'The Old Alliance? The Forgotten?'
Seeing the ecstatic expression on the face of the jackal demi-human opposite him, Leng (the snake guy) frowned even more.
It's widely known that the world has only five major powers: two nations, two alliances, and one city. Leng had never heard of any "Old Alliance" or such a strange name as "The Forgotten."
"Haha, Leng, look at your face right now. You look just like I did back then. But believe me, once you see what's coming next, you'll understand their mystery and power," said the jackal demi-human.
As he spoke, he signaled one of his subordinates, a common Demi-human. Just as Leng wondered what they were up to, the Demi-human suddenly let out a roar! From his body emerged layers of blood-red patterns, intertwining like old tree roots, covering his entire body. His Demi-human features quickly faded, replaced by a body fully covered in beast fur. His hands and feet mutated into actual dog limbs, and his body swelled to a massive size, two to three meters tall. Drooling fangs protruded from the corners of his mouth.
This transformation shocked Leng, forcing him to step back. The Demi-human, once of similar height to Leng, now towered over him. The blood patterns combined with the fur made him look ferocious. His aura doubled in intensity, and a red mist encircled him, both crimson and eerie.
"This... this is beastification! He's become an Eclipse? This is impossible! Roca, how did you do this? We, we aren't," Leng quickly realized, showing a look of utter shock.
Beastification is a unique ability of the Demi-human species, their racial trait, and their pride. It significantly enhances their physical qualities, and it was this ability that allowed them to stand out from many other species five hundred years ago. They were fortunate enough to be chosen by the "Great Emperor" to join the final alliance.Th1s chapter is updated by n)ovel/\bin/\
However, gradually, this beastification, which should be instinctual for the Demi-human species, began to rapidly disappear from their bloodline. Three hundred years ago, when the last "Relic Wielder" of the Demi-human race died, their ability to beastify seemed to have become a thing of history. Since then, no Demi-human has been able to successfully beastify.
"Do you see? This is the power of the 'Old Alliance.' They can purify our filthy, degraded bloodlines, allowing us to resonate with the Tainted Miasma and awaken the true bloodline of our 'Ancestors,' enabling our Demi-human race to rise again!" Roca exclaimed excitedly.
Once a source of pride, the loss of the beastification ability left every Demi-human feeling inferior. After a century of enslavement, they had come to accept and acknowledge the degeneration of their once-superior ancestral bloodline.
But now, successfully regaining the "glory" of beastification meant they had become Eclipses, capable of absorbing and using the Tainted Miasma, and even controlling 'Relics' again!
A new path to a bright future was before Roca, how could he not be excited?
Not just Roca, but all the Demi-humans in the warehouse, including Leng, were exhilarated. Initially, Leng might have felt guilty about conspiring with outsiders behind his comrades' backs. But now, seeing Roca's true power and the strength of the "Old Alliance" behind him, Leng was fully confident in their plan. He believed this wasn't betrayal but a sacrifice for the Demi-human race to regain its greatness. Surely, those used as bait in the revolutionary army would understand, right?
Leng, now transformed, began to sense many incongruities. For instance, even if they captured the Sealed City, how would they hold it? And what exactly was the "Old Alliance" and why were they helping them? But Leng stopped pondering; he just wanted to use his newfound power for revenge against humans, craving slaughter.
"I'll urge those on the other side to act quickly. I hope, after we capture the Sealed City, those 'Old Alliance' people you speak of will keep their promise and continue to help us," Leng said.
Roca smiled meaningfully. "You can rest assured on that point. Although my contact with them is recent, I'm certain that the people of the 'Old Alliance' share our goal. They too crave revenge. But their target isn't just the Dragon Kingdom; it's the entire world!"
...
.....
"Renji! What do we do now!? These people are completely mad, like cultists! We must stop them!" Whenever the girl called out Renji's name, it indicated the seriousness of the situation.
But the young man's answer was brief: "Let's go."
"Go? Just go!?" Eileen was anxious to say more to Renji, but he was already deep in thought.
Renji had recognized something familiar in the blood sacrifice ritual and the bottle brought out by the demi-human. In game terms, it was like experience points being transferred, forcibly stripping the power of a hundred civilians to Leng.
He had done something similar in the game, transferring experience. In his classification of Eclipses, besides professional distinctions, Renji subjectively categorized them by function. For example, Eclipses with talents like "increased efficiency in gaining experience points" were classified as "Experience Babies" by Renji.
These Eclipses were essentially containers for storing experience. Once they leveled up quickly due to their easier experience gain, Renji would kill them to end the contract, resetting them to gain a massive amount of experience to feed to his main forces, achieving the purpose of transferring experience points.
As for those Eclipses who reverted to ordinary people after the reset, Renji discarded them in the rear shelters, unable to leave even a trace of memory. After all, who remembers how many slices of bread they've eaten?
"Experience Babies" were just one of many functional categories.
Renji had thought that in the second playthrough of the game, five hundred years later, as the opening hints suggested, he would only inherit the top five "Calamity Rank" Eclipses, assuming his other subordinates had vanished. After all, logically, only six-star "Calamity Rank" Eclipses would have such long lifespans.
But now, it seemed...
"The Forgotten of the Old Alliance...."