CHAPTER 170: PRACTICALLY LOST

Howlyn slowly opened her eyes. Her vision adjusted little by little, then she saw Niara and Darian, both watching her lightly.

"!"

She felt a strange warmth... like... she quickly sat up, then felt her changed body in shock.

She felt her blood flowing, red and without any corruption. Her body, even though still purple and marked, was also completely clean. Life was running inside her again.

Darian got excited. He managed to break her connection for two reasons. First: She was physically too injured, had drained all her little life energy, and had no intention of killing him.

Darian saw, when she was building up power, that the connection got subtly unstable. And the arrows? With the power of the evolved rings, dominating that was as easy as breathing.

Then, the second reason was the terrifying rune seal on the weapons he stole; combined with the black power inside them, he had enough power to pull off that miracle.

Without all these factors combined, he couldn’t have done it. Meaning, he probably wouldn’t be able to repeat it. He didn’t have enough power on his own to break the chains, not even from a regular Risen if he wanted. But, random chances could always show up.

Confused murmurs escaped Howlyn’s lips. "I-I..."

"You’re free now." Darian’s voice rang out, and she turned to him. "I cut your invisible chains and purified your body. You’re not the same as you were when alive, but you’re also not a corrupted, dead figure like before."

Niara and the Twins smiled. They had just gained a very important ally.

"Unfortunately, your abyssal heart disappeared like it evaporated, the moment I cut your connection with the Celestial Shadow. After purifying your body and removing everything that came from being a Risen... you lost all your power." Darian finished, a bit disappointed. Things could never be that easy for him.

But she had something no one else had: knowledge, experience, and determination. She had been a Risen Lord and had inside understanding of everything related to them. Having her on their side was a huge gain.

"You probably know, but your race is waiting for me, along with other allies. I don’t have much time and can’t go back to that galaxy. I came here because I need to take back a new Academy."

Darian spoke lightly, and she nodded, getting up.

She took a deep breath and right after, her body started glowing.

A black wolf, just about one and a half meters tall, appeared. That was her true form. Her human form was just a way to save energy and act more subtly in the environment.

The wolf lowered herself, bowing completely, like kneeling like a human.

A voice echoed directly in everyone’s minds: "Sir, thank you so much... just like my whole race, I’ve waited for your arrival for a long time. Please, save this universe. I’ll do everything to help."

Darian snorted and spoke quickly, waving for her to get up.

"I’m not promising anything, just that I’ll go all the way. Let’s work together. And just call me Darian."

She looked into his eyes for a few seconds. Then nodded, and her semi-human form returned.

"What Academy exists in this galaxy?" Niara quickly asked.

"Hmm? The Divine Dragon Academy."

Hearing the confirmation, everyone was surprised. They had seen the nearby living galaxy before, and there was only one Divine Dragon Academy close enough to them. The others were way too far.

Darian sighed: "So we ended up in the same one from the assault... Well, the Academy Leader was setting everything up, and him having the spatial pearl for this galaxy, and for the planet member of the inscription, makes sense."

A galaxy was obviously huge. They were probably in a very distant corner from where the attacks were happening; it was impossible to see or sense that easily.

"Sir... Darian, you know this attack would never succeed, right?" Howlyn asked.

He nodded: "I’ve already dealt with pretty much all the traitor Elders of the Academy. The traitor summoners and partners won’t have their support and will probably attack just to get merit, then abandon."

"No," Howlyn said seriously, "This attack won’t go that far. The Celestial Shadow’s will is going to end everything soon. He set it all up to get a little more life and speed up his work."

Everyone focused on her, confused. Howlyn took a deep breath. Then Darian started asking from the very beginning. After all, he barely knew anything about the enemy’s side.

The first thing she said already shocked the Mannaz: the Celestial Shadow was actually one of the three Primordial Beasts born in this universe, alongside the Divine Dragon and the Enfield.

No one knew how, but the Celestial Shadow had learned how to devour life and created his power, which he called celestial corruption. The other two Primordial Beasts obviously joined forces against him.

That triggered a terrifying war, where the Risen appeared in the universe. Obviously, they were winning. The power of the Risen, together with the Celestial Shadow, was terrifying.

In desperation, the two Primordial Beasts created the academies, trying to build allies too.

When that didn’t work and everything started collapsing, they made one last move. They sacrificed themselves to heavily wound the Celestial Shadow.

With their sacrifice and their attempt to save the living and the universe, they created karma, which allowed the Heaven’s Will to help a little. Then, the first Spiritual Guardians were sent, and summoners were born.

The Celestial Shadow had to seal himself to physically recover, but his primordial bloodline was broken to a point it couldn’t be fixed. So, he removed a fragment of his soul and left his will in charge of the Risen while his body regenerated.

