Chapter 328: Completely Vulnerable

Blood splattered across the sky and the ground. The entire city was cleared in about an hour by the army.

Even though they had already fought a battle, were outnumbering the enemy, and were facing Sorcerers without their leaders... the army still proved slow and extremely inefficient.

Without wasting any time, Dandara ordered an immediate return to the Flying Warships.

This time, however, she divided the troops into six teams, assigning two entire branches to each team. In this way, they spread across the entire planet, exterminating the remaining pockets with the utmost caution.

...

...

...

Almost three days later, Priam could guarantee that not a single Sorcerer remained on that planet.

All the disciples reboarded the ships and gathered in space, assuming formation.

"Victory!"

It was a complete victory. The soldiers aboard the thirteen vessels roared in euphoria.

Only a few thousand disciples had suffered serious injuries, and all of them could be healed quickly. No one had died — though it had been a very close call.

That achievement caused everyone’s confidence to soar dramatically.

"The Sorcerers weren’t even that strong!"

Many shouted things like that.

But... it didn’t take long for some of them to notice through the Communication Inscriptions that something was wrong.

Everyone looked at Priam and Dandara, standing side by side. There wasn’t the slightest trace of a smile on either of their faces. Instead, their expressions were frighteningly grim.

The atmosphere changed in an instant, and the celebrations suddenly ceased.

"This was a battle with an abyssal disparity in power from the very beginning. Do you really think this victory is something to brag about?" Priam spoke, his cold voice cutting through everyone’s euphoria.

It wasn’t that the Sorcerers were actually weaker; they lacked group-combat tactics, and their numbers were considerably lower in most of the clashes.

"You think a victory like this justifies such arrogance? Look at the way you fought. You were basically just playing around! Do you think this is a game?" Priam’s tone became increasingly grave and heavy.

"Young Sages, do you really think you’re that important? When you encounter someone weaker than you, why do you simply refuse to attack?"

"You think ignoring the enemies advancing toward your comrades in the rear so you can throw yourselves into the crowd and hunt down the stronger ones proves how powerful you are?"

"And what about the other elite Mage Masters... do you really think you’re invincible? Are you all idiots?!"

Priam’s expression was terrifying as he roared at the troops.

"How many times have I repeated that we’re a single team?! Don’t try to play the hero! Do you think nobody else knows how to draw attention?!"

"If we really want to master the power of teamwork, all of you need to understand what it means to act in perfect synchronization! Did my words fall on deaf ears?!"

"You elite disciples... even though you realized that the enemies in front of you were weak compared to yourselves, to the disciples in the rear, those same enemies represented a deadly threat."

"They give their lives to protect your backs, and how do you treat them? As cannon fodder? As nothing more than tools?!"

The elite disciples’ faces burned with shame and guilt. They had completely lost themselves during the battle. As soon as they gained control of the situation, barely listening to Niara’s orders, they went on killing as many enemies as they could, completely ignoring the safety of the comrades behind them.

Part of it had been nothing more than the impulse of excitement, but the rest was pure vanity. Seeing the Sages displaying so much power, they refused to be left behind.

Dandara had only been able to keep them within the overall formation, but she couldn’t perform miracles by controlling each individual’s movements.

Several disciples lowered their heads. Only now did they realize how selfish their hearts had been. They stared at the ground, consumed by shame, as they absorbed every word of Priam’s scolding.

"How many times have I said this isn’t a competition?! The goal is to exterminate the enemy with as few movements as possible and in the shortest time possible!" Priam continued with icy harshness.

"Look at the soldiers from my faction! Every single one of the little over two thousand of them fought with everything they had. They’re completely exhausted, and almost all of them suffered serious injuries in this battle... just to cover for and correct the mistakes you bastards made! Without them, thousands of you would have died today!"

"Today, you disappointed me deeply. If you act like this again, I’ll order the soldiers from my faction to retreat and leave you to die. Not a single soldier I’ve trained and fully trust will die pointlessly to protect idiots like you. Understood?!"

Even after the harsh reprimand, Priam’s anger didn’t diminish. After all, he had explained everything with extreme clarity before the battle, and Dandara had done her best to coordinate them. Anyone in his position would have been furious.

After a few seconds of heavy silence, Priam sighed.

"Don’t wait until you lose something to learn its value. Don’t wait for loss to discover what pain is. Don’t wait until you lose what you love to understand what it means to protect it," he declared, his solemn tone echoing through everyone’s minds.

"Let me tell you a cruel truth: this was only the first confrontation, and by far the easiest one. By the end of this great war, if even half of us make it out alive, that alone will be a divine blessing."

"If you don’t mature now, then maybe it’s better for you to die in the next battles. At least, everything will be over for you. But if you manage to survive without understanding what I’m saying, you’ll regret it for the rest of your lives. Give it your all now so you won’t have to carry any regrets!"

"Lord Priam, don’t worry!"

"We’ll only make this mistake once! There definitely won’t be a second chance!"

The disciples began shouting similar words, their determination echoing throughout the entire fleet.

They had been completely won over by Priam — not only because of his overwhelming power, but mainly because of his leadership and vision. There was only one person in that world who held an equivalent level of admiration for him: Dandara.

Priam gave a light snort and simply ordered them to rest and recover as quickly as possible. He released Mirra, who ran off to help heal the wounded from the 11th Branch — and, of course, have a little fun in the process.

Then, he turned his back and walked toward a hidden room within the structure of the Flying Warship. Dandara followed closely behind.

When he opened the door, the presence of eight sealed figures was revealed, submerged in a pool of black liquid.

Their eyes remained wide and dilated, their bodies twisted in unimaginable torment. Immersed in that macabre pool, they couldn’t even let out a single whimper.

Priam clicked his tongue and threw a few more pills into the black pool.

The process was exhausting and brought him no pleasure whatsoever... but it would be worth every second.

Dandara watched the scene with complete indifference.

Two hours passed before the wills of the eight completely collapsed.

Priam sighed. It was time to reap the rewards. As Ancient Sorcerers, they certainly held valuable secrets.

Dandara’s heart raced when she saw Priam pull out an exotic rune and place it against one of their foreheads.

He had already mentioned that he could read the Sorcerers’ memories.

However, she knew that doing so should have been absolutely impossible.

No Mage or Sage in the entire world had even the slightest chance of reading a Sorcerer’s memories. The reason? Corruption.

Every Sorcerer carried a corrupt seal rooted in their memories. That sinister energy acted absolutely — even if a Sage captured a lowly Mage-level Sorcerer, the corruption would instinctively react to any intrusion and destroy the individual before any information could be extracted.

This was one of the reasons the war never ended, and the sect could never find where the Sorcerers lived. It was almost impossible to deal with these figures, so all the humanoid universes simply chose to ignore them.

However...

As soon as Priam had brought the eight aboard the vessel, he had purified and removed one hundred percent of the corruption from their bodies. To him, expelling that energy was as simple as breathing. Without the corrupt lock, those individuals became blank slates at his disposal.

And so, for the first time in the history of the sect and that entire world, Sorcerers were completely vulnerable, handed over without reservation into the hands of a single man.