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763 Showing Them How Apocalypse Truly Looked Like
I'd go and smash that big army of elites from behind. Instead of me getting surrounded in the end, their forces would be the ones to be surrounded.
Wiping out that army would leave only the aquatic forces and the smaller army at the central zone untouched.
Against my forces, I doubted they could do anything worthy to worry about.
So I moved towards the heated up frontline at the far distance while summoning my last batch of warriors.
I knew using just one million of them against the enemy forces of tens of millions and even more would be insane.
So I had to use my technique again.
"Wow! It can also affect that!!"
I used my first technique as usual, created the black circle and held it with my left fist from the centre to release my threads.
The first new thing I noticed was the size of this circle. Before this, it could only reach ten metres in radius at first before expanding later on with the influx of my energy towards it.
But now? It went way beyond this! At least a circle of five hundred metres in radius appeared in front of me. This was insane! I didn't do anything new, didn't get any advancement to my cultivation base, or elevated the grade of my energy.
All I had was my sacrificial boosts, and they seemed to affect my cultivation and energy in one way or another.
"At least it's not a side effect," I laughed while trying to release my threads.
And there was the second new thing that happened.
My threads were just threads, thin and looking weak compared to the thick arms of my second technique.
But now? Each thread coming out was like a thick arm, and once they got out from the circle, they started to emit many threads like my old ones.
"It's like… A tree with branches…" I looked at my evolved technique with daze and admiration.
This… Would only continue for a day and would stop. I had to find a way to keep this effect longer… Like forever!
"I have to get my base upgraded," I got the bones from my little turtle when I sealed it. They were dark realm monster bones, the ones needed for me to elevate my cultivation base higher, to reach a level enough to turn this effect permanent.
But now I got to taste the true might of my evolved technique.
Before this, trying to control any elite would take roughly five minutes. I knew these forces were slightly better, so I prepared for a six or even seven minutes wait.
But when my new threads infected a large number of forces' bodies, the thicker arms started to shine for the first time ever for such a thing to happen.
And with it, I felt the consumption rate of my energy got doubled, tripled, and kept rising so damn fast!
"Wanna suck me dry? You should try harder then," I got nothing but bones to use and replenish my energy.
But as I got the chariot filled with the green bones, the technique didn't stop showing me new surprises.
Thorns were thrown out like an army stood inside the circle and kept attacking the forces down below. Anyone who got hit by a thorn would pause, his body would tremble for a few seconds before I felt my control over him.
Damn! This… This was fierce! Was such a stage possible? Could I evolve my technique and let it show such scary attacks?
Thorns kept venturing towards the enemies at the same time that my threads kept controlling them. At a point, I felt like this technique was holding a scyth, reaping their souls in heaps and adding them all to be my slaves.
A number of tens of thousands which would take me almost fifteen minutes or so to control didn't take more than a couple of minutes!
"I… Gotta work on contracts then," after long minutes of standing there in pure daze, looking at what my evolved technique was doing, I decided to work over the contract part.
In fact, I felt like the technique didn't need this. It was just doing fine on itself.
But I had to do something, right? I got to control them and release the pressure over my technique, if there was one.
I got curious while forcing them to sign contracts. What was the cause of this change in my technique?
Was it the strength bonus? Or was it the speed? The magic effects might be the reason as well. I got no clue here, but I had to look deeper and try to find anything that might help.
Knowing what brought such an effect to my technique would help me in my future cultivation base evolution. After all, my base was unique and like nothing else.
As I freed my threads by contracts, I released them to infect more others. At the same time, my circle kept throwing thorns all over the place, controlling more than what my threads ever did.
"Attack!" As I got all these forces in less than half an hour, I didn't let my warriors fight alone anymore. An army of million or more moved to help them, and they also sent threads over to infect others at the same time.
The road towards the distant battle at the walls was filled with many living blocks. I couldn't help but smash many using my chariot, while others got destroyed by my forces and the brutal fights going everywhere.
Slowly the fight started to spread out from being an army fighting an army to a street fight. And street fights were always bloody and messy.
The buildings here were made of a special kind of ore, one that would take lots of hits and endure the attacks for a good duration.
However in the end, I and my forces left a long trail of destroyed buildings, giving me a familiar sight I saw many times on my Earth.
764 I Have To Act Crazy!
Cities and towns got destroyed and turned into ruins. The once was bustling cities and towns with life turned to such lifeless and ruined places filled with terror, doubt, and death.
Sorry folks, this was the ugly face of the apocalypse. I knew you came from such a high and mighty race, one that sheltered you and your world from the brutality and cruelty of the apocalypse.
And it seemed that my role was to give you a fierce and cold slap on your faces to wake up.
"Keep pushing forward!" I kept shouting like this from time to time, whenever I felt my forces get lost into the maze of these buildings and resident blocks.
In an hour of brutal fighting, we finally reached a wide open place. It seemed it was dedicated to military forces, and there I found the huge army standing between me and my forces.
, "Kill!" It wasn't time for any hesitation. They stood there, giving their backs to us, while trying to go forward.
They might have mistaken us as being their reinforcements or something. Once I gave the order, they attacked the unprepared forces for our arrival.
And that was the real beauty about such a sneaky attack. The enemy would never see us coming until it was too late.
"Intruders!"
"Enemy at the backline!"
"Turn around and fight!"
I rose up with my chariot, high enough to spot the places such orders came from. I had previous experience at hunting down generals, and knew how deep this would impact the forces here.
So I aimed my threads first at these places, taking control over them in short minutes, while my thorns rained down over the nearby forces, taking control of them in no time.
This fight started with such a surprise attack, and kept getting worse for the enemy thanks to my technique.
The generals were taking down at the early moments of this fight. And many of the forces around us turned to be mine.
"Advance!" and that was the time to create chaos! "Come forth my vaillant warriors! Wreck havoc and kill everyone you meet."
I got the upper hand, and it was time to push forward to gain more.
I aimed to expand the zone of fight here to create chaos, enough to let the forces up there fighting to have a much easier time than before.
Once they gained control of the walls, this fight would be over. Both forces would move towards each other, pushing with everything we got to crush the enemies in between.
As for the reinforcements sent by the enemy, it seemed they got scared by my sudden move. And also the fight at the ocean already started as well.
The enemy was already led by a bunch of cowards. Princes and princesses who took control over worlds before? I could hardly believe such a lie!
They showed zero experience in leading a fight. How could they be leaders and conquerors of other worlds? That was a lie! And the Hectors lived their lives believing such one.
My boys kept spreading chaos, expanding the fight over the entire forces here. But the sheer size of this place was really something!
Even after ten hours of fighting, we couldn't surround the enemy in between my forces here and up there.
I lost count of how much I controlled during these hours. I kept controlling and enforcing them to sign contracts, sending them to fight and control others.
As for my warriors, they were doing great. Led by dragons and flying monsters from the sky, fierce warriors at the ground, and my deadly fallen gods at my chariot from the rear.
All this wasn't enough to crush the forces here. That mainly was caused by those damn portals that kept gushing out tons of forces each minute.
I had to go and crush them at some point, as I grew tired of what they were doing. But the more I destroyed using my glaive, the more popped up later on.
It looked pointless! With such a move, the enemy made sure to keep me pinned down here while dealing with the forces of my little turtle and the jumper.
Both were fighting brutally at the ocean and the big gulf. I didn't get lots of reports from them, but recently the jumper sent a distress message, asking for help.
"Damn! I feel like I'm climbing a mountain, to just get hit by a rock at the top and fall all the way down to the bottom again!" I clenched my glaive while watching this desperate fight.
[Be ready to retreat from the walls] as I grew sick of this, I decided to match this cunniness of the enemy with craziness.
[But… If we do, the enemy will take the higher ground!] Lily sent back, arguing with me in such logic.
She had a right reason indeed. But who said I was going to act with logic this time?
[Just do it now!] I knew the time taken for my forces to retreat would be long. In addition to that, they'd get lots of damage in return.
Plus the enemy would gain more confidence and even momentum to crush them.
However this all had to be done, and I accepted all this while looking at my real target.
These walls… I was going to smash them all down using brute force! When one would be outplayed using schemes and plots, only brute force would save the day.
I gave her one hour to do so, while I kept controlling as many forces as I could. This time, I didn't let them attack and only kept them together, waiting for my signal.
I also started another spree of smashing portals. Even if it was pointless, it would delay the enemy reinforcements for a little bit.
[We are ready!] after one hour and half, she sent me this message, [They are now boarding the walls and coming at us in a fierce momentum]
[Great!] I raised my head towards the distant walls, [Let me show you how I'll smash your treasured walls using my chariot and glaive. Let's go baby, we have work to do!]
