Boom!

Minutes had passed since Vicente and Layla had entered The Skull City. Explosions and the sounds of cracking and collapsing buildings could be heard from the city's outskirts as Vicente fought his many opponents.

In the early moments of the battle, he mainly used his firearms to neutralize the liches in the area while concentrating on dominating the bodies of the zombies in his path.

Each zombie he neutralized became part of his army, which necessarily increased the area in which Layla could move around in search of valuable items.

As expected from a corrupted city full of dangers, this place offered many opportunities, from spatial rings, coins hidden in houses, medicinal plants, rare stones, magic stones, and much more they hadn't discovered yet.

They didn't take anything at first, as this first moment was just a scouting mission for them.

But as Vicente fought, Layla discovered that there were things useful to Dark Path magicians and interesting resources for Light Path magicians like herself.

It was an excellent opportunity for her!

Over the past few months, Vicente had been very clever about giving resources to his companions. He knew that pills and other types of resources could destabilize his companions' bases. So, he had interspersed such resources with magic stones, making his strongest allies stronger without compromising their bases.

That allowed Layla to think about absorbing some of the resources she had found in the last few minutes and perhaps get closer to the end of the 3rd stage.

While Vicente dealt with the five hundred enemies in his path, she ran through the surrounding buildings, staying relatively close to him.

He moved as he fought so she could search in different places, which was easy for him since he was stronger than 90% of the creatures in this cursed city.

But as he used his skills to brutalize the many beings that tried to block his path, destroying the skeletons and rotting corpses in his way but also driving away the ghosts, he noticed something strange in the central part of the city.

'This feeling... He looked toward the center of The Skull City as the zombies he controlled took action against the dozens of opponents closest to him.

'Sovereigns!' Vicente finished his thought as he identified the disturbing aura he had just sensed. 'It seems that this place really has its dangers, even for High-level Mages.'

As he looked towards the city's center, a ghost and a lich at the 4th stage emerged from where they usually hid and appeared above a rooftop in that area to look at Vicente.

"That human... He's strange." The lich, dressed in a black cloak covering most of his body, commented to the ghost at his side, who looked much like Torne.

Ghosts were basically identical in appearance. The only thing that distinguished them was their powers, which gave each of them a unique and unmistakable aura.

The ghost commented. "It's no wonder that damned Deacon Thomas left us in a place where Sovereigns can't enter. He hoped that someone like this human would take us on one day."

These two Sovereigns were the only 4th stage magicians from the ancient city that existed in this area 17,000 years ago who had been left to suffer in this hell.

All the others had had their essences completely extinguished by Professor Dirty Scout.

"But this young man is no match for us! He may be strong enough to take on one of us, but he can't defeat both of us!" The ghost commented as he flew towards Vicente.

The lich didn't stop there and soon moved his forces around the city to stop what they were doing and surround the area where Vicente and Layla were.

Vicente stopped attacking the creatures around him, who also stopped chasing him and moved away from him to make room for their leader.

The 4th stage lich of this city commanded all the liches and zombies in the area, while the ghost was the supreme leader of the others of his type.

Each of these creatures took up their positions around a given area, ready to block only Vicente and Layla's path.

This woman sensed the problem and immediately approached Vicente.

"Sovereigns?"

"Yes. That seems to be why High-level Mages don't stay around after a few victories. They probably weren't driven out of the area by some strange phenomenon but rather ran afoul of these two." Vicente thought about the stories about this cursed city.

"It makes sense. It would only take one of those two to show their aura to scare away any High-level Mage." She sighed. "What do we do?"

"Just get ready to continue what you were doing. I'll take care of these two." He said as he looked at the two Sovereigns that had just stopped 40 meters in front of them, both floating in the air.

They were both Earth Sovereigns, but they were both at the peak of their level, not far from ascending to the level of Sky Sovereigns.

"Those are very bold words, human." The lich opened his mouth as he laughed.

"Don't laugh so much. He has enough to be bold." The ghost commented as he looked at the more than 50 zombies that had changed sides and were on Vicente's side. "You're not trying to get those men back, are you?"

The lich laughed bitterly. "This young human's control over my subjects is very good. It's not worth it for me to wear myself out trying to get them back."

Vicente stepped forward as the pentagrams circled his body. He said aloud. "Get out of my way, and I won't fight you. Otherwise, I'm afraid today will be the end for at least one of you."

"Daring!"

The ghost said. "I say that to you, human boy. You're powerful and out of the ordinary. It would be a shame for you to die, so I'll give you this chance. Leave my city immediately, and I won't attack you.

Otherwise, we'll consume your bodies and souls!"

Seeing these two hateful beings with terrifying auras, Layla clenched her fists because she couldn't understand how Vicente could look so calm in front of so many monsters.

Vicente was strong, but shouldn't he be at least a little afraid?

She herself had felt her heart tremble with fear from the moment she entered this city and couldn't wait to leave it.

But thinking that Vicente had great determination to withstand the terror of this place, she tried to concentrate on doing what he had ordered and preparing to run as soon as she had the chance.

"I want to see how you're going to do this, ghost." Vicente walked toward them as the ground around cracked with his footsteps, and lightning flashed around him.

"You must think you're pretty good, but today, I'll show you how a ghost screams in pain!"