As the earth shook, its effects were felt by all above the earth, and such information was relayed to the main research facility in Acetia, it stood strong thanks to the stable and rigid earth that the city was built on.

“What do you mean the seismic activity occurred all the way from the northern border to Acetia? There are no faults in the earth that are big enough to cause such a phenomenon!” A man scrunched his face in sheer shock and annoyance.

“Sir, but that’s the information we received from the communication pearls linked to the other areas, we have confirmed multiple times and those are the exact areas that experienced the earthquake.”

The employee explained.

“So what are the readings from our sound-sensitive equipment below the earth?” The man sighed and slightly dropped his shoulders.

“They have all broken, sir.” The employee replied, lowering his head in shame.

 The man placed a palm on his face

“Ugh, I knew the alloy wouldn’t be enough to keep the mana crystals from shattering the moment an earthquake of this magnitude occurred! Curse those arrogant pricks, we should have just stolen tech from the dwarves instead of using our own.”

“Sir… that statement is quite treasonous…” The employee informed.

The man’s eyes narrowed as he glared at the employee.

“Report the anomaly to the royal palace, this is most definitely not a natural occurrence, the army will have to be involved in this, this situation is far beyond our scope.”

The employee nodded his head furiously, scurrying out of the headquarters.

The man paced around the room, a hand placed on his chin. He took out a communication pearl, most notably of a different color to those issued in Invicta.

“There will be no need to call an elven diplomat to double-check the information; the epicenter is definitely at the Core Abyss.” The voice of a woman was heard from a nearby corridor.

--

While the pride and joy of the country was wholly unaffected by the earthquake; the Leon province was not as lucky. The geography of the area barely had any earthquakes, merely minor tremors from the occasional large monster. Aside from important commercial hubs, no buildings in the province were designed to survive the earthquake created by the roar of an elder dragon.

An ominous wind pervaded the silent night.

The entire countryside was in ruins, and its citizens could naught but gaze in shock at their ruined homes and fallen kin. The cheerful atmosphere of the recent festival was replaced by a sudden outburst of despair.

Louis hovered kilometers above the rubble, covering himself in a thick layer of qi. He looked down on the rubble and bodies scattered at the land below.

‘That is quite the declaration of war, do you truly seek them, or are you after the country?’ A question formed in his head.

He flew through the air far beyond the speed of sound; he ignored the draconic army of cubes that tore through the landscape below. His goal was midway between the Core Abyss and Acetia, which conveniently enough, was close to the de Leon’s residence.

He did a quick fly-by at the border to confirm the strength and numbers of the enemy, as well as the position of all the flags he had asked Rufus to place.

‘The formation should be enough to handle them…. If it works.’ He thought.

He slowed down, descended and stopped in front of a flag that floated freely in the air; the cloth that waved at the pole was dyed red with the emblem of General Alchemy. Rufus had done his job well.

‘With this formation… I tried to make the formation flags harvest mana instead of qi using the principles of World Energy. Hopefully, these flags are still capable of harnessing diluted world energy.”

He took a deep breath, and grasped the flagpole with his left hand; he ‘drew’ the flow of the mana that he desired within his head, with the flags as points of references. During his survey, he noticed that some were missing, but nothing that would prevent him from activating the formation.

He smiled, and tried to activate the connection between the flags, but it did not activate.

“USELESS!” Louis exclaimed, he threw the flag in a fit of rage with immense strength; he had unconsciously wasted qi in the process when he found out that the mana was too weak to make a connection.

‘Tsk, well I shouldn’t expect to get it right in one go, this world has entirely different laws after all.” Louis continued to hover in the air, staring into the horizon to wait for his foe.

--

While the air remained tranquil for the moment, on the ground was a battle hard fought.

There were not many settlements that neared the border, but there were many towns scattered up and about, in those towns were usually elves that were quarantined due to the countries’ policy, some merchants looking for opportunities abroad and the occasional aspiring adventurer.

In any case, the fact that there were people that needed protection remained. Protection of the weak was one of the duties of the Invicta Peacekeepers. Usually, they would deal with some petty conflict between humans and elves.

Today, they faced a foe far more perilous.

“This is far outside of our paycheck.” A bearded man in plate armor spoke, his voice had a sense of heaviness attached to it.

