Chapter 57: Ch 57 : Hope Butterfly

Sunny now had a tangible concept of hell within his world, represented by the existence of Cerberus.

But where there was punishment for the wicked, there must also be a reward for the good.

Cerberus was linked to death, so his counterpart should be a demigod of life.

Sunny made a mental note to implement this immediately, but first, he decided to play some games to clear his mind.

The memories from Aerion’s millions of years of life still lingered, a heavy and disturbing presence in his thoughts.

He decided that in the future, he would use a clone for such a task, as so much information at once was enough to give him headaches.

Back on Veridia, life was evolving at a rapid pace.

Thorn was now over 180 years old, yet he still looked like a man in his forties.

As Sunny’s first chosen one, Thorn had never stopped his practice and was still trying to improve, but he had hit a wall at the pinnacle of C-Grade.

Feeling a tinge of pity for the man, Sunny decided that the next talent he would copy would be "Overgrowth," a talent that would let the lifeforms to grow past the limits of their talents.

With his faith points constantly increasing at a visible pace, he had over 55 billion faith points.

Meanwhile, in a sprawling forest within the Realm of Advancement, millions of life forms were traveling together in a single, purposeful direction.

They stopped at noon every day to pray to a certain deity, and the rest of the time, they walked tirelessly, hunting for food and sleeping in shifts.

Their march had been going on for over six years for the newest members, and for the oldest among them, a staggering thirty years.

But none ever complained.

They simply kept following a single golden butterfly, as if it were leading them toward a promised utopia.

Thanks to the butterfly, they never faced any major danger, as it always took them on the safest routes, effortlessly guiding them through the treacherous landscape.

Finally, after marching for so long, the life forms reached a city.

It was their first time seeing such a sight since they had started following the butterfly.

They knew instinctively that this was the location their deity had wanted them to reach.

The guards on the city wall, seeing the millions of people approaching, shouted at the top of their lungs, reporting the massive gathering to their superiors.

Suddenly, three figures walked to the edge of the city wall.

A human with a particularly strong presence stood out among the two others.

The other two were no less impressive; one was strong enough to cope with an S-Grade powerhouse, while the last was on the verge of reaching S-Grade himself.

This trio represented the strongest force in the city.

When the millions of life forms a few kilometers away from the city walls saw these three, they felt a huge, towering pressure.

They immediately began to pray to their deity, and in a flash of brilliant light, the golden butterfly transformed into a gigantic serpentine dragon.

All the life forms, both inside and outside the city, immediately knelt upon witnessing the majestic form of the dragon.

The three strongest lifeforms of this city also knelt in reverence.

The dragon, floating in the air, spoke in a deep and commanding voice.

"These are my followers. Open the city gates and let them in. Let them feel the greatness of my master."

The city was small, only capable of accommodating a hundred thousand life forms, so it was not practically possible for all these millions of people to take shelter within its walls.

But no one dared to speak back to the dragon.

The city gates opened, and the dragon transformed back into a butterfly, floating serenely toward the castle in the city.

The city was the Citadel of Veridia, which was being expanded on a daily basis.

The three strong men on the walls were Anaske, now an S-Grade powerhouse after his breakthrough during the war on demons, Vel, who was also on the verge of a breakthrough, and Thalorax, who was still the strongest among them due to his Dragonborn bloodline.

The Dragonborn, however, had no intention of fighting for the highest position in Veridia, as their role was to be the protector race, shielding all others from outer foes.

The only option Anaske could think of was to allow these new life forms to enter Veridia.

But before doing anything, he consulted with the butterfly, which was floating in the throne room.

This butterfly was called the Hope Butterfly, created by Shenlong from the collective hope energy of the life forms: the hope for survival, the hope for a better place, the hope to live one more day, and the hope to one day meet the dragon that had saved them when they were in danger.

Shenlong had created this butterfly to show these lost life forms the way to the Citadel of Veridia.

These life forms were from the worlds of other gods, but in the Realm of Advancement, where dangers lurked everywhere, they had encountered strong demons or monsters.

The gods they had believed in never helped. Thus, these life forms began to distrust their gods.

But one day, Shenlong had saved them.

They wanted to follow him, but were unable to do so.

Shenlong, being a wise dragon, knew how to take advantage of this.

He decided to direct these life forms to Veridia, which would strengthen Veridia’s empire and also provide security to these poor souls.

That was how these millions of life forms had reached the Citadel of Veridia.

Upon Anaske’s request, Shenlong found no objection.

Thus, it was decided that all these life forms would be transported to Veridia, where the humans would be sent to the northern continent, elves to the southern, all the beast folk to the western, and dwarves to the eastern.

The remaining races would also be transported to the western continent, as it was the largest.

Anaske knew the Citadel of Veridia needed to be expanded as the life forms would keep on joining them every now and then because of the hope dragon.

This, in turn, would increase the size of the army residing in the citadel.