Chapter 25 - 180-187

180 [Bonus chapter] Battle At Elizabeth City

The first thing I did was to send messages to all my team members. I told them to divide the army into respective smaller armies under their lead, take different routes and come towards one direction; Irvington city.

I chose that city specifically for its place. After all, the closest city to me would be Elizabeth city. Yet I sent all my armies to Irvington, aiming to strike two birds with one stone.

Of course trying to fight in this way held its own risks. Once I conquered one city then that bastard would tighten up the security around the other two cities.

Not only that… I feared most that behemoth dude who showed up before. So to be safe and make things harder for such tricky enemies, I had to take such a risk and aim towards the two cities.

If I succeeded, then I'd deprive my enemies from two cities in one go. This would be enough to scare the sh*t out of that dude.

If I failed, then I'd end up with one city like I previously planned. As for the other two cities I'd work my way through them or use the chaos in that bastard's forces and hit the tower with everything I got.

Thinking about that, I wouldn't go to help the forces in the fight over Irvington city. My battle would be in Elizabeth city that was just in front of me.

Despite being all alone by myself, I never doubted my ability to take it. Yet the question here was when should I move to attack it?

If I rushed over and hit it now, then I might alarm the enemy and make him send reinforcements here. This might look good as the other battle at Irvington city would be a lot smoother, but it also held a chance of risk.

I wasn't fighting against a brave warrior, but a cowardly one. Cowards would tend to fear what they got much more than trying to reclaim what they lost.

In that case, that dude would instead send his forces to secure the other two cities. And instead of helping my forces to take over the city, I'd done the total opposite of it!

I didn't want that!

Yet waiting for my forces to hit Irvington city would make the task to take Elizabeth city harder and a bit longer. Time was the main deciding factor in this fight.

If I managed to secure this city fast, then I could go over and help my boys at Irvington. But if I took longer here, I'd end up entangled in a war of attrition while my forces would struggle or even lose at Irvington city.

After thinking deeply about that, I decided to attack first. Yet I delayed my actions exactly ten minutes prior to my forces arrival at Irvington.

As I waited, I started to check the market for any cool tools. It seemed I developed a habit of checking the market after making the last purchase spree today.

In the market, I found a small number of smaller war weapons compared to my ballista and that giant machine gun weapon. Yet I didn't hesitate and bought them all.

In the meantime, I also sold out anything out of use. All the gears and monster materials I got would lose their value by each passing quest. As I lacked any interest in such low grade gears and monster materials, I started to sell them and reap back useful coins.

Yet money was running out of me like water! I ended up buying almost everything related to war from the market after paying hundreds of millions of coins.

That left me with less than fifty million coins even after selling everything useless inside my inventory. Yet I never felt any worry from that.

I knew the upcoming battle would result in me reaping more rewards from those illusionists and other supporting races' inventories.

Fifty million? Humph! I bet I'd end up with over a billion coins again after this war would be over.

If I was fighting dragons here, I'd dream about gaining much more. After all dragons were the wealthiest kid here in the apocalypse.

It was the only regret I had from the strange twist in events that human girl inspired. I knew she wouldn't let such benefits slip away, besides that archlord dragon would have many fun toys in his possession.

Anyway, I scattered all my newly purchased war gears all over my chariot, turning it into a real fortress. At this point, my armies were drawing closer from different directions, closing up onto Irvington city.

"Time to get rolling," I looked up at my soul points and evilly grinned. For the first time ever I finally crossed the one million soul mark since acquiring my class.

I didn't hesitate and summoned twenty fallen gods. I selected them all to be lightning fallen gods as they were beasts in regard to open wars.

"Don't look this dejected," I said to my other fallen gods, "I'll summon more of your kins once I finish this war."

I wasn't lying to my fallen gods here. After all the other two kinds of fallen gods felt a little sad after seeing such unjust treatment I had towards the lightning kind.

I wouldn't summon weak fallen gods just to please them. This fight was crucial and speed was a priority here.

Plus I wasn't lying! After this big war, I was sure that achieving the one million soul mark again would be within reach for sure.

The past fight gave me lower souls than expected as almost half of that monster army dispersed in the middle of the fight. Yet in this fight things would end up differently.

The races here wouldn't just run away, they would fight to the last man standing. Even if they retreated, they'd do that to regroup with other forces and come back at me.

So I had a big pool of souls waiting for me to gather up.

As I gave my army of fallen gods shreds of essence, enough for one hundred supreme attacks, I yielded my light glaive and pointed it towards Elizabeth city.

"Attack!"

It was one simple word, but followed by a mighty roaring from my army, so loud and brutal that made me quite sure every single enemy there would be scared to death.

Then I led my chariot and my army directly towards the city.

[Attack once grouping up] I sent to my teammates at the same time, [Don't waste your time. Head directly towards the central gate and secure it]

The best strategy to cut much of their losses would be simply shortening the fight and heading directly to that mega gate. Even if the enemy kept sending off their armies from the gate, my forces would crush them instantly.

Such a method would leave the enemy unable to change the outcome of that battle. Plus it would cut a lot of my forces losses compared with the regular fighting all over the city tactics.

*Rumble!*

The fight started hot by my lightning fallen gods combined attacks. They managed to clear a big chunk of the enemy forces that started to rush towards my direction.

As I gave such a plan to my forces, I also planned to follow the same tactic as well.

"You are biting more than you can chew, human race Hye!"

Just as the fight started, it was obvious who would win this battle. The enemy forces waiting here weren't that much to begin with. That coward illusionist called most of the forces near him.

But as my forces were crushing and killing non-stop, three angels appeared out of thin air with all red and puffy faces.

Son of b*tches! You finally decided to show up after all this time!

"Humph! Go and f*ck yourselves," I didn't show any speck of respect towards them. Instead I pushed forward, using the element of surprise to my advantage and attacked any haste gathering of enemy forces.

"You think we can't stop you as we don't have our weapons?" one of them threatened and in return for that I could only loudly laugh.

Bastards! If you got anything to do and stop me here then you'd have done already! The fact that you showed up and tried to stall in a useless argument meant you got nothing at all to stop me.

Plus that also meant the city defences weren't that much to begin with! It seemed I overestimated these forces and they wouldn't even sustain my attack for half an hour!

If that was true… Then why not extend the benefits here and aim for the third city as well?

"Your previous actions won't go unpunished!" the middle angel, their leader, spoke in a tone that was filled with immense hate.

Of course he should feel this way. After all, losing that deadly weapon deprived all the angels in a wide range and not only a group of them.

By this they wouldn't be able to punish anyone or step into events and mess things up like they used to do.

Don't blame me for responding to your dirty tricks, I just wanted to survive this deadly apocalypse. And your existence was just unwelcomed by humans.

"You shall stop what you are doing, don't you know who you are opposing?" the third one said while threatening me in a subtle way.

"What? That illusionist god? Or should I say a successor of a god to be precise?"

From the look over their faces I knew what I guessed a long time ago was true. Since what I gained from my fight with that illusionist behemoth was something related to gods, I had few guesses in my mind about his identity.

The first and foremost unbelievable guess was that this dude was a god himself. But gods wouldn't lower themselves to meddle in the affairs of their races in any apocalypse.

To them… We were just a way to have some fun and waste their time, nothing more!

So that left another guess, or two to be honest. One was that dude was someone supported heavily and treasured by a god. He had a blessing that granted him the god true abilities.

And that was known to be the god successor, the flag bearer of any god in the apocalypse.

But that also meant I was dealing with someone extremely dangerous! In fact there was another possibility, a far more dangerous one, that I prayed it wouldn't be true; god reincarnation!

For unknown reasons for me, gods would die. I didn't know how a god might die. Was it out of living a long life? Shouldn't gods be eternal and immortal?

Who knew what was going on in the world of gods! Yet such possibility was already very low to begin with. All I recalled from the old man's words before when he mentioned those guys was a simple advice:

"If you meet any god reincarnation at any time in the apocalypse, turn around, leave everything you are doing, and just flee. Run, run for your life Hye, this is the only way to survive those maniacs!"

"No, he is a god reincarnator!" The middle angel recalled all the signs of his shock and showed a plain face.

"Liar," I snorted while seeing directly through his act.

"It's the truth! He is a mighty and deadly god reincarnator!" one of the other two said, trying to make me believe their sh*t.

"Then I'll try my luck with him," I shrugged while knowing if anything was impossible to happen then for these angels to fear for my life.

Come on! Don't think I'd buy all this sh*t you were trying to sell here!

"You have to listen…"

"F*ck off!" My answer was swift and decisive as I pointed my glaive towards the three of them. I knew I wouldn't be able to touch a single hair of them, but I pointed it in a way of defiance to their reign.

"Or you can wait… Wait and watch clearly how a weak worthless human in your eyes will turn everything upside down and crush all the sh*t you are trying to create here…"

*Fwoosh!*

And in the next second, I pushed my chariot directly towards the high above the big mega gate. I wouldn't waste my time speaking nonsense with those bastards.

