[Firing on all cylinders]
The voice of the sanctuaries sounded in his ears as time seemed to slow down to a crawl.
Bian's right hand moved at lightning speed approaching the ever closer javelin.
Just as the javelin made impact with his forehead, fracturing a part of his skull, his right hand caught and kept it in place.
Even with the three inner pillars active, the recoil wasn't to be taken lightly.
The world kept shrinking in his eyes, as he was pushed hundreds of meters away, his back slamming into obstacles and breaking them without repose.
Finally, after leaving two very, very long trench marks, he was knee deep in the ground and his momentum stopped.
"Bao'er, come down for a moment, okay?"
Bao'er nodded meekly and Bian put her down.
The javelin he had caught was made of magic, it instantly dissipated once its job was done.
Bian meanwhile had acquired a total of six spears from the Minotaur Cavalry. He fused two to become gold geno cores and the burning spear was already a gold geno core.
Out of the last three, he summoned two and fused them together.
[Hefty Black Spear : Metal Element Gold Geno Core] × 2
[Burning Black Spear: Metal Element Gold Geno Core]
Evolving two black spears gave a different result from the natural ascension of the geno core.
While the mutant Minotaur had a burning spear as its gold geno core, the ones Bian had fused were without this elemental boost.
It was impossible to say which was better than the other though, since the Burning Black Spear was definitely than the Hefty Black Spear and thus less destructive.
"No more holding back!"
Like a floodgate had been snapped open, an indigo light rushed out from Bian, covering the entire capital and a good part of the land beyond.
By now, most of the creatures in the capital had fled or hidden and even then, they only felt the indigo light was a strange phenomenon.
"What is this? Why does it feel so... wrong?"
Earl Starshine felt a certain dissociation from herself; as if she had been severed from something important.
The Blinding Shrapnel Storm was still around her, now unleashed in its complete unholy glory.
Now it was darker than the night itself and ordinary powers couldn't navigate through the storm at all.
She had tried her best to kill him, she really did. But since that wasn't working out, then she had to stall for Earl Shin to get here.
Or better yet, wait for the Duke and the last Sentry to arrive from the land of the dead.
Although the indigo light was worrisome, she still had her top-notch gold geno cores protecting her at every moment, and Bian couldn't even see her while she was in the Storm.
Or so she thought.
Reminiscent of his time when he was lost in the desert in the first sanctuary; Bian once again launched three consecutive spears.
The only difference—these spears were strong enough to destroy an intergalactic carrier.
Three distinct sonic booms rang out and Bian ran forward aggressively, using all the strength he could muster.
Earl Starshine felt something coming towards her at extremely fast speeds. Luckily for her, she could control the golden shields with her mind and moved them to intercept the speeding object.
With a loud bang, the front of the shield was dented by the spear and most importantly, it was flung away to the side.
Her eyes constricted as she felt another spear approaching. A shield came forward again and was dented again, forced some meters away from her.
The last spear had a burning tip and came at lightning speed. She didn't get a chance to react and had to block with the last available shield.
This spear wasn't as heavy as the other two. It only moved the shield away by an arm's length, but didn't dent it.
All of this happened in an instant, and the first shield was already in a returning motion.
That's when Earl Starshine saw a crystalline light blitzing towards her after the three spears.
The pages of her book were flipping, but she didn't have enough time to fuse any spells before the blur reached her.
The first two shields that had been knocked away were yet to return, but the last shield was already in front of her.
At this distance she couldn't miss even if she wanted to. Just as she was about to launch her strongest spell again, comprising the metal, fire and lightning elements—
The figure sped up again, meeting her face to face.
Bian held the Scornful Bane in his right hand and the Firm Black Spear in his left hand.
At this point, with numerous training and after several evolutions, he could use his left hand with 99% efficiency and it was just as strong as his right.
There was no fancy technique involved. With his speeding momentum the black spear struck the golden shield.
Bian was worried the spear would break, but it proved why it was named the Firm Black Spear.
Although it was at a lower level than the golden shield, the person wielding it was unbelievably strong.
He used the spear to push aside the shield and just for a moment, Earl Starshine was left completely defenseless.
"Fire!"
She barely managed to muster engulfing Bian in a sea of flames, but he ran through it.
After all, he couldn't stop even if he wanted to; not with his tremendous velocity.
The bone-white blade of the Scornful Bane phased through her neck with ease.
After achieving his goal, it took Bian over a hundred meters to finally put an end to his momentum.
"You... you..."
Earl Starshine stuttered, then she decisively blew up all her geno cores. The shields and her book all shattered and she followed soon after.
Far away in an isolated silver shelter, a beautifully blue spirit stone was embedded in the forehead of a silver statue.
The spirit stone suddenly emitted a vibrant indigo light and exploded into pieces, which soon faded away with the wind.
Bian had killed Earl Starshine, but there was no time to celebrate his victory.
He went back to pick up Bao'er and approached the Mutant Saber-tooth Tiger, which was half foot into the grave.
The black spear had shattered its spine, leaving the beast paralyzed and in extreme pain.
Bian swayed away from its futile attempt of a counterattack and plunged the Scornful Bane into its head.
[Mutant Creature Alabaster Tiger killed. Beast soul has been acquired. Gold Geno Core received: Target Mark. Consume its flesh to gain 0 to 10 Mutant Geno Points randomly.]
Bian dived into his soul sea right away to check what new gains he had.
[Target Mark: Gravity Element Gold Geno Core]
[Beast soul of Mutant Creature Alabaster Tiger: Mount]
"Nothing useful at the moment. Why did I only get one geno core from the tiger?"
Bian didn't have time to ponder on such thoughts. Already, Earl Shin had entered the range of the Emperical Aura and was en route to his location.
As the inner pillars became normalized, the injury on his head where the spear had hit began bleeding.
Sadly, Bian didn't have the time to heal his injury. The bronze cauldron wasn't done with the first primitive tiger he put in, and the Alabaster Tiger was too huge to fit into it anyway.
Luckily, Bian had another way to rapidly increase his fitness.
Dipping his hands into the injury on the tiger's back, he activated Vitality Drain and began refining its blood.
"Way too slow!"
Bian complained as Earl Shin would reach him in under a minute.
[Flesh Of Alabaster Tiger Eaten. One Mutant Geno Point gained]
[Flesh Of Alabaster Tiger Eaten. One Mutant Geno Point gained]
Bian could only absorb two mutant geno points, bringing his tally up to nine.
"Well the increase in strength feels refreshing—ish." Bian said, feeling a bit drained.
This was because of the Emperical Decree. Bian recently figured out that it didn't drain his stamina but his life energy.
Life energy could only be replenished through sleep and until he slept, he would be feeling the fatigue.
If his life energy wasn't enough to fuse the objects, it would drain his life span.
Unlike life energy, life span couldn't be replenished.
Bian could easily recover his stamina by resting, eating or increasing his fitness.
So although his stamina wasn't low, he was feeling the fatigue from using the Emperical Decree.
Earl Shin came by and witnessing the carcasses of the Minotaurs and Alabaster Tigers, he yelled.
"You demon, I should have killed you when I had the chance!"
Then he observed the destruction closely, the burnt ground, the perforated houses.
These were obviously the work of Earl Starshine and since he couldn't see her anywhere, she was most likely dead.
"I won't let you escape again. Today, one of us must die."
The Earl said with grim determination while, summoning his Gold Geno Core, the Cloak and Dagger.