Elder Huan listened to his explanation, and the more Julius explained, the less frustrated the man looked; instead, he appeared contemplative. Around halfway through his explanation, Elder Huan interrupted him.

“You said you were trapped inside a pit with these same ants?”

“Yeah, it was more like an interconnecting maze of tunnels, but yeah. They were all corrupted just like these ones are.”

Elder Huan tapped his chin, deep in thought. “That’s concerning. Okay, tell me the rest.”

Julius proceeded to tell him the rest of his adventure, about the tower and ants he saw, as well as the abyss where that chained ant had been. He wanted to hide some things, like his fight with the Tier 5, but he didn’t think he was hiding it very well.

Elder Huan looked like he knew that he was hiding something. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to press him for more information. Rather, he was more interested in the chained ant.

“What did it look like?”

“The queen?"

"No, the chain."

“I didn't have the chance to look at it closely. It felt like it was made of pure corruption. Why? Do you think that something purposefully corrupted these ants?” Julius asked with a sharp frown. That indication had passed through his mind, too, but he didn’t know if he was jumping the gun and making baseless assumptions.

Elder Huan’s brows furrowed. “I’m not sure. But the timing is auspicious. The barrier trapping us is not something you would see from normal monsters. Not even ones from the wastelands. Speaking of that, how did you manage to get through it? Is it only a barrier meant to trap people from the inside, but allows people to enter from the outside?”

“I’m not sure. I used a skill to get through, so I’m not sure. Have you tried to get through?”

“Yes, Elder Leon attempted to escape the barrier, and when that failed, he tried to break the barrier instead. Unfortunately, there are many Tier 5s in the area, so we can’t act. They seem fine with our Tier 4s fighting each other, but if a Tier 5 steps out of the array, they attack them immediately.”

“And the Tier 5s aren’t attacking our Tier 4s or the array directly?”

Elder Huan shook his head. “Not that we can tell.”

He pressed his lips together. “Weird. That Tier 5 that was chasing me didn’t follow me through the barrier either.”

“Yeah, there might be some kind of restriction in place that limits the interaction of tiers. It might be the reason why the barrier is so effective, using this as a tradeoff. The people from the Inferno Array Sect would know more. They might already be aware of this,” the older man stated.

The two of them suddenly turned when they felt a powerful explosion of mana and corruption by the edge of the array.

Then Julius felt a spatial ripple coming from behind him. His body was already in motion before his mind could grasp what was happening. Mana and aura collided together, reinforcing his body with such ferocity that he could feel his muscles tear apart.

[Calm Before Ruin] slowed down time as a construct was woven over his fist. It was a simple spike, made to be as hard and sturdy as possible. If that wasn’t enough, then it was covered with [Void Strike] and every ounce of his authority as it swung around toward his target.

However, instead of feeling the sensation of his knuckles crushing something, his arm was snatched out of the air by Elder Huan, no less. It was a good thing, too, because he hadn’t been attacking an enemy.

His fist was suspended less than a few inches from Elder Amara’s stunned expression. The only thing he heard was the sound of his own breathing and the sound of his mana and aura crackling around his body.

***

Elder Huan POV

He knew that something felt different about Julius. At first, he was worried that the boy had been infected by the corruption, but after talking to him and carefully inspecting him for signs of it, he was quite confident it wasn’t the case.

Julius was clearly hiding some things, but that was his right. He’d already learned some important information from him. One that would change how they dealt with this situation.

But then an explosion occurred, and he felt Amara come over to inform him of what had happened. Somehow, Julius also sensed faint ripples of spatial energy and reacted beyond his expectations.

An alarming amount of power surged through Julius’s body, and even more terrifying was the cold and deadly look in his eyes as he swung his arm behind him. There was so much power that it might have punched a hole in Amara’s head. He narrowly managed to grab hold of his arm before that could happen. The sharpened spike created on the end of his fist came to a halt mere inches away from Amara’s face.

There had been no thinking; it had been purely reactionary. It was the sort of thing that Huan had seen from veterans or soldiers fresh off the battlefield. People who were still too on edge, lashing out without a second of hesitation.

It was just like people who were still too wild and savage from their time fighting endless hordes of monsters. Julius left out a lot of details about his fights, but this reaction told him enough of what he went through this past week.

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Julius’s eyes were glowing bright red as rampaging energy flickered and expanded under his skin like the branches of an old elm tree. The energy was barely contained within his flesh, but somehow he was able to keep just enough control of it. A testament to his will and skill. His eyes were still cold, empty except for faint hints of destruction lurking just beneath the surface.

Huan was prepared to go the extra step in case Julius couldn’t bring himself out of this state of mind, but thankfully, he wasn’t required to. The boy slowly let the power fade away, bringing it back under his control, and the glowing red light in his eyes dimmed, slowly returning to their usual dark brown, almost black. The jagged branches of energy retracted, pale skin taking their place.

He let out a sigh and let go of his arm. Problem avoided.

Sadly, Amara didn’t take the attempted murder very well, which he supposed was a reasonable reaction.

“What in the nine hells was that?”

Julius, to his credit, didn’t try to make excuses. He simply bowed deeply. “Sorry!”

