Chapter 68: The World-Repairing Behemoth

"Is no one fighting anymore?" As the crowd silenced under Heloise's fist, a giant tortoise, its shell resembling a mini mountain range, slowly spoke.

"No more fighting."

"Yashibern, are you going to call your father to act?"

"When will you stop calling for your father?"

...Hearing the unique tortoise speak, the various young beasts teased.

"Cut it out, I'm only at the golden level, I can't restore such a large-scale landscape yet." The giant tortoise huffed, helplessly looking at the land devastated by the soul-level titan Atreyen and the celestial scion Ilves.

Crisscrossing ravines from three hundred meters to a kilometer long, carved out by sword qi and spear light, scarred the earth like ugly wounds. Nearby, mountains that had been shattered in half and hills that had been leveled added to the scene of desolation.

"Roar!" The giant tortoise roared towards the sky, and then, the ground began to tremble. Muria watched in awe as majestic mountains slowly rose from the ground far in the distance.

Four tortoise limbs, like pillars holding up the sky, stretched out from beneath the rising mountains. Then, a massive tortoise head covered in thorny rock slowly emerged from among the mountains.

"This is..." Muria looked at the unbelievably large tortoise and then back at the strangely shaped tortoise near him before looking again at the mountainous tortoise, realizing the connection.

The two tortoises were of the same species. When the tortoise beside Muria grew to the size of the mountainous one, its shell would also resemble a range of mountains.

What shocked Muria next was even more profound. The mountainous tortoise slightly bowed its head, its pale yellow eyes glancing at the fragmented ground near Muria, lifted its limb, and then set it down.

"Buzz!" Instead of the massive tremor Muria anticipated, an invisible wave spread with the tortoise's footfall. Under Muria's stunned gaze, the earth began to move as if alive. The hundreds of meters long ravines started to close under the influence of the wave, and the broken mountain rocks melded back into the earth.

The mountains, halved by Atreyen and Ilves's battle, also transformed; new peaks rapidly grew from the breaks, like bamboo shoots after rain.

The land, shattered by the soul-level combat, seemed to come alive under the tortoise's touch, healing all wounds as the broken mountains grew back and the cleaved earth sealed itself.

The sight was like creation itself. Destruction is far easier than construction; initially, the battles between the titans and celestial scions excited Muria with their power, but now, he was captivated by this power to mend the world.

"Rumble!" The mountains roared, seemingly celebrating their rebirth. Muria watched everything in front of him, hardly believing a battle had taken place here if not for the fallen, broken trees.

The landscape altered by the battle had been restored by the mountainous tortoise, a display of power that fascinated and inspired Muria.

"After watching, let's go. I'll take you to choose a mountain for your dwelling," Heloise said, patting Muria's shoulder as the giant tortoise settled back down into a slumber amid the rumbling.

"What kind of creatures are they?" Muria asked Heloise, visibly shaken. His dragon and titan heritages were unlocked progressively with his growth.

Thus, his knowledge was incomplete, and many legendary creatures in the clan lands were unfamiliar to him due to their rarity worldwide. Some dragons, even reaching ancient stages, might never encounter such beings.

"So powerful and yet so rare, they're certainly not common knowledge," Muria mused, not finding information on the land-repairing tortoise within his dragon heritage.

"Oh, right, I almost forgot to tell you!" Heloise responded to Muria's question, pointing to the tortoise resembling a mini mountain range. "No matter whom you fight to hone your skills, never pick it."

"Why not?" Muria looked puzzled.

"Heh, because if you beat it up, you'll be very unlucky for a while," the white tiger Troy couldn't help but interject.

"What does that mean?" Muria still didn't understand, sensing a threat in those words.

"Let's explain it clearly to Muria," a giant azure-scaled roc commented impatiently, tired of Troy's cryptic hints.

"Our titan heritage includes martial arts and some linguistic knowledge, nothing more. Muria is special with his dragon heritage, but I bet it doesn't cover information about the Land Emperor Tortoise," titan Atreyen said, slapping his head in frustration with his own race's limited legacy.

