Upon witnessing the sight in front of him, Jurgen was filled with rage.
He could see his dead subordinates lying on the ground.
The subordinates he had spent a lot of resources to raise to their current state.
And now, in just a single night, they were all gone.
All his years of effort went down the drain.
With eyes full of rage, he turned to look at the person responsible for all of this.
As he observed the cloaked figure, he was surprised that he couldn't sense his cultivation.
"A Late Level Empyrean?"
When he noticed that the enemy was stronger than him, he became cautious.
"What have I done to offend you, that you barge into my home and slaughter my men?" He asked with indignation.
But the intruder just remained silent.
Then, he manifested a sword and charged at Jurgen.
'Where did that sword come from?'
To him, the sword appeared from nowhere.
But he didn't allow surprise to overtake him, as he quickly recovered and turned to face the approaching intruder.
Then from his mouth, Jurgen spewed green gas, forcing the intruder to retreat.
After he was a safe distance, the intruder expressed great interest in Jurgen's abilities. "Poison laws? You happen to be the first poison cultivator I have come across."
After saying that, the cloaked figure once again rushed toward Jurgen, intending to attack a second time.
For a moment, Jurgen couldn't help but doubt. 'Is he foolish?"
The intruder just charged in the same way he did the first time, without changing his attack pattern.
It was as if he didn't care if he was hit with the poison gas.
Indeed, even when faced with Jurgen's poisonous gas, he didn't slow down one bit.
It was then that Jurgen noticed something that went beyond his expectations.
The poison surrounding the intruder was somehow being blocked by an invisible barrier of space that kept the poison at bay.
It was unable to penetrate the intruder's defenses.
The intruder, once close enough, swings his sword at Jurgen, who reacts by forming a rotating bubble of water with him at the center of it.
When offense collided with defense, the bubble couldn't withstand the might of the intruder's sword.
Jürgen was sent flying as he spat a mouthful of blood.
Selena, who was on the second floor, was watching the battle through the window.
She clenched her fists until they bled as he watched Jurgen being flung into the mansion's walls.
'He will lose.' Anyone with good working eyes could see that Jurgen was destined to be defeated in battle.
"Ha. Is this how it ends?" Selena asked herself as she laughed self-deprecatingly.
Just because she was one of Jurgen's lover's like Verana, didn't mean she actually cared for Jurgen.
Unlike Verana who accepted Jurgen for the person he was to repay the life she was granted, and to demonstrate her loyalty to him, agreed to become one of his lovers, she did what she did back then just so that she can grab some benefits.
In fact, she was resentful towards Jurgen for not helping her with her cultivation as much as he did with Verana.
Sure, her talent was not as great as Verana's, but she was one of his lovers, no?
Why can't he just gift her more resources?
Didn't she give up her previous ordinary yet comfortable life for his sake?
And all she gets are resources that are only enough to bring her to the peak of the Advanced Stage?
But what could she do? She was only good enough to be his maid once his excitement and fascination with her waned.
"No, it's not over yet!"
Remembering the conversation she had eavesdropped on, she rushed to Jurgen's study and, with Jurgen's keys, she opened the drawers.
'Jurgen, you might not have yet realized. But there is only one person who could be behind this attack. I don't know who is backing him, but you really kicked an iron plate this time.'
She went over the documents she had in her hands until she found what she was looking for. "Jarek... Eira..."
Selena smiled wryly and then added, "I never thought our next meeting would be this soon. But right now, this is my only chance. Maybe I can even rise higher if I play my cards right."
Selena then ran out of the room without looking back, escaping through a secret passage that led to a house far from the mayor's mansion.
Meanwhile, the battle between the two Empyreans was coming to an end as soon as it started.
Jürgen, who had received Jarek's blow, suffered serious internal injuries, as he tried to move his now frail body.
The force that had struck him was unlike anything he had experienced before and went even beyond his expectations of what a Late Level Empyrean was capable of.
Even while exerting his full strength for defense, Jarek's strike was so powerful that it left him powerless.
While on the ground, Jurgen shouted with indignation, "What grudge do you have against me when I have done nothing to you!?"
He really couldn't understand why this cloaked figure was targeting him when there was no grudge between them.
"No grudge? Didn't you try to kill me tonight?" The intruder snorted.
Jürgen froze, and then he stared at the intruder with disbelief. "Are you Jarek!?"
"Took you long enough to find out," Jarek said, looking at Jurgen as if he were a dead man.
"But you are only a Grandmaster? How could you... So, it was all an act?" Jürgen soon came to this realization.
Jarek nodded, and Jurgen laughed self-deprecatingly. "You really played everyone for fools. Even the Academy was no exception. We never stood a chance, did we?"
"Any last words?"
"No, just get it over with." Jürgen refused to give Jarek any satisfaction.
And Jarek, not willing to waste any more words, ended Jurgen's life with one clean slash to his neck.
Once he was done, he then rapidly fled from the mayor's mansion, and he appeared somewhere in the city, having removed the cloak from his body.
"Now let's deal with the remaining pests." As he said so, he disappeared from his position and appeared on top of the town's buildings as he headed towards Eira's house.