369 Something Is Wrong With My Compass
I thought for a few seconds about what that god just said. Not using my Libra treasure? Fearing over the quality of the Bulltors here?
I looked again at those Bulltors. They were just big behemoths, with nothing able to stop them. They were strong, really stronger than my own Bulltors.
Should I aim to keep all of them? How could I do so without killing that bastard?
I knew that paragon wasn't that easy to kill. Even with the help of the Libra, it took me a great deal of effort to kill that paragon back then.
Just thinking about fighting him without the help of my Libra made me ditch this suggestion from that god.
He didn't know how hard it was to kill that Hector paragon. And things here were already on such a point that a single mistake was enough to make me lose everything.
Even my life wasn't spared from this.
"Let me first make my current situation better," I didn't take out the compass this soon. I first shouted:
"Attack those arrows, bring them all down!"
I was still trapped in three layered seals. I couldn't move with my chariot, and my spearhead was already on the floor, with a pale face and ragged breathing.
This seal must be crushed first. As I had enough humans to do that, I used their advantage to clear these arrows one by one.
Each arrow took almost five minutes to get damaged into pieces. It took longer than expected, but once the second seal was broken, my fallen gods here were able to threaten those Bulltors.
The Bulltors were killing my humans like they were cutting weed. I didn't feel that bad after losing all these humans. After all I still had much more, and even more were waiting at the city surroundings for me to claim.
The fight over the city was heated up during these past hours. The humans under the paragon's control managed to push my forces back to the city.
After all, the spearhead was totally wasted. He couldn't use his ability for the time being, releasing the seal over these humans and making them fight with their full power.
I wasn't that worried over my forces in the city. After all, I just got enough replacements to form two more armies like the initial one I had.
And I was aiming towards gaining more Bulltors to build a grand army of mine.
The number of Bulltors getting out from the portal just grew to a terrifying number. I believed there were now at least one million of them.
But once my chariot broke free by the destruction of the last seal, the tide shifted in an obvious way.
"Time to find you, bastard," I let my boys release their deadly attacks and kill many of the Bulltors. These attacks helped in securing a buffer zone between my forces and them.
I had to act fast. After all that bastard could easily order the humans around the city to shift their target and come at my humans here.
I still used my technique to harvest more humans and bind them to me using contracts. The bone I once took out was consumed totally almost one hour ago.
It provided me with enough energy to operate my technique fully for more than five hours. I knew this might seem OP, but it wasn't.
In fact that told me a lot about my technique's greatest weakness; my spiritual energy.
If I just depended upon my spiritual energy, I wouldn't be able to sustain this technique for more than half an hour. Or even less.
If not for that bone, I wouldn't be able to do such a thing.
The next bone I got wasn't from the dark monster. I knew these bones were very precious and extremely rare.
I had to use other races' bones, which weren't as good as this dark realm monster's bones without doubt.
But I had no other usage than using these bones in trade with the Bringold impact. So using these bones here wasn't that bad as an idea.
I took out one of the highest grade normal races bones, two dark gold graded bones that I salvaged from the dead body of that dragon archlord before.
Yet even with such a grade, the first bone seemed to lose almost half of its energy during the first hour. If this continued, then I'd have only three more hours from these two bones.
That was just lower than half of the amount of energy inside that dark realm monster bone of the same grade.
Anyway, I had to adapt even if I had to consume more of these weaker bones. After that, I'd work my best to upgrade my spiritual energy in quality and quantity.
As my chariot was freed and those Bulltors were stopped, I started to use my compass.
The compass arm moved without any moment of pause. It kept rotating around like it was possessed. I looked in a weird way towards the compass, not knowing what was wrong here.
Was that bastard not here in this world? Or did he find something to shelter him from my treasures?
Just as I was lost, the next message came to enlighten me about what went wrong here.
[The Anubis desire compass needs you to change its position so it can find the desire you wanted]
[Please hold the compass vertical so it can find it]
"Vertically?" A thought flashed through my mind before I held the compass as told. The next moment the arm of that compass stopped, pointed fixedly towards a point just above my location.
"Damn! Are you up there all this time?!!" I was shocked to realise this point. Without waiting, I pointed in that direction while moving my chariot towards it. "Hit that place, hit it with everything you got!"
My words landed and my loyal boys unleashed hell upon that direction. The next instant a big shield appeared engulfed in the different attacks that came from my fallen gods.
370 Wake Up, Lazy Boy
It looked like a big ball made of some sort of liquid. It spanned to cover a half mile radius, and inside I could see a floating piece of rock that looked like a flying island.
"Got you," inside all this, I saw the silhouette of some giant standing erect, surrounded by a group of elites. All were wearing full body armour and that dude in the middle was wearing a battle suit.
A suit that was just like the one I fought against before.
"Found you," I snorted, replacing my compass with my Libra. "Losing half of the stats for all these Bulltors? I can live with that!"
What was the big deal in losing half of those behemoths' strength and stats? Compared to the sense of threat I got from just meeting eyes with that bastard, it was nothing.
That bastard was strong, even far stronger than the one I fought against before. I knew this fight wouldn't be this easy to handle, and above that he wasn't alone.
I had my personal army and he also had his. Comparing the two elite armies together, none of us seemed to have an upper hand here.
So using that Libra would do the crucial step needed, giving me an edge above that enemy.
Just looking at those elites… Once discovered by me, they all moved in unison and surrounded their paragon. That wasn't all, each one of them showed a sort of suit that wasn't that strong like the one I fought against before, but it wasn't that bad either.
They were almost twenty thousand in number, not that few as well. Fighting directly against them would make my boys face a real hurdle indeed.
But what I cared most about was to not let that bastard get away. I thought about many things, like bringing my soulers here to fight these elites.
I even thought about contacting the nymph lady of the impact and let her send me all the races she gathered so far. But whatever I thought about proved to not work.
The enemy I was facing at this moment was well prepared and strong. The shield surrounding them wasn't lacking in any bit compared to the one surrounding the portal.
It was as sturdy to stop all the ultimate attacks from my fallen gods without showing a single crack. Cracking this shield open would prove a challenge to me and my forces. And without crashing it down, we wouldn't stand a chance to kill them all and win this battle.
Thinking about this made me look at my technique. The circles were still flashing in silver white light, feeding energy constantly from my dantian to the threads extending to the world.
My energy threads proved to be not stopped by anything. Even that shield failed. Any attacks that bastard tried before failed to do any harm to my energy.
The only drawback here would be forcing these elites to sign a contract with me. That wasn't a real issue. I could just turn them against each other, fighting their friends and even their dirty master.
He played dirty against me already, and it was time for me to repay his kindness double.
As I decided it, I firmly squeezed the centre of my technique circle and focused over that distanced island.
The island was almost a mile higher than mine. Even from this far, I could see the burning gazes of that bastard all focusing over me and my actions.
In fact discovering him standing here was something unexpected. I never thought he would be so daring to come and stand just above my head.
I moved my chariot fast to reach him, but for a reason the distance didn't shrink even after the passage of a full minute. "Yours is also able to move? Interesting…"
This was the only explanation I had in mind when I saw this. But that didn't matter. As long as he was in the range, my technique would hit him.
As for my Libra, it weighed his soul and deemed him an enemy. It was now climbing up slowly, just at twenty something percent.
It was slightly moving slower than before, but at least it was working its magic. Once that bastard would get my curse, he would lose a lot.
The curse wouldn't only affect him and his forces, also his gears and items as well. So these suits would be compromised and weakened. That shield here and at the portal would be weakened.
The portal itself would be affected, and these Bulltors.
"Spearhead, don't tell me you are dead, man!" As I was chasing that bastard around in the vast dim sky, I shouted to try and awaken that exhausted dude.
Hours passed already since he stopped fighting. It was enough for him to regain part of his energy.
"I just want to sleep," a weak voice came to reply to me.
"Stop fooling around, you slept enough like a damn koala!"
"Boss, please, let me sleep a little more," that dude was really lazy. Did he think the fight was over or what?
"We have no time for that, or do you want to see your Isabella die under those bastards' hands?"
*Thud!*
Just as I said this, I heard a muffled thud coming from his direction before he moved in an unstable way towards me. He was really exhausted, but I had to force him to work again.
"Just go at the edge and stabilise yourself," I kicked him away when he leant over me, as if he was trying to hug me or something. He went to the edge in fear the next moment, while I returned to focus on that slippering island.
Since I started attacking it with my energy threads, that island kept changing its position all the time. I had to admit that attacking a stable target on the ground was much easier than hunting that big bird in the sky.
I only wanted one thread to link. One was enough to control an enemy, then let me expand fast to those around him.
371 A Stalemate
One thread was all I needed to break through and start my awaited massacre at that island. So I focused all my attention after giving the spearhead one task to do.
"Start spreading your ability over the entire world, don't hold back."
I left a lot of energy crystals for him to use, enough to form five big hills no less than the one he consumed before.
