Chapter 404 - A Fatal Error

While all of them listened to their words, it was as if they were committed to doing the thing that was the opposite of what Aurus told them. In their minds, the thought of escaping was their greatest priority. Such was the greatest priority for people like them in front of a seemingly invincible being like Aurus.

But of course, just like what Aurus mentioned them, he wouldn't even give them the chance to do so, instantly transforming the large ball of wind into a sword with a dark streak in the middle, slashing downwards in front of him.

Bang!

With his strength being enhanced by the modified [Dark Universal Blade], almost all of the people on the street where he had directed his blade towards were bisected longitudinally, allowing the people that had barely missed the blade to see the innards of the people near them, prompting many of them to vomit out the contents of their stomach once again, wondering what kind of hell they were being submitted to.

Seeing the looks and expressions of despair on the faces of the people that lived, Aurus could not help but enter a state of euphoria once more, a state that he had missed for quite some time after killing most of the people he had come across so far in a straightforward manner. Now that he was able to toy with his prey before killed them, he was going to enjoy each and every second, slashing out with his blade in other streets as around half of the city's population had died from Aurus's attacks within half an hour.

While that was happening, the higher-ups, who finally realized what was going on after seeing Aurus appear in their city, instantly thought about the ways they could stop Aurus from destroying other cities or stop him from destroying any cities altogether. With that, the leader of the city went ahead and contacted the cities that were near hers, instantly cursing out as she found out that the leader of Nachthexen City was not responding.

Since the two cities were close, it was no surprise that the leaders of both cities were close as well. With that, the leader of Silver Hoof City more or less knew Joaquim's personality. Now that he wasn't responding to her attempts at connecting, that only meant one thing in her mind.

Aurus had destroyed Nachthexen City before heading into her city.

With that in mind, she hastily instructed one of the higher-ups to contact the other nearby cities regarding Aurus's current location. After that, only five of them remained in the place they were in, her, and four higher-ups that had control over important sectors of the city.

"What plan do you have in mind, sis?" One of the four other people asked, who was seemingly the sister of the city leader. In response, the leader went silent for a bit as she looked at another person. Looking at a battle-hardened woman that wore the usual military uniform, the leader asked her, "Julia, can you tell me where the Silver Streak Brigade currently is?"

Julia, the one in charge of the city's military, hastily replied, letting out a sigh of relief as she said, "Fortunately, they're holding training exercises with a nearby city. Do you want me to tell them to come here as soon as possible, Syne?"

Syne, which was the name of the city leader, nodded in response as she added, "Tell them regarding what's currently going on in the city."

"Understood." As Julia nodded, she then headed to a certain corner of the place they were in, contacting the Silver Streak Brigade that Syne mentioned.

Syne then looked at her sister and asked, "How about you, Thyria? Got any ideas to stall that thing to give the Silver Streak Brigade more time to arrive here?"

In response, Thyria went silent for a bit before shrugging her shoulders, saying, "Beats me, sis. I'm just in charge of the city's managerial duties. I have no knack for strategy or combat whatsoever."

"Just wanted more ideas, but okay." Syne shrugged her shoulders in response before looking at the pair of twins that were still there with them. "Vasta, Viza, how about you two? Got any ideas to stall that thing from moving anywhere else?"

Vasta and Viza, the pair of twins, looked at each other for a bit in silence before Vasta replied in a slightly unique accent, "Although we do have an idea, I'm pretty sure neither you, Julia, nor Thyria would like it."

In response to those words, Syne went silent as her expression went grim, thinking up of a few possible ideas the twins might have. Eventually, she let out a sigh as she asked, "Are you thinking of using the military as sacrifices to stall The Great Calamity in that spot?"

With a light sigh, Viza responded, "Unfortunately, that's the only method we've could come up with that would truly stall the being. According to what we could see through our skill, the being is currently relishing in the delight of being able to bring people to utter despair."

Hearing that, Syne went silent yet again before furiously scratching her head as she said, "Ah, alright! Fine. The future of the city still solely depends on the Silver Streak Brigade anyway."

In response to Syne's words, Vasta and Viza were just about to order the military to do so, but were stopped by her at the very last minute as she told them, "But! Once all of the military personnel have done their job, if the Silver Streak Brigade still hasn't done their job, you two shall be responsible for stalling that being until they get there."

"We…" Not expecting such an order like that from Syne, the two looked at each other before eventually letting out a sigh, realizing that they wouldn't be able to escape from the city either way. And so, with a slightly melancholic tone, they replied, "Yes."

Whoosh!

As the twins left off to tell the military of what to do, as well as to prepare themselves for what they had to do, Syne looked at her sister before turning around to where she could hear the most clamor, muttering to herself, "I hope they arrive in time."

