Awakened: Evolving to Godhood

All of the beasts of the eternal snow forest were sad. While Elliot was fighting inside the field-type paradise, a few drops of gray poison had accumulated in the center of the snow land. Then, it spread to the edges of the center, destroying the homes of many. Even those who hadn't participated in the war were affected. Many innocent died. But worse than that was the fact that the central zone was truly inhabitable.

Their sadness didn't last long, though. Elliot had taken out the life sword and stabbed the ground, impaling its entire metallic body into it. Then, the beasts only saw a flash of golden light shaped like a holy cross before poison got pushed out of the ground, and plants, trees, bushes, and herbs started growing out of the somewhat snowy and mostly barren land.

The beasts were happy to see that Elliot had restored their home.

Thus, when he ordered them to locate the hostages, they didn't even hesitate before splitting up and smelling them out.

Many spirit beasts had a powerful scent of smell. Add on the fact that humans carry a different scent than them; it wasn't hard to find the imprisoned magicians.

Oliver helped the beasts free the captives, and all of the freed magicians returned to planet Xavier. They could stay behind to complete the trial. However, they were too shaken and terrified to think straight. They didn't want to spend a single second in this hell hole!

Nobody stopped them.

Meanwhile, Elliot searched for the hideout of the devil bull. He wanted to obtain the spiritual fruits that were going to become ripe for taking.

Thanks to Grace talking with beasts who used to spy on the dumb bull, Elliot quickly found her home. Though, it took a day of breaking ice to reach it.

For some reason, Lucy accompanied him.

He thought that she would return home with the others or at least stay away from him, but she proved him wrong. She remained by his side, not too close but not too far away either. Elliot thought that maybe she had fallen for his looks or his overpowering strength. Of course, he wasn't able to make sure about why she was sticking to him. Lucy hadn't made a single move on him.

Although she was in his arm's reach, Elliot also didn't make a move on her.

He wanted to probe what she desired before taking action to make her his wife.

By the time he reached the hideout of the devil bull, the spiritual fruits still hadn't fully grown. Using the power of his right eye, Elliot realized that it would fully mature after two days. With nothing to do, he decided to set a camp near the fruits. At the same time, Elliot told the chibi version of grace about the Mystic Red Forest. He wanted her to collect soul shards for him.

While telling her that, he found out that Grace didn't even know that such a place existed!

Anyway, she surfaced from the underground cave, took a few spirit beasts with her to the other forest, then returned with many remnants of soul.

Ten spatial pouches filled to the brim with remnants of the soul were in his lap. As the spiritual fruit started maturing, Elliot put them aside and focused on the fruits.

It took a couple of seconds for the fruits to grow to the size of a fist. They looked like apples, red and enticing. On top of that, twelve dusty clouds were swirling around them, making them appear esoteric. A sweet aroma filled the cave. As Lucy and Grace inhaled it, their mouths immediately watered, and a small amount of saliva leaked out of the corner of their lips.

"Haha."

Elliot laughed. He couldn't help it. The expression on their faces was too ridiculous.

"Do you know what kind of spiritual fruit is this? What effect does it have? Does it improve supernatural cells' quality, make one more robust, or increase their magic capacity?" Lucy asked while looking at Grace.

Since Grace had lived in this forest for more than three thousand years, Lucy thought that she would know about just everything.

However, she was wrong.

"I don't know," Grace replied, an honest expression on her cute little face.

Grace was a member of the nightmare zone. At best, she had only stayed in the eternal snow zone for a few months. The only time Grace came to this place was to attend a council meeting that the spirit beasts hold every hundred years. Only after a thousand years, she had called it quits and retired. So after that, she had never come to this zone. This place had undergone many changed, and many new spiritual fruits had appeared. This spiritual fruit belonged to the new era. So, of course, she failed to realize it.

"Ah, I guess we will need to search for ancient records in the deeper parts of the settlement, and maybe we will find information about these fruits, like whether they are safe to consume or not."

Lucy felt tempted, and she wanted to eat at least one of the four fruits. However, Jennifer Love had warned her not to eat anything strange or unknown as it could be poisonous or harmful. That's why she stayed her hand.

"I can try eating one and test what kind of spiritual fruit it is."

"No! It might not be safe for you either."

"Since the devil bull cultivated it, it might be safe for spirit beast's consumption."

"Still, we should try for a better method."

"Believe me. Nothing wrong will happen to me."

Grace so wanted to eat the spiritual fruit that she didn't mind acting out the role of a lab rat. Lucy didn't want to see her getting hurt. Her small form was so cute that Lucy was charmed, and her maternal feelings wanted to keep Grace away from harm! Grace, though, was adamant about eating it.

"Ahem." Elliot, who was silent for a while as he was busy inspecting the fruit and gaining information about them, cleared his throat.. "I know what these fruits are."