SSS Awakening: I Can Devour Gods to Evolve My Goddesses

Heavy shield units held both valley mouths. The archers weren’t massed in one formation. They were spread across multiple positions along the high slopes on both sides. The Heroes brought by more than twenty Lords weren’t standing in a neat line either. Some guarded the entrances. Some waited on the high ground. Several still hadn’t shown their abilities to anyone outside their own group. One Lord lowered his voice.

"Will he really come?"

"He will."

Darius looked toward the valley entrance.

"He needs Gold Ore."

"And the mine is real."

Another Lord still looked uneasy.

"But his Hero is first in the Hero Power Ranking."

Darius turned toward him.

"Who told you to fight his Hero?"

The group went quiet. Darius pointed toward the valley mouths first.

"Once he enters, seal both ends."

Then the high slopes.

"Keep the ranged units split."

"Don’t bunch up and let one high-tier unit punch through all of you at once."

Finally, he pointed toward the center of the valley.

"The Heroes only need to delay his high-tier units."

"Even a few seconds is enough."

"The Hero isn’t your first target."

Someone understood.

"Cassian himself."

"Exactly."

Darius’s voice turned cold.

"This isn’t his Domain."

"No wall."

"No tower."

"No matter how many troops he’s hiding, he can’t bring the entire Domain with him."

He looked at the forces already positioned on both sides.

"We don’t need to defeat the Hero who took first place."

"We only need to kill the Lord who owns her."

The second photo Darius sent was much closer than the first.

Under the dimming light, a vein of golden ore cut diagonally through the gray-black rock. It wasn’t painted stone or a single exposed chunk. The whole layer caught the light.

At the edge of the image, several thin, dark figures stood behind stone pillars, each holding a bone bow nearly two meters long.

Darius followed up almost immediately.

[Darius Kelm: The mine guardians are Level 12 Stoneburrow Archers. There are a lot of them. I didn’t dare get any closer.]

[Darius Kelm: I’ve sent you the coordinates.]

Cassian enlarged the photo.

The vein was real.

So were the monsters.

As for Darius not daring to get any closer—that part was less certain.

The four Blackfang were still southwest of the Domain. Pack Dominion kept sending back only simple impressions.

Many people.

Both sides.

High ground.

No fighting.

That was enough.

Cassian closed the call.

"Move."

At the outer wall, all twelve Stormlance Valkyries looked up at once.

Sigrid was the first to take up her spear. Eira fastened her repaired breastplate back into place; not a trace of stray lightning leaked from its golden lines.

The Gloomhoof did not move.

Neither did the remaining Blackfang.

Bram was not called over either.

Veyra stood outside the Oath Hall and watched Cassian leave with only the twelve Stormlance.

"You’re not bringing the craftsman?"

"I don’t own the mine yet."

"No Gloomhoof either?"

"Narrow valley."

Cassian checked the straps on Wraithplate.

"They’ve put ranged units on the high ground. Taking cavalry into that terrain would just leave them nowhere to maneuver."

Veyra watched him for two seconds.

"You know it’s a trap, and you’re still going."

"Because the vein is real."

"So is the ambush."

One of her brows lifted slightly.

Cassian folded away the map.

"Saves me two trips."

Veyra laughed under her breath.

"At least taking first place didn’t suddenly convince you that you can’t die."

"I’ve always assumed I can."

Cassian headed for the gate.

"That’s why I sent the Blackfang first."

Veyra did not follow. The boundary of the Temporary Covenant still held her inside the Domain.

She rested Crimson Oath against one shoulder.

"Then don’t make me watch your territory for too long."

Cassian glanced back at her.

"I’ll try."

Before the light fully faded, the ridges to the southwest had already turned into a dark gray mass.

Cassian did not take the shortest route Darius had sent him.

After another stretch of travel, the first Blackfang slipped out from behind a pile of rocks. It stopped in Cassian’s line of sight for only a moment before turning into a narrower stone passage.

Sigrid looked over.

"That way?"

"It checked it."

Cassian followed.

The twelve Stormlance did not form a long column. Six moved ahead and six behind, always close enough to support each other.

After crossing another low rise, the second Blackfang appeared.

This time it did not move on. It crouched low, ears flattened, and looked twice toward the high ground on their right.

Cassian looked too.

He saw nothing.

