CHAPTER 68

If there was a place meant to showcase the worst face of war, the port outskirts of the Endless Sands Continent would be one of them. Fleets of a hundred thousand ships made the ocean's surface resemble a vast artificial wooden island. Yet, at the port, towering iron walls rose up to fifty meters, where massive, powerful ants, each the size of a bus, marched back and forth. Meanwhile, numerous bees, equally as large as the ants, flew above the walls with the terrifying hum of their wings. However, it was behind the walls where colossal spiders tied massive boulders in their webs, spinning and releasing them at the right moment to launch an endless barrage of fifty thousand catapults against the orc faction. Meanwhile, sandworms lurked beneath the dunes, harassing the orc armies as they landed on the shores.

The battle had raged for days, and Kaya, standing aboard an enormous metal-reinforced warship, anxiously bit her nails as she observed the enemy's defensive line. Her opponent, Scarlet, was a rare prodigy, and all the demon kings under her command were elites. In contrast, Kaya was surrounded by cowardly demon kings or those who had succumbed to her Temptation skill and defected to her side. With her supply lines cut off, she had no idea how she would feed her two-hundred-million-strong orc army solely through market purchases. The costs would bankrupt her in no time, and as hunger spread among her troops, riots and chaos broke out within her own ranks due to their encirclement and lack of escape.

Despite her dire situation, Scarlet, the Queen of the Abyssal Ants, stood tall before the demon kings of her faction, her massive form at least ten times the size of other Abyssal ants, her shimmering white scales reflecting the light. Beside her, a black scorpion with the upper torso of a towering, muscular man was easily recognizable as a legendary entity.

The Desert Emperor, the legendary Scorpion King, followed Scarlet, recognizing her leadership potential as a godless legend. His allegiance to her had provided advantages that led her to where she was today.

"The time has come, my brothers and sisters! It is time to drive our enemies from our shores! It is time to show the world the consequences of waging war against us!"

With those words, the insects roared, while eighty Royal Ants stood upright behind her, their deadly appearance in perfect harmony with the aura of epic might surrounding them. The Royal Guards were ready at their queen's command, the sole force that had kept fifty epic-rank Demon Dukes from assaulting the walls.

However, summoning an epic-ranked being of the seventh rank came with its own drawbacks. The Royal Abyssal Ants prioritized their ruler's safety above all else and would abandon their positions in an instant if she were attacked. Meanwhile, the Demon Dukes in Kaya's army held no loyalty; if temptation lay before them, they would not hesitate to seize it—an action that had already cost the lives of many orcs, even those equipped with invaluable gear.

With such conditions in play, the war drums were set to echo all day tomorrow, for the next day would be remembered as the final day of the Bloody Shore War.

At Hazard Castle, one day after the events unfolded, the elven hero Aphrid sat reading a book. Despite being capable of reading ten books simultaneously through his mind-sharing ability with ten undead, he chose not to. Performing such feats distanced him from the fragmented memories of his past life, and he found that simple tasks such as cooking and reading brought back those lost memories, preventing him from succumbing to the insane, pride-driven instincts of the undead.

After a few hours, he placed the book back on the shelf. The maidens, who had been braiding each other's hair—an act they had learned from witches—followed Hazard as he left the room, descending into the deepest level of the castle, where an elven hero had awakened a few hours ago amidst the insane undead.

"Such cruelty...""Ahhh, my child...""How could they... How?!!"

Hazard watched in shock as the mad undead, who usually spoke nothing but gibberish, now listened intently to the words of the young girl. Observing this, he placed his hand on the skull of a nearby mad undead.

"Do not resist."

The undead said nothing as Hazard used his mastery of death magic to peer into its mind, absorbing the story Aphrid had been recounting—her past life and the events that had shaped her into what she was. Yet, no matter how deep he searched, he found nothing beyond centuries of aimless wandering through the divine wastelands of the Land of Death.

After a minute of reading her memories, Hazard turned away, returning to his chamber. Sitting in his chair, he picked up his previous book, attempting to resume his study, yet his mind was restless. Staring at the ceiling for an hour in thought, he finally ordered the maidens to put him to sleep.

Meanwhile, within the depths of the prison, Aphrid's fan club had grown to over two hundred epic-ranked members. To the north, along the borders of the Plenor Kingdom, a hundred-million-strong army stood against forty three-hundred-meter-tall Abyssal Skull Giants, accompanied by a legion of living suits of armor adorned with impenetrable auras.

In the south, the King of Death, after his relentless conquests, now faced a camp that seemed to have gathered all the darkness in existence. The banners of countless noble houses stretched beyond the thousands. The sight unsettled the King of Death, for despite commanding three hundred million undead, only one hundred million were of elite rank or higher, while the opposing force was three times as large, with every single one ranked as elite or above.

"Darkness shall never bow to disgrace... We shall stand until the bitter end... Dracula, it seems your threat was not mere words."

The King of Death spoke as he turned away, gazing at the one hundred thousand enemy witches soaring through the sky on their broomsticks.