Chapter 531: infiltration

As the beast crawled its way through the crack, Julius couldn’t help but notice how intense the creature’s aura was. He could feel the pressure tingling across his skin and weighing down on his own spirit. He knew right away that this creature was powerful.It was Tier 4 at the very least, maybe even stronger. He was sure of that. If that wasn’t bad enough, he got an ominous notification.

Notice: Infiltration detected…

Protection protocols have been damaged…

Warning: True death is a possibility.

His attention snapped to the message he received. He did not like what he read. Not one bit.

He had a feeling that this damage was caused by whatever field had attacked their souls. Perhaps it wasn’t even a soul attack in the first place, merely a byproduct of it. Whatever it was, Julius didn’t believe it was part of the realm’s trials or plan.

It was most likely an attack by another party or organization—someone who was playing dangerous games.

He grabbed his friends by the arms and started retreating farther from this creature. They were becoming more lucid, so it was easier.

Julius stared at where the creature was squeezing its shoulders out of the crack. Its face was jagged and completely black, as if made of pure darkness. Its red eyes were pulsing angrily as it roared.

Just the shockwaves from its roars were enough to stagger some of the nearby people who were only just recovering from the soul damage they received.

Everyone was in full panic. Some were smart and were already running. It would seem that he wasn’t the only one who had received that message. People were talking about it worriedly and for good reason.

This past week, they had been able to fight with confidence because death wasn’t actually real in this realm. However, from the sounds of it, that no longer applied, and it scared people.

The bad news was that they couldn’t run. One of the people who had a flying treasure was already far away, but Julius saw them slam into an invisible wall of some kind. There was a barrier around them.

Julius saw other people try to break through this barrier, but to no avail. People attempted to teleport, but either their skills didn’t work, or they would disappear, only to reappear with a cry of agony. It looked like they received some kind of backlash.

He and the others had already gotten to the barrier. They were all doing their best to try to figure out this barrier. He did his best to inspect the barrier and see if there was a way to break it.

He threw some powerful spikes of mana at the barrier. He even channeled a bit of fire mana through his crown, using the ruinous flames to enhance his constructs. But that was useless as well.

He had a feeling that might get through. The only thing that stopped him was the fear of leaving his friends behind. He did not have sufficient control to feel confident carrying all his friends through the barrier alongside him.

He never forgot how innately dangerous the skill was. There was a reason he had almost died several times trying to learn it. The chaotic void wasn’t a place meant for humans to live.

His Space Concept helped him survive better than most, but he didn’t have any qualms about his friends being able to survive similarly. He wanted to test out if he could exit in the first place, but he was also worried about it keeping him out the moment he left.

He had a feeling that this barrier’s primary function wasn’t to keep people in. That was only a single function of it. It was more likely that this barrier was meant to prevent individuals like Vailon, Kaelther, and Terradon from entering.

Julius stayed calm, though, and his mind started to race through the possibilities.

He was forced to turn his focus away from the barrier and to the monster who was already halfway through the crack. He came to a simple conclusion.

If push came to shove, he would have to deal with the threat himself.

He grinned slightly when he saw that he wasn’t the only person to have this idea. Many others were already throwing attacks at the creature with all their strength.

Isaac, the behemoth of a teen, was throwing himself at the monster. Julius watched as the ground completely shattered from the force of Isaac’s jump. A powerful, glowing white light appeared around the guy’s skin.

It was oppressive, and Julius found himself impressed despite the current chaos all around him. Isaac was fast. Extremely fast.

He disappeared from the ground and appeared in front of the massive creature in the blink of an eye. His fist was already crashing into the creature’s face with an earthshattering crash.

However, this only seemed to annoy the creature rather than injure it, and it roared out, showing its enormous fangs. Then its red eyes flashed once, and Julius watched with concern as Isaac was hit by a crimson beam and thrown aside, smashing into the ground. He produced a crater large enough to fit an elephant.

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He heard Isaac before he saw him. The guy's joyful laughter echoed through the area. He was covered in injuries, but to Julius’s shock, a flash of white light blasted outward from Isaac’s body, and his wounds were healed.

“God damn battle maniac,” Julius heard Riven mutter from behind.

“He can heal?” Julius asked the mage.

“Yep. The crazy bastard not only can heal, but he also absorbs mana to fuel his healing ability. It makes him a pain in the ass to fight,” Riven said with a look of disgust.

“It sounds like you have fought him,” Julius noted, looking at Isaac, who was already heading straight for the monster once more.

“Yeah, he challenged me earlier this year. My master thought it would be a good experience,” Riven said with a shudder.

“Was it not?”

“No, it was stupid. He fights with no real finesse and uses brute force for everything.”

“So you lost?”

