Chapter 519 The Tree And The Sword
The trick mentioned by the gorilla was something that is of common knowledge in Divine Firmaments, as Eris and Mylene had already told Aster, there are mortal realm cultivators and even normal people living in the Divine Firmament.
Otherwise, who would do the manual work for those exalted people that had broken through the Mortal realms, the same applied to spirit beasts, there were "weak" spirit beasts that got strong after maturing.
And among spirit beasts, there are races whose names change after evolving, just like Charlotte and Natasha, people who have the capacity to tame spirit beasts exist and this trick is something that those with that ability discovered.
When a spirit beast makes an oath, they can use their race as not all of them "know" their name, or have one even, that used to be what people believed.
But it turned out to be a lie, when spirit tamers as they were later got to be called, appeared, they discovered that every spirit beast has a name which is related to their soul, if the oath is made by normal people, the beast can use their race name which is a flaw in the agreement.
Because if the beast manages to change its race, which happens due to evolution, then the beast is free from the contract and not only it can escape, but it can even kill its previous master.
The difference between regular people and spirit tamers, is that a spirit tamer can see a beast's true name after meeting one of two conditions, either the beast be willing to submit, or beating it into submission.
One can't train to become a spirit tamer, it's something that one must be born with, that being said, it's a talent that can be dormant and awake later or not depending on the case, Aster didn't know he was one until he met the little wyrm Espi, but it was Charlotte and Natasha the ones that explained him about it, they didn't give him the rings completely on a whim after all.
After learning he had talent to become a spirit tamer, Aster understood why the pair of oysters back at the Silver Star Lake were friendly with him, naturally not all spirit beasts were fond of all the spirit tamers, it was more of a personal preference kind of thing.
By the way the little wyrm offered Aster to tell him its name, but Aster refused, because it is detrimental for a spirit beast in the mortal realm to let others hear it, why, no one knows, but it seems to be the interference of the heavenly law, there were other rules as well, but let's leave that for latter.
The little wyrm happily followed him without a contract and Aster was sure it wouldn't betray him, after making one, Kana also assured Espi was a good friend, so there was no problem.
Anyway, the gorilla and the centipede took advantage of that flaw to use their current race name for the oath they made to not attack Wendel and the masked elder, because thanks to the yin chain link that resided in their hearts, they could temporarily change their races to the ones of their ancestors, so when Wendel and the masked elder were no longer needed, they could always kill them.
And just like it happened to Wendel, the centipede that had fattened the masked elder, by creating all that black liquid which was absorbed into the marsh of the elder's Genesis Core, suddenly decided to reap the results of its work.
"My marsh! What are you doing you insect bastard!!!", the elder shouted in surprise the moment he noticed the marsh that protected his core was suddenly stripped out of his control.
"Time to pay back human kekeke", the centipede opened its snout and the marsh was completely devoured by it, the masked elder vomited blood on the spot, the deepest layer of the marsh was part of his core, so when the centipede devoured it, it was as if he consumed a piece of his core.
The reason as to why the elder kept assimilating more organic material to his marsh, was not only to increase its power, but also to increase the protection over the origin of it, but now everything was taken away from him.
His dark green Genesis Core dried and cracks appeared all over it, the centipede didn't give a chance to react, as it wrapped its large body around the now damaged core and used its countless armored legs to cut the core while its body applied pressure.
"Aghhh, you damn beast, you will die due to the oath!", on the last moments of his life, the masked elder cursed the centipede, but the latter didn't pay any attention to it, as it used the blades on its snout to bite away a piece of the core along with the body of the elder.
"Skreee!", the centipede suddenly let out an uncomfortable to hear sound, it was like nails scratching a chalkboard, or the sound of metals wearing each other out.
The black carapace of the centipede fell off and it turned into black purple mist that surrounded the centipede, but that wasn't all, a new carapace the previously semi-transparent body of the centipede, became more ethereal.
Agnes didn't know it since the race of the centipede can't be found in the four Heavenly Quadrants, but its ancestor was from a race called Phantom Poison Centipede, which has the innate ability to turn its body into an incorporeal gas form.
"What kind of half-baked ability is that, little Kana was able to change and fuse with the wind, so that she can be everywhere and nowhere within a certain range, your tail was cut as your change couldn't cover your whole body you know?", Agnes's disdainful voice could be heard coming from within her Genesis Core.
Unlike Kana who literally became wind and was able to even trick everyone's spirit sense, the centipede's presence didn't disappear, and the transformation couldn't cover its whole body, so its tail was actually cut off, it was obvious that changing from solid to gas form was too hard for it.
The centipede heard the woman disdain the powerful ability that according to the memories it got legated through its lineage, allowed its ancestors to reign over thousands of other insect races, and it naturally got infuriated.
"Humph, you think you are strong, my ancestors ate Heavenly Realm humans as snacks, so go to hell already!", the centipede flew towards Agnes's Genesis Core and its body which had turned into a poisonous mist surrounded it.
Everything within the reach of the poisonous mist melted into a black puddle, surprisingly the yang accumulation crystals which released the energy stored inside of them, couldn't dispel the poison, which is incredible considering yang is a natural antidote to a lot of poisons, especially those of yin nature like the one which the body of the centipede produced, due to the yin chain link.
