The high executives of the Alliance all flipped through the intelligence reports, taking in every single detail that the Hall of Whispers had found. Nothing was left to the imagination as the near thousand-page report detailed everything that was happening around the Tree of Darkness. The Umbras that plagued the area, what were the most dangerous spots and even aerial images of the Eight Payircis guarding the enigmatic tree.
“This is quite the report,” Saint Atossa, former head of the Mercenary Guild, remarked. “There are even markings of where possible hidden tunnels are. Successor of Idun, you’ve done a remarkable job.”
“No, it’s nothing.” Isadore shook his head, denying the Spirit Saint’s high praise. A few seats to the right, the Himmel Ancestor stared back at his silver-haired protege, holding a neutral face that was neither smiling or frowning. Though, if one looked carefully, they would notice the slight arc curling upwards.
“Yes, the Hall of Whispers has done a fantastic job detailing the Tree of Darkness. Without them, we would be going into the fight blind.” Alliance Head Raphael continued to shower down praise at Isadore’s brilliance. “For security reasons, none of these documents can leave this room. I believe we all remember what happened to the Heigui Clan just a few weeks back.”
All eyes darted towards the side of the Lantis Republic, which was represented proudly by their Prince and Saint of Time. Folding her arms, Longyu Tian didn’t seem all that perturbed by the piercing gazes. Instead, with a bitter sigh, the black-haired woman bowed her head. “We’re ashamed… If we had paid a little more attention, perhaps we could have prevented the Saint of Shell’s betrayal.”
If it were any other day, any disrespect towards the Lantis Republic would have been sorely punished by Longyu Tian and her Golden Sovereign Koi. Alas, it was the Lantis Republic’s oversight that had fed yet another Spirit Saint to the Black Masks. Not only that, but he’d also taken all of the Alliance’s vital intelligence over, possibly tipping the odds in the Allfather’s favour.
Longyu Tian’s face tightened, and the wrath that had been hidden from the Alliance members surged up into her eyes. Those not in the Spirit Saint realm felt their spines turn cold and goosebumps could be seen on all of their arms. The Saint of Time wasn’t using any mana or exerting any spiritual pressure. What brought their souls to heel was just good old fashioned… killing intent.
“But you shall rest assured… The Lantis Republic will do everything in our power to right this wrong. We will personally deliver that traitor’s head to the Alliance Table on a silver platter, before serving it as a sacrifice for our sunken comrades.”
That cold permeating pressure forced many in the room to swallow a gry gulp. Even mighty combat Spirit Saints like Saint Geom or Saint Thor could hardly handle the pressure from the Saint of Time.
“S-Sure...” Alliance Head Raphael turned his head away and coughed, abruptly changing the subject. “When you’re in the chambers, you’re free to analyse this report as much as you want. However, let me just brief you on the most important finds that we’ve found.” The red-haired man flipped through the pages of the thick binder, only stopping when he was at the middle of the pack.
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“There are two major points that we’ve figured out about the Black Masks’ base. Firstly, unlike the Payircis and Deus Citadel, the tree at the centre isn’t a pure physical object. Many of our observers, the majority of them holding astral eyes that can analyse the true nature of objects, concluded that the tree is a manifestation of a Spirit.”
“Manifestation of a Spirit? You mean like an avatar?” Deputy Prime Minister Venus from the Kori Federation raised her brows while a question flowed out her mouth.
“No,” Raphael replied in solemn. “It’s not an avatar. It absorbs spiritual energies and creates mana just like any other Spirit. Because it’s summoned, the Darkness-Elements had taken over the entire land, as you can see from the darkened skies and lifeless fields that it created. We’re guessing that the tree is the Allfather’s own Spirit sprouted with the help of some peculiar spiritual energy.”
“So it’s a Spirit summon…” That one fact caused many of the elites in the room to suck in their breaths. Summoning out one’s Spirit was the most basic thing that a cultivator could do. Any child who had undergone the Spirit Awakening Ceremony would instinctively know how to summon out their Spirit and manifest it in the material plane.
However, most Spirit summons had their limits. See, Spirits utilise mana, a resource that was far from infinite any Spirit Users. Especially if the cultivator was in a higher realm. A Spirit Saint would spend a thousand times more mana just to keep their Spirits in the material plane as compared to a mere Spirit Practitioner. Even Shin, with his near bottomless ocean of mana, was unable to keep the Celestial Dragon summoned for extended periods of time. If Shin really wanted to stretch it, perhaps he could keep the Celestial Dragon in the material plane for a week at most.
But the Allfather had the Tree of Darkness out for months now… And that’s excluding the time it was out in the Abyss.
“Yes, it is. And it defies all common sense,” Raphael frowned. The Allfather was an outlier that lived alongside the most aberrant of weirdos, Spirit Immortal Dream. Hence, it wasn’t surprising that he’d developed strange spiritual abilities. His long lifespan, bestowing mana upon Spirit Beasts and Spirit Users, his all-knowing attributes… The Allfather was an enigma through and through. So much so that the Alliance had quickly become numb to all the surprises he brought.
“That tree is the Allfather’s Spirit. Striking it normally won’t deal any damage to it. If we’re to take it down, we have to find the Allfather’s main body first.” Raphael explained the main challenge when it came to the Tree of Darkness. “For that, we’ll need more probing. Possibly with Spirit Users that can observe things from afar. I hope that you’ll go through your list of available elites and dispatch them accordingly.”
“Of course!” All of the leaders nodded unanimously.
“Great, now for the next major detail in the report.” Raphael turned the pages once more, directing the members of the roundtable to the third last section.
Images of Payircis were reflected upon the pages. They were protected by the dense force field that the Allfather had created using the remnant technologies from Spirit Immortal Dream’s era. The report also detailed what kind of attacks were used against the energy barrier to hopefully test its weaknesses. Physical attacks, elemental attacks… even mental attacks. Data, no matter how big or small were being detailed down in that report. However, none of the leaders present were interested in the minute details. What they were looking for… was at the very last page of the section.
“This is!” Saint Geom gaped, his face torn in between shock and joy.
And who could blame him? All of the other leaders were in a similar mood after browsing through that one section. Of the eight Payircis, only four were lit up with pure white energy flowing through its veins. The other four were as dim as an abandoned lighthouse that had been left to rot on their remote cliffs.
There were many among the leaders that remembered when the combined force of Saint Geom, Firebird, Longyu Tian, Thor, Atossa and Althea failed to breach that force field. It didn’t matter if they had the world’s greatest striker, Saint Geom on their side. The barrier was as still as a rock when the combined forces of six Spirit Saints tried to penetrate through it. However, that was when all eight of the Payircis were fully functional. Now that half of it had been crippled...
“Yes,” Raphael smiled. “We’ve found the way into Mythpoint Reach.”