Forty minutes earlier, around the time, Kaiden and Vitoria arrived at the outskirts of the city...
[Soaring Cloud City]
The sheer size of the city spanned for tens of thousands of kilometers in size with walls that tower over mountains. It has a wide variety of buildings within and nearly fifty million in population.
The four gates of Soaring Cloud City located in the north, south, east, and west are always guarded by twenty lookout towers each.
Within, two guards are assigned by the defense force of the city.
The gates of the Soaring Cloud City is famed for repelling numerous beast tides and hostile forces. The citizens of the city could live peacefully thanks to the management of the City Lord Cloudsoar and the protection of the Soaring Cloud Guards.
At the 5th Lookout Tower of the North Gate, there was a young man who was stationed along with an old looking knight. The old man was yawning and scratching his back while lying on his side while the young man was tense as he stood by the gate with his eyes scanning his surroundings restlessly.
The old man chuckled as he saw the awkward movements of the boy, "Boy, you ought to calm down a bit. We don't fight everyday like the folks in the city glorify us to be. Sometimes, we just guard the city all night and let permitted travelers pass. You're a newbie, aren't cha? Kakaka."
"Y-yes, sir. I apologize for my actions. This is my first day as a Cloud Guard. Senior, may not know but I am Kris Dawson of the 618th Batch of the Soaring Cloud Academy which graduated last week." The young guard tactfully replied.
"Hm, so you're one of those uptight greenhorns." The old man commented as he scanned the young ones' behavior.
"Err..." Kris Dawson did not expect such a reaction from the old man. 'Normally, people would praise and fawn over you for just getting accepted into the main academy of the city where only one of a thousand young prodigies would pass.'
More or less ten thousand adolescents are able to get into the academy.
After getting into the academy, the students are enrolled into a 6-year curriculum which gets increasingly difficult as they advance a year.
In the first year, there are little challenges that would prevent the students from advancing. But in the second year, around a quarter of the batch would fail once before moving up to the third year. In the third year, the amount further reduces by a third. The pattern increases to a half per class each year.
Only an estimated hundred students from ten thousand freshmen would graduate without repeating a year.
This graduating batch would only appear once every six years and would be treated as geniuses praised by each resident of the city.
They are knights that will at least have a position that can command over a thousand troops. And, Kris was one of those graduates.
"But, if you're part of those brats, why would you be assigned here?" The old man asked.
"..." Kris was silent. He could not utter a single word but in his mind, he knew the reason. 'It's because I'm not a noble and came from a poor family.'
Thinking of this, he clenched his fists as he swore in his heart, 'For now, I'll endure for my family... One day, I'll go strong enough to make everyone who looks down on me regret what they did to me.'
The old man saw this and sighed, "I guess there's some "unexplainable" reason again is there? It's fine if you don't want to share."
"Uh, thank you, sir..." Kris absentmindedly answered.
Then, he realized that the old man said something peculiar, 'Again, what does he mean? Does he know my situation? Wait, no, I've never heard of a similar case like mine in the academy.'
Kris looked at the old man with a new light. He now had a mysterious aura on him. His previous frivolous behavior now seemed like a reflection of a retired soldier.
Then, he asked, "Could I ask for senior's name?"
"My name? Well, it's fine. I am-" Then, the tired expression of the old knight suddenly changed. His eyes became sharper as if an awakened tiger whose territory was invaded.
With a serious and deep voice, he muttered, "A Malevolent Magnate?!"
Kris could barely hear them but he was still able to make something out of it. He looked at the old man with a terrified expression.
Although he was a bit skeptical that such an evil would appear, ignoring that possibility may lead to the loss of hundreds to even thousands of lives.
Then, he panicked as he went to the wide-ranged Aura Scanning Array and tried to sense such an aura. He quickly operated it and submerged his consciousness into the array.
He furiously tried to find that aura but he could not.
After double checking, he heaved a sigh of relief and looked back, "Senior, you must have sensed things wrongly. I could not find a malevolent aura anywhere and I used the tower's lookout array. You must be tired. I can keep watch while you take a nap."
