The next moment, EsGod teleported right into the battlefield of the ten Beyond Grade As. As soon as he appeared, everyone’s expression changed drastically.
Milizaus’ side felt much more pressure. EsGod had arrived so quickly; it had not even been five minutes yet.
The Beyond Grade As of the Arcane Church were also alarmed except one—Psyker who was bombarding the Palace of Hidden Spells with his psychic energy. All seven of his eyes opened wide; he was stunned.
“Why are you here‽”
Due to the hatred born from what happened on Planet Avitan, the Arcane Church had hidden EsGod’s involvement in this from him. Seeing that his mortal enemy had appeared, Psyker was furious.
EsGod turned to look at him and smiled faintly, which equated to provocation in Psyker’s eyes.
“Calm down,” Sagman said with a deep voice in their psychic communication channel. “EsGod is our temporary ally.”
Psyker was shocked. His tone became cold. “So, you guys all knew about this?”
The other five kept silent. This was an order from the Arcane Church, but it was indeed not honorable to hide this information together from their ally.
“Dylan, you knew about this too?” Psyker snorted.
“Sorry, I only knew moments before departure…”
Dylan did not want to face the questioning from his good friend, so he vented his unhappiness in his attacks. He closed his palms and aimed at the Palace of Hidden Spells. Water streams flowed around his arm, turning into high energy beams under the effect of his Esper Ability and shot out at the Palace of Hidden Spells.
“Psyker,” Sagman said, “the mission is more important.”
With gloomy eyes, Psyker decided not to even look at EsGod and focused on attacking.
The middle of a battle was no time to look for revenge. He had to think of his race, so he could not mess up the Arcane Church’s plan at such a crucial moment. Therefore, he had no choice but to endure it.
Seeing this, EsGod took his eyes off Psyker, too. Truth to be told, although Psyker was someone significant in the entire universe, he was nothing worth noting to him—those Beyond Grade As he had killed in the past were no weaker than Psyker.
Among all the Beyond Grade As here, only Milizaus and Sagman were worth paying attention to in his eyes. As for Austin, he had only heard of his name but never had any contact with him.
Milizaus was the only one who had killed a Beyond Grade A before like him. EsGod had fought with this old dragon many times and knew how strong he was. Therefore, when he saw Milizaus’ wounds, shock flashed through his eyes.
“That wound came from just one attack. The Arcane Church definitely used some kind of special weapon, or he would not have been wounded this heavily so quickly.” EsGod narrowed his eyes and increased his caution of the Arcane Church.
However, at the moment, he was still on the same side as the Arcane Church. He observed the battlefield and could not find Black Star and his army. Confused, he connected with Sagman’s mind and asked, “Black Star isn’t here. Have you guys let him escape?”
Sagman shot out a pale gold impact wave that penetrated Milizaus’ magic defenses and exploded on his back, tearing off a huge portion of his flesh and scales. He then replied with a deep voice, “Black Star has exited the battle and hidden in the Palace of Hidden Spells. No idea what he’s trying to pull.”
“He’s hiding?” EsGod paused and asked, “Has the Evolution Cube been confirmed to be on him?”
“Yes, he took it out and used it earlier.”
“Okay.” EsGod nodded. The next moment, he teleported right above the Palace of Hidden Spells and stepped on the surface of the defense spell. The flow of magic from the spell did not affect him at all.
Austin, who was sitting atop the Palace of Hidden Spells, looked up and saw EsGod. The two of them were separated by thick layers of defense magic arrays.
Austin’s eyes became focused. He opened his arms, and the dozens of magic books around him started flipping their own pages.
Swoosh!
As the pages of those books turned, colorful magic runes appeared from within and quickly landed on the Palace of Hidden Spells. They then teleported into the control core of the Palace of Hidden Spells—this was how the Palace of Hidden Spells was operated.
The next moment, the arrays within a thousand meters under EsGod’s feet suddenly changed color. Magic energy turned violent, and a magic impact wave shot up from below EsGod like a fountain and devoured him.
