109-116

Chapter 109 - The God Bestowed Treasures

He paused and I didn't interrupt. I didn't know why but something seemed off here.

"As you asked for a price, we also asked for one," he said slowly.

"Your pantheon is asking for a price?" I raised one eyebrow in surprise, "shouldn't you seek us, not the opposite?"

"No, you got it wrong," he shook his head, "did you think you are the only outstanding human in that apocalypse? Even in our pantheon, we sat our eyes over a big number of humans already."

"But I'm special!" I couldn't take someone speaking in such a way about me.

"So the rest are," but he didn't show me any face at all, "and above everything, our pantheon is overall special as well. Even in the world of gods, we are considered a strong human force even against other strong races pantheons."

He showed me a pride that he never showed before. What? Was he looking down on me?

"Our quest is simple though," he didn't give me a chance to show my dissatisfaction, "we only need you to prove you can crush other races and show them the might of our pantheon."

"I already crushed many races before," I said in disdain, "even got warriors of dragons, krackens, and even made illusionists bound to me by contract."

"That's… not enough," he shook his head before raising one finger in warning, "also there is something you need to watch out for. The illusionists you got have their god blessings, that means their gods can spy on your actions all the time."

"What?!!" I was startled but when I thought about it, it made quite sense. "What should I do then? If I had the choice, I would change their gods."

"You can," he said with such shocking info, "with our help you can do that."

"But… didn't you say that once selected one pantheon no one can change it? Besides, they already consumed one blessing slot, the only slot they have!"

"I know what you are referring to," he simply said, "but didn't I also say that under certain conditions this rule can be broken?"

I didn't need much time to get what he hinted at. "The contract?"

"Indeed," he nodded, "but to change that, you'll need help from our pantheon."

"What about the slot problem then?"

"It's simple," he continued in his carefree tone, "once you remove the god blessing, wait until you finish another quest with a blessing slot reward. This way they'll have two slots opened, the same path you are walking right now."

I paused for a second before asking, "what about my friends?"

"As far as I know, most of them followed your orders and didn't accept any blessing, right?"

"But the jumper did."

"That jumper… is a special case," he seemed hesitant when I mentioned the jumper.

"Does the god he accepted his blessing belong to a hostile pantheon?"

"Not quite right," he didn't give me a clear answer, "one day you'll get to know everything about that mysterious friend of yours. Anyway, you need to hear our condition and go back to fulfil it if you want to join us."

"What if I didn't?"

"Then you have no place among us," his answer was swift and without any moment of hesitation, "that will be unfortunate indeed. Many gods already are standing on your side."

I knew I created a slight noise by what I did using my channel, but I also didn't understand why I should pay a price to join them.

Weren't my actions so far enough to prove my worth? Or was it this hard to get the support of a high grade god?

Of course I wasn't delusional. If I accepted what he just said about the entire pantheon supporting me then I'd be a fool. It seemed that his master, Anubis god, was on my side. But that didn't mean others were.

That price or condition or whatever he called it wasn't a mere test for me. It was an obstacle sat by other gods in the pantheon to stop me from entering it or accepting a higher god blessing.

Despite not knowing why they resisted me this much, I wasn't planning to let them have their own ways here.

I worked so hard, so damn hard to get the attention of a higher god. And now when I succeeded, how could I just flinch away because of a mere obstacle?

"Then say what is this price all about," I said in a firm tone.

"It's simple," despite his friendly tone, I didn't believe his words, "you just need to crush all the races inside Jersey city, and take control over the five gates of them."

"All of them?!!" I looked up at him in a strange way. Just facing one gate proved to be hard, and he was asking me to control five of them… That was simply ridiculous!

"It's not that simple," he seemed to mistake my response, or acted as if he did, "you don't know how to conquer a gate yet. There are two steps for doing so, first you need to kill all the enemies poured from the gate to a certain figure. Then the gate will be considered yours until the enemy kills the same figure or exterminate most of your troops to regain control."

When he said this, I couldn't help but recall the last fight against the illusionist. "So that's why they hurriedly retreated while sending one of their best to kill me…" I muttered, as a realisation hit me thanks to his explanation.

I was puzzled about the sudden retreat by the illusionists. But now I understand everything.

"The second step is the hardest," he acted as if he didn't hear what I said, "once conquered the gate, the system will issue you a quest to go and secure it from the other side… you must crush at least one fort out there or else you'll lose the control over the gate and it will vanish."

"Let it vanish then," I wasn't in all favour of such a hard quest to begin with.

"This won't be right," he shook his head, "for our future plan in the apocalypse, we needed all the ones joining us to control gates from the big five races in your apocalypse."

"I won't be the only one doing this task then?" I could read in between his lines.

"So your failure or success doesn't carry the weight you might be thinking about," at last he showed his true colour to me, "you need to go now. The second quest will last for long days, enough for you to complete this task."

That bastard! He finally showed his true intentions in front of me!

I had my doubts earlier, but now he just confirmed them.

"I heard I can buy things with my coins here," but how come I'd leave without having something from this trip?

The last words of the jumper still rang in my head.

"You want to buy something from here?" his voice told me he didn't see this coming.

"Is it against the rules?"

"Not at all," he shrugged, "but as you are in the presence of a high god platform, you'll need to have more than luck to gain something from here."

He then stood for the first time ever. Damn! He was really giant! His body was almost ten metres tall, not anything related to humans at all.

"Go around," he waved both hands towards the lining statues, "if any statue resonated to your presence, then you are fated to have that statue treasure."

"Simply like that?" I didn't expect it to be this simple to be honest.

"It's not simple at all," he laughed, "each statue has its own conditions and taste. If you have the conditions and the statue doesn't like you, you won't get the treasure. And a word of advice, you only have five minutes left. So try to use these in caution."

"Are they alive or what?" despite him trying to urge me to go to the statues by what he said, I didn't. I wanted to know more about the conditions, perhaps I could do something to make my odds higher.

"You can consider them that," he said, "why are you still standing here? Go, go now before your time is up."

"Can I have more than one treasure?" I didn't follow his words. After all this dude here wasn't friendly at all.

"That's like dreaming to ascend to godhood right now," he laughed as if he heard something funny, "but it's not against the rules. If all the statues responded to you, then you are blessed to have them all. But that won't happen. It's not a common thing to have a single statue focus his gaze on you, not to mention moving him thanks to your wealth and abilities."

Oh, wealth and abilities you said? I inwardly smiled as I finally got a lead about what I should do.

"Thanks," I said while opening my market interface.

"For what?" he seemed to not get what I was doing here. And I left him behind while going towards the first statue.

If it was wealth, then there must be an outrageous condition regarding the lower limit of what I could have. I'd guess that the first condition to get any statue approval was by having the right number of coins in my inventory.

And so I started to throw all the useless monster materials and cores that I took from all the races I killed so far and sold them at the basic price.

I also took out all the low grade gears, and simply let them be sold instantly as well.

In less than one minute, I raised my wealth to a terrifying figure, above a hundred million coins.

Would that be enough? I hoped so. After all this number signified all the wealth I could currently hold.

The second hint was regarding my abilities. That might be tricky, but regarding this place I bet it was related to anything with death energy.

So I had to show off my class abilities. But how could I do that?

It was simple… As I got near the first statue, I took out one golden grade bone and raised it in front of him.

My bones were special, I could already tell that from the reaction I witnessed at the Bringold auction. And this bone was my highest grade bone so far.

So it was a symbol of my class abilities, a symbol of my worth.

"Damn!" however just as I started to run in front of the statues, not a single one moved towards me.

All of them opened their eyes and glared at me in terrifying bright golden eyes. But not a single one took the initiative to come towards me, not a single one.

What was I lacking here? I asked myself that but the next moment I instantly froze in my place.

"Oh, you are such a lucky one," I heard the surprised voice of Nero when I forcibly stopped. I didn't stop by my own will, but as the statue in front of me took a single step forward, the immense pressure he exerted made me trapped like that.

"If he patted you on the head then he sent something into your inventory," just as the statue did what Nero said, Nero's voice came from far behind. "It's not the best treasure you can get. But at least you got one. That places you in the top ten percent of all the humans getting such a chance."

Ten percent only? That didn't make me happy. I wanted more, I wanted to be in the top one percent or even come on the very top.

"Come back now," just as the statue returned and I regained my freedom, Nero said from behind, "you gained your treasure. It's time for you to return."

"Who said I can't take more?"

Chapter 110 - The Crazy Jumper

Without even waiting for him to say anything, and as I got experience from that statue, I started to run without holding my speed at all.

The platform was really massive! I was deliberately holding back my speed during the past couple minutes as I feared to miss any chance.

But that made me only cross less than one tenth of the entire number of the statues. So as I knew my speed and movement wouldn't affect anything, I started to sprint like my life depended on it.

