Chapter 403 - Second Target

Listening to Dalton's seemingly automated response, King Zeldrion could not help but press on his temples as he felt his rage rising. Although he had known Dalton for a very long time, even before he had become the king of Seraph Kingdom, he still could not help but ask the world sometimes as to why this genius mage had such a…unique personality.

Eventually, King Zeldrion let out a sigh as he asked Dalton, his tone seemingly begging, "Can you take this situation seriously for once, Dalton? The existence of the whole kingdom is at stake here."

"And why should I do that?" Dalton asked in response, his expression still indifferent.

But not for long.

"Oh…I don't know. If you let this problem become worse, then the Arcana Tower will be destroyed, all of the magic spells you've devised, as well as all of the possible magic you'll be able to craft in the future, I wouldn't be surprised if it would take you a century to devise yet another spell after that," King Zeldrion said, taunting Dalton to make a move. Surprisingly, his tactic worked, with the expression on Dalton undergoing a slight change. However, after a few seconds, Dalton's expression returned to that of indifference once again.

As if King Zeldrion was going to have any of that.

"Also, if you don't help me out in planning a move to help save the kingdom, then it wouldn't be surprising for that being called The Great Calamity to destroy all of the knowledge repositories we have," he continued. "Think about it. Years, decades, even centuries of knowledge destroyed…just because you didn't help me out."

"And also…" Just as King Zeldrion was about to hit the last nail on the coffin, a hint of fighting intent emanated from Dalton as a slight frown could be seen on his face. "Don't you even dare say it."

"Dare say what?" Still taunting Dalton to make a move, King Zeldrion shrugged his shoulders as he ignored what Dalton felt, continuing on with his reasons as he said, "In any case, if you don't help me out in saving this kingdom from a future catastrophe, then there's a chance that your…what do you call it again? Tower of Sorcery? Monolith of Arcana? Well, whatever it may be…"

"It's. Bound. To. Be. Destroyed," he said, emphasizing each every word. Fortunately, after King Zeldrion was finished with his reasons…

Crack.

Dalton had finally cracked, putting a small crack on the table in front of him as he gripped tightly on its edge. With an angry yet serious expression, he looked at King Zeldrion and said, "You want my help? Then, I'll give you my fucking help alright."

"Relocate all of the people in the provinces to the kingdom, that's the thing you should do," Dalton started to explain the plan he had instantly formulated in a fit of rage. Nevertheless, amidst the rage, his mind was calm and cool as a cucumber. "Considering the number of people that live in the provinces and the people that live in the cities, you'll be sacrificing a smaller number of people to get to the same end goal."

"Of course, since you're the king, you can do at least that, right?" Dalton asked soon after, to which King Zeldrion nodded, waiting for Dalton to continue. "With that, after that magic hating being destroys all of the cities, after realizing that there are no people in the provinces, it'll instantly head straight for this kingdom."

"Naturally, I won't help you out on that shit unless that being targets my lifeblood," he added. After that, he let out a long sigh, returning to his usual state. With a groan, he asked, "There, you happy now, Zeldrion?"

"Very delighted, Dalton," King Zeldrion responded with a smile on his face. "You can head back now."

"I better get something in exchange for this…" Dalton muttered as he opened up another rift, disappearing from the room King Zeldrion was in a few seconds later. With King Zeldrion now alone once more, he then exclaimed, "Pass down my orders. All citizens from the provinces shall head to the kingdom at once. All of them must be in this kingdom within a day or less."

"Your command shall be duly enacted, Your Majesty," a polite voice resounded throughout the room a few seconds later.

"Oh, and also…"

"Give something to Dalton along the way, will you?"

…

With the last inhabitant of Nachthexen City killed, Nachthexen City was now a wasteland devoid of the people that used to live in it. Then again, Aurus did not care at all as to what the settlements he destroyed looked like at the very end. To him, what counted the most was the amount of levels he gained in terms of comprehending his Epiphany.

And surprisingly, after he checked how much his comprehension had improved, the primal instinct could not help but have the urge to set out once more, noticing that his comprehension had increased by 5 levels, now being at Level 54. Seeing that the rate of improvement was now similar to what it was when he started increasing his comprehension, the primal instinct finally came to the conclusion that if it wanted to maintain the same rate of improvement, it would need to find stronger and stronger beings to kill.

In any case, the primal instinct still took Aurus's survival as priority, placing the thought of heading to the larger settlements at the back of Aurus's mind for now as the both of them pursued for greater power that would allow them to fight back. With that, Aurus unhesitatingly redirected all of the energy he was using on his various skills a while ago back to [Zenith Nihility Dash], teleporting to a certain direction as he headed to the nearest city to Nachthexen.

