Chapter 33 - 273-288

273 Analysing The Shield

With its presence, any aggressive plan would fail. As I decided that, I led my chariot and headed towards that city.

I didn't go south at first. I needed to take a closer look over that shield. When I arrived in less than twenty minutes, I realised it wasn't just a single layer of shield.

"Interesting… Using several layers of energy to form that shield… In addition to a layer of water to absorb any attack… They really did something good this time."

I knew from the first glance that taking down this shield would prove to be as hard as taking down mountains. It also was evident that this shield was the sole thing standing between me and crushing these damn Hectors.

I didn't hurry to leave. "Attack," I had to see how good this shield was at taking down energy and sending it back.

After all, I called back all my dragons before seeing what happened in the end. I sent out a small group of ten Albany city monsters, before moving my chariot a little away before sending out a group of a hundred dragons to attack.

The dragons used their breaths before I called them back. The first thing I noticed was that the shield took much longer to absorb and gather up the energy in the dragons' breaths.

Then with a loud rumbling noise, that shield unleashed a torrent wave of attack towards the direction where my dragons initially were.

The attack landed and caused enough devastation to create a small crater there. I wasn't concerned about losing my Albany monsters and instead started to better analyse this attack.

"The energy isn't totally repelled… I can sense that shield can mostly repel fifty percent of any attack landing on it."

It wasn't apparent at first, but with the hundred breaths combined together, it was clear to my eyes. The dragon's attack wasn't that weak like the attack that shield launched back.

Also I got to see lots of the area behind that shield. As far as I saw, I noticed the presence of familiar faces inside.

There were Illusionists, side by side with the races I once fought against and linked them with the Succubus race.

So the two joined the Hectors… Pretty much typical of such parasitic cowardy races. As for the dragons, they seemed to hold themselves back thanks to their arrogance.

So that explained how Hectors controlled the three cities this fast. It seemed the two races betrayed the alliance with the dragons and threw themselves into the embrace of their new lord.

They delivered their gates on a silver plate for the Hectors to link directly with their world. Anyway, more insects added wouldn't make much difference.

"Roar!"

Just before I could think about my next move, a rumbling roar came from within the shield. Just as if the shield wasn't there, a large number of monsters gushed out like a hole in earth just opened.

"Are you this eager to kill me?" I snorted before I snapped my fingers, letting out all my forces.

Two big armies clashed violently against each other. The shield didn't show any opening when these monsters came out from it. It was like they simply passed through it like it wasn't even there.

The fight looked meaningless to me. They didn't send their big forces or even their special hybrid monsters. Only common monsters and races came out from this shield.

"What's going on here?" I was greatly puzzled with that, looking at this one sided fight with a big frown and much doubt.

"Come back," just after the passage of the first ten minutes, I grew tired from this childish play. No matter how they threw at me, they got crushed almost instantly thanks to my big boys.

But that didn't stop them from sending more. It looked pointless. What would I gain here except reaping more souls?

If they are dead fixed over killing me, then let them chase me down towards my targeted city. Plus I felt their actions to be weird and suspicious.

For a second there I doubted they were doing this to just halt my tracks here and delay me from going to that city. But what for?

Anyway I called back my forces, let them just stand around my chariot, and started flying again.

This time the entire shield released mighty wave after wave of these useless monsters and races. It looked more suspicious the more I went closer to that city.

Yet I didn't hold back my boys, letting them kill as much as they could. After all I'd gain souls here and my enemies would lose a big chunk of their forces.

Yet their persistence to stop me made me sure of my earlier guess. They weren't trying seriously to kill me, yet so damn seriously to stop me in my tracks.

They even sent troops towards the city, aiming to make each metre I'd take much harder.

Ok… You wanted to play like this? Then let me show you how I could adapt and respond then.

"Come back!" this time I called all the soulers from the ground in addition to any ground warriors I got. I only left behind the six thousand Albany city monsters, as I didn't know how to take them back.

Then I let my dragons attack from air, and my fallen gods attack from the chariot. The Bulltors and shield bearers kept the machine guns roaring all the time.

As for my chariot, I let it fly higher, reaching almost the height of some of that shield at the distance.

These forces were all ground troops. Trying to stop me using them was pointless. I simply used the flying advantage of my chariot and flew on top of such big armies of monsters and races without breaking a sweat.

Yet as I ascended high there, I spotted a new thing up there.

It was something like a big ring. At first it reminded me of the epic portal that appeared before.

274 A Way Through All Defences

But when I used my hawk skill and got my chariot a little higher, I realised it wasn't a gate like that.

It was a gap! A hole in the top of such a sturdy shield! I was surprised to see it, so much tempted to go and try it out.

From my distance far away from this big hole, I could tell that air currents were moving inside like getting sucked ceaselessly. I didn't know what purpose this hole had for this defensive shield, but it was good news to me.

Yet just before I could think about what I should do about this, my chariot ascended a little higher and there I found another happy surprise.

This hole… It wasn't just one! I spotted two other dot-like holes at the far distance from here. Even with my hawk skill activated, I could only see these two as small dots, recognised by the air current entering through these like torrents.

"Three holes… Three cities… Hmm, interesting thing indeed," I muttered to myself while deciding to go and further inspect these holes after taking down that city.

For now, my top priority was to get total control over that city first.

Just as I shifted my attention towards the not far away city, I noticed another interesting thing there.

Humans… an army of humans that would reach a couple of thousand in number was fighting against herds of monsters and races like the ones I was fighting against.

Yet the most remarkable thing was that these monsters and races weren't alone. They were accompanied by a few groups of weird looking races, each group of almost a hundred of them.

This weird race looked like a giant covered up with fine scales. It reminded me of that bad luck magnet girl of the DIWI impact; Sissy.

They had slim bodies compared to their giant statues that reached almost four to five metres. Looking exactly like a fine sexy human girl, a giant human sexy girl covered with small and soft looking fine pale yellow, green, and red scales.

From far away they looked noticeable thanks to these scales. Yet I couldn't see their faces clearly even with my hawk skill. But from what I saw, this race held a higher position than the rest, ruling over the armies attacking the cities while bringing different weapons and weird looking gears with them.

The most common gear I spotted were war ballistae, resembling that of mine over the board of my chariot yet much smaller. Yet the bolts they released weren't any weaker than my big girl here.

Putting in mind that these ballistae were smaller, lightier, and could be operated with a small group of ten normal races, it became clear how better they were compared to mine.

But they didn't bring too many of these, only less than five hundred of them. On another note, there was some sort of a shining pillar of light, stretching to reach one hundred metres in height.

It emitted a blinding yellow and red colour from time to time, like it had a beating heart or something.

There was only one such pillar, and it was carried by one group that was surrounded by five others. From the look of it, this thing seemed pretty important to this race.

"Go and save the city," even before I'd reach there, I summoned my soulers on the ground and gave such an order with a loud shout, "protect humans, and kill everyone else!" I added, announcing my appearance in such a loud and domineering way.

"You, go and stop the reinforcements coming from outside," as for my flying dragons, I gave them such an order. After all, I was coming here and bringing lots of enemies with me. It was enough with the current enemy forces, not needing to add more to the mix to be honest.

"You… start aiming at these groups first," as for my fallen gods, my other warriors here in the chariot, I gave that order while pointing my glaive towards the weird races groups.

Even with such a large number of enemies here, taking down their generals was the best course of action. If I dragged this fight more than needed, things might become more complicated here.

My fallen gods launched their attacks first. Their ultimate attacks landed and took away lots of these races' lives out of surprise.

It seemed this race didn't know how to fight. That was weird. Wait a minute… Don't tell me this was the Hectors?

After all I was pretty much sure that any race in this apocalypse, especially in this region where I was active, was much aware of my way of fighting.

Just the first wave of attacks took away almost two thirds of this race's lives. What remained wasn't that much, scattered in many places, while the groups surrounding that weird looking pillar lost more than half.

"Keep firing," I didn't hold back my boys, "don't miss those surrounding that tall shining stick."

Yet the next wave of attacks was doomed to fall short. Just before my boys would launch the second group of attack, this race used some sort of a tool to launch a protective shield around them.

The shield wasn't that much different from the one surrounding the cities. Just absorbing the incoming attacks, taking a long minute to gather the energy up before releasing it against me again.

Yet in that minute, I didn't stand idle. After all, I have already tested this kind of shield more than once already.

"Keep firing," I stressed over, "don't mind those damn shields!"

If the shield could absorb and retaliate any kind of attack, it also needed time to do so. During this minute, I abruptly changed the position of my chariot, letting my boys hit these shields again and again and again.

With each attack, these shields got thinner as if they were overstretched. Just as the first attack was repelled, hitting nothing but empty air, the shields started to show fine cracks all over its surface.

"It can be brought down this way then…" my eyes flashed in realisation as I decided to change the approach against these shields.

275 The Weird Pillar

I was already at the outskirts of the city. The city wasn't that big to begin with, filled with ruins already.

