Chapter 504 Battle For The First Node (Part 4)
Back the yin barrier, while they advanced through the forest, Aster could feel Alexandra glaring at him from time to time and he didn't know whether he should laugh or cry.
'Have I offended you or something', he thought.
'Maybe she feels suspicious about you accepting to not do anything to her mother so easily, since you didn't even ask anything from her, I still can't believe you can ignore soul oaths', said Aria through the mind connection.
Aster chuckled as he tightened his hug on Aria before saying.
'It's not that I ignore them, the attribute of my soul is also annihilation, so it can't be regulated by the heavens, they can't tie something that doesn't "exist" in their scope, well the oath does work for the other party though'.
Similar to how soul lamps couldn't register Aster as the culprit of killing their owner when he killed them with annihilation, soul oaths stopped affecting him when he became a soul cultivator.
Back then when he received Kail's loyalty everything was normal, it was only after he accidentally became a soul cultivator back at Prasil, that he realized he could cut off the connection between him and the other party in a soul oath, using his soul energy as long as he added annihilation to it.
Let alone Aria, even Rya was surprised back then, since that is an application of annihilation which Aster should only develop after mastering annihilation to a way higher grade than as of current.
She could have done something similar in case it was needed, since her annihilation focuses on severing, but Aster who is the first existence that is completely immune to annihilation can let his soul be enveloped by it without any problem.
It's not like he wasn't going to keep his word regarding Alexandra's mother as long as she was innocent, but right now he had more pending matters to attend, and Alexandra didn't trust him at all, so she wasn't going to cooperate unless she had some guarantee.
Everything will be cleared once they are out of the Silicon Forest, naturally before curing Alexandra's mother, he was going to ask Tomas what happened before letting him know he has a daughter.
In any case, like this Aster gained a temporal ally and if Alexandra's mother turned out to be the one who betrayed Tomas, there was nothing preventing him from getting rid of her, this way he could receive the benefits of a soul oath without the responsibilities of it.
By the way, all the girls knew about it and that's why they didn't say anything when he casually accepted Alexandra's petition earlier, surprisingly when Eris got to know about this very special ability Aster had, Alice tried to mess with her by saying "Aster can erase the agreement he has with you at any time", just for Eris to shrug as she answered "I know he won't".
Both she and Mylene no longer needed the oath or the collar, they were a part of the group and both considered Aster their precious friend.
"We are about to arrive at the second castle, the enemies are the Black Scale Python and the Death Wind Falcon, two of the four Law Integration spirit beasts, they are the weakest in the group so your two Genesis Manifestation mates will be able to deal with them easily, the problem is that there are three humans with a high battle prowess working with them too".
"Besides that, there are twenty Void Manipulation spirit beasts, their two seconds in command which are rational, and an army of around two thousand human cultivators whose realms vary between the Stellar Axys realm to the Sea of Knowledge realm", casually said the Runic Oak.
This time the ones who suddenly felt the urge to cut down the Oak were Eris and Agnes, naturally the "mates" it mentioned where them, since there aren't any other Genesis Manifestation cultivators in the group.
It was Aria's turn to laugh at Eris and Agnes, since they did the same when the Runic Oak exposed her making her feel ashamed.
Aster could feel Agnes's sharp gaze on the Runic Oak and he cleared his throat, before she decided to cut it with her sword.
"Ahem, the humans with the leaders of the spirit beasts, describe them, I remember only two that should be on par with Law Integration cultivators, the other three have high stage Void Manipulation realm battle prowess individually at most", he said.
Ignoring the fact that it could have been cut by Agnes's sword a second ago, the Runic Oak nodded and then said.
"With that snake there are two humans, one radiates a decently high amount of yang but its quality is trash compared to yours, the other is a woman who seems to be a yin type cultivator, the quality of her yin is better compared to the man, but nothing special compared to that girl in your arms".
Apparently, the Oak finally had started to change its way to speak, at the very least it called Aria "girl" instead of "female" like before, the only reason as to why Aria and the other girls haven't attacked it to get back at it for the way it talked, was because they knew it didn't do it with malice.
The tree was simply clueless when it came to human beings, since it has been alone with spirit beast for a really long time, that could be why it hasn't been able to enter the Heavenly Realm or take human form.
"The third human is teaming with the Falcon and his aura more or less resembles her", added the Oak as it pointed at Alexandra.
"That should be the elder from the Steel Tower sect, and besides having the surname Fritz, he doesn't resemble me at all", coldly said Alexandra, apparently, she had some pending matters to solve with that guy.
Aster nodded more or less he understood how to divide the enemies now.
"Eris and Agnes, I leave the spirit beasts to you, Aria, Nerissa, Tiana and Nerissa will take care of the male dual cultivator from the Pleasure Palace, Alexandra is in charge of the elder from the Steel Tower sect, Runic Oak you get rid of the spirit beast's army, Camila and Felicia of the human army, as for me, leave the female dual cultivator in my hands, any objections?", he asked.
"No", everyone's answer was the same, which is good because they just arrived at the vicinity of the second yellow castle.
Aster unwillingly let go of Aria and after giving her a small peck, he pointed at the battlefield before saying.
"Don't leave a single one alive!".
…
"Mm?", the two spirit beasts suddenly had bad premonitions, it was as if a disaster was about to fall upon them.
