Although those four challengers wanted to curse and kill those challengers who sold intel to them about this world since it was so inaccurate, they knew that they still had to live before they could do that.
And in order to do so, capturing their target was more important even if it cost them their life.
They might be challengers who formed a team but they weren’t that close. Or more like, it would be foolish to trust one another in the Main God Space since betrayal was common if the rewards outweighed the risk.
Because of that, even with the death of their two teammates, they weren’t affected by it as they were merely strangers cooperating.
Fire Knight
, the temporary leader of their challenger team, declared an ultimatum, "As per usual, do whatever you can to complete the mission. Those who lived will live while those will die will die."
In other words, they were all on their own. However, none of them complained as that was what they wanted.
After receiving
Fire Knight
’s ultimatum,
Ninja Guy
performed ninjutsu hand seals and then shouted, "Ninja Technique: Multiple Shadow Clones!"
After performing his ninja technique, his body multiplied into twenty, with all twenty one of him were indistinguishable from one another.
I Want To Be Marine King
wasn’t going to be outdone. He immediately performed the marine martial arts taught to him by the navy, allowing him to perform instantaneous movements, flashing in the battlefield, and leaving nothing but afterimages.
Marine King
’s body was covered in a translucent white-colored aura that not only protected his entire body but also improved his physical attributes and it was the special energy system in the Marine World where he obtained it from.
Fire Knight
used physical enhancement magic with the fire attribute as his body was covered in red-colored mana.
Die When Killed
nocked five arrows and pulled the bowstring, aiming it towards the High Priest who was pursuing them.
He immediately activated his skill, "Homing!"
Afterward, he released his grip on the bowstring, shooting the five arrows towards the High Priests. He didn’t stop and kept repeating that while running away from the High Priests.
Faced with the homing arrows that were shot rapidly like a submachine gun, a High Priest with a reverse superpower immediately used it on those homing arrows, causing the homing arrows to change their target back to
Die When Killed
.
"Fuck! How come these cultists have weird abilities?!"
Just as
Die When Killed
was about to shoot and destroy those homing arrows that were reversed back at him, a High Priest noticed that
Die When Killed
was distracted so he petrified
Die When Killed
into stone at the cost of his eyes again.
Although in terms of power level, those six challengers from the Main God Space were at King-rank like the 50 High Priests who were Evolver Kings, the High Priests still had an advantage when it came to skill set and numbers.
Even those three Evolver Kings from the Noctyra Corporation were already knocked and severely injured by them. They didn’t completely kill them since they wanted to recycle them and convert them to their religion.
The six challengers might be powerful and could easily dominate those human survival bases, but they couldn’t make any waves against the Church of Evolution.
When
Ninja Guy
saw
Die When Killed
turning into a stone statue, his eyes became resolute and he decided to no longer save up his chakra.
Regardless of chakra consumption,
Ninja Guy
performed hand seals again with both of his hands as he shouted, "Ninja Technique: Multiple Shadow Clones!"
Despite using the same ninja technique,
Ninja Guy
had cloned a hundred shadow clones this time.
They spread out like ants and just after
Ninja Guy
ensured that he replaced the position of a shadow clone and had lost the tracking of the High Priests, he let his shadow clones perform a synchronized ninja technique.
"Water Style: Flood Dragon Technique!" x50
When fifty shadow clones performed ninjutsu hand seals and cast that ninja technique, they spat out water from their mouths towards the sky.
Those streams of water then formed into a huge flood dragon made out of water. Those volumes of water were a materialization of water-attributed chakra.
Looking at the hundred-meter-long flood dragon hovering above the sky, the High Priests remained unfazed as one of them merely extended their hand.
When the flood dragon swooped down, opened its large mouth, and was about to devour them, several portals appeared.
The flood dragon’s head entered the portal and on the other side of that portal were those shadow clones. When the flood dragon collided with those shadow clones, those shadow clones all dissipated into white smoke.
