The Academy's Changes

Time passed by.

During this period of time, news of the Blackotia Kingdom's war ending, once again, in the Wrath Nihility Academy's victory spread throughout the world. There wasn't much commotion, especially from other Third Step organizations. Only the Second Step organizations marveled. Every organization that isn't an overlord in their Kingdom or the overlord in question has to deal with these kinds of upraises. Every Second Step organization is, at one point in their path to growth, forced into wars in one way or another by rogue cultivators of the Second Step allying with other First Step organizations to put up a front.

Most felled and were merged, becoming another Second Step organization that had to deal with the same thing at some point in the far future. They couldn't imagine what it would be like to go through that repeatedly every million years. For an enemy to grow that much without restraint. It was enough to threaten any peak Second Step organization. The Wrath Nihility Academy was always victorious in these cases, suffering fewer losses than any other Second Step organization worldwide. It was just that, this time, they suffered more than ever, and it brought a provoking thought to everyone, especially those others in the peak of the Second Step.

However, before they knew it, the Wrath Nihility Academy won instead! Their thoughts settled, and their eyes no longer gazed towards the Blackotia Kingdom. For a few days, there was rest. However, news from the war traveled fast, and hundreds of disclosed bits of information came to light. Among them, the iconic child the Academy had fought for was quite a big and shiny name in between the data.

It was said he showed a product of an unmatched existence and the Wrath Nihility Academy’s new Supreme Art. The Academy didn’t have more than 5 Supreme Arts before, but those could only be learned by the Assistant Teachers or higher. Their dozens of Arts were for their Students. While Leading Students could rain in more than 2 according to their contribution to the Academy. But that was just the way they worked things.

However, the Academy seemingly had 6 Supreme Arts, and a Student used it! It was said that this Supreme Art could extend over a small portion of a Small City and about ⅕ of a City short of the Small grade. Naturally, everyone was curious. There was no way they couldn’t tell the changes in the Academy’s upper echelons… But perhaps more things would come, and they would show themselves as time passed.

Indeed, it happened. Just as 4 months went by since the end of the war, news about the Academy’s celebratory feast during a press conference exploded everywhere. Even Third Step organizations’ low-status member was excited and thrilled that they had to check every bit of news through their Universal Conveyance to see the date and what and who will take place. Finally, a week passed, and the press conference started.

After all the previous news was delivered to the world, most things became known from the war, especially the Academy’s capabilities to adapt to the enemy’s arsenals and even improve them without needing spatial or aerial support. The world was naturally filled with reverence. Even First Step organizations’ war with second-hand Fighters and artillery. However, the hidden forces and the Wrath Nihility Academy’s forces used improvised cannons and shells. It was commendable to think they mostly used these.

If a spaceship appeared in a First Step battle, it would mean the end of tens of thousands of lives before it could be taken down, and that was if it was a defensive Frigate. However, in the last battle, it was depicted the Academy sent thousands and thousands of transporting ships, the same kind every organization buys at around a million coins. Of course, it is more costly to maintain them, but they were still cheap, and the Academy gunned them with 4 top-notch machine guns. It wasn’t never seen before, but it showed the Academy’s commitment to win and not let their students die, as supposed to in a war.

Then, in the press conference, when Heian Ciemnosc, this iconic child, was shown, the Heraxle Clan’s envoy's words and the contract being refused left everybody stunned. Of course, Heian Ciemnosc was young and nonsensical, so he didn’t know the raw difference between the Wrath Nihility Academy, a Second Step organization, and the Heraxle Clan, the Existential Sixth Step organization.

However, the kid was at least polite enough to ensure he would join the Heraxle Clan in the fight for supremacy over the Universal Lands in the future. And that was fine. After all, he was in the Wrath Nihility Academy. That meant his path ahead was secured.

However, the next day, everyone was shocked to see something else: the impossible.