Whoosh!

Within half an hour or so, the silhouette of a city similar in size to Nachthexen gradually entered Aurus's field of vision, taking note that the citizens within the city were also moving in the same way the citizens in Nachthexen moved. Nevertheless, that was more than enough for Aurus to inwardly let out a sigh of relief, somewhat thankful that the other cities hadn't caught wind of him returning to destroying settlements yet again.

Landing a few kilometers away from one of the entrance gates of the nearby city, Aurus then did smaller teleports, making sure that his presence wouldn't alert the guards, which were already spread out to begin with.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Just like what he did back in Nachthexen City, his idea had paid off, allowing him to enter the city without attracting much attention once more. However, unlike what he did at Nachthexen City, which was destroy a small portion of the houses one by one, he instead thought of destroying every house in the city with one fell swoop, just like what he did to the towns…eight towns.

Moving to and fro throughout the city, he eventually found a way to do just that without alerting any of the people. Of course, he could just teleport himself to a point high up in the sky where no one else would see him and drop a large ball of wind on the city. But to him, that would just be boring, as well as him giving his traces away.

And so, looking at the sign that said, "Silver Hoof City Underground Sewers", he made his way down into the sewage system that was connected to all of the houses in the city. Ignoring the putrid stench inside the sewers which came from all of the garbage and other disgusting stuff submerged in the murky waters, Aurus headed deeper into the city's sewage system, eventually finding himself at the center of it all.

Redirecting all of his energy to [Dark Universal Blade], he then placed his hand on the top portion of the pipe nearest to him before imbuing it with the element of Wind. Gradually, this element of Wind spread throughout the entire sewage system, with Aurus then manipulating every single Wind energy particle in it as he tried to make it seem like the city was experiencing an earthquake.

And surprisingly, that's what all of the citizens thought. However, at first, they thought Aurus had come since attacks of his caliber would definitely make the ground shake. But after seeing no signs of Aurus appearing in their streets or above their cities, they immediately dismissed it as an earthquake that would eventually go away.

But it didn't.

Gradually, the intensity of the earthquake gradually got stronger as the houses, which were more or less made out of sturdy material, started to flex in ways that would make one think as to whether they were possible in the first place. Nevertheless, realizing that the earthquake was just gradually becoming more intense, almost all of the citizens left their houses, even the higher-ups of the city weren't exempt from this, evacuating the buildings they were in lest they wanted it to cave in on them.

Eventually, the earthquake, which everyone thought was going to get worse, had finally stopped, prompting everyone to let out a sigh of relief as they headed back inside their respective homes. However, just as they were about to head back inside, another rumble resounded from the ground once more, but this time, it was accompanied by the ground slightly bulging.

"What's happening?" This was the question that everyone thought to themselves. With their innate curiosity, they came closer to the parts of the ground that were bulging, only to regret it not long after as the ground…exploded.

Bang!

With an explosion filled with great fervor and energy, the entire sewage system under Silver Hoof City blew up with great intensity, turning all of the houses and buildings that were connected to it into rubble as all of the people that were on top of the bulged parts of the ground were turned into a mangled mess similar to the rubble.

A few seconds, pieces of rock and flesh small and large started to fall on the ground, making a great portion that had survived the event kneel on the ground and vomit out all of the contents in their stomachs from sheer disgust. To those that had not seen blood before, they were vomiting because of that. As for those that had seen blood before, they were vomiting because of the murky water that accompanied the blood, flesh, rubble. In their minds, they instantly thought that they had gotten a bit of their feces into their mouth as all of that rained down on them.

As for Aurus, who was in the sewage system all along, he could not help but lightly nod in satisfaction, seeing how infusing the entire sewage system with Wind energy particles before blowing up had obtained such a great effect. With a great swarm of Wind energy particles heading towards his way, he decided that it would be a great time to show himself to those that remained in the city, deciding to teleport to a decently high point in the city.

Whoosh!

A few seconds later, Aurus had indeed appeared at the center of the city, hovering about ten to twenty meters above it to let everyone know what had happened. In an instant, after seeing Aurus appear in their cities, those that were vomiting instantly stopped as the fear in their minds overwhelmed them. For those that weren't vomiting, they were instead stupefied and dumbfounded to see Aurus appear in their city all of a sudden, frozen in their spots from the fear lingering in their minds.

As for Aurus, he let out a maniacal chuckle as the primal instinct took control of what he had to say. Radiating out the killing intent in his body without restraint, he raised one of his hands before conjuring a large ball of wind. While he was conjuring the ball of wind, he looked at the survivors that were stricken with fear and told them, "If I were you, I'd escape."

"But then again…"

"Would I allow you to?"