Chapter 14: Reincarnation

A spatial rift opened in the void, and Liam arrived above his divine realm.

He deployed the incubators into the void and followed the accompanying instructions to set them up.

The incubators emitted a faint hum, indicating they were powered on, and were filled with a bluish liquid.

This liquid was a nutrient concentrate, able to make a body grow to adulthood in just a few months.

These incubators were the new version, and to avoid having a child's soul in an adult's body, they had a virtual reality system.

Liam only needed to define the general parameters and connect the incubators so that the creatures' souls could grow seamlessly in the virtual reality.

Liam started linking the incubators together.

It wasn't a physical connection but a high-speed internet link. There would be only one virtual world, and the 63 souls would be immersed in a single shared environment.

Even if they became divine beings, they wouldn't realize that this part of their memories had been artificially created.

After this, it was time for the last step of his plan.

 Liam sent a prophecy to the novarian chief. After some time, the novarian chief emerged from his hut and gathered all the tribe.

Despite having several rank 2 warriors, he remained the undisputed leader, thanks to the superior strength Liam had granted him and because he was the only one capable of communicating with their god.

Soon, every novarian were gathered in the middle of the tribe, even those who were out hunting returned swiftly.

"Children, the mighty Lord of the Azure Abyss has contacted me. He has a new mission for us. Soon, he will send a new group of people into this world. They will just be children, and it will be our duty to take care of them."

The novarians began to stir, but the leader easily calmed the crowd.

"I know what you are thinking. This world is already so small, and a new race will complicate the distribution of resources, but think about it. Has our god ever done anything to harm us? When the invaders came, he granted us a powerful strength. When we were injured, he healed us. When we were about to die from the snakes, he saved us."

"Trust him, and everything will be fine."

The novarians were true believers, so under the persuasion of the novarian chief, they eventually accepted one after the other.

"Now, let's move on to the second topic. For several hundred years, I have led our tribe thanks to the gift of life that the lord has bestowed upon me. Today, he told me that a new mission awaits me. So, I will leave and pass the leader's position to Grugi."

Grugi was his firstborn, now at the advanced-tier of the second order, and the most powerful warrior in the tribe.

Naturally, the novarians wouldn't oppose his decision. Since he was the strongest, he became the leader. The chief patted Grogi's shoulder.

"Son, on this day, I hand over the tribe to you. Make sure to heed the orders of our god, alright!"

He nodded, still surprised by the turn of events.

The leader turned around, facing the tribe for the last time.

"Well, goodbye everyone, may we meet again."

As he waved to them, a massive pillar of light fell from the sky and cover the novarian chief. A few moments later, there was nothing left.

…

In the void, Liam looked at the novarian chief in front of him.

Liam consumed several thousand points of faith to bring him out of his divine realm, and now he was using his spiritual energy to let him survive in space.

The novarian chief gazed at him with fanatical eyes.

Liam was no longer into human form but used his spiritual energy to alter his appearance.

In the eyes of the novarian chief, he was hundreds of meters tall. He was shirtless, and the lower part of his body was a massive dark green snake tail.

Unlike the Red-Moon Nagas, the upper part of his body was entirely human, with only a few dark scales appearing on his forehead, under his eyes, and on his chest.

His long black hair floated in the void, and his red eyes seemed able to pierce every secret of the universe.

In his right hand, he held a huge spear that gleamed with golden patterns.

It was a projection of his spear spirit. Even though it was intangible, it emitted a tremendous aura that made the novarian chief shudder.

However, this only made his gaze even more fanatical.

Liam looked him in the eyes, conveying an unparalleled pressure.

In his mind, the pressure emitted by the sperm whale king was the strongest he ever encountered, but compared to his god's aura, it seemed like a spring breeze.

"I will ask you once again. Are you sure you want to be reincarnated as a Red-Moon Naga? You will lose all your memories, and it's only by becoming a superior existence that you may recover them."

To retrieve memories of past lives, one had to become a rank 10 being, but as it was a forced reincarnation, reaching level 7 was enough.

However, he didn't care at all.

"Yes, great god, I will follow each of your commands!"

Liam was sure about it, but it was more of a formality. The novarian chief was already a fanatic, so he would follow each of his orders to the letter.