The last fight was so brutal enough to create more damage than this. Yet I didn't care about the city for now. Taking down that shield and that Hector race held a higher priority to me.

After all, it was a practical test on how to bring down that big shield.

"Listen up," I turned to my fallen gods, "focus all of the attacks over that one shield," I pointed towards the most important shield here, the one surrounding the large pillar.

It was protected with at least three hundred of the Hector race. I could attack other places, but this one still held the most importance and value to me.

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!* *Crack!*

The shield was already showing fine cracks. Though they were much milder than other shields, yet with the focus of all my fallen gods' attacks over it, its cracks expanded and deepened with each passing second.

The shield tried to gather up the energy and repel it. I noticed that the speed it was working in such a way became slightly faster while the scales of all the Hectors inside the shield were shining with different colours of light.

Yet I simply kept my chariot moving all the time. I moved in a wide circle and at such controlled speed to make it impossible for that shield to hit me or my boys at all.

The shield kept cracking and those Hectors inside it kept trying their best to stabilise it. At some point, it was impossible to keep the shield intact. So they instead gave up amending and supporting the shield, pointing everything towards me.

All I saw was a myriad of lights coming towards me at a terrifying speed. I was already activating the chair in its highest form, so these attacks all landed safely over my chariot's shield.

Sparks of red, yellow, and green lights blossomed in front of my eyes, even to the degree of briefly blinding me. It was amazing, as this was enough to tell me how strong these rays of light were.

But it was just all this. The next moment as I regained my sight, the shield was already smashing and those inside were finally unprotected.

And then the world was ushered under deafening roars of pain and agony, coming from the throats of those Hectors inside the broken shield.

Their voices weren't that harsh at all, they were sharp and slightly melodic. Yet with such high pitched screams, it felt like my eardrums were this close from bursting open.

Luckily my boys' attacks landed again, wiping them out from the surface of this world. I heaved a sigh of relief, as this was something I didn't want to experience again.

My ears ached, but I ignored this pain and looked at the bright side. I finally found a way to crack open this shield.

Despite this working on the small shield, there was no guarantee it would work over the big one. Also that last act of resistance from that race made me a little unsure about the effectiveness of such a way against the big shield.

So to put it simply, I had to keep that race forces busy while landing heavy blows over the shield. Of course I didn't forget about the three holes I spotted… I built my entire plan over these holes.

But I wasn't carried away by this… After all, fighting this race would be a hard task without doubt. Thinking that by myself I'd be able to crush them was a mistake, a big mistake to be honest.

I had to act like the vanguard, the tip of the spear. All my efforts should be directed towards one goal; attacking and crushing that shield or at least creating a wide gap, enough for my forces to pass through.

"Attack that shield," as I crushed one shield, I didn't show any mercy to the nearest one from here. I randomly selected one, while leading my chariot directly towards that pillar.

It lost all the support from the forces down there. Yet even if the strong Hectors were killed by my boys' attacks, that pillar didn't show any sign of damage, or even shook once.

It only shone brightly for one minute before it started to lean to one side. It seemed that light coming from it was enough to shield it against my fallen gods' attacks.

"Trying to run? Humph!" Yet just as I got near it, almost this close from grabbing it with my two hands, it suddenly shook and flew at a fast pace to the opposite side.

Strange! First time to meet such a gear, like being possessed or something.

Yet trying to outrun my chariot? In her fully powered version? That was just a dream!

*Fwoosh!*

I was holding back my chariot's speed until this moment. Trying to run? Then let me show you what the meaning of speed was!

My chariot just flashed, and I didn't let it fly with its full speed fearing I might miss that idiotic pillar. "Come to papa," yet my speed was fast enough to get me to it in just a blink of an eye.

I only stretched my arm, grabbed it as my chariot kept moving. The speed of my chariot crushed that pillar momentum, making it lose any power to resist.

"Go inside!" Yet as I tried to stop my chariot, turn around to attack other shields here, that pillar started to grow restless again.

Frankly holding this big pillar wasn't good at all. Adding to its resistance, I decided to store it in my inventory first before doing anything else.

Yet I was met with another obstacle, one that I never imagined.

[The pillar of Hector race prime is resisting your desire to store it]

[You can overrule its ownership by paying any of the high currencies you have]

[For example: your blessing points, your soul points, and your favour points]

[For each currency, the price would differ accordingly]

[Please choose wisely as that pillar can reject your offer and you'll lose your chance in subduing it]

276 The Pillar's Skills - Part 1

"Subdue? My chance? Lose it? Damn! What the heck are you?!!"

It was the first time to receive such a message. I reread it more than five times, trying to get the meaning behind these words.

So I got myself a pillar which didn't only have a personality of its own but it also had a standard! Damn! I ended up getting tested by it, to see if I was a worthy master or not!

"I give one favour point to it," as things reached such a degree and it was related to my pride, I instantly selected the highest form of currency the system proposed over me.

It even ignored stat points! In all the things the system mentioned, my highest item in value was the favour points of the higher ups.

[One favour point is deducted from your account]

[The pillar of Hector race prime is now valuing your offer]

[Please wait for its decision]

"F*ck! Just accept it already, lazy bastard!" I couldn't believe what was happening to me! What? Should I wait for it to get a nap or have a meal and rest or what?!!

It really did take its time to respond! Half an hour passed, an entire freaking half hour for that pillar to make up its mind!

But I didn't stop and wait for its answer. I simply kept holding it in one hand, while pointing the guiding my forces using the glaive with the other one.

Luckily my chariot only needed my mind control or else I'd be placed in a tough situation here. The fight started to shift towards my side once I cleared all the scattered groups of the Hector race.

The rest were just weak forces of monsters and races, cannon fodders in my eyes. I simply let my boys loose, acting as free as they desire.

Just as the battle reached this stage, the city interior was entirely secured. The human forces in there weren't that weak or soft. Once they saw a chance, they moved and seized it.

In my eyes, they looked more organised and far superior to the gamers I met before. They seemed to not only fight for their survival, it looked like they were enjoying such a situation.

Fighting with such a mindset was important. They weren't fazed by the great number of their enemies, simply heading directly for their enemies, killing them in much ease.

They must have raised all their stat points to max. Not only that, they also had full gears, high graded ones as well.

Wealthy, experienced, and very organised… I couldn't help but wonder about their origin. Such a force was something I really craved to get.

I just hoped they would become an entire community like gamers, where I could not only get one group but be connected to a lot of such unique people.

Just before I could go and say hi to them, the pillar finally gave its answer.

[The pillar of Hector race prime agrees to take you as a master]

[Your favour point helped greatly in that, in addition to your current performance in this battle]

[Keep the hard work!]

Why did I feel like I just passed a hard exam and got a job many dreamt about? Damn! It was just a f*cking pillar!!

With that message, the pillar changed. It was showing signs of rebellion every now and then, even tried once to run away using its speed.

But everything it tried was crushed without breaking a sweat. I wouldn't be this green to allow for such a thing to run away.

And as I finally made its majesty agree to be mine, I couldn't wait to see its details to know what gave such a low thing the right to give its damn opinion about myself!

"Phew! Damn! Damn! Damn!" Yet the moment I opened its details window, I sucked in a deep cold breath of air after a long minute of shocking silence!

[The pillar of Hector race prime: One of a race artefact. Belongs to the Hector race. You gained the recognition of the soul of the artefact. You now have superficial permission to use the pillar]

[Details about the superficial permission to use the pillar: The pillar holds the soul of the Hector race prime. In the race's greatest moment, the entire race agreed to donate all their feelings of pride, dominance, and might to give birth to this pillar.

Superficial pride use: As the current master of the pillar, you enjoy the superficial pride effect from the pillar. You won't feel any pressure or threats coming from anyone below the grade of a god. You have the privilege of changing any quest rules for one time per five quests. You have the authority to change the conditions of any subquest forced over you or over your race once per subquest.

Superficial dominance use: As the current master of the pillar, you enjoy the superficial dominance effect from the pillar. Anyone meeting you will be intimidated by you, making him want to give his allegiance to you. Any hostile foes will be fighting you with shaking legs, this close to turn around and run away if not for their top elites. Only excellent acting personnel in the current apocalypse can resist the pride of this pillar.

Superficial might use: As the current master of the pillar, you enjoy the superficial might effect from the pillar. Your personal strength will get multiplied by three folds. Fighting against more powerful foes will grant you an additional nerfing effect, making you feel only fifty percent of the mighty difference between you and them. Fighting in any battle will add a temporary might effect to all your allied forces, increasing their strength stats by fifty percent.]

[The pillar superficial ownership gives you three exclusive skills to use: Intimidating Roar, Crushing Wave, and Thundering Might]

[Intimidating Roar skill: Pillar of Hector race prime exclusive skill. Can't be linked permanently to you. You can only use it as long as you are still the owner of the pillar.

