Kyle went on his way to Fort V-2550, which was quite a long way from Forward Base 198. Each fort controlled a billion kilometers of area, which meant Fort V-2550 was almost two trillion kilometers from Fort U-878. Since Kyle was now a Major Sage, he could teleport more frequently, increasing his speed.
By now, Kyle could teleport around 40 times per second, which meant that he could traverse about a million kilometers per second, as long as nobody interrupted his teleportation. Most likely, he would need about two million seconds to get to his destination, which was a bit more than three weeks.
The ability to teleport really made traveling much easier for Kyle. If he couldn't teleport, even with his incredible speed, Kyle would need over twenty times as much time to get to his destination.
"He most likely sent me to a Fort this far away to make it harder to track me," he thought. "At some point, the Demons will target me, but they also still have to find me."
After traveling for about three weeks, Kyle reached the frontlines again. This time, he was assigned to a Fort in the V-range. These forts mostly intercepted Medium Sage Demons and some Early Sage Demons.
When Kyle arrived, he noticed that Fort V-2550 was an ancient Fort. It still had incredible power, but Kyle felt like the Energies around the Fort lacked some kind of unique harmony. The Formation Arrays simply didn't feel as smooth.
He entered the Fort and stopped in front of the Commander, who was a smaller woman with black hair, carrying a long staff on her back.
"Black Sin Hammer 37, reporting," Kyle transmitted.
"Accepted," the Commander transmitted. "I am Commander Nezeth, and I will be issuing your orders."
The Commander looked at Kyle's Emblem for a moment. When she saw the information Major Sovignor had included, she felt uncertain. Some of these requests were unusual. For example, Major Sovignor requested that Kyle's Emblem not track what kind of Demons he killed, just the raw number.
"Black Sin Hammer 37, here are your orders: You will act as a Decimator for the entire operational range of Fort V-2550. Start the Fourth Refinement immediately and report your expected operational efficiency."
Kyle closed his eyes and pushed Energy into his mind to start the Fourth Refinement.
As expected, the pain was much worse than before. At this point, Kyle could feel the pain clearly, and it wasn't easy to ignore. Kyle felt like electric shocks were traveling throughout his mind in waves. They became stronger and weaker in an expected rhythm. In a way, one could say that this was worse than constant pain.
"The Fourth Refinement also influences the pain of my Sin Flames," Kyle thought with furrowed brows. "The pain of the Fourth Refinement mixes with the pain of my Sin Flames, and whenever it weakens, I feel like my Sin Flames are also becoming weaker, even though they don't. At the same time, when it becomes more intense, it also feels like my Sin Flames become worse."
"This is not as easy to deal with as expected," he thought.
Kyle needed some time to adapt to the new level of pain, but he managed to adapt in the end.
"I can still deal with this, but things might be different during the Fifth Refinement. I need to use the next millennium to plan for my Fifth Refinement!"
"Operational efficiency is at 98%," Kyle transmitted.
"You will fulfill your duties as Decimator until your advancement has been complete. Due to the information in your Emblem, your kill target has been put above the normal. Move out!" she transmitted.
Kyle flew out of Fort V-2550 without saying anything as he looked at his Emblem.
"1.5 trillion Demons again,"* Kyle thought. "That feels about right."
Based on the surrounding factors, Kyle's kill target was much lower than the last time he had worked as a Decimator. Back then, his shift had only encompassed a century, while this shift would continue for a millennium. At the same time, Kyle had also advanced twice, making it easier for him to kill a great number of weaker enemies.
Compared to a normal Major Sage Decimator, Kyle's target was only about three times higher.
As soon as he left the Fort, he started killing all of the weaker Demons. Even though he was already a Major Sage, Kyle still couldn't kill groups of New Sage Demons. At most, he could kill three of them at once before his Energy started to run low.
Commander Nezeth watched Kyle entering the frontlines and slightly shook her head.
She had no idea why they had sent a Major Sage Decimator to a Fort in the V-range. This was akin to sending the Decimator to their death.
Even the top-most elite of Humanity's Major Sages could just barely win against a Medium Sage Demon as Major Sages. Due to the different power discrepancies in levels, a Medium Sage Demon was technically half a level higher than a Major Sage. Beating a Divine Beast with a level disadvantage was almost impossible.
Yet, even if Black Sin Hammer 37 had this level of talent, it wouldn't make a difference. After all, the New and Early Sage Demons hadn't been filtered yet, and they would also be attracted by the True Sin Aura.
Even if he had the power to kill a Medium Sage Demon by himself, he would also have to defend against Initial and Early Sage Demons.
Commander Nezeth didn't know what Kyle had done to anger Humanity to this degree, but it was not her place to judge. She trusted her leaders.
As Commander Nezeth watched, her suspicions were quickly confirmed. She saw a Medium Sage Demon charging right towards Black Sin Hammer 37.
Black Sin Hammer 37 skillfully avoided the attacks while retreating towards a nearby group of Sages. The team noticed the Medium Sage Demon and supported the Decimator. Within a moment, the Demon was busy fighting the team, and Black Sin Hammer 37 didn't assist the team in their battle, but that was fine. It wasn't his job.
Commander Nezeth watched her new Decimator being besieged by two Early Sage Demons, and this time, the Decimator didn't flee.
He fought the two Early Sage Demons for a while and killed one just when another New Sage Demon joined the battle. After a bit, he killed the other Early Sage Demon, and two additional New Sage Demons joined. Luckily, he killed those three with relative ease.
"He's exceptionally talented," Commander Nezeth thought. "Not many people can deal with two Early Sage Demons at the same time. His substantial talent and Battle-Strength, together with his True Sin Aura, make him exceptionally valuable to Humanity."
"What did this guy do to anger Humanity to this degree? Humanity gives hard challenges to criminals, but they're not impossible to overcome. As long as the criminal shows enough growth and talent, they can redeem themselves by completing these challenges. Yet, the worse the criminal, the harder the challenge."
Commander Nezeth shook her head.
"This seems less like a challenge and more like a death sentence. He must have done something exceptionally horrible."
Due to the constant battles, teleporting became difficult for Kyle, resulting in a lowering of kill efficiency.
After over an hour of battling weaker Sage Demons and fleeing from Medium Sage Demons, Kyle left the area of Commander Nezeth's Energy Sense.
Starting at the Domain Realm, one's Energy Sense expanded rapidly. The Soul dictated how much information one received, while the mind dictated how much information could be processed. A Spirit Lord had gone through the Wisdom Fire Realm, which meant their minds had already been refined. At this point, the bottleneck regarding the size of one's Energy Sense was the Soul, and the Domain Realm was all about improving the Soul.
A new Spirit Lord already had an Energy Sense with a radius of a million kilometers. That was 40 times bigger than Kyle's Energy Sense.
Yet, in comparison to other Realms, the size of a Spirit Lord's Energy Sense also increased with every minor breakthrough.
The Commanders of the Forts were all Advanced Spirit Lords, and their Energy Senses had a radius of 16 million kilometers.
It had taken a while for Kyle to leave the Energy Sense of Commander Nezeth, but eventually, he succeeded.
After Kyle left the range of her Energy Sense, Commander Nezeth once more shook her head.
"I most likely won't see him again. He's been lucky so far, but it was clear that he was struggling."
Meanwhile, Kyle narrowed his eyes.
"This should be outside of her Energy Sense."
Then, he looked at an approaching Medium Sage Demon.
"Time to get serious."
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