The Wrath Nihility Academy had declared war on anyone who dared set their gaze on the Academy itself! They were forced to send their entire arsenal and leading figures the next day. Otherwise, their organization would be exterminated. This included the other peak Second Step organizations far away from the Academy! However, the Academy didn’t give them a chance to consider. Hundreds of Spaceships came down from above, and the aerial space of the Blackotia Kingdom saw transporting ships once again.

This time, they weren’t taking routes by foot and air, simply choosing to fly those vessels to the far Regions everywhere and start decimating whoever didn’t put their knees on the ground when being asked the question by a First Step commander: ‘do you surrender?’. There wasn’t a war ongoing, so it was confusing for most organizations who had to choose quickly. Surrendering meant safety, but becoming the Academy’s vassal, not surrendering, meant war against it.

However, no matter how simple and understandable the former was, there were organizations who didn’t hesitate to put themselves on the line and stand up firmly, ‘we do not!’. Thus, the first extermination of First Step organizations in the Blackotia Kingdom, even those who did not have anything to do with the previous plot, occurred. For weeks, the Academy’s organizational territory expanded, with decimated or capitulated First Step organizations forming the stones to pave their way to the outer world beyond its new organization’s borders.

From the south, north, west, and east, the Academy quickly moved outwards, gaining so much terrain in a single month that they tripled their previous organizational territory’s space. In another month, even more shocking news came. The Blackotia Kingdom’s east became the Aademy’s! Now, the Academy had the center and the east under their rule. The surrender was effectuated by the ‘overlord’ of the Far East Region, who used to have a history with the Wath Nihility Academy.

However, the rest of the Blackotia Kingdom continued an endless war that could only keep growing as more students popped onto the battlefields. Since the war started, the students seemingly evolved their talents. Their cultivation speed and foundation increased wantonly, incensed by the previous war, only hearing how their fellow students they chatted with months ago had been slaughtered and wanting to avenge them by conquering everything in the Blackotia Kingdom!

Blackotia Kingdom’s east had the most water bodies and held most of the sea. Thus, the Wrath Nihility Academy’s forces only remained there for a few days before letting about 10,000,000 garrisoned units take care of everything. Couple with their defensive Frigates. They couldn’t be touched or threatened, no matter what. Besides, only First Step cultivators remained. If a Second Step cultivator attacked, the Academy could send a Supervisor, and things would be over in hours.

Because of this, the Academy didn’t have to worry about the enemy’s offensive against this place. If there was a location with the strongest navy in the Blackotia Kingdom, it would be the east, where water was at least 60% of its Regions. The rest of the Kingdom was at full-out war, however. The Academy’s Second Step forces finally entered the fray, with other enemies at that Step simply retreating and abandoning their organizations.

As for the iconic child, Heian Ciemnosc, nobody saw him participating in the war. It was known he had been injured. However, his appearance at the press conference was confirming his safety and the image to send fear into the enemy’s hearts as they could see he could still cultivate. Although the viewers couldn’t tell if Heian Ciemnosc was still intact or fallen after being injured, he seemed fine and even chatted with the tall Headmaster. If anything, he looked pale but nothing else.

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However, the Academy had suddenly started a Kingdom-wide war. They couldn’t do that unless they were at the Third Step. But with their excuse of the other organizations’ plot and the Kingdom’s history of being riddled with endless, nonsensical wars, the Wrath Nihility Academy only needed the Heraxle Clan’s permission to do as they wished. As for how things went, they clearly got what they wanted.

As for who was behind all of this? Heian Ciemnosc! The Academy wasn’t shy to tell the world that Heian Ciemnosc was who emboldened the Academy’s forces into counterattacking their enemies. Even though he probably needed the support of many more figures, with how this child stood out in the war and talked heartily with the Headmaster… it didn’t seem impossible. Now, everyone thought the Headmaster’s war thirst had returned, and he was letting Heian Ciemnosc wedge it across the Blackotia Kingdom with his support.

While the Headmaster was being misinterpreted, he didn’t do anything to clean his name, keeping shouldering the eyes and frowns from being a warmonger casually. On the other hand, the Academy began to work insanely fast. The Academy wouldn’t finish this war until, probably, next year. Or a year and a half. Thus, they became decisive and started making changes, such as changing their formula for enrolling new students. From thousands, it increased to at least 100,000 new students every year!

