While they advanced through the middle area of the forest, safe inside of the cube barrier created by Eris, Aster observed the scene unfolding around them.
It was an all-out war which had broken out, now that the moons were blocking most of the light of the suns, the crystal trees lost their backing, the spirit beasts on the other hand were like fishes in the sea.
The yang energy which used to be overflowing in the atmosphere was being replaced by the strong yin being radiated by the moons, reinforcing the yin spirit beasts that were breaking havoc right now.
In comparison, the crystal trees were being forced to release the yang they had stored in their crystals to fight back.
Most of trees could exert a strength around the peak of the Sea of Knowledge realm in terms of the physical strength behind their roots which they were using as whips to turn the smaller spirit beasts into meat paste, that is without taking into account the extra damage their yang flames could cause.
As for the beasts, since this was still the middle area, the vast majority were in the Mortal Transcending realm, the problem is that there were too many of them, also in the current state in which the sky was, even the weaker beasts were boosted one minor realm above their real levels.
"They are just trying to kill as many as possible before dying", mumbled Aria who was sitting next to Aster, hugging his arm.
There were four "armies" of creatures besides the crystal trees, mammals in general like deer, raccoons and bears, they had the strongest physical strength in the group, making the ground tremble whenever they attacked.
Then, there was the group conformed by reptiles, such as lizards and snakes, their specialty was that they had the largest number of members, compared to the others each group was almost double the size, though they also had lower realms in general.
The third group was conformed by winged beasts, practically birds of all kind, their advantage is that they were fast, though their bodies were the less sturdy, their speed made up for that.
The last group was probably the one that disgusted the girls the most, vermin of all kinds, not the small type, but oversized like giant beetles, scorpions, spiders and centipedes, as for their advantage as one would expect, they were all poisonous, strongly poisonous to be more accurate, since yin has a strong corroding capacity.
There were also swarms of undead, but they didn't have anything leading them, and were just attacking everything in their path, since they were also reinforced by the yin that was no flooding the atmosphere.
If the evil spirit would have revived, he would have probably used the undead as his army to fight against the four types of spirit beasts that were under the command of the Law Integration spirit beats at the deepest part of the forest.
"There is a blockade ahead of us, there isn't space to maneuver so we'll have to open up a path the old way", said Eris as she pointed at the area ahead of them.
Aster looked in the direction which Eris signaled, originally that should have been the entrance to the deep part of the forest, but now there was a wall made out of some kind of black stone and yin, like an amplified version of the obstruction that used to be blocking the way of retreat of the participants.
Once they arrived at the vicinity, just like Eris said the place was completely packed, the skies were occupied by the flying spirit beasts, the underground trembled from time to time as the insects crawled and lurked trying to catch their prey, the ground was flooded with the mammal type spirit beasts and surprisingly the reptiles seemed to be able to withstand the yang being radiated by the trees, and climbed on them.
"This is as far as we can go in the cube barrier, everyone, prepare to open up a path", said Eris, then with Aster's greenlight she dispelled the barrier.
As soon as they left the barrier, the spirit beasts, the crystal trees and even the undead who were just attacking everyone, noticed them.
The girls prepared to fight, but Eris and Agnes stopped them from acting.
"You already had some fun while we had to boringly wait outside", said Eris.
"Mm, I'm feeling a bit stiff after not doing anything for a whole day", added Agnes.
The before the others could say anything, they jumped into the battlefield, as if they had discussed it beforehand, Eris took the left side while Agnes took the right side.
Aster observed from behind, last time Mylene surprised him with her insanely extreme physical strength, and she hasn't recovered to the Gate Transcending realm which supposedly was the realm she reached in body cultivation terms when she was in her prime.
As for Eris she used to be a Soul Queen, which is an incredibly rare sight in the four Heavenly Quadrants, though she hasn't recovered yet, it would be a lie to say Aster wasn't curious to see her fighting style.
The same applied to Agnes, so far Aster has only seen a little demonstration of her third level sword intent, besides that she has only used her well-trained body to fight, Aster doesn't even know what her attribute is.
