Chapter 336: Approval

After removing the Celestial Mark, Priam immediately stored it inside the Nexus Seed.

[Special Mission Completed]

[+25,000 GP]

He took a deep breath, excited by the notification. Focusing on the Sorcerer, he saw that the enemy was completely unconscious.

Mirra removed the entire wooden structure surrounding him. Priam approached and quickly cleansed all the corruption from the invader’s core. With that, the Sorcerer became a completely helpless figure...

"Wait..."

Priam sensed the presence of the Creation Rune inside the man’s body. He extended his hand toward the man’s chest and thought about the System.

[Dominate?] [Yes / No]

He accepted immediately. And then...

The Creation Rune — the very thing that established a Sage’s connection with their Celestial Bodies... was completely stolen!

Priam was stunned for a moment. He had never imagined he could take something of that level.

[New Innate Technique Acquired!]

[Domain Synthesis]

Priam’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. The System had granted him that directly? His heart raced as he thought through what had just happened.

Possibly, the ability to steal these things was tied to his Main Mission: creating a Secret World. Since it was something of extreme importance to the System’s directive, the skill had been granted to him directly.

[Synthesize?] [Yes / No]

Priam accepted without hesitation. At that very moment, he felt his own Creation Rune move toward the Nexus Seed, meeting the newly stolen rune.

The two fused together in a fluid process, consolidating into a single structure.

Priam swallowed hard, trying to contain his excitement. He clenched his fists and activated the connection to this new rune...

"!"

He felt it: in a remote corner of the universe, a comet wandered alone through the emptiness of space.

’I really stole everything from him...’

Releasing a long sigh, Priam extended his hand and completely sealed the remaining energy within the dying Sorcerer’s body. Deprived of everything he had, this man posed no threat whatsoever.

Priam had no time to waste. He turned around and saw Dandara and the Beasts approaching the area.

Priam’s gaze settled on the old alpha. "Please, just keep an eye on him. We need to clear the rest of this planet as quickly as possible."

The old wolf silently nodded, staring seriously at Priam.

With a single step forward, Priam dissolved into the air, disappearing before everyone’s eyes.

"Father, I’ll be right back," Dandara murmured. Then she turned around and sprinted away at high speed.

***

The number of Sorcerers scattered across the planet was absurd. Priam, Dandara, and the eight Beasts under his contract worked without rest, day and night, cleansing every infected corner.

It took exactly three days for the cleansing to be completed.

Priam didn’t forget to remove all the corruption from the forest. In fact, that was the reason it took so long. He couldn’t simply kill them as quickly as possible; he had to absorb the corruption from the environment, and then Mirra would pour out nature energy to completely restore the area.

After extending his perception across the entire planet and confirming that no enemy had escaped, Priam finally relaxed.

When he turned around, he found Dandara just a few steps away, covered in dried blood, staring at him with an unreadable expression.

He let out a brief sigh, feeling an unusual jolt in his chest. Getting nervous wasn’t like him — what the hell was happening to him?

"We need to head back as soon as possible..." Priam began, but stopped when he noticed the look of anticipation in her eyes fade slightly. He immediately adjusted his tone. "Let’s just say goodbye to your family first, okay?"

Dandara quickly nodded, with an almost exaggerated enthusiasm. Her icy aura dissolved, replaced by a vibrant warmth.

After recalling his eight Beasts, the two of them headed toward the heart of the great forest.

When they arrived, they found hundreds of thousands of creatures gathered together. Various Beast races from the planet occupied the area.

There had been casualties throughout the battle, but no race had been wiped out or suffered excessively. Considering the magnitude of the Sorcerers’ invasion, their survival was nothing short of a miracle.

"Father!" Dandara called out, smiling and waving as she approached.

The old alpha turned toward his daughter, noticing that she was walking shoulder to shoulder with Priam, without maintaining any formal distance between them.

He took a deep breath and stepped forward. A few meters away from the two of them, he activated his transformation, assuming a humanoid form.

His emerald-green eyes fixed on Priam in evaluative silence.

Dandara tensed her shoulders for a second, apprehensive about the solemn atmosphere. However, when she turned around, she saw that Priam calmly held the old wolf’s gaze without the slightest hint of unease.

It was a silent clash between two imposing presences. It had nothing to do with actual power, but rather with intent and bearing.

After two long minutes of scrutiny, the old wolf finally broke the silence.

"Thank you for taking care of my daughter. She is... temperamental. Her moods change like the wind, but she carries immense qualities."

Priam nodded firmly. "She’s my vice-leader. I trust Dandara completely at my side. No one will touch her while I’m still breathing."

"Excellent... I entrust my daughter to you," the old alpha declared, allowing a subtle smile to appear on his stern face.

Priam heard those words, and the expression in his eyes changed instantly. He felt a completely unexpected sense of strangeness. Analyzing the old man’s words... they had sounded terribly ambiguous.

He glanced to the side and saw Dandara with her head lowered, her ears flushed red and her skin slightly pink.

’Wait... I said she was trustworthy, and he responded... by giving me his daughter?’ he thought, trying to rationalize the scene.

But Priam wasn’t naive. He understood the double meaning behind that father’s words perfectly.

