Chapter 99: Devouring Planets II

"Ugh- this power-" as the colossal fire giant knelt on the ground, he muttered a word before a surge of blood escaped his mouth. 

As the blood splashed onto the ground, a sizzing sound of a the ground being corroded was heard. The blood was an orangish-red color, with a deep dark tinge. It corroded the land as soon, a large pit hundreds of meters deep was formed. 

Within this hot environment, the temperature increased even more as the ground began to melt down. 

This was the blood of a semi converted creature. Well, not blood. It was the liquified version of condensed elementals. It contained an immense amount of elemental within them and could be called a treasure of its own. 

Such blood would only come out of a powerful creature. Yet, this creature was kneeling on the ground in front of a certain someone. 

It was kneeling in front of a black haired young man. 

Comparing their size, it was laughable. A giant hundreds of meters tall was kneeling in front of a tiny person? This was hard to believe; yet it was happening right now. 

Even the creature that the young man was sitting on was extraordinary. It was the corpse of a second-tier creature!

As the young man condescendingly looked at the fire giant, his cold black eyes were revealed; just as if the abyss, it seemed to engulf anyone's soul. 

An hour before, the situation here was completely different. 

Thousands of creatures attacked, aiming at the young man and a giant winged serpent. Their aura combined was completely different, overwhelming the young man and the serpent. 

Yet, when they made their move, they began to die out as soon, they were abolished. 

Only the cores were left out as they were messily spread on the ground.

Compared to before, the temperature was ten times higher! An impossible degree that no lifeforms, even an elemental would struggle to survive. Well, the water of Fey helped lower the temperature, otherwise, it would've been much higher. 

Looking coldly towards the giant, Cylius flicked his finger at it which resulted in a giant space tear to form near the giant. It had an eery black color to it as it swallowed the whole body of the giant before vanishing once again. 

The pitiful giant didn't even have time to speak for itself before dying.

Unfortunately, these elementals didn't have souls within them. They could be said to be condensed elemental creatures that only functioned on their cores. 

Well, he still had the ball of fire left alive. The fire giant was too troublesome and its faith to the planet was solid. It would be hard to shake it or make it betray. Although the fire giant was like this, the other one was different though. 

It had a weak faith towards the planet and had a treacherous personality. He guessed that it wouldn't even hesitate to betray the mother planet if its life was in danger. 

"You know what you have to do" looking towards the giant ball of fire, he spoke out. The ball of fire, hearing his words, also quickly nodded as it weakly floated up before going towards a certain direction. 

Cylius, standing up followed the ball of fire as it led the way. 

"You can eat them all, Fey" before leaving the land, he said. Hearing his words, Fey, the giant winged serpent let out an overjoyed sound as it happily took the cores left out and threw them towards its mouth, devouring all of them. 

It even went as to devour the land the size of a little island. 

.....

"Here it is, lord" After they traveled at a high speed, they reached their destination in a few hours. 

The planet consciousness's altar where it was located tens of thousands of meters deep into the planet. It would command and communicate with its chosen ones here. This was also the place candidates became a true chosen and protect the planet. Anything related to it was top secret where only the higher-ups could access.

They were exactly here at this place. 

"As the current chosen, I, Searge, demand to open!" coming close to it, the ball of fire chanted. Upon its chant, the huge doors also opened up, revealing a long narrow tunnel. 

Going through the tunnel, Cylius could feel the density of the runes become higher and higher. Discovering this, he was overjoyed. This also meant that he was getting closer and closer to the planet core which consisted of the planet rune core and the planet consciousness. 

After passing through the long tunnel, they finally arrived at the altar. A majestic hall welcomed him as right in the middle of it all stood a stone platform; a circular stone platform.

The platform was filled with all kinds of rune inscribing and gave an ominous and creepy feeling. One that would make a person feel as if a large and terrifying existence was there and your little life would be gone anytime. 

