Two deadly bullets immediately pierced through Ehlem's heart, exploding it into pieces.
"My lord!"
"Save the lord!"
The guards quickly swarmed in front of Ehlem, trying to block any attacks that came towards him. The guards were prepared to die, but the attacks never came.
"Bring the lord to safety and call the healer!"
"Healer!"
Aldred and Armaita lowered their weapon and looked at each other.
"I guess we are strong enough to defeat a peak high Diamond Rank."
"There need to be two of us though," Armaita replied.
"We can create 5 clones in total now. So, in theory, we can defeat 2 peak High Diamond Rank that almost stepped into the Adamantite realm."
Armaita looked at the sky. "He should be dead by now."
"The shard of the Phantom Doomblade will soon kill him."
A few seconds later, a notification appeared.
[You have Killed Ehlem Puma. You received 16,119 Experience Points]
[You have leveled up]
[You have leveled up]
[You have leveled up]
—————
[Aldred]
Health Points: 123,068/123,068
Level: 156 (Diamond Rank)
Titles: Treasure Boy, Giant Killer, Little Hunter, True Warrior
Power:
-Fire Manipulation (Click to show the list of skills)
-Water Manipulation (Click to show the list of skills)
-Air Manipulation
-Earth Manipulation
-Mana Manipulation
-Non-Elemental
-Shape Shift Lv. 4 (Click to show the list of morphs)
-Racial Ability (Click to show the list of racial abilities)
-Sword Art (Click to show the list of Sword Art)
Attributes:
-Strength: 8,015
-Vitality: 7,886
-Intelligence: 11,037
-Dexterity: 9,438
Stat points: 60
Skill points: 60
—————
"Nice." Aldred smiled. "Thanks for your help, you can leave now."
Armaita vanished before Aldred could finish his words. They were clones after all. They could actually read each other's intention and thought. In fact, they did not need to communicate verbally at all. They didn't even need to use telepathy. It was far far faster and deeper than that, because the clones were essentially the same person.
Back in the castle, the guards and the medics looked in disbelief as they saw their lord lay lifelessly on the bed.
"Lord Ehlem is death… the lord is death."
"What do we do now? The enemy will attack again, and without our lord, we won't last for long."
"Should we surrender?"
"I heard Aldred is a vicious man. He won't give mercy to his enemies."
"That is not true!"
The guard turned around and quickly brandished their blade as they entered a battle stance.
"Who are you?! State your identity!"
The guards pointed their blades at a tall man with red robe with metallic hands.
"That's a golem. Look at his hands! Those are not gauntlets but his real hands!"
"How did that thing get in here?"
"Please, calm down," Corduul spoke. "My master has sent me here in good intention."
"What kind of good intentions could he possibly offer after killing our lord?"
Corduul was silent for a second before he speak a word: "Mercy."
"The city is currently surrounded by our army of 100,000. You stand no chance in this battle. Therefore, we offer you mercy. You are free to leave this city or stay if you will. But as long as you drop your weapons we will not kill."
The guards looked at each other. The head officers were killed, and all the guards here were at the same rank, so nobody could really decide the fate of the entire city.
One of the guard looked left and right. "I say we decide on ourselves. I choose to surrender and leave this city." He dropped his sword to the floor.
"The rest of you can decide what you want to do," the man said before leaving the room.
"How could you leave so easily! Didn't you have an ounce of loyalty towards our lord? The enemy is right in front of us, and you drop your weapon instead of attacking! Cowards!" The man shouted before pulling out another sword then charged towards Corduul.
When the man took a single step forward, his head exploded.
Everyone gasped in shock at how easy their friend was killed. Corduul stood still with a high caliber pistol smoking in his hand.
"Those who wants to leave are free to do so. While those who do not will never have the chance."
The guards looked at Corduul in fear. Eventually, they all threw their weapons away and left the room.
Corduul looked at Ehlem's corpse. "Perhaps this specimen can help boost our biology division."
With a swipe of his hand, the corpse was teleported elsewhere. He then walked outside the castle and then raised his palm. Two portal appeared beside him and hundreds of golems rushed out. They all had a built-in-speaker inside them that shouted: "Throw your weapons or you will be killed!"
This announcement was sounded numerous times while the robots scoured the city and killed anyone that refuse to drop their weapon.
Almost no civilians were harmed during this process.
…
"Ehlem Puma is killed. Denver City is officially taken," Rubeir said as his 8 eyes were set to 4 different people in the room, two eyes for each person.
"How did he die so easily!?" Kasha's flying blades spun around her, moving so fast and violent indicating her rage.
"Who killed him?" Shural asked.
"It's by a man named Aldred. They called him the Conquerer of The West."
"I have almost never heard of him."
"I know some things," Gruckarth, while crossing his arms, said. "He suddenly come to this continent, killed a noble, and then received a nobility title and a fief himself."
"That's shocking.. The King of Withokere has always been fair to his fellow nobles. One of them got killed, and they don't react?"
"Apparently, this Aldred guy is too powerful and valuable for them to punish. In less than a month, he has taken almost the entire western part of Ber."
"What should we do? Should we gather and attack back?"
"He is not the only enemy. More are coming from the south."
"So we're just going to sit still?"
"Reinforce the city, and gather all the armies from nearby smaller towns."
"And leave them defenseless?"
"If they take the large cities, the smaller ones will be taken as well."
Everyone considered all their options and agreed that it was the best decision they had right now.
"Won't our Adamantite Ranks helps?"
"They won't unless we are at the brink of destruction or the enemies send their Adamantite Ranks as well."
"No problem. We can handle this ourselves. Let's get back to work."
…
Aldred was standing in a secret underground base. In front of him, dozens of screens showed the scene of the cities he hadn't taken over yet. He watched the soldiers moved around, busy as ever as they increased the defense of the cities.
"There are five more enemies left, master," Corduul said. "We can handle the rest."
"Who are they? Why are they so important?"
"They're the five greatest figures under the Adamantite Rank of Ber. We can handle the rest, but these five will consume a lot of resources and time."
"I will assassinate them," Aldred said. "Tell me about the nearest target."
"That would be Gruckarth. His territory is in Apseare City. To the east from Dunver. The city we just conquered."
"And what is his ability?"
"Gruckarth is a unique warrior, said to have the power of the spirit realm at his hand. He wields a blade of steel and use arcane energy to defeat his enemies. Reports find that he used some sort of energy called Ki to strengthened himself and use it in all sort of ways."
"So like mana?"
"Yes, but different from mana. He also seems to have the ability to enter the spirit realm as he pleases."
"Spirit realm… I wonder what's there."
"Currently, we have no information about that, master."
"Too bad. What else do I need to know about this Gruckarth?"
"He has high phsyical durability. It was said that he fought against more than 10 high Diamond Ranks for months and didn't break a sweat."
"What a powerful endurance."
"He also seems to be able to negate a large percentage of the damage he received."
"So it's like trying to remove a mountain with a pickaxe. Except that this one can fight back."
"That will be a correct simplification, master."
"So I have to kill him quickly. If not, he might call for reinforcement."
"Do you have a plan, master?"
"I do, Corduul. Trust me in this. I just have to summon all 5 clones.
There were only 3 clones assigned, one act as Aldred, one act as Armaita, and one act as Tom.
Aldred might have to summon two more clones to kill Gruckarth faster.
"Also, be very careful, master. Since Gruckarth can enter the spirit realm at any time, he could escape a situation very easily."
"So it's like my divine dimension. I will see what I can do."