Let my actions do all the talk! And I'd start my revolution by crushing their chosen illusionist archlord and wipe his forces out of the surface of this world.

And I'd start with this mega gate here.

181 A Heroic Calling

"Keep your hands back!"

Just as I reached the reign of the mega gate in the centre of this city, an earth shattering shout came from a direction outside the city.

It came all the way from the triangular space between the three cities. And it was such a familiar voice that made me smile when I heard it.

"Finally you came…" I didn't show any signs of distress even when I spotted such a gigantic arm heading fast, so fast towards me.

It was the voice of that illusionist god successor, the one I cut one of his arms before. This time he seemed to use some sort of an ability to extend his arm all the way from the direction of the tower.

He came from that epic gate up there. I expected him to come from the gate over here. Yet as his arm was getting closer fast and bigger as it approached, I simply snapped my fingers and recalled all my fallen gods.

Previously when I faced him, I had only three fallen gods. But right now I have a larger number of them, almost close to fifty.

He wanted to play? Then I should gladly accompany him!

*Woosh!*

Just as the arm got closer to the outer border of the city, that dude used his crazy attacks from before. A storm erupted and a strong wave made of that godly essence exploded, moving in brutal fashion towards me, crushing everything in its path.

That's what I was waiting for. I didn't want to fight this dude this desperately except for this godly sentient essence. I had a good stack of it, but my consumption rate just got off the roof the more I summoned fallen gods.

"Crash that thing for me," I pointed in lazy fashion towards the incoming threat. The fallen gods all used their ultimate abilities and landed a combined attack with their strongest hits.

And then I moved.

The attack they exerted was much fiercer and a lot different than the one this dude experienced from me before. I wasn't using the attack of three fallen gods but almost fifty of them.

Previously my fallen gods barely managed to stop this brutal wave of attack with the help of Selvators and Berserkers. Yet this time it was doomed to be different.

Their attacks didn't only manage to stop this wave, but it also pushed it back. This came as a surprise for that bastard as he exclaimed in shock. Yet I didn't give him any time to react.

"Die!"

Last time I used the closure of the gate to chop his arm off. I couldn't do this right now but instead I gave the order and all of my warriors on the chariot unleashed hell on his arm.

Even if he was a god, he couldn't just stay there and defend against all of that! My grenades all exploded onto his arm, causing it to fiercely tremble and interrupting the use of his deadly attack.

My chariot already protected me inside that crazy attack. Yet at this moment, this deadly wave attack caused by his godly essence ceased all of sudden before turning into a solid form.

*Crack!* *Crack!* *Crush!*

Without any surprise, the consolidated wave of godly essence cracked and crushed under the immense pressure of my fallen gods combined attack.

At the last battle, that dude was controlling this wave using his arm. Yet he couldn't do this at this moment. My weapons kept firing nonstop and his arm was rendered functionless.

On the other hand, and as my chariot with all the warriors and weapons in it were giving that dude hell, the combined attack of my fallen angels got freed from the wave godly essence attack and landed over his arm.

"Ahhhh! I'll kill you! I'm going to f*ck you!" That dude was so bitter about losing. He couldn't accept losing a second arm to me. I grinned evilly while swapping my light glaive and instead I summoned my strongest one; the glaive I couldn't yet wield and acquired from the chariot!

Indeed I wasn't able to wield it properly, but who said I needed to even sway it around to chop that dude's arm? I simply jumped high in the air, travelled over his arm and simply summoned that heavy thing.

The moment I took it out, an indomitable force pressured over my entire body, aiming to crush me to the ground. I didn't hold the glaive more than this one second, let it fall freely and instantly chopped that dude's thick arm.

"Ahhh!"

Like a snake that got its head smashed, that dude screamed and retracted what was left of his arm. I simply landed back to my chariot using the rope I always used to jump on the ground with it.

As I climbed up again, I watched the big arm falling to the ground. This time I managed to get a big part of his arm, almost half way up to his humorous bone.

I didn't put much hope on getting much of his arm. But strangely enough it looked like that dude was standing next to me and not just overextending his arm.

Wait… was he really here?

Once I reached up there, I hurriedly took a tour outside the city. That dude was nowhere to be seen. Either he escaped fast or I was just lucky to cut such a big part of his arm.

"Thanks little one," I landed my chariot on the ground before jumping off and patted my precious glaive. It was deeply inserted in the ground but luckily for me, I didn't need to take it out to store it back.

"Listen up," as I got what I needed from here, I turned towards my valiant fallen gods, "go around and kill any remaining enemies here."

"None will survive, my lord," they all said in unison before spreading all over the city.

"Come," I summoned all my Bulltors and shield warriors here. "Go and collect every single scrap of this material," I pointed to the all dispersed godly essence, "and then go around the city and grab all the killed races and bring them all here."

"Roar!"

For me this battle was already over. The enemy used all his tricks to stop me, even the angels jumped in.

Yet they failed! This mega gate was mine, alongside all the loot I'd get from those killed races here.

"Time to claim you baby," as everything was settled, I flew towards that mega gate like a real conqueror. I didn't need to join the attack anymore, and I simply claimed the mega gate to receive a weird message.

[Congratulations! This is the first mega gate you acquire!]

[You got one favour point with the creators of the system]

[You currently have two favour points in your record]

[Having one more and you'll achieve something great!]

"Wait… I already got a mega gate before!" as I read this message, I couldn't help but frown.

Wasn't this my second mega gate or what?

[Your previous mega gate wasn't a completed one. This mega gate is considered your first to acquire]

"Damn!" I cursed when I realised what went wrong here. That mega gate from before really lacked one gate to be completed. It was the gate that lay within the control of the Selvators.

If those dudes just abandoned their gate before I got there, perhaps this would be my second mega gate then.

"What's that grand prize then? At least tell me about it so I can get pumped up," with lack of interest I said while not waiting for anything good from the system.

But what came next made me greatly shocked and left me speechless for an entire minute!

[You'll get a heroic calling chance if you managed to gather up three favour points]

Damn me! It was a chance for a heroic calling!! Was that thing really in my grasp?

I couldn't help but turn my gaze towards a certain direction. If getting one mega gate would grant me one favour point, then what about getting more of these gates?

But the next message from the system crushed all my hopes and turned them into dust!

[Warning: Gaining more mega gates won't grant you anymore favour points]

"F*ck you!!" This was the most suitable answer such a system would get from me. Damn dude! Couldn't you just be a little generous here and count every single mega gate I acquire as a favour point?

[Achieving a milestone will render that milestone worthless. To acquire more, you need to up the game and look to achieve stronger milestones]

"Stronger milestones… Don't tell me…" I turned my head towards a different direction this time. My eyes flashed with a realisation and a firm belief in what I should do next.

"I'll get that missing favour point then," I knew that having one more heroic calling was simply crucial to my future plans.

I placed the goal of establishing a world wide, human exclusive method of communication as top priority in my plans.

I lacked a way to do it, and above all I lacked a means to distribute the good news to everyone. I only had one heroic calling in reserve. So having one more meant I could use heroic calling to deliver the news.

That meant all that was left was to find a way to create such a unique and secret way of communication. And of course I wasn't without ideas to solve this.

The Bringold impact of course!

But that would come after I start my cultivation, and of course before meeting up with that impressive human girl chasing that dragon dude and kicking his ass.

"Alright," as things got to this stage here, I wasn't needed here. I simply called back my chariot, my warriors inside it, and took out my precious staff.

As I gained control over the cities, I stored bookmarks linking to all of them. I did that to just facilitate moving in between the cities, but now I could use this to jump into Irvington city and join the fun there.

*Fwoosh!*

Just as I appeared there, I found things just similar to what I experienced at Elizabeth city.

The enemy forces all over the city weren't a match to my forces in number or quality. Even when my forces were fighting without my immensely oppressive deadly warriors and summoners, they still managed to crush them at any encounter.

When I summoned my chariot, I found the fight was raging hot just a couple hundred metres away from the central castle and mega gate. The enemy kept pouring out lots of forces as expected, but they were all getting killed in a few minutes.

My forces were acting like a massive and brutal grinder, killing anything thrown at them while constantly pushing the line forward. They were moving slowly yet steadily.

"Alright, time to put an end to their struggle then," I evilly grinned while summoning all my warriors that I recalled before.

"Go to your posts," I said without even looking at them, "and kill anything you spot without showing mercy."

"Roar!"

My chariot flashed forward in her inhumane speed before bringing me and my boys just on top of the central castle. I looked up at the gate and waited for the first wave of my chariot's attacks to land fiercely over my enemies.

Then with ease I flew higher and took control over this mega gate just simply like that.

"Kill!"

As the mega gate closed up, the enemy lost its only way to send reinforcements here. What happened next was expected as the remaining forces got crushed without any suspense.

They didn't even need my warriors' help at this point. Yet I stayed before they took control over the central zones and started to push outwards to clear the entire city of hostiles.

