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Chapter 048: Another Elder for the Day

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Siva dived down and let himself feel the pull of gravity alongside the resistance of the air wall.

His descent created a whistling sound, echoing in all directions, pulling eyes and startling ears with the whistling wind.

When he was 200+ meters from the ground, he gave a mental command to temporarily remove one Space-Locking Pillar from their tri-formation and then blinked his path towards the ground.

In just four blinks he was inside the walls of the mansion's outer courtyard, to the shock and the surprise of his enemies still stunned at the feat behind his back.

Even upon his landing, there was only the light sound of 'tap' as the wooden soles of his shoes touched the cement-paved ground below him.

"Where the hell is he?!!" someone exclaimed but all of them had the same thoughts.

They lost Siva.

Not one of them could even imagine that he was already behind them, inside the decorative iron gates of the mansion's inner courtyard's wall.

Space rippled again and there came the sight of the Black Knight BMA carrying the War God Axe as it slashed an unsuspecting victim in half before dashing out to deal with a second, then a third, and a fourth...

Only when the fifth victim cried in despair did they react —and realize— that Siva had actually already appeared behind them. Alas they were all too late.

"He's behind us!"

"Kill him!"

"Take him down!"

Like ghosts, from afar in their current battlefield, the BM-Puppets and Tai Long vanished without a sound and appearing next in this area, right behind the axe-wielding Black Knight BMA who moved like the wind to destroy the foundations of their ranks. After all, those behind these Acolytes are those with the strongest firepower amongst them —they were the in-rank leaders!

Thus the slaughtering continued.

Cries of defeat echoed here and there.

The Gunslinger and Sword Master spread their horrors as they protected the mansion and did not let anyone enter the area they're protecting.

The Gunslinger provided cover fire while the Sword Master used its fire-proof Fire Sword to cleave every spell —regardless of its element— that came after them.

Looking at its swordsmanship, any master out there would immediately recognize that the man wielding that Fire Sword, albeit his remarkably fluid stance and manner of execution, had not a strand of [presence] or [intent] within it.

—or in their martial artist's words, empty. It was nothing more than a man swinging a sword with a good form.

Of course, they couldn't be wrong. It was, after all, a mere puppet programmed to react and put into motion command executions provided by its encoded protocols. In other words, it was Math given a physical body.

Its "sword mastery" was pure technical mastery, nothing else. In fact, looking at it closely, those "moves" were all flashy and full of bravado with a lot of beauty to it than it was essence.

—and these are all terms that Siva cared not a speck of a particle about.

After all, they were taken away from all types of movies, anime, novels, and manga as the base references to its response algorithms.

But for all of Siva's intents and purposes, the [Sword Master] —and for all BM-Puppets as a whole, including Tai Long and Maxima, all of it was good enough pencils to perfectly help him draw the realization of his goals.

For Siva, the ends justify the means.

*****

He entered the mansion grounds with no one to stop his advance... except for this last barrier magic cast off from within the mansion's walls.

"This is the last hurdle."

[Visual scans indicate that this Barrier Magic had focused its defense on the mansion alone, thus its power is expected to reach at least Tier-7.]

While everything around the mansion can be scanned, only the mansion area was black from the Absolute Domain's scanning capability. This is what appeared on Siva's aerial map vision.

"Sacrificing range and only focusing on quality and efficiency. Whoever had occupied the City Lord's Mansion isn't stupid. He also sees these Acolytes as mere pawns to delay whoever will try to stop him on whatever he was trying to get inside the mansion."

Then as if remembering something, Siva looked at his shoulder at the 'image' of Cortana.

"Search the Net. See if this is also the case with all the cities under attack from the Church."

Although he knew she'd already read his mind, she still glanced back at him and listened.

Cortana seemed to close her eyes and while she was at work, Siva touched the Barrier Magic and felt the repulsion on his fingertips.

Barrier Magic are like so —they only protect and reject, and do not counter attack. If it was ever to counter-attack, however, then it no longer will be a mere Barrier Spell... it's already considered an offensively defensive magic.

And if such spell was as large as the one that is here in the Maria's City Lord's Mansion, then the strength Tier of this spell wouldn't only be 7th.

It may even be 9th...... or even 10th!

But Siva knew it was impossible.

Such [Magic Tier] was already a spell Immortals can only support with its Mana requirements.

Siva tried to use the same technique he used in Baal's mothership when he touched the Shield Barrier but only after a moment, he retracted his hand and shook his head.

"It's no use. This is a high-tier spell. Just what in the world are they looking for in this place?"

Just as he thought out loud, Cortana on his side spoke out to him, [Search complete. Reports on those who managed to rescue a few cities have no such things happening on them. I verified all other cities that're still in the midst of a rebellion and the forum junkies reported no barrier such as this was being established on the City Lord's Mansion.]

Siva nodded in affirmation, "So it means that it's different with Maria. There was something here that the Bloody Church specifically wants."

[Boss, even with Dáinsleif and Longhorn, we'd only dent this Barrier Magic and still wouldn't be able to enter it.]

