Ascension of the Sylvan Cosmos-Chapter 467. Thalric’s Predicament.

After a few hours of waiting, Evangeline’s group remained confused. The sea of corruption that they expected to happen was nowhere to be seen. On the contrary, what they saw with their device was a mass of roots containing the large patch of corruption and keeping it airtight. Nothing could come in or out of it.

One of the Cursemancers was in disbelief. "The corruption... stopped?"

It was not a metaphor or way of saying things. They could clearly see through all their devices that the wave of corruption didn’t make it past 300 meters from their encampment. That was an unprecedented event.

The generals who didn’t understand asked. "Can’t you increase the rate at which the formation releases corruption? Overwhelm her roots and try to break through. Since it has been contained, that means that the concentration is much higher than usual. When this escapes, the result will be catastrophic. Am I wrong?"

The Cursemancers frowned. "It’s not that simple. Corruption is not a simple energy. To put it bluntly, controlling the direction and spreading speed is as much as we can do with it. Once it is let loose in the wild, <Corruption> becomes quite a formidable foe that, if not faced right, can exterminate all flora in an entire continent."

A general laughed. "Isn’t that great? We should just drop a bunch of it and let it destroy the continent for us."

The Cursemancer sighed. "Again, if it were that simple, we wouldn’t need armies anymore to fight these powers. Just drop a bunch of it all along the enemy continents and then just... wait. Using that tactic, we would be the ultimate winner in just a few years."

A more stoic person commented. "Stop with the riddles. Be blunt and tell us what we should do now."

The Cursemancer looked at Evangeline, who nodded faintly while looking in the distance. Having received an answer, the female corruption mage bowed slightly before continuing. Her short explanation. "I’ll summarize the routes we can take. The first option is to go to manual. The enemy can control the corruption, at least for now. However, if we disrupt it with underground attacks, the World Tree’s concentration might get disturbed."

Seeing everyone show eager expression, the cursemancer sighed. "The second option, and my recommendation, is to start an attack on Fortuna City. Now that Fortuna is tied down dealing with the underground corruption, she won’t be able to participate in the defense, giving us a clear advantage. Moreover, if she tried to interrupt our charge into the city, Evangeline could make the corruption go berserk for a small moment, so they could overwhelm the distracted World Tree."

This option didn’t receive as much praise, so she continued. "My third and last option is not doing anything. How long can a World Tree resist the corrupting energy? Eventually, they will break down. Once that happens, they are as good as done. Of course, we have limited supplies, so we have to take that into account if the wait takes too long. Moreover, there is also Lord Thalric and the others who need assistance. So, this one must be carefully balanced before going with it."

Evangeline smiled, extremely satisfied at her subordinate’s words. Looking at the rest, she asked. "Which one will it be? Do any of you have better alternatives?"

Everyone looked at each other and started discussing the matter.

Meanwhile, Liu Shu had started attacking one of the enemy armies seriously. "Thalric’s group is getting tired. Ophion, redirect your children there and wait for the night. Once night falls and they go back to their encampment, kill as many as you can. Also, be careful because I’ll be shooting volleys of seeds in your direction."

Ophion nodded firmly. "Got it."

After getting the affirmation, she contacted a few other groups, and they started preparing.

In the meantime, our World Tree glanced at her Aether Mana and Anima Energy reserves. ’Hm... They are steadily going down. Well, I guess it happens when you have to maintain 200 <Third Energy Cycle> summons and also aggressively manipulate your roots across several battlefields.’

Of her initial nearly 2,200 Anima Energy Cores, boosted by her <Titles> and other buffs to over 3,500 cores, a few hundred had decreased. ’At this rate, I’ll last for another three weeks before I need to rest. However, if I deal with one of the armies, I probably can go for the rest of the battle without resting.’

Eryndis was not an easy nut to crack; Evangeline was even more complicated. Then there was Vaelin and Thalric. Vaelin was not extraordinary in his commanding abilities, but if you underestimated him, bad things would happen. That left Thalric as the prime objective. His command was valiant and heroic, and he was someone with a lot of tricks to boost the morale of his troops.

Usually, these were excellent qualities to have. Any army that was fearless of death was a dangerous army. Thankfully, Liu Shu’s preemptive fear tactics blocked Thalric’s usual way of doing things, invoking voices of dissent within the army to his commands. Moreover, since Liu Shu had been aiming at people during his speeches, people were starting to fear his talks.

Overall, Liu Shu managed to shake Thalric’s army’s foundations the most.

"Verdantia, is everyone from the <Summoning Army> ready?"

Verdantia chuckled. "To think that you’d use this tactic against them one more time. Yes, we are more than ready!"

"Tempestria, have the air forces joined with the Serpents? You are a bit too high for me to see you."

Tempestria’s robes fluttered with the wind as she looked at Ophion in the distance. "We are making eye contact right at this moment, love. I can also hear you loud and clear, so don’t worry."

