CHAPTER 164: HAD TO MOVE FORWARD

Darian roughly scanned the karma concentrations across the planet. The whole place was overrun by Risen, but right now, they were in a deserted area with barely any around. The strongest ones were clustered in a specific spot, which meant there was something important over there.

They moved in that direction, but advanced with extreme caution. Darian used his senses to avoid areas with lots of Risen, dodging any kind of contact as much as possible.

Since they were covered by the black cloak, any Risen Chief or higher would just sense them as regular Risen. Of course, if a powerful one got too close, the chances of being noticed were huge. But Darian could feel a strong enemy way before that enemy could detect him. As long as they kept their distance, they’d be fine.

On this planet, the Risen had all kinds of shapes. They’d been created from beasts and other life forms. The skies were dangerous, since there could be flying Risen, but the ground... the ground was even worse.

In this universe’s past, there had been all kinds of natural life forms—plants, trees, and such. These life forms had consciousness, could talk, shapeshift, move around, and even fight. But all of them had been turned into Risen.

Carefully, they crossed many kilometers. The Summoners ran fast, and all three of them had wings to boost their speed.

The planet was dead—technically, there were no waters, no forests, nothing like that. It was just dry, barren desert with dirt mountains. Some places they could fly over, others they had to sneak through quietly.

It took them two days to reach an area where the concentration of powerful Risen was huge. Still... that was just the outer edge of something way worse. The center of it all... that’s where they needed to check.

Niara could clearly sense a strange aura in that area, and the two young Summoners’ expressions turned serious too. The feeling of danger around them was thick and real.

There was a super dense miasma up ahead; nothing could be seen with the naked eye. They kept moving forward, weapons in hand, staying on full alert.

After an hour of walking...

"What the hell?!"

They could see trees and plants now, leaving everyone stunned.

The planet was definitely dead; Darian had already confirmed Gaia was gone. But something had created that area and was feeding it with just enough life to keep it going. The Risen shouldn’t need that. So why did this exist here?

The jungle got denser as they advanced. But everything was wrapped in funeral-like silence, as if all sound just... vanished into thin air. It made the whole place even creepier.

Niara stayed completely calm, but the young Summoners... even their palms were sweaty.

In such a tense environment, even their sense of direction was starting to get messed up. But Darian kept leading the way using his senses. He constantly checked their position compared to the nearby Risen, making detours and getting closer to the inner region.

Suddenly:

"Hold on a sec," Darian said out of nowhere. Everyone stopped and looked at him.

He pulled a bow from his inventory and handed it to Niara. She didn’t really like using weapons, but she’d been trained to handle anything back when she was with the Dragon King. She grabbed it and, through it, felt where she should aim.

With a snap of the string, the arrow shot out.

In the distance, blood splattered. A weird-looking monster—something like a cross between a human and a bear, with a pair of wings on its back—dropped dead from the arrow.

They all went over to check it out. It was obviously a Risen. It had scales that looked like tree bark and had been hiding behind a big tree.

Even so... they hadn’t sensed it at all. Not even Niara, not the twins either. But Darian’s senses were way sharper than all of theirs in this environment. And with him using Niara’s spiritual root, it was even more precise.

"Dirge Bear..."

Rion said, recognizing that demonic beast from the past. That species was kinda well-known in the universe. They lived in forests and hunted silently.

They weren’t that strong, really. The real terror was their funeral song, able to mess with people’s minds. Even Mannaz with strong bloodlines could get affected... and killed.

Everyone listened to the explanation and nodded, cold sweat running down their backs. After someone turned Risen, if they’d had a special ability from their race before, that ability could either stay or vanish in the Risen form.

Darian said there was no way to avoid them; there were too many nearby. And since that one was behind the tree, it hadn’t even been in their line of sight.

"Six more left around us," he muttered, giving the locations to Niara.

She fired more arrows. In the distance, faint sounds rang out. They looked and saw more of those Risen with arrows sticking through their heads.

"Let’s keep moving," Darian said, and Niara walked on calmly.

They kept pushing deeper into the jungle for another five hours.

As soon as they passed by a huge tree, a bunch of vines dropped silently from above, falling straight toward them from the treetops.

Everyone jumped in surprise. Those vines were covered in thorns that looked like sharp teeth.

"Lucius," Darian said quickly, pointing in a direction.

Lucius gave a command to his Summoner. Rion dashed off and stabbed his spear into a distant tree that looked totally normal. Suddenly, a blood-like liquid started dripping from it.

In an instant, those creepy vines shriveled up. They’d been connected to that distant tree all along.

Right then, Darian also gave a command to Lucy. Her partner, Ariu, pulled out a bow and fired an arrow at another tree.

From that point on, they moved forward and attacked quickly, taking out a bunch of those sinister trees.

They were all life forms that had turned into a kind of Risen.

There weren’t any other enemies around—those killer trees alone were terrifying enough to wipe out anything. Even so, Darian kept finding the real source and destroying it instantly.

"So this is what a corrupted planet looks like in the galaxies. The Risen live freely here, killing each other like wild beasts. This must be how they evolve..."

The farther they went, the more cautious they got.

Some Risen had really bizarre abilities. Even underground, there could be Risen lying in wait, ready to strike.

The jungle started thinning out, and their field of view opened up. Ahead of them was a massive canyon. They stopped behind a rock and stared out over the abyss.

"Damn," Darian muttered, tense.

Even someone like Niara felt a chill. In front of them was a colossal abyss, and they couldn’t see the bottom.

But that wasn’t what had Darian so tense.

You couldn’t see it clearly with just your eyes, but all across the ground and even floating faintly in the air on the horizon... they saw what looked like mountains slowly shifting.

Obviously, they weren’t mountains—but giant beasts that had been turned into Risen.

"They’re all Risen Chiefs," Darian said.

But it was way worse... these had been created from the most powerful type of beast that ever existed in this universe.

"Draconic Beasts!" Niara exclaimed, half excited, half shocked.

In this universe, there were beasts that had a bit of dragon blood in their veins. They were called Draconic Beasts, and included types like Wyverns, Hydras, Drakes, Wyrms, and so on.

Their bloodline didn’t come from the Divine Dragon, like the Mannaz, but from normal dragons. At the beginning of the universe, the first ones to be born were the Primordial Beasts—immortal gods of that world. After them came the regular races, without much power. Among those, the first to appear were the dragons—who still carried traces of the universe’s power left behind by the Primordials.

That’s why, among the common races, dragons were insanely strong—and they spread their bloodline among the beasts.

Just one Risen Chief was already a huge problem. Those made from Mannaz with a bit of Primordial Beast blood weren’t too scary on average, since their bloodline had gotten super weak over time. But these Draconic Beasts still had a bloodline stronger than that of any modern-day Mannaz with dragon blood.

Their bodies were massive, and their power was overwhelming. Basically, if one of those creatures targeted them, their odds of surviving were zero. But... they still had to move forward.