28th September, Year 714 A.G.

[06:34am]

The night was gone and the darkness was gone, giving way to the dim lighting that Leon already became used to for the past 4 months, drenching the world in a state of perpetual evening due to the distant neon storms in the sky.

Laying on the ground, wheezing, still bloodied all over and in a world of pain, he looked at the distant battle between Ren Nora and Sylvari.

’I-it’s my fault,’ Leon gritted his teeth.

’I was too arrogant’. He clenched his fists but even that simple action put him in a whole world of pain, his entire body was aching.

It was a miracle that he was still conscious.

At this moment, despite his current pain, his greatest fear was Director-Prime Epsilon and Murphy both making an appearance to gang up on Ren Nora.

He gritted his teeth. ’F*ck, I messed up!’

But reality didn’t care about his feelings.

Beyond where he sat on the ground, in the backdrop of one of the biggest Megacities in the world, the battle raged for over 20 minutes, and finally, a clear winner started emerging after 20 minutes of non-stop violence.

By now, the damage no longer just spread across a few kilometers.

By now, the terrain across dozens of kilometers already terraformed into the ruin of some ancient battle.

The only reason why Leon was not affected was because despite the harrowing intensity of the battle, Ren Nora still consciously guided it away from where Leon was and towards the distant Megacity.

This is why the Federation Army was mobilized in the first place.

As for the battle itself...

C Rank Ascended are C Rank Ascended.

In the hierarchy of Ascended in the world, these were the people who stood on top of the world. They wielded the most power in the world, each one of them a singular existence, but in the end the power of each Ascended is different due to different Classes and Class Specializations.

It was just like Leon managed to survive the battle against General Sylvari for 1 minute without much injuries to his body while he suffered so many injuries and almost died to a D Rank Fluxmancer.

In the world of Ascended, life and death in Ascended battle is decided by Class matchup most times.

And in the grand scheme of things, NetRunners were never suited for an open battle like this even at C Rank.

In a more conventional setting, NetRunners were the Assassins of the Ascended world. They preferred moving with stealth through the psionic network.

At C Rank, the gulf between different specialties of Ascended from different Class and Class Specializations increase even more and become more apparent.

It already started from D Rank but at C Rank, Ascended truly become specialists of their domain.

It’s no longer about abilities alone, but rather about the domain of their Class and Class Specialization.

Just like Fluxmancers are masters of dreams, C Rank NetRunners of the Mindbreaker Specialization are masters of the mind, mental manipulation and mental attack. That is their forte.

If a C Rank Neural Tyrant is able to lay a successful ambush on an enemy, they’re the most lethal Ascended in the whole world because they can turn any enemy and target into their minion.

No enemy can escape a well-timed ambush of a C Rank Neural Tyrant, and Leon was 100% guaranteed as the General’s next prey till the ChronoSystem intervened.

Without Stalwart, he would already be dead, or even worse he would be a puppet of the General already.

And just like Neural Tyrants and Fluxmancers, each Class have their specialty.

C Rank Gene Augurs have enough endurance and ADE to continue fighting a harrowing head-on battle of this intensity for days if not weeks!

But C Rank NetRunners simply didn’t have this endurance and ADE, but they make up for this deficiency in other ways.

The core ability of a C Rank Neural Tyrant is Neural Tyrant.

And as a Neural Tyrant who’d been practicing his trade for centuries, fighting Neon Beasts for centuries, General Sylvari had a Beast Menagerie of thousands of Neon Beasts that he’d been subjugating and training for centuries.

Not just D Rank Neon Beasts, there were even a few C Rank Neon Beasts in his Menagerie.

This was the true depths and reserves of his power.

His Beast Menagerie resided at the heart and Capital Megacity of the Omnicore Federation, Spire Prime.

The reason why he didn’t factor his Menagerie into his planning and this battle today was because he expected to have dealt with his target already by the time Ren Nora arrived. That was why he took so long before he attacked.

And besides, the brat was just a D Rank Ascended. It should have gone perfectly like he planned.

But well, today, nothing seemed to be going his way.

And after 20 minutes of fighting at such intensity, using ADE-draining abilities non-stop, it was inevitable that fatigue and ADE deficiency began to set in.

And Sylvari felt it first.

Afterall, unlike his opponent, he started this battle. He didn’t just start the battle, he was more invested in the battle emotionally.

This was a battle of pride and ego for him, this was a battle with connections to the greatest trauma of his entire life.

This was a battle against the one man that he was told to restrain himself against, the one man who history insinuated was stronger than him even without them fighting yet, the one man who was deeply connected to his greatest trauma.

With all these reasons and more, it was understandable if he was more emotionally invested in the battle.

General Sylvari didn’t just fight, he fought to prove himself to himself.

He fought against his insecurities, he fought against his fears. He fought to prove himself to Director-Prime Epsilon and to prove him wrong.

