Adrian saw the surrounding Peak Rule Stage beings dashing toward him from every direction.
Ignis floated in front of him with Balthazar and Morwenna nearby, and though the Ashen Vortex Sect Leader did not speak, a faint smile touched his lips. To him, Adrian was already dead. The mont the gathered Peak Rule Stage cultivators entered the battle, the advantage Adrian had carved out through sheer absurdity would collapse under the weight of numbers.
Adrian understood the reason behind that confidence. These three sect leaders were already strained, and even in that state, they had been able to constantly lock many of his arcane concepts. If the other Peak Rule Stage beings joined the suppression, the chaos would only increase.
More of his arcane concepts would be locked, his speed would drop further, and the delicate situation he had forced upon Ignis, Balthazar, and Morwenna, where they had to spend most of their authority simply restraining his arcane powers, would change completely.
Once that burden was shared among many others, so of the three sect leaders would inevitably gain freedom from suppression duty, and Adrian was certain they would use that opening to strike him with everything they had.
At most, he would still have Causality, since no one here seed to possess enough reserves, comprehension, or courage to lock a Pri Arcane Concept directly. But Causality alone would not allow him to win against this many Peak Rule Stage beings at once. No matter how he calculated the situation, the battlefield had turned bleak.
Inside his Source Seed, the wills of the arcane concepts roared with fury.
"Calm down," Adrian's will echoed through the chambers. "The situation has changed. Even if I want to keep using all of you like this, I cannot afford to do it against this many enemies."
The arcane concepts still trembled with violent indignation, as if they wished to tear apart the sect leaders themselves for daring to chain them.
Adrian could feel their wills burning through every chamber, but his thoughts spun rapidly beyond that fury, searching for a path.
The only obvious answer was to use his Source.
But Adrian did not want to use it yet. He had wanted to defeat them with what they called mortal power. He had wanted to show the rulers of Androda that their understanding of arcane concepts was shallow, that authority was not the only truth that mattered. If he switched to the Source now, then he would win, but the lesson would remain incomplete.
A sudden burst of all his arcane concepts exploded outward from his body, forcing the Peak Rule Stage beings rushing toward him to halt and brace themselves. The multi-colored storm surged like a defensive tide, creating just enough space for Adrian to raise his gaze toward Ignis.
"Do you truly think you are the only one who has reinforcents?"
The smile on Ignis's face slowly vanished. His mind imdiately began racing through possible anings behind Adrian's words. Backup? From where? Was he talking about Hestia? The Crimson Vital elders or soone else? Who else could Adrian possibly summon into a sealed micro-dinsion?
Pyros's expression darkened. He drifted closer to Ignis, his voice low but urgent, "Whatever he's planning—"
A large violet portal opened behind Adrian.
No one rushed him or the portal imdiately. Caution spread through the gathered Peak Rule Stage beings. The first reason was obvious: Adrian had opened a portal inside a sealed micro-dinsion specifically designed to prevent escape and outside interference. Such a feat could theoretically be achieved through direct command, but the price reality demanded would be overwhelming for most cultivators.
Yet Adrian, who did not even appear to be using authority at this mont, had opened one as though it were natural.
The second reason was even more unsettling.
No one knew what was about to co through it.
Balthazar's obsidian gauntlets creaked as his fists clenched, "If it's Hestia—"
"It won't matter," Ignis interrupted, though his flas flickered with less certainty than his words carried. "Even if she returns, we have numbers."
Morwenna said nothing. Her bone-white scythe shifted slightly in her grip, the deathly mist around her coiling tighter.
…
Outside the micro-dinsion, within one of the secured command vessels of the Crimson Vital Sect, Lara stood surrounded by holographic projections showing battlefield reports, wounded disciple counts, fleet-positioning diagrams, and constantly shifting domain-pressure readings from the war outside.
Disciples moved around her, transmitting orders, redirecting squads, and coordinating recovery routes for injured cultivators being pulled back from the most dangerous sections of the battlefield.
Then, without warning, space in the middle of the command room folded inward, and a violet portal opened silently before the main command platform.
Several disciples froze instantly. Weapons were drawn, defensive artifacts flared to life, and the nearest guards moved in front of Lara with practiced speed, their eyes sharp as they stared at the sudden distortion in space. In the middle of an active galactic war, an unknown portal appearing inside the heart of a command vessel was enough to make even trained cultivators feel their blood run cold.
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"Elder Lara, should we—"
"Stand down." Lara's command cut through the rising tension at once, her voice calm despite the sudden disruption. "Do not attack. That portal belongs to Elder Adrian."
The disciples halted imdiately, though wariness remained in their eyes. One younger disciple's hand still hovered near his weapon. "Are you certain, Elder?"
"I am."
Lara stepped closer to the portal and studied the violet light, her expression growing heavier. Adrian had inford them of this possibility before. If the situation inside beca too dangerous, if the Peak Rule Stage beings within the sealed battlefield gathered in a way that even he could not manage alone, he would open a portal and summon the hidden protectors he had placed on the battlefield from the very beginning.
Lara's fingers tightened around her UNI-OS. She activated the private ergency channel, sending the prearranged signal to Octaven and Kaelar. It was a command Adrian had prepared in advance, and both n would understand its aning the instant they received it.
Only a few monts passed before space shifted again inside the command room. Octaven and Kaelar appeared almost simultaneously. The mont they erged, neither man asked any questions. Their gazes locked onto the violet portal, and understanding passed between them in silence.
