The next days passed by and the group spent the little time they had strategizing and getting enough rest. The day of the portal battle was only a day or two away, so everyone was using this time carefully since the battle needed all their attention once it started.

Luna used this time to train, research, and mostly meditate after Mira advised her that meditation would greatly improve how she originally perceived the world. Before, Luna would say that her skills were quite exceptional. But seeing that Mira was just like her—a martial artist trying to keep up—Luna took the gamble and was already starting to see results after she spent a whole day meditating.

She found it odd that someone like Mira knew as much as the monks knew about qi arts and how to use them. Although the young woman had made it clear that she was doing her own research on life energy when she made these discoveries, Luna found that hard to believe because everything about qi was already out there.

It was stupid to think there was more to qi. And even if there was, it was impossible to ascend with it.

She was well aware that the qi arts existed way before zenshi ever came into the picture. But the tales about qi in general were exaggerated by the humans of the Old World. They believed that people who could use qi were seen as powerful martial artists who had transcended their humanity through the complete cultivation of the soul, body, and mind. There was no proof of any of this of course. Heck, even her memories hadn’t revealed anything like that to her.

So, it was best to believe that life essence couldn’t be used to ascend. Ascending with life essence meant draining your own essence to create some sort of Soul Gate. Zenshi was divine energy so it didn't affect one's life essence in general.

'And even if you survive creating a soul gate with qi, you will be depleting your life force each time you use it. There is a reason why creatures have cores for their powers.' Luna thought to herself while trying to remain in a calm state.

Also, even though ascenders were technically on the path of ascension, none of them had transcended beyond humanity. Sure, sorcerers were pretty close to being seen as gods. But everything about ascenders remained in the realm of what was humanly possible.

They were not immortal…They couldn’t regrow limbs like Raphael (unless you have an ability that lets you do that). And most especially, they still needed basic things to exist.

Hypothetically speaking, if humans could transcend and become immortal beings entirely, the mortal world would not be in such a mess. They could travel to the divine realm and find whatever is causing this collapse and put an end to this chaos. But as of now, very few humans had abilities that linked them with the divine realm.

If humans could harness life essence like zenshi, Mira believed that things would be entirely different.

The little knowledge of qi left in the world focused on the growth of the mind or Cultivation of the mind. This specific piece of knowledge from thousands of years ago was the reason why Luna and so many martial artists in the world were aware of Qi's existence. And why most mundane martial artists could still keep up with their awakened counterparts with the help of technology of course.

As a child, Luna had undergone this intense type of training alongside her sister. But as they both started to understand the world of martial arts and the mystical side of it, Luna just happened to develop a thing for sensing qi. And while most people sensed qi as tiny fluctuations, Luna usually sensed its true form. To her, she saw it clearly though she couldn’t influence it, nor touch it like zenshi.

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In the end, controlling life sounded like a godlike thing. And so out of reach for humans.

***

When she was done with meditating, Luna headed to the main floor of the cathedral where she joined Rita and Snow who were finalizing the important parts of the plan.

Luna noticed all the faces here aside from one that she just hadn’t gotten used to.

“Good morning Lady Lunaris,” Valentine spoke, giving Luna a practiced smile like he gave everyone.

Luna had just met the tall mysterious man recently and she already found him strange despite sharing a lot of similarities with him. He was a true member of House Artemis and an unblessed. He had cold dark eyes, long messy raven black hair, and procaine white skin that made him look like a perfect doll of sorts.

He was a swordsman too and no one trusted him because he was from House Artemis. From what she remembers, the House had rejected their request to assist with the Crimson Tower’s subjugation.

So why was he here? The son of Lord Artemis. Had they changed their mind so quickly?

“Good morning, Valentine.” She briefly smiled at him before turning her attention to the full map now the table.

“This is the final map of every part of this city. Information on the working tunnels and the red zones,” Snow began. “Darkness and Gail explored the tunnels and discovered that only one of them leads to the Siege Tower. The rest either collapsed or are crawling with horrors.”

Gail was in the corner with Darkness and Monic. The two ladies seemed to be on his tail due to his looks. Mira and Len were standing side by side, staring at the map with serious expressions. Rita and Shin were seated nearby, both wearing tired expressions after using their abilities to make this all possible.

While Valentine was standing beside Luna, his eyes fixed on the displayed map.

The other main players in this operation were the recently awakened summoners who had already fit into their abilities. Even though it was rare, a few of the mundane soldiers who had a dormant spark of divinity had managed to awaken due to being exposed to a god’s domain for too long.

‘Reducing our chances of dying any time soon...Hehe.’

Anyway, the plan was to send mundane humans and recently awakened at the first ring of defense. They were just Cursed beasts so even the weakest ascenders were capable of fighting them without having many casualties. They were outnumbered. But since the creatures were weak and mostly mindless, the chances of winning were actually there.

Luna and Valentine—or Team A—were to lead the attack on the first ring of monsters and pave a path for the summoners and ascenders with Auras. At the same time, they were the ones tasked with distracting the Undead King's army by drawing his attention to the attacking soldiers.

At the same, Snow, who was currently the strongest after opening his third gate was to use the underground tunnel with Rita and Shin, find a path to the city tower, and kill off the undead king. These three were the ambush team since their abilities were never flashy to begin with.

The three were enough to fight a cursed general, hopefully. They were team B.

Len was in charge of keeping the undead king’s army distracted till the undead king himself was killed by Snow and his team. And If anything were to happen Team B; Len, Darkness, Gail, Luna, Valentine, and Monic were to finish the job without fail.

Luna found it difficult to imagine them losing to a cursed general. Especially with people like Len and Snow fighting on their side.

Snow had just opened his third gate and his entire presence had shifted into something more terrifying to those who hadn’t known him for long.

…It was also powerful. Similar to the concept of Ice, Death was also an aura manifested from nature. But unlike ice, death was a very powerful concept in the hands of a human. It was endless, sinister, and inescapable.

Snow was literally a Harold of death to put it in simple terms. And no one else in the world had a similar Aura. It's like…he was chosen by it.

He never talked about his Aura and only manifested it when desperate. Even though Luna had known Snow her whole life, she had never witnessed his abilities. All she knew was that they were powerful considering he had already made a name for himself.

“So that's our best and only shot at winning this.” Snow concluded the meeting with a sigh.

Upon hearing his voice, Luna snapped back to reality and looked around to observe the effects of having strong leaders like Snow. The soldiers present all wore determined looks.

Inside the cathedral, all these soldiers appeared ready to put their lives on the line for humanity.

….Something Luna wasn’t ready to do. She was a selfish person. So if it came to choosing between her life and the rest of the world, she would shamelessly choose her life.

Because she cared about herself the most.

She was even more on the edge after that secret message. Were they going to die if they continued trying to conquer this dungeon? Or if they fought the undead king?

“Or both.” She quivered when she tried to think of a monster capable of killing someone whose Aura was death.

Nevertheless, they were still human. So death was never out of the picture for them. It was a constant for Mortals.

However, Luna was willing to cheat death if it came to it. She wasn’t ready to die, yet.

Not when she had just started living.