“Captain Cain, your orders?” A fellow peacekeeper asked him.

“Forget orders, we need to get the hell out of here!”  A local guardsman who had joined their squadron exclaimed.

“And what? Abandon our duties?!” The peacekeeper retorted.

Cain interrupted.

“No, it is fine; I know you all have people waiting for you back home, self-preservation would only be natural. Those that wish to retreat should get going now, those that wish to remain for whatever reason, stand in place.”

“Sir, the punishment for desertion is…” A young-looking man explained.

“We are facing sentient fucking crystals  of death, I am not quite sure the punishment accounted for those heading your way. In fact, the correct action would be to retreat.” Cain spoke as he gazed into the starry sky, then to the dimly lit houses below them, he clenched his fist tightly.

“I’ll spare you my sob story, but I’m selfish and I don’t wanna see people die. If any of you are also selfish and don’t wanna see people die, come fight with me.”

The young man who spoke earlier nodded, he wordlessly walked away, and others quickly followed.

Of the thousand stationed in the town, three hundred remained, most were middle-aged men that already sported scars gained from battle, but some were young and unblemished.

“Can any of you use control spells? Or soul weapons that have similar effects to control spells?” Cain yelled.

Nearly a hundred men raised their hands.

He coughed.

“With power comparable to medium-level spell.”

The hands that remained in the air were less than ten.

Cain let out a wry smile, he had hoped the knowledge he learned from gossip at the tavern would be correct.

“Everyone should focus on protecting the ones that can cast control spells, use whatever means you can to shield their body from the Dragon Eggs.”  

Some winced at the meaning behind his words.

“Focus on one Dragon Egg at a time as much as possible, they’re easy pickings as long as we overwhelm their barrier.”

He took a deep breath, and then breathed out.

“Semper Invictus!¹ Always for the better and greater” He bellowed.

“Semper Invictus! The peacekeepers yelled in response.

The citizens that were evacuating cheered for the peacekeepers, a feeling of warmth and safety washed over them in the cold night.

A screeching sound was heard from miles away.

Cain and the peacekeepers rushed towards the wall.

“GET YOUR WARDING SPELLS AND DEFENSIVE SOUL WEAPONS READY!”  He yelled.

The men rushed outside the wall, it would prove no utility for them against their enemy, aside from collapsing with them on top.

Those capable of defense were spread across the front, with Cain at the very front and  in his hand his soul weapon, a kite shield.

Nearly 30 Viventum crystals rushed at them with over two hundred kilometers of velocity, they shook, but they did not falter.

“Cast all your spells in three seconds, whether they are defensive or offensive, and even healing spells!” He exclaimed, shaking evident in his voice.

Everyone heard him loud and clear as the clock ticked internally in their bodies.

Within three seconds, a Viventum crystal was within range, and all the spells were let lose.

Cain who was at the front died in an instant, his plate armor warped and crushed him inside, leaving him a mangled pile of flesh and metal. The healing spells were far too weak to keep him alive. Multiple men quickly followed suit.

The defensive line did not hold for long, they had not even slain one Viventum crystal. However, they had bought exactly two minutes. Two minutes was perhaps enough to let a few more citizens evacuate.

For the peacekeepers, it was that which mattered.

--

“All mages capable of teleportation, head to the places marked on the map to execute the relief plan! Bring as many able- bodied man in our militia as you can, we need people to hold the line against the Viventum crystals. We are awaiting further information from the royal capital.” A high-ranking mage practically screamed out of his lungs.

The illuminated streets of the nighttime were in a panic, as many mages were rushing to teleportation circles linked to all over the province and nobles scurried to greet reinforcements that hailed from the capital.

Naturally, many guards were placed within restricted areas of the streets to streamline the process, and thus two guards were positioned in a particularly precarious position, although they did not know that.

“Hey Dark Ly.” One spoke.

“What is it? We shouldn’t be talking on duty.” The other addressed as "Dark Ly" scolded him for his misconduct.

“Is that a lump of metal on the horizon flying to our direction?”  The guard spoke, he was known for having particularly good eyesight during archery training.

The other guard laughed, patting his friend on the back.

“Haha, now is not the time to jes-“

Within an instant, a flagpole impaled the guard known as Dark Ly straight in the chest, his insides were turned into a bloody mess.