"Don't be stubborn," the voice of Nero came again, and this time I could feel his slight anger, "you should consider yourself lucky. Out of a hundred people entering here, only ten come out with one treasure…"

Just before he could continue his words, I was stopped forcibly again. This time the statue moved towards me, didn't pat me on the head like the other statue. Instead he raised his staff which shone in golden light all over and placed its tip over my chest.

"The statue blessing? Damn! That's one of the highest treasures one can get here!"

Nero's shaky voice told me I got something big. And just as I was immersed in that golden light, and my body was frozen thanks to the immense pressure, a message popped up.

[The Anubis judge is weighing your soul]

[Your class gained a boost]

[The number of your stored souls gained one hundred thousand addition]

[The quality of your separation soul skill gained a boost]

[The least grade of bones you can extract now will be bronzed grade]

"Amazing!" Just as the row of messages ended, I regained my freedom and noticed the statue had already returned to his place. "Thanks for your generosity," I bowed for a second, expressing my sincere gratitude before I started to sprint again.

And this time I had my hopes raised thanks to that last boost I got.

"Don't get your hopes any higher," like an envious dude, Nero said from behind when he saw me running with all my strength, "only two percent of all the humans coming here would get two treasures like you did. As for the triple rewards, only one hundred humans did it throughout the long history of the pantheon."

"Add me on that list please," just as I said that, my body froze up again. I wasn't bluffing. I just felt the same vague feeling I felt twice already before being forcibly stopped.

"Sh*t!" and Nero seemed to go crazy when he saw me freeze.

And luckily for me, that dude was so generous just like the last one.

[The Anubis judge is weighing your soul]

[Your class gained a boost]

[The number of warriors your soul merging ability produces is turned double]

[The quantity of your separation soul skill gained a boost]

[The least number of bones you can extract now will be five each time you use the skill]

*Fwoosh!*

I sucked in a cold breath when I read that. Damn! If I just got this before I used up most of my souls and summoned the sixteen warriors of mine before… But wait, didn't I just gain one hundred thousand souls?

I grinned when I realised this. This wasn't a simple market provided by gods like I expected; it was a treasure trove.

"One more treasure," I kept running while Nero stayed all silent from behind. That dude was shocked to not even speak!

And like I hoped, my body finally froze just twenty statues away from completing my circular tour.

"Not again!" Nero foamed his anger as I was frozen in place. Yet this time it was a pat and not anymore addition to my class.

"Only a treasure?" I finished the tour and stood motionless in place, feeling a bit lost. I hoped for another boost to my class, but ended up having another treasure in my inventory.

"You didn't like a god bestowed treasure?" Nero's eyes were now all scarlet red from anger, looking much terrifying at this moment. For a second there I feared he would do anything stupid, but I found my body being engulfed into the same black typhoon of energy like before.

Once seeing this, I couldn't help but heave a long sigh of relief.

"See you again, uncle," I even waved my hands as if I was saying goodbye to a good friend.

I saw Nero explode in anger before leaving, but what could he do? I was already on my way back home.

Once I opened my eyes, I found myself standing in the same spot I left from, just a few metres away from my chariot.

"You are finally here!"

Just as I appeared, I noticed the change in the atmosphere around me. I looked up and saw my three dragons flying high in the air while taking an aggressive stance.

"What's happening?"

On the ground I saw my entire team standing in vigilance while the jumper stood at the forefront. That dude was crazy! He held a long spear and seemed to be ready to fight my dragons at any given moment.

"Your dragons are crazy!" the one to answer me wasn't Isabella who was standing next to me, but the jumper, "since coming back and they refused to tell us anything!"

"Lord!"

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

In a flash the three great dragons descended and bowed their heads in respect.

"What happened?" I turned my eyes to the jumper who, strangely enough, was about to jump over and attack my dragons.

"They refused to answer to me," he roared but one of the dragons answered in a higher roar:

"You aren't our lord, we only answer to our lord!"

"Keep your hands off!" At this moment I took my two swords and moved to welcome that crazy jumper's spear.

The clash shook me deep from within, but I stopped this crazy dude.

"What's wrong in your head? They are my dragons, not yours!"

"Humph," the jumper's all reddened eyes started to slowly cool off. Yet he was still mad. I pushed my swords to push his spear aside, making him retreat a few steps to the back.

"Didn't you tell me to use the intel they brought?" he pointed at the three dragons as if he was accusing them of treason, "and they refused! They refused to follow your orders! They deserve to die!"

What the hell went wrong in his mind?! Did he hit his head during the last battle or what?

When I thought about the last battle, my eyes couldn't help but shift towards his chest. Damn! That small hole was now shining in a strange red light.

It was miniscule light, but how could I not notice it?

"Come back now," without any hesitation I took in my dragons before standing in front of this jumper.

I never expected that curse to be such domineering. It was a scary, scary curse that would turn such a sane and hard rock like a jumper into such an impulsive , childish and very dangerous dude.

"Go back there and calm down," I pointed towards the back of my chariot. And when he was about to roar again, I added in threatening tone:

"If you don't follow my order, then I'll have no choice but to kill you by the contract!"

"..."

Luckily that curse wasn't deeply rooted enough to mask even the fear of death off his mind.

"What's wrong with him?" The other two, the spearhead who was trying to control the jumper, and Angelica, came to my side as Isabella motioned with her head towards the jumper.

"It's the curse," I sighed, "it seems to be more complicated than I thought."

"The curse?" the three gasped, but my head was already filled with other complicated issues.

"Come out," as the jumper went far enough, I resummoned my three dragons. Without waiting for them to say anything, I pointed towards my big chariot and said:

"Go inside and start working with these three to draw a detailed map of what you scouted."

"..."

"Yes lord," after a moment of pause, the three nodded and left with the other three of my team.

And now I was finally alone, and had time to think about what just happened.

Of course things weren't as simple as it looked. That Nero wasn't there to help me, but to make things more complicated.

I bet he was there to try and make me accept him as a god! Damn! Who did he think of himself? Tsk!

But that wasn't the only thing I needed to consider. I knew he told me about such weird rules to control and limit anyone selecting gods in this apocalypse, but something seemed off here.

"He looked a bit shaky when I mentioned the war pantheon… interesting," I muttered to myself while thinking about the hidden hints I noticed during that short meeting.

If I wouldn't be able to join another pantheon thanks to my class and that strange rule, then why was he acting nervous and slightly vigilant against the war pantheon?

"Also he wasn't a follower of that Egyptian god," that point was also something I noticed even from the very start.

Despite all the evidence he showed during the meeting to be a god following Anubis, he tended to use flashy actions to cloud my judgement.

But wasn't there a death god called Hades in Greek mythology? Shouldn't Nero be following that god instead of Anubis?

I wasn't that good in ancient human history before the apocalypse, but I also read a few stories about the rivalry between the Greek and Roman from one side, and Egypt from another.

So a god who was supposed to be a follower of Hades acted like he was there by the orders of Anubis… Something was going on inside that pantheon.

Even if I gained all the rewards from such a visit, I didn't feel it was good to join such an unstable pantheon.

Not to mention that nearly impossible quest he issued for me to join the pantheon. Dude, if you wanted me to join, you shouldn't make me do anything before joining you.

A test? That was hilarious! From all this I could safely say that the high god Anubis sat his eyes on me, but the high god Hades didn't like me.

Or perhaps he was in a rivalry and enmity with Anubis, making that pantheon more unstable and unsafe to join.

Once turmoils erupted, treason would appear. I wasn't going to join a cracked house.

But the question here was, how should I find the war pantheon now?

"If someone called Ares is up there listening, then I'll be waiting for your generous move," instead of thinking too much, I raised my head and said these words out loud.

Who said I couldn't go to other pantheons and seek their cooperation? And who said the chariot I got was thanks to the death pantheon and not my own efforts?

Even if Hades didn't like me more, or Anubis started to dislike me, I wouldn't join their pantheon for now. Perhaps in the future I might consider that option, not now.

As for Ares, it was the sole name that popped up in my head when I thought about the war pantheon. Of course he was also a comrade of Hades, but I doubted this might cause any problem.

From the little I knew about Ares, he was famous for being a straightforward god, loved war and courage.

But during the next half an hour, I didn't get any response at all. Even the gods in my channel, they all seemed a bit terrified to even send me a single letter.

Dudes… You were supposed to be gods, right?

"We got good news, great news, and f*cking bad news!"

Just as I waited outside, the three mates of mine appeared again with the three dragons in their tail.

I looked up at the spearhead who just spoke and noticed a folded piece of paper in his hand.

"How did you get such a paper?" I thought they would draw the map on the ground of the chariot. Seeing such an old thing in their possession was a surprise.

"I had a lot of them in my inventory," Isabella said, "if you needed any, just ask."

"Alright then," I shrugged and added to change the topic back to the main point, "what did you find back there?"

"Which one first?" the spearhead said, and something told me he was glad that he had very bad news to tell.

