101-108

Chapter 101 - A Scary Enemy!!!

"I don't need your help for that!"

"Humph, cold bastard!"

"What did you just say?" he narrowed his eyes and I felt if I said anything further, he might go and break the contract amidst his rage.

Why did he have such a ruthless explosive temper when it came to this jumper?

But that didn't matter. Right now I simply obtained a lot of stat points in various forms. According to my initial estimate, I got almost one million stat points off him.

That seemed too much, but compared to the one hundred thousand gulf of my chariot's strongest form… It was considered nothing!

Even adding my stat points and his together, my chariot could only operate in full power for ten hours only!

I prayed to gods at this moment to make my chariot's intermediate form suitable to be used in combat. Or else I would be screwed!

But the next moment I threw all these negative thoughts and fears away from the roof of my chariot. My girl… she started to run at a speed high enough to be considered monstrous!

"Damn!" Angelica came as well to stand with the rest of us at the front. She put her hand over her face to shield against the sudden gush of the wind created by the high speed of my chariot.

"It's amazing now, right?" I couldn't hide my excitement from this result. Right now we were running at a speed that exceeded the flying speed of my dragons in the air!

Come on, just admit I was cool by having this mighty chariot galloping earth like it was a hungry beast!

"Yet it takes a lot of stat points to run," even in the middle of such a glorious and happy moment, the jumper always found a way to say something mean.

"Not a problem," I shrugged without care, "I can sustain it like that for over a hundred hours!"

"That's only four days," the jumper rolled his eyes at me, "or to be precise, it's only two days time in the apocalypse."

"Don't forget we are going to kill many races," I didn't show any sign of disappointment. I wouldn't give that bastard his satisfaction. "We'll steal much more stat points from them."

"Just pray they are wealthy rich kids in their clans and tribes," he still found a way to say something mean again, "or else you'll end up having nothing after these two days."

"We will," I firmly responded, "and not only a bunch of them, but most of them."

"Humph, let's see…"

"Yes, we'll see…"

The two of us kept glaring at each other for a long minute without flinching. It wasn't until the sudden shout of Isabella that I finally turned my eyes away from him and saw the front.

"We are here," she exclaimed in excitement, "let's kill their asses!"

"It's kick their asses my sweetheart," the spearhead said before Isabella glared back at him.

"Who is your sweetheart? I dare you say it one more time and I'll grab that sweetheart off your chest!"

"It's rip, not grab," I corrected while laughing. I didn't forget to give the spearhead a warning gaze again. Dude! Don't push your luck too much or else you might find yourself lying dead in my hands!

But the moment I turned to see the front, I couldn't help but feel my blood getting frozen out of fear.

"Sh*t!!!" I cursed out loud while stopping the chariot all at once.

"What's wrong?" my sudden curse followed by me stopping the chariot attracted their attention.

"Was that thing over there present when you were here before?" I pointed in the direction of the castle, not towards the ground that was covered literally with thousands of monsters, kobolds, werewolves, and humans.

"You mean that shining protective dome on top of the castle?" the jumper snorted as it seemed he took that thing too much lightly than he should be. "Yes, it was there," he added when he noticed the stern look on my face.

"What is it?" Angelica pushed herself to the front through us to get a better look, "isn't it a protective shield?"

"It's a protective dome," the jumper corrected her in his usual high attitude.

"It's not!" but I had to pour a bucket of cold water over his head.

"Then what is it, genius?" he crossed his arms in defiance and at this moment it hit me.

He didn't recognize this thing as he didn't see it before! The highest run he did wasn't even close to the twenty-fifth quest we were going to face soon.

So it was normal he didn't recognise that thing hovering on top of the castle, and mistook it for a protective shield.

"It's a world gate," I said in a deep tone, "one that connects that place with a similar place in another world."

"A world gate? What the hell is that?!!" the jumper asked in much doubt but this wasn't the big problem here.

From what I saw so far, the main races here were kobolds and werewolves. They were the same kind of races I faced before.

And as far as I could tell from my short visit to the Bringold impact, they acted as warriors for another race.

But who was that race then?

Suddenly everything started to fill in their places… The jumper, someone so cautious to even let a fly get close to him, was hit by a cursed arrow in a sneaky attack.

What were the possibilities for someone like him to commit such a silly mistake? Nill! It wasn't even one in a thousand or even a million percent! It was big f*cking zero!

So I had a world gate activated for such a long time without any race obviously present around it, a herd of warriors working under such a race, prepared to fight us head on without being afraid from my chariot, and finally that mysterious incident of the jumper.

Everything seemed unrelated, but in fact they were once you put a single race name in such a weird mix… The illusionists!

Damn! Why was my luck this bad?! I had to run into them first, not my targeted world gate!

Damn me!

"We should go and kill them now," Isabella started to get on fire, carried out by the momentum of my chariot and my newly acquired big guys here, "world gate or not, we can crush everything standing in our way."

"Well said," like a parrot, the spearhead nodded and repeated what she said in different words, "we have our mighty chariot and mighty warriors, we have you and that… masked fellow who still doesn't tell me his real name…"

"Do you want to die?" The jumper gave him a cold gaze that made the spearhead pause in the middle of his words.

"Peace bro, I'm here for peace," the spearhead retreated a couple of steps and even took the shield out of Isabella. The latter shook her body before turning to stand by my side, totally exposing the spearhead.

"But the refined lady here has a point," the jumper suddenly gestured with his head towards Isabella, "we have nothing to fear! As long as we are here, nothing can harm us!"

I couldn't disagree more dude! We couldn't risk our lives and go blindly against such a scary race!

Just as I was thinking about if my chariot was equipped to fend off the stealthed racekin of illusionists or not, a strange feeling came to my heart, making it drop to the dead bottom.

"Move aside!" without even explaining, I sprinted towards the direction I felt that strange feeling coming from. I took out my two swords in a flash, before I rotated around and slashed with both at the air just ten metres away from us.

And as I felt my sword hitting something fleshy, and even before I could make certain of what my swords hit, a sequence of the same uneasy feeling appeared in my heart in succession.

There were ten! Ten at the same time!

"Be ready for battle!" without having any speck of doubt I recalled every single warrior here except for the soulers. The latter were the only race I had with enough agility and inhuman reflexes to match such hidden enemies.

"What's wrong?" Angelica's doubtful voice came from behind, but I had no time to explain everything in words my dear.

"Infiltrators!" this was enough to explain everything to them. Just as I did all that, I started my next spree of running and killing.

As I took away most of my warriors, moving around became much easier than before. The roof of my chariot looked spacious, but the more I moved to kill, the more uneasy signals I got!

These signals came from my sense stat! The one I never found a way to put in actual battle use proved itself to be my life saviour today!

Of course this unused passive skill for all this time kicked into the stage in such a big move! Damn! My class was really superbly dope!!

"Keep yourselves protected with each other," I shouted while killing my tenth illusionist. But that wasn't something to be happy about. It seemed my chariot lacked any ability to stop them!

And that was simply bad news!

But if I knew that, then my next move was simple and direct. Instead of running around like an idiot to catch them, I ventured directly towards the source; the stairs.

Going there wouldn't only help me kill any of them coming on board, but might also attract the others' attention.

"Keep moving," like I expected, my soulers moved in their bizarre way all the time, looking like they were flashing and shaking while filling the entire floor with their afterimages.

It wasn't their afterimages, but the moment they moved from one spot to another, they got attacked to move up again.

"Yeah, kill them," I noticed that amidst their movements, many silhouettes came out from their stealth and fell dead on the floor of my chariot.

I didn't see how they did it, but it was all good! Kill them, kill those bastards!"

As for me, I stood like a heavy rock over the stairs. My sense skill kept giving me unstoppable signals, which I kept answering with both my swords.

But at some point I couldn't keep up and felt a few blades hitting my legs before something like a big hammer hit my chest and made all the air inside my lung come out in a burst wave.

That wasn't the problem, the problem was that I lost my control over the stairs for a long minute before I returned again while killing my path through the illusionists.

"Half of you come here," after this happened thrice, I couldn't see any hope of stopping their influx towards here. All I hoped for was to not meet any shadow illusionist here, or else I would be cursed while dealing with such a scary race.

Under my orders, almost forty of my soulers flashed and came to my aid. The moment they surrounded me, they managed to kill many illusionists without even lifting a finger.

All I saw was that their black fire became restless for a few seconds before they calmed down again.

"Ten of you go and protect them," unlike my and my soulers' outstanding performance, my group was literally struggling in dealing with those illusionists.

They had all the right to suck in such a way. After all none of them had my sense skill or had the mighty nemesis of the illusionists, my souler warriors.

"Ten around me, and the rest go down there and stand firm at the entrance of my big baby," I added while releasing all the rest down below.

And I could hear sounds of clashing swords, thudding sounds of falling bodies, and then the noises started to grow weaker.

