For a moment, he felt like something had exploded inside his chest.
Several Mana channels cracked. More blood came out of his mouth.
He felt like all the veins in his body were about to explode! The pain was so sudden and terrible that even describing it was impossible for him.
How the hell had these bastards made such powerful Suppression seals?
But Cataclysm Pulse passed through the lock’s center. The seal’s structure began to tremble.
"Stop him!" Tharos stepped back for the first time. A bad feeling came over him! A feeling that he had to stop this.
The Guards moved.
But it was too late. A golden explosion formed on Lian’s chest, and the central lock shattered.
Molten metal pieces scattered in the corridor. The chains around his chest, shoulders, and arms loosened.
Some fell on the ground. The secondary seals still remained on his wrists, but the main pressure was gone.
[Primary Mana Suppression Destroyed.]
[Skill Efficiency Restored to 81%.]
Tharos looked at the broken lock in disbelief.
How? How was it possible to break the seal? This had never happened before! This was unprecedented!
Lian immediately took out a healing potion from his storage space and drank it. All the pain and internal damage disappeared in an instant.
He sighed in relief. At that moment, he had felt like even his soul was trembling, but now was not the time to complain. There were more important things to do.
Then he activated Thunder Step.
This time, lightning formed around his body without serious delay. Blue light split the corridor’s darkness for a moment.
The sound of thunder exploded in the enclosed space.
Lian disappeared from in front of Tharos. A moment later, he appeared right in front of him.
The prison head didn’t have time to raise his hand. Lian’s chain-wrapped fist hit his face.
The black lens on Tharos’s left eye shattered, and the black glass scattered in the air. His body slid several meters on the ground and hit the wall.
The Guards attacked Lian. Two blades came toward him from two directions.
He took the first strike with his forearm. The chain around his hand prevented the blade from penetrating. The second strike cut his side.
Lian, without stepping back, slammed his shoulder into the first soldier and knocked him to the ground. Then he grabbed the second soldier by the collar and threw him toward the third Guard.
Tharos’s ash rose again, this time in the form of several black strands that wrapped around Lian’s arms and legs.
Severe pain formed in his muscles. The corridor’s image multiplied.
Five Tharos appeared in front of him, from five different directions.
But Lian didn’t care which one was real. He dispelled the illusions again and attacked directly into the middle of them.
Three images passed through his body. The fourth faded. The fifth was the real Tharos.
Lian hit his chest with his shoulder.
Tharos stepped back and placed his palm on his body.
[Ashen Brand.]
A black mark formed on Lian’s side. Flame and ash simultaneously penetrated his wounds.
The pain turned his vision white for a moment.
"This is my domain! Even if you’re a monster, you must surrender!" Tharos shouted.
"For now." Lian grabbed his throat.
The prison head suddenly felt terror and tried to release more ash.
But Lian lifted him off the ground and slammed him against the wall with all his strength. The black roots behind him cracked.
He slammed him a second time.
Blood came out of Tharos’s mouth. The remaining Guards attacked to save their leader.
Lian spun the prison head’s body and used him as a shield in front of himself. The soldiers were forced to stop their strikes.
He used this hesitation. He threw Tharos toward them, and all three fell on the ground together.
Lian landed on the first Guard. His fist strike to his helmet crushed his skull.
The second soldier tried to get up. Lian grabbed his wrist and twisted his arm behind his back.
With more pressure, his shoulder came out of its socket. His scream echoed in the corridor.
The third Guard stepped back and raised his weapon. Glacial Reaper Claw formed around Lian’s hand again.
The claw hit the soldier’s blade. White ice covered the entire weapon.
Lian punched the frozen surface. The sword shattered, and the next strike hit the soldier’s chest, throwing him against the wall.
Tharos tried to get up. Half of his face was covered in blood.
His eye lens was broken, and a deep wound had formed around it, but he had not yet lost consciousness.
Lian walked toward him.
The prison head gathered the ash and sent a black wave toward him.
Lian walked straight through it.
Pain.
Weakness.
Hallucinations.
All spread through his body, but none could stop his movement.
Every time Tharos pushed him back, Lian advanced again.
There was no trick, no calculated retreat, no searching for a weak point. Only a distance that had to be covered.
The power gap between them was so great that nothing could compensate for it.
When he reached Tharos, he closed his hand around his throat and lifted him off the ground again. The prison head’s legs moved in the air.
"Now I have an offer for you. You answer, and I let you live. Where are Marcus, Ethan, and Cassian?" Lian said calmly.
"Do you think I’ll tell you?" Tharos smiled with blood on his teeth.
Lian increased the pressure of his hand. The prison head’s body hit the wall, and the roots behind him cracked.
"Yes, you have no other choice."
Seconds passed. Tharos’s face became darker.