"Start with the bad news first," I didn't find anything logical about asking such a question in the first place. News were news, and eventually one would listen to them all.

Besides we were in the time of the apocalypse, so dude it was normal to have a f*cking bad news to tell all the time!

Chapter 111 - [Bonus Chapter] The Cages

"The dragons saw many castles that had the same kind of gates on top of them," the spearhead said and I simply shrugged.

Dude, don't tell me this was the bad news you were referring to! If so then they weren't. I already was aware of such a thing.

"And?" I simply asked.

"They saw many humans captured and sent into the gates," Isabella added while the three of them noticed my calm reaction.

"I already am aware of all this," I said to calm them.

"But were you aware that they stored humans inside cages like animals? Steel cages that held ten humans in each one?" Angelica exploded in anger before pointing to the dragons, "they saw them, cages in the size of five metres square where humans are stored like animals in the buildings of the castles!"

"This…" I frowned when I heard that. Inside my heart, I never took myself as the saviour or the sole hero of the human race.

But when I heard such words, I didn't know why but my blood boiled in anger.

"Did you say they stored humans inside cages?" It seemed that Angelica's explosive voice was so loud that it reached the jumper far away from us.

And that dude managed to calm himself down, controlled his curse and came back with a cold look in his eyes.

And the other three nodded. But that wasn't the issue that made me frown.

"Did you say they store them inside the buildings in the castles?" I turned around and looked up at the various buildings here. There were ten buildings in various sizes and heights in the region dominated by the castle.

"Did you check these?" I pointed at these buildings and my words made the four of them realise what I was referring to.

In a flash they all dispersed without agreement, each went to check on a building. I also didn't stop and moved towards a big building that reached five stories in height.

All the buildings here had the same look from the outside, built from strange ore that was in the size of half a metre length and ten centimetres in width.

They all had the pale yellow colour at the surface, big one single door that led to the inside which was made out of wood.

Just using little force opened the doors wide, and if someone used dragons just like me, then the doors would be smashed into pieces, vanishing from sight.

It made me realise that these buildings were made out of the system, but modelled by the actions of the races controlling the castles to suit their needs.

Even before entering the building, my heart was already dead cold.

And when I went inside, I couldn't help but feel icy cold air coming from the depth of my soul.

This… the inside of the building was simply a single floor, with a height reaching for five stories. It was like a gigantic hall that was made for giants to live in, or for hundreds and even thousands of steel cages with humans stacked inside like animals to be stored within.

Damn! I clenched my two fists while feeling more rage swelling up in my heart. I knew the other races looked at us like we were nothing, but I never imagined in my entire life to see such a scene.

"Ahh!"

Just as I was petrified in front of such a brutal scene, I heard many shouts of anger and agony coming from outside. It seemed this building wasn't the only exception here, and the others were filled with such brutal scenes.

"Go," I took out my soulers and other warriors, "take down all the cages with utmost care. Open the locks and smash the metal if needed, just don't hurt anyone inside, got it?"

*Roar!*

As if my boys sensed my rage, they all roared in unison. I stood at the smashed door while watching my warriors work in teams, freeing a large number of humans from their prisons.

The faces of those humans made me see another face of the apocalypse that I never saw before. It wasn't fear, but despair. Their faces were ashened white, with eyes that lost any signs of life or hope.

"Come," I pointed to the outside, "come and have a rest out there."

Like puppets controlled by strings and with no souls they moved under my orders to the outside. I watched them, feeling more anger the more people passed by me.

"Hye, Hye…" as I stood at the entrance, the two girls ran with the spearhead while the look on their faces was enough to tell me what they were feeling at the moment.

They weren't any better than me. Even Angelica and Isabella had their legs shaking and were almost on the verge of collapsing and exploding in crying.

"Stand firm," but this wasn't the time to act like this, "raise your heads high up and show our people what humans should behave."

"But…" the spearhead wanted to say something, yet one look from me forced him to stop speaking.

"You should go and help others to be freed," I gave them the order, "once I'm done from here, I'll come to help all of you. Go now, every single second passing will add more torture to our people."

Despite the fact that I didn't know any of those people, in my eyes they were all humans. I might be lucky to come back in time and have all this knowledge to back me up.

But if I was in such an apocalypse without any strength at all, I might have ended up being like them. In fact my great grandfathers weren't in a better spot than these people.

After all they never managed to get a class of their own, and cursed their offsprings including me.

Freeing them was just like helping my ancestors, helping not only these people but also long lines of generations yet to be born.

The more I thought about this, the more enraged I became. I didn't do anything wrong to have such a bad life, and I wasn't the only one in my previous time to have such bad luck.

Enough with luck, damn luck! If I had a chance, I'd rather smash that luck or even go and kill all the gods controlling it! I believed in fairness, in everyone's right to have a chance to fight for their own lives.

After releasing everyone here, I went up and helped the others. The only one doing good was the jumper. He didn't say a single word, yet from the look of his eyes I could tell he was on the verge of exploding.

These icy cold eyes of his made me realise if I ordered, he would venture all alone into any castle and use all his strength and abilities to the maximum limits to free humans from such tyranny.

And he wasn't the only one feeling that way.

"Hye… who are all those people?"

Just as we were about to free the people in the last building, I heard this long missed voice that came from the direction of my chariot.

Finally the two girls woke up, looking fine and healthy. Karoline was walking in between the large number of humans, consoling and patting them on their backs while the response she got was only a flood of tears and shaking bodies and lost souls.

As for the one who spoke, she was Alex. her eyes were all red, and tears flooded her eyes as well.

"Calm down," I said, "everything is under our control."

"No, there are still many castles like these out there!" The jumper finally couldn't take it anymore and exploded in immense hatred and pure enmity, "let me go and save them, let me go and kill them all!"

Of course he meant humans in the first sentence, and other races in the second one. Dude, I understood what you were feeling and I could tell I was also agreeing with your point of view.

But we needed to act rationally here. We have tens of thousands of people who were just released. Aside from their great number and the fact that their immense hatred from such brutal experience would turn them into perfect soldiers in the future, they needed more support right now than anything else.

"Let's start treating their trauma first," I said, "next we will go and hit all the castles together."

"Are we going to wait?" even Isabella wasn't by my side. She exploded in tears a long time ago, silent tears with muffled sniffing from time to time.

Also Angelica looked the same, and even the all firm and hard spearhead was showing such signs as well.

"We can't just free them without treating their trauma," I said while trying to act as calm as I could, "let's give them food, weapons, and tell them some good stories about our adventures. Let's ignite hope and the will to live inside their dead souls first. If our enemies could be this brutal, at least we will act with more kindness and care towards our people."

The jumper stood in silence, watching me with burning eyes that made me worry his curse was revolting again. His body kept shaking while clenching his fists and opening them up in a repeated cycle.

"Ok," saying just this, he turned around and went towards the people who were mostly laying on the ground while burying their heads into their bent knees.

*Clang!* *Clang!* *Clang!*

Like a rich dude he waved his arms, releasing hills of gears, stat points, and even potions everywhere he passed. I looked at him in surprise. That dude… he was a really straightforward dude!

"I'll help," Angelica wiped her tears, grabbing the other girls' arms before leading them back towards the devastated humans.

"What should I do?" the spearhead asked, while the look on his face changed. It seemed seeing even the girls going there to console the people and telling them stories of what we did had ignited his will to fight, or do something useful at least.

"You can go and distribute these gears over them," I said in a tired tone, "also take a few warriors of mine with you. Show them how we dominated other races, and even turned them to our slaves."

Of course this wasn't totally right, but to ignite a spark of life inside those looking dead humans needed a few lies here and there, plus more exaggeration indeed.

"Leave it to me," the spearhead looked at the warriors I had before pointing at the soulers, "give me a bunch of them. Also pray those people won't tear them apart."

"If they did, then they wouldn't be held captive in the first place," I rolled my eyes. Whom did he think my warriors were? The soulers were one of the formidable pillars in my entire forces.

Even facing an army of other races, I was sure they wouldn't get killed that easily.

"Go," I motioned to a group of twenty soulers before reminding the spearhead, "don't forget to teach those people how to raise their stats and get stronger. Ah, don't let them accept any god blessing for now if anyone got any."

I took out my compass and threw it towards him, "caution won't hurt, right?"

He understood my point and nodded. It seemed ridiculous to have traitors locked up with these people, but it was better to wipe all the doubts before we move a single step forward.

As everything was settled here, and everyone was doing their best to help those traumatised humans, I finally got time to check the two treasures I got from the Anubis god statues.

But just as I opened my inventory, I was shocked to see the number in front of my eyes. It was the current wealth I had at the moment.

"Z… Zero?!!!" I was shit scared when I saw that big rounded figure in front of me.

Chapter 112 - The Godly Treasures

I was sure I had over one hundred million coins last time I checked. But when I calmed myself down, I came to understand what went wrong here.

