Chapter 183
“Where are my subordinates?” He narrowed his eyes and tried to sense their presence, but he could not detect anything. His frustration grew, a sharp edge of anxiety creeping into his thoughts.
“They have been exorcised,” Oliver stated calmly, making Jetia pause his search. Before the latter could say anything, Oliver added, “You don’t need to search for them, for you will be joining them soon.”
Those arrogant words made Jetia look at Oliver as if he were viewing a fool. The idea that this boy could defeat his subordinates was laughable, and yet… there was something unsettling about the calmness in Oliver’s tone, a conviction that gnawed at Jetia’s confidence.
“I didn’t know that the heir of the Mystic Purge Clan was this delusional. It looks like your clan has finally lost its last working screws.” Jetia sneered, his voice dripping with disdain. Yet beneath the mockery, a flicker of doubt lingered.
Jetia’s aura intensified as he said, “I don’t know how you managed to pull off that stunt you claim. But you will soon be answering me for everything anyway.”
A pitch-black shadow emerged from behind Jetia, around 7 feet tall and wide. It was like a ghost.
“First, let’s capture you.”
Jetia looked at Oliver in a sinister fashion and waved his hand as the giant ghost behind him moved at tremendous speed, aiming for Oliver.
It was upon Oliver in the blink of an eye; however, Oliver was unfazed. His expression remained unreadable, as if he was merely observing an insignificant event.
Waving his hand, a huge tide of blue espera crashed against the ghost, immediately pushing it back. The clash of energies was explosive, sending shockwaves through the air.
“Such espera!”
Jetia’s eyes turned keen as he sensed the espera that could not belong to a mere Rank-1 at all. He concluded that Oliver was using a Unique-rank artifact to conceal his strength and aura.
Otherwise, he would have seen through it instantly. The realization struck Jetia like a hammer, shaking the certainty he had held moments before.
But this revelation only stoked the fire of his curiosity.
‘So the confidence stems from this?’
Jetia laughed to himself; he had not expected such a clever kid. But his laughter was hollow, masking the unease brewing within him.
Indeed, if this was the case, then he might surely have been able to exorcise those three together with the others.
“Hmm… I can’t sense the auras of the others either?” Jetia looked around.
“Did they really get killed or what?” He grinned and mocked, but the confidence in his voice wavered slightly. For the first time, doubt began to gnaw at him.
Oliver did not respond, which further made Jetia believe this was the case.
“Such a pity,” he shook his head and looked at Oliver. “The clans are surely going to go crazy after this. I was planning to slaughter everyone on my own, but it seems that my useless subordinates did the work for me. Turns out they were not entirely useless after all.”
Jetia did not show a hint of care or regret about the fact that his heretic subordinates had died, and this was normal. For heretics, other than their extreme fanatic intent towards worshipping demons, very few things mattered.
To him, the loss was negligible, showing the insignificance of the three.
“Enough yapping,” Oliver said in a low tone, his voice cutting through Jetia’s taunts like a blade through mist.
“Since you want to die so badly, then die!” Jetia was really furious; this was the third time he had been provoked by Oliver.
He could not take it lying down. Today would become a day where all the five major clans would mourn.
His fame would skyrocket after he dealt with the last remaining heir!
Jetia’s body suddenly released powerful dark espera, suppressing everything.
A huge gorilla phantom figure materialized in front of Jetia, as the tall ghost from before converged into the phantom.
Jetia’s eyes shone with luster as he scornfully looked down at Oliver. He spoke, “Behold! Before you die, I will let you witness the true might of Jetia, the one this world knows! The sight of victims instilled with fear is something I can get drunk on. HAHAHA!”
Oliver’s expression remained unfazed, though a cold glint flashed through his eyes. His calm demeanor only seemed to agitate Jetia further, the saint’s amusement beginning to sour.
“It’s a pity…”
Jetia paused as he glanced at the boy looking at him with calm eyes, clearly not the expression of someone afraid of death at such a moment.
That calmness unsettled him, even if he refused to acknowledge it.
Oliver slightly raised his hand, his fingers stretched out as he made a waving motion towards Jetia.
“What did you sa—?”
Before Jetia could ask what he wanted, his pupils dilated as an overbearing sense of dread enveloped his mind. His instincts literally screamed at him to escape; however, it was too late. He did not know why or what, but the hand sign Oliver showed made him feel goosebumps all over.
All he saw was a flash of red streaking towards him at a speed he could not keep up with before everything went black.
“Huff…” Oliver huffed slightly as he retracted his hand. Just that one move had consumed almost ninety percent of his Abyss energy.
His breath was ragged, the exertion taking its toll, yet his expression remained steely.
He did not hesitate to use his trump card instantly, even if the opponent before him was a heretic with borrowed strength from demons. The gap between the ranks was quite vast.
He did not know what rank the person was at, but he could not care less about it.
The enemy was extremely powerful for his current level. If he had any chance to take down the enemy, it was to do so in one attack.
Of course, he had to attack sneakily in a way that the enemy’s guard was not high; otherwise, there was a chance that the other party could defend themselves, which would not have ended well afterward.
And he did exactly that. Using more Abyss energy than necessary, he channeled and put forth everything in his single attack to strike Jetia earlier, intending to finish him off in one move.
No one was more aware than himself that using that much of his Abyss energy was unnecessary, but he was too cautious and did it anyway in the end.
If he had to say, only forty percent would have been enough to defeat Jetia, but he had never experimented with it before, so he fumbled slightly and used too much.
Not to mention, Jetia’s move just now gave him too dangerous of a feeling, so he did not hesitate to use almost all of it.
Now he was drained of both espera and Abyss energy at the moment.
His espera was still recovering, but his Abyss energy was not, for some reason.
‘What’s happening?’ He frowned and thought for a moment. He had no clue how to refill Abyss energy again, nor had he ever needed to.
‘There must be a special method or technique to gain it back. I will have to think about it in the future as soon as this is over.’
He shook his head tiredly. He did not feel regretful for using all his reserves; if someone as strong as Jetia could be killed, then it was all worth it.
He could feel the weight of exhaustion settling into his bones, but it was a small price to pay.
His life was naturally more important than anything.
“Now what to do?”
He looked ahead, and not even a piece of Jetia remained anymore. The Abyss energy had consumed everything.
Only the lingering traces of dark espera gave any indication of the battle that had just taken place.
“Well, I am sure they will handle it on their own.”
Oliver shook his head and gazed into the distance, his eyes turning a strange light for an instant before returning to normal.
“I should go with the others.”
Oliver disappeared from his spot, reappearing where a dome of Abyss energy was enveloping some kids.
Touching the abyssal dome, the Abyss energy retracted back into his body as the energy shield disappeared.
Making some space, he lay down between them and closed his eyes as well. The fatigue of battle finally catching up to him.
And as he had expected, soon enough, loud thunderous sounds erupted all around the mountain.
Alison, with a bunch of people, stormed inside the mountain hall, destroying the barrier and formations in the process.
Her eyes were cold as she extended her senses, covering the entire mountain in a single breath, her presence as enormous as the mountain itself.
The individuals beside her were not ordinary either; all of them carried an extraordinary presence of their own.
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