"We… Are out, boss! Boss! We are out! Hahaha!"
Just as I left him this task, he started shouting like crazy. That dude was acting this pathetic as a show to avoid clashing with the triple seal.
He thought we were still trapped. That idiot! Did he think I was a good for nothing boss or what?
He just was this unlucky to miss the good fight that happened here. As he kept shouting useless things when he noticed what my technique was doing, and when he noticed that humans were already fighting on our side, I focused my full attention over that running island.
"Alright… You are really a son of b*tch, you know that?" After half an hour wasted on running around and failing to touch that bastard, I decided to pour all the energy into my technique, focus everything over that damn island.
It appeared like a black hole just erupted in front of that island. My threads gathered and moved in a big move, blocking even the entire sky from that island angle.
If I failed to get a whim of that island's ground using my threads, then I'd just block the entire sky and envelope it into a big black ball of my threads.
Let's see how you'd run away from this, bastard!
This time it wasn't feasible for him to escape my assault. I felt my threads of energy passing through the shield and entering the island.
But that bastard did something ruthless and unexpected!
"Screw you! Killing those I controlled the moment my threads connected? Good… very good… Let's see how you'll deal with all of these then…"
The moment my threads passed and connected with the shadows of his forces, he didn't even wait for the fight between his men and my threads before killing his men in cold blood.
Damn! That dude… he was really decisive! He was also fast witted, reading through my technique's pattern of action from just the attempts I did over the human forces down below.
He seemed to know that my threads would take a couple of minutes to dominate his men. Also after that my threads would explode and reach everyone standing around the ones I controlled.
He didn't even hesitate to kill hundreds of his men without batting an eye. He was decisive indeed, but what about doing this again and again?
I didn't aim to keep any of his men alive anyway. So if he was going to kill them himself, he would still help me in the end.
I planned to create a fuss inside that island, but that bastard stopped that by this simple move. Yet that didn't prevent the final result from happening, he lost part of his forces without the need for me to crush down his shield or lose any of my people.
Just as his island passed through the entrapment I placed over, he started to retaliate.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
Many attacks landed over my chariot. But as he had a shield to protect his ass, I also had one that would keep me safe no matter what.
The fight started to go on such a path. I kept harassing him, entrapping his island with my threads of energy while he kept killing anyone getting infected with my threads.
In return, he kept attacking my chariot with continuous attacks as I kept bombarding his island with my fallen gods. At some point, this kept repeating until I got bored from it.
I spared part of my attention and started to check the battle on the ground.
As I had to recall all my threads spreading on the ground, the fight down there was turning ugly with each passing minute. The Bulltors became unstoppable thanks to their numbers, big build, and high stats and cultivation.
Against these beasts, my humans were nothing in comparison. I lost almost one half of the humans I controlled so far, making me wonder if I could get out with any at the end.
If I chose to spare part of my threads to help the battle down there, I'd lose lots of pressure over that bastard up there.
The fight down below wasn't that bad at all fronts. The spearhead was trying his best to weaken the Bulltors and the remaining hostile humans.
Yet his ability seemed to better work against humans than other races. Compared to the effects over humans, the Bulltors would only get weakened by one third at most of their abilities.
At the same time, my Libra was moving like a snail forward. It was the first time for me to experience this.
My Libra treasure used to work at a slow pace, but not like this. Even after half an hour, it only completed one half.
One half wasn't that good. It should have completed its effect long minutes ago. Something told me that the bastard did something to weaken the speed of action of my Libra.
I knew that my treasure was so OP to be stopped completely. Yet delaying its effect like this made me feel powerless.
If I could have cursed him, he would have lost a lot of advantages so far. Not to mention my losses down there wouldn't reach such a staggering number.
But what else could I do? I had only to wait, entrust the fight here for my other forces around.
The spearhead wasn't fighting in the same way he did before. He was limited greatly by his exhaustion it seemed. Even with the hills of energy crystals I provided to him, he was still not showing the same effects like the first time.
372 It Finally Worked!
Well… He pushed his ability before to buy me valuable minutes. It was expected for him to not perform as well as before.
And now I had to work my best as well.
Alright bastard, I'd keep forcing you to kill your people non-stop.
I kept attacking, trapping him with my threads, while my first bone was gone. The next one was giving energy all the time, and I poured everything towards my technique.
It felt like I was acting as a conductor, a lively conductor that would connect energy from the bones to the technique threads.
As the battle ragged on, we both kept having big losses in everything. I grew aware that that dude was also spending energy to maintain his shield.
He was also paying a hefty price just like me. His losses at his elite forces after the first hour grew to be over half of their initial number.
And I didn't stop coming at him.
But when his forces got smaller, it seemed he grew slightly restless and nervous. Just after ten minutes from the first hour, he committed his first mistake.
His forces were usually moving to be in a close distance from him. But at this moment for a reason, his forces failed to react in time.
This came as his island didn't show its usual high speed, making my chariot close the distance fast and keep it inside the trap of my threads.
That made my threads come faster than before and got attached to many of his forces. He tried to react but as he did so, he got distracted.
My chariot kept closing the distance and my threads kept spreading without the need to totally control everyone. As seconds passed, he failed to keep up with the speed of my thread spread, ending up for few to get under my control at last.
"Kill him," as I controlled almost a hundred, I gave the order almost instantly. If he was sluggish and got distracted, I couldn't commit the same kind of mistake, right?
I didn't even consider using them to attack the others. After all, if I did that, then the ruckus caused wouldn't be as intense as when they'd target the big boss here.
Just aiming at the big boss with their weapons made the rest move in a hurry to defend him. That created more chances for my threads to infest other shadows, letting me create a much harder to control situation.
*Boom!*
Yet just as I was racing against time to get that bastard, a mighty explosion came from none other than the direction of that island.
"Ruthless… you are really a ruthless foe…" as I watched almost half of that island get separated under such a mighty explosion there, I knew this was the response that the bastard selected to cut off my current advantage.
Yet he was already within my grasp. Even if he got disposed of such forces in such a merciless and decisive way, throwing away almost two thirds of his remaining elite force, I'd still end up gaining the better side of this deal.
The elites he disposed of fell towards the ground. Yet using their suits, they managed to fall without much harm. But they failed to get free from my threads.
My energy threads were attaching themselves to their shadows like glue. No matter where they went, they'd always get attached to me.
And as they lost the support of their boss, it only took a few minutes before all of them got under my control.
"Go, kill all these Bulltors for me," if I couldn't use them to kill that bastard, at least I could buy time for my forces at the ground.
That was why even with such a ruthless move of his, I still ended up winning the bigger end of the stick here.
As for that island, or what remained of it, it was still struggling to get away from my clutches.
It got smaller in size, and that helped much in adding more speed to it. But the few minutes of disruption in that bastard's side made me close up to it, making going away a much harder task than ever.
He tried to get away with all his abilities, tried to force me to slow down using everything he got on that island launched in my direction.
But in the end nothing worked. I wasn't that idiot to just slow down and focus on defence. Even if I had to sustain damage, I'd keep pushing against him till the end.
My chariot's shield wasn't that weak either. So that part regarding me taking damage was out of the question.
He kept flying in circles, zigzagging lines, and even rising up and suddenly falling down… Nothing he tried worked.
As he got rid of such a large number of his forces infected with my threads, more started to get infected at a faster pace.
But this time he was more focused and kept the killing spree wild. For the next half an hour, we both stayed at such a stalemate until one side crumbled.
Of course it was his side, not mine.
After half an hour of this heated chase and fight, he again lost his focus for a minute or two. I didn't know what went wrong with him until I realised it.
"The Libra… It's active at last!"
During all this time, I was all focused by this chase and fight. I didn't let anything distract me, nothing at all.
Even the system message announcing the finish of activation of the curse, I didn't read it or even notice it until after such a long time.
And that explained why he lost his focus in the first place. And why he was losing it again.
It seemed he tried to struggle against my curse, but he couldn't keep such resistance going for long.
As I knew this, I was more confident in my ability to crush him.
373 Finally Cornering Him
In these few minutes of losing focus and control, I pushed everything I had towards that island. I couldn't yet break that damn shield, even after all this time of constantly being attacked by my boys.
But that also kept that bastard busy, distracting his attention over many fronts. Before this didn't matter, but now it did.
He was cursed, weakened by half the man he was before. So pushing him over the limit would make him commit mistakes.
And just as he tried to remedy one error, another appeared.
He tried to focus his entire strength over killing the ones infested with my energy. But in his attempt to do so, he seemed to neglect supporting his shield.
*Crack!*
It all started with one small crack that rapidly spread, zigzagged itself around that big shield and started to give birth to more cracks.
He realised it too late. After all, the kind of attacks coming at the shield wasn't something normal. They were all the ultimate attacks of my boys.
And my boys weren't weak.
Just as that crack appeared, more started to spread like the shield was made out of egg shells. That bastard tried to interfere as I saw many cracks healing at a fast pace.
