Chapter 3464: Arrived Destination
Rui and Amare headed deeper and deeper into the core of Kiriket towards the territory of the Gajanan Clan, as they reduced the energy output to preserve their stamina once the threat of the pursuit of the Pasupati Clans of Kiriket ended.
The night had passed and the early light of the morning Sun peered from below the horizon, dispelling the darkness. The melody of chirping birds hung in the air along with the rustling leaves on swaying trees, painting a picturesque environment.
Eventually, their long journey finally came to an end as they arrived at a forest marked by giant trees with more flora than fauna, something that was unusual in the Continent of Kiriket.
"We’re here..." Rui murmured as they stopped, panting as they wiped their sweat. "This is the territory of the Gajanan Clan."
Rui recognised it from the description and its exact location in the continent of Kiriket that he had plotted in his distance tracking, calculating exactly how much distance they had travelled within the continent.
"How do we proceed?" Amare asked with a raised tone. "If we just undo the stealth, then the members of the other clans might detect us. Since a territory is not under the absolute control of any clan, aside from perhaps the Ryu Clan and the Dragon Emperor."
They had discovered that each of the Pasupati Clans of Kiriket was responsible for excessive fauna in the forests of Kiriket. The sheer density of life reminded Rui of the Beast Domain, in fact, before the Beast Incursion.
Because of human encroachment into beast territory along with the Convergence of Beasts towards the centre and their propensity to migrate to the centre of the region, it had created an extremely dense region with all manner of species crammed in a very small space, causing immense conflict and friction.
Eventually, the pressure burst in the form of the Beast Incursion, even if it was artificially born with the intervention of the Eldritch Chimera. Rui realised that there was a possibility of the same thing happening with the Continent of Kiriket.
Especially since the Dragon Emperor also had the Authority of Alpha. It was entirely possible that the Dragon Emperor intended to unleash a beast wave upon the entirety of the world. After all, the Kiriket Continent was many times larger than the Beast Domain in the Panama Continent. A Beast Incursion involving the therianthropes of Kiriket would be an apocalypse so intense that it would make the Age of Darkness that the Panama Continent had experienced look rather tame in turn.
What was especially terrifying was that it appeared to be the intention of the War Coalition of Kiriket.
Why else would the Pasupati Clans of Kiriket increase the density of fauna within their lands, causing excessive inflation of the fauna biosphere beyond what could possibly be sustained? It was obviously a waste of resources since it was impossible for all those creatures to survive with how limited the resources in the universe were.
The only way it wouldn’t be a waste was if they knew that those beasts and monsters were about to gain more room elsewhere outside of Kiriket.
The possibility sent chills across Rui’s skin.
’Wait... don’t tell me these bastards intend to attack us from space and from land?!’
The possibility was horrifying.
What was especially horrifying was the fact that this could overwhelm the deterrence that kept the Panama Continent safe from the initial wave of invasions that the true world unleashed upon them soon after the Unfolding; the Beast Excursion that Rui had unleashed to reinforce the forces of human civilisation.
Simultaneously, they could bombard human civilisation with a titanically destructive orbital bombardment and invasion. Faced with a war on two fronts, there was no way that human civilisation would be able to hold out under such circumstances; it simply did not have any experience fighting such an absurd war and would need to develop means to fight against such enemies.
"Rui...?" Amare tilted her head. "I asked you how we ought to proceed. This isn’t the time to zone out."
Her remark broke him out of his reverie, bringing him back to reality and to the forest enclosure within the territory of the Gajanan Clan.
"...I can isolate our presence and ensure that it doesn’t leak to the rest of the area," Rui remarked. "And..."
He lifted his foot before stomping on the ground, using Reverberating Lance to permeate the impact of his strike across the ground, spreading vibrations across the ground.
RUMBLE
The world shook lightly from the simple gesture.
Rui wasn’t worried about it being tracked to him, the anomaly, once again. In their time in Kiriket Continent, the ground had shaken many times due to a variety of causes, both organic and otherwise, to the point that there wasn’t even any point in trying to follow up on each and every single one of them.
However, given that he had done that in the very territory of the Gajanan Clan, he was sure that they wouldn’t be able to ignore it. It was such a blatant kind of provocation that not even they could ignore, surely.
And he was right.
RUMBLE..
Within minutes, a herd of giant elephants emerged from within the forest with therianthropes seated on their back. Each of the elephants was far bigger and more warlike than any that Rui had ever seen, making them appear more fierce than any other Rui had ever seen.
Their tusks were long and jagged ,while their trunks were more muscular than anything else Rui had ever seen. Their hides were incredibly thick, comprised of a special biotechnology that allowed them to absorb impacts and convert them into potential energy within their body that could be repurposed.
With the Tree of Life Enlightenment, Rui could see that an environment devoid of atmospheric pressure was their only antithetical weakness, while their position in the Tree of Life was quite on the fringes, meaning that they were most likely a highly engineered species.