They stepped back in fear of him. Some of them turn around and escaped for their lives. He watched them go without feeling any joy or pride for the fear that show for him. They are weak dregs. Their opinion doesn't matter at all whether it is positive or negative. They are to be discarded or fed to lowly beasts.
It is not pride to feel the way he feels about them. It is but the nature of the world. Those people are simply not worthy of being graced with his attention. It is a fact that no one will want to look at or eat chaff when there is something better to look at and feast their eyes on. So Salvos ignored the retreating weaklings and focused on Soverick.
He frowned a little when he noticed that Soverick is still alive. Not only is he alive, but he is also rather unharmed. It made him displeased and also rather pleased. He is displeased because he had wanted to take out the child of the plane with an ambush attack but he failed. Soverick suffering serious injuries from the attack would have also been good enough. Unfortunately, his attack amounted to nothing.
The people that died are just mere insignificant dregs. They are like the ants that one kills as one walks. He doesn't bother with them just like one wouldn't bother with the ants. So he is not happy that he managed to kill tens of thousands of them. But he is somewhat pleased that Soverick didn't die with just a single attack. It proves that Soverick is truly different from the riff raffs and he is worthy of his attention.
Salvos isn't wearing his blindfold anymore. His eyes are closed and ready to be opened at a moment's notice. He approached the pyramid with the caution that a fellow apex predator deserves. He is not going to take any chances with the child of the plane. He is confident of victory but that doesn't mean he will underestimate the child of the plane. That's why he tried to ambush his target.
He clapped his hands as he moved closer. He can still see with his eyes despite them being closed. It is how he knows that Soverick survived that inescapable attack with only some injuries which are already healing. He has to admit that he is impressed. So he clapped to show how impressed he is.
"It seems you haven't changed. You are as strong as ever. You're even stronger. You have also become a sage." He said to the child of the plane.
He can recognize the robe that Soverick is wearing despite it being in tatters.
Soverick jumped down from the pyramid with the crown in his hands. His two feet stumped the ground when he landed. He allowed the force of his descent to disperse into the ground. It created an explosion of the ground. Stone and rock were ejected around like shrapnel.
He walked out of the crater that he created. Then he squinted as if he has difficulty seeing. He even placed his hand above his eyes to help him see better.
Then he said, "Salvos, is that you? I almost couldn't recognize you. It's no fault of yours of course. I just find it difficult to notice those that I have defeated before."
Soverick paused. Then he wondered aloud. "Maybe it is your fault. If you hadn't lost last time, maybe I would have recognized you easily. It is a shame really. So how about we agree that is both our fault that I can't recognize a loser?"
Salvos didn't get angry. He can't get angry. He is like a walking torch carrying a flame. The torch doesn't get angry. It just feeds the flame silently and does its job. In this case, Salvos's job is to see the world in flames. So he didn't get angry because of the jab.
It is his life's mission to impose his sight on the world, not the other way around. The world doesn't influence him so Soverick's mocking won't get to him. His emotions remained cool and tempered like steel forged within the fires of the abyss itself. But Soverick is right though. He did lose to the child of the plane the last time they fought.
Not a lot of people were impressed when Soverick became the child of the plane. The opportunity to become the child of the plane was given to only vitality core stage refiners. Mana entities and above couldn't enter the divine dungeon. There were a lot of people who believed him to be lucky.
They were not there to witness the events that preceded the formation of the army and his fight to help the battle sage monkeys get a foothold within the divine dungeon. They thought his achievement was undeserved despite the tales that vitality core stage refiners that witnessed the events told.
They didn't trust the reports of the other vitality core stage refiners not because they thought they were lying, but because they thought they might have exaggerated things. Vitality core stage refiners are mostly blind. They can't see mana as mana entities do and they can't see laws like transcendents do. So how are those that can see better believe the blind?
Salvos and his siblings were one of those people. They wanted to see what is so great about him. They wanted to test his worth so they challenged the child of the plane. Theirs was just one of the many challenges made to the child of the plane. Soverick didn't pay attention to the numerous challenges that came his way and he wouldn't have paid attention to the three of them if they were not the current generation of sages.
Soverick was genuinely interested in them so he entertained their challenge. All three of them lost to him and they lost spectacularly. It was a victory by a landslide. They were old accomplished mana entities and they couldn't beat a new mana entity. That knocked some sense into their heads.