But that was already futile. The next wave of attacks landed and made that shield explode like it was nothing.
"Kill!" and I gave the order. For the first time ever, I finally got control over this situation. That enemy was the one fearing for his life at the moment.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
My boys' attacks landed and fiercely exploded. Just from the thick cloud of dirt that came forth I knew that island was already gone.
I knew it wasn't enough to get rid of that bastard. After all he still got his suit, and much more tricks up his sleeve.
But that wasn't the case for his forces. They would end up dying under my fierce attacks. And the surviving ones would fall under my technique clutches in the end.
So this large elite force he had from the start was decreased to such a messy and miserable state.
And that all happened thanks to my persistence and efforts.
*Fwoosh!*
Like a rocket launched from the ground, a single silhouette flew away from that thick cloud and tried to run. "Trying to escape, are you looking down on me?"
His speed was fast indeed, but it wasn't enough. I had my chariot's top speed, my fallen gods' fast attacks, and my threads insane speed.
I just ignored the island and moved as fast as possible and in the next few seconds, that dude finally fell into all of this.
A shield appeared but it soon got smashed to pieces. Then my threads connected with his shadow, working their magic as fast as possible.
"Damn! It isn't him!" I just realised it too late. As I controlled his body fast, I was surprised to see another person leaving from that thick cloud of dust.
He moved in the opposite direction than my current place.
But that wasn't the question. The real question was… Was he the real person or what?
I just fell into that trap once, and I couldn't let myself fall into such a trap again.
It looked more realistic to me for him to stay on that island. But also that flying away dude held a possibility to be that bastard as well.
"Screw it, I'll attack all directions with everything I got then," the only thing I could do here was to release my energy threads and fan these like a grand spider net.
This way I wouldn't only hunt that running bastard, but also hunt anyone daring to fool me again.
Just as I did so, and before I could reach the second one that ran, many more appeared and ran in many directions.
It seemed what I did here startled and scared the sh*t out of that Hector dude. He knew he wouldn't be able to fool me anymore.
So he had to throw everything he had, hoping to just evade his demise by a hair breadth of luck.
But dude… All the luck in the world would stand beside the courageous and daring people like myself, not the dirty cunning bastards like you.
In less than a few minutes, I finally managed to spot him.
Unlike the others, that one was moving at a higher speed. His suit was slightly different in size, armed with a really strong shield that could stand many hits without even showing a single crack.
I ditched all and focused on chasing that running paragon down. If I got him, I won this war. If he ran away, then… I'd still win it but not as big.
I kept chasing him. He didn't stick around the battlefield anymore. He just went straight towards the portal, trying his best to escape.
"Not over my watch!" I didn't hesitate to give the order and the next second, all my forces on the chariot attacked the portal.
It was still protected with the shield. But that didn't mean the mighty explosions wouldn't create a dead zone around the portal.
Let's see if you could pass through such a zone of death without getting killed, pal.
We were already fighting miles away from the city and portal. So crossing this distance would take roughly from five up to ten minutes at most.
As he saw what I did, he shifted his direction, flew towards the opposite direction of me with all his might.
He was like a scared rat, running with his tail in his mouth, while this close from peeing himself from fear.
But that wouldn't help, dude. You were already a trapped rat, one that would end up dying in the end.
"Hit him, now!"
Who said I just had my fallen gods on my side?
During the fight, I already scattered my flying forces around. Dragons with different sizes and strength, alongside the flying bubbled monsters I gained from the dungeon… All were fighting with their best abilities against the ground forces.
374 Victory At Last!
But that all stopped a few minutes ago. Just when I spotted him, I gave the order to them using my contract to shift their attention and move to close the path over that bastard.
They looked like a great dark cloud blocking the sky itself. Even in such a dim world, their presence was much darker than the world itself.
And with their presence, they scattered to fan and form an arc, closing any possible path of retreat over that scared Hector.
Then the deadly waves of attacks came from all sides.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
"Wait… Wait… I concede… I surrender…"
Just as the explosions fell, I heard such loud shouts coming from the direction of that bastard.
At the last step from trespassing the door of death you decided to ask for mercy? Humph, you should have done this earlier, pal.
"I can pay, pay anything you want… Don't kill me… Just wait and listen…"
The explosions kept ranging and flashes of bright lights kept appearing around him. He was surely burning anything that could help him stay alive for more seconds, while shouting with many empty promises to me.
"I have tons of humans, vast armies of other races… All can be yours, just let me live and… I'll serve you, even calling you my lord… Please spare me!"
"Kill him! Don't even stop for a second!"
Trusting the words of a snake on the verge of dying? Humph, only a fool would do so.
Even if I ended up believing him, signing a contract with him… What would give me a guarantee that he would still honour that contract and not look for anything to break it?
Giving me everything he got? Only a fool would believe a king would ditch his kingdom out of his will. Even if the king was on the verge of dying, he would just give any empty words of promise, trying to buy himself another life chance.
And then that kind would turn into a deadly thorn to the one who tried to kill him before.
I wouldn't fall for such a trick, I wouldn't get allured with such promises no matter what.
"Keep attacking!" my answer came swiftly as he kept pleading for mercy. It seemed the amount of treasures he got were declining like running water from his fingers.
It was a real regret, losing such treasures in such a way. That bastard should leave few for me to use later on, better to leave that island treasure or that suit or something similar.
I didn't hold my boys back, and that paragon just kept weeping at the end until his voice grew hoarse all of sudden.
Then all the lights vanished and with it the world returned to its peace again.
*Crack!* *Shatter!* *Bang!*
Just with his death, that big portal that stood erect and hard to touch for all this time got cracked and shattered in a fierce explosion.
A mighty shockwave erupted from its direction, even pushing my chariot around for a few metres before stabilising.
Everyone standing on the ground at this epic battlefield fell. The fights were stopped for a few long seconds, with a deafening silence prevailing over the world.
It was clear what happened. Cutting the head of the snake didn't only let loose the entire body, it literally killed it.
The portal was just the beginning. As the rest of the forces here realised what happened, they turned around and started running.
[Don't let anyone escape] I knew I killed a paragon, one for real this time, but that didn't mean these forces were harmless.
If another paragon came and took charge over them, another disaster would befall.
So I gave the order to all of my elites, and I released my entire technique threads loose.
I didn't hold anything back at this moment, even took two more bones to supplement my hunger for energy.
I used pale golden graded bones this time. After all I knew this was just like reaping rewards thrown on the side of the street, way much easier than the hard battle I just experienced.
*Thud!*
Just as I was busy doing this, I heard the muffled bang of that dead paragon. I knew it wasn't time for that, but this was my first paragon to kill ever in this apocalypse.
Even the previous paragon I faced and defeated before at the pillar challenge, he wasn't really dead. He just got cursed and lost his right to use the pillar, nothing more.
"Come here," I didn't leave before going down there and grabbing that dead body and crushed and burnt treasures or what remained out of them into my chariot.
The area around that dead giant body was covered with shining things for hundreds of metres already.
I gave the order and my Bulltors and shield warriors did the cleaning job on my behalf.
Even if they were all lost, I was sure they wouldn't be that useless.
As I gathered everything into my inventory, and placed that giant dead body leaked and bleeding from many holes onto my chariot, I started to focus on finalising this battle.
The enemy army was routed, running amok in all directions possible. I controlled my chariot and flew towards all the directions, claiming control over any enemy I could get.
And with the killing of their master, all the forces here were ownerless. Just buying out normal contracts in tons was enough to match my controlling speed.
My threads were spreading like plaque! Jumping from one person to fifty, then to hundreds, then thousands… none could escape from my threads no matter what!
And all those trapped here were forced to sign a contract with me. Like this I didn't only compensate for the big losses my forces suffered so far, but I also added enough to form three more major armies.
This battle… It started in such a dire and dark gloomy future on the horizon to end up in such bright victory and rich gains for my side.
But this was just the beginning… The real battle wasn't really here… It was at the centre of the former US country.
375 Trying To Recruit Hectors
The battle extended to reach beyond the limits of the horizon. My forces were running amok after the hurriedly retreating broken forces of that paragon.
But in general there was a threat anywhere. Even those remaining elite forces of that paragon were already under my control.
I knew that my forces were suppressed for such a long time to deserve a chance to fight back. So I decided to call back my controlled forces and leave the rest for mine
Hundreds of thousands of elite humans and Bulltors stood underneath my chariot. I already gave them contracts, making them all part of my forces now.
I didn't cancel my technique. I was still forcing my threads around to catch anyone I could reach. Also I still have this problem of the remaining Hector elites to handle.
These folks weren't weak, but they weren't just like other races that I could handle. They were, after all, the personal army of that paragon.
"You… Come to this side," I estimated there were almost a couple of thousand of them. Of course that wasn't a big number, but I had to decide what I should do with them.
Killing them was an option, and it was as easy as flickering my fingers. They were under my control, and wouldn't even dare to resist or do anything against anyone.
