Reidar and Silas were still at it, with Reidar fleeing and Silas chasing.

To an observer, the chase looked less like a battle between two men and more like a natural disaster moving in a zigzag path through Creamont.

Reidar weaved through the remains of high-rise apartments, weaponizing the surrounding terrain, but it didn't work as he wanted.

The wolf vaulted over a pile of rubble, and a Granite Shard, created by one of Reidar's skills, burst from the concrete and aimed at the support pillar of a looming overpass.

Reidar was hoping the dust would decrease Silas's visibility. Stopping to hide there was impossible since Silas could just blast the area off, which he already did with the vast majority of the city in which the two had been.

The stone shattered, bringing tons of reinforced concrete raining down into the street, raising a vast cloud of dust and concrete.

Silas didn't even slow down as he was in the sky, but his visibility was clearly impaired.

"I hate him."

The Archdeacon, wrapped in a shroud of mana, flew past the falling debris and found the chasing man.

Reidar unleashed a Wind Barrage next that tore up a section of a building, throwing sheets of debris and shrapnel into Silas's path.

Silas countered with lances of pure mana that sheared through the obstacles, piercing through the corner of an office building as if the steel beams were made of wet paper.

Then Reidar's wolf scrabbled up the side of a collapsed neighboring structure, leaping over the gap. Silas drove a beam of condensed mana through the building's base.

One of Reidar's Spectral mages, which he summoned during the chase to mitigate his mana usage, summoned more Feral Pack bears and crows. The bears got vaporized by the various beams of mana, but they shielded Reidar, who avoided another attack.

Without the intervention of his summons, Reidar would have already been killed.

The destruction brought to the city was hard to not notice. More than one residential block had been ravaged by the myriad of attacks.

Reidar couldn't escape either. The level gap meant Silas was faster, stronger, and had mana reserves that defied logic.

Yet, Silas couldn't catch him, and that was because Reidar offset that massive gap with his summons. He summoned creatures here and there so that they could act as mana batteries. Not only that, but through his perks, Reidar was also recuperating mana, while most of the attacks were made by the summons he kept close.

Every time the Archdeacon closed the distance to striking range, one of his creatures summoned a Twin Boulderback Behemoth, a Shadow Guardian, or whatever other kind of summoning skill Reidar shared with them. Those simply acted as meat shields most of the time, but that forced Silas to waste mana, aside from giving Reidar more time to flee and to gather distance.

They also attacked, and Reidar often moved in circles to make the summons that were already there and make a surprise attack against the mutant bastard.

The two men were locked in a destructive loop that was tearing the city apart one city block at a time, neither able to claim victory, both unable to stop. The only casualty was Creamont itself, which was being reduced to gravel beneath their feet.

The stalemate was shattered not by a spell, but by a hum that rattled the marrow of Reidar's bones. It also shredded the gathering clouds on the horizon and drowned out the roar of collapsing buildings.

It wasn't the screech of a Void-Wing Serpent or the roar of a Twin Boulderback Behemoth dying; it was the thrum of heavy engines, and right now, there were just a few people who could actually run an engine on earth, as they were the only ones with enough knowledge to make it work with mana interference: The Aegis Phalanx.

Above the smog of pulverized concrete, the clouds parted, and twelve dreadnoughts descended toward Creamont.

Silas skidded to a halt in midair. His head snapped toward the horizon, toward the ships.

"FUCK!"

He recognized the vessels as soon as he saw them. The Aegis Phalanx wasn't here for trading or giving out disaster relief. No, it came here because a war among humans was ongoing, one too big for them to overlook and one big enough to warrant them to act, as many skirmishes of this kind happened around the reshaped world.

It wasn't just that, but something had brought them to figure out that two of the church's high representatives, in this case a Deacon, and the Archdeacon, were here in Creamont.

A Level 370 mutated human such as Silas, radiating that much mana, and creating an actual mana siphoning magic circle, was something they couldn't miss.

At that moment, Silas's face twisted, the mask of arrogance cracking to reveal raw, self-preserving instincts. It was fear. He couldn't fight a fleet equipped with heavy weaponry while chasing the slippery summoner.

No. Even if the slippery bastard wasn't there, he had no chance against the Aegis bastards. Not yet, at least.

The mask of fear then turned to twitching rage. He turned to Reidar, still fleeing in the distance.

"You cowardly wretch!" Silas said. His voice was amplified by mana until it shook the glass in the remaining windows. He didn't flee as soon as he saw the ships. He hovered there, fuming and releasing mana.

"You think those bastards will save you forever? Mark my words, Reidar Miller, soon I will have your head!" Silas moved his hands and sent a wild arc of mana that obliterated a nearby skyscraper just to vent his fury. "You are a parasite, Miller! A glitch in our grand plan! But don't worry, you won't be for long!"

Reidar didn't stop to retort. He kept his wolf moving, putting another city block between them, listening to the Archdeacon's unhinged rant fade into the distance.

With a final snarl, the Archdeacon twisted in the sky. He became a streak of blue mana fleeing toward the horizon, leaving behind Creamont.

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