"Damn, where are they?!"

"The higher ups told us that they'll be somewhere within our territory."

"Then why didn't they send more S+ Ranks to search?!"

Originally, Space Teleportation Arrays are stable, but the ones in the hands of the Dawn Cult isn't.

They didn't have someone that has the [Space Control] trait, thus they can only create an unstable one.

That's the reason why both Lugh and Aria didn't got teleported to their base already.

"We had already searched the 500,000m radius of our territory, yet we still didn't find them?!"

"Captain, a message."

Suddenly, a communication device rang. It was from the Captain's assistant.

"Yo, Carter!"

"You.. Kent."

Kent Benison and Carter Sein. Both are the Squad Captains under a Deacon.

"What's going on~? Still didn't find any?"

"What about you?!"

"Well, we're on the same boat."

"Damn it. We're gonna retrace our destination from here, maybe they just became lucky and got missed by us."

At S- Rank and above, something similar to the Divine Senses of the Deity-Realm can be used—Mental Sense. Though, some can still hide from it if they have an equipment of a higher rank than the person using the senses.

The one being sensed can also infer the location of the one using Mental Sense, thus it is not recommended during stealth missions.

That's also why Lugh chose to use the [Domain Detection] module instead.

"Copy that! We'll do the same. Later~"

The communication channel got cut off.

"Let's go back to base. They won't be able to get out of our territory anyways."

"Understood!"

The Squad under Carter then traced down their tracks from before. Still, they didn't find any traces of them.

Right now, they're in the forest that surrounded their main base.

"Captain, we're almost at the base, yet we didn't find them. How are we supposed to tell this to the Deacon?"

"Hah.. I'll ask for more help. We already covered more than ¾ of our territory, but we didn't find any traces of them. We'll do another sweep tomorrow. They wouldn't be able to escape in this place anyways."

A [Space Lock] that prevents teleportation, five barriers outside, and the various scanning devices on their territory. This is the reason why he's confident. 

If they're not found yet, then they will be eventually.

"We already covered our assigned area. Let's just rest—Hm?"

"Captain?"

"Hm, no—"

The assistant is shocked to see that Carter, his captain, and 4 other A+ Ranks had a bloody line appear on their necks.

'20% of my Heaven's Force. It's still too much.'

The intruder thought so.

Clink!

The assistant then heard a sound of putting a sword into a sheathe.

"C-captain! Everyone, defense formation!"

As the assistant commanded, they went into a defense formation. The remaining 5 A+ Ranks are in the outer circle while the 3 A+ Ranks—him included, are in the inner circle.

"Mages, cast the [Detection] spell! I'll go ask for rein—"

He didn't know when, but a face suddenly appeared in front of him. The intruder passed through the 5 A+ Ranks.

"How did—"

As the assistant got beheaded, the rest couldn't believe it. 

"Quick, call the command!"

"No, you won't."

Swoosh!

The intruder killed the 2 remaining mages in a single blow. Due to his Katana having a longer blade, he managed to do it.

Splat!

Swinging the sword towards the ground, the intruder got the blood off his blade.

"D-damn it! We can still subdue him!"

One of them said so, but 3 of them ran away already due to fright.

"So there's still some smart ones. Well, you can go complain to my SS Rank power."

"Argh!"

The intruder disappeared before he could finish his sentence, causing them to be off-guard. Another one got stabbed in the back, right in his heart.

""[Possession]!""

The two remaining men used the ace card decisively. Instantly, an eerie aura bursted forth from them.

"Hehe, we finally got to move!"

"These vessels—Hm? Wait, is that?!"

The Intruder's weapon suddenly changed, from a 1.3m Katana to a 1.5m longsword. The longsword itself is glowing white and gold.

"Holy armament! Argh—!"

The eerie robed men got split in half just like butter, his body on fire. They didn't even manage to swing their weapons. The remaining eerie guy shouted.

"Damn it! I'm out of here!"

"Nope."

Slash!

A transparent creature tried to escape from the body, but he got slashed together with it instead.

"<Evil Vanquishing Sword>."

[Evil Vanquishing Sword(A+)]

-The holy relic of a devout Paladin. With this sword, he had purified countless amounts of evil spirits.

-The trait [Evil Purification] has been retained after devouring.

[Evil Purification]

-Grants attacks against evil spirits a huge enhancement.

-When used against Evil Spirits, the damage inflicted are increased by 500%.

Just like the [Demon Slaying Sword], this sword is specialized to deal with Evil Spirits. Even though it didn't have an insane trait such as [Deity Slaying], the [Evil Purification] had made up for it.