Skill details: holding the pillar, stand pride and puff your chest and use it. A mighty roar will assault your enemies up front in a cone shape, covering an area of almost half a mile in distance. Anyone hearing the roar will be exposed to a stun effect for a period ranging between one second to one minute based on the soul and mental strength of the forces against you. Can be used once per ten minutes]

277 The Pillar's Skills - Part 2

[Crushing Wave skill: Pillar of Hector race prime exclusive skill. Can't be linked permanently to you. You can only use it as long as you are still the owner of the pillar.

Skill details: holding the pillar, you can wave it to launch a mighty wave of energy that will attack only a limited space of one hundred metres width and five hundred metres length. You can control the wave with your mind, determining the location of its impact. Once it landed on your target, a mighty explosion will engulf the area of coverage by the skill for five straight minutes. The damage taken can be equal to one thousand eings damage. Can be used once per day]

[Thundering Might skill: Pillar of Hector race prime exclusive skill. Can't be linked permanently to you. You can only use it as long as you are still the owner of the pillar.

Skill details: holding the pillar, you can activate the skill to turn the pillar into a pillar of heaven. It will expand until it reaches the highest sky, connecting the ground with the sky, allowing to absorb the world's energy and form a grand shield that can sustain any damage ranging between one hundred eings to one million eings, turn one tenth up to one fifth of that damage into a pure energy attack against the ones who attacked it.

The amount of damage taken is based on the surface of the area belonging to you, the time passed in absorbing the world's energy, and the amount of souls paid to sustain it. Once used, the pillar can be removed, leaving behind a big hole in a size of half a mile. The size of the hole determines the amount of damage the shield can sustain.

Can be used once per day, once per one hundred thousand souls, or once per newly conquered city. If two shields were formed near each other, they will start merging together but the area of merge will be fragile and takes much longer time to fully integrate together]

Damn me! That pillar… It didn't only grant me three awesome auras of pride, dominance, and might, it also gave me three skills.

They were skills! Could you believe that? The only thing I missed during the apocalypse so far was solved by just a single item!

How awesome was that?

I looked at the three skills again, rereading them and trying to get everything about their benefits. The most awesome one of the three was the Thundering Might skill.

I didn't know before how that shield was formed, but now I knew the reason. It was done by using this pillar here. Also I got why the Hectors sent such mighty waves of cannon fodders to stop me.

They wanted to connect the shield with this city by conquering it. Then I'd have lost my small foothold here and lost all the chances to threaten them.

Of course this wasn't something good if things happened the way they wanted. But now… I didn't end up messing up their entire plan, not only gained my foothold as I desired, but also got myself this awesome pillar, depriving them from such a mighty weapon.

The pillar itself was enough to tell me how filthy rich this race was. They weren't just rich in terms of coins and other currencies, but mainly rich in the diversity of their equipment and gears.

Just this pillar alone was enough to let me establish my kingdom safely without any big problems. It solved the problem of defending my kingdom, letting me surround each city and town with such mighty shields and connecting everything together.

This meant my entire kingdom would be uniformly connected and secured. Such a single item from them was enough to give me such confidence in my future plans.

Just one item! What about the rest? Damn! That race was really such a headache without doubt.

But what was that thing called Eings? I felt it was slightly familiar… oh wait, didn't I read such a thing before at my chariot description or what?

I opened my chariot's info window, and there I found that Eing thing there. As expected, it was mentioned in the part related to my chariot's shield.

"Hmm… So the chariot can handle one thousand eings attack power and my pillar's Crushing Wave skill can also cause the same damage? Does that mean with this pillar's skill, I can destroy my chariot's shield? The thing that stood against all the mighty attacks from angels to even gods? Damn!"

I sucked in a cold air of breath. With something like this acting as a reference, I started to gain a better understanding of how dangerous my pillar was.

I looked at my pillar and instantly took it inside my inventory. The thing I noticed when doing that was that the pillar didn't only take one square of space inside, but it also covered two rows of empty squares around it with its shining yellow and red light.

I felt that these areas wouldn't store anything, as if that pillar didn't want anything to come near it. It had such a personality, I liked that!

As I closed the page of this pillar for now, it was time to really wipe all those useless monsters and races and control the entire city.

During the time I used to deal with that pillar, the human forces here kept attacking the enemies relentlessly and without any fear.

These humans looked really strong. They were well organised, acting in teams that worked together to take down higher numbers of enemies compared to theirs.

From just looking at them I could tell they weren't anything like the humans I met so far. Even those gamers, the latter never showed such fierceness or experience at all.

The more I looked at them the more I became convinced with my decision…

They would either join my forces or die in my hands. Leaving such an outstanding group of humans this close by would end up in a disaster if they weren't working for me.

278 A Brutal Fight Over Brookline City

And yet I couldn't get a clue over who they were. Despite wanting to go and ask them, I couldn't do that for now.

The time I wasted in dealing with the pillar didn't only give the opportunity for these humans to shine, but also gave those enemies the chance to grow up their numbers and organise their forces.

The city itself wasn't filled with many hostile forces at the moment. After all, with the combined work of the humans and my personal forces, the enemies were mostly killed or being chased around the city.

But outside… things looked quite bad. The dragons prevented anyone from getting inside and provided any help to the enemies in the city. That left them outside, half a mile away, gathered up in a mighty formation that almost reached the shield of the three cities.

I didn't know if giving my dragons such order was good or bad. But for now I had to deal with a grand army of hundreds of thousands, even millions stretching outside the city.

"They are waiting…" but what I didn't get was the fact they didn't move to attack the city even with such numbers. They could bypass my dragon attack range and get inside to help their forces using the numerical advantage. But they didn't. And that looked a bit weird.

What were they waiting for? I asked myself this and decided to go and knock over their heads, trying to stir trouble to really see through their real scheme.

[Where are you now?] But I didn't plan to do this alone. After all, my forces were strong indeed, but they lacked compared to such a large army. Even if I used the human forces here, this wouldn't amount to anything compared to the size of the enemy.

But the answers I got were all void of the words I sought. Only Hilary, Angelica, and that spearhead force were getting near my place, only half an hour away or so.

[Come now towards Brookline city] I sent.

[Is it the same as Brooklyn or what?] the spearhead asked, and I couldn't tell if he was speaking seriously or just cracking a joke.

[It's just south of Boston and Cambridge cities] I sent, fearing they didn't know where that small city was.

[On it] Hilary just sent this brief message and I heaved a sigh of relief. That told me she knew where the city was, or at least knew its general location from what I just sent.

Anyway, they had almost half an hour to group here with me. During this time, it was better to start testing these forces, hopefully I'd be able to find an answer to their weird behaviour.

"Come with me," As I decided that, I recalled all my scattered forces and then resummoned them again. Leading them by my chariot in the air, my forces looked really terrifying at the moment.

"Attack with everything you got," I took out my light weighted glaive, pointing it casually at one random direction of the enemy, "kill anything without any restraints."

To force them to reveal their real intentions, I had to show them the scary face of my forces. So I started up by bringing out my god essences, letting my fallen gods consume these.

I also summoned twenty more of these gods, all were lightning fallen gods. I also summoned two hundred dragons, adding them to my army, giving them stats enough to level them to level one hundred.

By doing this, I simply consumed two million soul points in mere seconds. This might look like a big price to pay, but compared to my other three million souls still in my possession, this looked like a fair price to pay.

"Attack!" After doing this, I led the charge with my chariot, while leading my ground and aerial forces together in a mighty wave. The enemy was just half a mile away, a distance we all crossed in a span of a couple minutes.

The clash started fiercely from my side. The enemy forces knew I was coming at them from the first moment we moved. Yet even with their knowledge, they couldn't do anything at all.

What was the value of knowing something without having the ability to stop it? In front of pure might and such brutality from my side, what would such losers be able to do here but scream and die?

The first wave of attacks came from my fallen gods and dragons. These two were enough to create large void gaps in the dense lines of the enemies.

And when my chariot joined with its deadly weapons, ballistae, and grenades, things became more bloody for the enemy.

Adding my soulers and other warriors here, the fight became one sided from the very beginning.

Yet as I feared, their numbers were huge enough to make all these efforts pointless at the end.

Just as the amount of them being massacred was huge, the reinforcements coming from the shield direction were enough to balance such losses.

Damn! Did they plan to just keep pouring out cannon fodders like this? Didn't they know a limit or what?

Well, if they wanted to add more souls to my account, then I wouldn't say no to them.

Besides, my reinforcements were also on the way here. If they thought I was fighting alone, then soon enough they'd know how terribly mistaken they were.

Yet unlike what I thought, the first reinforcements that came weren't led by Hilary and the other two. Instead, the first human forces to come and join my fight were the ones inside the city from the start.

Their numbers weren't that big to be honest, only amounting to a few tens of thousands. Yet they were highly organised, working in teams each composed of one thousand human fighters. And it seemed that each group was formed from smaller teams inside as well.

This made their attack very devastating to the enemy, just like any wrecking ball hitting any wall. The enemy forces crushed in front of their terrifying charge, especially they worked shoulder to shoulder with my ground forces.