Siva found this as an issue.

And yet, underneath his mask, he also smiled.

Cortana was the only one who sees that smile and read his thoughts. She didn't say anything.

"Let them be, then. Let's just see who can last longer with this kind of consumption. Casting a spell like this is either done by a Quasi-Immortal on the level of Cardinal Hossain or that strong Priestess named Sandra... or this spell was accomplished by a Spell Formation. If it's the latter, then all the more we can just wait until the spell runs out of juice before attacking. For all I care, we can just stay here and wait for them to show themselves later."

[Then I'll focus on destroying the enemies outside the mansion.]

"We'll maximize use of the Longhorn Cannons. It may be unethical and overkill to use the Warship weapons to deal with people but these are all baptized Acolytes of the Bloody Church. No normal weapon can deal them enough damage."

Siva was pondering upon the thought when his secretary voiced a prompt.

[There's a call from Volt, sir.]

"Patch him through."

He didn't have to think over what the issue was.

Siva knew the root of this concern.

"Everyone, focus on attacking the leaders of the groups around you. What you're suffering from is the effect of the Blood Prison. The longer you stay within its circle, the more your strength reduces that will lead to your defeat. It has the same effects as my Killing Zone, but it's more potent and its range wider, depending on who's acting as the center. So hear my advice: fight with everything you got."

"I had no to time to. I was also busy. And didn't you experience it yourself? They aren't weak."

"Focus on taking down their leaders first since they're the more dangerous existences within their formations."

Siva gave the same advice to all Asgardians via the Comm Lines and only when it was circulated did he refocused his attention on his objectives.

He summoned back the blades on his battlefield and together with the puppets he dominated all nearby enemies, defending the location where he planned to enter the mansion from.

On his map were the Asgardians, desperate in the clash with the Acolytes from outside.

The north quadrant of the city faced the bulk of Anazon Forest while the east where Siva had come from isn't that much covered in terms of area that faced the monsters' home.

And then there are the western, southern, and eastern gates of the City Lord's Mansion-region Acolytes that pooled all their forces to focus on the area Siva occupied.

Nobody dared to enter the mansion's inner courtyard because of the shield barrier activated within. Thus the bulk of the Acolytes that went to Maria focused their efforts on taking down Siva who was outside of it.

As fanatically dedicated as they were, they would never tolerate the blasphemous Siva who killed so many of their fellow followers of their God.

It was akin to besmirching the divine name of their almighty Blood Dragon God.

On the other hand, although Siva employed all of his tricks, dodging here and there, blocking and parrying attacks and spells along with all his BM-Puppets, it was still a fact that he was only a single person against an entire crowd of fans.

Exhaustion began to creep over him.

Many times during the clash did he brush with death shoulder to shoulder... there was even a time when one of his puppets crashed at him after it was hit by a blind-sided spell, tripping him and putting him in line for a fighter's suicide attack.

Siva only survived after stunning the attacker and the nearby area by saturating it with a lot of spark grenades that ignited simultaneously.

It was a hard lesson he was reminded of; to not be overindulgent at the thought that he was strong enough to face them all just by himself.

Close call events still happened after that but all of them weren't as serious as that experience.

It can be said that the BM-Puppets were his shadows as their movements and reactions are all based on his own.

When Siva charged forth, Tai Long was on one side and the Gunslinger and the Sword Master just behind him.

The rest of the High Class Minions fanned out around him, like air currents, they dealt like the after-winds of a flapping wing from his charge.

When he ducks down to avoid attack, a counter slash would soon follow; when he steps back to retreat and catch his breath, Tai Long and the pair of gun and sword puppets will cover him to outbox the enemies.

Spells are only half-effective around Siva when the Sword Master was around.

The [Fire Sword] was a Legendary Item, on the same rank as the Mjolnir! Although it doesn't have embedded abilities like the [Hammer Blast] of Mjolnir, it does have one trait that earns its rank as a legendary item.

It was a solid artifact that has a natural ability to compress Mana when it was swung... and when a Fire-element based spell or just the Fire-attribute Mana of the wielder was channeled through it, the sword multiplies the spell's strength by two while it will channel the Fire Attribute Mana into its sword body increasing its base damage as a weapon.

With these attributes, the Fire Sword was a nice weapon at slashing spells midair —provided that the user was skilled enough to do such a feat.

To the Sword Master, however, as long as such actions were detected by the Absolute Domain on its earliest stage, slashing those spells midair won't be a problem when anticipated.

Although he was in the middle of a fight, Siva is like a fish in his own water.

What more...

The more enemies he defeated, the more EXP he gained. Just now, he already reached 8000+ EXP with the last kill. Unlike innocents, when he kills an enemy Acolytes, they give him 4EXP.

It was the same amount as when he kills Aliens!

