Aterna.
The war started with small skirmishes and slowly escalated as breakers and formation masters from both sides played their cat and mouse game. In the first two years, there were few large scale battles. Both sides were busy with their preparations and neither wanted to make a move unprepared.
The war began in earnest when the Devils suddenly blocked the trail from Aterna to Jupyter. It was the first time the devils had made a big move and it immediately caused the Divine Sea Sect Army to tense up. The person who had blocked the trail was Neon Blood, a powerful upper-ascendant who was known for his endurance and recovery abilities. It was rumoured that he had once been hit accidentally by an attack in a battle of divinities between the orthodox faction and the devil faction. The fact that he was still alive blocking the trail indicated that perhaps, none below divinity would be able to kill him. Given that he had made preparations and stationed himself with an army, it meant that he was confident in blocking the trail. What this also signified was that the devils had enough manpower to even cut off the path of reinforcements. The commanders of Hollow Tiger Army immediately relayed the information to the Sect and prepared themselves for a dragged out defensive battle.
Sure enough, a few weeks later, the devils started their offence. Two armies as strong as Hollow Tiger Army made their move. If not for the fact that they were fighting a defensive battle with proper fortifications, the Hollow Tiger army might have been destroyed. The battle was like a calamity on the plane.
The devils employed numerous formations in attacking. The hordes of devils combined together and resonated their energy and cultivation forming incarnations of legendary beasts, primordial giants, dragons and phoenixes. These formations were dynamic and were created without using any materials or resources. The soldiers acted as formation nodes and formed these formations with their cultivation base. These were the widely known battle formations.
In the skies of Aterna, one could see the reflections of the war. The denizens of Aterna finally came face to face with the myths as the plane was surrounded on all sides and attacked.
The divine sea sect had their own formations as well. Several defensive stationary, as well as battle formations, were employed along with the arrays lining the fortifications. The mythical creatures would keep on slamming into the shields from all sides but they were unable to pierce through. This continued for a long time. The attacks would come in waves with periods of calm.
Krill Nash knew that he was currently outnumbered, the only way to keep fighting was to turtle up. The key to the situation lay in the Sect's hands. The reinforcement armies had already engaged with Neon Blood's army. Neon might be known for endurance and stamina, but even he had a limit. He was currently holding the trail with no foundation to support him. He was fighting against two armies as well. Krill's situation was better than him. He had Aterna's war base as his foundation here. With the fortifications, their side could last very long in a battle of defence. Neon's side would be the first to break changing the current stalemate. With the addition of reinforcements from the Sect, he would have full confidence in encircling these devil armies and annihilating them. Thus, he calmly kept biding his time.
Meanwhile, he also sent small squads to attack Neon in the rear, trying to throw his camp in chaos. He had used the Aterna division for this. The task was risky and he wanted to save manpower of his army. But, to his surprise, he found that the native army was quite remarkable. They managed to attack and disrupt Neon's army thrice before retreating. Of course, Neon was facing the pressure from two of Sect's top ten armies at the moment. He would not care too much about a weak fly buzzing around. But the gap in strength between the two armies still remained. Due to this, their achievements could not be discounted.
The rules of the war department of Divine Sea Sect were very fair. Credit had to be given when credit was due. After the successful raid, the entire Aterna division was rewarded with powerful elixirs that could boost cultivation speed of those in the mortal realm. As a result, the entire army became a level stronger. The commander, Leonor Rageberg was given a special reward that allowed him to break-through and become a rank-1 ascendant. At the time of his breakthrough, all people found out the law he cultivated - the living mountain law. It was a law that did not exist naturally! In some sense, he was already on the path to creating a personal law!
Generally, lower-ascendants cultivated ambient laws and only after becoming a law master would they meddle into fusing different laws and creating a personal law. But some geniuses either due to luck or talent were able to gain comprehension of laws of a higher degree of complexity. They would find it harder to improve in the lower-ascendant realm and their cultivation would be slower than others. But if they managed to reach upper-ascendance, they would have a huge advantage over others. Had it not been for his incredible merits, Leonor would not have been able to gain the miraculous comprehension elixir and become an ascendant this quickly.
