Chapter 267 Kill Or Getting Killed
"Why does he have the Dimension rift amulet?!" Valvian asked in shock. He was trying to move, help Nial and kill Silvian for good.
However, it was impossible for him to move. Valvian could only helplessly witness how Nial and Silvian disappeared, while the Dimension rift Battle mode amulet fell to the ground with a thud.
The Forest of Life calmed down all of a sudden. Nial's dark energy had been pulled inside the Dimension rift, just like the slightest trace of mana he had been circulating through his body.
"Fuck it…" Valvian cursed the moment he was able to move again. His legs gave in, and he could barely prevent himself from collapsing to the ground as he used his left arm to support his entire body.
He pressed his hand against the wet soil, where he was actually able to see that the Dimension rift Battle mode amulet Master Crevian had given to him disappeared.
'Silvian knew that I had the Dimension rift amulet…Did he plan all of this??' Valvian's eyes widened in shock. Regret and guilt could be seen within them. He had been ordered to kill Silvian. It had been his mission, and Valvian knew that he could have done it if it hadn't been for the powerful transformation Silvian had undergone for a moment.
The transformation nearly killed Silvian when he returned to his original appearance. He was much weaker than before but it was still questionable whether Nial was able to defeat Silvian or not.
After all, he wouldn't have entered the Dimension rift Battle mode without a plan, or would Silvian actually be capable of doing this?
Valvian had no idea. He could only force himself to get up from the ground, take the Dimension rift amulet with him, and end his mission if Nial were to die facing Silvian.
Gritting his teeth, Valvian moved his weakened body. The Forest of Life had begun to invigorate him once again. He felt extremely good because of the vast life force entering his body. However, something felt odd.
Valvian couldn't explain it well, but something about the Forest of Life felt different from before. It was almost as if he was not the sole administrator of the Forest of Life anymore, as if he was forced to share the Forest of Life's benefits with someone else.
'Nial did that, didn't he?' Valvian was bothered about this but he didn't dare to think bad about Nial. He could tell that the young Original had interfered in the battle in order to save his life.
Nial did everything he could to protect Valvian, the Forest of Life and the future of the Elven race by preventing Silvian from getting his hands on the Empresses' manifested Divinity fragment.
However, now he had to face Silvian all by himself inside the Dimension rift, and Nial's chances to win would decrease rapidly.
'Without the Forest of Life's support, he will die the moment Silvian has enough time to recuperate…'
It was unsure how severe Silvian's condition was. He appeared more like a dead person than alive to Valvian, but someone's appearance could always be mistaken. It was more important how damaged Silvian's mana veins were, the condition of his mana heart, his physical strength, and so on.
Valvian knew nothing about Silvian's current condition but it was obvious that he didn't like the fact that Nial was fighting Silvian in his stead.
'This was never his fight…yet, without hesitation he saved me. Is that naivety, or bravery?' Valvian grit his teeth. He made his way towards the outside of the Forest of Life.
The content of numerous potions had entered his body, healing him slowly. The Forest of Life's vigor and excessive mana further accelerated his healing.
But even with all potions, the Elven had brought over, it was impossible for Valvian to continue fighting.
It would take him several days before his condition would improve just a tiny bit.
'I need to find someone…someone, who is capable of killing Silvian the moment the Dimension rift amulet breaks,' Valvian didn't want to acknowledge it but his subconscious had already accepted that Nial was probably dead.
It was not as if Nial was too weak, that his combat techniques were shallow, or that he didn't have the necessary talent. He just didn't have the necessary time to grow. His time had yet to come.
Unfortunately, it was unlikely for him to survive long enough to blossom and become a powerhouse that could rival the prodigies of the Elven race.
'I was too weak…and now one of mankind's future pillars will die…what a shitty world we're living in.' While gritting his teeth, Valvian stepped outside the Forest of Life.
He looked at the battlefield in front of him. Not even 10 minutes had passed since he and Nial had entered the Forest of Life to kill Silvian, however, everything had changed.
Valvian lost his arm, Nial was likely to die while facing a crazed Incarnation of a God, and the tables seemed to have turned as well.
More than a hundred corpses of Elven entered Valvian's view, followed by several hundred human corpses. They were buried below the corpses of tens of thousands of Dryx.
Only Valvian's precise senses allowed him to differentiate between the corpses of Dryx, humans, and elves.
