Chapter 875 - War Indeed Brings Out The Beast In Us
"Do you sense something?" Yulian asked as he continued to sprint while gasping for air. Unlike Krune, he was unable to use any techniques to recover his Godly Energy. With that, the more he ran, the more tired he became.
"It's more like an extension of my senses thanks to a special law I comprehended," Krune replied, soaked with sweat as they jumped over small boulders along the way. "I have a feeling someone dangerous is trailing us."
"Do you have any plans? We can't just keep running forever, you know," Yulian frowned as he replied, feeling his exhaustion being lifted by a degree as his cultivation recovered to the Third Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. He felt somewhat better now.
Then again, it still wasn't enough considering the situation they were in. He was bound to become tired sooner or later.
"Hmm..." Krune pondered for a bit with a frown as he took out all his shields, stomping on the ground using their sides. He wrote something on the ground as they sprinted past.
At every interval, he left some words on the ground.
"Do you think this would work?" Yulian frowned as he asked, feeling tired once again. His legs hurt while his lungs felt like they were on fire. Nevertheless, he continued to run since Krune still hadn't stopped. He immediately took out a device that he used to contact the Spirit Awakener Guild, frowning when he later received a certain message.
"Damn it! Why does this have to happen now?" Yulian cursed in a mutter, thinking for a moment if it would be better to abandon Krune. He then gritted his teeth soon after, continuing to run. His ego and pride wouldn't allow him to leave his mission. He took pride in the fact that his pride was unwavering, a reason why he was highly valued in the field of work he chose.
"I can only hope this would slow down whoever is pursuing us," Krune spoke with a helpless gaze, gazing at Yulian's crumbling expression before asking, "What happened?"
"I thought we can seek refuge in the city once we cross the Lawless Plains. After all, the Spirit Awakener Guild would help us out. But it seems that's no longer the case," Yulian cursed.
"Did something happen to the guild?" Krune felt a sense of foreboding that his situation had just taken another turn for the worse. He only wanted to obtain some battle experience.
"The Spirit Awakener Guild branch of every city has been called to the Zamuria Empire's capital. They're preparing for a war against the other two continents that are currently fighting each other. The royalty plans to use the power of the Spirit Awakeners to elevate the overall level of their equipment and nurture a massive army." Yulian quickly recounted the state of affairs that had happened while they were in the Immortal Severance Zone.
Two days after Krune left for his journey, a sudden statement from the royal capital caused the entire continent to instantly be in a state of unrest. Every Guild related to war was summoned to the capital.
Alongside their summons were the evacuation of every organization in power, causing the military power of each city to be at an all-time low. It resulted in the lords of respective cities migrating towards the capital with their citizens, leaving the cities behind them barren.
The cause for everything was the ongoing war between the two continents that neighboured the Zamuria Continent. It was always the case where three parties existed in one room. When two of them fought against each other, pitting all their forces against one another while suffering losses through both victory and defeat, it was always the third party that put an end to their war…by swiping in at the last minute and subduing both, becoming the eventual victor that swallowed up all the gains.
Therefore, the moment the royalty of both continents realized the war was going to progress further, they didn't wish to see the bystander—Zamuria Empire—profit in the end. And so, the best way to do this was simple, which was to bring the war to their doorsteps.
This would make the war phase from a frontal confrontation to a three-way deadlock. With that, there would be profit and loss for all three empires, preventing anyone from reaping benefits that easily. The only way to obtain those benefits was to annihilate the two other competitors.
As they realized the essence of this issue, despite the Zamuria Empire being unwilling to participate in the war, they had no choice but to do so.
Naturally, with such a big empire, the people were their foundation. Though, since they were currently dispersed over the massive Zamuria Continent, they became easy pickings for the enemies. Unwilling to see this, the royalty summoned forth everyone in an effort to concentrate all their power and foundation in one place.
Unsurprisingly, this wasn't an easy task to accomplish, not to mention having to transport every resource of value. Even then, each city had its teleportation portals, allowing travel to every city. Using those and the storage rings that could store massive volumes in a tiny object, they were transporting everything of value, including the very cities themselves.