Once it became known, coupled with the fact that he was Michael's brother and Paradise Harmonious Successors' child, he was given great importance and attention by the sect. Since he was also an able commander, the War Department directly made Aterna native army as a provisional seed for the army school.
War department was the biggest department in the Sect and the resources that they were granted was much higher than normal divinities. In fact, the department had three divinities of their own. The department was responsible for handling and preparing for large scale battles and wars. The Sect had many experts and powerful cultivators but the might of these cultivators was limited. Even upper-ascendants, who were considered high-end powerhouses, could only fight for so long without tiring themselves to death. Thus, while these experts were dangerous as a sharp knife, they were not the key factor in the power struggles between behemoths like sects and clans. The power of a super-sect was actually derived from their massive and powerful armies. The war department was responsible for training and raising powerful armies for the sect. Needless to say, the department had its own school where warriors were trained and moulded into armies.
A seed of the army school was a position that was completely under the school's jurisdiction. The seeded armies would be trained completely on the sect's expenses and their entire cultivation budget till law master realm was taken up by the sect's war department. The high-end officers of seeded armies would be able to cultivate till upper-ascendants on the sect's budget. This was too generous. In comparison, one could look at the normal disciples of the sect. An outer disciple would not have any budget allocated to them and they would have to exchange resources with their contribution points. For this, they would take up numerous missions, some of which were dangerous and life-threatening.
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An inner disciple had some allocated budget but it was far from enough. They too had to complete missions to cultivate. Of course, they had much better treatment. Only the core disciples had their budget completely allocated by the sect. But this was only until they became law masters. If a core disciple did not manage to become a legacy disciple, after becoming law masters, they would end up becoming protectors, elders or staff of the sect. They would again fall into the cycle of contribution points. Only legacy disciples who were taken in as disciples by divinities had their cultivation budget completely sorted by the sect. Thus, the position of a seeded army was very high. In fact, in the sect, there were only 50 seeded armies. This included the top-10 strongest armies like the Hollow-Tiger Army. Even the position of the provisional seeded army was fought for by many native armies. The reason Aterna army got this status was that the department saw potential in the army and their commander.
When the war heated further, the battles became more intense. Afterwards, the devils released their fodder army. The main role of the fodder army was the same as Aterna army - harassment. They were to annoy the main army from Divine Sea Sect. Even if they were to be sacrificed in the process, no one would care. Naturally, as the puppet army entered the fray, lots of natives joined the battlefield as well. These natives were not a part of the native army but were experts groomed by the countless races. Earlier, the level of battle was too high for them to play a part. But now that they had a worthy enemy, many hot-blooded youths from the plane answered the call to fight the devils. Even though they were nothing more than bugs to the main armies, a billion bugs could still kill a behemoth.
With the inclusion of natives and devils' brainwashed puppets, the war became extremely tragic. With this, huge casualties were incurred on both sides. Every second family in Aterna had someone who was fighting the devils. Every day, many lives were lost and people lived in constant fear of losing their loved ones. In one house, an old couple waited for their son to return from the war. In another house, a young boy would wait earnestly every day for his father. These people were not alone. Hundreds of millions of families waited for their loved ones. Some returned while some did not. But people did not stop joining the war, for they knew what was upon them was not a simple tribulation. This was their plane, their home and their calamity. Years of wars in Aterna had already made the populace battle-hardened.
Leonor was currently looking through the files of several experts who had applied to join the war. The Aterna army would receive these applications and based on the situation, assign teams to attack or defend different positions. There was a strict merit-based system in place and merit points were awarded for completing missions. These points were issued jointly by Aterna Emperor and Divine Sea Sect. These warriors were ready to die because they believed that their families would be taken care of by the sect and the Emperor because of the merit points they would accumulate. What Leonor was currently looking at was the profile of experts compared to the standards of the plane. These were either demi-ascendants or stronger cultivators. After looking over the map in detail, he created a team and said, "Razia, place these five in one team and assign them the mission to attack teleportation anchors set up by the devils."
