Several beams shot towards the humanoid but were blocked by giant green shields made of Aura. It did not matter. Liam simply wanted to keep the pressure on, knowing that the beams would never hit the commander. As he got within ten meters of the humanoid, the enemy’s limbs finished regenerating. The commander’s fingers wrapped themselves around the handle of his greatsword, which was brought down upon Liam’s figure. The condensed green Aura was heavy to the point where Liam felt sure that it was also affecting space, just like he did before, but in a much more proficient way.

He released the weight of his existence, trying to disperse the Aura around him as the greatsword closed in. His surroundings shook. He had affected the Aura just enough for him to move. His spear’s shaft hit the side of the greatsword at the same time that he sidestepped, parrying the blow. The atmosphere below them was cut in half, but Liam was unaffected. He thrust his spear towards the alien’s throat, condensing his power to the best of his ability. The humanoid’s head swung back, avoiding the thrust. The enemy rotated his body, slashing horizontally with the greatsword. It was too fast for Liam to react properly.

Shit.

The greatsword hit the youth’s waist, cutting through his Aura cloak like a hot knife through butter and splitting him in half. The next instant, the Aura coating the greatsword’s blade erupted, shredding Liam’s remaining body into pieces. Every molecule was then melted away.

The enemy’s eyes widened. He hurriedly took a step back but was unable to completely avoid the spear swing. Before his eyes, Liam had regenerated in milliseconds and swung his spear, aiming to cut his body diagonally. The youth succeeded. Green blood gushed as a large wound appeared on the grey-skinned commander’s torso. Liam spoke to him in an annoyed tone.

“Don’t destroy my armor.”

The naked Liam’s left knee smashed at the commander’s face but was blocked by the commander’s right hand. Purple flames came from above them. The opponent raised his greatsword with his left arm, but the flames avoided it entirely and severed his right arm, which was being used to block Liam’s knee strike. The enemy groaned in pain before Liam’s leg hit him square in his face. The commander’s body flew back.

Arimiar appeared slightly above and behind the flung body of the commander, swinging down his axe. The grey humanoid twisted his body, dodging the blow and slashing with his greatsword, forcing Arimiar to retreat just a bit. Ignoring the lizardman commander entirely, the enemy rushed through the air in Liam’s direction. Liam’s eyes widened. He readied himself as the opponent approached with a slightly desperate expression.

“Ugh!”

Liam grunted when the greatsword fell upon his spear’s shaft. It was too heavy, much heavier than any blow he had ever withstood. Trying to block it head-on had been his mistake. As this thought crossed his mind, Liam let the strength leave his arms, allowing the greatsword to split him in half. His body was incinerated once more but reappeared the next instant. Pushing One With The Spear and Master’s Domain to their absolute limits, he traded tens of moves with the humanoid, as both Skills boosted his melee abilities significantly. Due to the difference in stats and experience, his body was destroyed several times, but it didn’t matter. The enemy commander’s expression grew ever darker as he witnessed Liam regenerate from nothing multiple times with a determined visage.

It was at that moment that Arimiar leaped into the fray, purple flames following him in his wake. Liam immediately retreated, unwilling to hinder the commander. He observed as the two Commander-class beings fought. After exactly 26 seconds and hundreds of moves, Liam’s eyes shined. He found it. Another opportunity. His body compressed into a tiny dot almost instantly. As he cut through the atmosphere, he watched the enemy commander’s expression twist in terror before the humanoid moved at his fastest speed yet.

A disgusting crunch was swallowed by the much louder sounds of the air being ripped apart. Just like before, Liam had succeeded in tearing a hole through the enemy’s torso, even though he had initially aimed for the head. As he expanded, he witnessed purple flames swallow the opponent’s figure at the best possible time. Through their high Intelligence, talent, and experience, Liam and Arimiar managed to coordinate their attacks, even though they had never fought alongside each other before.

“Drizzle Flow!”

A river made of incredibly small black spears appeared in the skies, diving into the purple inferno and covering the body of the struggling grey-skinned alien inside. Suddenly, Liam felt a distinct chill. He looked up and the image of a crouching navy blue Drakkhan came into view. Every muscle on Arimiar’s body bulged with power, reminding Liam of a certain green-skinned superhero back on Earth. The enormous axe in the lizardman’s hands cried out with a piercing sound.

