Chapter 261: Invader
Priam let out a long sigh. It only took him a few seconds to connect the dots and understand the whole play clearly. When the Sorcerers corrupted a beast’s body and soul, they could also check all of its memories.
The secret location, guarded like a state secret by the two Great Races for millennia, had been completely exposed the moment the first Beasts were corrupted.
With that information, the Sorcerers had prepared this ambush in advance, intending to reap as much as possible: massacre and enslave both armies at once, while taking all the resources in the area for themselves.
’If Dandara hadn’t pointed me in the right direction... if I hadn’t infiltrated the Beasts and discovered everything early...’ Priam thought seriously. ’At the final moment, the Sorcerers would have appeared already controlling a colossal army. The situation would have been a nightmare to deal with.’
On the Impure Beasts’ side, the shock and terror were palpable. They hadn’t had the slightest clue this was coming.
Now, they stared in horror at the figures of their own relatives and brothers marching at the forefront of the enemy army like grotesque zombies, emanating an aura of pure decay.
"Damn it... How is this possible?!" Arvid stammered, snapping out his Thunderous Spear with a sharp click. His knuckles turned white from gripping the shaft so tightly.
The invaders’ objective was obvious. So there was only one option left: fight until their last breath.
In an instinctive movement, Mo Lan and Arvid stepped forward, blocking Priam’s path.
"Lord Priam, retreat immediately," Mo Lan murmured, her tone grave and resolute. "Use that strange shield of yours from before as soon as we create an opening. You need to escape safely."
Arvid firmly nodded. "We’ll cover you, holding the front line until the end. If at least you survive... our world will still have some hope in the future."
Priam lightly snorted as he stared at the two.
In both their minds, Priam was the ultimate anomaly, a thousand times more talented than them. But unfortunately, he had been born in the outer region of the Realm and hadn’t had the resources needed to become strong. Because of that, he was currently weak in combat.
The current situation was terrible. So Priam’s survival would give all the Beasts in this world at least a tiny chance. Maybe he could somehow create a miracle.
"All warriors! Prepare for battle!" Mo Lan roared at the Calamity Beasts’ army.
"Our only option is to march together! Unite!" Arvid shouted, his voice echoing through the vanguard of the Impure Beasts.
There was no need for fiery speeches. Everyone understood that the truce was no longer a choice, but a necessity imposed by survival.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" The Sorcerer at the center of the enemy formation continued laughing hysterically, delighting in the natives’ panic.
Priam fixed his eyes on the arrogant Sorcerers. Far from showing fear, a cold, serene smile appeared on his lips.
"You two... stay exactly where you are," Priam said calmly.
Mo Lan and Arvid’s eyes widened as they turned their heads in shock.
"Are you crazy?! Don’t be reckless!" Arvid shouted. "You need to retreat while we cover you!"
Priam calmly stepped forward, passing the two and shaking his head.
"Tell your armies not to move a single muscle. I’m going over there to ’talk’ to them."
"Stop talking nonsense!" Mo Lan protested, desperation flashing in her eyes. "Those invading monsters are the plague of this world! They’ve been trying to devour everything for ages! They’ll never retreat, much less talk to you!"
Priam stopped, slowly turned around, and looked at the two.
Without saying a word, he pulled out two gleaming spatial rings and tossed them toward Mo Lan and Arvid.
The moment the two young warriors mechanically and confusedly caught the rings, Priam simply nodded.
The next instant, he deactivated Divine Concealment and dispelled the Power Rune that was masking his bloodline.
The bestial aura surrounding him faded away like smoke in the wind.
The Elven Fox bloodline disappeared, and his presence completely transformed.
He was a pure humanoid, radiating a unique aura of power... one that shouldn’t exist in this world.
"!"
The world seemed to stop.
Arvid and Mo Lan’s eyes widened to their absolute limits. In the distance, hundreds of thousands of Beasts from the two Great Races froze in utter shock.
Priam glanced at the two of them, his expression almost cruelly serene.
"I’ve always been an invader. There was never any Elven Fox," Priam revealed, his voice echoing with cutting clarity across the entire plain. "But, as you’ve seen this whole time, I never once raised my blade against your people or tried to harm you. I’m not here to defend the atrocities committed by the people of my world, but those guys over there..."
Priam pointed toward the dark vanguard to the south.
"...those guys are called Sorcerers. Truly vile, twisted, rotten creatures. They’re the kind of beings who deserve to die at any cost. But the Mages of my world can’t get rid of them."
His words exploded in the natives’ minds like a fission bomb.
"HAHAHAHAHA! A Mage?! A pathetic Mage infiltrating the Beasts?!" the Sorcerers’ leader burst into a hysterical, manic laugh. "What a joke! This gift just keeps getting better!"
"N-No... this... this is a lie..."
Arvid stammered, his face completely pale, the Thunderous Spear trembling in his hands. The hero and friend who had saved his race twice, the wise man who had guided him to his ancestor... was an invader?
Mo Lan trembled violently from head to toe, her fists clenched so tightly that blood trickled from her palms.
Priam ignored the enemy’s mockery and let out a calm sigh, turning back toward the pair.
"In each of these spatial rings, I deposited exactly twenty-five percent of the resources that were inside the Heavenly Vessel. The remaining fifty percent stays with me as payment for my work. I’d say that’s a damn fair split."
He paused, his icy gaze fixing on the leaders of the two armies.
"That twenty-five percent contains resources worth a hundred times more than everything scattered across the ground of this plain. Your ridiculous dispute is over. Both races now have enough to awaken the Immortal Mark and prosper for generations."
Without waiting for an answer, Priam stepped toward the south, turning his back on the two armies.
"As I said... the Impure Beasts and the Calamity Beasts don’t need to lift a single finger. I, as an ’invader,’ will deal with this mess myself."
The silence was devastating.
Arvid and Mo Lan remained frozen, feeling as though an invisible blade had pierced their souls.
Priam walked ten meters forward at a leisurely pace and stopped in the center.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up with a brilliant emerald-green glow.
*BUZZ!*
Space hummed.
His entire body exploded with a pure elemental light, so vast and brilliant that reality itself seemed to lose its color. To everyone present, the entire world seemed to turn into a dark gray landscape, where the only thing that existed, alive and pulsating, was Priam’s figure at the center of the plain.
The Elemental Physique was activated at its absolute maximum level.
Winds erupted in every direction from his body. The pressure in the air was so monstrous that space subtly rippled.
The hearts of every Beast simply stopped for an entire second.
Was this the one they had been certain was fragile and weak?
Mo Lan was the most shocked of all. Before... if Priam had really wanted to, she definitely would have died so quickly that she wouldn’t even have known what happened.
*Woooosh*
With a single movement that tore through the air, Priam disappeared from where he stood.
In the next millisecond, he appeared motionless in the sky, majestically hovering above the horde of thousands of Corrupted Beasts and nearly a hundred Sorcerers.
Priam’s shadow covered the enemy army.
"Pathetic Mage! You think you can take us on alone in the air?! GET READY!" the Sorcerers’ leader roared.
Rifts of corrupted energy erupted, and the deafening roars of thousands of Corrupted Beasts echoed through the air, ready to unleash a massive barrage of spells at the sky.
From high above, Priam stared down at them with an expression of total and absolute indifference.
He said nothing. He simply raised his right hand.
But the killing intent and overwhelming power radiating from his presence made even the most insane of the Sorcerers freeze to the bone, struck by an instinctive and unavoidable sense of impending doom.