Damned Healer-Chapter 609: No Turning Back

The first rays of sunlight of a new day touched the great city of the Nether Beasts.

Inside the walls, all those creatures were fearful and shaken; many hadn’t slept for more than three days.

That was because all the strongest members of that race had been brutally killed, putting them in a critical situation. If the Nether Spirit Race found out about this, they would launch a full-scale attack on the city, and survival would be impossible.

On top of that... at the peak of the city’s central mountain, their once powerful and invincible leader was kneeling, head lowered, completely wrapped in black chains.

Everyone in the city could see him still alive, making no sound at all, and completely obedient. This had been going on for more than three days, ever since the chaos began.

But on that sunny day, a pair stepped lightly out of the cave.

Niara was clinging closely to Darian’s arm, smiling brightly. Darian, on the other hand, looked physically a bit thinner than usual.

Both of them had almost identical fluctuations and aura, as if they had been perfectly mixed together.

Darian took a deep breath, feeling his body radiate strong vitality once again. His seven rings, the Gaia Core, and the Chaos Core had finally become active again. He was healed.

Unfortunately, he noticed that there was no Gaia on that island. In fact, there was probably no planet or Gaia at all in that universe. That meant he couldn’t fill that core with power and, as a result, couldn’t use his maximum strength.

Even so, he still had everything else available.

It had been three days of hard work, and now Niara had also recovered almost all of her strength.

"Wow, this universe is really weird..." Niara said excitedly, feeling the power of the Void in every direction.

The pair jumped to the top of the mountain, arriving before the leader of the Nether Beasts, who immediately raised his gaze toward them.

"You’re lucky. The Nether Tree asked me not to destroy you. You must have thought things through by now, right? You know that if you don’t hand over all the traitors and the evidence properly, your race will end up destroyed, now that you’re so weak," Darian said slowly to that figure.

He swallowed hard. In fact, he had already accepted that he would hand over all the traitors to Darian, but now he understood that Darian didn’t care in the slightest about either race and had no intention of favoring either side.

"Don’t worry. We have all the contact marks of the allied Nether Spirits. They’re connected to their souls, which is the greatest proof possible," he said quickly.

Darian nodded and released him from the chains. Without hesitating, that figure handed over a spatial ring. Inside it, Darian saw thousands of soul marks.

Darian snorted and put it away. He turned to leave, but Niara turned and saw those prisons with Nether Spirits inside.

Without hesitating, she moved and attacked all the bars, making them explode. Darian had already expected this reaction; she, who had lived for a long time imprisoned, almost like a slave, wouldn’t see people in that situation and do nothing.

He had already left those three artifacts for those people. Now that the Nether Beasts were greatly weakened, he was certain those prisoners had a seventy percent chance to escape at some point.

The strongest Nether Beasts left would be sent outside the city to protect their lands, so inside there would be very few, and very weak ones. Using those artifacts, they could free everyone and escape. For Darian, it was better that they fought to escape on their own, with their own hands.

That way, they would gain an unstoppable mindset and momentum; in the future, they would become the pillars of the Nether Spirits.

But Niara wanted to free them. Seeing that, Darian landed on the ground and secretly sent a bit of power from the ring into the soil. Inside the holes where he had thrown the artifacts, which still hadn’t been picked up by the prisoners, he quietly buried them a bit deeper.

That would work too. When Darian left, if the Nether Beasts made new prisoners, they would have a chance to escape if they found those things there. In the end, maybe the same result would happen in the future.

Niara helped everyone out of the prison and removed their chains.

Darian turned coldly to the leader of the Nether Beasts. "You have many Demon Beasts used for transportation, right?"

"Y-Yes! I’ll bring them all!" That leader understood immediately.

Within minutes, hundreds of gigantic Demon Beasts, similar to the one Darian had tamed, appeared in the skies.

Darian didn’t need to tame them now. All it took was for Niara to look at them, and they all trembled from head to toe, begging for mercy. The bloodline of a pure Primordial Dragon within her was the most oppressive and terrifying thing imaginable to those beasts. They wouldn’t dare disobey.

With that, Darian had all the imprisoned Nether Spirits mount those Demon Beasts.

Before leaving, Darian cast a cold glance at the leader of the Nether Beasts.

He knelt and froze in place, understanding the silent message. As long as Darian was on that island, all Nether Beasts would stay quiet and wouldn’t dare launch any attacks; otherwise, that would be their last breath.

With that, everyone traveled through the skies together, heading back to the central city of the Nether Spirits.

It would take two days, and along the way, Darian and Niara stood side by side on the head of one of the beasts. He told her everything he had seen up to that point.

***

Two days later, a massive commotion erupted among all the Nether Spirits living near the Nether Tree.

"AN ATTACK!!!"

Countless figures leaped up and drew their weapons in fury. The skies were covered by hundreds of Demon Beasts; an attack by the Nether Beasts like that was unexpected, but anything could always happen.

But, contrary to their expectations, the beasts stopped near the entrance and calmly landed on the ground.

The prophet ran with everyone else to the entrance. There, they saw thousands of figures of their own race appear, leaving them stunned. Then, they noticed Darian slowly approaching alongside Niara.

Everyone recognized that woman who had been on his back the whole time. Knowing that Darian had gone to the enemy city... those people...

"You really saved our people!" someone shouted, eyes filled with tears.

He saw, among those people, many familiar faces who had been captured.

But...

Darian had a ring on his finger, and his eyes changed, glowing with a bloodthirsty light.

Niara couldn’t take that.

