Up in the sky, Michael did not hesitate to summon the Damaged Coffin of the Dead from his soul space. From within it, several figures appeared imdiately.
Lucky. Prince. Ghost. The other ants. Fade. And a few more undead Michael considered among his stronger forces.
Down below, a vicious thought crossed Rui's mind.
Whoever was responsible for this attack would pay for it, he thought.
Once the person from the empire crossed through the portal, Rui promised himself he would make sure the culprit was hunted down and crushed without rcy.
He did not know it was Michael.
Nor did he know that the one attacking him possessed strength comparable to the very person the empire planned to send through the portal.
In fact, even Michael himself had not spent much ti considering what level of power the empire might dispatch.
He knew the empire possessed Rank Four experts.
Although he wanted to believe such figures could not be deployed so easily in the Land of Origin, he was not willing to gamble on that assumption.
Even if the person sent was soone he could defeat, Michael had no intention of exposing himself.
He was already tired of constantly moving and dealing with trouble in the real world.
The last thing he wanted was to repeat the sa exhausting situation inside the Land of Origin.
That was why he remained hidden.
And why he attacked with full force from the shadows.
As for the people he had killed earlier, Michael felt nothing about it.
They had co here intending to kill him.
So killing them first was simply the logical choice.
Michael did not waste ti.
His voice was calm.
"Attack."
The undead vanished from the sky instantly as they obeyed the command.
The prince barely had ti to process new thoughts before the sky above the defensive do erupted with fresh attacks.
The first thing that appeared was black fire.
A torrent of dark green flas poured down from above like a collapsing storm. The heat carried a suffocating aura that made the air tremble. The flas struck the barrier and spread across its surface
like living creatures, gnawing at the protective do.
Rui's eyes widened.
Before he could react, sothing else followed.
Ghostly figures.
Several translucent shapes descended through the air. Their forms were twisted and unnatural as they slamd into the barrier with chilling wails. Each impact sent ripples racing across the protective do.
Then ca the third wave.
Four gigantic ants.
Their bodies were enormous, far larger than normal creatures. Their exoskeletons were dark and heavy like armored siege weapons. They
fell from the sky with terrifying montum and smashed against the do.
BOOM.
The entire area shook.
The impact alone cracked the ground outside the ritual site.
The ants did not retreat.
They attacked again.
And again.
Their massive limbs struck the barrier repeatedly, each blow carrying monstrous physical strength.
Rui's confident expression slowly vanished.
The do was supposed to last one full minute.
It was a treasure capable of blocking the power of a peak Great Being.
Yet under the combined assault, the barrier began to flicker violently.
Twenty seconds passed.
Then it shattered.
CRACK.
The protective do exploded outward into fragnts of fading light.
Rui's pupils contracted in disbelief.
"How-"
The word barely left his mouth.
The attacks were already falling toward him.
A cold wave of fear surged through his body.
Without hesitation, Rui activated his bloodline.
A surge of dark energy erupted from his body as black scales spread
rapidly across his skin. The scales hardened instantly, forming a powerful defensive armor that covered his entire body.
But it was too late.
A wave of poisonous green flas descended from above.
The flas swallowed the ritual site completely.
Rui tried to resist.
The black scales on his body flared with power as he forced his
bloodline to its limit.
For a mont it looked like he might survive.
Then the poison spread.
The green fire burned through the scales like acid, devouring both
mana and flesh.
Rui's scream was swallowed by the roaring flas.
In the end, nothing remained of him but fading ashes inside the
collapsing ritual formation.
High above the battlefield, Michael watched the result through the
veil of dark smoke.
His expression did not change.
To him, this was simply the fastest way to stop the ritual.
The dark smoke surrounding Michael's body slowly drifted with the wind, concealing his presence as he observed the aftermath below. The poisonous green flas had already begun to fade.
Where the ritual site had once stood, only scorched stone and broken earth remained. The summoning circle that had taken so much effort
to create had collapsed entirely.
The unstable portal above it flickered violently.
Without the circle to sustain it, the distortion in space rapidly lost
stability. The thin tear that had begun forming across the sky twisted once before collapsing inward.
In a matter of seconds, the portal disappeared completely. Michael watched the last traces of spatial energy dissolve into the air.
Then he exhaled slowly.
"Return."
His voice was quiet, but the command carried clearly through the
connection he shared with his undead.
Within seconds, the sky was empty again.
Only Michael remained.
For a short mont he stayed where he was, silently scanning the
surroundings with careful attention.
He did not rush.
Even though the ritual had clearly been destroyed, Michael had
trained himself through years of overthinking that caution was never wasted in dangerous situations.
After confirming that no unexpected presence remained nearby, he finally began to descend.
His body moved quietly through the air.
The smoke that concealed him thinned as he approached the ground.
When Michael finally landed, the ruined terrain stretched out before
him.
The place looked like a battlefield after a natural disaster. Deep craters marked the ground where the arrows had struck earlier.
Broken stone and scorched earth covered the entire area. The
remains of the ritual formation were barely recognizable beneath the
destruction.
Michael walked slowly across the devastated clearing.
His gaze swept across the ground until it reached the center of the
forr ritual site.
There was nothing left of Prince Rui.
Only blackened fragnts of stone and faint traces of poison
remained where the flas had consud him.
Michael stopped for a mont.
Then his eyes shifted to sothing on the ground. "What's this?"
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