CHAPTER 173: AS EXPECTED

The will of the Celestial Shadow had a furious look in its eyes. It raised a hand, holding the blood pearl. That was the core of the lily’s power, and its massive body shook. In that moment, the entire planet lit up with a scarlet light way more intense and sinister than before.

A terrifying power was unleashed. Nothing could escape. Time and space twisted toward the fleeing targets.

Niara and Darian, who were less than five hundred meters from the building, felt everything around them distort.

They could still see the building up ahead, but suddenly, it felt like it was rushing far, far away.

"Green Divine Armor!"

Niara roared, her wings flaring with full force, launching her forward. The Divine Aura of Life activated along with it. In that instant, she tore through the warped space in front of her and kept moving.

The will’s gaze shifted, a hint of surprise in its eyes. It felt the spiritual root and the connection to the universe’s laws coming from her. That was a unique power of a Primordial Beast, and since it was one too, it knew immediately.

Niara and Darian broke into a cold sweat, fully realizing how outmatched they were.

This enemy wasn’t using corrupt power, so the white armor was barely effective. And since they weren’t fighting directly, the black armor wasn’t helpful either.

In this fight, their best option was the green armor, which represented Niara’s raw power. But it didn’t sync perfectly with her dragon bloodline and her B-rank martial art, since it also amplified her fine human bloodline, mixing everything.

Sure, that had its advantages. But now, Darian realized just how much he’d always depended on the white and black powers. He’d almost never relied on Niara’s own raw strength; even she mostly fought using the white or black power. That’s why they both felt like they had few options now.

Up ahead...

Space was stretched, and they had to punch through it to advance. It felt like the building that had been so close was now over ten kilometers away.

Niara ran toward the building with everything she had. But soon, a scarlet beam shot down from the sky, drilling toward her.

It was insanely fast, but she managed to dodge purely on instinct.

*BOOM!*

The ground was shredded apart. Looking up, Darian saw a downpour of scarlet lightning bolts falling from the sky toward them. Every single one gave off a sense of absolute death. Any one of those hits could kill them.

’He’s just using the lily’s power, treating us like annoying flies.’ Darian muttered, then gave a cold smile. "Playing sheep to kill the wolf only works once, but whatever... let’s ride this chance, go, go!"

Niara nodded and kept ripping through space at full speed.

*BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!*

The whole planet shook as Niara kept dodging. She was dancing on the blade’s edge, like a death god’s scythe was chasing her.

Those red eyes grew more and more surprised. Every one of those beams carried insane power, and their speed was way above hers—impossible to see or react to in time. But... was she dodging just on sheer survival instinct?

It focused on Darian, trying to scan his soul and see everything...

’!’

The fragment of its soul trembled, and it felt like it was about to explode.

’What the hell was that Spiritual Guardian?!’ Its mind flared in alarm.

It couldn’t see anything, and worse... it was like...

’The heavenly laws sealed his soul so no one can see inside... That... h-he... he’s really a legendary missionary of the Heaven’s Will?’

Right then, the will of the Celestial Shadow realized something that truly scared it. It had been alive for millions of years and knew the world’s hidden truths. The Heaven’s Will wasn’t impartial. It was an active force that helped the weak, even if they never noticed it.

’Fuck!’ It cursed, full of rage.

It knew something like this could happen. That’s why it had crafted such a well-thought-out plan.

Wiping out this whole universe wasn’t the hard part. The problem was that the Heaven’s Will would definitely act against it. So before that, it had to make the universe’s inhabitants fall into darkness.

If their collective karma didn’t deserve help, the Heaven’s Will couldn’t intervene. That’s called collective karma—a sort of average across everyone living in a place.

Sure, there might still be some good people mixed in, but that didn’t matter. A few good ones couldn’t shift the collective karma of an entire universe. Its main goal had been to corrupt leadership and spread inequality and hatred among the weak. That snowballed until the majority got tainted.

The way the Summoners treated the Mannaz, and how everyone treated the beasts... it was all something he’d been encouraging over time, using the infiltrated traitors.

He did it all slowly, feeding the discord. Every academy that had fallen over the years wasn’t taken down by brute Risen force... but by internal problems between their own people.

But... clearly, something had gone wrong. Now, the executioner’s blade was aimed straight at his throat. Where did he screw up? His plan had been perfectly executed up till this point.

He snorted, then took a deep breath and quickly collected himself.

’He’s still too weak...!’

An idea popped into his head. A twisted smile appeared in his eyes.

’If I kill him, the Heaven’s Will will take him back to his universe... and maybe even send another missionary. But if I don’t kill him... I can exploit his weakness. Hahaha, perfect... this problem is gonna become my stepping stone.’

Right then, Niara felt the air in her lungs freeze.

It was a solid wave of death wrapping around her. Her instincts screamed loud and clear that she was about to die...

She clenched her fists and kept going, without saying a single word. She had promised she’d trust him, so she was gonna see it through to the end.

*Clang!*

A scarlet beam grazed her shoulder, instantly breaking her scale armor. Her blood sprayed, and a sharp pain tore through her.

Darian healed her, but it was a struggle. The bloody power coming from the lily was high-level, leaving a kind of poison in her body. He had to burn ten times more white power just to heal her. She couldn’t take many more hits... or he’d run out of reserves.

He took a deep breath. Luckily, his knowledge from the book was spot on. If Niara hadn’t broken that main root, they’d have had a literal 0% chance of surviving even a single wave of its attacks.

Natural lifeforms like this had similar weaknesses. Basically: the lily had two important parts. One was the flower itself, the other was the main root. The flower was its weapon, but the root was its power source.

Knowing that, Darian had planned a perfect combo move.

Since everything had happened by surprise, and it felt a sudden threat, that natural lifeform reacted purely on instinct, without any direct order from the will. It injected its energy into the flower, which left the root wide open with almost no defense. That’s why Niara was able to break it with a single hit.

Without the main root, it was like a Spiritual Guardian losing their ring’s power. Without that source, the lily now had to rely solely on the bloody power stored in its leaves to attack. Even then, it still had terrifying power.

Niara locked in completely, dodging the endless barrage of attacks.

They pushed forward like people trying not to get hit by a downpour.

’Hold for one more minute,’ Darian muttered, feeling Niara getting really anxious but thinking it was just because of how hard the run was.

He scanned around, looking carefully.

The view around them felt like being underwater, with the whole ocean in violent turmoil. Space was totally warped and moving like crazy.

Darian knew a little about spatial power. He remembered the book’s overly detailed explanations about it, so he kept scanning the area.

Looking into one of the space holes, created by the attacks... Darian saw inside it, a sphere covered in ancient marks. It was the academy’s core!

"There!" Darian pointed.

At the same time, Niara clenched her fist and crushed a small stone. It was the last spatial movement artifact Darian had brought from Earth.

The warped space stretched the path, but because of the attacks, small holes were opening up. Passing through one would get them there faster... but miss the hole, and they’d turn into a bloody mist.

Niara activated the artifact’s spatial power and disappeared.

And those red eyes...

’Hmm... as expected from the freak anomaly that is a missionary.’ It thought, sneering. ’Always used to pulling out crap nobody else has or knows about, and winning because of it. But... this is your end.’

It raised its hand, clenching its fists tight.

All the power from its soul fragment burned at once. It wasn’t gonna hold back anything to win this fight.