Chapter 591: Mission Complete.
Once Moon appeared back in the elite’s vision, Moon’s sword had already descended.
The strike happened between one breath and the next. Moon’s speed was something the Five-Star Evolver couldn’t track. The elite’s eyes were still adjusting to the sudden displacement when the blade completed its arc.
His mouth opened.
’Huh. Why is he upside down.’
That was the last thought the man had.
His head dropped to the ground in a wet, bloody thud. His body remained standing for another half-second, his nervous system still processing what had just happened, before it toppled sideways into the walkway railing.
[You have killed the Level 60 Five-Star Evolver]
[You have gained 4,920 Lives]
Moon stepped aside before the fountain of blood from the severed neck could reach him.
He turned to Kael.
"Let’s go."
Kael blinked once at the corpse, then nodded and followed. His hands relaxed on his side.
Moon had settled the entire encounter in less than two seconds, and Kael needed to do nothing.
The two of them stepped over the body and continued toward the gate.
Standing a few feet from the gate, Moon and Kael stopped and turned to each other.
"I’ll see you in a few days. Or weeks." Moon said.
Kael nodded. "Yeah."
His eyes drifted to Moon’s missing arm. He didn’t linger on it, but he acknowledged it.
"Tom knows people who can heal that. Don’t worry about it. He’ll set it up the moment things settle."
Moon glanced down at the stump of his left shoulder. Minor Mend and Cleanse had sealed the wound cleanly. The bleeding had stopped. But the arm itself was still in his storage ring, and reattaching a severed limb at Second Order tier required a healer of a specific quality he didn’t personally know.
He nodded.
"I won’t be polite about it then."
Kael smirked slightly.
The two of them turned toward the portal.
They were about to step through when the air around them changed.
A malevolent energy descended on the entire region in a single expanding wave that swept over the surroundings in the same instant.
The pressure was cold, sending shivers down the spine of Moon and Kael.
Moon’s eyes widened.
He recognized the aura immediately.
Ace.
"He... did it."
The glass panels around them shattered in unison. Fragments sprayed across the walkway. The ground shook beneath their feet, rattling the security kiosk and sending small pieces of debris tumbling down the sides of the surrounding buildings that were already heavily damaged from the attacks.
Moon’s face darkened.
"We need to go. Now."
Kael nodded sharply. "Stay safe."
He stepped through the portal.
His figure dissolved into the shimmer of the gate’s surface within a heartbeat.
Moon turned once toward the distant arena, kilometers away. The malevolent aura was still radiating outward from that direction, growing stronger by the second. Somewhere inside that pressure, an ascending figure was completing whatever process had been prepared for months.
Moon shook his head slowly.
The last piece of the puzzle had settled into place.
He finally had the answer to how Jonathan had gotten so strong. So quickly.
The stolen lives. The bones. The drained subordinates. The entire operation was a delivery mechanism for a single ascension, funded by the harvested life pools of every fighter the organization had cultivated.
Jonathan had been given a shortcut to a rank he would have never reached this quickly and today had been the final deposit.
Moon stepped through the portal.
◇◇◇◇
In the arena, the three Ascenders threw everything they had at the protective bubble.
Whether it was Tom’s golden fire, Farid’s four elemental attacks, or Sierra’s elemental arrows. The three of them had been pressing the bubble without pause for several minutes now.
The bubble held firmly, not a single visible sign that their combined attacks had made any difference at all. Klein’s water bubble was reinforced by an energy network so dense that three Ascender-tier assaults couldn’t destroy it.
Their attempts failed miserably.
Then, Ace’s aura descended.
The three of them felt it at the same instant. Their expressions darkened together.
They knew what it meant.
Whatever the dark organization had wanted had been fulfilled.
Around the arena, the weaker Evolvers who had still been standing began to collapse. The Three-Stars dropped first, their legs giving out beneath them, hands clutching at their heads as the malevolent energy pushed into their consciousness faster than their minds could resist.
The Four-Stars held better, but they followed a few seconds later. The weakest went unconscious the moment they hit the ground, their brains unable to process the power pressing against them.
The stronger ones stayed conscious but couldn’t stand. They braced themselves against rubble, against pillars, against each other, their entire bodies trembling.
The remaining Surpassers held their footing, but their contorted faces showed how uncomfortable they were.
Samuel Sky finally uncrossed his hands.
They had been resting the entire time, unmoved through every phase of the battle. Now his fingers reached back toward his side, closed around the hilt of the sheathed sword at his hip, and slowly drew the blade free.
Dark lacquered black, terrifyingly sharp, it appeared to be cutting the air around it. The blade was old.
Older than most of the fighters in the venue. Its aura merged with Samuel’s own the moment it left the scabbard, and the pressure around him strengthened instantly.
A massive grin spread across his face.
"Come on. I’ve been waiting for your little transformation. Don’t keep me hanging for long. I’m patient, but even my patience has limits."
The bubble began to open slowly, the water surface parting downward.
Klein emerged first, stepping out with his staff in hand, his composure fully intact despite knowing he was standing before four Ascenders.
His aura was denser than it had been before the bubble sealed.
Then, Ace stepped out too.
But the figure who stepped out wasn’t Ace. Not entirely.
Looking at him, Tom frowned. The Ace coming out of the bubble was certainly stronger.