"Stay here," I said before moving around my floor.. It was time to clean this mess up and start my retaliation.

Chapter 102 - The Trojan Horse Tactic

As I got such a firm grip over the situation here against the illusionist, it was time to drive my mighty chariot up to that damned castle and world gate and shut the two down!

Of course I didn't know how to shut a world gate down, but it was time for me to learn how to do so.

Or to be more precise, I wanted to control that gate.

Yes, I wanted to take it under my wing. I came here not to control the city but to complete the heroic mission and control one world's gate.

And right now in front of my eyes, one gate stood erect, waiting for me to take it.

The gate was in the form of a ring of fire, a massive ring of fire that spanned almost over three hundred metre in radius. The thickness of the ring was at least twenty metres thick.

It hovered one hundred metres above the castle that wasn't like any normal castle I conquered so far. The castle had thick big walls that covered a space of a kilometre in radius.

There weren't just three towers, but at least dozens of them! I spotted even a couple of small ballistae that would pose a threat over my forces, not to mention that big catapult that I only saw the upper arm of it high in the air, situated almost in the centre of that castle.

It was a real fortress of an activated high grade castle, suitable to protect such a world gate.

And from that world gate, rays of bright silver light extended to cover almost all the castle area. That was why the jumper and others mistook it for a defensive shield.

"The intermediate form of my chariot isn't enough," I muttered while reaching the front side again.

The jumper was protecting the others using some sort of a protective gadget that wasn't even enough to stop the clashes of the many illusionists who targeted them.

But that was over now. Once I arrived, I saw many dead bodies all around, killed by my soulers.

"Good boys," I commended in honest praise, "now it's time for our assault."

"Are we going to hammer those bastards now?" The jumper seemed to be enraged by what just happened now.

I looked at the castle and the army standing around it before I turned my eyes to the area surrounding my chariot.

And there I finally spotted my own soulers gushing out from my chariot, killing every single illusionist standing in their way.

"Yes, we will go there," I slowly said before turning my gaze towards the castle and added in a cold tone, "but it will be a hell of a fight."

"We have your warriors," Angelica seemed to get over her fear at this moment, "we can crush them all!"

I didn't comment on her optimistic words. In fact the deadliest form of the illusionists wasn't in such a sneaky pattern of attack they did here.

I knew they wanted to exterminate us, fearing my chariot. But their deadliest advantage came when they were surrounded with other forces, like the big army standing in front of us right now.

They would stealth, wait and see chances to attack us unprepared. It wasn't a good thing to attack while having your guards raised against such sneaky bastards.

I knew many of my warriors would fall here, and if my group decided to follow the heat of the battle, they might get overwhelmed as well.

So how could I turn such a hard battle tide towards me? Towards more security?

"What are you thinking about?" the jumper, who was the only one with a slightly cool head here, asked when he noticed my sudden silence.

"We can't risk frontal battle," I said while narrowing my eyes in determination, "we will use the trojan horse tactic."

"What?" The spearhead seemed to not recognize such a tactic, but the rest did.

"Isn't that an ancient tactic used in old times?" Isabella asked before adding in disbelief, "I mean it was before Christ time! Hell, how can we use such obsolete things here?"

"What do you have in mind?" The jumper didn't refuse my words in the same way Isabella did. After all, he was very experienced and knew I must have a reason to think so.

And of course I did!

If we risked an open out war with those forces, then it would be like setting up the perfect stage for the illusionists to show their true might and terror.

So the wise thing to do was to not give them such a chance at all. How come I would do that? It was simple; I'd use my chariot and move it and penetrate the entire castle, turning it into a trojan horse.

And that was the reason why I discarded the intermediate form of my chariot. To be able to crush such defensive abilities of that advanced castle, I needed a force higher, much higher than my current chariot had.

"Be ready to use any far ranged attacks from here," I said while taking out all my warriors and then I gave them the order:

"Part of you go down below and use the defensive platforms to rain down the enemies. Use bows, use spears, even throw axes and swords. Use anything to kill…"

"Will that be enough?" Angelica looked a little unconfident in my plan, "we have thousands of enemies plus those stealthed guys down there. If we went directly inside, we would be crushed! We need to get out and kill them."

"No, we have a chance," I instantly waved my hand and in the middle of my chariot roof, my gigantic ballista appeared.

"What the heck is that?!!" the jumper jumped in fright before looking at me in obvious doubt, "did you steal a dragon race treasure vault or something when I was away?"

"You can say that," I didn't comment or ask him how he guessed it. After all, my chariot had everything that pointed towards the dragons of course.

"Go and operate the ballista," I said to my Gollems before leaning over the edge of my chariot and shouted, "surround the chariot, kill anyone we meet. Get ready!"

As everything was settled, my group reluctantly took back their weapons and took out bows and arrows. In such a high place, arrows were the only deadly weapon we could use.

[Do you want to operate the chariot in fully powered mode?]

As everyone was ready, I turned my attention to the control of the chariot. I agreed and that central pillar shone in a brighter light before its central little star of fire started to circulate around itself in crazy fashion.

"Did you…" the attentive jumper didn't miss this, and I stopped him by waving my hand in a casual way.

Who cared? We needed to penetrate the defensive shield and crush anyone inside.

"Hang tight!"

I knew this would hurt. But without any hesitation, I pushed my chariot to the front alongside a loud shout: "Attack!"

It was given to my soulers. As expected, they matched the frightening speed of my chariot.

Once I gave the order, the chariot dragorses roared while their bodies seemed to ignite with immense power. Their muscles expanded slightly and their scales even got brighter than before.

Then they brought my chariot to the front at a speed that is least to be described as flashy!

*Boom!*

Such a clash was destined to cause such an explosive sound. Yet the remarkable thing was that I never felt the aftermath of such shock.

Not even a hair of mine twitched under such fierce impact!

Yet it wasn't enough.

"Roar!"

"Roar!"

"Kill them all!"

Many angry roars echoed alongside shouts from the races and traitors stationed here. But I didn't give them a damn. I simply made my dragorses pull the chariot back for a hundred metres before they slammed again against the shield.

"Fire!"

And at this moment, and when I made sure no matter what happened we wouldn't get affected by the shock, I gave the order for my gollems.

*Fwoosh!*

A deadly long black arrow made entirely from thin air once the huge string was pulled was released like a bolt towards the shield.

The shield was already trembling under the immense battering of my chariot. It wasn't acting as a warring chariot at this moment, but simply a gigantic battering ram, a damn heavy battering ram!

"Again!"

As I made my dragorses retreat the chariot for another hundred metres, I tried to synchronise the next attack with the massive arrow from the ballista.

And after the tenth attempt, my synchronising try succeeded!

I didn't aim to make the two meet at the same time, but to make the arrow arrive first then the chariot. My only problem was the frightening speed of both, something even my eyes couldn't follow least to control!

Yet I got lucky at my tenth attempt and with that, a loud cracking sound appeared from the shield.

All this time the enemies were trying to swarm us! Yet the chariot was enough to kill and smash anything that stood in its way.

After a few failures, and many losses, the enemies changed their tactics and started to target the door to the chariot itself.

But such attempts were stopped valiantly by my brave soulers.

"Attack!"

As the shield cracked open, the inside of the castle was open wide for us. I didn't hesitate to push my chariot forward, crushing the big walls of the castle using my chariot's immense force.

The wall looked like it was made out of clay, not sturdy stone! The walls fortified by the system and didn't get any effects from my dragons before were now crushed by my chariot!

That told me a lot about how deadly and advanced my chariot was.

"Your turn," at this delicate moment, I turned towards the sky. There were three dragons hovering silently over my head. Once they got the signal, they rained the enemies at the centre of the castle with their deadly breaths.

Those must be the leaders of this force, and also the place with the highest concentration of illusionists coming through the world's gate.

As the fire ate away many hidden silhouettes, revealing their bodies, I waved my arm around in a motion for my dragons to break free and attack as they saw fit.

Then I pushed my trojan horse inside the castle, reaching all the way to the centre of the castle in a few breaths.

"Now what?" Isabella asked in impatience. Just watching all these enemies and such fierce clashes that happened between my soulers and them made her blood boil for battle.

"Keep attacking," I simply gave this order. This ancient tactic didn't require my forces to embark and attack. The strongest point here was in my well protected chariots with my soulers plus all the far ranged attacks coming from the defensive platforms and the rest of my forces from within.

As for my soulers, I finally managed to see how they were attacking. Against the previous clashes with the illusionists, I didn't see how they killed them.

But when they were met with normal races and monsters, I started to grow an understanding of their abilities.

They simply twisted and shifted their places to appear like passing through the bodies of their enemies. Their fire would engulf the enemy's entire body in a blink of an eye, looking like it penetrated their bodies without any hindrance.

In my eyes, I saw it like they were made out of rays of deadly light and the bodies of their enemies were made out of transparent glass!