At least, nothing obvious.

But the grass lay in the wrong direction, and several pale rock faces halfway up the slope had been freshly exposed.

People had climbed there.

More than one.

Cassian kept moving.

"Continue."

Darius’s coordinates were less than two kilometers away when another private message came through.

[Darius Kelm: Lord Vale, where are you?]

[Cassian Vale: Close.]

The reply came almost immediately.

[Darius Kelm: I’m waiting outside.]

Cassian looked at it once and said nothing.

Outside the stone valley, Darius Kelm closed the call.

The smile on his face was getting harder to hide.

"He’s coming."

Several Lords behind the slopes looked up.

Someone asked without thinking.

"Did Veyra come too?"

Darius shook his head.

"Didn’t see her."

"What about the Gloomhoof?"

"None."

This time, the tension around them truly eased.

From a distance, Cassian had only twelve female troops with matching lightning-patterned light armor and long spears.

Twelve.

That was all.

Someone gave a low laugh.

"He leaves the Hero Power number one behind."

"And the twelve Rare Gloomhoof."

"Does he really think nobody will dare touch him now that he took first?"

The corner of Darius’s mouth rose.

Then a private message flashed.

[Teren Moss: I’m out.]

Darius’s smile froze.

[Darius Kelm: Now?]

[Teren Moss: Now.]

[Darius Kelm: He’s about to enter the valley, and you’re backing out now?]

A few seconds passed.

Teren sent only one more line.

[Teren Moss: I’m not betting my life on how much he’s still hiding.]

Darius closed the window.

"Coward."

One fewer Lord wouldn’t matter.

The people at both entrances were in position. The ranged units were hidden along the slopes. The Heroes had spread out exactly as planned.

Once Cassian went in, he was not coming back out intact.

A few minutes later, Cassian saw Darius.

Darius stood beside a raised rock outside the valley, his dark-red cloak easy to spot against the stone. The space around him was so clean it looked as though he had really come alone.

"Lord Vale."

Darius stepped forward.

"Finally."

Cassian skipped the greeting and looked past him into the valley.

The golden ore was visible several hundred meters away, clearer than it had been in the photo.

In front of it, more than a hundred dark shapes were scattered between stone pillars and cracks.

[Stoneburrow Archer]

[Level 12]

Their skin looked like gray rock that had never seen sunlight. Their eyes were tiny, but the bone bows in their hands were enormous.

Several arrows were already nocked and pointed toward the entrance.

Darius took half a step back.

"I can only bring you this far."

"Any closer puts me inside the guardians’ range."

Cassian looked at him.

"What about the ten thousand?"

Darius blinked, then smiled.

"We can settle it after Lord Vale confirms the vein is real."

"That’s what I thought too."

Cassian walked into the valley.

Darius was the one who hesitated.

Too easy.

Cassian had not even asked a second question.

The twelve Stormlance followed him in. Sigrid took the front, Eira covered the rear flank, and Cassian stayed in the middle.

Only after they had fully passed the first narrow stretch did Darius slowly retreat into the shadow of the rock wall.

His breathing eased.

He was in.

Cassian had actually gone in.

The first bone arrow came soon after they entered the valley.

CLANG!

Sigrid turned her spear and knocked it away. The arrow scraped along the shaft and smashed into the rock wall beside her.

The second and third followed.

More Stoneburrow Archers leaned out from behind the pillars.

Cassian did not order the Stormlance forward.

Instead, he looked up toward the high ground on both sides.

It was dark there.

But something was inside the dark.

Flattened grass.

The occasional flash of metal.

And—

A hawk.

It had been circling above the valley the entire time.

Not around the mine.

Not around the Stoneburrow Archers.

Around Cassian.

Sigrid followed his gaze and saw it too.

"Bring it down?"

"Leave it."

"Someone’s watching?"

"Probably."

Cassian watched the hawk make another circle.

It stayed high and never approached the battlefield, but every time Cassian changed position, the center of its patrol shifted with him.

Too precise.

"Let it watch."

Sigrid did not ask again.

Three kilometers away, behind a stretch of low forest, Teren Moss kept one eye closed.

His other eye no longer saw the trees.

It saw the stone valley.

His Rare Hero stood beside him, both eyes glowing with pale green light.

Each time the hawk completed another circle overhead, the view inside the valley shifted with it.

