The Author's POV

"Unbelievable. What kind of sword is that? ...I can feel my body trembling all over."

Liam stared at the fight that was happening in the distance with a light breath. His eyes were shining an ominous yellow hue as his body shook.

Unlike the others that were next to him, he could see everything, and it was exactly because he could see everything that his body shuddered.

'So...strong.'

The power that was radiating from the distance was unbelievably powerful, and Liam couldn't take his eyes away from the scene that was unfolding right before his very eyes. It was as if he was in a trace.

"Looks like they are about to attack, get back!"

It was Leopold's voice that brought Liam back to reality as he caught sight of the gigantic half sword that was raised above Ren's head and continued to move forward.

"Watch out!"

Liam and the others were quite far from where Ren stood. At least several dozen kilometers away from him, yet, the residual energy that was coming out from the fight that was happening between the two was strong enough to send the people standing above the castle flying back.

Raising his hand and positioning his body forward, Liam's clothes fiercely flapped as his gaze continued to linger toward the fight in the distance.

"...Is this the power of an ranked individual?"

Liam could never have imagined in his wildest dreams that Ren would experience such a dramatic increase in power simply by moving up a single rank.

As his eyes began to sparkle, he could feel his heart beating furiously.

He was very excited.

The power that Ren exhibited excited him to no end.

"Maybe...I should also breakthrough."

Liam was seriously contemplating whether or not to break through to the next rank, taking into account the likelihood that he could do so if he so desired.

It was inevitable that it would still be a few months before he was able to successfully breakthrough, as he was still not exactly there yet.

However, the primary reason for this was that breaking through had never been his primary objective as he had focused on improving his martial arts instead of his rank.

his composure as he stared at Ren's figure as he floated through the air like some sort of

want to break

and he chose to spend the next couple of months

'...I can't wait.'

"Watch it!"

Leopold's frantic voice echoed out loud as another surge of power spread throughout every inch of the land in the vicinity of the castle and

even more ferocious gust of wind ripped through their vicinity as Angelica grabbed hold of Ryan to prevent him from getting

"Ahhh!"

"Watch it."

Immorra trembled.

and enormous shadow appeared all over the world as a gigantic, purplish-black energy sphere that

his head as he pressed his hand forward in the direction of the large sphere. The half finished sword that was hovering above his

that brief moment, Ren's eyes were lifeless, like a god

had the unsettling sensation that he

then that

to a sudden halt, Ren's sword reappeared in front of the purplish black sphere, its tip gently touching the edge of the spherical ball of energy as

the point of contact between the two attacks, adding and

seemed like an eternity until all of a sudden, a gigantic red cloud appeared in the sky. It was like something out of a nightmare. At the same time, a

BOOOOM!

if the world was crumbling, the deafening explosion spread throughout the entire land as the

is

"Fuck, Ren!"

"Shit!"

people who were standing atop the castle became terrified as they hurled a string of curses and thrust their hands forward to form a

the many people present didn't look too good as they knew that it would probably not be enough to mitigate the power that came from

...and they were right.

but the moment the barrier was erected, the residual energy that had been left over from the attack suddenly erupted and traveled all the way to the castle, where it collided head-on with the barrier

the residual energy made contact with the shield, everyone, including Jin, Emma, Amanda, Angelica, Han Yufei, Leopold, and the rest of them, spat out blood at

of

covered his mouth with his hand, and blood dripped through the spaces between his fingers as he did so. The rest of the people weren't faring much better either; their bodies were violently trembling, and blood leaked from their noses

precise instant, Jin, who had his hand pressing against the barrier, jerked

you doing? Help

"Oh, right."

to pull himself together and get a grip on the situation. As he looked at the barrier that was trembling, he waved his hand, and mana erupted from the tips