While the Covenant was paralyzed by Liu Shu's political blow, our World Tree refocused on shaving off the Nexus's army as quickly as possible. 'It will take a bit of time, but we can do it.'
The reserve army she had left in case the Covenant attacked straight away was not free to move, so she communicated with them.
"Big Sis Warlya, is everyone ready?"
That's right, the secondary army Liu Shu had reserved to deal with the Covenant was all the World Trees able to fight remotely. In terms of numbers, these World Trees didn't amount to much. There were exactly 53 World Trees that could fight anywhere within Liu Shu's domain to a certain extent.
Because they didn't have Perfect Energy Cycles, the further the fight, the less effective their essence usage was. Therefore, Liu Shu considered them a trump card legion.
After all, despite their numbers being low, the fact was that each and every one of them had the strength of a regular True World Tree. 53 of them fighting at once? Moreover, they were all buffed by Liu Shu's and their own blessings. The strength they could use was something not even an army of a few million could match.
The problem with the World Tree buffs was that they usually reached only as far as their roots reached. So, in far-away battlefields, the effects of these World Trees were minimal.
One needed to ask the right questions, though. What if the enemy army somehow breached everything and arrived in the Ceperet Solar System, where their influence was steadily spreading?
'If the Covenant had attacked, using the World Tree legion would've struck a terrifying blow. Imagine them charging only to find several World Trees blocking their way?' Liu Shu snickered.
Unless the other side managed to spin the narrative to abnormal degrees, Liu Shu's existence would become semi-untouchable for the Covenant. Only Balaya would have had the authority to try and destroy her.
"Let's see…" Liu Shu pondered as she scouted the entire battlefield. "Verdantia's side is the best choice."
Among all battlefields, Verdantia's was the one doing the best by far. Verdantia's summons, her healing, and her personal monstrous strength caused the enemy side to feel like ants jumping into a fire pit. The more they came, the more they died!
Liu Shu looked at Verdantia's figure. She was transformed into her gorgeous Sylvan form, her staff waving as healing waves and summons spread out like a sacred spectacle.
For a moment, Liu Shu became dazed. 'Ugh… My wife is so pretty! QAQ!'
The pain of losing a few roots due to her distraction snapped her attention back to place. 'Dangerous, dangerous. My wives are seductresses that will cause the ruin of the Empire!'
"Verdantia."
Verdantia's cold and terrifying face as she slaughtered everyone instantly eased up, becoming as gentle as a spring breeze. "Love, you are watching? How is everything going?"
Liu Shu answered softly. "I've managed to stop the Covenant's advance for now. It will probably take a few months of propaganda and media control for them to think of striking. Deadly Petal also seems to have been convinced by them that they must absolutely not strike right now."
Verdantia laughed and waved her staff. "That's good to hear."
Then, giant vines appeared from the void, entangling and crushing a few dozen enemy soldiers. Those vines devoured the flesh and grew quickly, jumping to other soldiers like sharks smelling blood.
The other side had been dealing with Verdantia for a long time, so they responded appropriately. The groups separated, and several solid essence walls blocked their spread. With no more targets in sight, the vines slowly died off.
Even then, that single attack had caused over 100 fatalities.
"Monster! Your end will be endlessly painful!"
"I will use your skin to light up my fireplace back at home, you plant abomination!"
Verdantia didn't even react, almost bored from hearing the same kind of insults. However, Liu Shu frowned deeply, a trace of anger in her eyes. "Foul mouths. Disappear."
A nearby root manifested from deep space, coated with light energy, and then it swung. The extended range caused a beam of pure light to streak like a divine sword. Within that flash of light, all who had insulted Verdantia scattered like ash.
Verdantia blinked and smiled lovingly. "Thank you, love. What did you contact me for, though?"
"Right. I plan to deploy the
Verdantia sighed. "Even if we do, love, there is a problem."
"Hm?"
Verdantia explained. "Remember how Rhazor escaped back then? Many of the 200+ powerhouses that have come here possess similar methods. I've already allowed a few of them to escape for that reason."
Liu Shu was not surprised. Zaros had informed her about it. If Liu Shu was paying attention, she could use her time stop ability to deal a finishing blow. Sadly, her attention was far too dispersed, and eliminating those powerful individuals usually happened by some stroke of luck. Even with her supercomputer-like mind, hearing that specific call, noticing the situation, and then further using the
To begin with, this method was used because even when aware of it, stopping it was incredibly difficult. Otherwise, it wouldn't be such a popular method. Without the cheat-like time stop ability, Rhazor would've managed to flee back then.
"Hm… It can't be helped. If they escape, that's that. We can't cleanly annihilate everyone like we did in the past when the enemy is so prepared."