[Falcon Warden]

[Core Trait: Shared Sight]

Teren watched Cassian walk straight into Darius’s encirclement, but his frown did not ease.

"Twelve troops I’ve never seen before."

"No Veyra."

"No Gloomhoof."

The Rare Hero spoke quietly.

"Darius has overwhelming numbers."

"That’s why I’m not in there."

Teren kept his attention on Cassian through the hawk’s eyes.

"If Darius wins, I don’t have to do anything."

"If Cassian leaves them crippled..."

He paused.

"Then that Gold Vein doesn’t necessarily belong to Darius anymore."

The hawk kept circling.

Inside the shared view, Cassian suddenly looked up.

Straight at it.

Teren’s chest tightened.

Then Cassian looked away as though he had noticed nothing.

Teren slowly exhaled.

"Keep watching."

What he did not see was Cassian lifting one hand beside Sigrid and tapping twice.

It was not an attack order.

It meant wait.

There was more than one layer of ambush in this valley now.

Good.

Cassian wanted to see who was really waiting for whom.

The fourth volley from the Stoneburrow Archers came down.

Eira deliberately moved half a beat late.

CLANG!

A bone arrow scraped across her newly repaired breastplate and left a white mark on the outer layer.

The armor did not crack.

The conduction lines inside did not shift.

Eira looked down once, then raised her head with a faintly irritated expression.

Not because it hurt.

Because fighting like this was miserable.

Sigrid knocked two arrows aside with one sweep of her spear and lowered her voice.

"Lord Vale."

"Mm."

"If we keep holding back like this, we’re going to take hits we shouldn’t have to."

Cassian scanned the valley.

There were more than a hundred Level 12 Stoneburrow Archers. The real problem was not any one of them. They were scattered across pillars and high ground, their firing lanes overlapping.

The twelve Stormlance could crush them if they went all out.

But there was no reason to get somebody’s armor damaged again just to make the act convincing.

"One more volley."

Cassian said.

"We only need to act until they come out."

The corner of Sigrid’s mouth moved.

"Understood."

When the next volley came, the twelve Stormlance still did not unleash their fastest assault.

They deflected arrows, shifted positions, and killed only the Stoneburrow Archers that pushed too close.

They were not slow.

But they were very clearly not overwhelming the field.

Outside the high slopes, Darius’s eyes grew brighter.

"Just as I thought."

"Those women aren’t weak."

"But that’s about it."

A Lord beside him lowered his voice.

"They haven’t even cleared half the Level 12 guardians."

"Now?"

Darius did not answer immediately.

He was waiting.

Waiting for Cassian’s troops to be forced deeper into the valley.

Waiting for the twelve women to spread out a little more.

Preferably, waiting for one of them to get hurt.

The sixth Stoneburrow Archer fell.

Then the seventh.

The eighth.

Darius finally raised a hand.

"Seal the exits."

BOOM!

At the first entrance, two rows of heavy shield troops surged out from behind the rock walls.

The same happened at the other end.

Huge shields slammed into the ground and closed off both narrow passages.

Bowstrings snapped taut across the high ground.

One line.

Two.

Three.

The previously empty ridges suddenly filled with ranged troops.

Farther back, more than twenty Heroes emerged from different positions instead of clustering together.

Some held the entrances.

Some stayed on the high ground.

Several had kept their abilities hidden until now.

Cassian looked around once.

Almost exactly what Elara had predicted.

Darius walked out from behind the entrance, his dark-red cloak snapping in the night wind.

"Cassian."

He did not even bother with Lord Vale this time.

"Didn’t expect this, did you?"

Cassian looked toward both ends of the valley.

"A little."

Darius smiled.

"Scared now?"

"No."

Cassian pointed toward the valley entrance.

"I didn’t expect you to really leave the ten thousand on the table."

Darius’s smile froze.

"What?"

"The coordinates were real."

"I would have paid."

Cassian’s voice stayed flat.

"You should have collected first."

Someone on the high ground cursed.

Darius’s expression darkened.

"You’re still thinking about that money when you’re about to die?"

"Just reminding you."

Cassian said.

"We were halfway through a deal."

"You’re the one who changed what came next."

Darius stared at him.

"Enough."

"You know how much we lost in the Hero Power pool because of you."

