"What?!"

"Are you deaf?" Kyle looked at the young man who asked the question, "Drop it slowly and move back!"

Kyle yelled at him. He was the one who was leading the group, one of them was already seriously wounded, and if they tried to forcefully take this item with them, not only will the young man die, but all of them risked facing death as well.

"Drop it, let's retreat." A young lady in the group said to the young man.

"You all have gone crazy. We came here for this. Have you forgotten how important it is?" The young man didn't want to let go of the item.

"Is it worth all our lives?" Kyle asked coldly.

"Stop arguing you two, they're already forcing their way through our defense." Another young man interjected.

"Drop it." Kyle said coldly.

"No." The young man stood by his initial stance. There was no way he was going to let go of this item.

Kyle grunted and just as he was about to take a step towards the young man he froze and turned to look in a particular direction.

Not just him, but the others did the same as well. They could sense a powerful aura speeding through the woods coming towards them.

On a normal day, they would've been excited since it might be help. But given their current situation, the chances of this being even more dangerous was far higher.

"Abandon it, quickly." Kyle said and rushed towards the other direction.

"Don't worry Kyle, we're here to help."

A voice sounded in Kyle's ears, and to the surprise of everyone present, a figure appeared inside their defensive wall.

They didn't know what to say as they saw the figure, the reason for this was the ease he used in getting into their defensive wall. They didn't even sense when he got in.

However, hearing the figure mention Kyle's name released the tension they were feeling.

"Grey, you're here!" Kyle turned around to face Grey, elation on his face.

"It's nice to see you too. I didn't think you would escape in such a manner." Klaus' laughter came from outside the defensive wall.

He was casually strolling in the middle of the creatures that were attacking the defensive wall.

The eyes of those present almost popped out when they saw this. Klaus was casually strolling amongst these dangerous creatures, and they hadn't even attacked him, it was almost as if they couldn't see him.

"Klaus, you're here too!" Kyle's smile got brighter.

"Of course, we were around and decided to come check you out." Klaus said.

Grey took a glance at Klaus and couldn't help but shake his head. They literally spoke with Kyle some days ago, yet Klaus was acting as if he didn't know Kyle came out for an expedition.

"You… you… watch out!" One of the young lady's in the group screamed when one of the creatures tried to attack Klaus from behind.

The creatures were Snakes, and all of them had the Darkness Element.

"Oh…" Klaus remained nonchalant and as the Snake was about to place its large mouth over Klaus, hoping to swallow him with a single move, it became frozen solid.

The black skin of the snake started to turn white as it was frozen solid from its head down to its tail. The freezing didn't happen instantaneously, rather, it moved slowly from its head down to the tail.

Kyle knew Klaus' character so he wasn't too amazed at it. It was something simple a more powerful opponent could do to their opponents.

Kyle might be indifferent, but the rest people who were in his group was starstruck. Klaus had an elegant look, and he was always dressed almost like royals. His luxurious dressings matches his face, making him charming.

Klaus didn't stop there, with a nonchalant expression, he spread out his hands and the temperature around them dropped. Even the defensive wall froze, and shattered. But the group didn't have the time to worry about their broken defensive wall, before their eyes, the numerous Snakes that has been giving them a tough time were all frozen with just one move from Klaus.

When they sensed the strength behind Klaus' attack, they couldn't help but shiver. Even Kyle was taken aback by Klaus' improvement.

Originally, he felt they were in the Late stages, but from what Klaus just displayed, then he was definitely at the Peak. The thought of Klaus already becoming a Sovereign didn't cross his mind. In fact, he didn't think Grey had gotten to the Sovereign Plane as well. He found it difficult to accept that either of them had broken through to the Sovereign Plane, even given their talents.

"That should be enough." Klaus commented coolly as he walked past the group who were still in awe of his abilities.

"It's been so long, bud." He said as he got closer to Kyle.

Kyle had his mouth slightly agape, not expecting this much improvement from Klaus.

He threw a glance at Grey who shrugged, "You already know he likes showing off."

Kyle nodded and asked softly, "What stage are you guys?"

"Sovereigns." Grey was the one who answered his question.

The second the word Sovereign left Grey's mouth, the others present went silent. They could all hear each other's breaths.

"What's wrong? Haven't seen a Sovereign before?" Klaus asked with a smile.

"You guys are cheats." Kyle gave a wry smile. He thought he was already fast and should be close to catching up to these guys, but from the looks of it, they would only continue to leave him behind.

"He's the cheat, I'm only trying to catch up to him." Grey pointed at Klaus. In truth, he was the one who was catching up to Klaus.

Klaus was the first to get to the Sovereign Plane. Although there's a chance Grey might've achieved this before him if not for some unforeseen circumstances, it doesn't change the fact that Klaus broke through first.