765 Destroying The Walls In One Single Attack!
What I had was something simple yet crazy. I led my chariot directly towards the walls, heading towards the point where the fight started.
My chariot flashed fast and arrived there in less than five minutes. Once there, I raised my glaive high in the air, and jumped all the way towards that part of the wall.
"Smash into pieces!" I shouted while my glaive landed with a fierce boom. The walls made out of sturdy ores turned into dust under the might of my glaive.
Then I jumped back, and stood at the tip of my chariot, holding my glaive like it was a spear, issued at the front and held it horizontally.
"Move forward!" I gave the order for my chariot to move at its slowest speed.
Yet with the speed boost I got, it didn't move as slow as I expected. It moved fast, as if I was moving in my intermediate chariot's mode.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
Yet the glaive of mine did its work. Just at first, I felt a strong resistance against my arm when the glaive hit the walls.
But once it broke through, the resistance got reduced. My glaive penetrated the thick walls, creating a wide gap that started first a tunnel before it got smashed when my chariot slammed against the cracked walls.
My glaive left behind lightning and fire effects to devastate the remaining parts of the wall. With the help of my chariot and its shield, I got to crash the walls to pieces.
I didn't cause the same result as hitting the walls directly with my glaive. Part of the walls remained, almost one third of their original heights.
But this didn't stop me.
I had my chariot fly backward so I'd be the first point to hit the walls. And gradually I started to increase the speed when I got hold of this attack.
I didn't know what was the current situation around me, but I was sure any force standing on top of the walls right now would be sh*It scared me.
The walls collapsed, bringing with them all the forces that stood on their top. They were busy attacking my retreating troops to be shocked by my move.
They never expected it, and this was the beauty of such a move.
All who fell down from such height, got covered with all these rocks, wouldn't survive.
Even if he did, he wouldn't be in any form to fight. This was my answer to the current stalemate enforced upon me by my enemies.
Taking the portals out of the equation would end in my victory. But I failed to do so. Then taking down the walls would be the best replacement to such a move.
As the walls started to fall under my glaive, and I increased the speed of my chariot little by little, the situation in this part of the war changed dramatically.
It took me two hours to finish destroying the walls, covering up enough distance to cover up the current battleground.
ɴoᴠᴇʟ Once I stopped, I managed to see how big my move changed the face of this battle.
The enemy seemed to see a chance to push forward, so they sent lots of forces on top of the walls and much more to stand near it.
So when the walls were brought down in such a way, they didn't have time to react. The rocks that fell over their heads were enough to kill much more than the forces that fell with them.
When I looked back, all I saw was a silent battlefield. Such heavy silence that gave me the impression I was in a graveyard or something like that.
All the forces here stood in shock and fear, looking at what I caused while not moving a single finger.
This was the condition of both sides, mine and the Hectors. I didn't know if I should laugh or get mad at my forces for staying silent all this time, but the next thing I did was to give a single order to Lily.
[Move our forces forward, let them start the kill!]
[O… Ok…] she sent back in such a stuttering way, expressing how shocked she was.
She was like everyone else, doubting my earlier decision about the retreat. But now, she and everyone would get why I gave such weird orders.
And once I got her answer, I heard loud shouts coming from my frontline forces while they started to move.
The walls weren't yet crushed to the ground, but with the falling rocks and the dead and injured bodies all over the place, a path was created for everyone to tread upon.
[Attack!] I also gave the same order towards my controlled forces and warriors who weren't doing any better than my frontline forces.
Once my two big groups of forces started to move, the enemy started to crush under such pressure.
If my forces felt such immense shock, then they would feel a much bigger one. I watched the dense number of enemies get killed, and then few started to run away.
It started with scattered small groups lying at the edge of this fight, then it started to spread out like a plaque among them.
[Leave a way out for them] I knew letting such a large number of enemies run away was a mistake, but this battle wouldn't be won by me killing all of these forces here.
I could only win when I'd go to the centre of this capital and control it.
So I took advantage of this moment of chaos and fear, and such an individual decision that turned into such a phenomenon, and decided to push everything towards the central zone.
[Lead the forces together towards the front] I sent to Lily, [Let's go towards the central zone together]
[Will we fight once we are there?]
[Don't wait for me] I finished stabilising this battlefield, and it was time to go towards the other one, [Start the fight and do everything you can to get control over the walls and military posts there]
766 The Messy Aquatic Battle
[What about those islands and forts? They are still fighting and raining our forces with fire]
I looked up and she was right. Although their numbers weren't that much, they would create a few problems for my forces.
[Leave them to me] I sent while sending another message to the jumper, [Tell me how things are at your end]
[It's bad! Those aquatic monsters are really endless! We killed tons and much more just appeared without any signs of stopping! And there are lots of forces on their backs!]
[Isn't that turtle doing its job?]
[It's working, but alone it wouldn't be able to do anything]
I got how difficult the situation at the gulf and ocean was. They needed me there to shift the situation just like I did here.
But to do so, I had to first take down those islands and forts.
"See those things in the air? Bring them down for me," this wasn't the first time for me to deal with such forts and islands.
I started first to take them down by surprise using my fallen gods. The attacks that came from them were enough to devastate dozens of these forts, smashing a few islands in the process.
But lots of islands got little harm thanks to their shields. I didn't have time to play with these little flies, so I directly headed towards them while they started to arrange themselves in an attack formation.
They let the islands take the forefront and sides, while letting all the remaining forts stay in the middle. They knew the shields of their islands were sturdy enough to stand against my boys' attacks.
But they missed one thing; my glaive!
I didn't intend to just use my boys this time. I had my glaive, and it could smash anything in its path.
"Select two islands, hit them fiercely with everything you got," once I drew closer in a blink of an eye, I said to my fallen gods, "and leave the rest for me."
*Rumble!*
- Being so close from these islands while getting attacked created lots of cracks and helped to greatly weaken them. Then I came up, jumped over the shields and cut them into two halves using my glaive.
I simply moved my glaive right and left, destroying islands everywhere. The frontline defensive islands got smashed and penetrated into two groups while I passed through them without any hurdle.
"Destroy these forts now!" As I reached the central region, and as they never expected me to reach this far without getting much damage, I decided to take down all the forts first, then clear the remaining islands later on.
As I gave the order, my fallen gods spread their attacks around. I didn't move my chariot, and let my boys attack freely without any restraints.
Just before the shocked Hectors in the islands got to breathe and understand what hit them, all of the forts here were destroyed.
"Trying to run away and regroup later on? Humph!" I allowed the ground forces to do that, as I could crush them at any moment I wanted.
But these islands were a different story.
I was sure they had lots of the strongest forces in this capital. Not to mention the possibility for them to have many members of royalty here.
So letting them retreat would be a mistake. They wouldn't run as far away from here as possible. They would return back to the central zone, adding more power to the forces stationed there.
I moved my chariot around and started the operation of hunting down the running islands. Out of the ninety something ones, ten groups retreated fast, but my chariot was faster.
I took down one third in the first hour, then the next third in the next two hours. They were running damn fast, but I kept attacking them one island at a time.
Each time I'd let my boys open fire first before ending the island with my glaive. Most of the time was wasted thanks to me running and chasing them all over the place.
After I was done, I used my staff and returned directly towards the capital. Close to twenty something islands went missing, couldn't be found or seen anywhere.
"I'll find you later on," I knew I wasted enough time in taking them down. As for the rest of the islands, they either went back to the capital or they ran so damn far away from here.
During these hours, Lily led everyone towards the central zone of the capital. As I expected, the fight there was much fiercer than ever!
The forces there weren't those weak fodders, but the top elites of the Hectors in this continent, and perhaps in the entire world.
Even after three hours of constant fighting, Lily and her forces couldn't break through a single point yet.
I already gave the order for my controlled forces and warriors to support and follow her instructions. But the situation without me and my little turtle looked so damn hopeless.
We kept losing lots of forces while the enemy only lost little. They were stationed and guarded behind mighty walls and towers, while my forces were exposed out in the open.
There was nothing Lily and others could do but to bid for their time and try to find a weak point to get inside from it.
I could only accept such a result. I could have let her wait until I went to the aquatic battle and helped them there.
But my worry was about the enemy sending more reinforcements there. Without getting pressured, they would regain their cool again.
So I had to accept such losses for the big victory in the end.
Once I arrived at the capital, I took almost half an hour of flight to reach the vast aquatic battlefield.
All I could see was forces killing each other everywhere! The little turtle appeared from far, as it seemed it was leading the frontal forces there to stop the aquatic monsters from coming to the ground.
767 Just Wait For One More Hour
The aquatic monsters had lots of forces on top of their backs. And as the jumper said, the little turtle wasn't alone enough.
The first thought I had was to unleash its full skills and let it fight using the deadly skills. However I refrained from doing this when I thought about the more important battle at the centre.