As Austin looked up to observe the result of this attack, a stranger’s voice appeared behind his ears. The voice was like a thunder in his mind.
“The Magus, Austin. I see, you’re not too bad.”
Out of nowhere, EsGod suddenly stood behind him. Using Energy Reflection, Plasma Body, Dimension Crack, and Teleportation simultaneously, he directly passed through the defense array of the Palace of Hidden Spells, which the six of the Arcane Church Beyond Grade As had failed to penetrate for a long time! EsGod’s strength did not just come from his raw power. What was more horrifying was the variety of Esper abilities he had.
“Sh*t!” Austin was shocked. Although there were also tons of defense measures inside the Palace of Hidden Spells, they were not as strong as the exterior defense array. Now that EsGod had slipped in, he would not be able to stop him from destroying the Palace of Hidden Spells from the inside!
Boom!
Austin’s defense spell was shattered by EsGod with just one kick enhanced by [Strength Esper Ability—Star Toss], and his tiny body was blasted away like a cannon.
The red robe Mages around Austin hastily cast spells, trying to stop EsGod. However, the next moment, their bodies started crumbling and turned to dust one after another.
Seeing the strange way their comrades had died, the Mages further away were all stunned. They backed away in a panic having seen their own body started showing signs of turning into dust too and did not dare get close to EsGod.
EsGod lowered his hand and looked satisfied. The Esper Ability he used indeed came from Ember. It was a god-tier area-of-effect Esper Ability when used on targets weaker than himself.
Then, EsGod activated a sensing Esper Ability and scanned the entire Palace of Hidden Spells in an instant.
To his shock, he did not sense the energy presence of Han Xiao. His senses were blocked by the Spacetime Amber.
This made him frown.
“Where did he go… hmm?”
Austin regained his balance far away. He would not be so easily wounded by EsGod. Remembering his mission of stalling for the time, he instantly struck back and disrupted EsGod.
Bang bang bang!
The two of them fought within the Palace of Hidden Spells, and the aftershock shattered the buildings around them.
Although Austin was no match for EsGod, he could go all out to stall him for some time at the very least. However, the wounds on his body grew rapidly, and he had no time to even control the Palace of Hidden Spells.
Without Austin’s control, the Palace of Hidden Spells’ responses became slow and faced even more intense focus fire. Although the surviving red robe Mages were doing their very best to control it, they had no chance of hanging on against the attacks of so many Beyond Grade As.
Kaching!
The defense array was broken one layer after another and finally reached its limits, shattering into pieces. A huge hole appeared on the defense barrier of the Palace of Hidden Spells and emitted a strong suction force. The space inside the Palace of Hidden Spells was a sealed space, and the air inside was all sucked out.
“Finally!”
Sagman rushed in hastily, worrying that EsGod might snatch the Evolution Cube before him.
At this time, before everyone could observe the situation, a familiar energy impact gushed out from within the Palace of Hidden Spells!
A tower inside the Palace of Hidden Spells suddenly exploded. A man dashed out, and a fist expanded rapidly in EsGod’s sights!
Bang!
The fist crashed into EsGod’s arm. The enormous impact penetrated his body and formed an air cannon behind him, which exploded on the inside of the defense array, stirring up a violent tornado.
This man was indeed Han Xiao. As his fist pressed against EsGod’s arm, their energy clashed time after time.
Feeling the astonishing amount of power from his arms, EsGod’s brows raised slightly.
“Compared to the last time we fought, you’ve become much stronger.”
The last time he fought with Black Star in the Central Galaxy, he had an overwhelming upper hand. However, the energy level that Black Star was now showing made him uncontrollably shocked—Black Star’s improvement was too obvious.
What he did not know was, the last time they fought, Han Xiao had only been level 240 and was just on the doorstep of Beyond Grade A. Now, Han Xiao was level 260 and much stronger. Han Xiao had yet to go through Promotion at this moment.
