385 You Are A Hot Cake
"He came in a big army… Great!" Just from the look of the vanguard, I could tell he brought a very large army here. I waited for half an hour before he came to my chariot, leading a group of ten thousand elites.
"We finally met, my dear bro," once he boarded the chariot, he came to give me a greeting. He grabbed my two arms with his, making me feel the pressure he exerted unintentionally.
But I wasn't the old weak self. I had my cultivation already opened. It wasn't as high as his, but that gave me a slight backing against his strength.
"It was hectic," I said with a warm smile, "are you ready?"
"At your order."
He moved to stand by my right while I decided to keep my boys down below. The army size this time was really massive, exceeding millions.
[Let's move out] I sent to all of them before turning to him, "let's start rolling then."
"Go," he just said a single word before his elites spread the word. In the next hour, I stayed behind while watching the grand army spreading its wings all over the world up front.
"Where are we heading first?" he asked when my chariot started moving.
"We are going to scout the area up front," I said, "we will go to Frankfort city, but we might get ambushed along the way."
"By whom?" he asked in doubt, and I shrugged.
"I dunno… Perhaps… Everyone?"
"I don't care," he harrumphed, "my paragon started to give me a cold shoulder recently. The words coming from his close circle says he isn't as excited to work with me as before. I want to prove him wrong here."
Wryly wasn't like Fang, that dude was always direct and straight. I nodded in understanding, looked at the horizon while my chariot crossed most of the grand army down below.
In less than half an hour, we passed the frontlines of our army. From there, there was only my chariot and nothing else.
The world was in a state of ruins and desolation like what I used to see. According to the map I had, I went towards that triangular area first.
On the way there, I passed over many towns and a few cities. Yet I didn't care about these. After all with my current army, dealing with the forces was a breath.
But that also made me know the news would spread fast to every camp here. I hoped the enemies would place more importance over ending their current battles than coming for my head.
I just wanted to slip through this long road until reaching my desired target. If I got distracted in the middle, I wouldn't only lose time but I'd also be strangled against a force or two, giving the opportunity for more to join later on.
Just as I flew for almost an hour, I reached that place.
There was a city there, one that stood with many ruins, portals, and castles. I could see many races in there, and they seemed to have reached an agreement.
They weren't fighting, seemingly leaving the fight for the big names of their races elsewhere.
This city was the last bordering city of West Virginia. Up to north of it there was Ohio's lower border, separated from West Virginia by a river.
[Bad news! Bad news!]
Just as I reached this city, the first thing I got was a distressing message from Fang.
Fang was moving already behind us, leaving a distance in between our two forces.
[What?] I hated it when he brought bad news in such a way. Dude, if you had anything to say, just tell it directly. For a moment there I felt he was enjoying bringing such bad news to me.
[You are a hot cake bro, all races are breaking free from their fights and going as fast as they could towards you] what he said made me startled.
I expected a force or two to come at me, but it seemed I jinxed myself when I said to Wryly that we'll wait for everyone.
[From which direction?] I knew there were four hot zones in the big map. So which zone was coming at me right now was the question.
[Till now the northern forces fighting at Michigan are coming at you. I also got the news that the ones fighting at Wisconsin are also preparing to come at you if you managed to survive this]
[We'll survive]
[Don't group me with the likes of you. You are like a bad news magnet dude!]
[Just take a detour] I didn't comment on his coward decision, [I'll handle this]
[How?]
[I wanted someone to keep certain people busy] I evilly smirked, [and they just offered themselves to me like this]
I then closed the chat with Fang, ignoring what he said next. I knew he wouldn't say anything new, and would just keep asking about my next move.
[We are going south] I sent this to everyone before turning to Wryly and said, "order your boys to go south with my forces."
"South? Why?" his eyes shone brightly when he heard that. This dude was really a war lover, one who would act like crazy in front of big battles.
I briefed him about what happened while his elites distributed the word. As I left him burning in desire to fight, I took out my staff and marked this location.
"Make sure our forces are moving fast," I gave this order to him before spreading it to my boys.
We had to catch up speed if we wanted to outrun the incoming armies.
According to the big map I had, these forces had to pass through Ohio entirely to come to me.
And by going south, I entered Kentucky and placed another state in between the two of us.
"Aren't we going too close to those Hectors?" Even if Wryly loved wars, he wasn't this fool to seek a fight against such a deadly enemy.
386 Don't Forget About Me, Please!
Going through Kentucky brought us too close from the Hector forces at Tennessee. If other races got a whim about my current place and destination, then it was logical to assume Hectors also had the same tip.
"Just make sure our boys will evade any town and city," I found lots of towns stretching in this state, even more than any other state I visited recently. "I don't want them to get entangled with anything to delay our advance."
"Ok," Wryly seemed to want to ask about something but he refrained.
In fact I wanted to create a buffer zone as large as possible before my army would pass. The army size was the problem, and they were moving at a slow pace till now.
I didn't want to push them to run, as I didn't want to exhaust them early on. But right now we had no other choice but to do that.
After half an hour of flying, Wryly seemed to notice the direction I was heading to.
"Isn't this… A little too close to the south?" he asked and I nodded.
"Make the army keep pushing to the West from now on," I said, "we have something else to do."
"Are you sure?" Wryly sniffed that I was going to do something crazy.
"Don't tell me you are afraid!" I looked at him in doubt and he shrugged.
"Just fighting big battles makes me excited. But we are moving away from the army."
"We'll return to them, don't worry," I reassured him, "but this will be a little risky. If you don't want to, then you can just go with the army."
"I…" he hesitated for a long moment before shaking his head without adding any more words.
He made up his mind to stay here and help me in whatever I was going to do.
In fact I was going to risk doing something bold and crazy. But it was the only thing I had to make a change to this battle.
The crucial step wasn't related to me, it was related to the army. If the army couldn't run away fast enough, then everything I'd do here would turn up against me.
[Tell me you already crossed half of Kentucky] after another hour I sent the jumper.
[I'm staying behind] he sent this weird message, [I sent most of the army to the centre of Kentucky as you asked]
[Then… What are you doing?]
[I'm setting an ambush to the incoming forces]
That dude… He wanted to act as a decoy. Did he have zero trust in my plans or what?
[Ok, you can set up an ambush at the triangular area between the three states] I could only sigh and resign to his desire. If he wanted to fight, then I'd say no to another helping hand here indeed.
I already stopped my chariot in an area that wasn't that far from the southern borders of Kentucky with Tennessee. I looked up at the lands here, feeling it was wide enough and suitable for my next move.
[Where are the enemy? Where are you now?] but before doing anything, I first contacted Fang. That dude was like my eyes over the incoming army.
[They are in Ohio. They moved to West Virginia direction first before changing it to head towards Kentucky]
[How long before they would arrive?]
[Almost an hour or two before crossing Kentucky border]
[And you?]
[I'm staying back in West Virginia for now] he paused for a long moment while I was sending another message to someone, [Do you need my help?]
[I want you to move to the south of West Virginia] I thought before adding, [Be ready to invade Tennessee]
[What the hell…?!!!]
I knew what I said didn't make any sense to him. But I knew what I was talking about.
[You are aware that that state is controlled by them, right?]
[Just go and be ready to move when I give the signal] I didn't explain much as another message came from the person I just messaged.
"Great," I read that message and grinned evilly. From the side I could see Wryly standing in hesitation, wanting to ask but refraining from doing so.
"Do you want to go south as well?" as I closed the chat with Fang, I turned to Wryly.
"It's suicidal," Wryly muttered, "but all this time I knew you, I know you won't do anything without a reason. Tell me… Is there a sort of miracle you are planning to create here?"
"Indeed," I only nodded and his expression turned more serious.
"Then let my boys also fight for such a chance."
"Are you sure?" I didn't agree at once.
"I can't let that arrogant dude take all the credit for himself."
"But it won't be an easy fight," I warned him, "Hectors aren't pushovers, you know that, right?"
"If you trust Fang's ability to do it, then I as a berserker won't see myself not able to do it."
