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After about 5 minutes, Valerie, who hadn't hit her target yet, her eyes gradually turned gray, her movements suddenly became sluggish, and she became slow, as if glue had been poured into her mind and joints.
"Good opportunity!"
Aaron, who had been dodging by short-distance travel, his eyes instantly sharpened, and he once again used the powers of "Imprisonment" and "Whipping" to forcibly control Valerie, who was in an abnormal state, raised the Judgement Sword in his hand, and calmly chanted:
"Death…"
Feeling the threat of death, Valerie, who was driven mad by the side effects of the Sealed Artifact, finally sobered for a moment in her mind, and just as she was about to manipulate the flames, she merged herself with the flames for short-distance teleportation to avoid danger.
As if expected, the low, ancient Hermes word sounded, accompanied by an invisible wave reverberating within the area isolated by the power of "Confinement."
"Teleportation is forbidden here."
The crimson flames surrounding Valerie flickered for a while, but failed to move her from her spot.
Correspondingly, Aaron's short-distance travel was also forbidden, and his figure appeared directly in front of her, which was also the reason why Aaron had not used "Prohibition" before.
Having missed her last chance to counterattack by using a flame flash, Valerie looked at the longsword emanating a deathly aura, knelt on one knee, and plunged the "Sword of Dawn" in front of her.
A dawn-like light emerged, erecting an unbreakable invisible wall on both sides, and a slightly illusory silver-white armor covered her body, which was surrounded by crimson flames.
The sword light, a mixture of crimson and gold, struck the invisible wall, accompanied by a sharp, piercing roar, Aaron grunted, and rapidly retreated.
Valerie, who was also sent flying, slammed hard into the barrier formed by the power of "Confinement," her silver-white armor shattered with a crash, and the "Sword of Dawn" in her hand was knocked away, falling into the distance and transforming into an ancient silver ring.
Having lifted the power of "Prohibition," Aaron shook his slightly numb arm; the high-frequency use of Laws and the "Judgement Sword" made his head feel a bit swollen.
Looking at Valerie, who seemed to have fainted not far away, Aaron was about to go up and capture her alive to interrogate her for information, but before he took a few steps, the "Devil Button" in his pocket emitted a chilling sensation.
A scene instantly appeared in his mind: Valerie, with blood flowing from her eyes and a miserable appearance, grinned and took out a crimson talisman from her In arms, throwing it at himself who was slowly approaching.
Even though his spirituality had not yet given a dangerous feedback, he decisively activated short-distance teleportation, and his figure flashed and disappeared from the spot.
The next second, a blood-colored talisman emanating a suppressive aura appeared, enveloping the entire space isolated by the power of "Confinement," naturally including Valerie herself.
As the barrier shattered, crimson flames rose from the backyard of the "Red Rose" theater, and a charred deep pit with a radius of several tens of meters appeared.
Two Beyonder characteristics covered by ash lay quietly at the bottom of the pit, while the dim silver ring suddenly flew out of the pit.
A silver door appeared at the edge of the giant pit, Aaron slowly walked out, waved his sleeve to disperse the scorched smell lingering near the deep pit, and at the same time caught the ring.
After personally physically Judging two Sequence 5s, the last bit of the "Judge" was completely digested, feeling the comfort from his body, Aaron couldn't help but smile.
Taking off his divination pendant and suspending it over the ring, Aaron was very interested in this Sealed Artifact that could switch between ring and greatsword forms.
However, the divination results disappointed him somewhat; although its abilities were good, besides its strongest attack method, "Sword of Dawn," it also possessed "Guardian's Armor," derived from the "Guardian."
But the negative effects are significant and difficult to effectively avoid; as long as it is used, one will inevitably enter a frenzied state, with greatly reduced rationality, and after continuous use for more than five minutes, desperate, inhuman roars will cause thought and action blockage, and normal combat rarely ends within 5 minutes.
Recalling Valerie's performance in the previous battle, and her final insane act of choosing to perish together without even begging for mercy, Aaron was also slightly enlightened.
"To turn a Sequence 5 Beyonder characteristic into a Sealed Artifact with such ridiculously large negative effects, these Feysac people are truly wasting good things."
He put it away, planning to extract the Beyonder characteristic from it when he had time, and have Harland Rooney re-forge a Mystical Item.