Both of Aster's questions were answered on the spot by those two, starting from Eris, she snapped her fingers and a watchtower made out of wood raised from the ground.
Unlike Kana whose element was originally nature and now was combined with wind thanks to the Storm Roc lineage she awakened and Esmeralda's contract, Eris family's attribute is wood, and their elite is not only skilled in the use of wood attribute, but also rune mastering.
"Wood Artillery, Incineration!", with those words, Aster saw tons of different runes appearing on the wood watchtower in a matter of milliseconds.
Mylene once used a plant called Devil Vines, when she was feigning to be the "Cosmos Tree", back at Prasil, a trait her family has despite their attribute being Decadence, but she can only control those vines to move, attack or defend.
Eris on the other hand… has a much more varied way to use her wood constructions, in this case, deploying a lot of formations over the surface of the wood watchtower.
The runes lit up and then, three types of different attacks were shot by the watchtower, lightning, fire and light flooded her side of the battlefield.
"Booom!", the fire landed on the ground eliminating all the vermin that was lurking underground on the spot, the light rays which were actually sharp turned the reptiles on the crystal trees into sieves, as for the lightning, it fried the flying spirit beasts widely spreading through all of them.
It was like a magic show from back at earth, lights of different colors illuminated the previously dark area, followed by countless popping sounds as the beasts were killed in mass.
"Phew, it's been a while, I have to practice with Mylene once we return", said Eris, by the time her attack ended, the wood watchtower turned into ashes, which was natural, normally a single piece of material can only endure one formation of a single element.
Eris created an array of three elements on a single surface in a matter of milliseconds, it was absurd, her wood attribute had to be the strongest Aster has seen or heard off, to be able to withstand all that.
He wasn't the only one who was surprised beyond words, Agnes also observed her attack and her eyes glowed.
'I knew she was a skilled rune master after seeing the formations in Aster's swords, but she might be as fast as big sister when it comes to deploy formations', she thought.
Agnes's smiled without noticing, she wasn't going to be left behind, especially because this is the first time, she has joined Aster directly in an adventure, she wanted to show some of her abilities too, maybe it was a bit childish, but she was okay with it, she wanted Aster to compliment her and then spend more time with her, training and getting stronger, just imagining made her mood improve, so much that she was brightly smiling.
But her smile isn't the only bright thing about her right now, bright orange light lit up behind of her, she just extended her hand and some of that orange light gathered on it.
"Raze", her side of the battlefield was covered in an orange flash, the attack didn't produce a shockwave or an explosion unlike Eris's, but all the spirit beasts which were touched by that bright orange light disappeared without leaving a trace, not only that, the ground was evenly destroyed as well, leaving a mirror-like crystalized new surface behind.
The girls were in awe, they knew those two were strong, especially Felicia who is also a soul cultivator like them, but they far surpassed her expectations.
'Insane formation deployment speed and clock-precise soul energy manipulation on one side, the other has an absurdly strong Soul Avatar… I guess no one around you can be normal', she thought as she stole a gaze at Aster.
Aster wasn't any better though, it was vague, but his dragon eyes managed to catch a glimpse of what was inside that orange flash of light, that appeared behind Agnes, it was another Agnes, one totally made out of soul energy.
It remined Aster of his Soul Avatar which resides inside the mind space, being accompanied by Rigel's flames.
"Soul Avatars are formed as a reflect of ourselves, they don't wear clothes or anything unless… one has a soul constitution", mumbled Aster.
Before Sarina became a star maiden, in other words before he gained a soul constitution, his Soul Avatar resembled him, without wearing anything, naturally it wasn't exactly the same, in the meaning that it didn't have certain "aspects" like genitals, and its eyes were always closed.
Only after he gained a soul constitution, the Soul Avatar developed that ash-red armor which made it look like an experienced warrior, Aster didn't check to see if it grew a dick, but the Soul Avatar now looked more realistic, it also opened its eyes from time to time.
Still, he couldn't perceive any kind of communication from it, besides being surrounded by Rigel's flames, it didn't move at all, could be because he isn't supposed to have a Soul Avatar until he has reached the Spirit Trial realm.
