Almond, Lily, Admiral Rudra, Arjun, Viktor, Bianca, Liang, Silvester, Hiroshi, and Julian returned to their table.
It wasn’t long before their turn came up, and the group entered the portal gate.
On the other side, there were ten floating platforms with barriers around them on a vast sunny grassland.
A maid standing at the gate’s entrance gestured them towards the 4th platform with a smile: “Please go in there.”
The maid was an Immortal King.
Almond and others went into the 4th platform. It was fairly big and plain, looking more like a training ground, but there was a table at the straight end with a human man looking in his fifties with a thick and muscular body frame. He had a white beard and hair and wore a plain black robe with a white waist belt.
He looked at Almond and others as his hand gestured them to come there while he nodded once.
After arriving in front of the table, the man said while cupping his fist, “I am Simon Therus, the 7th Commander of Raiden Dojo.”
Almond and others cupped their fists in response before sitting on ten chairs laid in front of the table.
“House of Regalon, tell me about the force you’ve brought here, and let’s position them on this map.”
An animated map appeared above the man, showing 100 small roads with fixed red dots and blinking blue dots within them at fixed intervals in each channel, which in reality was a distance of 100 kilometers.
The number of red dots filled 90% of the battlefield.
“We have five groups. Group one consists of 67 Mortal-rank powerhouses who have Ability Power of SSS-rank.”
Simon nodded and looked at the table’s surface, which was projecting the map chart. A blinking blue dot near the end of the battlefield in the 8th channel, nearly 4000 kilometers away from the river, turned red.
The map Almond and others were seeing zoomed in towards that dot, revealing a ground with large gray stones of uneven shapes protruding from the surface.
“This will be the battleground for that group. There will be another group of Mortal-rank powerhouses numbering roughly forty there. There are formations there that increase healing, and they will be altered periodically remotely every one hour, giving different buffs or assistance in combat.”
Everyone nodded as they saw the battleground. It was a good spot.
“Since we have the entire battlefield monitored and Law Arrays that prevent people from attacking each other, there won’t be internal fights, but if they die against Griminions, nothing can be done.”
Almond faintly smiled. “None of my people will die.”
Simon blinked and chuckled, “I hope so. Tell me about the next group.”
“The next group consists of Mortal-rank powerhouses numbering seventy-five; all of them have SS-rank or lower ability power.”
Simon nodded and put the group further behind on the battlefield at a blinking blue dot. It was also a good spot.
All the spots and this entire battlefield were arranged to make various battleground spots advantageous to them.
“The next group consists of forty-four High-Mortals without an Ability Tree in their arsenal, but their Ability Power is at Alpha level.”
Simon nodded and placed them on the battlefield before showing the spot.
“Next.”
“A group of twenty-seven powerhouses, all at High-Mortal and having one or two Ability Trees. Their ability power is spread across Beta level and Gamma level.”
Simon raised his eyebrows. He could understand Mortal-ranks having stepped into Alpha level in terms of Ability Power, but this many High-Mortals with Beta and Gamma level ability power for this small force was impressive.
“How many Gamma-level High-Mortals are there in this group?” Simon asked.
“Fifteen,” Lily answered.
‘Fifteen out of twenty-seven are Gamma-level High Mortals?’ Simon blinked and said, “That’s good. And there’s one more group, right?”
“Well, it is, but there are only three people in the group,” Almond smiled before putting his hand on Lily’s hand that sat nearby. “Me, Lily.”
“And I,” Admiral Rudra said with a nod.
“I would like us to be placed in the Immortal Emperor-rank battleground,” Almond said, his expression carefree but his tone filled with confidence.
Simon raised his eyebrows. “The scale of battle at Immortal Emperor rank in this level of war means instant death for even Immortal Kings from collateral damage if they are not careful. We will be having the full brunt of the incoming flood of Griminion.”
“Your stats are still confined at Immortal rank, so no matter the Ability Power you have, your endurance would be severely lacking because everything will be happening beyond the Hyper Speed 1 to 3 constantly.”
Hyper Speed refers to the speed of a powerhouse that allows them to enter the Hyper Plane, which was 300,000 kilometers per second = Hyper speed 1.
Hyper Speed 2 was twice as fast, and Hyper Speed 3 was twice as fast as Hyper Speed 2.
“The battlefield at the front for Immortal Emperors is divided based on the average constant Hyper Speed they can maintain,” Simon narrowed his eyes as he continued. “Those with Hyper Speed 3 will be at the very front, while the rest will be behind them.”
“What’s your level of average constant Hyper Speed? Your regeneration of the Prana Sea and Soul Sea? Your Prana Art’s rank? They all need to be in the realm of Immortal Emperors, not just Ability Power.”
‘Newbies these days…’ Simon internally shook his head. He knew they had recently ascended, and given they were the most powerful in their world and had exceptional skills, it made them slightly arrogant.
‘The second layer is not the same as the first one, young brats.’
But the next words Almond said made him visibly frown.
“Yes, let’s start with my gramps here,” Almond said with a smile. “We call him Admiral Rudra.”
Admiral Rudra got up and vanished before arriving at the center of the big platform.
Looking at Simon, Admiral Rudra clasped his palms before a monstrous surge of aura exploded, and a dark blue glass-fragmented armor with ink-black and purple streams flowing within adorned his body as he became a three-meter-tall armored giant.
His fist had futuristic lion-themed gauntlets, boosters extended his elbows, and a pair of large bat-like draconic wings manifested behind him.
“Almond, send Ashkar out,” Admiral Rudra said as he smashed his fist, causing the space to show glittering blue web cracks that strangely bent and got absorbed into his gauntlets.
Simon’s eyebrows jumped, his eyes showing interest as he felt Admiral Rudra’s power.
‘What the hell is that? Bloodline? But…’
Simon had his interest piqued, and he stayed silent.
But suddenly, a powerful Immortal Emperor-rank aura suffused the platform, startling him.
Neighh!!
A majestic draconian infernal stallion made of black smoke and fiery blaze patterns landed before Admiral Rudra and neighed.
Riding this horse was a knight clad in astral red armor, his height towering at six meters tall with cracks all over his armor that slowly streamed out black flames, which highlighted the aesthetic and thick patterns all over, glistering in dark gold.
A monstrous sword, four meters in length and one meter wide, rested on his shoulder. Stabbing the sword into the ground, Ashkar dismounted.
Simon’s eyes popped out. ‘That’s a peak freaking Immortal Emperor! Who is he? What is he?’
“It’s been a while, Admiral.” Ashkar smiled.
“Indeed. Let’s have a short spar for the gentleman there.”