Both the snake and the falcon not only exploded in yin radiance making the atmosphere wave due to the strong output, but they jumped backwards, getting away from the yellow castle as fast as they could.
"Booom!", the place where they were standing previously exploded as two lines of light, one orange and the other purple landed there, the ground trembled and a large amount of dust raised due to the impact.
Once the dust settled there were two different new scars on the ground, the first was a deep circular crater produced by an explosion, while the second one was a clean line that crossed the crater from side to side, curiously both made the ground crystalize meaning the attacks produced an insane temperature.
Especially because the ground of the whole place has been corroded by yin, making it a horrible heat conductor, as a proof of it there was a layer of black ice covering the floor at some parts where the crystal trees were completely dead.
"Tsk, it was a tie", Agnes whose figure appeared floating in the sky in front of the falcon, had an unconvinced expression on her pretty face.
"That was a lightning discharge, you should be happy that your slash was able to follow its speed", answered Eris who was riding on top of a giant vine that raised from the ground next to the Black Scale Python
"Humph, I bet I can turn this thing into chicken cubes before you finish off that snake", said Agnes as she pointed at the still baffled falcon.
"Oh, really, the same bet as always?", said Eris whose eyes were glowing in a dangerous light.
"Of course", answered Agnes, then without saying anything else, they both pounced onto their enemies, which finally made the snake and the falcon wake up from their daze.
"Who are you calling a chicken you, bitch!", shouted the Falcon, black wind gathered around it and then it turned into a black flash.
Agnes snorted, that orange halo appeared behind of her but this time it didn't remain blurred, so what was inside of the halo became visible for everyone, it was a second Agnes, well it looked almost the same as Agnes, if you don't take into account the fact that it's made out of orange light and is also wearing a pretty crystal armor, that covers all the sensible areas.
Unlike the golden armor it doesn't cover Agnes, nor is of a huge size, in fact compared to Agnes it looks more delicate and feminine, as if that's how Agnes will look if she weren't a body training maniac.
"Blaze!", Agnes unsheathed her sword and the second Agnes behind of her, extended her hand towards it, some of the orange light enveloped the sword and then an explosion covered the skies.
The black tornado created by the falcon clashed with Agnes's attack, and the shockwave dispersed the clouds above them, not only that but the dark sky was illuminated by that pretty orange light, forming a half black, half orange sphere where Agnes was constantly clashing against the falcon.
The people who were in charge of destroying the crystal threes felt the horrible pressure radiated by that sphere which was created due to the clash of two strong cultivator's spirit energies and they gulped down.
The beasts were at the Law Integration realm, though they didn't have the special trait gained by reaching that level, since they are yet to gain human form, that falcon is still an existence at the peak of the Transcending realms, so this much is expected by them.
The problem is that the one who is clashing with it, is someone they have seen a couple of times before, and they are willing to bet their balls that is a Genesis Manifestation cultivator, and yet she is clashing head on with someone two major realms above, it's insane, not to mention she isn't using her Genesis Core which technically is what is allowing their leaders stand on par with the spirit beasts.
While Agnes was directly clashing with the falcon on the skies, Eris who saw it couldn't help but sigh.
"Why do I end up with these crazy violent women as rivals", she mumbled, remembering all the times she clashed with Mylene and her insanely strong punches, she then focused on her enemy which is the black snake, she tapped her feet on the vine and a lot of runes illuminated on it.
The snake had a bad premonition and it raised an ice wall to protect itself, just in time since another three giant vines emerged from the ground with different formations and elements on them.
The one in which Eris was riding, changed its color to a metallic one, there was one shining in bright yellow light, one burning in orange flames and one covered in crackling purple electricity.
"Wood Arsenal, Positive Forest!".
The snake's pupils contracted like needles, metal, fire, light and lightning, all those elements were effective against yin, but believe it or not that wasn't the most shocking thing the snake was experiencing right now.
Spirit beast inherit the memories of their ancestors through their blood, similar to what happens with those with a lineage that awake some abilities as long as their blood isn't completely diluted, Dragon Aura can be considered an example of that, though how to use it is written in the cultivation manual of the Drage family, it is only a guide, blood concentration is needed to awaken it.
And now something that was legated to the snake by its ancestors from some generations ago, is ringing inside the snake, in this case the fear to those with an aura that reminds the snake to the people from the Yin Azure Palace, more specifically to the one who used a long-range palm attack to obliterate almost everything in the Silicon Forest, friends, foes and any lifeform as well.
In other words, the sensation of someone from a main branch of a ruler level family of a Divine Firmament.
"Who the hell are you!", shouted the snake, ignoring the fear that was assaulting it, its body exploded in spirit energy and then it actually sealed itself on black ice, while it defended from the attacks of the four vines that Eris created.
Eris didn't have time to answer the snake, she snapped her fingers and then a huge formation appeared on the ground, Agnes took her fight to the skies because she knew the clash between the falcon and her will be devastating.
"She is just as Mylene, leaving the complicated stuff for me", mumbled Eris, four wood totems raised on the four corners of the formation and then a green light barrier covered her part of the battlefield.
Eris then smiled; with this barrier she could go wild with the arsenal of battle formations she has.
The battle has just begone and two sights that no one expected to be able to witness were already unfolding in front of everyone, it's a shame they won't live to tell anyone.