The moment they passed through any body, that body would lose any sign of life instantly after and would fall in a muffled thud to the ground.

Brutal! Scary! Deadly! And pretty much OP!

Damn! I got lucky to have them here! I was lucky in the first place to get such an OP class to support their deadliest weak point.

As the battle raged on, something unexpected happened!

We were inside the castle, just in the centre of that place. The giant world gate was flashing all the time, shimmering light all around.

Just after a few minutes, I noticed something that made me feel threatened!

That damn previous annoying feeling and that vague sense of danger came up again without warning! The source of this was just a few metres away from me, from my group, from my warriors, inside the rooftop of my chariot!

How the hell did they manage to climb their way up to here? Was it because we were stationed still and not moving?

Dammit! Those illusionists were so much like a pain in the ass to fight against! Even as hard as fighting against those deadly Selvators!!

Chapter 103 - The Still Time Prison

My puzzlement didn't last for long. I realised that something was related to the strange rays pouring down from that high up world gate.

"Be on alert!" I shouted before moving fast towards the centre part of the chariot roof.

If before my main task was to not allow more of the illusionists to come up here from down below, then this time I had to do exactly the opposite.

And I didn't face them all alone.

"Come back," I called back ten soulers without any hesitation before summoning them again, "scatter, kill any illusionist you find!"

And simply like that a brutal battle was moved up to the roof of the chariot.

This time my group didn't stand idle, petrified in fear like before. The jumper took out defensive items and distributed them to the two girls and the spearhead.

Then they moved and started to hit the air under the lead of the jumper.

Even if they couldn't see their enemies, they knew the enemy was here and their weapons wouldn't find it difficult to kill anyone standing in their way.

But how could we continue fighting like this?

Even if we could kill them, more and more kept coming from up above. I stood my place firm like a solid rock, killing every single illusionist that came into my range of ten metres sense skill.

But would that be enough? How would we end this?

I knew we couldn't keep going like that, and gradually the girls started to get tired, their protective items from the jumper became exhausted like running water.

After all, they were moving blindly, attacking and defending blindly, while their enemies were seeing them all the time.

The only three doing so well in addition to me were my soulers, the jumper thanks to his vast fighting experience, and the spearhead.

It was a bluff, or it was actually, for the spearhead to be able to kill so many illusionists so far. Thanks to his two heavy chained metal balls, he only needed to turn around himself and spin, leaving all the workload for his deadly weapons.

If this continued, then one end would come to us. I had only one option left, but before doing it, I made sure to use my strongest chariot weapon.

[Do you want to unleash the ground separation weapon?]

[Warning: To use it, the chariot needs to be in the air first]

"No problem," I simply gave the order and my chariot's brave dragorses spread their wings and started to lift the entire chariot high in the air.

I couldn't see them clearly until we began to fly. "Activate it now!" I didn't hesitate to use such a weapon now, hoping it would be enough.

However as we got near the high up world gate, something seemed to stand between my chariot and that gate, like an invisible force field of power.

But the chariot was already in the air and the next thing happened was for the entire chariot to emit a dazzling dark golden light.

Then I could see a large space of the ground down below, high in the air under a loud series of rumbling explosive sounds.

"Release it!" as a large area of the castle got higher than the chariot, I simply motioned to all my soulers to jump off it and reach my side.

After all, the part that got separated was nothing else but the central zone of the castle, in a radius of three hundred metres at least.

But there was a central hole, where the main building that held the emblem defied my chariot's ability and remained in the ground.

Once I gave the order, that big piece of land fell like a meteor on the ground. I could hear wails of races, monsters, and humans coming like never ending torturing chorus from down below.

Then another message appeared in front of my eyes.

[You used the ground separation skill]

[Almost half of the chariot stored energy was depleted]

[The remaining time for the full powered form is twenty minutes]

[The remaining time of the intermediate form is two hundred minutes]

[Decide!]

"Take us down first," despite this was pretty much expected, but I wasn't feeling satisfied. The size of the ground affected wasn't enough to kill every single living enemy in that castle.

Although I killed almost one third of their forces in just this simple attack, it was far from enough to secure my chariot and my forces.

So it had to come to the next step now, especially when the energy of the chariot was running low so damn fast.

I hadn't hit the rock bottom yet, but if I wanted to escape such a dead end I'd have to be daring and make such a decision now.

Even if it looked reckless, I had to do it!

"Get ready," I shouted, "once on the ground, run towards the emblem."

"What?!" I could hear the shocked exclamation from Isabella but I had no time to waste in explaining anything to her.

It was time to take back my precious chariot and turn the trojan horse strategy into killing the king and seizing the kingdom one.

"Come back," as I made up my mind, I took in my giant chariot before a magnificent scene appeared.

"What the hell…?!!" I was shocked when I found myself standing all alone in the middle of a grand emptiness left by my chariot.

That was expected. After all, my chariot took up almost a space of over five hundred metres square.

But what was epic was the fact that I stood there in the middle of such emptiness, all alone!

There was no one of my group present, not any of my warriors, or even my enemies.

How come this happened?!!

And the answer came instantly when I opened my inventory and examined my chariot to get answers while shouting over:

"Surround me!"

I was literally standing alone in the middle of the grand forces of my enemies. They weren't looking as grand as before, but against my lone self, they looked terrifying.

The next instant all my fighting soulers flickered and flashed to appear around. They stood in layers, tightly protecting me from any enemy.

And that included the still pouring like rain from above illusionists.

As I secured myself by this simple move, I started to examine my chariot, hoping to find answers over this mystery.

And the moment I did, a row of messages started to pour in front of my eyes.

[Warning: Your chariot has been taken back in the middle of war]

[The chariot activated the still time prison inside it, using the rest of your provided energy]

[There are five hundred and eighty-seven individual inside the chariot now]

[You can decide either to release whoever you like, trap them there until you resummon your chariot again, or force a binding contract with them]

[Your choice human race Hye!]

I looked up at these messages before stopping in front of the number provided by the system. In the middle of all the cries of deaths and the rumbling noise of the war, my mind ignored all this and focused on such numbers.

"Five hundred and eighty-seven… my forces can't reach such a number at all!" I muttered while the explanation was obvious. The moment I saw the description interface of the chariot, I found an option of the trapped living beings list inside my chariot.

And when I selected it, everything became more obvious!

"Take all my warriors and the human race out," I didn't hesitate to add, "and force a binding contract with all the illusionists inside!"

How could I refuse such a heavenly gift? The illusionists were, and would continue to be, one of the most terrifying races ever existed in this apocalypse!

Their reign or terror would leave deep impression over humans for decades after. And now? I had over three hundred of them trapped forcibly inside my chariot!

I never expected such a great number of intruders to be present inside my chariot. But right now I just hoped this number would be bigger so my gains would be larger.

[All the selected individuals will be released now for free]

[Forcing a binding contract over each individual you selected will require one thousand stat point or an equal source of energy to be completed]

[No need to buy any binding contract. As long as you keep the possession of the chariot as the owner, they'll be bound to you by unbreakable contract]

"Damn!" I sucked in a deep cold air of breath, "just taking all of them will deplete this much of my stat points reserve?"

It was a pain to consume all this in one go, but I didn't have any other option. The future up ahead seemed to hide many deadly encounters, and the illusionists would be a fine addition to my growing elite forces.

"I agree," I said, "bind them all!"

Just as I said these words, my own forces came out at this moment. My group looked puzzled for a few seconds, even the jumper wasn't an exception.

"What happened just now?" Once regaining the clarity of his mind, he looked around in clear vigilance.

"Go and kill those enemies around the emblem," I didn't give any explanation. As I could see, this heaven defying ability of my chariot could be considered a game changer in many deadly and hopeless situations.

"But…" the jumper didn't move as he seemed more puzzled the more he thought about it.

"No time to get confused, just do as I say," I turned to my small army of warriors before adding, "soulers at the outsides, shield warriors and bulltors follow behind. The rest will stick to the centre… Let's go!"

As I gave such clear orders, everyone started to move towards the central building of the castle.

The ground wasn't even. After the last attack I used before calling my precious girl back, the ground became more like a deadly meteor just hit it.

But that also stood in the path of our enemies, buying us more time to go towards the emblem.

The closer we got there, the more concentrated the illusionists were.

[Binding process update: ten percent]

[Estimated remaining time: Five minutes]

It wasn't long for such a grand number to be forced to follow me, but in these five minutes the outcome of this battle would be decided.

No matter how many illusionists were thrown into our path, my force crushed them all.

Thanks to the soulers, and the great contribution of the jumper and the spearhead, these illusionists didn't pose any threat to us at all.

Even the ones who were sent directly in the middle of our forces were dealt instantly by me. I didn't let even a single souler to come inside, focusing all their strength over going near the emblem.

And the moment we passed the door of that three story building, I found the emblem I was looking for.

