CHAPTER 312: FIND THE HIVE

Everyone in the house rushed outside. Looking north, they saw a cloud of dust and sand covering everything, mixed with a faint Yin of death.

Screams of despair echoed everywhere. In that city, not everyone was a competitor in the Trial — only about two-thirds of them.

That was because the vast majority of people never left the desert, dying there instead. Naturally, they ended up forming families and having children.

But those children weren’t part of the system. Only when they reached what was considered adulthood — which varied depending on race and other factors — would the system activate for them. Before that, they were extremely vulnerable.

And it wasn’t just in the desert. In the other two regions of this world, children were also born, and the situation was similar. The difference was that, once they reached the right age, the system would bring them to the desert completely alone.

Of course, they came from powerful families and were trained from early on, prepared for the moment they’d be taken away. In most cases, the few people who managed to leave the desert alive were exactly those descendants of high figures.

Meanwhile, the mediocre ones, like the people of that city, just fought to survive. And now, everyone was terrified.

"SIR! IT’S SHADOWS!!"

"THOUSANDS OF SHADOWS!!"

Suddenly, the warning shouts reached the Golden Monkey, revealing something terrifying.

Darian saw the Fiendgod’s face shift from rage to complete shock. He didn’t want to believe what he was hearing.

Until he took a deep breath, drew the freshly-acquired red saber, and turned to the three youths.

"Shadows never gather together or do things like this. This has to be their doing... only the power of those bastard Chromaraics can manipulate shadows like this. They must’ve found out we just won a big battle, and came to strike while we’re still recovering."

The three nodded and drew their swords, eyes heavy with tension.

"We have to fight. The shadows are dumb. We should use the high ground to trap them. You three need to find the Chromaraics and kill them. That way, the spell will break and we can find a way to drive the shadows back."

The Golden Monkey spoke quickly. Seeing the three understood, he turned and shot into the sky like lightning. His body grew to thirty meters in an instant. He landed outside the city, engaging the battle head-on.

The three, however, didn’t move right away. They turned to Darian, locking eyes with him, their expressions trembling.

"Brother Darian... maybe you should run south, while there’s still time," Awel said, his aura of wind swirling rapidly around him.

Tir added: "You don’t need to take the risk. We’re at level 2 and we’ve sharpened our Laws well. Brother just got here, and you’ll get much stronger in the future."

"But... if Brother Darian stays..." Eleri murmured, eyes full of hope, "we promise we’ll do everything to protect you until the end."

Darian almost laughed. Him, being protected by those three?

Did his first strike earlier look like the work of a rookie? After that, did his dodges look like the moves of someone needing protection?

The Golden Monkey hadn’t said anything to him before leaving, because he knew Darian could handle himself and would choose what was best. He wasn’t dumb enough to think he was weak.

The three, on the other hand, really thought his earlier performance had just been luck, a smart surprise attack.

They figured he only helped them because of great talent, and maybe because he was the child of someone from outside the desert. To them, Darian was a beginner who, in the current situation, had little to offer and would only be risking himself.

Darian just found it amusing. After all, the three were less than two years old. They were pure, naïve, and their intelligence was still somewhat limited.

"Don’t worry about me. I’ll stay here in the city and help if I see an opportunity," Darian said calmly.

The three’s eyes lit up when they heard that. For some reason, they didn’t want him to leave, afraid they’d never meet him again.

"Let’s find the Chromaraics! Trust us, we’ll finish this quickly!"

The three spoke almost in unison. Without hesitating further, they turned north and shot off like lightning, full of determination.

Darian watched them go, then calmly moved through the city in the same direction.

He was deep in thought.

So, the Chromaraics really did have this strange ability to control shadows... With power like that, it made sense many of their race would use it to rack up points easily — of course, by killing competitors.

Because of that...

As soon as he got close to a wall in the northwest of the city, he climbed to the top and focused.

His curse was pushed to the max. It didn’t even take five seconds.

His eyes locked on a distant spot. On top of a massive sand dune, he felt a dozen people with a pitch-black, insanely dense karma. It could only be them.

Darian then looked north, at the battle unfolding there.

The demonic shadows had blown up the gate, and everyone in the city was fighting to stop them from flooding through the massive hole.

The demonic shadows... there were almost eight thousand of them. Inside the city, there were less than three thousand Fiendgods, and obviously none of them had fully recovered from the fight less than a day ago.

Darian snorted. The Chromaraics were way too far. Those three would never find them while trying to protect the city, which could be overrun any moment without their help.

They’d need cold blood and brains to realize that, and then choose to abandon the city’s defenses to go after the distant targets... which could turn into a disaster real fast.

As for Darian, even if he tried going straight for the Chromaraics, killing them all would be nearly impossible. Maybe half of them, if he was lucky; the rest would definitely escape far away.

’If I do that... they’ll split up so I can’t take them all. That way, I won’t gain much...’

He thought hard. The three should be able to hold the city’s defenses for a few minutes...

Darian took a deep breath. He wasn’t a hero willing to sacrifice himself to save everyone. Sure, he didn’t plan on letting the city be destroyed and the innocents wiped out without lifting a finger, but he also didn’t care if some of the fighters died, as long as it gave him a much bigger payoff.

Because... the Chromaraics wouldn’t attack a city like this just out of malice. Those Fiendgods must’ve done some pretty nasty things to the Chromaraics at some point too. In other words, this was karma between them. No one was completely innocent.

’What’s the best scenario for me? How do I squeeze the most out of this?’ Darian thought quickly.

Within seconds, the answer was clear in his mind. A smile curled on his lips.

’I’ve gotta chase the bee to find the hive and harvest all the honey. But for that... I need to scare them to death and make them run, in a controlled and directed way... hmmm... there’s gotta be an opening somewhere.’

Darian muttered and, without wasting time, moved toward the battle.