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.

Ren's

to

he finally came to a decision, and he chose to spend the next couple of months working his way up to the next

'...I can't wait.'

"Watch it!"

every inch of the

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

"Ahhh!"

"Watch it."

Immorra trembled.

over the world as a gigantic, purplish-black energy sphere that looked like it could have replaced

direction of

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

unsettling sensation that he was staring straight into the

was then

sphere, its tip gently touching the edge of the spherical ball of

world then turned completely gray as soft ripples spread from the point of contact between

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

BOOOOM!

crumbling, the deafening explosion spread throughout the

This is too

"Fuck, Ren!"

"Shit!"

they hurled a string of curses and thrust their hands forward to form a massive

and more people put their hands up and tried to thicken the defensive system of the castle, the expressions of 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 the aftermath of

...and they were right.

took place in a split second, 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

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 the same time that their faces

of power

out a loud curse as he 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

the barrier, jerked his head back and looked

you doing?

"Oh, right."

called out, Liam was finally able 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