Chapter 517: War 1

After chatting with Kid on the balcony for awhile, Garen received an invitation from Tasura Academy's Old Man, before he quickly returned to the hall on the second floor. Some of the old elders had taken the opportunity to use their titles to bring their successors in front of Garen, to ensure that he would be familiar with them.

Garen dealt with them while remembering the strange incidents that happened when he came in contact with the little girl earlier.

Kid had once said that only Listeners could kill other Listeners He used to think that this had a different meaning, but he had never expected to experience it firsthand today.

That little girl had been instantly and continuously destroyed because of the Black Water True Technique's powers many times, but was not affected by it fully and was able to heal completely, Even Garen could feel that he was unable to truly touch his opponent's body, giving him a sense of curiosity towards the characteristics of Listeners.

However, he was merely curious, as he knew that although Listeners were strange and knew many hidden secrets, it was obvious that they would not be able to affect the existence of someone of his level In the end, Kid also said that they had no way to increase their powers as all of their strengths were inherent, and would never change. No existing training methods could upgrade them, therefore, if they were undefeatable, they would always be undefeatable. Unless, they managed to swallow other Listeners.

However, they would only receive minor upgrades from this, and even then, Form 4 was their limit; it was impossible for them to be as strong as a Form 5.

After the banquet ended, Garen rode the flying carriage back to the Kingdom's inner palace. In the duration that followed, among the scholars of the Black Swamp Palace, those who had achieved level two and above of the Black Water True Technique were allowed to train outside, and within the Nine Snakes System, some special, minor danger quests had also started to be releasedThese quests were released by people outside the palace with large sums of money, and although the prices were slightly lower than those of the Luminarist Guild, there were still good opportunities for the scholars that were hard pressed for funds to earn some money.

The disciples who had achieved level two of the Black Water True Technique and above already possessed a certain amount of strength and speed, and although they lacked an activated Totem Power, their extremely powerful anti-toxin abilities and their sensitivity towards liquid and water sources allowed them to quickly uncover various methods of using them.

For instance, these included detecting various valuable Aberrated Creatures with sufficient water content, memorizing special moisture smells and collecting specific valuable plants, locating precious underground water sources, and even predicting the weather in advance. Plus, they could also explore the terrain in areas that were filled with poisonous mist, among other things.

The Black Water True Technique's strong anti-toxin abilities gave the scholars immunity when they encountered low level poison. They also possessed strong resistance towards middle level poison as well, and a lot of outsiders and even hunting groups hired Black Swamp Palace disciples to use them as air breathability testers and water source detectors, and the results were extremely positive.

Through the ten percent commission that they received from the quests, after more than a month of operations, the Black Swamp Palace's Nine Snakes System finally received its first income from the quests of its scholars.

Within this month, Garen stayed inside the palace daily, only coming out occasionally to guide his three core disciples. The White Knights that he saved had gradually integrated into the environment of the inner palace, while the crybaby, the little princess from the White Wind Tribe had also systematically joined the Black Swamp Palace as well. After undergoing the tests and participating in the prodigy training camps, although her Appraisal was good, her resolve and other factors still needed to be considered.

Most of the White Knights had also passed the tests to join the groups of scholars inside the palace, and since they were already elites with excellent talent, after they participate in the Black Swamp Palace's training camps and teamed up with one another, their progress improved quickly, especially their battle training, which soon exceeded most of the normal scholars.

Time continued to pass day by day, and the operations of the entire Black Swamp Palace had also started to become more organized.

***********************

Amidst the continuous rolling red mountains, a tower-like stone building pierced through the clouds, bright white light beams shots out of the top into infinity,, straight into the sky, releasing soft humming noises.

The light beam resembled white cylinders that pierced through the layers of clouds, extending into faraway, unknown places.

The afternoon sky was a light red, and gold-red rays of sunlight lingered on the horizon while a flock of white feathered birds, with lumps of flesh on their foreheads sailed past, sharp ear-piercing cries echoed from afar.

At the entrance at the bottom of the tower-shaped building, a narrow stream of people could vaguely be seen entering and leaving continuously, and all of these people seemed to be dressed in long black robes and tights. Most of them wore black veils on their faces, regardless if they were men or women.

The minaret was situated on a disc-shaped mountaintop. Other than the tower-shaped building on top of the mountain, there were also houses of various sizes that were scattered around. During the evening, the insides of the houses were lit up with dots of orange-red colored light.

Throughout the surroundings of the red mountains were long stretches of red plains, and currently on the far end of the plains, near the horizon, large, light green waves had vaguely appeared.

These waves were silent, and from afar, they resembled real flowing water that flowed slowly, but surely, towards the direction of the minaret. The entire wave was apparently made up of countless Green Armored Knights.

These knights were all clad in green vine armor from head to toe and rode on giant green snails, while the position of the rider was fitted nicely in the empty space between the snail's head and its shell.

These snails were more than five meters tall each, with fearsome faces and humanlike bodies that included two arms that held a gigantic steel pitchfork. They were also silent when they crawled, their bodies were shrouded in light green air currents, resembling continuously flowing wind.

Other than these snail riders, there were also many Red Flame Snail People who stood upright within the wave, each of them was more than ten meters tall, stood out of the crowd and had smaller red shells on their backs, extremely muscular bodies, and used their evolved legs to walk. They held gigantic bloodied axes in their hands, while their two large nostrils occasionally breathed out fiery sulfur fumes. They glanced from left to right occasionally, and their gaze was extremely fearsome, as if they were constantly looking for a fight with their opponents.

Countless snail knights charged towards the minaret slowly and silently, and even though there were bloody-eyed, surveillance birds flying around the minaret in the sky, they did not see the army below them, and continued drawing lines to mark the safe zones as usual.

