Cross was pumping himself up, fighting back his fear as he got closer and closer. He suddenly said "Xuan'er, can we go back? I suddenly feel sick." Lu Mingxuan rolled her eyes and said "Nope~" Cross squirmed in the wheelchair and said "My injuries are acting up! I'll really die!" Lu Mingxuan ignored him and sped up, Cross was visibly uncomfortable and scared.
He said "Please, turn around. I'm begging you." Lu Mingxuan winced but steeled her heart and continued, the ground seemed to shrink and they arrived in front of the man and woman. Cross was white as a ghost and trembling, he opened and closed his mouth several times but nothing came out.
He just trembled and kept silent.
Lu Mingxuan gripped the wheelchair handles tightly, maybe this wasn't suck a good idea after all... The man said "So..." Cross looked down at the ground and the atmosphere was awkward.
The woman rushed and hugged Cross, crying "My poor baby!" as she bawled her eyes out, hugging Cross extremely tight, as if he would disappear the next second. Cross teared up and closed his eye, letting his tears fall as his mother hugged him.
His father smiled and his eyes turned red as well, Sora smiled happily clapping "Papa and Grandma are crying... Uwu... Sora's gonna cry too..." Lu Mingxuan started crying as well, and now everybody was crying, this situation was debatably worse than the awkward silence.
A while later
Cross found out his mother's name was Aranyani and his father's name was Phaunus. Cross smiled slightly at their strange Elven names, his name was relatively simple, just Cross, you could even just put an 'X' for a signature. He finally had a last name, it was Ziran!
He sheathed his arm and Aranyani chatted his ear off about daughter-in-laws and grandkids. Cross pointed at his necklace and explained every color is a member of his family. Aranyani was so happy she jumped and danced around, like a fairy.
Phaunus shook his head and said that he had a lot, Cross said "Only 10." Lu Mingxuan said "10?! There was only 7 when I left!" Cross shrugged and said "Shit happens, man." Lu Mingxuan ran to Dryae and begged her to fix Cross so she could bang him.
Cross told his parents of his adventures and friends outside, Aranyani sat next to him and listened as they talked for days and nights. He would've made hand gestures but, alas, he had no hands.
Days turned to weeks
Cross was sitting outside the Gate and looking out to the distance, Dryae appeared next to him and said "Whatcha thinkin about?" Cross asked "How long are you? Why do you act like a teenager?" Dryae pouted and said "Do you want me to act like an Old woman? Or an Emotionless Tree?" Cross shook his head and said "Actually, I like when you're like this, but I guess you could say I was expecting an old emotionless tree woman."
Dryae giggled and rested her arms on his chest and her breasts on his head as she said "As long as my little champion is happy~" Cross hummed, feeling the soft sensation on his head before saying "Are you seducing me?"
Dryae sat on his lap and said "Depends, are you going to eat me?" Cross said "Well, considering you're a World Core and a Tree of Life, adding the fact I don't have arms or legs, I'd say... No? Or rather, if it even possible?"
Dryae giggled and said "Anything is possible~" Cross let out a breath and looked out into the distance saying "Who knows." Dryae leaned her head on his chest and ran her fingers over his scars softly, Cross suddenly said "Dryae, can I have a branch from you?"
Dryae was startled and said "What? Why?" Cross waved his sword arm, Dryae said "Oh! Okay~" she waved and a gigantic branch appeared. Cross caressed the wood and said "Beautiful." Dryae smiled sweetly and said "Thank you~" Cross smiled and tapped his sword on it.
Half the branch disappeared, while the rest flowed into the sword and sheath. Cross groaned and coughed up blood, Dryae said "You're such a fool." Cross grinned with bloody teeth at the new God Slayer that was at the Peak Immortal-Grade.
He clicked his tongue and said "If I was at my peak, maybe it would become a Primal Chaos Weapon... Or whatever is above Immortal-Grade... Supreme Immortal?" Dryae said "Supreme God is the level after Heavenly God, you can only get to Supreme God if you have Supreme Bone, Blood, and Roots. Your brother is at this level."
