Chapter 907: The Last Nest
The summoned spirits had returned from their respective magic monster nests.
Rhode felt relieved after Celia worked well with the Divine Unicorns. As for how he should handle them, he already had a solution. The unicorns commonly appeared in the history of the Dragon Soul Continent with all sorts of usages and he was prepared to form a team of riders with unicorns as their mounts. As for the riders… The humanoids would be in charge.
This was in fact a strategy created by players during the middle stages of the game. Back then, one of the player territories possessed a Divine Unicorn nest and they eventually formed a team of riders with Spirit Swordsmen and Divine Unicorns as mounts, which was incredibly effective against the invasion of the Undead Creatures at the later stages. Unicorns were pure creatures and wouldn’t be easily affected by mental spells. Besides, they contained pure strength of light and Order and certain resistance toward the undead and Chaos. Moreover, they could fly and matched with the Spirit Swordsmen who could summon spirits into battles, they were as though hundreds of air commanders. Furthermore, with the comprehensiveness of the Spirit Swordsmen, they would be impressive attackers on surface or air.
It was due to these reasons that Rhode immediately put building a team of unicorn riders on his schedule. And the reason why he chose humanoids was because they held higher success rates in becoming Spirit Swordsmen than the ordinary Order Refugees. Of course, Rhode had also discussed with Marlene about ‘man-made humanoids’. But he felt disappointed because it would require a whole lot of time and money. Moreover, the materials were extremely precious and expensive, where he couldn’t build an army of tens of thousands of humanoids even if he could obtain the materials within the Void Territory. At this point in time, 200 to 300 humanoids would be more than enough.
The magical tools to create humanoids were damaged over the millennia and needed repair. Rhode was already facing a hard time maintaining the current humanoids, not to mention fixing the magical tools. Fortunately, the humanoids had more or less learned some magic technological skills. Even though they weren’t on par with Lapis, they were still on a relatively high level.
On the other hand, the response from Gracier and Madaras about the centaurs was also decent. The centaurs residing in the forest seemed satisfied after receiving attention from the dragon soul heir. After they confirmed that their rights won’t be violated, they were willing to work for Rhode. He had decided to station them around the borders as garrisons. With their nature to roam the forest, patrolling couldn’t get more convenient for them.
But bad news often came after good news.
And Celestina was the bearer of one.
Even though Rhode knew that the l.u.s.tful Demons were a difficult bunch, judging from Celestina’s mad looks, it was apparent that she had completely lost the negotiations. As expected, although the l.u.s.tful Demons agreed to Rhode’s jurisdiction, they requested for an area of their own and requested permission for them to ‘freely’ punish those who trespa.s.sed. Celestina couldn’t care less about the potential number of people dying in their hands. On the contrary, it was their brazen challenge and bargain with Rhode’s authority that made it unacceptable. Both parties couldn’t reach a conclusion and Celestina left fuming, leaving this terrible mess to Rhode.
Rhode’s head was swimming. There surely wouldn’t be anything good from the l.u.s.tful Demons requesting for the right of autonomy and he couldn’t accept their conditions. It seemed like he would need to negotiate with them later on. Of course, he was also prepared for this scenario. If they weren’t willing to cooperate, he would use his strength of the Creator Dragon Soul and wipe out their entire nest. Even though it would be rather heartbreaking to lose one of the nests, the sacrifice was acceptable considering the troubles that the l.u.s.tful Demons could bring in the future.
After all, stability beat everything.
The situation with the Nagas was slightly better than the l.u.s.tful Demons. Although they also requested for the rights of autonomy, it wasn’t as critical since they lived in the deep ocean and didn’t occupy the waterway. But what amused Rhode was that perhaps the little mermaid seemed like a pushover, so the Nagas brazenly demanded a certain extent of support.
It seemed like the Nagas would also be a huge trouble in the future. But… There was a solution.
And it relied on the shoulders of the final magic monster nest—the [Element Cloud].
Rhode knew why the Nagas and l.u.s.tful Demons were disobedient and it was due to him not displaying enough strength and authority. The Nagas and l.u.s.tful Demons were obviously believers in ‘it’s not over ’til it’s over’. It was impossible that they weren’t aware of how powerful the man behind Celestina and the little mermaid was. It required more than a dummy to use the dragon soul powers to open up paths to the alternate planes of existence for the magic monster nests. But even so, the Nagas and l.u.s.tful Demons chose to gamble for greed. Rhode had to admit that… this was truly annoying.
Although he could summon his spirits to display his strength and make them surrender, it would be ridiculous for him as a dragon soul heir to take actions himself. It felt as though a king was killing a beggar, which was inappropriate for his ident.i.ty and status. As a result, he decided to send out a powerful subordinate to teach them a critical lesson.
And the subordinate he had chosen was the Sky Whale of the [Element Cloud].
The Element Cloud.
Rhode floated in midair and puckered his brows while scanning at the clouds. Although the thick layer of clouds seemed ordinary, he knew that it was the Sky Whale’s habitat. The Sky Whale normally hovered in the sky and used clouds to conceal its position. Rhode didn’t know if he was fortunate or not because he discovered from the system interface that the Sky Whale’s habitat was located by the border of his territory and the Country of Light.
Hmm… I wonder if there will be any adorable humans eager to have a taste of death.
Rhode antic.i.p.ated the day after the absolute wall of Order was removed, some sneaky rats would slip into his territory and step foot into the Element Cloud. Then…
Imagining the scenes of the b.l.o.o.d.y rivers made him drool.
But right now, there was something more important than the fanatical slaughtering of the Country of Light’s rats.
He shook his head and flapped his wings to stop by the edge of the clouds. The clouds didn’t respond to his arrival but he clearly sensed powerful wind elemental powers exuding from within. It was apparent that this was his destination.
“I’m here to seek your a.s.sistance, conqueror of the wind element, the mighty spirit soaring in the sky. If you hear my summons, please show yourself. I am Rhode Alander, the dragon soul heir. I hereby request that you show yourself!”
“…”
After a few moments, the thick layer of cloud uplifted and split to both sides to reveal an incredibly ma.s.sive body—the Sky Whale.
The Sky Whale seemed as though almost transparent under the dazzling sun. Its crystal-clear body flashed in odd patterns and brilliant colors. Its head took one-third of its entirety and it widened its mouth to reveal the razor-sharp teeth. A pair of relatively small eyes was found on both sides of its head, but they were flickering in radiance of wisdom. Its linear body was buried in the clouds and it whipped its enormous tail only slightly, but the powerful airflow dispersed the clouds, jolted the air, and rippled the ocean beneath.
It was the tyrant of the sky and one of the most powerful elemental creatures within the four main elemental planes of existence