The Last Paragon in the Apocalypse

In a span of 30 minutes, Klaus had killed 90% of the Empyrean stage bandits and replaced every last one of them with illusion clones.

In this endeavour, Klaus had dedicated 100 minds, every last one focused on controlling an aspect of the perfect illusion he had created. He could not afford to let the immortals sense that something was wrong.

He wants them to be held up in the building for his final play.

Thankfully, by the time he arrived at the last team of Empyreans, not even a peep was made, allowing him to handle them too as efficiently as he could.

He used silent and nearly invisible weapons to complete all his kills. It was now that he had discovered the wide variety of weapons in his arsenal.

He had all kinds of weapons, each soul-bound to him. If one day he were to find weapon spirits for them or awaken the ones already possessing weapon spirits, then, with just his Spirit Master abilities, he would be unstoppable.

After killing the last Empyrean team, Klaus didn’t rush to enter the hall where the bandit leader and his ten henchmen were.

He sat down and sent a part of his consciousness to the Soul Sea.

He appeared inside the 9th core, where all his nine soul bodies were seated around a large table. Atop the table lay a head-sized core radiating dark ice energy.

Klaus immediately recognised it as the Annihilation Ice. He wielded seven deadly ice elements; the Annihilation Ice was one of them.

Before coming on this mission, he told Fruity (4th soul body) and Kaden (8th soul body) to create a weapon out of that element.

Now, it seemed that they had done just that.

”Is it done?”

”Yes,” Kaden replied.

”So what should I expect?” Klaus asked, already eager to try it and see the effect.

”Since your ice element is only at the Harmony stage, the core created from it is just strong enough to kill Early Immortals. However, since it is the Annihilation Ice, it would seriously injure a Real Immortal to some degree.

Naturally, that is enough to turn that Peak Real Immortal into a dud. The rest, then, will depend on you and how you intend to kill him.

But if the Real Immortal has high ice resistance, then expect them to emerge from the explosion nearly unscathed.”

”Oh, sounds like it is going to be a whole lot of fun.” Klaus smiled and extended his hand, letting the core fly into it.

”Then I will be on my way, guys.”

”Good luck,” the nine soul bodies said.

Klaus nodded, opening his eyes to the outside with a smile playing on his lips. He had no idea his soul bodies could cook up something this powerful.

While it isn’t on the same level as a B-class ice bomb, it is strong enough to kill even Real Immortals simply because of its nature. The next step would be to assess the effect it would also have on the Peak Real Immortal.

Klaus tapped into his connection with Seraya. ’It is game time, so raise the shield and prepare for a freezing shockwave.’

After saying that, he looked at the large door leading to the hall and smiled. Then, with a gentle wave of his hand, the door slowly opened.

Inside the hall, the 11 immortals turned toward the door, each holding a frown on their face.

”Who dares interrupt us?” As the only immortals in the bandit group, they knew whoever dared interrupt them might have a message for them.

However, they at least had to first announce their presence and be granted entry. So someone entering without announcing their presence made them glare furiously at the door.

Suddenly, a chuckle reached their ears.

”Tsk, is that how you welcome the grim reaper?” Klaus walked through the door with a broad smile on his face.

The 11 immortals became alert when they saw an unfamiliar face. Some of them even pulled their weapons, ready for battle.

Looking through, Klaus saw that all eleven of them were from the same race. They looked the same as the Blue Skin Bandit Seraya was tempted to kill.

However, they each had even thicker and larger horns. This was a sign that they were much older and stronger than the others.

The leader had the largest, longest, and thickest horn. But as he scanned him, all he saw was a brute with a large axe.

Seraya was right not to sense his strength. That was because the mountain of a man standing before him was filled with strength. Just one attack from his axe was enough to shatter every bone in even a Peak Real Immortal.

Not even low-level True Immortals were safe from him.

However, Klaus remained calm, unbothered by their actions or looks. He only walked toward a chair and sat down. Then he waved his hand, and a glass of wine appeared.

His left leg rested on the right as he gazed at them...

”Brethren, no need for violence. I am merely a humble hunter whose mission is to ensure the bandits taking over this mine are dealt with,” he paused, then asked in a questioning tone, ”You eleven wouldn’t happen to be part of them, would you?”

All eleven immortals unleashed their auras, weapons ready for the slaughter. Seeing this, Klaus took a gulp of his drink and stored away the glass.

It seemed he wouldn’t be able to have a last-minute chat with them as he intended.

”My bad. I never expected you 11 to be the bandits I was looking for.” Klaus grinned and winked at their leader.

”KILL HIM”

And just like that, 11 immortals lunged at him, casting a very large, intimidating shadow. To an ordinary warrior or a hunter, this would have broken their resolve.

However, Klaus merely smiled and waved his hand, causing the core to fly out. Timing it perfectly, he hurled the core to the point where it would have the impact.

The immortals instantly sensed the danger. But they missed their window to make any move to stop it.

”Like frozen popsicles,” Klaus snapped his fingers, and for a moment, everything became calm. Then, a suddenly chilling wave of ice exploded, freezing all 11 immortals in an instant.

But that wasn’t all; the shockwave washed all over the mine, spreading as far as it could go.

Seraya instantly sensed the danger, so she channeled more energy into the shield she had created. However, when the shockwave hit it, it froze and cracked.

She panicked. But she held on, pouring more energy into it. Suddenly, an even bigger crack appeared in the shield.

”Damnit,” Seraya cursed, feeling the cold seeping into her soul. She knew the moment her shield dropped, the cold would seep into the chamber holding the hostages. That would be catastrophic, so she held strong.

But when an even bigger crack appeared, her heart sank.

Thankfully, just when she was about to lose her shield, a cold sensation came from behind her. A wave of rather chilling ice energy blew past her and reinforced the shield.

Looking behind her, she saw Niva pressing her index fingers and thumbs together while the remaining fingers folded down.

A cold energy was emitting from her.

”Thank you,” Seraya said, but the still uptight Niva ignored her. Even so, Seraya wasn’t mad; she did save her on her first noble mission.