Krriek!

[…Bastard]

[You dare use my power?]

[Give in!]

[Fall under my control…!]

"…zhen."

[Kekeke, it won\'t be long before I reclaim my power from you]

"…izhen."

[The more you use it, the faster I recover!]

"Rhizen!" Shika shouted, grabbing hold of Rhizen\'s shoulders before shaking him violently.

"What?" Rhizen jolted awake, panting as he clutched his head, sweating profusely as his vision was blurry. What seemed to be standing before him was a humanoid deer, with a protruding mouth that was curled into a smile bigger than its head.



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But gradually, like a fog that was cleared up, the deer-like humanoid vanished and, in its place, stood a familiar face, allowing him to sigh in relief, muttering, "What happened…Shika?"

"Have you come to your senses now?" Shika said in concern, "You suddenly zoned out on me. I was worried if the corruption took a greater toll on your body and mind."

"I\'m fine now," Rhizen said, getting up slowly as he looked around, seeing the ongoing war, sighing as he stretched his limbs, "How\'s our status?"

"We\'re expanding steadily." Shika said, "We\'ve already stabilised everything. The other safe zones are faring better since most of the corruption is being concentrated here."

"I see," Rhizen nodded, condensing a pair of wings as he took off to the air, "Take care of things here for the time being. I need to do something."

"Wait!" Shika shouted, watching Rhizen\'s figure vanish soon after.

Boom!

Crashing into a building, Rhizen groaned, struggling to get up as his head ached, muttering as he sweated, "You\'re not dead yet?"

"No…" He exhaled a long breath, sighing as he said, "I should have known. I was aware that you would revive eventually, but I hadn\'t expected it to be this quick."

Of course, there was no reply to his words as Rhizen gradually regained his bearings. He then closed his eyes, meditating as he inspected himself, sensing no issues within him.

All the corruption from the Celas had already been digested and converted into Nacre that had been supplied to the Tower of Purification. Moreover, his injuries had already been treated by the Society Members.



So, there were no issues in his being.

But, that was only in terms of the tangible matter. A moment later, Rhizen opened his eyes, sensing the luck of everything around him, including the world itself, seeing swirling streams of luck of various forms everywhere.

He focused on Dwun\'s Luck, noticing that it resembled a fawn dancing happily while wielding a pair of grass gauntlets. It was one of the largest streams of luck around him.

Following it was Shika\'s whose luck resembled a droplet of ink, subtle in nature, many times smaller in comparison to Dwun\'s luck.

And in the same vein, Rhizen inspected himself, gradually observing the feet of a celestial humanoid come into view, gigantic in size.

His senses scaled up the feet of the celestial humanoid, one whose height was on par with mountains.

The celestial humanoid had 22 hands, each seemingly wielding a mysterious power. Some were larger and stronger than the rest, painting a somewhat uneven appearance to the celestial humanoid.

The face of the celestial humanoid resembled Rhizen at first glance but shared some differences too. First of them were the massive deer horns on its forehead, with each branching out into 22 smaller horns.

And just like the arms, the smaller horns were of varying sizes.

Multiple streams of varying shapes gushed into the horns, symbolising a form of luck each. But as Rhizen trailed past the streams, he noticed a formless pair of arms tugging at their ends, gradually pulling the streams towards themselves.

\'So, the Luck System has begun its revival.\' He muttered, sighing in the end.

Among the various Systems, the Luck System was his most dangerous foe. After all, both of them held sway over the same dominion—of luck!

Moreover, before the Luck System came into being, its predecessor, the Coincidental Luck System was his System.

Rhizen had spent time as Host to the Coincidental Luck System for almost a millennium. It was also the original owner of his world. And after a myriad of schemes, the Coincidental Luck System devoured all the other Luck-based Systems, reaching Grade 2, and becoming the Luck System.

And in the meantime, Rhizen freed his world from its grasp, also plotting its demise.

But, as the Coordinates of the Luck System, the source of its being hadn\'t been extracted, it was bound to revive. And after he used the power of Bad Luck, Rhizen noticed the Luck System beginning to pull back the power of luck that he wielded.

It would be a tug of war as it continued to revive. And if he didn\'t do anything, once the Luck System revived, it would snatch the entire treasury of Luck he had amassed.

"I…won\'t allow you to revive. It had been hard to gain independence." Rhizen grunted, exerting his strength as the various streams of luck swatted away the hands grabbing hold of their ends, fully under his control once again.