279 Hilary's Little Surprise

Together the two formed a deadly combo, one that put real pressure over the enemy forces.

The enemy started to crumble, showing real gaps and lack of organisation in their lines. The frontline started to be pushed back at some point, leading to the formation of a strange situation.

We, led by my chariot in the air, were pushing forward on a wide front. Yet it wasn't enough to take the entire frontline of the enemy. So that led to the formation of a pouch inside the enemy grand army formation if one looked from high above.

Theoretically speaking, such a move would be risky. After all, the enemy could simply move their two sides, meeting behind our lines, and entrapping our forces inside.

But in reality this didn't happen. It wasn't because the enemy lacked any experienced generals leading them, but because I left a few fallen gods to defend these dangerous lines alongside a few dragons as well.

They got a simple order; don't hold back anything! If the enemy tried to execute such a plan, then wasting the dragon's ultimate attacks and exhausting them wouldn't look like a loss at all.

[We are here!]

Just before the enemy would move to attack our rear points as I feared, I got such good news from my Hilary.

She came! At last! [Join the fight] I sent, [Take charge of one side east to the city and our fighting forces]

[You don't want us to go and join your forces?] she asked back, and I knew she got the right to be in such a dilemma when reading my last words.

She didn't know that the enemy main forces were coming from the direction of Newton city. That means the other two cities, Boston and Cambridge, weren't yet under the total control of the Hectors.

So instead of wasting my forces in such a pointless fight against the direction of Newton city, it was better to exert more pressure over the side of the other two cities.

First the enemy wouldn't be able to match the death rate at any time. And second this would lead to clearing up the enemy forces at that side much faster, then Hilary, Angelica, and the spearhead forces could come and join this long fight later on.

And lastly, this would lead to exhausting more power on the enemy side at the two cities. Hopefully this might be of a help to the fighting forces inside the two cities.

[You are more needed to clear the forces at East] I sent over, [Just do a good job and clear these forces fast]

[Give us an hour]

I looked at the east. The size of forces there weren't as much as the ones to the west, but there were a good number of enemies there.

Saying they'd clear these through one hour was simply an exaggeration. Perhaps she underestimated the Hectors leading this battle, mostly not realising who we were up against.

Yet when their forces came into my sight, I soon realised what was going on. For some reason, there were lots of warriors fighting on their side.

Unlike my soulers, fallen gods, dragons, and other warriors, theirs were just mainly ground forces. They didn't give me the same impression I got when looking at my warriors. They weren't as strong as mine.

But they compensated that with numbers. Compared to a few tens of thousands of warriors, mostly soulers, theirs were over a hundred thousand at least.

Of course such a thing wouldn't be known to any of my two teammates. I never thought about how I summoned my warriors or bought them. So there was only one person able to do such a fear; Hilary.

That chick… She wasn't all beautiful and sexy after all.

"So that's how you planned to kill them in one hour? Interesting…"

Adding the one hundred and fifty thousand human forces led by the three, their forces were enough to clear that side in one hour indeed.

Even if the enemy tried to send more reinforcements, they would buy a couple of hours more.

In the end, that side was destined to fall under my control.

As the east problem was solved, it was now time to focus over the west. That Newton city seemed to fall totally under the control of the Hectors.

Of course I could speculate how they took control over the three cities this fast. They got the support of two races here, the illusionists and the succubi.

These two were enough to sell their gates cheap to the Hectors. It only needed one Hector to take control of these gates and link them to his world.

Then everything else would be easy to guess. The Hectors would call up a strong force that would land without warning over the heads of the other three races.

Even if the other three races were strong, much fiercer than the succubi and illusionists, they wouldn't be able to adapt to such fierce attack from the Hectors.

Being outnumbered, and with such a deadly race leading the army, the other three gates were destined to fall. Yet it seemed something was a bit different at Boston and Cambridge.

Either the two cities held more importance to the three races than Newton or the humans there were just as strong as the forces here. I was delighted by such a result.

After all the more they bought time there, the easier it would be for me to go and crush that shield from the inside. But now I just needed to push these forces more to the west, to buy my forces here time until I go and crash the shield.

So during the next four hours, I kept relentlessly attacking. I never held back my forces, leading to my fallen gods to exhaust their stored ultimate attacks and came to resupply twice.

The end result of this was clearing the entire front and half of the west distance to the shield and Newton city. Also Hilary and the other two managed to clear the entire East side during this time.

280 Teasing The Spearhead

By this, they started to move towards my direction with their entire forces. Just watching the seemingly endless lines of humans alongside their warriors was satisfying.

I planned to wait until all my scattered forces regroup here. But at this moment, I started to consider leaving things here to these three. Or to be more precise, leaving things here to her.

"Hey Hye, can you get down here? Or let me come onboard!"

Angelica seemed to get along nicely alongside Hilary. The former was the one who shouted in such a way.

"Really?" I waved my glaive and pointed its tip towards her direction, "last time I checked, we weren't this close to speak in such a way to me."

"Oh… It's just…" she paused and I could see her body trembling faintly before she looked at Hilary's direction.

"She is fine Hye, she is my friend now."

"As if your words count," I shrugged, before adding, "for them I'm their boss. Besides, this girl is always trying to get me in her bed."

"I won't say anything if that happened," unlike what I thought, Hilary raised both arms in the air as if she had no control over this.

"See? That's why I like her better than that cold hearted Karoline!" Angelica seemed happy, she even laughed while saying this.

"Alright, get in and don't make a fuss," I just was teasing Angelica, but never expected for Hilary to stand by her side. What? Did she really have no problem with me dating other girls or what?

"Don't give me that look," as the three boarded the chariot, Hilary first jumped into my embrace as if this was some sort of our way of greeting, "I told you before, I won't mind sharing bed with you and that cold Karoline."

"You are really my idol!" On the side, Angelica's eyes shone in a bizarre way. Her idol? Come on! You two just met a couple of hours ago!

"You two… Looks like things aren't as I heard," just before I could say anything to Angelica, the spearhead threw this phrase, the one that confirmed my earlier guess about him.

He was here only to act as an eye for the jumper. That bastard… Who told him he could control my personal life? Who appointed him as my parents?

"Things are never what they look on the surface," I said these words while deeply placing my hands under the thin chest plate Hilary was wearing.

My hands met something fluffy and pointy, and in a reflex I gently squeezed it.

"Ahh!" in a soft tone she moaned, twisted her body weakly in my arms, placing her head intentionally closer to my head. I gave the spearhead a sharp gaze before lowering my head and taking a soft bite off her cherry red lips.

"This…"

"Just stand silent and listen…" I firmly supported her body while pointing towards one of my Gollams. He came and stretched only his thick arm, letting me sit over it like it was a seat or something.

And with a swift and simple move I carried her light body and placed her seating over my legs, while her head was left to rest over my chest.

"We will have a good time soon," Angelica chuckled, meaningly saying these words with evil intentions while focusing her eyes over the spearhead.

That dude was destined to feel this awkward for a long time. Who told him to accept such a low mission to act as that bastard's eyes over me? Screw him and that jumper both in the same breath!

"Ahem, I saw nothing," under the threatening eyes from me, and the mockery in Angelica's eyes, that spearhead finally knew what was best for him.

I didn't fully believe him. But who cared? The happiest one here was none other than Hilary. Just in these brief minutes, she enjoyed being in my embrace, being held like a pride by her groom.

"I will have to leave you here," I finally started speaking about the real deal, "the three cities up north from here are all taken by the same race, the Hectors."

"I never heard of that race before," Angelica turned to me before adding, "are they that strong?"

"They are much more dangerous than a diseased bed partner," Hilary said and I didn't follow what she meant.

"They are hellishly strong," I said in a way I could relate to. Yet from the response over the other two faces, it seemed I didn't need to do that. "Anyway, they protected the three cities with a big and mighty shield, the one you can see clearly from here."

"We can see it," the spearhead said, "but boss, it looks strong."

"It is," I nodded, "but it has a weakness."

"It's not complete yet, right my darling?" Hilary raised her head and her warm breaths were so close to my face, shattering all my mental defences and letting me surrender under this merciless attack.

After another bite, yet much hotter and longer than the first one, leaving Hilary a bit drowsy and much weaker, I said:

"The shield has holes in it. I plan to get through these towards the cities inside. But that doesn't mean things are going to be calm here."

"We will hold the line, boss," Angelica mimicked a military salute as she added, "we won't let anyone get close to the city. By the way, I noticed the presence of strong humans here. Who are they?"

"Yes boss, I also noticed how strong they are," the spearhead said, "can I add them to my forces?"

"No they are mine!" Hilary said, in a much weaker tone than before, "I need such strong dudes to help my weak army."

"They aren't under my control yet," I shook my head, recalling this mysterious force. I had to meet up with them before going towards the shield. But they were all entangled deeply with the enemy. I had to first find a way to disengage those berserker-like fighters and have a word with their bosses.

