While Su Mian was unloading a slew of curses at William, the real culprit was snickering from within the space between realities while maintaining control of the Territory of Illusion.

As a Deity Realm Magical Beast, Atticus had no need to worry about Mana expenditure unless he was using Primary Laws, making extended fights possible once again. He paired the Territory with William's Arrays, confusing the assassins' sense of direction while they flew in circles.

In front of them, the evening sun seemed unmoving but was actually shifting ever so slightly, leading them into a full circle every half a million kilometers. As for the trackers, Atticus knew William all too well. Creating a fake version of him with the Illusion Element was far too easy.

In fact, the assassins were still several hours away from William's Cultivation site!

Of course, William wasn't going to let his Companion Beast battle alone and was keeping an eye on the situation through their mental connection. Finding that his Mana Reserves were nearly half capacity after a short period, William killed another Violent Sound Mouse and casually approached one of the defenses he'd made earlier.

It was a round tube about a meter in diameter and four meters high, made almost purely from Starmetal and fitted with thousands of Tier 6 Arrays. Attached at three equidistant locations and angled 45 degrees were Starmetal poles that acted as a stabilizer, preventing the tube from falling over no matter how much force acted upon it.

As someone who came from a technology-based Mortal World, William knew exactly how effective weapons of war were at quickly clearing large groups of enemies. The prototype artillery cannon before him was no different, and its power surpassed mortal weapons by unfathomable quantities.

William held the locator in his right hand while his left was placed on the Starmetal Cannon, using Space Magic to lock onto the assassins' positions. Even this much preparation wasn't enough to ensure a direct hit, so to improve the accuracy William relied on his mental connection with Atticus.

One million pure Earth Mana was channeled into the Starmetal Cannon, an absurd amount to others but a fraction of a percent of William's maximum Reserve. As the Mana was packed and compressed, the Starmetal Cannon created its own Starmetal Comet Storm, then quintupled the quantity of projectiles.

Fire Magic gathered from below the Comets, heating up the base until the Starmetal Cannon's structural integrity neared its limit. With a thought, William activated the necessary Arrays to launch the Comets upward.

"PEPEPEPEPE! SPHEEEEEW!"

Five waves of Starmetal Comet Storms entered the skies and whistled through the air, breaking the sound barrier with each individual Comet. At the peak of their flight path, William and Atticus shouted in unison from a million kilometers apart.

"Illusion! Double the firepower!"

"Illusssion! Double the firepower!"

From five to ten, ten to twenty, the Primary Law of Illusion surrounded the Starmetal Comet Storms and quadrupled the number of waves sent after the assassins. Individually, the Starmetal Comet Pellets numbered in the tens of thousands! The sky burned brightly, turning evening into afternoon while human and Magical Beast alike looked up simultaneously.

If they weren't aware of the Starmetal Comets before, the assassins surely had an idea now. Su Mian and the three teams of assassins sensed the threat of death and frantically activated all sorts of defensive treasures and Arrays.

"Scatter!" Su Mian shouted before diving underground, trailed by two assassins with the Earth Element.

The others spread out in all directions, using trees and cave entrances for cover while circulating their Mana to fire counter Spells at the incoming Comets. No one was idle, and each were fully prepared for any situation.

The problem, however, was that this wasn't the type of situation they expected to find themselves. Not for this mission, at least. When Comet Pellets homed in on their positions, tearing down trees and collapsing caves, their anxiety increased.

Aren't they supposed to be hunting down one person? Why are they the ones on the defense??

Their individual trains of thought merged into one sentence.

There's no way this kid is alone!

In one move, dozens of assassins were injured, while three were missing both their arms from trying to directly defend. Assassins aren't made for large-scale combat, nor are they meant to be on the front lines.

Their specialties lay in maintaining the initiative, seizing the element of surprise to launch quick and fierce strikes that eliminate their foes before they can react. As for playing defense and holding out against weapons of war... the Family Head should have assigned a personal guard or two!

Something felt wrong about asking for a Solar Deity expert's help to deal with an Ascension Realm kid, even more so when the request comes from forty professional assassins in the Deity Realm, but they had no choice!

When they used their methods to trace the origin of the attack, the assassins were finally able to break free from the restriction of Atticus' Illusion Territory. Seeing that William truly was alone and was standing next to a seemingly homemade cannon, a chain of events clicked together.

The Riverveil Family's intelligence network said nothing about the possibility for large-scale weapons, and they had underestimated William's ability to utilize Tier 6 Arrays! With his genius blacksmithing skills and unnaturally complex Array usage, they felt William's creations were more than a level and a half above what should be.

A half-step Tier 8 Array Master from merely Tier 6 Arrays... What disgusting talent... they all thought.

While the assassins were still dealing with the aftermath of the Starmetal Comet Storms, William and Atticus didn't sit idle. More accurately, everything was planned out from start to finish, including the time and place for firing the Starmetal Cannon.

Naturally, William had placed follow-up measures. With a flash of the Space Element, William opened a portal and reached his hand through, retrieving in an instant. Grasped by the neck, William pulled one of the armless assassins to his side.

"I—" the assassin could hardly get a syllable out before a Spatial Slash separated his head from his body. A series of weaker slashes destroyed any worthless clothing and tools, revealing the assassin's concealed weapons and any reinforced Spatial Rings.

"Tsk." William cursed in his mind seeing that the assassin's Space Ring was sealed with Arrays that exceeded his understanding.

He used Fire Magic to turn the Assassin's body to dust, making use of the fact that he'd acquired a Fire-type Ring of Laws from the Filem Academy's Vice Principal some time ago. William is still too new to the Ascended Realms. There's no telling what kind of special abilities his opponents may have.

Sensing the connection with one of their allies move an unnatural distance immediately set off alarm bells in the assassin's minds, amplified when said connection was severed moments later. They rushed to regroup as quickly as possible, but there were a few without the Earth Element who were trapped inside a collapsed cave.

The reappearance of Space Mana gave the assassin's Deja Vu, and everyone knew what was about to happen. Someone tried to destabilize William's portal with their own Space Magic, but the portal was too stable!