Besides that spearhead was still breathing by my side. He just overexerted himself and was taking a nap. But a good kick would wake him up when needed.
"Now, what should I do with you?" I looked at this group of problems and asked in a loud tone.
"F*ck you!"
"Let me loose and I dare you to a fight!"
"You killed our leader, you won't get anything from us!"
Unlike what I expected, they could talk. Well, that went beyond my expectations indeed.
"Alright, here is the deal," I crossed my arms while placing one leg over the edge of my chariot facing them. I intended to show my demeanour here, declaring my strength and superiority over them.
"I killed your boss, so that means technically I'm your new boss. You'll have to obey me and sign a loyalty contract. Of course if you want to die, I won't say no either."
"You…"
"We won't fight our people by your side!"
"F*ck yourself!"
Oh, they really did love me, hahaha!
"I'll tell you this, this world doesn't only have Hectors. In fact you just crushed in here and weren't part of this damn sh*t. Also your part won't be in fighting, that would be a total waste of such talents like yourselves."
"We won't work as your bodyguards!"
"Screw yourself!"
"Damn barbaric race!"
I didn't answer in words. I simply pointed to my fallen gods on the chariot, to the dragons in the sky, and to the chariot itself.
"Do you think I'd need your pathetic help? That's hilarious!"
My words landed and left them all speechless. Of course I had a role for them to play in my mind.
Provided that we reached an agreement here.
"So, if you agree to help, you can move to that side," I pointed to the right, "but if you don't want to live anymore, then you can go this way,"' I pointed left and this made quite the ruckus in them.
"Silence," just as whispers turned into loud arguments, a big dude shouted. From the instant silence that prevailed, I knew this one here was their leader.
Or perhaps he was someone with high authority before in that group.
"May I ask what task you are speaking about?"
"You won't have to fight your race, that's something I can guarantee for you here," I didn't spill the beans all at once. Before doing anything, I had to make sure I'd speak only to those who would stay with me later on.
"So you are basically telling us we won't have to fight anymore in the apocalypse?" that giant elite leader looked at me in much doubt. His face was covered in silver fine scales, giving him a really feminine feeling.
But from his voice and actions, that dude couldn't be a girl at all.
"And do you think we'll believe you?" he snorted before adding, "we are Hectors! A race many drooled to just have our help in any fight."
"And here you are, crushed and defeated like worthless worms in front of me, a human," I didn't show any sign of anger to his provocation. After all, we were discussing terms, and that was a great thing in itself.
"You are bragging about a single victory that you hardly claimed by hair breadth and much difficulty."
"It was difficult indeed, but that doesn't mean you are that good," I pointed towards the big number of humans and Bulltors I got, "I didn't just break you, but I also got great gains from this battle. Damn lord! If each battle can end in such a way, I'd ask for no more."
"…"
Of course my last statement was a mockery out of him and his arrogance. He knew the situation here and knew he had nothing to bargain with.
But he didn't want to fight against his people, I got it.
"Rest assured, I won't trust you leaving any fight for you against your race, "I firmly said in a loud and blunt way, "I tried it before, and that race… it was just a regret to let them under my command in the first place."
I was referring to the illusionists. They never did anything worthy of their presence in my forces. In fact every time I recalled them, I felt deep anger and hatred towards such cowardly race.
Compared to them, this race here was something else. I knew Hector was strong, very strong. So it was a waste to just throw them everywhere and ask them to fight for me.
This would be a total waste for such a gift.
"You seem really serious about it," that dude gave me a deep look, seemingly weighing what I just said in his big scaled head of his.
376 Mighty One
"But if we won't fight, won't take part in any battle, and won't even safeguard you… So what's our value then?"
"Value?" his selection of this word wasn't coincidental at all.
"We can't live without a purpose in life," that dude shrugged, "if we don't have a value, then we'd just prefer to die."
"Well… There is a task I mentioned before," I still kept this info in my head, "but first make up your mind. Either join me or die."
"We can't decide without knowing," that dude was acting stubborn, "or else what if that task was something humiliating to us? Not enough for us as a value to live?"
"Their value sh*It was really something. "Just make up your mind and stop wasting my time. If what I said isn't good for you, death won't be an option."
We looked at each other before he finally resigned. "Follow me," he took a step to the right, and everyone else did the same.
Damn! Just seeing their coordinated movement and organisation made me drool over them. They'd do just great at this task.
"Is this how you make up your mind?" I looked at these Hectors who just took one step to the right and stopped.
Even in their defeat, they acted high and mighty. Damn! Did they feed them arrogance since they were little or what?
"You asked us to move right if we agree, and here we are," that dude said and no one else spoke but him, "so now, what's our task?"
"It's military training one," I had to give in to their stubbornness. I never expected to meet a race that was much harder to deal with than dragons. "I need you to start training camps, teaching my forces about fighting."
"This…"
"Not only that," I raised a finger in front of his face. As I talked with him, I started to get that annoying feeling.
If that task didn't look impossible, they wouldn't settle for it.
"I also want you to train them to cultivate."
"C… Do you know how much time and effort we wasted to just let those barbarics start cultivating?!!" from the look on his face, I knew this task was enough to satisfy his arrogance.
And for me, having a possibility to let my humans embark on the path of cultivation was a really great thing.
"It's not the problem of the student, it's always the problem of teachers."
"What the heck are you talking about?"
I knew he got me right, but he was challenged to even respond properly to my challenge.
"I'm just saying if you see this task to be hard, then you can take a step left and I'll give you an easy painless kill. I promise, don't be afraid, it won't hurt."
"Stop fooling around," he seemed to get deeply hurt in his arrogance deep in his heart. I did this on purpose. After all they asked for a suitable mission, and it was so hard to achieve one it was just perfect.
"We… Accept!" As expected, he got the bait and agreed.
Just watching how this small in number force fighter was a real inspiration to me. They were strong, held more experience than even the Selvators and Berserkers here.
Plus I got their word to help my boys start cultivation as a bonus.
I just experienced first handed the effect of cultivation over the course of wars. In this battle, without the help of my cultivation, I'd be screwed!
"Alright, sign these," I knew they were free of any contracts. But yet I used the highest grade contract I found in the market, costing me a real fortune.
Coins didn't matter. I had lots of things in my inventory that by selling them I'd gain ten as much fortune as I paid.
As I watched them sign the contract after carefully reading it, I knew I gained it big in this fight.
Not only gained hundreds of thousands of humans and Bulltors, but also gained my own training crew. A very experienced crew that could create a great army in the future.
I always held the deal with Fang and Wryly highly because of this aspect. That didn't mean I got to settle with just the two of them.
I just waited for a chance, enough for me to be satisfied with a training crew. And here came this chance. With such elites from such an outstanding race.
It was a win-win situation for both of us. They wouldn't have to fight any of their people, and I would get what I always wanted.
As for the cultivation issue, they had to solve this themselves. I wouldn't worry about humans lacking in cultivation anymore.
"Will we start now, mighty one?"
"Mighty one?" That dude was indeed a good leader. But his name was Lily, giving me the impression of being a girl and not a boy.
I looked up at the body standing in front of me in respect. There were no signs to tell me if he was a boy or a girl.
A hybrid then? Would such a thing exist at Hectors?
"Is there a problem, mighty one?"
"I just… wanted to ask… you know in humans we are either a boy or a girl, so…"
"Oh, about that…" the face changed slightly and that told me there was a bigger story behind this, "I'm a girl, but decided to abandon the life of softness for the harsh life of our fighters."
I could feel pride in her tone. She wasn't simple, but that wasn't my business. In fact if not for her smooth looking scales and name, I'd never have suspected her for being a girl.
"First, I'm not a mighty one," I corrected her, "I want you all to call me lord. And second, your training base isn't here. It's way to the East, so you'll have to be on my chariot for now."
"Ok," Lily turned and shouted, "follow me and greet our mighty lord."
Ok, they were too slow to get it. Or was giving their boss a mighty nickname was a must?
377 Weird Cubes
Anyway I got them under my control, got lots of people under my contracts… and now it was time for me to stop my technique.
I looked at the technique hovering in midair. It looked great. With all these threads spanning out of it I recalled what it did at the battle before.
If not for this little baby here, I'd have ended up facing a different end of the story.
I simply cut the energy influx towards the circle, watching it die out. The threads withered away just like tree branches got dead after the cut of the main tree.
If I was saved by this technique, then I'd also have to solve its main weakness; my spiritual energy.
I lacked enough to run it on my own. Plus I didn't want to stop here. I wanted to keep testing, create more awesome techniques for me to use.
But this wasn't the right time to do so.
As Lily gave the order, all the Hector race dudes boarded the chariot. Of course I only allowed for her and a few of her trusted people to come on the roof, as the body of their killed leader was still there.
I didn't want anyone to get over his head and go berserk when seeing the dead body of that paragon.