"I have to do something," the only way to turn the tide of this fight over was by using my technique. They brought such a massive aquatic army with forces over the monsters' backs, and that was like a paradise for my technique.
And my technique wasn't the old one I always had, it was the scary evolved version of it.
"Time to change the tide here," I coldly said while releasing the threads and thorns loose all over the place.
The forces that got here weren't like those elites I fought before. An elite would take one up to two minutes in front of my evolved technique.
Then against those weaker forces and monsters, it needed just a few tens of seconds to take control of them, and even many got controlled in a much shorter duration than this.
In the first hour, I controlled enough forces to send them to help my little turtle. The turtle seemed to take the task of stopping the influx of forces from the ocean to the ground.
While the jumper took charge of dealing with the forces that got off shore.
That made this fight stretch over such vast space, and it even reached the area of the big gulf.
However the two couldn't get near it to control everything there.
The turtle allowed for a big part of his forces to embark over its back, fighting the monsters and races over them.
But when I started to let my controlled beasts and races join the fight, things started to shift slowly. During the next ten hours, we finally managed to clear the ocean forces, and started to crawl over the gulf.
This didn't just come from my controlled forces, but thanks to me going down there at different times, and getting all the portals I could reach destroyed before retreating fast.
The speed of my chariot in water wasn't as much as over the ground. But it was much faster than before at least.
[You can leave this zone for us and go to help the others] As the fight reached such a stage, the jumper sent in a rare moment of showing his support to others.
During these ten hours, Lily and the forces there had it worse! According to her words, out of the vast tens of millions we had before, we now had less than ten!
And many of them were exhausted, wounded, and more important than all lost hope of winning.
Morale was a very important thing in any fight. However even if we were losing at that battle, we were winning here.
The pressure placed by my forces over the central and most vital region of the capital ended up with relieving pressure over here.
They didn't send reinforcements here except for a few times and they all got controlled by me. So they stopped sending anything since their failures, and kept focusing on winning the defensive battle at their central zone.
[Can you handle things here?] I asked. After all, I depended on the little turtle to devastate the central zone with its scary skills.
If they'd get lots of time to clear the battle here, then I'd better stay and help.
[You already controlled millions of these monsters and races. They can handle the situation here with the our help until you get done from that other battle]
Sigh! He got it all wrong then. As I feared, he thought his task with my little turtle was to keep the monsters here at bay.
[Dude… I need that turtle in that war]
[No way! Without its help and support, I won't be able to hold them back anymore]
So be it.
[Then retreat with me]
[What?]
[Leave this fight for now. Let's go to the central zone and clear it first. There lies the main generals and leaders of these forces. Taking them down will conclude everything]
[Hmm… But a retreat will let my forces suffer more casualties]
[That doesn't matter anymore] he was terrified of my later on comments at his poor performance here, [All of our armies here lost lots of their forces already]
[I see… Ok, I'll issue the order now]
[Not now!] I had to stop him, [Just wait for one more hour]
[What for? Are you going to help them back there first?]
[That's one, and there is another reason…]
[What? Can't you just say it directly? Will you die if you don't?]
[Just guess it on your own] I laughed, closing the chat while he rained on me with curses and harsh comments.
In one hour, everything here would change.
As I closed the chat, I left this region and went towards the nearby central one. There wasn't much distance between the gulf region and that central one.
Once I went there, I got to see how bad the situation there really was.
My forces had to surround the walls and the forts of the enemy to look for a weak spot to crack. But they ended up losing every single fight, losing damn badly here.
This way there was really no hope to do anything.
[Give the order to gather up at my chariot] I sent this over to Lily.
[You are already here? Thank God! I thought we didn't have more than few hours before getting all exterminated]
[Don't say such ugly things. I'm here, and I'm going to change this situation]
[Even if you did, the forces we got are fewer than the enemy. They called forth to many forces, and all are elites and strong. Even warriors like yours came out in large batches, and they caused serious troubles for me and others]
[Just send everyone over, and leave the rest to me] I closed the chat while muttering, "We got to survive for one more hour, to prepare the setting for the upcoming surprise."
768 Giving More Crazy Orders!
One hour was all I needed before my big comeback would start. From behind, the jumper and the little turtle came fast, trying to get here without losing much.
But they were facing a hard time doing that.
Just when my little turtle moved away from the gulf waters alongside my controlled forces, the entire aquatic army that was suppressed all this time finally got a chance to move.
So even if they were retreating on land, the sheer number of forces flooding out from the gulf were enough to threaten their retreat.
The jumper had to arrange his forces and secure the retreat of my little turtle.
This forced him to leave several lines of troops there, trying to delay the enemy as hard as they could, as long as they possibly could.
I knew they would pay a huge price in doing this, but I needed my little turtle to set the stage for the upcoming surprise.
[You know we are going to lose more than half of our forces just to reach your place?] the jumper sent in such a complaining way, making me inwardly sigh.
Since when that jerk was so attentive to his forces? He was just saying that in advance, to defend himself if I tried to pick up at him later.
I didn't really intend to do so. And when I didn't answer him, he sent again:
[I hope you know what you are doing. You are calling all of us and letting us be trapped in between all the enemy forces. That's not smart!]
[I know what I'm doing, so just keep moving forward and arrange your forces when you arrive]
[Arrange them for what? For slaughter?]
I closed the chat and didn't say anything to spoil the upcoming surprise.
I knew all of my generals would feel much doubt at my decision, but they'd get to know that I wasn't doing this out of craziness or something.
I got a plan, a great surprise actually, and they'd have to wait for an hour to pass to see it.
As the jumper and my little turtle were leading their forces towards me, Lily and her generals were also doing the same.
They weren't faring that well compared to the jumper's and my little turtle's forces. The enemy on the towering walls and towers were raining down their attacks non-stop, killing lots of them.
In return, they tried to fight back, yet their attacks didn't cause any damage worthy of note.
This was going to change soon enough.
The two big armies took close to half an hour to gather here, then the jumper arranged his forces to stop the incoming aquatic forces from the rear, while Lily organised the remaining forces to try and defend the frontal attacks from the enemies on the walls.
As we shifted all of our forces here, the enemy got greedy to surround us. It was a golden chance indeed, with the aquatic forces blocking our rear, and the big walls blocking our front.
So they started to send out forces through many gates away from us, trying to block the north and south paths for us.
[Brilliant! Now you've got us surrounded! Happy now?] the jumper sent, and Lily then sent later on, speaking the same meaning in different words.
[Be ready to move] I knew it was so close to the deadline I set for myself, "Little turtle, come here now!" I shouted in the direction of the big turtle of mine which was fighting monsters and forces at the rear.
"Dark lord, can you please stop calling me this?" this dude really heard me from such a far distance, "your man here kept calling me this until I jumped off to the ocean to get rid of his annoyance!"
I laughed. That jumper could be funny sometimes. "Just bring your fat ass here. It's time for you to prove your worth."
"Ok," he said, before I held my glaive high in the air as I sent to Lily, [Prepare for advancing in any moment now!]
[Is it time?]
I looked at my other chat and evilly grinned.
[It's time!]
One hour indeed passed, and to my surprise it was already here.
"What to do now, dark lord?" my little turtle arrived here so fast and asked in anticipation.
"What else? Let's destroy these annoying walls and towers first, then you'll start using your skills."
"At last! Dark lord, fighting without using my skills felt like I was fighting with both hands cuffed behind my back!"
"Don't worry, it's time for you to unleash your full power," I started moving out my chariot, heading directly towards the front walls, "start attacking with me. Take the northern direction and I'll head south. Ah, when I tell you, use your skill towards the other end of these walls."
"The other side? I can do that. But what for?"
"Just use that earth shattering thing, the one you used to cleave the ocean and bring forth deadly rocks from its bottom."
"Ok, I can do it easily. And it's not the same. As I evolved, my strength and skills also got stronger. And I got more cool skills."
"Don't waste time," I already was upon the walls, jumped high up before landing with my deadly glaive over them, "start working now or do you want me to call you turtle for the rest of your life?"
"No dark lord, I'll move right away!" it got scared by my words, jolted back to its senses.
And the next thing I heard after the booming sound of my glaive smashing all the walls it touched was the fierce rumbling coming from its attack.
I knew it would go north now. So I just repeated what I did before, went to the back of my chariot and let it fly backwards while I started smashing and killing the enemy here.
[Attack!] I sent this simple word to Lily as I created enough gap for her forces to advance.
[But… Our number isn't enough!]
769 I'll Make You Proud!
[Just do it!] I knew that already. But who said we only got these forces here?
[Start advancing towards the capital now] I sent this to the jumper, making him get mad.