[Come to me now!] At this point I sent over Karoline, Sara, and Leo to come and meet with me.

After all, gaining control over two cities at one go was great and all, but losing them again would make a laugh out of me.

So after things got settled in the two cities like this, it was time to start arranging the defensive forces in them.

182 The Final Battle Is Near

The three came in ten minutes. Just from the smiles over their faces I knew how good and thrilled they were.

"Boss," Leo seemed to be infected by the spearhead as he started to call me the same way that dude did, "whassup?"

"I see you are feeling good about this victory here," I said before taking out my staff, "but for the record, this is just a simple victory that will mean nothing if we didn't end up crushing that tower up there."

"Isn't this the staff of your teleportation?" Karoline pointed at the staff and I gave her a warm smile.

"You are going to Elizabeth city with your forces," I said while activating the staff and initiating the portal, "bring them here and go there."

"For what?" Sara asked, "are there still enemies to kill in that city?"

"I killed everyone there," I shook my head.

"So why are we going there, boss?" Leo asked.

"You have to defend that city during the upcoming hours," I seriously said, "this is a very important task. If we can't defend the cities we got from the retaliation of that illusionist archlord, we'll end up losing everything we gained so far."

"So we have to go there and hold it?" Karoline asked in doubt, "but who will go and crush that tower then?"

"Leave this task for me," I firmly said, "come on, there is no time to waste here. Call on your forces to gather and lead them through this portal."

"But my forces are too much!" Karoline said, referring to her army size. Before coming here, I punished all of the others for the slight mishap they had before.

"Take only one half then," I said without even thinking too much about it, "start right away. The other city is now being protected by my forces. But I will withdraw them soon."

"Alright," the three said and before they started calling their armies here, I gave a few instructions about what they should do up there.

First they had to take control over the small castles scattered inside the city. These castles might not be as strong as the big central castle of the mega gate there. But holding them would help a lot in the defence process.

Also I firmly stressed over the importance of spreading scout groups all over the area around the city. They would act as early warning beacons for the forces inside the city, so they wouldn't be surprised by any attack.

After I finished with them, I sent messages with the same content for the other team members here. As I did that, I finished all the needed preparations to defend the two cities.

I thought about going and hit the last city. I knew I could easily control it, but would face a bigger problem in defending the city. After all, we lacked enough numbers to match evenly with the enemy.

So it was a waste and held too much risk to do that. I had to let it go for now, and aim for the second goal in my plan.

"I'll leave the portal here until you finish," I headed towards my chariot as I said to the three before me.

"Will you wait until we are done then close it up?" Sara asked and I shook my head.

"I don't have that much time to spare," I said, "in addition to that, it's better to have a portal running between the two cities for now. This portal will last until I set it off myself. But don't waste time and once gathered enough go immediately to Elizabeth city."

As I said this I controlled my chariot and flew fast towards the direction of the third city. I wasn't planning to directly attack it, plus I had to wait for an hour at least until they arrived at Elizabeth city.

So I just kept my chariot moving at its intermediate power state. After half an hour, I started to spot a large number of enemies moving from the central area towards the direction of Irvington city.

It looked like that dude finally got some courage to fight back. The numbers I saw were in tens of thousands, forming dense groups that marched one after another.

I sent a warning message to all of my team, while praying that dude would have some balls and send more than this.

Few tens of thousands? That wouldn't be enough at all to even warm up my forces! Besides I wanted that bastard to keep throwing his forces over the walls of mine.

The more he lost, the weaker he would be and the easier time I'd have to crush that tower at the end.

As I saw these forces, I started to roam around and try to get a better glance over their numbers. From what I saw, that dude sent slightly over two hundred thousand forces to Irvington city.

Was he planning to send the same over Elizabeth? Or slightly more?

At this point I decided to not let him have his way in this. If he wanted to send reinforcements, then it would be better if I controlled the direction of his forces.

"Come!" As I decided that, I called forth half of my fallen gods here. In addition to that I had enough soul points to summon ten more fallen gods.

Like usual I summoned lightning fallen gods. After giving the newly summoned ones enough from the essence shards, I pointed towards the big army moving towards Irvington city and coldly said:

"Annihilate them!"

The next thing I heard was loud rumblings occurring at many places of that army in the distance. My fallen gods sent their attacks without hesitation, and in a span of few breaths death befell those bastards.

Then I led my chariot and flew over their heads, leisurely watching them die under the hands of my fallen gods.

My attack came swiftly and in a surprise that gave no time for them to even run away. Just in the span of ten minutes, I killed almost thirty thousands of them while almost double this number got dispersed all over the place.

I didn't chase them. After all, my goal wasn't to completely wipe them out. I knew they would regroup later on but at least I showed the coward that this path was blocked.

"Now he should focus more on Elizabeth city," I did that while putting into my mind the true nature of the illusionist race.

If I was dealing with drags or Selvators then the result would be the total opposite. These two races were courageous and pretty stubborn to run away from a provocation like that.

Yet I was dealing with a coward. So after I killed two more groups of these forces, nothing else came again.

"Time to go to Newark city."

As I started heading there, I sent messages to my team to notify them about these updates. The enemy would now focus entirely over Elizabeth city.

And I intended to turn this city into his force meat grinder to be honest.

I also warned the three at Elizabeth city from what was coming at them. I planned to recall most of my warriors and summoners and only leave twenty fallen gods back there to help them.

As for the rest, I'd simply use them to hit my next target.

Don't take me wrong, I wasn't planning to hit that city yet. Fang and Wryly forces were still fighting their enemies.

These two sent over stating that they were pushing them back. I knew they weren't just boasting or giving false statements here. But they still didn't manage to crush their enemies.

That meant they weren't just facing monsters, but monsters led by other races. That dude learnt his lesson from before and seemed to get some help in regards to how to rule over this war.

But no matter what he did, he was destined to fall! My next target wasn't the city, but the caravans coming out from it.

Just as I got closer to the ruined city, I could see a long line coming out from it. It looked like a thick line that extended from the city and went towards the horizon into the direction of that tower.

"Come," as I reached there, I called forth all my forces, and then landed over their heads without warning.

My target was to simply cut off the supply line coming from this city. In fact I didn't need to occupy this city at all. All I needed to do was to harass any caravan coming out from it, killing any defending forces the enemy sent with them, and that would be more than enough.

The enemy only had this city mega gate working to bring these materials to the tower. Of course they had their epic gate over the tower, but for some reason they seemed to not be able to use it properly like other mega gates.

I didn't care about any of that. After all my enemies' hardships were celebrations for me.

I harassed the line and cut it starting from the city and to a distance of ten miles away. Then I stopped and returned to the city while waiting.

My actions weren't just to stop the enemy supply line, but to also provoke him to make a reckless move. If I was him, I'd send a lot of forces to secure the next caravans.

But doing so would threaten to lose more without gaining much. My previous actions proved that I wasn't a soft rock to crush here.

So it wasn't weird when that bastard sent an army out from the city compromising a few tens of thousands. It seemed to me they either were the ones securing the city or forces hastily brought over from the mega gate.

It didn't matter who they were. In the span of the next half an hour, I crushed and killed five waves of such forces, killing almost half of them and dispersing the rest all across the land.

They were panicked enough to not return to Newark city again. Only a few returned there and I didn't know if they remained inside, came out with other waves, or ran away from the city's rear borders.

"Oh, he seems to grow restless now!" as I heard the growing sounds of marching forces coming from my back, I turned and evilly grinned when I saw what was coming.

The entire horizon was literally covered with densely packed enemies. That bastard decided to lead most of his forces here, to try and crush me and secure the supply route again.

During my previous battle here, he tried to crush the forces at Elizabeth city. Wave after wave of enemies got crushed in brutal fights without even succeeding to secure a single castle or emblem inside.

I knew his back was pushed violently against the wall. He had no other choice but to come directly here and face me, hoping he could find a way and land a good hit at me.

He tried to do so as well and failed. I killed almost over a hundred shadows who tried to kill me during my fights. Yet all his attempts failed and he was now having one way to go.

Should I face them here? Or should I retreat? Of course the answer was simple… I should use this chance and start drawing the main forces of his away from the tower and the cities zone.

Fang and Wryly were this close to crush their enemies and then come to me. According to them, Fang was close to Elizabeth city while Wryly was closer to Newark city.

So simply put, one would work with me to cut down the main force of the enemy and the other would work with my forces at Elizabeth and Irvington cities and take down that annoying tower for good.

The plan was set, and fate was already set in stone. That dude was destined to lose and this fight was going to be the last straw that would break his back.

And the last hit would come from me at the appropriate time. Just wait dude, my dagger is dying to be dyed in your blood.

183 The Selvator's Greed

So I just stood in my place for the next few minutes before releasing a few waves of attacks over the incoming big army. The enemies got it hard but they also responded with ballista bolts from their side.

"You came prepared…. Humph," I simply shrugged while leaving the task for defending the attacks to my chariot's shield.