Arimiar’s figure became a blur even to Liam as the Drakkhan rushed downwards, in the direction of the enemy, who had just succeeded in getting rid of the flames and tiny spears. Like a purple shooting star, Arimiar’s body, which was enveloped in the hottest of his flames, passed by the grey humanoid. The result was obvious. The alien’s body was vertically split in half while the purple flames burned it away. In instants, the enemy commander had almost completely disappeared. Arimiar’s purple flames rushed to his surroundings, forming a fire hurricane around him.

Liam’s brow furrowed in confusion, but the realization soon hit him as he watched the enemy’s last few remaining cells attempt to regenerate, only for them to be burned away by the flames.

It was over.

The green-armored foe had been turned to nothingness, and Liam seriously doubted that the humanoid would come back from that. He nodded towards Arimiar, who nodded back. The flames disappeared and turned into the Drakkhan’s normal purple Aura. Looking completely haggard and more tired than ever, Arimiar said nothing. The lizardman merely watched Liam, complex emotions dancing deep within his eyes. As he opened his mouth as if to say something, a deafening roar was heard. No, it was felt. Both Arimiar and Liam’s eyes widened.

Liam felt his Inner World tremble as he felt a chill go up his soul. The world seemed to move in slow motion. He had “felt” a roar, even though neither he nor Arimiar had said or done anything. The roar seemed to have no source and was not transmitted through the atmosphere. Instead, it was as if it had reached his soul itself.

‘Fuck! It’s-’

His Inner World shook, and his mind went blank. He felt a splitting headache out of seemingly nowhere. Gathering his Will, Liam responded almost automatically. His soul steadied itself and closed its eyes. It gritted its teeth as the inner world continued to shake, opening its eyes and watching the cracks in the sky with almost obsessive attention. The cracks didn’t grow, but if the sky continued to shake, they certainly would.

Having no room for actual thoughts, Liam simply tried to use his Will to make the shaking Inner World grow stable again. The weight of his existence erupted from his soul as it stood up and spread its arms, standing on the Inner World’s sea. Liam felt his Will be pressured, and… Grow?

Both his real eyes and his soul’s eyes widened. He hurriedly tried to direct the force that was shaking his Inner World, attempting to affect it with his Will alone. The result was that his Will started to develop at an astonishing rate, much to his surprise. It was even faster than its normal rate of development, which came from passively withstanding the weight of the Chaos beings’ existence. Now that he was actively trying to affect an external force while still bearing the Chaos beings’ weight at the same time, his Will became stronger much faster. It didn’t take long for it to overwhelm the external force.

Soon afterwards, the shaking stopped. Everything grew calm once more, and his soul sat down again.

“Huff, huff, huff….”

Liam breathed heavily as his eyes came back into focus, his consciousness returning to reality.

“-iam! Liam! Are you there!?”

His body was being shaken by a navy blue and somehow very pale lizardman. Liam blinked and raised his hand, making Arimiar stop. Liam circulated his Aura and stopped breathing in Zancorix’s air. Arimiar’s voice entered his ears.

“That was a soul attack, one that was mostly directed at you.”

The youth replied with a tired voice.

“Yeah, I know. I realized it.”

Even though he had considered the possibility that the enemy might possess a way to affect his soul, the truth was that it was highly unlikely. The moment he saw the commander’s body disappear, this wariness disappeared alongside it. He had never expected the alien’s soul to be able to send one last attack his way before it vanished.

Arimiar shook his head, an incredulous expression on his face, and spoke.

“I have never fought a commander who possessed soul Skills. If that attack had been directed at me instead, my soul might have been destroyed.”

“It must have been because he was the last survivor of a summoned species, as you said before. He must have gotten something in the Tutorial.”

The lizardman nodded.

“Sounds plausible. How did you withstand such a Skill? Do you also have soul Skills?”

The Drakkhan’s gaze dug into Liam’s body as if it were trying to look through him and figure out all his secrets. Liam calmly shook his head.

