Twelve hours after they arrived, everyone was gathered and ready.

As soon as they returned to this universe, before heading to the planet where Darian told them to meet, everyone felt they had to be prepared. So, they spent almost all the money they had, buying pills, inscriptions, and other items in that galaxy.

Added to the resources Darian brought from Earth, they didn't need to waste time. Howlyn just took that time to organize the groups.

Nearly a hundred young Abyssal Corrupted Wolves were trained by her to fight, along with a hundred Mannaz — most of them being those who had been turned into Risen and then healed.

These people had been trained hard by the vice-leader and could handle regular Risen when working in groups. That would ease the burden on the Spiritual Guardians and their summoners.

"Let's go," Darian nodded, using a space artifact.

They didn't need to think too much about where to go — just randomly pick any rocky planet among the countless ones in that galaxy.

*Buzz*

Without delay, a strong spatial distortion appeared. For short distances, even a basic space artifact could carry hundreds of people. They all stepped in without hesitation.

A frozen world appeared before them.

Darian exhaled and his body turned pitch black.

Lucy and Lucius helped; their blessing kicked in, radiating immense power because of the grand purpose they carried.

Darian burned 99% of the black power he had built up. Everyone was covered by a faint dark mantle. It wasn't anything too strong — any Risen Commander or higher could still sense them — but it was unlikely they'd run into someone that powerful on a planet like this.

Howlyn knew how the Risen were spread and also knew the main locations in that galaxy. She ensured the operation would be safe.

After everyone took a deep breath, Niara and Darian led the legion, with him sensing every enemy nearby.

The goal wasn't just to kill everything in sight, but to earn as much merit power as possible to upgrade their rings, and also collect rare resources that only powerful Risen had. So, he took them straight into the tiger's mouth.

On that planet, 98% of the enemies were regular Risen. The few Risen Chiefs there were the weaker kind — the kind that allies with three rings could fight.

In three hours, they reached the area with the most corruption and the best enemies.

"KILL!"

Howlyn roared, leading. Everyone powered up and entered a circular formation. They quickly spread in all directions, in small groups, starting to clean up the area.

...

Twelve hours went by fast.

At that moment, in the Shadows of Heaven Academy, a new spatial distortion appeared.

Everyone came back. No one had died. Those who had stayed behind and witnessed it all were thrilled. Besides Niara and Darian, all two hundred-plus were completely exhausted, with broken armor, weapons, and torn clothes.

"Good job. But I'll only give a bit of rest to the Mannaz and Beasts. The Spiritual Guardians came to this universe to work," Darian said, emotionless. "Haruto, Nagato, and Minato, you've got twelve hours to practice and test the materials."

"Yes!" the three split from their summoners, grabbed the spatial rings from Niara, and ran to the forge.

The little dragon moved toward Matteo, Veyle, Irana, Udynes, and Barod — the ones who only had two rings — and the twins, who had just one.

The orders were simple: the summoners needed to collect their bodies, letting their souls roam free in the world.

As soon as the four souls floated in front of him, Darian activated his rings.

Before returning to Earth, merit power was just an invisible mark of the heavenly laws on the soul — like credits to be paid later. Darian had already confirmed the last time he came to this universe: his rings could trigger the payment right then. (Chapter 178)

Lucy and Lucius were really close to advancing, so they went first. The sound of something cracking inside their souls echoed, and then an orange light burst from within them.

Right after, the others, stunned, felt the same thing in their own bodies. Their rings cracked, and a yellowish power burst out.

"Focus on stabilizing and solidifying the new rings. Then rebuild your bodies and improve them. You've only got twelve hours. After that, we're heading to another planet," Darian said quickly, turning to the others.

"You guys with three rings will take a bit longer to break through. Use this time to reflect on the last battle. Howlyn will help you."

Everyone nodded. Truth was, they felt like crap, since they'd made a lot of mistakes and had to be healed by Darian and the twins over and over again.

That's because they weren't used to fighting in groups, and even the smallest mistake meant getting corrupted by the enemies. On Earth, they had some training, but in this universe, they were fighting beside their summoners and with their blessings weakened — it was a whole different game.

Darian and Niara moved into a separate building and room. Niara looked at him with expectation and nodded, drawing out his spiritual body.

Darian nodded back, activating the rings. The merit power erupted like a volcano.

*Crack!*

Both rings shattered. Yellowish power emerged — his third ring was finally created. But the amount of merit he had was insane... everything he did earned a ton of it.

