Chapter 1390 - Disparity Among Geniuses

One could hear a pin drop after the projection had disappeared, as everyone took in the revelation. Several seconds passed as realization sank in, and a few Administrators immediately took out the tokens one could use to leave the Central Domain, but it was apparent that they didn’t work.

They had all been given one chance to leave but had gambled on staying. It was doubtful that the roughly forty people who stayed behind believed they would be the ones to move on personally, and many had probably stayed to support one ally. Others, like the True Dragons, naturally believed in their own power. Thus, even if the number of people who could move on was limited, they would have been fine.

However, no one had expected the limit to be one single person.

No one moved immediately, with some perhaps looking for an alternative to fighting. Perhaps there was another way to escape the antechamber, some method to force the cyclops projection to reappear, or perhaps something – anything – else.

Yet again, hope was snuffed out as the system drove the final nail into the coffin with a message.

Eliminate all other Administrators within the antechamber. This must be accomplished before the Majordomo loses patience and decides to revoke your audience with the Abundant Emperor.

Administrators remaining: 41/41

Time limit: 9:59:59

Not only was there no alternative presented, but there was also a time limit. Ten hours was a lot, but with B-grades fighting, things could quickly drag out, especially if those in battle were focused more on defense than offense. It was just that Jake was hyper-focused on offense, significantly limiting the length of most of his fights.

“Well,” Caleb said, sitting beside Jake on the chandelier as he flashed his big brother a smile. “I take it you wouldn’t be open to quitting here and allowing me to move on to the next stage? Oh, while taking care of all the other major threats in the room first, of course.”

“Fat chance,“ Jake shut that down with a light chuckle as he felt a sense of excitement rise up in his stomach.

“I figured,” Caleb shrugged. “In that case, I guess I’ll give you a hand in ensuring you’ll be able to move on.”

“You think I need help?” Jake asked, partly because he felt a little insulted at the notion, but also because he genuinely didn’t know if he would need help. Azal, the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord, and the woman from the Sword Palace were all significant threats, and they weren’t the only ones present capable of giving him some issues. A well-timed Dragon’s Breath or other special attack from another genius would still result in Jake having a very bad time.

“No idea, but I’ll provide it. Especially seeing as quite a few are throwing glances this way,” Caleb said, having likely concluded the same thing Jake had. There were telepathic messages flying everywhere below, and the primary topic was definitely how to deal with the biggest threats, with Jake being the biggest of the big threats, of course. At least he found any other conclusion incredibly insulting.

“Fortunately, it appears not everyone decided to target you first,” Caleb continued, as someone below finally made a move. In a flash, Azal appeared right in front of the group from the Holy Church and unleashed a devastating slash with his sword, sending out a blast of wailing souls that echoed throughout the hall.

The people from the Church responded quickly, but one of them was immediately severely injured, and the two other Risen also used their own magic to try to take down their hated enemy.

This became the starting shot for full conflict to break out, but rather than everyone suddenly starting to fight amongst themselves, a few select people were immediately targeted. Eleven people charged up towards Jake and Caleb, with the rest split between attacking the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord and the woman from the Sword Palace

“Impressively quick decision-making,” Jake commented out loud at how fast the people he designated as weaker had organized themselves and formed a plan. Even the two True Dragons seemed to realize they were outmatched, and both moved to attack the other Chosen present.

Alas, committing to a plan and successfully executing it were two very different things. Jake pulled out his bow and immediately unleashed an Arrow Storm towards the approaching Administrators, with Caleb moving to the side as bolts of black lightning manifested around him.

“For the record, they also tried to rope me in. Funny fact, very few actually know I’m your brother, so they just assumed I was a Judge from the same home planet as you. I told them you already offered me a deal I couldn’t refuse, so just know that you owe me,” Caleb sent telepathically at the same time.

Jake didn’t acknowledge his cheeky brother as he focused on weeding out the Administrators who were silly enough to target him. Not that they had much of a choice. Even if they knew it was a long shot, they had to at least try something, right?

It wasn’t as if they were completely hopeless either.

His arrow storm was mostly blocked by a barrier mage and a warrior who moved together to defend the group as four mages behind unleashed their spells. A magic circle appeared above Jake as magical threads appeared all across his body, pulling him upwards and limiting his movements, and at the same time, a blast of pure force and another of dense flames shot towards him from both sides.