The current Leonor was very different from a few years ago. Even before, he seemed steady as a rock, having trained in the military. But before, he was like a subdued beast. While he had never shown it, Michael's achievements had still made him a bit depressed. He had put in a great amount of effort in grooming his commanding skills. All he had wanted was a chance to show his worth. And the chance came with this war. His achievements had made him famous in the plane and beyond. With his merits, he became an ascendant cultivator and his army also became stronger. But the greatest improvement was in his mindset. Success had broken down the inferiority complex that had taken root in his heart. After obtaining achievements of his own, he felt reborn. Now, he truly carried himself like a commander. He was more confident and bold in his strategies. Weaker people would feel awe while the stronger people would feel admiration looking at his aura.
"You want to target teleportation anchors again. Last month, one of the teams we send out was wiped out. These guys are only demi-ascendants. Are you sure?", Razia replied.
"This time it will be different. I know three of these guys. Mark Gregory is a true warrior that even I respect. As for the other two, they are not natives of the plane and have come out to fight from the sect. They are bound to be stronger than local experts. With five demi-ascendants, it should be doable."
"In that case, I will send out the notifications to them."
Michael was waiting for the native army to confirm his identity so that he could take up a mission. He wanted to contribute as much as possible to the war. His strength as Mark was quite low, but he had great potential. First of all, Michael was a psychic path great-master. Due to shared willpower, his clone just needed to practice for a while before he would be able to show great might using the psychic path. The same could be said for dao path as well. His understanding of laws was also comparable to a rank-1 ascendant. He was also quite close to figuring out the balance of his clone and soon, he would be able to display his power as a celestial. After returning to Aterna, he had been constantly practising, improving his combat strength.
As he was practising, he suddenly felt a click and soon waves of power emerged from him. He had become a celestial again.
"Sure enough, only the first time was difficult. Now that I know the process, I managed to do it in only a few days. Very good, now let's focus on psychic training. I think I will soon be able to display power comparable to rank-2 ascendants."
Just as he was about to resume practising, the crystal medallion that he had received from army buzzed. Soon, information appeared in his mind.
"Hmm, attacking teleportation anchors. It is a bit dangerous but it should be within my limits now that I have become a celestial. Also, during the journey, I can train psychic and dao paths. The danger is not too high."
Soon, he left his allotted cultivation chamber and went over to the gathering place for his team. He did not know anyone with his current identity. Thus, he had simply applied to the army as an individual. The army would assign such warriors to teams if they were okay with working in a team. If Michael was at full strength, he would have chosen to work alone. But with his current strength, the chances of success for difficult missions would increase significantly with a team. As he made his way to the gathering place, he came to an abrupt stop.
Suddenly, it felt like a thousand booms went off in his heart simultaneously. His eyes trembled and his expression became extremely serious. He could see that the other four people were already there at the gathering place. He could see that three of them were his childhood acquaintances - Mark Gregory, Azeer Zenid and Samuel Joss. They were the three geniuses of the human race that had been completely suppressed by Michael. But all of that did not register in his mind as he was constantly looking at the last person.
"Madeline."
Words from his past life, filled with grief and reluctance drifted through his ears:
"Michael, keep hope in your heart! I haven't told you everything about myself. I am bound by many things and I can not help you right now. My powers are sealed and before I pass through a thousand samsaras, I won't be able to undo the seal! But I love you. You are the only one that I have loved in all my lives. You are someone who should not have died here! Is this really the way of heavens? But trust me, we will meet again! Remember my words. Even if I have to reverse the samsara wheel, I will find you. I love you!"
Yes, this was Madeline, the person he had truly loved in his past life, or perhaps ever.