Controlling the flood dragon,
Ninja Guy
steered the flood dragon towards the High Priests again but he was met with the same portal which sent the flood dragon to
Fire Knight
.
Fire Knight
couldn’t help but curse, "You damn newcomer!"
He wanted to curse more, but couldn’t as even he dared not take the flood dragon head on.
Not using any fancy techniques, the
Fire Knight
merely inputted fire-attributed mana into his magic knight sword and slashed at the flood dragon.
When the flood dragon and the
Fire Knight
’s fiery sword collided, it sent the
Fire Knight
flying backward due to the momentum of the flood dragon’s attack.
He didn’t have any intentions of destroying the flood dragon as in retrospect, it was his teammate’s attack so he merely parried and blocked it.
Taking advantage of that momentum, the
Fire Knight
immediately released a stream of fire at both of his feet, propelling himself like a rocket toward the Noctyra Corporation’s building.
Even when several portals appeared in front of him, the Fire Knight avoided it by controlling his trajectory.
Since the
Fire Knight
was about to enter the building where Grimhart was cuffed, the High Priest with sound manipulation immediately started his sermon as his voice reverberated throughout the Noctyra Corporation:
"From entropy comes design. From design, transcendence. Blessed are those who shed their false skins and walk as more than man, for flesh is clay and thought is the fire that bakes it anew..."
When the High Priest’s sermon entered the three remaining challenger’s ears,
Fire Knight
and
Ninja Guy
were visibly shaken as they halted their actions and seemed to be hypnotized by it.
On the other hand,
Marine King
countered the sermon’s cognitohazard effects by releasing his King Aura as a black-colored aura pressure spread throughout the area around him.
I Want To Be Marine King
resolutely shouted with a domineering voice, "As the man who’ll be the Marine King, I won’t lower myself and become the likes of you madmen!"
Although
Fire Knight
was the temporary leader of their challenger team, that didn’t mean he was the strongest. In fact,
Marine King
was the strongest, and he was even at the peak of Evolver King and was only a few steps away from being comparable to an Evolver Emperor.
Of course, no matter how powerful he was, his current power wasn’t enough to deal with the entire Church of Evolution.
The High Priest who initiated the sermon didn’t even plan to convert
Fire Knight
and
Ninja Guy
but to only create an opening.
Sure enough, it might not have worked on
Marine King
, but it did on
Fire Knight
and
Ninja Guy
as they both turned into stone after the petrification High Priest sacrificed his pair of eyes again.
As for the King Aura released by the
Marine King
, all the High Priests were unaffected by it. After all, the Hive Mind was a collective mental link of all the Church of Evolution believers.
Unless the King Aura of the
Marine King
could make everyone in the Church of Evolution kneel towards him, then it was impossible for the High Priests present to be affected by it.
Using the Hive Mind, it was even possible for those mind-type Priests and High Priests to borrow the mental power of those believers.
And that was what one of the High Priests did. Using his superpower of psychokinesis, he borrowed the mental power of ten million believers who were Normal Evolvers.
Although borrowing their mental power would cause them to be unconscious, those ten million believers had offered it when they were in a safe location, so they weren’t in any danger.
With the psychic power of ten million Normal Evolvers,
Marine King
was held in place by the High Priest’s Psychokinesis.
Gripped by the invisible mind power, the
Marine King
was flung towards the streets and onto the buildings. He was repeatedly knocked and hammered to the ground until even his Body Aura could no longer protect and negate the damage he received, causing him to pass out.
When
Marine King
passed out, the petrification High Priest didn’t forget to sacrifice another pair of eyes, turning the
Marine King
into a stone statue.
Although the Main God Space challengers’ arrival was unexpected, the High Priests did their job well and "protected" Dr. Elias Grimhart from them.
After shrinking and storing the stone statues, one of the High Priests communicated via the Hive Mind, "Lord God, we have completed your task."