Born in Blood

Chapter 404 Four Arms

After they were let go by the Rank 5 Zenith, Kitsu flew over to the corner.

'The Battle Stations in the center are way smaller compared to those on the sides,' Liam thought.

It seemed as though the further they were from the starry object in the sky, the bigger their buildings were.

There was a reason for that.

'The battles in the center are way stronger.'

'Rank 5 cultivators and their likes probably fight there.'

'The number of Rank 5 and Rank 4 cultivators is obviously less than Rank 3 cultivators.'

Mortal Ranked cultivators couldn't hope to survive in the same battle as a Zenith.

A stray spell from a Zenith could easily wipe away a battalion of them.

Thus, there had to be rules in place to avoid that sort of outcome.

'There's only about… thirteen of them.'

Twenty-five Rank 5 cultivators.

But Liam looked over to the Couragists.

They also had twenty-five Rank 5 cultivators!

More than that, there seemed to be a number of rules beyond that.

The number of combatants seemed to be an equal amount.

Obviously, Liam didn't count everyone.

But the number of Battle Stations were the same wherever he looked.

Two thousand in total, but their numbers numbered the millions.

There weren't any Rank 6 Abominations present, though.

But then again, Liam doubted anyone could tame a Rank 6 Abomination other than the Empress of Fear herself.

And he was pretty sure it was against the rules for them to participate, as dumb as that sounded.

Then again, having their armies fight in their stead was a surprisingly responsible decision.

After all, what use would a country be if it was laid to waste?

Not much.

Finally, the Kitsune arrived at the end of the line, then slowly descended.

Sparing a final glance at the battlefield, Liam noticed how it was flatter than a pane of glass.

A second later, he spotted wide blotches of dried blood smeared across its grounds.

As though someone, or something, had forcibly cleaned its surface, then reformed the earthly wounds as though nothing had happened on them.

The Magic Minister was right.

This really was a controlled war.

Eventually, Kitsu descended on a massive Battle Station and entered it through the fitting circular gate on its front.

Inside the wide, dimly lit stone corridors, a human-sized cockroach standing on two legs and wearing a nurse's outfit greeted them.

Strangely, the interior of the Battle Station looked far larger than on the outside.

The ceiling was see-through, giving Liam a clear view of the shiny dagger way out of his reach.

The main lobby was massive.

There were thousands of little corridors that led to different sections of the dome.

There were more than a thousand similar Nurse Cockroaches skittering this way and that, some standing on hind legs, others parallel to the ground.

"Please separate the lower specimens from your body. They'll each be given a room," the nurse said, sounding surprisingly feminine. "I count… ugh, thousands."

Kitsu growled a bit. On the ground, the acolytes were dragged on the ground like a long cloak, holding their breaths.

The cockroach made a sputtering noise between its maw, interpreting Kitsu's silence for defiance.

"They cannot fight alongside you!" it shrieked, obviously frustrated. "They have their own Zones to fight in."

Zones?

The stupid Imperialist didn't explain it!

"What Zones?" the Kitsune growled, its voice guttural and grim.

Since Nooran could speak, it wasn't strange for strong Abominations to communicate verbally.

The cockroach didn't seem fazed, though. This wasn't a rare occurance to her, it seemed.

"When it begins, you'll see," the cockroach said. "Do I have to call someone, or will you listen?"

Liam silently contemplated whether or not to kill it, and the rest of the cockroaches there.

'No. Keeping them alive should be fine. We can't replace them.'

'Besides, I fit in quite well already. As long as I make myself look more inhuman than I already am, they won't notice much of a difference.'

Liam transmitted an order to the fox.

"Fine," Kitsu growled slowly, prompting the acolytes to slowly drip off its figure.

The Kitsune didn't need to be around them for the illusions to work. If Liam could sever off a chunk of his mental energy, so could the fox.

That said, the acolytes were obviously uncomfortable. Till now, they'd been hiding in between the fox's fur-tentacles, away from danger.

The Elders were given more-or-less similar appearances to Liam, minus the four arms.

Illusions were… well, illusions. Passing a hand through them would render them into harmless mist.

The acolytes awkwardly scattered towards the hallways in groups, and Liam was among them.

Meanwhile, the Kitsune followed the cockroach into the largest room, looking pretty pleased with itself.

There were no strange looks thrown Liam's way.

Pretty standard stuff for an Abomination.

He made his way through the eerie, stone corridors, and picked a small room which looked surprisingly modern.

Bookshelves lined the wall.

'What's an Abomination gonna read?' Liam thought to himself, but to his disappointment, the books were hollow. 'Sad. They've eaten through the pages.'

A slight silence ensued.

Liam took out a Jade that the Minister of Magic had given him, then imbued it with 'Ora'.

The vampire answered.

"We're in," Liam said quietly. "They haven't figured it out yet."

There was silence.

"Is that so?" the Minister of Magic said. "Well. They haven't found us out, either… though that's only because we're living in the dirt."

The Minister sounded tired, as though teetering on the edge of falling asleep.

"We've been here for long enough. Should we call in the cavalry at dawn?"

Another silence ensued.

The World Gate was with the vampires.

That was the only way for the Ilalian allies and the rest of the vampires to enter the fray.

But obviously, not all the Ministers were inside the Line.

The Minister of Transportation was on the outside, and once given a 'signal', she'd activate the World Gate.

But Liam had a few qualms with that.

"That might work against us," he said. "There are just twenty-five Rank 5's here."

"There's no way that's all the Rank 5 Zeniths they have. It's just a limit on what they can bring."

"We'll be stuck in here unable to help while the real battle happens on the outside."

"Is that what you want?" Liam asked at the end of it all.

There was a rustling noise.

Instead of the Magic Minister, the Minister of Torture responded with a dark voice:

"Get to the point, Four Arms."