Chapter 470: Desolark

Ryker watched through the rain-streaked window with bated breath as Ashlock's crown of branches ignited with gold and black flames. It was like watching the soul flames of a shining deity being consumed by the darkness of the world. But whether it was black or gold, the fire served as a beacon of immense power under the dark storm-filled skies.

Though Ryker wasn't sure if he could label it a symbol of hope.

Curious, he managed to tear his eyes from the spectacle for a single moment. He glanced to the side—yet in the eyes of the others, whether they were the mortal workers or cultivators like Sebastian and Jasmine, he saw a glint in their eyes that closely resembled hope. Jasmine even had her hands cupped before her and seemed to be praying.

Ryker returned to looking at the titanic spirit tree in the distance. His heart pounded, and he could hear the blood churning past his ears. His body reacted as if he were in some great battle, fighting for his life. Yet all he was doing was watching. Waiting. To see what would become of Ashlock.

The spirit tree they all relied on. When Ashlock was there, ever silent and lording over Red Vine Peak, it was easy to let him and his efforts fade into the background. Life was better and more peaceful under his rule. Yet Ryker knew more than most. He was aware of the distant wars Ashlock fought and had a vague idea of their sheer scale. Illuminated by the flames, he could see Moros floating beside Ashlock. In his mind, the spirit tree and the floating island had once been somewhat comparable in size, but now? Moros still had the presence of the Ashfallen Sect's flagship, but when compared to its king? It was nothing but a boulder compared to a mountain.

It was moments like these that reminded people of Ashlock's existence and his immense power. Ryker knew this spectacle was likely visible from every house in Ashfallen and Darklight City, and the waves of presence radiating from Ashlock might even reach further than that.

However, the ignition of the crown appeared to just be the beginning. Something began to manifest from the nine tips of the crown. At first, it seemed to be streams of desolation gathering into a single point. But as the dot grew and grew, it began to take on a shape. It looked like a... moon. Or maybe even a giant eye suspended over the crown like a god's gaze.

Ryker gulped. He had never felt so small and weak in his life.

The moon of swirling darkness and desolation, cradled by a crown of black and gold flame, expanded until it dwarfed the tree from which it was birthed, and it touched the sky. That was when something truly shocking happened—like milk dropped into ink, ashen light bled into the clouds above, spreading quickly in all directions like a pulse.

"The rain has stopped," Julian muttered a while later.

Ryker nodded in agreement. It was true. The rain had stopped pummeling the window. The sky, which had once been shadowed by an endless blanket of dark clouds that seemed to stretch until the horizon, was now like staring up into an ocean of ashen light.

"He changed the weather," Sebastian said, a hint of awe in his tone.

The moon then began to slowly spin, and reality trembled. Streaks in the sky, revealing the stars behind the veil, formed as the ashen light was clawed back and drawn into the moon.

It then started snowing. Ashen snowfall drifted down and blanketed the land.

He didn't just change the weather—he corrupted and tore down the sky itself, Ryker thought as he watched the ashen snowfall descend. As it hit the Ashfallen Trading Company's building, the defensive formations powered up and flickered softly as the ashen snow drifted by. Glancing around, Ryker confirmed the snowfall wasn't melting buildings or hurting people. It just contained some desolation Qi, which was messing with the formations.

There was a thud. Ryker glanced to the side and saw that Julian had dropped to his knees.

"It's been so long since I've seen the stars," Julian mumbled, a single tear streaming down his cheek. It seemed as if a great weight had been lifted from the mortal's shoulders. The storm not only suppressed everyone's moods with its ever-dreary and looming presence, but it also created incredibly tough times for even the strongest of people. The food supply was scarce, and walking outside had become a death sentence for some. Worst of all, it served as a constant reminder of the impending beast tide, eroding away the patience and will of those in the know.

While the beast tide was still coming, the storm was gone. The war, the monsters, the death... it all felt so far away now—a distant war quietly waged in the background by the great spirit tree before them.