Yet I didn't stand there for any much longer. As I flew away, I made sure my speed wouldn't be that big to widen the gap between the two of us.

Instead I tried to control it to make it look like it was fixed yet I was slowly closing up the distance.

"They stopped?!" just as they reached the city, they suddenly paused. "Don't tell me that dude's brilliant plan was to scare me away! Bullshit!"

Despite how hilarious this might look, in the end the enemy only surrounded the city and didn't dare to come forward.

And from within the city I could see the previously stopped caravans going on once more.

"As if I'd let you have it this nicely!" I couldn't believe that bastard thought so little of me and even considered me to be like him; a coward!

"Attack!"

As I got enraged by such humilative comparison, I pushed forth my chariot while giving the order to my fallen gods to start their deadly attack.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

In return for that, the enemy launched a dense amount of large ballista arrows, trying to force me back.

All these arrows did was to cause a series of popping sounds over my chariot's shield. They couldn't even leave a single scratch over it. And how could these weak attacks dare to do that to my sturdy shield?

My aim here was the caravan not the army itself. After all their aim here was the caravan and not me myself. So in this simple clash, I killed many of their frontline forces all the way down to the caravans that just got outside the city.

Without much trouble I turned around, attacked a few times here and there before going away and stood half a mile from their frontline.

They seemed to be shocked by what I did. This time they knew they could pose literally no threat to me using their useless arrows and ballista.

So either that dude would spend more to get higher grade weapons or he would lean towards the other choice and order his army to push me further away.

And like I expected, the army started to close up at me while attacking with everything they got.

"Attack!" After a ten minutes chase, they seemed to feel more confident as they let their caravans out. Like before I simply dived over the caravans while killing anyone standing in front of my path.

As their arrows were so friendly to my chariot, how could I let the caravans get out safely and reach that bastard?

Pressure… I had to exert pressure on any chance I got so I could push him towards one simple conclusion.

And again as I expected, he ordered his army to push with everything they got, not stop at any moment no matter what.

This time I kept my chariot flying over the army down below and kept attacking them everywhere. I didn't really retreat that much. After all, if I went far from the city, the caravans would get their path safely to the tower.

In the meantime, I checked over Fang, Wryly, and others. It was great to finally hear their good news about drawing close to their designated spots.

It was close, I could already sniff your scent from miles away coward!

Yet I didn't hurry to use the tracking ability of my daggers. I left these for the final moments.

After all, I gained control over two cities and was literally paralysing the third with my actions. That dude wouldn't be in any of these cities, less he would be in the tower zone.

So where might that dude be? In my opinion, he was located in a place not too far away from all this mess.

Crushing the tower came as top priority for me at this moment. As he was already away from this zone, I didn't hurry to locate him.

Even if I found him, I wouldn't be able to chase and kill him easily. Or else I'd risk losing the city and caravans, letting that bastard deliver the needed ore to his precious tower.

I knew if I just gave this dude a chance, he would go a mile for it. I pressured him to such a tight spot. And it was my responsibility to keep pressuring him and never allow him any moment to breathe.

But I also didn't plan to delay my move against him for much longer. I only waited for my allies to reach their spots and start their counterattack.

Then I'd find a way to find that bastard and kill him once and for all.

[I'm here!]

Just as I kept my attacks coming and draining the power from the grand army down below, this message came from no one else but the long awaited Wryly.

"Ooohhhaaa!" and with it, his long famous warcy resounded across the entire battlefield from one direction.

"Ooohhhaaa!" A mightier echo came from the grand army he led. I raised my head and looked at his direction while feeling much joy about that.

[I'll leave things here to you] I sent to him before adding, [Here is a city with a mega gate. It's considered as me giving it to you. In addition to that, there are two more mega gates waiting for you to claim, besides the one in the central zone]

[Thanks dear bro, I will never forget your generosity here] he didn't hustle about the third mega gate. After all he had to fight here himself and gain it with his own efforts.

But it was clear what I just sent to him. You wanted the other three gates? Then you had to accept this one on the top of this list, or you'd get nothing at all.

Wryly was acting smart here, or perhaps he was too kind hearted to not even notice my hidden message and threat here. Anyway I got what I wanted and it was time to end this.

*Clang!*

"You'll never be able to survive the incoming wrath from my paragon!"

As each time I killed his shadows during the past hour, this dude kept threatening me with his paragon.

Come on! If your paragon had balls, let him come and meet up with me! I dared him to do that if he was a man, not an illusionist!

But I knew talking back to that dude was a waste of breath. His race was all but courageous.

This time was different as I killed him using the smaller dagger. It was loaded with the illusion grenades, while the moment that shadow dispersed, the dagger vanished alongside with it.

"Time to hunt you down, bastard," I felt the connection between me and that dagger. A long trail appeared in front of my eyes linking the two daggers together.

As I thought, the direction that link connected led me away from the direction of this big war. I didn't hesitate to use my chariot's fully powered high speed to its max, praying that dude wouldn't have a means to cut the connection between the two of us.

This was the only chance I got to kill him. Missing it and he would be more cautious and much prepared next time we met.

Luckily that dude wasn't that much away from this place. I travelled for ten miles before I could see flashes of bright blue lights coming from one direction.

And it was the same direction the link led me towards.

"Damn you!" Just before I could arrive, I heard his earth shattering shout. Then a big bubble appeared that enveloped a group of five hundred people within.

As I reached there I was shocked to see no illusionists but dragons. "So you got the help from that bastard as well… Let him save you from my glaive!"

I harrumphed while taking out my light weighted glaive. That bastard was standing still in the middle of this group while the look on his face told me how horrified he was.

Yet the illusion acted from the grenades I embedded inside that dagger. These items really were worth every penny I paid for them.

"I'll leave for last," I didn't hurry to kill him and first let my glaive work its magic at the all standing still dragons.

I never knew the grenade would also affect those nearby the target. This added more value to it.

Just as smooth as that I killed everyone and at last I stood in front of that bastard, waiting for him to return to his senses.

During all this time I kept checking with my forces. Fang led his army with mine and landed heavily on the heads of those protecting the central tower.

As for the jumper, he finally acted again. Wryly was so impatient as he led part of his elite forces, took control of the third mega gate before heading directly towards the tower.

His eyes were fixated over the grand prize, that epic gate. He seemed to fear the intentions of Fang as that dude wouldn't give up on such hot cake this easily.

"F*ck you!"

Just as I was immersed in checking with them, that loud curse came from that dude's mouth. I turned and watched him crawl away, with his body shaking out of boundless fear.

"Sigh! I can't imagine someone as cowardly as you will be an archlord of a race here," I shook my head in disappointment before moving fast, placing my glaive just inches away from his head to stop him from this shameless escape.

"Tell me first before I kill you, who is the one you came all this way for?" This was something I wanted to know.

"F*ck you! Even if you killed me here, I'm sure many of her admirers will come and kill you later on!"

As he didn't intend to speak, I simply cut his head using my glaive.

I only met with one unique illusionist before that dude, that reincarnator shadow master. I didn't know we had a relationship before.

"That girl…" while collecting the loot from their bodies, I kept cursing that girl in my thoughts.

How shameless of her! Going around and spreading lies about our love relationship! I couldn't believe a girl would go to such an extent away from those hot and all time aroused succubi.

As I gathered my loot, I returned to the main battle where I killed many of the enemy forces before heading towards the tower.

What I got from all of my team was that they already controlled the tower. But they tried to demolish it yet failed. As I reached there, I found a funny scene to be honest.

Half of the tower was guarded by Fang's men while the other half was secured by Wryly. At the same time, the two leaders stood head to head with each other, glaring without saying a single word as if a bloody battle would erupt at any second.

These two were really funny.

"Finally you came!" The one to speak first as I arrived and landed my chariot next to this funny stance was the jumper. "These two were this close to start a blood bath except for me."

"Who are you?" the two asked at the same time while I simply laughed. Using the rope I landed to the ground, wiped imaginary dust off my hands before asking:

"What are you two doing?"

"This bro is acting shameless!" Wryly was the first to speak and from his tone I could tell how enraged he was, "he tried to take the gate for himself!"

"It doesn't belong to anyone, right?" Fang tried to act smart while I simply gave him an evil grin.

That dude… I swore he had a blood relation with those greedy and shameless drags!

"If you are this capable, then I dare you to take it," I simply said as if this was something he could do.

But in fact he couldn't!

184 Moving To North

"Humph… If I can get it then why am I standing here?"

"Sightseeing perhaps?" I teased him and he glared back. In fact I knew that he couldn't get to that gate high up in the air.

The gate was really big, almost half a mile in radius. It wasn't totally blue as it had many red and golden yellow wisps of energy dancing across its circular edge.

It was so high in the air, reaching almost one thousand metres in height. That wasn't the only reason that prevented that dude from getting it.

In addition to its very high place, the tower below it was already covered in the protective layer it exerted.