Jake forcefully freed himself from the odd strings restricting him as he barely dodged below the two magic blasts, only to move straight into a floating rune in the air cast by the final mage. The second he hit it, intense cold invaded his body, not doing any damage, but, once more, seemingly intent on weakening him.

Meanwhile, someone from the Altmar Empire, holding a rather impressive-looking rifle, shot blasts towards Caleb, who was already dealing with a warrior swinging two curved swords at him.

The attacking Administrators had gone all out from the beginning, likely hoping to gain some kind of advantage quickly. Unfortunately for them... the gap was simply too wide.

Right before another wave of attacks arrived, Jake’s body exploded with energy as he activated his own boosting skill at its stable 30%, not seeing the need to push it further quite yet. He easily dodged and used One Step, appearing in the distance while making use of the massive chandelier now between him and the attacking Administrators.

An Arcane Powershot blasted through the antechamber less than a second later. The barrier mage moved, trying to block it, but the arrow was far too powerful and broke through to hit one of the mages square in the chest.

Due to having his hastily conjured barrier broken, the mage suffered minor backlash that usually wouldn’t mean much, but that brief moment was enough for Jake to land a quickly fired arrow straight in his chest, penetrating deeply.

A healer among the Administrators immediately moved to help, but Jake had already identified the woman as one of the weakest links of the group. Despite being surrounded by allies, she had no recourse as Jake’s glowing gaze landed on her and directly attacked her soul with the intent to kill or injure.

She screamed in pain from the powerful soul attack, and with two of their defensive people momentarily disabled, Jake quickly managed to pick them off while avoiding the other chasing Administrators who desperately tried to pin him down. Again, unfortunately for them, he was far faster than every single one of them, and while they tried to use magic to slow him down, Jake was no slouch when it came to shrugging off such spells. It also helped that Scales gave him stupidly high resistance to most magic, and many of the hastily fired spells flying towards him didn’t even meet the minimum threshold to deal damage through them.

Off to the side, Caleb smashed the skull of the warrior trying to pin him down, quickly fully finishing him off with rapid, powerful blows that tore the rest of his already broken body apart. Below, the fighting was also intensifying, and as Jake finished off his third attacker, he quickly checked the current objective in between dodging spells.

Administrators remaining: 27/41

People were dying in droves, and Jake only sought to add to that number. The disparity between so-called geniuses was more evident than ever, as all these champions of their own small factions or galaxies were utterly dismantled by the true geniuses of the multiverse.

They did their best and tried to take advantage of their numbers, but even then, they couldn’t force someone like Jake to even fully use his boosting skill, much less deal any notable damage. Sure, if they actually hit him with their killing moves, it would have some effect, but he saw no reason to stand still and take whatever they threw at him.

One by one, his arrows took down Administrators, and one thing he couldn’t complain about was the many Prima Credits earned through kills. It was unfortunate that many of them definitely had uncashed treasures they never got to offer to an altar, and these treasures obtained within the Outer Gardens and Inner City weren’t dropped upon death, but simply became wasted potential credits.

Still, Miranda had to be happy for the many points as the surviving Administrators rapidly dwindled until soon, there were only a dozen left.

Administrators remaining: 12/41

Azal was finishing off the final member of the Holy Church, while the two True Dragons had held on well, but the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord had rather casually handled them, and the only reason they were still alive was that she hadn’t acted with offense in mind so far.

The same couldn’t be said about Xiurong from the Sword Palace, who was dancing around her opponents while cutting them to shreds. Her movements were ethereal and unrealistically smooth, and besides Jake, she had been the one to kill off the most Administrators thus far.

Caleb had also killed the ones who’d tried to keep him busy, and as he looked to Jake and saw he was done killing, the Judge joined the hunter as the two observed the battle beneath, neither showing any intent to get involved.

“I could take us both into the Shadow Realm, and we could hide out there until those three fight it out,” Caleb offered with a smile.

“Would that even work?” Jake asked curiously. While entering and exiting the Shadow Realm was difficult, it didn’t mean it was impossible for others to follow them in there, or worse, force them out after entering.

“Honestly? No,” Caleb chuckled as he looked at the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord, who spoke a single word as one of the dragons had its skin and scales peeled off while roaring in pain. “While I’ve never experienced it myself, from what I’ve been told, she would likely be able to force her way into the Shadow Realm or completely supplant it with her own domain.”

“Even if you could, please don’t; it would be such a lame thing to do.”

