The entire student body at Soul Manifestation left the academy and headed out to the ancient ruin. The entire group was being escorted by several Divine Emperors of the Alliance Kingdom to ensure everyone's safety.
Two days passed by peacefully and everyone was close to the entrance of the ancient ruin. At the front of the group were Bruce, Deion, Edward, Sophia, Meredith, and Chelsey.
Meredith did not like that Sophia was joining their group, but she didn't raise any complaint because she knew that Sophia was extremely powerful. Even so, she couldn't stand it whenever Sophia attempted to hug Bruce.
"Sophia, could you stop trying to hug my boyfriend?" Meredith asked in a threatening tone.
"Fufu, that's just how people greet each other back at my church" Sophia charmingly replied.
"Why don't you try and hug Edward and Deion then?" Meredith didn't buy her excuse at all. Her woman instincts were screaming something was going on between Bruce and Sophia.
"I only hug my friends and I don't consider anyone but Bruce as my friend" Sophia cleverly answered while greatly disappointing Edward and Deion.
"You bitch…" Meredith muttered under her breath.
"What was that?" Sophia asked Meredith.
"I said you bit…"
Just as Meredith and Sophia was about to have a fight, Bruce stopped the group.
"Everyone, stop!"
Bruce pointed at the dark shadows staring at them from the forest.
"Someone's here" Bruce warned the group.
Everyone increased their awareness as a battle could break out at any moment.
The Divine Emperors from Kingdom Alliance also noticed something peculiar in the front.
"Why don't you rats from Dark Forces show yourself!" One of the Divine Emperor shouted.
The forest began to disappear, and a group of people was standing in front of the Imperial Academy students.
Several powerful entities showed up from the shadow and greeted the Divine Emperor from Alliance Kingdoms.
"It must be our lucky day to meet the hypocrites from the Alliance Kingdom" One of the powerful entities proclaimed as he walked to the light.
Bruce would have recognized this person had he been escorted normally by the Imperial Guardians back in the Meropis Country.
The person who was challenging the Imperial Academy was one of his original assassins, Ling. Next to him was his father, Fan. The twin reaper of the Twilight Tower blocked the way forward.
"I thought our factions had a deal" One of the Divine Emperors looked at Ling with great hatred.
"Unfortunately, the deal is off as of today." Fan mockingly answered.
"Look at all these talented youth you guys have right here" Ling said in an eerie tone that would make anyone creeped out.
"What would happen if they all die today?"
Ling and Fan immediately activated their domains to smother the group and kill all Soul Manifestation from the Alliance Kingdom.
Unluckily for them, Sophia was with the group and immediately activated her light energy to envelope everyone. Her light energy slightly dispelled the effects of the domain which allowed everyone to move slowly.
"Everyone, hide while our protectors fight off the enemies!" Edward shouted with great urgency as he was also trying to escape with his life.
More Divine Emperors from the Dark Forces showed up to support Ling and Fan. Both sides were somewhat even with 7 Divine Emperors on each side. The balance was bound to be shattered once a new Divine Emperor joins the fight.
"Everyone, get around me now!" Bruce sent out an order to everyone.
The group looked at him in surprise and surrounded him.
"Edward, you and I will summon our darkness energy and cover the group" Bruce clasped his hands together.
"Understood" Edward immediately knew what Bruce wanted to do and followed his order.
A powerful darkness aura covered the entire group composed of Bruce, Edward, Deion, Sophia, Meredith, and Chelsey. A unique characteristic of the darkness element is that it can turn its user into complete darkness and hide the user's presence.
To completely hide everyone's presence requires an intense amount of darkness energy and spiritual energy. Bruce needed Edward's help to move the group forward.
"This battlefield will turn to complete chaos very soon as more Divine Emperors show up." Bruce whispered quietly.
"Our best shot at the mission is to sneak quietly to the ancient ruin. I'm confident as long as no one above the Divine King stage targets us, we can arrive at the entrance on time"
Bruce looked at everyone to see if they agree with his plan. Seeing everyone nodded, he went ahead and led the group away from the battlefield.
Bruce's decision turned out to be the correct one because 3 more Divine Emperors showed up from the Dark Forces side as reinforcements. It seemed that the Dark Forces wanted to wipe the golden generation off the map with this move.
Headmaster Steven himself had to show up to the battlefield to suppress the Dark Forces. Meanwhile, hundreds of students from the Imperial Academy died in the battle.
"Bruce, what kind of a monster are you?" Everyone looked at Bruce in shock because he continuously channeled Dark Energy around the group for over 3 hours already. Edward tapped out after 2 hours, which left Bruce being the only one covering the entire group.
"Not a big deal since I look cool in front of my girlfriend" Bruce replied in a relaxed manner.
Meredith blushed upon hearing Bruce answer while Sophia had an obsessive look under her veil. Unfortunately, no one could see her expression at that moment.
"Bruce, someone's up ahead!" Deion warned.
The group has been sneakily moving through a forest to reach a destination. As they were about to reach the entrance of the ancient ruin, they saw two Divine Kings expert guarding a group of people in the Soul Manifestation stage.
"I'm guessing that the Alliance Kingdom and the Dark Forces are at an all-out war currently as the Dark Forces could only afford to send two Divine Kings to protect their young talents" Bruce said after analyzing the situation.
"What should we do?" Meredith got disheartened after seeing two Divine King experts guarding the entrance along with a group of peak and high stage Soul Manifestation.
"Edward, do you see anyone familiar in the Soul Manifestation group over there?" Bruce asked.
"Yes, I see Magnus Monet. He's a prodigy in the Dark Forces."
"People often compare him with me" Edward replied.
Bruce was trying to figure out a way to solve the current predicament after learning that the Soul Manifestation group in front of them was most likely the prodigies that the Dark Forces sent to claim the inheritance.
After a while, Bruce finally came up with a feasible plan to explained it to everyone.
"Everyone, Deion will be with me to handle the ambush against the Divine King cultivators"
"You all will need to distract the Soul Manifestation cultivators to start off the fight while Deion and I will handle the rest"
Bruce got out the Light Piercer and popped a pill in his mouth. Deion also took the pill and equipped his spear. Deion and Bruce had been fighting against opponents with higher cultivation stages than them for the past 6 years.
Though killing a Divine King expert is not something they have done before, it's not entirely possible. Everything came down to the gamble that Bruce was about to make.
Bruce gave the signal for everyone to get into the positions. Edward cloaked everyone in darkness and moved swiftly to the other side while Bruce raised up Light Piercer at the head of the Divine King expert.
With a nod to Edward, the chaos finally began.