The tower wasn't fully finished, but at least it crossed more than half of the distance to that gate. I believed if the tower would be finished, then its tip might end up just in the centre of that epic gate.

But at least it crossed more than half of the distance to the gate. If there was no shield layer around it, then climbing that tower might give a great help to that Selvator to reach the gate.

"Look," Fang tried to act collected, but I knew he wasn't, "we already had a deal before. Why not help me here and get what we agreed upon?"

"That's nonsense!" Wryly exploded the moment he heard Fang's words. In fact I didn't have a favoured race here. In other times I would just start an auction and reaped all the benefits to myself.

But that dude made an unforgettable mistake with me before. So I just came closer, patted him on the arm as it was the place I could reach, and said in a serious tone:

"You shouldn't have kept that info away from me."

"What info?" Fang acted all innocent but I was sure he knew what I was talking about.

"The fact that humans were sold in the market," Wryly was playing on the same tone with me here. It seemed the conflict between these two was so intense that turned such a thick headed Berserker into such a quick witted guy.

"That…" Fang's eyes widened as he faked his surprise about it, "I… truly didn't mean any ill intentions by hiding that. I was just worried about your feelings."

"Caring about me is nice indeed," I said in a serious tone without changing the look on my face, "but this doesn't relate to me only but to my entire race. Tell me, if you are the one in my place, what will you do to someone who cheated and kept such info from you?"

Fang's silence was the perfect ending for this little dispute. I knew he did wrong, but I wasn't willing yet to turn him into my enemy.

"Just don't do such a thing again," I patted his arm twice to stress over my warning, "in the apocalypse, there are no secrets that will be kept for long… Got it?"

Unwillingly he nodded and despite his unwillingness to let the epic gate go in such a way, he had no other option but to lower his head and watch in silence while I took Wryly high in the air with my chariot.

In this time and place, I was the only one able to reach that portal.

"Listen," but that didn't mean I was going to let my big goal slip away in such a way. Wryly was going to have his big trophy as promised, but after I got mine as well. "I'll first get the portal ownership then you can just take it for yourself."

"No problem bro," it seemed I worried for nothing. That Berserker was so deeply intoxicated in his little victory over Fang in this matter.

Just look at his face… I feared his face would crack open from that wide grin he had from ear to ear!

He didn't even ask me for the reason behind that request of mine! Anyway he agreed and I simply went high to the portal and touched it for a few seconds.

[Congratulations! You gain control over an epic grade realm gate]

[You gained one favour point with the system creators]

[Congratulations! You accumulated three favour points with the system creators]

[You now have a reward of one Heroic Calling]

[You can use the Heroic Calling in anytime you want, but not exceed ten quests from now]

[To use the Heroic Calling, please go to your profile]

This time I grinned in the same way Wryly was in the previous minutes. I finally got a second Heroic Calling and I could now use it to distribute the news about my new communication system.

But I first had to create that system. And that would be through the Bringold impact for sure.

"Your turn," I stepped to the side while Wryly ascended the edge of my chariot. He didn't hurry to claim the gate as he first raised his clenched fist high in the air before shouting in a loud cry:

"Ooohhhaaa!"

"Ooohhhaaa!"

And after him his forces thundered in response with his war cry. I watched him take control of the gate while stealing glances down at Fang.

That dude's face was darkened from anger and frustration. Dude, please learn your lesson quite well this time and don't hide anything big from me ever again!

"Thanks bro, thanks," Wryly was so overwhelmed with getting this gate as he jumped down from the edge and hugged me with his superior strength.

"It's nothing bro," I hardly pushed myself away while seeing a genuine happiness on that kind hearted dude's face.

"Let's go down," I descended while asking, "what are you going to do with this gate anyway?"

"My paragon wants to send a great army to my aid through it," Wryly said before suddenly breaking out in laughter, hugged me again before adding in an immense joy:

"Thanks to you, I'm now an archlord. Hahaha! Can you believe it?"

"That gate was a quest from your paragon?" I was surprised to hear that. I never expected such a gate would hold such a great value to the Berserkers.

"Of course, I won it… Hahahaha!" he laughed again and I just kept my silence while letting him enjoy his happiness.

Even though I started this by taking Selvators to my side, it seemed that in the long run it was better to deepen the ties with those Berserkers.

After all, Wryly was now indebted to me, heavily indebted. Unlike Fang, he had a pure heart and didn't have such big ambitions here.

But that didn't mean I would kick Fang away from my side. More friends was much better than more enemies, right?

"I'm leaving," Fang couldn't handle the smiley face of Wryly.

"Keep in touch," I said without trying to stop him, "I'm going to have a group of mega gates soon. So Don't be far away when that happens."

Fang gave me a glaring look before he kept walking away without even giving me any answer.

"Just leave him, Selvators are very bad at handling losses," Wryly said with a mocking snort.

"Is he that bitter?" I pointed at the fading back of Fang and Wryly laughed in response.

"Alright, you got what you wanted and now all that remains is to fulfil our deal," I said while waiting for him to answer.

"One sec," he went to speak with his paragon before he returned after ten minutes, "everything is settled. Where do you want your warriors?"

I looked at the area around. This wasn't the place where I'd continue my journey. I knew what Wryly, Fangs, and their paragons… In the upcoming quests, this place would be hit by a disaster.

Of course their situation wasn't similar to mine. Wryly, Fang, and their likes would easily deal with such a disaster. But for me it would bring terrible damage.

"Send them up north," I said before adding, "I'll send the place to send them later on."

"Are you planning to leave here?" Wryly looked at me in doubt before his eyes shone with realisation, "you told Selvator there will be more mega gates. Bro, we are friends and you know how high I value you."

"Stop it," I knew what he wanted to say here, "I have to give some to that dude or else he would be angry with me and he will have all the right to feel so."

"What about me then?" Wryly pointed to himself in a funny way. I resisted the urge to laugh and only smiled back.

"I won't forget about you," I reassured him, "it's just the upcoming loot will be divided among the two of you."

"Then you promise you'll give me more than him, right?"

"Hahaha, let's see about that when the time comes," I laughed but he wasn't that satisfied with my answer.

"Bro… Please me and my paragon can even increase the price if you want that."

"It's not about the price," I said before pointing to the real issue here, "it's about who will be closer to me at that moment. The closer you are, the better chance you have of getting more gates."

I shrugged as if this was something out of my control. In fact I was just playing with him. Yet never expected for him to fall for such an obvious trap.

"Then I won't be far from you at any moment from now on," he vowed as if this was a serious matter. I blinked twice before patting on his arm.

"Alright bro, I'll let you know about my location from time to time."

"But…"

"Just be ready to come to me once I ask," I stressed over this point, "or else if that Selvator was closer, then…"

"I will always be close to you," he vowed again and I couldn't help but shake my head in helplessness from his kindness and naivety and went towards my chariot.

I sent it to all my team members. It was time to leave this place and head towards my next big target.

All this was just my attempt to survive through the apocalypse. But from now on, it will be my attempt to thrive in it.

I also gathered my warriors, summoners, and my illusionists. These cowards kept themselves away from me most of the time as they were with Wryly since I travelled here.

I didn't think about bringing them with me. After all they were cowards and I feared they might not fight properly against their own kin.

Plus their actions weren't that much effective in this battle anyway.

I just waited for half an hour before everyone appeared. Once we were gathered, I started to move away, heading towards Elizabeth city first.

After all, I left a few warriors there to collect shard essence for my fallen gods. It was a regret that the dude didn't show his face after losing his second arm.

"So what are we going to do now?"

As the team gathered once again, I hugged Karoline under my arm while the jumper asked with glaring eyes at both of us.

"We are taking a detour for now," I said before adding, "then we will go north. Tell your armies to start moving up. We will gather at Poughkeepsie city."

"Then?" Angelica asked while she was holding Alex's hand. It seemed the relationship between the two girls developed quite well during this time.

I also noticed that Isabella and the spearhead were standing close to each other. As for Leo, he seemed to give up on getting closer to the fiery Angelica and started to show some interest in Sara.

"We will head to the north east," I said and paused for a second, "we will start to control Massachusetts state cities… Totally dominating it."

"Dominate it?" Isabella asked while the spearhead added:

"Isn't it a bit away from the centre of the continent?"

"Why are you interested in the centre of the continent?" I asked and he seemed surprised by my question.

"It's just normal to think about that direction," the jumper jumped in as his eyes kept glaring up at me, "after all the central zone is much better than getting surrounded by the ocean."

"Just follow my lead," I knew what they were thinking about seemed logical. But who said I was acting based on logic?

Or to be precise, who said what they were thinking about was the correct logic in the apocalypse? They knew nothing, and I didn't intend to explain things to them.

Just a few weeks ahead, they'd know why I did that. So why waste my breath explaining such things that were doomed to happen anyway?

185 [Bonus chapter] The New Suns Shine Over The World

"Are they useful?" The jumper kept asking questions about the shards of essence my boys were gathering. I simply had to wait for an hour before I got all the essence inside my inventory.

