Storm Crows (Part 1)

Caw, caw, caw...

One shadow after another, half-human, half-giant birds circled high above. Their irritating cries accompanied their downward gaze upon the Molo below.

One Storm Crow seemed different. It was perfectly calm.

Even the Storm Crow King occasionally glanced at it.

This Storm Crow was none other than the Capricorn Duke in disguise!

The Wind Spirits would never have guessed that the Capricorn Duke they were investigating had transformed into an ordinary Storm Crow and was following the Storm Crow King, waging a brutal war against the remnants of the Molo Clan in the Everlasting Tree Realm.

"Your Grace, shall we begin?"

The Storm Crow King asked cautiously. It had to treat this mysterious human powerhouse with utmost care.

A strange aura clung to him, one to which the Storm Crows were especially sensitive.

It was fear—a powerful fear.

But this fear didn't come from his strength. It came from something else, something the Storm Crow King couldn't identify.

"Mm."

Just then, a Molo warrior rose from among the tens of thousands below.

One of his four tentacles held a raised bull-horn warhammer. A faint green aura of decay filled his skull's eye sockets. Suppressing his fear and despair, he stared up at the Storm Crow King, surrounded by countless Storm Crows.

"Mysterious powerhouse, which Beast Spirit are you? Our Molo Clan is willing to provide the Wind Spirits with twice the tribute, doing everything in our power to meet your demands!"

The Wind Spirits paid tribute to a number of exotic guardians, some of them extremely powerful. Creatures such as the sandworms and sunbirds worshipped by the Molo Clan were among those they had learned about from the Wind Spirits during the century-long war.

The Molo gathered in the Everlasting Tree Realm were no weak force.

Strictly speaking,