In half an hour, a figure appeared — an Elder from the Charming Eyes race, with long blonde hair, moving towards the trio.
"Your test has been decided. In a few minutes, the formation will be ready to take you. It’s a simple task. The Ninth Celestial Legion is currently facing major problems and lost its territory a year ago. They are in a different region, trying to gather resources and recover their position. This area is much weaker and less challenging, so it’s safe for you. You must join the legion, and the goal is to survive for a month. If you succeed, you’ll pass the test."
The Elder explained and turned, preparing the formation. Meanwhile, Arki clenched her fists, aware of the impact of the earlier event on Carod. Beside her, Ruri snorted, realizing that here, the competition and lack of unity were even worse than in the Queen’s universe.
’Why does she create so much competition?’ Ruri thought. However, reading her thoughts, Bruno responded through the array:
’The answer is simple: fear. This is common among authoritarian leaders who rule through force. They make their soldiers fight each other so that no one trusts anyone. This makes control easier and prevents any chances of rebellion. While they’re busy fighting among themselves, they don’t have the opportunity to rise up and challenge the leadership. She even dominates their minds, but created several safety measures.’
Ruri nodded with a sigh as she watched the Elder finishing the formation. A few minutes later, she turned back to the trio:
"The leader of the Ninth Legion has been informed. This won’t be an easy test, but compared to previous years, it can be considered average. Just stay safe and try to help as much as you can."
After these words, she waved, and the three of them were enveloped by spatial laws. Within seconds, the world around them became clearer.
"We meet again, and so quickly," Carod’s voice said beside them. He looked exhausted but smiled when he saw Arki and the couple. "This test is strange, but it’s safe. We’re in a region far from the epicenter, with few enemies... unfortunately."
Alm and Bruno looked around, realizing they were no longer on the Alpenglow planet. They had been transported to another world, a remnant from the war of the past.
The place had a horizon bathed in golden and white light. The landscape was dominated by an endless chain of mountains of various sizes, while the reddish ground emitted a faint smell of blood.
The most intriguing sight, however, was what could be seen far to the north: an immense tree piercing the heavens. Its trunk was completely green, but its leaves glowed like stars, radiating an immortal Yang energy that was gentle and pure.
Seeing the couple’s gaze fixed on the tree, Carod commented:
"That’s the greatest world and treasure of our continent. There are five other worlds like this one, controlled by the other empires. They’re all remnants of a terrifying battle from the past."
Alm and Bruno nodded. There were countless smaller worlds like this, but obviously, there were larger ones with more things left behind by the immortals. So, the heroes split them into six and gave them to the empires of the continents to explore.
"What is this tree? Why do I sense so many divine and demonic beasts here?" Ruri asked, intrigued. Shouldn’t there be normal life forms in these worlds? Even the main planet didn’t have simple beasts like these.
Carod nodded, impressed by their perception, and spoke slowly. Basically, this place was where two very unique immortals died in the past. They were a couple—one was a beast-taming elf, and the other, a Solar Immortal Tree.
In the battle, an apocalyptic event occurred, and almost everyone died instantly or within minutes. But the Solar Immortal Tree had a unique power from its Divine Dao. It managed to sacrifice its entire soul and life to seal a fragment of the elf’s soul and her wounded body, leaving her inside the tree to recover.
The heroes weren’t fools and quickly realized what happened, so they sealed the world, ensuring that the elf would never recover her divine soul on her own.
But the tree had a plan. With its Divine Dao, its body could automatically absorb celestial energies and generate fruits. Once fully grown, the fruits would fall and nourish the elf until she completely healed.
The heroes noticed this peculiarity. It was obvious they would try to stop it and prevent it, but the immortal tree knew this and did it on purpose.
When they examined the fruit, they realized it was an unparalleled treasure, impossible to find anywhere else. Something created with its Divine Dao, drawn from the unique energies of the celestial laws.
So... they didn’t care about the tree’s schemes. If they prevented the fruits from being generated or tried to kill the elf, they would lose the fruits. So, they simply left things as they were. They would always harvest the fruits before they fell, ensuring the elf didn’t absorb them. In doing so, they would gain these treasures infinitely and forever.
"These beasts came from the elf’s bestial world. Her body is still alive, connected to the tree. The beasts she had were constantly nourished by the tree’s Yang energy in her bestial world, so their fertility exploded. Within a few centuries, their numbers grew immensely and they began to venture out."
"Not only that, all of the elf’s beasts were from very ancient and powerful races she selected. These races kept their bloodline pure and didn’t fall much. In fact, because of the bestial world nourished by the tree, their power even grew. So, besides the tree’s fruits, these beasts are treasures for us; everything about them is useful." Carod finished lightly, glancing at a distant bull attacking his soldiers.