A bloodcurdling screech was heard from the man next to him, striking panic in the hearts of those stationed nearby.

Thus, a portion of the city was engulfed in turmoil, all thanks to a weaponized flag of kinetic energy.

Ah, the horrors of war.

--

Meanwhile, the perpetrator of the incident continued to hover magnificently in the air, uncaring of the fiasco he had caused.

He was waiting for something, a group of somethings, to be specific.

And that something did indeed come, as the cool breeze changed into a gale, and then an intense storm of wind.

They numbered in the hundreds, defying aerodynamics with their rocky wings as their ‘eyes’ blazed with a blue fire.

As Louis saw them over the horizon, he spared no time in taking out his soul weapon, with it, he materialized a few strips of pork topped off with some barbecue sauce.

‘Usually, spiritual foods would be full of qi and yang energy. However, in fear of consuming my qi, I refrained from adding that in all of the recipes that usually contained it. Now that I know more… it is more likely to use a qi substitute instead of the actual thing.”

It would seem that he was correct in his judgement, as the food was chock full of world energy.

‘So soul weapons can work as an anchor to the world and absorb the world energy? This knowledge would be troublesome in the wrong hands. It is best I assume that my soul weapon is not an anomaly.”

To harness the World Energy, Louis started eating mid-flight with intense winds blowing against him.

He ate hastily with his hands, and yet the way he ate was full of majesty, fully befitting of a king eating with his hands in the middle of a hurricane.

That would be the case if one had the same perception as Louis, as the sheer speed he ate at would make it seem like he was magically making the food disappear.

Nodding in satisfaction, he threw aside the plate and dematerialized his soul weapon.

He looked high into the sky, staring at the being that was looking down on him.

‘Such arrogance must be punished.’ He thought.

“Hear me, being made from the earth that covets the name of his betters. Why is it that you have the audacity to bring an army to the doorstep of my home?” He spoke in a voice that only beings that truly comprehend a soul can understand.

“Home? This land never belonged to you in the first place. Hmph, those who overstep their mortal boundaries, shall naturally suffer the wrath of the earth!” The adult dragon that hovered high above the sky responded.

“Very well, then I shall bury you back into the earth where you belong, or would you prefer to rest with the stones in the firmament instead?” Louis asked in a domineering tone.

The adult dragon laughed.

“Kuahahaha! I will admit that you are strong, but can you handle my army of younglings?”

Louis smirked; he had gathered the world energy that his body absorbed during the small talk.

“While it is true that your army is somewhat domineering and far outnumber me-“

Louis encircled his hands at the world energy gathered at his abdomen, the ethereal glow full of light lit up the night sky.

"but the dao is boundless."

He smiled and took the mote of light in his palms.

“-and I am certain that the extent of my dao is enough to encompass an army millions of times your size, 

The glow turned into a blinding flash of light.

"let alone your sorry excuse for a punitive force."

In an instant, the night sky was filled with countless stars, along with a black void that consumed the land below. Louis sent out his divine sense, the part of himself that he had restrained for so long. Merely sending out a pulse of his divine sense was enough to shatter the space itself.

The corpses of the young dragons were floating around in dead space, although now they were merely stones lazing around in the dark void that embraced them

Only one dragon remained, the metallic sheen of its body peeling off. The bright flame in its eyes was trembling.

Louis put his hands behind his back.

“So, is this all the wrath of the earth amounts to? Well, I knew this planet was small and weak, but to think this was all it could do even in its final moments.”

“I am not your match, I will admit, this life may have come to an end, but I must warn you. To those who truly bear the weight of the will of the earth, my capability is but a trickle of water compared to them.” The adult dragon explained.

After that, its rocky exterior erupted, sending out violent plumes of flame at the direction of Louis. The flames were a brilliant blue, but they could not even singe his hair.

Louis took out a paper talisman.

‘You still have your soul!’

The soul of the dragon returned to the earth, feeding it with world energy once more, alas, the soul could not fully return to its birth place, as remnants scattered into the air.

As for the young dragons, their souls were all wiped out by Louis’ divine sense.

He let out a dry laugh.

“Ah, I was too careless. But your words have only served to further interest me.”

He stretched his body like a young teen that was just starting his morning exercise, Invicta would not know who had wiped out the dragons from the sky itself, but his actions that day shall echo throughout the world.