'How dumb of me to believe the drivel of an old man. I need to be more aware and focused. I must be if I want to become a powerhouse in the future!' Kris thought.
But as he went back to reality, he saw that the old man was no longer there. Then, he was shocked, "Where did he go? I did not even sense him leaving."
"Wait, did I even sense him in the first place?" Kris had this realization.
He then recalled when he arrived at the base of the 5th lookout tower. He did not sense anyone at all.
He thought back then, 'Why is there no one there? Did the other guard skip duty or is he on leave?'
But when he climbed and reached the peak, he saw the old man sleeping. He thought at that time, "I must have not sensed him since he was sleeping."
Then, he proceeded as stated in the procedure given during the training at the academy.
He never thought it was peculiar until now, "Is it normal for people to hide their aura even when they're asleep? Even when sleeping, the body uses a minimum amount of energy to keep the body stable. But to completely hide it? There are only two reasons that I know of..."
"He has such a complete mastery of his Innate Energy that he was able to subconsciously do it in his sleep and that he is far stronger than me..." Kris deduced.
Now, he felt extremely embarrassed of how he tried to flaunt his status as an elite graduate.
No wonder the old man paid him no heed and even called them brats. "To think I would catch the hubris of those scum..."
"I need to straighten myself or else, I will fall behind others-" As he contemplated, he noticed an unusual alarm of the Aura Scanning Array.
A large signal appeared on the radar of the array.
"This...!" It was a pressuring mass of energy. The energy emitted was filled with insanity and darkness. The owner did not even bother to hide his aura.
It was approaching the city at an alarming speed!
"Senior was right! It is even a Mortal Severing powerhouse! But how could his senses exceed the array? The array has at least the power of a peak of Origin Palace? That means he is at least a Mortal Severing expert! He-he....!" Kris trembled as he reached this conclusion. He was also shocked at the power level that was being monitored by the formation.
"There's no time to lose, I must inform the headquarters! Huh?"
Then, a weird occurrence happened on the array. The owner of the overwhelming aura stopped all of a sudden. The individual stopped on the main road of the city but was still several kilometers away from the city.
On the place where it stopped, there were two other energy signatures. Although they were being kept at a minimum, the quality of the energy of the two individuals was also at the Mortal Severing level!
"How could three Mortal Severing experts appear near the city at the same time?! Since when did reaching Mortal Severing become this easy?!" Kris was shocked time and time again today. He never expected that he would meet four powerhouses in a single day!
Then, Kris noticed something, "This place? Isn't this the flower field that Leila always visits? I wonder if she already ate, she always goes there after dinner- No, that girl better not visit it this time!"
Concerned for her sister's welfare, Kris could no longer sit still.
He abandoned his post and jumped directly out of the window of the lookout tower!
Without a hint of fear on his face, he dived down and ran downwards on the walls of the gate.
People would normally try to delay their fall as much as possible but Kris was running with even more haste as he approached the ground.
He grabbed on the pendant hidden in his shirt, "I have already lost enough that time! I will protect my little sister! I won't let anyone kill you even if I have to fight a Mortal Severing!"
On the fourth lookout tower, the knights were panicking when they detected the aura.
Although they already reported the matter to the headquarters, they were still filled with fear by the aura that the individual emitted.
"What should we do?" A lanky knight said as he looked at the position of the dark blue mass of energy in the monitor of the array.
"We already reported the incident. Our job is already done. All that's left to do is wait for the Purging Army to take care of this matter!" An experienced guard with a large beard said with confidence as he sat on his recliner.
"Yeah, you're right! We've already done our part." The lanky knight heaved a sigh of relief. After he did, he noticed another peculiar activity on the monitor. "Eh...? Eh? WHAT?!"
"AHHH!" The bearded guard was startled so much that he stood as he heard the sudden shout.