He fought to demystify the myth of the ’Glitch’. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

All these emotional connections acted as motivation to him and they made him fight better than he would do normally, but at the same time they made him reckless. They made him burn his ADE recklessly in his bid to defeat Ren Nora and show to the rest of the world that he was stronger.

They made him fight without calculating perfectly and realizing this, Ren Nora insidiously used it against him.

This was why he willingly went on the back foot as the battle raged, giving Sylvari the sense that he was winning, inflating his ego in the process and making him use even more ADE recklessly as time passed.

Each use of Data Manifestation drained ADE, but having taken the advantage already, why stop? He could see his victory in sight, it was so close!

And so Sylvari continued using it for the past 20 minutes, non-stop.

And yet, even that did not drain as much ADE as each use of Neural Tyrant. Afterall, this was the core ability of his Class Specialization.

And in this battle, in his bid to defeat his enemy, General Sylvari already used Neural Tyrant more than 20 times!

That was an ocean of ADE expended!

In normal times, he would never make such a reckless mistake but obsessed with his pursuit of victory, he forgot himself completely.

By the time he realized his enemy’s ploy, it was already too late.

Throughout all this, though he got some success, damaging and injuring his enemy in the process, overwhelming him for most of the battle so far, he didn’t get the decisive victory that he was aiming for from the beginning.

Despite going all out, he couldn’t defeat Ren Nora not to talk of killing him. He felt like he was fighting against a Cockroach.

And to add insult to injury.

"What are you waiting for?" Sylvari growled through gritted teeth as his mechanical voice sounded like grinding metal gears that were suffering from rust.

That was the sign of his growing fatigue and ADE deficiency.

"Why have you not used your main ability yet?!" He snarled.

Listening to that question, Ren Nora didn’t answer as he kept his focus on the intense battle, but for the first time in 20 minutes since the battle started, his lips curled up slightly.

The sight of it infuriated Sylvari even more and losing his mind, he raged and did it again mindlessly.

Neural Tyrant!

And like usual...

BZZZ!

Ghost-in-the-Machine!

Ren Nora escaped.

He timed it to perfection as just before the insidious effect of his enemy’s ability could take root in his mind, he drifted into the psionic realm like a ghost.

This was the only reason why he was not brain-dead yet after being on the receiving end of 20+ Neural Tyrant assaults!

He dared not take them head on, he was always one step ahead to escape.

And that was where the whole difference came from because unlike Sylvari who was using a C Rank ability, and not just any C Rank ability but his core Class Specialization ability, in comparison what Ren Nora used to dodge every time was a mere D Rank ability.

And in the grand scheme of things, the ADE drained for each use of Ghost-in-the-Machine was a trickle compared to what Sylvari was expending.

And finally, after that failed assault, Sylvari’s ADE dwindled past a certain threshold.

The neon green sea surrounding him instantly faltered.

BZZZZT!

One of his clones shuddered, becoming vague and transparent, then it suddenly shattered into particles of neon green dust!

"...!" Sylvari’s eyes widened in shock.

For a brief moment he just stared as the realization of what was happening settled in his head.

’My ADE...!’

But then, he gritted his teeth and continued his assault.

He refused to give up, he refused to give in.

’I’m not inferior!’ He snarled in his head.

’I’m stronger!’

But now, despite his thoughts and the fearsome look of bloodlust on his gray mechanical face, beneath the façade of his confident exterior, Sylvari finally began to panic for the first time in this battle.

This is because unlike him, his opponent was yet to use the main ability of his Class Specialization!

Heck, that was the problem, no one truly knew what the core Class Ability of the ’Glitch’ was.

He was as mysterious as he was proud and for over a century, Sylvari have been bottling up emotions and fantasizing about wiping the smug smile off his face.

Yet, now, with the opportunity that he’d been looking for presented to him, he was failing to do it.

Sylvari became nervous, but he didn’t let it show as the battle raged.

7 more minutes later, at the 27th minute of this battle, all the replicas of the great plasma Odachi suddenly disappeared as Sylvari’s ADE dropped below another threshold.

"...!" His eyes widened.

Then just 2 minutes later, in the 29th minute of this harrowing C Rank battle, Sylvari’s 2nd clone dissipated into neon green dust.

The General’s cybernetic gray eyes trembled.

He expected Ren Nora to say a word or maybe laugh at him, but the General did none of that as instead, he simply moved with efficient and devastating speed, instantaneously making a series of changes.

Bzzzz!

First, Ren Nora willingly released one of his two data clones, and then he switched the weapon of the last clone from an Energy Cannon to a familiar pair of short black daggers.

Before Sylvari could realize what was happening, alone and isolated again, Ren Nora and his clone descended on him in a whirlwind of steel.

CLANGGGGG!