[Damn you Hye! If you don't tell me what's going on here, I'll not do it! Go to the capital? With such a fierce army hot on our tail?]
[Just do it! Why are all of you acting like that? Don't you have any trust in me?]
[Trust isn't the issue, your recently crazy orders are!]
[Just do it! And don't forget to lead the remaining forces of the little turtle back as well]
[Let it come and bring them itself]
[Then we will all die here if it did that! Just do your job properly for once, ok?]
[And here he will start complaining and saying rude and mean stuff about me!]
I rolled my eyes and closed this chat before it would turn into a bloodbath fight of words.
I kept smashing walls for ten more minutes, clearing more space for my forces to advance into the capital.
The enemy was taken by surprise by what I did, yet they performed much better than before. They moved their troops off all the remaining walls in such a hurry, and they started to arrange their lines to meet up with my forces.
The gap I created with my little turtle was wide enough to let my forces enter smoothly into the capital. But what stood in front of them were tons of forces led by a few islands hovering in the air right now.
"Here you are, I thought you ran away," they were the ones that went missing from my pursuit earlier on.
"Little turtle, start using that earth thing of yours now!" Just as I saw the enemy getting in line, I also got a message at last.
They were here!
"Dark lord, please stop using that cursed word again!"
"If you are mad, then show them this is not me!" I rolled my eyes. This idiot, he dared to shout at me when its fate was changed by a single word from me.
*Rumble!*
Just as it acted, the entire world rumbled. I knew how fierce its skill was.
[Get ready] and as the skills got activated, I sent this over, [The walls are going down. A deep hole will appear and then you can advance around it]
[got it. My boys are bored! The basins you sent us weren't fun at all!]
I laughed. My chick was really lovely. I knew Hilary was bored as when she arrived from the direction far at my capital, things got much calmer at the basins.
The forces were already gathered up here, so there wasn't that much fun back there.
However that also meant their forces were intact! Unlike all my forces here, the armies coming here and led by Isabella, Hilary, and others were in full formation and ready for battle.
So even if we had little forces here to take control of the capital, they could.
And this was my little surprise.
To let them invade the capital without much resistance, I had to attract all the enemy forces to the totally opposite direction.
Then the last touch came with my little turtle's fierce skill that would tear the walls apart and clear a path for my forces to come.
"Dark lord! There are lots of forces coming in the direction of my skill!"
And just as they drew closer, my little turtle shouted with its useless discovery.
, "Just control the rocks coming down from the bottom of the ground, make them fall over the walls around and the areas nearby them," it wasn't time for any questions.
My forces had to arrive while the entire place would be properly prepared for them. I didn't suffer all this trouble to get things ruined at the last moment.
"I'll make you proud of me."
Something told me I shouldn't trust such monsters.
As the entire stage was folded at last, I controlled my chariot to rise high in the air.
I already destroyed enough walls to let the forces pass inside the capital.
As I rose high in the air, I could finally see the final and fascinating picture of my setting.
At the far distance, I spotted my forces running as fast as they could in such neat formation, heading towards the capital.
The part of the walls that were standing in front of them got smashed already thanks to the mighty skill of my little turtle.
Then it came to my enemies.
They fell, fell so damn hard and deep in my scheme. They tried to outplay me? Let me take a good look at your scared and confused faces right now.
Did you think you already cornered me? This close to getting your victory? Kill me and annihilate my forces and kingdom off the face of the world?
Humph! I just hoped I knew where those damn royals were to stand directly against their faces and get amused with their looks.
The enemy stood in such confused and shocked status, while the violent sounds of my forces flooding the capital from everywhere were echoing all over the world.
They didn't know what to do, whom to fight, or which zone they should defend.
They were trying to entrap me and my forces, and ended up being the one falling into my trap.
They got nowhere else to go! The entire capital was now surrounded and getting invaded by my forces.
"Little turtle," but even if things here looked great, there was still one minor problem to solve, "use that showering fiery meteorite skill of yours over there!"
I pointed my glaive, unexpectedly at the opposite direction of the ongoing battle in the capital. "Shower them with hot love, ok?"
"Leave it to me, dark lord! I'll make you proud!"
That damn line again! Screw it!
I aimed towards the direction of the large aquatic army hunting the rear of my forces. I had to buy the jumper and his forces time to retreat and get inside the capital.
770 A King Vs A King Battle
"Stop destroying walls, that's enough already," as the sky turned fiery red, and the rocks started to show up, I had to stop my little turtle now.
What I aimed for? Humph! It was obvious! This capital would be overrun by my forces, then we'd climb the walls and get the advantage of their strong defences here.
We started this war while facing an unfavourable situation when dealing with these walls of the capital. And this time it was going to be the total opposite of this.
I'd let my forces get a good taste of holding the upper hand. As for my forces, it was time for them to get a bitter taste of their f*cking walls!
As the rocks hit the ground, they exploded fiercely like each was a loaded missile!
[Use this chance and bring your boys inside the capital] I sent this to the jumper before turning to get my full attention over the capital war.
The situation here was just like a bowling ball slamming all the pieces in front of its path.
The war was simply described as one sided fight. The enemy was still in the state of denial and confusion, not even able to get what to do or where to run to survive.
The shouts of my forces seemed like they were coming from every possible direction towards them. The distance of my rear reinforcements made it enough for the shouts to echo around and scatter, looking like they were coming from everywhere.
And that added more chaos and fear to the enemy.
Fighting such enemy looked like a park walk for my forces. In the first half of an hour, the sheer losses of the enemy was really astronomical.
"Retreat," just when I thought the Hectors were going to drop this war and surrender, a loud shout came with sparkling lights, "gather up at the magical castle, hurry!"
"Magical castle?!!" I stood in my place puzzled by such a shout. It came from the middle of the central zone of the capital. It felt like the one shouting used an item like my horn to deliver his voice in such a way.
In the middle, a shining large ball of light appeared all of a sudden. It was pure orange in colour, and it lasted for an entire minute as if it was a beacon for everyone here to flock there.
"Keep killing! Don't let them group together!" In return for such an unknown figure, I held my horn and gave such order to all of my forces here.
Everyone got the order, and the ones fighting the Hector forces here started to push much faster.
If the enemy was trying to retreat and regroup, then it would be foolish to let them have this without taking as much as possible back from them.
- My forces were in a much better situation, and they gained the higher ground as well. The attacks that came from the walls endangered lots of the Hectors at the ground, making them lose too much.
But the enemy already had large numbers here from the start. So even if my forces tried their best, it wasn't that easy to stop the enemy from doing what he wanted.
And that was aside from what came from that ball of orange light.
It was a massive island, one that rivalled and beat any other island I saw to date.
To best describe it, it was at least ten times the size of the biggest island I had ever seen.
And that wasn't the problem.
Saying it was a castle isn't an exaggeration!
All the islands I saw before were like barren lands with nothing there except normal terrain seen on Earth and few scattering towers.
But this island… It got walls, towers, and even a massive city on its surface.
There was no single speck free there. I couldn't see the ground thanks to all these buildings and defensive structures.
And in the middle of all this, the central part was elevated for almost fifty metres, having a big castle built on top of it, and had huge looking siege weapons.
And that flying castle was surrounded entirely with a massive globular shield, one that was shimmering in bright orange colour from time to time.
Everything about this castle island was much different than any other island I have ever seen.
To best describe the difference, it felt like comparing my mighty chariot with the weaker ones I bought out for my forces.
The difference was like heaven and hell!
And that gave me a clear picture of how hard it was going to be, that last stand the Hectors decided to put here.
Thinking about that order, it was clear what was going to happen. The forces would partially ascend up there and get the support of the entire castle to at least survive.
And the forces down below would also be protected by that castle. So it came down to just my chariot facing this castle.
Whoever would kill the other first would win.
[What should we do about this scary thing?] Hilary sent and I had no other answer but this:
[Just keep fighting the ground forces, and let me handle the rest]
[Won't we test it first?]
[It's better to test it using my chariot. Just keep pushing after those running forces. The more to kill, the easier it will become later on]
I didn't need to say anymore. I then turned my vision towards the direction of the gulf, where my little turtle was showering the enemy with the fiery rocks.
"Little turtle, shift your rocks over the inside, aim at that damn castle now!"
It did great so far, buying enough time for the jumper and his forces to retreat away from the aquatic forces.
Killing them wasn't going to make a big difference now. Instead, showering that zone around the castle and blocking the retreat route of the enemy was more important now.
771 Little Flying Lizard
"Ok dark lord," that dude seemed to feel the seriousness of the current situation, so it didn't complain about me calling it a turtle this time.
It controlled its falling rocks and let them aim towards the centre of that region.
"Humph! Do you think I, the Hector king here, is just as weak as the ones you faced before? That's a joke!"