"Wait, you're telling me that we won't even have a place to stay and relax during our journey? You mean the two cities on our way themselves are already gone?" Krune was shocked to hear that. Each city was massive. Plus, transporting something of that caliber wasn't possible unless the storage rings were of superior quality.
'But that means it should have a stable subspace inside with laws that aren't inferior to the God Realm. But then, any one of those should be priceless treasures.' Krune then thought about how each of the cities had existed for a long time. So, they must have accumulated enough resources to create a storage ring of such caliber.
"There's a small chance the second city might still be there," Yulian said as he gasped for breath. "After all, it's only a minor city formed by a coalition of merchants who remain in the place because of the countless treasures that could be mined from the Four Sector's Border Region."
"Also..." he said after a moment of thought. "Considering Vardin's reaction, something huge must be happening there right now. So, Huken City must still be there."
He was just speaking when Yulian tripped and crashed into the ground. Krune immediately helped him up, noticing how he was out of breath. Krune was still fine since he was using the Mind Splitting Technique to siphon a steady stream of Godly Energy into himself while he ran. In other words, he was steadily replenishing his stamina. He was still able to continue traveling for some more time.
"We're here." Yulian looked forward as his eyes widened in surprise, muttering in disbelief, "This…is the Lawless Plains?"
Krune shot his gaze forward as he was left speechless since the description of the area was different than the scene that lay before him.
Stretching before him was a vast plain where large patches of grass covered the land while the rest were barren. The weird thing was how the grass was colored red, thanks to the blood that had been shed.
Corpses of demon beasts were scattered all around the area, littering the land. Those that were alive still were evacuating, partially injured, ignoring their injuries as they flew around, carrying their alive brethren as they roared into the skies.
One after another, they left the place. Krune found an injured demon beast lying at the entrance of the Lawless Plains, quickly approaching it as he asked it, "What happened here?"
The demon beast shot a glance at Krune, noticing his demon beast aura. It grunted as it spat out blood, wheezing as it talked, "Those bastards from the Zamuria Empire, they came with their army and slaughtered us."
"Why? Why would they do that?" Krune felt anger at the indiscriminate slaughter that had happened before him, feeling rage boil in him. He wasn't the type to care about people beyond necessary. He didn't like fighting, but if someone aimed for his life, then he didn't hesitate to kill them in return. Though, indiscriminate slaughter also didn't sit well with him.
After all, just by hearing the recount, he realized the army probably didn't have any good reason to do so.
The demon beast struggled to get up, looking at its blood that flowed out without stopping, sighing as it resigned itself to its fate. "The Zamuria Empire sent us a message this morning to take on our human forms and head towards the capital. It's so the empire could prevent the enemy empires from using our strength. The Lawless Plains was exactly the place where we lived in our true forms and did whatever we pleased. So, of course, we didn't comply. Who would have thought that the army would immediately appear and start massacring everyone?"
"The strongest of our demon beasts were swiftly killed by their generals while the army eradicated the remainder of the strong. They came suddenly and vanished just as sudden." The demon beast craned its head, pointing at the fleeing demon beasts as it continued, "They were only lucky to survive because the army seemed to be lacking time. Otherwise…"
Krune sighed as the demon beast soon lost all signs of life. He looked at how its heart had been torn to shreds. It was a wonder it even managed to live this long while bearing such an injury. He gently closed its eyes shut, looking at Yulian to see his eyes were red.
After a moment, Yulian muttered, "War indeed brings out the beast in us."
"Let's move," Krune muttered as they began to run once again. In that short time, Yulian had recovered enough to run for a short distance. It seemed that he possessed a technique that prolonged his stamina. The only hindrance in using it to its full potential was his current cultivation base.
"Did you cause this, Little Cally?" Krune muttered as his eyes became bloodthirsty with rage, watching the gruesome scenes of demon beasts slaughtered with indifferent techniques. It was like a meat grinder had plowed through the place.
"Let me be honest, Krune." Little Cally's voice resounded, seemingly affected by his emotions. "Even if I do mess with you every once in a while, this isn't something I would do. This isn't fun, even for me."