Chapter 30: Seething Tempest

He was fast approaching yet he seemed to be not moving at all, standing atop the incoming cloud was Duke Elamine.

His body was clad in dark-blue armor and was surrounded by wave-like runes, absorbing all the shockwaves sent to him. Don't underestimate this because of its size, as this armor is as sturdy as the barrier that the camp used, or maybe even more!

The Duke's clean sideburns, tidy hair, straight posture and arrogant disposition made him look more strict and mature, making people unconsciously avoid his eye.

"I felt the aura of a magic reaching the level of an Integrated state, so I thought I should come out."

Duke Elamine said like he was describing the weather, however, his words shocked the soldiers surrounding him.

'I— Integrated state!?'

Just like the saying: "You don't have the right to judge someone if you haven't experienced what they did.", so you also can't judge the level of magic outside your element.

This made people judge a magic by its fatality, size, and power.

However, the light element was rather rare and its effects were inconspicuous, so none of them knew that it had already reached the level of an Integrated.

"D— Don't tell me.... D— Does that mean that they have an Integrated state inside the camp!?"

Melajaine nervously blurted out. If there was an Integrated state inside the camp, then the chances of failing her mission would increase!

Melajaine suddenly felt like the future was bleak. If she failed her mission, it would leave a stain on her records, her prideful self can never accept this.

"Hmm... I'm not sure. Anyway, now that we're here, we can't just go back. I'll take care of this."

The Duke answered relaxingly, but to Melajaine, it felt like an island in an endless ocean.

'When I get strong enough, I'll pay back this favor.'

Melajaine thought to herself, but the Duke didn't care about any of that.

The Duke reached out for the sword in his waist. He gripped the haft tightly and unsheathed the sword.

A smooth and bright blue light was continuously being released from the blade, however, the water users nearby felt the heavy aura of the ocean. Water users are rather sensitive towards water aura, so they immediately felt the danger radiating from it.

They felt immense pressure and felt suffocated, they started swearing and breathing heavily.

As if the Duke noticed this, he instantly pointed down the sword and directed the aura above the skies of the camp.

Suddenly, the runes surrounding the sword lit up and started to swim around it like fishes. The bright gem in the haft of the sword also lit up.

Slowly, a stream of smoke started to dispense at the tip of the sword. It was gray colored, but it seemed more like the clouds of a storm than the smoke of a fire instead.

The movement of the cloud was slow, but they instantaneously covered the sky in just minutes.

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"Wha— What is this..."

The Commander felt glad that the barrier healed, however, before he even got to celebrate, ominous dark clouds covered the sun, like it was going to rain any moment.

"I... I can't make contact with the sun!"

Zowie nervously said. Most of his powers came from the sun, so his weakness was clouds or caves.

"Wha— What do we do?"

To Zowie, the sun was like his lifeline. If the world was the suffocating sea, then the sun was his boat. Now that the boat was gone, he felt he was about to drown any moment.

The runes on his body were still shining brightly, but his energy was slowly depleting.

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Above the clouds.

The clouds stabilized after a minute of preparing. Clouds stopped flowing out of the tip of the sword.

"It's time to start the real thing."

Like a demon king, the Duke raised his hand that was holding the sword.

"Seething Tempest!"

The sword in the Duke's hand lit up. It exudes an aura that seemed like the waves of the seas, relentless, unending, and continuous like the waves.

The gem in the haft glowed a deep-blue light and the Duke swung the sword down.

It was imperceptible but there were cloud-like runes above the clouds. When the Duke swung his sword, these runes immediately lit up and transformed into droplets streaming in the crevices of the clouds.

*Swoosh*

Like a typhoon, heavy chilling wind blew and swept the droplets of water raining down from the clouds.

The sound was like the wails of ghosts. The wind was so strong that it seemed to be made of thousands of blades.

At this time, the first droplet of water finally made contact with the barrier.

*Rumble*

It was only a drop of water, but the power it brought was like a droplet of water in the endless sea. It held within it endless pressure, capable of breaking boulders and stone into sand.

The walls and the barrier shook. Cracks started tarnishing the barrier and they spread like ripples in a pond.

*Boom!* *Rumble!*

It seemed like it was the end of the world, the bright barrier illuminated the camp, but the cloud darkened the sky. The whole camp shook like there was an earthquake. The ground cracked open, buildings fell apart, and debris and dust scattered.

Just the aftermath of the collision alone caused the camp to receive immense damage. Imagine if the water droplets itself rained down on the camp, that would be disastrous.

The barrier tried to hold on, but without a light source, there's no way it can heal itself.

