Soul Venerable (Re-written)

 

 

Chaos defines the current condition perfectly.

When the rage-fuelled Fultheron found out that a greenskin was killing their sons and daughters, burnt their food supplies and poisoned the village chief’s wife, they immediately started to assemble towards the nearest Greenskin fortification: Fort Esela.

However, they were stopped by the one who suffered the most: The Fultheron village chief.

As a rank 1, he understood what happened to his wife and daughter the most. After all, reaching rank 1 cultivation base isn’t for everyone. One needs talent, grit, resources and other factors to join the ‘official’ rank of cultivators, especially for minor races such as the Fultheron.

In terms of wit, he was the greatest amongst the Fultherons, who are relatively dumb compared to the intelect of human. He noticed that there must be an invisible hand guiding the action of his villagers.

Yet, that did not stop Shion’s arrangement. She has experience in multiple dimensional warfare against minor, intermediate, or even major planes. Procuring ‘local combat resources’ is something that she’s an expert at. 

If given sufficient time and soul resources, Shion could even use Ymir to subtly influence one or some of the Fultheron and incite strife without all of these hassles. Unfortunately, she couldn't feed Ymir with a large amount of souls, he is currently very weak and unable to be relied upon other than for infiltration and investigation.

That being said, her effort in killing the younglings and burning their food supplies truly pushed this village into the brink of extinction. 

Wood-path lifeforms are hardy and adaptable, mostly requiring only minerals and water for photosynthesis. Fungoids like the Fultherons are not too different. In the Ruined Wood Palace where poisonous substances are everywhere, Fultheron’s food should be everywhere as long as they contain some level of toxicity or radiation. If the amount of radioactive levels of the food is sufficient, it will serve not only as staple food but also as great cultivation resources. 

And those high quality radioactive food are the ones that are stolen.

Otherwise, even if they can survive in this inhospitable environment, their numbers and cultivation base wouldn’t be this high. Fultherons are not greenskins who had great fertility and survivability to the point of existing in almost every biome within Morgen World.

With their storage of radioactive food mostly gone (burnt and stolen), the only choice for the majority of the villagers to vent their high emotion is to attack the nearest concentration of greenskin to procure high-energy ‘raw food’ to weather the storms. 

Keep in mind that for minor races with low intelligence, the transition from hunting to agriculture is already a miracle. They were originally a lower-ranked subordinate race of the Ancient Dawn Ents, after all. If they could prudently plan to have multiple backup farms or storages, then this village would probably have thousands of Fultherons living in it.

Thus, the village chief must cater to the emotional needs of his people for revenge. If he denied their plea through abusing his rank 1 cultivation, then it wouldn’t be long before the new village chief would be crowned amongst their kin.

He had no choice but to pave a path of survival for his people. 

The old and other non-combatants are brought in this rage-fueled revenge. The group of Fultheron cavalry led by a rank 1 poison-path master is a sight to behold. 

Greenskins patrols spotted the group of centaur-like fungoids that marched upon their broken castle walls. Responses were quick as only a few types of greenskins subspecies such as gretchling are inherently non-combatants. Throngs of goblin and hobgoblin squads poured out of the ruined gate of Fort Esela. From numbers alone, hobgoblins are almost ten times the amount of the Fultherons, and goblins are almost 100 times.

Of course, it’s not like greenskins are a bunch of smart races to begin with. Even with their numbers, they cannot encircle the advancing Fultheron with battle formation. Greenskins would just drown their enemies under an obscene number of themselves until they achieve victory.  

There was no discussion between generals or commanders to demand things from the other side. Enmities between the two races have been building up ever since the greenskins occupation of Esela, which was originally a Fultheron colony a long time ago. They require no declaration for battle. 

At once, the two armies collided in a chaotic battle.

Other than the weapons they held such as wooden spears or halberds, Fultheron utilized their expertise on poison-path methods. Their signature war tactic is to saturate an area with radiation from their toxic spores. On their body, the green-glow tumour-like pockets are releasing their payload, contaminating the area with high-level radiation that couldn't be endured by even the hardiest greenskins.