"Stay here," as they were all on board, I had to finish another task; claiming all the rewards from this battle.
I gained the dead body of that paragon, but there were still thousands upon thousands of his elites killed and scattered everywhere.
"Go, look for people like these dead and bring them back," I pointed at Lily and others, making their faces slightly change.
"May I ask what our mighty lord is going to do with our dead?" Lily still acted as their spokesman, as she was the only one daring to approach me and ask.
"I'm going to give them all a good burial," I summed up everything I'd do like this. And she nodded in response.
Under their gazes I leant over the dead body of that paragon. I could see conflicted looks and expressions from them, but I didn't mind them all.
After all this was my rightful win and this was my rightful loot.
Well… That paragon was really something else! I gained half of his inventory, and that was enough to make mine swell by five times directly!
And that was after that dude got such scared feet and started to maniacally burn his treasures at the last standing moment.
In terms of stat points alone, I estimated my gains to be three or four billion at least.
And that wasn't everything.
"What do we have here?"
I found interesting stuff inside my inventory. I took one out. It was in the shape of a cube, made of bronzed material with deep linings that kept flashing in silver light.
It was the size of my closet fist. I looked up at this cube, feeling it wasn't a normal thing at all.
"That suits us… last mighty one held for us to use," Lily recognised this cube the moment I took it out.
And her words managed to pique my interest without doubt.
"Do you mean… The suits you always had on your bodies?" I pointed at the suits that they were wearing.
These things were really strong. But after all this fighting, they got damaged and lost many of their pieces.
"It's used by linking it using one's blood… Our mighty one… The last one I mean had enough to arm one hundred thousand army with these."
"One hundred thousand…" I thought for a moment. I only got fifty thousand.
At first I was so excited until she said that part to me. Damn! Right now I am feeling less satisfied. I should get all of them… No, I must!
I instantly thought about a solution. I'd ask for five of my team to grab their shares from this dude here. After all, leaving his body to rot was a waste.
"Here," without even sparing a glance over to her, I took out enough suits to arm the couple thousands I got from Hectors, "use them instead of your damaged suits."
"Lord… This…" her face told me she was surprised.
"Don't," I waved my hand to stop her, "you are following me now. And I can't let you walk around in such weak and tattered suits."
I left her looking at my back while I sent my words for my team to gather up.
The remaining chase fight could be left to anyone under them. It wasn't such a big thing anyway. These scattered forces weren't strong to pose any threat anymore.
I turned my gaze now over the large human army down below. What should I do with them?
I lost, lost a lot of forces in this battle. The first thing I'd logically do was to replenish the forces I had.
But that wasn't going to consume even one tenth of their numbers.
"I should rebuild the entire forces from scratch," that was the best thing to do. After all, I got the Bulltors to be the crown jewel of this battle.
The only drawback here was that they weren't summoned warriors. So I couldn't just summon them back and store them into my inventory, carry them anywhere I'd go.
But that wasn't everything I wanted to ask about. The humans here were in hundreds of thousands. Even after all the massacre done by the Bulltors, there were still so many of them.
I made sure to recruit more after killing that bastard. Despite not having much time to do so, I gained a lot.
Didn't they come from other apocalypses? It was a perfect chance to get to know what other apocalypses look like. I also would ask them about other humans, how I could get humans like them.
But the knowledge I'd get from them about other apocalypses would be priceless. I need to know, I need to close this wide gap between humans and other races about this apocalypse.
378 We Aren't Together Anymore
As I got such a nice thing that I craved for, I claimed my dear bones.
That dude was generous to give me black graded bones on top of everything else. Yet it was a waste. After all these bones would only be used for fueling my techniques or to use them in trades.
Recalling trading… Didn't I have a few things to do with that nymph? I opened my messages between her and me, to find her sending many messages about the weapons.
She got them! And she wanted to finalise the other deal about races and soulers as well.
I looked around. If I brought this batch here then it would stir up trouble.
After all I knew in this batch, many Hectares would be there. I agreed to let these elites work for me as personal army trainers. But for the regular ones, I'd prefer to use them in the upcoming battles.
So I had to wait until I sent these boys home.
[Just send me the total sum and I'll pay. But keep everything with you for now. And keep looking for more races]
[Oh, the fight is over already? Damn fast! And as you are still speaking to me and alive, that means you ended up winning… Or… Did you run away?]
[I never run away from any fight!] I gave her such swift and firm answer, [Just send me the sum and keep things at your side for now]
[I can keep everything, except those soulers! Those damn hungry beasts are really hard to keep alive]
I realised what she was talking about. [Alright, send them over, I can handle them for now]
[On it!]
The next moment I got a message from the system about the trade. I paid the asked price without even questioning it. Then the next few minutes I got lots of soulers in my inventory.
I expected something like twenty thousand of them. But when I checked my inventory, there were more than fifty thousand there.
"She did a great job," I understood what happened. As I didn't answer her, she didn't stop gathering the soulers.
So instead of twenty thousands, I got fifty.
That was good. After all, during the last hours in this hectic fight, I nearly lost close to ten thousand soulers thanks to the Bulltors.
Recalling Bulltors, I decided to ask her to look for these later on. These behemoths were really terrific to fight against any army at the frontline.
In the next hour, my dragons started to come back with the dead bodies of all the Hector elites. Their number was initially twenty thousand. I gained two here, so I expected to get eighteen thousand.
But so far they only managed to get close to five thousand. This wasn't even close to one third of what I should have gotten here.
Yet I didn't lose hope. After all, most of the elites who died came from that crazy action of that paragon.
So it wasn't that weird for my boys to not find as much in such a time.
And as one hour passed, I finally saw my teammates.
They looked greatly different from before. At least their faces, body, and even gears were all crushed and covered in deep layers of mud, dirt, and blood.
They were exhausted. It was apparent without a doubt that this fight really took a great toll out of them.
I watched them all board my chariot, feeling much worse for two; Karoline and Hilary.
But from the first moments of our meeting face to face after all this period, I noticed something different in Karoline.
She was shy, but no matter what she always stood near me.
But this time she moved and stood in the opposite direction of me, crossing her arms and looking in a weird way towards me.
In her eyes I could see something different. Something… Must have happened.
"What?" I ignored all, even that jumper and Hilary, "why are you standing that far from me?"
"You don't know?" and from her tone I confirmed my early guess. Something happened, something I wasn't aware of.
"If you don't tell me, how the hell do I know?" I met her challenging glares with a calm tone and smile.
"If you don't know then why not ask your girl?" she motioned her head and I knew without the need to look whom she was speaking about.
"You know you are my girl…"
"No, that was a history," she took a deep breath before adding, "I don't this to continue between the two of us."
What heck just happened? Last time I saw her she was acting as docile and warm as my girl.
But this one here wasn't my girl. I didn't even look at Hilary. If there was a root for all this, then it was by the jumper for sure.
"Don't look at me," as I looked at his ugly mask, he raised both hands, acting all innocent, "this time it's not my doing."
"Then who?"
"Let's not speak about that," Karoline said in a decisive way. I couldn't even feel any remorse in her voice as if she didn't even care at all about breaking up with me. "If we are going to speak about that then it's better for me to return to my army."
Yes, something was indeed fishy with her. I looked at the jumper and that bastard shrugged in a powerless way.
"She just acted like that since the start of this fight," he gave me such a useless excuse, making me want to punch him in the face.
"That's it?" I looked not at him this time, but at others.
They gave me weird looks. Few looked like they were blaming me, while motioning with their eyes towards Hilary. Few didn't show anything but agreement over what the jumper said.
Only Hilary showed a calm and happy expression over her face. "I didn't do anything, she just decided to drop the race with me."
"Did you two talk together?" I asked in doubt and she shrugged.
"I didn't meet her until we grouped here," she looked at the jumper, "even asked that jerk. He will confirm my words."
"She was with me all this time," the jumper said, "but since the battle started, she started to hate you out of reason."
"Interesting…" I looked up at Karoline. My shyness and not the fan to challenge me looked me directly in the eye.
She… wasn't Karoline, she… Was like someone else.
379 Let Me Kill Them!
I looked up at her with confusion. She wasn't her, yet she looked fine to me. I looked at the jumper who shrugged again.
"Ok, let's talk about our next plans," I decided to put this matter aside for now. We just got through a hellish fight, and she might just be stressed or something.
"I see you gained a lot this time," the jumper was used to my way of fighting more than anyone else. He knew all the humans and Bulltors here were serving me.
"What do you think of them?" I motioned my head towards the grand numbers down below. And from the shining of that bastard's eyes, I knew he wanted many of them.
"I want an army made of Bulltors."
Yet the one to speak first wasn't him, but her. Hilary moved in a slow and confident way, leant over my body and covered my neck with the smooth skin of her arms.
Her eyes gave me the impression of getting drowned into a bottomless lake. I felt the desire to devour her, taste her sweetness after all the hardships I lived through till now.
