The appearance of a third City placed the already reeling Capital even further onto its backfoot.
There were four City Lords that stood above the rest. By some wisp of luck, Earth had managed to get rid of one of them in City Lord White. However, that unfortunately left three still remaining. And now… These three had all aimed their weapons toward the Ascension Empire's core.
**
Hutch brandished his blade, his unkempt gray hair whistling in the wind like dried strands of straw. Blood caked his body, his rusted blade especially dripping with copious amounts.
He crossed the battlefield with a certain level of confidence to him. Everywhere he passed, time seemed to distort and slow, only for another life to be reaped. His presence alone seemed to stop the continuous defeats the Slayer Legion suffered.
Raynred's sneer finally thinned seeing such a scene. Even at such a distance, he could feel danger emitting from Hutch's blade. He felt that he would stand no chance beneath it, a reality that he simply couldn't fathom.
This Hutch had at best recently broken into the Fourth Dimension while he himself was already in the Fifth Tier of the Fourth Dimension. There shouldn't be anything that could bridge such a gap.
Was the difference between their abilities really so drastic?
Worlds like Terrain which were lacking in talent often placed great emphasis on their Force cultivation. This bred the illusion that one's diligence was far more important than the talent one was born with. However, it was just that… an illusion.
Between two people who had vastly different levels of talent, Force cultivation was almost irrelevant. Leonel himself was continuously battling foes many times stronger than him in terms of foundation and he never once paused to think about what Tier they had reached.
Raynred shook his head. It wasn't just ability. It was that damned machete.
He didn't know what magic the old man had pulled, but the skill with which he used that blade was beyond comprehension. It should be the Four Seasons Realm… but why was it that there were no obvious signs of the Four Seasons, then?
"Seems like it's about time."
Raynred was startled out of his thoughts, only to find that his father along with Head Falls and Head Mirage had appeared by their sides at some unknown time.
Seeing such a scene, Raynred's lips curled up again. He hadn't known why his old man and the others hadn't stepped onto the battlefield yet. But, now that they were here, this farce could finally come to an end.
Which of these Heads wasn't firmly in Tier 7 or above?
…
Hutch's actions took a tremendous amount of pressure off of the frontlines. With his level of training, the restraints this odd debuff had on him was limited. Much like Aina could regain control of her body using her ax as a medium, Hutch could fulfill this and then some.
Unfortunately, not everyone had such a medium. Or, more accurately, not everyone could tap into it to the extent that Hutch could.
Existences like Monet and the other new generation Supremes had received training since their youth, but with Earth still in the Third Dimensional stage, communicating with Universal Force was hundreds of times more difficult back then. Hutch was practically the only one who could reach such a stage without issue. And, even then, had he been born in a Higher Dimensional world, his achievements would still far outshine what he could accomplish now.
"Damned brats!" Hutch growled. "I told you all to not forget your training regimens after you gained your fancy new abilities, but what did you all do? Now look at you!"
Fury colored Hutch's gaze red. He screamed at the corpses floating on the water like a madman, his aura blazing.
Monet bit down on her teeth hard, brandishing her fiery whip as she tried to support Hutch along with the other elites, but it was clear that her flames were even weaker than they had been when she met Leonel despite the fact they had long since evolved to be tens of times stronger.
Hutch's machete raged like a tornado of blades. His actions seemed no different from a butcher hacking meat, yet his crude style somehow became inescapable even to these well trained soldiers of Terrain.
"Die!"
Hutch's billowing roars shook the battlefield, his shouts laced with anger. The veins across his wrinkled body pulsed, his strength seemingly fueled by his fury.
Just as he was cutting through the frontline of the enemy troops, three figures came dashing out of the army, each moving with such speed that the waters beneath their feet sliced apart as though a large blade ran through the surface.
The closer one got to the Fifth Dimension, the larger the differences between Tiers became. The difference between a Tier 5 entity like Raynred and a Tier 8 one like his father was akin to the vastness of the universe. It was simply like comparing a well trained soldier to a man approaching godhood.
Facing three such existences all at once, Hutch couldn't help but feel his hair prickle, his reddened gaze locking onto those before.
To his back, there were thousands of weakened soldiers, each relying on these frail old shoulders of his. To his front, there was suddenly an enemy more powerful than any he had ever met, each of them with towering auras that had long since locked on to him.
"It seems that the Cities have finally entered their end phase." Head Falls said emotionlessly. "Unless we want to watch from afar as they claim The Capital for themselves, it's probably best that we move this along."
Head Solar and Head Mirage rose an eyebrow, but didn't say much else after hearing this.
Head Falls stretched out his palm. Head Solar grabbed at air, causing a two and a half meter long halberd to appear. As for Head Mirage, she brought out an oddly flowing whip that sometimes appeared as is and at other times unfurled as though a silky cloth.
They had all decided that Hutch was the greatest threat on this battlefield, so he had to die first.
…
Near the backline of the army, fighting alongside the other youths, Elorin slaughtered enemies that appeared before him with even more ease than his grandfather.
At that moment, a talisman on his person suddenly lit up and a voice drifted to his ear.