When he stopped absorbing everything, he realized he'd already gone past halfway to advancing again.

"If I can conquer one of the planets belonging to the Inscription, I might reach 90%, or maybe even get it all..." He sighed. Unfortunately, things were never that simple for him.

The Risen Lords had probably already noticed they were attacking Risen on random planets. After all, all weak Risen had been created by a Risen Lord and had a connection to them.

Nothing had moved yet, everything seemed to be going smoothly. Usually, that meant he was forgetting something and digging his own grave — or that something hidden, impossible to predict, was unfolding.

But there was no point thinking too much about something he couldn't possibly know. After moving forward, Darian returned to his body and began updating it.

This time, he didn't need to change much — just added more and more elemental power and life energy. Shortly after, his body stabilized.

On the outside, he only looked longer and shinier than before; when coiled around Niara, he could now wrap around her twice.

But inside, Darian felt that this body was incredibly more powerful. Only time would teach him how to truly use it.

Twelve hours passed. During that time, the others stabilized their new rings and bodies.

Veyle, who used to look like a small white heron, was now much bigger. Matteo, who had once looked like a small red Imp, now had longer wings and a sharp, intense gaze.

The twins, who had once been simple caterpillars, now looked like beautiful butterflies freshly out of their cocoons. As for the others, they had only grown in size and body capacity.

Haruto and his helpers showed up looking a little disappointed. They'd lost almost half of their materials during testing and didn't even come close to creating a rune seal. But they knew — no one climbs a mountain in a single day.

"Let's go."

At his command, they all headed to a new planet.

What followed was a hectic rhythm of training and fighting, repeated day after day: twelve hours of chaotic battles against the strongest Risen and a few Risen Chiefs, followed by twelve hours of preparation and recovery.

Luckily, Spiritual Guardians didn't need sleep, and with a few recovery pills, twelve hours were enough to fully restore their ring power. As for the Mannaz and the Beasts, with their powerful bodies, eating well and sleeping for twelve hours was all it took for them to be ready to fight again.

By the third day, all the Spiritual Guardians who had already reached three rings made it to their fourth. A green power, twice as dense as before, appeared within them.

The look in their eyes couldn't be described as just excitement or euphoria. Besides evolving rapidly, they felt an unmatched confidence and combat ability. They were growing in every way.

The whole fight happened with Darian and the twins supporting, able to cleanse corruption without issue. So, through trial and error during battle — and later, with Howlyn's advice and feedback — they learned a lot.

By the end of the sixth day, the twins felt they were at 90% of what they needed to advance. During those days, Haruto and his allies had made great progress and were creating all sorts of things.

It wasn't a rune seal. Anything made by the God of the Forge wasn't simple — even if they had twice the time, it still wouldn't be enough. But they did manage to absorb part of the advanced forging techniques.

The weapons with Risen cores found on planets were modified. They also used the bones and materials they collected to forge high-level items, easily adding a core afterward.

So Ruoku went to the Celestia Academy with a batch of hundreds of well-crafted pieces of equipment. Most of them were Risen weapons — since they only needed to tweak and enhance a few things, the process was quick after the learning phase.

At Celestia Academy, the leaders analyzed the items...

...and in no time, they were sure: a single one of those weapons would already be considered the most powerful they'd ever seen. Only the weapons with rune seals from that destroyed clan could possibly outperform them.

A deal was struck, and the Shadows of Heaven Academy promised to negotiate many more of those weapons in the future — at a generous discount.

They were just connection runes between the academy and the corners of the galaxy. Removing a dozen of them would weaken the protective Inscription slightly, but not in any worrying way. In exchange for the superior power those weapons offered, and to keep a good relationship with Darian, it was worth it.

Not to mention, they were sure Darian was planning something that would benefit the whole universe. In the end, they weren't losing anything — only gaining.

Howlyn received the runes and got excited. She quickly isolated herself and began preparing.

Everyone else started getting ready, nervous. On the main planets, there weren't just weak Risen. They would definitely have to fight — and now, it was win or die.

But Niara had been acting weird lately. She took a deep breath and muttered, "Dan… I can't explain it, but I feel like we're not going to make it, or it's going to be way harder than expected."

Darian sighed. Her instincts were always right. Even he had started to feel like everything was going too smoothly.

"Deadly dangers are waiting around every corner. We at least have to see what they've set up for us, and then quickly figure out a way out."

One week had already been lost — and this was their best chance to reclaim a member planet. If they failed to do that during this month... things would get pretty bad.

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