The Second Advisor of Winterfire charged towards the Ether Essence.
As she approached, she saw a huge storm of Ether above it, the sign of someone trying to become a Transcendent.
Suddenly, she moved towards the right and stopped.
A tiny twinkle seemed to wash over the world beside her.
She narrowed her eyes.
Nothing seemed to have happened, but if one looked very closely, one could see that an unimaginably thin cut had bisected the ground beside her.
As she looked forward, she saw a floating man wearing a thin set of armor.
It didn't even look like normal armor. It looked more like this person was wearing a skin of metal.
In his hands, he carried a long and graceful sword, which reflected the light around it.
The Champion of Skysand.
This time was different from the last time.
Last time, the Skysand Kingdom hadn't defended their potential new Transcendent with another Transcendent.
Instead, they had opted to attack one of the Ether Essences on the central landmass.
As soon as the Second Advisor saw the Champion, she sent a message to the army of Winterfire.
Then, she charged towards the southwest without engaging the Champion.
Her trajectory was clear.
The second safe Ether Essence of the Skysand Kingdom.
Ether Essences couldn't be transported, but she didn't need to transport it.
She just needed to destroy it.
As the Second Advisor charged towards the southwest, the Champion was put in front of a difficult decision.
Should he remain here to defend the new Transcendent, or should he charge after her and defend the safe Ether Essence?
But then, if he charged after her, she would change her direction again and might manage to kill the new Transcendent.
He could only defend one thing.
Even worse, the advancement took a couple of minutes.
During these couple of minutes, if the Champion didn't follow the Second Advisor, the Second Advisor would cause much more damage to the Skysand Kingdom.
She would not only destroy the safe Ether Essence.
She would also destroy the Forthing's huge fortress, taking away all the ore inside.
During that time, she would also manage to travel to the World Peak and completely wipe out the backline, securing it for the Winterfire Kingdom.
In the end, the Champion decided to engage the Second Advisor.
As the two of them fought, their battle moved more towards the southwest.
Both of them knew what was happening. The Second Advisor was pulling the Champion away from the advancing Transcendent.
Yet, there was nothing the Champion could do about that.
The message the Second Advisor had sent to her army earlier reached them.
Within seconds, the way the Winterfire Kingdom fought changed drastically.
Their forces were redistributed on the central frontlines.
The contested Ether Essence in the southwest saw no battle around it.
Almost no soldiers were there.
Instead, a huge group of the most powerful Third Realm combatants rushed towards the eastern Ether Essence.
Almost all of the Advisors of the Skysand Kingdom stood in their way.
Armies of Master Golems and Monsters blocked their way.
Yet, the group from the Winterfire Kingdom was not weaker in any way.
Mountains broke and craters were created as the two sides fought.
The most devastating battle was happening between the Lieutenant General of the Skysand Kingdom and the General of the Winterfire Kingdom.
The Lieutenant General was a Peak Expert with an Aristocrat's Body.
He was the one person who could have fought the Chief.
He had been the most powerful person in the Third Realm in the Skysand Kingdom.
However, the General of the Winterfire Kingdom was just as powerful.
Both of them knew several Fragments, but they didn't know a Law.
The battle between the two of them was desperate, bitter, and destructive.
Luckily, the frontline was holding.
The Skysand Kingdom was losing a lot of people, and if this battle continued for several more minutes, they would definitely lose.
But by then, they would have their new Transcendent.
They just had to hold.
"You want some help?" the General of Winterfire heard in his mind.
"Stop asking stupid questions and follow your orders!" the General transmitted back.
"It's just fun to see you so desperate for a while," the voice said.
"Do your job!" the General transmitted desperately.
The Lieutenant General noticed that his opponent seemed strange.
Something was going on.
"Alright," the voice spoke calmly. "Watch this."
Suddenly, the Lieutenant General's eyes widened.
His hair stood on end, and he looked upward in horror.
Dark clouds suddenly appeared above him.
"What?" the Lieutenant General asked.
Meanwhile, the General of Winterfire retreated.
BANG!
At that moment, a storm of hundreds of lightning bolts shot through the cloud. It was like a solid sphere of lightning was covering the cloud all of a sudden!
Then, just as suddenly as it had started, the storm vanished.
Meanwhile, a man standing behind the soldiers from the Winterfire Kingdom just pointed at the distant Lieutenant General with a smirk.
"Boom," he said.
The Lieutenant General's eyes widened in absolute horror as his life passed by his eyes.
The world was bathed in light as an impossibly bright and wide streak of lightning connected the Lieutenant General to the dark cloud.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
The fighting stopped as the world shook.
A mountain exploded, leaving behind a humongous crater.
The Lieutenant General no longer existed.
The people of the Skysand Kingdom watched in horror.
Their most powerful combatant…
Had died just like that.
Then, everyone looked at the distant person, who had cast the Spell.
He was not a Transcendent. That was clear by how the Ether behaved around him.
As they looked at the man, they saw him smirk.
Then, five small balls of crackling lightning appeared around him.
He pointed at one of the Advisors.
BANG!
One of the balls turned into a lightning bolt, and the Advisor was turned to ash.
Terror washed over the combatants.
They knew what kind of person this was.
In a way, such a person was even more terrifying than a Transcendent.
It was someone in the Peak Third Realm who had comprehended a Law.
They were essentially unkillable by anyone who had not also comprehended a Law.
Yet, what made them even more terrifying than Transcendents was one thing.
This person was not affected by Karma.
This meant he could kill as many people as he wanted without any repercussions.
The man smirked as his finger waved over several fleeing people.
One of them was Selene.
'Eight targets but only four balls,' he thought.
He chuckled a bit.
'Eeny…'
'Meeny…'
'Miny…'
'Moe!'
BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!
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