Infinite Realm: Monsters & Legends
Chapter 605: Ryun

Chapter 605: Ryun

Reality

War in the Infinite Realm was… complicated. It changed depending on so many factors that having any kind of plan of fighting was almost ludicrous. It changed constantly, a single perk could alter a battlefield in ways that were unpredictable.

It almost surprised Ryun that he had enough experience to come to conclusions like that. But then again, he has been in many wars by now. The memories he had of True Death were fainter, but also didn’t include war in the same way. True Death didn’t fight wars, it carried people to their final end. Hunted them if they weren’t willing to go.

What was most unexpected was the scale of this war. The Exalted Empire had sent an army of a truly mind-boggling size. They pushed evenly across the entire border of the Sects, thousands of leagues of land, all engaged in combat. Many of their forces were conscripted armies of the factions they had conquered or forced to ally with them, though where such forces were sent depended on the location.

Here, the enemy was all Exalted Empire, as this front was the border of the Dragon Heart Sect. The empire had probably assumed that the resistance here would be higher, which it was. But the loss of their Sect Head had thrown the powerful sect off their balance. They lost two territories before they managed to recover enough to put up a strong fight, but by then it was too late, the empire’s momentum was too great to halt.

Even with all of the Sects now gathered together, they still struggled to spread out as many of their elites across the battlefield. They had been forced to send only a single elite for an entire battlefront, and so, Ryun was here alone.

The troops that had come with him were from his own sect, and led by Eari Ji Van—Eerv’s Son—now house Woll. Most of the sect warriors were utilizing Black Viper Venom Aspects and followed the traditional Paths of the former Black Viper Sect. A few had Fire-related Aspects, those that they absorbed from the Last Ember Sect.

Ryun had immediately noticed that their numbers weren’t enough to turn the tide fully. He watched the battle from every direction, his being expanded to cover the entire front, his authority touching everything. He didn’t push his being into places that were clearly shielded, he didn’t want to alert them to his presence, but his perception allowed him to see a clear picture of everything. The empire didn’t seem to be capable of detecting his presence, and he didn’t want to tip his hand.

It surprised him just how much the way the empire fought this war resembled what he remembered from Earth. They had artillery set up far behind their lines, had powerful drones in the air both watching and firing at targets of opportunity.

Though, the Dragon Heart Sect did have a small fleet over their position, the twin forts that flanked the pass through the mountains. The airships kept most of the drones and their attacks from reaching the people defending.

It was interesting to see an army that utilized tools to such a great degree, that had mechanical based technology fight another that relied more on formations and use of personal powers. Ryun didn’t think that one was better than the other, to him, power was power. He had realized long ago that the Sect’s had a higher level of technology than what Earth had before the Framework arrived. It just had a different esthetic.

Ryun didn’t bother much with the plans for this counter-offensive, he listened to strategies that others had come up with, and he was willing to fill his role. He was good at that.

Now, he watched as the battle shifted, as the empire reacted to the presence of his people. Eari started pressuring them by leading smaller teams on hit and run attacks, destroying their artillery and giving room to other warriors stuck behind defenses to do the same.

Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

Ryun slowly started taking down surveillance drones, targeting those in the areas where his forces were preparing to attack. He would simply exert his authority, and the drones would vanish, swallowed up by a technique manifested in around them. He was very careful not to damage any Essence other than that which was part of the drones, he didn’t want to leave any clues as to what was happening.

The effects of his actions were clear, more drones were being sent out, lines were shifting, who ever was commanding this force was reacting, which was what Ryun was after.

Every side had its elites, powerful trump cards. Conflict in the Infinite Realm was all about forcing your opponent to reveal theirs before they were ready. The Exalted Empire didn’t really have that many powerful individuals, they valued groups over a single person gaining power, but they had the equivalents. Powerful machines, devices, even task forces, that operated at that level.

Ryun was looking forward to seeing what was going to come out of hiding here. As time went by he started to feel like he wasn’t being taken seriously, so he decided to up the ante.

He focused on three spots across the battlefield and condensed his being, pulling in density of his existence and shaping three vessels. Bodies formed out of the Essence of his being, shaped like a human, but formless, just empty darkness in the world surrounded by flashes of violet, silver, and black. Then, on top of the mountain he fashioned another, vessel, then pulled Scorn out of his Soul and fashioned for himself body and clothes.

With a thought, he pulled items from the Armory of the Stars

. Armor cradled him, rings appeared on his fingers, a bracer on each hand. He could equip his vessels with items, but there was no need, as long as a part of him wore them, they affected him whole. The other vessels were just pieces of him after all.

He controlled his vessels and attacked. Lines of End Qi lashed out, erasing encampments, felling walls, cutting apart drones in the sky. He didn’t go full out, he was trying to draw out the enemy after all.

A group of some kind of attack craft rose from the ground far behind enemy lines. Fast moving, and as large as a house. Oblong in shape, with clear weapons mounted on top. They headed toward one of his vessels with clear intent in mind. Weapons started to glow, and Ryun reacted.

One of his vessels put a hand out, and a javelin manifested in its hand, Ryun pulled Qi through Scorn and his link to his bonded, funneling it through his being and into the vessel, shaping a technique into the javelin.

Erdania’s Reliability filled the javelin, his will focusing on its relationship with Gravity. In a span of a moment, he threw the javelin at them at speeds that few would be able to dodge.

The craft did react, faster than even Ryun thought was possible, they swerved away from it. Not that that was going to be any use. Ryun triggered the technique remotely.

The {Final End} was unleashed. He had tweaked the technique slightly, and as the Qi exploded outward, the Gravity twisted, it pulled toward the center with an implosion that drew everything in a massive sphere. The craft were pulled in, crashing into each other and twisting as the metal impacted, bent, as it was compressed. Explosions from their power sources blossomed for a blink and were immediately stifled. In a second, their entire attack group was reduced to a tiny sphere of metal no larger than a human head.

Artillery rained down on his vessel’s position, but Ryun simply exerted his authority, erasing the attacks before they could even reach him.

On the other side of the battlefront, a similar situation was taking place, where his second vessel stood above a line of the enemy soldiers and bombarded them with {Twilight Cutting Flicker}, a version of it at least. Names of techniques had stopped really holding meaning to Ryun, they were what he wanted them to be. His mastery over them had reached a level where he could craft a different technique with a thought alone. He had studied both Selia’s and Erdania’s techniques, could draw on their knowledge through their bond and use them as if they were his own.

He still used his old techniques as a foundation. They had gotten him this far, they were powerful.

Then, as he was thinking about increasing the pressure, something changed.

He felt the ripple in the sky, the barrier that was the ceiling of the world. The Space Essence shifted, and something passed through, trailing wisps of the Void as it entered the territory from above.

Ryun watched as the giant vessel made itself known, and turned his full attention on it. Finally, a challenge.