*Crack!*

The crack quickly spread and within a minute, the barrier finally beamed its last ray of light.

*Shatter!*

The loud sound of the barrier shattering into pieces resounded throughout the camp, but they fell on deaf ears because of the sonorous bombing of the rain.

Water droplets fell everywhere, buildings, roads, grass and such. The rain was like the God of destruction, everything it touched crumbled down.

*Rumble* *Pitter-Patter*

The sound of rain and earthquake mixed together like metal music, loud and overbearing.

Some of the soldiers that didn't have time to hide were smashed. They didn't even have time to scream. They were immediately pulverized and turned into puddles of flesh and blood.

This continued on and on, until after a minute later, the clouds slowly dispersed and a ray of light finally peeked through the clouds. This should have resembled a hopeful scene, but everyone was still dazed from shock.

The rain shook their hearts and will. Sweat dripped all over their body, but they felt cold to their bones. Their bodies were nervously shaking from fear, and it took them a long time before they woke up.

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"Hmm... Good. Let's go."

The Duke strokes his chin as he observes the camp. He was nodding like he was praising himself for the destruction that he caused.

The flying soldiers haven't come back to their senses yet. They were left dumbfounded at his power.

Just a single swing of his sword immediately destroyed the barrier they were working so hard to crack, and he didn't even break a sweat! This left a deep, scary impression of him in the minds of the soldiers.

Meanwhile, Melamine was the first one to collect her senses back.

"Soldiers! Clean up the battlefield!"

Like an alarm, the soldiers woke up and immediately got to work. They immediately flew towards the camp.

The soldiers were not nervous this time, because when they look at the Duke, they feel like they can rely on him.

"Oh! Duke, that's right. What happened to the person who has the power of an Integrated state?"

While flying, Melajaine suddenly asked. She was worried that an Integrated might suddenly attack them out of nowhere.

"Hmm.. I assume that was just a fluke of some sort. It must be something that can temporarily amplify magic."

Melajaine sighed in relief at the Duke's response.

'Maybe he's right. If the enemy really has an Integrated, they should have defended the barrier. Looks like there really isn't an Integrated.'

There were tens of thousands of flying soldiers who followed the Duke in a formation. The sight was so scary and their momentum was unrestrained. Different kinds of auras radiated from them, but they seemed to be in harmony.

*Flap* *Swoosh*

They immediately dove down and after a while, they reached the camp and surrounded it.

Last time, the cloud obstructed their view and they could only hear loud explosions, so they could only imagine what happened there. They expected to see panicked soldiers preparing weapons and such.

However, reality was far more brutal than what they imagined. As they look at the aftermath of the camp, they can slightly imagine what happened when it rained.

In front of them was the camp, or more likely, the RUINS of the camp instead.

The whole camp was riddled with small holes filled with dead bodies, scattered leaves, demolished infrastructures, and the whole place seemed to have caved in a bit.

You can observe from the surroundings that the ground level here was lowered by a large margin. The surrounding vegetation was cleared away, and it looked barren yet wet.

What was left of the camp was only the soaked cracking walls, a few unrecognizable sturdy buildings, and.... well... I guess those are the only things left.

"Holy shit! The whole place looked totally different in just 2 minutes of rain!"

Their mouths were left open while observing the camp. The image of Integrated masters suddenly elevated in their hearts.

But Melajaine's eyebrow twitched at this sight. She suddenly felt that the Duke was unreliable and selfish.

'Damn it! We're supposed to occupy this place, but look! All of them are destroyed! I hope that the Duke at least spared us some materials.'

One of the soldiers excitedly whispered to his friend.

"The Duke must be one of the strongest people in the Integration state right? I mean, he's so freaking strong!"

Melajaine looked at the soldier sternly, and he immediately shut up. Still, the Duke answered his curiosity because he felt like it.

"The Integrated state is divided into 3 levels: The [Stairwell], the [Gate], and the [Palace]. So far, I'm only at the first level."

'What!? He's only at the first level!'

The soldier was shocked but he didn't dare to voice out his surprise in fear of displeasing the squad leader.

"Okay, that's enough. Everyone, prepare your weapons, there's an enemy in front of us."

Melajaine interrupted the soldiers and warned them. She was irritated because of the losses of resources, so she was especially petty this time.

At this time, they were outside the walls, and in front of them, was a large building. The building was riddled with holes and was badly damaged, but it still retained its structure.

Inside it was a dome made of earth, capable of housing thousands and hundreds of people.

Right now, a number of Ershnirians soldiers were exiting the dome of earth. They looked around and discovered the enemies flying above them.

"E— Enemy in sight!"

