The forests surrounding the Pandoran Continent's outpost were teeming with life, with pockets of death and decay interspersed. The landmass was circular and divided into two types of terrain. The one their enemies had occupied was ruled by death and decay.

"There are a total of 53 teams currently on the island," explained Gareth as they made their way through the overgrown jungle. "Twenty of them are aligned with the Apollo faction, while twenty-two are aligned with the Ares faction. Eleven neutral teams managed to clear their dungeons early, making them wildcards in this confrontation.

"Originally, our groups agreed to split things up 50/50, with some concessions at the center for the neutral teams. But then the Hyde Clan interfered by selling a huge amount of corpse puppets to Riss Clan.

"This normally wouldn't be too big a problem, as corpse puppets are weaker than cultivators. But Benjamin Riss is an outlier. He's not so powerful on his own but excels when leading armies. There's a reason they once called Ares the God of War."

Their team's destination was a crystalline waterfall where a river of death plunged into a river of life, creating a zone of chaotic energy that would provide special insights to those cultivating near it. The ruin they'd targeted was located beside this natural treasure.

"There's fighting up ahead," said Sorin as Nemesis stirred. "A larger group of hostiles fighting a smaller group of allies."

An exploding arrow revealed the identity of the defending party. A war formation of fifty corpse guardians supporting a group of four heroes and one God Seed was conducting a literal siege on Michael Pollen's group of four adventurers. The small team had hunkered down and was using the ruin's resilient walls as defensive structures.

"We spotted your distress call on the faction map," shouted Gareth as they approached. "Do you require our assistance?"

"Just retreat and explore another ruin!" called Michael out from within the ruins. "Wait, are you 'Team We Don't Need A Life Mage? Attack! Leave no one alive!"

The spelled gate blocking the entrance to the ruin dissolved to reveal Micheal Pollen, a mage in white robes, a paladin in silver armor, and a vicious-looking spear wielder with serpentine eyes.

"By leaving no one alive, you mean destroy the undead, right?" Gareth asked for clarification.

Michael nodded. "We'll wound the others enough that they have to return to base camp. As for the undead, let's make sure the Hyde Clan and Ares have nothing to salvage."

The attacking team didn't seem to be overly concerned about breaking through the ruin's defenses and had settled in a moderately fortified position on a small hill covered by towering trees. Sorin's team cut through the undead like a hot knife through butter, and they were quickly joined by Michael and his powerful companions.

One blazing arrow after another struck down zombies like small meteors. Now this a God Seed, Sorin thought enviously. I'll need to unlock another gate, or maybe even a second, to be able to match up to him. Unlike other God Seeds, Sorin's constitution was fully sealed and would require unsealing as his cultivation progressed.

They only managed to take out a handful of zombies before the enemy formation shifted. Sorin immediately identified the source of the quick change: the leader of the opposing team, a lanky spear wielder with a sallow complexion wearing tight-fitting black plate armor that was only missing a helmet. The warrior served as a sort of 'node' around which their entire team, zombies included, revolved around.

"We won't be able to break through their formation without some sort of counter plan," said Daphne. She summoned sixteen fireballs and sent them flying above the enemy's formation. "Attack these nodes as I blow them up. Stephan, you first. Provoke everyone if you can!"

The jungle froze over as Stephan tackled an armored panther zombie. The zombie was speed-aligned and attempted to bypass Stephan but was unable to escape his core skill, Natural Selection, which both enhanced his opponents and made them lose their rationality.

Zombies, strictly speaking, were not natural, but Sorin noted a distinct meddling in the war formation's karma. The meddling grew increasingly pronounced as Stephan's taunt dragged over half the enemy group and even one of their party members, a wind mage. Devastating wind blades smashed into the armored polar bear, creating shallow dents in Stephan's recently refurbished armor.

"Michael, the next two are for your team," shouted Daphne. "Gareth, the three after that are up: you, Sorin, and Astley. I won't have time to call any shots. Direct them as you see fit."

"This way," said Gareth, providing Sorin and Astley a boost of speed. Astley had chosen to duplicate Lawrence's skill set again. This went to prove that Lawrence was not a God Seed but a very fortunate mortal. Astley was unable to copy God Seed's abilities, even if said God Seed was among her allies.

"Astley, break through and kill that zombie as quickly as possible," directed Gareth. "Sorin, I'll give you an opening. Blast through that strange lizard of a zombie and take their tank out of commission."

Arrows came firing behind Sorin to take down wind blades headed in his direction. Three zombies converged on his location, but Sorin used Adder Rush to charge ahead and stabbed the target zombie in the head, melting its brain and spine with a potent corpse-eating acitoxin.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The two zombies arriving to support the lizard zombie were surprisingly humanoid and wore tarnished armor, displaying a coiling serpent. Their movements were out of the ordinary and caught Sorin by surprise. Two spears stabbed into his shoulder and leg, respectively, slightly slowing his movements and injecting him with powerful stagnating energies.

A shackle shot, courtesy of Gareth, stuck the two zombies in place. This was the start of a chain reaction that caused the war formation to collapse. "Retreat!" called the swordsman that served as the core. The tank tried to move back to cover their escape, but Sorin was already upon him. Twelve needles snuck into the gaps in his armor, slowing the tank right down and making escape impossible.

"Panicked Scramble!"

Sorin suddenly felt a source of dread and an imminent attack. His instincts screamed for him to move backward, and he didn't hesitate to do so.

This proved to be a mistake. He realized too late that he'd fallen victim to a mental attack that had allowed the tank to regroup with the two zombies Gareth had previously chained. The group of three retreated with uncharacteristic haste. Sorin was unable their speed due to the torrent of wind blades heading in his direction.

