Kyle barely noticed any of this. During this entire time, he was busy fighting on the frontlines. He had already suspected that Commander Levinian had been a spy, but he hadn't seen how things had gone down inside Fort U-878.
The only things he saw were the two or three attempts that Commander Levinian had made to kill him before dying to Fort U-878.
'Was this on purpose?' he thought. 'Did Commander Meristo and Major Sovignor send me to Fort U-878, knowing that Commander Levinian was a double agent, or was I just unlucky?'
'I shouldn't think about that for now. Surviving the onslaught of the Divine Beasts is more important.'
The defenses solidified again, and even more people gathered. By now, the humans were outnumbering the Demons four to one, which was a good and stable ratio.
Usually, five Shields needed to work together to kill a Demon in the same Realm, but there were also elite teams with three members or talented individuals.
Additionally, the humans were much better in a group than Demons. The Shields knew how to fight in big groups, while Demons always fought alone. On top of that, it was important to highlight that the Demons were primarily trying to get to Kyle. Sure, if somebody attacked them, they would fight back, but they wouldn't initiate combat with a human who didn't directly stand in their way. After all, they wanted to kill Kyle, not the others.
This gave the Shields the advantage of the first strike during a battle. The presence of a Magnet had a major impact on the frontlines. Whenever a Magnet was present, the number of military deaths reduced by over 30%.
If a Magnet could be paired with a Decimator, the effect would be even greater. If a Decimator were very effective and fast, they could keep an area of 200,000 kilometers clean from enemies.
With ten million Magnets of Kyle's skill and 50 million Decimators, Humanity's military deaths would drop by over 70% since there were even more Crushers and Primals on the frontlines than Sages.
Sadly, both positions required someone to have a True Sin Aura, and resisting Sin Flames was not easy.
Humanity had several Legendary Sages, but there were not more than a hundred. These Legendary Sages had the willpower to resist Sin Flames and could theoretically work as Decimators or Magnets.
Yet, even if someone managed to become a Unique Sage, it didn't necessarily mean that they could operate normally while under the effects of Sin Flames. When a Fulfilled Sage went through the Sixth Refinement, they were usually writhing in pain. They wouldn't be able to fight or focus on anything else. To them, it was a battle of life and death that required all of their focus.
While the strongest of them could still move and do things during the Fifth Refinement, which was as painful as Sin Flames, they wouldn't be able to operate effectively or efficiently. They would not be very useful.
So, even though Humanity had trillions or quadrillions of Seekers working for them, they didn't even have a million people who could operate efficiently while under the effects of Sin Flames.
As Kyle watched the battles, he also saw the team of Sect Members leaving. They needed all five members to operate effectively, but two of them had been incapacitated by the Sin Flames.
Luckily, the team of Sect Members from Fort S-878 was replaced with the team from Fort U-878. For now, the Lieutenant General had assumed command of the Fort, but she would leave as soon as possible. Since she was currently the Commander, her lack of Karmic Luck also extended to her people. Due to her negative Karmic Luck, the orders she spoke had a higher likelihood of ending badly, just because of several instances of damaging coincidences.
Any Commander had to have at least a Minor Hero Aura.
Fortunately, it didn't take long for a replacement to arrive. Whenever a new Commander was needed, one of the powerful Spirit Lords of the Shields would assume the position. Usually, these Spirit Lords were fighting near the Y or Z Forts.
The new Commander arrived, and after just a couple of hours, they assumed full command.
The new Commander decided to keep things as they were since Kyle's presence kept the frontlines stable. This gave them enough time to get familiar with the other areas. After all, every Fort was responsible for a rectangular area that was around 40,000 kilometers wide and a billion kilometers long. Kyle was only protecting 0.1% of Fort U-878's territory.
Eventually, the fighting became expected and regular. The defenses around Kyle held firm, and a chain of command had been established. By now, every team around Kyle was under the command of Fort U-878. The teams from the other Forts had returned to their positions.
Kyle was in contact with the three Area Commanders who had been elected as temporary Chief Area Commanders for the duration of the mission.
Finally, things were stable enough that the defenses could allow Demons to pass through so that Kyle could battle as well. The decision of which Demon to let pass was simple yet effective. The different Area Commanders looked at approaching Demons and judged them based on four factors: Realm, size, Affinities, and position.
The Demon had to be an Early Sage Demon to be eligible. It had to be less than 20 kilometers tall. It couldn't have Fire, Darkness, Wind, or Lightning Affinities. Demons with these Affinities often had devastating area attacks, which could pull vulnerable people inside the Formation Arrays into the fight. The last criterion was position. If the Shields needed to move too many people to let a Demon pass, things could end badly.
If a Demon that fulfilled all of these criteria arrived, an Area Commander would send a quick message to all three of the Chief Area Commanders. They were in constant contact with Kyle, and they would only let a Demon pass if Kyle said that he was ready for his next opponent.
The three Chief Area Commanders would vote independently on whether or not to let the Demon pass. The Demon would only be allowed to pass if all three voted yes. This voting system made it impossible for more than one Demon to get past the defenses since no Chief Area Commander would vote yes twice in a row.
Soon enough, the first Demon was allowed to enter the defenses, and Kyle fought it.
When Kyle had been a New Sage, Early Sage Demons had acted as genuine True Battles. However, Kyle was a Minor Sage now. Early Sage Demons were still somewhat dangerous, and they still counted as tiny True Battles, but Kyle wouldn't die as long as he paid attention. It was a bit like a human who tried to subdue a venomous snake on open terrain. Yes, the snake was dangerous, but as long as the human was careful, the snake's teeth would never touch them.
Kyle killed one Early Sage Demon after another, practicing his techniques while trying to create his Refined Law. These Early Sage Demons were just the right targets for his practice. They were just weak enough that Kyle could afford to experiment with his strikes, but just strong enough to actually serve as realistic targets.
New Sage Demons would just fall over and die. Kyle might as well hit a metal dummy.
Mid Sage Demons were in genuine and brutal True Battle territory. He could not afford to experiment at all.
When the Area Commanders saw Kyle killing an Early Sage Demon on his own, they almost couldn't believe their eyes. Due to the disparity in Realm between humans and Divine Beasts, killing an Early Sage Demon as a Minor Sage was even more impressive than killing a New Sage Demon as a New Sage.
Peak Sage Demons were as powerful as Unique Sages. In terms of Realm, Peak Sage Demons could also be called Level Five Sage Demons, while Unique Sages were Level Six Sages. This was a difference of four levels and five levels, with the values of the lowest and highest level being identical.
In arbitrary numbers, one could say that a New Sage and a New Sage Demon had a power level of one, while a Unique Sage and a Peak Sage Demon had a power level of six. In that case, a Minor Sage would have a power level of two, while an Early Sage Demon had a power level of 2.25.
So, technically, Kyle was very slightly jumping a level against a Divine Beast, which was crazy to them. Only nurtured elites, working directly for Humanity, could rival this power.
Who was this guy?
tg://resolv?domain=StrongestHammerGod
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