"So… The last statue didn't give me a boost to my class thanks to my shortage of coins?" I muttered while sucking in a deep and bitter breath of loss.

Coins didn't matter that much to me, but losing such a golden opportunity thanks to my short on coins was.

If I had a choice, then I'd rather sell other stuff in the market for coins. But aside from the precious stat points that I couldn't touch, I had literally nothing else worthy of selling.

Only potions and the pile load of the scrolls that I never used before were in my inventory, plus my precious bones and my personal stack of high grade gears.

I left those gears for my future warriors and human forces. I couldn't just sell everything, especially such rare and very useful gears.

At this moment I felt little regret. If I sold those potions and scrolls then I might have gained more coins. But there was no benefit in regretting such a thing for now.

"What are these two things?" finding the two treasures I got from the statues wasn't hard. I found a strange compass with a long single needle that kept rotating even inside my inventory.

And the other treasure was a libra like item. It was made out of white material and its two sides were evenly matched in balance.

I first took it out and the moment I did, a window popped up in front of me viewing its information.

[The Anubis god Libra: A scale to measure one's soul. Grade white godly treasure. It's rumoured to be used by the Anubis god himself back when he supervised the matters of humans on Earth.

Using it consumes one million coins each time. You select a target and after activating the Libra, you can weigh his soul. If he harbours ill intentions towards your race then he will be cursed for life. His stats will be permanently halved.

Every time he uses stat points to increase his stats he will need double the amount to raise a single point. His cultivation will be halved. His gear stats will be halved.

His life span will be halved. His following forces will have a temporarily halved effect in all stats for one hour. His contract bound forces will be cursed like the master. The curse can't be blocked, elevated by anything except by using the same scale to undo it.

To undo the curse you'll need to consume another million coins. It has a fixed chance of twenty percent to undo the curse of other gods with a price of ten million coins each time.

Can be upgraded under certain conditions. Requiring the help of Anubis god for that]

"Damn!" I sucked in a cold air of breath when reading all this. For a second there I couldn't move my eyes away from the jumper at the front. Should this help to alleviate such a curse he was suffering from?

Just thinking about it for a few minutes made me drop such an idea. First there was no guarantee this was a curse from a godly item like this Libra. And to know that, I needed to waste at least one hundred million coins to be sure.

I was sure the jumper was a wealthy dude, but not to such an extent. Just now he showed a big hand and took out many gears he stored inside his inventory.

I'd bet his coins wouldn't be half close to this terrifying figure even if he sold most of his inventory useless items. As for his rare items and other treasures, it would be a waste to sell them.

"Let it be the last option then," I muttered while examining that Libra in closer attention.

It didn't look any special at all. Its surface was all smooth except for a small carving of Anubis famous head, the jackal head, on the central axis of that scale.

I didn't feel any weight at all while holding it. If I passed by it on the street, I'd never consider it a treasure at all.

"It might be useful later," I stored it away before taking out the second item. It was a large compass, one circular compass that was the size of triple my hand.

Just holding it made me have a strange feeling. It felt like the dancing needle was attached to my soul by invisible force, as if I could give it an order and it could execute it at once.

And strangely enough, I suddenly felt many thoughts about my desires. I felt like I wanted to locate the castle places with gates and go to smash them all! I felt the desire to go and find those trapped humans and release all of them!

Many desires welled up inside my heart, with the strange urge to release them all outside like flooding waters. I didn't experience such a feeling before, yet I managed to put everything under my control before reading the message that popped up when I took that compass out.

The compass was black and red in colour, while the dancing long needle that seemed to be floating on the curved glassy surface of the compass was made out of golden material.

I tried to see anything written or engraved inside through that glass, but all I could see was pitch black fog swirling endlessly under the effect of the dancing needle.

It was a weird compass to be honest, but when I read its description, I couldn't help but suck in another cold air of breath out of surprise and excitement.

[Anubis Desire compass: A compass to guide anyone to his most desired thing. Grade pale gold godly treasure. It's rumoured to be used by the Anubis god himself back when he supervised the matters of humans on Earth.

Using the compass to point towards the direction of your most wanted desire. You just need to think about a single desire and focus most on it before using the compass.

Each time usage needed five million coins. The compass will keep pointing towards the direction until you reach it. You can't use it until you reach the destination of the previous desire first.

Can't be blocked by time, space, or any restrictions.

There is an option for instant teleporting the user to his desired place. The price for such usage is fifty million coins plus one million blessing points, or just by taking the blessing from Anubis god himself and grants you his agreement for using such a function for free.

Can be upgraded under certain conditions. Requiring the help of Anubis god for that]

Well… That explained much about what I felt when I held it. But such an extravagant price was simply unattainable for me at the moment.

"But that instant teleportation function…" I looked up at Karoline for a second. And at that second, our eyes coincidentally met.

Or was it the act of fate? I didn't know why, but amidst all the girls I knew so far, she was the only one capable of making me feel that way.

Like I was attracted to her by some invisible force.

"Ahem," I cleared my throat while shaking off my head to free myself from her spell. As I peeked at her again, all I could see was a sweet smile, one that was filled with happiness and little pride.

Was she feeling happy and proud for entangling me in her net or what? I didn't know the answer. Yet that heaven shaking ability of that compass resembled hers in a way.

"It would be nice to take me directly to the succubus gate if I had the wealth for that," I sighed while storing it away.

Coins wouldn't be a problem for a long time. I trusted my ability in killing enough races at the outer gates to replenish my dried up pockets.

But the blessing points were a problem indeed. I wouldn't be able to solve this until I found myself a good god to sponsor me, and then I'd ask him to shower me with quests to harness all the blessing points I could gain.

"So I can't use either of these two for now," I turned to look at the large number of humans in the castle. "They will need more time to rehabilitate," this was given.

And if I considered the other castles and the large number of trapped humans there, then I couldn't just wait for them to get better.

But leaving them like this wouldn't be wise as well.

"Spearhead," I shouted and waved at the spearhead to come to me. My sudden shout attracted everyone's attention, yet he was the only one coming to my side.

"What else did you know from the dragons?"

I heard the bad news first, and I had to admit that was a good call. If I delayed or got carried out by the good news and left here, then those humans might have faced another fate.

"Oh, about that…" the spearhead seemed to be lost in thoughts for a moment, or he just got startled by my sudden question, "They spotted seven castles like this one. This map has the places spotted by them and after considering the distance they flew and the direction."

He handed me the paper he had all this time. It wasn't a simple piece of paper, but a big A1 sized one that was used by engineers and map makers.

"Hmm…" I had to admit, this map was slightly chaotic! All I could tell was the Hudson river and the Atlantic ocean plus the two big pieces of land that stretched aside the Hudson river.

"We are here," it seemed my face exposed my loss in reading this map, so the spearhead pointed at a small X mark at one side.

"Oh," as I figured where we were, I started to slowly understand the map.

"So these castles are arranged in a big circle," I noticed the general layout before adding, "and Jersey city must be inside it, right?"

And the spearhead nodded.

"Any intel about the identity or numbers of each race in these castles?" I folded the map and stored it inside my inventory in smooth moves.

"Actually they couldn't get closer as they feared the dragons protecting each castle."

"Dragons? At each castle?!" I asked just to make sure I heard him right.

And he nodded.

"So they moved faster than I thought," I pondered for a moment before grinning in a vicious way, "it's time to pay them all a visit."

The presence of dragons wasn't that much of a surprise. After all, I expected that to happen in the city. But I didn't expect it to occur even in the outer gates as well.

But why would I fear them? I now had my own forces ready, my chariot, and also I had enough points to summon more races to serve me.

"Do you know of any bridges other than the George Washington bridge?"

"That…" he paused and even rubbed the back of his head before adding, "In between New York and Jersey?"

"No, slightly away from both," I mysteriously said, "somewhere that's not that far away as well."

"Hmm… I believe there is a bridge that lies just at the next county from New York city," he said after deep pondering, "I recall it's called Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge. It links Westchester county with Rockland on the other side.

"Is it far?" I didn't know where Westchester county lay.

"It's just adjacent to the city," he pointed at the direction of New York, "it's easier to reach there from Bronx."

"Thanks," I patted him on the shoulder before adding, "go back and help the girls here."

"Will we stay here for much longer?" He seemed to read behind my actions and I could only smile.

"You are all going to stay here," I said before looking at the jumper, "all but one will remain."

Chapter 113 - God Of War Message

"Will you go alone to attack them?" The spearhead seemed to be carried in the heat of the moment. Dude, I knew your ability was really a game changer, but you and other girls weren't strong enough to help me in the upcoming battle.

"Your role is to make these people ready to join the battle as fast as you can," I stressed over this point, "the upcoming battle is just the beginning. The real war will start once we try to enter the city."

"Ah the city," just as I said that, he hit his forehead as if he remembered something important, "there is a good news," his face beamed with a weird smile before adding, "the dragons spotted a human army marching into the city while they were scouting the area."