Cross said "Long Chen is a Supreme God?! Already!?" Dryae blinked before laughing "No, idiot. I meant he has the 3 Supremes! So do all his soldiers, coincidentally, the sisters have it as well." Cross gave her a funny look as he said "Sister? You're including yourself in my harem?"
Dryae smiled sweetly "Of course, Hubby~" Cross shook his head and said "You're coming with me, you know that right?" Dryae smiled widely and said "You have to do something for me first though." Cross tilted his head and said "What's that."
Dryae cleared her throat and replied "You'll find out." Cross shook his head and said "Always acting so mysterious." Dryae smiled happily.
A while later
The Heaven Rending Legion finally came out of the Inner World. Cross sat in front of them and said "Time to wash your souls with blood! Are you ready?" they group gulped and Cross smiled "Scratch that, I don't care. Dryae, please." Dryae smiled and clapped her hands, the entire population of the World disappeared, reappearing in a corner with a sea, a mountain, and a giant seal.
Cross sat in his wheelchair, on a floating platform with Dryae as he said "Valrun, take the front with the Slaughter Corps. Falernas you're behind them with the Undying Healing Corps. Surrounding them will be Dain and the Insurmountable Mountain Corps. Lyndis, fall back to the mountain with the Sun Shooting Corps. Wyn, take care of the Aerial attacks and occasional save with the Heaven Tearing Corps. Saya, fall back and wait my orders, without them you will not engage. Do it."
Dryae hesitated for a moment and Cross looked at her, she finally sighed and clenched her fist. The seal cracked and Dark Beasts started pouring out of the crack in the seal. Cross shouted "Keep your nerves, this is the enemy! The Brahma will kill you all, remember that as you kill these Dark Beasts! The fate of the entire Spirit Race rests, quite literally, on your shoulders."
The vanguard started slaughtering Dark Beasts. Cross shouted "Lyndis and Falernas, you're job will be keeping everyone alive." the two nodded and Cross glanced at Saya, who nodded secretly. Cross suddenly said "Open it a bit more." Dryae said "Cross..." Cross said "A bit." she sighed and opened it a bit more.
Millions of Dark Beasts charged out of the crack, it was fine at the beginning but the Dark Beasts got stronger and stronger and they started killing people.
Cross watched on with an emotionless gaze as he said "Too fancy! A single strike to kill a beast! Aim for vital points! To fight a savage you have to become savage!"
A few days later
Cross waved and the Shadow Death Corps. entered the battlefield, not that they didn't already. They were secretly saving lives, maybe millions of lives were kept because of them. They made quick work of the beasts and Cross said "Heaven Rending Legion, withdraw. Count the casualties, I want a report within the hour. Collect the corpses and bury the dead. In 3 days, you'll face another wave."
The Heaven Rending Legion paled and looked up in fear. Cross was pushed to the front of the legion, as he covered their retreat. He stood up and muttered "Maybe incentives will make them work harder..." as he slashed a group of Dark Beasts in half with his left arm.
The corpses were gathered and the entire Legion watched Cross do what they just did, alone. It looked as though he wasn't even breaking a sweat. This made them all feel bad, how strong was their Boss/King? Even crippled he's stronger than them!
Cross turned his head and the Dark Beast Corpses, as well as the dead Spirit races' weapons, equipment, and belongings, disappeared. He continued to kill Dark Beasts for 3 days before wiping out a wave and sitting back in his wheelchair, slowly floating back into the air as the Heaven Rending Legion returned into formation with over a billion casualties on their first go.
Cross continued to watch and point out their flaws as the cycle repeated. Over and over, endlessly, until there were no casualties. Cross watched for months, pointing out flaws and occasionally saving someone.
The Heaven Rending Legion was very tight now. At the beginning they were like loose sand that Cross stuffed in a bag but now they came together perfectly. The entire attitude of the Spirit Race was much better, nobody had anymore scruples with each other, they were Life and Death comrades now.
Cross started shifting out Corps to take down Dark Beasts by themselves until they had no casualties, this was the part that took a long time. Basically, the Slaughter Corps. would train against Dark Beasts for years, then the Sun Shooting Corps. for another several years, then the Undying Healing Corps. they took almost a decade to get perfect.