But I knew this wasn't the right time to do this. "You only want Bulltors? Nothing else?" I asked while feeling that she knew the value of these Bulltors.
"They are Bulltors, can't be compared with any human," she confirmed my earlier guess. She knew the true value of my Bulltors.
"I also need them," Karoline decided to jump in, not for anything else but to clash with Hilary.
Even if she changed, she still eyed Hilary as her enemy.
"Easy ladies," the jumper had to step in, "I also want a piece of them."
"Me too," the spearhead seemed to notice how valuable these Bulltors were. Or else my three top elites here wouldn't ask for them in name.
"I helped you a lot in this fight," he said, reminding me of his heroic act at this battle, "I ask for more protection for me and my Isabella, I want these Bulltors."
"Move your dirty arms away from me," as he tried to mimic Hilary and hold Isabella by his arms, she pushed him away while placing her hand over her nose.
"I just… I fought a hellish battle just now baby," he gave her a blaming look, a look that made Isabella startle for a long moment.
"Alright," I said, putting an end for this useless debate, "Bulltors are mighty indeed, but we don't have enough to satisfy everyone's needs."
"I won't settle with nothing but them," Hilary blew her breaths at my face, making me feel more enchanted with this sexy girl.
"Stop your games," the jumper warned, "we will do as he says."
"Sure, he is my man and we all have to listen to him, right my love?" she said in a playful tone, and I couldn't help but steal a glance at Karoline out of habit.
But Karoline seemed as cold as an iceberg in front of Hilary's actions.
"We'll do it this way," I took in a deep breath before adding, "everyone will have an army of Bulltors and humans, two thirds human and one third Bulltors."
"That's not fair!" Hilary jumped like a spoiled child, but she didn't let my neck loose, "I want more! Give me one third humans and two thirds Bulltors."
"Girl, if you are his girl now then you don't need any army to protect you," the jumper snorted, "our Hye here is loyal. He will defend you like his life depends on it."
"Humph, but he should show me how much he loves me by doing what I want," she pouted, complaining about what the jumper said.
But to be honest, it felt like the jumper's words made quite sense. As she now became my lone girl, I was already thinking about ways to protect her.
"We'll do it my way," I ended this discussion here, "as for what you'll do with your new forces, it's all up to you."
"What about the battle we left behind?" Sara asked, referring to the fight over the central zone.
"We will join it for sure," I nodded, "but we will first recuperate and arrange our forces here. Also we need to think about one question…"
"Should we join the fight now or wait, right?" Karoline spoke, showing her intelligence at this moment.
"That's the real question indeed," I felt Hilary looking in aggressiveness at Karoline, but I ignored this.
It was funny though. At first Karoline was all attached to me and at that time Hilary didn't show her any interest at all. But when Karoline decided to let me go, Hilary started to grow wary of her.
Weird… I just hoped to understand the girls' mind or something to get what was going on in these two girls' heads.
"We have to consider many things," the jumper ignored the two girls' hidden rivalry like me as he added, "but we lacked intel about the current situation of the battle out there."
"We can always ask, right?" I evilly smirked and he got what I meant.
"What are you going to tell these two then?" The jumper seemed to be the only one here following what I was thinking about.
Others looked either distracted by the two girls or confused about what we two were talking about.
"I'll just say we are still in the middle of the battle," I shrugged, "they won't know anyway, not this soon at least."
"Good… But for the record, there are lots of forces there fighting each other," the jumper warned, "even the same race had many forces fighting each other."
"I know," he was talking about the fight between archlords over this region. This battle wasn't just a fight over territory, but a fight over prestige and future positions in each race.
And that made this fight more crucial and very hard to conclude.
"I believe we shall go directly to the centre and start killing them," the spearhead seemed to grow hot about his last heroic act, thinking the rest of battles would be controlled in the same way like this one here.
"That's not possible," I shook my head before adding, "besides we have to fetch those Hector's back to my capital."
380 The Jumper Fans
"They won't fight with you?" it wasn't just the jumper who said this, but also Hilary and Karoline.
"They aren't here to fight," I said before stressing over this again, "they aren't here to join any force."
"Then…" Hilary moved her arms at last, looked at me with doubt, "why are they still alive?"
This girl… she really got the way I used to think. She knew if I didn't use them for a fight, then I'd have killed them a long time ago.
"They have a role to play," I rolled my eyes, "they are going to train our forces from now on."
"Train? What about the other two?" The jumper got instantly what I meant, and he even linked this with my deals with Fang and Wryly.
"These two aren't humans," I firmly said.
"Neither do these Hectors," Hilary pointed at them, "A good Hector is a dead Hector, let me kill them."
"No," this girl seemed to have something against Hector's race. She didn't just propose that, but also moved towards them to do it.
If I didn't hold her body from the back like hugging her, she wouldn't have stopped.
"They are valuable assets," I stressed over this point.
"They can't be trusted," she argued, "just look at all the humans they brought from other apocalypses, they enslaved us!"
"They are now my slaves," I understood her rage, partially. But that didn't mean I'd throw away this chance, not like this.
"Bound by contracts?!" The look of surprise over her face told me this was something unheard of.
"Is it hard for Hectors to be bound by contracts?" the jumper also felt the same weirdness in her tone so he asked.
And she nodded.
"These folks are more arrogant and self focused than even the most arrogant dragon. They'd never accept signing any contract with anyone outside their race, and even in their race they'd also pick their masters slowly… Oh, they call these masters a unique name, a mighty one."
"Yeah, they are calling me this," I helplessly shook my head, making her eyes blink twice in doubt.
"Do they?"
"I told them to call me lord, so they called me the mighty lord," I could hear the muffled laugh of that bastard next to me. Do you have an issue with that?" I turned to him but the jumper raised both arms in the air as he said:
"It's nothing, mighty lord."
That bastard! I bet he was inwardly laughing at me.
"Anyway,"' I decided to ignore such a jerk, "now you go down there, start selecting your new army… Ah, don't forget to interrogate them."
"About what?" the all silence Leo finally spoke. He was this busy looking and flirting with Sara, yet the latter just gave him a cold shoulder all the time.
"About the worlds they came from, idiot," the jumper was the one who answered him.
"We need to understand everything about their worlds… the apocalypses they lived through and how they end up in this situation," I explained further before adding, "sum everything up and send me the data. Don't miss anything, and don't just take your info from one source."
"Got it, boss," the spearhead said.
"I want five of you to come and get that bastard's inventory," I looked at them, sparing Karoline from these words. Yet she strangely decided to move first, only to be stopped by a clear refusal by me.
"Not you," I said, and she just stopped while giving me a daring look.
The jumper, Sara, Hilary, Angelica, and the spearhead were the five to have such honour. I also pointed at the dead bodies of his followers gathered by my dragons and asked them to share the loot together.
I didn't forget to prevent Karoline from joining them. Till I'd know what went wrong with her, I had to cut many benefits off her.
Angelica gave me a thumb up as everyone descended. Only Hilary and the jumper stayed behind.
Hilary's stay was something I could understand. But the jumper?
"What do you want?" as he stayed back like this, that meant he had something to tell me about.
"I want to speak about something…" he paused while taking a long gaze up at Hilary.
"I'm not leaving," but the latter said that in defiance, crossing her arms and giving the jumper a gaze filled with challenge.
"Ok," the jumper shrugged, "I want to speak about Karoline."
"About that…" I realised why he looked at Hilary in such a way, "speak then."
If Hilary decided to stay behind then there was nothing I could do.
"She started acting weird all of sudden," the jumper said, "after we came back from that dungeon stupid test, she was fine. She even got a fight with this sexy b*tch here."
"You are a jerk, do you know that?" Hilary didn't give me the chance and screamed at the jumper's face. I knew from this intense reaction that this fight was something big.
"After that, she went missing for one day and returned when we marched to the battlefield," the jumper ignored the shout from Hilary, as he added, "but since she returned… She looked just like this… Very weird, very different, and very…"
"Cold?" I added the word he was looking for. And he nodded.
"I also know she is different, but we need to first investigate."
"That's why I'm asking you to check your channel. Don't you record things there?"
His remark wasn't right. After all, my channel didn't record anything without me asking for it.
"I'll find a way," but I knew there was another way to find the truth.
"Asking them?" the jumper read my mind as he pointed to the sky.
"Each one of you has fans, believe it or not, you have a large fanbase, dude."
"Me?" he pointed at himself in surprise.
"Don't give me that look, I also don't know what they find interesting at following someone cold and rude like you."
381 You Should Kill Her!
"Hey, they are my fans! Stop insulting them!" he said and the next moment I got messages about gods cheering out for him, seemingly happy for what he said.
Even many of them donated coins for this bastard. Alright, if you'd like to watch someone crazy like him, then be my guest.
"They are your fans, and they just give you lots of coins," I didn't let this slip by like this, "they are my followers, so make sure to satisfy their interests."
"I'm doing my best, but I'm a clown like you."
