by L. M. Kerr
Great White’s eyes blazed with passion as he kept scanning his surroundings, delight filling his chest. Even as a Division Leader, ‘The Voice’ wasn’t something he got to hear every day. Its glorious presence was a sign of destiny’s inevitable arrival as he helped usher it forward.
Even the fact that the rain had stopped falling didn’t bring him down, a wide smile hidden beneath his mask.
As the warriors continued moving, the Division Leader’s eyes flicked to the left and right again, then glancing over to his flute-bearer.
Among all 30 Squads, at least one of the three warriors in each group held a large white flute, one that was adorned with gold lines and hanging silver tassels. The men and women holding the tool didn’t physically play it, but they activated it nevertheless, using Ki instead of air.
Each flute gave off several specific energy waves as a result, fluctuating in the air. No two flutes gave off the same exact energy wave, each one unique in its own right.
These flutes were Artifacts, but ones that had never been named. They were man-made tools that had been painstakingly crafted over the past several months by the Beasts of Providence for this exact purpose.
The energy waves they gave off were ones that had been manually designed for specific Magic Beasts, ones that the Sea Division had spent many weeks stalking to discover.
The flute itself played a sort of lullaby, infused with energy that resonated with the Spirit Crystal of the Beasts it was calibrated for. This magical song had a single message, one that was tantalizingly difficult to ignore, even for High-Tier Magic Beasts.
‘Follow.’
And follow they did. 48 High-Tier Magic Beasts, in total, had fallen in line behind the various Squads of the Sea Division, moving peacefully. These High-Tier Magic Beasts were all purposefully from breeds that were vulnerable to the magical lullaby or struggled with resisting it.
They weren’t simply walking or stumbling forward, despite being in an almost-hypnotic state.
These Magic Beasts sprinted after the Sea Division warriors, rushing through the forest at a very fast pace, but in a decidedly relaxed manner.
Contrary to popular belief, most High-Tier Magic Beasts did not look radically different from similar Mid-Tier or Low-Tier Magic Beasts. They might be a little bigger, have a few more colors on occasion, but in general, the difference in appearance wasn’t too large.
When it came to combat power, however, the two categories were worlds apart.
It was common knowledge that, when facing a Magic Beast, you needed to bring four times the equivalent Rate of warriors if you wanted to be assured of killing the beast without any deaths.
For a Low-Tier Magic Beast, you needed four Third Rate Warriors.
For a Mid-Tier Magic Beast, you needed four Second Rate Warriors.
For a High-Tier Magic Beast, however… this number changed.
The minimum number of First Rate Warriors required to hunt a High-Tier Magic Beast wasn’t four…
It was ten.
And that was the minimum needed to hunt the beast, not the minimum required to kill it without any deaths. That number was higher, varying by breed.
This was all because of what made a High-Tier Magic Beast special.
Specifically, their Spirit Crystal. Like a human entering into the first stage of Ki Cultivation from nothing, when a Magic Beast broke into High-Tier, it was like the difference between night and day.
A High-Tier Spirit Crystal was called a Helion Spirit Crystal. It was a special stone that had been blessed by nature, one that was able to absorb vast amounts of energy from the air at extremely fast rates. Helion Treasures were a lesser example of this, naturally occurring fruits, leaves, or rocks that held large amounts of natural energy.
Helion Spirit Crystals weren’t able to reform themselves after being destroyed like Helion Treasures, but any Magic Beast that controlled one nevertheless possessed incredible vitality and was capable of channeling vast amounts of energy in short periods of time.
All 48 High-Tier Magic Beasts marched quietly, not one of them stepping out of line as they passively obeyed the singular command of the flute-bearers.
These flutes were actually attenuated for more than 120 High-Tier Magic Beasts in total, not 48. However, they only worked on High-Tier Magic Beasts that were relaxed and at peace, not on high alert or hunting, and within range, factors that added up to drop the live number drastically.
Light from the Farian Life Festival glimmered faintly in the distance as the Sea Division and their entourage drew ever closer, their party of beasts primed and ready. All they needed to do was get as close as possible, everything else would take care of itself from there, in one way or another.
Seconds slipped by as the Sea Division continued to move forward, creeping through the forest. They had yet to spot any Farian sentries, but they were still well more than 10,000 meters out. The bright lights of the festival merely made it seem closer.
Great White was in the midst of trying to ascertain how far they were from the first Farian sentries, calculating the distances in his head as he ran, when something completely unexpected happened.
Several beams of bright light, colored a mix of green and white, blazed across his vision and then vanished.
As one, the entire Sea Division stuttered to a halt, frozen in a mix of silence and shock. The flute-bearers continued playing their magic flutes as various High-Tier Magic Beasts began to slow down or halt alongside them, the peace of the moment holding.
The Division Leader stayed still for several more seconds, his heart pounding in his chest. He looked all around, trying to spot anything that could prove to be a danger.
He found nothing.
The forest was dark and quiet, the sounds and colors of the Farian Life Festival proving to be the only things that stood out.
After a few more tense moments, Great White raised a fist and prepared to issue commands to his left and right.