As if reading his mind, Ashlock went on to remind everyone of the distant battle, for he was not done. The moon slowly turned and gazed to the north. Streams of desolation continued to flow from the nine branches of the crown, seemingly powering up the moon for something. The answer came a moment later as a beam of desolation exploded out from the moon, tearing through the sky and shooting off into the far distance. The moon slowly rotated, dragging the beam of desolation across the sky as if it were drawing a line along the horizon.

With every passing moment, the beam seemed to grow more intense, but the moon dwindled in size. Eventually, there was a tipping point, and the beam abruptly canceled out. The moon disintegrated and flowed back into the crown; the gold and black flames ceased, and as for the crown? There was a loud creak as it slowly opened up like a flower in bloom. A minute later, the branches stopped moving, pausing in a half-opened crown shape like a maw opening to devour the heavens.

Silence.

It was finally over.

Ryker ran a shaking hand through his hair as he tried to process everything he had just seen. That's when someone grabbed his hand.

"Mhm?" He looked to the side and saw Jasmine. He tilted his head, silently awaiting her reason.

"I need to go see Stella and check up on Ashlock," she said, her eyes deathly serious. "You're in the Star Core Realm, so you can fly," she pointed at the now dormant tree lording over the valley. "Take me over there."

***

Ashlock marveled at the destruction he had unleashed upon the beast tide. Like a hot knife through butter, he had carved through the four-hundred-mile-spanning storm with what could only be described as a death beam.

He had awoken moments earlier to be told by his system that the {Crown of the Withered Sovereign [S]} was active and ready for a test fire. However, this was many realms beyond what he had been expecting. While he hadn't destroyed or even really ceased the progression of the beast tide's storm, what he had done was likely vaporize thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of monsters from a single attack.

If an enemy was held in place and he was able to fire that concentrated beam at them, he doubted even a Monarch Realm could withstand it. The {Crown of the Withered Sovereign [S]}, like his other mutations, had become another trump card in his growing arsenal.

Satisfied with checking its firepower, Ashlock returned to Red Vine Peak. To power the attack, he could either draw on surrounding Qi or from his own pool. Since his reserves were basically bottomed out from the fight against Astralis and getting Moros back online, he had chosen to draw from the surroundings.

What he hadn't anticipated was that drawing from the surroundings actually solved a major issue he had been facing, as the storm looming overhead wasn't natural but rather fueled by a monster's Qi.

As it turned out, this was actually an intended feature of his new mutation. It would break down incoming attacks, tear down illusions, and devour any hostile formations to power itself. It was the perfect hybrid between a defensive and offensive mutation.

"Wait, system, what happened to my crown?" Ashlock asked. It still looked intimidating, but compared to how it had looked when he woke up from his slumber, it was more relaxed.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

[The {Crown of the Withered Sovereign [S]} is currently in a passive state]

"Does it do anything when it's like this other than look cool?"

[Of course. In passive mode, the crown serves as an excellent conduit for Qi gathering. A previous upgrade of your cultivation technique, the {Divine Cycle of Creation and Ruin [SS]}, granted you the capability of drawing Qi from the earth and hell through your roots and Qi from the heavens and surroundings through your canopy. Until now, the amount gathered from your roots was many times that of your canopy]

That Ashlock could understand. After all, his roots covered the same area as a continent back on Earth. Even if hell was known as being desolate for Qi, it was no surprise he drew more from there via his roots than he got from his canopy.

"What is it now?" Ashlock asked.

[Now, at least a third of your Qi will come from the heavens, meaning your inflow of Qi from the surroundings has more than doubled]

"D-Doubled? What?" Ashlock looked within himself—yet his Inner World seemed duller and smaller than usual. There were also cracks throughout its surface as if it were being reforged. However, what the system said was true. The streams of Qi coming in and filling up his soul and Inner World were like a flood compared to before. Even with his insane expenditure of Qi, his reserves were filling.

