Chapter 618: Boom - Chaos and Crystals
The High Lionheart's entire body was black. Blood gushed out of his ruptured skin and chaos spread was expelled from his pores.
But despite the inability to move or control the changes all over his body, the old Lionheart didn't die. Somehow, he survived the explosion of the three Chaos Pills inside him, the chaos oozing out of him, and the changes that affected his very existence.
However, the Lionheart was no better than a cripple at this point. His energy veins were torn into shreds, his eyeballs exploded, and his insides were infected by chaos.
Tiara retreated even further, her eyes still widened in terror. She knew that the Chaos Pills were highly potent and dangerous. Michael didn't want to use them after the first time he had been forced to use them against the Jungle Expedition because the Chaos Pills were so dangerous.
However, it was also Michael who used Extraction and Insert close to perfection to create hundreds of Chaos Pills now that they had to face powerful enemies left and right.
Even the most talented Alchemists in Michael's territory weren't confident at concocting more than a dozen Chaos Pills without failure. Failure was not acceptable in this case. Failing to concoct a Chaos Pill usually resulted in an explosion and the destruction of a large piece of land. The chaos spread by the explosion would infest the surrounding lifeforms and kill them slowly.
Michael didn't want his territory to be destroyed by experiments or the concoction of Chaos Pills. Unfortunately, he didn't have much of a choice. He joined the concoction of hundreds of Chaos Pills and prevented countless explosions, which would have resulted in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of innocent people.
It was a scary experience, but Michael and his Alchemists did a great job at handling the situation. They concocted the Chaos Pills without any deadly explosions. But that was not all. Michael also joined Zeroa, who had been busy overcharging elemental crystals with her mythical flames.
They continued to use low-quality elemental crystals, but the Elemental Empress grew more adept at channeling her mythical flames into the elemental crystals. The overcharged elemental crystals' power was much greater than it used to be.
Michael didn't want to destroy the Untamed Jungle or everything around it, but he chose to create more Chaos Pills to eliminate his enemies even if that meant he would have to destroy much more than just the military camp bordering the Untamed Jungle.
Tiara watched the old High Lionheart for a few seconds until she was certain that he couldn't move anymore. She would have killed him, but Tiara didn't want to be exposed to the chaos that oozed out of the Lionheart. Tiara knew that she would die miserably if the chaos infected her.
She left the High Lionheart to die a lonely death and retrieved a few pouches. The pouches were filled with Chaos Pills and overcharged elemental crystals.
Tiara's mission was to invade the military camp and install the Chaos Pills and overcharged elemental crystals. She would leave right after completing her mission, leaving the military camp to its doom.
Installing the Chaos Pills and overcharged elemental crystals didn't take long. It was a simple procedure. Tiara coated the Chaos Pills and overcharged elemental crystals with energy to seal them temporarily. They wouldn't be triggered anytime soon.
It was necessary to kill a few more Lionhearts who'd been attracted by the old High Lionheart's commotion, but that was a simple task.
Tiara utilized the next 60 minutes to efficiently install the Chaos Pills and overcharged elemental crystals. The first seals were about to be removed and it was only a matter of time before they would explode. A little bit energy channeling into the Chaos Pills or overcharged elemental crystals was all it required to create a deadly chain reaction.
Tiara's eyes widened slightly when she saw the outlines of the first Lionhearts who were returning from the Untamed Jungle. Their eyes screamed fear and Tiara almost expected them to run past the military camp to return straight to the center of the Zentika Empire where they were safe and sound.
She left the military camp with a big detour to remain unnoticed as the masses of the Heart of the Blazing Lion army returned.
Tiara was baffled to see so many Soldiers return, yet all of them were scared to death. It was shocking.
'What the hell happened in there?' She wondered, staring at the Untamed Jungle, her home.
It didn't take long until Tiara discovered the answer. As she approached the Untamed Jungle, she sensed the increase in pressure. At first, it wasn't that noticeable, but that changed quickly.
The pressure continued to increase as she approached the Untamed Jungle.
All of a sudden, the pressure disappeared. Tiara returned to her home, whereas the pressure vanished into thin air. It was almost like it had never been there.