"Ok," under his burning gaze I couldn't say no. In fact what he proposed worked best in my favour. "Go now, join with your forces at the southern west border of Kentucky. Wait there and when the time is right, I'll send you the signal."
"Don't forget me, please," he seemed on the verge of pleading here, "my paragon isn't putting his trust in me. Such a battle will bring his attention back to me."
I looked up at him, stepped up a few steps before patting him on the arm. "I want you to aim higher. Take down all the other archlords and make them pale in comparison to you."
"But…"
I knew he lacked any trust about his chances in keeping his post. But I had to think much further than this.
Fang and Wryly were like my own arms and legs in their races. At this moment they weren't up to much. But after a year? And with my constant support from the shadows? They'd both turn into mighty figures in their races.
Even becoming paragons wouldn't be an overstatement. I had to plan this far, as when they'd be paragons, I'd have more support from them than now.
Then I'd help them to control their entire races here, leaving only the Dragons and those uninvited Hectares to remain here.
387 All Are Coming At Me
The fight here was just a stepping stone to achieve this goal.
Even if there were many players here, it only made the stage bigger. The bigger the stage, the better the taste of victory would be.
Also this battle here would prove without any room of doubt how valuable these two would be to their paragons. Ascending another step even wouldn't be something impossible.
I watched the excited Wryly leave my chariot fast with his elites, going in fast steps towards the West. One spear from East and another from West… The trap was already set.
[Stay south of Frankfort and wait for my orders] I sent to all the teammates, [We'll go south when the time is right]
I came here first with the intention of going West as fast as possible. But in the end I had to adjust these plans.
According to Fang, if we just bypassed this army here, we'd be faced with another. I knew the different race archlords placed a great toll of price over my head.
I didn't mind any bounty indeed. In fact this was something to make me feel proud of. But Just rushing the army away from this army would end up entangling with a bigger army.
And there was guarantee that the coalition army of Selvators and Dragons wouldn't turn their blades and aim these at me.
There was only one way out of here, and that was by turning my army into a merciless grinding machine. Anything thrown at it must be killed and cleared first before taking a further step forward.
I stood in my place without any intention of moving. If I thought for a second that the Hectors weren't' spying on me, then I'd be greatly mistaken.
After all, what separated me from them was less than fifty miles, a small distance to any army without doubt.
"Hmm… Staying here without doing anything is really boring," I sat over the extended arm of one of the Gollams while eating and drinking.
From time to time I'd check over the general moves of my forces and the enemies. As Fang said, the enemy army took almost two hours to reach the lower borders of Ohio.
But they didn't move towards the direction of my forces at Frankfort. For a reason they moved directly towards me.
"I knew they'd come at me," when I read that warning message from Fang about their change of direction, I only grinned.
Even Fang knew where I was. Then it was safe to assume that the incoming army was also aware of that.
According to Fang, this big army was a mix between all the five races, led by six archlords. Berserkers sent two archlords here, seeming to place a great importance over Michigan.
Michigan in itself wasn't that special, but as it was situated near my territory to the East and away from the mess at the centre, its location was indeed special.
Per Fang's words, each archlord brought at least two hundred thousand of his forces here, leaving also the same forces up there.
"Even when they decided to work together against me, they still kept their forces in the north fighting? That's hilarious! What kind of an alliance is this?"
When I read what Fang said, I couldn't help but laugh. They brought close to one million and half forces to face my over three million forces.
Were they underestimating me or what?
From the surface, I got the upper hand here. But something told me they weren't just depending on their forces alone to crush me.
If the numbers were close, then I'd say they'd depend on their strength and higher cultivation. But There was a big gap, making me look in another direction.
"The other two armies are too far away from here," I muttered before looking in a fixed way towards the south, "so the only explanation here is they had an agreement with them… Interesting…"
This came to disturb my plans slightly. I planned this based on the enmity between all the forces here. But if they were on the same line, this might prove a little risky and hard to execute.
Anyway I already went this far over my plan. I had no back up, and had only to keep pushing forward.
[They are less than twenty miles away]
As I was lost in my thoughts about how to execute this, Fang's words came to jolt me awake.
[Where are you now?]
[I'm at Virginia, waiting for your signal]
[Be prepared] I paused, [This is going to be a really rough ride]
[Just don't throw me in front of those big dudes without a plan]
[Don't be a coward]
I knew he was teasing me nothing more. If he wasn't trusting me in this plan, he wouldn't have listened to me and moved his army to be stationed there.
[The Hectors are also gathering] he sent in warning, [But they are slightly away from your side, seemingly preparing to attack your big forces at Frankfort]
[Ok]
I expected them to do that. After all, I was standing alone, away from my forces. If I had to survive this attack, I had to run away and join my forces at Frankfort.
So the Hectors moved in advance, to intercept me from running away.
Well… Just seeing how the big map was unfolding in such a way just to trap me in here made me laugh. I might have done lots of damage to many races… Well to all of them actually.
Dragons… Berserkers… Selvators… Succubus… Illusionists… And even Hectors… All tasted bitter defeats and major losses on my hands.
It was something I didn't regret. After all, being unique and outstanding didn't come without paying a price, a hefty one indeed.
"Alright, it's just about time," in less than five minutes, the vanguard forces appeared from the front, making me grin.
"Let's start step one… Come out!"
*Bang!*
The first thing I used was my pillar, the one I got from the Hectors. It came out in a loud bang and in such threatening demeanour in front of all the incoming forces.
388 Thundering Might Pillar Skill
The pillar extended for a long distance towards the sky. Just as I summoned it out, I used the shield skill at once without any delay, the Thundering Might skill.
And in the next few minutes, the dim sky started to shine under the effect of the pillar. A dome shaped shield appeared, surrounding an area of ten miles radius around me.
I knew my chariot's shield was going to take lots of damage, so I decided to start up using this strong shield.
As the shield appeared, the forces coming here seemed to be startled. Their first reaction was by trying and testing this shield.
The shield wasn't just protecting me, it also shielded me from their eyes. So they lost track of what I was doing inside.
The shield expanded with each passing minute until it clashed with the incoming forces. Like it was a gigantic shovel, it kept sweeping the enemies and pushing them further away without any exception.
The size of the vanguard forces wasn't small. At least a couple hundred thousand forces were coming at me, only to be stopped by my shield.
"It's good," as the shield started to absorb the energy of the world and expand, I looked in satisfaction towards this. The shield was enough to give them a scare and keep them busy for now.
But I didn't depend only on that. As I called back my pillar, I stored it away for now. The next step wasn't for me to do it, but for someone else.
[Are you ready?] I sent and waited patiently for her answer.
[I've done as you asked… But this will consume more energy from my side. Are you sure about this?]
[Don't worry, I'll give you ten bones once this is done]
[You are really generous… Tell me you don't need a girl by your side?]
[I got so many to make me sleep well at night] I rolled my eyes, [Send the first batch here in five minutes]
[Great]
I was speaking with the green winged nymph lady. As for what I asked her about, it was to organise something she gathered up before for me.
Once I closed the chat with her, I knew it was time for me to make the next step. The enemy forces were trying their best to crack open my shield, making me nod in satisfaction.
So far they were just working as I expected.
*Fwoosh!*
Just in the middle of their berserk attacks, my chariot moved fast and away. They were already surrounding my shield, but their number in the southern regions wasn't that good as other parts.
As I went out, the forces here stopped attacking instantly. The shield of mine was so huge, it covered my chariot from the eyes of other forces.
But in less than five minutes, all the forces here stopped attacking my shield and started to run after me. Of course my chariot speed was something they couldn't match.
And with the delay and difference in their responses, big gaps appeared between many of their forces.
"Attack," I finally had a chance to get rid of many of them. My fallen gods were my reaping death scythes. Their attacks landed and swept clean lots of lives.
What helped was the scattered pattern of these forces. They were in many groups, running without much order or organisation at all.
Just in the next ten minutes, I cleaved lots of lives. When the scattered groups were forced to group themselves together, I took out my pillar and started using the skill again.