"A human army?" I frowned, "is it the military?"

"They didn't say," he shook his head, "and I doubt they'd recognise the military. But they spoke about a large number of them, at least ten thousand."

I looked around. For some reason the number of humans in this city and its surrounding was getting a bit higher than even New York.

Was this a mistake from the angels of this region? Or was there something else going on here that I didn't know about?

"They entered the city already?" I asked and he nodded.

"As the dragons said, they spotted three of such armies going into the city. I believe they must be reinforcements coming from all the regions around the city."

"Hmm…" I didn't voice my opinion and only motioned for him to walk back, "tell the jumper to come," I only said that before returning to think about what he just said.

Three armies… each was at least ten thousand men strong… Could angels amass such power? Or was it someone else?

I knew I wouldn't get my answers until I entered the city. For me, if such an army existed then it would defy all logic.

How could such a large number of people survive the first quest of the apocalypse? I looked at the shaking people all sitting on the ground and felt something was really off.

"Are we going to move now?" The jumper was really a smart dude, annoying most of the time, but he was smart enough to make me forget about his shortcomings.

"Just control your goddamn curse," I gave him a cold warning before stepping towards my chariot.

However, before I could take a few steps, I had to stop.

[Unknown god just sent you a private message]

[The message: War is only a one directional path of venturing forward and never looking back! Show your courage and raise your head high above all other races. Victory or defeat is just secondary to any warlord, bloody hard battles are the only interesting thing]

"What's wrong?" the jumper asked, but I couldn't help but show a silly smile of victory over my face.

My bet was right, there was really some god belonging to the war pantheon. And that god just did me a great favour right now.

What was sent to me was nothing but a hidden message that was filled with many underlying meanings.

First he told me that this message came from the pantheon of war. Of course I couldn't tell if this came from Ares himself or someone else, and I couldn't be sure of the grade of the god.

But at least I now had the privilege to choose between two pantheons, and both were really unique and strong.

Besides, both suited my class.

When I thought deeply about the fear that Nero god showed towards the war pantheon, I couldn't help but link that to my class.

My class depended upon using the souls from the enemies I killed. Which was the reason behind the affinity between my class and the death pantheon, I supposed.

But to kill I first needed to fight, right? And that was where the war pantheon would appear in the picture. So if the death pantheon suited my class thanks to the end result of my abilities, then the war pantheon also suited it thanks to the process itself.

This wasn't the only meaning I got from that message.

The clear declaration that victory or defeat didn't matter but the bloody hard battles themselves meant that I wasn't bound with that outrageous quest I got from Nero.

No sane person would burden himself with such a deadly and impossible quest! Fighting a single enemy world gate now proved to be challenging with all these changes. And thinking about controlling five at the same time was delusional!

Not to mention he asked me to go into the other world and control one castle there. Of course that seemed great and would definitely help me in the future, but first I needed to think rationally about one thing.

Could I do it? Really do it? Of course not!

I didn't forget that I was going to attack races in their own worlds! That was like standing alone in front of the endless armies of theirs, facing not only the race itself but also the apocalypse there in the form of monsters and angels.

I wouldn't survive this sh*t, not even survive one single world battle. It was obviously a trap, a death trap meant for me to lose my life or to be lost in one world without finding a way back.

Who guaranteed that the gate of the world I conquered wouldn't be reconquered? Or closed up on itself when the time ran up?

In the middle of all these variables and unclear situations, I couldn't possibly risk my neck for something that wasn't worth it.

Death pantheon was great and all, it suited me perfectly fine, but it wasn't the sole pantheon out there which could support me.

And that simple line of words I got made me heave a deep sigh of relief. I wasn't asked to control anything, but to be brave enough and attack the five gates in the city and show the might of the humans to everyone.

And I could simply do that. In fact I already planned to give it a try. If I succeeded, then I'd gain one more city under my control. If I failed, then at least I'd control one gate and use it for the heroic calling I desired.

"Let's go," I didn't explain anything to the jumper, and he just kept glaring up at my back until we arrived at the top of the chariot.

"Did you get something good from that visit?" he asked, but I didn't answer him. Instead I called forth all the warriors I had and then resummoned them again.

"Take charge of all the defensive weapons in the chariot," I gave the order, "once spotted an enemy, attack without holding back."

They roared and nodded before dispersing all over my big chariot. The soulers only stayed behind on the floor with nothing much to do, only taking the duty to tour the chariot as patrol units.

As for my Gollems, they were handling my big ballista while my dragons hovered on top of my head.

I could summon more dragons, or other units if I wanted. My current limit was twenty-three warriors. In addition to the one hundred thousand souls I gained from Anubis blessing, I also had almost twenty thousand more that came from my scattered forces back at New York city.

But that figure seemed to freeze for quite a while now, giving me the impression they finally controlled the city.

"It's time to move out," the jumper said while his eyes told me he was up to nothing good, "this time it's all on your wallet, hahaha!"

I shrugged. I already had enough stat points to run my little girl at full power for twenty hours straight at least.

However, unlike what he expected, the first thing I did was to open my channel and search for someone trustworthy.

"Sara," my eyes shone when I saw her name. She was a violent girl who loved to fight and wouldn't shrink away from any battle.

"Do you have a sealing shield?" I turned to the jumper before doing anything, "something enough to conceal the vision and sound of us."

"Easy," with a wave of his hand he took out an orb and instantly activated it. A bronzed coloured shield surrounded the two of us, creating a masking veil that covered even our bodies. "This is a bronze grade shield but it's strong enough to do what you asked for."

"Brilliant," I instantly opened the channel feed and used the ability to communicate with Sara.

[Have you controlled the entire city yet?] I said to her while controlling my chariot to rise up its central pillar.

[Hi Hye!] She waved at the air as she couldn't see me at all. [We did almost half an hour ago] she said before adding, [The entire city is now ours. Our men did a great job here, and that major was really a good choice to lead us]

I smiled in contentment. After all, in these early stages war experience was considered one of many fatal flaws in the human race.

[Have you surrounded and fortified the city?]

[We are doing that right now] she replied, [Also that major sent many small groups to scout the surrounding regions in precaution for any revengeful act from the angels]

"Great," I commended, [Tell him to amass a big army, at least a few thousands of strong men. He will lead them with you and the other elites we have. Leave few elites behind to control the city and secure the area]

[Where are we going?] she asked before adding, [Are we coming to you?]

[In a way our paths will unite at the end] I didn't give her a direct answer at first before explaining my plans to her.

She listened and also that jumper did. After I finished, she promised to do her utmost effort and execute this mission with great success.

"You are planning far ahead this time," the jumper only said these words while nodding. Hell dude, you knew nothing at all about why I was taking such a risky move now.

But without this move, my chances of success would dwindle by a large margin!

"Only the intermediate form?" The jumper watched me throw tens of thousands of stat points into the burning heart of the chariot. "Won't we need speed to attack them before they are ready?"

"I've got another thing in mind," I returned to the front of my chariot before giving the order to the dragorses to start pulling it. The speed was high enough to gallop miles in ten minutes, taking us away from the castle we conquered before.

"Go and scan the areas in between the nearest two castles," I stopped the chariot all of sudden while giving such order to my three dragons, "don't engage. Just observe from afar and come to report every five minutes."

According to the map I had, there were two castles lying close to my current spot. The world around was like usual, filled with devastation and ruins left over by the mighty battles and the swarms of monsters.

But up till now I didn't see a single monster at all. That meant the races were working with the angels to sum up all their forces as hard as they could.

"Aren't we going to hit the next castle now?" The jumper seemed to be slightly puzzled by my current arrangement.

And that made me heave a sigh of relief. After all the last warning I got from Nero while acting as my friend was related to the spying gods.

That was something I couldn't solve for now. All I could do was to keep my plans away from their eyes.. That was the reason why I asked the jumper before to surround me with a protective shield that would prevent anyone from listening to what I said to Sara.

Chapter 114 - Hunting Down Enemy Forces

"We will wait," I only said that and didn't explain further. I had my own reasons for that. One I was just hoping a chance would appear to give those enemies a strong blow before the big fight.

And secondly I needed to waste some time. After all, Sara's part needed at least a couple hours to be done.

So why would I rush things up? Let's have some fun first.

*Roar!*

Just a few minutes after their departure, one of the dragons appeared first by his loud roar before he landed on the chariot.

"There is a big group of mixed races moving from the city towards one castle."

*Roar!*

Before I could say anything, another roar erupted as another dragon came.

"I spotted a large group of reinforcements coming from the city towards one castle."

"ِAre we going to hit them?" the jumper asked and I saw no need to answer him. Of course we were going to hit them.

"Get ready," I started to make my chariot move again, "lead the way to the first group."

*Roar!*

One dragon flew high in the air while the jumper took out two long spears. "I like this plan," he said. Dude, if you knew my full plan then you'd love it more!

