Damned Healer-Chapter 563: Double Trouble

Darian left the building and looked up at the sky. Whether it was day or night, anywhere in the universe, now you could see the massive cosmic fissure pulsing; a terrifying scarlet light flowed from within it, making it stand out.

He took a deep breath. That fissure was exactly the channel to another universe, created by the Missionary. Its location was on the edge, at the universe's limit.

Few knew this, but every universe had a boundary space, defined at its birth. Under very specific conditions, that size could increase, but it was extremely rare.

In the distant past, the whole world was technically divided into two: the Yin world and the Yang world. They had lived separately since the beginning of everything.

The Yin world was called the underworld. Being a place with absolutely no Yang and absurdly vast, it was impossible to even measure its size. Inside the underworld existed countless black holes, some very far from each other, some very close.

Inside those black holes was where all the Yang of the world was accumulated, being the Yang side of the world. Inside them, space expanded, and those were precisely the places where universes existed, and where common life was born and flourished.

A low-level universe had around 100 to 200 billion galaxies. But in high-level universes, those numbers could increase up to ten times.

As for the underworld, even though it had no suns, it had rocky planets. And, surprisingly, the Qi and the power flowing through that place had the ability to give birth to unique races. They were born from pure Yang and, sometimes, managed to invade and thrive in the universes.

But all of that was something from the past.

Currently, the underworld doesn't exist like before. That place turned into a chaotic world overtaken by destruction. Nothing lived there anymore, and even immortals would die very fast inside it. The underworld was destroyed in one of the apocalyptic battles in the war of the past.

As a consequence, the connection to other universes through the underworld, which powerful people used to rely on, became practically impossible. Universes became absurdly isolated.

Of course, there were very rare cases where two universes were extremely, extremely close, and people could still move between them.

That was the case of that twin universe where the two phoenixes were born, and that Darian visited. And that was also the case for the universe of the Three Heavenly Divinities and the other universe. The two weren't twins, but they were very close to each other.

A Missionary was an anomalous and frightening entity, and after becoming an immortal, his power managed to create that channel between universes.

Darian obviously wasn't the only Missionary, and there were always rumors about Missionaries in various universes. Darian didn't know what had led that Missionary to start a war on that scale, but it was already clear it wasn't related to Heaven's Will; it was something personal.

Back to the present moment. At that instant, all three armies gathered quickly on the planet. They were already prepared, waiting for this day. The Convention of the Bloody Battlefield only lasted a single day, so they couldn't waste even a minute.

Darian looked at the three armies. In the front line, he had 6 thousand Spiritual Guardians. Further back, there were one million Golems; all of them had shrunk their size to at most three meters, eliminating unnecessary excess and now having a body more sustainable energetically.

Lastly, there were one and a half million Rainbow Cranes. They had been selected by Darian, trained, and carefully prepared for this day.

Possibly, other races would bring double those numbers. But in one year, there was a limit to how many pills Veyle could make, and to how many Bloodline improvements Czaza could perform.

All Rainbow Cranes were in a very pathetic state of strength, so the two had a lot of work with each one of them; therefore, that number was the limit.

"Everyone trained and prepared properly for this day, so you don't need to fear or hesitate. Words are unnecessary. Just follow the orders and, when nothing is said, follow what you trained."

Darian said in a solemn tone. Then he signaled, and his flying ship appeared. Several other vessels had to be used to carry everyone.

The Rainbow Cranes would burn resources without hesitation to take everyone in mere minutes to the location. Those native vessels weren't as imperceptible or incredible as Darian's, but by burning lots of resources, they could cross the universe extremely fast.

In less than five minutes after everything was confirmed, the entire army disappeared. The Emperor and the older or weaker ones stayed behind, but everyone was filled with anxiety and hope.

...

Shortly after, they all arrived at a completely empty place with no galaxies anywhere in the universe. There was nothing and no one there.

In the past, that region had been the center of the war, because it was the entrance to the other universe; that's why everything was destroyed.

Everyone exited the flying ship and quickly gathered in a large formation. The Golems basically surrounded the Rainbow Cranes in a circle, as if they were their shield.

Meanwhile, the Spiritual Guardians stood at the front, close to Darian, ready to act immediately as his spear at the right moment.