[Do you want to pay one hundred thousand souls to reuse the pillar Thundering Might skill again?]
[Pay!]
The skill I was using was once in a day free time use. But if I wanted to use it again, I had to pay a certain price or conquer a new city and use it over this city.
As I lacked any cities around here, and had no time to do it, I had to pay such a price.
But that didn't make me worry. After all, just during the past few minutes I gained over fifty thousand souls thanks to my fallen gods.
If not for their merging together and stopping chasing after me for a few minutes, I'd have claimed enough souls to use this skill for free.
Anyway I only looked at all these millions as my own souls. As I paid the price, the pillar shook and extended towards the sky once more, giving the incoming forces a scare.
And that wasn't all.
The shield this time was activated when many of them were closer to me than before.
That made almost a hundred thousand of them get into my shield without their agreement. As my shield was formed, any other forces coming here were fiercely stopped and pushed backwards without any mercy.
[Send another batch!] as I gained back my pillar, I instantly controlled my chariot and went out from the West side. As for those hundred thousand forces, I knew their souls were going into my account soon.
"There!"
"Kill that bastard!"
"Bring him down!"
As I went out so soon this time, the forces who were about to arrange themselves and attack the shield had to break up again and ran after me.
The sight of losing their friends in the shield in such a way made them all hectic. This time they didn't listen to any orders from their generals, just kept coming at me even in groups with few numbers to have less than a hundred members in each.
But I didn't show any mercy to them. I just kept moving in big circles, hitting and killing all those crazy forces until a big army arrived.
[Do you want to pay one hundred thousand souls to reuse the pillar Thundering Might skill again?]
"Pay!"
Another use and another pay of a hundred thousand souls. Just as I did this couple more times, the next thing I got was a message from Fang.
389 The Trap Is Ready
[What are you doing exactly there?]
[What?] I didn't get what he wanted to say.
[You made the Hectors start moving in your direction at full speed! That's unheard of before, dude! What are you doing exactly?]
[Hahaha, so they are coming?] I asked, [All of them?]
[As far as I know, yes… But this isn't something for you to be happy about. They are led by their two paragons]
[I already killed two of these useless worms before] I laughed while initiating another shield, [How many are there in their territory?]
[Not few or much… But don't expect me to move when their two paragons are nearby!]
[Just get ready, the hour is drawing near] I didn't explain anything while feeling much thrilled by what I just read.
[Also the other half of their army has stopped fighting and is moving at your direction] he sent another interesting piece of news before adding one more, [And the other army at Wisconsin is now marching through the west borders of Indiana, getting closer to you as well]
[Let them come] my eyes shone in challenge, [The more the merrier]
[You are crazy, you do know that, right?]
[Dude, luck favours only the brave]
[The living brave, not the dead fools]
[That's debatable] I laughed, [stay ready anyway and let me handle this madness on my own]
As I closed the chat with him, I sent another message to Wryly, asking him to get ready to move.
Then I sent messages to all of my boys and girls, alarming them about the approaching armies.
The one from Michigan wasn't a problem, but the one from Wisconsin was.
Indiana shared borders with Ohio and Kentucky. If the army decided to join forces with the upcoming one from the north, then they'd bypass my army.
But if they decided to move in a separate way, blocking any path of retreat over me and my forces, then another big battle would start there.
After warning them, I also stressed over not moving anywhere until I give the orders for so.
[What about me?] the jumper asked, [shall I attack the incoming army?]
[You are going to work as a sweeper]
[What?]
[When the forces break and start to run, it's your responsibility to let none live, understand?]
[This…]
I knew my words might seem crazy, but I knew this role was something crucial.
This fight was one against many archlords of different races. Their armies weren't together to begin with. So if any army broke and ran away, it would be threatening to let those routed troops survive.
As they'd just return back with another army stationed nearby.
So I had to kill anyone running away. As my forces at Frankfort were going to have a bad fight against the incoming army from Wisconsin, Fang and Wryly preparing to move deep into the Hectors' zone at Tennessee, then I had only the jumper left.
I knew he wouldn't agree easily. In the next ten minutes he kept arguing and I kept my answer the same.
[Your role here is very important to our win]
I kept repeating the same answer until he grew tired from arguing with me.
During this I kept using my pillar's Thundering Might skill, paying each time one hundred thousand souls. I spent close to a million so far, and I didn't intend to stop.
[The Hectors are less than fifty miles away] but at this moment, Fang sent in a warning. Fifty miles… That meant they were just at the border between the two states here.
It was almost time for me to pull the final curtain off the stage I was preparing all this time.
I established ten shields around, scattered in random shape but if one saw it from high enough, he would know this wasn't random at all.
I arranged them in a big circle, provided that these shields would merge together. Just seeing their arrangement from high in the air made me feel quite satisfied.
I just placed the tenth shield and then stood high in the air and waited. The shields didn't yet merge together as I spread them over a large distance. The central zone was void of any shield, but it was getting filled with few troops every now and then.
"Keep it clean," each time a force trespassed here I'd send my boys to kill them. I needed this place to be empty, for the last and final act.
[They are moving in your direction, thirty miles] Fang kept updating me with the movements of the Hectors.
For a reason, these dudes waited half an hour before starting to march at me. During this, I kept hunting the forces around when I got bored.
"It's time then," without any hesitation I started to descend my chariot in the centre of this empty zone.
And with that, many forces around me got tempted with my descent. The next few minutes I saw lots of forces passing through the gaps between the shields and getting at me.
"Don't hit them too hard," I gave the order, "I don't want to scare them away."
My boys listened to my orders and started to use simple attacks this time. They killed a lot, but many more got the courage and thought I ran out of energy or got tired or something.
The area in between the shields was over twenty miles in radius. And in less than half an hour, it got swarmed with lots of enemies.
[They arrived at your place] and at this moment, just as my preparations were finished, the final star of the show appeared.
"It's time," I evilly grinned while watching my shield absorbing endless attacks coming from all the enemies around. [Send the rest here, send them now]
[As you wish]
The next instant three things happened. First I rose up with my chariot, getting away from all the attacks from below.
Then many portals opened while lots of faces came out from them. They were all covered in fine scales, with colours ranging from blue, red, and green.
"Ahhh!"
390 Kill The Hectors!
And with their sudden appearance in the open like this, I heard an earth shattering scream coming from nothing else but the direction of the incoming Hector army.
The portals gushed out lots of Hector people, ones that brought this disaster in the first place to my world.
The Hectors joined my apocalypse in response to the lady nymph's actions before. She got lots of Hectors and news spread back to their leaders.
A human called Hye was amassing and hunting their people. The predators turned into preys, and the weak race of humans turned into such a deadly hunter.
When I thought first about how to drive those Hectors away from their den, and force them to move as I wanted, one thing popped in my mind back then.
That incident.
The Hectors responded in such a fierce way as to invade my apocalypse like this. It was easy to guess how immense the price they paid was.
In the end that proved to me one thing; that race had an ego to protect regarding their people.
So I contacted the lady, asked her to arrange the forces she captured and separate the Hectors in one group.
She managed to get as large as five hundred thousand of them so far. I asked her to arrange them into twenty groups, each roughly twenty thousand.
As I created the shields, I released one group inside. The Hectors were all bound to me by loyalty contracts, so they had to listen to all my orders.
I only have one each time, kill!
They were an arrogant race, with such superiority over other races to make them feel invincible. Turning such people to follow someone like me, someone who was of a lowly race they used to enslave, made them all angry.
So even if there were only twenty thousand of them, they could easily kill the hundred thousand enemies entrapped inside any shield.
And now? I released the rest of Hectors in the mid zone. As I rose high up in the air, I gave the same order again.
"Kill everyone, leave none alive!"
Of course they were facing up against many races here, the five big races of my apocalypse, but they didn't show any inferiority to that.
In fact once they appeared, a big massacre happened.
Yet that wasn't what I wanted.
What I wanted from all this was to let those two paragons lose their minds and step into my trap here.