One of the soldiers quickly reacted and shouted in a shaky voice. His face was full of helplessness and despair.

Like a ripple in the pond, the other soldiers panicked and quickly escaped with their tails tucked between their legs. Some of the soldiers even kneeled down and cried. They immediately surrendered and begged for mercy.

Seeing this, Melajaine quickly commanded the soldiers in a loud voice.

"Chase all escaping soldiers and spare all those who have surrendered!"

She intently made it loud to make the enemy surrender, and it was quite effective.

Those who were feeling indecisive quickly kneeled down and surrendered. However, some of them were still not convinced and continued to flee.

A soldier quickly dived down from the air and chased after the escaping enemies.

*Swoosh*

The sound of air splitting was like the sound of a Grim Reaper to the ears of escaping soldiers.

They didn't have the energy to fight and becoming slave was worse that dying. So all they could do was to run. To run with all their might. However, because of the rain, the ground was bumpy and wet, hindering their escape.

"Hahaha, gotcha!"

The enemy laughed as he enjoyed the feeling of catching running prey. He raised his sword and aimed toward the running soldier.

"You're dead!"

The running soldier looked behind and saw that a sword was about to hit his face.

'Am I gonna die?'

He felt his heart stopping at the thought of dying.

*Thud*

He thought he was about to die when suddenly, the world around him seemed to rise. He looked around and saw that he was actually inside a pit in the ground.

'Wha— What happened?'

The soldier was still dumbfounded when the earth under his feet started to churn and rise him up.

What first came into his view was a tall person, but his eyes and brows looked benevolent. His uniform was messy and there were cracks on his armor, but the designs indicated that it belonged to an Ershnirian.

The soldier was dumbfounded for a moment.

"Are you still alive?"

"Eh? Yes."

"That's good. Come with me."

His savior said, so he subconsciously followed him. But in the middle of walking, he suddenly remembered something.

"W— Wa—W— Wait. Where's the enemy?"

He stuttered and looked around. Suddenly he discovered that there were also many soldiers helping others, while some of them were fighting with the enemies to buy some time.

"The Commander wants to gather the soldiers and make one final attempt to escape. He said that this increases our chances of survival, so we followed him. He's so amazing right? Anyway, we should hurry up. We only have 40 minutes left to gather at the gathering point."

This happened all around the camp and the Commander's forces continually increased.

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At the same time, the sky starts to show its dark beauty as the sun sets in the horizon. Flocks of aerial beasts were flying around in the sky, circling the camp.

"Ma'am, there are reports of fierce retaliation from the soldiers, and it is said that they are gathering at the Eastern part of the camp."

Hearing this, Melajaine frowned and went into a daze.

'If the enemy gathered, then we will have to face a fierce retaliation of thousands of soldiers. This would cause casualties and increase the chance of the enemy escaping.'

At the thought of this, Melajaine clenched her fists.

'That damned old fogey! He just won't lay down and mind his own business! I swear I'll roast him if he ever ends up in my hands!'

"They're gathering huh. He's quite good."

Suddenly, a lofty voice appeared behind her. Melajaine recognized the voice and immediately greeted him.

"Duke Elamine!"

The Duke nodded and said nonchalantly.

"Anyway, let's go to where they are. The more they gather, the more it will increase the difficulty of wiping them."

"Yes! sir!"

Melajaine agreed and commanded.

"Attention! Soldiers, split into 4 groups and one of the groups is to surround the camp. Don't let a single enemy escape. For the other 3, follow me. We will completely conquer this place.."

"Yes, ma'am!"

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*Tap*....*Tap*...*Tap*

Meanwhile, in an unknown dark place, the continuous sound of water dripping echoed. There were no noises all round the place except for this.

*Drip*

A water droplet fell on something again, but this time, the sound it produced was different.

'Hnn...'

Insig suddenly felt a cold and wet sensation below his eyes. The cold sensation awakened his thoughts and brought him back to reality.

Insig's vision was dark, and he felt lightheaded. He feels tired and exhausted, and his thoughts slowed down considerably.

'Hnn....'

He opened his eyes that were as heavy as a lead with much difficulty. However, his vision was still dark all around, as if his eyes were still cold.

He tried to close his eyes and open it again, but it was still dark. He would have mistaken that his eyes were still closed if it weren't for the fact that he felt his eyelids closing and opening.

Helpless, he decided to focus on other things.

The scent of gravel and dust was everywhere and it was kind of suffocating. He had a hard time breathing and he felt something heavy all around his body. This caused his body to ache in pain, but he felt powerless and exhausted to the point that he doesn't even have the energy to react to the pain.

'Where am I....?'