Chapter 41 - 337-352

337 Setting A Trap

I couldn't heavily wound or even kill a single monster of them. But this was just fine.

It was time to change my entire tactic. Instead of directly walking and killing those bull monsters like before, it was better to lay a trap of my warriors around the six sides, and take control over the basin slowly step by step.

At this moment I realised that clearing this part of the test in thirty or even forty hours would be a big achievement to me.

And that also made me realise that the next gate would even be much fiercer and harder than I initially thought.

I just underestimate this test after all, and I was paying the price here.

I bought twenty of the toxic monsters and thirty of the advanced bulls I killed here. Even with summoning these strong bulls, I didn't act rash and kept them defending the far ranged attackers.

Then it was time to use another round of my skills.

My aim for now wasn't to kill as many as possible, but to cross the entire basin as fast as possible. In times of cooldowns, I kept using my glaive and sometimes my shield to ensure my safety.

It took me roughly one hour to just implant my warriors around. I also spend almost half of my soul points over summoning monsters here.

In the end I had one hundred and twenty agile and toxic monsters, plus two hundred bull monsters to defend them.

As I finished setting up the trap, it was time to close the net.

"All my bulls listen up… Attack!" defending the toxic monsters wasn't a top priority for now. As the monsters here had to be divided to fight on six fronts, I used this chance and pushed harder against them.

I didn't sit idle. I started to use my skills one by one, especially those AOE skills. I killed and injured lots of these monsters while my warriors helped from the side.

Despite that, it took more than two hours to clear this zone. Damn! It took three hours to just clear one basin!

I always cleared a hundred basins before reaching the gate. If this kept going on, then I'd take forever to clear this place.

"I had to accelerate," I knew there was only one way to do that, allying myself with one monster against the other.

I called back my warriors, collected my loot and summoned more to replace the lost. From the initial three hundred and twenty monsters, I lost almost twenty from dead or wounded.

The wounded warriors would take time before getting summoned again. So in other words, they were like dead to me at this point.

I sat on the fire next to one side only. Before I'd wait long enough until the two monsters would kill each other. And I'd set fire at all the tree zones.

But this time I only set fire to one zone. I aimed to use the help of the toxic monsters here, and force my way through the messy battle to accelerate the kill.

Choosing between the scaled bulls and the toxic agile monkeys? That was a hard choice to be honest.

But at least I knew how to deal fast with the toxic monsters. "Let's aim at killing the two of them in the heat of battle," I said to myself while stepping over the burning ground.

It was just like the first time, as the ground was really hot like hell. I had to use my liquor at this point, and also had to move forward with my shield.

After all those toxic monsters didn't all move towards the basin yet. So once I overstepped over their territory, I attracted part of their aggro, leading to receiving many attacks.

But my shield was enough to stop them without the need to waste any skill.

"It's showtime," as I finally emerged from the tree zone, I was welcomed with a fierce and bloody battle between the two monsters.

Before bulls couldn't stand against the toxic monsters for too long. But as they got scales and upgrades in their strength and defence, these bulls began to show fierce resistance against the toxic monsters.

"Shocking Glaive!" I selected one part away from the burning tree zone and used this skill at it. My glaive cleared an area of five hundred metres, yet I didn't stop there.

I ran towards this emptied area and used another skill. "Rising Might!" The glaive worked its magic again and cleared another one hundred metres area.

Then it was time to start my fierce attack.

"Come forth! Kill these!" I summoned all my bull monsters first. I pointed towards a direction between me and another tree zone and gave the order for my bulls to go and kill the scaled bulls there.

Then as they started fighting, I called the rest of the warriors, letting them attack freely and help their comrades in arms.

At the previous basin, I was fighting alone. So I had to take the trouble and set the stage to secure my win. Yet here I had a helper.

So instead of taking all the trouble and fighting against the two deadly monsters together, I started to act as an opportunist.

I just gathered up my forces, cleared one spot and started taking any advantage once it appeared.

This might seem slower and passive. But if I told you I managed to clear this zone in less than one hour and without the need to use my strong skills except for one or two, what would you say?

Fighting in this way was really a refreshing experience to me. I didn't expect standing on the side and hunting down your fighting enemies would be this easy and amusing.

I moved to clear the loot while another fire was burning at a new forest.

So, instead of clearing a hundred zones in fifteen hours like before, I'd end up wasting six times and even more to clear the same map.

338 Light Glaive Skills

Using fire to clear most of the monsters might work, but I doubted the ability of the toxic monsters to kill much of those scaled bulls. If not for my help each time, the bulls would simply overrun the toxic monsters, killing them without losing even half of their forces.

I had to accept such a result. But the question here was, should I continue or stop here?

I had zero doubt about my ability to crush any enemy. But I was worried about the time lost here. One hundred hours for this map? What about the next one? Would I take a couple hundred or even a thousand?

I kept fighting and gathering up loot, collecting souls until I finally reached the final gate.

I stood in front of it with disturbed thoughts. Should I push forward, or retreat? Would I call it a day and just settle with another set of skills to my glaive?

And which glaive should I select? The light weighted fast moving one? Or that behemoth that I couldn't yet use?

Would I find such an opportunity again at the other dungeon? Or was this just a special case for this one here?

Many unanswered questions and puzzles stood in my face. "Forget about it, I'll crush the next gate and then leave," I decided and took out the light weighted glaive.

I didn't take out that behemoth. After all, I couldn't even hold it in my hand. So it would be impossible to use it to open this gate here.

*Clang!* The glaive hit the gate and then I got the same messages and three skills to unlock.

"As I thought… Each weapon will bring me a different set of skills… What a loss that I can't keep fighting here to my heart's content."

I shook my head in regret. If it was up to me, I'd keep fighting here without thinking about leaving. Having a set of three different skills every time I used a weapon? Damn! If I just counted the strong and unique weapons in my inventory then I'd become the strongest person in the entire apocalypse soon.

But that would come at a big price. I couldn't risk a big war like this. I just clung to the hope that this dungeon wasn't an exception.

After all, dungeons were famous for giving anyone skills. Hopefully this gate birthing golden skill eggs to me would appear at the next dungeon.

"Buy them all," I didn't hesitate to purchase the three skills. As usual, I got three skills, two rare and one unique.

[The Feather Glaive skill: Rare grade skill. The glaive will turn extremely light, losing five folds of its weight and gain five folds speed. Its damage will be increased by one hundred percent. Duration: half a minute. Cooldown: One minute. Price to unlock: One hundred thousand coins]

[The Thundering Glaive: Rare grade skill. The glaive will be surrounded with thin tongues of thunder, adding more damage, sharpness, and speed to it. The increase will start by one fold up to five folds if it keeps hitting enemies constantly without break. Duration: Twenty seconds. Cooldown: One minute. Price to unlock: One hundred thousand coins]

[The Flying Glaive skill: Unique grade skill. The glaive will be thrown to the air, flying fast in a wide arc, covering a distance of five hundred metres, hitting any enemy it faces. The speed will be increased by ten folds. The sharpness will increase by ten folds. Damage will increase by five folds. Cooldown: Two minutes. Price to unlock: One million coins]

I held great importance over one skill, the first one. Without any hesitation I took out my deadly behemoth glaive and it fell on the ground like a dead rock like always.

"Let's hope this will work…" I said to myself while only touching the glaive with my hand. I didn't even try to hold it as I knew I'd fail.

"Feather Glaive!" I said and then felt like something came out from my hand and went towards that deadly heavy glaive.

"Please work!" I gritted my teeth, grabbed it with both hands and tried to lift it.

"Ahhh!" I exerted more strength while shouting, trying to push every single ounce of strength I got. The glaive shook slightly for a few seconds, and at last it was lifted for half a metre.

I felt my entire body shaking out of this pressure, yet I kept trying to pull it higher. Just as it reached one metre, the duration of the skill ended and the glaive fell, taking my exhausted body with it to slam heavily at the ground.

*Boom!*

I felt like I was hit with a falling rock or something. It took me roughly a few minutes to just stand up again. My face was full of dirt, and my entire body aches in pain.

But… None of this mattered! "I… Did it!!" I shouted in triumph, raising my fist high in the air, releasing another wave of pain in my body.

Damn! Even if I got all these bruises, I still managed to push that bastard to move. This was something worthy of celebration. After all this dead heavy glaive was like an impossible challenge for me.

I estimated that it'd take even years for me to be able to use it. But now? Even if I could move it by such difficulty for a few seconds, it was worth the shot.

I could now add one more weapon up to my arsenal. I only used it as a dead bomb, releasing it over the heads of my hard to conquer enemies.

But now I had much hope in using it in normal battles. Of course it wasn't still feasible for me to fight with it, but being able to raise it was the first step, right?

If I started my cultivation for real, then it would be much easier to move it. Soon I'd be able to use it freely in fights, even if it was for limited seconds per minute, it was worth trying.

