Chapter 167: Chapter 164: Law Armor

Krysta

Along with the six hundred silver law armors, Krysta was able to spot three black armors as well, which seemed to be the core of the law armor sets. One was on someone she recognized from the intelligence reports she’d received before making her attempt at the F rank Trial Tower, Brom Karendesh, who she was pretty sure was the general of the weaker of the Bronze Legion’s two armies. But she didn’t recognize the other two.

Both seemed generally human shaped, but it was hard to identify their races due to them wearing full face helmets, gloves, and even boots. One was large, extremely so for a human, roughly the same size as Brom, and he was carrying a medium-sized shield made of some kind of green crystal and an evil-looking purple spear. The other was much shorter and she wasn’t holding a weapon of any kind. Also, she was looking over directly at Krysta.

The male with the evil spear launched into the battle between the Vin Clan and the eight spirits, using the combined power of the qi of over 600 coran soldiers to move extremely quickly, but he didn’t seem to have the intention of killing anyone, just stabbing anyone he got close to once each.

Meanwhile, the unarmed woman began walking over toward Krysta, the aura around her absolutely filled with mana. While the spearman was apparently granted the qi of everyone wearing the silver law armors, it seemed this woman was granted their mana.

“So, you must be the famous Krysta La’Vordi.” The woman’s voice was pleasant, but she sounded annoyed. And her aura was slightly more powerful than Krysta’s own, so Krysta couldn’t tell if the annoyance was genuine.

“Do you have some sort of issue with me, madam summoner?” The woman was connected to the eight spirits absolutely destroying the Vin Clan army, so it was obvious she was their summoner. And Krysta wasn’t sure if she would be more powerful than the woman even in an unboosted state, as the woman’s aura contained six separate Law Pupae, while the massive amount of mana she received from the law armors of the Bronze Legion’s second army was well controlled, barely leaking out, showing her control over her own power was likely extremely high.

The woman’s expressionless mask just looked at her for a bit. Then she started saying something which left Krysta extremely embarrassed. “Mr. Shadow, I hope you’re doing well. I didn’t know how to contact you, so I figured I’d leave you a message here. I quite enjoyed our brief chat and would like to talk more, so please come to the Forest Cauldron’s main planet to see me.”

In the background, Krysta’s subconscious noticed all the elves the large spearman had stabbed, and who had since been killed, rising as zombies, but she could barely pay attention, even as Henrietta next to her was trembling in impotent rage. Instead, she just waited to see what the woman who’d read the message she’d left for the amazing man following the path of the Heavenly Spark had to say next.

“First of all, Shadow is female, the master of the individual you fought.” The annoyance in the woman’s voice was even more present than before. “And your actions of delaying her subordinate’s growth gave one of our masters the excuse he needed to use said subordinate as an experiment.” The annoyance turned to anger. “Why would you do something so stupid? Do the lives and wellbeing of others mean nothing to you?”

“I, I…”

Krysta didn’t know what to say, but it seemed the woman was done with her as she turned to Henrietta and bowed slightly. “Princess, our general would like to speak with you to discuss the terms of your surrender.”

Henrietta looked pale, almost like she was poisoned, and Krysta subconsciously noticed that, of the other eleven commanders of the Vin Clan army, one was dead, killed by the woman’s yang spirit, and the other ten had risen as zombies and were attacking the Vin Clan’s soldiers. Meanwhile, their general was almost dead as well, his body mostly starting to rot from the yin spirit coiled around him. And, when he finally died, Krysta absently watched as he rose to become a zombie as well.

This left Henrietta the only leader of the Vin Clan army left, and she’d somehow been poisoned without either of them noticing how.

Silently, the two of them, along with Sarra Lin’Talic who was still by their sides, followed the woman to where Brom Karendesh was standing.

The Bronze Legion’s general had his helmet clipped to his belt, showing his bronze-scaled lizard-like face which had an expression of calm interest on it, the same as what Krysta could feel from his aura. And there was a large greatsword on his back which at first didn’t look that impressive. The part of Krysta not still preoccupied with what the summoner had just said to her, however, recognized the material of the blade as holy true steel, a material filled with metal and light element power, the same as the Laws the reports said the Heavenly Blade’s son followed. So long as the weapon was decently made, it was at least a Legendary grade artifact. Given the intricacy and amount of law armors the Bronze Legion’s army had, however, it was likely Heroic grade instead, way better than any of the weapons of the Vin Clan.

“Let’s just be blunt.” The coran general’s voice was deep and booming. “My army is powerful and I don’t have much need for alchemists. The Bronze Legion, however, has no conflicts of interest with the Vin Clan or the Forest Cauldron and I lost sixteen soldiers in my last battle. The formation we are building also requires three focal cultivators specializing in qi, three specializing in mana, and three specializing in psyforce, while I am missing one mana specialist and two psyforce specialists.”

He turned to look at Krysta. “From what I’ve heard, you would be an excellent choice for my remaining mana specialist. Should you surrender and choose to join, I will accept you. Were you to offer one of the three component skills of the Heroic grade E rank skill Soulcraft, however, I’d be willing to give you a commander position.”