His hands closed around Lian’s arm, but he didn’t have the strength to free himself.
"If you kill him, we won’t be able to open the doors." Aren, using a spear as a cane, came closer.
"That’s why he’s still alive." Lian didn’t take his gaze off Tharos. After thinking, he began to apply pressure to his skull.
He would squeeze until it crushed. If he answered, good, and he would live. But if he didn’t answer, his skull would be crushed, and he would find his friends his own way.
"Third... level... western military section." The prison head, feeling the terrible pain in his skull that could shatter at any moment, finally answered.
"Which cell?" He reduced the pressure slightly.
"Cell five."
"How do we get there?"
"The elevator... behind me."
Lian didn’t release him. He unwrapped the broken chain around his hand and wrapped it around Tharos’s wrist.
He tied the other end to his own hand. The prison head was now a prisoner with them.
"Was this part of your plan too?" Aren said upon seeing the scene. He never thought he would live to see the famous prison head and torturer being dragged around like a slave.
Lian pulled Tharos toward the elevator.
"It is now."
Aren looked behind them for a moment.
The dead guards, the shattered gates, the black ash scattered in the corridor, and the prison head being dragged behind Lian.
"I think I’m slowly starting to understand your method, and I like it."
"There is no method. This madman just destroys everything! I assure you, sooner or later you’ll regret it!" Tharos said with anger.
Lian stood in the elevator.
The prison head was forced to place his hand seal on the elevator panel.
The orange veins activated, and the platform began to rise. At that same moment, a new alarm echoed throughout the Rootspire.
[Classified Prisoner Escaped.]
[Warden Tharos Compromised.]
[All Lower Levels Entering Execution Lockdown.]
Aren looked at Tharos.
"What does Execution Lockdown mean?"
"It means if they can’t recapture you, they’ll destroy the entire prison sections along with you." Tharos answered with a bloody smile.
The Ruined Realm native’s face changed.
"Then we need to be faster." Lian only said.
The elevator rose faster. Along the way, tremors could be felt inside the walls.
Parts of the Rootspire were beginning to change.
Corridors were closing. The main roots were contracting like massive muscles.
Mana was gathering inside the structure to seal or destroy the lowest levels.
The elevator stopped at the third level.
The door opened. Dozens of guards stood in the corridor ahead.
The front row had tall shields. Archers were positioned behind them.
Rootbound Wardens and a few Guards were also ready on both sides of the path.
Their commander hesitated for a moment upon seeing Tharos chained.
Lian leaned Aren against the wall inside the elevator, then looked at Tharos.
"Stay back."
"Are you going to defeat all of them alone?" Aren said.
"Still yes. At the same time, he’ll open those doors." Lian picked up the remaining chain from the ground and nodded toward Tharos.
"He’ll open those doors."
"Never." The prison head said with anger and gritted teeth.
The young Vorhelm pulled the chain around his wrist. Tharos was pulled forward.
"Then first I’ll separate your arm from your shoulder, and then I’ll place your own hand on the seals myself." Lian looked at his right hand.
Tharos stared at his face for a few seconds. His lie-detecting lens was broken.
But he didn’t need it. Lian’s expression showed he wasn’t joking.
"I’ll open the western door. Nothing more." And then he calmed himself and said.
"For now, that’s enough." Lian stepped out of the elevator.
"Release him right now!" the soldiers’ commander shouted.
"Come and get him." Lian wrapped the chain around his fist.
The shield line advanced, and the young Vorhelm also moved. His collision with the first shield was like the crash of two monsters.
Iron Fortress activated on his shoulder, and the shield bent.
The soldier behind it was thrown backward.
Lian entered the gap. He swung the chain from below, and the legs of two soldiers were lifted off the ground.
The archers released their arrows.
He picked up one of the fallen shields and held it in front of his body. The arrows hit its surface, creating small red explosions.
The shield cracked under the pressure. Lian threw it toward the archers.
The rear line scattered. A Rootbound Warden from the left attacked with a heavy axe.
Lian caught the strike with the chain. The axe and chain locked together for a moment.
He pulled the man toward himself and punched his stomach with his free fist.
The armor dented.
The Warden fell on his knee. The second strike hit the side of his head, and his body fell on the ground.
A wave of fire came from the right. Lian bent down on the ground, and the flame passed over his head.
He activated Thunder Step.
Blue lightning exploded among the soldiers. He appeared behind the first line. He wrapped the chain around two archers’ bodies and threw both of them together toward the wall.
Cassian, Marcus, and Ethan were located beyond these forces.
So Lian had no reason to stop. With every strike, a soldier fell, and with every step, the defensive line broke further.
Aren watched the scene from inside the elevator. Years ago, he had seen powerful people. Heroes from different regions. Warriors who could destroy cities.
But the monster in front of him... his method was very different from theirs...