“No, I don’t, but I have my ways. I survived. That’s what matters.”

Both of them grew silent. After almost ten seconds, Arimiar spoke once more.

“Thank you for helping me. I never expected you to grow so powerful in such a short time. Now, it’s time to take over Cinzolia completely unless you have already done it.”

“No problem. And no, I haven’t conquered it yet. Let’s go. I’m sick and tired of this fucking fortress.”

At the same time, Liam thought of something.

‘Raise all stats.’

[Ding!]

Arimiar shook. His jaw dropped as Liam’s Aura grew tremendously in less than a second.

Now that I’m done with the strongest enemy, there shouldn’t be an issue with increasing my stats, even though I’ll become unaccustomed to my body again. Arimiar won’t fight me right now; he’s too tired. There should be nothing to worry about.

As these thoughts crossed his mind, Liam heard the Drakkhan’s voice.

“You…! What… What are you?”

“Human.”

Liam deactivated Aerial Movement, letting himself fall from the skies towards the fortress below them. Arimiar closed in on him from above. The commander soon reached his side and pulled out a Communicator.

“All troops, prepare for battle. Raid Cinzolia Fortress as soon as possible. The enemy commander has been neutralized. I repeat, all troops, attack Cinzolia Fortress immediately.”

Liam activated the Skill once more and flew downwards faster as he heard the Drakkhan’s words. Both of them crashed down on Cinzolia’s floor like meteors and checked their surroundings.

Now, let’s try to push this new power of mine to its current limits.

The fortress was already reacting. The giant chains were taking shape while the hundreds of thousands of troops were gathering. Liam had made no attempt to hide his presence, so it was only natural that he had been noticed. He stood up and closed his eyes.

What I need right now is a large area of effect.

His spear moved slightly. He activated Flow, a Skill he hadn’t been using much at all. A large river made of Aura came into existence, dragging everything and everyone surrounding him into its current and destroying them. Uncaring about the buildings and the fortress’ infrastructure, which he had been instructed not to destroy, Liam tried expanding the river.

Just like back when he created Event Horizon, he employed the weight of his existence in an expanding fashion. However, he also rotated it. His increased ability to handle the mysterious force that was the weight of one’s existence was being shown. He noticed Arimiar also start to move; the commander jumped into the air and swung his axe repeatedly, killing all soldiers around them without damaging any buildings at all.

The black river started rotating as well, becoming a large hurricane that stretched itself towards the heavens.

Good. Now, bigger.

Liam raised his spear horizontally, making it parallel to the ground. The hurricane expanded, becoming so large that it soon engulfed a large section of Cinzolia Fortress. The hurricane started spinning faster and faster, crushing everything it came in contact with. Liam ignored the continuous stream of XP notifications.

I won’t be able to kill everything inside Cinzolia, but a good amount of these troops will die.

He could already feel the soldiers escaping the range of his hurricane, some even cutting through the Aura itself. Because the area of effect was so large, the Aura composing the hurricane wasn’t too strong. An ordinary soldier could survive in it for a few seconds. It meant that Liam needed to make it more deadly.

Golden lightning streaked inside the black hurricane. Using the two natures of his Aura, Liam’s brow furrowed in focus. Then, he swung his spear. Trying to burn the feeling of cutting through the air on his brain, he tried to imbue his Aura with the same feeling. It was an attempt to mimic his spear’s cutting power, even if only a little. Results weren’t immediate, but they soon began to show themselves. The strands of Aura that made up the hurricane became Aura spears, being reminiscent of a larger version of Drizzle. It didn’t take long for the cutting power of the hurricane to grow strong enough that most troops could not escape it anymore.

Liam opened his eyes at the same time that the golden lightning within the hurricane flashed, merging into the spinning Aura and adding the last bit of power he needed. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

[In the midst of your desperation, you have created a new Skill!]

[You have created a new Skill near death! The Skill’s proficiency has risen sharply!]

He softly spoke the name of his newly-created Skill under his breath.

“Storm.”

Purple Aura dominated the remainder of Cinzolia’s air space while hundreds of millions of Drakkhan troops appeared on the horizon.

In less than a day after that, Cinzolia Fortress was utterly dominated.