It happened much faster than I expected. I thought the Hectors would take time before they'd realise the presence of their people here.
But it happened so damn fast, even before my chariot reached a high point in the sky.
That mighty roaring scream came not from one person, but from an entire army. As I saw from high up there, I saw the Hectors leading their army forward, ignoring anything else and started to force their way through the dense forces here.
They wanted to save their people, but to do so they had to fight those who were entangled with their kin.
In simple words, I devised this trap here to force the fight between the five races and Hectors. There was no time for any side to negotiate or talk peace here.
With each passing second, more Hectors were dying in the hands of the other races. And with the constantly expanding shields, the gaps of retreat were growing thin, leaving no room for these forces to break free from this.
They were all trapped in what one could describe as a big valley in the mountains. The entry and exit were thin and narrow, not enough to let these forces retreat fast enough.
Even if the archlords of their races told them to not fight, the Hectors I brought gave them no chance to do so.
After all they were bound by my contract and their anger, releasing everything on the faces of those useless and meaningless races around them.
Arrogance… I played over this feature of this race to bring them down. And it worked!
The hectors coming from outside were mad. Of course I didn't do any of this before asking Lily first.
As she confirmed this to me, I had much relief and more confidence in doing this.
I did nothing else but watch. I already did my part and all that was left here for the trap to close up.
The shields were still expanding as they absorbed the energy of the world. At some point I knew they'd merge. After all that came in the description of that skill.
My aim here wasn't to just lure these forces to hit each other, but to trap the paragons inside the midzone. Like this I'd force the rest of Hector forces to come here like mad dogs. And I'd be a hunter standing over the mountains and hunting them with ease and comfort.
[Damn dude! You are really ruthless!]
As the fight began to expand and all the forces here started to fight the Hectors everywhere, Fang sent this to me.
[I just planned it well] I didn't celebrate early.
[Shall I move out now?]
[Not yet] I waited for this to escalate even further. The Hectors were busy fighting everywhere, but the shields didn't merge yet.
I didn't frankly know if their paragons took the bait and were in the central zone or not.
But I still had two cards left.
"Come into the central zone now!" as the fight in the mid zone was starting to grow calmer with the more Hectors gushing in, I had to stir things up.
As I went through all the ten shields around and gave this order to the remaining Hectors in here, I also sent another to the green nymph lady.
[Send everything you have now]
[All the other races? Are you sure?]
[Send them all!]
[It's your bones, ok]
I just returned to the central zone. The appearance of the new Hectors from all the shields startled those in here.
But just before they could understand what was going on, many portals flashed and lots of different races appeared.
"Kill the Hectors!" and as the new races appeared, the races that lady nymph gathered so far, I gave them this simple order.
391 A Chance To Kill Three Major Armies At One Go
The place was turning into a land of Hectors. But with the appearance of more races in such dense numbers, and alongside my order, a bigger fight started to erupt there.
Massacre? That might be an understatement to say so. It was a brutal fight that just a single swing of any weapon would kill many foes.
It was chaos! Everyone literally started to fight and kill everyone around!
The calmness Hectors was so close to achieving here was lost. They tried to control this mess by pouring more of their forces from outside, using deadly attacks, but no matter what they did they failed.
This was thanks to the huge number of forces that lady stored up for me till now. She said before she had close to ten million of different races.
I knew that many of these races were good and worthy to keep, but I couldn't do that now. I had to only sacrifice them for the first purpose I decided to gather them before; to have many souls.
Of course that wasn't the main reason here, but it was like an extra bonus without doubt.
With each passing minute, chaos kept escalating and not decreasing. No matter how many Hectors sent in or did to control it, the chaos kept getting wider and bigger, even stretching to areas beyond the limits of my shields.
This made the Hectors grow more frantic. And in less than half an hour, I got a message from Fang to confirm my expectations.
[I dunno what magic are you using right now over them, but the Hectors just called most of their forces and even called endless armies of their slaves towards your direction]
[Get ready then] it was almost time, [once they start attacking me, you'll move and hit their rear]
[Attacking the armies?]
[No, take control of the cities and towns first, make sure all the portals are closed and all the castles and emblems are within your control]
[I see… But Tennessee is very large. It will take ten hours or more to cover it with my forces]
[Don't worry, you got help here]
[Damn! That bastard… Bro, did I do anything wrong to you?]
I looked at this shameless dude's message and didn't know if I should laugh or what.
That dude here acted all away from the hot zone, and now he was asking for benefits?
Come on! At least Wryly stuck to my side most of the time until I sent him away.
[We are fighting against time here. Don't forget the races remaining forces are just nearby and another army isn't far away]
[Got it! But promise me to leave the areas I conquer under my control]
[You have my word] I never planned to control Tennessee. It was far away from the region I sat my eyes upon.
[Get ready dude, move out in half an hour]
[Finally!] Unlike Fang, Wryly wasn't as informative about what was going on here.
[Move to the south now] at the same time I didn't let my forces away from this. [Hit all the towns and cities at the central part of Tennessee]
[What about me?] The jumper was seemingly bored and impatient. [Is it my time yet?]
[Give me two hours and you'll get busy later on. Just don't come and complain afterwards]
[Humph, I never complained before]
[Yeah, tell me about it]
I am in a better mood now. Everything I planned for was in the right place. All I needed to do was to wait for my pieces to be in their places before dealing the final blow.
I intended to strip away these Hectors from their bases in the south. Like this they wouldn't be able to get anymore reinforcements except if they worked to gain control of more towns and cities in Kentucky.
With the rapidly approaching remaining half of the first race's army, and with the approach of the other big army, they wouldn't have it nice or easy.
This fight here placed a bloody end for the honeymoon relation between the Hectors and the big five races here. Even if the two paragons ended up escaping, they'd have to deal with the wrath of the other five races before dealing with me.
And who said I'd just let them have their time? I'd force myself all the time from here onwards.
If things went like I planned, then I'd not only end up clearing one big army but three. Then the map would be wide open for me, with only the remaining two big forces of Dragons and Selvators at West as the last obstacle.
Besides a few scattered archlords who didn't have it nice from their paragons just like Fang and Wryly, the map would look a lot empty and much too spacious to accompany all of us.
But who said I was going to divide this region with anyone? After getting rid of these three armies here, I'd expand my forces and work fast with the other two to dominate the rest.
The fate of the other races' scattered archlords was simple, either they'd comply and agree to work under my two loyal dogs or die.
In the end, this entire zone would be totally controlled either by me or by forces following me. As for Wryly and Fang, if these two didn't get promoted after all this, then I'd go and look for their paragons and kill them.
Or they'd better change colours at this point.
Anyway, I estimated the dust of this grand battle to settle in a day or two at max. After that I'd start worrying about how to distribute the spoils of war.
The bloody chaos here didn't show any sign of rest until two hours passed. The portals were still gushing out new forces, and with this the newly arrived forces of Hectors got busy the moment they arrived.
And that wasn't only thanks to my boys here. Just after one hour, the remaining half of the race's army appeared.
392 I Found You!
From the first moment of their arrival, they started to hit the Hector forces with everything they got. The Hectors didn't have any free time until two hours passed.
And with it, the shields started to merge together into one colossal ring of shields.
With this the trap was finally ready. Once that ring appeared, it forcibly separated the forces fighting here into three parts; one in the trapped zone in the shield, one inside the ring, and one outside.
My main focus wasn't over the later two parts. The ones inside the ring were destined to go nowhere. As for the ones outside, they were fighting fervently like they lost all sense.
All races killed each other, in a big brutal battle that spanned a long distance around me.
"Time for me to add more loyal soldiers," as for the one trapped inside, they had one fate to face; my technique!
It was my second time using my technique, but where else would I better use it but here?
The enemies were all busy fighting each other, entrapped by the gigantic ring of shield, with no other place to go at.
This came as a surprise move indeed for the strong ones below. Once I drew that circle once more, drenched my fist with blood while absorbing energy from five bones, threads started to move in fast flashy ways towards the world down below.
