Everything ended as fast as it started. Inside the inventory, Eleri was outraged, cursing those Heavenly Beasts for being so weak and dying so fast.
Darian just listened to the three inside the inventory without saying anything. His gaze swept across the whole battlefield, looking for anything else, but all the Twilight Owls were really dead; only that second leader had escaped.
He gestured to Alear, who moved the flying boat toward the castle slowly. When it stopped, Darian stepped out alone, walking toward the leader of the Rainbow Cranes.
"W-who are you?" That leader used shapeshifting, taking on a humanoid form and asking with a tense voice.
"You know about the existence of other universes besides the one you’re at war with, right?" Darian asked calmly, and that man’s expression changed drastically.
"I ca from a distant universe, along with many others. Our goal is the Convention that will happen soon. We’re not your enemies, and after this event, we’ll leave."
All the Rainbow Cranes froze, many tightening their weapons, ready to attack.
It was understandable, since, because of the still-existing connection between the two universes, the war had actually never ended. For countless generations, fear and fury toward outsiders had taken root inside the natives. Even Darian saying he ca from another distant universe unrelated to the one they fought didn’t change the fact that he was soone from outside.
Darian expected that reaction, but even so, he spoke sincerely and directly to the leader. If that man didn’t have a grayish karma, he wouldn’t have even tried.
"I see..." That leader answered, taking a deep breath, trying not to be influenced by the generational hatred inside him.
He looked into Darian’s eyes and trusted his instincts: he wasn’t trying to deceive him. Worse... he felt a strange closeness and an unusual goodwill coming from him. "You saved us, even though we’re basically strangers to you. Why?"
"I just arrived on this planet randomly, and an ally of mine felt we should help you. She’s very attached to the Heavenly Beasts of our universe." Darian said, turning toward the flying boat.
That man saw Czaza standing in silence and, on her shoulders, noticed the two Celestial Foxes. Imdiately, he realized those two little foxes were Heavenly Beasts like him. His eyes and everyone else’s went wide.
There were only three races of Heavenly Beasts in this universe... of course, in a normal universe, there should be thousands; but because of this place’s peculiar nature, all of them were absurdly powerful. Where there’s power, there are conflicts and greed. After the third Heavenly Beast ascended as a deity, the conflict intensified, and they killed each other until only three were left.
The leader took another deep breath. He also felt goodwill toward that woman, even without having any idea what race she belonged to. She was definitely not human, nor anything he had ever seen before, confirming she was from another universe.
He turned to Darian, "My na is Clanne, I’m the Imperial General of the Rainbow Cranes race. On behalf of my race, I thank you deeply. We owe you. If we can help with anything, don’t hesitate to ask."
Darian smiled lightly, acknowledging that he was a reasonable man. "As I said, I’m waiting for the Convention to start. So I decided to gather information about everything I can from it, and obviously, from this place’s natives. After all, nobody is innocent, and there’s always a chance they’ll beco our enemies."
Clanne nodded. Indeed, it was very possible that the three races would try to kill them at the Convention. But now, his race seed to have gotten lucky, being able to build a good relationship with him.
"This planet, unfortunately, will take a long ti to recover from this battle. We will all return to the great Imperial planet. We don’t have much to offer as a reward, but if you want knowledge, we can provide it."
Hearing that, Darian accepted happily; then asked, "Do you have plans for the bodies of the enemies?"
Clanne turned to him, confused, but shook his head, "We were just going to destroy them. Do you have use for that?"
Darian nodded, receiving permission to collect everything and hand it to Tir.
anwhile, Clanne ordered everyone to prepare for a long trip, since the mobility inscription and all constructions had been destroyed. He ran to the castle, retrieved sothing very important, and stored it carefully.
Darian didn’t want to waste unnecessary ti, so after half a day collecting all the bodies of the enemies, he offered Clanne a ride for everyone inside the flying boat. On the outside, the boat looked like it could carry at most a few hundred people, but internally, there was a spatial inscription that could easily contain hundreds of thousands.
All the Rainbow Cranes grew tense; entering a foreigner’s boat seed absurd. But Clanne ordered them to go in, trusting Darian’s goodwill.
On the way, Czaza approached that leader and introduced her two companions. The little foxes were shy, but quickly felt comfortable with Clanne. Heavenly Beasts weren’t common beasts; they all had a subtle connection between them and could sense malicious intent, if it existed.
The journey, with Clanne guiding the direction, was smooth. In less than a month after arriving in that universe, they reached an insanely large solar system.