…

"Please…spare me…" As time passed while Aurus continued to kill all of the survivors one by one, he gradually noticed that a few people were appearing on the streets, with him not knowing where they came from. Nevertheless, after seeing what they were wearing, it wasn't too hard for him to find out.

In any case, he still continued on torturing the people, relishing every wail and beg they gave him, only to end their deaths with one swift slash to the neck. At first, the soldiers that had been told to stall Aurus, knowing of their duties, were steadfast, thinking to themselves that they wouldn't break down that easily, remembering that they were used to bloodshed.

However, as they thought about it more, the more they thought about the innocent lives that they had killed in order for the city to get where they were, accidentally making themselves succumb to despair as the metallic smell of blood lingering in their surroundings. With that, after Aurus was done killing all of the inhabitants in Silver Hoof City, he then moved onto the soldiers that had broken down after recalling certain traumas. Sometimes, he even heard them beg for mercy for the people they had killed in the past.

But of course, Aurus did not care about any of that, inflicting pain to them to snap them back to reality before ending them off with one swift slash. Although Aurus did not receive that much pleasure from killing the soldiers off one by one, he was still satisfied as all of them were Rank 5 class holders at the very least, with some even at the peak of Rank 5. At that point, the amount of Wind energy particles was equivalent to about 5 or so inhabitants that he had killed a while ago.

Eventually, the soldiers that had sacrificed their lives for the city had also been killed by Aurus, which made him come to the conclusion that, other than the leader and a few higher-ups alongside the leader, there was next to no person remaining in the city.

With that in mind, he was about to conjure a large ball of wind laced with the power of the void to destroy this city once and for all when, all of a sudden, a pair of twins that radiated an intangible aura appeared in front of Aurus, both of them having indignant yet determined expressions on their faces.

But fortunately for them, just as they were about to make their moves to fight against Aurus to stall for time, they faintly heard the sounds of horses galloping at great speeds, which gradually grew louder and louder. Thinking what they thought it was, the twins went ahead and put in all of their strength into the only attack they would ever do, darting forward to where Aurus was before sending out low kicks to both of Aurus's legs simultaneously.

Swoosh!

With a swift teleport, Aurus disappeared from his spot before reappearing once more, aiming to retaliate against the attacks the twins did to him. Unfortunately for him, the twins never gave him a chance as they split off into opposite directions as one of them told Aurus, "I would suggest looking ahead if I were you."

Listening to one of the twins' words, Aurus looked ahead, only to see a group of men on top of horses that had silver coats. On their faces, a great amount of rage could be seen as all of them radiated intangible auras. After some time, these intangible auras combined to form one dense yet fearsome intangible aura as they pointed all of their weapon towards Aurus, aiming to use the intangible aura they fused to carry the force they had accumulated until now.

Realizing this, Aurus reallocated all of his energy towards [Impenetrable Shield of Nil], even going so far as to go beyond his recovery rate. Unfortunately for him, the outcome was still something he had not expected.

"The Silver Streak Brigade has arrived!"

"[Silver Streak Art: Steel-Piercing Lance]!"

Bang!

With great control over their intangible auras, or to be more exact their Ideas, the force and momentum they had accumulated all this time had been sent into a part of their intangible aura that went flying towards Aurus. Without hesitation, Aurus punched out towards the intangible aura, aiming to nullify the attack just like what had happened before when he fought against Krabel. Then again, just like with Krabel's first attack, he was sent back. But unlike before where he was only sent a few steps back…

He was sent flying.

Crash! Crash! Crash!

Although he had reduced the power behind the attack by quite a lot, since it was the amalgamation of multiple people's powers working at once, it still packed a punch, allowing to break through about four houses before his momentum stopped.

As for the Silver Streak Brigade that had arrived, they could not help but gain a hint of confidence from the bout, thinking that Aurus was actually weaker than they had thought. Then again, Aurus had underestimated their power. Unbeknownst to him, the Silver Streak Brigade was made up of class holders that were at Rank 6 at the very least. In fact, almost all of them had reached the peak of Rank 6 by now, given how their powers were merging with one another so flawlessly. Though, the reason for their powers merging flawlessly was not because of their cooperation, but it was due to their comprehended Ideas.

Since all of them were part of something called the Silver Streak Brigade, all of their Ideas were related to…silver, obviously. As such, the Silver Streak Brigade was renowned for their fearsome teamwork and combat power when they worked as one.

While the Silver Streak Brigade was heading to where Aurus had landed, wanting to take him one peg down once more, Aurus thought that his current combat power wasn't enough to be on par against the foe he was fighting against, so he went ahead and activated another skill he had never activated after fighting against Erudis.

"[Supreme Deification]."