"They are nice," I said without delving too much about these shards. "Let's go."

We were now ready to take the road to the next target. However I was too wasted to keep travelling in that state.

"Are we going north now?" Isabella asked while I leant over Karoline, feeling the urge to sleep more than ever.

"We'll go first to that city called Albany," I pointed to the map she drew before, "then we will head east to Massachusetts state."

"Is there something special about that?" the jumper asked and others gave me deep wandering gazes that exposed their agreement on his question.

It seemed they all had the same question in their minds as well.

"We have to go there," I said while pointing towards the east part of Massachusetts on the map drawn by Isabella and Leo, "from there we will control the entire region and claim this as our base."

"It's bordered by the ocean," the jumper's eyes were showing how doubtful this dude was, "you know we will be trapped there, right?"

"It's a good spot," I shrugged, "the ocean is always a nice place to stay, right?"

"From the moment I met you, you never did something based on beauty," the jumper rolled his eyes, "come on. Tell us what that is all about."

I knew they had to know, but not now. Now wasn't the right time or else those angels would hear us and prepare a counter plan for me.

"First make all our forces come towards the north," I said while turning to the spearhead, "make your boys come and bring all the ore they collected."

"Are we withdrawing all of them?" Angelica asked while the spearhead joined her as he said in astonishment:

"They still didn't even scratch one third of that mine. They need more time."

I knew they couldn't get most of the ore but it was ok. One third of such a deep mine was enough for us now.

"Just bring everyone," I yawned while extending both arms as I added, "we will stop at Elizabeth city and have some rest. This fight was so intense and we all needed to have a good sleep."

"And have more meat," Leo said, "I'm very hungry."

"Just bring the chiefs from Jersey City," I said without much interest. I took out a piece of meat and ate it while adding, "make them turn all the monster meat around into a good meat reserve. Who knows when we'll have time to cook again."

"Alright," they said and I added while holding the all red Karoline from the waist, "just don't overdo it and have more rest. The area is well secured by the Berserkers so don't worry about that."

I descended while the chariot was going at a very fast speed towards Elizabeth city. I planned to control it until reaching there before stopping and having a good deal of rest.

"What … us?" a soft murmuring voice came from Karoline who kept her head all lowered all the way to our room. I selected the same room we previously had our first night there.

"What?" I didn't hear her quite well so I asked while opening the door and drawing her inside from her shaky hand.

This girl… Even now she was still feeling shy and embarrassed! Come on, this wouldn't be our first, right?

"What about us?"

I looked at her and when our eyes got in contact, she couldn't help but move her eyes aside. I slowly pulled her face back towards me and kept looking at her for long seconds.

"Say it again," I demanded and like an obedient little girl she was about to repeat before I shut her with a deep and hot kiss that I led with my tongue paralysing hers and preventing her from even breathing.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment and before I knew it, I already got rid of all of my clothes, carried her with my arms and landed her on the bed before slowly removing her clothes one by one.

And without much hurry I took a deep gaze, feasting over the delicacies she hid under her clothes. My eyes were so daring and penetrating to her that made her face turn redder.

Then like a hungry beast I started to devour her, and all that remained of her were just loud moans that started slowly to turn into whispering and interrupted screams from time to time.

We were already at Elizabeth city when we both finished. Yet instead of just sleeping, I took a short rest before taking another tour into her body without feeling any tiredness at all.

After the third time, I felt so full. She ended up in a ragged condition, not even able to raise a voice or even a finger.

I held her deeply into my embrace, left a couple of soulers and Bulltors outside to defend the room from any intruders like that annoying jumper, closed my eyes and went into a deep sleep.

I had to admit it… Sleeping after such a delicious meal was something I really enjoyed. I had to admit, my previous life before coming here was really the life of a dead man.

Without the warm embrace of a girl by your side, how could someone live in this world?

By the time I woke up, things looked much different before I slept.

The world was literally ignited by a flashing light, something that seemed to be missed from this world since the apocalypse started.

I looked around and couldn't help but feel panicked. I found many messages coming from everyone in my team. They were panicked as well but the content of my message made me smile and feel reassured.

"So it's about time the new suns are about to be born…" I closed the messages after sending a reassuring message to all of them. I told them this was a normal thing, just like what the jumper said to them it seemed.

But they didn't believe that crazy dude and looked for my answer. I looked at the piece of jade sleeping like an angel in my arms and couldn't help but smile again.

After putting on my clothes, I didn't leave before painting a soft kiss over her lips. When I went to the roof, all I could see was flashing glaring spots in the sky, totally illuminating the entire world.

The darkness that prevailed before became now absent. The world was even shinier than the bright sun in the middle of a sunny clear day.

"You finally finished toying with your little pet," the jumper was standing in the middle of everyone. When he spotted me, he couldn't help but throw such a mean comment.

"Do you want to reveal your little secret, pretty boy?"

"Do you want to die?" he glared back and I simply laughed.

"Is that really ok?" Alex pointed at the sky while others looked at me in much doubt and more fear.

They had to feel that way. After all, there wouldn't be a single sun in the sky anymore, but a group of tightly packed stars that would look like pearls in the middle of the sky.

"It's what the world will look like from now on," I simply said as if this was something expected. Despite their shock and fear, they all nodded and started to slowly accept this fact.

After all this what would our world look like from now on.

"So we won't have that dark gloomy world again?" Leo asked and I shook my head.

"These suns will rotate in the sky," I said before adding, "in cycles, we will have long days of bright sky and long days of darkness."

"How do you know that?" the jumper asked and I smiled back.

"I just know," I said as I also knew that dude was familiar with what I was saying.

The suns that would shine over our world would also have strange phenomena. Each shining star would have a twin dark star that wouldn't emit any light.

Each five days, the stars would shift places with their dark twins, forming fixed regular circles of five days and five nights. It might seem absurd, but till my time no one knew a better explanation than that.

"So what are we going to do now?" Angelica asked, "will that affect our actions?"

"Monsters will become fiercer at times of darkness," I said before adding, "but before long they'll adapt to the suns and will also come to attack us during the five days of light."

"So we will have time to rest from now on?" The spearhead asked and I shook my head.

"We might have a smoother time against monsters, but that will only apply for one to two quests from now. So don't place high hopes on that."

"At least we will have some rest," unlike my words, the group seemed to be happy about that. I looked at the jumper who shook his head, motioning to me it was pointless to try and speak again.

"Have you gained some rest then?" after I left them to celebrate and enjoy this delusion, I asked.

"We had a few hours before this happened," Isabella said.

"You slept for ten hours pretty boy," the jumper added and before he could throw another mean comment as usual, I glared in warning towards him.

"Have everyone moved to the north?" I asked again and this time they gave me a hesitating look before the spearhead got the courage to speak.

"They needed some rest as well."

I understood what happened. "Alright, let them wake up and start moving now," I waved my hand at them. We weren't the only humans needing rest here.

Despite knowing that the forces at New York ad Jersey cities weren't as stressed up as our forces here.

But it was alright. We didn't have a tight schedule for now.

As I watched, they started to spread the word all around. At least the chiefs came and worked during my sleep. The entire city was turned into a vast place filled with ovens.

The smell of meat was already filling the place. "Here," Isabella came and took out a large pile of meat and a little liquor, "we also found a few lakes that we turned into clean water."

"Good job," I said in praise before taking everything into my inventory. "Are they ready?"

"The total number we have is simply too much," the spearhead said. That dude was the second one getting on my nerves after the jumper.

He didn't say anything but his eyes told me a lot about his envy. Dude, if you were this capable, try and show your girl how manly you were just like I did with my girl.

Or stop giving me such toxic gazes all the time!

"Your point?" I asked while giving him a warning gaze. He seemed to be startled by my eyes, and looked around for a couple moments without knowing what to say.

"He meant the march will be too long and very dangerous," Sara said from the side.

"I won't act as a babysitter to anyone," the jumper spoke first even before I could say anything.

"We are warriors, we don't need any babysitters like you," I responded and he glared at me, getting the hidden meaning inside my words.

"So we will march without any protection?" Angelica asked, "this is just wrong! After all, I heard rumours from those berserkers about that dragon archlord."

"What about him?" This piqued my interest. I got a few messages from Fang and Wryly while I was sleeping, but was too lazy to check them before.

Just as I opened them, Angelica continued:

"They mentioned something about a big defeat for a strong human girl. Do you know anything about that girl?"

"Yes boss, I heard legends about her!" Leo jumped in and I simply waved my hand to make all of them silent.

The messages I got were slightly disturbing. It seemed something unexpected happened and that human girl who was chasing the dragon dude down experienced a mysterious defeat.

The tables were shifted and now she was the one running away with her life while the dragon archlord was leading a grand army chasing after her.

In the middle of such bad news, there was something good. From the words of the two, I knew the direction she was heading towards; East!

Finally! It was my chance to go and meet up with her! At last!