Ruri became serious. "These beasts... are they still trying to protect the elf?"
"You could say that. Nowadays, they’ve multiplied so much that they’ve completely split into their own races, living in enormous populations that act completely differently from one another," he answered with a snort.
"They try to prevent the fruits from being stolen or anyone from getting too close to the tree and the elf. But, of course, they don’t have the power to stop us. So each race tried, in its own way, to grow stronger or solve the problem."
Suddenly, a loud crash erupted ahead of them, behind a mountain. A cloud of dust rose. A shining golden arrow exploded into the sky, and Carod’s expression immediately changed.
"That’s the frontline camp of our legion. They’re under attack and calling for help!" he roared, looking at the couple, who nodded.
They rushed forward, and numerous giant figures quickly appeared in their line of sight. A massive army of demonic beasts was facing the Ninth Celestial Legion.
Giant arrow towers formed a defensive line, firing enormous projectiles. Rays of light sliced through the demonic beasts, destroying everything they hit.
Even under such intense attacks, those colossal creatures easily pressed the legion, forcing them to retreat. This battle was doomed to defeat.
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Ruri widened her eyes as she spotted something terrifying. At the front lines, hybrids were fighting alongside the demonic beasts against the legion. On their foreheads, there were black slavery marks.
"Yeah, some demonic beasts chose this method to get stronger. They attack and capture soldiers from the legions, using them as slaves for sacrifices or, in the case of women, to breed new slaves," Carod said dryly, his expression showing anger.
Alm and Bruno scoffed. The beasts of this world were fighting for a good cause and technically shared the same goal as them. However, as the war dragged on and the massacre continued, some of them had succumbed to degeneration.
’In a war, there’s no right or good side. The longer it goes on, the more both sides start to look for new ways to fight, developing increasingly extreme methods. Eventually, atrocities emerge. Fortunately, there are still exceptions. Some beasts are probably still fighting honorably, but this kind of deviation is quite common,’ Alm commented through the array to Ruri.
Ruri shuddered, serious. For her, nothing justified such acts. It was better to die fighting honorably than to lower oneself to something so abhorrent. From the moment that race adopted such practices, she had no intention of supporting them. In fact, she wanted to eliminate them right then and there if possible.
Suddenly, one of the demonic beasts managed to break through the defensive layers and reached one of the arrow towers. Its sharp claws struck the structure, almost splitting it in half. More than ten ballistae were destroyed in a single strike.
The creature didn’t have time to strike again, as it was quickly brought down by a dozen coordinated blows. However, the destruction of that tower created a dangerous opening in the defensive line. The other demonic beasts saw the opportunity and charged in that direction.
"Seven of the eighteen arrow towers have been destroyed! If this keeps up, the second defensive line will be breached too!" Carod warned as he moved toward the battlefield. "Brothers, hold steady! Fall back and reinforce the defensive line! Protect the arrow towers!"
After giving his orders, he leaped, his golden eyes pulsing with power. Wielding a new spear, he made a single strike.
*BOOM!*
It was as if a beam of celestial annihilation had fallen. The earth violently cracked as Carod struck one of the powerful demonic beasts. The act gave the legion’s warriors a brief moment to catch their breath.
Just behind, a trio advanced through the battlefield. Ruri and the whale drew their weapons, starting to fight with Arki at the center, protected by them.
The young woman attacked, trying to cause some damage, but her blows were shallow. Despite her determination and skill, she lacked power and still didn’t know how to properly use her mutation.
On the other hand, the couple attacked with precision and controlled force. Their blows made the demons explode as if they were fragile. Along with Carod, they didn’t drastically change the course of the battle but helped stabilize the defenses, protecting the arrow towers.
These towers were treasures created by the God of the Forge and required an exorbitant amount of resources to acquire on the main continent. They were the deadly weapons of the battlefield, essential for the nine legions to accumulate resources for the continent.
However, the repair costs and even the arrows were the responsibility of the legion that protected them. That’s why the Ninth Legion did everything to accumulate merit points by killing the demonic beasts. If they had to spend those points to repair the towers, they would starve.
With all the warriors focused on protecting the arrow towers, the defensive formation quickly reestablished itself. But... they were clearly consuming all their Qi much faster than they were killing.
"Jilina, what happened here?" Carod finally had a chance to shout at a mutant woman covered in black fur.
Jilina, the vice-commander of the Ninth Legion, responded with hatred: "We were facing our enemies without problems, but suddenly, a new group appeared on the flank, completely messing up our rhythm. We didn’t have time to set up a proper defense. They definitely came from the Third Legion!"
"That bastard Pouzek!" Carod roared, gritting his teeth as fury grew in his eyes.