Krysta realized something from what he said. The Bronze Legion’s force had to have a ridiculously talented artificer to make the weapons of both the spearman still killing elves and the general, as well as all the law armors, so the Heroic grade skill would definitely be for that cultivator. And the most talented artificer she knew of was likely the young man she’d thought was Shadow. So, she started looking around frantically for anyone who could be that deep voiced young man.

While she was distracted, however, the Bronze Legion general ignored her and turned to Henrietta. “Having a pure alchemist, however, wouldn’t be a negative, and your level of magic would help raise the power of my mana specialists. So, if you would like to continue on as a soldier, I can offer you and any of the remaining soldiers from your Vin Clan 15 spots in my army for the price of one of the three component skills of the Heroic grade E rank Soulcraft, so long as it is not the same as the one from Ms. La’Vordi.”

“And why would I want to work under you, you butcher?”

Krysta was distracted from her search by the sound of her friend’s seemingly genuine anguish, and then again by the general’s laughter.

“Because you apparently don’t have much experience with war and should probably get some as the daughter of an emperor.” General Brom’s tail waved back and forth in what Krysta was pretty sure was the coran equivalent of a smile. “Talk to your father after you wake up. The Bronze Legion is fully willing to offer you combat training as well during these battles.”

“I think I can get access to the E rank Legendary grade skill Soulshape,” Sarra Lin’Talic said as she stepped forward, putting a hand on Henrietta’s shoulder to stop the princess from saying anything else to potentially insult the general. “That’s one of the three component skills you are asking for. If I offer it, could I have a commander position as well?”

“I’m sorry, miss, but I’m not sure who you are.” The general looked at Sarra and spoke politely, but slightly less so than when he’d been talking to Krysta and Henrietta.

“I’m a healer and a lawyer who can also work as a scout.” Sarra bowed to the general, a gesture Krysta was pretty sure was shared by both corans and humans. “I’m not particularly powerful, but I’m quite skilled. For example.” Sarra moved behind Henrietta and placed both hands on the back of Henrietta’s head, her thumbs on Henrietta’s spine. Then she sent some psyforce into Henrietta’s head, which Henrietta didn’t fight against, and Krysta saw a black gas start to leave Henrietta’s body with her magical senses.

“This plague of undeath was created by that purple spear your commander wields and seems to infect others via karmic bonds. Knowing that, I just need to remove the energy of undeath away from a victim’s head, where most karmic bonds connect, and the link to the main source of the undeath energy will be cut off, allowing the victim’s body to naturally expel the remaining undeath energy almost instantly.”

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The coran general started laughing and then he turned to look at the female summoner. “Summoner, what do you think? As the only healer in our army, I imagine you have a better understanding.”

“I only heal with my life spirit, but what she just did requires actual skill and training.” The summoner’s voice sounded impressed. “With the help of the law armors, she’d probably prove extremely useful for us, more so than the space mage.”

“Alright then.” General Brom turned back to Sarra. “You have a deal then. Surrender and I’ll accept you. Give the skill, and I’ll raise you to commander.”

“Thank you, general.” Sarra bowed again. “I, Sarra Lin’Talic of the Violet Mountain Sect, surrender to the Bronze Legion.”

“Princess.” General Brom turned to look at Henrietta again. “You’re down to 14 slots.”

“Where’s your artificer?” Krysta quickly asked, knowing she’d disappear from the space if Henrietta surrendered for them.

“Back at our camp, of course.” The summoner answered instead of the general and the general, part of Krysta noticed, didn’t seem to have any problem with that.

“I surrender as well then,” Krysta quickly said.

Then she turned to Henrietta. “Etta, the Forest Cauldron has all three skills and Sarra’s apparently bringing Soulshape. Which one are you going to offer?”

In the War of the Chosen, it was a common custom to require surrendered members of other forces to pay a fee to join the army which beat them, especially when the defeat was so sound. It was even part of the mechanics of the War of the Chosen to teleport any fee directly to the army’s general. So, what General Brom was asking was not at all excessive. Given the skills were obviously to empower the army, it was basically an investment into their own future rewards.

“I…” Henrietta turned to look at her. Then she looked at the remaining thirty something Vin Clan warriors, the strongest of those who hadn’t been commanders. All of them had thrown down their weapons when the discussions had started and all of them looked sick with the undead plague. She then turned to look at the many, many zombies that used to be Vin Clan cultivators, who the spearman was successively stabbing in the heart, seemingly absorbing all the power of undeath in them back into his spear. “You don’t think this is excessive?”

“It’s a war competition.” Sarra sounded somewhat confused. “It’s supposed to prepare us to participate in wars.”

“They just did it better.” Krysta took a closer look at that purple spear and realized it was growing ever slightly more powerful as it absorbed the undeath energy from each zombie. “To the point they are even using your soldiers as crafting materials.”

“It’s not honorable,” Sarra added, “and it definitely isn’t something the Bronze Legion would do in the actual universe as it would cross the bottom line of several other forces. But in the War of the Chosen it is perfectly within the rules and no forces would have problems with it.”

“Oh. Got it.” Henrietta seemed to calm down slightly as General Brom looked on, his aura clearly showing confusion. Then she turned to Krysta. “We’ll give the Legendary grade Soulcarving skill.”

She then bowed to the coran general. “We surrender.”

Everyone from the Vin Clan side started to vanish from the soulspace, and Krysta started to wake up.

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