And even then, it shouldn't be as realistic as it is, the same applied to Agnes, she is a Genesis Manifestation cultivator in the energy path and a Spirit Trial in the soul path, meaning she has yet to surpass the tribulation for her soul path, her Soul Avatar shouldn't look so perfectly detailed, but that could be caused by her soul constitution.
After decimating all the spirit beasts in the vicinity with their attacks, those two returned to the group, they really seemed to be having fun, probably because they couldn't do anything but wait until they entered the Silicon Forest.
Agnes approached Aster with the bright smiling expression she always wears, near him, before saying.
"How was it, the next time I'll show you how I use my Soul Avatar along with my sword intent!", she enthusiastically said, usually she likes fighting yes, but showing off her abilities for Aster, makes her happy from the very core of her body.
Aster nodded, he now had a new theory, maybe main branch of the family of his godmother, in other words those who could see some aspects of other people's souls, were all soul constitution owners, that would in part explain their immense talent in the soul path.
Aster now had another thing in which Agnes could help not only him, but also Sarina, train, because the only other soul constitution owners he knows are the probably the twins, but they aren't available currently.
"You two were amazing, I didn't know you had a soul constitution, also Eris you never mentioned you could manipulate so many elements with your divine runes", said Aster, which made Agnes giggle.
"Now that you mention it… it should be a secret, whatever if I'm going to help you train your sword intent you were bound to see it anyway", said Agnes as she shrugged, she casually revealed the proof that she belongs to the ruler family of the Sun Sprite Heavenly Quadrant.
As for Eris, she shily scratched the back of her head, it's not like she didn't want to teach those runes to Aster during their lessons.
"I only recently recovered more of my rune mastering abilities… thanks to the elixir you brew for us with Mylene's help, since this requires me to use spirit energy along with my wood attribute".
Aster chuckled, he wasn't implying that she didn't want to teach them her rune mastering, but he found the misunderstanding rather amusing.
Eris cleared her throat and then pointed at the imposing black stone wall which was radiating corrosive yin, the last obstacle which was left after she and Agnes cleared this area of any spirit beast.
"Ahem, lend me that yang chain link, I'll use to create a breach in that thing, that way we can trick those guys at the center, to make them believe it's the forest retaliating", she said.
Aster nodded and then after taking some distance from the others he took out the bright yellow chain link, this time there weren't yang flames trying to burn him though, probably because the three suns were blocked so it couldn't draw yang energy from them.
Eris stomped her left foot on the ground and rose made out of wood emerged from it, she made one of the leaves of the rose grab the chain link, and surprisingly her wood was sturdy enough to not be immediately burned by the high heat released by the chain link, though some burn marks did appear on it.
She then made some gestures and vines coming from the rose grabbed some of the yang crystals that fell from the crystal trees earlier, a crystal per each of the petals of the rose, for a total of twenty petals.
"Wood Artillery, Sunflower", runes extended through the rose and the crystals drew yang energy from the chain link, the petals lit up in yang flames and then a ray of concentrated yang was shot towards the black stone wall.
A large amount of steam was released over the clash of yin and yang, normally the mist created would have been poisonous, but the yang erased any negative effect, and also melted a hole through the wall.
"Crack!", the crystals barely lasted enough to melt a hole through the wall before they cracked and exploded, they couldn't withstand the insane yang energy that Eris drew out of the chain link.
Seeing that the wood flower was burning after fulfilling its role, Aster waved his hand and returned the chain link to the mind space.
Eris nodded as she saw the breach that was melted through the black stone wall, the leftover yang energy was preventing the wall from closing the hole, but it isn't going to last forever, so she turned to see the others before saying.
"Let's go".
Aster and the girls entered through the breach opened on the black stone wall, which was amazingly thick, around one hundred meters thick to be more accurate, it's not something that could be build on a whim, at least not with yin imbued to it.
In other words, whoever made it, has been planning it for a long time, if the spirit beasts were behind, then they were smarter than what Aster expected, if not, then the Glacial Liger has been awake for more time than what the evil spirit suspected, in any case both answers were a pain in the ass, meaning more trouble.
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