And once my threads appeared, they started to control large numbers in a few minutes.
I looked around, at all the numbers fighting here. Few groups started to break free from the fights, seemingly strong enough to control their elites and make a futile attempt outside.
"I got you!" using my hawk eye skill, I kept scanning the area until I found my target. It was one of the two paragons of the Hector race.
I found a few archlords of different races, but didn't find any interest in targeting them for now. I recognized the paragon by the suit he wore and the elites around.
These fine scales were things I'd never miss anywhere.
As I spotted him, I instantly moved towards him. Among all the hundreds of thousands here, this dude here was the most threatening one.
I wanted to get rid of him fast, without him doing anything crazy to change the fate of this battle here.
But just before I'd get near him, he seemed to notice me coming. I saw a strange rod taken out from his inventory before it started to shine in weird silver blue light.
The light expanded and covered the entire area here. But weirdly enough, it didn't extend upwards or in the air, only moving at the ground and enveloping it.
"Die!" without waiting for him to complete whatever he wanted to do, I controlled the threads, forcing many to attack that paragon and his elites.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Crack!* *Crack!*
But just as the threads were spanning wide in his surrounding thousands of elites, the entire ground here shook and exploded in a fierce way.
The explosions didn't come from the part that paragon stood at, but it came from all around, at the areas adjacent to the slowly expanding inwardly ring of shield.
The ground kept cracking, but the explosions came when the light that paragon released got in contact with my shield. It looked like two adversaries and nemesis forces got in touch with each other, ending up in a fierce final explosion everywhere that happened.
"Damn! He is trying to create that flying island again!" I instantly recognised what was going on, and jumped to such a conclusion.
Yet this wasn't yet over. I saw the fierce clashes between his skill and mine, leaving me with the urge to kill him.
But just before I could even let my threads get closer to him, he released a shield that protected him from my threads.
That was… New.
My threads weren't stopped by any shield the other paragon used. Indeed fighting against paragons was a fight of another level.
That dude must have studied my technique thoroughly, until he found something that could stop my threads.
"If I can't kill you, I'll make sure you are cursed forever!" As things reached this point, I let my threads span around freely, getting control over as many as possible.
Then I took my Libra out and started weighing his soul.
[He is your enemy]
That was the expected result indeed. The next thing that happened was for the metre of the Libra to move slowly, very slowly in fact.
I wasn't puzzled or surprised by this. The last time I used my Libra it took much longer than I used to.
But there was something that never changed; even if it took forever, it would eventually work.
Even if that bastard managed to escape here, he would end up getting cursed and weakened.
"That won't work on me!" but just as the metre was getting near five percent, that paragon screamed in defiance before a shock wave erupted.
This time the ground started to shake fiercely, breaking up into parts in different sizes.
Like my chariot's gravity control skill, this dude used something similar that started to raise up large blocks of earth, moving them fast towards my direction to be smashed against my shield.
And just before they could reach my chariot's shield, a strange arrow appeared in the sky at this moment. The world was already dim, so the appearance of such blazing blue fire was eye catchy.
That arrow seemed to defy any logic as it stood in midair, almost one mile ahead of me. It started to shine brighter before releasing a torrent of smaller blue fiery arrows.
The blocks of earth that got attacked by it turned instantly into big pieces of blue burning embers. I watched while big blocks of blue embers started to smash and crash against my chariot.
And for the first time ever, with each hit my chariot was getting pushed back. The shield that stood against many things before started to show fine cracks with each hit.
393 [Bonus chapter] Fighting Two Paragons
Yes these cracks were amended fast, but that meant how fierce these attacks were.
"Trying to kill me before I'd kill you? Interesting," I read through what happened here. This wasn't just a single paragon attack, but the two paragons united together to form such a deadly attack.
But that might work against someone else, not me.
Just as that torrent of attack came at me, I knew these paragons made a grave mistake regarding my Libra.
They thought I had to keep an eye over my target for the Libra to work. In fact if anyone revised the battle before with their dead paragon, they'd jump to this conclusion indeed.
I had to first locate and expose that paragon before cursing him. But I did so because I didn't know where he was, or what he was like.
I might have needed to spot my target, but that was only for the curse to initiate. After that the curse would work on its own, releasing its magic once done.
So as they started their combined attack, I moved my chariot fast away from this place. They tried to control the big fiery blocks of embers to follow me, but that proved to be nearly impossible.
These rocks were so big that it was hard to shift their direction. Once I came in the sky, the only threat I got was from the falling blue burning arrows, nothing more.
These small arrows didn't pose much threat to me. As I became far away, I could see the obvious relief over that dude's face.
"Idiot," this was the only comment I could give for such a paragon.
As one was getting cursed, and other forces here were getting under my control by each passing minute, it was time to seek that second bastard.
From the direction this arrow came from, that dude was outside the ring for sure. I looked in that direction and was met with a fantastic scene.
As the paragon here was trying to make that flying island, that other paragon already formed his. During the time I got busy dealing with people here, that dude took his time and summoned that flying island.
It was the size of a few miles in radius, taking the shape of a five angle star. It was covered with a shield, but it didn't block my sight.
I saw that paragon standing in the middle of his forces doing something. Damn! He wasn't that satisfied with that arrow attack from earlier.
I knew now these paragons came here well prepared. That also told me a lot about the difference between these paragons and the ones from other races.
Just facing one of these Hector paragons made me feel how risky it was. It all needed a single mistake or even a delay in response for me to lose.
Each time I fought them, I was faced with a new style of attack, giving me the impression this race wasn't just a single race.
It looked like they gathered the knowledge of all other races they enslaved, and used these to their advantage.
That was a bad sign, making me want to kill these two paragons right here, right now.
But my Libra could only deal with one target at a time. I had to wait until the first paragon was cursed before turning towards the second.
From the look of things here, that second paragon didn't think about running away. Something gave them the confidence to deal with me in such a way.
That was great. If that bastard decided to run away now, I wouldn't be able to stop him.
"Keep yourself there, and wait for me to come and curse you," I muttered while returning to focus on the battle down below.
The forces down there were already getting under my control by almost thirty percent. I instantly took out many contracts and started to sign them, distribute them over, and waited for my new followers to emerge.
Many of my summoned forces here from the lady nymph were killed already. But there were still enough to make a great force using my new followers.
"Go, attack those bastards there," at this point, I decided to aim at that paragon. As for the other one, he was already flying higher than anyone's reach.
The ground after getting broken and devastated like this looked like a piece of hell. Blue fire kept spreading right and left, while many gaps appeared at certain areas, while small burning hills appeared at another.
This also killed lots of forces down below. But I felt nothing towards that, not even considering them as a loss except for losing their souls.
Under my command, the forces under my control moved and attacked that paragon. That shield summoned by him wasn't big enough to shield lots of his forces.
So most of his elites had to move out and got entangled with my forces. Once they fought for a couple of minutes with them, the threads of mine would already infest deeply in their souls.
That added more elite Hectares to my forces. But unlike my other forces here, this one wasn't that docile to be tamed with contracts.
I tried, but failed. That bastard used some sort of a higher grade contract, blocking any contract of mine to break in.
So I had to wait until I'd kill him, do the same thing I did before with the previous paragon forces.
Yet from the shape of it, this battle here was almost concluded. That paragon was now gathering up his strength and controlling a large area of land to rise.
But he lacked any good number of forces to fight on his side. Even if he managed to complete his technique here, he still ended up standing alone in the middle of such a great army.
"Die you bastards!"
Just as he rose up half a mile, he was so impatient and made like what the dead paragon did before.
Large pieces of that floating island started to break free and fall. With it many forces fell and many lost their lives, and much more were left heavily wounded.
394 A Scary Being Appears
"I still can't get used to their ruthlessness," during this, few of the remaining forces on that paragon side were hit and fell as well.
"Trying to run?" Just as that happened, that dude tried to control his island and move towards the other paragon. I also noticed the other one was also trying to come closer.
The metre of completion of the curse didn't exceed fifty percent yet. I needed more time here, and I had to make sure that second bastard wouldn't go away.
