When Darian revealed that their opponents were exactly the two Primordial Beasts that gave origin to all the Mannaz of this universe, every Summoner turned pale. Then he calmly explained the whole situation.

"So... they really didn't die..." Camille whispered what everyone was thinking.

Darian nodded. "Yeah. They were turned into a new species, above even the Risen Lords. Even corrupted, they still have a fraction of the power they had when alive, combined with the corrupt power. The two of them, along with the wounded body of the Celestial Shadow, are our only opponents."

"B-but... how are we supposed to beat two Risen at that level?" Lucy said, tense.

"Beating them and killing them is actually impossible," Darian replied, sighing.

"I helped kill a Spiritual Sovereign with my power before, but the situation now is completely different. Spiritual Guardians have all their strength focused on their souls and their rings; that's why, even after becoming immortal, their bodies only reach a very high level. That's probably the biggest weakness of the Spiritual Sovereigns. But these two Primordial Beasts are like heaven and earth in comparison; they're true immortals. I don't have the strength to kill them."

Everyone swallowed hard. Almost all of them had heard that Darian teamed up with three other Spiritual Sovereigns, and together they killed another brutal immortal. At first, they thought he might repeat that feat... but reality was always harsher.

"Anyway... my plan isn't to kill them. But Enfield left secret clues on how to beat him," Darian said, turning his gaze to the army of hundreds of thousands of Heavenly Elemental Spirits.

"I trained them for this moment. You're the key to victory. All you have to do is purify the corruption in Enfield's body for one second. Then I'll be able to cut the connection with the Celestial Shadow, and he'll stop being our enemy. After that..."

Darian paused seriously. Everyone took a deep breath, understanding. Purifying Enfield wouldn't be easy — he wouldn't stay still, accepting the process. They would have to hold him down in battle until the critical moment arrived. But even after that...

"The Divine Dragon is easily a hundred times stronger. But with Enfield on our side, there's a tiny chance," Darian finished calmly. "After we recover the two Primordial Beasts of the universe... obviously, the Celestial Shadow won't just stay there waiting to be next. He'll do the obvious: run away with his body, out of the array. After all, inside the universe, he has all his Risen Lords, and together they have devastating power."

"Our main goal is to stop him from recovering quickly. After pushing him out of here, we'll destroy everything. That way, he'll have to look for another method to heal... and if he can't find one fast, his wounds might even start reopening slowly, taking even longer."

When he finished, everyone felt a desperate tightness in their chest. They were cornered: fight or die. Their enemies were basically the Fallen Gods of this universe. But when they looked at that emotionless figure standing before them, they took a deep breath, feeling an almost irrational confidence.

"Lucy, we have to get ready. The rest of you... just relax and take care of your mentality. In three days, we attack."

Darian said lightly — and the preparations began.

***

Leaf World was a colossal forest, about a quarter of Earth's surface. From above, its shape was like a regular leaf, kind of oval.

After three days of preparation, a massive army marched toward the far south of that small world. Thanks to the information Darian had received recently, he knew exactly where they needed to go.

After more than a full day advancing quickly, they finally saw the end of the forest. A few meters ahead, they stopped at the edge of a colossal abyss. Just looking at it sent chills through everyone, bringing a sense of imminent death.

"Everyone, formation," Camille ordered seriously.

In that instant, three major groups positioned themselves. The first had just under a hundred thousand Spiritual Guardians with nine rings, along with their partners — they would be the spearhead of that battle.

The second group was made up of 600,000 Heavenly Elemental Spirits, who needed to be protected and act flawlessly in the battle, or there would be no victory at all.

The last group gathered everyone below nine rings and those from the White Blood who had joined them. They would stay behind, both because they didn't have the strength for the main fight and because there was only one entrance and exit leading to the battlefield.

This group also had a crucial role. The powerful ones from the Blood Race without circles were in the two remaining worlds — the Flower World and the Fruit World. Those places were empty and lifeless, but resources had been left there for them to train.

When the battle started, they would probably be alerted and run to the entrance in that location. So the ones who stayed behind had to stop them at all costs.

It would be a bitter fight, but Lucy would stay behind to command them. She prepared many inscriptions on the ground and a whole set of strategies.

When her blessing was activated in such an important battle, her power would rise to terrifying levels, turning her into an unstoppable front line. Her motivation was at its peak — for her, this was the chance to make up for the deaths she felt she carried on her back.

Seeing everyone ready, Darian took a deep breath, focusing his senses on an invisible region at the bottom of the abyss. There was a spatial distortion there, but the entrance wasn't fully closed.