Even Fey was affected by it as it lowered its head down, shivering slightly. 

Just as they had entered, a voice rang out. 

"Welcome, foreign guests" 

It was an ethereal voice. As if it directly came from a higher being and was detached from the mortal world. Hearing this voice, Cylius also knew, that the planet consciousness had spoken. 

But where? 

Using his perception, he immediately started to search the entire place. From the simplest bacteria to the biggest cave. It didn't take him long to find it. It was right above the stone platform. 

It was a bluish-white sphere like thing that seemed to consist of billions, trillions of life while also containing a very dense rune aura. It was a unique and powerful aura. 

[Dangerous lifeform detected] 

[Danger level: 5. A spiritual unique lifeform. Processing information...]

Unique lifeform: Planet Consciousness

Description: A spirit formed by the souls of its inhabitants. 

[Unique force field detected]

[Danger level: 6. A forcefield composed of runic energy and spirit.]

This aura was threatening to Cylius; very threatening. Putting his guard on, he immediately prepared himself. Now, at any moment, an immense force would surge from his body and would tear down the dimension and create countless space tears. 

As if it had sensed his tension, it also replied in a hurried yet relaxed tone.

"Foreigner, don't worry. I won't be attacking you. We could make a deal" 

Looking at the swirl of vortex in front of him, Cylius couldn't read its real feelings at all. It was like the emotions were contained within it, unable to be viewed. He couldn't see it, even with his comprehension of the cardinal sins, he couldn't see it. 

"What deal" with a cautious tone, he asked. 

"Foreigner, I'm sure you have come here for a reason? We could make an exchange... You could even ask me anything for free" the voice was genderless without any fluctuation, just as if it was the same tone all over. 

"Well then, let me ask you a few things..." 

.....

They had exchanged information telepathically, directly into the spirit. It didn't take much time as both were powerful beings. 

For the first question, he asked about its origin. 

The answer was simple. It was the collection of countless spirits that had existed on the planet. Whenever a sentient lifeform was born, a piece of its soul would enter the planet core. Within the planet core, if a planet consciousness hadn't been born, there would only be the planet rune core; when the accumulated soul pieces reach a certain line, they would form a planet consciousness.

The powerful the lifeform, the powerful the planet consciousness would be. 

It also shared that it wasn't like this a few millennia ago. Life was blooming and the planet was also not really that close to the star it was revolving around. 

But due to the invasion of a certain race, it reached its current state of being a lava planet where the only lifeforms were the fire elementals. Due to the invasion, it had also suffered a severe injury and regressed in power. 

'Only elementals lived on this planet and since they didn't have souls, the planet should be in a tight spot where it won't be able to advance forward and only fall backward... But then, since elementals were richer here, its planet rune core should be much more developed than others; hence, it should heavily depend on its rune core to exist and advance.

My goal is the planet rune core; as it was its most precious possession, it wouldn't give up at all. It should've already realized this point as there was nothing within this planet that I would want except the planet rune core. Considering it was talking and answering my questions, it should be preparing its power for an ambush. Once I let my guard down for even one bit, it would immediately attack, so I got to beat it into it.' 

This was the conclusion Cylius had. 

So, he immediately started thinking of the actions the planet consciousness might take and started developing a counter-attack against all of them. 

'Since it was answering my questions, it should also be aiming to lower my defense. So once I lower it, it would attack... 

.....

So, the most possible outcome is that it will try to control the fire ball and self explode around me. As the rune it had comprehended was a unique one, disrupt, which was able to disrupt the state of things, it might think it could slow my attack of dimensional tears down... Although it won't have much effect, it would still make my attack slower so I should probably get rid of it. 

Reaching to the fire ball first wouldn't be optional since the planet consciousness controls it, it would explode once its close to me. It would turn out to be disadvantageous towards myself. What to do...' 

Ah, that's it!

Suddenly, an idea popped off in his head that was the perfect solution to this dilemma.