Chapter 528: There’s No Escape!

The massive blue fireball shot toward the rooftop, its terrifying energy spreading across the area as it approached the gathered guild members.

BOOM!

The explosion engulfed the rooftop in a storm of blue flames, shaking the entire building as the attack tore through the area.

Most of the guild members managed to react in time and attempted to escape the blast, but four of them were caught within its range before they could get away.

"Hah!" Cavin laughed as he watched the explosion. "Once again, you prove how foolish you are! You can’t harm us with an attack like that, especially after the power we’ve received!"

However, his laughter abruptly stopped when a notification appeared beside him.

The other surviving members of the Requiem Guild also noticed the message, and their expressions changed as they realized something had gone terribly wrong.

"Wait, what?"

"But how?"

When the smoke finally began to dissipate, the truth became impossible to ignore.

The only things left from the explosion were the corpses of the four Requiem Guild members who had been caught in the blast.

The remaining guild members stared at the scene, struggling to understand how their companions could have died so quickly despite their newly enhanced power.

Ding!

[+4 Slaughter Meter.]

Leon glanced at the notification before looking back at Cavin, a satisfied smile spreading across his face.

"Only twenty left," he remarked casually. "Looks like your souls weren’t strong enough."

Although the four victims had become considerably stronger after receiving the blessing, their souls had still failed to withstand the full force of [Cataclysmic Soul Fireball].

Leon also realized something important from the result.

If their souls had been fully strengthened, they might have possessed enough resistance to survive the attack.

However, the fact that four of them had died so quickly suggested that their souls had not reached the max, regardless of how much the God of Souls had enhanced them.

The moment the surviving members understood what had happened, their expressions twisted with rage.

Even Cavin, who had been laughing only moments earlier, clenched his teeth as he stared at the four corpses.

The only one that seemed unbothered was Empress.

They had believed that their newfound strength would allow them to crush Leon and his companions without difficulty.

Instead, their first exchange had ended with four of their members dead.

Without hesitation, the remaining members beside Cavin and Empress rushed toward Leon and the three girls, their anger overcoming whatever caution they might have possessed.

Leon tightened his grip on his sword as he watched them approach, while Celeste, Violet, and Emilia prepared to meet the incoming attack.

Time Stop!

As time stopped, Leon quickly rushed toward Celeste, Emilia, and Violet, grabbed them, and used his nearest Abyss Teleportation rift to escape the incoming attack.

BOOM!

A massive impact erupted at the spot where the Requiem Guild members had attacked, leaving the ground severely damaged.

When they realized Leon and the girls had avoided their assault, their expressions darkened with anger.

Cavin narrowed his eyes as he watched Leon reappear around fifty meters away with his companions.

’Good thing I set that thing up in case they used another one of their beams.’

"Be careful. Don’t try to attack the human’s soul anymore. It’s too powerful, so focus on killing the girls instead. Once they’re dead, we’ll overwhelm him with our numbers."

Following his orders, the Requiem Guild members immediately charged forward again, with several of them rushing toward each girl.

After receiving their recent power boost, they believed they could easily deal with Leon’s companions and eliminate them before he had a chance to interfere.

However, Violet and Emilia quickly demonstrated that they wouldn’t be easy targets.

Violet swung her rapier, releasing a wave of freezing energy that spread across the ground and formed a massive wall of ice in front of her attackers.

Several guild members were forced to stop, while those who continued forward immediately struck the frozen barrier, causing cracks to spread across its surface.

At the same time, Emilia activated [Bone Shuffle], summoning hundreds of sharp bone spikes from the ground.

One of the approaching members failed to dodge in time, and a spike pierced his arm, causing blood to pour from the wound.

"ARGH!" he groaned, clutching his injured arm. "Damn it!"

While the two girls managed to hold back their attackers, Celeste found herself surrounded by five Requiem Guild members.

They attacked her from different directions, leaving her little room to escape.

Leon immediately prepared to rush to her defense, but before he could reach her, dark flames erupted around Celeste.

She unleashed the flames toward her attackers.

Fwoosh!

They struck the five Requiem Guild members surrounding Celeste.

Since she had activated her [Darkness Ember], the attack targeted their souls rather than merely damaging their bodies.

The results were immediate.

Three members collapsed to the ground, their souls destroyed by the flames, while the other two staggered backward in terror.

One of them dropped to his knees, trembling as he struggled to recover from the damage inflicted on his soul.

"B-Be careful!" he shouted, his voice shaking. "T-The phoenix girl can use soul attacks! She just killed Draven, Kross, and Veyra!"

’Wow, I almost forgot they had names,’ Leon thought, ’Oh well, they brought this on themselves.’

His warning immediately caught the attention of the remaining guild members.

They had already lost four comrades to Leon’s previous attack, and now Celeste had killed three more with a single ability.

Before they could react, another furious shout rang out.

"Fuck it! I don’t care anymore!"

The member with mechanical limbs, who had already been killed by Emilia earlier, roared in anger.

He had finally lost his patience and no longer wanted to risk his life fighting Leon and his companions.

He immediately attempted to leave Higher Domain #1 and ascend to the Eternal Battlefield.

The risk of continuing this battle had become far too great, and he would rather escape than suffer the same fate as his fallen comrades.

Several other members quickly reached the same conclusion and began preparing to leave as well.

"Are you serious?" Cavin asked coldly, glaring at them. "Truly pathetic. One small problem, and you’re already backing away?"

"One small problem?!" one of them shouted. "They’ve fucking killed seven of us! At this point, fighting them is just stupid, even if we somehow manage to kill them!"

Only Cavin, Empress, Granite, Mortis, the twins Blaze and Ember, and Yanzi remained willing to continue fighting.

The others immediately attempted to ascend to the Eternal Battlefield, hoping to escape the battle before losing any more of their members.

[Do you wish to ascend to the "Eternal Battlefield"?]

"Yes!" they answered almost simultaneously. "We’ll see you guys up there! Taking this risk is useless!"

However, before they could leave, a notification appeared.

Beep!

[You cannot do that while in battle.]

The guild members froze as they read the message, realizing that they could no longer escape through the system.

"Idiots," Cavin said, shaking his head. "If you wanted to desert, you should have done it before attacking them, or simply not attacked in the first place."

Their anger after Leon’s previous attack had led them to rush into battle without considering the consequences.

Now that they had engaged Leon and his companions, the system prevented them from ascending to the Eternal Battlefield until the fight was over.

Did... the human do it on purpose?

All they could see was Leon’s smile on his face as he spoke, "None of you will escape."

...

A/N

Had four difficult exams this week so no Chapter yesterday, will resume as normal :)!