"What do you think human, in this state energy attacks can't harm me and your soul cultivation realm isn't high enough to grant you the telekinesis needed to break my body so you can escape from my encirclement kekeke!", the centipede was confident enough to monologue, spirit beasts that are prominent in soul cultivation are rare, since their souls are incomplete by innate, and they have to develop them, one of the few advantages humans have over spirit beasts.
But then the laugh of the centipede stopped in cold when he suddenly felt an incredible pressure descending on the whole underground area.
It didn't come from the woman inside of the orange Genesis Core though, but from the enemy that the gorilla was facing, since the centipede didn't need to do anything but wait until the enemy melted along with her core, it turned to see what was the gorilla doing.
And then the eyes of the centipede widened in shock, what appeared at the other side of the battlefield, was a giant tree that originated from the light green Genesis Core which was wrapped in trees and vines.
The tree was so large that the gorilla whose height had surpassed the one-hundred-meter mark, looked like a little child in front of an adult man, the tree pressure that took the centipede by surprise originated in that tree.
The centipede was more sensible towards soul energy, since it was one of the its weaknesses, the moment it saw that tree all the alarms rang in its head, but as it was about to shout and tell the gorilla to get the hell away from that place, a few words could be heard coming from the tree.
"Astral Tree Of Origin", the moment Eris's voice disappeared, the giant tree illuminated in many different colors, each one of its branches had a different rune, yes that's right, it they weren't formations but runes, the difference is that those were Divine Runes, instead of the incomplete ones Eris has been using so far.
There was "fire", "wind", "light", "lightning", "metal" and "earth", the radiance of the tree didn't last long, but in less than the millisecond that its shining lasted, the gorilla was… burned to a crisp, which then broke down turning into black ashes, not only its powerful physical body didn't last at all, everything but its core and the yin chain ling in its heart was reduced to ashes.
Fear surged into the heart of the centipede, the idea to runaway appeared in its mind and it actually decided to do so, it only needed to escape and look for the portal from which the humans came, at this point it knew that maybe there will be strong experts at the other side, so it might die, but if it stayed here, its death was 100% secured.
But then when it tried to move it realized its body wasn't obeying it, and then before it could understand what was happening, its body dispersed and then its mind entered the eternal slumber of death.
…
A moment ago, Agnes saw the centipede changing its attention to the other battlefield, she didn't blame it though, because even she was surprised to feel a pressure which shouldn't have appeared here, descending all of a sudden, the pressure of a Soul King!
Which made her feel the urge to go all out as well, Agnes placed her hand on the hilt of her sword and her soul avatar followed her actions, if the centipede would have paid her the attention she deserved, he would have experienced an incredible sight.
The scene of a Genesis Core fusing with a soul avatar, which then gently placed its hands over its owner, as if it was protecting it.
Agnes's sword then lit up in orange light, and the blade actually melted away to reveal that below there was an exact copy of it, made out of that same orange light.
"Cosmos Burning Sword", with those words, Agnes slashed at the centipede, by the time she finished her slash, the blade of the sword had disappeared, and she just sheathed the now bladeless sword into the scabbard.
The attack was so fast and not even a spec of its energy leaked, so the centipede didn't even realize it was cut, but Agnes's eyes which were glowing in orange light could not only see the countless lines of light that cut not only the centipede but everything in the nearby area, the roof, ground and walls included, she could even more or less guess how many they were.
But she paid no attention to that, the moment she cancelled the summon of her soul avatar, her pretty face showed a tinge of tiredness, with a wave of her hand the body of the centipede, the walls, the ground and the rook in a one-kilometer area, dispersed into wisps of smoke.
Which allowed the light to fall from above into this underground space, which was so many kilometers below the surface, there was a giant hole of one kilometer of diameter with Agnes's as the center.
Agnes looked at the scabbard which was releasing steam, and the hilt of the now destroyed sword and she bitterly smiled.
"I'm still a bit far from his "brightness", mm, I'll ask cousin's friend to make me a better sword once she returns, no wait… maybe he can make me one that can contain my light~", Agnes's mumbled as she gazed at the battlefield where a giant armor was clashing with a white Liger.
Eris who took the initiative to return first, also had a slightly tired expression, and she didn't seem as happy as someone that practically turned a Law Integration spirit beast, into ashes in a moment.
"It's a tie", she said.
"Mm, your formations can match up to my slashes… for now", said Agnes.
Those two then stared at each other and softly laughed, as they both retrieved the cores and the yin chain links from the corpses… no, there wasn't enough left of the spirit beasts to call their remains corpses, they just used their soul energies to retrieve the loot and kept it near them, since the spatial rings they were using will be damaged if they stored those things inside, and these rings were the ones which Aster made for them, the ones which contained the second-life elixir created by Mylene using Aster's blood as its main ingredient.
The two of them then descended from the sky and sat to take a rest, it's not as if they didn't want to go help, but they were more tired than what they appeared to be, also Aster told them to rest, because he already had found a way to suppress the Liger.
'Next time I also want to fight inside of the armor!', unknown to the other, their answers to Aster were exactly the same.