When Balvin felt the approaching wind currents, he would deftly change his location and move to a safer area. He had been there since early morning, waiting for some unexpected guests.

  The northern part of the continent was only about a tenth of the total area. This discrepancy arose due to the presence of a mountain range that stretched from the northeast to the northwest, properly forming a barrier between the northern edge and the central continent.

  This range was not only physical but also had strong currents of elemental energy flowing throughout it at irregular intervals. Therefore, it was not suitable for Paragons to traverse; only Ascenders could manage it. But even they had to follow designated roads for safe travel. Inside the Void Realm, along one such road, a bulky man with a bald head and a long white beard stood holding a large sword.

  Finally, sometime past afternoon, Balvin felt the approach of a few strong auras from inside the void. Raising his sword to the side, he swung it with all the force he could muster. A large cyan slash shot out from the sword and was directed toward the approaching enemies. Everything in its path was frozen solid. The approaching enemies also sensed the power of the attack, and orange flames shot out from inside the void to clash with the slash. Ice and fire tussled with each other and destroyed one another.

  At that moment, three people suddenly appeared, surrounding Balvin and attacking him. The green-haired one shot a wind slash of highly compressed air. The orange-haired one launched a fist of fire. The last, a red-haired woman, fired a small needle made of blood.

  Balvin raised his sword and swung it again. Ice elementals gathered and formed a shield all around him. When the attacks hit the shield, it shattered and exploded outward in all directions, forcing the enemies to retreat.

  Balvin looked at his enemies carefully. One wielded Wind, one Fire, and the last Blood. Quite an odd combination, he thought to himself. All three were Rank Two Ascenders, also called Elemental Sovereigns. But this was not a problem for him; he was a Rank One and also wielded a powerful sword relic.

  “Long time no see, senior Balvin,” the green-haired one spoke first.

  “A long time indeed, Mikart.” Balvin then moved his gaze toward the orange-haired man. “Lester.” Finally, he looked at the fair-skinned, red-haired woman. “Chivis.”

  The orange-haired man, Lester, scoffed at the greeting. The woman, Chivis, made a disgusted expression. “Keep your greeting to yourself, old man. What exactly did you do this time that all of us had to move here?”

  Balvin made a dumbfounded expression. “Why are you blaming me? You are the ones putting your noses where they do not belong.”

  Lester gritted his teeth. “The Sensor Tower belongs to the Church of Fire. Why are you attacking it without reason? Although we had our differences before, we were not the ones who came after you during that incident.”

  Balvin nodded. “It’s true that you didn’t come yourself. But all our locations and positions were being systematically supplied, and we were being hunted down. Can you really say you had no hand in that?”

  Lester continued to argue. “You know our goddess condemns such vile acts. If we wanted to fight, we would have done it face to face, not hiding behind someone else.”

  “Well, it seems not all members of the Church of Fire share their goddess’s views,” Balvin scoffed.

  “You—” Chivis raised her hand to stop Lester. “Can’t you see he’s just trying to lure you?” she said sharply. Just as her words finished, Mikart used his Ascension Spell, Winds of Weight. Suddenly, the wind elementals all around them became dozens of times heavier and began to attack Balvin. Already expecting such a sudden assault, Balvin was not fazed. He used ice elementals to form a protective covering around himself.

  When the wind and ice elementals clashed, small amounts of ice chipped away, but the gaps were instantly filled by new elementals. Balvin then glanced to his right. For a fleeting moment, he had felt someone pass by due to the disturbance, but he was unable to pinpoint it. Well, his job was to block most, not all, of the reinforcements. Shifting his gaze back to Mikart, he said with a deadpan face, “It’s not good to be so eager, little one.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Fighting an old fossil like you, we have to use everything we can just to keep you busy,” Mikart chuckled. He didn’t seem to have noticed that Balvin already knew his little trick.

  Rotating his wrist and turning his head left and right, Balvin said, “Let’s get some exercise after a long time. I’ll give a free lesson to you youngsters.” As soon as his words finished, he activated his Ascension Spell, Frozen Death, a passive ability that imbued his attacks with a special chill.

