Chapter 425 - 376: Formidable Foe: The Quintet of the Infiltrator Gods’ Plan

"Tch."

He shook his head slightly, the disdain in his expression now completely undisguised.

"Just a Five-star Earth Military Rank ant, and he dares declare war on my master..."

At this, the bald brute named Atlas’s expression suddenly twisted into a hideous snarl. "Are you tired of living—?!" he roared.

Just then, a female humanoid lifeform standing beside him—one whose skin had been entirely replaced by silver metal and whose hair was a mass of cables connecting to her spine—let out a brutally cruel laugh.

"This Empire trash knows nothing of true power. Wasting breath on them is a waste of time. You deal with Reinhardt. I’m more than enough for the others."

After the female humanoid spoke, a man completely shrouded in a black cloak, his crow-skull staff emanating a bizarre aura, said in a low voice, "Nix, you’re being too careless."

"From what I know, Warlord Nico died at Reinhardt’s hands. We’d best be careful."

The woman said contemptuously, "A weakling’s way of thinking."

"Brainless fool."

The battle had yet to begin, but with just a few words, these five uninvited guests were already showing signs of infighting. Clearly, they were not a monolithic bloc.

Nelom saw that Reinhardt remained silent, but he couldn’t stand the heretics’ foul language.

He gripped his Knight’s Broadsword, and a wave of intense heat radiated out as the Ashen Battle Armor materialized around him.

He glared at the woman who’d boasted she could take on both him and Koller by herself. Clenching his left fist, he made the high-temperature burning ash explode outward!

Earth Ring·Burning Ash Sea!

At the same time, the black-robed man who had been arguing with the woman slammed his staff into the ground. An Energy Shield glowing with a faint blue light instantly appeared, blocking the spreading, high-temperature burning ash.

The woman, named Nikos, whipped her head toward Nelom, her expression like a life-reaping specter.

’To think this scum who believes in the Emperor not only failed to kneel and beg for mercy, but actually dared to fight back?!’

"You’re courting death—!"

Nelom let out a cold laugh and said mockingly, "We’ll see if you have the strength for it, monster."

The instant the conversation ended.

A flowing shimmer washed over the woman’s body, and then she vanished completely from everyone’s sight. Even Knight Perception couldn’t locate her presence.

Seeing Nikos enter combat mode, the bald brute named Atlas took the Warhammer from his back and stared directly into Reinhardt’s eyes.

In his opinion, aboard this Empire ship, the only one qualified to be their enemy was this Emperor’s Vengeful Angel, Reinhardt.

As for the others, leaving them to Nikos was more than enough.

The metal implanted in place of her skin was no ordinary steel. It was a Furnace Cast Holy Artifact produced by the Gods’ Plan, personally overseen by Lord Enok—the Crown of the Faceless.

Concealing one’s aura was just one of its most basic Extraordinary Traits.

Empowered by that Furnace Cast Holy Artifact, Nikos’s blood, internal organs, muscles, and bones had long been replaced with a more powerful Extraordinary Alloy. Not only did she possess terrifying defensive capabilities, but her powerful self-healing ability also made her practically immortal.

Moreover, these alloys that replaced her frail flesh contained extremely potent Witchcraft Energy, as well as a trace of the Power of Rules bestowed by Lord Enok.

Killing a Four-star Earth Military Rank piece of Empire trash would be as easy as flipping a hand.

Then, Atlas gripped his Warhammer in one hand and stepped forward to face him, his voice cold. "I have heard of your deeds more than once. When you were still just an Official Knight, you defeated Stein after his Demon Ascension."

"Although he betrayed our master, I knew that traitor. His strength was far beyond what an ordinary Imperial Knight could handle."

"Later, you killed Warlord Nico in Kemola, causing quite a stir in the Bator World."

"Every time I get to fight an expert like you, I can feel the blood boiling in my body, and my trembling Warhammer is eager for a fight."

At this, Atlas grinned mockingly. "Reinhardt, if you can survive in my hands for one minute, I promise to take you to see my master."

