immediately, his body was compressed, alongside the two opposite concepts around him. The small, black and golden dot pierced forward.

CRACK

Once more, the forcefield immediately cracked. It was to be expected. Liam had managed to create a crack even before then. Now that he was using the forcefield’s energy against itself and had become stronger, cracking it was not much of a problem. Nevertheless, the forcefield repaired itself almost immediately. It seemed like the Kingdom was more concerned with withstanding this attack by regenerating through it than stopping Liam. It was a rather logical decision. Nothing could approach Liam right now, and he shouldn’t be able to keep up such a strong attack for so long.

“…Come… On!”

Compressed into an infinitesimal dot, Liam’s consciousness and soul gritted its teeth and continued to push. The energy flowing into his body was almost endless, allowing him to keep Singularity up for as long as it lasted. The full weight of his existence crashed down, pushing at the forcefield like a physical force. The amount of pressure being applied to the barrier was almost unreal.

It was only after Singularity lasted for a few more seconds that the defenders noticed something was wrong. Singularity, based on the times Liam had shown it to them, was an instantaneous Skill that focused on a quick burst of energy, compressed into a singular point. It wasn’t the type of technique that could be simply sustained over time by its very nature. Yet, what was this? Why wasn’t it being deactivated?

The eyes of the Kingdom’s soldiers on the wall flashed. They hurled all sorts of attacks at Liam’s compressed, almost imperceptible body, but they were all stopped uselessly as they entered the black storm of Aura. As if it were a much stronger version of Event Horizon, it simply ate away at the enemies’ Aura and weapons, taking their energy for itself. The Captains of the Elite Squads stepped forward. Much quicker than their weaker companions, they swung their weapons and shot their projectiles. A starking difference could immediately be seen. The attacks converged and strengthened one another through their union, piercing the outer layer of the black storm and going as deep as a third into it before being consumed. As more and more Captains stepped up, the attacks started getting closer to Liam’s figure.

Liam didn’t have the time to keep this up for much longer. He had never been attacked during Singularity, so he didn’t know what exactly would happen if he was hit by a considerable blow in that state, and this wasn’t the time to find out. He needed to speed up this process, but how? Naturally, the only way was to increase the input and output of energy simultaneously.

‘Chaos, Order. Run wild.’

For the first time, Liam decided to stop trying to restrain the two and simply let them act as they wished. Currently, he didn’t have enough mastery over them to control them properly, and in this specific situation, he needed them to be as powerful as they could. In an instant, a change was felt. Chaos’ devouring rate almost tripled every second, while Order’s output rate did the same. Utterly nonsensical amounts of energy flowed through Liam’s compressed body without damaging it in the least, following Order’s guidance and fueling Singularity instead. The amount of power he was putting out had far surpassed his current limits long ago.

At the same time, the black storm around him only increased in size and fierceness. The chaotic movements that composed it grew faster and more erratic, while its sudden expansion caught numerous Drakkhan by surprise and tore them apart. In the middle of it all, Liam only had a single thought going through his mind. He needed to destroy the forcefield.

Time crawled by. Two seconds turned into twenty, and then into a minute. Given how Singularity’s strength tripled every second, it was now incomparable to before. In front of Liam’s soul’s eyes, the forcefield noticeably dimmed for the first time.

‘It’s working!’

He just needed to keep this up for a bit longer. By now, his body was a mere medium for Chaos and Order to act. His own Aura had been almost completely used up long ago, with only the necessary amount to keep him alive remaining. His physical strength, durability, regeneration, and all other physical attributes had also been poured into Singularity to their fullest. The only reason why it still pierced forward was because of Chaos and Order.

It was then.

CRACK

A cracking sound that was loud enough that it could be heard even by Liam in his current state.

CRACK

It was followed by another, even louder than before. The forcefield dimmed even more, becoming fainter and fainter. And then…

…It shattered into a million pieces, which were immediately devoured by Liam’s storm and used to feed him. At that very instant, Liam’s Singularity advanced beyond the forcefield’s limits for the first time and slammed against Cinzolia’s front wall.

The structure lasted less than a second.

The otherworldly, mysterious material that made up Cinzolia Fortress’ walls crumbled, being cut through as if it were made of dead, dry wood. Liam deactivated Singularity, expanding back into himself.

Complete stillness dominated the space, but Liam could feel the gazes of hundreds of millions of creatures zeroing in on his figure. Simple, rectangular buildings surrounded him, while he stood in a wide-open space that seemed like a training ground. Looking forward, he saw the enormous hole he had created in Cinzolia’s front wall. A large circle with a diameter of at least two hundred meters, it was a space that allowed for the passage of many troops.

‘Shit.’

It was also at least a hundred kilometers ahead of him. This naturally meant that he was a hundred kilometers deep into enemy territory, encircled by two billion troops, each capable of taking on his past self from months ago with ease. And most importantly…

Dark green Aura dyed the skies. The entirety of Cinzolia was covered in an instant. Liam felt a colossal presence approaching him from behind at blinding speed. Mach 200? Mach 300? Faster? He couldn’t even gauge it. All he knew was that it would hit him head-on in less than three seconds. Because of the aftermath of using so much power on Singularity, Liam couldn’t even move. He was completely spent. There was virtually no way for him to withstand the attack of the Commander-class being inside Cinzolia.

‘Is this how I die?’

Such a thought crossed his mind.

However, at their level, three seconds was a long time. Far too long.

A purple, veritable tsunami of Aura approached Cinzolia only slightly slower than the figure moving in Liam’s direction.

‘Arimiar.’

Liam could feel it. If the enormous wave of Aura hit Cinzolia’s walls, at least a few tens of millions of troops would be annihilated, likely far more. His tired eyes flashed. Was this what it meant to be a one-man army?

Two seconds passed by. They felt like an eternity to Liam, who was caught right between the collision point of two Commander-class beings’ attacks. Then, he could feel the figure coming at him from behind curve upwards, flying in the direction of the purple wave. Arimiar mimicked its movements, also heading up.

A second later, they collided.

It was as if a nuke had detonated. No, maybe even more than one?

Both armies were pressed to the ground in an instant. As the pressure fell upon Liam’s powerless body, he struggled to resist it with his Will alone. Before his face was slammed into the ground, Liam managed to see the point of impact. Arimiar desperately protected his own troops from the green Aura, while also trying to force the enemy commander away from Cinzolia. It was imperative to drag the enemy out of his Kingdom. As such, Arimiar kept trying to push the opponent upwards. With his superior strength, he soon succeeded. Forced to retreat towards the skies, the green plane shifted angrily, but the purple wave was relentless. Both soon rose beyond the clouds.