339 A Single Peak And The Flying Monsters

"Cool," I stored it away, took a few pieces of meat and drank from the liquor. Then I looked at the gate.

The dust was cleared and the mural appeared in front of my eyes. Like before, it showed a new change than before.

This time the part which I was portrayed took a wider space than before. It still described me fighting among my summoned warriors.

It felt a little weird. Was I watching while fighting here or what?

But the greatest change was in that sphere. Before it showed two eyes, and now it showed a mouth opened and tilted in mockery as if it was mocking me.

I didn't like this. This picture gave me a creepy feeling to be honest. Coupled with the eyes of that star, I felt like I was getting looked down by that thing.

Did it feel superior or much stronger than me? I couldn't tell, but I became sure of one thing… That star or whatever it represented might be the big boss of this dungeon.

And I was getting looked down on by this boss. I didn't like that.

Anyway, I ignored this weird thing as I didn't intend to walk to the end of this dungeon test. The next map would be my last, hopefully it wouldn't be much harder than here.

I grabbed my light weighted glaive and started banging over the gate doors until they were wide open.

"Time for the last map," I said while stepping through the darkness inside the opened gate.

The world changed and this time the scene I saw was different.

"Flying monsters?!! Damn!" I looked up at the sky filled with dense blue clouds. The light coming before from the clear sky was hidden back under this thick carpet of blue clouds.

Yet the world wasn't that dim, instead it was enough to see for miles around.

I was standing on top of a single peak, a mountain stretching downwards and in all directions like a behemoth. As I was at high altitude, I was closer to the clouds, enough to see thin lightning arcs appearing in silence and disappearing like they were wicked serpents.

Under this thick layer of clouds, I saw many monsters extending and flapping their three wings, one on each side and one that was at the end of a long tail.

It looked like the tail fin of a big whale. These monsters were broad in size, with bodies spanning for over ten metres. I even saw some reaching to staggering thirty metres in width.

As for their skin, it was covered with bubbles of transparent membrane, with pale blue fluid inside.

They looked weird, especially when they tried to change their direction. Their two wings over the sides of their bodies helped in accelerating and decelerating.

But the tail wing worked to rise up, fall down, turn left and right with ease. Yet it still felt weird.

*Roar!*

They roared the moment I appeared, but not like the thundering dragon roars. They were sort of singing, extending their roars to form a sort of melody that extended for half a minute.

Well… This place was really strange. I looked down below, trying to see the bottom of this mountain. Using my hawk eye skill, all I could see was a thin layer of faint blue clouds appearing at different distances until the body of the mountain vanished under their blue colour.

So I was trapped up here, with no way down. I looked around. The place seemed to have only this mountain peak, and nothing else.

It was a desolate place in my eyes, not as good as the green places I visited before.

"What should I do now?" I looked at the large number of these flying creatures with puzzlement. I knew I had to kill all of them, but how could I do that?

Plus the previous maps made me walk through different zones before I finally reached the gate. But here… There was only this mountain and nothing more.

At this moment, I thought about my ballistae and machine gun weapon. If I could use these, I'd easily be able to hunt down those winged monsters.

But when I searched my inflated inventory, I found that the machine gun weapons inside were considered special items and were all locked. Not to mention my chariot wasn't available for me to use.

I stood on the peak, not knowing what I should do. The monsters already noticed me once I appeared here, but they seemed to not bother with me.

They kept flying and even playing with each other. I even saw two monsters seemingly in love and were dancing together while their bodies touched each other in midair.

This place… I wasn't prepared to crush it.

But I didn't give up easily. I took out my heavy glaive and waited for a group of monsters to fly closer to me. It took roughly half an hour for a group of twenty monsters to fly a closer distance from me.

"Shocking Glaive!" I instantly used this chance and released a mighty shocking wave from my glaive that enveloped these monsters. For a second there I thought I got them, at least wounding these monsters.

But the next second these monsters showed me their superiority. They flew so damn fast, getting outside the range of my skill in much ease.

The monsters didn't get much damage! Only a few bubbles burst open, and nothing more.

I held my glaive tightly, prepared to summon my shield.

*Roar!*

"Here they come!"

Just as I brought out my shield, these monsters ignored me and kept flying away.

Damn! Weren't that enough to attract their aggro?

I looked in surprise at this flying away group, then looked at other monsters. It was like what I did didn't even annoy any monster or attract their attention.

What? Was I invisible in their eyes or what? How would I be able to fight these monsters then?

340 Attacking Flying Monsters

After a few minutes, I resigned to my fate. I sighed, looked at the mysterious bottom of this mountain and decided to give it a go and climb my way down all the way to the bottom.

Hopefully I'd find monsters down there to kill.

But just as I stepped down the peak, a sudden change occured.

With my first few steps down the peak, and as I was busy with finding a suitable and safe foothold for me, I felt a great threat coming at me.

"Damn!" I looked up and in a brief second I saw tons of monsters turning around and heading directly at me.

Those monsters… Were they protecting the mountain and preventing me from walking down?

Just the number of those monsters was too much for me to handle. Not to mention the fact that I failed to heavily wound these monsters, thanks to their protective bubbles.

From my clash from earlier, I knew these bubbles worked as a trauma absorption layer. If I wanted to seriously wound these monsters, then I had to first crush all these bubbles on their bodies.

But that was something to think about later. After all, thousands of monsters were coming in my direction at this moment.

"Screw you," as I was forced to such an edge, I didn't hesitate to run back to the peak. The moment I returned there, the monsters seemed to lose their aggro.

What should I do then? I looked up at the flying away monsters, returning to idly fly around with no target.

I now knew their purpose, they wouldn't attack me until I stepped outside the protection circle of this peak.

Thinking about this, surrendering and leaving looked more appealing to me than before. However when I looked up again at those monsters, I couldn't help but sigh.

I wanted these monsters! Dealing with them was a real pain. If I managed to kill even a single one of these, I could summon their souls later as my warriors.

My dragons were really scary. But compared to them, these monsters here were more versatile. They could be used in defensive and offensive battles. And they weren't weak as well.

But how would I kill one of them? This looked a far impossible feat than I even imagined.

The most challenging part was facing such a big number of monsters at the same time. If I was dealing with a few tens then it would be feasible. But thousands? That was simply overbearing!

I stopped thinking in such a way and started to consider my current advantages. I was on the top of a high peak, having the advantage of terrain.

Besides I knew how to trigger the aggro of these monsters. Bit by bit, a crazy idea started to appear in my mind. And the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.

The only drawback of this plan was time. If I played it right, then I was able not only to kill one or two, but even cleanse all the monsters here clean.

But at what cost? I estimated it would take hundreds of hours to do that, even more. Was it worth it? Frankly speaking, I didn't know.

If the time difference was large, then I'd regret losing this chance here. But if it wasn't, then I'd regret wasting my time here.

It was a hard decision to make to be honest. Should I be greedy or be cautious? That was the question.

Feeling puzzled for a few minutes about that, I finally made up my mind. "I didn't come here for a smooth ride anyway," I said in determination. I came here to unlock that dungeon with the highest possible score.

Not to mention if the hardness of the test grew like this for everyone, then I doubted the final score would be that high. So winning this map here would be a great thing to do.

Even if I'd waste time here, I wouldn't really regret it that much anyway. Not like if the final result of this test came to be disappointing.

"Come out," as I decided to fight, I called out all the agile and toxic monsters I summoned before. I also added another hundred to them, making their numbers get to slightly over two hundred.

"Stay here," I gave the order, "make sure to attack the monsters freely."

As I left them here, I started to climb down the mountain again.

"Roar!"

Like before, those monsters were attracted to me like iron to magnet. I wasn't surprised like last time, and instead I kept watching the performance of my boys.

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

They kept firing their poisonous darts, hitting the bubbles and bursting them open at a good pace. Yet the number of the incoming monsters was so damn large.

In addition to that, each monster had more than fifty bubbles around its body. That meant the number of bubbles was already way too much.

But who said I was aiming at a fast and crushing victory here? As the monsters became closer to me, I returned back to the peak, getting rid of that aggro.

The good thing was that even if they lost me and returned to fly back, my boys kept attacking them non-stop.

It was better than I initially thought! I imagined my monsters would attack only when these flying bubbled ones would come at me. But now things looked much better.

As the monsters returned back to their initial positions, most of them went outside the attack range of my boys. There were still a good number of them inside that attack range.

So this time I didn't hurry to climb down. If my boys could burst open these bubbles from here, why would I risk my life again?

I waited for five hours. During which my boys never stopped attacking for even once. During this time, a few monsters had their bubbles burst open, and they started to get poisoned with my monsters' darts.

341 Get Me Out!

It wasn't surprising for many to fall under the effect of that poison. With the lack of their protective bubbles, these monsters were vulnerable to poison.

