Chapter 201: The Strongest Holy Region.
Unbeknownst to the ongoing spiritual conversation between the two, Lord Hicham accepted Levi as the captain and moved on to the most important discussion... Their rivals in the upcoming Event.
Lord Hicham manifested a giant three-dimensional holographic screen of their planet before the infestation took over... It was as beautiful as a sapphire gemstone.
Before the others could appreciate it, he waved his hand, and the world was no longer the same.
A massive pitch-dark thunderstorm stretched for thousands of kilometers across every continent except Antarctica, consuming the world... The last one loomed over the Pacific Ocean, its singularity at the very center.
The thunderclaps were so powerful, they reverberated across the training center.
"The Seven Eternal Empire nests..." Shia mumbled, dread escaping from her tone.
"Yes... These are the current seven most powerful nests on our planet... Each one is believed to be ruled by a Tier 8 nightcrawler." Lord Hicham smiled, "But, you don’t have to worry about them, the CRS Platform is keeping their expansion in check."
"Figures." Arthur nodded, "With this kind of overwhelming strength, they could have conquered our planet long ago."
"Well, they can conquer land through corruption, but if they want to conquer holy regions, they have to deal with our Guardians... They aren’t any weaker." Lord Hicham said.
Lord Hicham expected such news to draw some positive reactions... but he was puzzled to see their unchanging stern expressions.
Unbeknownst to him, Instructor Seraphis had already aired out their shitty situation in the first lesson.
Levi and the others knew that their Guardians might be powerful, but they were in cahoots with the high-tiered nests.
They would not attack any nest as long as they didn’t attack them back... In this manner, the nightcrawlers’ nests could expand their territory slowly through corruption, earning them more yearly rewards.
As for the Guardians? They would also earn yearly stability rewards each circle went by, and their holy region stood strong.
Although the rewards increased with more territory added inside their holy light... the planet was believed to be a lost cause as it didn’t have any sort of potential to have it protected for eternity under the Tree of Life’s banner.
Thus... they already knew that the moment those seven massive pitch-black thunderstorms consumed the continents as a whole, their planet and everyone on it would be a goner...
"You know... huh?" Lord Hicham smiled bitterly, "Seraphis... how can he burden you with such a harsh truth this early on?"
"He burdened us with nothing..." Levi said while signing simultaneously, "He wanted us to aim for saving our home planet... putting his faith in us."
The others nodded in support, none of them shying away from such a strenuous mission... Whether they could pull it off or not was one thing, but aiming to be strong enough to do it was another.
Seraphis didn’t want them to live on the same lie given to others... the lie of humans slowly winning against the invasion.
"He cared for us enough not to let us get blinded by the ugly truth later on in life... We love and respect him for this... Namaste." Jojo clasped her hand as she murmured a soft prayer for his recovery, and for the Hound to remain imprisoned forever.
The others wished for the same as well, under Lord Hicham’s pleased smile... he could tell that his students really cared for him even after what happened in the expedition.
He preferred his daughter hanging around with people like them instead of the scum, who cared only about themselves and their contracted nightcrawlers.
There were too many to count, unfortunately...
"Alright, those empires have no business occupying your mind for now... we still have a lot of time before the corruption devours our planet whole."
Lord Hicham waved his hand and hid the storms in the background... Then, he highlighted the existing Holy Regions across the globe, using holy beacons above their territories.
Some regions had holy pillars as small as a five-kilometer radius, barely visible on the map... They were spread out across the continents, with some even being on islands far away from the mainland.
Fortunately, the average was based on Heliodor’s region... a hundred kilometers radius more or less, containing the main city and the surrounding outskirts.
Then, there were the supermassive regions... Their holy pillars were large enough to cover a close to a thousand-kilometer radius!
Though there were only seven regions with this kind of reach... Each one was positioned on a continent.
Lord Hicham moved the globe with a finger until it was positioned on the supermassive holy region in the Eastern Asia District... more specifically, Ancient China.
Then, he pressed on the massive beacon of light and had most of the region’s public details on display, appearing as such:
// Halamar’s Holy Region – Ancient Beijing, China (Northern District, Asia)
Strongest Agency: Imperial Sun Vanguard (Tier 6)
Leader: Zhang Wei-Lan
Strongest Lineage Family: Imperial Sun Lineage.