Right after seeing the enemies, the intruder—Lugh, saw the eerie aura inside them. It was quite restrained at first but it bursted out right after that guy used his ace card. They also became S- Ranks temporarily.

Seeing that, he changed Little Xue's form.

Right after this, Lugh tried to catch up to the remaining 3 S- Ranks. Since he's at SS- Rank with Xiao Song's enhancement, he did so easily.

"A holy ar-"

Slash!

Seeing that these 3 decided to use their ace card, Lugh cut them with his [Evil Vanquishing Sword] like butter. Due to it being even longer than the Katana before, he had beheaded 3 of them in one go.

Their bodies became ablaze, seemingly getting purified thanks to the sword.

"The other ones.."

Lugh disappeared right after saying that. Moments after, another squad appeared. It was Kent's squad.

"Carter, where are you~"

"Captain, he shouldn't be here yet."

"Man, we just talked over the radio that we'll go back here together."

"Wait, Captain!"

"Huh?"

"What are those?"

Pointing at the ashes on the ground, Kent's assistant spoke.

"Huh, that? That is-"

Clang!

Boom!

With his reaction, he blocked Lugh's blow using his arm guards.

Kent got flung away like an over speeding car, only stopping after he crashed on 50 trees.

"Kugh."

"Captain!"

"Intruder! Mage Team!"

The Mage Team started casting their spells, but Lugh didn't care. He went straight for Kent instead.

"Argh—[Possession]!"

Just like the ones from before, his vibe changed. Not only that, his Rank also jumped to SS-Rank.

"Capture him!"

"Understood!"

Boom!

Various spells flew at Lugh. Fire Spears, Wind Tornado, Earth Walls, etc. It also caused a heavy smoke to rise.

"Not yet!"

"Ah?"

Slash!

Kent's right arm got cut off before it started burning to ashes.

"You stupid boy! Why did you call me when he has a Holy Armament!"

A creepy voice started coming out from Kent's mouth. It felt as if there's two souls inside his body.

"Try to hold him back. They should've known that there's an in—"

The creepy voice spoke again, but before he could finish his words, a lightning dragon came at him.

Boom! 

Bzzzt!

"[Seven Star Dragon Sword]."

[Seven Star Dragon Sword(EX+)]

-A Sword Technique created on one's Enlightenment. After seeing the constellations in the sky forming a dragon, the creator of this technique broke through to EX- Rank.

-This technique consists of 7 strikes. You must first hit the target with the 6 strikes before you can summon a lightning dragon on your 7th strike.

Ever since Lugh knew that he couldn't master the God Ranked techniques, he opted for an EX+ Rank first. Thankfully, its mastery to Initiate-Level only costed him 1M Exp.

Since his Master is also the skill creator, Heaven's Force is suited in it. As for his movement skill earlier..

[Space Breaking (Diamond)]

-A movement technique created on a whim.

-A movement technique whereas you fold space to transfer into a different place. Since the effects are limited, the side effects are minimized as well.

-At Initiate-Level Mastery, you can use this at your 500m radius. 

Since he requested for a Movement skill as well, his Master gave him one. This made Lugh realize just how generous his Master is. He's the physical embodiment of Santa Claus!

Still, his Master gave it to him so that he would have a better understanding of his God-Ranked techniques.

'Anyways, this felt like the [Dance of the Sword God] in terms of a combo skill..'

Before this battle started, Lugh thought that he should One-hit his enemy, to prevent a commotion. That's also why he charged up the [Sword of Extremity(A+)] even though he's temporarily at SS+ Rank.

His worries were proven right. When he couldn't one-hit Kent, he spilled some beans. The enemy must've been informed of their subordinates death.

'Life totems.'

That's what came to his mind first. He didn't knew much about it, except that it caused troubles for the Heavenly Sovereign countless times before.

'I am still lacking in experience. Shit.'

Lugh's experience against Zergs is already good, but his combat experience against fellow humans is quite bad.

Lugh then killed of the remaining black robed men like a grass cutter.

{Master! The SSS+ Rank and SS+ Ranks in the base began moving!}

'How far away are they from me?'

{They have already passed by you. They are heading towards your South.}

'This should be an opportunity. Go to the base while they're gone!'

"Connect me to Aria."

{Understood.}

It didn't take long before their communication modules got connected.

"Aria."

"Yes?"

"Wait for me. Then we'll go to the base."

"The base? Okay."

Beep!

After they're done talking, the connection got cut off.

'Screw Stealth. It's really fucking optional.'

Lugh met up with Aria before going inside the torn barrier..