Spirit Soul

Kyle had not given much thought to the sentient seedling of the devouring tree in the last few weeks.

Only occasionally he attempted to figure out the functions of all hues that enveloped it as he had several other things to do.

There were several abilities he seemed to be able to awaken and nurture within the seedling.

Knowing some of the effects the abilities had, Kyle was able to use this to his advantage right now.

He didn't want to play the hero in a suicidal situation that would cost him his life.

However, it was important for him to stay alive.

This meant that if the army of the Aldra race's faction would attack Briskandt, Kyle would help protecting the garrison.

It didn't matter which race he belonged to or that the Aldra and Yadras had the same name for their main race; human.

Rather, Kyle didn't feel that it was correct to betray those who had been good to him, which included the guards and soldiers of the two kingdoms.

He also believed that the entire situation inside the Sadorla Forest was wrong and very complex.

Unable to explain what exactly was wrong, Kyle could only think to himself that the war over the Licara flower seemed to have no merit or any visible gains.

This was a weird feeling he got, and it made him think that protecting the garrison was for his best, even if the pressure on him would increase soon.

Though all of the guards liked him, the tension inside the Sadorla forest was steadily increasing.

With that in mind, Kyle wanted to make use of a specific effect in which the devouring tree could be nurtured.

"If I nurture the spores of the seedling, it might change its entire constitution, but the three of us have witnessed the effect of the spores, right?"

Kyle knew that the two women recalled the time in which he had nurtured one particular path of the devouring tree seedling.

While nurturing the path, the seedling had released spores that had different functions.

Some of them were stronger, and some weaker, but all of them had a negative effect on Kyle and the others when it reached their nostrils, and entered their body.

Dizziness had overcome Kyle, while Yasmine had felt herself incapable of properly controlling mana for a few seconds, only to sense that her control was weakened for a few minutes afterward.

Meanwhile Beatrice's emotions had been all over the place and her thirst for blood increased manifold, even though she hadn't been hungry.

Whether this was a racial effect of the spores that had different effects according to the race that was affected by the spores, or that they were just unlucky with the spores that entered their nostrils didn't really matter.

What was important was that the devouring tree seedling was not able to create the spores all by itself yet.

Sensing the hue that had to be nurtured, Kyle also knew that his current strength was abysymally low and he didn't even have a tenth of the required energy, possibly not even a hundredth.

As such, only while nurturing the spores would they be created and released, for now.

But that was already more than enough in Kyle's opinion because he and Arashi were able to use the wind affinity in order to scatter the spores all over the battlefield if necessary.

With that in mind, he believed that using the soul energy which he had accumulated inside the Soul storage medallion during the last few weeks should be more than enough to help them out.

In the end, Kyle had always kept around a third of all the soul energy he deprived of every soul he devoured.

Because of that, one could say that he had roughly a third of the soul energy of more than hundreds of Low and Mid Vitae stage beasts stored inside the Soul storage medallion.

That should be more than enough for everything he had planned in the short time they had returned.

However, his plan was not completely foolproof because he would have to be on a higher ground in order to release the spores.

Yet, that was not all because his allies shouldn't breathe in the spores either.

As such, he would have to be on the outermost wall on top of one of the corner towers and ready with the spores once someone were to attack them.

Spotting him would be easy for the enemy, and the exact efficiency of his means to defend the garrison was not perfect either.

Rather, it was just a temporary means to forcefully halt the attacking side's approach, or to weaken their combat prowess if they were already attacking.

All-in-all only Kyle felt that this plan was decent, even if he was fully aware of the dangers and risks.

This had also been the reason why he had called it stupid because that was essentially the case with his plan; it was stupid and reckless!

Unfortunately, actively protecting the garrison was one of the only ways to show everyone that he was on their side, and not of the Aldra race's.

It was quite annoying, but if he were to stay idle while Briskandt were to be under an attack, the tension around him would only increase.

Thus, he had decided to do something once the time was ripe.

For now, this was not necessary, and spending more days cultivating actively would be quite helpful for him.

Nevertheless, he still focused on nurturing Arashi, even if the situation might seem to be tense.

"Weren't the other kingdoms already informed when the forces of the Aldra race's faction had gathered? I doubt that the Queen of the Lahin kingdom didn't send out spies to keep herself updated on the situation.

As for the Nasga race, I heard rumors about a huge military underground city somewhere near their borders.

Apparently, their viruses had been concocted there too!"

Speaking out her thoughts, Yasmine relayed the information and rumors she had heard so far in an attempt to ease Kyle's worry.

In fact, Kyle looked rather calm and his explanation of what he wanted to do was more to ease the tension everyone else was feeling.

Yet, in the end, his plan made both Beatrice and Yasmine worry a lot as they knew that one volley of long distance attacks from beings at the Krystal stage could mean his end!

Owing to that Yasmine's words were more for herself and Beatrice.