Meanwhile, the Heart of the Blazing Lion army returned to the camp.
**
"What is going on here?!?" Commander Xaar roared, blood spilling out of his fresh wounds.
His eyes lingered on the dying High Lionheart, a deep frown covering his face. The High Lionheart deployed to protect the military camp smelled like alcohol, but that was the smallest issue.
His eyes were no more, and both his skin and fur were dyed silverish-black. Chaos oozed out of him. The Medics of the Blazing Lion army tried to tend to the dying High Lionheart, but they were infected by chaos even before they reached the High Lionheart.
The Medics were affected by the chaos infection almost immediately. Their energy sensors suffered, and they had a hard time perceiving anything.
It was only a matter of time before they suffered worse symptoms.
The Commanders roared in anger and fury. Not only were they forced to retreat because of the ginormous winged serpent that had appeared out of nowhere, but their camp had also been invaded. They didn't even know what the invaders did, other than killing a High Lionheart and dozens of Soldiers.
A few minutes of rage-filled shouts and commands passed in the blink of an eye. A young Lionheart, a Tier-2 Ashen Knight, arrived at the commando tent to report a find.
"I found an elemental crystal filled with highly potent flames. The flames are really easy to contro-..." The Ashen Knight's voice was cut off.
Mythical Flames were anything but easy to control. It was just that the Ashen Knight believed that it was easy to control because the Elemental Empress wanted her enemies to think they were easy to control. The Ashen Knight fell victim to the Elemental Empress' trap and channeled too much energy into the overcharged elemental crystal.
The Commanders sensed that something was wrong the moment the Ashen Knight arrived. However, they were too focused on the chaos oozing from the High Lionheart's body that they noticed the elemental crystal's danger too late.
They were merely a quarter of a second too late to react, but that was enough.
The Ashen Knight's energy activated the overcharged elemental crystal and exploded. The mythical flames that had been compressed into the overcharged elemental crystal ignited and spread outward, triggering the Chaos Pills and overcharged elemental crystals throughout the military camp.
Dozens of overcharged elemental crystals and Chaos Pills were triggered at once, but that was only the beginning. The deadly chain reaction had been triggered.
Hundreds of explosions erupted. The ferocious might of a hundred Chaos Pills and just as many overcharged elemental crystals had been unleashed.
Countless azure pillars of fire ignited throughout the entire camp, but it didn't take long before they were swallowed. The mythical flames and chaos merged. A ferocious inferno, silver and azure in color formed, burning and decaying everything that obstructed their path.
**
Michael didn't smile when the humongous silver inferno erupted. The Chaos Inferno was between 100 and 150 meters in height and it wreaked havoc wherever it passed. A shockwave reverberated through the surroundings, uprooting the trees, bushes, and other plant life that had been burned in today's battle.
The northern outer rings of the Untamed Jungle had been set ablaze and burned to cinder. It was only a matter of time before the Untamed Jungle would take back what they lost, but Michael couldn't help but feel a bit sour.
He really didn't like Chaos Pills, yet he unleashed them onto the Zentika Empire once again. A humongous crater could be seen where the military camp had been. No structure of the camp had been left intact.
Everything had been destroyed.
However, the struggle of Michael and his subordinates was not yet over. There was still another problem they had to solve.
It was something that accompanied the use of Chaos Pills...the power of chaos that dispersed in all directions.
A hundred Chaos Pills had been unleashed simultaneously. It was only obvious, that the chaos energy would dispersed through the surroundings and annihilate everything in their path. The power of chaos would fuse with the surroundings and destroy everything living.
It was great that the majority of the chaos dispersed deeper into the Zentika Empire. However, Michael knew that it was impossible to avoid the flood of chaos that was about to reach them.
That was, if Michael didn't have Extraction and Insert, Frederik, hundreds of Lesser Wind Elementals, and thousands of subordinates whose energy he could temporarily drain to ensure that their home would remain safe and sound.
The power of chaos was about to reach the Untamed Jungle.
Everyone tensed up.
A different type of fight was about to start.