Alright… He had a small shield to cover him up from my threads. Let's put it to test against my falling gods.
"See that fly over there? Aim at it and try to fry it using your attacks."
Since the forces of different races here got the bait, I refrained my forces from joining the fight. But now I had to use them. After all that bastard's shield wasn't properly tested.
He also moved fast to dispose of the enemies over his island. Of course they were much, but they weren't that big to threaten him in any way possible.
Unless his shield wasn't that sturdy enough to keep him alive.
*Flash!* *Flash!* *Boom!*
Just as my boys released their first attacks, that bastard started to burn out treasures. That was, without doubt, a very delightful familiar scene.
If he was forced to burn his own defensive treasure like this, that meant his shield wasn't that good at all.
"Stay your hands motherf*cker!"
Just as the first wave of attacks ended and the second was just going to land, the other paragon screamed in a fierce and angry way, making me laugh.
"If you have the ability, then try and stop me," I said amidst my laughs, feeling more formidable at this moment than ever.
Even a paragon of such a mighty race was racing time to stop me, but he wouldn't. Even if he used his treasures, he wouldn't help at all.
The only regretful thing here was my curse. It already was past sixty percent. But that didn't matter. Killing that dude here was what mattered.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
The second wave of attacks landed, but the explosions I heard didn't come from that direction. I turned and saw that second paragon releasing a mighty wave of attacks that managed to deflect many of my boys' ultimate offence.
But many still landed and hit that paragon. As the dust settled, I saw that paragon standing in a shaky way, with a body filled with holes and bloody oozing out of many ugly looking wounds.
Even if I spared my hands here off him, he would still need a miracle to survive all these wounds.
"Keep attacking," but I wasn't that kind of a merciful guy, not to my enemies at least.
The third wave of attack landed and that paragon issued a heart curdling scream of agony before passing away.
He was dead. He was the second paragon I killed. And from whom? Those amazing Hectors.
Damn! I was so cool!
"I'll kill you!" but the fight was far from over. Seeing his friend die on my hands made that second paragon enraged beyond any imagination.
"Even if it costs me my life, I won't hesitate to do it to bring you down with me here… You… Is it cancer to my race…"
"I can't argue against that," I gave back a loud laugh before watching the sky above change.
Something was happening. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was what that paragon was trying to do for a long time.
A mighty figure of a mighty race took all this time for just a single technique? It must be something out of my league without doubt.
Should I run?
Of course the answer was simple…
[He is an enemy!]
The next moment I used my Libra on him. Like the previous two paragons, that dude here fell for my curse.
Yet the curse took as long as what it took at the last two paragons. During the time it took to cross five percent, the sky showed what was coming.
"A portal of blue silver and golden clouds? Interesting…"
It was a big portal that seemed to link to some scary place. The first place that popped into my mind was the dark realm world.
Was this dude trying to bring forth another scary dark realm monster? Well, I just hoped he would. I needed lots of bones for my cultivation and killing another scary behemoth like that would be something good for me.
Just as I watched that gigantic cloudy portal, thunder of different lights started to appear over its edge. It was loud, fierce, and scary, giving me an eerie feeling to be honest.
"Damn! That bastard seems to bring something even scarier than those dark realm monsters," I sucked cold air of breath while watching a large series of gushes of clouds that came out from within that portal.
A cloud portal was giving birth to different coloured clouds… Interesting…
"Who called forth for us?"
Just as the clouds kept popping out like mushrooms stalks and heads, I heard such a deep and strong voice coming from the direction of the portal.
"We have war with each other, why not come here and show us how mighty you really are."
Just as that sound landed, and before its echo would disappear, that paragon spoke in a mighty and loud voice. For a second there I felt he was putting a fake front, trying to force the owner of that voice to come here.
"A lowly class world with a baby apocalypse? Hahaha! That's hilarious!" the owner of that voice spoke, and even if he laughed he looked really scary.
Just the sound vibrations created shocking explosions in the air when he laughed. I even saw the air break and long black cracks appear before amending themselves fast.
Scary! If that thing decided to pass through that portal to here, then this world wouldn't get it.
395 Arguing With A Greedy Dude
"Are you afraid? Humph, I knew that would be the case," that damn bastard kept taunting the owner of that voice.
One thing was certain for now… whatever that paragon connected this world to, it wasn't a place he held any control over.
In fact it looked like there were deep wars between his race and the owner of that voice.
"A weak figure is trying to show up in front of the mighty me? A hegemon of your kind won't dare to speak in such a way to me at any time, kid!"
"Empty words," the paragon kept taunting him, and I had no control over this situation.
My heart… My guts told me something bad, really bad was going to happen if I didn't stop him. But aside from my curse, I had only my technique and my boys here to silence him.
"Hit that motherf*cker," as I sensed such an urge to stop him, I didn't hesitate to shout, "kill that bastard!"
With it I controlled all the threads and pushed all of them towards that bastard. At the same time, my boys started releasing their deadly attacks.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
But that bastard was ready. The previous shock waves appeared again in torrents, like ragged ocean waves coming towards me as if I was the shore.
Each wave crushed a few of the incoming attacks, and weirdly enough they also shattered a few of my threads. Things kept happening at a fast pace like this, until only a few of my threads and my boy's techniques landed over his island.
*Rumble!*
This time the attacks and threads all were stopped with a mighty looking shield. I knew that shield, it was the same the first paragon I truly killed used to protect his island.
"Damn! Such offensive and defensive ways make my path to him almost blocked," I clenched my fists, not knowing what else I should do.
"Sounds of fight? You dare to talk this big in the middle of a fight? Hahaha, that's really funny!"
At this moment, the sounds of our clashs here seemed to reach that mighty figure's ears.
"Mighty one," as I failed to kill that bastard, I had to use this moment of his distraction blocking my attacks to stop whatever was coming here, "please don't listen to this filial kid. He is trying to borrow your hand and as…"
Just before I could continue my words, a weird message popped in front of my eyes.
[Let him come! This will act in your favour]
I looked at the owner of this message. Damn! He was that greedy bastard from the system higher ups. He was the one to teach me in my way to open my cultivation in the first place.
"But…"
[Don't forget our little deal. He is a person you'll need to fight, or kill his forces whatever happens in the end]
Just mentioning that deal made my heart shudder. Damn! Damn! Damn! Don't tell me… "Is he… one from the hostile universe?"
[He is a hegemon at his world, one of the strongest forces we had to fight there]
"Damn! And you are asking me to fight him? Are you crazy?"
[Fighting him will bring you closer to your goal by a large step. What? Don't you want to establish a human connection system? Or did you change your mind?]
That damn bastard! Both of them were bastards! What did that paragon think to bring such a deadly foe here?
Was he really this tired of living? Or was he out of his damn mind? I never expected what I did here to bring me such a disaster.
Forget about that bastard for now, that system higher up was a nuisance! He used this moment to let me accept that incoming enemy.
But c'mon! I was this weak, my forces were this week, this world was all weak… If I allowed such a behemoth or his forces to come here, wouldn't this be like condemning this world to be destroyed?
"I can do it, but in return I'll have my human communication system activated at once," screw logic… If I was going to risk it here, then I should play it big.
[This… I can't promise such a thing to you] that bastard was reacting the same way I knew he would.
"If you didn't accept, then I'll try my best to let that hegemon not send his forces here," I was going all out at the moment. It was all or none for me. Either I'd win this fight and get everything I wanted, or let this fight not happen in the first place.
[But the conditions…]
"I gave my conditions, take them or leave them," I didn't even continue to read his answer as I knew what he was going to say here.
He was going to find his way out of this deal, trying to keep his hold over my fate. But dude, this chance was thrown as a disaster in front of my path. If I'd take it, it would be for something great in return.
Or else it was better for me to not risk this fight at all. Even if that bastard sent his forces here, I'd just take my elites and run, run as far away from here as possible.
In such a case, I'd love to let other races here fight this war, not me.
