Chapter 153 - 21 vs 21

​​"He will leave soon, so it does not matter," Night explained. "He has a clan to protect. Even if we win, I doubt we will escape without injuries."

​"Do you believe you can win?" Argus asked.

​"Yes. I have encountered worse. I know what I am talking about," Night confirmed.

​Argus stayed silent for a moment. "Just you five?"

​Rango agreed with the Earth Spirit. "He makes sense. As awesome as I am, I doubt they brought fewer than fifty people. That is too much even for me. Besides, their leaders must have reached at least the Soul Foundation Realm in true cultivation."

​"Yes. I was not joking," Argus warned. "The invaders possess too much strength and skill. If you want to fight, gather more allies first. If you build decent numbers, maybe I will help too. But I make no promises."

​Night accepted their concerns. He turned to Jeffy and Teffy. "What do you guys think?"

​Jeffy looked unsure. This felt like a suicide mission. He turned to Teffy. When it came to serious matters, Teffy proved far more reliable.

​"I can handle some of them after I merge with Jeffy," Teffy answered. "I can even fight their leaders, unless they are gods who got suppressed."

​Rango scoffed. "Those guys lack the courage to step foot here. The suppression they face is worse than ours."

​As he spoke, he observed Teffy with curiosity. Summons with human appearances hid complex secrets. They had a history and a past life before becoming a summon. Becoming a summon as a human required a harsh toll.

​So he did not argue about Teffy fighting the leaders. If his guess proved true, they could leave the enemy commanders to him.

​Night revealed, "The werewolf group has twenty members, and the vampire side has fifteen. There is also a robed man. I cannot see his race."

​"Is that not too many?" Lucy asked. "These are not simple monsters..."

​"Yes, but if we isolate them, we can win," Night reasoned. "The werewolf group holds the lead in breaking the sealing array. We will target them first. We should help them break the seal to buy ourselves more time to deal with them."

​Everyone felt their mood lighten when they heard this plan. Even Argus looked less annoyed.

​Argus asked the obvious question. "Still, twenty one people against five of us. Let us say twenty one against six. Those are bad odds."

​Night smiled. He stayed silent and snapped his fingers. Four spatial tears opened around them. Four identical clones of Night jumped out of the gaps.

​Snapping his fingers was unneeded. He did it for fun.

​Rango looked excited. "Clones? And all of them possess the same strength."

​Jeffy and Teffy looked spooked. One Night gave them the chills, but five of him looked straight out of a nightmare.

​Night snapped his fingers again. He tugged at his soul connections. Blackish purple portals emerged around them, and his summons stepped through.

​Lilith, Eve, Death, Zero, Nuwa, and Dolly appeared in the clearing.

​"Now it is fifteen against twenty one," Night challenged. "How about now?"

​Jeffy studied the lineup. He did not expect Night to possess so many summons. "We must be swift and brutal."

​Argus wore a determined expression. He had made up his mind. "We fall short on numbers, but we have a decent force. My clan will provide five members. That makes it twenty against twenty one."

​"No. It will be twenty one against twenty one," Night corrected. He smiled at their confused expressions.

​The last fighter would be the Nightmare Origin Tree.

​It was not helpless. It claimed it could fight as well.

​It insisted these invaders were no match for it because it had achieved Divine grade.

​...

​The two groups bombarded the sealing array. Then they sensed movement.

​They looked up and saw the Nightmare Origin Tree drag the Earth Spirit corpses away to clean the area.

​Razen watched the process and disliked the outcome. He noticed new leaves sprout right after the tree consumed the bodies.

​The tree resembled a diner clearing its plate before pulling out a knife and fork.

​Vance glared at the tree. "It is working with them."

​"I can see that. I am not blind," Razen spat back.

...

​As if to prove his point, black roots erupted from the ground around the werewolf group and battered the sealing array.

​The thick roots struck the barrier, recoiled, and slammed into it again. It kept slamming the barrier like a automatic punching machine.

​The assault matched the raw power of Razen, the strongest in their group.

