Chapter 73

  When Keith arrived on the other side, he found the teleportation hub building half-collapsed, with rubble everywhere. A few teleportation arrays were even broken. Through the gaps in the walls, Keith saw that monsters had breached the Blockade and were wreaking havoc amongst the infrastructure in the back.

  Outnumbered ten to one, the soldiers bearing the Solar Flare legion insignia struggled to maintain control. They were in a constant retreat.

  Seeing the situation was critical, Keith rose into the air and summoned the maximum number of weapons he could from both Arsenal of the Desert and Quickdraw, almost a hundred. The weapons coiled around Keith before shooting outward in all directions.

  BANG!

  A monster knocked back a Solar Flare legion captain and was about to finish the job when a sword cleaved through its neck, severing its head in one blow.

  In another location, seven monsters surrounded a soldier when a flash of light passed through, followed by a sonic boom. All seven monsters toppled to the ground, their bodies separated at the waist.

  All around, similar scenes repeated.

  Appearing like a deity descended from the System, Keith hovered in the air, eyes closed as he used Mana Vision paired with Mind Division and Enhancement to singlehandedly change the outcome of the battle. Of course, Keith was powered by a War Array.

  In less than a minute, Keith cleared out the monsters within a one-mile radius.

  The Solar Flare legion members in the vicinity glanced at Keith before spreading out to reinforce other areas.

  Keith was about to do the same when he felt his strength dropping.

  Oh no, he thought.

  The troops powering Keith’s War Array couldn’t keep up with his flight speed and were out of range. Trying to think of a solution, Keith turned around to see one of the officers following him pull out a Skyship from their inventory. Everyone powering Keith’s War Array promptly boarded as the Skyship’s thrusters activated at full power.

  I guess that works, Keith’s eyelids twitched.

  With the problem solved, Keith sped off into the distance, a Skyship hot on his trail.

  Wherever he went, monsters fell by the hundreds.

  Unlike when he was guarding the sections protected by the Innate’s army, Keith figured there was no need to hold back. He felt no burden slaying every monster in sight to hoard experience to himself. These Solar Flare legion members weren’t his fellow citizens, so why care about them?

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  An hour later, Keith traversed across the entirety of Section B16.

  He had spent so much mana that he had to unseal eight Mana Cores, leaving him heartbroken. In the past two months, he had only stocked up on 102 of them. With three sections left to clear, there was no telling how much more mana he needed to spend.

  Entering Section B17, Keith saw a shocking sight.

  The Blockade had completely collapsed.

  Off in the distance, multiple mana barriers protected thousands of Solar Flare legion members, who had grouped up. Monsters in the tens of thousands surrounded them, attacking the barriers with wild abandon. Fire-attribute spells flew about causing numerous explosions.

  When Keith finally arrived, the mana barriers were in poor shape. Cracks covered their surface. Although Keith didn’t care much about the elementals, he still didn’t want to see them die to monsters. Especially if he could save them.

  Since the mana barriers couldn’t last much longer, Keith multicast Meteor Cluster, a new divine grade skill he recently acquired. After that, he multicast Small Meteor and Meteor, his other two meteor skills.

  Keith spent over ten million mana in one go.

  It was like a scene from the apocalypse.

  Empowered by the War Array, the meteors he summoned were far larger than normal. Hundreds of flaming rocks the size of hills appeared in the sky, raining down from above, the air distorting in their wake.

  BOOM!

  Following a massive explosion, a cloud of dust, flame, and dirt covered the battlefield, reducing visibility to a minimum. Keith’s experience bar skyrocketed, granting a level to him and his Robes of the Manaborne.

  Keith used Mana Vision to peer through the fallout.

  Controlling his conjured weapons, he finished off any monsters who happened to survive the explosion. Thankfully, all the monsters in this section had gathered together, and there wasn’t much left. He could leave the rest to the Solar Flare members stationed at this location.

  Just as Keith was about to move on to the next section, a thought occurred to him.

  The authority of the Blockade Event setup by Yara didn’t extend past the Innate’s jurisdiction. That meant Keith wasn’t gaining any points for killing monsters here.

  He wasn’t willing to work for free.

  Looking at the countless piles of loot littering the ground, Keith willed his grimoire to take action.

  Collect!

  All the loot dispersed into motes of light that then flowed into Keith’s grimoire.

  Hoarding all the loot gave a significant boost to his stats, Collection Value, and Collection Points. Keith took a glance and was delighted to see he could now afford his second clone.

  Satisfied, Keith moved on to the next section, shocked by what he saw.

  The Solare Flare legion members were routed, with any sense of unity gone in the wind.

  They were fleeing for their lives.

  As Keith flew forward at full speed, he watched monsters rip apart one soldier after another. Gritting his teeth, Keith spent a million mana to activate Freedom. Teleporting repeatedly, he instantly appeared above the surviving soldiers, multicasting everything in his arsenal to save who he could.

  Ten minutes later, the battle was over.

  Keith gasped for breath, feeling the strain on his body from consuming so much mana in such a short period. Knowing that there was one section left, he didn’t tarry. Before leaving though, he collected all the loot on the ground, leaving behind the corpses of fallen soldiers.

  Keith eventually arrived at the last section he needed to reinforce.

  Glancing around, he saw only destruction.

  All the facilities and infrastructure behind the Blockade were in ruins.

  Keith grimaced at the sight of countless corpses belonging to the Solar Flare legion spread across the battlefield. He was too late. The monsters had already slain everyone here, leaving no survivors. Faintly, he could make out their figures in the distance. Their destination was the Elemental’s capital.

  Keith closed his eyes.

  For a time, he floated there, mourning the fallen.