"Oh, is that true?" Hilary adjusted her body as she sat facing me directly, "have you met their leaders yet?"

281 Everyone Wants Them

"Not yet," I shook my head and she seemed a bit energetic as she stood on her feet and shouted while clapping:

"Then let me talk with them."

"Why do I feel you only want to add them to your forces?" the spearhead said, and I couldn't find any fault in what he just said.

"What? Is that all that you are thinking about?" Hilary responded sharply at him, yet she didn't even deny such a hypothesis at all.

"That's the only thing I can think about," the spearhead shrugged, looking directly into her eyes without any fear.

"Stop it," I had to intervene. Even if she was planning to do that, I wouldn't say no. After all she held much more importance than the two standing in front of me. "You'll come with me," I turned to face her and she gave me a chuckle in response.

"As for you two, you have to not only hold the city but be prepared."

"For what?" The spearhead looked a bit angry about my decision. It seemed not only I, but everyone here felt how important these humans were.

Even Angelica showed a distressed expression over her face. That girl seemed to weigh going against Hilary and supporting the spearhead and claim those forces or just retreat and take a point for this from my chick.

Just watching how these two handled the situation here was enough to pinpoint how much different they were from the jumper. Even if he was a jerk, acting as a bastard most of the time, he would never let such a chance slip off his hands.

Asking for his right? He would simply force himself over me and come without waiting for any permission at all.

Just like Hilary here acted, that jumper and Hilary both were in a different league than everyone else to be honest.

Anyway, the more capable and talented humans were by my side, the better.

"You have to be ready to go inside the cities and support me," I said as if this was something obvious.

"But the shield…" Angelica paused as I stopped her with a look of my eyes.

"I'll handle it," I firmly said, "but you have to know we'll have a narrow window. Once down, you'll have to push forward with everything we got."

"Won't we wait for others to come?" the spearhead finally got what I meant, as he asked in doubt.

"They have one to two hours to arrive," I stood up before adding, "we can't just wait for them to arrive. We'll attack first, then they'll have to follow up."

"That's better," Hilary nodded, seemingly unable to hide her excitement to go and meet up those humans, "let's see those good fighters first. As for you two, just be ready."

For a moment there she acted like she was their boss. I didn't know if that was her nature or she took being my girl meant to be their boss as well. Yet I gave her a silent warning gaze she met with an irresistible smile from her.

"O… Ok," Angelica pulled the spearhead away before adding, "we'll make sure everyone is ready to go and support you."

I didn't need to stress over this matter with them. After all, I was going to leave Hilary back with them. She was capable of making them follow my words to the letter.

If we missed this chance, then we'd elongate this battle for more unneeded hours. I also didn't know if that race had another ace up their sleeves or not.

It was risky to extort that weakness and fail to turn that into our advantage. So as I led my chariot towards the frontlines again, I spoke a few words with Hilary about that.

"Don't worry, I'm fully aware of how dangerous those Hectors are."

"How do you know about them?" I asked, and my eyes carried the words I didn't say.

"It's as you guessed," she sighed, "they were in the world I faced after taking over this one here. But what you don't realise is that they were the ones who put an end to my momentum."

"They were?!" I asked, "I never thought about it."

"It was them," she said in a tone that was filled with hatred, "I never imagined I'd face them so early on here."

"Looks excited," I seriously added, "are we enough to stop them?"

"They aren't that mighty alone," she shrugged, "besides they'd never abandon the other world. You have to know they are much greedier and more arrogant than the likes of dragons and Selvators."

"Really?" I raised one eyebrow in response, and she seriously nodded.

"They place much importance over their universe wide fame and image. They came here in response to something you must have done. But that doesn't mean they abandoned the first world they were fighting at."

"That's good to hear," if they were fighting over two fronts, then their forces would be stretched. Also their efforts would be distributed evenly over the two worlds, including their immense wealth and richly dangerous items like that pillar.

"It's not that good either," she paused before adding, "according to what I recall, as there was a race joining up more than one world, then the fight in the two worlds will be decided together."

"Together?!!" I exclaimed in shock, "do you mean we'll have to conquer two worlds and not one?"

"That's the deal baby," she said in a tone that held more amusement than empathy, "what? Afraid already?"

"Intrigued," I admitted, "but that won't stop me."

"That's my baby," she hugged me in weird excitement before I ended our little talk here with my glaive.

"We are here," I pointed towards the ground up front. We already reached a point where most of this force gathered up.

"Let's get down and say hello then," she was about to move, yet I swiftly moved my arm and pulled her body closer to mine. "What?" she asked in a loss while not resisting my touch.

282 Cults!

"If we are going to have a serious talk with them," I said while gently waving the few strands of her long hair away from her face, "then we should do it the right way."

"A real tycoon is always surrounded with beauties," she chuckled, as she got the point. And I only smiled in response to her words.

"Hey," I pointed at one of my dreadful looking lightning fallen gods and added, "go down there. Tell them that the lord wants to speak with their representatives. I'll wait for them here on my chariot."

If I wanted to turn them into my side, then I should first show off my superiority. Even if I was the one needing them, I had to show the opposite.

They had to come onboard for me, not for me to disembark and meet them up.

"I like that," Hilary painted a soft mark over the side of my ear with her soft lips, making my body turn slightly on fire.

Yet I controlled this desire and suppressed it for now. I had to first meet this group of humans' leaders and find out about their origin.

Something kept bothering me about them. They showed every single sign of being elite forces in such dark times. I, the jumper, and Hilary were just exceptions thanks to our special abilities.

But them? I couldn't believe they were blessed with leaders of the same calibre like the three of us. Then what was it? It wasn't long before a group of five people came on board.

They looked a little similar to each other. Not in the colour of their gears, but also in their faces.

A family… a group of siblings they were, or at least cousins. They all held the same white features of any east european people.

"Hello fellow friends of the human race," two girls and three boys, all in their early twenties. The middle one spoke in a tone that didn't show any humbleness or arrogance. "I'm Mouven, the leader of the human forces here."

"Hi Mouven," from his tone I noticed a weird accent that told me he wasn't from here. "I'm Hye, the leader of all these forces," I said in a tone that was filled with arrogance.

"You aren't from here, right?" Hilary spoke and one girl of them, one with pure pale blue eyes said:

"It's not a place for hookers to step in."

"You are the only hooker here," Hilary snorted and unlike what I expected, she hugged me tighter, relaxing her body while adding: "Darling, can you bring that seat again? I'm tired from standing up."

*Snap!* without saying a single word, I simply looked at my Gollum from before and snapped my finger at him.

With his giant body he walked and extended his arm, letting me set and Hilary leant over me while waving away her long hair.

"Ahem," the one called Mouven cleared his throat, giving the girl that spoke next to him a warning gaze. "We are interested in knowing your origin, Hye."

"I also have the same desire," I nodded before adding in a sharp tone, "you start first."

"Isn't it more appropriate for you to start?" That Mouven said, but I could tell they weren't happy with what I said.

As I expected, from the first words we both seemed to stand on distant shores apart from each other with clashing waves.

"It's you who are coming to us," Hilary said, "so it's normal for you to speak."

"We aren't your dogs!" the girl who spoke first said in an aggressive tone.

"If you don't want to enjoy your lives, then keep that attitude of yours… Snap!" I said while snapping my fingers. This time I simply recalled twenty dragons, twenty fallen gods, and one hundred soulers, before summoning them here with the snap of my fingers.

*Fwoosh!*

"What's the meaning of this?"

"Are you going to fight us?"

"We aren't that weak, you know!"

"That's expected from a hooker and her master!"

The four of them exclaimed in alarm when my boys appeared. In fact they got all the right to be so restless. But who said they had to be this rude? This is full of themselves?

Even if they were unique and strong, they were nothing compared to me or my forces. This was their last chance, either the spine of their arrogance would be crushed and they would end up on my side, or…

"Shut up!" Mouven showed his demeanor as their leader at this crucial moment. I looked up at him, waiting to hear what he was going to do next.

"But…"

"I said shut up!" That girl seemed to have an unexplained feud with Hilary for unknown reasons. Yet the last shout from Mouven managed to shut them up.

"Sorry about that," he said before adding in a tone that seemed directed to his siblings and not mine, "my cult never placed fighting humans against each other as a good thing. We despise such actions, and only hope for mutual cooperation."

"A… Cult?!!" It was Hilary who spoke. As she was already leaning on my chest, I could easily feel the faint tremble in her body.

Cults were such a familiar name to me. I read many records about those crazy and lunatic humans in the eyes of the world before the apocalypse happened.

They were people so much believing in the end of the world. Unlike any religious group, these people believed that the world would end with a big test for humans for survival.

They long forecasted the happenings in the apocalypse, prepared lots of things for that day. They built shelters, so deep in the ground, so well protected and provided with everything any human would need to survive.

They also provided survival skills training for anyone belonging to them. It seemed they were quite successful at the early days of the apocalypse, as they got their names mentioned a lot at the records of the early days.

