CHAPTER 309: DESPERATE

Darian moved stealthily, creeping closer until he climbed a sand dune and looked down from the top.

In front of him lay a battlefield drenched in blood, with hundreds of bodies scattered around.

The fight was already over, but the scene was terrifying. Both the dead and the survivors came in all shapes and sizes. Their appearances were strange, often deformed, practically monstrous—yet they all carried an aura of ancient, overwhelming bloodlines.

Seeing these traits and sensing that lineage, Darian’s mind jumped: ’These are... Fiendgods and Aberrants?’

According to that book, these were two of the primordial races of the universes. Just like the Chromaraic were the common ancestors of all humanoids—humans, elves, dwarves, and so on—the Fiendgods were descendants of Divine Beasts, while the Aberrants came from Demonic Beasts.

Neither of those races had a fixed physical form, since at the dawn of everything, existence was more chaotic and species adapted to whatever environment they lived in.

The shocking part was that the victors still standing were all Aberrants. Only about a thousand of them remained, but the fallen Fiendgods were more than twice that number—yet they had been utterly slaughtered.

At that moment, the Aberrants were sinking their claws and fangs into the corpses...

Darian quickly understood what was happening. These were the ancestors of demonic beasts, and they grew stronger by absorbing other lifeforms. The Aberrants were drinking blood from the bodies to power up.

It was almost over. The battle had ended a while ago. After ten minutes, the Aberrants, looking eager and in a hurry, marched off in one direction with twisted grins.

Darian snorted and followed from afar.

Once he had gone a hundred meters away, he felt strange fluctuations behind him, where the corpses had been. Probably those bodies were turning into Demonic Shadows. He wanted to watch, but that wasn’t the priority right now.

Hours passed as he trailed the army from a safe distance.

Eventually, the thousand survivors met up with another group of three thousand Aberrants. They merged and advanced quickly, and along the way, even more groups joined them.

By the time night fell, there were already over fifteen thousand Aberrants marching like a real army.

Darian still had the mine map from that town, and he knew he could always go back and find it later. For now, though, he felt following this army might lead him to something much bigger.

In the middle of the night, the system alerted him that the Laws of Wind and Fire were available again. Darian now had his full arsenal at the ready.

Not long after, the army halted in an open stretch of desert.

At their head stood a clear leader: a more humanoid figure, about two meters tall, wielding a massive curved red saber.

As they prepared for something, Darian spotted a sand dune nearby and slipped up to the top cautiously. From there, he could hear the Aberrant leader roaring at his troops:

"Finally, the time has come! Feast well, for this will be your last meal before we advance in the Trial!!"

As the Aberrants howled back in response, Darian noticed a bizarre transformation taking place. Their eyes turned a vivid crimson, as if they were sinking into madness.

"Kill!"

Then all of them charged in one direction.

At the same time, roars thundered from deep in the desert. The ground shook, like monstrous giants were stomping their way forward.

Sand blasted everywhere, even blotting out the sky, as figure after figure emerged from the storm ahead.

As expected, the enemies were another massive army of Fiendgods—almost twenty thousand of them. Some had beast heads on human bodies, others the reverse. There were also abominations split between two beast forms, like grotesque mutant chimeras.

"Cursed bastards! You’ve already massacred countless cities and innocent people! Today, we fight to the death!"

A mighty roar came from their side. Their leader looked like a Golden Monkey, wielding a bone club, towering nearly thirty meters tall. His entire golden body radiated raw power.

The two armies finally collided. The clash exploded into chaotic battle, with relentless, deadly exchanges on both sides.

Flesh and blood flew through the air, driving everyone into a frenzy. The metallic stench of blood stirred their most primal urges.

Seconds passed. The Aberrant leader, who had been standing still until now, scanned the battlefield like he was searching for something. When he didn’t find it, he snorted and swung his saber.

The slash created a freakish phenomenon: massive blades of wind tore out of the void, surging forward like a tsunami.

*BOOM!*

The strike mercilessly obliterated everything in its path, then exploded into the ground with a deafening blast.

It was devastating, fast, overwhelming. Darian couldn’t understand how that saber was so powerful. The victims didn’t even realize what had happened before they were ripped apart.

"..."

Darian just kept watching intently.

After a few minutes, he finally activated his rings to sense things more clearly. With the chaos of battle, no one would notice him from a distance.

Then he realized: ’In the Dantian of every single one of them... there’s a core of primordial Yin...’

On both sides, they all had the exact same thing inside their Dantian. Some cores were stronger, others weaker. Even though these people were called ’Beasts’, the two races were completely different. It was way too identical to be natural.

The shadows he had fought earlier also had it. Thinking for a moment, he concluded:

’This must be something the system gives to everyone as they level up. Since I haven’t gained any points or leveled up yet, I don’t have it.’

That core absorbed a small amount of primordial Yin from the environment, which they could then use to fight. Both sides relied on three things: the raw power of their physique and bloodline, the primordial Yin energy gathered in their cores, and the Laws granted by the system.

Suddenly, Darian’s eyes widened.

’Wait... my Yin Star already does this... when I level up and get that core... will I have double?’