Family Head: Zhang Wei-Lan
Region’s High Chancellor: Zhang Wei-Lan.
Global Ranking: 1st.//
"This is the current strongest region in the world... and our biggest rivals in the upcoming Raid Campaign. They were the only ones to win the Campaign, giving humanity its first-ever legit win against nightcrawlers on a dimensional stage."
"Because of that win, their region has been blessed with a massive increase in their holy pillar, allowing them to gain more territory... in addition to more benefits that helped them snowball their improvement to what it has become now."
After Lord Hicham concluded, he pressed on the agency’s name: Imperial Sun Vanguard.
Immediately after, all of its Raiding Squads were listed from strongest to weakest.When Arthur saw the list crossed a hundred Raiding Squads, his expression turned dumbfounded.
"What the... a hundred raiding squads?"
"Don’t be too surprised." Nurah shared calmly, "Halamar’s region has only five agencies... all of them have a Blazewarden Daywalker as their leader. Instead of having tens of agencies, they have implemented a rule where only Blazewarden Daywalker has the right to create an agency... the rest of Daywalkers have to swear their allegiance to one of the five available agencies."
"Damn... how could they pull it off?" Arthur wondered.
In his eyes, this couldn’t be easy without leaving behind bloodshed... In their region, anyone could create an agency as long as they reached Warden rank. If the High Council were to remove such freedom, it wouldn’t end pleasantly since those agencies were tied to the birth of Family Lineage.
"That’s the authority of Zhang Wei-Lan and his lineage... He was the leader of the raiding squad that won the Raid Campaign two decades ago and blessed his region. Ever since then, his squad has never stopped performing gloriously in the raids, helping his region increase its size little by little. Once he evolved to Blazewarden rank, he was voted for by the people to become the High Chancellor." Lord Hicham shared with a tint of respect in his voice, "He installed the reformation for the sake of uniting the region even further... everyone respected his leadership and rules, even if it meant allowing their agencies to get absorbed by others. Halamar’s region climbed to number one in no time, and ever since then, it has never let go."
Levi and the others showed similar respectful looks, knowing he was a natural-born leader. It wasn’t easy to lead a region in this new chaotic era... to lead it to such greatness was even harder.
"Unfortunately for us... His son, and the current most favorable heir to the Imperial Sun Lineage, will be leading his squad in the current Campaign."
Lord Hicham smiled wryly while showing them some videos of the heir and his squad... As they watched the clips of a six-member squad absolutely demolishing any nightcrawler’s nest before them, Levi and the rest were left silent.
The squad consisted of three boys and three girls... each one carrying their own unique aura and style.
The leader was a handsome dark-haired man with a long ponytail... He was wearing a skin-tight leather gray armor with a black jacket on top.
He was holding a giant briar pipe crafted out of elegant decorative blue porcelain material... it was emitting a smoky blue aura behind him while he stood above a ruined corpse of a nightcrawler.
A peculiar signature weapon.
"This is Zhang Yanhuan... The Imperial Sun Lineage Heir." Lord Hicham introduced solemnly, "He is believed to have evolved to Warden Rank using nothing but perfect evolutions... They say the only reason he chose to remain at a Warden rank was because he wants to continue on a perfect evolutionary path... His family has hired Dr. Issac himself to help them find the formula."
"Sheesh... Talk about having the resources of an entire region behind you."
Arthur exclaimed, understanding that Yanhuan was literally backed by the strongest and richest region in the world.
Even the greatest evolutionist in their current times was hired by them privately... something not many regions dared to pull, knowing that Dr. Isaac’s conditions were simply too ludicrous to fulfill.
"Sure... their region might be rich enough to hire Dr. Isaac, but we aren’t completely hopeless." Lord Hicham smiled, "Once we are done here... Lord Idriss has prepared a pleasant gift for each of you."
’As expected... Lord Idriss will handle our evolutions.’ Levi thought, knowing that he would share the crafted evolutionary formulas, not the knowledge itself.
The knowledge itself was priceless... and even Halamar’s region couldn’t afford to pay Dr. Isaac to create two pages of his booklit.
"Sir... shouldn’t we be worried about the competing nightcrawlers’ nests?" Arthur scratched his head in confusion, "Although those raiding squads are terrifying, we won’t be fighting them, right? In the end, it’s us humans vs nightcrawlers in the tournament."
"If only it were that simple..." Lord Hicham shook his head.