After ten hours, lots of monsters fell under the effect of my boy's toxin. By the twenty hours mark, all the monsters in the range of my monster's attack had already fallen.

But to be honest, this wasn't a big deal. The killed monsters would only make up for ten to fifteen percent of the current monster population in the sky.

Sigh! Even after twenty hours, I didn't manage to get as much yet not that much as well.

"If only I had my chariot or my boys… I would have killed all of them by now," I chewed a piece of meat while looking at my idly standing boys.

"Get ready for another fight," I knew this time things would take much longer. After all they'd only attack monsters while coming and flying away from me.

"Roar!"

As I stepped outside the protection zone of the peak, the monsters scattered all over the world here turned and came at me.

I waited for as long as possible before I returned back to the peak. I was trying to buy more time for my boys.

"Oh, this is unexpected," but once I returned up there, I was surprised to see a new change.

The monsters returning back to the sky didn't scatter around like before. Instead a great part of them started to fly around the peak, filling the gap created by the killed monsters here.

"This is… Just perfect!" it was! In just a few minutes, the sky was filled with hundreds of monsters in the range of my boy's attack.

This time my boys took thirty hours to kill the monsters around us. This wasn't because they were slacking or something, but the number of monsters here was simply slightly much more than the previous ones.

"Next round," during this I got myself all rested up, even slept for twelve hours straight. I didn't get enough rest recently, and it was just perfect to enjoy this rare moment of peace.

This kept going for seven more times. Each time I stepped down the peak, monsters returned and filled the gap created by the killed ones.

Until the last batch of monsters finally fell under my boys' poison.

"Great job everyone," I said it with honesty while grinning in satisfaction. If only all the fights would be like this, I wouldn't complain at all.

I slept for a long time, rested most of the time, and didn't even exert an ounce of strength or bothered to join the fight at all.

This was the privilege of having the perfect counter to any enemy, and also being smart and cool headed.

If I just followed my worries back then, I would have missed these great moments indeed. In the end I killed over thirty thousand flying monsters, but couldn't get a single material or scrap out of their bodies.

After all they died and fell down to the ground, vanishing under the cloud layers deep below.

"Time to get down then," as I got rid of the threat here, it was time to climb down the mountain.

Yet I didn't call back my boys. Who knew what other tricks this test was preparing for me here.

As I started my journey down, I realised how massive this mountain was. The entire mountain was sloppy, with many dangerous places that could have let me fall down till the bottom.

But I made sure to use my heavy glaive all the time. It helped me in crushing the rocks everywhere, paving a steady path down like I was creating stairs.

I kept climbing down for long hours until I lost track of time. It felt like I was climbing down for days, but when I reached the lower cloud layers, I felt joy and excitement.

I didn't hurry to go down. After all things were kept hidden from my eyes. I created a small cave using my glaive Shocking Blow skill, and rested there for an hour or so.

Then it was time to descend through this layer of clouds.

"Damn me! There are more monsters down here?!!"

Just as I descended through the layer, the first thing I saw was a large number of similar monsters waiting for me. They looked like the monsters I killed, yet with bigger bodies and much more bubbles.

And before I could think about anything, a message popped up in front of my eyes.

[Congratulations! You cleared a gate already]

[The next gate is waiting for you to clear]

"Screw you!" I realised what was going on here. As I stood just a metre below the thick layer of clouds, I could see that mountain going down below for a few miles before being shrouded with another layer of clouds.

This was like an infinite road to hell! What the hell was this mountain exactly? Did it have a bottom? Really?

Continuing to fight? No way! I already spent hundreds of hours killing the past monsters. And now? I had much more monsters to kill, much fiercer and larger in size, strength, and numbers.

Not to mention clearing that gate didn't grant me any skills at all! This was a losing deal to me. I wouldn't take it.

"Take me out!" Decisively I decided to go out of here, end this dungeon test with such achievement.

[Are you sure?]

"Damn sure," I didn't even consider trying to hit monsters here. It was a waste. What would I get back from this? Literally nothing!

I couldn't even collect materials from the killed monsters here. Not to mention I was getting a few souls in return for such a long time.

Time investment wise, this was a losing deal. If I knew about this much earlier, then I'd just have withdrawn many hundreds of hours ago.

Just killing one monster was enough to grant me the soul I needed. Sigh, it was a waste.

[Ok, you are going out now]

[The final score is going to be calculated]

[You are the last of your team to get out]

I knew it. My team wasn't that impressive alone, not against such a hard test anyway.

What would be the final score then? I couldn't help but be on my toes to see the results.

342 [Bonus chapter] The Weird Situation

A portal appeared in front of me. All I needed to do was to just jump and fall and vanish inside. The world I spent a long time inside vanished before my familiar world came into my eyes once again.

The world here was more bustling and noisy than the one I was at. Yet it felt really like going back home this time.

[The dungeon test is finished]

[Your final score is ready]

[You did outstanding job in clearing five gates and opening six]

[You killed a large number of monsters with different grades and ranks]

[Your individual score puts you at the top of your team]

"That's expected," the first thing I did was to summon my cherished chariot. The moment it appeared, I felt like it was ages since I saw my girl.

I didn't realise it before. To me, this chariot was becoming more like a family member.

Just before I could search for my team, rows of messages popped up next, giving me lots of surprises.

[Your score is ready]

[Your overall achievement is considered epic!]

[Congratulations! You have gained a rank in the overall test list across the universe]

[Your current ranking is twenty-three]

[You gained a special prize]

[The overall score of your team is going to rise by three ranks]

[You gained an access to the test world]

[You can now enter that world from your profile anytime you want]

[You gained one million soul as a reward]

[You gained the materials of the monsters you killed at your last two gates]

[You gained twenty-three points of favouritism with the current dwellers of the Lost Rocker world]

[The overall score of your team is rank four]

[You have three ranks as a reward]

[Your team final score is rank seven]

[You can now gain access to rank seven dungeon]

I looked at all these messages, feeling slightly puzzled.

I got a ranking in the overall test universal list? Did such a thing even exist?

Also these favour points with the current dwellers of that world… Was it worth it? This was a lost world, one that lost the apocalypse race and got damaged in the end.

That meant they weren't worth the effort, at least in my eyes. Anyway, I gained a few other cool things like the access to that world and the one million soul points.

Also I gained the materials from the killed monsters that I couldn't find before. Anyway, it was an overall nice experience, but I didn't want to repeat it anytime soon at least.

I didn't know if rank seven in the dungeon evaluation was good or bad. I had to wait until I'd try this dungeon to know the answer.

"Where are they?" As I got done with this, it felt really weird to not see any of the faces of my team.

They used to come and annoy me at any chance. They got out before me, but where were they?

I didn't even get a single message from them.

I looked down. The place here was used by lots of people to study the energy problem and the weapons I asked for.

But when I look down now, it feels a little weird. The place was slightly desolate. There weren't that many people standing down below or working.

What just happened here?

"Hey, what happened here?" as I couldn't hold back my curiosity, I went down my chariot and asked one of the people here.

"Oh, you are lord… The lord is back! He is finally back!" The youth I asked looked at me in daze for a few seconds before he jumped up and down, screaming like he found some kind of treasure.

"Hold on!" I stopped him from running away. I didn't know why he acted this way, but I couldn't let him go without knowing what was going on here. "Just tell me what happened."

"You… You were gone for a week sir," the words he said made me all shocked.

"What do you just say?" I couldn't control myself and held him from the collar, drawing his face closer to mine. "Did you just say… A week?"

"Yes… Sir," the youth swallowed his saliva before adding, "you… things went wrong in the West. all the forces here moved out to stop the invading armies coming for us."

"Armies?" Another bad news came from his mouth. What? Was he a bad news bringer or what? "Tell me everything!" I demanded and he slowly nodded, while his body started shivering under my grasp.

"Four days ago a grand army came from the West. they came knocking on our western borders. The leaders you left behind gathered almost everyone and went to stop them."

He didn't give me any much info to be honest. I let him loose while asking:

"Are you part of the campus? MIT people?"

And he nodded.

"So are you still studying and experimenting?"

"Well… About that…" he looked a little hesitant. Yet under my strong demanding gaze, he had to reply, "we had to stop this. The threat in the West is just overbearing."

"Hectors? Dragons? Or combined army?" I asked yet the answer I got was something I never expected.

"Humans… They are humans, sir."

"Humans?!!" This was something I never expected. The first thing that jumped into my mind was that Ed. he threatened me before, but wasn't he in the West? All the way to the western coast? Or what?

"Ok, what are you doing here then?" If the situation was this dire, then why were some left here?

"We… I'm part of the remaining force to defend the city," he said and I gave him a look full of doubts.

"Go back then," I didn't trust him. Such a weak looking dude was left with a bunch of weak fighters to secure this city? Was that fight really bad?

One week… That meant my promise with Fang and Wryly was gone. I was going to meet them a few days after I left. But now it seems I missed that date.

