Tales of the Endless Empire

Chapter 448: The Chosen Make Their First Move

“This went far smoother than I first thought!” Eric grinned after passing through the gate.Eric, Ethan, Felix, and Elara, the Chosen of Isis, the healer goddess who had blessed Evelyn once before, had entered the city. Instead of following the carriage before them, they had turned to the left and stopped at an open house entrance.

In the last stage, the four had been a fantastic team and slaughtered trial taker after trial taker without a care in the world. They even met an unlucky vampire Chosen, but he managed to escape by holding out until he was whisked away by his spatial amulet.

So far, no one had managed to put up a fight. They all were extremely powerful and had Elara as their support. She could do far more than heal—she could also squash enemies to a pulp with barriers. That was just the start of what she was capable of. Strengthening, speeding up, and many more buffs could be thrown out by her, which made the group even stronger and almost immortal. If someone managed to inflict even a cut or some kind of wound, it was healed in under a second.

That they had found each other in this trial was also a godsend. With special items they had bought in the last system shop, they could track each other down on New Earth after they returned from the treasure hunt. This was very important for the war that was about to break out. The sooner they were able to connect, the better. Maybe it would even allow them to group up early and kill a few of the enemy Chosen before the true war broke out.

The last and final stage of the treasure hunt felt like it was tailor-made for the group. Bringing down a kingdom like this should be child’s play. The rewards for killing a few of the guards were ridiculously high. Disguised as humans, they had the advantage of entering the kingdom without being noticed—something the elves, vampires, and orcs wouldn’t be able to accomplish.

Their plan was simple. They would gather as many people as possible who would fight by their side and create a distraction while the four would rush through the inner parts of the city, farming the strong fighters. The distraction might allow the other races to enter more easily, but such a head start was just too valuable to miss out on.

Stopping the Scarlet Continuum likely wouldn’t be that easy anyway and would happen later in the stage. The human Chosen had a far more devious plan until then. Ethan would try to keep an eye on the surroundings, and when any sign of another trial taker—or better, a Chosen—was spotted, they would all act together. Killing one of the enemy Chosen before the war began was a far bigger advantage compared to getting a few more leaderboard points. To stop farming soldiers for a few minutes while they killed an enemy Chosen should be no problem.

“Looks like no one is at home. Maybe we should get going instead of trying to influence a few weaklings,” Ethan muttered, observing the wooden chairs and the table with disgust.

“Those people really couldn’t be among the stronger folk. I wonder what is happening here. Partly this city looks like it’s stuck in medieval times, but the wall with all the runes looks quite futuristic,” Elara mentioned in her melodic voice that could have belonged to an elf.

“I agree, we might need to start on our own. Who needs a distraction anyway?” Eric said with confidence, chest pushed outward. That they had overtaken the insects last stage and claimed the top four spots on the leaderboard was a reason for great joy.

“Why not scout a bit first? The others aren’t making that many points, and I can hide us under an illusion. Maybe there are barracks filled with soldiers we can clear out without alerting anyone in the city. The fewer of them know that we are here, the easier it will be to kill them,” Elara reasoned.

It was obvious that she didn’t like to brute-force fights like Ethan and Eric. Yet her displeasure wasn’t shown in any outward appearance.

“I also agree with Elara,” Felix added. “We should start as sneaky as possible before going all out and murdering anyone around us. It will also be important to find a way to stop the ritual. It could be that the one hundred fifty million points will be rewarded to every one of us when we interrupt the Scarlet Continuum together.”

“Good, then that’s how we proceed. Always the voice of reason, Felix, huh?” Eric chuckled, which made Elara’s eyes narrow like she was honing in on prey. Yet nobody noticed that subtle change in demeanor.

“What should we do with the prisoners?” Ethan casually asked, pointing outside where the carriage was parked. They had also entered with a full cage of slaves like Thalion.

“Let them go, obviously. I hadn’t thought of it earlier. They are the perfect diversion. Not too dangerous to alert anyone, but it will create chaos we can use to more easily slay the guards,” Eric exclaimed, slamming his fist down on the wooden table beside him, which broke apart.

“Shhh, don’t be so loud. We don’t know how well the voice isolation works here. Also, let’s get moving instead of congratulating ourselves,” Elara added, trying to keep her tone perfectly calm as always.

Nothing more needed to be said. Ethan opened the door with a grin on his face, only to see eight guards standing around their carriage discussing how it had ended up there.

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“Hey, did you steer the carriage here? By the way, who are you? I have never seen you before. Identify yourself,” one of the guards shouted at them.

Ethan didn’t even try to talk and just dashed forward, two daggers already flying at two guards who were standing in the back. Ethan was so fast that the first guard couldn’t say anything more as his head was cut off. The daggers perfectly hit the eyes of the guards, who were far too slow to react to Ethan’s speed, even when he was far from going all out.

A Chosen in E-grade just had so many advantages that the average E-grade couldn’t even think of standing up to them.

Three more daggers were flung at guards while Ethan activated his movement skill again. It only took two seconds until all guards were lying on the ground—most dead and only a few vitally injured.

