Damned Healer-Chapter 670: Little Sisters

Darian moved toward the forest near the Academy, going once again to the Abyssal Corrupted Wolves. All the millions of them that existed stayed there, waiting for the next orders.

When Darian arrived, he spoke seriously with the leader of the race and the others nearby.

"I'm going to give everyone a small rune of corrupted power. This power is called Nether. I've already tested it before, and you can absorb it easily. It has a unique potential. You might even be able to match the Heavenly Elemental Spirits and the Chromaraic in combat power."

At that moment, the race leader swallowed hard, and all the wolves became euphoric.

Howlyn had already tried everything to make her race stronger. But even with all the corrupted resources from the Risen available, there was a limit to how much they could absorb and improve.

The strongest among them could even fight a Spiritual Guardian with nine rings, but would hardly win. Because of that, the race ended up becoming more like support in battles.

The race leader gave orders as fast as possible. Everyone positioned themselves, forming a massive sea of black wolves, lined up in front of Darian.

He nodded and went one by one, handing out only a small rune of Nether power to each of them.

Ailik could only create a small amount of that power each day, and he had ten days to stockpile it. When Alear returned, she could easily open the channel to that universe and then have an infinite amount of it to use.

After almost five days, everything was finished.

Ailik helped add that power and then balance it inside their bodies, so their minds wouldn't become chaotic.

Darian did everything calmly, using just one rune, because he wanted to feel the race's compatibility with it, and also each wolf's individual potential.

After finishing, he pointed at the ten thousand most outstanding figures. These showed an insanely high compatibility. They would be the pillars of the race in the future.

Among those ten thousand, Darian found a very young she-wolf, who ranked in the top three most talented.

He took a deep breath and thought for a bit. Then, he looked at the race leader and spoke lightly.

"With the power of the Nether, you're destined to become the most valuable soldiers. Because of that, I need the race to multiply and create a larger army."

The eyes of all those wolves shone like stars. That was exactly what they wanted to hear.

Darian nodded and turned away, only telling them that everyone should get used to this new power for now.

He knew Beasts well. For them, having powerful offspring was a matter of ultimate survival, and none of them hesitated even for a second to multiply. They didn't care much about bonds; it was very different from the human approach.

Because of that, Darian was sure that the talented she-wolf would get pregnant within a few weeks. He even pointed out the ten thousand best ones, so she could choose the best possible father for her offspring.

Darian returned to the Academy. A few hours later, a massive spatial channel opened, and Niara returned, bringing a gigantic army with her.

All the immortals and the four allied Spiritual Sovereigns came. They hadn't been able to come to this universe for eighteen years, and now they all returned together.

Lucy and Camille threw themselves at Darian with deeply emotional expressions. This time, he had been gone for almost twice as long, but no one doubted that he would return.

Right behind Lucy, Darian met Leander's gaze.

At that moment, he nodded in satisfaction. He really had reached nine rings during that time, fighting day and night so that one day he could become an immortal. He abandoned everything because he didn't want Lucy to suffer from his death in the future.

Besides him, there was an army of almost two million new Spiritual Guardians with nine rings. They belonged to all races. All the races in Darian's alliance worked together on this, without any prejudice or stupidity, all to help the other allied planets become stronger.

They could come to this training universe without any issues, and everything there was extremely lively, with endless battles to raise their rings.

On top of that… behind Lucius, there was an army of nearly one million Shadow Soldiers and Shadow Lords.

They were all people who had died in this universe and completely stopped being Spiritual Guardians, or people who had lost their Summoners, like Lucius, and could no longer grow stronger by raising rings.

During those years, Lucius dedicated himself to improving the Shadow Warrior's Canon that Darian had created, and also gathered those people from across the universe, forming a massive army. From their aura, Darian could tell that all of them were at the level of someone with nine rings.

In the past, Darian created that technique alongside Awel. It used their spiritual root to serve as a link to a new core, capable of accumulating power and allowing them to grow. All of that was only possible because Veyle could create high-level Pills with primordial Yin and Yang, allowing that core to be nourished and improved.

It was a kind of cultivation using pills and resources. In the end, that technique was a combination of multiple kinds of knowledge, resulting in something interesting, but still very crude. Unfortunately, after creating something so frightening, Darian didn't have time to refine or improve it.

But his brother and Veyle did all the work. Now, it could be said that the technique had changed so much that it became something shaped by four different people.

After talking with those closest to him, Darian quickly gathered with the leaders of the planets.

He learned about the situation of the universe during those years.

It was pretty simple. As soon as Darian left, the three Spiritual Sovereigns officially declared a war of life and death against Darian's alliance. But they themselves didn't fight, because they needed to recover.

All connections between the planets of the two opposing alliances were cut off, isolating the two major groups.

Over the years, small battles happened, but nothing too remarkable so far. Eighteen years, for those immortals, was a very short time to accomplish anything major.

Because of that, everyone in leadership came without fear of leaving their posts, since it was very unlikely that anything big would happen.

After hearing everything, Darian didn't hesitate. He was sure the time had come.

"I'll take advantage of the fact that those three still haven't recovered. We'll attack with everything we've got and save this universe. The Celestial Shadow has nowhere to run, and everything will end perfectly."

