Supreme Lord: I can extract everything!

The upcoming weeks were full of surprises. First of all, Michael continued creating Undead Souls from the dead, including the dead of the Divine Alliances and jungle monsters. He also consumed their bodies, supplying his body with enough energy to keep his Energy Vortex working at 100% efficiency. His War Rune was being refined rapidly, slowly but steadily, solving all issues of his cracking body.

It took a few weeks to fill the cracks in his soul, but he made it happen. Michael invested more than three million SoulStar Fragments to close the gaps and nourish his soul until the influence of the God Curses and the Nature Heart was barely noticeable.

While his subjects rebuild the third Pentagon Fort – they received enough resources from Michael and the workers of the Sacred Desert to help – Michael, the Untamed Awakened, the jungle monsters, Elementals, the Red Dragon, and the Azure Quetzalcoatl executed several plans to attack the Dragys Lordess where she least expected it.

She could sense Michael wherever he went due to the device that helped her pinpoint the location of divinities. Thus, Michael couldn't attack her easily without getting found out. Cosmic Stride wasn't strong enough to pierce her spatial-distortion domes yet. However, what Michael could do with Cosmic Stride and the Azure Quetzalcoatl teaming up with him was to play the bait.

Michael controlled several High Beast Hordes, the two other Divine Beasts, and the Azure Quetzalcoatl to attack a Border Fortress. The Azure Quetzalcoatl was enhanced by Greater Enhancement. Several uses of Greater Enhancement, to be precise. Its flames were hot enough to burn parts of the Border Fortress' walls, which were crushed by a Titan Great Bear. The Titan Great Bear disappeared after destroying the wall, while Michael used Swallow Domain to consume as much of the broken wall as possible. He transformed the materials he consumed into pure energy, which he infused into the strongest monsters around him. Greater Enhancement, specifically the Soullife Arts, Unlimited Enhancement, forced the targets to unleash more than 100% of their potential. The High Beasts strengthened through Unlimited Enhancement felt stronger than ever. However, their bodies were also falling apart faster. Under normal circumstances, Greater Enhancement would harm them a little, but it was different this time. They had little time left before their bodies would fall apart after Michael applied Unlimited Enhancement on them. That was if Michael didn't Insert a generous amount of advanced healing serum into the High Beasts' bodies.

Michael, the Divine Beasts, and the Azure Quetzalcoatl razed the Border Fortress to the ground, killed two Divine Dragys guarding the settlement, and waited patiently for the reinforcement to arrive before destroying the spatial distortion dome. As they waited, the jungle monsters wreaked havoc. After emptying their warehouses and vaults, they obliterated everything in their path while Michael created thousands of Undead Souls.

Once the device was destroyed, Michael accessed Cosmic Stride and teleported all monsters out of the settlement. Moments after everyone was teleported out of the settlement, Zeroa triggered the overcharged elemental crystals.

Another Border Fortress was destroyed in a massive explosion, leaving the Dragys with nothing to rebuild her settlement. Not even the Dragys Summons providing her with Soul Power had been spared. Slowly but steadily, the Dragys Lordess was weakened. The Soul Power she could accumulate in her Soultrait Symbol decreased while the number of her loyal High Awakened and Divine Awakened dropped.

However, attacking the Border Fortress was merely a trap. Michael and the Azure Quetzalcoatl were the bait…and they were good baits. They lured the Dragys Lordess out of the main settlement once news of a second attack reached her. The strategy used by Michael was the second as it had been before. The Titan Great Bear destroyed the Border Fortress' walls after the Azure Quetzalcoatl melted them.

After that, the High Beast Hordes attacked under the influence of Unlimited Enhancement.

That tactic might have worked once, but it wouldn't work a second time. That was what the Dragys Lordess had sworn. She left the main settlement and rushed to the Border Fortress, not realizing that the Border Fortress was much further from the main settlement than the rest. Michael could have chosen one of the Border Fortresses closer to his territory, but he'd chosen against it. Too late did she realize that she'd fallen into a trap.

The spatial distortion dome shattered much earlier than last time. It burst not even a full minute after the Border Fortress had been attacked.

All of a sudden, the High Beast Hordes and the two Divine Beasts disappeared. But that was not all that disappeared. Something about her settlement and the amount of energy channeling through Michael Fang was wrong.

Michael smiled. He had been forced to access the Nature Heart and retrieve a good portion of energy accumulated within the Untamed Jungle's primal root, but what was about to happen was worth it.

The Azure Quetzalcoatl waited patiently behind him while Michael issued a command to the commanders of the Divine Alliances, the High Beast Hordes, Divine Beasts, and his subjects.

[The Lordess is here. Attack!]

The plan was set in motion.

The Dragys Lordess was exactly where they wanted her to be, and she had been generous enough to bring some surprises with her. A dozen Divine Dragys, probably her retinue, had followed their Lordess to deal with their pesky enemies.

To their misfortune, Michael was overjoyed about this. He had been worried about the remaining Divine Lifeforms serving the Dragys Lordess, but since a dozen Divine Lifeforms followed her, only a handful of Divine Lifeforms could be left and spread across the remaining settlements. The Dragys Lordess had more than a dozen settlements left but not enough Divine Lifeforms to man all of them. Therefore, only the places where most Divine Lifeforms were needed were given a Divine Lifeform. Even then, there weren't enough, with a dozen following the Dragys Lordess.

'Nice, nice,' Michael swallowed hard while continuing with what he had started earlier. The energy filling Michael was so immense, an ordinary Tier-6 High Awakened could never contain so much energy. Not even Michael's Divine Shell could hold onto so much energy. That was also why Michael didn't do that. He didn't even try to keep the energy inside him.

Maybe not even the Nest Leader could easily hold onto as much curse power as Michael created with the masses of pure energy he'd drained from the primal root. Michael infused every bit of curse energy into the Serpent Seals, forming the strongest Major Seal since Michael had formed one.

[Yes! Yes!! Yesssss!!] Jormungandr hissed in glee as the streams of curse power surged into the World Serpent.

The World Serpent's Essence oozed out of the Beast God until Jormungandr's presence disappeared. One moment, the World Serpent had been with Michael, and in the next moment, it was no more. Nonetheless, Michael smiled vibrantly. Everything was going according to plan.

"Go for it, Jormungandr!" Michael exclaimed, his voice reverberating through the surroundings.

At first, nothing happened, but Jormungandr didn't let anyone wait for long. Michael's heart palpated wildly as the presence of the Beast God swept across the Border Fortress. He grinned wildly as he watched the scene unfolding before him.

The ground tremored violently, and grayish spires shot from the ground around the Border Settlement. No. These constructs weren't spires. They were too straight and too…polished to be mere spires.

They were fangs. Hundreds of meters long each.

The World Serpent surfaced, and its maw snapped close, swallowing the entire Border Fortress with one bite.