Jake was not the type to run away from a fight, and neither was he one to interfere in other people’s battles. He simply watched as the ones below cleaned house until finally only four people remained. Surprisingly, one of the Risen with Azal had made it through, though they had gotten significantly injured while killing the members of the Holy Church, as a third party had decided to assist the church midway through and ambushed her.

Just as Jake was thinking she wouldn’t be very useful in what would come next, Azal surprisingly spoke a few words to her before proceeding to stab her in the chest. Her entire body turned into blue wisps of light, though some energy did also appear to enter his blade before the Ghost King turned his attention to everyone else.

The two women from the Dao Sect stood far apart from one another, one having clear signs of the two now-dead True Dragons around her, while the other was wiping down her blade with a piece of cloth, despite there not being a single drop visible on it.

And thus, they were five.

Administrators remaining: 5/41

Jake, Harbinger of Primeval Origins and the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, Caleb, Judge from the Court of Shadows and inheritor of Tenlucis’ Legacy, the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord, and recognized as one of the greatest geniuses the palace had ever seen, Azal the Ghost King, wielder of a blade Jake felt was a greater treasure than even his bow, and finally Xiurong, the daughter of the Swordsoul Daolord and someone Jake knew even the Sword Saint recognized as a more than worthy opponent.

Deciding to join the others below, Jake jumped off the chandelier, Caleb following him immediately after, as the two landed on the tiled floor that was now slightly damaged from the fight that had taken place upon it. Around them, several pieces of massive furniture were strewn about, though most of it was still intact, proving just how damn durable a random sofa in the Palace of Abundance was.

“We meet again, Chosen of the Malefic One,” Azal said while looking over, still keeping his distance. “It may be late, but I congratulate you on your victory over Ell’Hakan. I wish I could have seen the battle, but alas, some things are for the imagination.”

“Thank you. Also for taking care of Casper,” Jake said, knowing that the Ghost King had taken good care of his friend, who’d recently been given the same title.

“I deserve no thanks for that I should rightfully do,” the Risen said politely before also turning to the two from the Dao Sect. “I must also say, I find it a rarity for those from the Dao Sect to get this involved in system events. While the Heart Palace is known to encourage its members to explore the world and broaden their horizons, the same certainly cannot be said about the Sword Palace.”

“The circumstances of this particular event make it appealing to us,” Xiurong responded for both of them, though Jake wasn’t as sure the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord agreed with her next words. “And so far, I have not found myself disappointed. Rarely can one encounter so many worthy sparring partners in one place, and especially now, I feel fortunate looking at the foes before me.”

Scratch that part about the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord not agreeing with that sentiment, as she smiled and nodded, Jake really having a hard time getting a read on her personality. She seemed meek and reserved, yet in a scenario like this, she seemed oddly excited.

“How about the Judge?” Azal said, turning to Caleb, who was standing beside Jake. Out of the five of them, he was probably the weakest. Maybe he could rival Xiurong to a certain extent, but against Jake, his fellow Chosen, and Azal... yeah, they were one step above, and there was a chance Xiurong was too.

“I would like to remain neutral; however, that does not appear to be an option, so I’ll be bold enough to also take this opportunity to broaden my horizons,” Caleb said, stealthily sending a message to Jake at the same time.

“I’m definitely dying here and getting a month’s vacation, but I don’t plan on going out without a fight. I’ll aim for the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord and try to keep her busy for as long as I can. I’m doing this totally selflessly, of course, and it’s definitely not because I want to experience fighting someone like her.”

“Indeed, there is little choice in this scenario, so let us all make the best of it,” Azal said, already standing there with his weapon in hand as he looked toward Jake. “And while this is certainly a little shameful, not acting at least a little strategically would be foolish. So allow me to apologize in advance.”

Jake already knew why he apologized as he smiled. “No apologies required.”

“In that case,” Azal said, lowering his stance. “Allow me to begin.”

With those words, he exploded toward Jake, Xiurong moving at the exact same time, also bee-lining for Jake. The two had clearly discussed this, and while Jake suspected they’d also reached out to the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord, he never got the opportunity to find out. Before she even got to move, Caleb was already upon her and dragged them both into the Shadow Realm, leaving the antechamber to the two swordfighters and Jake.

Jake didn’t hesitate to push his boosting skill a little further, knowing that this wasn’t going to be easy... though it was definitely going to be fun. Hopefully, for everyone involved, no matter the winner.