And it was here, just as he was doing that, that the powerful warrior frowned.
A vaguely annoying buzzing noise had appeared out of nowhere, surging quietly in the back of his head. It wasn’t very loud, but it was noticeable to him, an irritating whine that managed to distract him.
Great White’s head twisted to the side as his enhanced senses led him to find the source of the irritating buzz.
In the side of a tree around 40 meters away, Great White could just make out the outline of a small, fist-sized spike, glowing with dim light. The spike had been entirely implanted inside the tree itself, hidden from view unless one knew it was there or saw it light up.
Great White stared at this spike in consternation for half a second.
An instant later, however, his eyes abruptly widened as he spun around.
His flute-bearer had been leading two Magic Beasts.
A lean Red-Fanged Tiger that stood as tall as one and a half men and a Devil-Horned Goat that was around the same size, but bulkier, with a set of sharp black horns that were sharper than most swords.
At this exact moment…
The two Magic Beasts remained standing still.
Great White heaved a sigh of relief, his heart calming down slightly. All was well. What were the chances that-
Before he could finish that thought, a multitude of ferocious growls, hisses, and roars blasted into the air, a cacophony of raw anger, as 48 High-Tier Magic Beasts found themselves rudely awakened in unfamiliar territory, surrounded by other powerful hostile High-Tier Magic Beasts, and bombarded with chaotic signals.
Aggrosen Spikes, when strongly activated, caused mild discomfort to a human being.
To Magic Beasts, and the sensitive Spirit Crystals inside them, standing near a fully activated Aggrosen Spike was like taking a dagger and slowly dragging it across the side of a plain metal board. It made the equivalent of a high-pitched, warbling screech, but a dozen times worse, picked up by their extremely keen senses and causing disorientation, confusion, and rage.
>
Many High-Tier Magic Beasts were naturally resistant to attacks like this, some even fully immune.
Unfortunately for the Sea Division, the type of Magic Beasts that were vulnerable to the lullabies from their nameless Artifact flutes just so happened to perfectly overlap with the type of Magic Beasts that were weak to Aggrosen Spikes.
The Beasts of Providence had self-selected the best possible setup of Magic Beasts that Micheal could’ve hoped for.
Great White looked around him with a mix of horror and disbelief, his heart dropping into his stomach as he watched the High-Tier Magic Beasts begin to freak out.
‘How?! How?!’ He could not believe his eyes.
Even he himself had not known they were going to travel through this area today. How could the area be trapped?!
The path they had picked from the Dragon Mountains was one that had not been predetermined, but picked at random, as a safety precaution.
Yes, they were spread out 900 meters wide, but that 900-meter-wide stretch was part of a 12,000 meters-wide sector, any point in which would take you to the festival grounds from the Dragon Mountains with no major obstacles. They could have walked through literally any 900-meters-wide section within it.
The areas outside this relatively open region were more cluttered and had more challenging terrain. It wasn’t difficult for the Beasts of Providence, but moving through it would increase the risk of a High-Tier Magic Beast waking up and going on a rampage, which could ruin everything.
In that last peaceful second, as the tension shot to a bursting point, the Division Leader of the Sea Division found his gaze drawn back to the glowing spike, hidden inside of a tree.
Great White stared at that spike, feeling numb, as if it was mocking him.
It should not be there… and yet it was.
One last thought appeared in Great White’s mind before he ducked down and hid himself in the ground, stabbing a hole in the earth as he activated his Defensive Artifact, a protective Shield Aura Sphere.
‘There’s no way they knew we would pass through here…’ He thought, his eyes opened wide as he began to throw himself down,
‘Did they trap the entire forest?!’ It was a ludicrous thought that he dismissed as soon as he hit the earth, doing his best to hunker down. This section of forest was 12,000 meters wide but also more than 100,000 meters long, from the Dragon Mountains to the Farian Life Festival.
Great White’s thinking was not entirely wrong.
It was indeed a ludicrous thought, even more so for one man alone.
But just because it was a ludicrous idea didn’t mean it was functionally impossible.
And that was what Micheal had relied upon over the past week as he began to crisscross through the 12,000 meters-wide stretch of land that he knew the Sea Division would eventually pass through, hiding Aggrosen Spike after Aggrosen Spike.
In total, Micheal ended up ‘binding’ 487 Aggrosen Spikes, literally every single Aggrosen Spike that Yvvtal’s treasury had possessed. Using this many of the ancient Artifacts at once would invariably kill him, but that was an acceptable tradeoff in his opinion.
After some quick testing and math, he estimated the effective range of each Aggrosen Spike, given the extremely keen senses of non-resistant High-Tier Magic Beasts, was around 300-400 meters, far wider than it was for Low or Mid-Tier Magic Beasts.
When he was thousands and thousands of meters distant, the Artifacts would heavily drop in effectiveness and range, but that was where his Wave Enhancement Bracelet came into effect, counteracting that.
All of the spikes he had hidden were located within the last third of the journey between the festival grounds and the Dragon Mountains. Micheal placed his Aggrosen Spikes carefully, layering them in a number of parallel, spread-out lines that leaned to the right at roughly 60 degrees.
