New Faction
After a while, Merlin returned to the Colossus, and went to the meeting room, where he found the 8 team leaders he had before fainting. However, the meeting room was currently full of people, numbering around 67! And all of them were near peak or peak Tier 1 humans.
However, Merlin did not enter, just waited a distance away, hearing their conversation while learning of the happenings the past 8 months from Phillip, the AI he had created. Over the past 8 months, Phillip had also grown much smarter, and was able to have a decent conversation with Merlin.
"So, the entire sanctuary was divided into 2 parts 3 months after I fainted. One faction was the Merlin faction that either believed that I would wake up, or were afraid of me, or were under my soul contract. The other was the New Faction that believed I was yesterday's news, especially since their levels were the same as me before I went into a coma."
"And the Merlin Faction could not completely suppress this New Faction because they had a few peak Tier 1s with them, along with the fact that the Merlin Faction had split into two parties, The party that followed Sean into trying to suppress the New Faction, and the one that followed Kyle, into trying to rope in the new faction."
"This allowed the New Faction to grow to the size rivalling the Merlin Faction, vying for complete power over the Merlin sanctuary?"
"Yes, Master. A total of 36 in the New Faction, and 31 in the Merlin faction."
"Alright. I do not need to know the names of those people from the New Faction. Just point them out Phillip. I will handle the rest."
"Of course Master!"
…
Meanwhile in the meeting room, all the high level members had been gathered here by Phillip, who had complete control over all electronics within the Merlin Sanctum.
Th New Faction was slightly scared now that the General had returned, however, most of them did not have much knowledge about Merlin's strength, and the few that did, only knew his strength at the peak of Tier 1, and so had confidence in their own strengths.
Currently, the leaders of the New Faction were in a heated argument with the leaders of the Merlin Faction.
"The General has returned. Now disband your shoddy 'New Faction' and obediently serve the Boss" said Sean.
"Haha! Do you think one peak Tier 1 can make such a big difference?"
"YES! HE CAN!"
Although the Merlin faction were putting on a brave front, most of them too did not have much hope in the strength of their leader. He was too, a peak Tier 1. This could not possibly make too much of a difference. At most, it would allow them to gain the upper hand in the struggle of control.
At this moment, the doors were burst open from their hinges, as a terrifyingly powerful mana force surged in, causing the space around it to slightly warp from the sheer pressure.
Merlin had used almost 1/10th of his mana and activated his passive skill [Predator]'s active skill.
With the amount of mana in a Tier 2 being, along with the fact that this mana was almost 20 times more potent than the mana of Tier 1s, the sheer force generated from moving it caused ripples in the space of this planet that was undergoing a change. This process of evolution caused the space and time within the dimension to weaken, creating the effect that even peak Tier 2s cannot achieve, of rippling the space-time continuum within earth's dimension.
The air within the room gained a consistency similar to super-heated liquid metal to all those present inside. Both suffocating them and burning their insides at the same time.
This lasted for a few seconds, before Merlin retracted him mana and coldly said,
"All those part of, and working with this 'New Faction' no longer have the status of living beings within this sanctuary. I declare them as things worth nothing but disgust."
With his words, another wave of mana pin-pointed the members of the New Faction and held them up by their necks as they struggled to breath.
At this moment, Merlin's words rang out on all electronic devices, as the cards of all New Faction members, and those who worked closely with them turned pitch black, with nothing on them.
Suddenly, Merlin thought of something and decided to spare their lives for now. He had a better use for these peak Tier 1s, and for that, he needed them to reach Tier 2.