The distance between us and those reinforcements wasn't big. But we took a detour around one castle, to avoid clashing with their forces.

Of course I wouldn't be stupid to go directly and hit them in there. From what I learnt, these races wouldn't have any support beyond the reach of their gates.

Just think about it. The main gates were located in the city. Then how could they operate subsidiary gates outside it?

Of course they could send reinforcements from their worlds through the gates, but that meant each castle would only have one single race.

Yet the dragons spotted many races in each castle. What did that mean? They dispatched supporting armies from each gate.

Of course the large gates in the city would allow more troops to come here. And that meant the main reinforcements coming were from the city itself.

As for the ones that were already at each castle, they came from the subsidiary gates outside the city. I missed these batches while I was meeting Nero, but now I couldn't miss the reinforcements travelling from the city.

In less than five minutes I spotted a large number of mixed races coming from far. There were dragons hovering on top of them, many ground forces that looked like a myriad of all races.

Selvators were there. Succubi were there. Even low grade races acting as warriors like Werewolves and Kobolds were there.

Four big races were together, missing only one more race. I didn't think much about the missing fifth race as I simply took out two swords of mine, pointed one high in the air before lowering it towards the distance.

"Attack!"

Without any hesitation, gates of hell opened over these enemies without any warning.

*Boom!* *Bang!* *Rumble!*

My chariot defences fired and I saw many explosions happening at the incoming group of enemies. Of course if I was fighting them at their gates, things would end differently than now.

But the fight didn't last for more than ten minutes. Even the dragons in the air failed to pose any threat at all, even the Selvators couldn't exert their full power.

After all they were all limited by the rules of the system. They were in a weakened state, and I didn't show them any mercy.

I used my chariot offensive weapon energy pulse which left the enemy stunned in their place.

And then my warriors released their arrows, killing anyone that was hit by these.

As for the dragons, my giant ballista was enough to reap their lives one at a time.

"Yeah, they deserve this!" The jumper was laughing hysterically while throwing off his spears like they were stones. Each hit took one life of the enemies, but his killing efficiency wasn't anything closer to mine.

As for my chariot, I didn't leave it. I drove it to tumble over the bodies of the stunned enemies, crushing them under her big skates and the strong attacks of my dragorses.

This battle wasn't a fight, but a massacre! In the span of ten minutes, slightly over five thousand troops were killed.

"Time to reap the rewards," I instantly stopped my chariot and descended fast towards the bottom. When I reached there, I found the jumper had reached there earlier.

He simply jumped off the chariot, depending on his augmented physique thanks to his higher cultivation base.

"Aren't you afraid they'd send more troops to kill us here?" as the two of us kept gathering our loot, he said in a tone that was filled with joy rather than worry.

"Let them come," I shared with him the same kind of joy. After all, my wallet was pitifully emptied before, and now it got swollen with a couple million coins. "If they dare, we'll kill anything they send at us."

He laughed before we two returned after a couple of minutes to the top of the chariot.

"Lead the way to the next reinforcements," I simply said to the second dragon before sending the first to scout the next target.

The third dragon returned in the middle of the fight. He found a third group of troops coming towards a third castle.

Like before, I took a slight detour around the second castle, avoiding any clash with their garrison. Then I slammed over the incoming reinforcements, killing all of them in mere minutes.

"Why are they in such a weakened state?" After the third fight, the jumper seemed to notice this thing.

"What? Don't tell me you don't like them being weakened!" I rolled up my eyes while moving towards the fourth group.

"It's just weird," he looked at me in suspicion, "and it's weirder that you knew about that!"

I didn't explain myself. Instead I opened my channel feed and watched what Sara was doing. She was in the middle of a brutal fight against normal monsters.

The number of forces she led was already big enough to crush any wolf packs or hyenas. Despite having losses along their way, they were moving forward without pausing.

Having losses was a normal thing in the apocalypse. And they needed to toughen up and start to match the game.

"What do we have here?"

Just as we came towards the fourth group of enemies, I found the number looked strangely bigger.

Each group before had few thousands of races and warriors, not exceeding six thousands. But this group was simply in tens of thousands!

The sheer size of this group, or this army, expanded to the horizon. "They sent the armies from the nearby gates," this was the only explanation I could find.

"Will we retreat then?" The jumper looked up at me but I simply grinned.

"And let such a big meal slip away? No chance!" I raised my sword and led my chariot straight towards them, "get ready to fight!"

*Roar!*

My warriors were already on a killing spree. They roared in unison, announcing the start of this bloody battle.

*Rumble!*

Yet as we got closer, I saw many flashes of light coming from certain spots in the middle of their ranks.

"They are using scrolls!" The jumper instantly recognised their attack pattern. As I did.

"Let them come," I shrugged, turned around and headed directly towards my beating heart of the chariot.

"Activating the full powered version then?" The jumper followed me while watching my action in interest.

"I won't," despite saying that, I threw many stat points into that burning little star, making it rotate fiercer than before.

"You just threw two hundred thousand stat points at least in there!" the jumper said in doubt and I shook my head.

"It's just a precaution," I didn't say further as I turned back and stood at the front of my chariot.

As I reached there, the attacks coming at us appeared clearly in my eyes. There were a myriad of fire tornados, lightning bolts, and giant water and ice waves that howled towards our direction.

"Will the chariot withstand this?" he asked in doubt and I shrugged.

"We'll get to know the answer soon."

Up till now my chariot only faced a deadly challenge of that godly tear before. Aside from that, all the fights we had so far didn't pose any real challenge to my chariot.

The enemy wasn't a fool. He knew his own weakness better than I.

If they came here in such a grand way, then they must have another backing plan, one that I already guessed.

Unlike the jumper, I didn't watch the clash between my chariot's defensive barrier and those offensive attacks. I raised my head instead and up there I finally saw a sparkling red dot.

"Indeed they are using the same old weapon," I slowly muttered and my words attracted the attention of the jumper.

"Damn! That's the star weapon!" he cursed before turning in a fierce way towards me, "we need to run, or else we'd get hit!"

"Have you ever wondered if the godly tear of the illusionists is stronger or the angel's star weapon?"

"What?!!"

"Keep attacking," as I confirmed my guess, I gave such order in a calm tone before turning back again and putting enough stat points to reach one million.

Then I activated my chariot's fully powered version.

"Are you crazy?" the jumper asked in clear fright. "Last time we were lucky to escape with our life intact!"

He was referring to the three combined hits we got when I first met him. Of course he had all the right to be scared. But who said we weren't without protection?

The star weapon wasn't like that godly tear weapon of the illusionists. It had stages that made its terror come in grades.

I'd not say the two weren't equal, but the star weapon's fully charged attack would be on par with the illusionists' godly tear.

But to activate the star weapon to the fullest, more time was needed. That meant the angels would risk losing their target, which was us.

If we noticed the star weapon early on like now, we might simply evade its reign of attack and let the enemy forces here take its deadly hit instead.

If they did so, then they'd kill most of their forces and lose their target in the end. They weren't stupid to do that!

So they'd just activate the simple version of that deadly weapon. As I just arrived back to the front, and as I watched my chariot's barrier get strengthened by the fully powered version, the star weapon attack landed as expected.

"We are going to die!" the jumper screamed in a strange panicked way. Dude, get a better hold over yourself! We wouldn't die here.

"Keep attacking!" Even under the baptism of these deadly red rays, I didn't hold my chariot back and kept pushing it forward.

The speed of the chariot in the fully powered version was really remarkable! Just in a span of a few minutes, and just as the deadly star weapon attack stopped, my chariot created wide routes in between the enemy forces.

Not to mention anyone standing near the chariot when we got hit was barbecued into dead fried meat!

Yet the deadliest weapon I had was the chariot itself! It moved like a grinding fortress, killing everyone standing in its way.

With its high speed, nothing stopped against it, not even when they used strong defensive items!

"Damn! You are ruthless!!" even the jumper was shocked when he saw this. That was expected. After all, minutes ago he went on screaming in panic while I led my chariot and forces to kill as many of the enemies as possible.

And in the span of half an hour, most of the enemies were killed and the rest ran already towards the nearby two castles.

"Let's get the loot!"

Such a big fight meant I'd get a lot of loot. I didn't descend like normal and instead used a rope I bought from the market and jumped down to the ground directly like the jumper's way.

And the jumper just followed.

"Are we going to keep hitting them?" he asked, "they already are preparing their counterattack!"

"Let them try," as long as they didn't coward themselves inside their castles, I'd not flinch in front of their armies.

Chapter 115 - [Bonus Chapter] Human Race Hye!

The loot this time was really big! It was expected. After all, they sent a few of their elites to lead the resistance against us.

Aside from the twenty million coins I got, the sheer number of stat points made me grin even after returning to the surface of my chariot.

Five million stat points! Damn! Who said war was the source of wealth? He was goddamn right!