However, he had completed the Promotion Mission, and he could claim the reward anytime!
“That was close.”
As Han Xiao clashed with EsGod, he felt relieved in his heart. EsGod’s early arrival had caused the situation to worsen tremendously, but luckily, this guy had spent some time observing the situation and then was stalled by Austin with everything he had. Because of all that, he was able to stay out of battle for enough time.
At a close distance with EsGod, Han Xiao had hesitated for a moment and suppressed his impulse to use [EsGod Character Summon Card—Esper Silence].
Although he could carry out his Promotion at any time, the level difference between him and EsGod was still there. The effect of Esper Silence relied on the two sides’ levels, energy, and Luck. If the duration was too short, the damage he could deal to EsGod would be limited.
The six Beyond Grade As of the Arcane Church were not scarecrows. Although EsGod and the Arcane Church were both cautious of each other, Sagman and the others would not be so shortsighted as to watch their external helper get heavily wounded. They would protect EsGod even if they were reluctant. In this situation, using this Character Summon Card would only waste it.
Knowing that, Han Xiao once again opened his secondary dimensional army box and released his mechanical army once more.
As Mechanical Force gushed out like lightning to enhance his mechanical army, Han Xiao directly opened the interface while still battling with EsGod.
Promotion!
_____________________
Lv260 Promotion Mission completed!
+45 END Bonus!
1 END = 355 Health = 365 Stamina
_____________________
In an instant, his cells underwent a drastic change. Immense agony exploded in his body and shocked every single one of his nerves.
Every Promotion required time to complete; they were not instant. Luckily, Han Xiao had gotten used to such pain by now. Furthermore, as a Mechanic, most of the time, he relied on his machinery to battle, so he could endure it.
EsGod’s sharp senses noticed Han Xiao’s change, and his pupils constricted.
This guy’s energy is increasing during battle‽
The other Beyond Grade As noticed the strange situation and were equally shocked—they were not strangers to this situation. This was the ascension in life hierarchy!
“This is what this guy meant?”
Austin was stunned. He did not expect Han Xiao to mean the ascension in life hierarchy when he said that he could increase his strength.
Every Beyond Grade As had experienced this type of ascension in life hierarchy multiple times in their lives, but the process was slow and ongoing for them. Some even required decades to complete. However, ascending amid battle and compressing the evolution process of many years into such a short period was something that they had never ever seen in their lives!
“Could this be the reason Black Star broke the record of becoming a Beyond Grade A in the shortest time? Is this his special talent?”
They were bewildered and made their guesses.
As a notification popped up, Han Xiao quickly selected the options of Race Evolution and added some talents into the Black Star Race traits.
He was only able to hastily scan through the new talents and abilities during battle. He was already distracted by the pain and had no room to be distracted even more. He barely maintained his focus and continued to fight.
As the strength of Han Xiao’s mechanical army increased visibly, the pressure he felt was reduced. He felt a little less worried.
Han Xiao was not hoping to turn the situation entirely around with just this Promotion, as they were fighting four against seven, including EsGod, who made the situation much worse.
He wanted to do the Promotion to increase the combined strength on their side so that they could stall for as long as possible. With such a wide strength difference, if the enemy did not show any flaws, there was absolutely no way to kill any one of the enemies head-on.
Han Xiao knew this very well and would not lose his cool due to his sudden surge of strength. Arrogance did not exist in his books.
In such a dangerous situation, there was no room to mess around.
Austin’s Palace of Hidden Spells was heavily damaged, and Milizaus was not in a good state either. When Han Xiao returned to the battlefield, he had no choice but to take on the task of being the tank and guard against attacks for his teammates.
The Promotion made him visibly stronger. Together with the Aurora Character Summon Card that he had saved for many years, Han Xiao was able to take on about half of all the enemy attacks.
Although the situation was passive, they could hang on for the time being.