It was hovering a few metres off the ground, emitting bright silver white light like a little star in the night. It was a brilliant scene that I didn't have any time to appreciate.

"Surround this place," I shouted while moving as fast as I could towards the emblem, "ten soulers stand inside, kill anything that dares to intrude."

At this point, all we needed to do was to hold the fort. The heart of this place was this shining little star. Once controlled, all the enemy forces would lose all the augmentation they had from it.

And that would turn the tide finally to my advantage.

"Stand your hand off the emblem!"

Just before I could reach there, such a calm snort came from high above. In a reflex I turned and jumped away before a muffled explosion erupted just at the point I was standing at.

*Boom!*

The explosion happened so fast, but my shield warriors acted faster.. They activated their combined defensive ability and pushed the aftermath of that explosion away while creating a deep crater.

Chapter 104 - The End Of Volume 1

Some of my warriors got into such a mess, and fell into the crater. Luckily not a single one was hurt. But that made me look at that young illusionist standing on top of a big eagle in the air with a cold gaze.

"It's not a good thing to throw a fist before a word," I calmly said.

"He is strong," the jumper whispered as he came to my aid without any delay.

"I know," he wasn't just strong, he had such wealth to buy such a weapon. I couldn't recognise the attack from the start, but when I saw that green silver fog that was pushed away by my shield warriors, my heart felt a cold grip holding it.

It wasn't just toxic gas, but it was one that would curse the person's soul.

That dude standing over there was the one who cursed the jumper. And that told me a lot about how formidable he was, and how bad the jumper situation was.

The jumper was one of my assets, one valuable asset that I worked my ass to get him on my side. Losing him in such a useless way was out of the question.

But I also knew that dealing with that person now wasn't feasible, not without enough preparations.

"Humph, it's you who came crushing on our doors and killing my people," he retorted before adding, "retreat now and I'll consider this as if it never happened."

"Oh, acting mighty and generous when you are one foot away from defeat and death? Interesting…" I didn't waste anymore time talking to him.

His sudden appearance interrupted my earlier momentum, but I knew what he was aiming for.

After all this wasn't the only race invading our world or Jersey city. And if I imagined that the other races wouldn't hurry here to help despite their differences with each other, then I'd be committing a grave sin.

They were enemies, but when removing humans out of the picture. Against us, all the races acted like a unified sword and a mighty shield.

"Stop me if you can," I knew I couldn't possibly kill him at this moment, but that didn't mean I wouldn't preserve my life if he dared to attack me again.

If he decided to stop me, he wouldn't succeed, I guarantee that. I wouldn't kill him, but he would fail to stop or even hurt me!

"Pretty stubborn I see," I could feel cold deadly daggers at my back, but that didn't stop my steps towards the emblem.

"Just wait at your gate," I said in a clear challenge, "I'd come and claim that gate for me right after."

"Humph," but when I got near the emblem, I felt a sudden change in the entire atmosphere. I was ready for that. The moment I felt such danger, my precious chariot came again into this world.

Only four minutes passed since I started forcing the contract with the trapped illusionists. I needed one more time to bind them all, but who cared?

I had to preserve all my current strength no matter what! Losing my warriors was equal to losing an arm or leg for me!

And that would turn my current achievement of having illusionists worthless! So decisively and in cold blood I decided to accept a current small loss than take a larger loss later on.

*Rumble!*

As I summoned the chariot, I could see a flash of many messages that I didn't care about. I knew beforehand that the system would warn me of the interruption in the binding process and would tell me how much I gained.

But at this moment of crisis, I didn't have the luxury to care about any of that.

Once I summoned the chariot, I called that central pillar of its shining star. And without any hesitation I placed many of my stat crystals inside, even much more than needed.

"Activate the defensive shield!" The shield was summoned just a moment later from calling off my precious girl and doing all that. Once the chariot appeared, a mighty rumbling occurred as its innate shield of the basic form stood erect against the incoming deadly attack.

But when the fully powered state was activated, that shield was sturdy enough to push back that attack and relieve the sense of crisis over my heart.

And at that moment I could see the real shape of that attack.

"Damn ruthless! It's my luck to have my chariot at this moment!"

Just outside the shield, a world of hell was there. Fire, thunder, and even cracks in the air that seemed like they were tearing the entire world apart were assaulting the shield.

It was a mighty weapon that I once heard of its terror, the tears of the illusionists' god; the Lorcerk!

They even had the support of such a high grade god this early on in the apocalypse! That tear wasn't a tear, but it was a bead of filthy fluid that contained all the resentment and part of the real power of that god.

Just releasing it was enough to wipe out an entire city from existence! It was a weapon on par of the deadly star of the angels!

Yet at these stressful moments, it seemed like my chariot's defensive shield was doing a good job at facing off this attack, making it focused all over the chariot without being able to crack the shield.

To demonstrate its terror, the tear must explode and release its all energy stored within. So right now that attack wasn't even considered close to one tenth of the real formidable power of it.

And that made me heave a deep sigh of relief.

Like that deadly star, this kind of weapon also had a limitation. That god was rumoured to only give one tear to one trusted subordinate for free. Wanting more required lots and lots of quests and missions to be done successfully.

"Take more," as I saw this, I couldn't help but throw more stat crystals without reservation inside that beating star of my chariot. Right now my chariot defensive shield was the only thing standing between that weapon and my life.

What was good about keeping my hand and reserve my riches if I was going to die? It was simply foolish!

As for others around, not a single person said even a single word, not even a gasp of shock or fear.

It was expected. After all humans knew how weak they were when faced with such unstoppable and unimaginable might.

"Damn you cockroach! You are still alive?!!!"

The attack lasted for five straight minutes, during which I never stopped pouring my stat crystals every time I got the message that the energy was almost depleted.

Just in these five minutes I consumed about eight hundred thousand stat points at least! But I didn't care, stat points could be replaced easily at any time, but not my life!

"I swear to come to your neck once I control you damn gate!" with a heavy heart filled with wrath and desire for vengeance, I swore in a loud tone before I heard a strange laugh.

"Then you have to hurry into the city and look for me then."

*Fwoosh!*

As the world outside started to get cleared, all I saw was a flash of a light that passed fast, so fast like a lightning bolt towards the horizon.

And when I turned my head upwards, I didn't find any remnants of that damn gate anywhere in the sky!

"W… W… What was that?!!!"

The spearhead was all shaking in fear while not being able to even stand! His body slammed on the ground in a muffled thud, and like dominoes all the others fell as well.

Even my warriors, even my dragons, even the jumper… not a single one was an exception… except for me.

I moved my eyes around. The shield of my chariot seemed to take all the destruction caused by that god tear, as everything around looked the same.

The buildings inside the castle stood erect like before, and even the enemy forces were still alive.

Yet they weren't in any better state than my group and warriors. I moved my eyes around, taking in a deep breath while feeling blessed and lucky to escape this close moment of death.

Yes this was my victory, yes I remained alive and managed to keep the emblem and castle under my control. Yes I was now able to crush the remaining army of mixed races around.

But I failed to kill that person! And from him I felt an immense threat of deadly danger.

"And that was only an illusionist," I wiped the small beads of cold sweat off my forehead before adding in soft tone, "and there are still those barbaric Selvators and bloody violent dragons… Damn!"

I felt this quest was going far beyond my abilities to handle. If it was just one race then I had some confidence in handling them. But I knew I had to face off at least five mighty races at the same time.

And from this battle I was sure these races would combine and coordinate with each other. That only meant going against one race was like going against all of them. It also meant that stepping into that city was like stepping into a deadly trap.

Just a casual encounter with the illusionists here forced them to send such a mighty figure to fend me off. Just imagine the other races? And now they were alarmed, and would be very much prepared for me next.

But I had no other choice but to crush them all! I steadied my heart and firmed my resolve. Yes, I had no other choice but to face all the obstacles they threw at my face and crush them all to survive and thrive.

I didn't come back here to just survive, I was surviving well enough back when I got nothing to back me up.

I accepted such fate before because I had no power to resist, not even a good class to make the difference.

But now? I had such a unique class, blessed with all the warriors and humans I gathered up so far. I had many plans waiting for me once I finished here, and I had my path to the cultivation world still waiting for me to enter.

I could never stop right now, how could I accept such fate?

I now aspired to triumph over everything and everyone. Be it angels, races, and even gods… Just wait… I'd come and crush you all and place you under the feet of mine one day!

Yes, that was my goal from now on… I'd become a mighty human, the human that would become a terror to the rest of the universe.

Just you wait… I wouldn't waste my chance like an idiot, I promise you I wouldn't!

Chapter 105 - [Bonus Chapter] Vol 2: Interrogation

It wasn't a surprise for the remaining forces of the enemy to get crushed in the next half an hour. My warriors coupled with my team just needed a chance to vent all their stress, and those enemies came at the perfect time for that.