343 The Mysterious Human Army

Also what was that about the new army? Army of humans? Strong enough to threaten my grand forces here?

The forces weren't led by anyone. After all there was the jumper, Hilary, and others. If they all agreed to move everyone in such a big move, then that human army must be really something.

[Where are you now?] I knew answers weren't going to fall on my head while standing here. I returned to my chariot, sent messages to everyone.

And like gates of hell opened unto my face, long rows of messages popped up non-stop for the entire five minutes!

[Where are you?!]

[You finally came back!!]

[It's bad! Totally bad!]

[We need your help! Urgently now!]

.

.

.

[Where the hell were you? We were supposed to meet a couple days ago!]

[You finally showed up! I tried to message you before but failed!]

The last two messages came from Fang and Wryly in order. I looked at all these messages. Most of them were either showing panic or anger. The enraged ones were that jumper, the spearhead, and Hilary.

Others weren't that mad as them, yet they were all terrified.

What just happened to make them feel this way?

[Just tell me your current location and I'll come. Let's talk while I'm on my way] I sent to all of them, feeling the need to first understand the situation before doing anything else.

But before that, I needed to know their current location. I was sure the distance to them wasn't that short. So instead of wasting time here, it was better to just talk while flying to them.

[We are in West Virginia state] Hilary was the one to answer me first with valuable data instead of just screaming in panic. [We are now fighting at Charleston city]

To be honest, I didn't know where this place was. [Where is it on the map?]

[Just go south west from New York. It's south of Pennsylvania and Ohio]

[On my way] I sent before adding, [Can you tell me what happened then?]

I started fully operating my chariot. Without even thinking twice, I filled it with hundreds of millions of stat points, preparing for a long and hard battle.

[We came out from the dungeon five days ago] she said and that was enough to tell me how bad they performed in that test. [But you didn't come out. The two races you were dealing with asked for your meeting, so we decided to go and help them as you planned until you arrive]

[So you went to fight in the West?] I sent, [What went wrong then?]

[We arrived there and started fighting other races. It wasn't bad at first. But three days ago, a new change happened]

[That human army?] I asked, and she just sent in further explanation:

[They aren't just a normal human army! This is an army of human slaves]

When I read this word, all I thought about was humans getting captured from this world. But since when have such humans been this strong?

Humans have been captured since day one of the apocalypse. Those who fell in captivity were the weakest of the current human forces. If those races assembled a grand army of those humans, it wouldn't even threaten my current forces.

Then what happened? What really went wrong here?

I was still puzzled.

[They aren't normal humans] she sent as if she read my thoughts, [They were brought here by Hectors from far advanced apocalyptic worlds. These humans… They aren't that normal at all!]

"Humans from other apocalypses? F*ck!" At this moment, I realised what went wrong here.

Damn those Hectors! Just using my human race to fight each other just to reap the benefits from the side… That was a really genius plan, and a sinister one too.

Just from the general look of it, they were really mad at me. Just using such a way to get rid of me was ironic.

It was like they were saying: what if you are a strong human? We will use other humans much stronger than you to crush and kill you, turning all humans here into our slaves!

[Are our losses that bad?]

[It is] she was strictly honest with me. [We were driven all the way from Wisconsin down to West Virginia]

[What about Fang and Wryly? Selvators and Berserkers?]

They were supposed to be fighting together. Don't tell me even with their presence, we still were crushed in such a way.

[They couldn't do anything at all] yet what I didn't believe happened. [The humans were fixed at targeting us. So we agreed to leave them behind and we will attract the humans away. I don't know what they are doing now to be honest]

Well… Things looked much worse than I ever expected.

First our forces weren't that much to begin with. Dividing up like this wouldn't only endanger my forces, but also the entire coalition forces with the other two races as well.

Fang and Wryly prepared too much for this war. Yet they weren't facing just a single race or one foe. They were facing many archlords.

This war held much importance literally to everyone in this continent. And we started it in such a bad situation.

But this is over now. I was here. And I intended to change all this.

[Tell me everything about your current situation] I sent the exact message to the two allies of mine. As I was worried about my forces, I was more worried over theirs as well.

If a single side was totally crushed, this fight was beyond saving anymore. If so, then I'd better try to defend my kingdom instead of aiming at expanding it.

What a tough situation it was!

[We are having much trouble here. You should have appeared as planned. I lost almost half of my forces so far and didn't gain any single victory worth for that loss!]

Fang was mad. He had all the right indeed. Damn that system! I never expected that time difference to be so low. It was like one hour here was equal to two or three hours there. It was just crazy!

344 Gods Are Tricked

[I've lost a lot, but still fighting] unlike Fang, Wryly was more acceptable to his current situation. For a war geek like him, he was much happier and more content than Fang.

[Are you two together or what?] I didn't know why but I felt the two weren't with each other.

[Who? That weak Berserker? He went on his way since the beginning!]

[That Selvator is too arrogant for me to stay with]

Damn you two! I just left for a week and everything got crumbled over everyone's heads like this! What if I went onto a long journey then? What would they do? Lose everything we fought and gained with much difficulty or what?

[You two are really something] I sent the same comment to them, [Talk to each other and drop your ego and differences. This isn't the time to stick to such useless things. Gather up, fight together]

[He doesn't want to listen to any orders at all!]

[He is just too bossy!]

These two… If they were in front of me right now, I'd not hesitate to slap them on the face to wake them up.

Was this the time for such debate? Come on! Was I the only sane one among these two to worry about the general picture or what?

[Just go and gather with each other now!] I changed my tone and started to show them who was the boss here. [Until we meet up, the general strategic orders will come from Fang. The fight will be handled by Wryly. This isn't something for you to discuss or argue about]

[You…]

[Just make sure he won't act that arrogant or bossy with me]

The two accepted my orders in obedience. Even Fang just sent the top message without even adding anymore.

I didn't need to remind Fang about what to do. He wasn't bad at thinking and planning. Unlike Wryly who was impulsive and would lose his cool easily in the middle of the heat of the battle.

As I closed this troublesome page, I turned towards the real problem here; my forces.

They were fighting humans, but these humans were special. Coming from other apocalypses meant they were stronger, much stronger and far more experienced than my humans.

These Hectors… They were just showing their big hands and rudeness to me. They were like admitting not only to grab humans from here, but also from other worlds as well.

And they weren't even feeling embarrassed by this.

The first thing I did was to open the channel, and start looking at the feedback coming from my teammates.

But just as I did that, the notification option that I previously closed returned to be active again.

[Many gods are thrilled by the current twist in events]

[Lots of new gods are joining the channel]

[Your ultras are announcing a betting event]

[Most of gods are cheering in happiness]

[Newly joined gods are satisfied with the atmosphere in your channel. They say it's more lively and fun that many other places]

[You gained many coins as support]

[Few gods are asking when you are going to accept a new god blessing]

I looked up at these messages and couldn't help but inwardly sigh. Trouble to some people might be a source of fun and excitement for others. This was the simple fact of my channel.

But I didn't complain in loud words. After all, it was good to have them all entertained. The more fun, the more gods join my channel.

"I want from my gods supporting me here to think about solutions to fight back and win this war," as they were enjoying themselves here, why not use that for my own benefit as well.

Having coins wasn't something I was looking for anymore. I had many supporters already. So why not use them to think for solutions about this dilemma?

Who knew, they might come up with something nice.

[The gods are discussing among themselves]

[Part of gods are seriously considering helping you]

[Other gods aren't excited about this]

[Some gods are asking… Will you select one of them as a supporting god after this help or what?]

[All gods stopped talking and are now waiting for your answer]

"Waiting for my answer?" I paused before adding, "alright, let's do it this way. I want something crazy, a solution that won't only keep my forces away from defeat but also brilliantly turn the tables around. If anyone brings me such a genius plan, I'll promise to take him as my next god."

Of course I wasn't bluffing or trying to fool them. I wanted the best results here. Winning this war was a must, but if they wanted me to accept them, then it would be better to use this to find a more shocking solution.

If any god here could give me an idea that would turn such a desperate situation around, then he or she would be suited to be my next supporting god.

After all, I didn't need their coin support. I needed genius minds to add new ideas to me. This way I would rest assured in any troubling situation, just like this one here.

[Gods are all looking at each other]

[Even gods in your ultras are taking a distance away from other god]

[All gods are now chatting with others from outside your channel]

[Many gods who got messages from your channel gods came and joined your channel]

[A quarrel between those gods who were friends is now raging hot!]

[Other gods are watching and laughing, without planning to do anything]

These gods… They were really something! The ones they asked for help thought this was a nice chance and joined my channel instead of helping them.

What a hilarious situation this was!

But I didn't say anything to them. After all the more gods I had the better. Even if it was slightly weird and ironic, they were the ones who asked those gods for help.

They should have selected their friends better.

