Edward had finally slain the flying eyes’ main body that had eluded him until now. With it gone the flying eyes would soon become something of the past, their number could only go down. However, his task wasn’t over yet. Even with the source removed a myriad of the monsters remained in the sky. I better take care of them while they are all gathered together. He looked down at the fallen creature. I will absorb its blood essence later.

He looked up at the glowing runes, there were still damaged parts, but most of them were due to his battle with the flying eyes. Nobody had targeted the structure but with so many shots fired it was inevitable that some would hit it. I don’t have that much time. I won’t be able to hunt after all the flying eyes if they disperse.

With his acceleration still active he dashed right into them, maintaining the same altitude as them so that they didn’t have a visual on him. Without the main body to worry about it was a massacre, everywhere he went corpses and body parts fell like rain. In close range, the flying eyes couldn’t mount up any resistance.

On top of that the monsters appeared to have lost their cohesion, Edward could see a group of monsters heading out in the distance. Oh no you don’t! He teleported to them only to realize that one of the eyes was a lot bigger than the others, just like the main body, it had grown in size by fusing with other lesser congeners. What the hell?! Edward thought in shock.

As the eye started to glow with energy Edward cleaved it in two with one aura blade before it could shoot. It took him but two seconds to finish the rest of the group. They can recreate main bodies. I thought I only had to deal with the leftovers, but with how things are it is very possible that I end up with several main bodies to deal with instead of just one. Edward focused on his aura, letting it cover the whole battlefield, he could sense three other groups leaving in different directions each with the seed of a main body.

I can’t let them escape. He teleported back to the main group of monsters and summoned three clones that he left behind to destroy as many flying eyes as possible, he teleported again chasing after one escaping group. Thanks to his teleportation he was able to catch up to them within moments.

Those monsters weren’t that fast, and they couldn’t compare to even Edward’s basic speed at the patriarch level, without even speaking of his accelerated state. Nonetheless with each group leaving in a different direction, one of them may have been able to escape if Edward didn’t have his teleportation. Teleporting to five hundred meters every two seconds meant that he had an average speed of nine hundred kilometers, there was nothing those monsters could do against that. Even Nephilin hadn’t been able to catch up to him and had to let Edward escape on several occasions.

A quarter of an hour later, Edward stood alone puffing in the sky. Nothing was left of the monsters but cut fragments and spreading fluids. Those creatures were really annoying until the end. They are like weeds, if you want to get rid of them you need to destroy them to the last bit, otherwise, they will only grow in greater numbers.

He moved down, landing near the main body to absorb its essence. The ground was soaked in blood. The main body must comparatively contain more essence, but if you take things as a whole, I think the total of the ordinary flying eyes contains more essence. It’s a pity that it would take forever to go individually absorb their essence, especially since each one won’t bring much. He paused. Actually, this could work.

Edward summoned a cloud of aura needles, but those were slightly different. Each needle presented a cavity on the inside. Edward controlled the needles individually, just like a giant swarm of mosquitoes they suck the blood essence of all the fallen monsters to bring it back to him. He was like a conductor leading an especially bloody symphony.

The blood essence came coming to him carried by the stream of needles. Edward stood alone on the battlefield only moving his arms to better control the stream of blood coming his way. He was the only thing left alive as far as the eye could see.

The blood essence continued to push his power forward, each of the flying eyes had a minimal amount of energy, but the sky had been bloated by them. It reached the point where the cumulated blood essence was enough to even surpass what he gained from slaying the six-legged panther. I had dismissed the flying eyes as not worth my time, but who knew they would benefit me that much?

As the last stream of blood essence was absorbed by his body, he gazed at the runes floating in the sky that appeared almost unblemished by now. It is time. He contacted Ignis and Adotinus with the intermediary of his clone. “I can’t delay anymore. There are a few Manticores left but it will have to do. I will bring Nephilin to your location, are you ready?”

“Everything is ready on our side. I’m eager to see how he will fare against what we have prepared.” Ignis replied happily.

“I’ll enjoy killing that bastard,” Adotinus added, still frustrated by their earlier retreat against the monster.