«» (LVL-6)

>> casting range: 50 meters

Type: Accessory

Rarity: Unique

Weight Units: 5 we

Inventory Slots: 10 slots

Durability: 100/100%

Materials: *Unknown*

Manufacturer: *Unknown*

Blessing from an Ascension Candidate who took the path of Space and Time. Forced by circumstances or given by will, the Immortal had extracted his essence and injected his spirit to create an item unique in both existence and essence across the eons.

*Inventory Slots +9,999,600 (Upgradable)

*Weight Limits Expansion (+2000 units to MAXwe)

>Enable Upgrade [UNLOCKED]

>Enable Time-Space Cabinet [UNLOCKED]

>Enable World Realm Utility [UNLOCKED]

>Enable Split Dimension [LOCKED]

>Enable Upgrade [UNLOCKED]

>> +10M slots [UNLOCKED]

>>> +30M slots [LOCKED 1/4000exp]

>>>> +60M slots [LOCKED 1/6000exp]

>>>>> +90M slots [LOCKED 1/8000exp]

>>>>>> +100M slots [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

>>>>>>> +200M slots [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

>>>>>>>> Half-Slots Only [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

>>>>>>>>> All is ONE [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

>>>>>>>>>> MAX slots x2 [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

|________(upgrade option resets after use) _______|

Enables the Inventory Plus Ultra to or the local time flow of an item stored within the space of the Inventory Plus Ultra.

>Enable Time-Space Cabinet [UNLOCKED]

>>Enable Rune Support [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

· Limited to use 5x/day

· Unused "uses" will be stacked if not used (max 50 stacks)

· Opening and Closing cabinets costs 10,000slots

§ Closed cabinets are permanently lost and slot points lost will not be recovered

· Owner of the «IPU» is sole controller of cabinets unless cabinet options are specified

· Cabinet's internal capacity will conform to slot allocation ratio (1cubic meter 3slots)

· Can only set MAX of 3 rules per Cabinet

Enables the Inventory Plus Ultra to create a separate independent world that is governed solely by the user or unless specified by owner or other conditional options.

Unlocking each feature adds more utilization to the Inventory Plus Ultra, with the possibility of even having the ability to store an entire universe, or even wider, on its own.

>Enable World Realm Utility [UNLOCKED]

>>Enable Life Support [UNLOCKED]

>>Enable Vegetation [UNLOCKED]

>>Enable Aquarium [LOCKED 1/6000exp]

>>Enable Beasts [LOCKED 1/8000exp]

>>Enable People [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

Enables the Inventory Plus Ultra to create dimensional rifts in the firmaments of empty space that can serve as either external separate entrances to the storage space of the Inventory Plus Ultra, or an entire separate dimensional domain on its own that has the same size and functionality and features of the Inventory Plus Ultra from the time of the dimension's making.

Any earlier created External Time-Space Pockets can be upgraded by the creator using EXP points.

>Enable Split Dimension [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

>> 1% of MAX Slots [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

>>> 10% of MAX Slots [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

>>>> 25% of MAX Slots [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

>>>>> 50% of MAX Slots [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

>>>>>> 100% of MAX Slots [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

Before, the remaining EXP Siva had when he upgraded the IPU to Level-6 was 1898.

During his time in Horbe and here in Maria, his EXP had now reached 8433.

The BMA's blades and the BM Puppets, all of them were moving according to the area filled with his Absolute Domain.

The Absolute Domain is connected as long as their areas intersect and with it, event thru the Mini Realm central station connection, no matter how far the blades and the Puppets were from him, their kills are still Siva's kills in the end of it.

Every kill had accumulated already and now it's reached 8433.

—ah, no, it's 8437!

Just now, Tai Long had just clobbered another brave suicidal attacker into two separate bloody parts with the [Lancet Imperious].

—More slots!

Siva's Mini Realms were slot-dependent and right now, he only had a handful of a few million left with him. He didn't want to run out of it and then forced to hunt down EXP just so he could get an upgrade.

He chose to level up the IPU and get more slots for future uses.

Now, he just gained an additional 30M slots.

Siva could have chosen to unlock [Aquarium] to give his Mini Realm the ability to store marine creatures in it, but he digressed and chose the more practical of the options available for him at the moment.

Now, the [Inventory Plus Ultra] is finally Level 7 and its cast range increased to 55 meters from 50m at Level 6.

It didn't change much in the overall flow of his current situation but the additional 5m of cast range and the increased level of the IPU made him one step closer to breaching Tier-3 Shield Barrier Spells.

Every three levels of the IPU, Siva had verified, enables the IPU to pass through one full Tier of any form of Mana-based obstacles.

The higher the level of the IPU, the higher the tier of Shield Barrier Magic it can breach.

Siva mentally summoned his Player Window thru Cortana and double checked.

()

His Portable NanoFurnace (PNF) is Level 5 with 20 active-ready manufacturing slots.

—and then his IPU is Level 7, giving him 55m of cast range, and up to the lowest possible Tier-3 Shield Barrier Spells that can be breached.

The Inventory Function of Siva's "Player Panel" has now been completely discarded.

What was being counted now was Gabriel's gift at their meeting, the Inventory Plus Ultra (IPU).