Chapter 398: Night Mage Regiment

Whoosh!

Allocating most of his energy toward enhancing the effects of [Zenith Nihility Dash], Aurus started to teleport, aiming for the cities nearest to the place he had been in seclusion in for the past three days or so. As Aurus teleported, the distance between each teleport was now multiple times farther than even before, all thanks to his higher comprehension level regarding his Epiphany of Tempest. Well, there was also the fact that he had formulated better ways to enhance the effects of his currently activated skills without spending much energy, allowing him to increase the efficacy of their effects to even higher extents.

Nevertheless, with Aurus being able to teleport farther, it did not take too long for him to appear in front of a decently sized city. From what Aurus could see, he estimated that there were around 50 to 60 thousand people living inside the city he appeared in front of, a far cry from the usual number of people found in towns, ranging from 3 to 5 thousand people.

Getting ever closer to the city, he reallocated his energy towards [Dark Universal Blade], aiming to obliterate the whole city in one go without anyone noticing. But as he arrived at the entrance gate to the city, he noticed that there was next to no person patrolling the gates at all. At most, there were only a few guards atop the city walls. On top of that, they weren't even doing their jobs seriously at all.

Seeing how the security of the city was quite lax, Aurus could not help but ponder as to what had happened to the city, which he soon found out was called Nachthexen City thanks to the large sign hanging above the entrance gate.

Making sure that his presence was not sensed by other people, he then walked through the small streets of the city, noticing that only a few people dared to go out of their houses to head to other places. Seeing this sight, Aurus could not help but recall a past memory wherein the same situation had happened. With that in mind, it did not take long for him to come to a conclusion as to why the city was like this.

Naturally, the reason had all to do with him.

After destroying eight towns in a row within a short span of time, the whole continent has finally deemed Aurus as a great threat to the peace and safety of the continent. Given how even the leaders of the towns, which were either at the peak of Rank 4 or were already at Rank 5, were easily killed by him, it wasn't surprising that the cities had come to a decision to restrict the movements of its citizens, lest they wanted to be caught up in the aftermath of an attack from him if he ever planned to head to the cities.

Well, fortunately for them, Aurus did become disinterested after seeing only a few people move along the streets, inwardly regretting the fact that he decided to destroy all of those towns in a short span of time, making the remaining cities and towns change how they govern their cities. Nevertheless, the primal instinct controlling his body could not care less as to whether or not most of the inhabitants in the city were roaming outside or not. To it, it only cared about the results, not the process.

And so, after roaming around the city for a bit to obtain a general idea as to how the city was currently like, Aurus then stopped at the end of an alleyway, allocating all of the energy he previously used on [Zenith Nihility Dash] to [Dark Universal Blade] to increase the strength of his attack once more. After that, he conjured a blade of wind, which instantly gained a dark streak on the middle as it gave off a destructive aura.

"[Spellswords of Ruination: Lost Art]."

"[Penultimate Blade of the Chaotic Tempest: Fragarach]."

Swish!

Tightly gripping onto the hilt of the sword he had conjured, he then swung with as much strength he could muster, instantly sending out a blade of dark green light that bisected all of the nearby houses within a certain radius laterally. Within seconds, as if all of the houses that were hit had lost their foundations, they all turned into rubble, killing all of the people that were in the houses. Then again, they would've already been lucky to not have been bisected by the blade, instead being killed by getting crushed under the weight of their houses.

Crash!

In that instant, a great portion of people peeked out of their windows and their houses, only to see that a small portion of their city had instantly turned into rubble without any known reason for their destruction. With that, almost the whole city had entered a state of panic, instantly thinking that The Great Calamity had finally come to take their lives. And so, most of the people continued to stay in their houses, hoping that The Great Calamity would only glance at them before turning away.

As for a select few, they left their houses and headed to the area where the most rubble was, only to meet Aurus face-to-face. Naturally, with such strong people appearing in front of him, it was no surprise that he bisected all of those that came to fight against him. With a city being more prosperous than a town, it wasn't surprising if most of its citizens were already at around Rank 2 or 3, which gave Aurus more Wind energy particles compared to inhabitants from towns or villages.

And so, Aurus continued to roam throughout the city, aiming for the houses on the outskirts for now. Within ten or so minutes, around 30% of the houses that were nearest to the city walls had already been obliterated. Surprisingly, with that amount alone, Aurus's comprehension over his Epiphany had advanced by one level, thinking to himself that it was worth biding his time over something like this.

Being spurred on by the fact that he would gain more comprehension levels through a city, he allocated a bit of energy towards [Zenith Nihility Dash], reducing the amount of time it took for him to arrive at a place where he would be affect the most houses before slashing out.

