"Finally found you."
A lone voice rang out deep underground, far away from anyone and anything existing on the Wild Continent.
Well, anything except one.
Before the man whose hands slightly trembled as he gazed at it was a ball of light roughly the same size as a 2 story house. It was dim and barely glowing, but had an untamed yellowish hue that made it look larger than life.
From many many days ago, Damien had been searching for this thing. It was the source of the fluctuation that led him so deep into the underground and what he believed was the greatest treasure of the hidden realm.
'It's similar to a World Core, but not quite the same. It looks like this Wild Continent was part of the established universe at some point.' Damien thought to himself.
World Cores were a product of universal law, so by all means, no secret realm or separated space should be able to birth them. This meant that before it was part of the Void Corridor, the Wild Continent actually existed in Grand Heavens Boundary!
'Then is this a different hidden realm than the one that opened during previous Void Corridor openings?'
Damien had the memories of experts, but he didn't have enough context to know whether they entered the Wild Continent through normal means or through Void Corridor.
'Never mind, the situation outside seems to have reached a tipping point. I shouldn't delay any longer.'
Damien walked up to the floating sphere and gently placed his hand on its surface.
Unlike when he bound World Cores, he was extremely careful with this one.
After all, it was still a rudimentary World Core that hadn't fully formed and materialized yet. The strength of Damien's Celestial Mana Thread would likely cause this construct to collapse.
Nevertheless, under Damien's gentle urging and gradual introduction of his own mana, the floating sphere began to expand and change in color.
At the same time, Damien's senses expanded far past his body, growing until his perception encompassed the entire Wild Continent.
'Oho…' Damien exclaimed.
Since it wasn't a complete World Core, he didn't gain much World Force by binding it, but he did gain a modicum of control over the Wild Continent.
'Until I can move this continent out of the Void Corridor, I won't be able to claim full ownership, but this is enough for now.'
Damien closed his eyes and focused on the scenes taking place directly above him.
Actually, he didn't really need his expanded vision to understand the situation above, but it allowed him to gain a far more precise understanding.
Though, the massive roots that clawed their way into the subterranean world made the heavenly vine's location obvious.
Even as Damien bound the underdeveloped World Core, the roots fell deeper into the cavern space, growing longer to reach its target.
A target that Damien had just stolen from it.
He grinned when he realized.
'Am I foiling plans on accident now? How fun!'
His vision suddenly turned to the stem of the heavenly vine. His gaze pierced physical reality and witnessed the happenings of the flower spaces, his eyes narrowing as he did.
'The extreme peak masters can't keep dying like this. I need to lessen this vine's atmospheric control.'
He raised his hand to do exactly as he said, but before he could…
'That…'
His eyes caught sight of what was happening above the heavenly vine.
A surprised chuckle left his mouth.
'Is this a 'like father like son' situation? Who would've thought the subsidiary force of that corrupt clan would be corrupt as well? Utterly blasphemous!'
Despite his thoughts, Damien was grinning widely.
Another Nox Supreme?
Didn't that mean…
"Haha, it looks like you're getting a feast today."
He spoke out loud, addressing the woman who stood silently behind him.
In response, she lightly smiled, her eyes turning sharp.
"Good. It's been a long time since I tasted blood."
The crescent moon-shaped symbol between her eyebrows shone with her eyes.
However, her time to enter the battlefield hadn't quite come yet.
Before that, there was another team who wanted to show their strength.
And who was Damien to reject them?
***
Rumble!
The battlefield shook, though nobody paid it any mind. There were barely any sane troops left in general, let alone those who had the time to pay attention to the rumbling that had already become white noise to these soldiers.
However, unlike their assumptions, this rumbling wasn't the normal sound created by the collision of so many troops.
No, something was approaching.
A dust cloud approached the battlefield with untold speed, the rumbling caused by its existence becoming fiercer and fiercer with every second.
By the time the dust cloud got close enough for its identity to be ascertained, the ground was already cracked and sundered, on the verge of collapsing entirety.
"BROTHERS!"
A booming voice resounded through the world.
A man who stood an entire kilometer in height roared, his eyes piercing the battlefield.
"ELIMINATE THE ENEMY!"
He didn't waste any words.
And his exclamation was met only with vigor.
RAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
The Cloud Giants let out a fierce warcry as they made their entrance into the battlefield.
Not only was this warcry a domineering show of power to their enemies, it was an unexpected boost to their allies.
The sheer momentum behind their combined roars cleared a portion of the atmosphere of the heavenly vine's madness spores, and the power of their roars shook people's internals and loosened the heavenly vine's control.
For Heaven's Army, a portion seemed to have regained a measure of sentience, allowing them to break away from the chaos and truly fight once more.
However, the Nox didn't experience such benefits at all.
Instead….
RAAAAAAAH!
"HAHAHAHA! FINALLY! BATTLE!"
The Cloud Giants were like berserk executioners. They slaughtered any Nox around them, the records of their past humiliation burning in their souls and empowering them.
As they approached the inner battlefield, more and more Cloud Giants separated from the large crowd that they'd arrived in.
Several hundred of them remained on the outskirts with the 3rd classes, tens remained with the remaining 4th classes, and the rest climbed the vine stem to reach the flower spaces that had been blocked off from them.
The advent of the Cloud Giants unto the battlefield was truly a game-changer. Not only did Heaven's Army suddenly gain a method to regain their sanity, but they also gained a fighting force of elites that wasn't much worse than their selection of extreme peak masters.
When these Cloud Giants finally made their way through the flower spaces and united with the universe's extreme peak masters, just what kind of show would they put on?
It was definitely a question worth asking, but it wasn't a question Lucas or Sir Theon would allow answered at all.
The gazes of the two Supremes snapped down to the ground. They immediately separated, Sir Theon regrowing his arm.
They glanced at each other in tacit understanding.
They could fight against each other later.
Now that an outside threat had come to stop them, it needed to be taken care of first.
Two blurs of black light disappeared from above the flower.
And at the same time, a platinum light intercepted them.
"Were you looking for an opponent?" The owner of that light said.
His kilometer-tall body was a natural roadblock that couldn't be surpassed simply.
He grinned as he faced the two beings in front of him.
"Come, I shall entertain you for today!"