345 Reaching Charleston City

As things reached this point, I decided to let them think among themselves for now. I skipped all the useless messages coming from my channel about how these gods were feeling and interacting, and opened the feeds of each of my teammates.

The first one to check was the jumper. Despite him being so mean and rude at most of times, he was still the most powerful human in my elite force.

Besides, he was the one who had a higher cultivation, even than Hilary.

The moment the screen showed what was happening at his end, I couldn't help but suck in a cold air of breath.

"Damn! This… It's really bad!"

In front of me I saw that jumper fighting with everything he got. Holding one heavy broadsword and a big oval shaped bronze shield, he was fighting like crazy in the middle of a sea of enemies.

These enemies were humans, looking exactly like humans of my Earth. But they weren't like us. Each single one of them wasn't only stronger in stat points as it was clear from their mighty attacks, they also had good gears and high cultivation.

Just seeing the jumper pouring in every single ounce of his strength to just keep being pushed back was a clear proof of that. These humans… They were all with cultivation bases.

How absurd was this? Even back in my time before coming here, humans didn't find a solution to unlock the mysteries of cultivation for such a large number to use.

A single hit from any of these humans was enough to push the jumper ten metres back. On the other side, the jumper tried his best to kill them, succeeding at that from time to time.

During my flight in my chariot's highest speed for the next three hours, I kept watching the fights all my team members had.

They couldn't do anything but keep retreating. Even when they came to this big city of Charleston, they were barely able to hold back the enemies using the help of the castles and emblems.

The humans attacking us were really fierce. Not only that, but they looked very experienced and had a great general without doubt.

The jumper and Hilary were strong, but the one who was really threatening to these enemies weren't any one of these two.

Surprisingly it was the spearhead!

That dude who kept trying to get the heart of Isabella most of the time was the only real threat over these humans with his superb ability.

So the humans started to focus on him. Even if his ability was able to deprive them from their superiority, he was alone. Against such a large number of enemies, his life was this close to be crushed more than five times during these three hours.

If not for the fierceness of Isabella, reminding me of the big stories I heard about her from the old man before coming here, the spearhead would be long dead.

For the first time, I felt appreciative of the love bond developing between these two. If not for that, the real gem hidden deep inside Isabella wouldn't have shown its worth here.

I didn't know if with my presence and great achievement I hindered many great talents like hers, but from this war I could tell no matter what, stars were destined to shine eventually even in the darkest skies.

But even with that, the numbers we lost were simply terrifying! Those enemies were really overbearing and relentless. They acted in all cunning and vicious ways to kill as many as we had.

I estimated that during these few hours I watched this fight, we lost close to fifty thousand of our forces. And that was just when we had the support of the city on our backs!

How much did we lose? I was worried about asking anyone about this. But from what I saw, I knew what I had to do.

Using normal forces wouldn't work. These enemies need much stronger forces to stop them. Out of my private army, I doubted that soulers would be much of help here.

But when considering the monsters from Albany city, my fallen gods, and big dragons, I felt we got a chance to stop them.

Even if it wasn't a good chance, at least we could fight back.

"I can't let them fight with me," I decided as I got closer to Charleston city. Even if I had strong forces, the rest of my forces were just this fragile to depend upon.

Joining this fight must be done with one purpose in mind, shifting all these humans away from my forces. They were fighting constantly and running all the past days non-stop.

They were exhausted, wounded and depleted. They needed time to rest and recuperate. Or else even if I managed to drive those humans back, I'd end up with broken forces not able to do anything anymore in this war.

Call me crazy, but even in such dire situations I was still thinking about getting a good piece of the central cake. I wouldn't succumb to such pressure and retreat.

After all, Fang and Wryly were fighting as hard as they could and waiting for my return.

So what if Hectors brought such strong humans here? We were also humans, and we weren't that weak.

I'd show everyone here how strong humans really were. Even in such situations, we wouldn't just accept defeat.

[I'm coming] I sent this to all of my teammates, [Be ready to rest. I'll take the responsibility of this war now]

"Come forth!" without even waiting for their response, I started using all my stored souls and summoned all the kinds of fallen gods I could find. Not only that, I also spent almost one third of my reserve from the god essence for all of my fallen gods.

I also made sure to summon more dragons. I didn't forget the new flying monsters I gained from the last trip. I summoned my warriors to the chariot and let them take control of all the weapons.

346 A Deadly Trap

The chariot was flying like a bolt of lightning in the middle of the sky. Just when I saw the city outlining from far, and the sea of humans marching non-stop towards it, the sky suddenly started to dim.

"It's time for the suns to go off," every ten days, the suns would hide and long and cold nights would befall. It was just the perfect timing for this to happen.

"Let there be bloodshed, enough to create oceans of blood here," I pointed with my glaive towards the direction of the city, while all my warriors roared and shouted in challenge.

And with a series of mighty rumblings accompanying the disappearance of the suns, I announced my return to this world and war.

*Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*

The first to attack were my fallen gods. I didn't have time to check over the newly summoned two types of fallen gods, but from the first strikes I knew I got aces up to my forces.

The world rumbled and echoed with mighty and violent sounds of explosions everywhere around my chariot. I didn't hold back my speed and just started flashing everywhere, raining down death everywhere I went.

I wanted to create as much chaos as possible, attracting the attention of the leader of these forces up to me.

With this I'd be able to successfully drag them away from this city. So I kept pushing my chariot to any direction I spotted without any previous arrangements.

I also tried to avoid the city. At first, a few waves of attacks landed over the city by my gods. They were so strong to clear large chunks of enemies there.

But if this continued, I wasn't sure how to avoid my forces. So I kept my chariot away, while focusing more on the outside world.

"Go, secure the city," but I didn't leave my forces without any help. I gave the order to all my flying monsters, dragons and those bubbled triple winged monsters, to go back and kill any enemy in the city.

Of course they weren't weak, but their numbers weren't that high. Also I didn't start summoning my deadly Albany city monsters or my soulers yet.

In this kind of battle, I had to use speed to the fullest potential possible. Then I'd go and find a place far from here to start the final showdown.

Just as I flew over the area outside that city, I noticed how big that human army was. Millions were coming in this direction, giving me the impression they were delivered here from a place nearby.

"If I found that gate, then I can try and shut it down," I said to myself, while trying to push towards the direction they all came from.

But after ten minutes of flying and fighting, I ended up getting attacked from these enemies down below.

At first they didn't have any anti-air attack items. Even when I watched for so long before coming here, they never showed such abilities.

But in just half an hour, they started to bring up many giant ballistae and cannon-like big weapons, hitting my chariot like they were hunting a flying little bird.

In fact that would be threatening considering the large number of these items. But thanks to my chartio's insane speed, they failed mostly at hitting my chariot.

But then a new change occurred.

It seemed whoever was leading them was really intelligent and much experienced in fighting such big battles. He noticed my intentions in seeking for the portal, following the incoming human waves to their source.

So at some point, he arranged the attacking weapons to form many walls blocking my path forward. In just a few seconds, the world in front of me looked like a giant wall made out of darts and arrows.

"Damn!" Without any hesitation, I made my chariot turn, change its direction abruptly. Just at the last moment I managed to escape this deadly trap, leaving away with hundreds of explosions over my shield.

Despite this, it was an impressive result indeed. That bastard really came in a time when I was already busy looking for that gate.

Yet thanks to my timely reaction, I managed to escape. But that put me in another dilemma. Should I keep pushing forward or keep attacking forces here?

It was clear that those weapons attacking me were coming from that gate. It was like that general was ready to match any foe, and prepared such weapons beforehand.

Thinking about that reminded me of something. Don't tell me the leader of these forces was one of the Hectors! If so then things would make perfectly sense then.

These humans were slaves for him, so they had to come and fight like this. Also it explained how he timely responded and brought over such weapons.

That also pointed at another fact; that gate was nearby! Or else how could he bring these weapons through the gate and transport them so fast to face me?

Also his fierce response confirmed that doubt of mine. If I wasn't so close, then why would he build up such a wall there? If I was flying far or in the wrong direction, then it would make more sense to let me waste my time and efforts here.

"The gate is there, and it will be heavily fortified," I started considering my options here. If I stayed, then I'd fight for the end of time or until the forces would be depleted.

But would they really be? I hardly believed that. Such a race with such wealth and strength wouldn't possibly be short on slaves.

Even if humans were gone, they'd summon other races. In the end I'd be the one depleted.

My fallen gods were really deadly. But they had one weakness, stat points and godly essence. Even with such a big hand of mine, giving them one third of my godly essence, I knew that wouldn't last forever.

At some point I'd end up losing thanks to my lack of resources.

347 Talking With The Lady

[Hi, I want energy sources, much stronger than stat points] as I knew how the end of this battle would be, I didn't stand idle or succumb to such fate.

[Finally you decided to show up! I lost hope of getting in touch with you again]

Oh sh*t! I totally forgot about our deals.