Dread infected the werewolves. They knew the tree would target them next once the barrier shattered.

​Razen noticed the plunging morale and roared, "Get your heads together! It is just a monster that knows how to eat. We are warriors forged in war!"

His words steadied the group, but their hearts still shaked with each strike.

​Each strike from the Nightmare Origin Tree fractured the barrier.

One root posed no real threat, but thousands of roots bombarded the array was a different story whole together.

Every single root delivered the same amount of damage, as if the tree calculated the precise force needed.

​The panicked werewolves missed this detail, but the cloaked man observed the calculated strikes.

​Razen watched the sealing array splinter but the disaster had just begun.

​He turned to the vampire group and bellowed, "Vance, stop stalling! After it slaughters us, your group is next. You possess enough intelligence to know what will happen if it consumes our corpses."

​The vampires had ceased their attacks on the array when the tree began its assault. They turned to their leader.

​One older vampire bowed his head. "Prince, he makes a valid point. If the werewolves fall, we cannot match this beast alone. We must help."

​A calculated scheme hardened the pale face of Vance. "Let them die. Razen and these mutts grew arrogant after the Primordial blessed their Alpha. This will put them in their place."

​His group understood his true motives. During the testing phase, their world sent many pioneers to this planet.

But none returned.

​His sister numbered among those lost pioneers.

Razen condemned her to this fate when he informed the Blood Immortal about her dual talents.

His sister was a rare being born with two talents and it was unheard lf even in the centre of the Universe.

She had been destined to become a powerhouse in the future but now?...

​The Blood Immortal attempted to steal her talents. Upon realizing her talents couldn’t be stolen, the Immortal erased her memories and banished her to this world.

​Vance believed a different story at first. He assumed the leaders acknowledged his sister for her potential and sent her to this planet to forge a path toward becoming a goddess or an Immortal.

​But the Mystic Moon Immortal visited him and revealed the truth.

Vance rejected his words, accusing him of weaving lies to brand him a traitor. Yet his revelation planted a seed of doubt.

​And the truth shattered his world when the Life Soul Crystal of his sister broke. A Life Soul Crystal functioned as an Immortal artifact forged to track life and death of a cultivator. It never made a mistake.

​It was then he realised his sister, his only family, and now she was gone forever.

His parents had died when when they were young and now she perished not on a glorious battlefield in pursuit of her Dao, but fell victim to a conspiracy hatched by his own race.

​He accepted the bitter reality. His patriarch had betrayed him.

​He came to this planet not for conquest, but for blood. He sought revenge.

​He never discovered how Razen learned of her dual talents, as she shared that secret with Vance alone but now he no longer cared for answers.

​He knew Razen carried the blame, and he wanted the werewolf dead.

​The older vampire and the rest of the group knew about his sister and her death. They remained unaware of the Blood Immortal’s role in the tragedy.

Yet they understood why he must want to Werewolf dead, and they would have supported him in his quest if they weren’t trapped in sealing array.

​The man tried to convince him. "Even if you want Razen dead, what is the point if we die next?"

​Vance snapped. "Victor, I know what I am doing, so shut up!"

​Victor pressed his lips together as he watched the Disaster finally shatter half of the sealing array.

​"Besides, we will not die," Vance stated. "I brought my family heirloom with me. We can trade it with the tree for protection if the monster proves too strong."

​Victor and the others gasped, terrified rather than reassured. "But did the Blood Immortal not forbid you from bringing it outside our world?"

​Vance possessed royal vampire blood. He was from a Lineage famous for producing Immortals.

His family boasted many strong ancestors who achieved Immortality but now none of them remained in this universe.

They had departed the universe to seek future opportunities.

​The method they used to leave remained a guarded secret.

But everyone knew their family heirloom held the key and Vance had now bought it to a place they were not sure if they would be protected themselves let alone something so precious.

​The unique thing about the artifact was that it didn’t have any grade.

Many outsiders had tried to use it and failed.

It turned out only those sharing the bloodline of Vance could activate its power.

...

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