"Good!"

Liam took out the level 2 soul pearl from his spatial ring and threw it at the novarian leader.

Slowly, the novarian chief felt his consciousness darken. Just before fainting, he heard the voice of his beloved god.

"In your next life, you name will be Sylvera Nagaia. May you serve me as well as in this life."

His consciousness fell into the night.

In the void, Liam took his true appearance, looking at the lifeless body of the novarian chief, which displayed a faint smile even in death.

…

The water flowed peacefully.

There was a large river, several hundred meters wide.

Fish swam in shoals, and land animals approached from time to time to quench their thirst.

Birds flew high in the sky, and mosquitoes crawled on the ground.

A huge saber-toothed tiger slowly approached the river.

It was nearly seven meters long and about three meters high. Its fur was a vivid orange, adorned with elegant brown patterns.

 As it lowered its head to drink, a huge silhouette leaped from the riverbed, jaws wide open.

It was a gigantic river crocodile, nearly fifteen meters long.

Despite the incredible reflexes of felines, the tiger was at a disadvantage.

The crocodile grabbed the upper part of its body and began the famous death roll.

In a few spins, it had severed the tiger's body in half and started moving back towards the river.

At that time, several dark silhouettes burst from the bushes.

They brandished sharp bone stakes, a meter long. Two more were tied to their backs, along with a long wooden spear topped with a bone spearhead.

Their scaly bodies sprinted through the jungle, quickly reaching their target.

Compared to the crocodile, they were much smaller, measuring between two and three meters long. When upright, they barely reached a meter and twenty centimeters.

Nevertheless, their speed was exceptional.

A few dozen meters from the beast, they threw their weapons with all their might.

The stakes whistled through the air and planted themselves in the beast's body, making it roar in pain.

One of them missed and hit a large tree on the way.

Under immense force, the trunk, nearly a meter thick, snapped, just like the spear, and the tree collapsed to the ground, crushing the grass and bushes.

"Damn it, Nevra, learn to aim."

One of the young Red-Moon nagas narrowly dodged the tree and roared at the bad shooter, making him hang his head in shame.

"Sorry..."

The other Naga trembled with rage as he pointed his finger.

"You're always sorry; every time you put us in danger!"

"I..."

"Less chitchat more action! We're fighting a war beast here!"

A taller and stronger young naga shouted at them from a few dozen meters away as he dodged the crocodile's tail swipe.

The tail struck a large rock, shattering it into pieces.

The two nagas regained their composure, and even though the argument was far from over, they set it aside.

The beast had several stakes embedded in its body, causing crimson blood to flow.

The wounds were not very deep, but they pained the creature, making it angrier than ever.

About ten nagas surrounded the crocodile, which rampaged through the jungle, breaking trees and rocks into pieces.

The nagas dodged its attacks and, at the same time, threw stakes at the crocodile.

Meanwhile, they slowly retreated into the depths of the jungle, luring the enraged beast away from the river.

Soon, the nagas ran out of stakes. They drew their long spears and switched to close combat.

The beast had nearly thirty stakes embedded inside its body, and many wounds caused by nagas' weapons. Slowly, it began to weaken.

The creature realized it was at a disadvantage and tried to escape, but what was its surprise when it turned around and found out that it was nearly two hundred meters away from the riverbank.

At that moment, the beast understood it had been deceived by the naga squad.

As foolish as it was, it was already at rank 2 and had intelligence comparable to humans.

However, even if it wanted to retreat, the nagas wouldn't let it flee.

Every time it tried to withdraw, the Nagas closed in, launching a fierce counterattack that could seriously injure it.

The beast had no choice but to turn around and fight back, but it was weakening.

The tallest naga suddenly leaped into the air and, with a spear thrust, pierced the creature's eye, driving the weapon as far as he could.

Immediately, he let go of the spear and stepped back.

Tacitly, the others nagas stepped back with him, letting the beast fight its final battle.

After struggling for a few moments, the beast's body finally immobilized, dead.

One of the nagas approached the one who delivered the final blow and slapped him on the back.

"Well done, Sylv. Thanks to you, we set a new record for the initiation ritual."

The other Nagas surrounded him and congratulated him too.

They were all 6 years old.