It was too much to think this would happen, but it was the truth, and the Academy was adamant in ensuring the world knew about it. However, its requisites weren’t lowered, and the tests would be as harsh as ever. The difference was just how many people they would have entering the Academy. With this, every person who had failed in previous years, including Heian Ciemnosc’s batch, trained harder than ever to attain their spot in the Wrath Nihility Academy!

In the world, no one mistook this for chewing more than possible. After all, these changes are always seen… whenever an organization starts preparing for upgrading to a higher Step!

Outside the Blackotia Kingdom, the world became excited and wanted nothing more but enter the Academy, now more than ever, as it was attempting to step higher into the world! Now, the world understood the Heraxle Clan’s motives. They wanted the Wrath Nihility Academy to grow stronger, to gain a primary foothold, and, more crucial than anything else, to attract the world’s talents! From everywhere!

Inside the Blackotia Kingdom, the skies were the Wrath Nihility Academy’s forces. Since the world was at war, only the Academy could take in transports from space, so everything went into their hands. Whoever dared to send resources, arsenal, or manpower to the enemy was shot down and killed if any survivors remained after their spacecraft’s crash. The Academy became ruthless, not letting any bit of the enemy live or for them to gain any advantage.

In the Cities, Small or not even graded, the Wrath Nihility Academy’s forces directly bombarded them with missiles as the spaceships overflew them, remained stationed in the air, and decimated its walls nonstop, even rotating and touring their aerial space while shooting their machine guns. They were top-notch, of course, but they had more than one type of top-notch machine gun installed. They were a delicacy to watch, even more so as the Academy’s armies no longer had to fire shells at the enemy nonstop.

But the enemy had prepared themselves, especially after stealing many resources from the world and other organizations. They had genuine protective array formations protecting their Cities and fortifications, and their forces also used many tools and devices. However, the Academy’s resources had never been so rapidly coming as now. Since the war started, many other organizations worldwide began supporting the Academy, especially those who shared a trading relationship whenever the Academy was in need of resupplying its storage.

Even those organizations and other Kingdom’s overlords who sold them flora and Fauna sent them top-notch machine guns and missiles, let alone others that occasionally sold the Academy land vehicles and used transporting ships or other parts. The war wasn’t ending soon but in time record. The Academy was an organization that had lost most of its arsenal after the 10 year war. Yet, it was conquering half the Blackotia Kingdom in less than a year!

… On the other hand, Heian Ciemnosc didn’t have it easy. Occasionally, he would be sent a mental message as soon as he came out of his meditation or cultivation room after spending 16 hours from 25 hours a day beside his Master from Milyy, telling him they wouldn’t meet again today. With that being said, and wanting to amend the time he lost without his Master teaching him, Heian Ciemnosc either returned to his Master’s side and made her silent and coldly content or went to bother Elena with some more sparring.

Whenever he didn’t do either, he would continue his work on building another Relic. This time, it was for Elena since she really seemed to have liked her Colorful Claw a lot. In one of their cultivation sparrings, she told him she used it for the first time by mistake, simply wanting to fend off an enemy that had jumped towards him amidst an intense, endless battle where she had to dispatch an enemy or retreat every second. Her Colorful Claw made that random enemy turn into shredded flesh, and the remaining organs’ fragments flew everywhere except her way.

Since then, she was seen as a polearm, close-combat bloody monster as her Mortal Horror Blood Halberd’s Power Energy attack swept the battlefield, whichever she went into. There were a few videos, and after seeing them, Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes sparkled as thoughts and ideas about Elena’s Colorful Claws evolving into a Relic emerged inside his head. The process was as tedious as when he developed his Steel Array Snakes to the Golden Array Snakes.

However, since he had little time to keep working on it, he had to use several months to think hard and keep progressing in creating it. In the end, a Colorful Claw with the same aspect was finished. Nonetheless, when he returned it to Elena, and a windy, bloody Power Energy emerged from the tip of its claws as she held it together with her Horror Blade Halberd, she forced Heian Ciemnosc into taking all his free time to spar in dual cultivation. And that day, Heian Ciemnosc’s bum was spanked again for getting back late.