"Transfer your Aether, your equipment, and everything in your Lord inventory that can be transferred."

"I’ll make it quick."

Cassian did not answer right away.

He looked at the high ground.

Then both sealed entrances.

Then the hawk still circling overhead.

Still there.

Good.

Darius took his silence for hesitation.

"Don’t count on Veyra."

"She isn’t here."

"Neither are your twelve Gloomhoof."

"With only these twelve troops—"

Cassian raised one hand.

"Wait."

Darius frowned.

Cassian turned his head.

"Sigrid."

"Here."

"That’s enough."

Sigrid’s eyes brightened.

"Finally?"

"Yeah."

Cassian looked toward the Stoneburrow Archers still drawing their bows.

"Stop holding back."

Twelve lines of golden lightning ignited at once.

Not the thin current that had been crawling across their armor.

This time, the entire valley flashed white.

BOOM!

The rock beneath Sigrid’s feet exploded.

She vanished.

When she appeared again, she was thirty meters away.

Her spear punched through a Stoneburrow Archer’s chest and lifted monster and bow off the ground together.

Eira cut in from the opposite side. One sweep of her spear shattered two fully drawn bone bows.

The other ten Stormlance abandoned the restrained rhythm they had been using.

Once the lightning came alive, the distances between the scattered firing positions seemed to disappear.

Thirty meters.

Twenty.

Ten.

Every flash of gold extinguished another archer position.

Darius’s expression froze.

"This..."

No one on the high ground spoke either.

The mine guardians they had just watched the Stormlance grind down one by one were now dropping in groups.

The remaining Stoneburrow Archers finally recognized the threat.

Every bone bow lifted toward Sigrid at the front.

HMMMM—

Dozens of arrows left their strings at once.

Sigrid did not retreat.

She raised her left hand.

[Storm Body]

Lightning surged over her armor.

The first arrow was knocked aside by her spear.

The second scraped past her shoulder.

The third struck the breastplate and was thrown off course by the current.

Sigrid kept moving.

Less than ten seconds later, the final line of Stoneburrow Archers broke.

The valley floor suddenly opened up.

Only broken bows, shattered rock, and fading lightning remained.

Darius finally recovered.

"Attack!"

Even his voice had changed.

"Everyone! Now!"

Bowstrings thundered from the high ground.

The shield troops at both entrances advanced.

More than twenty Heroes pressed in for the first time.

Most of them did not go after the Stormlance formation.

At least, not directly.

The first wave of arrows, spells, and thrown weapons curved around the brightest lightning and fell toward Cassian himself.

Exactly as planned.

Cassian watched the attacks come down.

He did not retreat.

A shield-bearing Rare Hero was already within twenty meters.

He was not looking at Sigrid.

His eyes were locked on Cassian.

"Kill the Lord first!"

Sigrid turned.

But she did not rush back toward Cassian.

She drew her spear behind one shoulder.

Lightning lit the weapon section by section.

[Thunder Javelin]

BOOM—!

The spear left her hand.

The first heavy shield exploded.

The second was punched through as well.

The spearhead finally drove into the Rare Hero between shoulder and chest and hurled him backward.

BANG!

The Hero hit the rock wall.

Before he even reached the ground, the spear dissolved into lightning and returned to Sigrid’s hand.

The entire valley went silent for half a beat.

Darius’s lips parted.

One Stormlance.

One throw.

Two layers of shields and a Rare Hero.

All pierced.

Cassian looked up at the high slopes.

There were plenty of archers.

Plenty of Heroes.

Their formation was well spread.

If he had really brought ordinary high-tier troops into this valley, the setup would have been troublesome.

Unfortunately for Darius, the mistake had never been his headcount.

It was what these twelve Stormlance actually were.

Cassian raised a hand.

This time, the order was not for Sigrid alone.

"All twelve."

Twelve spears lowered at once.

Thunder began to overlap through the valley.

Cassian looked at Darius, who was already too late to retreat.

"Your turn."

When the first thunderclap hit, Darius was still shouting.

"Spread out!"

Too late.

All twelve Stormlance stepped forward.

Lightning flooded their spears at almost the exact same instant, turning them white-gold.

[Thunder Javelin]

BOOM—!

Twelve lightning spears launched together.

They did not converge on one target.

Sigrid had divided the firing lanes from the start.

