Benji spent the following two weeks peacefully around the World Tree, absorbing the potent red fog that was produced.
Adam didn't slack, expanding the influence of Bloodsiegel across Germany.
They avoided Forbidden Zones, only focusing on scouting and establishing safe cities like Dortmund.
Most survivors were happy to see a new force emerging that protected them and Bloodsiegel grew rapidly with so many new survivors joining them.
The numbers of people with useful abilities grew steadily.
People with abilities like Cain, Major Ernst, and Angelina who could help building walls around the cities became their number one priority with Bloodsiegel grooming them to the bes way possible.
Benji and Adam felt strange through the past few days. They noticed that their strength didn't improve anymore despite keeping absorbing the potent red fog around the World Tree nonstop.
Both of them became restless when they completely stopped growing stronger...
[Is this it? Did we reach our limit?] Said Adam who was clearly in a bad mood.
Benji frowned, he too was in a bad mood but the fact that their black horns still kept absorbing the red fog gave him a little bit of hope...
The answer came a day later when his eyes suddenly snapped open.
His resting time was interrupted by cracking sounds.
Adam looked at their body through his Inner Eye, noticing that cracks began to appear on their horns.
They didn't know what exactly was happening but the speed in which their horns were absorbing the red fog began to slow down considerably.
It slowed down further the more cracks appeared on their horns...
The two didn't do anything but observe, letting things going on.
There were soon so many cracks that it their black horns stopped absorbing the red fog completely...
Benji and Adam didn't speak, waiting for an hour until all the cracks on the obsidian surface of their black horns connected with each other.
They heard a loud cracking sound coming from within and outside of them.
Pieces of their horns fell on the ground, revealing a new pair of smaller black horns.
Benji and Adam had no time to look at the new horns because their focus was on the inside of their body and mind.
It was like a bridge was established and their entire being tapped into something mysterious.
The two of them were soon engulfed by rampaging energy and their powers skyrocket, reaching new heights!
Grey Energy erupted from Benji's body in form of grey steam.
The mutated animals who were peaceful until now began to growl and howl as their eyes locked into Benji.
There was greed in their gazes but their fear was many times stronger, not daring to do anything rash.
The heavy aura produced by Benji's Grey Energy Steam vanished as fast as it came with the Grey Steam returning into Benji's body again.
He opened his eyes again with a smile on his face. He felt that he was at least ten times stronger than before.
The Grey Energy inside him experienced a huge change, turning more potent, vibrating non stop inside him as it flooded every pore of his body which felt refreshed and strong.
His Pillar inside the Pillar Space went through a change as it became completely grey with a single red ring rotating around the lower part of his the Pillar.
Adam shared his Inner Eye view with Benji who noticed one red ring rotating slowly around their new horns.
Benji stood up, stretching his body for a minute before vanishing from his spot.
A low sonic sound followed his disappearance and he appeared 50 meters up in the sky.
He stared down with a huge smile plastered on his face.
'It's not only our power that improved, but every aspect of us also improved too!'
[I was worried that we reached our limit but it seems more like this is what people call a breakthrough...]
Benji agreed and spent half the day getting used to his new strength and speed.
The two continued to sit beneath the World Tree absorbing the potent fog at an alarming rate.
The two red rings rotating around their horn were swirling faster as their devoured the fog much faster than in the past.
They noticed that their rate of improvement went on at a snail pace despite that fact, their body was like a bottomless pit that couldn't be filled.
Benji shook his head, 'It will take a very long time for us to grow at this rate...'
[I don't mind as long we keep improving.]
A new day arrived when they noticed movement around them. The mutated animals that resided on the branches of the World Tree began to howl and growl as they started to leave slowly.
Benji and Adam frowned silently.
It was at that time that Adam sensed a group of people approaching the World Tree.
Benji turned his head towards their direction, his gaze squinting.
The people that arrived here looked very familiar!
They were wearing long coats with different coats, their faces hidden behind black plague doctor mask.
[Looks like The Doc doesn't take us seriously, his people are still crawling in our territory...] Said Adam with killing intent.
Benji stayed silent, he stood up, slowly walking toward the group.
"Hey Nine, can you tell us now why master send us here?" Asked a man wearing a blue coat.
"We are here to retrieve something important for master, we estimate that it won't be long before that thing appears." Answered the leading person in a white coat, one could tell that it was a woman from her voice.
The man wearing a blue coat scratched the side of his mask, "Uh, okay but why do we need so many of us? We normally operate in pair of two. Aren't 12 of us a bit overkill? Even you alone should be enough for this right?"
The others didn't say anything but most of them shared the same opinion like the man.
All of them were proud of their powers, rampaging everywhere they go as they accomplish the missions tasked by their mysterious master...
The woman called Nine shook her head, "It isn't that simple, this mission is very important to master. It won't be easy to get our hands on what master desires..."
Everyone became serious after hearing what Nine said, they knew exactly how strong she was and even she said it wouldn't be easy with them all working together.
Nine suddenly stopped in her tracks, staring up ahead. The others stopped too, looking ahead.
They all saw a person walking slowly towards them.
Nine's expression became grave when she recognized who the person was.
"Brown skin and two horns, you are Solomon!" Said Nine, shocking the others.
They all had read the information about what their organization called "The Overlords", they knew that this land was under the control of the very First Overlord that killed once one of their teams. They never thought they would meet that figure here at this time, the informations stated that he had no clue about the World Treen and they shouldn't encounter him here.
The man stared at them with his pair of dim eyes that made his look like he was blind, they didn't know why but their instincts screamed danger! Very dangerous!
"I don't know why you people are in my territory and I don't care, you all will die here..."
The man in blue coat sneered, "Are you an idiot? You could act arrogantly if our team was low level fighters but all are numbers! Even you an Overlord can only flee with your tail tucked between your legs! Let me show you the difference between numbers and trash!" Spoke the man with contempt as a tempest of lightning erupted from his body.
"Hold on Sixteen!" Shouted Nine who had noticed the strange two rings rotating around Solomon's horns, she had no idea what they were and that made her wary!
It was too late, Sixteen had already arrived in front of Solomon, punching out at a high speed with lightning dancing around his whole body.
His fist was only a few centimeters away from Solomon's face...
'Huh?' Thought Sixteen as he hit only air, Solomon in front of him had strangely vanished!
He had no time to react when he felt pain coming from the side of his head...
Bone breaking sounds followed by a low sonic sound could be heard in the area as the group saw Sixteen being blasted away with half of his head missing...
All of them sucked the cold air deeply into their lungs!