Going back a little back in ti, before the battle between phoenix and dragon.
The subordinates and commanders of the goddess, Udea were flying around the western most part of the vast forest at a stupendous speed.
Their figures moved like a mirage. With every second, they crossed hundreds, thousands of kiloters. "This miniature world really is strange. Just how far does this forest go?"
Even after coming this far there was still no sign of the outermost reaches of the vast forest of greenery.
"This is a supre grade miniature world. I’m not surprised... It’s on another level compared to those we are more familiar with."
Towards Monica’s troubled murmur, Reaper who flew at the forefront uttered those words with clear detachnt.
"Hehe, shall I circle this forest, then?" Still clad in golden crackling lightning, Aratiri suggested interestedly. With his speed, he could cover a much wider area himself in an instant.
"You mustn’t. Splitting up in a place like this seems very risky." Monica objected, her brow furrowing in worry.
This world was completely unknown to them, separating their forces in such a situation would only weaken their combat capabilities if battle were to arise. "Monica is right. We still don’t have enough information about this place, let’s not weaken our forces right now we—Hm? This is."
Reaper was about to say sothing but quickly stopped his train of thought.
Monica furrowed her brow when she saw the astonishnt in Reaper’s eyes. In the next mont, his body instantly vanished from the front like a mirage and reappeared elsewhere in the forest. A second later, Monica, Aratiri, Ethan and Charlotte also appeared silently behind him followed by the others.
"This, no way, isn’t that... A collapsing star flow?" Ethan said, dumbfoundedly. Indeed, a few ters away from them intertwined within the branches of trees was a collapsing star flower.
It was a rare flower that only grew within an area abundant with the flow of mana.
Moreover, the denser the mana in the atmosphere, the faster and purer its evolution. "Considering how high its grade is, it must have been feeding off the magical energy here for who knows how long." It was giving off the presence of an abnormally high grade.
If used as an ingredient, it could make dicine with a wondrous effect. It was an ingredient that could make even the most prosperous and well renowned alchemist go to bloody war to obtain.
"Soul search." Monica recited a spell, her senses heightened and spread outward for roughly several kiloters. "This... There is more over there." She said, pointing her fingers towards the top of a cliff. When Ethan narrowed his eyes and focused his senses, his eyes widened.
"Each one of them is at an abnormally high grade."
"Hmmm... How can you see them from so far away?" Charlotte’s brow furrowed as she grumbled under her breath, her eyes narrowed. Although she could imbue magical energy into her eyes to enhance her perception, her lack of experience in magic power control ant her fineness was greatly diminished.
"Shouldn’t we go collect them? With my speed I can gather them all in seconds." Aratiri suddenly spoke up. The golden lightning flickering around his body intensified.
In an instant, the sound of thunder roared loudly as his figure flickered and flashed across the forest in a golden blur. Over three hundred collapsing star flowers vanished like mist, barely a millisecond later.
His speed was so fast even the senses of their spiritual perception were only able to see a brief flash of golden light before he disappeared from their vision.
The trick behind his incomprehensible speed was his physique, the thunder-god body physique, an elental physique that allows him to rge with lightning naturally rather than imbuing himself with it.
An intense wind blew and oscillated intensely from his acceleration. "W-Wow, so that’s what it looks like when Sir Aratiri is being serious." Charlotte said, her eyes widening in awe. Even though he was moving faster than she could physically see or sense, her heart was still swayed by his impressive speed.
"We don’t call him the fastest general for nothing." Ethan comnted from beside her, his mouth curling into a slight smile. At this rate they would have collected enough collapsing star flower in no ti at all, but—
"Hm? Is sothing wrong, you two?" Ethan noticed both Monica and Reaper had been quite the entire ti. When he saw the serious expression on both their faces he couldn’t help but wrinkle his brow.
Both Monica and Reaper stared deeper into the forest. Although their line of sight was obscured by the thick branches of trees, their eyes were filled with wariness and uncertainty. Monica’s hand was already reaching towards the hilt of the sword, sheathed at her slim waist without her being subconsciously aware of it herself.
It was then when it happened—
"Tsk... Everyone, quickly! Take cover!!" Reaper yelled, grabbing his two scythe. The next mont, "Guh!" An intense storm-like wind erupted from the forest depths in a violent manner.
BOOOOOOOM!
chunks of dirt and stones were sent flying and trees were uprooted and sent hurtling into the air. The wind pressure carried the force of a vacuum. Reaper swiftly defended against the wind with his twin scythes, while Monica promptly conjured up a luminous barrier of light around herself and those closest to her.
Ethan quickly held Charlotte close to his body and materialized his spirit sword, Grim. With a fluid motion, he slashed vertically in a straight line with his sword, splitting the air current into two halves, diverting the wind pressure off course.