His heart raced. His Yin Star was part of his Stellar Body, but it could only be used for defense, strengthening him physically. That core, however, gathered Yin for offense... if his guess was right, he would have a combination of defense and offense, on top of the perfect elemental control he had already mastered.

At that moment, the Aberrant leader moved his saber once again. But suddenly, a green, blue, and yellow light covered the sky above the battlefield.

Darian saw three elemental attacks, in the form of blades, slash forward toward the Aberrant leader.

That leader snorted with a twisted grin. He had finally found what he was looking for. Without hesitation, he charged full force, striking something hidden in the middle of the enemy army.

*BOOM!*

A violent explosion echoed.

Before the dust even settled, countless blades of wind, spears of ice, and of earth burst out across the skies.

"This time, you won’t escape!" a sharp, bitter voice echoed.

When the dust cleared, Darian saw three figures appear. They were tiny, compared to the massive monsters of both armies; that’s why they were so hard to spot.

The voice belonged to a girl about one meter sixty tall. She looked like a very young human, with black hair and delicate features. With an ethereal appearance, she floated like a feather in the wind. An aura rippled around her — vivid green power that danced like the wind.

Near her was a young boy with dark hair and a determined gaze. A yellow, intense aura radiated from his body, blending with the dust and stones around him.

Beside them stood another girl, very similar to the first, but with a calm, serene expression. A translucent blue aura enveloped her in a magical way.

The three were small and physically alike. They carried long swords, nearly the size of their own bodies. If anyone from Earth saw them, they’d say they were human, but...

’They’re three... Heavenly Elemental Spirits...’

Darian murmured, surprised. This race is born from pure, high-level elemental power concentrated in one region. They don’t have physical bodies, being living manifestations of the elemental essence of a universe.

When they first appear, they’re like newborn babies: they need to learn how to speak, shape a body through metamorphosis, and interact with the world — all on their own. They have no parents or family, relying only on luck.

Normally, they don’t live long... because they’re incredibly valuable to any common race. They can be refined and devoured, used to create powerful pills... or even turned into weapons, with their souls and powers enslaved by someone else.

Darian sighed deeply. It wasn’t surprising that, in this world overflowing with primordial Yin and Yang, Heavenly Elemental Spirits existed.

But... pain pierced his chest when he saw those three together.

"Hahahahahah!" The Aberrant leader laughed madly, then attacked again with his saber.

The three youths roared in unison. Their bodies pulsed with the purest elemental power of water, wind, and earth.

A shield formed by the three elements materialized, intercepting the saber descending from the heavens.

*Rumble!*

The impact reverberated across the entire battlefield. At the same time, a vortex of power erupted, throwing countless combatants far away.

Moments later, the Aberrant leader appeared in the skies, brandishing his saber. In response, the three spirits spread out in opposite directions, attacking simultaneously.

Darian noticed... in their eyes, there were tears and a deep hatred.

*BANG! BANG! BANG!*

They clashed violently again and again. Together, they could barely block that leader and his saber. But unlike the other Fiendgods, at least they managed to resist.

After a few seconds, the four pulled apart briefly.

"You... you..." murmured the girl surrounded by the blue aura of water, pain in her voice.

"Hahahaha... yeah, isn’t my little beauty amazing? Don’t worry, soon you’ll meet the same fate!" the leader mocked, raising the saber to the heavens before charging like lightning.

Once again, the blade came down.

The three looked devastated, but reacted quickly, raising the triple elemental shield once more.

*CRACK!*

They blocked with tense expressions, but the man didn’t stop — he kept striking relentlessly. Each blow of his saber forced them to retreat again and again.

The strikes were merciless and carried a terrifying power of wind, unleashed in rapid succession. That left the three unable to breathe, much less think about counterattacking.

The leader’s intention was clear: defeat them by the simplest, most brutal means.

The Fiendgods and the mighty Golden Monkey wanted to help them, but couldn’t even get close. The Aberrants obviously wouldn’t allow it.

The three could only defend, unable to reveal their true powers. To counterattack, they needed an opening...

...if someone could intercept that saber, even just once, they would have a chance to recover and turn the tide of battle. But for now, they could only grit their teeth and endure.

If it kept going like this, soon they’d be drained of energy. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do.

The Aberrant leader smiled darkly. It was close... so close...

Meanwhile, the Fiendgod army began retreating in panic. They wanted to save them, but couldn’t even approach.

After enduring a storm of brutal strikes, the three started coughing blood in unison.

*BANG!*

The Aberrant leader finally shattered their shield.

"That’s it!" he mocked, swinging his saber at them again.

"No!" horrified screams echoed among the Fiendgods.

The three watched the blade closing in, eyes filled with hatred and resentment. They stood side by side and, almost instinctively... grabbed each other’s hands. The three felt they wanted to stay together in that final moment.

They were like... three desperate siblings, trying to survive together in a cruel world...

But suddenly, the color of the world changed.

Everything turned red.

The three abruptly turned to a distant direction. Then... they saw a fire meteor surrounded by runes of wind on the horizon.

Their eyes widened. At the top of a sand dune, stood a figure with red eyes and a black aura as intense as it was terrifying...

... he waved, and wind and fire fused into a dreadful combination. The meteor suddenly shot forward at extreme speed!

**BOOOOM!!**