"Their formation realigned itself," came Gareth's voice. "It's impossible to stop them from retreating. At most, we'll be able to pick off a few stragglers."

A group of five zombies was a bit slower than the rest. One was destroyed by Michael's arrows, and another fell prey to Lawrence's deadly strings. Sorin flashed over to a third zombie and stabbed his dagger into the former human's head.

Skeletal structure is ancient but consistent with current human anatomy. Three differences were observed. First, divinity is unusually elevated. Second, corruption is minimal. Third, divine restraints… are stronger?

"Thanks for the support," said Michael, stowing his bow as he approached their team. "Ares has always been a pain in the rear to deal with, even more so when he has so many minions under his control."

"Aren't we supposed to be cooperating against the flamekin?" asked Sorin.

"We are," said Michael. "But there's no real need to assault the flamekin until we've explored the nearby ruins. No one wants to split contributions if they don't have to."

"Speaking of which," interrupted Daphne.

"Relax," said Michael. "We'll explore this ruin together. Credit will go to both our teams. Finders keepers, what do you say?"

"I see no problem with this arrangement," said Sorin before Daphne could start bargaining. "We're allies, aren't we? It's important to be straightforward with your allies and cruel to your enemies."

Michael gave him a surprised look. "You've definitely matured in your time in Delphi, Sorin. Though I'm not sure how well this attitude suits a physician."

Both teams entered the ruins at the base of the life and death falls. Fortunately for Sorin's team, Michael's team had yet to explore it due to the enemy's siege.

They directly divided the ruin into two portions, though an exception was made for Astley, who cared not for riches and was wholehearted in her pursuit for historical fragments and hints of the past.

This ruin is located on an energy node that reeks of death, Sorin noted as he walked around, picking up no fewer than ten unique plants, poisonous and otherwise, in just a few minutes. And what's this? He bent down to pick up a fist-sized disc embedded in the soil. It looks like a scale.

The scale in question contained dense divinity that exceeded a single divine crystal. What's more, it contained potent energies aligned with life and death. The two formed a cycle that wore away at external energies, including the small amounts of corruption Sorin infused into it as a test.

Unsurprisingly, the scale contained none of the harmful foreign energies found in corrupted divine crystals. The cycle of life and death had worn away all impurities, making this scale a great cultivation aid. He also suspected that it would be a powerful item if used to concoct poisons or refine alchemical pills.

Sorin soon found another scale, and it wasn't long before he ignored everything else in favor of finding more of these helpful items. Most of the scales he found weren't lodged in the dirt but had instead been placed in prominent locations in the ruin's broken-down homes.

His search eventually brought him to a small mound of rock at the center of the ruins. Michael Pollen was there, as was Daphne and the white-robed mage from Michael's team.

"Seeing as this location is in the exact center of our respective zones, I suggest we split this thing equally," said Michael. "Whatever it is."

Daphne inspected the small mountain for a while before providing her assessment. "It's filled with potent life mana and death mana, but it's organized haphazardly. This isn't a formation, but it isn't unlike a formation."

"Breaking it slowly is the only option," agreed the mage in white robes. "To do otherwise is to risk damaging the treasures inside."

"Why bother?" said Sorin, walking up to the small mountain. He placed his hand on the rough stones and forced his poisons inside a crack. Life… death… both were enemies Sorin could handle given the right poisons.

Several minutes later, the mountain of life and death energy began to dissolve. Fist-sized golden scales like the ones he'd found before were knocked free. It wasn't long before the mountain was completely gone, leaving behind only a small pile pushed two feet into the ground.

"There's something down there," said Sorin. "Stephan, can you dig this spot up?"

Stephan had just arrived from his own assigned zone with a heaping pile of treasure. "I get a share, right?"

"Everyone gets a share, obviously," said Sorin. "Now get digging, please."

Unfortunately, Stephan's efforts proved futile. He was forced to stop digging three feet down, where a layer of dense, stone-like material repelled even Sorin's soul-bound treasure.

"We found a total of 67 scales inside the mound," said Michael. "Since Sorin did all the work, we'll give him the odd scale. Has your team planned your next step yet?"

"We weren't sure whether we should go help out other members of our faction or contest other unclaimed areas," said Sorin. "Do you have any suggestions?"

Michael took out a mapping device and pointed to two different locations. "This is where Charles was assigned, and this is where Celine Atlan chose to explore. A large army of undead assaulted both of these locations. Other members of our faction have only been slightly impeded.

"How about you take your team to help Charles? My team will go assist Celine. Benjamin Riss is too difficult to handle with our God Seeds tied down. That's especially the case with André Phoenix on his side—that's the God Seed who was tying us down. He's not strong offensively, but his maneuvering and mental attack capabilities are powerful. What's more, the God Seed of Phobos seems to have retained much of the God Seed of Ares's talent for war.

Sorin looked to his companions and saw that no one disagreed. "We'll do what you said, but it will be my team that assists Celine and your team that assists Charles."

"Are you sure?" asked Michael. "Benjamin Riss is personally keeping Celin tied down."

"I'm just not confident in being able to cooperate with Charles," confessed Sorin. "He and I don't exactly see eye to eye."

Michael sighed. "I believe he's unfriendly to everyone he meets. That said, we have a bit of rapport, given the recent moves by the Hyde Clan. You guys go save Celine and sweep through the ruins on the way to the center. We'll meet up near the demarcation and likely work something out with Benjamin to destroy that annoying army of flamekin."