Looking at Kyle, they could only shake their head, thinking that he was taking the situation too lightly.

This was something unordinary to see from Kyle as he would always be serious and grim, but it was certainly not something that calmed their minds.

"I believe that needlessly worrying over the possibility of certain events to happen won't help us. Instead, let's focus on the present and what we can do in order to overcome everything, even the attack of an army full of Krysal stage Soldiers!"

That being said, Kyle tried his best to change the topic, trying to make it look as if he had only been stating possibilities earlier.

Nevertheless, the two women knew that every word of his was serious.

Though they knew he was trying to pacify them, they could not change his mind, either way.

Considering this, they thought that it might be the best for them to become stronger and prevent the necessity of enacting Kyle's suicidal tactic.

Thus, after advancing their cultivation, and comprehending the unique functions of their traits that had been unleashed along with being up to date about the events in and around the Sadorla forest became the most important tasks for the following days.

Meanwhile, Kyle mostly focused on increasing his understanding of the wind essence. Additionally, he used the vast majority of Soul force to empower his Nurture ability.

Days passed quickly and the group of three spent most of their time inside the building of the Guild.

The presumed attack on Briskandt didn't happen.

Instead, the situation became even tenser than it had already been.

This was the case because the Alliance that revolved around the Nasga race had initiated a surprise attack on the Aldra race's faction.

Blood Nasgas that were several times larger than their normal breed had appeared in the last few rows of the Aldra race's army out of nowhere. They had suddenly started slaughtering hundreds of them before they were able to retaliate.

In fact, the mutated Blood Nasgas launched a self destructing attack once they were severely injured, drained of all their energy, and about to die any moment.

Their self detonation released and spread the blood mist further, enveloping the Aldra soldiers tightly.

Little did the Soldiers of the Aldra race expect that the Blood Nasga's blood mist would infiltrate their body, and kill them from the inside.

After all, their blood mist was comparable to a fast spreading disease that would rapidly spread a toxic venom and kill most beings upon breathing in too much of it.

This was one of the special traits of the Nasga's blood mist, and something Kyle was already familiar with.

After all, he had already healed someone who had been harmed by the blood mist!

Knowing how dangerous the blood mist was, Kyle felt oddly relieved because the parties of the Nasga and the Aldra race fought against each other, instead of focusing on attacking and overwhelming Briskandt.

Unfortunately, the Lahin and Anadra kingdom didn't seem to be all that fond of the fact that they were excluded from the war.

Having gathered their own army for a while, they had waited for a great opportunity.

Yet, seeing that the first attack had already been launched, they decided to not wait anymore.

Thus, the demihuman's alliance joined forces to approach the battlefield.

This was something Kyle couldn't really understand because it would weaken their army's strength the moment they encountered one another.

Despite that, it was clear that everyone was approaching the center of the Sadorla forest in order to get their hands on the Licara flower.

In the end, this was every race's ultimate goal, even if a much mightier being had planted the flower, to begin with.

As such, many problems were bound to occur, and Kyle couldn't really be pleased with the situation.

The only advantage he figured was that he could see more units of the Blazing Legion and other elite military unit that belonged to the Lahin kingdom.

Kyle was not really interested in the Anadra kingdom, and he even approached the city walls when he heard about the arrival of the Lahin kingdom's elite units.

They were supposed to rest in Briskandt for a few hours before continuing their way towards the battlefield.

During these hours, Kyle decided to search for Sven Larn, and to his fortune, he was not hard to find.

,m Yet, Kyle had to stop midway as he figured out that the timing couldn't be worse.

Thus, he was already glad to see Sven, even if he were to enter a region which would turn into a mass grave of  thousands of beings.

It was disastrous but Kyle didn't really feel restless.

Instead, seeing the hues that enveloped Sven, he could tell that he had been able to procure numerous treasures in the year they hadn't seen each other.

This was great, and it was very promising as Sven's survival rate increased exponentially.

With every single piece of information in his mind, the disguised Kyle was calmly looking down at the walls of the garrison, only to hear a voice behind him.

"We can inform Sven about your arrival in Briskandt. So once all of us are back, you should treat us to good food and alcohol!"

Turning around, he saw the small unit of the Blazing Legion, whom Kyle had met a month ago and smiled at them.

They were much nicer than initially assumed, and seeing the tensed expression of the youngest in their group, Kyle could tell that they were extremely nervous.

Being able to sense that the following few days could very well mean their last, they were somewhat unwilling to enter the battlefield, but this feeling lingered in their mind only for a few seconds.

"Of course I will treat all of you. Celebrating is a must after a great battle!"

Kyle was not going to fight in this battle, but that didn't mean he wouldn't try to cheer them and provide some mental support.

As such, he had given them a short but motivating answer before seeing them off.

'I hope this whole mess will end soon….I don't like to see all of them fighting against each other…In the end, nobody will be able to acquire the mutated Licara flower, to begin with…'