While moving through the Void Realm using the Strings of Space, Lumian looked back at the others: four more Ascenders, sixty-four Paragons, and twenty-nine Awakeners. All were covered by his elemental energy to protect them from the surrounding void. While moving ahead, he felt a foreign sensation wash over him. Knowing what it was, he rapidly increased his speed and moved everyone along with him.

  After reaching a certain spot, he saw a tower standing in the Void Realm. It seemed illusory, as if it was there but also not there. Raising his hand, he formed a very large lance, as large as the tower itself, and threw it at the tower. The lance rushed towards the tower. Just when it was about to hit the tower, a barrier appeared around it. But the lance, which was enhanced by Lumian’s Ascension Spell, easily broke the barrier, destroying it.

  As the lance was about to hit the tower, a man wearing orange clothes and having orange-colored hair and eyes appeared in its path. He raised his hand, and the fire particles surrounding the lance combusted and chipped away at it. By the time it reached the man, it was not even half the size of what it originally was. An eagle made up of fire rose from behind the man and enveloped the lance, evaporating the last bit of it.

  Lumian dropped all the people behind him in the Material World and faced the old man alone. He just had to keep this old man tied up here while the others got the job done.

  “Why have you come here, Lumian?” the old man asked with a kind smile.

  “Don’t behave like you don’t know, Agor,” Lumian snorted. “I will make sure that this tower is completely uprooted from this place today.”

  The people who had been dropped in the Material World were rushing towards the tower. The barrier was already destroyed by Lumian in the Void Realm, so the one in the Material World only had half of its power and was easily broken by the other four Ascenders.

  They swarmed the white tower like ants. The defenders also came out from inside, but they were fewer in number. There were only two Ascenders among them. So, the defenders decided to utilize the power of the tower to hole up inside until backup arrived. The old man, Agor, tried to help but was prevented by Lumian.

  “Doing this will escalate the situation further. Are you sure you can bear the consequences, Lumian?” Agor asked in a cynical tone.

  “Do you really think I still care about the consequences?” Lumian asked seriously. “When you guys first came here, we were the rulers. We permitted you to install these towers to help regulate the environment here. We even turned a blind eye to their spying. But when the time came, you sold us out to our enemies. Not a single place was safe for any Ascender on this continent. And those below that were just like fish on a chopping block.”

  By now, his voice had grown hoarser, and his eyes had also turned sharper. “Tell me, Agor! Do you really think I care about what you backstabbing bastards do? Today, this tower will fall, and nobody will be able to stop it. And anybody who tries will die.”

  Agor could only remain silent and keep listening to these words. He himself knew that even though their Goddess had said to stay away from that conflict, some people had still leaked the information about the Ascenders of Ice. And to this day, they have not been able to catch them all. The Goddess was also busy in her home world and not able to come here.

  The attackers had breached the main door and entered the tower. The two Ascenders of Fire were fighting two Ice Ascenders inside the tower in the Void, while the remaining two were destroying the tower from the inside in the Material World.

  The tower was situated in a special manner where some places could only be traversed in the Void Realm and others only in the Material World. Due to this, only the two Ascenders of Ice were able to get to the lowest parts, and others had to stay put. There were many traps set by the Church of Fire to prevent outsiders from infiltrating. But with the use of relics given by Lumian, they were able to avoid most of them with minimal damage.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Agor, who was watching this from the Void Realm, was starting to lose his patience. They had already sent a rescue signal, but there was no sign of any reinforcements coming anytime soon. The infiltrators would soon reach the lowest part where the energy source of the tower was kept. If they got to that, the consequences would be unimaginable. The only reason he was not fighting was that, being Rank One, his battle would inevitably damage everything around them, and if by some mistake the damage reached the core, it would self-destruct. A self-destruction from that thing was fatal even for him.

  Lumian was also eyeing Agor keenly, ready to take action if he showed any sign of moving. For him, it didn’t matter what happened as long as the tower was destroyed.

  One of the Ascenders moving deep was caught in a trap while trying to save the other. She pushed the other one ahead and was impaled by a flame arrow. Although not fatal, she would not be able to move for some time.

  The one who was saved gave her a sorry look and went ahead. Reaching the final door, he took out a frozen key, which was a special relic that opened any kind of door once. Pushing the key into the doorknob, he entered the power hub. In front of him was a small orange ball the size of a fist. It was floating in a cylindrical glass container. Moving ahead, he held the glass container and tried to open it.

  At that moment, a dagger appeared in front of him, and a hand reached out to the cylinder. This was an unexpected event that neither he nor Agor nor Lumian, who were standing outside, had expected. But in that split second, he activated his Ascension Spell, Frozen Displacement. The cylinder disappeared from his hand, and the dagger went straight into his head. He didn’t even have a moment to scream before his body was encased in a black aura.

  Lumian, who saw this, activated his Ascension Spells and bombarded the tower. Agor, who himself didn’t know the identity of the new intruder, tried to prevent Lumian’s attack but to no avail. A completely furious Lumian channeled the elemental energy from his Nexus Rings and launched an unhinged attack on the tower. Thousands of large projectiles of various sizes were thrown at once. The tower, which was previously intact even when Ascenders fought inside it, was now reduced to rubble in an instant.

  “Death!” Lumian’s angry roar echoed in the Void, and he gave Agor an angry look. Agor just turned his head and looked at the invader, who was completely encased in a black cloak made entirely of death energy.

  All the other Ascenders had stopped fighting, and their attention was focused on the new person. At that time, Agor heard something and launched an attack on Lumian. Already expecting it, Lumian just countered it by raising thick ice walls around him. The girl who had previously been impaled had a cylinder in her hand. Just when she was trying to get up from the rubble, a dagger appeared in front of her.

  However, even before reaching her, the attacker had to step back due to an attack by the other two Ascenders of Ice. The place where he had previously been was filled with ice chains rising from the ground. The two Ice Ascenders surrounded the woman, and the Fire Ascenders joined the Death.

  Just as everyone thought that this stalemate would last for a long time, Agor, who was fighting Lumian, was slammed into the rubble of the destroyed tower. Lumian stood up high above with only a few scratches on him. Looking at the Death Ascender, he raised his hand, and all the elementals around him rushed at the designated target. At that moment, the Death Ascender took out a scroll and, tearing it, vanished from his place. Although Lumian wanted to chase him, important matters remained.

  Looking at the Fire Ascenders, he said in a clear voice, “If you follow us, you will definitely die.” Saying this, he encapsulated all the Ascenders, Paragons, and Awakeners who were still alive with his elemental energy. The dead Ascender did not even leave a corpse behind, most likely due to the Ascension Spell of the Rank Two Death Ascender.

  Catching a Space String, he took everyone away with him to the designated meeting spot. Agor slowly got up and could only watch as they went away.

  Just as the Death Ascender had come, he had received a transmission from some other member of the Church stating that he was an ally. In a moment of weak desperation, he had believed it. But later, when he carefully thought about it, something seemed fishy. So, he put up an act of getting beaten and let Lumian take away the power hub. That thing was safer with Lumian than with anyone from Death’s Church.

  Lumian also seemed to read his guesses and played along. For him, this thing was a strategic resource, and he would only use it when necessary.