283 Sign The Contract Or Die!

But for a reason unknown to me, they all vanished at a certain quest, quest twenty. I never knew what caused their extinction, and never felt the need to dive deeper to know the answer.

Unlike me, Hilary seemed to be all familiar with such a term. "Are you the Selvating Pillar? Or the Sparkling Fire?"

"Are you familiar with our cult?" the girl that was acting hostile against Hilary suddenly shouted as she pointed at her, "I… I know you… You were the one who tried to join us before and ended up causing a fight with our boss!"

"Oh lord! It's her!"

"How come we end up meeting this heretic girl?"

"The world is really such a small place!"

"Shut up!" again Mouven had to step in to stop them. I ignored all of them and instead focused on my chick.

"Do you have any relation with them?" I asked, while closely watching her face.

"I tried to fix a few things before the beginning of everything… You know, using my experience to help avoid a disaster," she spoke in such a mysterious way, but I generally got what she wanted to say here.

She seemed to know about their future. They would do something crazy in the end, and she tried to step in and prevent them from doing it.

And clearly she failed!

But it was the first time for me to notice this… She didn't rewind time back to the beginning of the apocalypse, but just much prior to that point.

Smart! I had to give her that credit. If she could go back in time, then why not starting earlier than the apocalypse? This way she might have a chance to tweak a few changes that might help later on.

And she seemed to place such cults as her target.

"Our past isn't related to any of the present events," Mouven said before adding in a tone that told me he was trying to get to the best side of me, "this is the way we always used in our cult."

"What's the name of your cult?" I asked, "and is this city your cult's main shelter?"

Such cults never used base or headquarters as the word, the right word would be the main shelter. His eyes shone slightly when I said this, as he realised I wasn't that clueless towards his cults.

"The Sparkling fire," Hilary was the one to answer, "they believe the world will end in a big fire that will engulf the entire world and kill most of humans. Yet this fire was like a sun, birthing new life and giving humans new opportunities to live on Earth after that."

"Aha, my lady is really well aware of my cult ways," Mouven spoke, using such words in an attempt to get to the good side of Hilary.

"Humph, but you are all a bunch of arrogant fools," yet the next words she said demolished any effort Mouven placed before, "you believe the fire must be a real fire! You will try to seek the birth of such a disaster, to end humanity!"

I turned sharply to her. She wasn't joking, or on purpose saying such mean words to belittle them.

She seemed to truly believe every single word she said.

"You…"

"How dare you…"

"F*ck yourself!"

"Hooker!"

"…"

Even Mouven was taken aback with what Hilary said, yet the other four shouted at the same time at her.

"Shut up," this time it was me who spoke. I slowly stood up, moved my eyes at the five of them, "Is this true?"

My words carried immense pressure coming from my authority and strength. After all, if what Hilary said was true, then getting rid of them here was the best option.

For a moment I started to get a glimpse about what truly happened to such an elite group of humans at early stages of the apocalypse. They didn't vanish out of nothing.

"This…" Mouven took a step back. He wasn't the only one to react in such a way, and he was the best at controlling himself.

The rest took a few steps back, even one of them hit the side of my chariot before stopping.

"I just want to hear the answer…" I said while snapping my fingers, calling all my forces to surround my chariot, "or else none of you will survive one more second."

From my tone and the appearance of my forces in such a threatening way, it was clear my threat wasn't just directed at the group of five here. If their answer wasn't something good, then they just announced the death sentence for all of their cult here.

"Well…" Mouven started to grow restless and nervous. The others looked in silence towards him, as if when things went south they'd listen to his words and follow his wisdom.

"Don't trust any of their promises," yet before Mouven could find a way out, Hilary snorted, "they are just a bunch of liars! I know they aren't the leaders of the cult, but you have to know they follow a strict pyramid order system inside their cult."

"Then they should sign a loyalty contract with me," I shrugged, turning this whole weird situation upside down. After all I never cared about what people might think or believe, I only cared about them serving my goals.

And if this bunch of people here were led astray by some foolish guys, then I had nothing to say about this. They would either submit totally to me and follow my orders from here on, or they had to face their creator and try to ask for justice from him.

That if he or she really existed!

"A contract?" Mouven finally found a word to say.

"It's something bound by the system," I said, "just a way to make sure you'll follow my path, not someone else's."

"But the cult…" the girl that was all hostile to my chick said. I didn't have any good feeling towards her from the start, so I purposely added:

"And every single one of you will be tested."

284 Killing The Girl To Scare The Men

"Tested?" Mouven exchanged gazes with the others, but when I took out my compass, their faces clenched. "You recognise it already," I said while stating the obvious.

"We have been tested before by our messiahs," Mouven admitted.

"You have more than one messiah? Impressive," I said in a tone filled with mockery, "alright then, consider me your new messiah. Or else… you'll have to answer to your messiahs in the afterlife."

My threat wasn't groundless or light. I was the one having the upper hand here. If they wanted to live to tell their tale, then they had to lower themselves to me.

Humans… they were such an interesting race. If given an inch out of respect or kindness, they'd work to get a mile back from you.

But in fact of a stronger fist, they had nothing else to do but to comply.

"We agree," as expected, Mouven was well aware of how dangerous this situation here was.

"Mouven…"

"You…"

"We can't just agree without getting back to our messiahs!"

"Shut up!" He shouted in clear frustration. He didn't have a choice in such matters. After all they'd either follow me or follow the god of death route.

Well… Thinking about that, wasn't I already being sponsored by the god of death, Sith? Doesn't that make me a god of death emissary or messiah? Lol!

"We will comply," Mouven said, before he took a step forward, knelt on one knee, and lowered his head as he added, "I greet the messiah."

"It's enough to call me lord," I took out five contracts, threw each to each one as I signed them with my name, "and we don't have such greetings here. But it's ok to show your respect to me from time to time."

My words weren't directed to him, but to the other four standing half a metre behind him. I didn't know if they'd survive the test or not, and I didn't care.

Even if only Mouven was the only one standing here in the end, he was enough to make others follow my orders.

"It's better to make everyone sign a contract," yet as Mouven and others were reading the content of the contract, Hilary said these words in a loud tone.

She didn't even try to hide such advice from them, as if she was trying to pay back an old debt. Of course I was interested to know what went wrong between her and them, but it was a story to be told in another time.

"I'll do that," I said, before turning to Mouven who was looking all shocked at me, "how many do you have here?"

"Are you planning to get all of them?" he asked before adding in a hurry and fake humbleness, "lord."

"It's none of your business," I shrugged, "from now on, I ask questions and you only answer."

I still needed to know more about these cults. How many of these were here in the world? Were they like gamers, connected to each other or something like that?

Also did they have more forces around? If so then it would be great. As I could tell, such forces didn't need any training at all.

These cults did a marvellous job in preparing their forces for such a day, even to the limit of training them seriously over the apocalypse events. So it would be great to have them inside my forces. They'd be a nice addition indeed.

"Well…" Mouven seemed to be all scared and hesitant to tell me such an answer.

"They deal with such info as their life secrets," Hilary explained from the side, "but with the contract, nothing bad will happen to them."

I realised that they were also bound with another contract. It was great that mine was of a high grade, one that wasn't easily acquired by anyone at this stage from humans.

"My lady seems to know a lot about us," Mouven said in a helpless tone while the other four had dark expressions on their faces.

"Hurry up," I shouted at them, "I don't have all day to waste here with you."

'I… will sign," Mouven followed his instincts, loudly separating himself from the other four.

"Traitor!"

"You won't live in paradise after death!"

"You are such a low cousin! You aren't one of my family from now on!"

The other three spoke in such meaningless threatening words while the fourth one simply cut the contract into two halves, declaring her refusal in such a bold way.

*Snap!*

And with a snap of my fingers and a flashing movement from one of my many soulers, this girl was left dead behind.

"I don't tolerate such rudeness," I coldly said, while the thudding sound of her body echoing in the background, "sign or die, there is no other way around."

Mouven took a few steps away. His eyes were red, seemingly silently mourning the death of his cousin or something. Yet he was firm enough to declare his current situation, distancing himself away from the remaining three of them.

I respected his decision. I didn't care what he was feeling at the moment. With the contract between the two of us, he wouldn't pose any threat to me at all.

He read the contract, just like the other four. The main reason behind what that dead girl did was the contract's strict conditions.

Even thinking about doing mean and evil things to me would end up being punished and killed by the system and contract.

So that girl seemed dead fixed on taking her revenge against me. Unlike her, Mouven was more controllable over his emotions and knew what was best for him.

And now it came to these three to decide what they should do now.

"We… agree," in front of such a threat of death, they couldn't follow the desire of their dead cousin. When faced with death, humans wouldn't try anything funny.

Fear was the most true thing humans would agree on no matter what. Regardless of their backgrounds, their beliefs, their lives, or even their financial state, they all would lower their heads when things reach such a point.

285 It's A Total Mess Inside!

"Good," I nodded, "sign it then," I said while turning to Mouven, "you didn't answer my question yet."

