Namue regretted not following his instincts to retreat during the first clash. As a commander, showing weakness or being terrified because of one clash was problematic. After all, bluffs were common during war.
Yet right now, he was issuing urgent retreat orders to all units. His chain of command had suffered because of a strange phenomenon as well, and trying to sort everything when Liu Shu's
The battle against the Covenant had gone exactly as it did against the Nexus. The only difference was that Liu Shu began her counterattack much sooner against the Covenant. The reason was simple: Namue received news of the Nexus's retreat.
When he received the news, Liu Shu knew they couldn't linger, so she launched her counterattack.
Tempestria's army, having already reunited with Flor and Ignatia, was participating together with the World Legion and Arboreal Winged Serpents. Their total numbers were a little over 6 million. No matter how strong, with a vast difference in numbers, fatalities were inevitable on the Golden Sap Empire's side. The losses amounted to around one million or so.
Still, the other side was in a much, much worse condition. For starters, the World Legion had been a terrifying shock. Seeing 53 World Trees appear and attack with a myriad of different skills was demoralizing.
Even Deadly Petal was stunned when she felt their presence.
Then, the 121 Arboreal Winged Serpents were far too strong of an elite group. Their combined presence was comparable to the combined presence of Liu Shu's wives while transformed. Adding Flor, Ignatia, and Tempestria to the mix, it was clear just how destructive a force they created.
Namue was standing, his hands hastily moving the starmap as he sent communications to all generals. "Move and gather! Use the defensive array! Make sure to activate interstellar travel thrust, even if you have to melt down the engines!"
Reports arrived his way as well.
"Commander, the seventieth World Canopy Mothership has been taken down!"
"Commander, the right flank has been isolated and is being exterminated!"
"Arboreal Winged Serpents have arrived at the right flank; they are causing large destruction."
"Commander, the central area is being pushed back by the World Tree Class units. We are losing thousands of soldiers each minute."
Carter was honestly baffled. 'How is this happening? Why are there so many World Trees? Why are they so strong…?'
As he was thinking, he suddenly asked. "Report on Lady Deadly Petal!"
"...Commander, she is being pushed back by Lady Heavenly Willow. Deadly Petal is unable to help us."
An image appeared in front of Carter. There, Liu Shu's roots, with their pulsing blue-glowing roots, entangled and crushed Deadly Petal's. Each time they clashed, Deadly Petal's bark would collapse into giant splinters, bloodsap leaking as they were torn apart with brutal violence.
Moreover, the domain Deadly Petal was defending felt as if it was made of brittle glass. Each time Liu Shu pushed and invaded, the fabric of dimensions would ripple violently, revealing the collapsing domain for all to see.
The sheer violence and supreme strength Liu Shu was showing left everyone speechless. Even those reporting had failed to see the sheer brutality of Liu Shu's reverse conquest.
Namue opened his mouth with difficulty. "...Has Lady Heavenly Willow used some kind of berserk skill?"
"Negative. Her ternary essence signal is identical to the one we first registered."
Namue asked, not believing that these words were leaving his mouth. "Do you mean that… Lady Heavenly Willow held back her strength to lure us in?"
The absurdity of those words was such that, even as he spoke them, it felt wrong. A World Tree using military tactics? This was something out of a third-rate fantasy book that refused to understand a World Tree's true nature.
World Trees were straightforward because their very existence stood above all. They were natural divine beings, and each of them had the potential to grow into a true, godlike figure.
Therefore, they looked at everything calmly and also acted without cunning. If a World Tree told you they were attacking on the fifth, the attack would never arrive on the fourth or the sixth.
Tactics, cunning, deceit… those were the only tools Intelligent Species had to fight such overpowering World Trees and live together with them in harmony.
Someone swallowed and spoke. "That… seems to be the case, Commander."
"Ha…"
A hollow laugh escaped him, his eyes looking utterly confused as Liu Shu continued to tear into Deadly Petal's domain and crush her.
Meanwhile, Deadly Petal glanced at her own defeat with calm eyes. Her peculiar sneering voice reached Liu Shu with a confused tone. "Did you have a breakthrough?"
Liu Shu felt a bit guilty and answered. "Sorry, Deadly Petal. That's not the case. I was momentarily hiding my strength."
Puzzlement flashed in Deadly Petal's mind. "Why?"
Her powerful mind couldn't really process the reason to hide her strength. Not because she was stupid, but because the mental process of a World Tree was different.
Liu Shu understood this. Even if she had a peculiar thinking process, she was still a World Tree. When she faced the cunning of Intelligent Species, she didn't feel her actions were wrong. Nevertheless, what she was doing to Deadly Petal was weighing on her heart.
"Because if I don't do this… I will be unable to become strong."