  This chill spread from his strikes. Even being in proximity to the attacks would affect opponents, slowly freezing them and slowing them down. In the short term, it was negligible, but as the fight continued, the effects would compound, and even other Rank Ones would face substantial difficulty.

  Chivis and Lester also activated their Ascension Spells. A river of fire materialized around them and surged toward Balvin. He also felt his blood beginning to boil, literally, trying to escape his body. The air around him grew heavier, bearing down on him. His protective layer rapidly shrank. But this only raised his fighting spirit further.

  Raising his free hand, he bent down and slammed it into the ground with full force. Elemental energy from his Nexus Rings was unleashed, and everything around him, including the wind and the river of fire, was frozen solid. But this was only temporary.

  Not giving his enemies any chance, he grasped a nearby space string and was transported in front of Chivis. Before she could react, his sword slammed into her waist, throwing her back. And before she could steady herself, he had again appeared behind her and swung the blunt side of the sword, throwing her back.

  Chivis’ backbone bent at an unnaturally awkward angle. Small teardrops seemed to well in her eyes. Maybe I should try to control my power, Balvin thought.

  The boiling in his blood increased instead of decreasing, and he had to use elemental energy from his Nexus Rings to keep it under control. It seemed that even in pain, Chivis could keep her cool.

  By now, the river of fire had already melted the ice, and the wind elementals began vibrating rapidly again. Lester and Mikart suddenly appeared beside Balvin and threw punches filled with dense elementals, enhanced by their own energy. Instead of defending, Balvin took the blows head-on and, without giving them a chance, rushed at Mikart.

  Flustered at suddenly being targeted, Mikart tried to use a space string to escape. But the moment he was transported to another location, Balvin was already there. A deep pain soon struck his gut. Looking down, he saw that an ice spear had impaled him, and he found it difficult to regenerate. He fell to his knees, a thin layer of wind preventing him from disappearing into the void.

  Balvin finally turned his attention toward his last opponent. The river of fire was completely unfrozen and now surrounded him, splashing flames in all directions. Although his companions were beaten down, Lester still had not given up. According to the teachings of his Goddess, nothing was impossible in this world as long as they had a burning fire in their body.

  He had recently ascended to Rank Two and had not yet formed his second Ascension Spell. But seeing Balvin fight inspired him to attempt creating one now. He began the process, his second combined Nexus Ring rotating rapidly. He focused on an Ascension Spell that would inflict a burn on all enemies hit by his attacks, but there was no response. It seemed the concept was already taken. Then he tried for a spell that burned all the elementals in the air surrounding an enemy. Still, there was no response from the Nexus Ring. That too was taken.

  Balvin stood there, dumbfounded. Do all these Fire Soul Casters have a screw loose? Who starts forming an Ascension Spell in the middle of a fight? Moreover, from the looks of it, he didn’t even seem to be succeeding. Balvin slowly walked forward and stood before Lester, who was still gazing into the distance. Soon, the paper talisman at his waist burned, signaling the completion of his mission.

  Raising his fist back, he slammed it into the poor guy’s gut, making him unconscious. He gave the poor guy a pitiful look and glanced at the other two. One was trying to reshape her broken back, which will take a lot of time due to the passive ability of the sword. The other was struggling to pull the ice spear from his gut with a painful expression and frozen hands. In both cases, his Ascension Spell was also affecting them, preventing rapid recovery.

  Balvin shook his head. Kids in the past century had gotten much weaker, he thought. Unknown to him, these three had advanced in rank only the previous year and had been forced to face an old monster from centuries ago. Since they had no direct conflict with him and were merely caught in the crossfire, he decided to let them go.

  Soon, the elemental winds from the range started to blow again. After a moment of thought, he covered the three cripples with a strong ice barrier to protect them from it. Too much blood will be dripped in the coming years; he just wanted to reduce the number of innocent deaths by a bit.

  Grasping a string of space, he transported himself to the pre-decided location. He hoped the person who had slipped past earlier hadn’t caused too much trouble for the others.