Sneaking into Ellora City, Inala leaped into the shelter whose people he had saved not long ago. He closed the tunnel with a door of bone and patched it up with a layer of mud. He stood inside and observed how peaceful it was here.
With the eight thousand people inside gone, the Centingers no longer had a reason to launch attacks in the shelter's direction. They instead focused on the other shelters, thinking the people within this shelter got done in by one of the Centingers.
Inala created a large screw and began to dig a tunnel toward the closest shelter that was still intact. By accessing Hanya's skull, he knew the location of all the shelters. Simply surveying the battle from time to time and observing the scale of damage in all the areas allowed him to figure out which shelters were destroyed and which were still intact.
After digging for five hours straight, Inala observed that there were less than ten metres before the tunnel made contact with a shelter.
He made a trip to the surface, jumped under a pile of rubble, and made preparations, condensing a large amount of Prana Bombs. The battle continued nearby as he observed the Centinger that was obstructed by the least number of soldiers.
He suddenly unleashed a pulse of Prana, catching its attention. A Centinger didn't shy away from a challenge. Hence, ignoring the few soldiers it fought, it rushed towards Inala, preparing an Artillery strike.
Boom!
Once it approached close, it unleashed a hail of spikes, absolutely shredding the region apart, melting through the pile of rubble until the source of the Prana was snuffed out. It exuded an air of disappointment, wondering how the enemy that unleashed such a strong presence was killed so easily.
But right at that moment, the floor underneath it caved in, causing it to fall into a large pit, the bottom of which was filled with Prana Bombs and Life Bombs. "Scree!"
Within a second, all its Prana and Lifeforce were stolen.
"What the…" The nearby soldier shouted in shock as he braked close to the edge of the pit.
"This makes no sense." Another soldier peered into the pit and expressed his fear, "What are those…eggs?"
"We need to inform the City Lord about this…uwak!" Right as one of them intended to make a report, a strong gust of wind sent them all flying into the pit. They slammed into Prana Bombs and lost all their Prana through the sheer number of Prana Bombs they made contact with.
"Ack!"
"No!"
As they struggled, a large number of Life Bombs piled upon them, causing them to shrivel up in response. They died from old age.
Standing a bit farther away from the pit was Inala, the cause of the sudden gust of wind. To avoid information about him leaking to his enemies, he silenced both the Centinger and the soldiers fighting it.
He was careful through the entire process, only targeting the group closer to the edge of the city, away from the eyes of the fighting parties.
And the one that lured in the Centinger was a puppet. It had a Prana Bomb filled with his Prana, which was what it released to lure in the Centinger. The artillery strike melted the puppet and its surroundings into a puddle.
Hiding farther away from the puppet was Inala, having created a pit trap along the Centinger's path. Right underneath the surface was a thick layer of wall created using his Prana Bombs. It was tough enough to withstand the Centinger's weight.
Since the surface was the ground, the Centinger didn't notice anything amiss. And once it was atop the pit, Inala caused the Prana Bomb wall to shatter. And once the Centinger died, he sneaked upon the soldiers and pushed them using a strong gust of wind that he exhaled.
Stage 1—Jaw!
Inala opened his mouth and used his psychokinesis to make all the Prana Bombs and Life Bombs fly into his mouth. Once they arrived at the biome in his stomach, the two Empyrean Zingers there segregated them into those that were full and those partially filled with either Prana or Lifeforce.
"Bleh!" He then vomited out large quantities of soil. It was the soil from the pit he had dug. To avoid leaving any traces of his actions, the safest way was to store them in his biome. And now that his work was done, he covered the pit with soil.
Once he levelled it up to the surface, he dragged some of the rubble from nearby and piled it up. Unless someone was aware of the locations of every single rubble pile, they wouldn't be able to notice what Inala had done here.
And no one's Prana could penetrate such a thick layer of soil and make contact with the Centinger corpse. Prana didn't have such capabilities.
His Empyrean Zingers were working hard with the transportation. Hence, there was a large Prana requirement. Inala took it upon himself to gather the Prana necessary for their needs.
The Prana of a Centinger was very rich and would help the Empyrean Zingers better.
Returning to the shelter, Inala entered the tunnel and continued to dig, storing all the soil in his biome. He planned to vomit it out in the outskirts later.
An hour later, he entered the shelter, announcing with an air of authority, "If you wish to survive,"
"Follow me!"
A month since the battle started, Gudora had strained himself to the limit. Followed by a powerful roar, he condensed a crystal pillar and slammed it into the final Centinger, roaring in victory upon killing the latter, "It's…our victory!"
"Yeah!" The soldiers cheered. But exactly three seconds later, their cheers turned sorrowful once they looked around.
The survivors among the soldiers numbered fourteen and only two of them were at the Life Stage—Gudora and his youngest son.
Everyone else had died, including their reserve soldiers. And based on signs of life, only two shelters survived, adding to a total of sixteen thousand people.
From the original two hundred thousand plus people, they dropped down to sixteen thousand, a catastrophic outcome.
Gudora couldn't even take pride in victory, for they had nothing left now, damaged to the extreme. There was no hope for recovery.
3-Life Stage!
That was Gudora's current cultivation. He had been killed five times during the war. And if not for his high cultivation, he would already be part of the casualty report. His youngest son survived for the sole reason he stayed next to Gudora all along.
Even if he died, Gudora ensured his youngest son, the most talented of them all, could survive. At least, that way, they would have a future, since his youngest son had a long lifespan, in comparison to Gudora who was nearing the end of his natural lifespan.
'At least, we survived.' Gudora thought as he stared at the thirteen people beside him, 'They have all survived the worst disaster. This experience will transform them into pillars of the city in the future. And as long as we are careful, we'll be able to get the city back on track within a century.'
They still had sixteen thousand people. Bringing that number to a hundred thousand wasn't an issue. So, all wasn't lost yet. Gudora thought optimistically, but that all changed when a Prana Bomb slammed into his face, like a canon.