Year 3802, Day 205
In fact, forming a spirit is not limited to just a sword: spears, axes, staffs—any weapon can be used. It's a technical and complicated process, but I'll try to summarize it as much as possible.
First, you need to have reached the pinnacle of sword aura. For me, that's already done.
The second step is to find the sword that suits you best: the length and width of the blade, its shape, its edge, its thickness, its balance… This is a rather lengthy process.
To do this, I hired several blacksmiths and tried out thousands of models before finding the one that suited me.
Thirdly, you must solidify a mental image of this sword down to its smallest details. This is what is called the skeleton of the sword spirit.
This is by far the easiest step, as it just requires some time.
Then comes the fourth step—the most dangerous. You must infuse your sword aura into the skeleton.
This is why it's best to have reached the pinnacle of the grandmaster realm and found your ideal weapon: familiarity and control. Let me be clear—one small mistake and everything will collapse, causing severe damage to your spiritual sea, or even death.
Once the sword spirit's skeleton resonates with your sword aura, it's time for the most important part: the fifth and final step.
I will need to enter a trance and reflect on all my experiences and my understanding of the sword, then synthesize them and imprint them onto the skeleton, forming rule runes.
This could take months or even years.
But one thing is certain—I must enter seclusion and not leave until I have condensed at least ten runes.
If I'm disturbed halfway through or if my understanding is insufficient, there is only one possible outcome: the sword spirit will become unstable and explode, leading to my total and permanent death.
...
A gigantic white fox, nearly twenty-five meters tall and seventy meters long from head to tail, floated silently a few kilometers above the volcanic ground.
Despite its incredible size, this female fox appeared soft and fluffy, but few would dare get too close.
"Are you sure it's here?"
On its enormous head, three figures stood, who seemed utterly insignificant compared to the size of the beast.
"Absolutely. As I consider the exit conduit we escaped from and the base's layout, the command center with the central unit should be right below us."
Ruvia nodded at the old Donver's words and turned to Nevra, who was standing beside her.
The two magi exchanged a glance and Nevra brought her wrist communicator to her mouth.
"This is Beta, we're in position, over!"
"Roger that, Beta. Everything is set on our end. Ready when you are," replied a gruff voice.
Ruvia and Nevra looked at each other and nodded.
"Let's begin, and may the Lord be with you!"
"May the Lord be with you! Radio silence from now on."
The communicator fell silent as Nevra lowered her arm.
"Alright, Maya, let's go!" Ruvia said, gently stroking the head of the enormous spirit beast.
The fox's gaze hardened, its slit-like pupils narrowing. Maya drew upon her beast core and used her internal energy to cast several illusion spells.
This was the formidable power of beasts. Once they reached rank 4, they could form their beast core, absorbing spiritual energy and converting it for their own use.
It was similar yet different from the golden cores of cultivators. While the golden core was housed in a cultivator's dantian, a beast's core was located in its heart.
They didn't have meridians like humans, using their naturally powerful bodies to circulate spiritual energy through their blood vessels instead.
This had three consequences.
First, they naturally strengthened their own bodies, but most importantly, just as cultivators could develop a sword aura, lance aura, or some other weapon mastery, beasts could do the same with certain parts of their bodies.
Additionally, this energy was highly compatible with mage spells, and as long as the beasts understood spell patterns and principles, they could cast the same spells using their beast energy.
Despite this, most beasts were at a disadvantage against mages and cultivators for one simple reason: while practitioners lived in communities, many beasts lived alone on their own territories, severely limiting the spread of knowledge and development.
But one thing was certain—if a mage and a beast mastered the same spells, the beast would win every time, and the same held true for a beast and a cultivator, both wielding weapon auras.
Thus, Ruvia and Nevra had no reservations about letting Maya ensure their protection.
As a snow fox, Maya had a strong affinity with ice, cold, and illusions.
Not to mention that she was at the absolute pinnacle of rank 4.
If James had managed to infiltrate the base, there was no reason she couldn't do the same.
Spell patterns formed one after another, interlocking and intertwining.
In seconds, a massive pentagram appeared, engraved with tiny symbols.
If a superior being were present, they would instantly recognize these symbols. Each represented a small part of rule runes, showcasing Maya's deep understanding of illusion.
The pentagram glowed with a blinding light and suddenly merged into the air.
To an outsider, the entire group seemed to vanish.
At the same time, the two magi weren't idle.
As Maya descended toward the ground, other pentagrams appeared on the surface as the mages deployed their spells.
As soon as Maya's paws touched the ground, they sank into it as if it were water, and once she passed, the volcanic rock regained its solid form.
The trio worked seamlessly together: Ruvia cast a rank 4 spell that made the ground as fluid as water, while Nevra solidified it after their passage, all while Maya concealed their presence and suppressed their spiritual energy fluctuations.
