"Mortal Realms and Augmented Realms, ready!" Raiden shouted while flying up high as he watched over the marching enemies from their camp.
Although his shout was already loud enough for everyone to hear, Old Man Reol repeated it and directed it behind him where the five King Realm Generals were standing. Likewise, the General also repeated it until Raiden's command got passed by the Augmented Realms to the remaining 3500 Mortal Realms.
With their combined might, the previous state of having a lot more Mortal Realms was swapped by having double the size of Augmented Realms.
With stronger soldiers, they would be dominating their enemies who were stuck at the same level despite the enhancement of that descendant.
As the Mortal and Augmented Realms marched in front, the Corrupted Barbarians and Controlled Beasts at the same level marched out of the enemy camp.
Since I already assisted them by letting them breakthrough, my clones will not be enough to enhance thousands of them. At most, it could make smaller groups of a hundred or more Barbarians enhanced by a clone's Domain of Valor.
"Uhm. Daisuke, I forgot to give you these."
While we were watching this opening act of the final confrontation against the Corrupted and the Dark World Transcendents, Noelle tugged at my sleeves from behind me.
I turned around and saw her producing four stone tablets.
The stone tablets oozed out of World Energy and they seemed to be something precious.
Well, in a Mortal sense, they are precious.
It's the Blessings she promised to give me. If Knights' Skill had skill books and Wizards' Spells had magic scrolls, the Priests' Blessings had stone tablets.
These four are Level 4 Blessings that she probably took out from the World Church. Her status being a Pope Candidate gave her that much authority.
"Thank you, Noelle." I received it and upon hearing my words of gratitude, the shy girl immediately shook her head before shrinking back behind.
Following that, Caila also stepped forward and handed four skill books. After taking it, she tapped my shoulder and nodded. Despite our strength differences, she's still acting as the older sister type.
And last but not the least, Reinys who's having difficulty approaching me also wordlessly handed me four magic scrolls.
"Reinys," I called out to her before she could even sink back behind.
"What?"
"Thank you."
"Stop that and just put those scrolls to good use…"
"She specifically asked us what will be better for you," Caila interjected, making the princess stomp her feet to avoid looking at me again.
Perhaps she didn't want to admit what Caila claimed.
I'm not wrong about my hunch, there's definitely something about her change of attitude. However, with the current state, this was an inappropriate time for confirming that.
"I see. I'll put these all to good use."
Four Skills, Spells and Blessings. After learning these, although they're all limited to Mortal Rank due to the restrictions of the System about these add-on Skills, I could just convert them to an Elemental Spell when I have the time.
There's nothing wrong with having them all today.
Although the girls at my side all saw that, no one commented on it. Yuko even encouraged me to learn them already. As usual, she's probably thinking along the lines of 'if Reinys can become my Companion then it's much better'. Her supportiveness about this issue never wavers.
Clearing my head about that, I focused on the 12 new skills that were registered on my System.
For the Blessings, the names rang closely to their effect. Mass Heal, Sanctuary of Protection, Holy Armaments and Guardian Angel.
Mass Heal feels like what my 6-nodes Aether Elemental Spell: Cure will become if it was upgraded to 9-nodes.
Sanctuary of Protection is a stationary safe zone where everyone could hide from attacks. It's like an Energy Barrier and the Quintuple Shields. It can only sustain enough damage before breaking like glass.
Holy Armament is an attack enhancement, perhaps like Zerina's Fire Rune or if it was counted, my Energy Explosion. Every hit will have an added Holy effect. As to how they define the Holy properties in the System Pathway, it's just a denser concentration of destructive energy that could negate energies. Much like the Nullification Zone but lower in effect.
Guardian Angel is a survival skill that will only activate if someone was about to receive a fatal attack. It could conjure an angel that would take that blow from whoever the skill was cast on. But as it is now, even if I poured the maximum energy it could take, it could only prevent an attack of a full-powered Rank 5 Mortal. Since it will only activate if it was deemed fatal, it won't trigger on normal hits. Unless one's normal hit was fatal enough.
These four Blessings with varying cooldown times, I would surely find a proper use for them.
The four Knights' Skills all involved Sword Moves. I could use them like that or I could also draw inspiration from it to create my remaining three sword skills.
