A woman approached Ketovan and offered a quick, practiced handshake. She was pretty, with long ginger hair reminiscent of the Weasley family. She wore flexible black armor made of reinforced cloth.
“Nice to see you here, Mr. Motsari,” she said.
“Please, call me Ketovan. Reina,” Ketovan replied, shaking her hand.
“Who is she?” Alex whispered to Ketovan.
“Alex, this is Miss Reina Darath, a friend of mine in the Adventure Society. Reina, this is Mr. Alexander Sobreviviente.”
“No time for introductions,” Reina said, cutting to the chase. “Ketovan, you are a Commander Ranker, right?”
“Yes, but a new one.”
“And this friend of yours?”
“Normal Rank 4.”
“Fine. Escort your friend to a safer place and return. We need as much help as possible.”
“What happened?” Ketovan asked.
“The Forest Orcs have broken out of their Warped Space and are marching into the city. The Director has called for external help. Two Royal Rank parties will arrive in one hour, but that’s enough time for those abominations to raise half the city to the ground,” Reina answered grimly.
“What is their number?” Ketovan asked.
While they spoke, a voice resonated in Alex’s mind.
“You okay, kid?” the voice asked.
‘Emperor, is that you?’ Alex asked back.
“Sure am. I sensed a Royal Rank hostile Aura Beast running towards you—an Orc, maybe?”
‘There is an Orc invasion going on in the city. Are these creatures really that powerful that Royal Rank parties are called from Derrus?’ Alex asked him.
“Not powerful, but their numbers are uneasy to think of. A female Orc can give birth to six babies at once, and they take only five months to mature.”
‘Fine, I will catch up with you later,’ Alex thought.
“Be careful and make sure you kill some Orcs,” Emperor replied.
“Five million. That's not too bad,” Ketovan said in a low voice, finishing his exchange with Reina.
“A fully prepared army of five million, led by five thousand Orc Commanders, five hundred Orc Generals (Noble Rank), and an Orc Lord at Royal Rank,” Reina stated.
“A Royal Rank? That's too bad,” Ketovan conceded.
“The Noble Rank City Guard Captain and eighty percent of the City Guard were facing them, but we lost contact.”
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“Alex. Move towards our stay and wait until I contact you.” Ketovan was already focused on the battle.
“Fine. What about you?” Alex asked.
“Don’t worry about it. I can escape if it gets worse.”
Saying this, Ketovan moved slightly away from Alex and began casting a spell.
“The space is mine to command. I am the All-Knowing and All-Father within my domain, and I shall dictate the past, present, and future in this space. COMMANDER RANK CORE ABILITY – DOMAIN.”
A translucent blue sphere appeared around Ketovan. He offered his hand to Reina, and she stepped inside. The sphere instantly rose into the air and flew toward the west walls of the city.
“Bloody womanizer!” Alex spoke out his thought, watching them go.
Aju Lil Mao, the newly evolved Orc Emperor, dropped before an unnaturally circular pond. He dove in and reached the bottom, where a fragment of space had been torn from the world's surface: the entrance to his home.
The warped space was a floral heaven, classified as a Royal Rank Warped Space. It was large—the size of North America, filled with dense rainforests and steep mountains—a great place for the Forest Orcs to thrive.
However, the space had severe restrictions:
Imprisonment: Orcs could not exit unless a Royal Rank or above human gave a formal order from the King of Uratos.
Hunting Limit: They could only hunt within the space, mostly preying on forest geckos and water snakes.
The Ruler: The true ruler was the Death Eye Serpent, a Royal Rank 98 Soulless Beast with Venom Affinity and the Core Ability Bloody Venom.
When the Orcs first entered 300 years ago, the Death Eye Serpent was untouchable. Though they managed to hunt it down 70 years after their arrival, they lost 75% of their population. A decade later, a new Serpent appeared and reclaimed its position. The Orcs, being creatures of brutal honor, had faced the Serpent every ten years since, losing their strongest fighters each time.
Mao moved toward the Serpent's lair, a massive cave as large as human-built mountain tunnels. He didn't waste time on the door; he shattered it.
Inside, thousands of snakes, ranging from Commander Rank to lower Royal Rank, roamed. In the center of the spherical cave was the progenitor: a gigantic Serpent nearly 990 feet in length and 17 feet in width. The Divine Rank Orc was no more than an ant compared to its mountainous body.
The Serpent was draped in bloody scales, occasionally marked by strips of purple and silver skin. As it opened its eyes, the air thickened instantly with poison. Its progeny scattered. Its eyes were a swirl of black and purple, and it slowly lifted half its body into the air, opening its mouth to release a stream of deep blood-colored venom that began to engulf the floor. The ferric stench was instantly lethal to any Normal Rank soul unlucky enough to breathe it.
Mao remained calm. He was the one who had extinguished the beast ten years ago. He calmly lifted his club—a medium-sized tree with a unique handle—and produced a small, bright red flower with yellow spots. He placed the flower on the club.
The flower began to transform the weapon: it refined the outer layer, molded the handle, and after a minute, Mao held a great axe with a green plant handle and a red and yellow blade made of refined wood.
He leaped toward the Serpent's head, appearing like an insect in the air. The Serpent opened its mouth wide and swallowed him whole.
Mao felt himself traveling down the Serpent's throat, but his newly crafted Divine Rank weapon tore through its skin, and he emerged on the ground, covered in the Serpent’s blood.
He projected his Aura Beast—a Druid. Her appearance was an anomaly: soft expression, long rose-red hair, and a rose tattoo above her chest, a complete contrast to the usual green-themed Orc druids. She was nearly sixty feet tall, wearing a simple red gown with golden veins.
Orcs usually have an Aura Beast that is a larger, bulkier version of themselves. Occasionally, anomalies occur where an Orc receives a completely different type of Aura Beast. Such Orcs were often killed as outcasts, but the few who survived were found to be more intelligent and advanced in rank at startling speeds.
Mao held her hands together and remained calm. The Druid opened her palms, and a black rose appeared, nearly five feet in diameter with 1,024 petals. She threw the rose at the Serpent, and it stuck to its forehead.
The Serpent ignored the flower until it began to suck the life out of it. Its massive body writhed as its spirit was drained into the rose. Mao recalled his Aura Beast and waited for the crippled beast to die a long, painful death.