Ascension of the last Celestial

After Arthur moved into the camp, Valerian followed close behind and they split up.

Valerian, with his darkness silencing all the sound of his steps, moved with a leisurely pace between the tents.

He opened one of the tents and stuck his head inside to see if there was someone, and lucky for him there were people, it was just that they were too occupied with each other that they didn’t even notice the horned head of Valerian peeking inside the tent.

The two soldiers were a man and a woman; both had feline ears and tails, and they were engaged in passionate lovemaking, completely lost in their world.

Valerian looked at them with confusion.

’They are soldiers, why are they so reckless? If I were an enemy I could just kill them... oh wait.’

At his slight blunder, Valerian chuckled lightly, and even then they didn’t notice him as he was completely overshadowed by the moaning in the tent. Looking at the couple, Valerian felt no attraction or interest whatsoever. To his mind, the sight of another woman was completely hollow, without even realizing it himself, his soul had already made its choice long ago.

Valerian sighed and channeled a bit of his mana, leaving the tent without even sparing them a second look.

But inside the tent, the moaning stopped and was replaced by the soft dripping of blood as the couple was impaled by pillars of pitch-black darkness, dying before they even realized that there was someone else.

Valerian continued his carefree walk after killing the two soldiers.

’Like I thought. I don’t feel anything.’

Killing the couple didn’t leave him with a guilty and disgusting feeling the way it did Arthur; Valerian felt complete detachment and indifference at the loss of the two lives.

’I guess it’s good I don’t feel sad for them.’

After that, Valerian moved from tent to tent, killing everyone he could find. Some tents were empty, some were full with sleeping beastmen, but all of them met the same end as the first victims: impaled by pillars of darkness before they could even open their eyes.

While walking between some tents, Valerian spotted Arthur in the distance, sneaking out of a tent. His daggers were slightly red with blood that didn’t wash off completely. But the thing that stood out the most were his eyes, they didn’t look like the ones of the boy that reincarnated into a magical world; they were cold, and at the same time burning with the oath he took after his first kill.

’Looks like he’s doing well.’

Valerian smiled slightly and moved on to the next tent.

When he opened it, he was not met with the usual sleeping soldiers, but a group of them sitting around a wooden table playing cards. When they heard the fabric of the tent shift, they all turned in Valerian’s direction.

But instead of rushing to their weapons and letting out an alarm, they just looked at him and then turned back to their card game.

"Probably one of the new recruits."

"Yeah, the commander brought a few of the new ones along so they gain experience."

Valerian looked at them with a confused expression, but then he remembered: he had horns.

They didn’t think of him as an intruder, but as a subspecies of beastman that has horns.

’This could work in my favor.’

Valerian walked into the tent with absolute confidence, like he owned the place, and the other soldiers didn’t bat an eye at him. He moved to one of the bunk beds and sat down, looking over to the group as he asked:

"How much longer do you guys think this will take?"

At the question, one of them looked over to Valerian. It was a broad-shouldered beastman with lion-like ears and a bushy tail.

"Not sure, could be weeks, could be months. We can’t just enter the kingdom, we need to sneak inside. Why? Do you have someone waiting home~?"

With a grin, the soldier asked, clearly playing on the fact that Valerian didn’t exactly look like the most normal soldier, and more like a prince.

Valerian smiled lightly.

"Yeah, kind of, but we better do this right rather than rush it."

"Aye right, come here. You know how to play?"

Following the invitation, Valerian moved closer to the group, and the soldier that was talking to him pulled out another wooden chair from his spatial ring.

"Thanks."

Valerian sat down and looked at the table. There were cards and golden coins with the same howling wolf engraved on them as on the banner.

The howling wolf was a holy symbol for the beastfolk because it represents the beastman that founded the alliance, uniting all the species under one banner. That’s also why wolf beastmen are generally seen as higher, because they are close to the founder.

On the table were dozens of copper and a few silver coins. Strangely, their money system is the same as in all the other nations. While they use a different coin design, it uses the same system: 100 copper equal 1 silver, 100 silver equal 1 gold, and 100 gold equal 1 platinum coin. But the vast majority of the population will at most see a gold coin, while most won’t even see a gold coin. Platinum is reserved for only the super-rich kings, rich merchants, and banks.

But thankfully, Valerian had a few coins of every currency in his pocket space, and the card game they were playing wasn’t some intricate beastman game, it was a simple game that was played by the commoners, so he also knew the rules of that.

"How much you betting, rookie?"

At the question, Valerian put his hand in his pocket to access his pocket space; since it was different than a normal spatial ring, they would notice that something wasn’t right.

Valerian pulled his hand out, and on it were 5 copper coins and 2 silver.

"Well, if I’m already gambling, I’m going all in, of course."

That earned him a loud round of laughter from the other veterans, with the soldier that invited him slapping him on the back.

"I like you, rookie, you got nerves!"

Valerian laughed a fake, practiced laugh and put the coins on the table.

"Well then, let’s start. I plan to leave a rich man."

The others giggled, and one of them began to hand out the cards.

Between playing the cards, Valerian made conversation.

"So, does anybody know what this mission is even about? Because I wasn’t told anything."

Surprisingly, the others didn’t look at him weirdly, but rather nodded in understanding.

"Both commanders are pretty strict when it comes to information, so only the higher-ups know of the specifics. We were only told that it’s an infiltration into Solaria, that’s it."

Valerian sighed.

"I see..."

One of the other soldiers chimed in with a grin, flashing his yellow canines.

"You think we can also go to the Elven Empire? I heard their princess is really beautiful."

Valerian stiffened, but kept his cool for now.

"Yeah! With all the tales I heard about her, I wouldn’t mind making the way."

Seemingly liking the direction of the conversation, the other soldiers also chimed in.

"Just imagining doing it with her makes me excited!"

"I hope she struggles, it makes it better..."

They all broke out into a conversation about what they wanted to do to Seraphine if they were to get to her, and Valerian sat between them quietly; inside, he was everything but silent.

"How about you, rookie? I’m sure you have some fantasies about such a beautiful princess."

They all turned to look at Valerian, who had been silent throughout. He took a deep breath and exhaled.

A soft wave of mana left his core, carefully, so as not to make the SS-rank fighters notice him; the other soldiers, being so close, felt the barrier taking shape and looked at him with confusion.

"Is it so dirty you need a sound barrier? Man, now I’m excited!"

"Yeah, tell us!"

Valerian didn’t answer and just stood up. With relaxed steps, he walked over to the soldier who started the topic; standing behind him, his eyes glowed with a purple light.

"What ar-"

Before he could finish the sentence, Valerian grabbed the back of his head with his hand; the others jumped up and readied their weapons.

As the soldier whose head was in Valerian’s hand tried to free himself, a jolt of void lightning tore through his body, not killing him, but burning his nerves. He let out a soul-crushing scream of absolute pain, tears forming in his eyes.

The other soldiers tried to attack Valerian, but they couldn’t move; there was no visible restriction around them, but space itself denied them movement.

It was a technique that Valerian created with his space affinity, he called it Space Lock. It locks the space around a person, making any kind of movement impossible.

Realizing they couldn’t move, they at least tried to flare their mana to alert the others, but when they tried to move their mana, their hearts sank.

It wasn’t answering; it wasn’t gone, it just refused to abide by their call.

As the terror of the situation settled in, their eyes snapped back to Valerian, who was still holding their comrade’s head.

Now a soft green light filled his hand, and the soldier regained consciousness, though the pain from the void lightning was still fresh in his mind.

"Wai-"

Before he could finish, a second jolt tore through his body, before he was healed again.

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