The four Wizards' Spells are all AoE Skills. Meteor, Thunderstorm, Glacial Blizzard and Earth Rupture. They were all effective in a large-scale battle such as what's happening right now.
Perhaps if I converted it to Elemental Spell, enhancing their current effects wouldn't be a problem. Saying these are better for me sounds about right… I can spam these skills from behind them. However, I'm sure the Spells' effects are indiscriminate. It can affect anyone hit by it whether they're allies or foes.
In any case, they're a great addition to my arsenal. In the future, I have to recycle the weaker ones and make a new and stronger version of them. With my Energy Control and perhaps with this added Energy Molding capabilities by Irja, it will be less difficult.
After confirming everything, I turned around and saw Reinys craning her neck from behind Caila. That princess… I remembered. She's possibly the very first tsundere I encountered. She's like Irja at this point who can't be honest or is afraid because of how she treated me back then.
While I was busy checking out the new Skills, Spells and Blessings, the combined Augmented and Mortal Realms finally met the enemy in the middle.
Amidst the shouts and roars of every Barbarian, be it Corrupted or not, dead bodies started to accumulate.
A few minutes later, once the current battlefield stabilized where a clear divide between Mortal and Augmented Realms could be seen, the Saint Realms with their Halos appearing behind their head marched in and tried to sweep the lower realms by their attacks.
At this point, it was already hell for Mortal Realms. Nonetheless, they're still eagerly hacking or smashing away their adversaries without any regard for their lives.
That was especially the case for the Corrupted Barbarians.
When the King Realm started to move, apart from us, the camp was already devoid of people.
Raiden flew down and let the King Realm General take command.
"Shall we?" I asked him which he answered with a nod.
Looking at the enemy camp, the 7 vacant-eyed Transcendents and the 7 normal ones were lined up behind the now floating descendant. He still had the same composed expression as if nothing could shake him.
If he knew that we already saw him throwing a tantrum alone to vent his frustrations, he would probably charge out to silence us.
"Let me go first. I will deal with that Midsummer King." Old Man Reol stepped out. His eyes were firmly staring at the sole Emperor Realm Corrupted who was commanding the enemies.
From around the Old Man, his four Pillars materialized and transformed to their familiar Guardian Forms. The Tiger, Turtle. Snake and the Eagle. Like Avelin, his Pillar Guardians took on the form of a beast.
Leaving behind those words, Old Man Reol flew out along with his beast. The four then positioned themselves on four different sides, creating his Emperor Domain or Empire.
When the Midsummer King saw him, it also summoned his four Pillars. However, unlike that Old Man, he's not an Emperor Realm yet, he just had the strength to contest someone at that stage.
"That Old Man, I thought he already changed. Turns out he's just holding back. Now that he's about to become a Transcendent, his previous enthusiasm is rekindled." Erin sighed as she watched her grandfather excitedly fly out to battle.
"You cannot fault him with that. He's just worried about how to become an Emperor Realm months ago. Today, he's soon to step into a whole new realm."
Reinys, Caila and Noelle who are close to the level of the Old Man also made a breakthrough yesterday. However, it was only enough to firmly let them step into Rank 5 Mortal. They still needed to breakthrough to the 5th Realm to reach the threshold.
Without any other enemies, the three flew out together to aid the Heavenly Lightning Tribe Barbarians. Behind them, the members of the Whiteshade Division followed and joined the fray.
With their addition, the Mortal Rank battlefield could be said to be already decided. There will be no one who could contest the three.
But that's only if no Transcendent would fly out to aid their disadvantaged troops.
Naturally, that's not the case.
As soon as the Midsummer King engaged Old Man Reol, a Transcendent took his place.
Following that, upon seeing the three Rank 5 Mortal joining in the fray, he called out his beast and sent it down to Caila, Reinys and Noelle, engaging the three in a battle.
For them, this will become their first time battling a Transcendent.
To aid them, I sent a clone which engulfed the three with its buff, evening out the field for them. This experience will naturally help them so that's the extent of the support I will send to their side.
"Well then, let's not have them wait for us. Lightning Chieftain. Take the floor." I smirked and turned to Raiden.