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Chapter 168: A Reunion with Malicious Intent

While Aurus had sent out 8 small balls of his soul towards the territory of the opposing army to retaliate against the move they’ve done, a secret conversation was happening between the two Animates in Chonk’s army, with multiple trees and tall shrubs surrounding them.

“Thank you for coming to meet me,” a jade green wolf said with slight respect as a docile looking rabbit made its way through some shrubs, appearing in front of the jade green wolf. This docile looking rabbit had white fur that was slightly dirtied due to the shrubs it had to pass through, but this did not stop the murderous aura that was radiating from its crimson red eyes.

At this moment, the murderous aura surrounding the rabbit was suppressed to a minimum with a respectful aura was radiating from the rabbit, responding back to the jade green wolf with, “No, thank you. It’s an honor to talk with a Rank 1 Animate.”

“Save the formalities, Chungus. I’ve invited you to fight against the Tempest Branch Alliance, so it would make more sense to pay respect to you, knowing what you can do,” the jade green wolf said in response, to which the docile rabbit slightly chuckled.

This jade green wolf was none other than Chonk, while the docile rabbit was Chungus, the second Animate in Chonk’s army. Although Chonk’s army knew that Chungus was going to help them out in the war against the Tempest Branch Alliance, after seeing that Chungus did not make a move at all, they decided to ignore his presence while still being wary since he was still an Animate.

In actuality, Chungus being inactive was a facade he put up in order for the army to know what he was actually doing. Chonk invited Chungus to his army for what he was actually doing. It was something Chungus became well-known for, earning him the moniker of ‘Monarch of Despair’ among animal-type Animates.

“So…how’s the progress with that thing you’re doing?” Chonk asked Chungus, to which Chungus replied without hiding anything, “Give me about twenty to thirty minutes more, and I think I’ll have it set up. By then, I think the whole army can just go ahead and attack the alliance without a care for the world.”

“Good to know,” Chonk replied to Chungus with slight elation. He then said, “After this war, I’ll make sure to give you my tips on ascending to Rank 1 Animate.”

“I’m glad you’re still holding up your part of the deal,” Chungus said in a slightly happy tone before turning around to head towards a certain direction. Before leaving, Chungus said to Chonk, “Rest assured. You’ll win this war.”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Not long after, Chonk let out a sigh before muttering, “I hope we do win. If not, I’m very sure it would take me a long time to ascend to Rank 2.”

After that, he put on a solemn and composed expression before heading back to where his army was.

…

A couple of minutes have passed since Aurus sent out his 8 soul balls towards the territory of the opposing army. At this moment, the 8 balls had finally arrived above the territory, allowing Aurus to get a bird’s eye view of the opposing army. Although Aurus had already seen the members of the army before in that reconnaissance mission, he could not help but mutter to himself through his original body, “For Inanimates, I still can’t believe they’re that organized.”

From what he could see, Chonk’s army was split into multiple divisions, with each division radiating a different aura, allowing Aurus to get a vague idea of what each division did. Chonk’s army had 7 divisions, with one division being quite large when compared to the size of the other divisions. On top of that, this certain division had a certain being Aurus knew leading it.

“Horell…” Aurus could not help but mutter as he looked at Horell’s current ethereal form. Although he was quite happy for Horell since he had broken through to the Pseudo-Animate level, he still could not help but have conflicting emotions since he was on Chonk’s army. Even knowing the fact that Horell was actually a double agent sent out by Herellia.

Nevertheless, since the two sides were at war, Aurus decided to trust Herellia’s words and try to add in Horell to his plans of retaliating against the attack sent by Chonk’s army.

Whoosh!

Since he did not want to be found out by some sort of Inanimate that could sense souls, he decided to split up one of the soul balls he sent into a smaller size, reducing the amount of Soul Strength it had before heading towards where Horell was. While he sent this smaller soul ball to Horell, Aurus could not help but ask himself if [Unified Soul Control] would allow him to transmit his voice.In the end, he told himself, “Well, if it doesn’t work, I’ll just use the energy in the soul to form a connection with Horell.”

Whoosh!

It did not take long for the smaller soul ball to hover beside Horell, with Horell not even noticing the presence of this soul ball at all. Noticing this, Aurus could not help but have malicious thoughts as he secretly made a connection with Horell through [Unified Soul Control] after trying to transmit his voice, which ended up in failure. After making the connection, he then transmitted a huge stream of thoughts towards Horell through [Unified Soul Control], with each thought saying, “Hey! Horell!”

“Uwah?!” Horell could not help but mutter in shock, attracting the attention of a few Inanimates behind them, slightly confused as to why their commander was startled all of a sudden. Fortunately for Aurus, Horell hastily composed himself, allowing the suspicion of the few Inanimates to die down as he collected his thoughts, finding the voice of those thoughts familiar.

“Er…Aurus?” Horell asked in his mind, to which Aurus replied, “Yep. It’s me.”

“I’m so glad to talk with you again!” Hearing that he was talking to Aurus, Horell could not help but radiate an aura of happiness inwardly, only for it to change to sadness in an instant as he continued, “But I left the alliance without letting you know…”

“I know the general gist of things through Herellia, so don’t worry,” Aurus said after Horell was finished talking. He then added, “Don’t beat yourself up from this. Anyways, I’m kind of curious as to what species you evolved to. Allowing me to know your species might help me out with my plan in mind.”

“Give me a second,” Horell replied before recalling the name of his current species. After a few seconds later, he then told Aurus, “My current species is Mana Spirit. From the name alone, I think you know what I’m capable of.”