He intervened before Amara could take it too far. “He was reacting to your teleportation skill. He thought you were an enemy.”

She still appeared upset and glared at Julius, but she must have had important information because she looked away from the boy who had almost punched her head in. “The ants are making a move. They are actually trying to break the array this time around.”

He scrunched his eyes. “What’s with the change? They seem to be fine with wearing us down slowly. Why would they change things now?”

“Doesn’t matter, get everyone together. If you haven’t already, inform the Inferno Array Sect to start preparing our other plan.” He looked over at another side of the array, which was now under attack. He cursed internally. Even with the constant support of three Tier 5s, the array wouldn’t be able to handle much more.

But perhaps this wasn’t such a bad thing. They were already prepared to launch their own offensive, and this simply accelerated their plans.

He looked over at Julius and noticed the young boy didn’t look all that nervous. He was staring at the edges of the barrier with a contemplative expression.

“Julius,” he called out.

The boy turned, giving him his attention.

“We are going to have a long talk after this, but for now. I want you to go help the South squad. They will likely experience the heaviest fighting. Healer Gui is over there, too; he could use your help.”

Julius nodded, and before Huan could dismiss him, he was already flying toward the edge of the array.

All the while, the barrier surrounding them changed; he could feel the structure warp and fold in on itself. It had primarily been focused on containment, but that was changing. Not only that, but he could already feel the Tier 5s making a move.

Did they change it so that their Tier 5s could act more freely?

He didn’t know the answer and shook his head. They were outnumbered in every way. And the Tier 5s of the sect were preoccupied with keeping the disciples safe. Amara focused on support, so she would stay on the back lines, empowering the disciples fighting. Gui was a healer, and as powerful as the man might have been in a direct fight, he would be many times more useful as a healer. In fact, he might be the most important person here. With him, they actually stood a chance of making it out alive.

Gui wasn’t supposed to be here, but he was never more grateful for the man’s decision than now.

He felt Leon quickly approaching on his flying sword. The younger man was dressed in armor and ready to fight.

“Is it just going to be the two of us?”

He nodded. “Yes, unfortunately, that’s all we have.”

“We could get one of the other elders. The two of us against their Tier 5s is suicide.”

“Our job is to delay and to keep them from attacking our disciples and array directly. That’s all, killing them is secondary.”

It would be nice to get another Tier 5 to help them. Sadly, the elders from the Inferno Array Sect would be focused on the array and taking apart the barrier. They were also focused on keeping the corruption from killing or infecting their disciples.

They were under a lot of pressure and needed to balance the scales a little bit. Fortunately, whatever was happening to the barrier meant the annoying mana restriction was lifted. He could already feel the fire mana coming in droves, filling in the empty space where the barrier had stopped it.

He flew up high on his own flying sword. He reached the edge of the array and stepped out. Immediately, the corruption began to try to infect him. But his domain made short work of it. He could also feel the Tier 5 signatures take note of his movement.

He didn’t waste any time and started to expand his domain, using it to suck in all of the ambient fire mana. It barely needed any encouragement. It began flooding into his domain in waves. That was the nice part about being in the Scorched Wastelands: fire mana was never in short supply.

The Tier 5s knew something was going on, and he spotted many of them releasing techniques into the sky. He could have taken care of them himself, but he trusted that Leon would handle it. And that was what he did.

Leon deployed his own skill, and wisps of flames emerged from his body until a small storm of flames formed a ring around them. His red armor glimmered, and the ring of flames shot out, carving symbols into the air.

The attacks were still coming, but it was like they slammed into an invisible barrier. They halted mid-air and were burned into particles of fire mana, which Leon used to reinforce the ring around them.

Seeing that it was well in hand, he started to form one of his most powerful skills, [Cataclysm Blaze]. It was usually a very mana-intensive skill, but the environment made the cost minimal.

The mana swirled gently at first, twisting in gentle loops, sparkling beautifully. But it quickly increased in speed, the gentle swirls becoming a sharp spiral, sparking against each other. The heat was already rising to nearly unbearable levels for someone not Tier 5.

All the while, mana continued to get sucked in. He felt several wills try to interfere, but his grasp and command over fire mana was absolute. He didn’t let them disrupt his skill and allowed it to gain even more momentum.

It was now a twisting inferno around his body, and he let it expand. He wasn’t worried about Leon; the man’s resistance to fire might have been even greater than his own.

His flying sword was unable to withstand the heat, though. They were wonderful tools, but ultimately fragile things. But it had served its purpose. He had prepared everything he needed to.

And with a nod at Leon, he dropped out of the sky. He flooded his body with as much mana as possible, protecting his body with several layers of flames. His focus skill allowed him to split his mind several times. One mind was focused on the state of the disciples below, ensuring casualties and injuries stayed within expected ranges.

Another section of his mind was focused on maintaining [Cataclysm Blaze] and constantly expanding it with more mana.

The third was dedicated to his domain, ensuring these ants couldn’t break into it or disrupt it. He didn’t try to attack their own, simply defending his own.

The final was looking for the best place on the field to cause as much destruction as possible.

The ants tried to halt his dive, but their attempts were destroyed by his flames. It was like a meteor slammed into the ground. And anything close to it evaporated immediately, which included hundreds, if not thousands, of ants.