His body slightly shook before hurriedly saying, "We have around eighty thousand here."

"Eighty thousand?!" I raised an eyebrow when I heard that. I thought mostly they'd have thirty up to forty thousand at most.

"We have more inside that damn shield," one of the two guys said.

"So you have your main shelter in Boston?" I asked and Mouven shook his head.

"It's here," he pointed back at the destroyed city, "we have a grand bunker that reaches to the inner side of Boston and Cambridge cities."

"Is that so?" my eyes flashed with a plan.

"But… Its entrance is blocked by tons of debris," Mouven seemed to read my thoughts, "so we can't get access to it."

"If the debris is the only problem, then it's not," I shrugged, simply pointing my head towards my big forces here, "just lead my boys here to the entrance and let them clear it."

"Really?!!" The four of them jumped in surprise, as they shouted in unison. For some reason I didn't get, they placed such importance over that shelter.

"The shelter is the symbol of their cult," yet Hilary explained about this from the side, "without it they'd be at a loss."

I got what she meant, partially. Anyway it wasn't that important to get what that shelter meant to them. I only wanted to have access to the two cities aside from the shield.

"How much can the shield withstand through the tunnels?" I asked the most important question here.

If the passages underground could only carry a few hundreds, then it was meaningless depending on it. But if it could hold thousands, then it would be another story.

"As much as you can send," yet the answer he said was totally unexpected for me.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked, feeling more doubt towards what he just said.

"They built shelters to take millions not just mere tens of thousands," Hilary explained, again, "that's why the shelters act as their most precious thing. With them, they could recruit millions if they have the chance."

"I see," I finally started to get the importance of shelters to them, "so this shelter here can take my army here?" I asked, not only referring to my personal forces but to everyone else.

"It can take more than them," and yet Mouven kept nodding, giving me such great news.

"Good," I turned to Hilary and without the need for me to explain anything she nodded.

"Leave this to me," she promised and I knew I could depend on her.

My plan grew from simply going inside blindly and attacking the shield without any good backing or proper plan into such a detailed version of a more successful plan.

After all, getting this cult's people wasn't only limited to these extremely game changer underground tunnels. The most important thing was the fact that they got people fighting inside the shield.

If they were of the same professionalism as the people I saw here, then things would turn out for the best indeed.

"Do you have any connection with people inside?" I turned to Mouven before adding, "do you know what the situation is like inside?"

"A total mess," Mouven shook his head while adding in a bitter tone, "the Dragons, the Selvators, and the Berserkers are fighting in large forces against that alien race called the Hectors I believe. The entire place inside is simply a chaotic battlefield with no side taking a clear advantage over the other."

"Is that so?" my eyes flashed in delight. After all this was even better than I initially hoped for. "What about your forces inside?"

"They are stationed near MIT campus," he even gave me such a thrilling piece of news, "there are lots of strong humans still fighting and resisting the attacks of all races inside."

"All races?" Hilary asked before turning to me as she added in doubt, "even Selvators and Berserkers?"

"Everyone is fighting against everyone," Mouven shook his head again, "It's a total mess, I told you already it's a mess."

I never expected this to happen. Dragons weren't my allies, so it was normal for them to harass my humans.

But Berserkers and Selvators? What was going on inside that city?

[What's going on?] I sent to the two I had ties with, asking about more details about this, [I heard inside the big Hector shield in Boston city surrounding your forces are attacking humans!]

"Contact your people," I turned to the four of them, "tell them the good news of joining me. Also tell them I'm coming for their aid."

"You are what…" the four said in the same breath, yet I totally ignored their useless remark of shock.

"Tell them to be ready to come to my aid. Describe my chariot to them, and let them tell other human forces there that Hye, the human from New York city, is coming."

"Do they know you?" The second question all of them asked was also meaningless.

"Do you know where the tunnels of your shelter open inside Cambridge?"

I had three options here to select. Either go from the hole over any of the three cities. Yet I selected Cambridge City for many reasons.

First there were lots of human forces there. Second, my top priority here was to safeguard MIT campus at any cost. And thirdly this city lies in between the other two, allowing me to make any maneuver and take any decision to intervene in the other two cities at any given moment.

"Well… We built it to open just near the main gate of the campus," Mouven kept bringing the great news to me.

"Good," I nodded, only looking at Hilary who nodded in return.

"Just wait for my message," I said to her before turning to Mouven, "I'll leave these boys to you."

I pointed at a group of Bulltors, Golllams, and fallen gods to join him in clearing the debris over the shelter entrance. "As for you… You go down there and tell the news to your people. Whoever won't agree to sign will die without a way out. Making any trouble also equals saying no to me, do you understand?"

I had to clearly state this to the other three. After all, I didn't want any group of them to act a bit loyal and get carried out with such useless emotion.

286 Things Are Really Complicated Inside

"What about me?" Hilary asked, while moving her fingers across my hair.

"You'll act as the main leader of our forces here," I gave her a burning look that was this close from burning her clothes, "once I'm ready, I'll let you know."

"I'll wait for your order, my darling," she got closer to my face, slowly and affectionately painting a warm kiss over my cheek.

Just thinking about this made me wonder how things turned out to be this way between the two of us.

It all started by a simple idea of teasing that spearhead and the jumper behind him. And now? It ended up by my burning desire to devour her.

"Ahem… What about the contracts?"

Mouven cleared his throat, feeling a little awkward by seeing the two of us. I didn't look away from the mesmerising eyes of Hilary while saying:

"I'll prepare enough for all of your eighty thousand. You can fetch people to bring them to your people in ten minutes from this place."

"All of them?!" the remaining girl exclaimed in surprise.

"All of the eighty thousands?" Mouven asked, just to make sure he got it right.

"You must have a way to contact them, right?" I wasn't asking, but just stating the obvious. After all, if they didn't have such a means of communication, then how would they even know all this info about the situation inside?

They spoke like they were already living there. "So you'll take all the contracts and spread them over your people. By the time I'm in there, if anyone doesn't sign the contract in or out, he or she will die. This is my promise to all of you."

I turned slowly and moved my eyes between the four of them. They had to know that I hated wasting my breaths and time over things like these.

If someone wanted to die, I'd do nothing but help them fulfil their wish.

"Now go," I gently pushed Hilary away. This chick… her body was so soft, much softer than the best cushion I ever sat on.

"Take care, baby," she left after paying a long visit to my lips with hers. As I watched the five of them disembarking, surrounded with the group of my warriors I left behind to clear the debris, I finally got the messages in response to my previously asked questions.

The first to answer was Wryly. That dude was very kind and more straightforward than that Selvator; Fang.

[I have no control over the Berserkers inside the three cities]

His response was, after all, unexpected. I didn't get what he meant by that. [Do you mean they are rebelling against you?] This was the first thing that popped into my mind.

Yet what he said next made me realise how things were more complicated than I initially thought.

[No, they belong to another archlord of my race. That bastard saw it as a chance to invade my territory, sending his forces when mine are pushed back by those Hectors]

I couldn't believe it! At such a moment, even inside the same species people tended to extort others for benefits. It seemed such a nature wasn't only exclusive to the human race after all.

Just before I'd say anything back to him, I got roughly the same answer from Fang. Yet that dude was much more infuriated than Fang. After all, he wanted to be promoted after the upcoming war.

But now he was threatened to lose his seat as an archlord if he failed to suppress that ambitious brother of his.

Besides he blamed me for this messy situation, stating clearly that I had to step in and help him or else our deals would be broken.

[Bro, just for the record I'm stepping to help you as this also suits my plans. But if you thought for a second I'll be threatened by our deals then you'll be the one destined to feel bitter at the end]

Despite my need for his help at the upcoming battles, that bastard had to realise his stance here. He wasn't by any means superior to me. Not now when he was an archlord, not later when he would upgrade to become even a paragon!

If he thought for one second that I'd place more importance over our deals than the mutual relation between us then he'd be gravely mistaken. That if our relation was mutually balanced.

After all, I was seeing him as a mere subordinate to me, someone who I'd never see as my equal no matter how high he climbed!

He had to realise that without my help, without my presence and our relation, he wouldn't have gotten anything at all. All his fame and success were created thanks to me, alone.

[Sorry bro, I didn't mean anything like that] he had to take his time before answering me in this diplomatic way. Yet that dude wasn't that trustworthy. I had to teach him a proper lesson, a small one to remind him of my importance and his real value without my presence.

Sigh! That dude desperately needed to learn from Wryly. That berserker was acting all modest, more appreciative for my help than Fang.

Anyway, I had a different situation than the one I initially thought before. The forces inside the city were really all hostile to each other.

It was best described as that Mouven said; total mess!

But even if the situation was such a mess inside, I had to go in and deal with it no matter what.

I looked at the distant shield while taking out all the contracts needed and signed them en masse. The amount was simply too much, yet the system helped me to sign them in batches, each was formed of one thousand contracts.