Riven scoffed. “Of course not. As I said, he is a simple fighter, and he wasn’t able to even get close to me. With that being said, I wasn’t able to put him down either. His resilience and healing abilities are no joke.”

Julius leaned forward with a grin. Perhaps, Isaac would make for a great sparring partner after all.

Aubrey, who was feeling better, slapped him. “Are you seriously thinking about that kind of stuff now?”

He looked at her with astonishment. “What are you, Lily?”

She tilted her head upward. “No, but it doesn’t take a mindreader to know what’s going on inside that brain of yours.”

He didn’t bother to reply to her and instead looked back at the creature who had smashed Isaac into the ground once again.

At this point, the creature had already crawled out of the crack, and Julius got a good look at what they were facing. It was an ugly and monstrous-looking thing. It was huge as well.

It was well over fifty feet long and half as tall. It had six legs and was covered in thick scales. Large black spikes ran down its spine to its tail. The tail was enormous, too; it was practically as long as the creature itself.

Its aura was the real concern. From what Julius could tell, it was still Tier 4, thank god for that. But it was a powerful Tier 4. Terrifyingly strong.

“What the hell is that thing?” Aubrey asked with a tinge of nervousness.

“I think it's a chimera,” Riven noted with worry.

“What makes you say that?” Aubrey asked.

“Look at its aura. It’s unnaturally strong and feels like an amalgamation of various aspects,” Riven pointed out.

Now that he had mentioned that, Julius noticed that as well. The creature’s aura was strong, but it felt mismatched. It was almost as if he were observing multiple creatures rather than a single one.

“Is that a good thing?” Edgar asked optimistically.

Riven shut down that optimism right away.

“No, it is very much a bad thing. Chimeras are nightmares, and from the looks of it, this thing is not an exception,” he said to Edgar, and Julius felt an enormous amount of mana begin to flood into Riven.

However, Riven wasn’t the only one who was gathering mana. Julius’s eyes widened when he sensed an even larger gathering of mana coming from the chimera.

The large spikes on its body started to release a dangerous red glow. His danger senses were blaring, and he threw up every protection he could think of around him and his friends.

It was a good thing that he did too, because a sphere of red beam of concentrated light exploded out from the chimera's mouth. The force of the beam was so strong that it ripped apart the ground as it tore across towards Isaac, who was once again attacking the beast head-on.

The unfortunate people who were in the way were vaporized. Then the beam slammed into Isaac, who, to Julius’s surprise, didn’t make any effort to dodge it. Perhaps it was the ability to absorb mana that gave him confidence, but the ginormous teen stood resolute and took the beam straight on.

Julius wished he could say he was shocked when Isaac was blasted a hundred feet into the air. His body was mutilated by the beam of concentrated light and was sent flying off into the distance. For the first time since the fight started, Isaac was unmoving and silent.

Apparently, Isaac couldn’t absorb all the mana. Or perhaps the attack from the chimera didn’t use just mana. It might have been like Julius’s constructs, which used properties of aura to bolster his attacks.

“He’ll be fine,” Riven said unconvincingly.

Julius wasn’t worried about Isaac. He had a feeling that the boisterous guy would be harder to keep down than that. He was more concerned about his friends, and so when he saw the monster charging for another attack, he was already flooding his body with kinetic energy. He was about to teleport right next to the beast when he spotted something dark covering the sun overhead.

He squinted upwards and saw dozens of swords of various sizes all hovering over the beast. All of them were shimmering with golden light, and Julius couldn’t help but shiver when he felt multiple powerful Concepts of Sharpness all converge on these swords.

He didn’t like to admit it, but he had a feeling that these Sharpness Concepts were stronger than his own, or at the very least, rivaled them. More importantly, these Concepts fed off each other with immaculate synergy. It was quite marvelous to watch, and he found himself grinning when he saw these swords descend from the sky with the wrath of a god.

The golden swords slammed into the shell of the chimera, and to the relief of everyone stuck inside the barrier, they were able to pierce the monster’s scales.

The monster cried out in pain and used its tail to smash the swords from its back. Then, with another roar and spike of mana, these spikes were shot out from their respective wounds in all directions.

Thankfully, they faded into particles of light before they could land on someone.

However, Julius wasn’t focused on that. He was more focused on the regenerating tissue he saw from the chimera. The large wounds inflicted by the swords were healing at an alarming rate.

“Ah, we are so fucked,” Julius heard one person mutter softly.

He heard Riven and many others curse loudly in the background. He didn’t curse out loud, but on the inside, he was a lot more worried.

Defeating a Tier 4 monster was already hard when you were Tier 3.

But defeating a beast that strong and one that could regenerate its wounds? That was so unfair. What kind of monster should be allowed to do that? He must have said that last part out loud because he got a weird look from his friends. He pointedly ignored them.