Valley entrances.

High slopes.

Shield formations.

Hero positions.

The twelve streaks of lightning carved twelve separate paths straight through the formation Darius had prepared in advance.

At the first shield line, three shields exploded together.

The archers behind them did not even have time to raise their bows before another javelin tore into the opposite high slope.

Two caster units had just finished their spells.

The lightning spear came up from below.

BOOM!

Rock and lightning burst together.

The third.

The fourth.

The fifth.

One after another, they tore into different parts of the field.

The layered ranged formation that had looked so clean a moment ago was ripped open from twelve directions at once.

Darius stood at the rear.

The color slowly drained from his face.

"Impossible..."

They had already spread out as much as possible.

The ranged units had not been packed together.

The Heroes had not been clustered.

From the beginning, they had never planned to fight Cassian’s high-tier troops head-on.

But these twelve troops did not need to close the distance first.

They were ranged firepower too.

And their range, penetration, and speed all exceeded what these newcomer units could answer.

Worst of all—

The spears came back.

After the first pass, twelve lines of lightning bent in the distance at the same time.

HMMMM—!

The spears dropped back into their hands.

Sigrid did not even look at hers.

Her eyes had already locked onto the next line.

"Second volley."

Darius snapped his head up.

"Retreat!"

This time, nobody cared about formation.

The shield troops at the entrances began shoving backward.

The ranged units on the slopes turned and ran.

Several Lords moved faster than their own troops.

Cassian did not move.

"Don’t chase them outside the valley."

That was his only order.

"Anyone who came in doesn’t get out."

"Understood."

The Stormlance split apart.

Lightning climbed both slopes at once.

The two entrances that had been prepared to seal Cassian’s retreat became the most crowded places on the battlefield.

Troops.

Heroes.

Lords.

Everyone was jammed together trying to leave.

By the time Darius reached one exit, three layers of bodies already blocked him.

"Move!"

"Get out of my way!"

Nobody moved.

Everyone wanted the same thing.

A streak of lightning slammed in from the side.

Eira landed in front of the entrance with her spear held low.

The conduction lines Bram had repaired across her breastplate were perfectly stable. Golden current ran cleanly over the armor.

Darius stopped dead.

Eira looked at him.

"Go back."

Someone behind him broke first.

"Fight them!"

A Hero burst out of the crowd.

Rare.

Twin blades.

Fast.

His target was not Eira.

It was still Cassian.

He cut down the side slope, clearly remembering Darius’s original order.

Delay the high-tier units.

Kill the Lord.

Cassian finally moved.

[Predator Step]

The distance under his feet collapsed.

The Rare Hero landed on the valley floor, but Cassian had already shifted away from where he had been standing.

Both blades cut empty.

The Hero’s pupils tightened.

His second slash came around immediately.

Cassian did not try to take it head-on.

The blade scraped across Wraithplate as he used the impact to slide another half-step back.

The Rare Hero moved to pursue.

Lightning came in from the side.

THUNK!

A Thunder Javelin drove through his ribs and lifted him off the ground.

Eira raised one hand.

The spear dissolved into lightning and returned to her grip.

Cassian looked once and kept moving.

By the time he raised his head, the second volley had already detonated.

BOOM—!

The ranged units on the high ground collapsed completely.

This time, Darius could not escape either.

A returning lightning spear tore past him.

The impact threw him off his feet and ripped open his dark-red cloak.

Darius rolled into the rock wall.

He had barely pushed himself up when Sigrid landed in front of him.

Every trace of color left his face.

"Wait—"

"Cassian!"

"I can pay!"

Cassian watched from a dozen meters away.

Darius seized on the only thing he could think of.

"I still have Aether!"

"I have things in storage!"

"You like deals, don’t you?"

"I’ll give you everything!"

Cassian was silent for one beat.

"Alaric."

Darius nodded frantically.

"Yes!"

"He paid, and you let him leave!"

"I can do the same!"

"This isn’t a Raid."

Cassian said.

Darius froze.

"There’s no Raid gate to send you back."

"And no rule guaranteeing you won’t walk out of here and gather another twenty people."

Darius opened his mouth.

Cassian looked at him.

"And you just tried to kill me."

Sigrid understood.

Her spear rose.

Darius managed only half a step backward.

Lightning flashed.

Darius fell silent.