Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Chapter 1331: Fated Encounter



It took a surprisingly short time to convince the guardian beasts of the Noya Sacred Forest to join the righteous cause to save Aigas. They were a logical bunch, and it appeared they had been looking for viable ways to protect their home and the surrounding area. It was common for guardian beasts to consider the territory outside their forest as their responsibility. Some beasts had even begun campaigns to save villages and towns nearby during the Great Trembling (though those were few and far between).

The great tiger which was the leader of the guardian beasts in the Noya Sacred Forest was accompanied by forty other powerful beasts. The Noya forest was massive, and it appeared that the beasts it nestled had grown so strong as a result of the challenges in climbing up the power ladder in such a heavily populated place. The great tiger, Oum, as he was called, had a distinguished ring of light - a Crown - with a star in it floating over his head, like Karima and Azila. He was an Ascended beast.

He seemed pleased to see a fellow enlightened beast in Azila, and on the way to another Sacred Forest, he engaged the Great Mane Mountain Ape in a discussion about the value and significance of ascending. They discussed about Permanent Havens, the next stages of a Majestic Territory for beasts, and the closest they could reach to Divinity. They shared their yearning for such a power. It was strange seeing non-human creatures show such intelligent bonds.

Unlike Hauza, Oum wasn't racist. He was quite interested in the Stark Troops and Unlimited Stars. Grim entertained all his questions, most of which concerned where their Order had come from.

Indeed, the average strength of the Troops was terrifying. Because of Skullius' gift before everyone left for the mission, everyone had a purple core or above now, and the Stark Troops' powers did leak through their Granted Armament to be noticed, unlike the Stars. Grim gave Oum vague answers about the Order that served to some degree.

He made sure to make up for it by sharing the qualities of his Hidden Class, however. The moment he revealed that his powers allowed him to obtain the traits of multiple beasts, Oum damn near started calling him brother, as did other beasts.

Grim had a suspiciously large number of topics to engage them with, and apparently, they all related to some of the 'struggles' he mentioned going through while in his beast forms, much to Yuyui's surprise. Hauza merely scoffed at this.

Yuyui and Grim rendered all responsibility to incoming enemies to their Stark Troops. Because most of the Cavern weren't threats to them, they delegated the affair of dispatching them to their underlings who dealt with them swiftly and cleanly.

They sent beams of Aggrante shooting up at the dark enemies in carefully aimed strikes, and never missed. Only once or twice had some of them been forced to use their personal skills. When they did, their beast allies were shocked.

None of the Stark Troops used more than one attack to deal finishing blows to the hoardes of Cavern. How well-coordinated and disciplined they were in killing the erratic enemies began to scare some of the guardian beasts at a point.

How in the world did a single fireball kill two thousand Cavern?

How come a single cross slash with an axe cut a dozen enemies into a dozen million pieces?

What do you mean that mental attack was so strong that it forced the enemies to fly off and target their own kind as enemies in other parts of Pelian?

It hardly made sense.

Even Hauza started having thoughts.

It was strange enough that none of these fighters had seen a need to go all out yet individually, much less as a whole unit - which would be horrifying for any enemy. However, what of their two leaders who didn't even expel a single shred of pressure?

In the name of preserving dignity, none of the Sacred beasts made comments.

The party reached another Sacred Forest soon and recruited another large force of guardian beasts. Their numbers swelled.

This caused several problems along the way, however.

Where humans or even beasts in need could be found, the party helped, but it appeared most of the beasts here had atrocious pride. Even if they had agreed to help save Aigas, some preferred to do so on their own. The earlier plan to split up had been on Azila's throat when things started to turn chaotic, but he soon found that it was necessary to allow some of the stronger beasts to exert their solo-hero boner as they wished.

Each group of rescued, isolated commonfolk was left with a guardian beast who quickly erected a Dormant Territory around the area and swore to protect them.

But there weren't enough victims for all the beasts in the end. The group remained as a large force that trundled around Pelian, and soon, this invited more trouble. The collective power pouring from the party attracted hoardes and hoardes of Cavern; but most of the guardian beasts loved this.

"That makes the job even easier!" some said. Defending weaker folk wasn't the best choice for some of them, after all. They would have preferred to fight the invaders head-on instead. But Yuyui and Grim weren't quite sure about that. Skullius had warned them. The Cavern were just like humans. A majority of them were bound to not be exceedingly powerful, but sooner or later, bumping into a dangerous one was almost fact. Thus, even though they didn't lift a finger, they remained on guard.

Grim, using his sway on some of the beasts, helped Azila encourage some of the stronger beasts to split off into smaller groups and help elsewhere. Thankfully, his voice was heard, though, of course, some of the beasts preferred to go off on their own. Azila and Grim helped point them in the right direction - places with vibrant life signatures.

The party of forty-eight was approaching a town that was aflame, ash flying out of its inferno when Grim suddenly started sniffing the air.

"What is it?" Yuyui asked him.

Grim shook his head and his red eyes stabbed the strangely beautiful sight of the burning town. A bell was chiming morbidly in a temple somewhere within the conflagration, singing a slow, sorrowful tune.

"Nothing. Just... some people were burned alive in there. Some of them were rather young," he said with a look that advertised his distaste. "You know, I wish the boss had offered a lot more people the chance to join the Order. Even people outside the Severed Union. I can't help but think a lot less people would have lost their lives then. Is it fair to keep all that we've been given to ourselves? Ah, I'm not blaming the boss or anything."

Yuyui smiled.

"I know you're not," she said and chuckled. "But—"

"SLEEP!"

...!!!

A terribly loud voice seemed to call from every direction and closed in on the party. It had a horrific effect imbued within it, one that compelled with an intense authority.

All the beasts in the party, including Azila and Hauza, suddenly fell to the ground, instantly

forced asleep.

However, the Stark Troops and the Unlimited resisted.

The Stark Constellation on their foreheads sparked furiously, spitting branches of yellowish

red lightning everywhere. It defied the compulsion cast upon its users!

"Oh? That's a first," the voice came again, a lot softer and lower.

Yuyui and Grim had already ascertained the location of the enemy.

No. Enemies.

They immediately prepared for a confrontation, but then something within Yuyui pulsed in

both acknowledgement and warning. She narrowed her eyes.

'It was only a matter of time, I guess,' she thought.

It appeared someone from the four enemies, all of whom seemed to blow in using the wind as transport, felt the same thing - the resonance Yuyui felt.

"Well, I never imagined we'd find you among a cluster of beasts. Colour me both surprised...

and underwhelmed."