…
Compared to the main battlefield, the battlefield between the Beyond Grade As was tiny. While they were fighting, the situation on the main battlefield changed as well. Planet Lighthouse’s exterior fleets returned one after another, and the situation became stable.
However, with the entrance of the Fallen Ark fleet, Tarrokov’s fleet was surrounded, and they were in a passive situation again.
The garrison of Planet Lighthouse were being slowly chipped away bit by bit. With a grave expression, Tarrokov never took off his eyes from the 3D mini-map of the battlefield. He quickly gave out orders one after another, doing everything he could to slow down the rate of his troops’ death.
He took a moment and glanced at the situation of the Beyond Grade A battle. That made him somewhat relieved. Luckily, Black Star and the others were holding their own against the enemy Beyond Grade As, otherwise things would have been tremendously worse.
Despite the fact that the battle between the Beyond Grade As were the enemies’ focus and had the highest possibility of suffering an overwhelming loss, they somehow barely held on. Although Tarrokov was not a Beyond Grade A, he could imagine how much pressure Black Star and the others were under.
Tarrokov clenched his teeth and yelled, “Where are the reinforcements? When will they arrive at the stargate entrance?”
The deputy hastily looked at the messages, covered in sweat. He suddenly yelled, “Chief commander, the reinforcements sent by the two closest strongholds have already arrived at the stargate entrance. The border stronghold reinforcements of the Garu, Renault, and Crown Star Clusters have already gathered a total force of more than three million battleships. Also, Their Excellencies Maximiler, Heber, and Ravenlaude are almost in position!”
The reinforcements were finally arriving!
Tarrokov’s eyes became bright. “Engineering team, assemble the stargate immediately! Reactivate the tunnel and let the reinforcements in!”
The dynasty’s fleet changed formation immediately, using the fleet as the line of defense to assemble the portable stargate in the middle of the formation.
The commander of the Arcane Church saw this and was not happy. The resistance the dynasty’s fleet had shown was much stronger than expected. Under the command of Tarrokov, an experienced commander, the defense army of Planet Lighthouse had fought extremely hard and rebounded time after time. Many times, the Arcane Church thought the dynasty’s fleet was about to collapse, yet they still hung on.
The situation was the same on the Beyond Grade A battlefield; the four Dynasty Beyond Grade As were too tenacious.
He immediately contacted Sagman. “We can’t let the dynasty’s fleet assemble the stargate. You guys restrain the enemy Beyond Grade As and send one or two of you to cut into the dynasty’s formation and destroy their stargate!”
Sagman looked at Black Star, who was very much alive even after receiving a ton of attacks. Unwilling, he clenched his teeth and made the decision.
“Mercer, you and Dylan go to destroy the dynasty’s stargate. The rest of us will stay here to restrain the four of them!”
The two Mages had to deal with the Palace of Hidden Spells and could not be separated. Psyker had to sense the Evolution Cube and had to be here. Sagman had to stay there to restrain Milizaus and EsGod. Therefore, he could only send Mercer and Dylan.
Sagman had originally wanted to quickly eliminate the three of them, but Austin had suddenly appeared, and even the Ten Thousand Deity Scepter had been sealed. At this moment, he no longer had the confidence to quickly defeat the opponents.
Since the battle would not be ending soon, destroying the dynasty’s stargate became a more important mission.
Mercer and Dylan nodded and immediately left the battlefield to head to the dynasty’s fleet.
With two opponents leaving, Han Xiao and the others faced much less pressure. However, they were not relieved at all. Only the reinforcements would be able to turn the situation around. They could not let the enemies destroy the stargate no matter what.
“This is the key to winning…”
This thought appeared on everyone’s mind.
Han Xiao’s energy clashed with EsGod another time. His mechanical suit shattered, and he instantly donned his seventh backup mechanical suit. He then turned to look at Mercer and Dylan, who were getting further away. A sharp glint flashed through his eyes.
“Someone finally split off!”
