"It's still a loss…" Liam sighed.
"Can't we just charge the people in the base interest?" Maximus muttered with a smile.
"Huh? This is feasible!"
In exchange for his father's protection, it wasn't too much to charge a percentage of the talents' harvest, right?
"Just do this. I still have something to do."
"Alright, leave everything to me, Father."
Soon, Liam began to calm the talents in the stronghold.
Telling them about the features of The Skjǫldrún Stronghold, they felt a glimmer of hope.
The ultimate defense, the strongest steel wall of the Aeon Plane—although what they had was only a replica, bearing the same name gave them indestructible confidence.
"As long as we're in the stronghold, we should be able to slowly clean up the dark beasts."
"This might even be an opportunity."
With hundreds of billions of dark beasts, they might be able to harvest thousands of points.
Thinking of the heavy debt they carried, they couldn't help but look forward to the dark beast wave.
However, as Liam mentioned the issue of energy, their hopes came crashing down.
Hearing the stronghold could only last a few years, they were doomed.
"Hmm? Doesn't His Majesty Maximus have the Holy Physique?"
Suddenly, they remembered Maximus had the Dimensional Source Physique, controlling the unlimited source of the Aeon Plane's energy.
"It seems you caught on so quickly…" Liam smirked.
Seeing Liam's familiar smile, they couldn't help but feel déjà vu.
Sure enough, hearing that 50% of their harvest would be deducted, they no longer felt surprised.
They didn't even have the urge to complain.
Having grown used to the Shadowcrest Family's exploitation, they could only be thankful they were still alive and well.
Besides incurring more debt and reduced income, what worse could happen?
Furthermore, with the guarantee from the Shadowcrest family to keep the stronghold running, they could focus on killing dark beasts.
Calming down, they waited for the dark beast wave to attack the stronghold.
As for meeting the enemy outside, it was a death wish.
Unless they wanted to die, they could only attack honestly from the stronghold.
Of course, there was an exception—Zar.
Pent up without a satisfactory battle, Zar's emotions were about to explode.
Meeting hundreds of billions of dark beasts, Zar only had a wide smile.
Punching out with a million times his magnitude of power, hundreds of dark beasts disintegrated.
Such damage could be said to be worthy of the top prodigy of the Aeon Plane.
Even Maximus, with a million times his magnitude of power, might not do better purely using brute force.
Unfortunately, Zar was unsatisfied.
Facing hundreds of billions of dark beasts, the damage he caused wasn't even a scratch.
Even the dark beasts he killed quickly resurrected under the concentrated power of dark energy.
Instead of attacking more precisely, killing the dark beasts more efficiently, Zar just increased his power.
Zar didn't believe in precision and control. If he couldn't do enough damage, it simply meant his power was not enough.
Facing the desperate situation, Zar's strength increased faster and faster.
From a million, 2 million, 3 million, 4 million…
Seeing Zar rampaged, the talents in the stronghold couldn't help but be amazed.
"This is what a man should be!"
From hundreds of dark beasts being killed with a single attack, it soon became thousands.
Furthermore, because of the brutality of the attack pulverizing most of the dark beasts, they were slower to resurrect.
Unfortunately, unable to hold back their advancement entirely, the dark beast wave slowly inched closer to the stronghold.
A few days later, the dark beast wave arrived at the stronghold.
Seeing the dark beast wave reach the stronghold, Zar felt incompetent.
Just a hundred billion dark beasts, and he was already defeated.
What would happen when the dark disaster occurred in the future?
At that time, it wouldn't be a mere billion or tier-10 dark beasts forming a wave.
It would be countless tier-11 and even tier-12 dark beasts forming unstoppable disaster.
"I'm still too weak…"
Despite a few days of exponential power amplification, Zar had only reached about 500 million times his original power.
It wasn't that he couldn't grow much stronger, but his energy was limited.
The faster his amplification increased, the higher the energy consumption became.
Slowing down the rise of his power, Zar barely lasted a few days.
"Hah~ It'd be nice if I had Maximus's unlimited energy…" Zar imagined.
With his limitless power amplification and infinite energy, he could topple this beast wave with a punch.
Unfortunately, there were no perfect things in this world.
Fusing someone else's physique with one's own was contrary to the nature of the Aeon Plane.
Even the Overlords could only artificially produce a prodigy possessing one.
Feeling hollowed out, Zar crashed back into the stronghold.
Creating a crater upon landing, Zar quietly lay there, staring into the void.
"Do you want to try?"
Suddenly, a face he didn't want to see appeared before him.
"What do you mean, try?"
"The ability to increase your power limitlessly without worrying about energy," Maximus tempted him with a smile.
"Y-You're willing to help me?"
"No, it's you who would help me."
"Killing a primal dark beast is impossible with our current strength, much less surviving the looming dark disaster that even the Overlords couldn't solve," Maximus explained.
Knowing he couldn't kill a primal dark beast on his own, Maximus had long set his sights on Zar.
Unable to hold back a simple dark beast wave, it was time to enlist this ultimate biological warrior.
"How is it? Are you willing to help me?"
"Tsk, can I refuse such an offer?! Come help me stand up." Zar clicked his tongue, also excited about the prospect.
"Hahaha, let's go! I'll make sure you can reach your full potential."
"Just tell me what to do…"
Soon, as Maximus and Zar left the scene, The Skjǫldrún Stronghold officially faced the dark beast wave.