At Aaron's request, Darren Sherroto and Glenn Weil, who were only controlling the surrounding scene and not directly participating in the battle, quickly approached the deep pit and breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Aaron unharmed:
"Earl, we have completely controlled the entire Red Theater, and we have also caught several Beyonders mixed in, that Valerie..."
He withdrew his gaze from the bottom of the pit and was not in a hurry to put away the two Beyonder characteristics; they would be useful later, Aaron smiled, looked towards the inner city, and said with a laugh:
"There was a slight change in the situation; besides her, there was also a Sequence 5 Winner, but they have both been dealt with by me."
"Notify them to line up and prepare to welcome that Mr. Judge."
Somewhat surprised by the Earl's strength, being able to kill two Sequence 5s at the same time, but hearing the latter sentence, the two exchanged glances, and a cold smile appeared on their lips.
The person Aaron referred to was named Tawari Mach, the Judge of the "Paranormal Court" of MI9 in Loyd City, belonging to the number 2 figure here.
After the original demigod-level Deputy Director was transferred due to a secret mission, Tawari had been acting as the Interim Deputy Director.
Before Aaron received the enfeoffment from George III, almost everyone believed that he would advance further, take charge of a Grade 1 Sealed Artifact, and become the true Deputy Director.
And all of this was ruthlessly shattered after Aaron's arrival; already discontent, he became increasingly arrogant and rampant after gaining the tacit approval of certain important figures.
Even though he was removed from the position of Interim Deputy Director, he still retained the title of Judge of the "Paranormal Court" and the rank of Colonel, and he constantly tripped up Glenn Weil, only slightly restraining himself after the arrival of Alfred Hall, whose status was equally noble.
A few minutes later, two rows of personal guards wearing the East Tucker Family's standard black armor stood on either side of the deep pit, and many scantily clad men and women squatted in terror, looking at this group of people.
Aaron quietly looked at the red moon in the sky, his brows slightly furrowed, and looked towards the inner city. The Beyonder vision provided by the "Sheriff" and his perception on the extraordinary level allowed him to see a black dot slowly enlarging from far to near.
Accompanied by an indescribable sense of distortion and chaos, in just a few breaths, Tawari Mach arrived nearby, the distant distance seemingly shortened to a few steps.
Looking at this expressionless Sequence 5 "Mentor of Disorder," Aaron enthusiastically stepped forward:
"I've long heard of your name, Mr. Former Interim Deputy Director. I apologize for disturbing you so late."
Listening to the emphasized "Former Interim," Tawari's gaze darkened, and he glanced at the two rows of murderous Beyonder guards, and the burly man who was staring intently at him.
Recalling the rumors of Aaron killing the Admiral of Blood, he still suppressed his anger and said stiffly:
"It's alright, Earl Aaron, I had something to do this afternoon, so I couldn't attend your welcome. I hope you don't mind."
Then he looked at Glenn Weil behind Aaron and reprimanded him sternly:
"Glenn, as the Deputy Judge, don't you know the rules of our Paranormal Court? You didn't report such a big operation; do you even have me, the Judge, in your eyes?"
With someone backing him, Glenn Weil was not afraid at all, no longer enduring silently as before, and responded sarcastically:
"I was just afraid that reporting it to Lord Judge would give those people a chance to escape."
Before Tawari could respond, Aaron raised his hand, and two skeletons emanating spiritual fluctuations floated out of the pit, landing in his palm.
Feeling the spiritual fluctuations from the two skeletons, comparable to Sequence 5, Tawari, who had been surging with anger and was about to scold, was like being doused with a basin of ice water.
"Both Sequence 5s are dead?"
Feeling the unfriendly gazes around him, his Adam's apple moved, somewhat regretting why he had come alone, and he forced a stiff smile:
"As expected of the Deputy Director who successfully hunted the Admiral of Blood, such strength truly impresses this humble subordinate. Since the operation is over, I shall take my leave now. Tomorrow, I will personally host a welcoming banquet for you."
He nonchalantly re-sealed the two Beyonder characteristics in his hand with a Wall of Spirituality, looked at Tawari, who was turning to leave, and said with a meaningful smile:
"The public order in Loyd City indeed needs strengthening. I plan to establish a new enforcement team directly under me, outside of the Paranormal Court, with Glenn Weil as its captain, and Alfred Hall taking over the position of Deputy Judge."
"I once heard an old saying, 'A new emperor, a new court.' What do you think?"
