The second both groups shot toward each other, a blue halo faintly rippled, and White disappeared into thin air.

BAAAAANG!

BAAAAANG!

BOOOOOM!

He reappeared 5,000 meters away, looking at the fight from behind one of the large stone meteors hanging in the air.

[Coward!]

The system teased, and White rolled his eyes.

"That deteriorated fast..."

There hadn’t even been any negotiation of any kind.

The mercenaries immediately engaged, and the Destroscension squad attacked without another word.

As expected, the destruction was pure insanity.

During White’s past life, his Unique B-Rank Awakening had been Mind Detonation, and at the stage he had reached before he died, which was the Early Cosmic Rank Stage, he could detonate an entire 500-meter-tall skyscraper into tiny fragments with nothing but a thought.

That was the overwhelming, destructive power one possesses once they reach the Cosmic Rank.

Entire mountains could be made to crumble with a single punch, and one could send earthquakes through the land with a simple jump and slam into the ground.

But the group before him only had one person at the Early Cosmic Rank, with four Late Cosmic Rank fighters.

The destruction they unleashed in the void was next level, and amidst all of it, one person stood above the rest, and that was none other than Old Grey.

Being a true Late Stage Cosmic Rank Awakener, his attacks were so overwhelming that every single punch of his cracked open black holes into space.

And to make matters worse, the man was a Physically Enhanced Awakener.

White knew that from the golden light bursting out from beneath his skin, enhancing his physical might to insane levels.

One punch sent one of the three mercenaries flying uncontrollably backward by over 500 meters, and before the man could even stop himself, Old Grey had already moved so fast that he appeared behind him, whipping out a devastating leg attack toward his chest.

Before it connected, a vortex appeared, and Old Grey’s leg slammed into it, only to remain stuck for three mere seconds before he sliced through it.

Those few seconds were enough for the man to move and avoid the attack as two of the mercenaries moved to face only Old Grey.

And what was even more shocking?

Even with two Late Cosmic Rank Awakeners fighting against him, Old Grey was ruthlessly dominating the fight.

With Old Grey facing two of the mercenaries, that left just one mercenary against the rest, and while the mercenary was indeed at the Late Stage, fighting against three Middle Cosmic Rank Awakeners and one Early Rank to boot, his advantage of holding the higher cultivation stage wasn’t shining at all.

And in the fight, the ones who took the spotlight were, of course, not Leo.

Leo was only at the Early Cosmic Rank, and while he was indeed attacking, he was more in a support role than an offensive one.

The ones truly on the attack were the two brothers, who right now looked nothing like humans.

Sure, they were humanoid, but they appeared more like phantoms, with one of the brothers being a full white phantom with no face at all, while the other was a pitch-black humanoid monster with nothing but a wide grin where his face ought to be.

Their bodies were silky smooth, and their coordination was beyond anything White had ever seen in both of his lives. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

The way they attacked... it was like they shared the same mind, and their greatest advantage was speed.

They had created hundreds of vortices that only the two of them could enter, using them to fully surround the mercenary and deal terrifying damage while being almost impossible to land a hit on, talk less of catching.

But even then, they weren’t what took White’s breath away.

The one who managed to do that was the woman with the sword.

’This... How can a black hole follow such a simple sword slash?’

White asked inwardly, bewildered.

While the battle was incredibly fast-paced, the woman herself was almost completely unmoving.

All she did was lean forward slightly in the motion of drawing her sword, yet the sword remained buried in its sheath.

Then, all of a sudden,

RIIIIIIIPLE!

It was like dropping a stone into a well, the ripple that would be created, except instead of water rippling,

It was space itself collapsing into black holes, and those black holes piling together like waves, forming a single arc of black-hole destruction that tore straight toward the mercenary.

Her attacks were so fast that one would wonder if it was her mind she was using to create the black holes, but White could clearly see her drawing her sword, even if it was within half a second.

A simple slash of her sword created black holes, and by some monstrous force, those black holes stacked onto one another and formed a beam of pure black-hole destruction.

It was such a devastating attack that the first strike alone was enough to rip off the mercenary’s right arm.

The man’s teeth gritted as he tried to rush toward her, but the two twins perfectly prevented that with their vortex enclosure, dealing damage that forced him to ignore her and focus his attention on them.

Yet every six or seven seconds, one of those devastating black-hole slashes would come for him, and even worse was that they were impossible to dodge.

He could only face them head-on.

All of the chaos and struggle, White watched from a safe distance, his heartbeat pounding in excitement.

"They’re strong."

He mused beneath his breath.

"So this is the power of an elite group of Humanity Ascension."

A gleam of awe crossed his eyes.

[No wonder even the Top Three Academies listen to them, and no mercenaries want to cross them.]

[They’re not just strong because of their Awakening abilities; their simple attacks show the clear use of Combat Manuals, and even their dodging techniques are high-level Defensive Manuals that have been well-practiced.]

[And those black coats they’re wearing aren’t just for show. They’re defensive artifacts that take away half the damage those mercenaries unleash on them, yet show no signs of tearing at all.]

[They’re not just strong... they reek of the resources backing of a true Powerhouse.]