“Yeah, that’s more than enough information, thanks,” Aurus replied with a tone of slight gratitude. After that was a short silence between the two of them. Fortunately, it did not last long, with Aurus asking, “How strong are the division leaders in Chonk’s army?”

“Hmm…excluding me, around Herellia’s level, I guess?” Horell replied to Aurus’ question in a slightly doubtful tone before asking, “What plan do you have in mind anyway?”

“Well, your army sent out someone who possessed a few members of the alliance, so I’ve decided to retaliate with the same thing, but more potent,” Aurus replied, which slightly startled Horell. In his mind, Horell was wondering as to when did Aurus obtain such power.

“Eh? Can you do that?” Horell could not help but ask before adding, “Speaking of which, how are you talking with me right now?”

“Err…” Aurus pondered over his words for a bit before replying to Horell’s question. “In short, I manifested part of my soul in reality, allowing me to use my soul as reconnaissance, offense, and for miscellaneous things like talking with you.”

“As for the matter as to whether I can possess other beings with my soul, there’s no better way to know than to try.”

“Heh…” Although Horell replied with a tone that he understood what Aurus was doing, he still could not help but become shocked at how versatile Aurus’ skillset had become. Back when Aurus entered the Tempest Branch Alliance, he could only cast basic magic and attack with a huge amount of force. But right now, Horell could not believe that his skillset even included the manipulation of other beings.

In the end, he decided to accept that Aurus could do surprising things. Thinking about what to ask next, a thought popped up in his mind, prompting Horell to ask Aurus, “Oh, right. How can I help with your plan?”

“What I had in mind was that I’d possess the 6 division leaders with my soul, then have you report this matter to Chonk,” Aurus answered Horell’s question before adding, “Since you’re a Pseudo-Animate, Chonk has designated you as the overall leader of the army, right?”

“Mhm,” Horell responded with a sound. He then asked, “What would happen after that?”

“After thinking about it for a bit, it could two ways,” Aurus replied before adding, “The first conclusion would be that Chonk would go ahead and kill the 6 division leaders that I possessed, leaving the division leaders without a leader for a short bit. If the divisions obtain a replacement leader, they would surely be unprepared for the task given to them.”

“And the second?” Horell continued to ask.

“The second conclusion would be that Chonk won’t end up killing the 6 division leaders, just telling them to leave them as is. And that’s where you come in.”

“What do I do by then?” Horell asked one more time.

“You kill them in secret,” Aurus let out a malicious chuckle as he replied. “With Chonk not knowing that the division leaders have been killed, he surely wouldn’t put in any replacement leaders for the divisions, leaving them in chaos.”

“Although I’m willing to participate in your plan,” Horell thought that Aurus’ plan was a good idea, but he could not help but think about it from another angle. “What if Chonk found out that I killed those 6 division leaders? Wouldn’t he go out and kill me?”

“Don’t worry about that,” Aurus replied before adding, “I have a trump card that would allow me to protect you without a problem.”

“I see…” Horell went silent for a bit before a determined aura started to radiate from inside. “I’ll help out then.”

“Glad to have you onboard,” Aurus replied. “I currently have 8 soul balls hovering above the army to act as surveillance, so I’ll split them up and use them to possess the 6 division leaders. Speaking of which, do these division leaders have strong souls?”

“Uh…” Horell was quite shocked that Aurus could do multiple things at once. He could not help but wonder if Aurus was getting confused at this point in time. Nonetheless, he composed himself and replied, “To be honest, I don’t know. I guess they have a weak soul?”

“Eh, fair enough,” Aurus said in response. “And with that, this concludes our conversation for now. I’ll let you know when to move. Don’t act suspicious, okay?”

“As Herellia’s double agent, how could I?” Horell lightly chuckled as he answered back. After that, the connection between the two was cut, with Aurus proceeding to split up 6 soul balls into 12 smaller soul balls, with the first half staying where they were. As for the second half, they made their way towards the leaders of the 6 divisions, which increased the burden on Aurus’ mind since he was controlling 15 soul balls simultaneously at this moment.

Nevertheless, since he was an Inanimate that was more suited to the back, Aurus was at ease, allowing him to put his full focus on controlling these 6 smaller soul balls towards the division leaders. Not long after that, he tried to use [Unified Soul Control] to possess the souls of these division leaders.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Surprisingly, the souls of the division leaders were easily possessed, allowing Aurus to control the bodies of these leaders without a problem. He could not help but think that the reason why the possession was easy was that he had higher Soul Strength than the souls of these division leaders. Nevertheless, with the addition of 6 division leaders being possessed, this increased the number of perspectives Aurus could see from his original body to 9. At this moment, he could not help but become confused.

“As long as I pull this off, this will surely increase the chances of the alliance winning,” Aurus muttered to himself, steeling his resolve as he connected with Horell once more.

“I’ve successfully possessed the souls of the six division leaders,” Aurus said to Horell, which slightly surprised Horell as he said, “That fast?”

“I’ll go ahead and make a ruckus with these leaders then,” Aurus then said to him before adding, “Once these division leaders have caught the attention of most of the army, I hope you go ahead and report this to Chonk.”

“I’ll make sure to do so,” Horell replied before adding, “Trust me on this one.”

“And with that…” Aurus said with excitement.

“Operation Reversal is now a go!”

“Operation Reversal? What’s that?”

“The name of the operation I’m doing right now.”

“Oh. Hooray for Operation Reversal!”

“��Let’s go ahead and start.”