“I will not go down for nothing,” one of the guards blurted out through red bubbles coming from his mouth. The words couldn’t be heard by anyone, but the red crystal he crushed in his hand sent out a loud searing sound and a red missile flying up into the sky, where it exploded with a loud boom.

“So much for traversing through the city without getting noticed,” Eric said with a grin, which only made Elara sigh out loud.

Everyone in the group noticed the identifiers on them coming from the high walls and from the many tall towers inside the city.

<--

“Hah, those humans are as stupid as ever,” Urgol laughed out loud. He was sitting outside the city with the other orc Chosen. They were eight altogether: two strong fighters, while the others were all female shamans. All were Chosen from gods who were wives of his patron. This naturally made him the group leader. Not only was his patron by far the strongest, but Urgol was also the strongest in this small group.

One of the shamans had a green fire burning before them that showed the inside of the city. More accurately, they had followed a group of human Chosen. Another shaman had whispered into the ears of the guards that something was going on in the house where the Chosen were staying, which led to the human Chosen getting discovered.

In the beginning, Urgol had feared that the fast assassin human with the green coat might manage to kill everyone before the guards could send out a signal, but one of the humans made a truly heroic act by sounding the alarm at the last possible moment.

“Truly arrogant. What do you wish to do next, Urgol?” Meyra asked. She was the shaman who had kept the vision skill going. She was the strongest of the female shamans and the only one in the group who dared to address him by his name alone. This was also the reason he liked her the most over the others.

“In my opinion, the human guards are a bit slow in relaying the message to the truly strong fighters that could create a problem for our dear Chosen. For us orcs, there is nothing more important than to bring honor to our tribe. I say we should honor the human who managed to ring the alarm bell. Let’s make it clear that they are taking this threat seriously,” Urgol grinned widely.

He also didn’t like how strong the human party was. They were just four, but every single one was dangerous—likely even stronger than any of his other Chosen subordinates.

“Good idea. I will see to it,” Meyra grinned before starting to direct the other shamans.

In the green fire, the scene constantly shifted as the shamans moved their awareness from tower to tower until they found the one who had the power to ring the big alarm. It took a few minutes until Meyra filled his mind with so much panic and worry that he rang the bell while shouting something in runes about them getting invaded.

“I am very pleased. I think it is time that we take advantage of the distraction those human Chosen are providing right now,” Urgol laughed before standing up.

The smile disappeared as if it had never been there in the first place as his favorite weapon appeared in his hand, and part of his brutal nature rolled out.

Green mist engulfed the whole group of orcs, teleporting them all inside the city.

<--

“Please stop! Please!” the Scarlet Warden cried in horror when Zargaz ripped out his right foot. He had fed on the villagers and the soldiers sent out from the main city. So far, the treasure hunt had gone horribly. The other Chosen vampires weren’t on his side and just waited for the right moment to put a dagger in his back.

Normally they would have bowed to him and begged for his attention. Yet since his patron lost much of his power, the other gods were about to rebel, and this went all the way down to their subordinates. When Zargaz reached godhood, his master would get a good chunk of power, which would make it harder for the other vampires to get rid of him. This made him a prime target.

The other Chosen were too weak to kill him. Against other vampires, Zargaz would never lose with the Crimson Sovereign on his side. The evolved blood plant gave him the upper hand in every fight. In fact, Zargaz was even strong enough to defeat the other vampires without it at the moment. His bloodline was far above what was considered a strong bloodline.

The problem was the other Chosen. Since the eighth stage, many Chosen had the opportunity to team up, while Zargaz had stayed by himself. Normally he had always been in the top five, but the teamwork of the other Chosen made them dangerous. Not even Zargaz would dare to fight multiple Chosen in the same fight. He believed that he would win in a one-on-one fight against anyone in this trial, but against many he likely would be slain.

Leaving this stage wasn’t possible anymore. Seeing how the other Chosen surpassed him in total points weighed heavily on his soul. It was just unfair that those weaklings got a shot at the big prize just because they were grouping up.

There also had been this human he should catch and kill. This Thalion. He had been in first position for long with a stupid amount of leaderboard points no one could manage to get close to. Yet since the eighth stage, everyone managed to catch up, and now he had dropped out of the top ten. This was very good for Zargaz since significantly fewer would hunt Thalion down right now.

Feeding the blood plant the human had cultivated should bring the Crimson Sovereign to the next evolution. At a certain point, their evolutions would synchronize, but that would only happen in late D-grade and not earlier. Getting the Crimson Sovereign to evolve was the last thought that brought joy to his heart.

At least that was before he entered the final stage.

The first moment he breathed in the blood-stained air, he knew that this was his stage. He just needed to wait until the Chosen groups were fighting it out between one another.

His thoughts were interrupted as a big red explosion echoed out in the middle of the city.

“Looks like the others are already inside. I shall no longer delay and follow along,” Zargaz said with a wide, sinister grin, looking at the Scarlet Warden lying on the ground before him.

“Please! Please don’t!” the Scarlet Warden screamed as a vine shot out from Zargaz’s hand and buried itself in the victim’s chest.