[Sorry I was in a place with sealed contacts] I sent, [Did you prepare what I asked for?]

[Lots are waiting for you big shot] I didn't know why but I imagined her leaning her sexy body while laughing, [I have soulers, ton of other races you asked for, and above all I found the weapons you asked for]

"Weapons?" I muttered before recalling this old quest for her, [Really? How many did you manage to get?]

[Enough to arm up ten cities fully with these big boys] she sent me such exciting news. [But they are quite pricey. I didn't close the deal yet as I had to get your approval first]

[How costy?] I didn't hurry to agree while opening my inventory.

But when I saw all these green bones I had in there, I felt much confidence to close this deal. [I'll take them all]

[Won't at least listen to their prices?]

[No matter how much they cost, I can purchase them]

[Don't regret this later, handsome boy] I smiled while keeping my chariot flying idly around. Even during my chat with her, my boys kept fighting and killing non-stop.

[I need all of these and also high form of energy]

[Do you have anything in mind?]

[Bring me everything you have] I didn't know what other higher sources of energy other than stat points and godly essence. So I decided to go out and buy everything.

[You are crazy, you know that? Do you know how much we got?]

[How much?]

[Damn! You are really crazy!]

I laughed. [Just bring me enough for one thousand bones price] I sent before thinking a little, [Also you'll get one hundred bones for all your help so far]

[Wow! One thousand of your strong bones?]

[Oh, no, I have another bone this time] I realised she was speaking about the white grade bones of mine. But I was referring to the bronze graded bones.

[Is it weaker?]

[Stronger]

[Damn! How can you get all these pretty cool things? I'll do anything for you to tell me your secret]

[Hahaha, if I told you then it wouldn't be my secret. Now can you do that?]

[Sure, but I'll need to see this new bone of yours to finalise the prices of other deals]

[I'll send you one now]

I selected one bone and sent it over to a friend. A friend list appeared with her name only green and others were grey.

After all, I had a deal with her to send things over, not like others here. Others would need me to go to the contract interface to be able to send things over.

[Done] I sent and waited for her answer. At this time I kept only flying and killing any humans coming at the city.

Despite all my efforts, the city was still overwhelmed with humans. That leader of theirs was really cunning. He saw through my actions here and only sent his anti-air items to try and take me down.

Other than this, he didn't focus that much on me. So there was one option left for me. I had to go and crush that gate of his, or at least threaten it.

If I did so, he would see my threat and wouldn't close his eyes over my presence. After that I'd lead these enemies away slowly, and keep killing them.

If this all failed, then I'd have to use my soulers and Albany city monsters here. This wouldn't be the best, but it would be the only way I had to stop them here.

[Damn Hye! This bone… It's at least five times worth of your initial one! How much do you have from these?]

[Enough to close this deal]

[And you said you want one thousand bones worth of energy items… The old bone or this one?]

[The new one]

[Damn! That's too much!]

[Hahaha, just prepare everything]

[I can send over your soulers and races now then prepare these later with your weapons]

[No, keep the races and soulers for now. I'll tell you when to send them over] if she sent them now, they'd appear in the middle of this heated battle.

This would bring considerable losses to me. It was better to wait and select the best time to bring them here.

[Then when?]

[Soon, but not now. I'll tell you to send them, ok?]

[Then…]

[Prepare the energy sources first] I was slightly nervous about this point, [Then send my the weapons]

[Alright. I'll see what I can do. Good luck at your battle]

[Who told you I was fighting?] I was surprised to read her last message.

[Not wanting the races or soulers and only energy sources that are crucial for your fallen gods and chariot… plus needing the weapons as fast as possible and without even juggling about their high price… Come on, what else are you doing but fighting right now?]

[Ok smart girl]

[And sexy, please]

[Smart and sexy, are you satisfied now?]

[Hahaha, sure sure, just don't forget your little sister here when you become a real hegemon later]

[You aren't little!]

[I'm! I dare you to say another word about this!]

[Cool… I'll go then] I closed the chat while laughing over her last words.

This girl… she would have been a nice friend if not for being here with me.

Anyway, I solved the issue of energy. Even if I paid thousands of my bones for this, I still had lots inside my inventory.

As she went silent for the next half an hour, I kept following track of my fallen gods. They were using their ultimatum attacks almost once per minute.

At this rate… They'd exhaust themselves in the next hour. If that winged nymph lady didn't return to me by then, I'd be screwed.

348 It's Back!

My wait didn't last for long. After forty-five minutes, the lady sent me the energy items she had.

[You got something sent to you over by the Bringold impact]

[You are asked to pay one thousand green grade bones]

[Do you want to accept this deal?]

"Accept," as I agreed, one thousand bones vanished and in my inventory, lots of items appeared there.

I looked interested in these items. Most of them were in the form of orbs and crystals, shining in different lights.

"They look like the stat crystals and orbs… but the light coming from these are more intense," I muttered while taking one out.

The only way to test these was through my chariot. After all I could just see the increase each of these items would bring.

Before using it, I first checked the current energy of my chariot. There were over four hundred million in my chariot.

"Let's see if you are worth my bones or not," I let this blue shining big crystal the size of my closed fist into the heart of my chariot.

Just in the next instant, I saw the heart of my chariot burning fiercely, as a first time ever response like this for anything thrown into this heart.

And then the number increased at a fast pace until it exceeded the two billion mark with three hundred million points.

"Damn! It can give two billion points worth of energy… That's amazing," I sucked in cold air of breath before instantly turning to check my inventory.

"I got lots of these… and also a lot of other orbs and crystals… That's simply terrific!"

I looked at the ongoing battle around. In fact this fight looked pointless. No matter how much my boys killed, much more would keep pouring here.

But that was going to end, soon enough. I just had to wait until my precious and deadly weapons would arrive, then things would change.

"Come here," I didn't hesitate to shout at my fallen gods, "take these, consume them instead of the godly essence."

I took ten pieces for each god, spending almost one tenth of my current reserve of these items.

But when my fallen gods took these things, the look over their faces told me how priceless these items were. They were indeed, after all just one of them was enough to give two billion energy points.

"Go, keep fighting without any pause," I released them back while taking a look back at the city. "We aren't going anywhere like this," I bitterly admitted this fact.

After all, I failed to attract the aggro of the enemies here. The city was still flooded by the enemy forces. Their amount got slightly decreased, but not close enough to what I aimed for.

"Come on," I kept checking the messages between me and that nymph. She told me that the weapons deal was still unfinished as she waited for my agreement.

My delay at that dungeon really cost me a lot here. But that wasn't something I should regret now. I didn't know the system would screw me up like this.

"Damn! They managed to return it?" Just as this moment, I noticed something shining up in the sky.

The world was already dim, looking as gloomy as the world of death. Yet in the middle of all this darkness, the sky showed a tiny shining red star up there.

The angels… They seemed to repair that damn weapon.

"Hey you, do you see that thing up there?" I shouted over one of my lightning gods before adding, "can you hit it?"

"I'll try," the god gave me his word and the next moment he started using his ultimatum to hit that thing.

But unlike before, the attacks all vanished in the depth of that sky without causing anything to that star. It seemed those angels didn't only bring it back, but also made sure it wouldn't get destroyed easily by my boys.

"Keep hitting it," I didn't give up. If that weapon was left intact, it would cause more trouble to me and my forces.

I could handle it, but my forces couldn't. So I had to spare a group of five lightning fallen gods and let them shower that thing with their deadly attacks.

I kept watching that weapon from time to time while moving my chariot around at high speed. The attacks seemed to reach it and hit something, as that star started to shine in a weird golden light.

The red and gold colours gave it a scary sight. Yet I didn't give any order to stop the attacks.

That star weapon had a sturdy shield indeed. As any shield, it has a limited endurance limit. All I needed to do here was to make sure that limit was reached before it would start raining down its attacks.

But even with all these attacks, that damn bastard shone in bright red light. I knew it was coming, and it wouldn't come at me.

The angels didn't take all this time just to repeat their old mistakes. At this point, if they didn't learn from their mistakes then they wouldn't be the angels.

"Hahaha, still trying to destroy our little baby, hahaha!"

Just as a red pillar descended from high up and fell, the entire city shone under bright light that looked really horrifying under such black background of the world.

And with it, three angels appeared in front of me. The middle one, their leader, laughed in mockery while pointing at me as if he was looking at a clown or something.

[Abandon the city] I didn't respond to him, but I sent this message instantly to all of my teammates.

I couldn't step in and help them. Also their enemies were also humans, the race everyone looked down upon.

The angels wouldn't show any mercy towards us or our enemies. In their eyes, we were ants not worthy to live or spare.

[Leave the city?]

[Where to?]

[We are already surrounded!]

[We can't do that!]

349 Let's Evolve Them And Crush It

All the responses that came proved how impossible running was. I looked up at that star weapon and felt a little helpless here.