[You are a really hard human race kid to deal with] As he said that, I knew he already agreed. It seemed losing this chance would cost him much more than he desired.
[But in return, you'll pay double of the fee]
"D… Double? Are you a greedy merchant or what?!!" I couldn't help but get shocked.
[One hundred million souls, or nothing] he sent and this time I felt the pressure instead of him.
"Alright… Send me the contract," but as he was forced to agree on my terms, I had also to agree on his.
396 [Bonus chapter] The Terrifying Exiles
Double the souls? The initial price was already too much for me before. But after getting into such big fights recently, I knew I had a good chance at securing this payment earlier than the due date.
I signed the new contract. That bastard showed a last straw of dignity as he refreshed the due date starting from today.
"Hahahaha, that's an interesting world indeed. You are fighting among yourselves, and now one of those bastards is seeking a fight. Good… Very good…"
Just as I signed the contract, it felt like that hegemon on the other side of the portal was well aware of what was happening here. His deep and mighty voice thundered alongside his laughs.
Ok… He seemed interested already. Now what?
I had zero knowledge about the nature of the enemy I was going to face. In fact I thought such a move would take much longer, but it seemed I was wrong.
I had to be ready for anything coming in my direction.
"Hahaha, he is coming, he is sending his mighty forces, hahaha!" as if that paragon lost his mind, he started laughing in such a crazy way.
At the same time, the clouds that paused when that hegemon spoke resumed their expansion outwards. It seemed they would soon burst and release the mighty forces from the other side.
If I said I wasn't curious then I'd be lying. But at the same time I was worried, a little scared actually.
That wasn't a normal enemy in the apocalypse, it was an enemy from another universe.
If these enemies were weak, the fight between the two universes wouldn't extend to such lengths. Also if the enemy was weak, he wouldn't be able to corner my universe to such a degree.
I knew my universe was losing this war, or else why the urge of those higher ups to introduce the apocalypse into many worlds already.
And now I was going to face such a deadly enemy, with my current few forces here. I looked around, my controlled forces here didn't exceed two hundred thousand.
If I added the remaining races brought by the green nymph lady, then that number might be doubled.
It might seem a lot, but something told me it was far from enough.
"I had to retreat," the first thing I thought about was to create a distance, enough for me to weigh the situation better and analyse what was going to happen.
Unlike that paragon bastard, I held zero info about the nature of the upcoming enemies. What were their strongest and weakest traits? How would they fight? How could anyone kill them? Are they really that scary?
And the answer came from none but that bastard.
"Trying to run away? Hahaha, it's too late, hahaha! I selected that enemy specifically for you. He is something you'll never be able to contest against. Say goodbye to your world, as from now on it will be the world of the exiles."
"Exiles?!" I got this valuable info out of his carelessness and arrogance. He seemed to be so confident at my loss.
If I didn't have any info about them, then I knew the right person to help me fill the gaps here.
[Tell me everything you know about the exiles]
[Damn! Damn! Damn! Why bring such a deadly name all of sudden?]
I looked up at Fang's immediate answer and I knew it was really going to be very bad.
[A paragon bastard from Hectors opened a gate with their world]
[No way! Are you kidding me? Don't joke about things like these, or you'll just jinx us!]
[I'm not joking! How the hell did I hear about such a name in the first place?!]
He paused for a long moment, as if he was weighing what I just said. [This… Is really bad bro, bad beyond what you can imagine! Exiles? Damn! Out of all the enemies of the other side, you brought this horrifying enemy…]
[I told you, it's not me!]
[But you brought the Hectors here in the first place! Those guys are really… Maniacs!]
[I know that now, but it's not the time to win over this. I promise to make a crying corner for you in my chariot after all this is over]
[Crying… What? f*ck you!]
[Just tell me what you know… And make it quick]
[The exiles are locusts. Once entered a world, they'd not leave it until blazing it to the ground. They are very strong, fast, decisive, and ruthless]
[Enough praising them, and tell me something useful]
That dude… I already was aware of how critical our situation was. Speaking more about them in such a way wasn't helping at all. I needed info, not more reasons to hate and be scared of them.
[Ok… Ok… Pardon me as I'm just nervous and scared…]
Damn! Even such a figure of a mighty race compared to humans was panicking already to this degree. How scary were these dudes?
[Our universe uses cultivation mainly for gaining strength…] It was the first time for me to hear such a thing. It seemed Fang was going all out, explaining even secrets only big races would know about.
[But when we clashed with the other universe, we were introduced to the concept of energy. They are very diverse in using any form of energy, and from that the system concept came to life. The higher ups tried to use the new knowledge and arm us with it using the system. And that's why they were trying to enforce apocalypses as trial zones for all races in our universe to train and get adapt to such concept]
Yes, he was going all out! It seemed he saw his death near, so he decided to speak with no reservations.
At this moment, it felt like I was speaking with a kid, a child of no more than eight years, not the old and cunning Fang.
Death… It was really a horrifying existence that could change one's soul, or perhaps show one's true nature.
397 The Weakness
[Their idea was simple, if we are weak against them then arming us with their power will make us stronger. But that didn't work out well as we still place much importance over old and classic cultivation ways than trying to come up with new ways to merge energy with our cultivation]
Speaking here, I suddenly recalled my cultivation. "So this is why… everyone seemed so hectic about my cultivation…" It hit me at this moment. I realised why my cultivation was considered so special and mighty.
Also my class… After all classes were provided by the system, away from the cultivation concept. Putting in mind what Fang just said, I knew this class, or perhaps all of the classes, came from the other universe.
Perhaps even the system itself was brought over from that universe. Well, in times of war, anything was possible. Even stealing tech from our enemies and arm us with was feasible and even encouraged.
[Anyway, the exiles are considered one of the top races there. In that universe, they don't divide themselves into races, but factions based on their innate abilities and affinities with energy]
[Who are those damn exiles?] I hurried him. In fact I didn't want to interrupt him, let him continue spilling all these secrets that I'd never dreamt of hearing before.
But just while he was taking his time explaining things from the start, these clouds were getting bigger, extending down all the way to the ground.
Something told me they'd release whatever was on the other side once these clouds burst open. And that would happen when they'd touch the ground.
[They harness the energy of death, use it to summon scary things that know no pain, fear, or any feeling but the irresistible desire to feed over the flesh of the dead. And each time they kill or feast, they grow stronger. They are deadly, scary, even in the other universe they are considered gods]
"…"
I stood in my place motionless, looking at his words in shock. This… Just taking a look around here and I knew how bad it was going to be if such a thing was released here.
Feast over the energy of death and flesh of the dead? And grew stronger while doing that? Just imagining such a race in a world filled with killing and wars like the apocalypse here made me feel goosebumps.
And at this moment I saw the first cloud touching the ground. Unlike what I expected, it didn't burst open. Instead it twisted around like a giant snake, sniffing something from the ground.
"It's absorbing the death energy… Damn!" I realised what was going on here. That was bad, but it also meant I had little time left.
[Tell me… What is their most fatal point of weakness?]
[Not to… Kill, perhaps?] His answer left me startled. Damn bro, it wasn't time to be funny.
[Another weakness] I ignored his useless remark. Not to fight? In the apocalypse? You gotta be kidding me!
[Well… I have to say not many faced them and survived… So…]
[Just tell me what you know] I hated it when someone stalled for an answer when there was no time for that.
[I heard fire can hurt them, but the only proven way to control their spread is by killing as many as possible when they are weak. If we waited for them to grow stronger, then things will be out of our control]
[We?]
[This danger isn't just threatening you, my troublemaker friend. I'll contact my paragon and I suggest you let that other lazy one know about this as well and contact his paragon. We need to put our differences aside for now and work towards controlling this deadly enemy]
[Ok]
I didn't find it weird for the current races to unite together. They already were uniting to fight me, my humans. So what was the problem in letting them work together to crush this enemy here?
I looked back, towards the area beyond this ring of shields of mine. The number of races here was still large, large enough to make an impact and make a difference if we managed to bring everyone on the same page.
