Crucible Aeternum: Ascending through Skill Trees

The brightest light to ever grace Corrin, that was how bright Galeon's light was. The entirety of the Eastern Region could see it. It washed over the lands, dying it white if only for a brief moment.

What was surprising, however, was that even across the continent, that brilliant glimmer of light could be seen. It was not to the extent of what the Eastern Region saw, but it was still bright enough to catch the attention of a lot of people.

Those who knew of the current crisis in the Eastern Region grew sombre. A bright light like that could mean any number of things. Worst among them was a beast so powerful that it could decimate the Eastern Region by itself. They did not want to believe that such a thing might have appeared, but they had to be prepared just in case it proved to be real.

And so, all the major forces across the continent— across Corrin began mobilising their armies. Even the other Divines were alerted by this sudden light. After all, something that could emit such a bright light that could reach the opposite end of the continent was effectively at the level of Divine. If it was indeed a beast that caused it, then it was grave calamity that even they would have trouble against.

Meanwhile, in the Lux Holy Land, practically everyone was kneeling on the ground. Their bodies prostrated as they faced the direction of the light. Even when beasts were right outside their city fighting against the knights and soldiers, they only wept in celebration.

In a secluded room in the High Temple of Light at the heart of the Holy Land, a frail woman stood on the balcony. Her eyes that were usually closed have opened, revealing the pure white blankness within them. She was completely blind, and yet she gazed at the brilliant light in the distance with a euphoric expression.

She extended a pale hand in front of her, trying to feel something in the air, but there was nothing there... or so others might think.

"Ah, I feel it! I feel the light!"

The woman spoke with joy and excitement as she clearly felt on her hand a drop of rain. It was not water, but rather liquid light. It was raining down upon the Eastern Region in a mild drizzle. When it the light dropped on her body, the woman felt the chronic feebleness and exhaustion that had been ailing her for years on end slowly dissipate. She was being cured, and she was not alone.

The soldiers, knights and warriors who fought in the frontlines against the beast tide felt the rain of light on their bodies. The injuries they received, no matter how grave, began healing. It was like the holy water granting blessings upon the people. And it was not just the people either.

The plants preserved and carefully nurtured within the cities, even the Forbidden Forest, all of them received the nurturing of the rain of light. For a brief moment, their stems, trunks and leaves shone with luminescence as their growths were spurred on. It was as though an endless drought had finally ended as beautiful flowers and bountiful fruits began appearing swiftly from them.

In contrast, the beasts suffered greatly from the rain of light. Every drop of liquid light burned the beasts, swiftly turning them into ashes. The power within the liquid light was so potent that just one drop was enough to reduce even the huge beasts to mere ash. But there was not a lot of liquid light, and soon, the rain stopped pouring.

It had only lasted for a few seconds, but the effect it brought was astounding. Most of the beast tide, stretching from Vaulkeen's End all the way to the cities, had been reduced to ashes. All that was left were a few tens of thousands of stragglers that did not get hit by the rain. It was understandable that not all would be drenched. The rain all came from the puddle of liquid light that Galeon controlled. And there was not a lot of it.

Still, this one move had practically ended the entire beast tide. All the beasts that remained would either return to where they came from or continue charging to their deaths. The people were ready to continue fighting. After all, they had just been granted a miracle fully healing them. They could fight for several more hours, no problem.

Meanwhile, in Vaulkeen's End, the Radiant Paladins have fallen to one knee, their hands clasped in prayer. They all looked toward a single person, the man who stood in the sky as he commanded the light to rain down upon the world.

His wings fluttered calmly behind him as a mist of light continued to leak out of his body. It cascaded down like a heavy fog painting a picture of an ethereal being cloaked in light. The pool of liquid light that he had used just earlier was already forming below him once again, but it was still small. It would not be enough to be used in a similar way as it would just be able to fill his cupped hand. But there was a way to hasten its production.

The power of light was what he needed to wield this power. It did not rely on Prismana as it could no longer be considered a mutation ability. This was now a true power belonging solely to Galeon. Even if he were to lose the Vernal Bloom and any of his mutations, he would still be the Bringer of Light.

The power of light relied solely on himself. He was the vessel of the Light, which meant he could fuel it with something essential to himself.

His life force.

For anyone else, this would have been the end of it. They would not be able to use the power of light beyond their normal limits. After all, no one would want to consume their life force just to fuel this power. It was especially the case for a very potent power that would consume more life force than one might expect. This does not apply to Galeon, however.

With the Prisma Core both consuming his life force to grow and feeding him with more pure energy than he knew what to do with, he had no reason to fear exceeding the normal limits. The pure energy given to him by the Prisma Core was the one fueling practically all of his abilities. If he needed Prismana for an ability, the pure energy would be converted into Prismana. If he needed life force to regenerate, the pure energy will be converted into life force.

He had the perfect wellspring of energy here. He did not need to worry about anything at all. This meant that he could probably produce a lot more of that liquid light at a faster right by burning more pure energy. And that was exactly what he did.

The moment he decided on it, a visible effect could be seen as the mist of light leaking out of him suddenly grew in density. The liquid light that was pooling on the ground below him began floating toward him, swirling around him in a vibrant rhythm. The Light itself seemed ecstatic that it was receiving so much fuel.

Now, one might wonder why he wanted to produce more liquid light. Most of the beasts are dead. The beast tide was practically over now. Even if the remaining beasts decided to fight to the end, he would not need such overwhelming power to deal with them. But the thing is that Galeon never worried about the beast tide itself.

Yes, it was dangerous and potentially disastrous. But he was confident that he could deal with it, especially with the help of so many warriors and even a Divine. What he was truly afraid of, however, was whatever triggered the beast tide in the first place.

He had noticed early on that most of the beasts were only running, not even bothering to attack. Those who did attack were those who had no where to go, no way to escape the human who was blocking their way. This was the same thing that he noticed from the beasts in the Forbidden Forest. So he knew, that this was not a simple beast tide. And he could feel it now even more clearly than before.

Beside him, Shine appeared with a stern expression. It seems she too had felt it, the change in the atmosphere of Vaulkeen's End the moment that most of the beasts had vanished. There was a silent rumbling coming from somewhere that she could not pinpoint. And although she did not have bad premonition, she did not let her guard down. While scanning the battlefield, she spoke to Galeon.

"Where's the Divine Fist of Fury? Shouldn't he be here to protect Therion? The Contractors have all been deployed, so why is the Guild Master missing?"

"I don't know. I'm just a Contractor. I only concern myself with the commissions I receive. If the Guild Master isn't here, then we just have to make do with what we've got."

And immediately after Galeon's response, the ground in the distance began to bulge. And then, it shot out into the open. It was gigantic, about 50 meters in diameter. And as it rose into the sky, its length had already gone past 100 meters.

It was a giant worm whose body was made of rocks and Prisma.