DESTINY GAMES

As for the living beings on this world, they have their ways of managing the cold deadly winds. For one, they are not soft like humans.

The dominant race on this planet is a race of shelled arthropods. They have an external exoskeleton like insects and shrimp. But they also have shells like mollusks. So they are similar to hermit crabs in appearance.

They are bigger than hermit crabs, though. They can reach up to a meter in height, so it is more accurate to call them giant hermit crabs.

Their shells aren't only for protection either. Their shells house special mollusks that live in them and form a symbiotic relationship with them.

They also use their shells to move. Just like the vines, they have organs that can harness the power of the magnetic field. They can only move along the magnetic winds with the power of their shells, but it is essentially a free ride for them.

They also have limbs, which they use for grasping tools, moving, and working. When combined with their intelligence, they were able to build the dominant civilization on the planet.

But just like Earth, they are far from being the most powerful race or the most numerous race on the planet.

The most powerful beings on the planet belong to a race of sky whales. This race is similar to that of baleen whales on earth. They roam the planet eating the mites that live in the magnetic fields.

As for the most numerous race, they are the mites. The mites are like the ants of the earth. They usually live in the ground where they eat the plants in the ground.

The plants are the ones responsible for creating holes in the ground. The mites in turn eat the plants. But occasionally during their reproductive stage, the mites take to the sky to mate. Some of them survive this stage, but many of them are eaten by the sky whales.

The sky whales are docile. They won't attack. if they are not provoked. That doesn't mean that they are safe to be around with.

Sky whales will attack when they eat. It is not an attack per se. They simply open their mouths and suck in air. Everything in the air they take in is eaten.

Sky whales are always hungry and eat a lot, so it is never safe to be around them. But as long as someone stays on the ground, they have every little chance of encountering a sky whale and being eaten by it.

This is the normal ecosystem of the Umbra world. Every being in this world relies on the active magnetic field of this planet in one way or another in order to survive.

It is unlike Earth-11, where life relies on the energy from the sun. The star of the Umbra world is dying, yet life has found a way to continue.

But there was a massive change in the ecosystem recently because of the invasion of the vampire race. Vampires came to this world and found the darkness very welcoming.

Vampires are not harmed or weakened by sunlight. But sunlight blinds them.

The eyes of vampires have infrared vision, which makes them capable of sensing prey through their body heat. All the heat and light that a star produces overwhelms their vision and makes it difficult for them to see.

So vampires don't like normal daylight. They sleep during the day and hunt at night. But they don't have to do that here. Umbra is like a paradise for them.

The vampires mainly prey on the dominant race of shelled arthropods called the Kunut race. It was this race that reached out to the large galactic tree they saw in deep space. They asked for help from this tree, so the Yggdrasil civilization army arrived.

Kelvin thought to himself, "I am witnessing two rare things. The vampire race and the Yggdrasil civilization are actually allying with another civilization. And this is all happening in one expedition."

He chuckled and said, "Wrath would have loved to see this."

It is rare that the Yggdrasil civilization will ally with another civilization. Usually, a civilization will have to be very strong to become allies with the Yggdrasil civilization.

The civilization would have to be difficult to conquer and assimilate. When the effort needed to defeat them isn't worth what would be gained from defeating them, the Yggdrasil civilization will opt for making that civilization an ally.

Of course, those allies will be subordinates of the Yggdrasil civilization. It is nearly impossible that a civilization has enough power to be their equal. It is because such powerful civilizations are rare and because such civilizations rarely surrender.

The vampire civilization is one of those rare civilizations. They have enough power to rival the Yggdrasil.

The Yggdrasil civilization was actually willing to make them equal allies, but the Vampire civilization refused.

It is a common sight in the universe, according to Wrath. Civilizations strong enough to rival the Yggdrasil civilization always try to defeat them. It is because such civilizations grow stronger by fighting.

Just like the Yggdrasil civilization, any civilization that grows stronger by fighting rarely backs down from a fight. They would always try to fight in order to grow stronger.

It is because of the presence of the vampire race on this world and the willingness of the Kunut race that made them get the rare opportunity to become subordinates of the Yggdrasil civilization.

In a normal situation, a world like the Umbra world will have no chance of becoming a subordinate. They would be conquered and enslaved completely. Even a world like the Lignum world, which is much stronger than the Umbra world, couldn't escape that fate.

He looked around at the dry, boring world around him and said, "Even if this world was strong enough to defeat the first expedition or wipe it out, it is unlikely that they would be able to become anything more than slaves. But the presence of the vampires and the willingness of the Kunuts to help defeat this great foe has granted them this rare opportunity."