Previously, Heian Ciemnosc’s Supreme graded Powerful Stones were more than 100,000. But after Heian Ciemnosc started cultivating without stop, he surrounded himself with thousands of such, impressing his Master, who was already aware of his speedy cultivation path. As his Master meditated, so did Heian Ciemnosc cultivate while learning from her teachings of the Soul-exalting Old World parchment. Who else but Heian Ciemnosc could have this much

With such preferential and spoiling treatment, Heian Ciemnosc’s cultivation broke through the Crabstynian realm in less than 2 months!

He now had more time to cultivate and wasn’t trying to recuperate. Not only that, his body was close to evolving. Heian Ciemnosc could feel his All-Devouring Foce Chronicles nearing its breakthrough. It would step up to the 4th level! Once he did, wouldn’t his battle prowess keep increasing? Even if the world’s impossibly stable and solid cultivation system was perfected to no end, Heian Ciemnosc would still break it and continue fighting above realms!

Although he wasn’t sure it was possible to fight someone a whole Step above him. Then again, he also didn’t know how efficient his battle prowess would be when he started cultivating. Now that his Supreme Powerful Stones were this many, he no longer stored them, waiting for opportunities or trading them. He still had a long way to breaking into the Spirit Rebirth realm. Heian Ciemnosc used thousands of Powerful Stones until he achieved the Crabstynian realm. From then on, Heian Ciemnosc placed as many Supreme Powerful Stones as necessary until reaching the next stage.

In his Crabstynian realm, his Spirit Sense increased to an understandable and standard range of 32,000 meters. Everything within him in a 32 km radius could be flawlessly taken in by his Spirit Sense, including the sky and underneath the ground. Heian Ciemnosc’s dark Power Energy could make a darkish pure energy armor. But just as he does with his Claws Out, he doesn’t care and only uses his dark Power Energy to attack, kill, and eat.

In retrospect, Heian Ciemnosc’s bodily strengths were the same. But he already felt he could deal with Spirit rebirth realm cultivators at the ‘same’ stage as he was in. Even the cultivator who had tried killing him several months ago when he fell unconscious would be faced off without problem by Heian Ciemnosc. Defeating the enemy wouldn’t be too complicated, especially if the latter didn’t have a Mortal weapon and a protective array formation device to defend himself.

Otherwise, the enemy would harm Heian Ciemnosc’s body, and he would take some extra minutes taking the protective array formation down. Other than that, Heian Ciemnosc could now form a little dark tail extending from his tailbone. It was double the size of his current dark claws, but it was as deathly as them, if not more. It had flexibility and was swift. If it was longer, Heian Ciemnosc was sure it would be faster and nimbler than his Vocón Link!

This was the effect of his dark Power Energy improving after breaking into the Crabstynian realm. Now, he only needed to keep cultivating after further solidifying his foundation. He also stabilized his cultivation base. Everything was done accordingly to the previous arrangement. Nothing had changed. He just needed half a day to stabilize his cultivation, this time if he wholeheartedly focused on it. Solidifying took a little more as well, but nothing game-changing.

Under his Master’s watch, Heian Ciemnosc saw her satisfied eyes each time he seamlessly cultivated through every stage until the peak of the Crabstynian realm by the time the end of the year was approaching. Just in time, Heian Ciemnosc had accorded with his Master to do the Leading Student examinations. He wanted to have better payment and status! That way, he’d be able to participate in broader missions!

His Master, of course, understood her disciple’s wishes to go into the outside world and discover its wonders, especially after experiencing a war like this and the volatile cruelty everywhere. She saw something deep inside him coming out. And instead of wanting to protect him, she also desired to help her disciple achieve her goals. Thus, when the end of the year arrived, and the next and first grand enrollment was about to begin, Heian Ciemnosc’s cultivation reached the peak of the Crabstynian realm 10th stage.

…