Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

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About two hours after Cedric left, the curtain was raised...

All of the creatures who were still fighting for the Sacred Light Tree and its fruit suddenly froze, the big ogre included.

To their astonishment, the tree suddenly disappeared. It was there, just not then. Poof! It's gone, and none of them had any idea who stole it.

The first one to respond was obviously the big ogre. It let out an enraged roar that shook everything within hundreds of miles. This didn't just intimidate the other creatures around but also functioned as a sonar. The feedback would allow the ogre to sense the thief, assuming that they're still nearby.

Alas, there was nothing. The ogre couldn't sense the existence of the tree at all; not even a trail of scent was left behind. It's as if it never existed at all.

The Luminous Demon also looked around, bright demonic light suffused from its eyes as it scanned the surroundings, looking for traces of the thief, yet just like the orge, it also saw none.

Stupefied, the ogre looked at the previous location of the tree. He crouched down and began digging, thinking that maybe the tree just shrunk or something, anything that would confirm that it's still there and all of his effort defending it wasn't for naught.

Alas, the only thing it found was the lingering scent of the tree left on the soil. Not even a root hair was spared.

Both the mature tree and the fruit were stolen from right under its nose, and it never even saw it coming. All of its blood, sweat, and tears went for someone else's benefit.

There is nothing more insulting to it than that.

And that was enough for the big ogre to promptly lose it.

Roar!!

With nothing left to lose, the big ogre has completely gone mad. It took its bone club and began its massacre. It's still mad at the unseen thief, but the other creatures around were also at fault.

It was resentful because if these little things didn't appear in droves, that thief wouldn't have come either, and the tree wouldn't have been stolen.

So, they're just as responsible as the thief was. And in its madness, that's enough reason for them to die to its bone club. So that's what it does.

The indiscriminate killing started. If it wasn't already bad earlier, it's certainly worse now. The big ogre truly wasn't holding anything back now. With the tree and the freshly matured fruit stolen, it understood that neither would be returned. The thief would be courting death if they did, so there's really no point.

And the ogre...it only lived in hopes of consuming the fruit. Heaven knows just how much it prepared and sacrificed for this day. That fruit was its last chance for evolution. Without it, any hopes for future advancement were gone; that door is permanently closed. Especially with the injuries it has accrued so far.

The ogre wouldn't live for long after this, so it might as well die with a bang.

Its resentment darkened the surroundings. Every creature around it instinctively knew that the big ogre had truly lost it at this point; it had no inhibitions stopping it from doing what it wanted, and it no longer had limitations.

And they could understand, somehow. Because if they were in its position, they too would probably lose it. The pain and loss of pouring and investing every ounce of effort into something, only for some stranger to benefit from it, was truly maddening.

Thus, the massacre began.

The big ogre could now freely move to chase after its targets because there's no tree to defend anymore. And for its size, it sure moved fast. Its bone club turned into a blur of motion with how fast it swung it around. The light in the ogre's eyes was gone, replaced with pure madness and insanity.

This scene caused the other creatures to flee in terror. Since the fruit had been stolen by someone else, staying here any longer isn't just worth it. They might even lose their lives if they stayed.

So, one by one, they fled using their own means, escaping from the mad wrath of the big ogre.

The Luminous Demon, on the other hand, cursed violently. It refused to believe it at first, but seeing how the big ogre acted and how it completely lost its mind, it was convinced. The tree and the fruit have indeed been stolen. And none of them saw who did it.

The thief was probably long gone at this point, and there's no way they'd be careless enough to leave a trail, especially after that meticulous act of thievery, so there's really no point in looking for them.

But the real worst part of this is that the big ogre unleashed all of its resentment on it.

The Luminous Demon was one of the main competitors of the ogre for the fruit. It was the one who stopped it several times in a row, the one who got in its way of evolution, so it's not surprising that the ogre wanted to kill it more than others.

It has already killed the Beholder, the Snake Man, and the Sky Demon Marten. Only the Luminous Demon was left, and from its appearance, it was clear that it wouldn't die until it did so.

This means that there is no escape for the Luminous Demon. It has to stay here and fight. Its only chance to live was if the big ogre died first.

And since the Luminous Demon wasn't planning on dying just yet, it has to fight. It had no other choice anyway.

As the Luminous Demon went for its final stand, the other creatures used this chance to escape from here. While the ogre's attention wasn't on them, they'd better leave, because if the big ogre ends up killing the Luminous Demon, they'd be next.

And nobody was a fool to wait for that to happen.

**

As for the thief, well...

He's whistling a soft tune as he returned to his temporary base. He tapped a button, which sealed the area off, preventing even a slip of his scent from escaping. It was only when the space was sealed that he appeared in person, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

Yes, the thief was none other than Cedric.

How did he do it? Well...

'Temporal Manipulation and Spatial Isolation.' Spacetime basics for the win! '

Through spatial isolation, he multiplied the spatial fold around the tree, forming an outline of its shape, tracing it closely down to the last angle to protect it from being damaged. Once he did this, he transplanted it to his Inner World, where it could grow freely without any threats.

As for Temporal Manipulation, he used to leave behind a virtual image of the Sacred Light Tree taken from the moment the fruit matured.

He had already stolen the tree, leaving behind a mere projection of its past to confuse the rest. It wasn't really an illusion, so nobody felt the difference or noticed anything strange.

All of them kept fighting over something that no longer exists. Cedric could imagine how they must be feeling now that the projection was gone. Fortunately, he's long gone from there.

Despite using mere simple tricks, the main reason why they succeeded was because Cedric's Space and Time Laws have reached the Great Law level. Had it been a mere fundamental level, things wouldn't have gone this easily, for the big ogre would sense it.

But the movement of a Great Law was beyond its understanding, so it remained ignorant, much like everyone else.

Truthfully, Cedric felt a little bad for stealing the tree and the fruit. He initially just wanted fruit, but he changed his mind later.

The thought of using the big ogre to deal with the other strange creatures changed his mind. He knew that by stealing both the fruit and the tree, the big ogre would surely lose its mind, and it would cause an indiscriminate massacre around itself.

With it and others dying there, Cedric was making this place safer for himself, so he ended up enacting this plan. The guilt melted like snow under summer's heat.

After making sure that his hideout was properly sealed, Cedric went to his Inner World, carefully picked the Sacred Light Fruit, and consumed it right away.

As soon as he took a bite of it, a gush of juices filled his mouth. It's like he bit on shaved ice that's naturally sweet. The fruit turned into liquid as soon as it made contact with his saliva, going down his throat smoothly and effortlessly.

In just three bites, the fruit was gone.

Cedric only had enough time to ensure that the Sacred Light Tree had been properly transplanted before he had to retreat from his Inner World and begin meditating.

The astonishing efficacy of the Sacred Light Fruit was already showing its effects, and a profound transformation was happening to him.

Unable to help it, Cedric could only seclude himself to prevent his changes from causing too many effects on his surroundings.