Cross went through all the Corps, before nodding in satisfaction at their progress. It only took 100 years and 500 billion deaths. Fortunately, the remaining 1.5 Trillion soldiers were excellent. Cross built a city, with Dryae's help, not too far from the battlefield.
He also built transmission arrays to the Royal Capital, he directly relieved the old Elves from their duties and assigned them to Battle Hardened Teachers of the next generation, a massive baby boom happened in the Spirit Race.
100 years will do that, plus everyone was so intertwined, there were interracial babies born almost every day. The women in the Heaven Rending Legion were given maternity leave when they found out they were pregnant.
Cross stressed the importance of teaching heavily. He even destroyed the Royal Capital completely before making it from scratch and adding libraries, schools, homes, etc. He supplied the libraries and schools with books from his Inner World, there was Forging, Formations, Music, Alchemy, Medical, and many more.
He personally taught 5 people in each subject, when they passed his evaluation, they were sent out to teach the children who were interested in these things. They had a military but not everyone was suited for it, after all, civilians were necessary.
In these 100 years, Sora had grown up to be a stunning beauty. Also the deadliest Elf there ever was. Cross taught her every single day in the way of assassination. He trained her in the harshest ways and molded her into the best assassin there ever was.
She was constantly in his shadow, much to Cross' annoyance. She was like dog skin plaster, even when he told her to shoo, she would pout and refuse before going into his shadow. She truly loved him, but not a romantic love. She said that he was and always will be her most important person and her Papa.
Cross smiled and pampered her a lot, he couldn't help himself really she was just too cute. Ha, cute. She made countless male Elves' mouths water, but she still looked like the little girl he picked up from the street in Cross' eyes.
The little girl that tried to kill him in his sleep, only to get hugged tightly and fall asleep in his arm.
The Royal Capital also had it's own set of Laws. Laws that could, under no circumstance, be broken. Even by the King himself! They weren't anything too crazy though, just this; No Treason, No Blasphemy against the Tree (i.e.: Taking wood, burning the tree, etc.), No Traitors, a bunch of other obvious rules that you would see in any other city in the Immortal World, but the last one was different.
All civilians must go through 5 years of military training at the age of 18.
This one was the absolute, number 1, most important, Law. Cross wanted everyone to be able to fight, not just the Legion and military. Plus it builds character. He also got rid of the noble system completely, the King called the shots. It was an absolute Monarchy.
Nobody questioned the King, not that they needed to, Cross didn't really do much of anything anymore. He built the city, trained the Heaven Rending Legion, opened his Inner World for everyone to go into as just another part of the city, and was frequently seen around the Royal Capital, being pushed by Lu Mingxuan with Dryae and Sora chatting along.
Aranyani and Phaunus, retire comfortably in the Inner World, starting a small restaurant. They were even expecting another child! Everything was very peaceful.
One day
Cross ordered the Heaven Rending Legion to start their shifts again, endlessly, until he told them to stop. At this point, he wasn't their King, but their Boss. The Legion had shrank to 1 Trillion as 500 Billion retired and went to become civilians, teachers, shop owners, etc. in the Royal Capital.
The Royal Capital, after it's remaking, was absolutely massive. It was basically the only city in the entire World, the City by the battlefield was named 'Heaven Rending City' and was a pure Military city.
There was a single Transmission array at the center of both cities for quick traveling. The entire race was very harmonious, Cross was worried that they would lose their edge but they proved that they wouldn't.
Dryae came to Cross and said "It's time." Cross looked up at the sky and said "How long has it been, Dryae?" Dryae smiled and said "102 Years 267 days." Cross sighed and said "I'm an old man, do you still like me?" it was true, his hair was white and he had a few wrinkles.
Dryae kissed him and said "I will always love you." Cross smiled and said "Can you promise me something?" Dryae said "Anything, love." Cross said "Make sure they follow the laws and every so often open up the seal a little more. Can you do that?"
Dryae nodded with a smile and said "No problem." Cross smiled and said "Let's go." Dryae sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, they both shined and disappeared together. Lu Mingxuan and Sora got a message "It's time." they both got serious and disappeared.