<h4>Chapter 826: Whining</h4>


    After enduring a fierce battle, Sein and his group barely managed a two-hour respite upon reaching the space fortress before diving back into action.


    The Kermoine Serpent Warlock n’s visibly worn-out space fortresscked both robust defenses and significantbat capabilities.


    An overwhelming onught from the Wild Gori Army, including a Gori God of Rank Four or higher had caused its prior crashnding.


    If not for the timely intervention of ck Oblivion to protect the fortress, it was uncertain whether it could havended safely.


    At the top of the fortress, a gash more than two thousand meters long and over fifty meters deep marred its structure.


    The outer alloy armor of the fortress was prated, exposing the intricatework of magic and energy circuits within.


    The gash was an unmistakable mark left by the Rank Four or higher Gori God’s destructive power.


    While the main cannon of a Magus World space fortress boasted destructive power and a rate of fire theoreticallyparable to a Rank Four or higher entity, it remained, at its core, a “lifeless object”—just a massive war tform unable to rival the adaptability of a living Rank Four powerhouse.


    The fortress’ swift fall could be attributed to several factors—the limited number of warlocks stationed aboard, the unexpected assault by a Gori God, and the relentless onught of countless Wild Gori soldiers.


    Even Lorianne and the others were caught off guard by their ambush, let alone this older fortress model.


    “With the fortress in its current state, there’s no way to repair it or transport it back to the main base for now. Even if it could barely manage flight, the Wild Gori Army outside wouldn’t stand idly by and let it leave,” remarked Lonas, a young Rank Three grand mage of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring. [1]


    Lonas had been a part of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring longer than those who joinedter from Viridescent Land.


    He was also among the Rank Three grand mages not serving concurrently as the dean of the divine tower academy.


    At this point, there were over fourteen hundred mages in this space fortress—more than four hundred from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring and roughly a thousand Kermoine Serpent Warlocks.


    The Kermoine Serpent Warlock n was a Bloodline Warlock lineage of notable renown.


    Among the thousand or so Giant Serpent Warlocks, seven had reached Rank Three, and two had ascended to the demigod level.


    The strength of this force was even greater than the elite assault corps sent by the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.


    Moreover, the space fortress housed over four million Yaja ves.


    @@novelbin@@


    The Yaja, the gray-skinned horned extranar creatures wielding steel forks that had charged out earlier to meet Sein and hispanions, were enved beings originally prepared by the Kermoine Serpent Warlock n for sale in distant star domains through ck Oblivion’s connections.


    However, the sudden arrival of the Wild Gori Army altered their fate.


    Instead of being sold off to foreign star domains, they were now forced to arm themselves and prove their worth on the battlefield.


    Originally numbering five million, the Yaja had already suffered heavy losses.


    In less than ten days, the space fortress’ fall and the unrelenting assaults of the Wild Gori Army had killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of these weak enved creatures.


    If not for the space fortresses’ armor of guaranteed quality and intermittent energy shields providing some defensive aid, these cannon fodder ves would have perished in far greater numbers.


    “The Kermoine Serpent Warlocks don’t seem willing to give up this space fortress. And frankly, they shouldn’t. These thousand warlocksbined are probably worth less than this fortress,” Lonas joked.


    While the young Rank Three grand mage’s words carried humor, there was an undeniable truth in his remark.


    A space fortress could fetch a market price of ten million magicoins. Byparison, the one thousand warlocks aboard would not collectively reach that value.


    An average Rank One mage participating in an internar war might amass total earnings of two hundred magicoins. Even if they saved rigorously, their lifetime wealth would barely scrape a thousand magicoins, and that was assuming they resisted the infamous spending habits of Magus World mages, known for pouring fortunes into their experiments.


    Though this space fortress was a worn-out model, far inferior to the pristine new fortress recently purchased by Lorianne, it remained highly valuable.


    Not only was it holding millions of enved creatures, but it also carried other goods belonging to the Kermoine Serpent Warlock n—these were all assets!


    The thousand Giant Serpent Warlocks aboard were sent by their n to maintain and transport the ves.


    The Kermoine Serpent Warlock n, a medium-sized Bloodline Warlock n from the West Coast, boasted at least fifty to sixty thousand ranked members.


    This figure did not include the smaller ns under their banner, many of which carried mixed Kermoine Serpent bloodlines.


    Considering their numbers, the one thousand warlocks aboard the fortress were an insignificant fraction of their overall strength.


    However, in the current situation, the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring’s main fortress base desperately needed these warlocks and also the millions of enved creatures to bolster its defenses.


    “Wealth can never bepared to lives. I doubt the Kermoine Serpent Warlocks will make the foolish choice of throwing their lives away,” Sein remarked with a sneer.


    He paused, ncing at Lonas, before continuing, “Even if the Kermoine n Head himself were here, faced with the choice between saving a space fortress or a thousand n members, I’m certain he’d choose thetter.”


    “I agree. But every minute wasted here is a minute spent courting death,” Master Lonas replied with a casual shrug.


    ***


    Sein and Lonas’ predictions proved urate.


    After several grueling hours and after the space fortress’ outer shield had been breached twice more, the Rank Three warlocks of the Kermoine Serpent n finally decided to break out.


    Those hours, however, were not entirely wasted.


    The space fortress was massive, and organizing the millions of Yaja ves within it was no easy feat.


    In addition, the Bloodline Warlocks busied themselves, collecting and securingrge quantities of goods. Every vital material that could be salvaged was packed into spatial storage equipment.


    The efficiency with which the Kermoine Serpent Warlocks executed these tasks impressed Sein and the other Divine Tower of Verdant Spring mages.


    It became evident that the warlocks had already prepared for the breakout well before they agreed to it.


    Their earlier resistance to the n had merely been pettyints and whining.


    1. Trantor’s Note: I just realized that Lonas had briefly appeared once in Chapter 262! That was so long ago! ?