"Let me start from the beginning," Heloise pointed at the majestic tortoise raising its head. "Both creatures you saw belong to the same species, the Land Emperor Tortoise. They first appeared in the late primordial era, direct descendants of a great being..."

As the titan girl described, Muria gradually understood the nature of the Land Emperor Tortoise that had repaired the landscape and why it was untouchable.

This began with the birth of the Land Emperor Tortoise species in the early primordial era when legendary beings freely roamed the world. Conflicts among them naturally led to battles.

Legendary battles accelerated geological changes that normally took eons, flattening mountains, turning plains into basins, evaporating lakes into deserts...

Repeated legendary-level conflicts frequently altered the world's geography, turning vibrant lands into barren deserts.

The world suffered immense damage from these powerful conflicts, its natural recovery unable to keep pace.

Oceanic storms raged endlessly, cracks in the sky remained open, volcanoes erupted, spewing vast clouds of ash...

In this state, six special behemoths were born from the world's fury, each possessing supreme power in one aspect. With the help of powerful races, these six behemoths suppressed all beings that caused significant destruction, ending the chaos.

However, their primary purpose wasn't suppression but world restoration. The world granted them near-creatorial powers, which they used to mend its wounds.

Volcanoes were extinguished one by one, cracks in the sky forcibly healed, endless oceanic storms calmed, and lifeless wastelands were reinvigorated by these six beings...

"So that giant tortoise just now is one of those that repaired the world?" Muria asked eagerly after hearing Heloise's story.

"That was its descendant," Heloise corrected with a roll of her eyes. "The true Land Emperor Tortoises are still sleeping somewhere in Erathia."

"Even the descendants are that strong?" Muria muttered, rubbing his chin, then looked curiously at Heloise. "Why can't we attack them?"

"Because those six beings repaired the world, their descendants are all under the world's protection."

"Under the world's protection," Muria echoed, looking curiously at the "small" Land Emperor Tortoise, not quite understanding. "How does the world protect them?"

"Do you want to know?" The "small" tortoise, whose shell spanned fifty meters, looked at Muria with a mischievous grin. "Then let me tell you."

"Once, a deity wanted to kill one of my kin," the Land Emperor Tortoise began cheerfully, though its tone was chilling

ly cold. "Because that deity lacked a defensive artifact, he coveted the shell of my kin, planning to use it as raw material."

"And then? What happened to your kin?" Muria braced himself, sensing the story wouldn't end well.

"Died. That deity descended, leading his entire congregation to besiege my kin." The "small" tortoise's voice grew sad. "Facing a divine incarnation, seven legends, and dozens of soul-level attackers, my kin fell."

"How could this happen?" Muria was stunned. Was this the so-called protection of the world? Provoking divine greed?

"Muria, do you know what happened to that deity?" Atreyen asked.

Muria shook his head, guessing that the actions of the deity had angered the ancestor of the slain Land Emperor Tortoise, prompting the being that had quelled the ancient chaos to intervene.

"The moment my kin was killed, that deity's power dropped from a medium to a weak god," the small tortoise revealed the outcome, completely different from Muria's guess.

"Then, the deity's rivals immediately joined forces, waged a divine war, and invaded his realm, killing him." The small tortoise looked satisfied as it continued: "And at the moment of his fall, his divine name was erased by a powerful force. Except for a few special beings, no one in the world, including his fervent followers, could remember his divine name."

"That's practically complete obliteration," Muria mused, stunned. The greatest strength of a deity wasn't their combat prowess but their incredible survivability.

Even a fallen deity could be resurrected over the ages if enough sentient beings worshiped them. But without a known divine name, who would worship him? This move completely eradicated the deity.

In many novels, battles between powerful beings often result in catastrophic destruction, akin to walking nuclear warheads. If such fighting continued over time, even a vast world would eventually become a wasteland.

In my own writing, before the real powerhouses even acted, the situation was already dire. I wrote their power levels a bit too high, so I introduced a setting.

In battles of such magnitude, causing devastating destruction, a group of behemoths is responsible for repairs. If the destruction becomes excessive, well...