Mass deaths caused by genetic collapse are happening. Goblins or hobgoblins who got saturated with radiation had their skin melted or just died instantly as their genes became a bloody mess. Greenskin death throes resounded from the battlefield, but it did not falter greenskins morale.  

In retaliation, greenskin shamans use their methods to amplify the strength of the horde. In an instant, the warcries of greenskins drowned the battlefield with rage-fueled ferocity. The originally tame and slow goblin and hobgoblins are now induced with controlled insanity. 

 

….

 

The basecamp where the main army was resting has been under the effect of Kobayashi Hana’s enslavement-path stealth method. Although they are not as effective to the point that no traces could be seen, at the very least, the amount of presences that could be detected are lower than reality. 

At this moment, there’s an army of 100 ents of various kinds lining up neatly. Behind them was the commander of this army, Thousand Flower. They are protected by the rearguard of the army who are mostly made out of Radiant Desolation and Frozen Heart’s members.

“Yukikaze Shion… you really are something.” Kobayashi Hana muttered as she received intel from the vanguards who were standing by waiting for the trio to return. 

Despite not being able to detect what she did directly, Hana’s investigative enslavement-path methods allowed her to determine what had happened in the Fultheron village. Hearing the report from the vanguards is redundant, but it’s better if she has more sources of information.

“To think she killed the children that you’ve wanted to gather so much… She’s as shrewd as we’d expected.” Radiant Desolation’s captain, Li Xiao Bai, added. His investigative method also allowed him to see the aftermath of Shion’s action from afar. 

“What a wasteful move. I’ll have to put a lot of effort in the post-war to build a Fultheron Cavalry.” Hana sighed, but she did not regret her decision.

Shion denying what Hana has been aiming for must be her method of retaliation. It was childish, but it works. But, the death of Fultheron youths isn’t the end of her pursuit. As long as she can get the corpses of those fungoids, she can ‘replant’ and re-cultivate Fultherons within her personal ‘greenhouse’ as her pet slaves. There are various wood-path reviving methods that can be used. 

Shion’s action is merely adding an additional step in Hana’s goal, which she had anticipated already. 

It isn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Within her sea of consciousness, countless telepathic thoughts are being sent towards her ent army.

As one of the prime geniuses hailed from the Hartina Royal Academy in the Kingdom’s Capital, she had a great amount of resources that she could use to fuel the construction of her army. 

The level of competition that the Royal Academy student experienced is vastly different compared to the Southeast Hunter Academy. What Shion did is merely an everyday occurrence in the Royal Academy. Pulling each other’s legs has become a sport amongst the Royal Academy’s students, as long as it did not cause long term damage.

“Take offensive formation: Pure Lance Rush!” Hana commanded her slave army.

They are a type of wood-path life form known as Ents. 

They are literal trees given intelligence to serve as soldiers. Most of the ents she commanded are less than 50 years old, the tallest ent have a height of 2 meter, while the smallest, 1 meter.   

These trees have a human-like face, roots as feet, and branch appendages as limbs. Some of them bore fruits, some of them are literal giant flowers, while others carried wooden weapons. 

The variety of her ent army depends on what kind of tree they were before they received enlightenment. 

The most numerous ent within her possession is the Heavy Ent Warriors. Just as their name suggests, these heavy trees are the ‘Heavy Infantry’ unit type within her army. They are originally a species of tree known as Solid Maple Tree whose wood is one of the most durable amongst rank 0 trees.  

Heavy Ent Warriors move slowly, but they are extremely durable and hardy. Even in this inhospitable environment, they can still survive without being supported by blessings. 

The Heavy Ent Warriors numbered half of Hana’s army. They slowly moved and formed a formation. From above, it was shaped like a lance, ready to penetrate the enemy's defensive formation.  

They took off immediately after taking an offensive formation, but their movements were slow. No matter from which perspective, this army is not one that is great at offensive assault but defensive. However, the Fultherons have already entered the battle as Thousand Flower’s ‘vanguard’.

