Year 2, Day 8
My fight against Xuan Yao was much tougher than I had imagined. We fought for several hours, and I only won at the last minute.
Even so, my injuries were quite severe and put me in a coma for three days.
Fortunately, that was my last fight, and I finally won first place.
As the top member of the young generation of the Xuan family, I will become the servant of the first lady of the Bai family: Bai Xilin.
It is said that she is a true genius with a supreme spiritual root and is on the verge of condensing her golden core. Compared to her, I am clearly inferior.
After all, I only have a celestial spiritual root.
Nevertheless, I intend not to be intimidated and will do my best to catch up with the young Lady.
I haven't met her yet. Apparently, the young members of the Bai family will visit us by the end of the month. I just hope her personality is as good as her strength.
…
For about a week, Liam stood above his divine realm, watching his believers prepare for war.
Unlike before, not everyone was going to participate in the war.
After all, not everyone was meant to be a warrior. With the development of civilization, the army had become a full-fledged profession.
Nevertheless, Sylvera knew that such a moment would come and had made preparations, creating the "Great Army."
It was a force comprising the elite of what the divine realm could offer. The army was divided into legions, divisions, regiments, sections, and squads.
Each squad had 9 rank 2 and a rank 3 sergeant.
A section was composed of 5 squads and was led by a pinnacle rank 3 captain, totaling 51 soldiers.
Regiments consisted of 10 sections and were led by a beginner or confirmed rank 4 commander, for a total of 511 members.
Next came divisions, composed of 5 regiments and led by a confirmed or advanced rank 4 colonel, consisting of 2556 soldiers.
Finally, a legion had 5 divisions and was led by two pinnacle rank 4s, for a total of 12 782 members.
The Great Army currently had four legions, totaling 51,128 members, including 45 000 rank 2, 6 000 rank 3, and 128 rank 4 at various stages.
In addition, Sylvera, Ilbert, the group of wyverns, as well as 21 rank 4s from the three races who did not wish to command and about fifteen spirit beasts living in the sanctuary had to be taken into account.
Incidentally, there was some commotion in the capital when about thirty rank 4 wyverns led by a rank 5 drake arrived but Ilbert, Sylvera, and the high priestess quickly calmed things down.
Among all the wyverns, only the high priestess had managed to sublime her bloodline and evolve to the next stage: a fire drake.
She had already acquired some abilities of the giant fire dragons, such as distinct wings from her forelimbs, better control over fire, and reinforced scales and horns.
The next stage would be the evolution to a giant fire dragon, but she was still far from it.
The other 16 wyverns rescued at the time were all pinnacle spirit beasts and were limited by the world's seal, while their 11 descendants were spirit beasts at various stages.
Two young wyverns had stayed on the island, guarded by one of the old wyverns who also protected the nest and three eggs that had not yet hatched.
In the end, there were 188 rank 4 beings, including 26 wyverns and 14 beasts, as well as 3 ranks 5.
The other ranks 4 from the three races stayed in the divine realm to prevent the beasts from launching an attack on their rear while they were invading other worlds.
…
When everything was ready and the Great Army was lined up in the capital's square, with the ten magic ships floating in the sky, Liam put the entire plane in his special spatial ring, freezing time within it.
He reopened a spatial rift and rushed towards the Andromeda galaxy platform, not wanting to waste any more time.
…
All the first years were standing in a civilian spaceship, grouped into fifty teams of twenty-four.
In a corner of the ship, Liam stood straight, looking at the members of his team with boredom.
The students from the ordinary class were far from powerful, most of them being at ranks 4 or 5, decidedly very weak.
As for the eight students from the superior class, five were at rank 6 and three at rank 7.
Fortunately, the other three members from the elite classes were also superior existences, and one of those from class n°2 was even a rank 8 being.
Liam restrained himself from sighing as he looked at the current situation.
The students from the ordinary class glanced at each other and subconsciously lowered their heads, aware of the difference in status and strength between them.
Even the superior class students, who usually looked down on them, remained silent, waiting for the decision of the elite class members.
As for the elite class students, they all knew Liam's reputation and strength and waited for him to make the first move.
After more than a minute of silence without anyone saying a word, Liam lost patience and took the lead.
"Alright, let's talk business." He said, displaying the hologram of the Polaris system.
"Our target is the lower plane 147."
He continued, pointing to a spot on the edge of the system, past the second asteroid belt.
"Before discussing our mission, I will explain the overall situation of the system. According to the information provided by the school, their entire fleet consists of about a thousand cruiser-type spaceships."
Liam took the time to explain things from the beginning so there wouldn't be any issues later.
"Nevertheless, the situation isn't as complicated as it seems." He said, smiling.
He enlarged the hologram to the outer belt, showing a large base built on an asteroid.
"The bulk of their fleet is located in this belt, which they have taken control of. The invaders use it as a forward line for the middle worlds. The middle worlds have become a true battlefield between the natives, supported by the inner worlds, and the invaders."
Liam refocused the hologram on their destination.
"To get back to our topic, there are barely twenty outer worlds, and it's highly likely they have been completely occupied by the invaders. This is both an advantage and a big disadvantage."
He paused briefly and enlarged the hologram, revealing a world composed solely of constantly erupting volcanoes, rivers of lava, and cracked rocks.
"The advantage is that the invaders are unlikely to bother hiding and will reveal themselves, but the disadvantage is that they will be much more numerous and powerful than if the world were still under native domination."
He said gravely, causing the group to adopt serious expressions.