Even though they couldn’t see him, Edward nodded in appreciation. He raised into the air and summoned four fragmentation grenades made with his aura. With one decisive look, he threw them all at the runes floating in the sky. He didn’t wait to see the result and immediately teleported away.

An exasperated roar from even outside the capital. “THIS IS THE LAST TIME YOU PISS ME OFF! I’M DONE!! THANA BE DAMNED!! I’LL SKIN YOU ALIVE EVEN IF IT’S THE LAST THING I DO!”

As expected, he has reached his breaking point. This is our only chance at killing him. He won’t tend to those runes anymore before killing me. I better make haste.

Edward reactivated his acceleration between two teleportations. “Rèng khwāmrĕw”, he hadn’t done it too soon as Nephelin appeared not far from him.

“WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING?! From now on nothing in this world can keep you from me. I won’t stop chasing you before you are dead.”

Well, how charming. But if you want to follow me, I’ll be glad to let you do so.

Edward had to avoid a powerful ray of energy blasting his way before teleporting further away lest Nephelin reached him.

As Edward was managing to gain some distance, Nephelin taunted him. “Even if you manage to flee, I will keep chasing you. I will destroy everything you know of. Let’s see how long you will be able to hide when this world becomes a desert.”

He is not joking around this time. Though can someone really affect the world to this degree? Nephelin is strong enough to destroy whole cities and even make empires fall, but turning the world into a desert? It is merely boasting on his part. Someone with this degree of power would be akin to a god.

Nephelin kept pursuing him even when he had already left Pescara’s ruins and in barely thirty seconds, they had reached the ambush location Ignis and Adotinus had set up. Edward teleported next to Adotinus and Ignis and stopped there, with Nephelin appearing a few hundred meters away scant seconds later. He gave them one look before laughing “You think fighting me with your friends will change anything? Let’s finish this farce.”

The next instant he was in front of them swinging his fists strengthened by a layer of purple energy. As if they had repeated it beforehand Edward, Ignis, and Adotinus backed away in different directions without turning their back. A pillar of blue fire erupted from where Nephelin was standing engulfing him totally. Surrounding the fire pillar a circle of runes activated and chains swayed swiftly at Nephelin before the fire could even die down. The chains were blasted away alongside the fire pillar in a blast of energy as Nephelin hit two of his fists together. “Tricks and deceit, is that all you are capable of?”, he asked seemingly unfazed by the trap he had just destroyed.

A twenty-meter aura blade sent to his face was the only answer. This time Nephelin teleported away, and Ignis allowed himself a sly smirk. As soon as Nephelin reappeared a much bigger circle activated encompassing a region of several square kilometers. Multiple chains emerged within the circle and shot at Nephelin. The latter swapped any chain that came near him with the help of his four arms. Just like me, his teleportation has a cooldown. If he gets entangled in chains, he shouldn’t be able to teleport anymore.

As the chains continued to harass Nephelin, he manifested four scimitars, one for each of his hands, and any chain that came too close got cut in pieces. This won’t work as he is now. We need to weaken him first. While he was busy dealing with the chains a bolt of lightning hit him squarely in the chest. Nephelin’s single eye turned toward Adotinus, its multiples pupils flickering madly. The next instant Nephelin was next to Adotinus and swinging his scimitars to behead him. Edward teleported as well just in time to parry the blow, but the force sent him flying five meters away leaving Adotinus alone to face Nephelin.

Adotinus was already in his buff form to compete against Nephelin who was a good three meters tall and had the strength that went with it. Adotinus retaliation didn’t achieve anything. Since Edward had given them the spell to accelerate their perception, Ignis and Adotinus were as fast as the monster but Nephelin had four arms.

Before Adotinus could be put in difficulty Ignis intervened, a flock of blue fire ravens dived at Nephelin, exploding on his body and leaving trails of flames behind them. This didn’t appear to bother Nephelin that much although that forced him to stop his assault.

The chains that had lost their target shuddered and changed their trajectory to go after Nephelin, even though some of them had been destroyed, more continued to pop up from the ground. Nephelin teleported away once again, opening some distance and avoiding the chains.

I was hoping the traps would be more effective. The chains are pestering him, but they are not strong enough to stop him. It seems like we still have to do the hard work.