186 A Way To Have The Communication System

[Do you know where that human girl is right now?]

The first thing I did was to ask Wryly. Compared to Fang, that dude was more reliable in knowing about that girl's location.

After all, his paragon was very interested in her right now.

[So far she is running towards us but dunno where she is right now]

I frowned. Even that dude didn't know her exact location.

[So she is coming here?]

[Yes]

[How can you tell if you don't know her location then?]

[That dragon archlord is spreading his forces in a fan shaped net around this direction] he sent and I realised what he was meaning.

[Alright, keep me posted. I need to meet up with her]

[First my paragon then you]

[Dude, I have to know her location so if she needs my help I can move fast and help]

It seemed that the dude's paragon was dead focused on that girl. He even ordered him to not tell me about her location.

What? Did he fear me or what? I wasn't a womaniser, dude!

[Will try, but can't promise you this except if something bad happens to her]

I rolled up my eyes. Damn! At times like these, not having a fixed communication tool with the entire human race was something annoying.

[Alright] I didn't have anything else to say here. After I closed the chat with him, I instantly sent it to someone else.

[Do you have something that helps in establishing a communication network? A private one that can't be spied upon?]

[Sure, how many people do you plan to share this with? We can cover up to ten thousand personnel in a single network]

The answer coming from the Lady nymph was swift and disappointing. Ten thousand? That wasn't even close to one tenth of the number I had in mind.

I didn't directly answer her. Instead I tried to recall any mention of the number of the human race survivors at this point of the apocalypse.

I knew when the apocalypse came, humans were almost close to ten billion people. But I didn't know how many humans survived this time of the apocalypse.

"Do you know how many people might have survived this far?" I turned to ask my team. At this point, I needed more minds to work on this.

"Why?" the jumper asked but the others thought for few seconds before saying:

"Perhaps one billion?" It was the answer from Sara. the spearhead shook his head as he said:

"I won't bet on that."

"Why? Do you believe more have survived?" Sara turned aggressively towards him and he simply shrugged.

"I doubt even half that number survived," he looked up to the sky, took a deep breath like he was a wise man or something, before adding, "I believe one hundred million is the right number."

"No way!" Angelica jumped in, "I agree with Sara. Humans aren't that bad or weak!"

"One billion is just an outrageous guess!" Alex joined the fight while Leo took the side of Sara as he said:

"I believe one billion is a reasonable number."

I watched them argue in between themselves like idiots. Come on! None of you had a way to prove or even closely guess the right answer guys!

I looked at the jumper and he simply shrugged, removing his hand out of the dirty waters.

[I'm looking for something to cover much larger number than ten thousand] I sent to the Lady before adding, [I might need something to cover up hundreds of millions of people]

[An entire race?!!] she seemed to guess what I had in mind, [Sorry but something like that won't be available even to bigger impacts]

[Then…]

[There is one way to find something like that… You need to ask the help of a god]

[God? I don't have a supporting god yet]

[Not any god] she sent before adding after few minutes of pause that forced me to listen to more bullshit from others around, [A high grade god, and he must have the help of his pantheon in this]

[The entire pantheon?!!!] I was shocked when she sent her last message over.

[Either this way or you need to find a way to get in contact with the system creators] she sent before adding, [But that might be impossible! No one can easily get in touch with those people, especially at such early stage of the apocalypse]

I frowned while thinking about something else. I had a helping hand from one of the system creators in my cultivation.

Wouldn't that mean I got a way to speak to one of those mighty guys? Wow! I never expected delaying my cultivation all this time would bring me such a rare opportunity.

[Thanks] I sent to her before asking again, [What about our deal from before?]

[We agreed upon a time line, right? There are still few days remaining in our deal]

[I was just checking] I helplessly smiled. This girl was taking the deals between us too seriously.

[Rest assured. I found a way to bring you many races as promised. Yet this might bring you some trouble so I have to warn you again]

I knew she was referring to the leaders of those races' wrath. I didn't bother about a bunch of murderers and slave traders anger. They messed up with my people, so it was just right to mess up with them.

[I won't change my mind] I sent my firm answer over.

[Sigh! Alright human race Hye. You are indeed one of the craziest humans I ever dealt with]

[You dealt with humans before?]

[Hello?]

[Are you there?]

[Come on! You just said something and won't even explain it!!]

After she said this by mistake, she didn't respond to me at all. It seemed there was something preventing her from telling me more.

But her words and from what I noticed and learnt about earlier, I knew for sure now there were many humans living in other worlds.

She once told me this before. But strangely she seemed to not want to tell me about the secrets of her trade.

Anyway I got what I wanted and closed the chat with her before turning to my team.

"Let everyone march out now," I said and added before anyone would interrupt, "let the armies of yours guard the others. Also if they meet up with monsters or hostile races, let those without much battle experience deal with the situation first."

"There is no point in teaching a farmer how to become a warrior!" the jumper found a chance at last to throw one of his mean comments as usual.

"If so then give up your big army," I rolled my eyes towards him, "as most of them are made out of farmers, bakers, and even street workers!"

"Not a chance!" he harrumphed and I snorted back. That dude was just a hypocrite! He didn't want others to have more forces but when it came to him he wouldn't even hesitate to accept a fly to join his side!

F*cking cheap hypocrite!

"Let's go," as I settled everything here, I started flying the chariot once again. My mind was now fixated only upon the upcoming cultivation session.

I didn't only want to solve the problem of my cultivation using the bone from the dark realm monster, but also I needed to speak up with that system creator about the communication system.

It was just unfair! How other races had such an advantage and we wouldn't! They could easily get in touch with each other even if they were thousands of miles apart!

Intelligence and communication were both the sharp edge of any civilisation and race. Losing such an advantage meant we were just fighting in the apocalypse blind, divided up and only acting as a response and not aggressively like other races.

That was unfair! And I had to change that. I must!

But would that dude be tolerant of my request? In fact I didn't believe he would disagree. Yet he would ask for a price in return.

I didn't have anything worthy to pay to such a dude. So he would ask for a really tough quest as a payment.

What would he ask me to do? I thought about that and couldn't find anything such a dude would be interested in.

He was, after all, one of those mysterious beings who created and ran the system and apocalypse in the entire universe! What possible such a dude would ask from me then in return?

Absolutely nothing!

I took a deep breath and at this moment, Karoline came up from downstairs.

Her appearance helped in distracting my worried thoughts. "Finally our princess appeared," the jumper threw one of his smug comments and got a glaring and warning gaze from me in return.

"Humph, at least tell us what we are going to do at north!" he harrumphed and said this while others looked at me, ignoring the incoming Karoline except for Angelica.

That girl literally abducted my girl, and seemed to interrogate her about something. From the red and shy look over Karoline's face, I could swear that girl was speaking about things that happened between the two of us!

She was helpless! Didn't she have a girl already? Why try to pry on other people's private lives?

"Yes, tell us boss, tell us please," Leo seemed to place high expectations over our next adventure.

I wanted to tell them, tell them about my grand plans for the future. How I planned to turn the human useless arsenal into something deadly in this apocalypse.

But I knew we weren't alone. Those angels were always eavesdropping on anything I say or do.

"After we arrive up there, we will attack Albany city first," I said before motioning to the map on the ground, "after that you'll all disperse, lead your respective armies and start hitting cities, towns, and even small villages all over the East."

"Simply like that?" Sara asked in doubt, and she wasn't the only one having the same look at me.

"Yes, what else are we going to do there?" I shrugged but my act failed to convince even Leo.

"I bet you hide something else in that dirty mind of yours!" the jumper pointed at my forehead and I snorted.

"My mind is as clean as a white sheet!"

"Humph, I bet it's darker than a black oil coming from earth!"

"Screw you!"

"Do you want to die?"

"Pathetic!"

"Dirty mind fellow!"

"Masked rude fellow!"

The two of us glared at each other for a few seconds before others broke up in laughter.

"Alright big boys, let's let things go at this point," Angelica said while having such an annoying smile of victory over her face.

Coupled with all the red over Karoline, I knew that girl heard more than what she desired!

"We need to know the general plan so we can prepare in advance," the jumper said in an arrogant tone before giving me a side glance, "something as basic as this should be known to any low levelled leader."

"I know what I am doing," I said this and put an end to this useless discussion, "once we arrive at Albany, you'll take your armies and head east. Take everything in your face and try to add more to your armies."

"Speaking of which," Angelica's eyes shone when I said this, "can't we have more troops then? Your army is considered bigger! Even bigger than that cold hearted dude."

"Who is the cold hearted one, lustful girl?" The jumper's answer was rude as always. But this time he came up against such a shameless girl.

Angelica crossed up her arms, looked in defiance towards him while having no issue at all to say this:

"At least I know the desires of my body and fulfil them. Not like someone who is as shy as a virgin girl on her first night, covering up his face with a mask."

"Do you want to die?" He said his typical phrase that never failed to drive a smile over my face and brought laughter from everyone else.