"Listen up," but no matter how helpless the situation was, I wouldn't just sit idle and watch everyone die, "focus all your attacks up there!"

I didn't just give the order to my fallen gods, but also moved my chariot high towards the highest possible point I could reach.

I knew the sky was limited by some sort of a giant bubble that enveloped Earth. But at least that would get me closer to my target.

As I got closer to that bubble, the attacks of my boys rained down that star weapon. Few weren't enough, but what about all of them?

I knew this might not work, yet at least it would create some damage to the star weapon. Hopefully enough to force the angels to stop using it.

Just bringing that scary weapon back must have caused them a great fortune of blessing. I watched the attacks raining over that star weapon while it kept raining down its attack over the city.

"Don't bother, we already fortified it with something you can't breach," the leading angel kept speaking in an annoying way, "this star weapon of ours won't go down like this. You are doomed, human race Hye."

"Humph, let's talk later then," I got an inspiration from the words he just said.

He mentioned they brought something invincible to my sort of attacks. It wasn't the issue of defence power then, but the difference in quality.

That shield must be made by a higher form of materials than the attacks of my current fallen gods.

So what should I do?

I recalled something that happened during the last time, my fallen god managed to destroy this weapon when he got bathed with its energy.

In fact the fallen god that got hit by that weapon was still sleeping till now. According to the words and comments of other fallen gods at that time, he got a precious chance to evolve himself.

That meant I was attacking this weapon in the wrong way. I shouldn't just stay on the side and attack it, I should let my boys go and be bathed with that star weapon red beam.

Like that they could absorb its energy, get evolved, and start using that higher form of energy to destroy it.

"Humph, let's see then," the leading angel didn't seem to notice anything from my face. I gave him a silent look before I moved my chariot all of sudden towards the city.

I knew that the time of each star weapon strike would last from a few minutes up to twenty. I tasted all that before and realised that the angels used the highest form from the start.

The anger and frustration inside their souls reached such a degree to make them want to destroy everything here till the last grain of dust.

And that gave me time to arrive there before that attack would end.

"Get ready," descending from the sky to the ground was much smoother and faster than ascension. I reached the city in a few blinks of an eye, and reached the place getting hammered by that star weapon beam in the next heartbeat.

"Hahaha, as if that will stop us," and as I moved fast, the angels also matched my speed and appeared next moment next to me. They weren't affected by their weapon, and kept looking at me with faces filled with sarcasm.

I looked at their faces for a long moment, while picturing how their faces would look when I got done with their weapon.

"Boys, go outside the shield," without delaying any further, I gave the order in cold blood to all of my fallen gods, "go and absorb that energy beam. Use it to attack that weapon and evolve."

The fallen gods recently summoned after that incident were at loss, but the two original fallen gods who witnessed this before couldn't help but shout in cheer and jump instantly to the ground.

As they did that, they got hammered by that red beam the next instant. But unlike what everyone expected, they weren't that much affected and even their bodies started shining in brighter light.

"Go, or else you'll regret losing this chance," I said in honesty to all of my fallen gods. And under my tempting words and the actions of their two seniors, the rest jumped out of my chariot and stood on the ground, bathed with the red light beam.

"You…" just seeing this made the face of the middle angel change slightly. It seemed he got what I wanted to do here. Pal, it was already too late to do anything.

*Rumble!* *Rumble!*

The first intense reaction came from the first two to jump out. Their bodies started to emit scary rumblings while their attacks started to grow fiercer.

And in the next few minutes, the world kept shuddering under the mighty rumblings of my boys.

Yes, absorb it all and evolve. Use that bastard's energy and smash it to pieces.

"Did you think something like that could stop me?" at this moment while my boys started their real counterattack at that star weapon, I turned to the three angel and snorted coldly while adding:

"For your record, I'm not that weak human from before at the early times of the apocalypse. The current me is simply… Unstoppable!"

"You…"

"F*ck you!"

"Says the one struggling in front of other humans, hahaha!"

The other two angels didn't hide their anger and hatred, but the middle one was more vicious. He simply jumped over the upcoming loss, and reminded me of the current dire situation here.

"Yes, this situation is really hard," I didn't hide it as I added, "but who said I'm way behind salvaging this situation? Just sit tight and watch carefully how I'll turn things around."

[Where are you now?]

As I finished speaking, I totally ignored them and opened my friend list. I sent this message to a special one, one that would play the role of the hero in this battle.

350 [Bonus chapter] The Spearhead

[Half a mile to your east]

[Good, stay put spearhead, I'll come to take you and make you the hero of this battle] I sent while looking down at my boys. I sent all of them to take down that star weapon, and it seemed they'd take a few minutes to finish destroying it.

"Time to bring my hidden weapon then," I said this with a big laugh, while moving to get the spearhead.

That man was destined to be the one to turn tables in this battle, a hero that will prove his worth to me and the world.

I moved fast towards his location while leaving my boys fighting against that star weapon.

[I'm here] just as I passed above eastern border of the city, the spearhead sent this to me.

I looked down. The situation wasn't like any other place here. The hostile humans weren't in dense numbers around this zone. Also I couldn't see any brutal fights like in any other place.

[Come on board] I threw a rope to him.

[But if I left, the people here will die]

[We are going to save everyone, and losses are acceptable at any war, especially this one]

[Ok]

I knew the difference in the situation here was caused by him. The safe zone here extended for five hundred metres around the castle. It wasn't that big but the hostile humans didn't dare to come here in big numbers.

They seemed to get a bitter taste of his ability, and so their leader decided to leave the spearhead to the last.

After all, the spearhead ability was superb and deadly indeed, but it had a single major flaw.

He, alone, couldn't do anything. His ability was enough to deprive any race from his stat advantage in certain areas. But that also wouldn't kill them.

He needed forces to go and kill the helpless humans. If the enemy killed most of my forces here, then the spearhead demise would be set in stone already.

I watched him climbing his way up. Once arrived, he looked over the chariot, then over the raining down pillar of red beam in the distance.

"Damn! It's true then! They managed to repair that damn weapon."

"And I'm going to destroy it the same way I did before," I simply stated the truth before adding, "but you aren't here for that. We need to clear the hostile forces in the city."

"They are like locusts, not showing any signs of stopping," the spearhead shook his head in a tired way, "I tried to work with everyone, but my ability exhausted me and I can't keep doing this on a large scale anymore."

"Oh, how come?" I looked closely at him. It was true his face was slightly paler. He looked more like an old man who was this close from collapsing. "How can you restore your power back? Eating?"

"I need energy," the spearhead suddenly gave me such a pleasant surprise, "I only depend on my stats to activate my power. Stat points aren't enough, so I got backlash many times already."

"I see," it was the issue of his low stat points and zero cultivation, "where is everyone?"

"They decided to hold the front while I recuperate," he sighed, "I couldn't help at the last stages of battle."

"Not anymore," I simply waved my hands and took out a pile of my newly acquired crystals.

"What are these?" the spearhead looked in doubt towards this pile.

"It's a great source of power," I said, "you can use these to activate your ability without any worry."

He held one and examined it closely. "How can I use it?"

"Well," this was an unexpected question for me to be honest, "my boys used to consume these crystals by eating them. Some also used to absorb the energy from the crystals directly. Which way you can use these, it's up to you."

"Eat these?" he looked in daze before he did the unexpected. He opened his mouth wide open, placed one crystal inside his mouth before starting to chew it.

"It's not… That's hard," he suddenly said while eating it like he was eating an apple, "and it doesn't taste bad."

"You… Are you really going to eat it?" I asked before all of sudden his eyes changed. It looked like his entire body got ignited with pure red light, shining like a little star in the darkness of this world.

"Damn! Don't tell me you are going to explode," I urgently moved my chariot fast, fast heading towards the frontlines, "hurry, use your ability now!"

I saw him losing control over his power. It looked like he was turning into a living bomb. If he couldn't release that energy fast, he would explode and die.

"Don't speak," as I saw his lips twitching and his face struggling as if he wanted to say something, "just release your power all over the place, don't hold anything back."

He nodded with extreme difficulty while raising both hands high in the air. All of sudden, his palms shone like two little stars, releasing visible dense wisps of red beams that started to expand outwards.

They hit me, but I didn't feel anything. Just in the span of a few breaths, the entire city was enveloped into his red beam. I looked around, and all I could see was the surprised and shocked faces of the humans attacking us.

It seemed his ability started to do its magic. I looked at him again. He was trying his best to release his energy, yet it seemed he still had much more in his body.

"Keep releasing it," I said, "I'm going to take you to an interesting place."

I wanted to use this chance and go to hit the portal. But I lacked my deadly boys. They were still engaged in that fight against the star weapon.

If they were still busy, it was better to take a tour around the city then.