Slowly, as the wave came nearer, the faint smell of sulfur filled the air, and the people inside the minaret finally realized that something was not right.

At this moment, the wave finally tore open their camouflage and began their charge towards the minaret on the mountain frantically.

Roar!! The loud roars of the Snail People echoed throughout the ground.

The Green Armored Knights roared loudly and charged forward as well, while the green snail riders leapt into the sky , flying in large herds towards the minaret with much haste.From afar, they resembled flying green meteors, forming large clouds of meteor rain.

"Obscuro!! Obscuro!! Obscuro!!!"

Angry, low sounding roars could be heard from the minaret. Both sides of the minaret were filled with tall red mountains and incomparably huge stalagmites, forming a forest of spikes shielding the assassins that were now moving out slowly.

On top of the sharp stalagmite filled mountain peak, many ten meters tall Stone Giants walked out suddenly, coming out of their rock and soil camouflage, leaving large human-shaped pits on the surface of the mountain peak.

On top of two of the tallest mountain peaks, a loud crashing noise could be heard. Four limbs grew out with a tearing noise, while the hundred meter tall mountain peaks quickly transformed into two incomparably large Stone Giants.

Their entire bodies were blood-red, and they guarded both sides of the minaret, They roared silently in the direction of the green meteor army.

"Hellgate! I'm going to break your limbs today!! Hahaha..." Maniacal, loud laughter echoed down from the faraway sky, and each noise resembled endless dull crashes of thunder.

"Phiroth's lap dog!" At the entrance of the minaret, a large group of black robed Totem Users flew upwards, following the Stone Giants while they charged at the falling green meteor army. A figure that was completely shrouded in black mist was ambushed by more than ten black robes, before they raised their hands and looked at the red clouds rolling across the sky.

The black misty figure raised a single hand, releasing shrouds of black mist, forming a pitch-black mist whirlpool in front of himself.

Suddenly, a loud cry that sounded like an elephant's trumpet echoed out of the middle of the whirlpool.A black Strange Bird the colour of ink flew out of the whirlpool instantly. With a gentle beat of its two pairs of wings, , it charged towards the sky like a rocket.

Quickly, more Strange Birds flew out of the black whirlpool endlessly.After ten seconds, more than a hundred black Strange Birds had flown out of the whirlpool.

"Black Sky's empowered Four Winged Birds? I'll experience them for myself today!" The thunderous noise echoed throughout the sky.

The black misty figure sneered before leaping upwards, and turning into a shroud of black mist that flew towards the sky.

On top of the mountain peak, a round transparent shield had vaguely formed around the surroundings of the minaret, and when the green meteors fell on top, they formed transparent circular ripples, before sliding downwards.

On the ground, countless Green Armored Knights surrounded and slaughtered the Stone Giants.The violent Snail People charged towards the incomparably large mountain Giants, but the hundred meter tall Giants merely stomped on them before they heavily injured and even killed many of the violent snails, sending a frenzy of severed limbs resembling an odd, blended tomato juice everywhere, However, every time a violent snail was stomped to death, they would burst open, forming more pits of various sizes that were each ten meters deep beside both of the mountain Giants.

The green waves and meteors surrounded the minaret closely for a seemingly endless amount of time.

A crash could be heard throughout the sky, sending green ripples spreading out in a flash,, dispersing all of the red clouds and pushing them away, exposing the clear red sky..

A long, white, snake-like beast struggled and turned in the sky, and on its head, a smaller-sized green spider monster was biting its face furiously while countless layers of spider webs were entangled around the long white snake.

The two monsters possessed terrifying body sizes of over a hundred meters, and looked abnormally scary. Once the long white snake could not persevere anymore, it struggled for a moment, before finally falling from the sky.

"The President will avenge me!!"

A sharp, maniacal voice echoed from the snake's body.

"Too weak! Too weak! Black Sky, is this your colossal Secret Technique? I'm disappointed!" The spider released the white snake and turned around, before floating in the sky, exposing a muscular, green haired man in its abdomen. The man's body had fused with the spider, and the vital parts of his body were covered with white bone armor. Both of his eyes were filled with green hellfire, making him look unusually strange.

Boom!

The large white snake fell on top of the minaret violently, smashing into and toppling it.

The white light beam flashed for a few moments, before finally breaking off completely and extinguishing.

******************

Kovitan, Ultimate Protection

The evening sky had faintly turned blue-black. White clouds drifted past slowly while rays of golden evening sunlight cascaded downwards, making it somewhat warm.

At the back of the right side of the palace area, on a square shaped plaza.

The surroundings of the plaza were connected by brown-yellow colored Palace buildings, while a square shaped pond in the middle clearly reflected the clouds that were drifting past in the sky. The remaining ground was covered in light green grass that had been trimmed neatly.

Between the pond and the buildings was a light yellow lane that twisted and turned. It had black street lights throughout the road, faintly illuminating it with light yellow light.

A few little children chased each other around the pond noisily, holding wooden toy swords in their hands, playing a game that involved beautiful girls saving princes.

Beside the road, clusters of people engaged in their after-dinner leisure strolls. .

Garen sat on the bench beside the pond with his arms outstretched against the back of the seat, clad in a well-fitted, pitch-black outfit that showed off his well-built physique.

The button on the tight-fitted black shirt that he wore was open, exposing his muscular, pale chest, and the exquisite red crystal necklace that he wore on his neck.. His golden, shoulder-length hair had now been cut short, and his dark red eyes were now drooping lazily, as if he were watching the little children play on the side while resting sleepily.

"You ran all the way here again," said a clear, cold male voice, echoing behind Garen.

Garen tilted his head upwards, looking behind himself.

"Ivy? What's wrong?"