187 The Weird Albany City

The jumper seemed to get annoyed with us as he went aside and took a corner for himself. Others kept talking about how they'll distribute forces among themselves, which direction each would take, and started to plan out their grand movement plan.

After a few discussions with them we all decided to extend also to the southern Connecticut state as well. It was near and wouldn't be that damaged from the upcoming crisis as far as I knew.

As they kept themselves busy with all that, we finally came to Albany's city outer borders.

"What the hell is that?!" The first to notice the strange situation here was Alex. She still carried her cautiousness even after all what happened.

"Is that… The city we are going to take?" Angelica looked at everyone before she stopped at me. Also the others did the same, and the jumper moved from his away spot and came closer to us.

"They didn't waste their time during the second quest," I couldn't help but suspect one race was able to make such changes on such a scale.

What lied up front was totally different from any city I visited before. Unlike the familiar scenes of ruins and destruction, this city looked like a bustling city from mediaeval ages.

Or to be precise, it was just a smaller image of what big cities would look like one hundred years from now!

The city had walls, big and mighty looking walls that would prevent anyone from intruding inside. The walls were at least twenty metres tall, with a breadth equal to half its length.

They circulated the entire city and a large area outside like they were hugging this piece of land. One main gate was there while dozens of cylindrical towers were scattered all over the walls.

As for the city itself, instead of the sights of damaged and burned buildings, the entire city was filled with three up to five stories of weird looking buildings.

The buildings were all built out of red and black ores, while golden lines flashed across the outer surface, flashing from time to time.

I knew what this style meant. These buildings had self defensive mechanisms that would prevent its destruction even if they were directly hit by anything.

An Organized and well built city was in front of me. And it wasn't emptied at all! I could see lots of silhouettes of many races walking inside the wide streets, giving me a familiar image of what life would be in the future.

But this wasn't the future! How could someone do something like this here?

One race popped into my mind when I thought about it. A race who was so arrogant to see themselves above all, so wealthy to have the financial backbone to spend extravagantly over such a city, and had a lot of influence to be reassured this city wouldn't even fall no matter what!

Dragons! They were dragons! I'd bet with everything I got precious over this!

"Who did this?!!" Isabella looked at me as everyone else.

"Have you ever seen something like that before?" even the jumper seemed to not live to see such a sight before.

And I couldn't help but nod, then pointed to the sky where a big gate was.

"There is a mega gate up there, that means one race controls the entire city."

"You know who is that race, boss?" the spearhead asked and I nodded.

"Drags," I said and their eyes flashed with an understanding. As for the jumper, he firmly nodded, agreeing with my guess.

"They are the only ones crazy enough to do something like this," he said.

"So what are we going to do now?" Karoline asked, "will we concede this city and retreat?"

"Not a chance," I first stopped my chariot, then opened my chat and sent a message to Wryly.

[You gotta be kidding me! Bro, are you blessed with luck or what?]

[Are you coming or what?] As expected, he was overjoyed with what I just told him. Just a few hours from my leave, I found another mega gate waiting to be conquered.

[Wait, please wait… I'll lead my army and come to you]

[Good] I then looked at the jumper and that dude retreated couple of steps while asking in fear:

"Why are you giving me that look?"

"You know…"

"Know what?"

"You are the only one able to go inside and bring us news."

"No way!" he firmly shook his head, "dealing with those cowards is much different than dealing with those maniacs!"

I knew he referred to the illusionist as being the cowards and dragons as being the maniacs. He got a point indeed, but among everyone else, he was the only one able to do this task.

"Why not go ahead and smash the walls with our strength and armies?" Sara asked and others nodded in agreement. Even that shameless jumper nodded as well.

"That's a great idea indeed," he said but I shook my head, refusing such a plan.

This city was like a real fortress. They knew nothing about its terrifying defences! The mega gate up there would provide protection over the entire city.

Forget about my chariot and armies, even with Wryly's help we would end up wasting days to just break the walls!

The only way to overcome this city was by crushing the main gate it held. But that also meant we would have to clash with the elites of the drags.

This city's presence told me a lot about the reasons why that human girl lost. That dragon archlord wasn't blindly retreating, but he was leading her into a trap.

She was coming this way, and the presence of this city here wasn't a coincidence at all. I doubted the dragons would have enough resources to build more than one city in such a state of the apocalypse.

Even having one city was considered a mighty feat without a doubt.

So that archlord drew the human girl away from her main forces and base. Then he turned over her and crushed most of her forces.

This might seem a brilliant plan, and it was! One race could have such a brilliant mind to pull such an impossible feat.

But that dude forgot totally about me! He planned it well, so well but he made a simple mistake… He overlooked my threat from his perspective.

What? Did he think I wouldn't be able to come and crush his precious city?

Or did he think high of that illusionist archlord? I recalled the group of elite dragons who guarded the illusionist bastard when I found him.

So this was the big plan that the bastard of the dragon race put forth. He placed the illusionists to keep me busy while he worked his magic against the human girl.

Then after killing her, he would be all free to play with me.

Smart… But not enough. Your man was killed by my hands, and your precious city would fall also in my hands.

Then what would you do? A simple mistake of underestimating me made this entire plane turn upside down!

The human girl would come here and find a shelter instead of a deadly trap. As for that dude… He would be the prey I'd hunt on the honour of establishing my base.

"Can't we attack it?" Everyone was speechless from my firm response.

"It's well protected," I shrugged, "even if we kept hammering it day and night, I bet we'll waste one week to just crush these walls."

"Even if it takes a week, we have to do it!" the jumper said but I also shook my head.

Dude… Don't try and fool everyone else! You were so smart enough to know there must be a hell of an army stationed inside!

What? Would that army wait and watch us attacking without interrupting us? Just a single pause and the protective shields would regenerate, bringing us back to ground zero.

"There is an army coming here," I started stating the bad news one by one, "not to mention this city is already filled with an elite army, one not like anything we've met before."

"And?" the jumper crossed his hands, "don't tell me we can't crush them!"

"We can," I firmly said, "but that needs little planning from our side."

"Are we going to lure the army out?" Angelica asked, "or go and crush the incoming army first?"

"Neither," they didn't know the entire plan of that archlord we were fighting, "we have to first bring this city down and we'll start with that thing up there."

I pointed at nothing else but the mega gate in the sky.

"What are we waiting for?" the jumper shrugged, "drive your thing and let's take it."

"Do you believe they will leave it unprotected?" I raised one eyebrow. That dude was trying to act as simple minded as a fool here!

Don't tell me dude you didn't notice those big cannons installed all over the city to defend its sky! Or you didn't notice the faint shimmering of the shield surrounding even that mega gate!

Or you didn't see the winged race that was in the tens of thousands inside the city!

"We have to do it another way," I didn't reprimand him for such a low act.

"Like what?" Sara asked, "are we going to hit it or not?"

"We will," I nodded, "but not from the sky. We will dig deep down below first, come inside from underneath their defences then we will go and crush that gate."

They looked at each other in doubt and shock. Of course this was a weird plan but they didn't know this plan was so famous back in my days.

So it wasn't weird to see deep trenches surrounding any big city to defend it. This one didn't have such a thing, so we were safe to use that deadly tactic to crush the city.

"We are human geniuses, not some gnoloms or Burteks," the jumper snorted and I only smiled in confidence.

"What are gnoloms?" Alex asked.

"And who are those Burteks?" Leo asked as well.

"They are races famous for digging fast in any mountain," the jumper explained while moving his hands as if they were claws scratching over the ground, "they have sharp claws that would eat anything, even the hardest steel."

"Wow!" the spearhead was impressed by them, "can't we get some of them? If we had few of them then excavating that ore mine would have been a walk in the park!"

"We will dig using tools and magic," I ignored all these useless comments and talked about the main topic again.

"And where are we going to get such things, genius?" the jumper crossed his arms in a challenging way, "you know the market doesn't have a decent piece of pickaxes or hammers!"

"I have my own ways," of course I had. The Bringold impact would solve any problems like these. "But you need to go and arrange your forces. The task of digging will be a hard and tiring process that will take a couple of days to end."

"And what about you?" The jumper was like always, fixated on myself.

"I have something else to do," my eyes flashed in determination. If I had to win over that dragon archlord, then I had to step into cultivation before the big battle would erupt.

As for the risk of him leaving his chase and coming here to help the city, I wasn't worried a bit about that.

After all that human girl would never allow him to do anything without pressure. She was my own vanguard unit, helping in delaying him until we finished from here.

But to do so, I needed a little help first.

[You need to tell your paragon that a message and a helping force must be deployed to that girl's aid] I sent it to Wryly and he just answered with a good piece of news.

[He already sent one of the best private units he had to help her]

[Bravo! Then tell them to deliver this message… No matter what, don't let that dragon bastard flee away with his forces. Keep him busy chasing you down… Got it?]

[This… Are you crazy?]

[Just do it] I evilly grinned, [we will hunt down a nice drag at the end of this battle]