"Let's go," Darian said calmly.

The fissure was the entrance to the channel, and it stretched across half the edge of the universe. No matter where you entered from, you'd end up coming out in a smaller region of the channel. Meaning all the competing races from this universe would end up at a visible distance from each other.

The Convention had 3 stages. The first was exactly the crossing of the channel toward the central region, which was a separate world where the largest battles of the past had happened.

Everyone moved toward the fissure. Then it was like they were sucked inside.

Their world was swallowed by a scarlet color and an intimidating immortal energy. But it didn't hurt them at all.

A second later, everything around them started stabilizing. They felt something firm beneath their feet. When they looked down, it wasn't exactly land, but rather solidified space, like transparent glass.

Ahead, everything was distorted like turbulent waves. They couldn't see anything beyond, but no one felt any danger walking forward. The space was a bit chaotic, but not threatening.

Walking through the channel felt like climbing a slope. You could only move using your own legs. No one could fly or use any kind of technique or power to go faster; any attempt made the space react and drag immortal power toward the person. The result would be a brutal death.

Everyone took a deep breath. A pressure fell over their shoulders.

This channel was very similar to the training planet, so that place was a good training ground. But it wasn't life energies; it was time-space pressing down on them, which was way harder and way more dangerous.

Many Rainbow Cranes from the army, including Supreme General Clanne, had participated in the last Convention. This stage had medium difficulty; the further they went, the tougher it got, but in the end, it was still manageable, even for their declining race.

"What the hell is this?! Hahaha!"

Suddenly, a sharp laugh echoed near them.

Everyone turned in that direction. Then they activated the power in their eyes and managed to see the Twilight Owls' army. They also hadn't started climbing yet.

There were over four million Twilight Owls, but…

In front of them, there were almost three million other races. Most were humans, but there were other humanoid races mixed in as well, like dwarves, elves, and orcs.

"You… you brought Golems?! I wasn't expecting that, how ridiculous."

The mockery came from a feminine figure that looked like an elf, over two meters tall, very skinny, and without any striking feminine features. It was just a shapeshift, and she was the leader of the Twilight Owls at this Convention.

Darian already knew who she was. Her name was Caelu, and she was that race's vice-empress.

"I really expected more from you. Such a small Rainbow Crane army, and Golems on top of that? That's just ridiculous."

Another voice echoed from a different direction. When they focused there, they saw Galteus together with his Three-Eyed Ravens.

Their numbers were almost identical to the Twilight Owls'. But in front of them, there was only a million other races; most were demons and beasts.

Darian narrowed his eyes. It was obvious that, standing in front of the two races, those armies weren't allies who'd fight beside them.

They were positioned in front as a sacrificial barrier. Unlike the Golems, who stood in a formation of battle, in a perfect circle.

That was because, in crossing the channel, the pressure of time-space came from the central world ahead, in a single direction. If the people in front formed a barrier, the rows behind them would feel much less pressure — or almost none.

Why would they do that? Simple. Even though it was manageable even for the Rainbow Cranes, the pressure still drained their energy.

The Convention happened in a single day. And in the second and third stages, being at 100% made all the difference. So, historically, the Twilight Owls and Three-Eyed Ravens always brought their "slaves" to help them cross the channel perfectly.

It wasn't that terrible. Normally, no one died. It's just that, upon arriving in the other world, these slaves would be nearly exhausted and unable to participate in the next stages.

So they'd go explore the place far from everything until the Convention ended. With luck, they might find a few crumbs in that giant battlefield… but it had to be something very small, because if they found anything valuable, the two races would force them to hand it over.

Darian turned forward, ignoring those people. He was long past the age of caring about something like that, but beside him… Alear and Niara were clenching their fists with furious expressions. It was like they wanted to fly straight for those two's throats.

"Their time will come. Don't get so aggressive." He murmured softly and started walking.

Darian sometimes had issues with Niara's impulsiveness, but now, clearly, Alear had inherited a bit of that from her.

Maybe because Niara used that body for so long? Or maybe it was the Primordial Dragon Bloodline Alear had, which was actually Niara's to begin with? Anyway, that had turned into double trouble for Darian.