After finishing this, I simply threw them all on the ground before making my chariot fly towards the shield.

The only good thing here was the fact that none of these forces that came out from the shield had any way to stop my chariot. At least I could get to that shield without any problems.

287 An Intense Moment!

[Tell your forces that I'm coming in. Let them go towards the flying big chariot. I'll be waiting for them] I sent over to the two, hopefully their forces inside didn't have big losses.

[Be careful, each city has ten gates… Five over the ground and five underwater] Fang seemed to feel a little regretful of how he acted before, so he tried to amend this situation by warning me like this.

But dude… It wasn't a slip of your tongue. This was just a mere moment of honesty while you lost control over yourself for a brief second. I was lucky to see that part of you, and I promise you to put you back on the right track with my next lesson.

But ten gates? Even when they took over normal gates inside each city, those Hectors didn't abandon their initial plan indeed.

Very cautious and very hard to deal with race, I could admit that. But let's see… Last time I knew how to crash those gates despite paying such a large price. And this time I hoped to get control over these without the need to lose much force.

Yet I had to summon my Albany city monsters. Without their help, I'd be left powerless in front of the five underwater gates in each city.

Summoning them now would be pointless. I had to first clear the ground gates, take control over the entire three cities on the surface before going towards any underwater gates.

Besides this time I had three more races to worry about. Damn! This fight was just too complicated and seemed a bit hard.

I controlled my chariot and let it fly over the shield at a moderate speed. Despite having the chariot run over the fully powered version, I had to make its speed look slow as a snail.

I just wanted to test things, and see if the enemy had any anti-aerial attack weapons inside the city.

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

Just as I got near the hole of Cambridge city, I noticed the sudden flushing of the shield at several points. Without the need to ask or wait to see, I operated my chariot and let it fly faster, evading all the incoming attacks.

The attacks all passed and hit the empty air. They were all in the form of pillars of red and yellow lights, passing fast at a light speed.

If I was too late to move even for one second, I'd get hit by these light attacks for sure. Despite my curiosity to test the strength of these lights, I didn't stop or decelerate my chariot at all.

The hole was just around the corner, yet I didn't directly head towards it. If the enemy was ready for my chariot in such a way, then it would be only logical to think he would fortify that hole.

Just going directly through it would result in a bad ending for me. Instead I kept flying around the hole, while the pillars of lights kept flashing, trying to get me in vain.

"Go," I pointed towards a group of ten dragons, "test that hole and kill anyone stopping you there."

"Roar!"

They all roared in unison, and before they'd flap a wing, I added, "use your ultimate attacks from head on, don't leave anyone alive."

I knew doing this would render them useless after that. The dragon's ultimate attack was so fierce, yet it came at the cost of a prolonged weakening time.

Unlike my fallen gods, these dragons couldn't consume stat points or utilise them for their big move. So I rarely depended on their ultimate breath, only using the normal breaths most of the time.

But now I couldn't tolerate failing in killing their enemies. So I had to use their big moves from the beginning. Even if the forces stationed at the hole weren't that strong, and I hardly believed that, then I'd only lose ten dragons.

It was a fair price, one that I could live with.

I watched my dragons move towards the opening. Their speed was fast, yet it wasn't on par with my chariot.

Just before they could reach the opening, the entire rim of it shone brightly all of sudden. It looked as if the entire ring was set on fire, emitting a dazzling red and yellow terrifying ring of light.

Three dragons were caught in this attack. I watched two burnt into ash almost instantly while the last one was thrown back, flying like it was a feather in a storm.

Damn! These pillars of lights weren't something I'd dream of facing! I knew such an attack was much fiercer than the random attacks that kept chasing my chariot. Yet it was enough to kill two of my dragons, something that never happened before!

That ring shaped attack didn't last much longer than one minute. It seemed to be so much costly on my enemies, good news for me.

"Attack!" Even after losing three of them, two dead and the last was called back into my inventory, I didn't even think about calling off the attack.

Instead I shouted, pointing my glaive to the front, giving the order for my dragons to push forward.

And then everything happened so damn fast!

The dragons listened to my earlier words. They seemed to also feel the threat of going through this hole. So even before they could pass it, they all used their ultimate breaths.

The attacks landed like torrents, flooding everything beneath and below the hole. At the same time, just as the attack was launched, another was also fired at my dragons.

Unlike the pillars of light and that deadly ring, this attack came in the form of long spears made from special alloy.

The spears were almost ten metres in length, all were in dark brown colours. Their speed was really terrifying. Out of the eight dragons passing through the hole, five were slower and got stabbed by many spears.

288 Fighting Back!

Strangely enough, the spears seemed to pass through weak flesh and not sturdy scales. They penetrated my dragons like they were pieces of tofu, instantly killing all the five without exception.

Yet the remaining three vanished inside the hole and from there, I heard loud roars and scary screams of agony coming from down there.

*Fwoosh!*

As everything happened so fast, my reaction was also superb. Without thinking about it, I moved my chariot, directly passing through that hole with my fastest speed.

My chariot looked like a lightning bolt, creating a series of afterimages while flashing so damn fast through that hole. Just as I passed through it, I spotted hundreds of these arrows roaring towards the direction of the hole.

Few hit my shield, yet most bypassed my chariot and flew through empty air. Things didn't look that great though. After all, what I found myself facing was a situation resembling that of a deadly trap.

The hole wasn't linked directly to the inside of the shield. Instead it was like the shield was formed of two separate layers, and I just passed towards that gap between the two.

And that wasn't all. That space was extending to every direction like it was really enveloping the entire shield. And inside, I found lots of forces waiting for me there.

These forces stood over the lower layer as if it was ground. The distance between the two layers wasn't much wider than fifty metres, greatly limiting my chariot mobility.

With just one simple move and ahead preparations, this scary enemy rendered my top advantage into nothing.

But if Hectors did their best here to get rid of me, it was only normal for me to up the game in respect to them.

"Come back!" without even thinking about it twice, I instantly called back my chariot in one of the rare occasions to do this. "Come forth!" and in the next breath I summoned my dragons, stood over the back of one of them.

It was one of my earliest dragons, one who reached level two hundred. Its body was much bigger than the other one hundred dragons, and its stats and speed were much higher.

I just summoned one hundred dragons, and in one roaring shout I gave them one simple order.

"Unleash your ultimate breaths now!"

"Roar!"

My dragons were my summoned warriors. They always followed my orders by letter and without the need for any speculations.

Just as I gave the order, they roared and instantly executed it.

And in a flash, even before I could see the faces of my enemies, the one hundred dragons covered the lower layer with a myriad of deadly breaths that ate away any foe without exception.

Just the span of such a deadly attack coming from one hundred dragons was enough to clear an area spanned in miles around.

The world here turned all deadly silent. All the shouts, angry roars, and even screams and curses were all silenced. They were either wiped out or too terrified to even breathe.

In that rare moment of peace, I started to take a better look over the enemies I had. There were almost hundreds of thousands of cannon fodders, led by a few of the Hectors.

Yet that was before my dragons unleashed gates of hell upon them. Right now I was sure at least eighty percent of the closest forces to me were killed.

That was almost half of the entire force here. After all, the enemy seemed to gather almost one half of his forces in one direction.

It was roughly two miles away from here. Without the need to go there and see, it was the second hole, the real entrance to Cambridge city.

"Come out now!" but just thinking about having such annoying forces high in the air made me a bit nervous. After all, they would be protected by this damn shield.

If they could easily attack anyone on the ground down below, then this fight would be much more desperate than I imagined.

I couldn't tolerate letting such a thing happen. So without the need to gamble or take any unneeded risks here, I summoned twenty thousand soulers and let them loose over the enemies.

My soulers was the best match for these forces here. At the same time, these forces were mostly formed of cannon fodders.

They wouldn't pose any much threat to my precious soulers. Even thinking about calling for some of the fallen gods to help was out of the question.

My soulers were enough, more than enough to wipe such forces out. As I summoned them at an area void of any deadly dragon fire, I started to fly directly towards the second hole.

Waiting here was like being a setting duck, waiting for slaughter. Even if I held the upper hand over the enemy at the current moment, there was no guarantee this would continue.

After all this was the enemy homeland, the place they knew better and best. Just look at this simple tactic they used to defend the hole here. It was simply enough to threaten my life.

I couldn't let myself stay here any longer. So I patted over my dragon ride's back, letting him fly fast towards the hole like a bullet.

I heard many shouts from down below. It seemed the surviving Hectors were trying to regroup and reignite the lost morale of their forces.

But I didn't worry about that. The first thing I did was to call back the entire hundred dragons. After all, they did a marvellous job here, and they deserved to rest.

Just as I was so close to the second hole, the enemy already gathered up enough forces to start a counter attack. Yet even before they would launch a single arrow from the more advanced ballistae than mine, I launched my attack first.

*Rumble!* *Rumbl!* *Rumble!*

I simply summoned twenty lightning fallen gods, let them unleash one wave of their ultimate attacks, before calling them back.