I moved my chariot in a big circle, and the spearhead kept releasing his power. In the few minutes next, the entire area around the city was engulfed into a dense net of red beams of light, all connected with my spearhead.

351 Pushing Forward To The Portal

[Attack!]

I couldn't use my boys for now, but who said I lacked forces here?

As my forces were pressured and cornered all this time, chased all the way to here without a single chance for retaliation, it was a golden chance for them to retaliate.

And with my simple order to all of my teammates on the ground, a mighty wave of counter attack erupted inside the city.

All the human hostile forces were trapped and affected by the spearhead ability. They lost their cultivation, stat, all their advantages. Even their gears seemed to lose their abilities as well.

It wasn't a battle anymore, but a one sided slaughter. Even if we were killing humans, it didn't feel that bad.

After all they were the ones who came here invading our home, killing our people, and even threatening me.

The city looked like a crushing giant wave of water appeared in it. All the dense hostile humans were killed without any hustle under my forces crushing momentum.

"This is great," I looked up at the spearhead before sighing, "keep releasing your ability. You have a great amount of energy, enough to work my chariot for a month."

Even after releasing his ability over the entire city and the lands beyond, he still showed no signs of controlling his berserk energy. He didn't even eat half of that crystal and yet the amount of energy he got was enough to threaten his life.

"Expand your ability outside," I said, "don't limit it. Keep releasing it without any worry. After all, I got nothing but energy crystals like these."

I pointed at the small pile next to him, letting him feel more reassured about going all out. I knew he released a great deal of his ability, but it wasn't even close enough.

As I said it, he listened and started to release his ability in full power. I saw his red beams expanding outwards, covering more humans and areas without showing any signs of slowing down.

I looked at the content. Then I looked at the direction of my boys. That star weapon was on the verge of collapsing at any moment now.

Once they collapse it, I'd leave them for a few minutes to absorb the energy coming from its destruction.

The last time only one fallen god took advantage of all of this energy. So he ended up sleeping inside my inventory till now. But this wouldn't be the case today.

The number of my fallen gods was enough to make sure they wouldn't end up like my first fallen god. Even if they wouldn't get the same amount of evolution, they'd still end up in a better situation than him.

"Come," I called forth for all my dragons and flying monsters. They have been wreaking havoc inside the city since the first moments of my presence here.

But right now they weren't needed in the city. So I called back all of them and summoned them again before pointing at the areas covered with the spearhead ability outside the city.

"Go, kill anyone out there."

I still saved my soulers and Albany monsters to the last battle. I didn't know what that Hector general held for me back there, so it would be better to keep a few forces hidden for now.

Listening to my orders, they went outside and started pouring their breaths towards the helpless humans down there. At the same time the spearhead started to show signs of improvement.

His body was already triple in size. But now it was slowly shrinking back to his original size.

*Rumble!*

Just as I was watching the spearhead and making sure he was controlling his energy better, a mighty rumble came from one direction.

"They did it!" I said in delight before I looked at the destroyed star weapon in the depths of the sky, "trying to hit me with that weapon? Hahaha, you should have known better."

This move from them might have caused more trouble if I didn't have enough of my fallen gods. As the star weapon got smashed into tiny pieces, its red energy was still falling in torrents down to the ground.

My boys were now absorbing all of these, evolving with each passing second. I resisted the urge to go and check over them. Hoped they'd end up in a conscious state and in a condition that allowed them to keep fighting.

"Let's try it again," as the red beam of light started to grow thin, I knew it was almost time to go and hit that portal.

Without closing the portal, all this would end up in no good. Even with the spearhead help, those killed would be soon replaced and we would return to point zero once more.

So I started to fly towards the portal, not slowing down at all. I knew the enemy was prepared for my chariot, but it didn't stop me.

I already had more than two billion stat points in my chariot, enough to secure the shield and keep it intact for a long time.

So I flew directly towards the direction I was stopped at. Just as I headed that way, lots of attacks came raining down on my chariot from many directions.

"So you built more than one defending wall? Humph," I didn't bother with all these forces attacking me from different directions.

Right now I was just forcing my way towards the front, ready to take any incoming attack without any hesitation.

*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*

The shield shook mercilessly with the endless stream of darts, explosives, and arrows sent in my direction. I watched the number of my stored stat points rapidly decrease like running water.

But that was cool. Even with such rapid decline, it wasn't that bad at all. If this kept going, then I could sustain such heavy fire for more than half an hour.

Half an hour wasn't that long, and it wasn't that short. Besides, who said they would keep their heavy fire like this? Not with my dear spearhead by my side. Not with my presence.

352 Threatening Weapons

"Come forth," the attacks didn't only affect my chariot's shield, but it also decreased its speed remarkably. The shockwave coming from each explosion was enough to decrease my momentum in visible rate.

Yet at this moment, I summoned my first counter attack wave, ten thousand soulers.

Compared to the sheer number of enemies covering the entire ground till horizon, this number might seem small and negligible.

That might be true in other situations. With the presence of my spearhead deadly ability, this grand number didn't look like anything much at all.

I knew the spearhead would affect these humans' overall strength. But they weren't using any of that to attack my chariot. So I summoned my boys, let them scatter over the ground, and started killing those humans.

My soulers were like plague against these weakened humans. They simply flashed fast, passing through the densely packed human forces down below, leaving behind a long trail of black fog and a long trail of dead bodies.

They were like a nuclear bomb, spreading in all directions in a really scary pace. Like a flower opening its petals, they spread over and started killing without any reservation.

What helped them though was the fact that my dear spearhead was still expanding his ability. Yet the energy he had seemed to grow thin as his body returned to look normal.

"Eat it up," I pointed at the half of the crystal energy he had, "then eat another."

"But…" he was able to speak, yet his voice came hoarse.

"Just do it," this wasn't time to hesitate or argue about that, "we are this close from attacking that damn portal."

"Ok," he didn't seem to get what I was talking about, but he nodded in agreement in the end.

As he ate the other half of the crystal, his body returned to swallow and grow. The red light kept shining from his body as well.

But this time it seemed like he got a better experience in dealing with all this. He just expanded his ability further, and also his red beams of light kept growing denser.

He was evolving his ability it seemed. For me this wasn't bad news. So I moved my attention towards the direction I desired.

"Time to face you, bastard," I looked again at the direction of my fallen gods. The red beam was as thin as a thin silk thread from my place. It meant that the red beam was this close from getting depleted.

"Come here," but I didn't wait for it to die down. My boys got enough so far, and it was time to bring them on board.

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

Just their appearance here created a shock wave that I never saw before. Each one seemed to be a force of his own, enough to impact changes over a small zone around him.

Standing on my chariot, they gave me the impression I was looking at real gods, not fallen ones. They weren't like Sith indeed or Nero, but at least they were matching the lower gods for now.

I knew this was just a temporary effect caused by their absorption of that red beam. It wouldn't last despite I hoped it would.

"It's enough for this battle at least," I knew they absorbed energy and needed to digest it. Fighting was the best way to do that.

"Let's clear our path to that damn portal together, keep attacking without any reservation," I shouted while my chariot started to regain its former speed.

As my souler fanned out to kill the ground weakened human forces, the attacks coming at me started to grow thin and weaker.

Without anyone operating these cannons and deadly war weapons, there was no threat to my chariot for now.

Gaining my former speed, my chariot flashed like a bolt of lighting towards the distance. I crossed lots of lands filled with human forces, while the spearhead ability either covered them already or was still crawling at them like deadly snakes.

"There you are!" the closer I got, the more attacks coming from the front appeared. My chariot speed started to decrease once again, but I didn't hurry to summon more soulers.

I just waited to see that portal. And I finally spotted it at the horizon.

It was like a giant arch made out of pure azure light. Wisps of smoke rose from it like it was burning for no reason.

As for it, the world behind it varied greatly from the world in front of it. Behind it I saw grand emptiness without any sign of life. But in front of it, dense layers of humans gushed out, racing towards the direction of the city.

"More weapons?" Just using the hawk eye skill at this moment made me see the first new weapon coming out from this portal.

It was like giant trebuchets. Yet instead of having that long arm with a basket at the end, they had long spears that were like grand pillars.

Each one was as thick as ten humans standing back to back and forming a circle. I didn't know why but seeing these made me feel threatened.

These things… They weren't just toys for war. They looked like killers, real weapons to destroy mighty foes just like me.

And their number was increasing by each passing minute. So far, almost twenty or more of such grand weapons have appeared.

The first instinctive reaction I got was to go and smash them to pieces. Yet I felt little regret about that.

I imagined such weapons working for my army. I never saw anything like this before. So why not dream about having some for myself?

"It's risky," yet I dropped this thought for now. They looked really dangerous. I didn't know if these giant arrows were strong enough to break my chariot's shield or not, but I felt they weren't just as simple as that.

"Attack these damn things," if I still had five minutes or more to arrive at them, my fallen gods could attack them from this far.