"You… Will never change," I sighed, "anyway, leave Karoline's issue for me. You just keep an eye out for her, ok?"
"What? Worried about her?" I noticed his eyes were focused over Hilary, who simply harrumphed.
"This girl… She is giving me a bad vibe… Take more caution when dealing with her," in one of the rarest moments, Hilary showed care for the jumper.
Damn bastard! You should be grateful that my girl was worried about your life.
"Keep your nose out of my business," and that was how he would repay kindness. What a jerk! Not even saying a thank you or anything like that.
"Anyway go down and start arranging your forces," I didn't say this just to the jumper but also to Hilary, "or else you'll end up with nothing."
"What about her? Are you going to let her have an army?" Hilary asked and for the first time ever, the jumper nodded in agreement with her point of view.
"Let her be for now," after all these humans and Bulltors were attached to me with loyalty contracts. So even if she tried something funny, it wouldn't do much harm. "But keep an eye over her for me from now on."
"Ok."
Despite I said this to the jumper, Hilary also responded at the same breath as him.
I watched the two descend while Hilary looked back in reluctance. She seemed to want to stay with me for much longer, but chick… This wasn't the time yet to have such fun.
"I want to know what happened to my girl," as the place returned calm, with only Lily and her Hector elites standing in silence at one corner, I spoke to my gods. "Those who are following her channel… Can you help me out here?"
[Few gods acknowledges your worries]
[Some spoke and said that there was a strange incident she was exposed to]
[Few gods are saying that a star beam descended from the sky and hit her]
[These gods says that after this she became a totally different person]
"A star beam? You mean the angelic star weapon?" I muttered in doubt. According to my knowledge, if she got attacked like this she could have her way out of trouble easily.
But that didn't seem to happen.
[Few gods are saying that she got hit, then the beam vanished in few minutes revealing the new her]
She didn't teleport away, which was something weird indeed. I thought about what these gods just said. It wasn't something normal indeed.
She held the power to teleport away to safety. Plus if she took the direct hit from that deadly star beam, how could she be able to survive.
"But… There isn't any star weapon at all!" I looked up at the dim sky and looked around. That infamous red star in the sky wasn't there.
So how come she got attacked with that star beam? Or did that happen before I appeared and destroyed that star weapon?
That must be the case… yet it didn't explain things here. Things felt missing. But I didn't doubt the words of my gods.
After all they were the ones following her.
"Can you keep an eye over her for me, please?" I asked them to spy on her, "if anything weird happened, please inform me instantly about it."
[The gods watching her channel are growing in number]
[Many gods are now starting to focus over her channel]
[They say if anything weird happened, they'll inform you]
[New gods are joining your channel]
[This spying mission is something many gods are expecting great and interesting things from]
Those gods… They were just following anything with amusement like this.
Anyway, as they were going to help, I wouldn't have anything to comment about.
I just didn't want a bad thing to occur. In the end she was my girl, until a few days ago when she changed.
I walked to the edge of my chariot and watched her from a distance. She was acting normal, selecting her new troops as everyone else.
"She is in trouble?" As I was absorbed in watching her, the voice of Lily who dared to step forward and stand by my side came to jolt me awake and distract me from my thoughts.
"I believe so," I nodded while looking at her eyes. She wasn't bad, if I ignored all these fine scales covering her big face.
"Why not kill her then?" she suddenly said such dangerous words.
"No way," I firmly shook my head, "I don't kill my people."
"But she is dangerous to you, right?" she blinked, as if she found my logic to be hard to accept.
"She… Was my girl," I turned away from her eyes. Just looking at her eyes and then at her face made me feel two opposite feelings at the same time, "I can't let my girl down this path."
"You are kind to your people," she said as if this was something bad.
"I just can't accept to fall in my enemy's scheme."
"Interesting theory," she paused for a few minutes, "but I like it. In my world, if you are one of my people, then your reaction would have something totally different."
"I'm not kind in general," I didn't want her to get the wrong impression about me, "but to my close up people I'm kind."
"I hope… that one day I'll be one of those close people to you," she said before hurrying back to stand with her people.
I watched her move away while not knowing if I got her meaning right or not.
"If not for your scales… I have to get used to these," I shook my head in regret. After all, I still found such scales annoying to the eye.
382 Sending Her Away
As she went back, I returned to watch Karoline using my hawk eye skill. She was acting all normal, as if she knew I was watching her moves.
"She… Is acting perfect to be suspicious," I shook my head, cancelled my skill before starting to think about my next move.
Of course there were too many things to do here.
[What are you doing now? Is the battle going good or bad for your side?] I sent this to the two, waiting for their report on their current situation.
I gave them the order before to meet up and work together. If they listened, then they would be in a much better situation.
[We retreated to the city of Columbus at Ohio] Fang sent this, [We are just north from you]
"That bastard… He intentionally did that!" I knew this wasn't just a random coincidence. That dude must have retreated with Wryly and came to the closest city to me.
I was thinking of using them, but he also thought about the same thing. Or perhaps he just read through my line of thoughts, and knew I'd do that.
[That arrogant dude asked me to retreat] the words of Wryly confirmed my guesses, [We were doing fine but he insisted on retreating south and we are now stationed at a city without doing anything]
[There are no enemies there?] I asked before looking around. Of course aside from the Hectors, there wasn't a single enemy here indeed.
That meant that Fang came to a secure place, letting his forces recuperate while using the portals there to replenish his lost forces.
Smart, I had to give a thumb up to him.
He did the perfect move for his own sake, but that also meant we were all blind. The fight at the central zone was ragging hot without any eye for us there to tell us what was going on.
And with that unexpected move from him, I had to rethink all my plans once again.
I depended on these two to give me intel about the situation of the fights in the central zone. I knew Fang must know a thing or two about the situation right now, but it was nearly enough.
In such a situation, I had to fasten up my plans here. I must push forward, move directly to the central zone and claim a territory there before thinking about anything else.
I looked up at my scattered forces here. I told them to have a long time of rest. But it seemed this was going to be something impossible right now.
"And I hoped to think about another technique… Sigh!" I shook my head in a helpless way. I had to give up on doing this for now.
My cultivation was now my biggest weapon, but it needed lots of work indeed. I had to work over expanding my spiritual energy, trying to upgrade its grade and quality. Besides, I needed to think about new techniques.
My recently developed technique was awesome and OP, but that didn't mean I couldn't create versatile techniques to suit different situations.
All of this had to wait, at least until I got done from the great war here.
"And you…" I looked at Lily and others behind. I promised to fetch them back. And I had to do so.
After all, I still haven't received my captured race batch from the green nymph yet. I sighed. It seemed I had to dispatch someone to bring them to my capital.
Wait… If I had to do that then… A thought flashed in my mind.
[Have you done selecting your forces?] As I decided, I sent a message to Karoline.
Karoline had many question marks around her. So it was best to make her stay away from the upcoming fight.
Also when she would be alone, she might be able to expose something that might help me in determining what went wrong with her.
Taking a direct hit from the star beam weapon and not teleporting and still alive? That was a big question mark indeed.
[I've just started]
I knew she wasn't even one fifth of her army.
[That's enough. You'll have to go back to Boston]
[Boston? Right now?!!] I knew this came as a surprise for her. Indeed it was against my plans.
Just her surprise here made me more comfortable about my decision.
[I want you to escort the Hectors here to there] I sent, [Then you come back to act as our reinforcement]
[That… Will I make it?] she sent before adding, [Will my small forces here be enough to make any difference?]
She had a point, but I didn't fall for that.
[You have to do it for now. As for your forces, I'll make them join the jumper for now. Once you come back, you'll gain them]
Of course this was a way to tie her up with the jumper. Also I preferred to leave most of her forces with the jumper.
[Are you sure about that?]
[It's a must, and you are the only one that I can depend on for this]
[Are you sure?]
Yes, she was indeed different. The old Karoline would have simply agreed.
[It's an order] as he left me no other choice but to lean in such a way, I didn't hesitate to show her my other side, [I'm sending Hector's down. Don't be late]
I first sent a message to the jumper, notifying him about this arrangement. Then I looked back at Lily and motioned for her to come.
"You are going to do this…"
I started to tell her what I was going to do here. I told her that I was sending them back to my capital as promised, and also added a few instructions for her to understand the current situation.
"I understand," her face changed back to her normal serious self, "depend on me on this."
"Cool," I nodded while watching her moving down with her elites. The next ten minutes the chariot got emptied from all the Hectors, who stood in a place not far from my chariot.
383 Hunting In Dirty Waters
Karoline couldn't say no or stall any longer. As Lily led her Hectors down my chariot, Karoline came with a dejected look over her face.
It seemed she placed great importance in taking part in the upcoming fight. One way or another, this arrangement was for the best for all of us.
I didn't want to end up having to kill her.
I stood on top of my chariot, waved to the marching away Karoline and Lily. Karoline didn't spare me a glance, while Lily waved at me in a weird way.