"A king?" I snorted, "it went into our human heritage that a king can't be born without killing another king. So let me ascend the throne while holding your head."
"Humph! Big words coming from such a little kid! I didn't know why they awakened me from my slumber, but I'll see how good you are. You got a turtle dragon on your side, then let me show you what real dragons look like! Come forth!"
It seemed he could hear me perfectly fine. At the same time, it was apparent that he was one of those formidable figures that didn't like to get offended.
And something told me he had all the capital to back his words up. He gave me such a vibe, that a deadly beast was looking at me, breathing out in front of my face, while picturing my death.
He was different, not like any weak and idiotic royals I fought all this time in this war.
"Come then," I welcomed his strong words with such a cold tone, "let me see how capable you are!"
*Rumble!*
"Don't be so impatient, you'll see everything right now."
Just as he said that, the sky rumbled as another orange ball of light appeared. This king seemed to have an orange energy grade, something I never saw before.
*Roar!*
And just in less than a single minute, and under the shower of such burning rocks falling fiercely all over the castle and the area around it, an ear shattering roar came before a magnificent creature came out from that ball.
"Dark lord… It's a hybrid monster that evolved into a dragon," the loud voice of my little turtle came even before I could see the full picture of that creature.
"Is it stronger than you?"
"It is," my little turtle gave back such an honest answer, "but not that much stronger."
"That's a relief," if it was much stronger than my little turtle, then dealing with it would be a problem.
"I'm a dark realm monster, dark lord, and I got evolved by your pure dark energy. This monster is just a hybrid which got to such a stage using treasures and shortcuts."
"I got it," I understood better what the newcomer was like.
It wasn't that scary in reality. But from its shape and appearance, it could scare any soul standing in front of it.
That island was huge? Then another huge dragon appeared right next to it.
That dragon had sharp scales, looking like they were big and sharp spears. It was a western shaped dragon, with a horn extending from the middle of its head.
It flapped its gigantic two wings slowly, creating a gust of wind, looking like a storm just hit this place.
"Let's see how you will stand against my little lizard."
"Humph, if you got a little lizard, then I'm curious to see what it will do against my little turtle," I didn't show any sign of weakness while responding back in the same sharp tongue as that king did.
"Show them how real fire is, my little lizard."
*Roar!*
Once it said that, that dragon roared. It seemed what my little turtle said was true. Even when that monster got to such a stage in its evolution, it didn't do it the right way.
It was roaring and not talking, a step lower at least than my little turtle.
But what came next made me feel cold at the back of my head.
My little turtle was bringing fiery rocks down here from the sky, controlling the ground to bring forth deadly burning rocks with lava from the heart of the ground.
But that hybrid monster brought fire directly from its mouth! It didn't use anything else and just opened its mouth wide, and a terrifying ball of purple orange fire started to get in shape.
That hit… It was going to devastate lots of my forces in mere seconds! Even if it wasn't on par with my little turtle in terms of grade, it was much fiercer at the moment.
"Do you think I'll let you have your way? Funny! Let me fight you with something that initially belonged to your race… Thundering Might!"
I instantly switched my glaive with my pillar. The moment I used it, the pillar expanded as usual, linking ground with heaven.
"My race is a sacred artefact? How come this in your hands? How come it answers you?!!"
The shock was apparent in his tone, and that made me laugh.
"It seems you slept for too long, my dear king," I said in such a mocking way that was answered with an angry shout from that king.
"I'll kill you and retrieve it! Then I'll find those pathetic descendants of mine and punish them!"
So… He was the one who truly ruled and unified a world before. That suited the demeanour he emitted, making me take this fight more seriously than ever.
"But… Do you think I don't have a way to stop that artefact skill? Hilarious! You think too little of me!"
Just as he said that, an orb was shot high in the sky before it fiercely slammed against my pillar in a blink of an eye.
I got no time to intervene and stop that orb. It looked like a ball of orange light, and once it hit my pillar, it started to ignite before exploding in such a fierce manner.
"Hahaha! Your pillar is now sealed. It won't do anything…"
Just in the middle of his words, that king had to pause out of shock. He got the right to feel that way.
772 Your Lizard Got Two Wings And Can't Fly With One!
Whatever he used just now didn't succeed. I didn't know why, but my pillar suddenly flashed in pitch black blue light, giving me the impression it was creating a night of its own.
Then all the orange energy that erupted from the orb that king used was eaten away like it was weed in front of a real fire.
"Black blue energy? The damn cursed energy of that cursed universe? How come?!! How come you have such energy and power?!!!"
"I'm not the king of humans out of nothing," I snorted, while acting as if I knew what caused all this.
"Hit them! Hit them now!" the king started to grow a bit restless, hurrying his little lizard to release the attack.
*Roar!* and as a loyal dog, that lizard issued its attack fiercely at my direction.
"Not a chance!" I looked up and the next moment, my shield was brought to life. The two slammed fiercely against each other, just in the middle of his retreating forces.
"Dammit you ignorant human! I'll make sure to torture you for a thousand years before killing you!"
He looked pissed! I laughed while watching the two mighty attacks hitting each other.
"Little turtle, bring forth the ocean waves from that damn gulf to here," if he was going to use fire, then I'd use water.
And that wasn't the end of my retaliation.
"Crushing Wave!"
I got another trick up my sleeve. If that king thought this was all my strength, then he was going to get disappointed.
I called for many bones to support the consumption of this attack. But when I did that, I felt like a behemoth was devouring my energy.
"Again!" if one large chunk of my green bones aren't enough, I called for more silver grade ones. This time I felt like a weak cry of happiness that emitted from my pillar.
And the attack that came next left my eyes wide open.
If I recall correctly, this attack reached a fierce stage with pale green energy. It was devouring my energy and unleashing it massively to assault my little turtle.
But this time, it felt much different. First the colour turned from pale green to bright gold, jumping at least two big stages of evolution at this moment.
And that wasn't all! The scale of attack that came from that pillar was expanding fast, forming a huge cone shaped dense ray of light that slammed fiercely against that little lizard's orange ball of light.
My light attack was so fierce to leave behind thick arcs of blackness behind the course it travelled.
And when it slammed against that orange ball, it shattered it to violent tongues of orange fire that were dispersed all over my shield.
Then like rain they fell all over the ground down below, killing a great deal of Hectors and their forces down below.
But that wasn't the end!
"Let's see how your little lizard will deal with it," I laughed while controlling my pillar in my right hand to direct its ray of light at that lizard.
My little turtle suffered lots of damage from my attack, and this wasn't even close to how terrifying this one was.
The moment my attack landed, it felt like that huge lizard with wings was thrown into the depths of hell.
It started to fiercely twitch and convulse while issuing such heart curdling roars that told anyone how immense the pain it was feeling was.
"Hawk Eye!" I had to use it to see what was happening to it. And what I saw made me grin evilly.
Its body was covered with such sharp looking scales, but it seemed they didn't have any role to defend against such mighty attacks.
My ray of light expanded and hit a vast area of that behemoth, ending up not only penetrating the scales and the thick flesh of that dragon like it was nothing, but it went so deep to show the bones.
And the moment I saw that lustre around the bones, I got instantly greedy to get them!
But that wasn't the most important thing right now. I shifted my eyes towards another tasty target.
"You are trying to dominate the sky? Humph! I'll beg to differ."
"No way I'll let you have them!" Just as I started to move my pillar and aimed at the right wing of this behemoth, the king roared in such a fierce way.
He failed to stop my pillar's shield skill. He failed to protect his forces from retreating towards his flying castle. And he failed to even get a single hit at my forces.
And now I wasn't only aiming to torture its pet, I was going to severe its two wings and leave it without any mean to fly.
Yet that king seemed to not permit it at any cost.
Just as my deadly thick ray of light came closer to the flying lizard's right wing, I could see flashes of light coming forth from its direction.
It seemed he was burning tons of treasures just to keep its dragon intact.
But using these wouldn't be enough to buy more than a couple of minutes anyway. So it started to control its island, moving in fast speed towards the direction of my ray.
He wanted to directly intercept my ray, letting his island take all the damage instead of his lizard.
"Do you think I'll let you save it? Do you think you can stop me?" I laughed, and waited until his island came this close to intercept my ray before shifting my pillar all of sudden.
"Don't you know? Your lizard got two wings, and not just one. And any lizard will need the two intact to be able to fly."
Just as I said this, the ray of my pillar fiercely slammed at the lizard's left wing, severely damaging it.
"No!" The mighty roar that came from that king made me laugh. I hurriedly moved my pillar so the ray coming out of it would devastate as wide an area as possible.
773 Violating The System Rules!!!
"You won't succeed!" Another spree of light flashes came from the direction of the left wing while the huge castle drew closer fast.