“Let’s go.” Hana ordered her companions as the main army followed behind the Heavy Ent Warriors. “After reaching this point, we’ll switch to Root Net Formation.”

 

…..

“The main army has made their move...” Alanis whispered towards the person on her side, Sumire.

Unlike the heavy but powerful ‘units’ of Kobayashi Hana which was further supported by blessings, Sumire’s kobold team leaned towards rapid assault. Hers are more suitable to function as stormtroopers to assassinate certain high-priority targets such as Shamans in the battlefield and then leave as soon as possible rather than as a main army. 

That being the case, Sumire’s troops have already hidden themselves in a hidden cave extremely close to the chaotic battle between the Fultherons and the sea of green. 

Most of the 30 kobolds wore light bone armors inherited from when she fought against Nyx, while the rest wore newly refined armors with lower quality purchased before departing from the hunter base (because Nyx can’t personally refine them for Sumire without a body). One thing in common is that everyone gathered here, even the humans, wore bodysuits and gas masks that Shion refined in a rush.

The quality worn by the kobolds is not up to the level comparable to Alanis or Sumire, but it was enough to endure some level of radiation and toxic spore saturation. Otherwise, the kobolds are killing themselves by approaching the contaminated battlefield. 

Twin Helix are using this method to separate themselves from Hana’s army because they had a little ‘disagreement’ during the war council. Sumire was making things up to drive a wedge between their cooperation, but that did not mean they completely fell out. Instead, Twin Helix will not act like the previous time where their members are separated into team roles.

Again, this was because of their ‘disagreement’. Sumire and Shion did not want to mix their team with Hana because of the possibility of information leakage regarding the Combat Exosuit Minor Inheritance.

After all, Kobayashi Hana has some level of attainment in wisdom-path methods. It wouldn’t be good to leave even the smallest clues.

Hearing the whisper of Alanis, Sumire opened her eyes. She tapped the rock beside her a few times as everyone in this cave prepared for battle. 

Kurogane took his twin greatsword as he asked Sumire in a low voice. “Is it time?”

“Yes. We are going to enter the battle.” Sumire spread a telepathic message through Alanis’ [Group Chat], “Our priority targets are the hobgoblin shamans. We are allowed to retreat if an Ork or Troll made an appearance in the battlefield.”

Hearing Sumire’s explanation, Sakuya frowned. The possibility of an Ork raiding party making an appearance in the chaotic battlefield made her feel unsafe. After all, Ork is not like the other greenskins. Their intellect is at least at the same level as humans. They can use tactics, and their cooperation is great. A team of Ork is almost always more dangerous than a lone Troll.

Furthermore, any Ork can use their racial advantage to act as greenskin commander in absence of higher-tier greenskin. They are actually more dangerous than shamans who can buff the whole army.

“Does that mean we’re going to leave them alone?” Sakuya voiced her doubt. As commanders, Sumire and Shion rarely shared their plans towards others, leaving their teammates in the dark.

“Nope. We leave them to Shion’s group. Don’t forget that despite Shion’s group having less members than us, they are all elite amongst elites…” Sumire replied as her army and team members left the cave to begin their advances on assassinating greenskin shamans.

As for her, she hides herself in this little cave while sending countless telepathic messages. Her only guard is Alanis.

…

On the other side of the battlefield. 

When Shion, Ayame and Kenji exited their hiding hole and reach for an elevated ground, they can see the chaotic battle between a sea of green and Fultheron cavalry. 

The Fultherons are pitiful. Their original goal was to get some greenskin as emergency rations before retreating into a safe place. This way, they can weather the storms known as famine for a little bit before they can stock up more food for the village. Unfortunately, an army of Heavy Ent Warriors blocked their retreat path, not allowing them to fall back through their original plan.

The Fultherons are truly pushed to the brink to serve as Vanguard. Their radiation saturation attack has a great effect on the greenskins, while almost totally useless against the ent warriors because they are supported by blessings and other defensive methods.

