By the time I made my way back, Knight was exactly where I had left him, leaning lightly against a piece of collapsed stone, his posture more relaxed now that the strain from earlier had faded, though his eyes lifted the moment I approached as if he had been tracking my return without moving.
"Did you finish them all?" he asked.
I adjusted the axe slightly on my shoulder as I came to a stop near him, the lingering energy in my body still settling after the last fight. "Yeah," I replied, my voice steady. "Let’s move."
He pushed himself off the stone but didn’t step forward immediately, his gaze shifting briefly across the empty street before returning to me. "Move?" he repeated. "We’re not taking over the city?"
I paused for a fraction, then nodded. "Right," I said. "We need to."
I opened the system, the interface responding instantly as I initiated the claim, and the effect followed just as quickly, a surge of golden light rising from the center of the city and expanding outward in a smooth arc until it formed a dome that covered everything within its boundaries.
[Influence Points +1000]
I glanced at the map, watching as the city’s marker shifted, its color turning the same gold as the safe zone I had established earlier, both now clearly linked under my control as part of the same expanding territory.
"All done," I said, closing the system as I looked back at Knight. "Let’s go. Lyrate should be arriving soon."
He gave a small nod, not questioning it further this time, and we moved without delay, leaving the ruined center behind as we headed out of the city, the golden barrier holding steady over Ture as we crossed its edge and stepped beyond it.
On the way we came across the previous small city I had ignored which was occupied by another alien race. We stopped outside it.
I glanced at Knight. "You want to take care of it? It’ll help you push your levels."
He looked at the barrier, then back at me. "You won’t participate?"
I let out a smile. "Of course I will. I’m not leaving all that to you." I shifted the axe slightly in my grip. "Now help me phase through."
He didn’t argue, just stepped closer and placed his hand on my shoulder again, the activation immediate as the world dulled and thinned around us, color draining just enough for the barrier to lose its solidity. We stepped through it cleanly, emerging inside near the outer edge of the city where the patrol presence was low.
The difference in atmosphere was immediate. This place carried something harsher, the air warmer, heavier, and filled with a faint heat that seemed to cling to the surroundings.
The people inside looked like beings from the demon race to me. Red skin, broad shoulders and slight heat clinging to their skin.
We didn’t wait.
I moved first, stepping forward into Radiant Drive as the distance between us and the nearest group collapsed instantly, the axe coming off my shoulder mid-motion as I closed in on the strongest presence within range, the one standing slightly apart from the others as if he didn’t need to rely on formation. He reacted fast, his hand coming up as flames surged outward to meet me, but I didn’t slow as I drove straight through it, the heat licking across my body without stopping the momentum as the blade came down in a clean arc.
The collision sent a burst of fire outward, but the force behind the strike pushed through it, breaking his stance and driving the axe into him before the flames could stabilize, the energy discharging as I followed through and carried the motion into the ground beneath him.
I pulled the weapon free in one motion, already turning toward the next presence as the first body hit the ground.
Behind me, Knight had moved as well.
He didn’t engage the same way, his body slipping in and out of solidity as he repositioned around the edges of the engagement, appearing where the enemies didn’t expect him and striking in short, precise bursts before fading again.
He wasn’t overpowering them, but he didn’t need to; his movement disrupted their coordination, forcing them to split their attention and creating openings that I used without hesitation.
We didn’t waste time once we were inside, the momentary stillness of the outer edge breaking as soon as the first group noticed us, and from there the fight spread quickly across the nearby streets as more of them joined in.
I focused on the stronger ones without hesitation, picking out the highest levels in each cluster and driving straight into them before they could properly coordinate, while Knight, having picked up a blade from one of the fallen early on, moved along the edges of the fight and handled the lower-level ones with quick, efficient strikes that relied more on positioning than force.
Their use of fire was constant and aggressive, streams and bursts coming from different angles as they tried to slow us down and box us in, and while the heat built quickly around us, it never reached a point where it could stop our movement.
Some of the attacks landed close enough to leave burns across my arms and shoulders, the skin tightening under the heat before settling again, but it didn’t affect my pace, and Knight took similar hits while phasing in and out to avoid the worst of it, his movements staying sharp even as the strain showed in brief moments.
Each engagement followed the same pattern, I broke through the strongest resistance first, cutting down the ones holding the formation together, and the moment they dropped the rest lost structure, making it easier for Knight to step in and finish them off while I moved ahead to the next group.
The streets shifted to scattered fights as they tried to regroup, but the pressure never gave them time to stabilize, and one after another the clusters collapsed under the combined pace we kept.
We didn’t chase blindly, just kept moving forward, clearing whatever stood in front of us until there was no one left in the area who could oppose us, leaving behind a trail of broken ground, fading heat, and bodies that marked the path we had taken through the city.
I took over the city right after that, adding another one of them to the defier safe zones.
[Level Up!]
[Level 91 -> 93]
[Combat Points + 400]
[Influence Points + 400]
"I don’t understand what we gain from taking over these cities right now when there’s no one to actually hold or manage them," Knight said as we kept moving toward the Billion Sanctuary.
"There has to be a reason," I replied, "The system doesn’t just hand out control like this without a purpose, and if it’s offering us cities this early, then there’s something tied to it we’re not seeing yet." I glanced ahead briefly before continuing, "Lyrate should know."
Knight let out a quiet chuckle."Alright then," he said, "now I’m actually looking forward to hearing what she has to say."