As for me, I didn't have the desire to watch this fight anymore. A settled victory was already set in stone for my side this time, despite being an incomplete victory to be honest.

But it was still my win. Next time I'd do better, I promised myself that!

"Time to get you inactivated," despite the fact that my forces didn't need any help from the castle to win, I just wanted to prevent any unseen events.

So I went inside the three story building and stretched my arm towards the hovering emblem. Last time I was interrupted and stopped by that strong illusionist, but not anymore.

[Do you want to control the emblem?]

Once I touched it, the system sent me this message. This was my first time coming in touch with an emblem, and this was an activated one as well.

"I want," once said these words, the emblem flashed in bright silver white light before it changed into black coloured rays of light. This swift change made me frown.

I knew the colour of the illusionists' power was silver white. Was my energy coloured in black? Why was that?

As I didn't have any clue to an answer, I shrugged my shoulders and simply examined the next message of the system.

[You control the advanced emblem]

[This emblem is now activated]

[You can control the emblem through an interface designed for emblems at your profile]

"Open profile," I simply checked the new interface and turned the activated emblem into deactivated form.

After doing all that, I finally had time to consider two things…

"Come," as the fight was going smoothly, I simply walked outside and shouted, "come here my illusionists."

The ones I bound already were now fighting the enemies. But I didn't have time to even check on their numbers or their stats.

My order was a decree that they couldn't defy. The next few minutes I saw two hundred and fifty illusionists standing in front of me.

They had the same physique of humans, but their skin was milky white in colour with repeated circular patterns of heart beating-like silver shining colour.

Their eyes were big and rounded, but they lacked visible eyelids like humans. Unlike humans, they got a membrane-like fast moving layer that kept appearing and disappearing like water turning into frost before melting again.

I watched them while feeling their hatred and anger towards me. Of course they were forced to become my lackeys, and I didn't find anything weird about their current feelings.

What I needed from them was obedience and their strength; both were secured by the binding contract supervised over by the system.

"What are your current abilities?" I asked in a demanding tone.

"Who are you first?" one of them was courageous enough to speak in such arrogance.

I could tolerate their silent enmity, but dude… I was never allowing for any rebellious act in front of me.

"You are going to die," I simply opened my profile page and looked for the contracts I had with others. There was a long list for me to search but I simply thought about that dude and instantly a small window of control appeared with his name.

He was called Allengar, and without any hesitation I chose to punish him with death.

Of course there were many other options here to punish him, for example sealing up his powers and inflicting pain over his body. I also had the power to issue quests to any of them in exchange for paying a corresponding fee of blessing points.

"Not for now," without even batting an eye for the screaming Allengar, I closed that window which turned grey and looked at the rest. "I'm not a democratic person, so spare your opinions or else…"

I motioned my head to the dead body of Allengar before adding, "now, who is going to answer my question?"

This time no one dared to say anything funny or useless anymore. "We have the ability to stealth and move fast during such a state as our innate talent," one of them spoke and his tone came a bit shaky.

It seemed they saw me as a soft person to deal with before, but now? Humph! Despite having many people bound to me by contracts, dealing with other hostile races like these was a different thing.

Only power was respected, as I just did.

"What about your illusion abilities?" This was something that didn't add up at all. What gave their race such a name wasn't just their ability to stealth, but to attack others using illusions.

But during all the fights back then, not a single time one of them used such an ability. And I wanted to know why.

"That's because it consumes a ton of coins," one of them said in a bitter tone.

"And?" if it was a problem of coins, then this wouldn't be the case. At least that strong dude who appeared late would have used his ability on me.

"We also need intelligence stat points above three hundred," one of them added, "and also need blessing points."

"I see," so it was a problem of a stat point at this stage. I didn't know any of that before! Just recalling how I was terrified when dealing with that shadow illusionist and the illusionists here, I couldn't help but bitterly smile.

Knowledge was power, and the apocalypse proved this point clearer with each passing day.

So they couldn't use their deadliest weapon yet, and it seemed from the many conditions they had, not all of them would be able to do that.

I wasn't only thinking about my enemies, but also considering my current force of these illusionists.

Coins and stat points weren't an issue. Right now the higher limit of the stat points was fixed at one hundred mark. So it was safe to assume that the next quest would raise this limit to two hundred.

So even in the next quest I wouldn't be able to fulfil one of the main conditions for their abilities.

Also the blessing points were a pain. "How many of you have support from gods?" I just asked with little hope, hope that was instantly crushed the moment they all raised their hands.

Damn! This was bad!

The bad thing here wasn't in their inability to gain further support from other gods, but it was also the nature of the gods they gained their sponsorship in the first place.

These gods were all illusionist race gods, all hostile to humans and human gods.

So thinking about the possibility of their gods giving them tasks and appointing blessing points for their deeds was a funny joke!

So I got a shitload of those illusionists with their gods, and they couldn't accept the blessing from human gods now… What worse could happen?

There was only one way I knew how to solve this messy situation. Thanks to the angels, I knew that blessing points could be transported, just like what they did to attack me thrice with that deadly star weapon.

Mentioning the deadly star weapon, I now had a peace of mind about it. According to my chariot and its outstanding performance against that mighty illusionist god tear, I now had confidence in dealing with that scary weapon on my own.

That reminded me of those lazy gods in my channel. How come they didn't come up with their offers yet? And what about that mysterious high god who was thinking about coming forward as the jumper said before?

At this moment I felt that they lost their chance in convincing me to join any of their pantheons. Even that high god, I doubted he would be able to convince me as well.

"Alright, time to gather up intel," as I moved such thoughts aside for now, I turned to another hotpoint, "what do you know about that world gate that just moved away from here?"

As the mystery regarding their ability was cleared, now it was the time for another mystery to be unveiled.

I knew world gates were rare, and extremely valuable. But from what I witnessed, that world gate seemed to be able to move freely between places.

That wasn't something I heard of before. And just considering such a possibility made me worried about controlling any world gate.

What was the benefit of attacking one world gate and before controlling it, that gate would whoosh away? That was unacceptable and I needed to know more about such situation first.

"That's easy to explain, mighty one," one of them said before adding, "this world gate wasn't the primary gate here. It was just a subsidiary gate created by paying a hefty price of coins and many blessing points as well."

"Call me lord," I corrected the way he addressed me. Just hearing that made me understand something. "So you mean there is a primary world gate somewhere in the city and this was just a branch of it?"

And he nodded.

"Yes, my lord."

"Then why did you pay all this price just to create a subsidiary gate?" I couldn't understand the reason behind this. As far as I knew, the world gate was something that needed heavy protection and much resources.

Just opening one must have consumed a hell of their already scarce resources. Be it coins or blessing points, both weren't that abundant at such a stage of the apocalypse yet.

"We needed humans," one of them said in obvious hesitation, "human slaves that we can use in labours and also to sacrifice them for our gods."

"Sacrifices? Blessing sacrifices?" I couldn't help but feel anger when I heard these words. And it seemed my anger was so obvious that it made them all pause and fell into silence.

But their silence was enough evidence to confirm my guesses.

"Damn!" I sucked in cold breath before adding, "so that means other races are also doing the same thing, right?"

And this time they nodded.

"I heard that the Selvators and the dragons worked earlier than us to establish their outer gates around the city," one of them said before adding when I nodded in encouragement, "I also heard that the dragons were slightly angry for unknown reasons. They got the support of some higher ups in their clans and opened two gates, not one."

Once I heard these words, I didn't know why that dragon archlord or something from the auction popped into my head. Yes, he might be the one behind such a rage, or perhaps that was the nature of the dragons.

But that meant I needed to change my tactics a bit.

Blessing sacrifices was a very brutal concept, widely known and famous for all non-human races. In their eyes, humans were the lowest kind of race they ever met.

Seeing us as slaves was something common. But in the eyes of their gods, and for unknown reason, these gods kept issuing blessing sacrifices to them, asking them to capture us and offer such captives as sacrifices to please the gods.

In return for such quests, those races would gain tons of blessing points and in such an easy way. Just seeing us as cattle and sheep herds worthy of nothing but slaughter on their sacrificing altars made my blood boil.

And it also rang a very dangerous bell inside my mind. Wasting more time meant they would gain more blessing points and become more formidable than the way they were right now.

"Do you know where these subsidiary gates are?" I couldn't help but ask in anticipation. But I was doomed to be disappointed when they all looked at each other while few shook their heads.

"We only know of our affairs," one of them said before adding when he noticed me frowning, "but all the subsidiary gates are located in a wide circle around Jersey city that covers almost twenty miles radius."

"Twenty miles… That's not a small area to navigate," I thought deeply about that before I looked up and shouted, "come down here!"

*Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

Chapter 106 - Trans-Apocalypse Visit Invitation

During the past battle, and during the stressful moments of crisis I faced, the dragons didn't have any place to show their might at all.

But now, who was better than them to scout such a vast area?

