Extremely hot flames assaulting my shields while powerful Grimms are trying to come at me; the only thing stopping them are human powerhouses. I am confident they will not let any Grimm come toward me; even Foxwomen, in all her fury, wouldn't be able to move past Lady Angela. Seeing that, I stopped worrying and focused on the steaming problem in front of me; I was trapped in the inferno-like heat. The furnace repeatedly attacking my shields with fire so hot that even rocks would melt within a moment. I am protected inside my shields which are near breaking point; if one looks carefully, one will even see faint cracks forming around my shields. No matter how strong I get, there is always someone who is stronger. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂 I need to get strong enough that there is no one who will be able to break through my shields, and for that, I will need to keep hunting and killing the Grimms. The fire was powerful enough that it had made a crack in my shield, but those cracks were manageable. I would be worried if the bastard attacked me with an even stronger attack and cracks began to spread, but that did not seem to be the case. It is constantly providing energy to the furnace, but it is not increasing its power; it is just replenishing what it is losing to my shields. My shields are constantly absorbing the fiery energies that are attacking them, breaking them and strengthening their own defenses, which is why those faint cracks are healing slowly. Though, it is also making things uncomfortable for me as it is not just shields that are absorbing energy and filtering them but also my armor. It is making things quite hot for me, laceratingly hot. It is a good thing; it is an inheritance energy and not a bloodline energy. If it had been bloodline energy and I would have needed to take it inside. It would have cooked me from inside; it had happened a couple of times with me, and not a feeling I would ever like to relive. I looked around for a few seconds before closing my eyes. I shouldn't be doing it; I should focus on the battle as it is not just Mazla who wants to kill me; there are Grimms, who have the power to blast my shield to pieces, but there is something important, I have to look in my core, and I am willing to take the risk. I paid a huge price to the old snake to get it. I appeared inside my core; the first thing I looked at was the two Grimms, who were struggling with their might as the runes spread inside them. They looked at me in fear and anger as they tried to open their mouth, but they were frozen, unable to even twitch. In a few seconds, the harvest would begin, and I needed to be ready before that. I turned to my clone two; it was looking at the formation; it was a huge formation with circular lines with thousands of essence roses, with the grade of Knight to Grand Lord. In the center of the formation is a seed buried in the ground; this is the most valuable thing I have traded with an old snake, and I had used a metal-essence fruit for it. I did not plan to use the metal-essence fruit, but the old snake wasn't willing to accept anything else. It demanded something extremely rare and valuable that would benefit it, and the essence fruit, made of curse metal, was perfect for it. It was the last thing I should have given to it, but the thing it had brought was too valuable to reject, and now I hope the seed bloom. The seed I traded with it was a seed of a necrotic blood spill tree; it is also called a life-blood crystal tree. We had this tree before; it was successfully planted by her excellency; it kept providing us benefits for more than a thousand years since she left before it was destroyed by the schemes of the Grimm Monsters. There were many seeds of it she left behind, and humans planted them, but not a single attempt had been successful till all the seeds were spent. There was not a single seed that had been left for me. I have paid a huge price for this seed, making my enemy strong with the essence fruit I have provided, but if I succeed now a hundred times more than what I have given, it is not just me who will benefit, but also my race. I looked at the formation, which is from her excellency; I have made changes in it, as unlike her, I do not plan to feed it bodies of Grimms, that is too grotesque and also takes a lot of space, which I do not have in my core. I have removed a lot of plants, but slowly their numbers increased, and now, they have covered the same area as the plants before. Buzz! I was looking at the modified formation when the runes finally spread into the two Grimms and formation activated, and the harvest began. It is quite a regret that only one of them had a bloodline while the other had the inheritance. When I targeted them, I did not look at their bloodline or inheritance; I looked at their strength and their location before targeting them with the rose redemption. I did not stay in the core for long; after seeing there was no fault in the formation. I withdrew my consciousness from my core and focused on the defense. It is still attacking me, and for its entertainment, I begin to bring out a few changes in my shields, making it think its defensive method is working. It seemed to have to motivate it as it began to pour even more energy into the furnace; seeing that, my eyes couldn't help but light up. It is the enemy I will kill in the future, and while there is a lot of data about it, there is a huge difference between experiencing it personally and reading it. This bastard is powerful, without a doubt, even with the boost I will get from it. I could not kill it unless, of course, it used a move like Kraf; then, it won't be a problem for me to kill it. Alas, it would not happen again. Buzz! I continued on my defense, and finally, I heard the sound I had wanted to hear. The harvest is finished, and now, my core has released the strengthening energies inside me; at the same time, growth energy is released from the mysterious tree. The formation covering the seed also lit up a moment before growth energy reached it. The growth energy reached the seed, and immediately, I sensed the change in the seed; I sensed its ravenous hunger. As it absorbed the growth energy, the first layer of formation lit up, and it began to absorb the knight-class essence roses. At first, it took around three seconds to absorb a single essence rose, but soon, it changed to a second and then a fraction of a second. I saw it; it sucking one essence rose after another till there is none had remained.