One-Eyed Monster

Inside the Inner World, everyone was in high spirits.

Protecting was their duty. No matter how powerful the enemy, they wouldn’t allow them to wantonly trample their territory.

Each person here had their fighting spirit boiling, wishing they could bring forth all their strength.

They were guarding this place, with no path of retreat. Behind them was their beloved homeland.

This was also the Inner World created by Kuren, where the Spirit Painting was vividly alive, and the guardian battlefield crafted was very realistic.

At first, Yuga thought that creating such a grand Inner World was overkill, fearing that Kuren couldn’t handle it.

Kuren said, ”I am a War God, and there is no battlefield I cannot control.” Despite Yuga’s opposition, he directly created such a scene.

Astonishment quickly followed. At this time, Yuga felt that Kuren’s arrangement of the Inner World might be a bit excessive. Was it necessary to use war to maintain the status quo?

Kuren explained to him that the current situation was no different from a war. They were protecting important things—not only everything on Guru Mountain but also themselves.

Just as Kuren said, what they were protecting was indeed themselves.

The telepathic attack aimed to destroy their spirits and turn them into puppets—a frightening prospect. What was the point of living if a person couldn’t be themselves? At that time, they would be barely more than wooden puppets or walking dead.

Only by protecting themselves could they protect other things.

Kuren even thought that the scope of the Inner World he created was not grand enough. It only seemed majestic on the surface.

Wasn’t this the result the Spirit Painting wanted? This was also the characteristic of the World Setting Technique.

The emergence of Igor gave Kuren a new understanding of the World Setting Technique, with the Inner World being the biggest gain. Of course, there were other gains outside the Inner World, but compared to it, these gains were not as grand.

The enemies within the Inner World were inching closer, their offensive formation intimidating…

For Kuren, the Inner World could not be casually established. In this regard, he was indeed not as flexible as Igor, who could break free from conventional methods and establish a new one, even when control was in someone else’s hands. Igor could create an environment that suited him, which was an incredible skill, but realizing this skill also required a certain talent. While Igor was not extraordinarily gifted, he was definitely not an ordinary person.

Free will was what Kuren wanted to protect. This principle was above everything else because only by maintaining this free will could Kuren be himself. Thus, the struggle with the Slayer was a hurdle for him. Once he overcame it, Kuren would enter a new realm.

And indeed, Kuren had already surmounted this hurdle.

He had defeated the Slayer and had been reborn.

Thus, the Inner World he established mirrored his habitual style—cautious and meticulous.

If this were a real war, the power disparity between the two sides would be extreme. The enemy had tens of thousands of troops arranged in a square formation with various kinds of weapons. Even though their advance was slow, their arrival would surely mean an overwhelming force.

The slowly advancing main body of troops always had an intimidating momentum that gradually grew, especially considering Kuren’s party only consisted of around ten people.

Kuren was not the main controller of this Inner World. The enemies’ telepathic attack had already set a condition for Kuren: he could not control the real environment they were in. Hence, they were currently in a passive defensive state.

Therefore, only a part of the scene he created in this setting was his own creation—namely, this environment of resistance.

If they merely believed this resistance was to guard their own minds, it would be impossible to stir their emotions. But now, framing this status as defending the Empire and its territories not only elevated everyone’s spirits but also resonated with the mentality of these elites.

In this regard, Kuren was quite meticulous.

They couldn’t combat this Dark Force with conventional methods, as it had enough power to crush them. Furthermore, the enemy didn’t use conventional methods to attack them either.

Didn’t the enemy know conventional methods?

Kuren couldn’t speculate about this. What he had to do now was bring everyone’s emotions to a peak and then naturally communicate with them.

Now, everything was almost prepared. The battlefield was ever-changing, and so was his Inner World.

Kuren ultimately couldn’t create a completely different Inner World to interfere with the situation as Igor could. He still had to comply with the enemy’s rules to carry this out here.

The enemy’s rules were to crush them. They were defenseless.

This didn’t seem like a rule, but—how to put it?—their ability to mount such a counterattack was already quite impressive. The Dark Force was powerful, ominously so. Even the Great Mentor, with his rich experience, showed no reaction.

It was fortunate they had Igor and Kadi. Kuren gathered his thoughts. The Inner World was already quite expressive, but the forthcoming communication needed further work.

However, a War God was a War God. Even when his body had been occupied by the Slayer in the past, Kuren never backed away from war.

”The enemy is formidable!” With the collaboration of Yuga and Stan Sol, everyone except the mysteriously disappeared Great Mentor had assembled in this Inner World, including Kuyi Tulan, the head of the Alchemy Workshop. Everyone was listening attentively; they did not want to fail like this.

If this were a real war, Kuren’s speech would be extremely inspiring, with warriors ready to die defending their last shred of dignity, making their final stand in their own territory for their empire.

”We are vastly outnumbered!” War God Kuren continued his speech. He didn’t know how the Dark Force would attack; the massive army was not a force he could control. This pointed to a simple fact: the enemy, the Dark Force, was indeed much stronger than them… Though this awkward fact was somewhat hard to accept, it remained the truth. Kuren and his allies had no way to counter the Dark Force, so the current scene reflected their actual status.

His rousing speech continued, ”Behind us lies our homeland. Soon, it will be reduced to ruins.”

”Even if we cannot protect this place, we must stand tall and fight.”

”We must let these bastards know that only by stepping over our bodies can they trample our land!”

”We stand with our land, to live or die together!” Emotions were successfully stirred. Even Stan Sol, who had always remained neutral, felt his blood boil. One had to admit, the War God’s speech was truly different.

If this were a real war, the coming scenes would certainly be gruesome!