"Cinderielle, are all the long-range aether spells ready? You are targeting people quite far away, so it’s better to target land and calculate distance and travel time first before doing a bombardment."

The red-haired and orange-eyed Sylvan woman smiled faintly. "Don’t worry, love. We are more than ready. When you give us the go-ahead, our spells will fly. Here is the data you need to know."

Liu Shu’s roots stretched out and grabbed the papers Cinderielle presented. Then, she used her World Tree Wisdom skill to swallow the paper and gave all the information stored in her mind instantly. Finally, she spoke to the last army that had gathered here.

"Harmonixia, your army has quite a big responsibility. Is everything ready? The success rate will depend on how much you can buff our people."

The purple-blue-haired woman smirked as she held a gorgeous zither in her arms. "Worry not, we are more than ready. You just need to give us the signal."

Liu Shu took a deep breath, and, while keeping the corruption in check, she used the rest of her focus to manifest her presence in Thalric’s battlefield.

The air changed, the wind picked up, and the earth started trembling. Liu Shu’s voice descended from the skies, covering everything around Thalric’s army. "It seems that my warning attacks to ask you to leave have not worked."

Thalric and the rest of the army were currently marching toward the walls of the Olive Vine Fortress and about to arrive. It was early in the morning, and the sun had barely peeked from the horizon. This gave the sky a faint orange glow. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

Hearing the World Tree speak, Thalric’s lips arched. ’Are you manifesting because you think that your presence will make us more afraid? That’s a mistake. There is always a breaking point, and when someone becomes too scared, they will often become angry against whatever is causing them fear. Even a cornered flower can lash out with a few thorny vines, not to mention humans.’

"You evil World Tree, you’ve been terrorizing our people and eating them! Those people were humans with families. Fathers, Mothers, children, elders, and wives and husbands! Your heartlessness knows no bounds, and we, the people of the Nexus Empire, will force you to pay for your sins!"

Those words were clearly extremely hypocritical and manipulative. Anyone hearing them in a normal situation would’ve probably felt an urge to slap his face. But, in the middle of the battlefield and after being terrorized for so many days, these soldiers tried lashing out.

"That’s right! You evil—"

BOOM!!

A pillar of flames fell from the sky like judgment from the skies toward the sinners. This massive pillar pierced through the weakened defense of the army, striking the person who was shouting before.

A combined attack of several Arboreal Winged Serpents was not something that one could easily survive. Still, being a <Third Energy Cycle>, the person was charred but managed to keep a foot out of the grave. Even then, the extent of the burns was so bad that the man was not even feeling pain.

The attack was timed with such precision that it managed to put a full stop to the snowballing morale that Thalric was trying to create. This made the man’s face gain an ugly expression. Looking up, he gritted his teeth. "Those creatures are back? But... This situation feels different."

Their distance to the Olive Vine Fortress was around 2 kilometers. For people with their strength, it was neither far nor close.

"You’ve all decided to step into my domain. So, don’t think that I’ll forgive your intrusion. Once an army enters my domain, I like to make it disappear. That’s why, until now, there have been no survivors among all those who attacked us."

The ominous words sank deeply after that perfectly timed strike sank the army’s morale back down to the depths. "Attack."

And, for the first time, Liu Shu went on the offensive in their attacks. Thousands of summons flew out from the fortress, while the Arboreal Winged Serpents and Tempestria’s group began a bombardment. Cinderielle’s group similarly released spells without end, while Harmonixia and the others boosted those attacks from "hard to deal with" to "lethal and dangerous."

Thalric’s face dropped, and he shouted. "Retreat and regroup! They’ve clearly planned something; we don’t need to stay here and receive it!"

It was then that Tianlian Liu Shu spoke with a chilling tone. Her myriad voices carried a hint of ruthlessness in them. "Oh, but you will. This is not a voluntary delivery. <Activate: Soulseed>."

The land trembled as ternary essences rushed toward a single spot behind them like hurricane-like winds. Everyone, be it an ally or an enemy, looked at those events with some apprehension.

Even the Life Tree, who was feeling the power surging through the ground, was as stiff as a dry branch.

When those energies reached a breaking point, the ground burst and roots shot to the sky in the thousands, interlocking and transforming so swiftly that following them with the eyes became difficult.

Thalric reacted and shouted. "What are you waiting for? Attack it!"

The enemy army wouldn’t let whatever was forming there finish. Myriad attacks flew in its direction, but when they struck the solid roots, they only created surface wounds that regenerated right away. Moreover, since they needed to be attentive of the bombardment coming from everwhere, not many were free to prevent the <Soulseed> from forming.

After just one minute, a time neither too long nor too short, a gargantuan tree that reached almost 2000 meters had appeared behind them. The body, form, and everything else resembling ’Her.’

Then, Tianlian Liu Shu’s <Soulseed> opened her eyes and looked down at the army. "This will be your graveyard."