[Your Inner World will take some time to recover to its previous state after using the full might of the crown]

"What even was that whole activating of the crown thing?"

[It takes time to channel and power up, but once fully active, you suspend a projection of your power above you and can wield its full might no matter the distance, so long as it's within your domain]

"By domain, you mean the range of my roots, right?"

[Correct]

"So I could blast Argentum from here with that desolation beam? Holy shit..."

In a way, it wasn't that much different from what he could do before. He could always attack anywhere within his domain by having a Bastion go there through a portal, take over one of his offspring with {Progeny Dominion [S]}, and then unleash his skills and techniques. But something about this felt different. If they didn't have eyes on Red Vine Peak, there would be no warning. No Moros, spirit trees, or cultivators. Just a beam of death from afar that would eradicate his target.

There was something about how detached the attack was that gave it this aura of finality—like a god passing judgment upon the helpless mortals or a country from Earth launching nukes.

Yet, he wielded this power.

He left his slowly healing Inner World and gazed at the horizon and the sea of stars. A monster of unfathomable strength had stolen the sky from him and his people, and he had brought it back. Did that mean he was now on that level? That of a Monarch Realm being?

"Perhaps not yet," Ashlock mused. "It's far easier to destroy than to create. To brew such a massive storm is far more impressive than me tearing it down. But I can feel the gap closing... soon, I'll be at that level."

"Tree!?"

Stella's voice brought him back to reality. He swiveled his gaze from the distant horizon to himself. That's when he noticed something—since when was he this big? His canopy seemed to stretch out across the mountain peak, and the bench seemed smaller than before, as did the other spirit trees on the mountain peak. Despite being over ten meters high, they all looked tiny compared to him, like comparing a boulder to a mountain.

"I'm over here!"

He followed the voice and found his daughter standing on a flying sword, hovering just below his canopy.

"Hey, Stella," he said, unsure of what else he should say. He was still taking in the implications of his new power.

She smiled, and the tenseness in her shoulders seemed to leave as she relaxed. "You're okay, right?"

"I'm more than okay..." Ashlock trailed off. "I got stronger and, I guess, bigger?"

"Yeah, I'd feel as if I had to shout if I was sitting down on the bench. You got a lot taller, and your canopy is incredible,"

Stella said, pausing to look him up and down. "Do you feel different?"

Ashlock contemplated her question and sensed his body. It had all been so sudden with the crown thing that he hadn't taken a moment to think about the mutation's changes.

"I do feel different now that you mention it. I feel more energized and in touch with my surroundings from the Qi flowing through me. My body feels safer and more robust than ever. Just a lot more solid, you know? Other than that, I can feel more of the mountain beneath me. I think my root network expanded out to support my new weight."

He was now rivaling the heights of some skyscrapers back on Earth. It was simply a form that was hard to comprehend for a once-human mind. Thankfully, his soul had molded and changed into that of a spirit tree, so it just felt like natural growth to him.

"I'm just glad you're okay," Stella said as she positioned her flying sword beside his trunk and attempted to hug him. It looked more like someone trying to hug a wall, as the circumference of his trunk was now so vast that there was barely any curvature to it on a human scale.

"Yeah, so am I," Douglas said as he floated into view on a sword of his own. The king of the Mudcloaks scratched the back of his head. "I thought I might need to find a new employer for a bit there, so I'm glad to see you're alright, Boss."

Ashlock wasn't sure how to reply to that, but Douglas's presence reminded him why he had Stella fetch him in the first place.

"Douglas, how is the development of Nightrose City going?"

"Straight to business, eh?" Douglas chuckled. "But to answer your question, it's nearly done. We converted half the city into high-density housing, expanded the fields, and upgraded the sewage systems—ah, sorry, you don't care about that stuff. Yeah, it's basically done and ready."