This girl gave me the impression she was waving at her man or something before going to war. Damn! Did she think of me in the same way or what?
Anyway, I closed this page for now while depending on my gods to keep a good eye over her.
[Be ready] I sent over to my team, [We are going to march out for war soon]
[Aren't we supposed to wait?]
[Right now, boss?]
[What changed?]
All asked, all but the jumper. That dude already was chatting with me about Karoline and this arrangement. He got to know about what happened just minutes ago.
He knew about Fang's unexpected move, and he even laughed at me for that.
I explained the current situation in short words. After that I left them to get done with their forces while I started arranging things with Fang and Wryly.
[Tell me what do you know about the current situation in the war zone] I sent this to these two, but I knew only Fang would be the one to give me real and valuable intel out of the two.
[All races are fighting there, even humans] Fang's first response was something that surprised me.
Humans? Again? What went wrong with my weak humans? Weren't we supposed to be pushovers and the weak link in this apocalypse?
[Which forces do these humans belong to?] I thought about that bastard who publicly challenged me. Yet his forces were in the West, far away from here.
If that was true, then that meant there was a new player in this region. Impressive thought indeed that I hardly believed.
[I don't know for sure, but they came from the north, marched and evaded many cities until they stopped at Iowa. They are fighting efficiently and maintaining good control over their current territory. But that won't last for long as many dragon and Selvator archlords are going to there now]
[They want to kill them?]
[You can't blame them, having a troublesome human is enough to make them not want others]
[Don't blame me for being outstanding] I rolled my eyes, [So they are going to kill my humans?]
[Don't tell me you are going to help!]
[I don't know how they do that] I was slightly worried about my human race indeed. But these humans came here knowing about my presence in the area and never thought about getting in contact with me.
As other races had their differences and conflicts, I couldn't speak differently about humans.
Until they'd prove they weren't enemies, I'd not move proactively to their aid.
[Then…]
[If many are going to hunt them down, that means their areas will be left unguarded, right?]
[They have a temporary ceasefire between the two races] he sent before adding, [That agreement is done on paragon level. I cant breach it]
[You can't, but who said I can't?] I smirked evilly.
[You mean…]
[They are going after my humans, so it's normal for me to come at them, right?] I knew as I was out of the picture and getting crushed by Hectors, other races forgot temporarily about me.
This looked like a golden chance to make the headache I caused to them return again and in such a fierce and deadly blow. [Tell me all about their territories. We'll hit there first]
[We? Don't include me in this madness!]
[Who said there are only Dragons and Selvators in this area? Aren't there Berserkers and Hectors? Or even those good for nothing cowards?]
He paused and I knew he had a choice to make here. If he strictly followed the orders of his paragon, then he would be limited greatly in this fight.
It was apparent that his paragon shifted his interest away from him. If he didn't show his worth and retaliate, then he would end up losing too much to recover from.
But that also was risky. If his paragon treated this as a defiance to his orders, then all his effort would go in vain.
[I can only help against other races, not these two] he finally made the right and wisest choice here.
[I'll make sure your boys won't have a single moment of rest] I was happy with his decision, [Just make sure you'll tolerate fighting against other races on your own]
[I'm not that weak, pal!]
[Ok, let's talk business then… Send me the details about the entire region of these forces. Send me everything you know about their numbers, defences, cities controlled, and their neighbouring forces]
[Ok…]
He started sending long messages that I temporarily neglected. I checked Wryly's messages, and as expected… That dude knew nothing much about the real situation there.
Yet he told me valuable info about the movements of other Berserker's archlords in this area.
One of them was stationed just north of the area controlled by the temporarily allied Dragons and Selvators.
He also sent me news about Hectors. They controlled the Tennessee state, just south of all this mess.
They seemed to wait like wolves, waiting for all this dust to settle before jumping in.
According to his paragon's words, there was a coalition force from two mighty paragons there. He also warned Wryly to get involved with these two as they were much stronger than any current paragon here.
Well… I already faced and defeated two of their paragons, even killed one and looted his forces and inventory from him.
But that didn't mean I'd underestimate this coalition. I got lucky that these two paragons got their eyes focused on me and were rash.
These two paragons weren't. They were biding their time, building up their forces and arranging their forces.
Such meticulous minds were so damn hard to deal with, especially if coupled with justified strength and wealth.
384 Preparing To Go For War
As I learnt about this, I placed one goal above anything else. "I have to lure these two outside their lair," I muttered to myself, thinking about this crucial move.
Leaving the two Hector paragons to build up power and arrange themselves? That looked threatening, especially when I planned to control a zone close to them.
If they were left untouched, all of this would be meaningless. But how to lure such two dragons down their forts? The idea looked interesting, but executing it… It would be near impossible.
Hectors were a race that gathered all the good traits of any race I heard about. They were smart, cautious, and not that impulsive.
"What do I know about them that can force them to leave their places and come to me?" I asked myself this question while looking at the messages Fang sent.
As Wryly said, Fang confirmed it. There was one of the Berserkers archlord stationed near the coalition forces of Selvators and Dragons. He also spoke more about the forces of Hectors at Tennessee, making me get deeper insights about this grand army.
The Hectors controlled that area fully. They were now using all the portals to bring a large number of forces, even enslaved races to there.
They were biding their time and gathering up their forces, a bad news indeed.
But just reading these messages gave me an idea.
"Oh… That might work," I didn't hesitate to open a chat message with Lily. Before she left, I added her as a friend to be able to chat with her easily like this.
[Yes, we place a very great importance over this matter] and her simple response made me heave a deep sigh of relief.
What I thought about… It could be done!
"Great," I closed the chat with her before opening Fang's, [You are going to hit that Berserker archlord forces]
[What about that idiotic berserker? Will he join me?]
[No, he will come with me] I knew Wryly held a deep grudge against Selvators thanks to how Fang treated him.
So it just worked perfectly when I thought about giving him such a chance to vent his anger and hatred over Selvators.
And Dragons just came as a bonus.
[Are you sure this is enough?] Fang seemed sceptical about this plan, [You know there are two vicious beasts lurking in silence, waiting for an opportunity]
[Leave them to me] I vaguely said, [I know what I'm going to do with them]
[It's your call. But if things went south, I'll just retreat]
[It's fine. Just be sure to not move slowly when the time is right]
[Humph]
I closed the chat with him before telling Wryly the good news.
[I'm ready, tell me when and where and I'll come] As expected, that dude was so eager to fight the Selvators and Dragons.
[Aren't you worried?]
[Worried? Hell, these two races are too arrogant, thinking of themselves as the true rulers of this apocalypse. It will be a great chance to let me knock some sense back in their thick skulls]
Dude… I don't know who had the thicker skull here, them or you. [Cool, start moving in two hours. We will gather up at my current city]
[Ok. I'll start getting ready then]
Fang was going to move after the two of us. I didn't know how much of their forces were up there, but I hoped there would be enough.
Alright, things were just getting in shape at the moment.
According to Fang, the big fights were going between the human forces and the coalition army of Selvators and Dragons, and one was happening between Dragons, Selvators, Berserkers, and Hectors at Wisconsin and Michigan.
My aim was to break that coalition force in the south, and break out an open war between all races like what was going on in the north.
Then I'd force my way and claim as many territories as possible, while luring the two Hectors out of Tennessee.
The target was Illinois. I looked at the drawn map on my chariot, thinking about the best route to take.
The easiest was to head West directly through Ohio and Indiana. But that would put us close to the northern battles at Michigan.
If we took a more southern route at Kentucky, we would be under the threat of those Hectors at Tennessee. So the best option was to move at the borders of Ohio and Indiana from north and Kentucky at south.
This way we'd have more buffer lands between any big forces in this region.
But the problem was in that zone. The area spanned for a long distance, shared with three states, and had many variables there.
I didn't believe these forces were fighting like this without spreading their eyes around. Just look at Fang. he seemed to be exiled by his paragon and yet he got the detailed news about each forces' current movements and locations.
That was enough to tell me the moment we'd move out, everyone would hear about us.
Who would be tempted to come and target us? Would we be able to stop such an attack?
According to that map, the big city of Kentucky was Frankfort. But the road to it wasn't safe. The region I worried most about was a triangular zone between the three states, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio.
In fact these states shared a tripod shaped border, leaving me slightly worried about taking a route through there. Yet other routes were more risky, getting my forces closer to either of the big armies at north or south.
I hoped my news wouldn't spread so fast. During the next couple hours, I watched my team arrange their forces. I sent messages to everyone, asking them to send back those MIT and genius minds who were supposed to work over modifications of human weaponry.
I didn't send them with Karoline, as I planned something different for her.
[We are ready]
[Ready?]
[We are ready to roll]
[My forces are ready]
I got messages one by one from my team, and we only waited for Wryly's forces.
[Where are you dude?]
[Just half an hour away] he sent back, making me wait for ten minutes before the early forces of his started to appear at the horizon.