…

While Aurus was making his rounds near the city walls of Nachthexen City, at the center of the city was a tower that stood about 50 meters tall, allowing one to overlook the entirety of the city from the top tower alone. Currently, a man in his thirties looked out of the large windows of the tower's top floor, watching as a small portion of the houses in his city get destroyed every five to ten minutes or so.

With a sigh filled with sadness, he looked back at the people behind him, all of them having high positions in the city, though not as high as the position he had. This man was Joaquim Nachthexen, the leader of Nachthexen City, as well as a Rank 7 class holder. 

"According to our reconnaissance team, the culprit for the destruction of these houses is indeed the being called 'The Great Calamity', leader," one of the people said to him before asking, "What do you think we should do, sir? Should we engage in an all-out assault?"

"Commander, I'm sure you know better than me on what to do," Joaquim replied to the person that asked, who was actually the commander of the city's military. "We've already obtained reports that all of the people that tried an all-out assault died. Are you really sure you want to sacrifice your men for something that's futile?"

"But sir, what do you want us to do against a being that strong? Are you perhaps thinking of conceding against the being?" the commander asked, to which Joaquim shook his head as he replied with a hint of confidence, "Why would I concede that easily? I'm just saying that we should find out the extent of his strength first before going all-out."

"By that, sir, do you perhaps mean…" the commander said, reading between the lines of Joaquim's statement as he looked at the other people beside him. At the moment, all of them had the same idea, given how they were the heads of their respective military teams. If their leader did have the same idea, then all they needed was just the go signal.

Fortunately, Joaquim was indeed thinking the same thing, nodding as he looked at the three people in front of him with a solemn expression, telling them, "Tell Night Mage Regiment No. 28 to engage with the enemy. Gabriela, have one of your support teams back up the Night Mage Regiment."

Gabriela, who was the leader of all the support teams accompanying the military, nodded in response as she headed out of the tower as fast as she could. As for the remaining two, which was the commander of the city's military, as well as another high official, they also headed out of the tower, planning to summon the Night Mage Regiment.

…

Around half an hour since Aurus had entered Nachthexen City, about three-quarters of the houses near the city walls had been destroyed him. Of course, he made sure to also kill all of those that survived from having the weight of their houses crush them, ending them with a swift slash to the neck. As for those that were able to succeed in escaping from their broken houses, aiming to run away from him before it was too late, they were unfortunately unable to, with Aurus appearing in front of them and letting them experience pain that was even worse than hell itself.

With that, a decent portion of the city was now covered in the blood of its citizens, making those that remained in their houses wonder what the higher-ups of the city were doing. Were they just going to leave those that made the city what it was alone as they ran for their lives? Fortunately for them, just as they thought their city wasn't going to fight back, a beam of dark light was fired at Aurus, who hastily dodged with a swift teleport.

Fwoosh!

Since the dark beam of light did not hit him, it instead hit the ground, melting the materials making up the part of the road that was hit into a molten mess. As for Aurus, he quickly looked around, wanting to know where that dark beam of light came from. Unfortunately for him, the source of that dark beam did not show itself in front of him, instead shooting at him from far away as more and more dark beams of light were shot out at him.

Watching the current situation between Aurus and the dark beams of light from afar on the top floor of the tower, Joaquim could not help but become expectant that they would be able to force Aurus to show all of his skills for them, looking back at the three that had slightly haggard expressions as he asked, "How's Night Mage Regiment No. 28 faring?"

"According to my connection with its members, the Night Mage Regiment is currently operating at 150% their usual level of power, knowing that they would have to fight against The Great Calamity or else they died," the commander said in response, prompting Joaquim to nod in response before looking at Gabriela and asking, "How about the support team backing up the Night Mage Regiment? How are they faring?"

"They're also operating at 150% their usual level, allowing the attacks of the Night Mage Regiment to be enhanced by 25% more than it would usually be," Gabriela responded as a light and proud smile could be seen on her face. "I think this is the only time where we could say that our military is truly at its full power."

"Indeed." Joaquim nodded as he smiled in response to Gabriela's words. He then looked at the person that accompanied the commander and asked, "How about you, Nikolas? Have you equipped all of them with the best equipment we could offer them?"

"But of course, Sir Joaquim," Nikolas responded with a proud smile on his face. "As the greatest blacksmith of this city, I am highly certain that the equipment I gave them is of the greatest quality I could achieve."

"Well, you better hope it is," Joaquim replied as he looked out of the tower once more, noticing that the number of beams being shot out had become more frequent. "This fight shall dictate the survival of Nachthexen City as a whole."