"Go in each direction," I pointed at three different directions before adding, "avoid the city and search the areas adjacent to it. Look for anything that looks like the gate we just crushed here."

"The one with a fire circle on their top?" one of the dragons asked in a deep voice.

"Yes," I said in agreement, "once you found it, don't hesitate to mark that location and look for another. We are looking for at most five to six gates here. Go now and don't waste any effort to fly fast. Don't miss anything, got it?"

*Roar!*

The three roared in unison before each ventured into one direction. In a span of a few seconds, they vanished from my eyesight, going to search for my desired gates.

"What about the situation inside the city then?" As I finished solving the second mystery, it was time to assess the situation inside Jersey city.

"The city is in deep chaos," the answer that came startled me as it came out of the blue.

"What do you mean?" I asked with a serious tone. Even when I asked my question, I was just trying to get a better understanding of the relation between the five big races in the city.

But it never crossed my mind that the city was still defying their reign. Come on, they were the five big races and they had their gates opened for a long time now.

How could the city not fall by now? That was unbelievable and shocking news for me!

"There are many resistance pockets of the human race across the city," the one who spoke first continued, "the strongest of them is in a zone called the Heights, not too far from here."

"The Heights?" I asked in doubt, "what makes that place special?"

"We don't know about that, sorry lord," the same illusionist spoke before adding, "our main gate is located at the south, some place called Greenville."

"Greenville… Hmm…" I thought for a second before adding, "Will be the last place to visit for sure. Then what about the closest one to that place? Do you know which race has their gates at that place?"

"We heard the dragons are trying to take control, but they failed," the illusionist answered.

"Did the dragons even fail?!!" This came as a surprise for me. I just thought the gate of the succubus race might be there, as they might be called the weakest of the big five races.

"There is something lord isn't aware of," seeing my puzzlement made that illusionist say more intriguing facts, "the gates might give us permission to come to this world, but we came through an illegal route anyway."

"Illegal route? How come?" He managed to pick my interest here.

"We shouldn't activate the gates before the start of the next quest. But with the help of our gods, we managed to get here through a loophole," he paused before adding, "we can only remain strong inside a small zone around our gates. Once ventured outside, all our stats and cultivation would be severely lowered. Something I heard to be called the fairness of the system or something like that."

I didn't comment on what he said. After all, I knew the system was fair and would go to such lengths to ensure the equal opportunities of other races in the apocalypse.

If the races managed to get advantage of a loophole, then the system would interfere and force a correction in the form of restricting their abilities just like now.

"So the humans here were lucky bastards after all!" I muttered to myself while grinning.

After all, I dropped any hope of recruiting any humans from this city. How could I think about that while the big five races were taking control over the city for many hours already and having their gates opened?

But such news gave new possibilities and options for me to use in the upcoming brutal clash. That also meant if I played it smart, and did things right, I would have a greater chance of achieving what I came here for.

Even if the five races were on their guards against me. I'd use that high alert state and use it against them.

Just wait… you'd be amazed by my next plot!

"But there is a piece of bad news," the illusionist seemed to see my celebration before crushing the temple, so he had to add, "I heard before coming here that the races are preparing to unleash some sort of a weapon, deadly enough to kill all humans in the city."

"Weapon?" my thoughts moved to the god tear and the star weapon, both were considered deadly.

"Monsters," but the next explanation made me realise how wrong I was, "they are preparing a large number of hybrid monsters to swarm the city during the next few hours."

"Oh," I felt this might pose a challenging threat to the humans in the city. Dealing with normal monsters was something, and dealing with hybrids was another.

I once faced a hybrid monster when I was at the central park; these monsters were deadly. Considering they were monsters, the system wouldn't put much limitations over them.

The most that could happen would be in the form of making them immature, just like the kind of monster I faced.

But even with such limitations, that monster was a pain to kill. If I wasn't there, I doubted even a group of hundreds of humans would be enough to kill a single hybrid monster.

Not to mention these races decided to send off swarms of those monsters and unleash them all at the humans in the city.

Ruthless! These races weren't called the big five races of the apocalypse, the real embodiment of terror without a proper reason indeed.

But if the problem was just to these hybrid monsters, then I wouldn't consider it a big problem for me.

After all, with my current force, I could hold the upper hand against any hybrid monster, even if there were a swarm of them.

So things started to plan themselves out in my mind. The first step would be to hit the outer gates of the other races. Then I would go inside the city and start playing big.

"We won!"

"We killed them all!"

"They deserved this! Damn bastards! They scared the shit out of me just from that last attack!!"

At this moment, it seemed the fight ended and my team was just celebrating in their own way. The jumper remained all silent and came to stand by my side, watching the illusionists around me.

"Got anything useful in their mouths?" the jumper said while pointing his sword towards them, "or do you need my help in this?"

"Yes, we can make them talk or dance," Isabella was really scared when she was in her battle mode.

"Let me force them then," the spearhead waved his blood soaked metal balls in a threatening way towards the illusionists.

These guys… Sigh!

"They are my lackeys guys," I stopped them before doing anything stupid, "let's just take few minutes of rest. We still have many battles waiting for us next."

"Another castle to conquer?" Angelica asked, seemingly eager to go and crush more castles.

"World gates, just the one we crushed," I said this before pointing towards my chariot, "Go and check over Karoline and Alex, they should be awake soon."

"What about you?" The jumper was always attentive and cautious. That dude was really doing a great job in getting on my nerves all the time!

"I'm going to collect my rewards," I rolled my eyes before adding, "I killed most of them so I have a lot to collect."

"Damn! I totally forgot about this!" Isabella literally jumped off her feet and ran towards the dead bodies filling the entire place.

"Wait for me," the spearhead moved as usual and stuck to her side while Angelica gave me a kiss in the air while saying: "Thanks for reminding me of that. If you want, there are many empty rooms in the chariot… I can repay your kindness in any way you want."

She winked before running after the two at the front.

"Pathetic!" the jumper commented in a cold tone while shaking off his head as if I was the one who proposed such a thing not Angelica.

Come on dude, I didn't even answer her. She was a world class beauty, a girl who knew what the strongest weapons of a girl were!

But unfortunately I wasn't in the mood to play and fool around, plus she didn't shake my heart for even a bit with all her efforts. The only one who managed to shake my heart a little was someone else… But was it the right time to think about that? Was she the right woman I was looking for?

Sigh! I sucked at such love issues to be honest.

Throwing all these useless thoughts aside, I went to collect my rewards with big anticipation in my heart.

After all, I killed tons of illusionists and other races here. And I targeted them out of the blue. Even a large number of the illusionists were dispatched from their world to here in urgency.

So I knew beforehand that my share of the loot this time might end up being my highest gains since starting the apocalypse.

The more I got, the better. After all, my chariot proved how worthy it was in her amazing and formidable fully powered version.

But that form consumed a lot of my stat points. Not to mention I depleted more than half of my reserve just to stop a single attack on the same calibre with the star weapon.

So I needed more, more stat points, more rare materials and treasures, more of anything that could help me in fueling my little girl and keep her in top shape all the time.

And I got exactly what I expected!

"Almost two million stat points… Not bad…" I didn't even spare a glance over the coins. For now I only cared about the stat points and nothing else.

"I can buy more stat points from the market," I opened the market interface and found many stat points being sold. But buying stat points wasn't practical, after all I needed tons of them.

So I passed the singular stat points and headed directly to the auction.

"Hmm… The price of a single stat crystal is basically sold at two hundred thousand coins… Not bad," I scanned the long list of the auction without getting interested in taking part in anything for now.

After all I didn't only need stat points, but I needed many other things to overcome the five big races.

"You must have gained tons of things!"

Just as I finished checking my inventory, Angelica came and leant over my chest without being invited.

And like she dared to do so, I simply gazed at her without batting an eye.

"And you also gained many things as well."

"Not like you of course," Isabella came and as usual, the spearhead came afterwards like her shadow.

"Oh, you two seem to be interested in what I got," I smiled a smile that wasn't like any.

"You should donate some of your earnings," the jumper came to make the group complete, "instead of taking our stuff, you shall donate some in return."

"I'm poor," I said in a pitiful tone that was really sincere, "you should donate your inventories to me."

"Stingy Hye," Angelica punched me in a weak way while pouting her lips.

"Alright, let's get back," I laughed and put an end to their silly show, "go and check over Alex and Karoline."

"Stingy Hye," Isabella said while Angelica rolled her eyes towards me. As for the spearhead, he followed Isabella like usual.

"Got anything nice?" The jumper stuck to my side, not showing any intention of dropping that matter.

Dude… if my inventory was a sea, then yours was an ocean!

"Didn't check anything yet," I lied but before he could say anything else, a strange message popped up in front of my eyes.

[Unknown god sends you a trans-apocalypse visit invitation]

[The invitation is valid only during the next five minutes]

[Do you accept?]

