Rhys strode out of the small restaurant with his head held high.
This time, he no longer concealed his presence.
Powerful waves of magic surged into the sky, dimming even the bright sky as dark clouds blotted out the sun.
He had already come to terms with it.
The moment the will of the world noticed him, hiding his presence had become meaningless.
No matter how perfectly he restrained his aura, the powerful beings of the alchemical world would still be able to find him.
Sometimes, even a casual glance through a crowd would be enough to pinpoint him with perfect accuracy.
That was what it meant to be targeted by the world itself.
Since that was the case, he might as well fully expand his domain and prepare for the endless stream of enemies that would come after him.
'Let them come! I want to see how many powerful beings this world has produced over the past six hundred years.'
At this moment, Rhys cast everything aside as though Godric himself had possessed him.
He would fight to his heart's content!
The ground beneath Rhys's feet rapidly turned muddy, transforming into a swamp.
The swamp spread outward at astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, it swallowed the small restaurant behind him before expanding across the entire town.
The local gentry lingering outside the "wall of air," hoping to curry favour with Vassago, were horrified to discover that the sky had suddenly darkened and the previously solid ground had turned into treacherous mud.
Within seconds, they, their carriages, and their attendants all began sinking into the earth.
"What's happening?"
"Quick, pull me up!"
With the help of a nimble attendant, one of the local gentlemen stepped onto the back of a horse and leapt onto a rooftop.
Then he discovered in despair that the surrounding buildings were sinking as well.
Even more terrifyingly, the pitch-black swamp was expanding at an incredible speed.
The entire town had already been engulfed, while the farmland and forests outside were rapidly being swallowed too.
All he could do now was wait for death.
The gentleman looked around frantically, then suddenly froze.
He spotted a young man in black wizard's robes walking expressionlessly from the direction of the small restaurant.
The swamp could easily swallow houses and carriages, yet beneath the young man's feet it seemed no different from a flat marble floor.
Although the young man's features were fairly handsome, the gentleman inexplicably felt a trace of disgust toward him from the bottom of his heart.
"He may be the source of all this. You, go and get rid of him."
The gentleman issued the order to his most capable guard.
"Me?"
The guard looked completely stunned.
Unlike his narrow-minded employer, the guard had travelled extensively in his youth and had seen plenty of extraordinary things.
He knew all too well just how terrifying that seemingly harmless young man was.
That was someone only a figure on Vassago's level could deal with.
If he went over there, could he really harm even a single hair on the man's body?
But he had no choice.
The swamp was devouring everything within sight. Even if he remained on the rooftop, he would still die eventually.
'Do it!'
The attendant gritted his teeth and decided to risk his life.
Even if he died, he would tear a piece of flesh from that man first!
But just as he steeled himself and prepared to attack, a cloud of blood mist suddenly burst from the surface of his body.
The attendant's vision instantly went dark, and he pitched forward.
Before his consciousness completely faded, he saw the black-haired young man still walking expressionlessly toward the edge of town.
He had not even glanced in his direction.
Rhys continued toward the activity zone of the nearest top-tier powerhouse marked on the map.
Along the way, his domain continued expanding, swallowing everything it encountered and turning it into swamp.
In only a single afternoon, the domain surrounding Rhys had transformed into a vast wetland stretching for more than a hundred miles.
Anyone who saw the scene was overwhelmed with terror and immediately used every means available to flee as far away as possible.
Anyone even slightly too slow would become nourishment for the swamp.
Such an enormous disturbance could not possibly escape the attention of the powerful beings of this world.
Before long, a flash of lightning tore through the air, followed immediately by a deafening thunderclap.
A massive crater nearly a hundred metres across suddenly appeared in the swamp.
The bolt of lightning was unbelievably powerful.
It had actually managed to punch through the swamp Rhys had summoned and expose the barren earth beneath.
Yet although the crater created by the lightning was enormous, compared to the seemingly endless swamp, it was little more noticeable than a moth hole in a carpet.
Rhys calmly watched everything happen several dozen metres away, his expression completely unchanged, as though nothing more than a fly had buzzed past him.
The mud surged and quickly filled the crater left by the lightning.
A brown-haired young man hovered above the swamp, his expression solemn.
His full-strength attack had failed to achieve the intended result.
He had expected to kill the Demon Lord at the centre of the swamp with a sudden, overwhelming strike.
The Demon Lord had not even dodged.
Instead, he himself had somehow missed.
'How could I possibly miss!? That makes no sense...'
His mind was filled with confusion.
Rhys examined the first powerful opponent to arrive.
He did not have much of an impression of the young man.
He only thought that his eyes were striking, resembling a pair of opals.
At that moment, lightning suddenly flickered within the dark clouds overhead.
A trace of delight flashed through the brown-haired man's eyes.
Even the god was helping him!
A thunderstorm could greatly enhance his strength, giving him much more confidence in winning this battle.
"Thunder, descend!"
The young man roared.
Thousands of bolts of lightning immediately crashed down from the dark clouds, bombarding Rhys's domain.
Several pillars of lightning as thick as water barrels struck directly toward Rhys himself.
Rhys finally moved.
His figure vanished instantly and reappeared thousands of metres away within the swamp.
The next moment, the thunderstorm blasted the place where he had just been standing into scorched earth.
For the first time, his expression changed slightly.
"Your name?"
Rhys felt that the young man had earned the right to leave his name in Rhys's memory.
"Parr."
Rhys thought for a moment.
The name seemed to belong to one of the figures Boiling Blood had marked on the map.
But Parr had been quite far away from him.
How had he become the first one to arrive?
Perhaps it was because of his power over lightning.
Rhys slowly raised his hand and made a grasping motion toward the sky.
The dark clouds overhead immediately began churning, with flashes of lightning faintly visible within them.
Parr's eyes widened.
The moment that man raised his hand, Parr could no longer draw any power from the lightning in the sky.
'The clouds? He can control the clouds too?'
A storm raged through Parr's mind.
Perhaps, given some time to think, he might have figured out what Rhys's ability actually was.
But Rhys clearly had no intention of giving him that opportunity.
The mud beneath Parr suddenly began to churn.
Watching the tide of sludge rise like an ocean wave and surge toward him, Parr gave a cold snort.
Lightning instantly wrapped around his arm.
Boom!
With a single punch, he reduced the rushing mud to ash.
"Even without the lightning in the sky assisting me, I can still blast you into sand and dust!"
Parr's voice was filled with confidence.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI