1437 Ancient Ritual

The team moved reached the exit of the narrow valley they found themselves in.

A wide, open field greeted them.

The group paused, taking in a peculiar sight of this ancient, synthetic world.

A special type of glistening purple grass filled their sight, stretching as far as their eyes could see.

Dew dropped from the tip of the grass blades and dropped on the land. When it did, a grass blade rose in an instant, sucking in the ever present colorful mists.

"Cradle is a world with overflowing vitality," Samantha commented, subtly moving to stand in the same line as the rest. "Fortune Anvil isn't just a treasure, it's the foundation of Palarian race. It rivals the cosmic tree of the tower in vitality. Confine all that to a single world and this happens."

Varian didn't show any reaction to her explanation.

But Sarah stepped forward and sheathed her sword. "So, what did that woman order you to do?"

"Pardon?" Samantha's eyebrows dropped.

"Duchess Serenthia wanted you in this team. Why?"

Only the aura of a peak rank 7 was leaked from Sarah but it sent dirt flying into the air and blowing away the mists.

The beasts that were supposed to attack the contenstants, including the ones present in the valley they first appeared in, shuddered fiercly at the fearsome aura.

Sarah hadn't killed as many as her husband but it'd be a mistake to treat it as benovelence. Even if Varian might hesitate in the case of a lot of collateral damage aka death of innocents, Sarah would not.

The only reason she even bothered to ask Samantha instead of killing her right away was the problematic aftermath.

Samantha's death should be natural and convincing lest they encounter trouble. If Miss Calamity remained, things wouldn't have been so troublesome.

But during her short tenure as a Queen and de facto Empress, she had learned that decisions must be made for the reality on the ground and not on the ideal conditions on paper.

"You're saying that I have a mission for joining you." Samantha pressed her chest and looked at them with shaking eyes.

"Don't make me repeat myself." Sarah's killing intent spread out in the form of a red fog and pressed on.

"I decided to reveal it already. But if you treat me like this, you'll get nothing. I believe in dignity of a person, no matter who they are." Samantha's words were filled with strong conviction and it caught them off guard.

Putting aside the content of her plan, her belief in it was pure and bright.

Varian gave Sarah a glance and understanding his worldess intention, the Queen of Radiants withdrew her pressure.

Kicking the smooth soil in frustration, Samatha straightened up as she coughed violently.

Even though she's a rank 8, to not elicit any suspicion, she hadn't lifted the limiters on her power and suffered that pressure as a high rank 7.

Despite it being just aura pressure and killing intent, her chest was burning, as if her lungs were being scorched.

Samantha Snow, however, did not hold any resentment against Sarah. She was honest when she said she wanted to reveal her plan.

"Before I start my sad story, should I talk about this place?" Samantha adjusted her breath and glanced at Sarah.

Sarah shrugged and turned to Varian.

Biting her lip, Princess Snow turned to Enigma, who did the same.

And Sonya…she was standing beside him the whole time.

Begrudginly, Princess Snow looked at him for his opinion.

"Sure." Varian's tone was blunt.

Even Sonya didn't know the full details of this place. Since Samantha was fully backed by Serenthia, she must've been told useful information.

And that's one of the reasons why Varian stopped Sarah from the kill.

The explanation was over in a few minutes.

Fortune Anvil, though used by All Mother Asherah, was made by a divine ranker, a so-called god, if you would, of the Nexus Empire.

That's something they already knew.

Fortune Anvil was the source of the race, responsible for their natal treasures. But due to the divine attributes it held, it was always overflowing with vitality.

So much so that despite being suppressed in a world deliberately alterted to develop as little life as possible, the Anvil would end up giving birth to a 'Spirit' every few centuries.

This 'Fortune Spirit' wasn't a Palarian. Nor was a typical 'Soul' type life or undead. It fell somewhere in between.

It's the problem.

Upon coming into existence, Fortune Spirit would slowly gain sentience and rapidly develop strength. As it did, the mystic lifeform would try to fuse back with Fortune Anvil.

In precise terms, however, 'posession' would be more apt.

Fortune Spirit would try to become the master and sole owner of the Fortune Anvil. But whenever the process began, the natal treasures of all palarians were affected negatively.

The general consensus was that the Fortune Spirit was going to do something very drastic to the 'Spirited' of the race.

They'd either lose their natal treasures or see their quality drop, both of which were unacceptable to the normal spirited and the royals.

Moreover, there were deep concerns over how a very young and amateurish spirit would handle Fortune Anvil.

After all, the racial treasure also had deep connections to the origins of their race. Even if someone wanted to gamble with the natal treasures, no one could predict the possibilities if the spirit gained power over their race's origins.

What were some typical possibilities?

Since Fortune Anvil was akin to the base program, the set of genetic and spiritual algorithms, from which all Palarians came to life, it could just delete 'fertility' or alter their 'lifespan'.

There was skepticism if this was even possible, of course.

But if a divine ranker could create a race out of thin air, then altering that race from their divine source treasure didn't seem too far fetched.

Then why not just kill the damn thing with formations every time it came into existence?

The issue was that the creation of Fortune Spirit took up a considerable amount of divinity from the Fortune Anvil every time.

If the divinity of the Anvil was like a campfire, then that one of the Spirit was a flickering candle flame.

But there was always a net loss of divinity in the creation process.

So, the Fortune Spirit was given sufficient time to grow and improve its divinity.

Yet, letting it approach the Fortune Anvil was dangerous. In the proximity of the divine treasure, the Spirit would already start the fusion process and as a result, its strength would soar.

So, there were strict formations in place that would drag the Fortune Spirit away from the Anvil right after it's born.

But it couldn't be dragged too far either or they'd risk blowing off the small flame of divinity altogether and killing the spirit prematurely.

So, a rather familiar situation emerged.

Like a chicken, the Fortune Spirit would be allowed to grow until it could be useful.

Then, it'd get nearly murdered and then taken back to the Fortune Anvil.

With proper formations and treasures and most importantly, manpower, its ego would be erased and its divinity would be fed back into the Anvil.

If one really looked at it, it's a fucked up mission.

And it had been happening for millions of years.