He sat near the edge, crossing his legs calmly. Niara sat beside him, completely focused.

Darian nodded — then his ethereal body came out of the inventory. It was time to use that weapon again. Before entering the other body, he took out his three daggers and placed them on his lap.

"I'm counting on you three." he said, entering the ethereal body.

"Leave it to us, master!" Eleri answered excitedly, while the three of them appeared and held Darian's body to protect him.

With a deep huff, the small dragon body trembled... and then its vibrant rainbow colors shifted. A pure, absolute black took over its figure — this was an ability of that body, able to fully merge with Darian's white and black power, erasing any other color.

Right after, Darian focused all his black power, transforming it. In seconds, his body took on a tone that flickered between black and dark purple. Everyone's eyes narrowed at the sight, feeling a deep discomfort just by looking at him.

After all, that was a power only the Risen Lords possessed — the so-called Celestial Corruption. Now, Darian was fully merged with it.

He gave one last look to Niara, Lucy, and the three who were watching over his body. Then he turned and slowly floated down toward the bottom of the abyss...

...disappearing from everyone's senses in less than five seconds of descent.

---

Darian found himself in a world completely consumed by miasma. Nothing could be seen besides darkness — any normal person would have their senses shut down entirely. But for Darian, that environment was like a fish swimming in calm waters.

As soon as he arrived, his senses expanded to the maximum, letting him examine the entire area within a minute.

The place was less than a kilometer in diameter, like a massive corridor. It was a small world, but since it had been built in a hidden region inside the array and couldn't emit any fluctuation or it would be detected, it wasn't stable at all.

As proof of that...

Just a few meters ahead of the entrance, Darian felt the presence of a colossal figure on the ground, eyes closed.

It was Enfield, meditating while connected to the spatial power of that place, keeping it stable and making sure it wouldn't be detected by the array.

Darian froze for a few seconds when he realized that...

But thankfully, his disguise seemed perfect — and Enfield didn't notice him.

All of that was thanks to Howlyn, who had taught him how to create the Celestial Corruption, on top of the power of his ethereal body. In that environment, Darian was like part of the miasma itself and part of the corrupted energy of the place. Of course, if he got too close to Enfield, Enfield would instinctively feel that something was wrong — and then he would find him.

But in the back...

Darian sensed a massive serpentine figure lying on the ground and wrapped around something. As he evaluated it with his senses, he noticed something strange: the Divine Dragon didn't seem to emit any fluctuation at all.

That made him a bit nervous, since it meant he had no idea what he was actually facing. He barely knew anything about the capabilities of the Primordial Beasts, aside from the summary he had read in that book.

Everything in that book had always been useful, but the author couldn't detail everything, and higher-level topics were summarized quite heavily. So Darian had no idea what the Corrupted Divine Dragon was doing.

'Well... if the plan works, Enfield can tell me about that later.'

At the far end of that world, Darian noticed something sealing off a place where he couldn't sense anything. That was obviously where the Celestial Shadow's body was.

Darian felt relieved knowing there were only those three enemies inside.

He moved forward as slowly as possible, centimeter by centimeter, entering the place. When he was two hundred meters from the entrance, he slowly opened the inventory, and then black runes created with Celestial Corruption moved in sequence.

There were thousands of them, floating until they formed an invisible barrier. At the end, Darian took a single different rune, sealed with chaos power, and placed it in the center.

It was a simple but effective inscription that he and Lucy had come up with. By connecting all those runes correctly, a perfect block of sound and fluctuations coming from the inside would be created for a few minutes.

Of course, the Divine Dragon's senses should be absurd. But that small world was unstable, full of strange fluctuations swirling everywhere. Inside there, it was like being in the middle of a nonstop lightning storm; meanwhile, Darian would just be "speaking a little louder" inside it.

Not to mention that the base runes of the inscription were made with Celestial Corruption, and even using one's senses to see ahead, it wasn't possible to detect anything abnormal in the first few minutes.

Every minute, the effect of the inscription would weaken a bit. So, with all those perfect conditions, Darian hoped to have at least fifteen minutes before being discovered.

'All set...'

Darian took a deep breath.

Then he sent Niara, through their connection, the message to advance.

At the same time, he nodded and activated the blocking inscription he had built.

Outside, nothing could be perceived. But... inside the inscription, everything was different.

*Buzz*

The very second he activated it, the inner area vibrated...

A pair of red eyes opened, turning and locking onto him immediately. It was like a predator staring down its prey.