âMark said heâs going to take a whileâ¦â
âI guess heâs going for the slow and steady approach. Very well, we can work with that.ân/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
âMy work here is going to take time as well anywaysâ¦â
Anne also infiltrated the enemy territory at this point. Sheâs wearing a disguise but it doesnât look as convincing as the others used. She didnât really need a good disguise for her mission, in fact she couldnât ditched it altogether and sheâd remain fine.
As her husband slowly poisoned their enemies to death, Anneâs mission was to damage their livelihood even further by draining the vitality off of their nature and feeding to the Divine Realm instead.
Anne was the representative of Nature to the Divine Realm, therefore she carries a crest that always takes the very essence of Nature with her. Her plan was slowly erode the consciousness of Paradiseâs Nature and had the Nature of Divine Realm slowly drain it, further crippling the Abyssals.
To that extent, she needed to find a place where she can stay and remain undisturbed. Away from all the other operations that will happen so as to not draw any attention to herself.
She has escorts to help her out. A bunch of higher leveled Counter Guardians came with her to act as guards. They will be imposing as countryfolk who didnât know much about whatâs happening in the capital so as to not raise any suspicion.
Anne found a suitable spot already. She just needed to complete her preparations and sheâd be good to go.
âYou all should build a quiet neighborhood here. That shouldnât be hard. While you do that, Iâll prepare my domain so that we can start with the operation.â
Her escorts nodded and immediately got to work. As they possess great strength themselves, their work was swift and decisive. Before the day ends, their surroundings already changed into a quiet neighborhood in the middle of nowhere. Theyâre already discussing what kind of role theyâll have in order to make this whole act more believable.
As for Anne herself, she already started converting her surroundings to her own domain. It is done in a way where nobody but her could sense. The nature here would still feel normal but in truth, it no longer answer to the rules of Paradise.
It didnât take long for her to do this since this was just a small area. She planned to take it slow since her target is huge to begin with.
After laying down the finishing touches, Anne was ready to begin with the operation.
She spoke to her escorts and informed that their mission will be starting already. After that, she entered a small cave that she built for herself and sealed it away to begin the conversion.
As soon as she started, everyone in the vicinity felt the aura of Nature changing around them in an inexplicable way, it only lasted for mere seconds before disappearing.
They didnât pay too much attention to it anymore and just simply did their work. They lived like real country folks, raising animals and farming while enjoying some occasional banter here there. Their act was natural and very convincing so even if someone happen to stumble around this place, they wouldnât suspect them too much.
As for Anne, she already secluded herself but not before informing HQ about it first. She got the go signal so she started right away.
She slowly unsealed Divine Realmâs Crest of Nature inside the cave which caused an explosive outgrowth of plants and bushes to occur, they filled the entire cave and formed a natural seal towards the entrance which somewhat helped in concealing Anne.
That being said, the influence of Divine Realmâs Nature wasnât taken kindly by Paradiseâs Nature.
Anne could feel a strong repulsion coming from it, which felt very unpleasant but she endured it.
âHmph! You think Iâm afraid of you? Very well, Iâll let you see who youâre dealing with here.â
Anneâs face turned cold as she immediately exercised her Divinity over Paradise.
She forcefully linked the two together and began siphoning the vitality from Paradise.
Of course, Paradise wouldnât let this pass. It would fight back. But Anne already knew that so she came prepared.
With the operations they laid out over the past year or so, everything lead up to one point to the other.
And with Raven imprisoning the only being that could assist Paradise in defending â the God Emperor, Anneâs assault was something that Paradise canât handle by itself.
Raven was actively suppressing Paradise and that allowed the rest of the plan to flow in motion. Anneâs siphoning the vitality of Paradiseâs Nature was naturally boosted with his efforts too.
It will start off slow. Thatâs to be expected.
Paradiseâs Nature has benefitted from constant conquest of the Abyssals after all. It is strong and filled with so much vitality that it could last for eons.
But, Anneâs method of siphoning its vitality is something that it canât stop. Although it may start very slow, eventually Paradiseâs Nature will be weakened. And since the siphoning is constant, it will only grow stronger with time.
That being said, if this was to continue at this pace, it will take decades for the siphoning to ramp-up. Anne didnât have that much luxury at this current situation so something needs to be done to expedite the process.
This is where her husband comes inâ¦
His mission of poisoning the food supply of the Abyssals will also act as poisoning Paradiseâs Nature itself, after all life is connected. If the Abyssals caught the Crimson Affliction, they will spread it to everything they interact with. And with the growing number of infected people, the damage will slowly accumulate and ramp-up as well.
This will also reflect to the nature badly. And by the time the Abyssals discover the affliction, the damage is already done. That would result in them destroying themselves by abusing nature in order to survive, which will further weaken the force of nature and will make Anneâs mission way easier.
This is the layered plan that Raven masterfully concocted and it is far from done. The plan was detailed in a way that, if followed correctly, will lead to the Abyssals destroying themselves without harming Humanity too much.
Still, this will take time and that is fine. Humanity isnât in a worry.
As far as everybody knowns, they are winning this war. The Abyssals mightâve already discovered the general area where Divine Realm is but they havenât infiltrated it just yet.
They havenât even come close at all since Ellen and Luna was there to hold down the fort.
As they slowly crippled the livelihood of the Abyssals here, more and more pressure will build-up until Paradise bursts into flames. When that happens, it wouldnât be too late for them to launch the decisive strike to end them once and for all.
As Anne observed the slow progress of siphoning at the constant waves of killing intent that Paradise Nature launches towards her, she held steady.
She was completely unbothered by whatever it did, and if it decided to release monsters to attack her, her escorts outside will deal with them for her sake. In short, sheâs completely safe and secured here.
Also, she borrowed some formation from Raven which helped her seal this cave. Even if Abyssals managed to discover this place, they wouldnât necessarily be able to break the seal so thereâs nothing to worry about.
If thereâs anything that bothers her, it would only be the safety of her child.
Jeanne, much like her best friends; Richard and Vanessa, joined the war as well. The three of them werenât tasked to infiltrate Paradise, their parents will never approve of that even if they were to ask.
Their mission is protect their home from the invaders. They are stationed at the Eternal Division Wall. Tasked to finish off any Abyssals that will come close to it.
Anne knows that Jeanne can protect herself. How can she not when Mark constantly trained her and polished her skills? Also, she took after Mark a lot and even developed his fighting style.
The part she inherited from Anne is her closeness to Nature. But she developed it in a lethal way. Jeanne was well versed in the art of poison. She had concocted over thousands of unique poisons over her life and even refined the art of Poison Healing, which is an incredible feat in itself.
Jeanne is very lethal especially when sheâs resolved to killing someone. In addition, she is immune to all kinds of poison and sheâs durable too. Her training made her a very formidable assassin like her father but stillâ¦
Anne wouldnât be a mother if she didnât constantly worry about the well being of her childâ¦
Her world revolves around Mark and Jeanne, if she lost them because of this war, she might as well blow up herself to take down Paradise down with her.
Still, there isnât much to worry for now, especially when the plan is going this smooth. She could only hope that it could continue this way so that by the end of this all, they could drop their weapons and live the kind of life theyâve dreamt about for so longâ¦