Unlike what the jumper expected, we didn't find such resistance anymore. Even the size of the reinforcement troops of the enemies began to show signs of decreasing the more we progressed.

"They are dispersing their troops," I reached to such a conclusion when I killed the tenth group that wasn't even close to five hundred!

"Yeah, that's a killer move indeed," the jumper nodded but I knew things weren't so easy.

We were now at the other side from where we started. The distance between the two points was big enough to take even half an hour with my chariot's intermediate speed.

If I were them, I'd just scatter my forces and send them in the opposite direction. Of course that also meant they'd send a large number of forces each time, fearing to not be able to send much more again.

"Will we hit the castles now?" The jumper seemed to grow bored from killing a few groups of enemies. But I shook my head.

"It's time to up the game."

As the enemy fell into such a trap, I suddenly shifted the direction of my chariot.

"Wait… are we going to the city now?!" The jumper looked at me with widened eyes.

"Do you have a better option?" I didn't explain anything and instead activated the fully powered version of my chariot. The speed boost it got made it literally fly over the ground and flash like a bolt of lightning towards the direction of the city.

"I thought we were going to kill the small fries first," the jumper looked at me in a questionable gaze. Dude, have more trust in me please!

By logic, I should be doing exactly like what he thought. I initially planned to do this before I got the message of that war god.

Of course battles here were hard, but if I needed to impress that high god of war pantheon, I needed to show more than brute strength.

Cunning was a major key to winning wars. Who said wars were won with numbers and strength? That wasn't totally correct! Wars were won mainly by deception.

And I just deceived my enemies to dispatch most of their strong forces outside the city. If the city was considered a mighty fortress before I started, then right now it was like an empty fort waiting for me to claim.

Besides I got an urgent quest that I needed to accomplish first before anything else. I had to conquer one gate to be able to use my heroic calling.

Not to mention Sara and her large army were already close to doing their role. I wasted enough time here for them to be ready.

As all my chess pieces were in place, it was time to make the checkmate move.

According to our current location, I strangely could see something on the other side of the land. There was a big island that had a deep hole like a deep wound.

"Is this the statue of liberty island?" I couldn't help but point towards that direction, and the jumper nodded.

"Why be surprised?" he asked as if it was normal to see that island so close from here.

"Isn't it different from New York city?"

"It's closer to Jersey city than New York," he looked in doubt towards me before asking, "you never told me where you are. You aren't American, right?"

"Indeed I'm not," I firmly said before diverting his attention away from this topic, "do you know Jersey city then?"

"I visited it a couple of times before," he nodded before adding, "from our current position, we are closer to Greenville."

"That's where the illusionist castle is," I evilly grinned before pointing in the direction of one of my illusionists and asked: "Do you know where your castle is located?"

The illusionist was bound by the contract to answer me. Yet he seemed more wary towards my intentions.

Of course during the past fights every single one of the illusionists were thrown into the battle without any exception. They saw how deadly I dealt with those races, even a combined force with tens of thousands and with the aid of the angelic star weapon couldn't stop me.

"It's in that direction," against his own will, he answered while pointing in one direction.

"It's in the direction of New Jersey City university!" the jumper said as he seemed to recognise that direction.

"Lord's friend is correct," the illusionist nodded, "our castle is situated just south of a big human learning place."

"So it comes down to the Gothic Knights then," the jumper seemed to recall something about that university.

"Do you know it?" I couldn't help but ask.

"I was supposed to enroll there next year," he said in a melancholic tone, "but as you can see… even in the apocalypse I have to go there."

"That's fate dude," I smiled while looking forward again.

Out of the five big races and their stationed forces here, who would be my first enemy to pick? Of course someone stationed far away from the main forces I loved before.

And on top of that, a force that already lost one of the strongest weapons of their arsenal early on! That god tear they used meant they were now cubs and not lions.

So all my preparations were to attack their castle. I thought I'd have to pass by another race castle to reach them, but my enemies were more nervous than I thought and they moved earlier and sat on the board for my checkmate move.

The city looked more devastated than New York. I could still see thick tongues of smoke rising up from many spots in the city.

From the first glance, New York seems much bigger. But for some reason, the vibe I got from this city made me feel it witnessed far more brutal fights compared with New York.

"Ahem, esteemed human race Hye, may I take a moment of your time?"

Just as I entered the city for a couple minutes, and tried to find a clear path for my big chariot in the middle of tall damaged buildings, I heard this sudden voice coming from my side.

"Angels?!" I was surprised to see them. Three angels, looking similar to the ones I knew in New York City with slight differences.

These three looked slightly bigger in size, and the air they emitted was far more heavy than the other three.

So they gained a lot of blessing points so far? Interesting!

"What do you want?" Despite their appearance, I didn't pause or slow down my chariot's speed. I knew they wouldn't come here out of good intentions.

If they thought about wasting my time till their scattered forces gathered, then they'd be mistaken.

"We want to welcome you to the city," the central one, their leader, said with a smile that looked all but friendly.

"You already warmly welcomed me," I snorted, "did you forget? That Hudson river battle was really a good warm up indeed."

"We know nothing about that!" He acted shamelessly and even the jumper looked at them in surprise. "We only rule over the issues related to this city and its counties. Hudson river belongs to New York city."

"It belongs to both cities," the jumper seemed to not take their bullshit. Dude, let them say whatever they wanted. In the end we wouldn't listen to them.

"What do you want?" as the angels were about to give another shitty answer, I directly asked, "I'm a little busy here. So if you don't mind, speak or f*ck off!"

"Easy esteemed human race Hye," that leader of them said with a sly smile on his face, "why being nervous?"

"If you won't tell, then I'll just ignore you as if you aren't here," I rolled my eyes while giving them my back. Yet the next moment the three flashed and appeared in front of me.

"We just want to offer a truce between the races fighting in the city," the central one said while wearing the veil of an honest angel, "as guides, we shall seek balance and look for the future prosperity of all races."

"Indeed," I nodded without any speck of honesty in my voice, "then what do you propose?"

"Ahem, can you pull over to have a slight talk over this?" one on the side angel said while trying to be as polite on the surface as possible.

"I love my chariot moving around your city," I shrugged, "if you wanted me to speak while not driving it, then you can wait for a couple hours. I have little business here to do in the city before resting."

The angels' look on their faces was priceless! They wanted to curse, show their arrogance and dirty faces, but they couldn't. After all, my channel was backing me up. So despite all this, they could only show a humble and polite expression, even if their faces were boiling red out of anger and frustration.

"We don't like war inside our city," their leader said as if he was gritting on his teeth, "why can't all the races here live in peace and harmony? Why shall you fight and kill each other? That pains me!"

"F*ck you!" The jumper was more straightforward and less impatient than I. Just his instant remark made a laugh escape from my mouth.

"Esteemed human race jumpers, you can't live with such bloody nature. That's unhealthy for you in the long run."

"Why don't I give you a proposal?" I held the jumper's arm and held him back for a second, "why don't you take all the races who invaded my world back into theirs?"

"We can't do that," the three angels all shook their heads in unison, "this is the setting of the great apocalypse. We all shall follow and serve the great plan of the mighty creators."

Those hypocritical bunch of liars! I sneezed while releasing this bunch of angels who were more tactful and shameless than the other three in New York city.

"Then war will continue here until I kill all of them," I said it in a way like it was out of my hand to decide such a matter.

"But that will prove to be quite challenging…" the leader paused to make sure I got his hidden threat in between the lines, "it's not a healthy thing to have such bloody fights all the time. Why not wait until the main quest is activated? Once the rules are stated, we can all follow the greater will of the mighty creators."

"F*ck you!" the jumper cursed again and I simply rolled my eyes towards him.

"Jumper, be more polite to our guides," I said in a tone that was filled with mockery, "they backstabbed our race and had the courage to come with such innocent looks and even try to scum us. Show them more respect, please."

"Humph, dirty rats have no better end than deadly traps," he scoffed and turned his spear towards the angels in a challenge, "if you got it in you, come and show me your worth in a duel!"

"You…" the rude answer of the jumper seemed to get them on the verge of exploding. I grinned while slightly pushing the jumper to the side.

"Sorry about that, it's just my friend here doesn't like dirty people."

"Hye… This is your last warning!" The third angel seemed to have his anger out of control, yet he was instantly stopped by their leader.

"Esteemed human Hye, let's not make this situation anymore complicated please," as a sly fox he said, and I only gave him my laugh as an answer before saying:

"I dare you to make it more complicated for me."

"That's not a wise thing," the leader said in a calm tone yet his eyes were flashing in a dangerous light, "fighting against everyone isn't a wise move. Without allies, how can you aim to control all the gates in the city then for your personal quest?"

116 The Angels Are Angry

His words don't come as a surprise for me. I already knew that the quest Nero gave to me was a trap from the beginning. Yet hearing him saying such words made my desire to crush the angels, the races, and the filthy traitors even in gods ignite.