Feeling the piercing gaze on his back, Tawari, with his back to Aaron, his face flashed with anger and unwillingness, and he said in a low voice:
"All decisions are up to Deputy Director Aaron, but I will report this to MI9 Headquarters..."
After speaking, his figure disappeared from the spot, not caring about this harmless complaint. The chaos of the mutual confrontation between the colonies of various Southern Continent nations and their distance from the Northern Continent gave the local MI9 a great deal of autonomy.
Although Aaron was nominally only a Deputy Director, neither of the two important MI9 strongholds in the Loen colonial zone of the entire Southern Continent had a Director position, so the Deputy Director could manage all affairs of MI9 within his jurisdiction.
The entire MI9 in the Loen colonial territory of the Southern Continent only had one Director, who was Prince Grove, the Sequence 3 Chaos Hunter, but this ancient prince had not appeared for decades.
After lecturing his somewhat disloyal subordinate and instructing an excited Glenn Weil to handle the follow-up work, Aaron no longer lingered and teleported back to his mansion in the inner city.
Skillfully setting up the Wall of Spirituality, Aaron began to prepare his auxiliary ritual, taking out the three altars he had prepared earlier, and using spirit-rich blood to engrave complex symbols and patterns, connecting the altars together.
The auxiliary ritual for advancing to Sequence 5 "Disciplinary Knight" is not complicated; it only requires the advancer to consume the potion within the array.
The array is divided into three fulcrums, each requiring a separate altar. Inside each altar is a Beyonder characteristic obtained by the advancing "Judge" through solo hunting, at least at Sequence 6 level, and the higher the level, the better the ritual's effect.
It should be noted that the Beyonder characteristics participating in the ritual should retain as much residual spiritual imprint as possible; if they are made into Beyonder weapons before participating in the ritual, they will lose their effectiveness.
In addition to assisting in advancement, the three altars can also directly strengthen any three Laws of the "Judge" level into rules designated by the "Disciplinary Knight," without requiring long-term application and further digestion of the potion.
He exhaled gently, placing the two Beyonder characteristics in his hand on two of the altars, Aaron's consciousness sank, arriving at the magnificent Temple above the dark gold mist.
He took out the Sequence 5 "Disciplinary Knight" Beyonder characteristic and supplementary ingredients that he had exchanged for in Osel from the clutter, and then beckoned to retrieve the "Wraith" Beyonder characteristic he had obtained from hunting the Admiral of Blood earlier.
He responded to his own prayer, bestowing these materials, and then somewhat impatiently returned to the real world.
He placed Senior's Beyonder characteristic on the last empty altar, and as the array patterns lit up, three distinct voices of painful wailing immediately echoed within the room isolated by the Wall of Spirituality.
Aaron watched this scene with satisfaction, it completely matched the description of the "Disciplinary Knight" in Osel, at least it meant his array drawing was correct.
Looking at the bottle of freshly prepared, golden-yellow viscous liquid in his hand, faintly shimmering with a dawn-like glow, Aaron exhaled, adjusted himself to the best state, and then directly drank the potion from the bottle.
A cold, viscous sensation slid down his throat, and a moment later, a warm current surged from his abdomen, flowing throughout his body, as if he was being struck by an invisible soft whip, and his body felt a tearing pain.
Under this sensation, Aaron found his spirituality spreading outwards, and once again saw the surrounding void, ethereal, empty, filled with boundless dark gold mist.
Before Aaron could observe carefully, this scene flashed by, and his spiritual vision, which could originally only see dense spiritual light points and aura colors, seemed to break through some kind of restriction.
He saw his own body, or more accurately, the different colored fine lines from the potion he had just swallowed spreading out and intertwining around the three altars along the array, and a strange sense of control emerged in his mind.
After an unknown period of time, the previously noisy wailing gradually subsided. Aaron trembled and suddenly opened his eyes, stretching his body with the sound of cracking bones.
"Disciplinary Knight" greatly strengthened the physical body, and the abilities already possessed at low and mid-Sequences were strengthened to varying degrees, mastering the core ability "Punishment."
When attacking a target of punishment, a dawn-like glow will appear on the body surface, enhancing the power of attacks against the target of punishment, including but not limited to Beyonder abilities, Mystical Items, etc.
Attacks against enemies who violate the rules set by the Disciplinary Knight will be strengthened by an unknown force and possess the property of guaranteed hit, somewhat similar to a further sublimation of the "Death" power.
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