At last!

Chapter 107 - [Bonus Chapter] Meeting With A God

I already lost any hope about getting contact from that mysterious god. But now he was inviting me in such a way I never knew before.

"What's wrong?" the jumper noticed my sudden pause and asked.

"Have you heard before about anything called a trans-apocalypse invitation?"

"Does God decree an invitation to visit? Damn! He contacted you already?"

"So you know what that's all about," I felt a little relieved. Despite knowing that gods wouldn't do such low tricks of drawing me to a trap, but also accepting something I knew nothing about was another issue.

"Accept it," the smart jumper read my mind, "don't waste time here. Every second counts at such an invitation. And…"

He suddenly paused, looked around like he was fearing someone would hear what he was going to say. Dude, come on! Drop this slightly obsessive cautious nature of yours. We were all here in the same camp!

"When you are there, try to do anything and exchange coins for precious items."

Even under his ugly mask I saw him winking. That bastard! He seemed to have had such an invitation before or else how could he end up giving me such a hint.

"Alright," as it looked safe, and with his urging attitude, I simply accepted the invitation. "Stay on lead here, don't let anyone come closer to the chariot. Also if the dragons came back, let them tell you about the places they found and try to draw a detailed map using the others knowledge…"

My words were interrupted as a flash of light surrounded me all of sudden. A storm of black energy surrounded me like a typhoon before everything vanished and my last words went to the air with this.

"Sigh, I hope he knows what he shall do," I thought I'd take more time to come here. But it seemed that the invitation worked like magic, taking me in a few blinks to this new place.

I felt like I was standing in a never ending sky full of stars. The sky was dimly lit, something similar to the sky of my world.

I stood in front of a long road filled with stairs. Despite it having stairs, I felt like it wasn't going up, but simply going forward.

And at the end, I saw a big rounded platform, lined with a big wall, and the platform was carried on thick dark clouds. Silence prevailed here and I couldn't help but feel the invisible pressure coming from that direction.

Damn! Was I invited here by a high grade god? Really?

"Come forth," a deep voice filled with strange pressure and majestic domineering came from that platform. Yes, that god who invited me here was waiting for me there.

The moment I started to walk, I felt a strange thing. The stair road was made of white blocks of pure marble. Yet with each step, it seemed like black energy flooded from my feet like I was spreading a plaque!

Just seeing this scene made me ponder, wasn't this similar to that black energy which appeared when I took control over that emblem or what?

But I felt nothing else, no pressure, no threat, or even any changes happening thanks to my uncontrollable black energy.

When I looked back, I noticed that the wave of blackness my feet created before slowly faded away. The tiles of the stairs returned to their pure white colour, like nothing just happened.

I didn't know how long I walked, but the more I walked the more bored I became. The scenery around me never changed, like I wasn't walking at all!

If not for that platform to become bigger, I would have sworn that I wasn't walking at all.

As I got closer after an unknown period of time, I finally saw the inside of the platform even before arriving there.

The platform was the size of a football stadium. It was circular, and it was lined not by a wall like I imagined, but with large and standing shoulder to shoulder statues.

All I could see from far was the black colour of the statues. But when I finally was less than a hundred metres away, I could finally see their details.

They weren't all made entirely of black ore, only most of them were. They got golden thin lines that kept shimmering in light like beating heart, in regular rhythm.

Each statue might reach to a hundred metres tall, a gigantic wall made entirely of identical statues that carried the same face; a jackal face!

Just seeing this face made me instantly recognise that god… Damn! I ended up with one of the mighty gods from the Egyptian pantheon, a higher god to begin with, Anubis god!

He was the god of death, one of the famous neters of Egyptian mythology.

When I arrived at the platform, I could finally see everything in more detail. The eyes of the statues seemed alive, not just the eyes of carved stones. And each eye was in pure gold colour, giving me goosebumps to be honest.

Each statue carried a long thin staff that was made entirely out of golden ores. But when I came up there I noticed that the tops of these staffs were different.

Some carried symbols, others carried heads of animals and birds. So these statues might seem alike on the surface, but each represented something and had a different purpose and meaning for sure.

Aside from those gigantic statues, the entire platform was empty except from two seats made out of pitch black ores.

One seat was big, much bigger than the other. One was for me, and the other was for that giant sitting cross legged and leaning his head over one hand while watching me in interest.

Was he that famous Anubis god? I didn't know the answer but everything around told me he was!

"Come," that giant god motioned at me to come and sit opposite to him. He held a small cup that was filled with pure red wine. Yet it was small in his hands, but in my eyes it was big!

As I walked, the platform that was covered by pure white tiles started to get tainted by my black energy. This time my energy didn't fade away and remained, creating a long trail of blackness marking my path.

Didn't know why, but even though I should have felt uneasy at this moment from such a scene, I couldn't help but feel somehow attached to this.

It was like something deep inside me was resonating with what was coming out from my feet.

"Surprised?" the god spoke when I sat on that stony seat. Unlike what I expected, it was comfy and not rigid at all.

"I don't know why such energy came out from me," I honestly said.

"You'll get to know many things, but all in time," the god took a sip from his cup before adding, "now let me ask you something, who do you think I am?"

"God of death, Anubis?" I blurted it out as if this was an easy puzzle to solve.

"Interesting," his eyes shone, but strangely I couldn't see his face clearly. There seemed to be some sort of a black fog that veiled the upper half of his face.

And when he just said that word, his two eyes shone all of sudden like two embers of fire.

Seeing his face in such a state made me feel a little fear for the first time since coming to this world.

"I have to say you are wrong and right," a white marble table appeared out of nowhere when he placed his cup over the air. He left his cup there before leaning more comfortably over his seat and the next instant that table vanished with the glass.

"I'm not Anubis, but I'm here on his behalf," he slowly said.

"Then who are you?" if he wasn't Anubis and was just a follower of him, then that meant he wasn't a high god like I expected.

"I'm called Nero," he paused as if he was watching my reaction. And my reaction was really unsightly to see.

"The roman emperor, Nero?" I asked just to make sure I heard him right.

And he simply nodded without saying anything.

"A low god like you is trying to scheme me in this way? Humph, you should have known better!"

Without any speck of hesitation I stood up, turned my back and was about to walk. Yet what he said forced me to stop and even return back to my seat.

"Aren't you eager to know how a god following the roman pantheon is related to an Egyptian pantheon neter?"

In fact I had this doubt once he declared his identity. But I didn't care about the reason as I cared about his identity. He was a low god, not a higher god.

After all this waiting and planning, I ended up getting such an invitation from a lowly god? That wasn't acceptable for me!

"You have one minute to explain yourself," I sat back but didn't change the look on my face, "or else I'd leave."

"Then let me ask you this…" he adjusted his body while snapping his fingers before a long staff made out of pitch black ore appeared in his hand next.

It was similar to the one held by the many statues of Anubis in here. And it ended up with the head of a jackal, symbolising Anubis.

"How come the gods following your channel never made a single move since you gave them that interesting offer?"

Yes, this was another puzzling point indeed. If this offer came from such a low god, then why were the others acting like scaredy cats in front of him?

I was sure there were more than enough higher grade gods than this emperor here.

"Let me tell you something you don't know," like seeing an interesting show in the ancient colosseum, he gave me such an impression while watching me, "I'm not here on my behalf. I'm here to represent others."

"Others?!" I asked with much disbelief than doubt.

What is meant by others here? They must be gods, higher grade gods without doubt.

"Are you here as a messenger representing Anubis god?" I asked again, trying to make sure I got what he hinted right.

"Not quite right," and he shrugged, paused intentionally before leaning forward and magically that marble table appeared again with the cup he placed before out of thin air.

He took his time, that damn god! He raised the cup with wine, even moved the cup a little to create a small move in the wine. He even sniffed it as if he didn't know what he was drinking!

As I was growing impatient by each passing second, I didn't open my mouth and say anything. If he wanted to play such a game of patience with me, then I'd welcome him with open arms.

"I'm here representing the human race pantheon of death," he finally said.

"Human race pantheon of death?" but what he said made me more puzzled, "I never heard before about such a thing."

"That's normal," he took in another sip from his wine before adding, "this is considered a high end secret that not many are supposed to know."

"And you are telling me this because…?" I paused while waiting for him to place the cup again on the table before the two vanished like before.

"The human race pantheon of death is highly valuing you," he said, "but you have to know that this is considered top secret for a reason, right?"

That former emperor… He seemed to love shifting topics and acting mysteriously like that!

"What do you mean?" you didn't expect me to nod over something I barely understood. That didn't make any sense!

"There is something big to force the gods of different civilizations to join up together, right?" he slowly said without exposing much info.

"Why not say everything at once so I can understand?" yet his attitude started to get on my nerves.

I dunno why, but he reminded me of the jumper at this moment.

"And where is the fun in that?" he laughed as if he heard a joke, "besides, there are many things that shouldn't be known to common people."

