Evolution Begins with Elemental Domination

From a bird’s-eye view, the Rune Core of Oran City was separated from its surroundings by a circular boundary.

The top factions, citing the need to prevent enemy infiltration during the Battle of the Twin Cities, had temporarily issued a decree prohibiting entry after 8:00 PM.

Outside the boundary, resentful and bitter gazes were cast inward from time to time.

Inside the boundary, those in power turned a blind eye to it all.

Further out, a large district and several skyscrapers had been set ablaze, with towering flames burning ceaselessly.

”You’ve dropped to fourth place, and I’ve fallen to ninth. Is the Magic Energy Crystal Pillar’s barrier even useful? If it gets destroyed, the Teleportation Gate will probably just become a free-for-all for contribution points,” an old man with silver, withered hair asked.

”Although it was missing many functions when we first unearthed it from the ruins, the strength of the barrier it deploys depends on the quality of the ore crystals,” the blond man in a suit replied truthfully.

The higher-ups of the Lorentz Conglomerate at the front line had tried to be clever. The Magic Guide technology artifacts from the Elemental City ruins were indeed unrelated to forbidden Demonic knowledge.

However, to learn the exact location of these ruins, they had sacrificed two thousand lives.

Then, they were played by Vesela’s Sovereign.

The entrance to the official ruins came at a different price: six thousand lives.

The other party was willing to accept payment in installments over two days.

Gritting their teeth, they accepted the terms.

And so, with some intentional instigation from the shadows, two gangs occupying the same district broke out into a massive fight, which affected many innocent civilians.

They thought they had completed the task perfectly and ahead of schedule, but what Vesela’s Sovereign actually wanted were the souls of six thousand Professionals.

The contract’s clauses were exploited again and again. Having made a deal with the devil, the Lorentz Conglomerate’s leadership could only swallow the bitter fruit.

The good news was that the gang war was escalating, spreading directly to the already loosely-affiliated super-organizations.

The bad news was that their subordinates had been sloppy. The sacrificial ritual was exposed, and the Sect immediately mobilized to intervene, turning the focus of the conflict toward Lorentz.

’Everything is still under control. It hasn’t spiraled out of control.’

To win over allies and partners, they had shared the Magic Guide technology they’d discovered and the location of the Elemental City ruins in exchange for their support and participation.

But amidst tonight’s power struggle—this battle royale—the Lorentz Conglomerate simply couldn’t spare the manpower to fully support Qingxi Stream.

The peace treaty, which was meant to temporarily de-escalate the situation, was being ignored by the other side.

At this critical juncture of internal turmoil in the city, the leaders of the Lorentz Conglomerate could only let things be, temporarily hiring multiple Mercenary squads with money to go put out the fires and suppress the chaos.

That wasn’t all. They had also purchased private security services from another major conglomerate at three times the market price and had outsourced the future security of their mining operations to them. While this was to dispatch more support, it was also a disguised way of transferring benefits.

However, before this security contractor could even enter the fray, the Teleportation Gate at the Qingxi Stream front was officially destroyed.

It was all too late.

...

「A few minutes earlier.」

「Qingxi Stream.」

The battle on the ground was as chaotic and complex as ever.

Positioned in the southern part of the valley, Su Chen was moving like a ghost. To achieve extreme mobility, he wore a brand-new Binder’s Belt. Its three Enchantment slots were embedded with Lightning Warp, Earth Escape Skill, and the recently acquired Water Escape Skill.

All were a uniform Lv. 6.

He rotated between the three skills, leaving no trace to follow.

SPLASH!

As a group of Oran City guards stationed by the riverbank tried to cover him with concentrated fire, Su Chen’s figure melted directly into a shallow puddle at his feet.

The next second, he burst out from a seep on a rock wall thirty meters away.

Almost at the exact moment he reappeared, a roaring Electromagnetic Cannon Shell blasted toward him. The Four-Star Magnetic Element Warlock he had briefly fought earlier had made his move, personally leading a squad to eliminate him.

Su Chen’s expression was calm. A brilliant flash of lightning erupted from his body, and a warping trajectory of arcing electricity snaked through the dense barrage of heavy firepower.

In an instant, he had already broken into the enemy’s formation.

”Watch out! Spread out!” Colonel Griffin roared in fury.

HUM!

Four independent, crystal-clear mirrors, shimmering with a gentle, watery light, silently materialized within a hundred-meter radius.

The guards clearly couldn’t stop their attacks in time. A storm of Fireballs, Wind Blades, and heavy-caliber bullets rained down, all slamming into the seemingly thin and fragile water mirrors.

Not only did they fail to break through, but the attacks were captured by the mirrors. The once-chaotic assault was forcibly restructured, and under accelerated deflection and refraction, a Fireball could even be seen bouncing between the mirrors twice.

For a moment, screams echoed from all around. Griffin could only watch as his elite squad tore itself apart with its own web of firepower.

After Water Mirror Refraction was upgraded to Lv. 7, and being part of the First Authority’s binding sequence, it naturally unlocked its Lv. 8 power characteristics.

With its all-around characteristics enhanced, the number of precisely deployed mirrors instantly increased to four.

The mirrors’ form could be freely switched between spheres, curved surfaces, and even prisms. Furthermore, it had unlocked a mirror-linking effect and a devour-and-absorb effect. Attacks could bounce between the mirrors up to two times, with each bounce perfectly preserving their energy.

While the refracted acceleration couldn’t quite achieve the impossible feat of flying by stepping on your own feet, it was still far beyond what a normal person’s Dynamic Vision could track.

And the devour-and-absorb ability could further strengthen the barrier’s own defensive capabilities.

This drastically improved Su Chen’s survivability, allowing him to recklessly charge into the enemy ranks again and again.

SWOOSH!

SWOOSH!

Meanwhile, the Bowstring Artisan on a distant cliff took advantage of the enemy’s inability to focus, continuously harvesting their lives with a volley of special arrows.

A high-density electrical charge fluctuated around Colonel Griffin. His Lv. 7 Lightning Shield was formidable on its own, but against psychic arrows that could pierce through it unseen, his personal pursuit was repeatedly thwarted.