"I believe that's my own stuff, not yours to give opinions about," I faked my anger when I heard his words.

"It's just we can meditate between you and the other races and might help in solving that little problem for you."

"Oh, so generous and kind indeed," I tried my hardest to not laugh, and only showed a wide smile on my face.

"Yes we have already spoken with other races," he said, "and in general they are in favour of having a ceasefire until the main quest starts. After that we'll see the conditions of the quest and try to find a midway solution."

"F*ck you!" The jumper's answer summed up what I wanted to say. This time I didn't hold him back and let him vent all the rage welling up inside him.

"You all want us dead! Humans are just worms in your eyes, even worms are better! Scram, I don't want to see your dirty faces ever again!"

"We are speaking with the human race, Hye, not you!" the leader said in a rude way before turning towards me as he added, "what do you say, esteemed human race Hye?"

"F*ck off!" This time it came from my mouth and before that angel could say anything, I snapped my fingers and the three dragons came to stand by my side.

"Go and lead them around," I pointed at ten Bulltors and twenty shield warriors, "kill anything breathing without showing mercy!"

*Roar!*

The dragons roared before the Bulltors moved from the surface of my chariot with the shield warriors. I was keeping them up there as there was no place for them at any platform in the chariot.

And as a clear response to the bullshit of these angels, I moved them to attack and kill any hostile forces in the region.

"You will regret this," the leader of the angels watched in dark face my warriors stepping down the chariot, "you won't see your quest fulfilled."

"Scram," the jumper was already over his limit, "you shouldn't show your faces to us ever again!"

"Humph, arrogance is a sin that humans are famous for," I didn't know why but when he spoke to my jumper, he returned to his dirty and rude nature. "I know you and your friends are thinking high of themselves thanks to those weak and retarded angels at the other zone. But unluckily you ended up facing the three of us, and we'll prove ourselves worthy against you!"

"Oh," I snorted, "you seem so confident about your plans against me."

I crossed my arms and looked at them in interest. These three seemed to have more confidence in themselves than the other angels.

And that was logical. After all, they didn't clash their swords with mine properly yet.

"I believe you shall go and retire," the jumper scoffed, "this is nothing good for your own health. I mean when we crush all your schemes, you'll end up crying like babies, hahaha!"

I didn't say anything and let the jumper do the rest of his taunting talk. Of course the jumper wasn't just releasing his anger out of his frustration.

He was trying to drive those angels to tell us a glimpse about their plans.

"Huh, do you think we don't have the ability to crush you? Humph, let's see how you'll deal with our little present at that castle."

The castle of the illusionists came to the far horizon. It looked not much different from the subsidiary gate I crushed before.

It was much bigger and the castle underneath seemed to be double in size than the castle I took before.

*Snap!*

The three angels snapped their fingers at the same time, and from the depth of the dim sky a pillar of silver light fell just in front of that castle.

I used my hawkeye skill to see clearly what was going on. "A teleportation gate… Interesting," I instantly recognized that big arched gate which appeared from that pillar of light.

It was almost twenty metres in height, made out of thick ore that was slightly over three metres thick.

I knew this gate very well. It was a trans-realm teleportation portal, one that was linked to a few selected worlds known as the dark realms.

"You recognize it?!!" The shock in the leader's angel's voice was apparent. As he said it, I simply nodded. "Then you shall know better about the dark fate waiting for you!"

"That's something yet to be decided," even if I knew the type of terror awaiting for us at the other side of this portal, I didn't show any signs of distress over my face.

In fact, as a rule of thumb in the apocalypse, every disaster was a blessing in disguise.

So even if there was a terrifying creature waiting on the other side of this portal, it also held a great chance for us.

"Yes, we'll see about that," the leader gave me such a chilling icy gaze before he and the other two vanished from my sight while adding, "we'll be watching."

"I hope you'll be disappointed," the jumper waved his hand before whispering to me, "do you know what this teleportation portal is?"

"It's a summoning gate," my face slightly changed, "a gate linked to a terrifying lost world where only a handful of monsters survived in the entire world."

"Oh, you really know your stuff," the jumper said while looking at the giant silver gate in the distance, "so we shall expect a deadly fight?"

"Not necessary," I shook my head before I stopped my chariot all of sudden.

"What happened?" the jumper turned to me, "are we going to run away?"

"Not a chance," I said while opening my market and started to search for a single item.

"What's the plan then?"

As if he got accustomed to my way of doing things, the jumper realised from my actions that I had a plan in my mind.

"Tell me, do you know how monsters evolve in the apocalypse?" I asked while reviewing the results from the market, filtering out anything not useful to me.

"In strength you mean?" he asked and I nodded. "They first start as tier one, grade white monsters. Then with killing their rivals and eating their flesh they advance into higher tears and grades."

"That's not totally wrong," I said while keeping many results away from the interface, "but in another theory, they grow stronger the more energy they gain from the apocalypse."

"And that's by killing other races, right?" the jumper paused before adding, "in theory both are fundamentally the same!"

"Not quite right," I shook my head again, "they don't grow stronger because they gain anything from their enemies. They are like us, working for the apocalypse to gain rewards and advance their tiers and grades."

"They are like us?!!" The jumper seemed astonished when he heard my words, "They also have systems?"

"Not to such an extent," I said, "to have a system you first need to be sane. But monsters aren't! Even the one coming out from that portal at any moment now won't be any more intelligent than the monsters here."

"Then…"

"They get rewards by the total number of races they kill during any stage of the apocalypse. These rewards aren't that much different than ours. Instead of adding stat points, they had something called the evolution path."

My eyes shone brightly when I found something interesting at the market. I instantly paid five million coins and obtained it before closing the interface and turned my full attention to the all attentive jumper.

"That evolution path defines the strength and brutality of the monsters. For example the early monsters we had here can't adapt that well against heat, light, and ultraviolet sun rays."

"But in time they will adapt," the jumper nodded in understanding.

"That's not just a step of adaptation, but a step of evolution," I explained, "and imagine a world that was hit mercilessly by the apocalypse. In such a world the entire intelligent races were wiped out and the world was only dominated by monsters."

I paused while turning my gaze towards that silver gate. It was starting to shine brightly while a dense layer of fog began to get formed in the space under its big arch.

"They will have a power rivalling that of gods!" the jumper realised this point smoothly, "damn! We should hurry and escape!"

"No way," I firmly shook my head, "if we did, that monster will wreak havoc and will turn our world into an exact image of his dark realm."

"Then…" the jumper didn't need to ask his question for me to get his point. And I nodded.

"We have to slay it here."

"Can we do that?" The jumper showed unconfidence at this moment, "can we stop such a mighty monster?"

"It's not that we can't, but it's the question of the time," I vaguely said and the look I got from his eyes proved that he didn't get what I meant. "Just wait and you'll see."

I simply took out the item I just bought from the market and examined its description.

[Bubble of Lekorate monster: Rare item. A bubble extracted from a dead Lekorate monster after failing his evolution.

The bubble is considered one of the highest isolation grade materials in the entire universe. Can't leak smell, aura, energy, or anything from the location it covers. The area covered by the bubble is determined by the amount of coins spent to expand it. The basic area is one cubic metres. To expand it by ten cubic metres, ten thousand coins are needed]

It didn't give off any appearance similar to any bubble at all. In fact it was a cube, a cube made out of a pale blue jelly substance.

"What is that?" the jumper asked.

"A way to deal with that monster," I simply threw it in the air and it instantly expanded to cover one cubic metre. An interface appeared in front of me where I simply added ten million coins in it.

And just like that, the cube expanded to cover up ten thousand cubic metres, engulfing all the chariot and the dragorses within.

I didn't forget to summon back my dragons and warriors that I sent outside. At this moment they weren't needed to do that task anymore.

"Will that be enough?" the jumper asked in clear doubt.

And I simply nodded. "It's more than enough," such a bubble was enough to seal our existence from the senses of that beast.

Even if you summoned a god to this world, if he couldn't sense my presence, how could he kill me then?

In fact this came as a blessing in two ways for me. One this dude could deal with most of the troublesome forces of the races in the city. And second because this dude had some kind of a precious material that wasn't even in this world, or even in the newly formed world.

Such material was something I needed for a future step in my grand plan. I thought I might get it from the gods after gaining support from a higher grade god. Who thought I'd be lucky enough to get it early on?

This material was something called the world's essence. It was rare, extremely rare. To appear it had many conditions to fulfil.

First of all there was nothing in the entire universe to form such material except for monsters. Monsters had unique bodies in the apocalypse, where they had the ability to transform the world's energy from something impalpable into something real.

And to concentrate on such a material, they needed to dominate a world after getting hit by the apocalypse. As far as I knew, this had a very, very low chance of happening in the entire universe.

Then these monsters needed to live for at least a hundred years in such worlds. And to harness such material, they needed to be killed in worlds they didn't dominate.