\'I only cannot use the full power of my Luck in fear that the other Systems would detect our world. But, that doesn\'t mean that I\'m helpless.\' He snorted, flying out of the building as he soon exited the safety zone, gazing at the stream of Aberrants as he waved his hand.

Apocalyptic Arts—Dust Wave (IX)!

Gah!

Kreee!

Kuoong!

The Aberrants turned into dust in waves, rapidly resulting in the area of a kilometre around the safety zone being devoid of Aberrants.

Following that, he looked at the Society Members, announcing aloud, "We\'ll be expanding aggressively now. Follow my lead and set up your External Items along the way!"

"Yes, Saint!" The Society Members saluted happily in response, brimming with vigour upon seeing that their strongest had made a complete recovery.

It meant that they didn\'t have to fear anything anymore. After all, the strongest of this apocalyptic world, the Celas was already dead.

Immediately after his announcement, a Society Member, a Stage 7 Mystic Human took out an item resembling a lollipop, planting it into the ground in the region Rhizen had cleared out just now.

Immediately, the shaft of the lollipop rapidly expanded into a tower ten metres high, sporting a glowing sphere at the top.

This tower too was akin to a tree as its roots burrowed deep into the ground, sucking up the corruption to turn it into Nacre that charged the sphere at the top.

Whuoong!

The Nacre condensing within the sphere continued to revolve before facing a certain direction, transforming into an arrow before flying away at terrifying speeds, slamming into a Titan Aberrant a couple of kilometres away, disintegrating it in an instant.

It seemed to have expended all its Nacre as it started to accumulate power once again. A minute later, it fired another beam, killing another Titan Aberrant.

External Item—Artillery Canon!

It was an automatic weapon that targeted the strongest among the approaching horde and killed them one by one. Boasting an exceptional range of two kilometres, it was a terrifying unit.

Its only drawback was that it was a single-target attack unit and needed a minute to recharge for every attack. This was why it wasn\'t deployed during the time the Aberrants had breached the safe zone.

Not only would it not affect the situation much, but it would also be destroyed easily as it was a somewhat fragile unit.

But now that Rhizen had recovered, they had more than enough foundation to rely upon to bring out all their cards.

Immediately after, multiple Artillery Canons were set up around the safe zone, making them target the Titan Aberrants alone.

"Finally! Things are getting interesting!" Dwun laughed, bringing out an item that he slammed into the ground, causing it to quake in response as a massive tree shot out immediately after, reaching a height of thirty metres.

It resembled a banyan in appearance as its various secondary roots dangled from the branches, gradually growing thicker in response before turning humanoid. Soon after, they extricated themselves from the tree, landing on the ground, resembling humans in body structure but were wholly made from tree fibre.

External Item—Grassmen Nest!

"Mow them all, brothers!" Dwun laughed, sensing the corruption in the region become weak immediately after. This was why he couldn\'t use it within the safe zone before, for the corruption consumption would be too much that it would severely affect the Nacre production by Pearl Buck.

Upon his orders, the Grassmen, beings that were two-metre-tall grass creatures slowly walked towards the Aberrants, accelerating over time before rushing into the horde.

The Grassman in the lead swiped its claws, unleashing a beam attack that shredded the Aberrant into multiple pieces. But immediately after, three Aberrants ganged up on it, devouring it into bits, preventing it from recovering.

The two sides tore into each other as the Grassmen created a blockade, preventing the Aberrants from approaching them as easily as in the past.

But, the production of the Grassmen couldn\'t obviously keep up with the horde attacking them as only Dwun had the External Item of Grassmen Nest.

"Heuk!" Shika retracted her Tower of Purification, implanting it into the new area that they were invading now, serving as a base for the army to retreat in and out of while fighting.

In the meantime, the Society Members erected walls connecting the two safe zones, lining up the walls with spare Artillery Canons.

In the meantime, Yulna took out a tiny cylinder, placing it on the ground within the safe zone created by Rhizen, watching roots gush out of the cylinder and enter the ground, causing its upper half to gradually transform into a bowl with a radius of a metre.

Immediately after, nutrients were sucked from the ground and amassed into edible substances. Within a couple of minutes, a variety of cooked dishes appeared within the bowl as Yulna took them one after another and began to supply them to everyone.

External Item—Vitality Bowl!