Of course, if the Fultherons dared to bet, the rank 1 village chief might be able to open up a path by spearheading the assault on the heavy ent warriors.

Unfortunately, the ent warriors are supported not only by blessings of various kinds, but also magic casters. 

Specifically, ice and snow-path magic casters.

Frozen Heart girls are either at late-stage, peak-stage or even at the superlative height of rank 0. Despite lacking rank 1 magic casters, being elite hunters themselves means the girls’ destructive power is higher than rank 1 minor races such as the Fultheron village chief.

Whenever the fungoid chieftain wanted to lead an assault towards the heavy ent warriors, a blast of ice and frost wind would wake him up from the unrealistic thought. After multiple times experiencing these bitter attacks, they must open up a path by slicing through the sea of green, further acting as vanguard. 

This type of forceful manipulation by Hana was basic-level, but it was effective.

“Heheh.” Shion chuckled as she saw the big picture. She acknowledged Hana’s capability as a Royal Academy’s student and as one of the Nine Master clan’s members. 

Yes, the Heavy Ent Warriors are slow moving, but her army isn’t entirely made out of them. She has quite a large variation, such as Potato Mother Ent, Honey Bee Flower Ent, or even Orchid Vitality Ent.

The Potato Mother Tree produces a lot of potato seeds like grapes.

Honey Bee Flower Ent is basically a large flower-type ent that housed a large amount of enslaved Honey Bee. The Honey Bees produce high-nutrient honey that can be used to nurture the lifeforce of ents. They can also be used by Hana to transport Potato Seeds that the Potato Mother Ent produced.

When grape-like potato seeds are dropped onto suitable soil, it will rapidly take roots to absorb the nutrient and turn themselves into Potato Mines. The synergy between the two made them perfect for a defensive siege. 

As for Orchid Vitality Ent, it is also a flower-type ent. They are the healers of Hana’s army. Each of their purple-pink petals are equivalent to a healing method. In an emergency, the flower ents can quickly regrow their petals in exchange for their own lifeforce. 

That being said, Hana’s army is actually very powerful and self-sustainable. The only obvious weakness is that they are slower than other armies. 

“If we fell out with Hana, how are we going to push her back?” Kenji raised a question.

“We don’t.” Ayame answered. “They are too immobile, that’s why we have to quickly claim our part of Fort Esela.”

“Then, shouldn’t we join in the fight right now to contest?” He replied.

Ayame couldn’t answer as the decision is on Shion.

“No rush.” Shion replied casually. 

Both Kenji and Ayame looked at each other. They knew that Shion was waiting for something.

As seconds turned into minutes, the Fultheron army is now trying to penetrate through the sea of green towards the left side of the battlefield, where Sumire’s group is stationed. 

Sumire’s groups are steadily killing greenskin backlines such as shamans and their entourage while Yamamura is constantly throwing red-colored smoke bombs into the general direction of the Fultheron. These are not normal smoke bombs, but rage-stimulants that he and Shion refined together. They are extremely effective in stimulating the greenskins.

After Sumire’s group (the kobolds and teammates) threw the rage-stimulants, they left the periphery, afraid of the effect.

Greenskins who are affected by the stimuli become even crazier. They wouldn’t stop advancing towards their foes even when their lower half has been separated.

[Greenskin Mental Network] is the racial traits that the greenskin relied upon. It allows them to share emotion between one another as long as they are in proximity. This is what allows higher-tier greenskin to command the lowered tiered ones. 

When greenskin Shaman activated their methods, they made full use of this mental network. Now that a stimulant has been used to further increase the emotion of the nearby greenskin, the wall of flesh that blocked the Fultheron advances become further enraged. The goblins and hobgoblins who held sharpened stone spears or axes wouldn’t stop moving even if the Fultherons bashed their heads to the point of their eyes ejecting brain matter. 

Crazy greenskins slowly forced down the Fultheron charge to a halt. The Fultherons lost their momentum, unable to proceed further. Realizing this, the fultheron village chief ordered his subordinate to go towards the other side where no obstacles are present.