"You’ll have the honor of witnessing that great one’s power and glory before you die."

"How about it?"

Reinhardt put away his Wizard Slayer and took down his Black War Axe with one hand. In the face of Atlas’s taunts, Reinhardt, who hadn’t shown a single smile all year, at this moment, smiled.

He vaulted over the railing, jumped down from the second-level command platform, and said nothing. He simply raised his left arm and beckoned provocatively at Atlas with his left index finger.

The battle was about to erupt!

As members of the Infiltrator’s Assembly of Gods, the status of Atlas and his four companions in the Bator World was even higher than that of the Great Lords who operated in the open!

Whether in the Empire’s territory or the domains of the regional Knight Warlords, even Lord Anatol himself would have to bow his head and show respect upon meeting them.

And now.

Some mere Empire trash from a backwater Administrative Region not only lacked reverence, but even dared to provoke him, inviting him to make the first move.

It wasn’t just Reinhardt who had been provoked into laughing.

Atlas had been, too.

Before his forward-stepping right foot even touched the ground, his entire body abruptly vanished, reappearing behind Reinhardt!

His over three-meter-tall frame was like that of a Demon God. Looking down on Reinhardt’s back, from his perspective, Reinhardt, who was less than 2.3 meters tall, seemed so insignificant.

So insignificant that he wanted to crush this clueless ant with a single hand!

With the enhancement of the Furnace Cast Holy Artifact, the strength of Nikos and the others was enough to rank them among the top powerhouses of the Ash Soil Star Zone. But he was different. He was Atlas, the God of Battle.

The leader of the five members of the Assembly of Gods.

His Warhammer, his military-grade war skeleton, his Spiritual Energy-sensing brain, the Power of Rules bestowed by Lord Enok that he wielded.

Not a single one of these could be matched by the other four!

In that instant, Atlas raised his Warhammer high with both hands, looking like a world-destroying Demon God.

’The Emperor’s Vengeful Angel?’

’Die—!’

But in that same instant, the scene Atlas had envisioned—smashing down with his Warhammer and blasting Reinhardt into a pulp—did not occur. His descending Warhammer seemed to have sunk into some kind of terrifying, indescribable mire.

In this mire, not only was his Warhammer restricted, but even his body seemed to be out of his control. The time it took for a command from his brain to reach his muscles and bones—a period so brief it was normally negligible—was stretched out to infinity.

However, Atlas had extremely rich combat experience, and a vast amount of War Level combat instinct had been programmed into his memory.

In a flash, he quickly realized that he might have fallen into some kind of rule-based power that distorted time.

’A Wizard’s Secret Treasure?’

’Or a Void Divine Artifact?’

’Reinhardt... this guy’s methods really are something else.’

Unlike Sipia, who was trapped by this time-based Power of Rules and forced to take a direct hit from Reinhardt’s War Axe, Atlas acted the instant he saw Reinhardt move—a silvery-white light erupted from his body as he forcibly broke free from the time distortion’s control.

He did a sharp backflip, increasing the distance between them.

As the leader of the five, Atlas naturally had his strengths. After his modifications, his consciousness could not only ignore Spiritual Energy interference but was also implanted with a broken core from a piece of Supreme King’s Guard equipment—the Absolute Order Crystal.

With this thing, as long as the power difference between the two sides wasn’t too great, an ordinary Power of Rules would have a hard time trapping him.

But after just one brief exchange, he quickly realized that the intelligence he had on Reinhardt was incomplete. The man was definitely hiding other methods he knew nothing about.

Most importantly,

Everyone knew that after Reinhardt escaped the Void Storm, his strength had advanced to the Domain Level, but no one had ever seen him use his Domain’s power.

This was also why Atlas had wasted his breath taunting him—it was a means to secretly observe Reinhardt, trying to find some clue.

Even though he had killed no fewer than ten Domain Level Powerhouses, an unknown Domain Power was still full of threats!