Vile Evil Hides Under The Veil

Knowledge-based action, when performed the right way at the right time, has the power to change the flow of any event.

Eren had started studying battle formations ever since he encountered one in real life. He was afraid to admit that Oliver's battle formation had intimidated him.

The butcher had started seeing any lack of knowledge as an obstacle that needed to be overcome. He was like blank paper when he first saw the battle formation's real-time deployment. Combating with a battle formation was like fighting a wild bull with brute strength. Even if he could win the fight, he wouldn't come out of the clash unharmed.

Therefore, Eren decided to dig deeper into this field that he had practically no knowledge of. Being a student of a kingdom-certified academy as well as being influential with money, he had access to various studies done on battle formations and the study of arrays. He started grasping the knowledge hidden in them one step at a time.

However, he couldn't become an expert in battle formation overnight. In particular, he was weak in the field of arrays. This was the reason he wanted to claim Sansara Sage's legacy the most among all the others. In other words, it was a shortcut to save years of laborious work.

Lin Lehan was a one-of-a-kind array expert of his time. Eren would be able to progress far more in the field of arrays if he acquired Sansara Sage's legacy. And since the field was connected to various other branches of magic, it would allow the butcher to get rid of many of his weaknesses.

He will also be able to use the Sage legacy for the upcoming Lazarus project. They were the must-have cards the butcher wanted to have in his hand before doing anything against the sleeping monster that was House Lancelot.

This time, Eren was helped by Alephee in determining the battle formation's weakness and that the infiltrators were in the process of deployment. He appeared right at the formation's operating point. He then interfered with its network by injecting his soul sense into it under Alephee's guidance.

The homunculus was also helping Eren gain knowledge of battle formations and arrays in general. She knew these subjects were his most highlighted weak points. So she was explaining a bunch of things to him as she guided him into disrupting the infiltrators' surefire move.

Eren knew that the war was drawing closer. The way he was targeting the elven scions from Layos was only serving to expedite its arrival.

Therefore, he didn't want to harm Edinburgh's forces if he could avoid it. Most of the surviving participants inside the Sansara World intend to choose positions of power within the kingdom's fold after the event's completion. Killing them or letting them get killed here would mean weakening Edinburgh in the long run.

Eren cared about the kingdom's well-being because most of his assets were based inside it. That's why he let the original participants survive the clash with him. Rogue and Tank benefit greatly from Eren's pragmatism. They managed to stay safe despite encountering a powerful group of elven infiltrators.

***

The deployment of battle formations became the infiltrators' shackles.

It forced them to watch Eren's batchmates leave the area with their clenched fists. They came to realize that the green-eyed man in front of them was aware of their battle formation because of the moment he chose to intervene in their matter.

The infiltrators couldn't complete the battle formation anymore because they needed many rankers acting as relay points for the ethereal array layout to work. Without many of the opponents serving their roles within the formation, the battle formation would actually fry the operators instead of the relay points.

With some chants and hand signs, the infiltrators halted the battle formation. Eren also allowed them to do just that. The task was akin to diffusing a time bomb. The butcher did not want to disturb them while they dispersed the formation because he could be hurt.

"Hahaha. This small mosquito thinks he can take care of all of us."

A buff man who looked to be in his early 20s came forward and decided to challenge Eren. The latter had nothing to fear because the possibility of the enemy deploying a battle formation was eliminated. He just stretched his limbs and used the Spatial Domain Lock Perk before making a move.

Bzzt. Swoosh. Chop.

Eren moved like a ghost and started his killing spree. After all, he preferred to respond to his enemies' intimidation through action.

The butcher switched between various weapons, elemental spells, perks, and overall battle styles to handle multiple enemies of all kinds. The enemies this time were too many to count. Thus, having secured the location through various perks and Alephee's powers, he also began to use his summoning class.

The summoned creatures made Eren's job easy. They allowed him to focus on a particular group and deal with them one by one.

The butcher also wanted to use his monster forms in his fights after securing the place. After all, he could keep multiple Blood Seeds in his body and activate them at any point since his promotion to Expert rank.

However, Alephee told Eren not to use his Blood Seeds in the Sansara World. The moderators could sense the peculiar mana signatures generated by the usage of such magic, thanks to the array of mechanisms they were in control of.

Puddles of blood started forming on the ground with each passing second as Eren started operating on the infiltrators. The organs danced in the air as Elven screams became the default music for such a gory scene.

***

The butcher had outdone himself in terms of raking up Karma points with his recent battle. He was left with loads of Karma points even after dividing them into three equal portions and sending two of them to his teammates.

"Found it. I found their plan.

Damn... this could be called the ultimate hidden reward of the Sansara World."