"All the academies and their cores are already under control. The people from the Celestial Academy feel the connection and think the core is intact because the Risen can’t invade, but that’s not true. The Celestial Shadow’s will sealed the entire academy and the core, leaving them intact for two reasons... first, that’s what will help heal his damaged bloodline."

She took a deep breath. Then explained a key hidden secret.

"All these years, we were ordered to gather all the life and blood of the living across the galaxies. Not everyone was turned into Risen after we took over a galaxy; just a small fraction, because we needed soldiers. All the rest... we used to nurture a natural demonic existence."

"It’s a life form called the Celestial Blood Lily. When it’s fully mature, it can absorb even primordial bloodlines and create a pure primordial seed. That seed is what will fully heal the Celestial Shadow."

Darian’s eyes widened. A natural race able to absorb and purify primordial bloodlines? That shouldn’t exist here...

...in fact, that must’ve come from another universe. And the only ones able to move between universes and bring terrifying stuff... were the Spiritual Guardians.

Darian snorted furiously. He’d find in his universe the bastards who helped. He just needed to buy time to get stronger.

Howlyn saw Darian’s fierce gaze and continued seriously:

"As for the second reason... all the academies are a door connected to the Spiritual Guardians’ universe. After he heals and devours everything here, he’ll move and devour other worlds."

Everyone swallowed hard, and Darian sighed. Meru hadn’t said it directly, but it was clear something like that was about to happen. This enemy was a threat... but not even the biggest threat. That’s why Darian needed to kill him first.

"Back to when Sir Darian started acting, I managed to kill that Risen Lord exactly when the Celestial Shadow’s will ordered everyone to focus on building their soldiers."

Howlyn spoke with a slight smile: "He got really pissed about all the internal conflicts I spread between them. So he forced everyone to gather and fight each other. He wanted all the weaklings, who relied on schemes instead of real power, to die. And of course, to send a message to the others."

"A huge free-for-all battle happened and lasted seven days. In the end, thirty Risen Lords died, and all the others got heavily injured." She spoke seriously and looked into Darian’s eyes.

"I was forced to have soldiers, so I picked only the worst of the worst when they were alive, the ones who deserved to die. I used them to the limit and discarded them when they weren’t useful anymore. That way, I made all my soldiers die so I could survive that battle."

Darian nodded. No doubt she tried to stay honest and fair, even being a Risen who had to do many questionable things.

"Back to the present. That Risen Lord who controlled the Divine Dragon Academy in this galaxy... died in that battle. Then the Celestial Shadow’s will announced to everyone: His body was 90% healed, and the lily was finally mature and ready to be used."

"Because this is one of the most powerful academies, he brought the lily straight here. That way, it would absorb the Divine Dragon’s bloodline inside the core and create the first healing seed. As for this assault on the academy... he set it all up to devour everyone and gather a huge amount of high-level blood and life. That would help the lily grow faster."

Everyone listened, and no one was that surprised. They already had a feeling that assault was never gonna succeed.

Darian figured that, after eliminating the Elders, the traitors would realize the plan had failed and would just fight to earn merit, then retreat and report a complete failure. But... that would happen and they didn’t even realize they were already thrown into the abyss with no way back.

The Risen Lords set up everything and didn’t tell the truth to the summoners and Spiritual Guardians who were their allies. Meaning... they were gonna die without knowing.

Howlyn sighed, finishing: "Right now, the mature lily is in the academy and has probably already absorbed the whole core’s bloodline. But it won’t destroy the academy. It’s just maturing everything to generate a seed. It should take a few centuries, but with the big offering it’ll get, it’ll take way less."

Niara heard that and got anxious. Without the Divine Dragon’s bloodline, even if they invaded the academy, they wouldn’t be able to activate the grand inscription and kick the Risen off the planet. Meaning, this Divine Dragon Academy was already lost forever.

And all the work and time Darian had invested until now... would mean nothing. Worse, he didn’t have much time left.

Everyone understood and stared blankly. The situation was way worse than they imagined. Soon, the evil entity would rise again... They had imagined they could grow fast and save everything. But they wouldn’t even have time for that. This universe was practically lost already.

Then Darian asked seriously: "This lily is insanely powerful, right?"

She nodded: "Yeah. Now that it’s mature, not even I could kill it using everything I had at my peak. Also, the Celestial Shadow’s will is with it. He can summon all the Risen Lords in seconds and handle anything. This academy is..."

"Great, let’s go there. You’ve got a way to take us straight there, right?" Darian cut her off without hesitation, his eyes glowing like he was just about to go on another casual trip.