Every year, children of the tribe who reached the age of six participated in their first major group hunt. All they had to do was hunt a wild beast, and they would become full members of the tribe.

(Ranking of beasts: animal (rank 0), wild beast (rank 1), war beast (rank 2), great beast (rank 3), spirit beast (rank 4),...)

Sylvera accepted the praises of his comrades, a bit embarrassed to be in the spotlight.

He was already an apprentice warrior at the pinnacle, and he hoped to become a real warrior before reaching adulthood.

"That's alright, that's alright, it's thanks to everyone's teamwork; otherwise, we couldn't have hunt this beast."

This crocodile did just become a war beast and was still a beginner.

Fortunately, it was much less fast and agile on land than in the river. Sylvera and the others would never have dared to confront it in the water.

In the midst of the celebrations, an annoyed voice rose among them.

"Yeah, well, not everyone, Nevra almost crushed me under a damn tree! Every time, she puts us in dangerous situations. Last time, she panicked and dropped Pirsa off a cliff. The time before, she alerted an entire herd of balnix, and we had to run for our lives to avoid ending up in their stomachs. Not just that, do you remember that time when..."

"ENOUGH!"

Sylvera interrupted directly. Seeing Nevra, who lowered her head with tears in her eyes, he couldn't help but shoot a furious look at the Naga who was criticizing her.

"We're from the same tribe; we should help each other. Even if she's struggling right now, maybe she'll save your ass one day, so stop complaining."

The Naga rolled his eyes but didn't respond.

Sylvera sighed. That was the best he can do. He looked at the sky full of cracks and the sun, which was not far from plunging behind the treetops.

"Let's go back; it's going to be dark soon!"

He pulled his spear out of the crocodile's skull. Together they carried the body that weigh tens of tons, leaving behind a part of the devastated jungle, with pieces of trees, bushes, and rocks scattered everywhere and deep furrows that crisscrossed the ground.

Fifteen minutes later, they reached the base of a mountain where a large swamp spread.

The group of young nagas entered the swamp and was joined on the way by another team of eleven members carrying a large bird.

Together, they crossed the swamp and reached a huge cave.

Some naga warriors were on guard and smiled, watching the two teams arrive.

"Well done, younglings, you're the last ones. The other four teams have already finished, and everyone is waiting for you to celebrate."

The two teams wasted no time and entered the cave.

They climbed a small slope for a few dozen meters, and the rocky corridor suddenly widened, revealing an immense karst cave.

It was easily over fifty meters high in some places, and the cave's area exceeded one square kilometer.

It was the naga tribe.

There were about 1500 nagas, and every adult reached the first order. There were over 250 warriors, and even a great warrior of rank 3, who was the tribe's chief and also Sylvera's father.

There was a gigantic bonfire in the center of the cave, where some huge carcasses were grilling.

There were other passages leading to the surface higher in the cave, so nagas didn't have to worry about carbon poisoning, even if they didn't know what it was.

When the two teams entered the cave, the nagas roared joyfully and opened a path for them to the barbecue.

Around the fire, about forty young Nagas stared at the crocodile's corpse with amazed eyes.

It wasn't just them; even the warriors looked at the crocodile's corpse, astonished.

Even though a strong beast wasn't necessarily huge, a beast of this size was at least a war beast.

Finally, the two teams laid their prey next to the fire, where some adult nagas gutted them and put them on the fire.

As a pleasant aroma spread through the cave, the crowd parted, allowing a tall naga to pass.

He was nearly six meters long, and standing upright, he reached two meters high.

He held a three-meter spear and, apart from that, wore only a simple necklace of beast teeth.

That's right; nagas didn't wear clothes. After all, Nagas had strong scales to protect themselves.

Even the females' chests were covered with scales, which were as sturdy as everywhere else.

As for intimate parts, nagas hid everything under the scales, and they had to retract them to doing their… business.

The huge naga approached the fire and turned around to speak to the tribe.

"Today, our young members faced the dangers of the hunt for the first time. It's different from gathering and exploring. Today, they have proven themselves worthy of becoming true members of our tribe. Tonight, we will honor them and eat the prey they hunted. Let the feast begin!"

The Nagas roared, shaking the walls of the cave and then pounced on the delicious meat cooking on the fire.