*BANG!*

Suddenly, that Dragoness shot forward at terrifying speed and punched the person who had shouted.

In the same second, a burst of blood exploded.

All the Nether Spirits widened their eyes; their expressions shifted from joy to terror.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

Someone shouted and aimed a bow and arrow at her. In that same second, Niara heard Darian’s confirmation.

"BASTARD!"

*BANG!*

She attacked that figure, and a wave of power threw everyone back, leaving them unable to endure it. That figure, meanwhile, disappeared from the world just as brutally.

When everyone got back up, the Prophet roared in panic, "Sir Darian! What is going on?!"

Darian snorted, staring at that figure. He took a step...

"!"

...he appeared right in front of the prophet, as if he had teleported.

Everyone panicked in shock. That prophet was the most important person of the race; he couldn’t die!

"PROTECT THE PROPHET!!!"

Everyone shouted in desperation and moved with all their strength. At the same time, piercing maximum-alert alarms echoed throughout the entire city.

Millions of figures rushed out, covering the skies, all with their weapons ready for a desperate battle.

Darian stared at that sea of Nether Spirits and then focused on the prophet with a cold gaze.

Because they were so close, no one attacked, since Darian could use him as a shield. They only surrounded them threateningly, trying to negotiate or intimidate Darian into not attacking.

"You know very well what’s going on, right?" Darian said in a furious tone, showing the spatial ring with clear fluctuations coming from the Nether Beasts to the prophet.

"You... I really have no idea! Please, what’s going on?" the prophet said with a trembling, tense voice.

At that moment, Darian’s expression softened. He was sure this prophet had no knowledge of the traitors. The Nether Tree hadn’t wanted to corrupt its prophet by revealing this to him.

Darian nodded to him and handed over the ring. "Inside are the soul marks of all the allies of the Nether Beasts. Those two were traitors; their marks are in there."

The moment Darian’s words were heard by everyone, their expressions changed drastically.

The prophet was stunned for a few seconds. Then he examined the contents of the ring and swallowed hard.

He had suspected traitors within the race, but he had no idea there were so many. And worse... he could recognize the soul fluctuations of some people in those marks. He was certain they were highly prominent figures of the race, people he knew very well.

He looked Darian in the eyes for a second, then nodded solemnly.

A wooden staff appeared in his hands. In the same instant, he slammed it into the ground.

*RUMBLE!*

The entire region, for several kilometers around the great city, shook violently, and then the ground split open.

It was as if a wooden prison had been raised, climbing into the skies and sealing everyone inside.

The Nether Spirits were completely stunned. That was the city’s ultimate power, kept only for the most extreme emergency.

"EVERYONE GATHER IMMEDIATELY!" the prophet roared sharply.

"All traitors of the race will be exposed and executed! Anyone who tries to flee or fails to appear within ten seconds will also be executed!"

At that moment, everyone in the race understood the gravity of the situation and was terrified.

The prophet was as cruel and merciless as possible. He gave no second chances and began identifying the traitors one by one, using the marks inside the ring.

There were thousands of the strongest members of the race, but not all of them. Many tribal leaders or important figures who lived far away were still missing.

So, after completely purging the capital, he ordered all the strongest to split up and head to the tribes. Their mission was to bring all leaders and important figures back to the capital as prisoners, so the prophet could point out the traitors.

Darian and Niara stayed there, watching everything.

On the fifth day, a group of elite figures arrived.

All of them were chained and placed kneeling at the entrance. The prophet came out, alongside Darian and Niara.

Darian snorted when he saw a trembling young girl in chains. He waved his hand, and the chains around Ailik shattered instantly.

That group was from the tribe he knew. The leader and several others were there as well.

Ailik stood up in panic. When she saw Darian, she trembled and ran toward him without thinking twice. Only when she was less than two meters away did she stop, frozen, meeting a pair of amber eyes fixed on her.

Niara looked at her calmly for a few seconds.

Then her expression changed, and a gentle, welcoming smile appeared.

"She’s a good girl," Niara murmured softly, clearly sensing that she was a young girl with no ulterior motives. She saw Darian as some kind of master or a figure very distant from herself.

Ailik didn’t know how to react, so Niara stepped forward and took her hand, pulling her closer.

Darian had said he had a karmic connection with her, so she was a potential ally. Her aura was like that of a child, very innocent and pure. That reminded Niara of Alear when she was younger and stirred her desire to protect.

At that moment, the prophet released a furious aura and roared coldly:

"Elder Philiwe! Young Zaowe! How dare you betray your entire race!"

Ailik jumped when she heard that. She turned and saw her childhood friend, Zaowe, and his father being named as traitors. Her eyes trembled, unable to believe what she was hearing.

Darian sighed. It was Zaowe who had reported everything about Darian and what he had obtained to his father, an old traitor.

Elder Philiwe sent messages to the Nether Beasts. And during Darian’s two-day journey, they had prepared for his arrival.

Seeing the prophet’s evidence and the completely desperate looks on those two, Ailik began to cry. She had grown up alongside Zaowe; they fought a lot, but he was like a brother she deeply cared about.

A tearing pain struck her soul. She had never felt anything so intense; her will and mind trembled.

Niara hugged her warmly, calming her down.

Darian also had a dark expression. He had done everything to give Zaowe a chance; he even gave him that technique to try to set him on the right path. But he chose to side with his father and saw this situation as a chance to get rid of Darian.

In the end, he made his choice. And now, there was no turning back.

Without waiting any longer, Darian waved his hand. Then, silently, those two vanished from the world. Meanwhile, Niara led Ailik into the city.