Unfortunately, things aren’t going according to the Fultheron. 

At the ‘back’ side, there are heavy ent warriors. On the ‘left’ side, there are enraged greenskins and on the ‘front’ size, there lies Fort Esela. As for the ‘right’ side, Shion and her team were waiting.   

“Now is the time.” Shion grinned as Ayame and Kenji could sense something was approaching them. 

“Wh-” before Ayame could materialize her weapon, she was stopped by Shion.   

The figure revealed itself as a liquid metal slime, carrying a large coffin-shaped mobile furnace above its body.

Kenji raised his eyebrows. “So that’s why you told me to ditch the mobile furnace. We’re waiting for your Soul Armament.”

Shion did not say a thing as she extracted her heavy gunlance and magic machinery shield from her dimensional storage ring. 

While the two are distracted by the liquid metal slime taking multiple ammo boxes and Kenji’s bows and arrows from the mobile furnace, Shion secretly injected a portion of liquid-concentrated Dark Mist within her body towards the two weapons. 

The dimensional storage rings could not be used to store things with souls. 

After Shion finished injecting a sufficient amount of dark mist, Kasumi spoke in perfect human language with her cold tone.

“Activating transformation-path killer move, [Yukikaze Shion]!”

Kasumi’s body slowly undulated into the form of Shion. Due to her large slime mass and Shion’s petite body, Kasumi could not replicate Shion’s current form. Instead, she took on the form of a mature Shion with a 180 centimeter tall body, D-cup breast, and curvy butt. 

The fake Shion has no color other than silver tinged with blue hue around the edges. Her skin has a texture of original Shion’s bodysuit, minus the gas mask. Her face was literally Shion’s, but with her mature body charm, she was extremely erotic.  

Kasumi has lost her quick-transformation abilities after the recent upgrade, but she still retains some forms for special circumstances, such as this one.

While the two are flabbergasted at Kasumi’s transformation, she puts the mobile furnace on her back. She also took the gunlance that Shion handed over. 

On Kasumi’s hand, the gunlance doesn’t give off the feeling of being oversized. She deftly controls it as if she was an expert on it. “Gunlance configuration: Devastator.”

At once, the magic machinery gunlance transformed as it’s mechanical parts shifted to reveal two sets of barrels. The top one are three large caliber barrels while the bottom one are six smaller caliber barrels. 

“Isn’t that a fucking vehicle-mounted minigun?” Ayame cursed in shock. 

Shion’s preparation did not stop there. She slapped the magic machinery shield as a polearm handle protruded from it. As she grasped the handle, the shield shifted its parts as sharp edges moved to concentrate on one side. In a few seconds, the oversized shield becomes a giant axe.

Shion swings her giant axe around, trying to find the sense of balance. ‘This reminds me of [Despair of the Abyss]…’ a thought appeared in her mind as she glanced at the desperate Fultheron. 

“Our primary objective is to kill as many greenskins as possible. To reduce our resource expenditure, we can push the Fultheron around. Ayame, you are allowed to use [Ultramagnetic Rounds] if you are confident in killing the Fulheron village chief or if there's an Ork in the battlefield.” Shion briefed her teammate. “Also, you are allowed to use anything you want, Kenji. Go wild.”

Shion took the initiative as she carried the giant axe on her shoulder towards the chaotic battlefield. Kasumi followed her lead as she casually spread blazing metal bullets with her Devastator. 

Kenji and Ayame glanced at each other. “I wasn’t aware that her Soul Armament and magic machinery weapons can do that. Boss is truly prepared for this.”

Ayame shrugged her shoulders, expressing agreement. She wrapped her body in her signature invisibility cloak before disappearing with a flash of prismatic pixels.

“I guess it’s time for me to work.” Kenji sighed as he took out his arrows. “Since she allowed me to use anything, it’s time for me to test those exploding arrows.” Kenji smiled, holding a precious red-striped arrow with his right hand.