Deadly Petal still didn't really get it. "You are plenty strong. Won't showing this strength make powers think twice before attacking you?"
Liu Shu sighed softly, but her attacks didn't lose strength. Her roots violently tore Deadly Petal's roots, pushing forward to attack the root of Deadly Petal's expansion domain. Once she reached over there and destroyed the main roots, Deadly Petal's assault would be over.
"Yes, Deadly Petal. You are right. This is… my selfishness."
Why didn't Liu Shu just show off how powerful a World Tree she was? The reason was that Liu Shu understood human thought. If she revealed the potential of her existence, there were a few paths for events to develop.
The optimistic one was that the strongest nearby powerhouses would see her potential, take care of her, help her grow, and make her the main World Tree. No need for war, no need for tactics or cunning.
The realistic option was that those high above would see her existence as a true threat. An uncontrollable World Tree. So, a powerhouse Liu Shu could never hope to defeat would come and deal her a terrifying blow. The worst-case scenario was not even death, but enslavement.
Therefore, Liu Shu couldn't gamble. Having that trace of human-like thought in her, Liu Shu understood the risk of exposing herself. Why would she otherwise hide her Chaos Titles from the public? Those titles could make an F Tier fight C or B Tiers. They were absurdly strong.
Yet, she hid them. She hid them because she knew that as much as they would help her society grow, they would cause other societies to elevate her threat level to a whole new level.
Hearing the strange guilt in Liu Shu's tone, Deadly Petal became thoughtful. 'What happened to her to grow so… different? Is this why other World Tres follow her?'
Her gaze shifted to the over fifty World Trees fighting on the frontlines. As a World Tree, Deadly Petal could tell that the way these World Trees were moving their energy to the frontlines was not their own roots. They were actually using Liu Shu's roots as ternary essence highways.
A World Tree allowing other World Trees to use her roots to move ternary essence? That was unthinkable for Deadly Petal. Even when she was seeing it with her very own special perception, she failed to register it and believe it.
It was one of those moments where you would stare at something blankly, the brain trying to catch up to what it was seeing.
"While I don't understand yet… I hope I will in the future."
Deadly Petal was a ruthless World Tree without a doubt. But she was ruthless from a human perspective. When Deadly Petal invaded a world, she would sweep through it and kill all major local wildlife to substitute it with her own. This kind of replacement purge was, from a human perspective, ruthless and brutal.
Hence, her title as Deadly Petal.
However, from a World Tree's perspective, Deadly Petal was just placing her own lifeforms, which she felt were more suited to spread life. She was just acting on her instincts and duties as a World Tree.
The main logic was: since I can invade these lifeforms, they are less suited to spread than my own, which managed to defeat them.
A raw, survival-of-the-fittest assessment.
At a personal level, and as she had shown through her interactions with Liu Shu, Deadly Petal was quite a calm and gentle World Tree. She even went along with what her people asked her to say to Liu Shu once, showing much more leeway than most World Trees.
Look at Balaya. Even when her own daughter told her that it was not wise to attack Liu Shu, she completely ignored her and ordered the Covenant to just attack. That kind of attitude was much more normal than Deadly Petal's consideration to at least try to do what her people asked her to do.
As the Covenant retreated, Liu Shu's roots approached the Covenant's two Solar Systems rapidly. In just a few months, she would manage to reach them without a problem. It was the same for the Nexus Solar Systems.
'The final act of this lengthy war is about to begin.'
It was not the end of the conflict, sadly. From here on, the situation was about to escalate further. Still, Liu Shu's army was receiving Experience Points in rivers thanks to the difference in numbers.
For instance, the reason Liu Shu's army was losing fewer and fewer people was that a large chunk of those below Level 200 had arrived at Level 199 and could advance to Level 200 at any time.
They were just holding back from doing so because of Apothea's existence. Her existence was known to most people. After all, she was a sort of reward for those who excelled. Any person going through Ascension inside Apothea's lakes was bound to become much, much stronger.
Apothea herself had already reached Level 200 after they all poured all their resources to help her Level Up.
Even then, while the number of Level 200's had not increased, those at the very edge were several times more numerous than before. So, while they lost people, the overall strength of the Golden Sap Army remained similar.
Having the same strength while the enemy was constantly weakening caused the situation to become utterly imbalanced. What was worse was that the Level 200+ in Liu Shu's army were Leveling Up like crazy. With no large breakthroughs to stop them, even the Sylvan Wives had caught up to Liu Shu's Level.
Liu Shu glanced at both battlefields and took an imaginary deep breath. Her gaze hardened as she began calculating the best way to completely annihilate both armies. 'The final stretch is here. As their World Tree… As their protector, I will focus and do what I must.'