Separating me from Namacui were walls of golden Aegis crystals. Albeit the tiny empty space that I was in, I made my way to the outside of the walls by disintegrating a portion of it. Rays of sunlight basked me in it and I looked back at the misshapen shape of the Aegis crystals that had enveloped the area.
Of course, this was the work of one of my Aegis's abilities, of which I named as Breakthrough. The ability fit the name perfectly since I only used it to free myself from dire situations. After the capacity of my Aegis to absorb Aegis crystals reached its limit, Breakthrough would activate involuntarily. Upon activation, it allowed me to use the stored Aegis crystals as a means to multiply and grow my Aegis crystals tenfold faster. To some extent, I could even surpass Gheele's Propagation specialty by a significant margin. He would hate me though if he knew I had something like this hidden from him.
I only used Breakthrough once before, back when I was a member of The People's Light. Beside Freya and a few members of that group, no one else knew about it. I made sure that I didn't use this ability if there was a low chance for me to take down my enemies with it.
That was why, this time, I didn't intend to let go of Namacui. I had to finish him here before I used up all of my absorbed Aegis crystals. After a long sigh, I searched for any signs of Namacui being entombed inside my clusters of Aegis crystals. Though, there was no movement whatsoever from within.
"Hmm . . ." Slowly, half of my face covered itself with golden Aegis crystals. It then stopped, making it look like I was wearing a half mask. The shape was crude with no visible pattern on its surface. Aside from a hole to make sure that my left eye was not blinded, nothing of importance came to mind. Of course, this was exactly what happened when I activated this ability before as well.
A mask in half covered my face for who knows why.
My injuries healed as my eyes still looking at the gleaming golden Aegis crystals covering the area. Ten seconds passed, then twenty, and that was when a blinding light exploded from within the tomb of Aegis crystals. It shone in gold brilliance, and I found myself squinting just to make out a faint silhouette walking towards me.
"You surprised me with that ability. I never thought the Banishing Aegis can do such a thing," said Namacui as he absorbed my Aegis crystals surrounding him, "but that was the extent of it, am I right? It was only for a moment that you can multiply your Aegis crystals at such a ridiculous rate."
I smiled at his statement. Actually, my mouth had turned into a grin before I realized it. His assumption was not far off, so I couldn't help but acknowledge him for his quick grasp of the situation. But, due to that as well, he let his guard down in front of me. I never said I couldn't do the same thing twice or more. Until I expend my whole stash of absorbed Aegis crystals, covering another twenty kilometers in golden Aegis crystals would take little to no effort at all.
Namacui's expression turned confused. Perhaps he was confident that he could overcome me with how many Aegis specialties he had in his arsenal. That kind of thinking would lead to his downfall no doubt.
Slowly, I pointed my right index finger in his direction. He immediately leaped out of the way, assuming that I would do something to him. After he positioned himself a bit further than his initial spot, the misshapen golden dome glowed.
"What in the world—"
Namacui gawked at the sight of my dome rebuilding itself back. The exposed surface where he had absorbed my Aegis crystals also glowed as it fixed itself. In just a mere second, the misshapen Aegis crystals had taken its original form, making it seem like Namacui hadn't absorbed it in the first place.
But that was not the end of it. Surprised as he was, Namacui was still a subordinate of Amathelia. Combined with his experience, he managed to tear his gaze away.
"Your Aegis is insane," those were the only words that came out his mouth as he looked at me, his eyebrows drew together. After that, he had his eyes fixated on a cluster of golden Aegis crystals from behind. The cluster was about three hundred meters tall, where it reshaped itself into that of a dragon.
A three hundred-meter tall dragon, complete with gigantic wings twice its size and four massive, strong legs. Its body-length tail was connected to my Aegis crystals covering the whole area.
As the dragon stared at Namacui, its maw opened wide, revealing rows of razor-sharp golden teeth.
Namacui's incredulous gaze didn't move away from the dragon. He looked completely nonplussed. After all, an Aegis User couldn't make a huge thing like that without the help of unique Aegis specialties. For example, Gheele could make that dragon if he so wished to since his Propagation would allow him to do it.
The golden dragon lifted one of its front legs ever so slow. Even then, Namacui didn't move. It seemed like he was really taken in by the sight of that dragon, so much so that he was unconsciously ignoring the giant leg shadowing him.
And so, the dragon's leg plummeted at inhuman speed towards Namacui and crushed him underneath. The sheer force of that maneuver alone reverberated the entire twenty-kilometer platform.
"Woah!" Even I was surprised by it. Manifesting that dragon didn't take much out of me since I could multiply my Aegis crystals in this state. I shook my head a few times and crept closer to the dragon.
It moved its leg out of the way for me to take a good look at Namacui's body. However, there was nothing there underneath that dragon's feet. In fact, a portion of the platform where Namacui was standing before had vanished.
"You crushed him into oblivion... no... you sent him down into the depths of the ocean with that stomp," my body shivered as I said that.
The dragon didn't reply to my comment of course. It would be weird if it did that; since the dragon was made up of my Aegis crystals and therefore an inanimate object, more or less. Me sculpting this fantasy creature was only an experiment I thought of trying if I ever had to use my Breakthrough again.
It turned out to be a success with Namacui's defeat in hand, but controlling and maintaining such a huge amount of Aegis crystals took a bit more effort than I had expected. If I were to create this golden dragon without resorting to Breakthrough, it will be nigh impossible.
"Is he really gone for good?" I mumbled incredulously. Though, those words were directed towards me since Namacui had proved to be a monster with his variety of Aegis specialties.
I sighed and turned to face the Neo Africa's fleet of warships. Just when I did, a few of the warships exploded, their sturdy vessels ruptured in an instant and roaring flames rose up towards the sky. Then, three more warships were subjected to the same fate as well, breaking the fleet's formation even further. I cussed internally and ran in the fleet's direction.
Since twenty kilometers of the ocean had succumbed to my Aegis crystals, I already had a solid platform stretched out as I made my way to the nearest warship that had been attacked. The warships were barely reaching the platform, so it didn't inhibit them in any way.
Thick, black smoke billowed from every inch of the warship's deck. It was leaning sideways, possibly due to water pouring into the vessel— reducing it to just a metal scrap slowly being dragged into the ocean's depth.
"Mister Hope! Do you hear me?!" said a voice through my earpiece.
"Admiral. What is going on?"
"T-There's an Aegis User attacking our warships, and we can't stop her on our own. We need you and Caesar— Admiral! She's coming— What? She already gets this far into our formation?"
The admiral was being asked by a few other voices, presumably the other marine officers with him in the command center. At the same time, my brain quickly ran through every little information I had learned so far about the Aegis Meisters.
"...Ernestine?"
I remembered a name Namacui casually mentioned to Liu Yang back then. He said something about helping this Ernestine once he is done getting rid of me. That could only mean one thing. There was a third Aegis Meister.
And Caesar was nowhere to be seen.