It was then that he noticed something strange. His eyes narrowed. The soldiers were slowly closing in on him, as if attempting to get into melee distance. It was incomprehensible. In spite of Liam’s attack range, he had developed and grown as a melee warrior. Melee was what he excelled at. There should be no reason for these soldiers to try to get closer to him. In fact, they should be desperately widening the distance between him and them. So, why were they doing this? An ominous feeling filled Liam’s heart as he swung his spear faster and more forcefully, pushing back the tide. Every soldier that got closer was annihilated into nothingness.

The number of troops was such that they still managed to shorten the distance between themselves and Liam at the cost of tens of thousands of lives. Liam was aware of this. He focused even more, preparing himself for whatever plan they were trying to execute. The Aura of the soldiers started to gather. Liam grasped his spear strongly and thrust forward in the blink of an eye. A Drought shot out of the tip of his spear, piercing through the atmosphere and hitting the most critical spot of the Aura gathering, making it fall apart. The number of enemies focused on this single task was so large, however, that the Aura storm soon returned to its previous state. The air shook as multiple other Aura gatherings were formed all around Liam.

His Aura raged inside him. He stepped on the air as he used Waterstep to move as quickly as possible, using all of his Active Skills to disturb as many gatherings as possible. He killed the soldiers whose Aura was being gathered, disturbed the storms, and did as much damage as possible, but the Aura gatherings soon materialized in gigantic Aura chains one after the other.

The chains shot towards him with shocking speed. Liam’s eyes widened as he hurriedly used Waterstep and Aerial Movement to avoid them, but they homed in on his figure like guided missiles. He remained calm.

‘In the end, it’s an attempt to capture me.’

Now that they had been formed, it would be difficult for him to shatter the chains created by the combined Aura of hundreds of thousands of enemies. It would be best to avoid them entirely, but they homed in on him and moved extremely quickly. Avoiding them wasn’t much of an option.

Liam deployed Event Horizon, slowing down the chains’ movement whenever they got too close to him and grinding them down. In the meantime, he continued to kill as many soldiers as he could. The chains were fast, but not faster than him as long as he maintained Event Horizon active. This status quo could be maintained so long as he kept moving.

His heart ached as he looked at the despairing expressions of his enemies as they realized that their plan wouldn’t work. Then, he closed himself off to their suffering. Flying, he cut the atmosphere and severed hundreds of enemies at once. Aura gatherings continued to form and materialize, increasing the number of chains coming after him. Just like before, he didn’t manage to stop all of them from being formed.

Soon, the number of giant Aura chains flying through the air after him reached the tens. If he allowed even a single one to wrap itself around him, he would immediately be completely bound. Liam worried for the first time since he arrived. He couldn’t allow himself to be captured.

This scenario was shakingly maintained, but as the number of chains continued to increase, Liam found himself in an increasingly disadvantageous position. He frequently had to give up on kills in order not to be bound by the chains or focus entirely on running away.

‘I should leave.’

The amount of XP he had already gathered was astronomical. He had already profited quite nicely from this siege. It would be best not to push his luck. Liam didn’t allow himself to think about anything during the fight but knew he would eventually need to start increasing his stats once more now that he had already adapted to his newfound strength.

In such a fashion, as the troops threw themselves at Liam in the hopes of a worthy death and the chains sought to capture him, he simply pushed his speed to its limits. He used Singularity to reduce his size and speed up even further, soon leaving Cinzolia’s territory. The chains still flew after him, but as the distance between him and Cinzolia increased, they gradually lost their strength.

Just like that, he successfully completed the first day of fighting.

‘I should take some time to rest and then immediately return.’

Returning right after repleting his energy reserves was sure to catch the enemies off-guard. Even if the chains were still there, the situation would proceed as before. He would be able to continue killing the troops, albeit at a lower efficiency, while they chased after him uselessly.

After meditating for a while and reaching his peak condition, Liam hid his presence and entered the underground. He soon reached the area under Cinzolia’s floor again. Just like before, he burst forth from below and attacked as soon as possible, killing thousands of enemies. The chains materialized and sought him once more, while he killed the troops that constructed them to weaken them.

This pattern continued to be repeated as the planned twenty days of fighting dragged themselves by.

Liam looked at the purple and dark green sky. Covered in alien blood from head to toe, he floated above mountains of corpses. Attacks still came his way, but with much more hopelessness compared to before. He absent-mindedly swung his spear, shattering them before flying away as an Aura chain approached.

After twenty days of killing the soldiers, the number of chains had been forcefully reduced to a fraction of their past total. Not once had they managed to wrap themselves around him, while all other attempts of capturing him had likewise failed.

Cinzolia Fortress had now thoroughly given up.

Liam calmly flew out of Cinzolia and back to the Drakkhan ship, but he was racked by a familiar and sudden pain on the way there. Gritting his teeth, he was unable to maintain his flight and crashed down in the desert below.

[It is time for you to face an unprecedented enemy.]

[You must be cautious.]

[Do not forget what you’re fighting for.]

The voices had come. The inhuman pain was unbearable. As expected, the weight of their existence had only increased since their last conversation, straining Liam’s Will even further.

“…I know. I won’t make the mistake of underestimating the enemy.”

Liam spoke as his entire body trembled. His Will had risen and the voices had spoken to him many times before, but instead of getting used to the newly-increased weight of their existence, he could tell he was growing less resistant to it. The rate at which his Will developed wasn’t fast enough. The strain on his soul was growing, not lessening.

[Your lifespan is reducing quickly.]

[At this rate, you soon won’t have more than 6 years left to live. Currently, your lifespan is of 7 years.]

[You must find or create a way to properly develop your Will.]

Liam gritted his teeth. Having his lifespan translated into numbers made him aware of how dire his situation was. It had already been over 4 years since the Convergence had begun for humanity if one included the Tutorial. During that time, Liam had grown to his current state; stronger than the average soldier, but weaker than a commander of a species in the Convergence. Could he truly make humanity win the Convergence in 6 more years? It was impossible. There were beings unfathomably stronger than him.

“…I thought… The increase in my Perception would forcefully raise my Will so long as I endured it. We discussed this. It was the best method.”

[It was the best viable method. It hasn’t proven itself to be good enough.]

[Unless something changes, you will not succeed.]

[You must find a way to actively develop your Will.]

[Your current method consists of nothing but merely enduring us.]

[We must improve it.]

Liam’s teeth were close to shattering before he spoke again.

“I understand. I will think of something.”

[Your next fight can be an opportunity.]

[Keep that in mind.]

[We will now help you as we can.]

The whispers at the edge of his sanity grew louder. The voices started speaking again, but what Liam heard were completely incomprehensible sounds. It was unlike anything he had ever heard before; no, they vaguely reminded him of the sounds the being of Chaos made once he looked at them inside his Inner World, back when his Perception increased. Chaos’ true voice.