It seemed his castle was burdened by the heavy weight of all the stuff he placed over it, ending up for its speed to be much slower than even my generals' chariots.
And that little detail made all the difference here.
"Keep running," I laughed while moving my pillar the moment he reached to the left wing, and attacked the right one, "If I'm you, it's better to go and save your forces."
It wasn't an exaggeration. The forces trapped inside my shield weren't able to get out! My shield just halved the big forces of his into two parts, one ran away and the other got trapped all inside my shield.
My shield stood tall and mighty, looking like a massive impregnable wall for them.
As for the part that escaped, they didn't fare well. First they got heavily assaulted by the crushed orange energy ball of fire that lizard used before.
Then when they managed to run away from the area of such death, they got fiercely hit by the falling rocks of my little turtle.
Everything in this word was conspiring to kill them. The only hope they got was that flying castle.
And as such, I reminded this king about this.
I didn't do this out of pure will. I just needed to put him in such a hard position to make a choice.
And my plan worked. He paused for a few seconds, not knowing which part to save.
"This fight…" he suddenly said, "It's lost! Come back now!"
"Not this easily!" Who said I was going to let this lizard go away? No way! The moment I saw its huge size and its special bones, I wanted it!
I was using my pillar with my right hand. But with the left, I called forth to the same sealing technique that once ruled over my little turtle.
I got a little turtle, then why wouldn't I also get a little flying lizard?
"What the heck is that sorcery!" Just as I finished making out my technique, I released its thick arms towards the big lizard, completely binding it in place.
The order that the king gave wasn't executed thanks to my technique. At the same time, the king's fierce roar came again, trying to call this lizard back.
"Don't bother, just go alone. I'll let you live this time," I said in such mockery, making my enemy lose control over himself.
"I'll kill you! I won't let you live for another second! Come out now! Come out my armies!"
"Armies?!" I raised one eyebrow before I got to know what was going to happen.
Just as he shouted like this, a large pillar was released towards the sky. It looked just like the pillar of mine, but it didn't stop there and got bent, before fiercely falling at the depths of the far away ocean.
Then a large tsunami wave was born, one that went in every direction while the centre looked like a nuke weapon just hit it.
The water rose high, so damn high in the air to even rivale the waves that just came from the direction of the gulf thanks to my little turtle's skill.
The water kept rising up, while sending an insane amount of water all around, forming such deadly tsunami waves coming at the shore.
Then a pillar appeared in the middle, and flashes of different colours of light appeared from it.
"An aquatic army? Pretty much boring," I rolled my eyes. But unlike my words and attitude, I stole a rapid gaze around, evaluating the current state of war.
The armies led by Hilary and others arrived already and went inside my shield. They were helping others to exterminate the enemies there.
The jumper already led his forces and were all safe inside my shield protection.
There wasn't a single force of mine outside the shield. But that didn't mean things were safe here.
That bastard summoned such mighty aquatic armies using such flashy techniques for a reason. An idea flashed in my mind, something I once experienced and my forces and capital paid a hefty price for it.
- What if this technique would grant his forces the ability to penetrate through my shield like it wasn't there?
That was the only explanation for what that king did. If not, then there was no other reason behind pulling such a desperate struggle against me.
It was clear to anyone that this war was lost. How come he would fight back and even summon his forces here?
It was clear that the losses of the Hector race in this war was astronomical! Adding more to the loss count would only be seen as a crazy act.
He must have something to go through my shield. But who said I was going to only depend on it to protect this zone?
I planned this entire big and long battle for my forces to get here. Once here, they would have the upper ground all the time.
All my actions and planning would give fruit at this moment. [Order all the forces to reform. Sara, Lily, Isabella, and the jumper will lead the fight to exterminate the remaining enemies inside the shield. The rest will be led by Hilary and Legend to defend the walls]
I sent such an order to all of my generals. The big hammer of the war, the last strike on the big bell was still away from us.
So it was time to reform my forces to look in much better shape. Then part would deal with the force here, while the rest would deal with the forces coming.
"Little one," I started to change the nickname of my little turtle to the little one, "aim all your skills at the direction of the ocean. Don't let a single one escape that hell."
"Ok, dark lord."
"It's futile," the king laughed, "this isn't any army you can face, anyone here can face. I know the system higher ups won't be happy for me to use my private army here, but I'm ready to receive any punishment for the sake of killing you!"
774 Told You Already, It's Mine!
That damn crazy old man! He brought the armies he led to unify and conquer his past apocalypse cluster worlds here? Was this even allowed? Wasn't this against all the rules of the apocalypse, and even the simple logic?
[Don't worry!] and just as I was shaken, at such deep moment of doubt, the trustworthy and dependable voice of Sith echoed in my head, [His forces will get severely punished the moment they'll arrive here]
"Will they be strong?" I asked before adding my doubts, "Will they be much stronger than the current strength of people in my apocalypse?"
[By a few levels] and he said such a terrifying thing, [But don't worry. All of their inventories are going to be sealed. Their items will turn all into white grade ones. And even their cultivation bases will all be reduced to the early stages of their first base. Once they started killing, the more they'll kill the more they'll get debuffs]
"How… How can you be sure and so detailed about their punishment?! Was it issued already?!!" I was surprised by what he said.
[It's because I was the one to file such complain to the system higher ups] and he again threw such shocking news, [And unlike any of you, we, gods, have such privilege to ask for instant punishment and also enlist its conditions if anyone broke the rules]
"Yes!" I couldn't help but shout in such excitement. I knew the forces coming would be much stronger to my people.
They were much stronger and had more stats. But that wasn't enough to scare me. I knew my forces had a chance.
We got the walls, we got the deadly skills of my little one, and we got me. Nothing bad was going to happen.
And on top of that, I got Sith on my side. For the first time ever, I felt really blessed to have such a high grade and quite authorative god on my side.
The more they'd kill, the more debuffs they'd get. That sentence gave me much hope in such a dire situation.
[Change of tactics] I sent this message over to Hilary, [Select the weakest troops and send them outside the walls to meet up the enemy]
[Why? Are you planning to use fodders to stop them while we hit them from the walls?] Hilary gave such a good guess, but it wasn't even close.
[It's partially true, but there is another reason for that. No time to explain, just do such arrangement like I say]
[Ok]
She didn't bother me again with any more questions. Then I turned my attention towards my little one.
"Little one, stop attacking the ocean for now and focus on the forces going towards that castle."
"Yes, dark lord."
It might be annoying when a turtle was mentioned, but other than this, it was already cooperating and obedient.
Even if we killed lots of their forces, a good deal already escaped towards the direction of the castle. There were even a few who started boarding the castle using light beams to teleport them up there from the ground.
I knew the bitter and worst fight would erupt at the walls, but that didn't mean there wasn't another threat at the rear. That castle led by that king was still there.
And if he managed to pull such forces here, he would also have enough ground forces to bring. No one would unify a single world depending only on aquatic armies.
He must have ground forces, and even flying ones. But he did this on purpose.
Summoning armies from the central direction aimed at distracting my forces to focus entirely on that direction, forgetting about his presence at our back.
I gazed up at the direction of that castle, feeling that even with being pushed against the wall, he was still dangerous.
Such a figure with such a mentality was worthy to control a world and win a cluster world indeed.
Such a figure was so damn hard to kill!
My best option now was to scare him away, luckily he would drop any hopes for my world and go to another apocalyptic cluster to start over.
*Roar!*
,ᴄ-ᴏm That damn lizard was struggling fiercely against my arms that bound it. At the same time, the king led his castle around my arms and tried to sever them using anything he got.
Various kinds of attacks landed there, all falling over my black arms, aiming to severely damage them.
I felt each hit like it was hitting my body, yet they all came in such a weak manner to cause me any true discomfort.
But each hit consumed part of my energy. I could feel it even if the consumption was so minimal at first.
Even small dots of rain combined in large amounts would bring down a flood! So I didn't hesitate to take over lots of my silver and green grade bones, and used them to constantly replenish my energy consumption.
What this king was doing right now proved my theory and doubts. He didn't lose all hope about winning this war yet. And his frantic attempts to free its pet was proof of that.
He needed that lizard in his next move. Without it, my armies would always get the upper hand thanks to my little one.
So it all came down to a single fight between me and him over this lizard.
"Dammit! What kind of sorcery did you use to bind my little boy? F*ck you!" After six hours of constantly trying and failing, he had to give up.
The lizard was already getting drawn all the way to my big black ball hovering on top of my head. I let the ball go outside the shield zone early on and I followed it from behind.
Yet I didn't entrust that king with any trick to threaten my chariot, so I had to let myself be protected inside the shield zone.
"I told you, this lizard is mine!" I said in a serious tone, without any speck of joy or celebration.
