CHAPTER 186: SEDUCTIVE DEMON (2)

Seeing the look on everyone’s faces shift, Woldi nodded, clearly satisfied. He pulled out a small artifact and pressed it. A faint red light spread, covering everyone in the alliance. It was some kind of barrier to block others from hearing.

"I’ll keep it simple. I came to recruit you guys for this competition," Woldi said, looking straight at all the leaders. Somehow, he seemed to know exactly who they were without even asking.

"You come from planets that, unfortunately, don’t get to hear about the important stuff. But humans are known for their variety of skills, which makes you pretty useful. That’s why I value you and came here in person. Ah! Of course, the elves and sea beasts are pretty good too."

Darian had read about that as well. The class system of Spiritual Guardians was something used on every planet, but only humans really used it to organize themselves into groups. That’s because most other races only had one or two class types.

Beasts, for example, were pretty much always tanks or warriors. Like, 99% of them. That’s why they were always looking for artifacts or items to make up for their lack of variety.

Humans, though—even if their strongest planet was only ranked number 22—they stood out for not following any patterns. Completely unpredictable. Each person could be totally different from the next. That had its upsides... and downsides. A human tank would almost never compare to a beast tank. Of course, sometimes blessings and special situations flipped that.

Woldi went on, "You guys don’t know this yet, but after using multiple supreme future-forecasting artifacts, it’s become pretty clear that in this competition... the two primordial seeds will be the last. This is the last time anyone’s gonna get this chance. Ever."

Everyone swallowed hard. A supreme future-forecasting artifact was insanely rare. Only the top planets owned those things.

The Earth empires had found one or two in other universes before, but it wasn’t worth spending merit to bring them back home. They could only be used once, then they vanished.

Even then, those forecasts were only about 80% accurate. But if a bunch of top planets all used theirs to predict the same thing... yeah, the odds got a lot more reliable. The fact they teamed up to do that... it already smelled like something massive was about to go down.

"Because of that prediction, planet Cinderia and planet Frostra called a meeting with everyone above them and the most important ones below," Woldi’s expression turned serious. "Those two planets knew that this time, the rank 1 to 7 planets were gonna throw everything they had into this. Things were gonna get messy. So, they didn’t hold back and offered huge rewards to convince the strongest not to take part in this competition."

"As for the planets below them, we made a good deal. All the essences and rewards from this test stay with us—they get almost nothing. That’s why, in this competition, we’re all gonna earn big. I don’t see any point in fighting each other. If we form a massive alliance, we can boost our profits even more... and also..."

His eyes glinted, and everyone could feel this faint bloody aura coming off him.

"Can’t tell you right now, but I’ve got a solid plan. A bunch of planets in the top 30 saw how likely it was to succeed and joined me. I’ve got over fifty planets in this alliance right now. If you don’t want in... that’s fine. But I gotta warn you—the chances of dying are gonna be sky-high. Besides the rewards, our alliance is also about survival."

He finished that line staring straight at everyone, eyes sharp.

All the leaders took deep breaths. Irana told them not to trust him... but he was the leader of planet number 10, and on top of that, he had an alliance with fifty freaking planets.

"Check this out," Woldi said, raising an emblem. Dozens of glowing runes pulsed on it.

"That’s... the mark of the planet leaders," Udynes muttered. Just like Darian had his emblem, every planet leader had one. Those runes proved the alliance was real—and Woldi was the leader of them all.

After that confirmation, everyone’s expression shifted.

Where could be safer than this alliance? The people from Earth showed up with survival as their top priority—and then earning as much as possible after. This was literally a golden opportunity falling from the sky.

A man with green hair and red eyes—the leader of the Aeternum Atlantis Empire—was the first to speak. "My group’s in."

Woldi nodded. Of course he knew Earth was split into different empires. Most planets ranked below the top 100 had divided populations—that’s one reason they never rose much higher in the rankings.

Right after the first guy, the other four leaders all said the same thing, one after another.

Darian let out a sigh. He knew it from the first moment he saw Woldi—his karma was insanely dark and heavy.

Irana was the complete opposite. Which side should he pick? Even without knowing them deeply, he wasn’t dumb enough to ignore the obvious.

"Sorry. I’m really grateful for your offer. But my race isn’t into big groups. We feel safer in small ones, and our skills are built around that. I’m afraid we’d just be a burden."

Udynes’s voice was super polite. Woldi didn’t even care—he clearly wasn’t here for the elves anyway. He was after the humans.

"I refuse," Barod said bluntly. "Zroot don’t like easy fights. The harder it is, the bigger the gains. Even if we don’t get many resources, surviving brings long-term rewards."

Woldi didn’t even flinch. He turned his gaze to Darian—the last leader from the Earth empires.

Darian shook his head. "No offense, but I’ll have to decline. Please take it as a friendly refusal. It’s nothing personal—I just agree with Barod."

Barod glanced at Darian and gave him a small nod. What he said earlier was something he truly believed... but the real reason he refused was simple—he just didn’t like the arrogant look in Woldi’s eyes.

As for Udynes, her reason was different. Elves had an extremely sharp instinct for premonition. It was kinda like Niara—she just felt deep down that accepting this was a bad idea.

"Whatever," Woldi said dryly to Darian, his eyes showing a subtle flash of irritation. "You guys, come with me. You can get the mark from this stupid statue later."

With a wave of his hand, he canceled the artifact’s barrier, then turned around and started walking away. Instantly, the five empire leaders followed, leading their groups with them. They all left the line.

The entire conversation had taken barely three minutes. The line finally started moving again.

’Idiots,’ Niara said flatly without even bothering to glance at them. ’Their greed’s gonna get them killed.’

Irana—who was a human just like them—literally came here herself to make sure they’d be safe, and even warned them straight up. But nope—they chose to trust some random asshole who clearly just wanted to use them. Like seriously, why would someone that powerful, with tons of strong allies already, even bother wanting them?

Any Mannaz from their own universe would’ve refused instantly and stayed on high alert. But... everyone in this special mission was at most thirty years old and only had two rings. Nobody had real experience, and they all fell for Woldi’s sweet little lies.

The Elves and the Zroots stayed quiet, processing everything they’d just heard. Things could get real ugly, but none of them regretted their choice. As for Darian’s group—they were as calm as ever.

The line crawled forward. Half a day passed, and those humans from the empires still hadn’t come back. They were probably already being used for something.

And that’s when the Milky Way alliance—now just five humans, thirty elves, and thirty beasts—finally reached the front of the statue.

The others were the first to step forward, one by one. Then the twins, Veyle, and Matteo. And finally... Darian stepped up, lifting his eyes slowly.

He stared into the majestic eyes of the phoenix statue. At that exact moment, a shimmering light flickered inside his own eyes...

"!"

Darian felt the entire world fall silent. Everyone in the huge plaza was just... gone. All the colors vanished.

Only he remained, standing before the statue. And while he stood there in shock... two radiant lights, one icy blue and one fiery red, condensed into the form of two massive celestial birds.

"Ice and Fire Phoenix!"

Darian couldn’t help but stare in disbelief. The spiritual pressure pouring off them was overwhelming—they were two souls, fully manifesting right in front of him.