Chapter 294: Loss of Earth (Patreon)

Krysta

Krysta was exhausted.

With the help of the energy from the space element cultivators and golems, she’d managed to slow the rate the Primordial Humans could send B ranks through the portal down to an average of only once every 2 hours and 52 minutes instead of 1 hour and 42 minutes, giving Isaiah an extra 70 minute rest between waves. But it still wasn’t enough.

After 46 days of fighting, Isaiah was exhausted. The 27 C rank cultivators with space element affinities were constantly close to running out of energy. And the energy regeneration of the golems couldn’t pick up the slack.

“Raaah!” Isaiah, in his true dragon form, emanated out a dragon roar as a new B rank came through the portal, a human covered in armor and holding a large shield with both hands. Then Isaiah breathed out a breath of pure concentrated chaos energy infused with his now high grade Law Scarab of Destruction while Mila’s doppelgänger used her powers for interference, the woman’s main body still somewhere else.

The B rank, however, held his shield out in front of him, a shield seemingly filled with energy that was not his own, and managed to block the attack.

More important, however, like had been the case multiple times before, the shield had dragon suppressing properties, and this lowered Isaiah’s combat effectiveness.

Quickly transforming back into his human form, Isaiah’s Draconic Bloodforged Living Armor—which had infused itself into his scales in his dragon form— quickly became a set of golden-green full-body plate armor engraved with intricate purple runes as he summoned out his Chaos Dragon Shield and Chaos Dragon Spear from the subspace Aalam’d added to the armor when it became C rank. Then he attacked, moving quickly and with a whole lot of power, his spear slamming into the man’s shield and draining it of even more energy.

Drawing on the power of the Heavenly Soul Universe, Isaiah attacked and attacked, but the man appeared to be specialized in defense, and he didn’t try to do anything other than defend, seemingly willing to throw his life away.

After about a minute, the extra energy in his shield finally faded and the man’s defensive skills became noticeably weaker. Then, about two seconds later, Isaiah’s spear made it through the man’s armor and the power of destruction ravaged the B rank’s body.

This still didn’t kill him immediately, however, and the fight lasted another ten seconds before Isaiah was about to throw the man’s dead body back through the portal.

But then Krysta saw Mila’s doppelgänger make a motion to stop him. “No need. Their artifact managed to get a lock this time, so we might as well keep the materials.

“They’ve found Earth.”

***

Mila

Mila’s main body on Earth had been fully healed for several days, sitting just outside the portal to the Heavenly Soul Universe three fourths of the way up Mount Everest, so, with her Ruler’s Domain skill’s aura, she’d sensed as the artifact the latest B rank human brought into the Heavenly Soul Universe created a connection to the Prime Material through Earth’s portal.

Then, sighing to herself, she gave the planet one last look and stepped through the portal to safety.

She’d expected Earth to be found eventually. And she’d prepared.

The dao guide statue of the Yin Yang Sage and every other B rank or higher artifact and material they had access to had been moved into the Steel Swamp Blessed Land before the start of the Universal Tournament finals, and they had then moved the Steel Swamp Blessed Land away, hidden in the middle of nowhere in the Prime Material, as closed off from the universe as possible, where it was almost certain no one would find it.

When the tournament finished, Mila’d moved everyone from Earth into the Heavenly Soul Universe, leaving herself as the only person on the planet, and now, with her departure, it had been abandoned.

Even if Aalam returned, they wouldn’t be able to take it back. And, even with the presents Mila had left for the forces of the Primordial Humans, their enemies were still technically winning the war.

“What seems to be the problem, Mila?” Nana Xara asked in her head. “This was all part of your plan, so why the sadness?”

“I don’t know.” Mila assumed a cross-legged position even while floating in empty space. “Back when we were reborn, everything was about getting back to Earth. Then we conquered Earth, made it powerful, and turned it into one of the best planets in the universe. Somehow it just feels wrong to give it to the enemy.”

“Also,” Nana Xara replied, her mental voice sounding amused, “this has probably been the longest you’ve been out of contact with Aalam since back when you joined the Violet Mountain Sect as an F rank.”

“Yeah.” Mila mentally sighed, her body going through the motions even though she wasn’t actually breathing. “I miss him. And I’m worried about him.”

“The inheritance should be safe. And we already knew it would close off communication for 36 days. What is ten more?”

“A risk.” Mila reached out her hand as the first enemy C rank entered through the portal, summoning out three Empyrean grade C rank swords from her spatial storage ring and using telekinesis to stab them into the cultivator before he could even get his bearings. “For all I know, Aalam could be dead. And, in a couple months, the Territory effects in the Heavenly Soul Universe will start to fade even if the idiot is still alive.”

“And, if he truly falls, the power of your and Isaiah’s best classes will fade after a few years and everyone in your force will be annihilated without you being able to do anything about it.” Nana Xara’s voice sounded chipper, and Mila didn’t think it was faked, the woman quite obviously enjoying all the fighting which had started. “So, why worry about it?”

“Aaah.” Killing three more C rank cultivators who entered through the portal, Mila screamed out loud through her mana, and, as Isaiah had been doing for the last 46 days, she channelled all the primal energy she received from her kills into a primal energy orb built into her armor. No need to waste good primal energy and, in Isaiah’s case, good raw nascent energy from his Slaughter King uniqueness as well.

Then she summoned out her System interface and used her authority as President of the United Federation of Planets to speak to every one of the force’s members in the Heavenly Soul Universe, making sure her voice sounded calm and relaxed. “Earth, as planned, has now been lost.

“If you didn’t know this was part of the plan, good. You weren’t supposed to. And you won’t know why it’s part of the plan until the secret is no longer relevant.

“That’s how wars work.

“What you do need to know is that the Primordial Humans are attacking through two separate portals, both of which can allow in an infinite number of C ranks, as well as B ranks every few minutes, and they’ve been sending a lot of their soldiers in to die.

“One portal has already been open for over a month, Lord Isaiah defending it by himself, and, to give our future supreme dragon practice he couldn’t receive in the Universal Tournament due to having to hold his strength back, he hasn’t been receiving any help beyond using our small amount of spatial element cultivators to slightly slow down the rate B ranks could come through.

“Practice time is over now, however, as Lord Isaiah’s main Laws have all risen a grade, so we’re implementing plan D of the five plans every member of the force has been trained for.

“Twice a day, every cultivator in the Heavenly Soul Universe E rank or higher is to deposit half their max qi, mana, and psyforce into their local storage artifacts for their rank and elements for Lord Isaiah and myself to make use of.

“The Primordial Humans are feeding us enough primal energy to raise many, many more C ranks.” Mila killed another five C ranks who entered through the portal, absorbing their primal energy while sending the primal energy she’d already gathered through a space compressed karmic connection to a larger storage device half a galaxy away. “Let’s thank them for their gifts.”

***

Krysta

Krysta looked at Isaiah, who was smiling as energy from thousands of C ranks, an untold number of D ranks, and even more E ranks entered into him, helping to heal his fatigue and ready him for the next fights, something she hadn’t realized hadn’t already been happening, and she internally groaned.

She’d forgotten for a bit, but the United Federation of Planets was not ruled by Aalam, but by Mila, and Mila was tricky.

Losing an A rank planet was all part of a plan?

Coming from anyone else, Krysta wouldn’t believe it, but from Mila?

Things were either going almost exactly as the woman wanted, or everything was about to fall apart. Krysta honestly had no idea.