775 Using A Scary Artefact!
I knew this dude was dangerous and had lots of forces yet to summon.
Just seeing how smooth sealing this lizard went made me inwardly sigh. Indeed there was a huge gulf between sealing a fierce dark realm monster and just such a normal monster.
Even if it was a hybrid, it was nothing compared to my turtle!
During these hours, the fight against my fodders started near the walls. My forces boarded the walls and started raining the enemy with attacks.
They used their gears, skills, and even the defensive weapons on top of these walls.
The Hectors did a great job in fortifying their most important zone with deadly weapons. And now they were used against their own forces.
I didn't have much time to inspect the ongoing war back there. But from time to time, I'd steal a gaze or two.
It was like what Sith told me. The enemy didn't have any support from their gear. Their weapons didn't show any remarkable performance thanks to that punishment.
And on top of that, when they started killing my fodders, they started to get weaker!
They first could swarm the frontline easily, crushing my fodders like they were facing walls made out of glass.
Yet after passing through a few tens of lines, they'd eventually slow down, until they'd all stop moving forward.
At some point, they'd even be pushed back! My fodders, the weakest of my entire forces here, were pushing such mighty elites who witnessed tons of wars already and won lots of fights.
Sith didn't lie. As usual, all he said came true. The forces that I feared only needed to be fed and they would turn all docile and harmless.
But that didn't give me any joy. Not even when my forces inside the shield were devastating the trapped forces inside.
I knew what yet to come would be much fiercer than this.
I watched that lizard getting sucked into my ball at last after the passage of ten hours.
The last stretch of half a mile took almost four hours! Even that king didn't lose hope in destroying my arms, always sending mighty and violent attacks that fell over the arms and even reached my shield.
But they were all futile. And in the end I won this clash.
*Roar!* that lizard finally gave out its last roar before it vanished inside my ball with its head being the last thing to be drawn there.
"It's mine now!" I felt a stinging pain at my back, just the same like I felt when the little one was sealed there. I touched my left side and felt a mark there.
"I got another tattoo, it seems this technique will turn me into a piece of art," I shortly laughed before turning my full attention towards that king inside his mighty castle.
Now I deprived you from your strongest asset. What would you do now?
"Ok, you are worthy for me to use this little baby of mine then…" Just as I was thinking about his next move, he suddenly took out a coin. I couldn't see him, but saw a coin thrown out from the centre of this flying castle, coming from the central castle in there.
,ᴄ-ᴏ-m It first went up, flashing while reflecting light. It was bronze in colour, seemingly covered in rust as if it was so damn ancient.
Yet when it flew for a few tens of metres outside his castle's orange shield, it started to expand and grew bigger until it was so damn big to rival the size of his castle.
It kept flapping for a few times in such colossal size before stopping. It had two sides, one with some sort of a face and the other seemed like a sword. And it stopped at the face side.
"This is my most treasured baby, I found it while exploring an ancient battlefield in that cursed universe. I don't know its origin, and I don't get its full abilities, but I know a single use for it…"
All of sudden he started to be talkative and friendly, giving me goosebumps. Was he so damn confident in this old antique he just brought to kill me?
"Its use is unique, and can't be that useful in the early stages of any apocalypse. Yet when the apocalypse will reach its last stages, it will become a mighty tool. Thanks to it, I ruled over my apocalypse trial, and ended up as the sole king ruling over all the races and worlds there…"
Dammit! He was really that confident to the extent he started to expose such big secrets to me. If he doubted his item would fail, he wouldn't have said anything about it or about its scary benefits.
One item that helped him to rule over the apocalypse cluster of his? And it was very useful at the end stages of this trial? It meant only one thing…
This coin, no matter how old and rusty it looked, was a really frightening treasure. No, it was an artefact!
"This coin will flip and stop at either a face or a sword. If it stopped at a face like it did now, then nothing will happen. But if it stopped at a sword, then we both will be teleported to an arena where we will fight."
He kept speaking in such a stress free way. That bastard… He was aiming towards taking me away with him, before letting our two forces fight together.
But… He missed a single point here. It was something he didn't know, so it didn't count as his mistake. Yet this single point made all the difference here.
"To use this coin, two kings must be present in the battlefield, fighting against each other, just like you and me…" he laughed while that coin suddenly changed size and got smaller before it turned into a bronze ray of light, going back into his hand.
"Again then, let's see how much luck you have, human king."
I knew such treasure being used over and over again would cost him much. But he was prepared for such a cost to just kill me and win this war.
776 Getting Intel About The Battle Arena
If what he said was true, then that arena we would move to would have special conditions, conditions that would ensure his superiority and victory.
What would they be? Would I get my inventory sealed and deprived from access to the market and contact anyone like I experienced before?
Or would my items get deprived off me? Or would I get debuffs? Or would we only fight using strength? Or would we fight using cultivation only?
There were too many possibilities to give me a headache. But no matter what, this king here was sure of his victory.
He said it himself, if not for this coin, he wouldn't have prevailed over his cluster of worlds. That meant he became the final winner not because he was the strongest or the most capable one.
But thanks to his little coin here, he managed to triumph over other much stronger kings.
I felt curious about this coin, and the conditions that battle arena would enforce on the two of us.
Would it be a chase to kill like the arena I experienced before to gain my pillar ownership? Or would it be something else?
And what was with this race and battling arenas? I never experienced such a thing with another race but them!
"A face again… It seems your luck is abundant!" After the fifth trial, he said in such a cheerful mood.
It seemed he was enjoying this! Each time he needed an hour before using it again. So after wasting five hours of doing nothing, he was persistent in activating this coin of his.
Even the big losses his armies suffered didn't bring his mood down. I could only sigh. Dealing with such a figure was way beyond my current abilities for sure.
He was acting like this for a reason; these forces weren't the total power he had. He was just acting like me when I lost lots of forces in all the armies fighting here before giving the order to group them together at one point.
I didn't feel any pain for such losses, which got increased when the armies started to retreat. That was thanks to the big army drawing close to here, which would be enough to shift the tide of the battle to my side.
As I felt back then, he was feeling the same right now. So whatever losses his aquatic forces suffered, he knew it was worth it.
[Stay positioned here] that made me give such an order to my four generals inside the shield after wiping out all the remaining Hectors here.
[Shouldn't we go and aid the others?] Sara asked, and I knew this fierce girl just wanted to shed more blood.
[Is there an army coming this way soon?] The jumper was the only one out of the four down below to read through my intentions.
[There is a big army, more probably lots of armies, ground and flying, coming here once I'll leave] I sent this to all of them, giving them doubt instead of answers.
[Where are you going?]
[Is it related to that terrifying artefact of our king? I heard lots of rumours about it, all speaking about how mighty it is!]
[Are you planning to ditch us at such time, idiotic lord!]
I read their comments while only Sara didn't send anything back.
For this girl, my presence didn't matter as long as she would face more enemies and have her fun.
As for the jumper, that jerk's sharp tongue was always rude and sharpened for me. I totally ignored him and focused on Lily's words.
ɴ<0,>ᴠ,ᴇl [Tell me everything you know about!] I got one more hour before this king would use his coin again. And something told me my luck would run short in this attempt.
So I had to prepare my forces for what yet to come. Just like that king already prepared his forces to come here before we'd leave, I'd have to do the same.
But I totally missed Lily! She was a paragon, once close to the higher up circle of royals. That king said he was in deep slumber before, so that meant she never met him in the flesh.
That didn't mean she wouldn't get whim of the powerful tools and artefacts that king held in his inventory. She recognised the coin, and she knew rumours about it.
[Aside from what he exposed here himself, there isn't much to tell] yet, unlike my high expectations, she started her messages with such disappointing words.
But what came next was weirdly what I precisely needed to hear!
[All the rumours talked about how this coin helped him rule over his trial with the least losses! He even was hailed as the third king in our history to rule his trial worlds with the least amount of losses thanks to this coin. But aside from this, rumours spoke about the effect of this coin over the battlefield]
She paused for a few moments before adding:
[I heard that this coin will open a sealed space where you two will stand over a huge terrain, each with a single castle that will spawn warriors to fight on your side. I don't know much specifics, but they say that the two of you will have to pay a price using some sort of currency first to elevate the rank of your spawned forces. That's all I know]
Well baby, you told me enough to guess the rest on my own.
[Be prepared then. I'm going to leave in an hour or so. Make sure to be ready for a big fight here] I sent this to all, not only to Lily.
[Are you going to leave us with such a few forces here to face armies of them?!!] the jumper sent this, and he frankly got a point.
Everything I used here was exhausted already. Even the forces I controlled from the Hectors lost much of their bulk to make them not enough to form five armies!
As for my warriors, I lost almost eighty percent of them so far.
777 The Secret Behind The Battle Arena
My losses here were big. But who said I was out of options?