It was a shame, but times had changed. Liu Shu was fighting fully developed interstellar powers. "Even then, we can take custody of their starships."
Verdantia shook her head. "It seems that they've noticed our ability to hijack their security and use their starships. They are all equipped with something akin to self-destruction."
As she was explaining, a Moon-Type starship suddenly exploded nearby, creating a giant fireball that swallowed everything around it. Verdantia, already proficient, waved her staff and several healing spells launched into the fireball, keeping her people alive.
Liu Shu blinked, and then she smiled maliciously. "Why didn't anyone tell me about this?"
"Hm?" Verdantia tilted her head. "It's not like we can do anything about it, right?"
Liu Shu chuckled. "Not right away, but if there is a self-destruction sequence, can't we remotely hijack and activate it?"
Her chance to annihilate the Nexis more thoroughly was here. Without starships, what could these people even do? Traveling the void was not easy, and getting lost was almost a matter of course if there was no starmap to guide them.
Relaxing some focus in other locations, Liu Shu glanced at one of the Moon-Type starships and her roots quickly tore through the void, piercing into the hull of the ship. Inside, the people were about to shout for self-destruction when Liu Shu's Eternal Energy grabbed and twisted the strings of time.
"
Everything within that starship froze, and Liu Shu's roots slithered through the passages and broke into the central command center. With incredible agility, her roots slapped the heads of everyone in that room like a phantom whip. That wasn't all; Liu Shu prepared and, when time stopped, she spoke, mixing her
"
First, the terrifying damage from the time-stop ripped at their very beings, the bodies of most exploding from it. An instant later, the words Liu Shu uttered carried a massive explosion of Anima Energy in the form of soul damage.
Everyone who managed to survive felt their vision go blank, blood slipping out of all their orifices from ruptured vessels.
In just a matter of ten seconds, a single Moon-Type had become a wandering starship with no life inside.
Verdantia had observed the process from start to finish, and she couldn't help but exclaim in awe. "Love, I am falling in love all over again. That was spectacular."
Liu Shu giggled. "Alright, I'll take this Moon-Type. From now on, please fight well with my Big Sisters, Verdantia!"
When she finished speaking, the World Trees back in Ceperet surged with ternary essences. The world's skies churned under their combined pressure, several pillars of pure light soaring and piercing beyond the clouds.
Warlya and the others closed their eyes, and a second later, all that energy fell from the sky and struck the ground like a hammer.
THUMP!
Liu Shu allowed her own roots to become the highway for their ternary essence pulse, and a second later, several gigantic beings, flowers, soldiers, treants, snow leaves, and other plant phenomena covered Verdantia's battlefield.
Warlya opened her eyes, her figure manifesting in the middle of the battlefield. Long red, vine-like hair fluttered in the essence wind all their presences passively created. A gorgeous white skirt covered the sides of her body like two lowered wings, and a giant shield and sword manifested in her hands.
The World Tree of War had descended into the battlefield, her strength pulsing with enough ferocity to catch everyone's attention.
Stepping forward into the void, Warlya's voice boomed across the entire battlefield, laced with frost. "All you who have been hurting our Liu Shu… will become her nourishment."
Skyflower's voice followed, her petals cleaving through hundreds. "We've been watching you hurt her for far too long. Now, you'll know despair and the price to pay."
Azure Rose, with her thousands of rose selves, pushed forward with other summoned creatures. "Tear everything apart."
In an instant, the somewhat controlled battlefield fell into complete chaos. Verdantia smiled widely, her energy surging as well. Her presence was like a terrifying supernova in the middle of the battlefield.
Her voice boomed out. "Our dear World Trees are fighting so hard; will you all fall behind them!?"
Be it the ants of the Golden Sap Empire soldiers, everyone raised their weapons or mandibles and rushed forward, essence covering their entire bodies.
"Long live the Golden Sap Empire!"
"For the Heavenly Willow!"
"KILL!"
Liu Shu closed her eyes for a second, stretching her domain as far as she could with the light properties. "
Time screamed as eternal energy pulled its strings. The force that was supposed to be immutable twisted, helpless, under Liu Shu's crushing ternary essences, changing the very flow of reality for every single creature present.
The Nexus general in this battlefield glanced at everything that happened in less than a few minutes, and his face showed bewilderment and fear.
"L-Lord! The enemy's summons are giving World Tree ternary essence signals!"
The General screamed, his face frantic. "What kind of bullshit are you speaking!? World Tree signals from summons!? Do you think a skill to summon World Trees exists in this universe!?"
The people reading the energy signals were also confused, but what else could they say? On their screen, signals from 54 different True World Trees, including Liu Shu, were flashing like giant stars in the middle of the battlefield!