The sun was a colossus, thousands of tis bigger than the one on Earth. There were nearly thirty planets spread out, all giant rocky ones, filled with natural life and various races. Besides that, a dense Qi existed everywhere; it made everyone in the flying boat feel as if they were subrged deep underwater.
"This is the divine world, from the high-level universes..." Darian muttered, rembering what he read in that book.
In universes like this, there were always three very well-divided regions: the Mortal world, the Ascendant world, and the Divine world.
The divine world was close to the center of the universe, where the Qi was almost a hundred tis denser and purer than in the ascendant world. anwhile, in the mortal world, there was very little Qi. Naturally, living in the divine world made it much easier to beco powerful.
The biggest and brightest planet was called Rainbow Feather, being the imperial and central planet of all Rainbow Cranes.
Clanne moved to alert them that it was really them, so the flying boat entered, followed by an ard escort, everyone watching carefully for any sudden movent.
The planet was overtaken by natural life, with only a single large and lush city at its center. When they landed, everything, from the stones on the ground to even the simplest grass blades, seed to exhale so kind of power.
Darian, who had never visited a high-level universe before, observed everything in awe. The difference between this universe and the training universe was already absurd. The possibilities and the things that should exist here felt endless. Comparing this place to his dead ho universe would basically be a joke.
The flying boat was stored away by Darian, and then he was taken inside the Imperial castle. Clanne went ahead to report to the Emperor. A few minutes later, they were called to the main hall.
Everyone there used tamorphosis, staying in a humanoid form. Remaining in their true body consud a lot of energy, and it was easier to live daily life and perform certain tasks in this humanoid form. A body with these proportions was, in every universe, the most common and efficient type; so much so that many completely different races, like Demons, had evolutionarily converged into a more humanoid shape.
Sitting on a golden throne, the Emperor released an aged and fragile aura, almost without power. But his gaze was dignified.
Darian saw the black and common karma on him, feeling relieved. He wasn’t a saint, but he also wasn’t so malicious figure who had committed anything horrendous in this life.
Soon, Darian explained again that he ca from another universe. He estimated that millions of people from his universe should be participating in the Convention. He said most of them had probably stayed hidden, adapting to this universe, but he’d be foolish to think nobody had the sa idea as him and went out to gather useful information.
The Emperor had the sa impression of Darian as Clanne did and, seeing the Celestial Foxes from another universe beside them, also chose to trust them.
"Thank you very much for saving my people. The planet was almost lost, but we managed to preserve the resources stored there," the Emperor thanked gently. "I’ll allow you to enter the Imperial library and read whatever you want. If you have any doubts, you may ask my General; he’s authorized to answer anything that isn’t critical to the empire."
After that, Darian had nothing to complain about. He was taken to a massive library that seed infinite, with so many Jade Slips available.
In just a few days, he read all the records of the past Conventions. Then he read everything in detail about this universe that had been recorded as important.
In this place, the human race was the majority, but even so, survival was difficult for them. This universe was unlike anything else because every elent and every energy had been completely "corrupted" and mixed with sothing else called *Genesis Energy* by the natives.
Darian had never heard about this before, but he knew that in universes with Qi, all kinds of strange and unique things could appear. In this universe, Genesis Energy greatly favored the Heavenly Beasts. But in another universe, there could be sothing that made humans extrely powerful, for example.
But there was also sothing else that caught Darian’s attention.
The greatest treasure of this universe, the thing the Emperor celebrated Darian for helping recover, even with countless deaths...
"Genesis Ore..." he murmured with a bright look, "Able to make the connection between the world’s Laws and the user much easier, increasing their potential countless tis. This..."
This treasure was absurdly rare and only used by the Heavenly Beasts as a last resort. Not even General Clanne, who had almost lost that battle, was allowed to use it normally. That was because, in this universe, they hadn’t developed well in forging or alchemy.
No one could create equipnt with this ore, so they could only use it raw; as a consequence, the person died brutally for being unable to control the power, and, on top of that, all the ore shattered and disappeared.
Clanne’s plan in that battle was to wait until the last second and then use everything stored in the castle to stop the enemies from taking anything.
The descriptions of the level of power a Heavenly Beast could unleash with that thing were absurd. It only made Darian even more excited.
Niara and Alear had a spiritual root and a primordial Bloodline. They weren’t Heavenly Beasts, but like that race, they still had a strong connection with the world’s Laws and could probably use a bit of that power.
Not only that, all the Mannaz had potential to be explored in that area, if Darian found a way to ascend their spiritual root. With this ore in hand... creating real equipnt with it... just how strong could the Mannaz beco?
Darian finished reading everything and stood up. A wicked smile appeared on his face.
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