With this setup, he was able to create several connected layers that were unavoidable. Even if the Sea Division somehow figured out that they needed to move in repeating 60-degree angled cycles, Micheal randomly broke the lines up, ensuring that there was no permanent pattern.
All he needed to do, then, was wait until he felt certain they would be in range.
And that would be that.
Roughly 18,000 meters south of the Farian Life Festival, explosions of energy began to rocket through the air as a group of 48 High-Tier Magic Beasts began attacking each other in a massive free-for-all melee.
.. .. .. .. .. ..
Micheal blinked, his awareness spreading out as he found himself in an endless world of fog.
He floated there for a few seconds, his consciousness slowly starting to function again as memories flooded into his head.
Instantly, Micheal’s gaze shifted, focusing not in the mysterious world he waited in each time he died, but back to where he had been standing, just moments ago, on the Second Layer.
The time that had passed was short, in the single-digits of seconds at most…
Yet, as he looked at the rooftop, Micheal found himself alone.
There was no silver cocoon in sight.
In the same moment, for the first time in the past few weeks, he also found that he felt truly alone.
He hadn’t realized it, but subconsciously, he had always been aware of Yvvtal’s Spirit Body. Even when the Fallen Deity went dormant, Micheal could always tell he was there.
But now…
He felt nothing.
Yvvtal was gone, truly.
Without hesitation, Micheal came back to life.
As soon as he returned and geared himself back up, all of his Artifacts secured, he sat down on the ground and closed his eyes. Exhaustion tried to swarm over him but he forced it away, ignoring it for now.
It took only a split second for Micheal to activate his Life Orb Mastery Ability, hitting his daily Creation limit as he created a new one, bringing him back up to 2 Life Orbs left.
He had never exactly hidden that he could do this from Yvvtal, but instead made it look like a far longer and more intensive process that could only be done during certain periods of time.
It was a small thing, but it never hurt to be too careful… just in case.
Micheal’s gaze flicked to the west.
He half-hobbled, half-jogged this way, clambering atop something that was part brick chimney, part large antennae, fused together for reasons that were beyond him. This was part of the roof that he had damaged with his metal threads in battle earlier, evenly slicing up large parts of the hardened stone.
Micheal ignored all of that as his eyes looked deeper out into the night, piercing through the darkness.
Faintly, in the distance, Micheal could sense powerful emanations of energy, the type he’d expect between a large-scale battle of High-Tier Magic Beasts.
Micheal looked away from the distant battle, turning his gaze to an Artifact he was holding in his hand.
A cracked, but still functional, Wave Enhancement Bracelet.
When he came back to life, he had been holding this Artifact in his hand. Unlike his other Artifacts, this particular one did not return in perfect condition, perhaps because it was a one-time-use Artifact or some other reason.
The crack on its outside represented more serious damage internally, but… it was usable still.
At least, for one last time.
When Micheal realized that, he looked back to the distant west, an idea slowly coming to mind…
“…”
“…”
“…”
Micheal activated the damaged Wave Enhancement Bracelet. It worked perfectly, though it also shattered instantly and its connection vanished completely from his Soul after.
Micheal then once again used his body to absorb and transfer energy to all 487 Aggrosen Spikes he had bound to himself, boosted in effectiveness by the one-time-use bracelet.
As with before, Micheal’s body gathered a massive amount of energy until it hit a breaking point and began falling apart, killing him.
Trail
s of energy blasted through the air, firing west as Micheal’s body disintegrated.
This time, however, when the energy reached all of his Aggrosen Spikes…
The intensity of each Artifact rose drastically, transforming, for the most vulnerable of the High-Tier Magic Beasts, from agonizing screeches to a mind-rending torrent that distorted their view of reality itself.
Micheal's body turned to ash.
“…”
“…”
“…”
After several long seconds, Micheal came back to life, yet again, even more tired than before.
This time, however…
When he returned, it was no longer night.
The world had become blindingly bright.
Micheal reclaimed his perch, a grim smile returning to his face as he looked back to the west.
His entire body ached, exhaustion seeping into his Soul itself, his Energized Physique unable to overcome it. His body was hale but still felt incredibly sore, his mind thick and slow.
In front of Micheal’s eyes… he saw an explosion.
A massive, gargantuan, expanding explosion that already stretched more than 1000 meters across, blazing with fiery energy high into the sky. The shockwave from this explosion had passed him by when he was respawning, sparing his body and ears from that painful experience.
It was an awe-inspiring display of power, akin to a small nuclear explosion in destructive might.
It was a type of explosion he had seen on the Second Layer only once before…
In the midst of the Great War, in a battle Micheal had witnessed, at least more than a dozen High-Tier Magic Beasts all killed each other at the same time, in relatively close proximity. The abrupt, unexpected death of each Magic Beast made their respective Helion Spirit Crystals become extremely volatile for a few moments. High-Tier Spirit Crystals, and all Tiers in general, were normally extremely stable. The only time when that could change was briefly, sometimes, at the moment a Magic Beast died, where the energy in their Spirit Crystal moved without direction.