"Great. Have you thought of a name for the city?"

Douglas paused. "Boss, are you sure I should be the one to come up with the name? I mean, you are the one who conquered the city and all. I just built some houses for you."

Ashlock only asked Douglas to come up with the name because he couldn't be bothered to do it himself. Coming up with names was annoying, and it was easier to have someone else do it and then point the finger at them if everyone didn't like it.

"I want to give you the honor of naming it Douglas," Ashlock said. "Now tell me, what is the name you have come up with?"

"To name a city that will house tens of millions of souls, phew... this is quite the responsibility," Douglas chewed his lip for a moment before confidently looking up. "Look, if you don't like it, just tell me, okay?"

"Don't worry, big guy," Stella patted him on the back with a grin. "If it sucks, I'll never let you hear the end of it."

"Right, supportive as always," Douglas groaned. He gathered himself and then suggested his idea. "I think a suitable name would be Desolark City. The most common bird in the city is the lark, which graces the people with its songs in the morning. I also heard a tale at a bar somewhere that the lark is a sign of harmony in the city. In places where they don't sing, there is great unrest. As for the rest of the name, 'Deso' sounds like your desolation affinity, and it begins with a D, like my name, Douglas, so... yeah, that's it. Desolark City is my suggestion."

There was a brief silence, and Douglas cautiously glanced at Stella. She seemed to be mulling the name over. Ashlock was also thinking. While it did come across as a bit dreary and negative, if one looked at the building they had constructed to replace the Nightrose family's castle, that was a fate the city would never escape.

Stella shrugged. "Desolark seems like an acceptable name. I just realize I don't really care for that city either way, so name it as you wish."

"Stella..."

"What? It's far from here. I want to stay closer to you, so I prefer Darklight or Ashfallen City."

"You could still be a little more supportive."

"Fine," Stella rolled her eyes. "It's a great name, Douglas."

Douglas frowned. "I don't even know if I like it anymore after that reaction."

Ashlock really didn't want the ball to be passed to him on coming up with a name, so he pushed it through.

"Douglas, it's a great name. I like the symbolism behind it. Henceforth, Nightrose City will be renamed Desolark City. Now, Stella, I need you to head to the Tainted Cloud Sect and inform the Celestial Warden that the city is ready to receive the six and a half million people."

"Got it," Stella said, nodding.

"Oh, also, I ran into a person from the Tainted Cloud Sect named Darren Duskfang, and he spoke of plans for the other cities in the Tainted Cloud Sect to be evacuated to a settlement off of the leyline in the Qi-deprived areas. I want you to tell the Celestial Warden that we are interested in assisting with those evacuations and the management of this settlement."

Stella seemed confused. "Why would we be concerned about a settlement in the Qi-deprived lands?"

"What makes the lands we sit on filled with Qi? The leylines from the World Tree. Who's to say I can't do the same thing? My cultivation technique works best when one area is reduced to ruin to make another flourish. It's all about balance."

Stella shrugged. "Not sure I get it, but okay, I'll let them know."

Basically, he wanted to expand into the Qi-deprived areas, and he could even have his roots serve as leylines, turning the lands into ones filled with Qi.

"Master! Are you alright?!" Jasmine shouted from a flying sword while hugging Ryker's waist.

Stella's eyes lit up. "You two are coming with me," she zoomed past them, grabbing both. "We are going on a fun little trip."

Before they could resist, Ryker and Jasmine were kidnapped by Stella.

Douglas watched them go and laughed.

"I need something from you too, Douglas," Ashlock said and saw the man freeze. A flash of fear appeared on his expression. "Don't worry," he reassured him. "It's just a small request."

"Right... small," Douglas nodded along. "What is it?"

"I need you to assemble the Mudcloaks."

"The Mudcloaks? Why?"

"If I'm going to go Primal Overlord hunting, Moros is going to need an upgrade, and I want the Mudcloaks to do it."