But the next mont, a trendous amount of murderous intent was released from the point where the wind pressure had erupted. The presence was overwhelming, many of the weaker ones present beca pale.
"I see... For so many high grade collapsing star flowers to be here, I had a hunch it was too good to be true, it seems we may have unintentionally wandered into soone’s territory." Reaper explained, his eyes narrowing sharply as he stared at the point where the pressure was most powerful.
"So, it’s sothing akin to the guardian of this place, then?" Monica said, her usual gentle expression beca icy.
"Monica, try using advanced magic from a distance. Aratiri, we still don’t know what we’re up against! You attack the mont you see an opening!" Reaper suggested.
"Right!" Aratiri responded.
"Got it... I humbly beseech the miracle of the heavens, grant the power of eradication—Holy ray!" As Monica recited the incantation for her holy magic, a three layer magic circle appeared before her outstretched arm humming with intricate runes.
In the next mont, a bright, dazzling white beam of light was spewed from the center. Everyone covered their eyes from the beam’s illumination. The beam was so hot that it seed to burn the air as it traveled, the soil blackened as the trees within its trajectory burned away before even making contact.
Within the depths of the forest, at the point where the murderous intent had been at its strongest, the loud cry of a best resounded as if it felt and instinctual fear from the holy ray, the beasts beat its wings roughly and ascended into the sky, narrowly avoiding the holy ray.
BOOOOOM!
With a deafening rumble, the holy ray continued on its path without weakening and exploded into the distance as it struck against a vast, towering mountain a few kiloters away, the abundance of greenery was vaporized instantly in the explosion. Fierce wind pressure wreaks havoc from the epicenter of the explosion.
However, a cloud of dust suddenly dispersed as the sound of roaring thunder erupted, Aratiri appeared from beneath the beast in a streak of gold with lightning speed, landing a knee kick from under its jaws. The beast’s jaw caved in as electric current ran through it, forcing out a loud, piercing wail-like scream.
The giant winged beast’s body was sent flying with the montum of Aratiri’s acceleration. Its body was over ten ters and it gave off a beautiful, awe-inspiring presence. With the body of an eagle. Its feathered wings glowing in multiple colors.
"Pierce through—Lightning bullet!" Aratiri pointed his finger at the eagle-like beast and fired a bullet in the form of condensed lighting, as if sensing the danger, the eagle-like beast tried to flee.
But the lightning bullet was simply too fast, it pierced through the right wing of the beast rcilessly as it plumted towards the ground, its feathers scattering gracefully.
"Now... Dark shackles." As the eagle-like beast collapsed onto the soil, Reaper casted a binding spell to keep the beast stuck to its own shadow.
The shadow of the beast seems to co to life, restraining its body.
"What a beautiful creature... I’ve seen many magical beasts before, but..." Monica trailed off, her beautiful face furrowed into a tight frown.
"Yes... This beast seems to have a very exotic feel to it. Like sothing mystical." Ethan murmured, as he stared at the beast’s appearance.
"Whatever this place is... I have a feeling it holds many more secrets." Reaper said indifferently, he placed the blade of his scythe at the eagle-like beast head and slit its throat without hesitation.
"How about the collapsing star flower?" Monica asked, her question directed at Aratiri.
"Hahaha... No need to worry." Aratiri said, the storage ring on his finger lit up for a brief second. Over several thousands of collapsing star flowers hovered in the air by a powerful force. They each gave off the presence of an extrely high quality.
"Good, we weren’t able to find any ancient artifacts or materials, but this is already a good harvest." Reaper said gloatingly.
"The at on this beast might also be exceptional, I’ll store its corpse." The space was distorted for a mont as the body of the eagle-like beast disappeared.
"Let’s keep going, but make sure not to let down your guard." Reaper said in a warning. The others nodded their heads with a serious expression as they disappeared into the distance.
...
However, unbeknownst to them... Elsewhere in the forest soone had been observing them while concealing his presence.
Sitting on a tree was a young man dressed in black robes with slightly long black hair, his amber eyes almost appearing indifferent.
"These intruders seem highly skilled. Getting them out won’t be easy." Despite his words, his lips were twisted into a slight smile as though he was enjoying himself.
At his side was a long silver greatsword that seed rusty as though it hadn’t been drawn in many years.
"How long are you going to keep being passive, Rhea? Those guys just killed one of your kind, didn’t they?" The young black-haired youth asked.
Standing on a thick branch next to him was a young gorgeous woman, her long hair was multicolored in waves of light green, and dark blue. Her slender body also had multicolored feathered wings, similar to the eagle-like beast. Her crimson eyes were calm, but it contained an intense amount of murderous fury.
"... This grievance will be paid a hundredfold." Her cold, bewitching voice held no warmth.
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