When his words echoed, everyone stared at him, holding their breath.

It was something none of them had ever thought would be possible one day, but with Darian's rise, everything changed. And now, if he was saying they would do this, then this was the big chance.

"I beat that bastard senseless and forced him to flee in despair. He'll need at least two years to recover from the wounds I caused. After that, he'll want to deal with the problems that showed up in his body after his resurrection. That's why, in two years, we'll start cleaning the entire universe and hunt him down until we wipe him out for good."

Darian's words rang with confidence, as if the fate of everything in that universe was already laid out in front of him.

"Everyone should prepare their armies. Two years should be enough for us to assimilate everything new I brought back. Our overall power will spike hard and catch the Celestial Shadow completely off guard."

Everyone swallowed hard. Apparently, Darian had spent his time away making one hell of a harvest.

After the meeting ended, Alear was ordered to open the channel to her universe.

That universe was a massive treasure, since the power of the Nether and the Void existed there in abundance, along with many artifacts and unique things.

Bloopie, the worm that Eleri had named and recruited, was finally brought to this universe.

Darian explained Bloopie's potential to Veyle, and she happily took it to her medicinal field planet. Over the years, Veyle had multiplied all the herbs to the point where she needed a gigantic planet just to organize everything properly.

That planet was also home to Athven, the world tree, which had already fully reincarnated and reached its peak once more. Now, Bloopie would make that entire planet produce things never seen before, and then continue across all the planets in the universe.

Besides letting Veyle gain impossible things from this, Darian also introduced her to the Wood Spirits.

Now she would have a race specialized in herbs to guide her, capable of completely changing her perception of alchemy. Darian never gave her knowledge directly, but now he had handed her a universe of possibilities and wisdom to study.

***

Six months later, Darian was back in the forest.

In front of him was a large she-wolf with her eyes closed. Ailik was floating there as well, eyes closed, both hands pressed against the wolf's belly, fully focused.

Hours later, Ailik pulled her hands back and took a deep breath.

She turned to Darian and smiled excitedly.

"Success."

Darian clenched his fists hard. In just a few months, Howlyn would officially return to life. All thanks to the power of the Nether and the potential of her race.

"Master, Master!"

At that moment, an excited shout came from behind. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Darian turned and saw Eleri and Awel running toward him. Right behind them was Niara, wearing a faint smile.

Darian looked at the two of them, surprised.

They no longer looked like children.

"Did you like it? Hehe..." Eleri said with an excited smile as she arrived.

They hadn't become fully adult physically; their bodies were closer to teenagers, with some clearly feminine curves already very noticeable on both of them.

Going back a bit in time.

Suddenly, Niara had gone to Darian for a strange and serious talk.

He had noticed that Awel and Eleri had been acting a bit strange lately. After all, Tir had chosen to change his body to look the same age as Ailik. He couldn't stay in a childish form forever while staying by her side; that would be kind of awkward.

Because of that, the two of them were in a big internal conflict. Until Awel decided to talk to Niara and explain everything.

They didn't want to change because Awel felt that Darian might get uncomfortable and change how he treated them. That would be an obvious reaction; after all, if the two of them looked like mature women, he would be forced to create a clear physical distance. Niara was jealous, and he himself wouldn't feel comfortable with that either.

After that conversation, Niara came to talk to Darian directly. She told him not to worry, because she was sure he saw the two of them as little sisters. To Darian, they were like Lucy, and there was absolutely no strange intention in their interactions, even with how close they were.

On the other side, Niara was also sure that the two of them didn't feel anything romantic, and they didn't want to distance themselves from Darian, not even a little.

Since the Heavenly Elemental Spirits didn't reproduce, but were born from the natural energies of universes, they also didn't feel any kind of attraction toward others. There was love, but it was like family love, and that was exactly what they felt.

There were some rare cases of Heavenly Elemental Spirits who liked someone in a different way. Tir was the example of that strange exception. Maybe that was more of a soul connection, like Alear and Alirio, rather than something romantic and physical like common races felt.

In short, Niara came to talk to Darian to help them.

After all, their dress was made for an adult woman to wear. Both of them looked beautiful in it, but still seemed like children wearing an adult's dress.

After hearing everything, Darian understood and promised that he wouldn't change anything about how he treated them. They were his little sisters, and they could act like always, without worrying.

Back to the present.

Darian looked at the two of them and smiled lightly. "You look very beautiful. Standing next to Niara, you look like two fairies who teamed up with a goddess to end the world."

Awel nodded, her eyes shining.

"Hehe, that's right! We'll wipe out anyone who tries to touch Master!" Eleri roared excitedly. Even though she didn't look like a child anymore, her lively attitude and energy hadn't changed at all.

Now, both of them had grown to the point where the dress fit them perfectly. Darian wasn't exaggerating even a bit. They looked truly beautiful, without losing their gentle aura.

And even better: the dress, the weapon, and the hair ornament of both of them had now received runic seals placed by Haruto. Their combat potential had become devastating; still...

...no one doubted that Tir was still the strongest of the three. He was growing by huge leaps every single day. Because of that, both of them were determined not to fall behind either.