They imdiately stepped toward the rift together.
Just before they entered, Lara watched their backs, her fingers curling slightly around the edge of the command table.
"Has the situation gotten that bad?" she thought, her eyes fixed on the violet light.
The two n vanished into the portal.
…
Back inside the micro-dinsion, the violet portal behind Adrian rippled, and two figures stepped out of the spatial tear.
Octaven and Kaelar appeared behind him.
The mont their feet touched the void, both n knelt.
"My lord." Octaven's voice resonated against the void, "We have dealt with the Peak Rule Stage beings hiding outside."
Kaelar lowered his head as well. "The hidden hunters on the main battlefield have been removed. No one there will threaten your disciples from the shadows again."
Hearing those words, the surrounding Peak Rule Stage beings felt an ominous chill crawl through them. It was not only the rcenaries and subsidiary sect leaders who reacted. Ignis, Balthazar, Morwenna, Nightshade and Yselia all felt the weight of that declaration. The Hidden Peak Rule Stage beings outside the micro-dinsion had been an important layer of the dominant sects' arrangents, a precaution ant to kill high-value targets and tilt the war when the right mont ca.
And these two had simply said they had dealt with them.
Adrian did not even turn his gaze away from Ignis and the others. He raised his multi-colored energy sword and pointed toward the place where Ignis, Balthazar, and Morwenna floated.
"Those three are mine. Take care of the others around us."
He paused for a mont, and his gaze shifted toward Yselia, "As for her, do not kill her. Lock her down."
Octaven and Kaelar nodded in perfect unison.
"Yes, Lord." Octaven rose to his feet, his hand already moving toward his weapon.
"We will make sure no one disturbs you," Kaelar added.
As their voices resonated through the void, their domains blood.
The mont Octaven and Kaelar's domains expanded, the authority balance across the battlefield shattered again. Their domains clashed against every active domain within the region, splitting the available authority further and further. Yet after the division settled, everyone sensed one dreadful fact.
Even under this many overlapping domains, Octaven and Kaelar still possessed ten percent surplus authority.
"High-tier divine concepts!" soone among the surrounding Peak Rule Stage beings shouted, his voice cracking with disbelief. "They both have high-tier—"
Cultivators with high-tier divine concepts could wield up to eighty percent authority! Although the wider universe did not use a specific public classification like the True Peak Rule Stage for them, no one underestimated such beings.
A Peak Rule Stage cultivator with a high-tier divine concept could easily suppress and dominate those with mid-tier or low-tier divine concepts, especially when battle experience and reserves were not inferior.
The instant that realization spread, several of the gathered Peak Rule Stage beings began to flee.
They were rely rcenaries. The contracts binding them to the war were important, but not more important than survival. They had accepted paynt to fight in the Androda war, not to die in a sealed space against two high-tier Peak Rule Stage beings who had appeared from nowhere and knelt to a elder as their lord.
Octaven moved first.
He blinked directly in front of one fleeing cultivator, his speed making the void fold behind him. Before the rcenary could even complete his retreat, Octaven's fist struck his face. His bone cracked, blood sprayed, and the Peak Rule Stage cultivator was hurled backward through the void, his domain cracking violently around him like shattered glass.
The man's body tumbled through space, unconscious before he even stopped moving.
The sight froze the others who had begun to retreat.
A deep dread settled into them. In this sealed space, escaping was not simple. They could attempt direct command and force reality to open a path, but the cost could very well kill so of them outright, especially in their current state and under overlapping domain pressure. Most had intended only to flee to the edges of the micro-dinsion and wait until the formation's duration ended. But Octaven's strike made it clear that even that would not be easy.
Kaelar's gaze swept across the remaining cultivators, his expression calm but utterly rciless, "Anyone who runs dies next."
Yselia felt the deepest dread of all.
She had already used the teleportation artifact she had prepared, and even that had only managed to move her to a far distance within the micro-dinsion rather than outside it. The artifact's energy was now completely depleted, and she had no way to replenish it herself in this situation. Her eyes darted across the battlefield, calculating desperately, searching for any opening, any possible escape route.
But before she could choose a path, Kaelar was already moving toward her.
Adrian watched the surrounding cultivators falter, then shifted his attention back to the three sect leaders before him. Their composure had finally cracked. Ignis's flas still burned, Balthazar's gravity still pressed on the void, and Morwenna's deathly mist still lingered, but all three of them now had the feeling of death in their eyes.
Adrian alone had already beco a nightmare they could not properly understand. Now, he had summoned two high-tier Peak Rule Stage beings who obeyed him completely. Even if they sohow managed to kill Adrian, could they survive those two afterward?
The answer was obvious: They could not.
Pyros moved closer to Ignis, his voice barely audible, "We need to retreat. Now."
"And go where?" Ignis snarled, though his flas flickered with uncertainty. "You think he'll let us leave?"
Adrian raised his multi-colored energy sword and pointed it toward them. The arcane storm around him roared louder, filled with colors that represented the very foundations of the universe.
"Isn't it amusing?" Adrian's voice cut clearly through the void, "From the beginning, you were fighting a losing war. You looked down on the Crimson Vital Sect, mocked arcane concepts as mortal power, and believed authority made you gods."
His smile sharpened, "Now you will die beneath the sa mortal power you despised."
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