Building Interstellar Empire With Universal Synthesis
Chapter 94: Trial Begins; New Heroes
The 30-day trial began.
All 25,000 elves were dropped off into the Heavenly Gourd.
The Heavenly Gourd was almost five times bigger than Sol, and it was shaped exactly like a massive gourd. The lower plate was much larger than the upper plate. The outer surface was filled with various harsh environments, such as scorching deserts, Demonic Wastelands, Torrential Rivers, Wild Moving Mountains, and Dark Forests.
Not just the elves from Neo’s side, but there were also other forces descending onto the world.
Neo, seated back on his throne, watched everything through the camera feed provided by the officials in charge of administration on this trial world. Besides real-time footage, they also showed the basic rankings among all the other eighty-eight factions competing in this lot.
There were two types of rankings:
Individual.
And
Factions.
At the top of the Individual Ranking was: Servo.
At the top of the Faction Ranking: Crimson Kings.
And Neo’s Zenith Empire was in the 88th position since they had not earned any significant merit points yet.
But Neo had full trust in the elves.
Elves’ POV:
All the elves dropped onto a moss covered ground through a mass teleportation gate on the sky.
After getting their footing, they glanced around it confusion.
"Where are we?" a young elf panicked, clutching his head and looking around wildly.
"Is this a crystal mine?" an older warrior muttered, gazing up at the towering cliffs surrounding them in the darkness.
"No. There are no guards. Just endless wilderness."
"Did you hear what our new Ruler said? He called it the Heavenly Gourd. A trial world." a female archer said, flexing her fully healed hands in absolute disbelief.
"A trial? It feels like a slaughterhouse to me. My mana core is completely fixed. The pain is gone. But we have no weapons and no armor. We are completely defenseless out here," a former knight grumbled, inspecting his own body.
"At least he gave us a chance at freedom. We just have to survive," a young mage whispered, staring at his glowing palms.
Before they could gather their bearings, a low, bone-chilling growl echoed from the high cliffs.
"Awoooooo!"
The shadows of the valley suddenly seemed to move.
Then, hundreds of thousands of glowing red eyes pierced through the gloom, completely surrounding the massive army of elves.
As the vision cleared, they saw a massive pack of wolves, each the size of a transport carriage, charged down the rocky slopes.
Their fangs dripped with highly acidic saliva, and their claws tore through the rocky earth
"Awooooooh..."
"Direwolves," a terrified voice whispered out of nowhere.
Total chaos erupted at onve.
"Run!" someone screamed.
The sudden ambush was entirely brutal.
Many of the younger elves, who were still deeply traumatized from their time in the slave cages, completely froze in terror.
They dropped to their knees and began to weep, covering their heads as the giant beasts pounced.
A child was fleeing, just at that moment direwolf jumped up and slammed onto her.
But instead of blood spilling across the dirt, a flash of pure white light enveloped the broken body.
The Heavenly Gourd’s safety system instantly activated, teleporting the child safely out of the trial world.
She was eliminated, but can respawn in 5 minutes.
Vaelar’s POV.
Vaelar, the former Commander of the Griffin Knights, pushed himself forward. For months, he had been a rotting corpse waiting for the sweet release of death in the auction pit. Now, the High-Grade Elven Mana-Blood Pill pumped absolute fire through his veins.
"Hold your ground! Do not scatter!" Vaelar roared with ferocity of a veteran leader.
He crushed the Advanced Spirit-Iron Weaponry Token Neo had provided in his palm.
As soon he did, a massive broadsword formed in his firm grip.
Slash!
He swung the heavy blade with explosive force, cleaving the nearest leaping direwolf perfectly in half.
Vaelar then bravely stepped in front of the weeping slaves.
"Knights of Aincrad, form a vanguard! We have no mounts, but we still have our absolute honor. Protect the weak!"
Aeliana’s POV.
Aeliana watched the light particles of the eliminated elves float into the dark sky. Her heart pounded furiously against her ribs. The vicious dark magic curse that had tortured her for so long was completely gone.
She saw three massive direwolves leaping directly toward a group of terrified, crying elders.
"We are not slaves anymore!" Aeliana shouted, her beautiful silver blonde hair blowing wildly in the violent wind.
She raised her empty hands.
After channeling her pure wind mana, she formed a gleaming longbow out of thin air.
"I will not let you filthy wolves harm my kind. With blessing of Aeriel, I besiege you."
She finally pulled back the invisible string, condensing the sharp atmospheric currents into three glowing emerald arrows.
[ Skill Activated: Piercing Gale Shot (D) ]
"Die," Aeliana whispered coldly.
She released the string.
Woosh, woosh, woosh.
The emerald arrows tore through the air with a supersonic boom, piercing straight through the direwolves’ skulls and pinning their massive corpses to a nearby boulder.
Aeliana then unleashed her heroic aura for the entire valley to see.
"Archers of Oceron, manifest your weapons! Aim for their eyes. Cover the Knights. We will not fail our Ruler today!"
Nyxaris’s POV.
Nyxaris stood perfectly still amidst the absolute chaos. Her pale skin was no longer covered in dying black veins. Instead, glowing violet runes pulsed across her arms and neck.
The Stellar Mutation elixir had not just healed her, it had forced her mutation to absolute perfection.
And thus when a pack of ten direwolves circled her, their primal instincts warned them of the terrifying dark aura leaking from her small frame.
"Grrrrr!"
They still lunged simultaneously, aiming to tear her apart.
Nyxaris did not flinch. She simply raised her hands toward the dark, turbulent sky.
[ Unique Talent Awakened: Abyssal Gravity (D) ]
"Kneel," Nyxaris commanded softly, but the horrifying aura of a dark mage was there.
HUMMM!
As an immediate effect of [Abyssal Gravity], a massive wave of dark, crushing gravitational force slammed into the earth around her.
PLAAAP!
The ten direwolves were instantly flattened against the ground. Their bodies crushed like mangled corpses under the immense invisible pressure.
She turned around, locking eyes with Vaelar and Aeliana across the chaotic battlefield.
They did not need to speak, and yet an unbreakable understanding passed between the three of them.
The weak would weep and fall. But not them.
They would save them all.