BANG!
A humongous rock flew against a mountain. The rock broke into pieces, and parts of the mountain collapsed.
A couple of people in the Third Realm were watching the chaotic spectacle from a distance.
"Are you sure the Ether Essence can take it?" one of them asked his superior.
"The Imperial Advisor said that there is no issue," the superior said.
A moment later, several stones hit the mountain again, cracking it in several places.
"Seriously, what is up with these brutal storms recently?" another guy asked in annoyance. "This didn't used to be like this!"
All of these people were stationed near one of the Ether Essences in the central landmass, and for the past months, there had been an influx of severe storms.
Surprisingly, all of these storms had come from the east.
"We don't know," the superior said. "It's just weather."
A moment later, another huge stone, thrown by the wind, broke the huge mountain, revealing a shining crystal.
The Ether Essence.
The watching people became a bit worried.
Sure, the Imperial Advisor had said that it wouldn't be a problem, but it still looked quite scary.
Some minutes later, another humongous boulder flew directly at the Ether Essence.
The people watched with bated breath.
CRRRRK!
As soon as the stone reached the side of the Ether Essence, it cracked into many smaller stones, which scattered around the Ether Essence.
Like this, the Ether Essence was hidden again. This time, it was hidden under a pile of rubble.
Another stone appeared and scattered the rubble, revealing the Ether Essence again.
The next stone broke into pieces and covered it again.
"Seems like the Imperial Advisor was right," one of them said.
The others nodded in relief.
Sure, they could also just focus on destroying the rocks, but that would just be wasted effort if the Ether Essence wasn't damaged by the stones anyway.
"Just wait," the superior said. "At some point, there will be no more big rocks left on the east coast."
"Sir, I want to be moved to the east coast," another guy suddenly said.
"Why?" the superior asked, looking at his soldier.
"They have a barrier there, and they only need to deal with water," the guy said. "I'm the weakest in the group, and these big boulders can actually injure me. I don't feel safe."
"What, and you would feel safe on the east coast?" the superior asked. "Sure, there are no boulders there, but there are several tsunamis every day."
"I can deal with water, " the soldier said.
"Yes, but can you deal with what the water brings?" the superior asked.
"What do you mean?" the soldier asked with uncertainty.
"The tsunamis wash Monsters onto the land. The Ether Essences can defend against natural attacks, but if a Monster decides to attack the Ether Essence for whatever reason, there's a chance it might be destroyed. Do you want to fight Monsters every day instead of watching a bunch of boulders cracking on the Ether Essence?"
The soldier took a deep breath. "Eh, I've changed my mind! I like it here."
The other soldiers snorted.
Meanwhile, on the eastern coast, near the easternmost Ether Essence, someone was launching a powerful Spell against a gargantuan shrimp.
The Ether Essence was hovering just a bit above the water, and it was slowly sinking.
"Sir, I want to be moved to another Ether Essence!" one of the defending soldiers shouted.
"Shut up! Adversity is good for you!" the superior shouted, launching another Spell at the shrimp.
"But we've been fighting for days! The others just relax all day!" the soldier shouted.
"The other soldiers are cowards and weaklings! I will not see one of my soldiers joining them!"
The soldier gritted his teeth. "Understood, sir."
Meanwhile, a couple of hundred kilometers to the east, Kyle looked at the ball of Wind Ether in his hand.
'Level five done. I'm not quite sure how many levels there are, but I have already learned more about Wind Expansion than Wind Focus. So, at least, I have to be 33% of the way there.'
'Well, time to start on level six.'
The ball in Kyle's hand tripled in size, reaching the size of a basketball.
Moments later, the ball started to distort like fire as the "tip of the flames" extended and scattered towards the west.
The wind became even faster and started to whirl.
As it reached the Grand Ocean, it started to absorb water.
The high waves became even higher, and within just a couple of minutes, the storm became massive.
About two hours later, the soldiers on the east coast noticed that the horizon had changed color.
It was really dark!
Then, they saw lightning bolts moving from one place in the dark cloud to another place.
BANG!
One of the lightning bolts hit something inside the dark storm, revealing the form of a huge Monster, which had just been grilled by the lightning.
"Defend!" the superior shouted.
Minutes later, the storm reached the shore, and it started to tear the land from the ground. The powerful soldiers stayed near the Ether Essence, trying their best to resist the powerful winds around them.
That was when they noticed that three Monsters were inside the storm.
This was getting ridiculous!
The soldiers engaged in battle.
Yet, just before they could launch their first attack, the entire storm froze!
The clouds, Monsters, and waves all turned to ice and harmlessly fell to the ground.
Well, harmless for people of their power. Normal people would be crushed by these meter-wide balls of ice.
A moment later, all the ice was pushed to the side by an invisible force, revealing a person hovering in the sky.
The Imperial Advisor.
The Imperial Advisor looked to the east with furrowed brows.
This was not natural, and it was more than clear that it came from the Twilight Duchy.
The Imperial Advisor contacted Emperor Winterfire, who arrived in less than a minute.
By now, another humongous storm was approaching, and Emperor Winterfire could see that the Imperial Advisor hadn't exaggerated.
If these storms got any stronger, they would require the Imperial Advisor to stay here permanently.
Ether Essences could deal with natural phenomena without issues.
But these were not natural.
"I will speak with the Twilight Duchess," Emperor Winterfire said. "Hold the line until then."
The Imperial Advisor nodded. "I will."
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