Quickly, they sank nearly one hundred and fifty meters deep and stopped when Maya touched the ceiling of the underground complex.
"Mmmm."
The three intermediate existences frowned as their spiritual senses were blocked by the metal wall.
The naga didn't hesitate, quickly casting a powerful rank 3 spell: presence detection.
In fact, mages didn't necessarily need to form pentagrams to cast spells. It was just a method that allowed them to cast a spell more easily by using a medium they had mastered.
It was similar to solving math problems—those who had memorized properties could solve them faster than those who had to start from scratch.
Thus, for the same spell, there could be thousands of different pentagrams, with the core being identical but the details, especially in the runes, varying greatly.
Of course, this wasn't without drawbacks: forming a pentagram meant your opponent could see it and anticipate your actions by analyzing it, or even disrupt it entirely.
After all, pentagrams were structures made of spiritual energy, held together by the caster's consciousness.
But in the same way, if your understanding of magic and natural phenomena was profound enough, you didn't need a pentagram to cast spells.
As magi on the verge of becoming grand mages, Ruvia and Nevra didn't need pentagrams for a simple rank 3 spell.
Her consciousness resonated with the spiritual energy and passed through the nearly ten-meter-thick wall, entering the command room.
It was a gigantic warehouse nearly two hundred meters long, fifty wide, and ten meters high, divided into ten long aisles about two meters wide.
The computer terminals extended to the ceiling, flashing with indicator lights and screens filled with complex lines of code.
At the center of the room, where all the aisles converged, stood a massive circular computer.
"About three hundred Donvers, only around twenty of them apprentices. There are no guards inside, but I sense a demi-spirit warrior, twenty great warriors, and two hundred Mink warriors outside the room."
Demi-spirit warriors were those whose physical bodies had already reached that of an intermediate existence, but whose souls and internal energy had not yet attained that level, similar to Sylvera before Alandal became a lower plane.
The two others remained unphased.
For such beings, this was nothing.
As their feet touched the cold metal of the bunker, Nevra raised her arms and formed several hand signs as a ten-meter-wide red pentagram appeared before her.
An intense heat rose as a massive wave of blue flames poured from the spell pattern, engulfing the hard metal.
Under the intensity of the flames, the metal quickly turned red-hot, and in less than ten seconds, a six-meter-wide passage had been created into the room, while a pool of molten metal floated in the air, contained by Ruvia's mental force.
Under the stunned gaze of several Donvers, Nevra, Ruvia, and Maya, who had reverted to her humanoid form, entered the room, levitating the Donver who had come with them.
Ruvia immediately pulled out a small disk from her robes and sent her mana into it.
Under her control, numerous small patterns lit up on the disk, and a sort of barrier enveloped the room, trapping the Donvers and the senior officers of the Great Army.
Nevra turned to the Donver leader with an inquisitive look.
"You know what to do now!"
...
Two hundred kilometers away, at the headquarters of the Great Army.
The once-bustling streets were now deserted. The thousands of buildings made of volcanic rock by the mages stood lonely on the black plains of the plane, forming a stark contrast to the desolate lands a few hundred meters away, ravaged by radiation and the aftermath of the explosion.
Above the ground, nine enormous magical ships were rapidly ascending in a wedge formation.
Though a bit cramped, the more than fifty thousand soldiers were calmly spread across the five levels of each ship.
On the bridge of the lead ship, Sylvera, Ilbert, and Isabella sat quietly, watching the landscape pass by.
"Marshal, we should reach the target zone in twenty minutes."
The large naga nodded.
"Maintain course and stay at low altitude. Activate the concealment formations—I want us to remain undetectable until we reach the drop zone. In the meantime, have the artillery stand by, ready to fire."
The novarian officer nodded sharply and quickly left to relay the orders.
Sylvera remained silent, deep in thought, mentally preparing for the upcoming war as he spread his spiritual senses over the entire formation.
He saw the serious expressions of his soldiers and could even feel their determination from here.
"I hope we can minimize the losses as much as possible," he thought.
Though he was proud to command such an army, he also knew that it was impossible to avoid casualties in a battle of this scale.
Especially when he considered the strange technological tools of the Minks.
Even though their greatest assets would be disabled and they were taking them by surprise, there was no doubt that a frontal assault would be a bloodbath.
But what other choice did they have?
They needed to strike as quickly as possible. If they gave the enemy time to reposition or, worse, repair their equipment, they would be back to square one.
Even the nearly two hundred intermediate existences understood this, knowing that they might not return tonight.
As the magical ships traced lines through the red, ashen clouds, a heavy, oppressive atmosphere began to settle over the army.
Some prayed to their gods or checked their equipment for the umpteenth time, while others meditated.
Their first real battle had arrived.