"What should we do now, leader? Are we going to eliminate all of them?" Eztein asked.
"No, there's no time and we can't kill all of them in a short amount of time." Souta shook his head.
The three Guardian Fortresses had entered the atmosphere of the Imperium so there's no need to kill all of the council's soldiers. After all, they don't have enough power to kill dozens of S-rank. The only thing that they could do was to keep them busy.
"So we're going back," Alice said.
"Yeah, we're going back to Imperium."
Souta nodded with a serious look.
"For now, retreat away. I will create a gravitational force that will slow down all these S-ranks."
"Okay."
"Got it."
Alice and Eztein flew away from Souta.
Souta used all of the energy left in his monster orb and [Nebula Heart] to create a strong field of gravity. It was a meat grinder for people below S-rank but this gravity field could only slow down the movement of people that solidified their mana.
Although it couldn't deal any damage to S-rank, it was still enough to buy them some time.
Ohm!
"Damn!"
"Fuck!"
"That monster had a strange ability!"
"It's my first time seeing a third evolution stage that is as strong as this one!"
The S-rank soldiers were being pulled away. Their strong bodies were resisting the intense gravity around them.
They wanted to follow Souta but they couldn't do so as the seven shadows and two spirits attacked them once again.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"Ugh!"
Souta spat a mouthful of blood as his body turned back to its normal form. All of the active skills around him had disappeared except for the [Gravitational Ball] spell.
"Souta!" Alice flew and supported him.
"Thanks, let's go now. This gravity field will only last for thirty seconds." Souta said to her.
Exhaustion assaulted him and he could barely move his body now that he drained all of the energy in his monster orb and [Nebula Heart]. Even the energy in his parasite queen was gone.
There's nothing left.
"I understand. Leave everything to me. You can rest now."
Alice said to her as she glanced at the black hole-like thing that Souta created using the power of gravity.
"I can't rest... I... Don't... Want..." Souta tried to say something but his vision slowly became blurred. He was slowly losing his consciousness.
"You've worked hard. I will try to keep you safe."
She muttered as she glanced at him who was in her arms. She turned to Eztein and nodded.
The two of them flew towards the Imperium.
...
The Guardian Fortresses passes through the atmosphere. They were descending too fast as the gravity of the planet was pulling them on the ground.
"We're here. It's Imperium."
The layers of flesh on Torkez's face had returned inside his body. He looked around the vast and bustling land.
"This is the Divine World of legends."
Franklin muttered as he flew towards the Guardian Fortresses.
"So this is Souta and Alice's homeworld. The World of Gods."
Isabella looked at the beautiful land before her eyes. She then slowly closed her eyes and felt the dense mana in the surrounding.
"It's just like what Souta had described. The restriction here is high because of the density of mana in the atmosphere."
She could feel her speed and strength had decreased but she ignored it because of the refreshing feeling of the mana in the air. It was her first time feeling this.
"This is also the place where the God of Hunt fought before..."
Swoosh!
The three Guardian Fortresses didn't have enough energy to make a decent landing so they crashed on the ground like a meteor. Torkez, Franklin, and the rest of the S-rank witches supported so that the impact wasn't that powerful.
At least, the fortresses weren't completely destroyed. They could repair it later and they could use its function once again.
"We're finally on this planet, but how can we know if we are inside someone's territory or not?" Franklin said as he glanced at the plains around.
"Let's just wait for Souta and the rest. Since this is Souta and Alice's homeworld, they have an idea where we are at this moment." Torkez said before he walked towards the fortresses.
The humans, demis, and monsters that were inside the fortresses came out. They were quite dizzy because of the impact but they weren't injured.
There were no casualties when the fortresses crashed on the ground.
Torkez breathed a sigh of relief. He turned his head and saw Yenxa staring at the sky.
"Did something happen to our leader?" He asked in a low voice.
Yenxa simply glanced at him and she shook her head. Then, she went back to stare at the sky.
"I see. I don't have to worry about the others. Still..."
Torkez looked at all the creatures before their eyes. Their small group had grown into a big organization. Monsters, humans, and demis had gathered into one organization. It was thanks to everyone's efforts.
They should have a decent name and a symbol. If they got a name, they should start working like a real one and built their own facilities.
'Astros... That's the name that Souta gave to the country that replaced the Great Astley Empire. Maybe, we could use that name too. I will ask Souta about it later to further organize the group.'
Torkez snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the voices of the people around him.
"They are here!"
"They've returned!"
"It's a success!"
Elder Guan, Elder Hanmi, Eilish, Souta, Alice, Eztein, Yuko, Doranjan, Red Dragon, and some of the S-rank witches and subordinates of Eilish were slowly descending from above.
All of them were covered in blood. They've experienced a great battle against the forces of the Council of High-World.
"We're finally here..." Souta sighed as he looked around.
"You still haven't rest. I told you that it's fine." Alice glanced at him who was on her back. Souta was worn out and could barely move so she had to carry him.
"Don't worry about me. I can handle it." Souta smiled faintly.
"You can handle it?! You can barely move in your condition yet you're still acting tough. It's better if you sleep and rest so that you can recover your strength." Alice said.
"I still have a lot of things that I needed to do. Don't forget that I'm a leader of this group and I should be the one handling it. It's my responsibility as a leader. I needed to know how many casualties did we suffer in the battle." Souta paused before he added, "I'm not going to rest if my subordinates are still working after such a big battle. Everyone is tired too so I'm not the only person that is exhausted in this place."
"Okay, fine, I understand." Alice sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Souta was too stubborn. "Sometimes, you should care for your well-being first. You will break if you didn't rest properly. Not physically but mentally."
"I'm pretty tough. Though I almost lost myself last time but it's fine now. I washed those things before." Souta assured her.
"I'll trust you this time," Alice said.
The two of them landed on the ground. Torkez, Franklin, and the rest quickly gathered in front of him.
Alice looked at them and waved her hand, "There's no need. Just give the reports to our leader. Our leader is fighting in the frontline nonstop so he is quite tired."
"Don't be like that, Alice," Souta said with a faint smile. He was leaning his back on a rock to prevent himself from laying down.
"I'll skip the formalities so I'll go now. I'll return after I calculate our losses in this battle." Torkez said before he turned around and left.
Everyone understood that Souta pushed himself too far in this battle. He was the one fighting all the strong experts of the council head-on and keep pushing them so that the fortresses could advance forward.
Souta looked at them before he glanced at the system. He received the notification that he completed the quest.
He gained 10 skill points, 20 free attribute points, and 500,000 experience points.
A quest with a reward of ten and above skill points was hard to come by. That's why he was doing everything that he could if he triggered one. There's no quest that he could repeat in this world like in the game so he had to check all the quests that he triggered.
Up until now, he only completed a few chain quests, and chain quests were an important source of cards. Even in the game, he rarely encountered this type of quest and players would do everything just to trigger one.
As for the great quest, it was the rarest type of quest. He was playing the Battle Worlds Online for ten years and the times that he trigger such quest could be counted in both hands. While the chain quest that he encountered wouldn't surpass thirty.