[Did you have the next batch ready?] When cornered, one had to use his fortune to save the day.
[I got the races and warriors ready] this fight spanned over more than a day already. Since Lily's arrival here, and over a day passed. So the next batch was ready.
[I need all the warriors you can secure for me] depending only on the humans and races sent here wouldn't be enough. They could be used as fodders, but wouldn't support the true backbone of my armies.
[Warriors… Hmm… You do know that the meeting is about to begin…]
[Find me anything, soulers, necromancers, anything you can get for me. Even fallen gods as well]
[Dammit human Hye! Why do you always seek such cursed beings?!!!]
I forgot that my fallen gods were considered as a cursed race in the apocalypse. Of course I could summon as many as I want using my souls.
My soul count was now getting close to the two hundred million mark. But I couldn't risk doing this.
After all, as this bastard here was getting ready for me using his coin artefact, I had to use my biggest trump card as well.
And that card would cost me one hundred million soul points!
I got no way to spend more souls over fallen gods, or even over dragons.
[Can't you solve it for me? I'm facing a really desperate situation]
[How bad?]
[Pretty much close to me getting killed!]
[That's bad! What's your enemy? One of the Hescos? Or what?]
[A king, a previous ruler of a cluster of worlds]
[Damn! How come you offend someone like him?!! You are still in your first five quests, right?]
[Still at fourth]
[Dammit! Ok, let me see what I can do for you. But… You need to give me time]
[Ten hours are enough?] I thought for a while before adding, [I can add five more at most]
[Sigh! Let me see what I can do then]
I closed the chat with him and instantly opened a portal to my second Earth.
One hour here? Nope! I had my second Earth. And that one hour would turn into twenty long ones.
[Stay focused and don't lose hope. I'm going to bring more forces here] I sent this message to all my generals, [If things went south on any front, other forces could go and aid them. But don't leave a single front unguarded enough]
Then I passed through the portal, with lots of plans in my mind.
Using your precious coin artefact? Ok, let me use my precious world then for my benefit.
[Send the races and warriors over] once I arrived there, the first thing I did was to call out for my forces here.
They had to train for the next twenty hours and fight monsters over the islands in this trait.
[On the way]
I welcome the forces and let Angelica's men here handle them. I gave a strict order to lead them all to fight and train as soldiers.
As for my warriors, I gained five more millions. For some reason, I didn't feel blessed or joy like before.
I knew that king armies would be in the tens of millions. Or why was he in such confidence to get this war won?
Ok, now it was time to think about what Lily said to me.
She said that the coin would open a battle arena with special rules. We wouldn't be able to use any of our forces, only gaining what would spawn from the castle each one would control.
So it was a fair fight on the surface, but I knew it was nothing like that for sure.
She said that each king would have to pay a price first in certain currency before the challenge would begin. And that price would be used to upgrade the soldiers spawning from each castle.
If my guess was right, then this king must have a precious source of energy.
From all my experience so far in this damn apocalypse, what was always the currency used?
It was energy! Either stat points, energy crystals, even that god essence I once gained from the illusionist archlord fight… Everything here was weighed depending on energy.
So that currency would also be related to energy. And that king seemed to get himself a high form of energy, something that would beat anything else anyone here would gain.
His confidence? I now realised where it came from.
It wasn't from his vast armies, but from the fact that I was still in the fourth quest grade of the apocalypse.
Under any logic, there was no chance for someone like me to get his hands over anything precious as a source of high grade energy.
So in the eyes of that king, I was doomed!
But at least he knew that my energy source came mainly from my unique bones. My bones were one of the kind, first to appear in this universe.
He was in deep slumber. That meant he never got the news of me fighting using bones, or got a whim of my bone news spreading all over the universe.
He underestimated me, and it was great for him to do so. Like this, I got a chance.
I had a diamond grade bone. And it came from a dark realm monster! That meant its grade would become much higher than any other bone I had.
, Other than bones, I got another precious currency to use; my souls!
They were also a unique form of energy. Yet I didn't like the idea of sacrificing my souls for such a battle if I had a choice.
So I got at least a head up about what I was going to face. That king had his forces and his mysterious source of power to depend upon, and I got my things to ruin his plans.
Then it came down to the dark path if I ever was cornered there; my resurrection!
778 Resurrection!
"I want to activate the resurrection bonus," I said, "I want an extra life!"
This was my last resort, hopefully I'd not have to use it. But if things went against my expectations, then I wasn't going to get doomed.
[One hundred million souls are needed to grant you a resurrection ticket]
[Do you want to pay?]
"Pay!"
[One hundred million souls are deducted]
Just as the voice ended, I felt like my soul and body was scorched with lava!
Immense pain came, and even when I was prepared for it, I ended up screaming, twitching over the ground for hours!
Unlike other effects that lasted for one hour, this one was domineering! It lasted for ten straight hours! During which I counted each passing second like it was an entire lifetime.
"Damn you bastard, I'll make you torture in hell for that!" Once it ended, I couldn't get on my feet for one more hour or so.
I kept breathing irregularly while my body kept twitching from time to time. The exhaustion I felt was intense! And even the healing bubble surrounding me didn't help at all.
It only relieved pain for the first hour only before it expired and I got to face the full throttle of this fierce sacrifice.
If not for my sheer will, strong ironclad will, I would have lost consciousness a long time ago.
I didn't want to risk anything with that technique. After all, failing would place me at such a dead end of losing the one hundred million souls, and losing the chance to use this resurrection again for the time being.
"So you are a pure white jade…" I opened my profile page and found a sparkling pure white jade rotating constantly and at such a slow pace next to my name.
Sigh! All this was for this little white jade! I could only shake my head before closing the interface.
Then I started to attend to the loose ends I had here.
First I sent a message for Silverlining. He didn't answer me directly and took almost four hours to respond.
[I got what you want] I knew this dude was capable! [I had to speak to lots of sovereigns supporting your crazy idea and convinced them to help. But most asked for five times the price you normally pay, so…]
Damn those chance hunters! They knew I was in such a dire situation and decided to extort me for the best profit they could get.
[Alright] but what choice did I have here? I had to pay. Even if they asked for ten folds, I'd pay!
[But… They brought millions of warriors! The price… It will be really huge! Don't forget, you need to pay with silver bones]
[I had to pay silver bones to the three sovereigns] Well, they were trying to steal from me, but who said I'd have to follow their plans? [I'll pay with my silver and blue bones, with each silver bone equal to fifty blue ones]
[This… Isn't it a bit higher than usual?]
I was pressured here, so I had no such room for negotiations. I'd use the blue bones, but to make them agree I had to increase such exchange rate to make their greedy selves agree.
[Just tell them that, and whoever agrees I'll instantly exchange the warriors with bones right away] I paused, [I got only two hours left. So this deal only stands for such time only]
[Ok]
He went to tell the news, and as I thought, they took the bait. It wasn't only that, but their greedy nature even jumped to another height and thought about getting much more bones.
[What about the exchange rate between your green grade bones and other two higher grade ones?] Silverlining sent this message after only ten minutes, [Many are wondering about this]
[One hundred green bones for each blue bone] pal, I had nothing much as my green bones right now! They were like dirt in my eyes.
,ᴄ-ᴏ-m So giving them such a tempting offer would make them ask for the expected move I planned out for them. [Cool! They all want to do the exchange, and they are asking about using green bones only in such deal]
[Done!] I didn't budge. Asking for my lowest grade bones for such a huge deal of warriors? That was hilarious!
I was sure if the three sovereigns heard about this, they'd fall off their seats from laughing.
Choosing the low grade green bones over the much higher grade blue and silver bones? That was crazy!
[Send over the list of exchange and the total number I have to pay] I sent over while he instantly complied.
"Thirty-five million warriors?! Not bad!" I looked at the total number they were going to send, and I could only grin in satisfaction.
Like this, I'd add forty million elite warriors to the battlefield back on Earth. Of course I had plans for their deployment, and hopefully my generals would help me out in this.
[They are asking if you are interested in any weapons or gears as well] just before I'd open a portal and go back with my armies here, I received such a message from Silverlining.
[Mass destruction weapons only] I sent this specific requirement before adding, [And weapon, gear, or item that can help against aerial armies are also ok]
[I'll see what they have then] He sent while I took the remaining hour to wait for his answer.
My forces here already got the order five hours ago. I used my horn for that. And now they were lining up and waiting on the shore to go to Earth.
They lacked generals to lead and guide them in their training. But using Angelica's men, I made them fight monsters and kill them in groups of hundreds.
This was the standard way of training Lily and many other Hector generals followed. As such, and for twelve hours, they kept training and fighting.
Then they started to come here and arrange themselves. The size of this force was close to fifty million.