However, it was not as if that helped him in any way. Valvian was restricted to skirting the boundaries of the Forest of Life, where nothing supported his body with mana and vigor.
But he knew that he had to move. Thus, by accessing his spatial ring, he spread out the little mana he had to start collecting all the corpses around him.
Even if he was not able to join the fight anymore, the bare minimum he could do was to support the others from the sidelines.
The fewer corpses the Dryx could get their hands on, the less trouble the others would have to face.
Some Elves and human Originals saw Valvian when he was moving through the back rows of the battlefield. His movements were slow, and many were unsure whether the Midnight Elf was actually still alive, or if his brain had stopped working.
Of course, he was still alive, but it looked like something within him was broken. One of his arms was missing but the bleeding had already stopped. Despite that, the Elves were shocked to see the condition of their strongest fighter.
They didn't know what had happened to him in the last 10 minutes, but considering that it looked like he was closer to death than life, the Elves were worried that something bad had happened.
"Don't stop fighting! We have gained an advantage, let's kill these bastards! They cannot be allowed to evolve, otherwise, all of us will die!" Master Crevian's voice resounded throughout the entire battlefield.
He used the bits of mana he could use at once to enhance his voice, only for his head to turn in Valvian's direction,
'What in the Empresses' name happened to Valvian?! And where the hell is Nial???' Master Crevian could clearly perceive that Valvian's entire mana was used up, that his body had been ravaged by some sort of weird but powerful, and highly destructive energy, and it was obvious that he was severely injured. His arm was missing, after all!
Crevian didn't think that the fight against Silvian would end that quickly, or it would be that terrifying. However, the most confusing fact was that he was not able to perceive Nial, at all.
Even after he focused his range of perception on the Forest of Life, Crevian was not able to sense Nial.
In fact, the mana fluctuations of both Nial and Silvian had disappeared. The only remnants of Silvian's energy indicating that he had ever been in the Forest of Life were wherever he had destroyed parts of the forest.
Other than that, there was nothing.
Time passed slowly and one could clearly tell that Master Crevian was now out of his mind. From the moment he understood that Nial was not in the Forest of Life and neither in the surrounding area, it became increasingly hard for him to keep his entire focus on the battlefield.
Until now, he had given everything precise commands on what they should do. Because of his commands, it was possible for the vast majority of them to survive, and kill numerous Dryx. Out of the several hundred thousand Dryx, who had attacked them, less than 50,000 were left alive.
All of them had eaten a few of their comrades, and more than a thousand had shown signs of mutating or evolving. This was bad, but it was not something impossible for them to handle.
The Tornadoes of Ariela had already stopped raging, but new large-scale attacks had emerged. Every single time when the Dryx collected a large number of their brethren's bodies, the Prometheus Elves created tornadoes which they hurled in the direction of the mountain of corpses.
This was a means to prevent them from feeding on their brethren and to become stronger as quickly as possible. It was far from a perfect plan that had been executed professionally but it gave the humans and Elves the advantage they needed to fight the Dryx.
Their strength increased the more time passed as more and more power from the corpses they had consumed began to flow in their veins. Thus, the Elves and human Originals forced their bodies to move even if they were exhausted.
Some Originals had already collapsed on the ground due to exhaustion, just for their hands to keep gripping their weapons tightly. The fight against the Dryx was terrifying but it clearly showed the humans what would await them in the future.
It may not be something many awaited, but it was a fact that Jundra would become more and more dangerous. There would be a steady increase in danger. This was how it was supposed to be. It was only a matter of time, time the human Originals had to exploit to their best capabilities in order to overcome all obstacles and to survive!
Thus, even if it may not be only their fight, the human Originals were the most desperate to annihilate the Dryx. Having faced them once before, they knew how devastating their contagious disease could be. Allowing them to fester on their lands was not acceptable. In the worst-case scenario, it might even lead to the extinction of the human race the moment they would face an army of evolved and mutated Dryx!
Having one trouble less would open numerous doors for the human race, and that was what they were working for.
It may not look like the battle against the Dryx was their fight, but every human Original on the battlefield knew the stakes. It was either kill or get killed!
However, while everyone on the battlefield was fighting for their lives, the situation inside the Dimension rift amulet was completely different.
The burning sun shone brightly on Nial's neck as he took a deep breath while releasing his [Mana Sense]
"So here we are…in the Dimension rift, which is a…forest?"