It sounded so peculiar because this was Beast culture, not humanoid culture. The way they viewed relationships followed strict rules: it was a vital obligation for both partners to be strong enough to protect each other, and thus also guarantee the absolute safety of their children.

Priam remembered when Dandara had explained this to him. Beasts were completely obsessed with power and the preservation of their species.

Killing one another was considered the greatest sin of all. On top of that, both father and mother devoted themselves body and soul to ensuring the safety of their family.

This protective guardianship from the parents only ended when their son or daughter found a lifelong partner.

However, for the union to be accepted, the male had to receive permission from his partner’s father, proving that he was strong enough to protect her. Likewise, the female had to receive the approval of her partner’s mother, proving that she possessed equivalent strength.

Most Beast races didn’t care about gender, but rather raw power — there were even races whose leadership was strictly matriarchal.

When both approvals were given, it was like the passing of a sacred baton: the new couple took responsibility for taking care of each other.

’Wait... Did I end up helping Dandara win over my mother in the past without even realizing it?’ Priam realized far too late.

Unconsciously, after hearing Dandara talk about her traditions in the past, he had ended up acting to help her with exactly that.

The strangest thing of all, however, was that he didn’t feel the slightest bit uncomfortable or shaken by that conclusion. Deep down, a silent wave of relief and satisfaction filled his chest.

"You seem to be in a hurry. You don’t need to worry about us." The old wolf’s voice pulled Priam out of his daze.

Regaining his composure, Priam replied firmly, "Once we settle the matters of the war, I’ll ask the Elder Leader of our branch to let us visit this planet properly. But right now, our soldiers are waiting for us on the front lines."

The moment he finished speaking, he felt firm fingers intertwine with his.

Priam turned his head and met Dandara’s radiant gaze. The air left his lungs for a millisecond. Her smile seemed infinitely more beautiful than anything he had ever seen throughout all his lives — a possessive desire to keep her like this forever sparked deep within him.

Controlling his heartbeat, Priam took one of the 13 Flying Warships from his fleet. He had left the main ship with the disciples, using another, smaller one for this mission.

With a wave of his hand, he made the unconscious Sorcerer’s body rise into the air and float toward the deck. Then he leaped aboard alongside Dandara.

From the bow, Dandara waved warmly at her father and the pack. Behind the old alpha, thousands of Beasts raised their heads and let out a resounding howl.

The Flying Warship cut through the skies and disappeared into the clouds at maximum speed.

On the ground, the old wolf let out a deep sigh, while a glow of genuine satisfaction lit up his eyes.

He was absolutely certain that his daughter had not only found a worthy leader to follow, but also someone she could trust for the rest of her life.

That young man exuded a composure and confidence completely out of place for his age. It was like looking at an ancient being who had lived and seen far more than he could ever put into words.

That didn’t make him suspicious. He could feel that Priam genuinely cared for Dandara and possessed an unwavering character. The only problem was that a man carrying that much weight on his shoulders and possessing that much power lived at the center of a constant maelstrom, with no time to look after himself.

But when he saw the determination in his daughter’s eyes, the old man knew she would find a way to deal with it.

He breathed in the pure forest air and murmured to himself, "I didn’t have time for anything either when I was young, until her mother cornered me and forced me to live a little. One of my daughter’s personalities is exactly the same... so it’s only a matter of time."

...

It would take several hours for them to return. Besides, the captured Sorcerer would need at least an entire day to ’have fun’ before he was in a condition to have his memories extracted.

In the meantime, Dandara and Priam went to the Flying Warship’s command room to examine the newly arrived reports.

"Boss, they managed to win all three battles, but... there were 600 deaths among the Mages who came from the other branches..."

Priam nodded bitterly. Unfortunately, he couldn’t perform miracles.

It wasn’t a matter of those Mages being individually weak, but rather the terribly flawed mentality many of them had.

Those Mages had grown accustomed to thinking solely about their own survival their entire lives. Even after becoming part of a structured army and being properly guided, the moment chaos broke out, they instinctively acted the way they always had.

In the end, they paid for that individualism with their own lives.

"After securing control of the three planets, the fleet regrouped. However, it wasn’t long before an unplanned retaliation from the enemy began," Dandara continued in a grave tone.

Priam snorted. That had already been expected. Besides the resounding failure of their assault on the second planet, the Sorcerers had also miserably failed in four simultaneous attacks.

The Sorcerers’ upper echelons were certainly convinced that they would conquer at least two planets. On the planet where they had sent the Celestial, victory had been considered 100% guaranteed. However, even that absolute trump card had been destroyed.

In an act of fury and desperation, the enemy leaders abandoned lengthy planning and launched an immediate counterattack as soon as they confirmed the defeat.

"The enemies formed an army of 170,000 Sorcerers and attacked the planet farthest from our fleet’s current position. Flaris and Shione decided to leave immediately for the location to engage them in battle."

Priam agreed with the decision. In his and Dandara’s absence, those two were the brains behind the operations, while Lumiere excelled at direct command during battles.

The three generals perfectly fulfilled the roles they were best suited for: Flaris had the final say, Shione acted as the tactical advisor, and Lumiere took command of the troops on the front lines.

"They arrived at the planet ten hours after the invasion began, and right now, they’ve already been fighting for almost 24 hours straight," Dandara concluded. "We haven’t received any more news so far."