Arpious of the Planes

"Eighth Army, make sure to survive. Use my summons as cannon fodder if need be," I explain to Olivia the dryads army.

I was pretty surprised the one I had blessed survived, and she had grown into a fine young woman. Not only is she strong, but she lived up to her parent's features…

I blessed the girl because I wanted to return a favor.

Before I encountered the annoying Deer Mountain Guardian, I was saved by two dryads after being significantly injured in a battle with a small ice dragon who later became the King of the Mountain of Twilight.

Though they didn't even land a scratch on the dragon, they managed to get me out of there and even nurse me back to full health as I recovered from Mana Sickness.

Later, the two would die to the Deer Mountain Guardian, and just as the nasty thing was about to lock me away, I blessed their child in return, hoping she would become the next Mother Nature once I had died.

"Would you like to become my daughter?" I asked Olivia just as she was about to leave.

"Surely you jest, your highness. Every living being counts as your child," Olivia responds, but she couldn't hide her shock from me.

"*sigh*... Please don't try and lead this in circles. I'm already quite stressed from the war… Of course, I'm not pressuring you, though," I say.

"M-may I ask why you want me to become your daughter? I don't see a reason why you would ever do this… Plus, I don't mean to be rude, but I feel like you wouldn't see me as your child anyway," Olivia says.

"You're right… Sorry," I apologize, leaving Olivia dumbfounded as I walk away.

I don't know what to do… I feel like I haven't fully returned the favor.

…

"Treyni, make sure to take care of yourself. *cough* *cough* *cough*... I know you can win, and don't feel too bad… *cough* *cough* This was inevitable… Just *cough*, please take care of Olivia,"

Blood began to cover my vision, and suddenly massive plants with rounded mouths jolted towards me.

I flinched and awaited my doom as despair and fear overwhelmed me… But nothing happened…

Looking up, I noticed two dryads had blocked the massive mouths with their own bodies, and vines had pierced their stomach.

[You have leveled up (x4)]

[Experience threshold reached]

[Would you like to evolve?]

Nothing changed… NOTHING CHANGED!

…

Slowly, I opened my eyes which were colder than ice. I could feel adrenaline surge through my body from the nightmare I just had, causing the shaking of my hands to increase suddenly, and it looked as if they began to vibrate.

"*sigh*... At least I'm better than Arpious at this," I chuckle to myself while thinking back on the times when Arpious jolted up from her nightmares and ran out the room.

She's so cute…

"Your highness, it seems the humans have given up on this town," I hear a familiar voice come from behind me.

After turning around, I saw Olivia standing in the doorway to the vine-reinforced watchtower made from flimsy and cracked wood.

Damn… She really does look like her parents…

…

(Arpious POV)

[Day 96]

"Report," I mutter while bathing in the large bath, which seemed even larger when by myself.

"Nothing has really happened with Mistress Treyni and the Eighth Army. There was already an army stationed there which was within Mistress Kumo's calculations, but once our army destroyed them, nothing else came," Yin says after rising out of the shadows.

"I see… Well, tell Kumo and my wives they can proceed with the next part of the plan,"

"Mistress, they have already started,"

"A-ah I see… Damn, I'm literally doing nothing," I mutter, staring at the blank ceiling.

…

(Kumo POV)

We were currently on our way towards the Kingdom of Fire as everybody had gotten in position.

The plan was pretty simple. We take four corners of the outskirts of the kingdom and potentially increase Hades and Aika's army. Then we charge in from all four corners, and this is when we, the strongest beings in the kingdom, make an opening.

We will use our overwhelming power to blast through the walls and rain hell on the Kingdom of Fire, inducing chaos and creating another distraction for the leaders.

"But this feeling… It won't go away," I mutter.

Every minute we get closer to the kingdom, at least 3x bigger than mine, I could feel many powerful presences that only seemed to get stronger.

They were strong. Most of them were just a tad bit weaker than me, but there were some at my level and potentially even stronger, so I couldn't help but hesitate a bit with each step I took.

"Auntie, what about the traitor? Shouldn't we get the traitor first because they'll be exposing all our weaknesses?" Hades asks.

"They probably already did… We'd just be adding more time for them to come up with a thorough plan," I responded before wiping the drop of sweat from my chin.

"Okay," Hades responds before hopping back on his skeleton, Mud Unicorn.

A few hours had passed, and from Yin's observation, everybody had arrived in their designated spots which were pretty much right next to the walls of the Kingdom of Fire.

"Disappointing," I mutter, staring at the bare stones which anybody in the army in front of me could've destroyed with just a hand.

Another few minutes passed, and I finally prepared myself, and so did the commanders and soldiers.

We steeled our resolves before I said,

"Yin, do it,"

Suddenly, four thin shadows spread out from Yin's own shadow. They seemed to run away from her as they winded between blades of grass and made their way completely out of my sight.

"CHARGE!" I shout, causing the soldiers to scream, raising the morale and adrenaline of everybody present.

As soon as the soldiers approached the wall, I summoned two large crawler legs, which sprouted from the ground like trees, extending above the massive army and breaking the wall into large chunks of rock.

Some soldiers died from the crumbling wall, but it was a necessary sacrifice for us to win.

We had slaughtered hundreds of humans in an instant, painting the ground, buildings, and sky a bloody dark red.

There was so much blood hanging in the air like a relentless thick fog that the commanders had to blow away with large swipes of their weapons.

But as soon as they did that, it all came rolling back, seemingly even thicker and bloodier than before.

"So this is human civilization," Hades says, his hands supporting the back of his head.

"Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed. It looks pretty much like our kingdom but just a bit bigger… In fact, I believe we can do much better than this," I responded while swiping away the bloody stench that began to linger in my nostrils.

"Mhmm…. Anyway, I'm going to explore- Nevermind," Hades says, but I quickly stopped him with a stern glare that seemed to shoot straight through his body.

"You are staying here. If a strong human comes, we'll take care of him. Don't use him for practice… And speak of the devil, here comes one… Though it's a bit weak, I believe we can take care of it," I mutter before jumping on top of a building with Hades following.

In the distance, I saw a large man at least 6 feet in height, clad in heavy metal armor and a large greatsword rivaling his own size.

"Lemme teach you something actually," I mutter, backtracking a bit on my own previous words as this one was way too weak.

Even one of the commanders could've killed this guy three times over.

"Okay," Hades responds, looking intently at me but suddenly lost sight of my body as I dashed forward, appearing in front of the man clad in metal.

BAM

And with just a punch, I sent the man flying backward, the back of his chest plate just saving him from terrible skid marks as he slid across the barren and tan roof.

"Hmmm… His armor is strong," I mutter before summoning crawler legs from my forearm and having it reinforce my fist.

"YOU DAMN MONST-"

Before the man could finish his enraged yell and finish wrapping the blood-red aura around his body, I punched straight through his armor and stomach, coating my arm in blood.

"This is how you deal with somebody who uses a ranged weapon or ranged melee weapon. For example, your mother's scythe, a spear, or a large greatsword like this… And the ranged things like a bow are pretty obvious," I explain while ripping my arm from his chest.

He fell to the ground with a loud crash before I held his beating red heart above my mouth.

I extracted it so quickly that even his heart didn't realize it was dead.

After letting the blood trickle down into my mouth, I swallowed most of it before taking a bite out of the heart, causing blood to squirt on my face.

"Ah, what the fuck…" I mutter, wiping the blood from my face and tossing the bland tasting heart to the side.