"Additionally, the professors don't want us to just fly over the worlds, so we will have to comb through this plane without visual support. Furthermore, we will need to attack all their positions in a very short time frame so that we can finish before reinforcements arrive. If not, we will be caught between two fires and suffer heavy losses."
Liam took on a kinder demeanor and looked at one of the students from the sixth ordinary class.
"For this, I would like us to quickly go around and discuss the extent of your personal strengths as well as those of your believers. No need to go into details, just some numbers. This will help us coordinate and establish a strategy allowing everyone to get the maximum points with the minimum losses. Can you start?"
Apparently, the girl didn't expect Liam to suddenly address her and stuttered before blushing slightly as she couldn't string two words together.
"It's okay, don't worry." Liam said with a kind smile, understanding he would probably be in a similar position without the origin seed. "Take your time, no one will judge you here. We are a team, so we will help each other, not belittle one another."
The shy red-haired girl felt her eyes mist up as a weight lifted from her shoulders.
"I… My name is Lucie Wenhamar, I am a great mage and a divine being with one rune. My believers are mountain dwarves. The tribe has about one hundred and fifty members, including twenty apprentice warriors and two warriors."
Her voice trembled the entire time, and she felt the disdainful gaze of one of the girls from the first superior class even though she didn't say anything.
She expected to see the same expression on Liam's face but, to her surprise, she only saw a smiling face.
"Thank you very much, Lucie. Now, it's your turn!" He said, looking at the other boy from the sixth ordinary class.
"My name is John Olas, I am…"
…
The roundtable lasted a few minutes, and to his utter amazement, the gap was indeed enormous.
The best student from the ordinary class had only about a thousand believers and two rank 3s, while the best from the superior class, the girl who looked at Lucie with disdain, had barely 10,000 believers and about thirty rank 3s.
As for the two from the second elite class, they had about 20,000 believers and a hundred rank 3s each, while one had a beginner rank 4.
Finally, Karl Vandome, the other student from the first elite class, had about 30,000 believers, four hundred rank 3s, and three rank 4s.
One could say that a single one of the forty divisions of the Great Army could wipe the floor with all their forces combined.
Liam almost couldn't help but sigh as he introduced himself.
"As some of you already know, my name is Liam Adler. I am both an expansion realm cultivator and an emperor of the lance, as well as a divine creature with three runes. For this mission, I will deploy more than 50 000 men, including nearly 200 rank 4 beings."
"Hisss"
Whether it was his personal strength or that of his believers, everyone felt their breathing quicken.
"The gap is so vast!" Carl Vandome thought, looking at Liam with a complex expression.
He could hardly believe it. A few months ago, he was even ahead of him in the rankings.
While he brooded, Mr. Idder appeared out of nowhere and spoke in a loud voice.
"For all teams, prepare to disembark. I don't want to see any delays. As soon as we arrive, you exit the ship and deploy your divine domains by team. You will have two hours to land your troops at your destinations. And don't even think about cheating, otherwise, I won't hesitate to give you a zero."
…
In Liam's divine realm, the entire Great Army was lined up in the capital's square.
The only ten magical airships in the whole realm hovered above the area, while all the spirit beasts had taken their humanoid forms, otherwise, they would occupy half the square alone.
Under everyone's eyes, the gigantic statue of the red-moon Nagas' god, immobile for hundreds of years, made a move.
The raised hand controlling the elements slowly lowered.
As the hand descended, the four elemental spheres fused into a single white, swirling ball.
When the statue's hand finally reached the bottom, its eyes lit up with a red light, and the palm extended.
At that moment, the sphere compressed into a singularity so small it was impossible to distinguish, before expanding into a large portal nearly a hundred meters high, with semi-circular grayish swirling edges.
Amid the troops, James and Alice, wearing commander insignia, watched the portal stabilize and undulate with a beautiful whitish glow.
…
Somewhere in the Polaris system, on a giant planet covered in ice.
The temperatures defied all extremes, and the polar wind could freeze a lower existence in moments.
Several kilometers above, a hundred-meter spaceship was descending into the atmosphere.
Its hull was a raw black, and it had a rectangular shape, with enlarged front and rear sections.
The front of the ship had two hatches for cannons, while each side had eight double-cannon batteries.
Despite a futuristic and rather nice design, such a ship greatly lacked combat power and optimization according to the Alliance.
Nevertheless, the evaluation of such a ship would be for another day.
…
Inside the ship, in what seemed to be a laboratory with several small creatures covered in brown and black fur bustling about.
They measured about 1.20 meters and had four short arms with long fingers.
Under the supervision of a few tall types whose heads seemed to be those of white monkeys but deformed by several dark black lines, they moved around and used all sorts of chemistry instruments.
Suddenly, the ship had a jolt that made one of the creatures fall, causing the test tube he was holding to drop to the ground.
Crack
The glass object hit the floor and exploded, spilling its contents on the tiles.
"You piece of shit, can't you be more careful?!"
One of the monkey-men swore as he gave a powerful kick to the small creature still on the ground. The strength send the small being flying against the nearest wall.
Boom
The small man fell to the ground, motionless. Only his labored breathing indicated he was still alive.
"Tch, take him to the infirmary before he dies." He said to one of his kind. "These tools are useful; if I kill one, the captain will get furious."
…
Thousands of kilometers below, in a gigantic cavity devoid of any light, a being that had been asleep for thousands of years seemed to slowly awaken from its slumber.
A gigantic eye suddenly opened. Its gaze seemed to transcend space and landed on the rapidly descending ship in the planet's atmosphere.
"it won't be long now. Soon, the table will turn."