In contrast to his confident appearance, he trembled and stuttered as he spoke, "D-Don't tell me th-that Malevolent Magnate is heading here?!"
"Uhm, n-no. That's not- Kugh!" The lanky knight was hit by the bearded knight angrily.
He heavily reprimanded his junior with a furious face and loud voice, "Then, what the hell were you so surprised about?!"
"Someone jumped from their lookout tower..."
"What? That's bullshit. No one is that dumb!"
"..."
"..."
After the awkward silence, the two immediately rushed to the window and saw Kris' falling figure!
No, rather than falling, it was running vertically!
He was even accelerating so much that he seemed to become a blur!
In order to be able see Kris properly, they applied their Innate Energy into their eyes and was able to strengthen the quality and range of their eyesight.
Despite this, they were just barely able to make out his face and figure which was that of a young adult.
"WHAT?!" The bearded guard also exclaimed like how his junior did when he first saw Kris' act of jumping out his lookout tower. The height of the tower was over fifty meters. Even for a cultivator at the peak of Origin Palace, they would die if they fell from such a height!
Then, the junior also hit his head. "Ouch!"
"What the hell are you so surprised about!?" The lanky man shouted.
"Eh?" The bearded guard was a bit lost; he never expected to be yelled at.
Then, he recovered and hit his junior on the head again, "What are you hitting me for?!"
"Oh, sorry. I thought it was some sort of guard thing. Hehehe." The lanky man sheepishly spoke, leaving his senior stunned by his shameless retort. His attention returned to Kris.
Kris, who was descending like a meteor, suddenly unsheathed the blade on his waist when he was only twenty-five meters away from the ground. He gathered his innate energy and moved swiftly with elegance as if he was dancing.
"Soaring Cloud Blade Arts, Final Move: Splitting the Cloudy Sky!" He jumped off the gate and cut down his blade on the tower walls!
To further strengthen the impact, he curled his body with the blade!
*BOOM!*
"Is he crazy?!" The two knights exclaimed at the same time.
Rather than slowing down his descent, he even jumped towards the ground! He did not even invoke any defensive techniques on him that would lessen the impact of the fall.
To make things worse, he even attacked the wall!
But, then, a miracle enfolded! Instead of crashing into the ground and dying miserably. Kris was cannonballed away from the wall at a blurring speed! They saw that Kris was blown off by a force with an equal force of his descent and attack
"What just happened?" The two guards could not comprehend what they just saw! Instead of dying, Kris was able to survive and was shot towards the horizon from the impact.
The two were silent for a while.
They still had trouble absorbing what just happened. "To think that there was actually someone that crazy and daring..."
"He used the speed of his descent and power of his attack to propel himself away from the wall? He actually used the protective barrier of the city wall to do this feat?" The experienced bearded guy was then able to realize what just happened.
He shook his head in disbelief as he thought of it again, "The barrier is known to repel attacks of the Half-Saint Realm. But for attacks of weaker magnitude, it reflects it by 120% of the original power! This may have been possible in theory but to actually execute in reality? Th-That was too crazy! One misstep and it could have caused him his life!"
"I think he is the new recruit who was just assigned here today. If my memory serves me right, he was a year lower in the academy before I graduated last year. To think he would be part of a "golden batch". He truly is a genius..." The lanky knight lamented.
"Even if he is part of a golden batch, his decisiveness and intuition is already beyond their level. But what's curious is that with his talent, why was he assigned with a job like sentry duty." The bearded knight praised Kris after witnessing such an amazing feat.
"No, what's truly curious is why he did that stunt which risked his life?" The lanky youth asked as he saw Kris gradually being hidden by the forest in front of the city.
The bearded knight was slightly surprised before agreeing, "You're right..."
"But why does it look like he was heading towards the direction of the Malevolent Magnate and the other two Mortal Severing experts...? Is he trying to watch experts fight?"
"Hahaha, that can't be. He can't be that stupid! He will die just from the aftermath of their exchange!"
"But he jumped out of the wall...."
"..."
"...."