"Didn't you just say the death pantheon highly values me?"

"Indeed," he nodded and that added more to my puzzlement, "but you didn't yet join us, right? What do you say, wanna join us now?"

Chapter 108 - A Low Grade God

I didn't know why, but at this moment I felt his eagerness towards that matter to be quite sincere. He wanted me to join, not only him it seemed.

"I can't promise you that," as he loved to play games with me, I also placed one leg over another while adding, "you still didn't convince me to join your pantheon."

"You won't find any other suitable pantheon ready to support you like us," he said and his tone didn't even change at all. As if he wasn't startled by my clear rejection, or even anticipated it!

"I can wait and more pantheons will reach out for me," I didn't show any worry at all, "after all as there is a unified death pantheon for human race, then there must be other unified pantheons as well, like life pantheon."

"Humph, they won't be any good for you," he scoffed, "you are a death walking on earth for your enemies. The best pantheon to suit you is ours."

"You have a point indeed," I didn't argue directly with him, but added as if I was seriously thinking about what he just said, "but in that case then the pantheon of war is more suited for me, right?"

"Those…" Nero seemed to be about to lose his calm but he controlled himself and didn't add more. At this moment I knew all this, all this calmness and all this high attitude was a fake.

He was nervous… he wanted me to join the death pantheon.

"Indeed they suit me better," I was about to stand before the staff in his hand had its jackal's eyes shine brightly in golden light.

"One moment," I could see wisps of black gas coming out from the eyes of that jackal and merging with the black fog covering Nero's face.

I could tell that someone was speaking with him.

"Alright,got it," he said while the staff in his hand returned to normal again. "Let me ask you another question, what's the difference between high grade gods and low grade ones?"

I smiled in confidence while saying:

"The low gods were once humans, just like yourself. They did great things in their lives and ended up being selected by higher gods to carry on their legacy."

"And the higher gods?" his tone didn't show any agreement or refusal to what I said.

"They are the real gods worshipped by any human society through our long course of history," I added, "so we can call them the true gods, the owners of the pantheons."

"Interesting," he said before looking at the staff as if he was relaying a hidden message or something. "I never imagined for a human at this stage of the apocalypse to know such a secret. You are worthy to know more then…"

I didn't know if he was talking to me or to himself, but if he was going to say more mysteries then I'd never interrupt him.

"In one way this might be true, but you deserve to know more," he snapped his fingers and this time the entire world around us changed.

The sky that was all still even when I was walking towards here started to change. Stars shone and others dimmed, while parts started to show strange scenes.

I didn't recognise anything from these scenes, yet strangely I felt familiar. All I could see were flashes of places that seemed to not belong to Earth.

"I believe you already guessed this… Humans aren't only living on Earth. In the entire universe, there are many worlds where humans live," he started to point his staff towards the sky while scenes started to grow clearer.

I could see the scene flashing speed getting decreased, and thanks to that I now saw many human faces. They were all fighting, fighting against races I knew and others that I didn't.

"But in the entire universe humans never lived in a world as the sole race. That means Earth is special, not only to us but to many other races as well."

"Why is that?" I asked without turning my eyes away from the sky. What I was seeing up there was like an entire new world that I never knew of before.

"Because humans are stubborn," Nero said, in a tone that held much pride than confession, "no matter how the races standing against us are strong or giant in physique, we always proved to be a worthy opponent. Not to mention we already conquered many worlds in previous apocalypses."

I noticed the scenes shifted and showed many humans crying out in victory. I saw tears, blood, wounds, exhaustion, but all of the faces carried only one simple and clear emotion… They were happy, that kind of happiness that carried tons of pride after a long struggle.

"Why are you telling me this?"

As the scenes showed me these moments which I knew were parts of the long past of the human race, the sky returned to its stillness and all the lights vanished.

"Because you need to know that high grade gods aren't just gods coming from our Earth, but from other human worlds across the universe," he slowly said before adding, "and that might explain to you why someone like me coming from the roman pantheon is speaking with you while following another civilization pantheon god."

I could understand what he was speaking about, and yet there were many things that didn't add up.

"That doesn't mean I shall follow your death pantheon," I said, "if this was the truth, then other pantheons will be also like yours. Then why should I follow you?"

"Weren't you confused before about that black energy coming out from your feet?" instead of answering me, he asked.

I fell into silence without saying anything. After all this was indeed a mystery, but why should it be related to what I asked?

"It's simply because your class already determined your future," he shrugged as if he was speaking about something already sitting in stone, "the class you have is considered part of the death pantheon. So it makes more sense to follow our pantheon, not any other one."

"So this is why I'm diffusing such black energy?" I pointed to the trail that was still present till now, "but that doesn't mean I can't accept other pantheon blessings, right? I can either start off with another pantheon then continue with yours, or vice versa."

"Unfortunately that can't be done," he shook his head before adding, "once any race selects a god, he or she will be bound with that god's pantheon to the end of his life. In certain conditions, such a rule can be broken, but that doesn't apply to you."

What he said before was something, and what he just said now was something else. When I heard what he said I couldn't help but widen my eyes while feeling shocked.

"I won't settle myself with a low god like you for such lame rule," I said before standing up, "if this rule is true, then go back and tell whoever sent you to select a higher grade god. I will see myself back."

"Wait," Nero shouted in distress, "I'm not here to tell you to follow me, but to take your agreement about following us."

"And you got it," I looked at him without sitting back again, "tell them I already had my conditions laid on the table. I don't need such protection against the star weapon at this moment, but I'm a man of my words."

"Hahahaha," all of sudden he broke into a strange wave of laughter. What? Did I say some sort of a funny joke or what? "Do you think you got your chariot out of coincidence? Was it pure luck?"

I didn't know why but when he said these words, I couldn't help but inwardly tremble. Damn gods! Did they have a hand in what I gained back at the auction?

I recalled what I experienced. Nothing seemed out of order at all. Everything happened smoothly and without any signs of any kind of interruption at all.

"I never expected a god to be a liar!"

"Sit first," he didn't seem insulted by what I said, and instead he invited me back, "tell me, in all the events that are related to that chariot of yours, which one that seemed a bit fishy?"

"Nothing," I sat back and shrugged, "everything doesn't have any evidence of your help whatsoever."

"Let me show you then…" he suddenly paused before his body got shrouded in a thick veil of smoke. It was a familiar scene, the same kind of smoke that covered all the bodies that attended the Bringold auction.

"Bro, do you think phoenixes are all females?"

"...!!!"

This time my shock was immense and genuine. That sound, these words… they all pointed towards a certain person… that friend who I got back from the auction, the male phoenix.

"It was you?!!" I asked while trying to control my inner shock.

"It wasn't me," he returned to his normal self before adding, "that was one of our people. You were right to suspect a phoenix had males, that's not totally true."

"What do you mean?" when I realised I got played in such a way, I couldn't help but raise my vigilance towards the entire god community.

In fact I only knew gods to be those rich dudes acting as our sponsorship. They loved to play, have fun, nothing serious at all.

But this time… I got played! They did it in such a brilliant way that didn't get my suspicion stirred up even for a brief second!

Brilliant! That was simply a brilliant act by them!

"The one who stood by your side is part of our death pantheon. In fact he isn't considered part of our human death pantheon, but part of the black phoenixes death pantheon. Yet our two races and pantheons shared a lot of similarities and deep friendship ties. So he can be considered to be sent by us."

"I don't understand," I just wanted to know more, "was he sent by you or not?"

"Of course he was," Nero firmly answered, "we needed to send someone that won't attract suspicion at all. So sending a human there was out of the question. And in the end you got what you asked for, right?"

"But he wasn't the one to give me the chariot," I admitted that this move was brilliant, and I got fooled. But come on, the chariot didn't come from him, but from that arrogant dragon archlord who lost the bet with me.

"Who do you think stirred up trouble first and set the stage for you to have that bet with that dragon race one?"

Once I heard it, I couldn't help to see the entire scheme at last. Damn! That was why that phoenix dude was dead fixed on butting word by word that arrogant dragon at the auction.

If I removed that phoenix from the picture, then the dragon wouldn't have said something to stir me up. The bet wouldn't have happened, and I wouldn't have won the chariot.

Wait a moment… "Were you betting back then?" I couldn't help but ask. Even if such a scheme was brilliant, it still held many variables inside.

If one thing took a wrong turn, then I wouldn't have gained my chariot at all!

"Betting is a fun thing to have," Nero laughed before adding, "and there are many hidden things in play that you don't know about. Anyway, you asked for a price and we fulfilled that price for you. Now you shall honour what you said before."

"I won't accept the support of a low grade god like yourself, no offence meant."

"None is taken," he shrugged, "as I told you earlier, I'm just a messenger. As for the identity of the god who will be your sponsor, the pantheon will decide when you end the upcoming quest… However…"