Chapter 9 Forest

The sky was painted black with dark clouds. A lone moon shone red among them. Some of the ice captured the light of the moon. The ghosts of frozen land lay dead inside the ice. It was as if they were in a deep slumber, however, currently, they were in a meditative state, in a trance where they were spreading their essence throughout the frozen land and by doing so were awakening the dark energy that lay dormant there.

The news of the war was not taken lightly. The ghosts of the frozen land were the most cautious. As soon as they learned that they were the target, they started making various preparations. Not only for humans but against the other two ghost kings as well. The king of Frozen Land was known as King Snow. The reason he had that name was because he was extremely cold and calculative and also was very adept at manipulating ice with the help of dark energy.

Currently, King Snow was preparing various illusions made of snow and was inserting his essence into various places. He was using his essence to lay various deadly traps. If a human came near those traps dark arrows would attack them. Apart from setting traps and illusions he was also constantly keeping watch from the sky. Various ghosts were floating high and were keeping watch of all the movements of humans as well as other ghosts.

The frozen land was situated on a high terrain, so they had a height advantage. Apart from that, the frozen land was special. The temperature here was much different from other regions. It was said that the land was cursed by a high-level ghost and hence it had cursed energy in it. Also, there was a record that the frozen land was never conquered by a direct attack.

On the other end, the ghosts and Roan reached the city of Ether. Roan and his knights joined other knights whereas the ghosts went ahead and met Karl. They came under him. Soon the army was ready to march. They all waited for their god to appear. The atmosphere was tense as most of them sacrificed their human form for revenge, more of their children. Hence they could not have been defeated. The sacrifice was too big.

Lucifer entered the sky. His golden aura spread like a star and illuminated the land. The ghosts closed their eyes and limited their senses. The humans looked at him with devotion. He looked down, soon they were able to see wings made of light on Lucifer's back.

"For countless years, we humans were punished, were caged, were made to think our existence is there for slavery. They broke our spines, crushed our souls and sealed our hearts. their mere name brought fear to our hearts and pain to our souls. But today as the dawn breaks bright, it's time, it's time to return the favor. Let's return the agony, the pain, the shame, Let's make the world see the power of human will and its might. Let's fight for our freedom, for humanity and for all that which exists and is alive. My soldiers, steel your heart for this battle will go down in history as the triumph of the mighty, miracle of the humans, the light of justice. On wards." said Lucifer with all his might.

His speech ran shivers down through human hearts, the adrenaline pumped in and all the doubts vanished. Their energy changed, and their powers skyrocketed.

"All hail the sun god," screamed Knight.

Soon they started marching towards the frozen land. Karl and the other ghosts vanished into thin air. Lucifer flew in the air with his wings. He had a determined look.

The ghosts made the sound of drums and trumpets on the way. Some of them scouted the road for dangers and traps. Some took defensive positions around the Knights to defend them from any sudden attack. there were some floating with Lucifer to guard him against sudden or hidden attacks.

After some time they reached the forest of Trivia. The kingdom of Taro was only a few miles away from it. Lucifer looked at the trees and said "Begin."

Soon the ghosts and Knights attacked trees and started burning them. Lucifer used a spell and created a dome made of light all around the forest. Once the fire spread through the forest. The knights and ghosts started to throw their essence into the fire and tried to manipulate it. The reason they were training inside the forest of trivia was because the trees there were special. They were capable of forming bonds with humans as well as ghosts. The forest of Trivia was a resource land of the Kingdom of Taro many fire manipulators would come here to train.

However, currently, the vast forest was on fire as countless ghosts and knights were burning trees and were trying to form a bond with them. While the army was busy training Lucifer was busy feeding an illusion to scouts from the land of Taro that the army was camping and was taking rest inside the forest. Lucifer was using the same dome that he used against the King of Ether, however, the range of the current dome was too large and the scale of the illusion was much larger. However, as a backup, he already sent a few souls near the kingdom of Taro to keep an eye on and to kill the scouts if they learned anything important about his army.

The technique to form the bond was simple. They need to burn a tree put their essence inside them and then use the essence to manipulate the fire. The tree acts as a shield to the essence and protects it from fire however each soul can have only one tree if someone tries to burn trees after failing to form a bond the trees would release poison and would get them killed. So out of all the Knights and ghosts, only a few would be able to learn fire manipulation. The ones who would succeed would have the blessing of the tree and their essence would get coated by the will of the tree. The ones who would fail would lose nothing but would not get another chance to learn fire manipulation.