The next moment I sent a summed up report to Wryly and asked him to deliver this to his paragon. Of course that dude screamed and whined, giving the same reaction as Fang. but I simply ignored all of this and warned the rest of my team.
[Damn! Are you telling me exiles are coming here?]
The only one who recognised them was Hilary. She seemed scared, and she had all the right to feel so.
[So are we going to help you or what?] This question came from her the next moment. I paused, looked around and decided not to do so.
[Remain at your current course, do your current mission]
[But… that might be pointless if they spread. Their infestation is wide known to be deadly and unstoppable]
[Just do as I say]
I had to do so. In case other races didn't agree to join hands with me, in light of our past differences, then it would be nice to keep threatening them with my forces.
As for the imminent threat here, I had to find a way to deal with them.
"Fire? I have no skill or weapon to create such a thing on a wide scale," I muttered to myself, thinking about my options here.
Fire and other natural powers weren't my turf. I thought about asking for help from my teammates, but I doubted anyone would have such a unique ability.
"I was… A bit negligent about this," I sighed. Even if I had many skills now, I still lacked such natural powers.
I decided after this battle, and if I survived, I'd have to look for ways to gain such powers. Either me or any of my teammates, anything would help to avoid such a disastrous situation like this one.
There was no point in regretting this. The only thing I could depend upon was my dragons and fallen gods. Dragons had the power to release fiery attacks. But the number of such fiery dragons wasn't that much.
398 The Crazy Hector Paragon
Most of my dragons were mainly thunderous breathers. I had no control over the nature of the dragons I'd summon, making me feel more helpless and powerless here.
As for my fallen gods, they could release explosive attacks that would generate fire. They weren't fire based attackers, but fire came as a collateral.
Aside from these two, I lacked any force to make up for this default and weakness for me.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
Just as I was lost in my thoughts, a series of booms came from the direction of these clouds. There were already too many of them to be counted in thousands, and they started to all expand and explode from the inside.
"Showtime," I said while controlling my technique. I decided to go first using my technique.
It was my strongest weapon currently in my arsenal. Even compared to the deadly fallen gods, my technique was simply a game changer.
I had this hope, that no matter what'd come from these clouds would fall under my control. If that proved to be true, then this wasn't going to be a disaster, instead a great opportunity.
I didn't want to jump to conclusions before testing things out first. So once the first creature appeared, I moved my threads towards it.
*Roar!*
It wasn't a single roar, but it appeared as if the entire world was roaring. Just hearing its roar made my scalp numb.
And looking at its appearance made me feel really gross deep within.
It was a big creature, in the size of three to four humans at least. It wasn't standing erect, but leaning on six ugly looking limbs.
Its body was covered with emaciated skin, looking like it was going to peel off its body at any moment. And that wasn't all.
It didn't have eyes. In the place of eyes, a weird looking dark white membrane appeared to cover the place eyes should be at.
Its body was pale to dark white in colour, giving me the impression of being sick. Aside from its weird body and stance, it got long and sharp four claws at each limb, long and sharp looking scary rows of teeth that appeared from its oval shaped mouth.
It roared, and it wasn't alone. In the next moment, thousands of clouds burst open and released tens of thousands of these creatures.
Their nostrils were elongated, looking like six long slits. I could see wisps of black smoke moving up from the ground, slowly twisting and gathering up, before they got sucked dry by these nostrils.
Damn! They were already absorbing the death energy in this place. This was a fight zone just inside the ring. As this place saw lots of fights and killing already, I could only imagine how dense and pure death energy here was.
With each breathing, I could swear I saw their bellies expand as if they were breathing. I also noticed their bodies getting slightly bigger, as if they were gaining strength.
Surely they were. Looking at them doing that made me realise why they were called the exiles.
They looked fearless! Standing in the middle of hundreds of thousands of different forces here, not a single one even spared a glance over any of their enemies here.
"Attack!"
"Kill them!"
"Destroy these bastards before they release their eggs!"
Just as they appeared, many shouts came from none other than the remaining archlords here. During the past fight, I placed great emphasis over the Hector paragons.
So I spared those archlords out of coincidence. And it just worked for my favour here as they all started to organise their troops, giving the same and unified orders to attack the exiles.
But just watching the first fighters from different races clashing with these exiles, I knew why everyone should be terrified of them.
Tens of thousands moved to hit them, but the few thousands at the frontline only had to raise their heads, stop what they were doing, and simply waved their claws.
A single wave from each creature followed by another, releasing a massive and deadly arc of attacks that engulfed everyone coming at them, shredding them to pieces in no time.
This… this was horrifying!
"Attack!" as my threads got entangled with these creatures and stuck to them like they were glued there, I had no other choice but to use my deadly fallen gods supreme attacks for now.
My technique didn't fail, but it didn't work either. Something weird happened as the threads stopped and didn't start controlling these creatures or getting smashed by them.
It looked like a weird balance was reached. But what made me decide to wait for it was the constant consumption of my energy.
In fact the consumption rate skyrocketed, giving me the feeling that my threads were working, but they needed more time and much more energy than before.
The good news here was that my threads covered almost all of these creatures. So if this worked, I'd gain control over them.
"Don't forget about me, hahaha!"
*Boom!*
Just as I was busy with these new enemies, a familiar and distasteful voice echoed in my head with his ugly laugh.
Then a mighty attack came as that Hector paragon bastard started attacking me. At such a crucial time, at such a dangerous moment, that bastard decided to abandon everything and attack me.
"Aren't you afraid of the system's retaliation?" I shouted in pure rage, while my shield absorbed all the incoming attacks, protecting me from any harm.
"The system? Those good for nothing old figures have no saying against my race! And what wrong did I do here? I just challenged an enemy to the entire universe, something everyone shall do."
That bastard… he wasn't just shameless, but he also was cunning. I knew what he said was wrong, but it wasn't enough to condemn him or his race.
Even if this world was lost, nothing would happen to his race. As for him, he decided long ago to abandon his life.
399 I Need Fodders
"Ok, that's great… Just keep tickling me. Once I'm done with these, I swear I'll make the remaining years of your life very painful for you to regret even getting born."
If he decided to keep doing his bullshit, then I'd have nothing else to do but to repay this kindness double later on. Killing him? Humph, that was out of the question.
This dude… I decided, I'd make him my b*tch! Let him fight for me, fight against his own race. Let me see how he'd feel after killing his own race, a crime that I knew it was so tolling over such race members.
"Come on, please work," as I decided to ignore that bastard, I left the task of handling his attacks to my capable chariot's shield. I shifted my attention fully over the ongoing slaughter down below.
Just during the past few minutes of wasting breaths over that bastard, they killed almost close to a hundred thousand forces.
After killing such a number, it was expected for the remaining forces here to be afraid.
They all looked in fear towards those creatures. In fact if I was down below right now, facing such scary and untouchable creatures, then I'd feel the same.
But there was no point in stopping. Stopping the attack out of shock and fear gave those creatures the chance to breathe in all the death energy they created by their killing spree.
And that just made them grow stronger. I saw their bodies swallow and grow things bulging like little cubes, as if they were muscles.
I knew little about these creatures, but the most obvious thing I knew was that we should never give them time to develop and advance like this.
I realised one weakness, one that was really good, but ironically it was also impossible to keep up.
That was by forcing these creatures to keep killing. When they fought, they couldn't absorb the death energy. It might seem funny, but if they wanted fodders, that was something I could help with.
"Bring me the Albany city monsters," they were the first fodders I could think of for now. At the same time, I sent a distress message to my saviour, my trusted helper, my beloved and all great green nymph lady.
[I want anything you can provide to me in the next few minutes] I sent before adding, [I want any race, any warrior, anything that could fight and be killed]
[What happened?]
[I'm fighting exiles now]
[What the f*ck is wrong with you?!!!]
[just do it, I have no other way to stop them but feed them with fodders]
[Are you crazy? Aren't they the exiles that grow stronger with killing and death?]
[Just send me anything you can provide, and I'll pay once finished]
[You'll pay me now! You are fighting exiles for god sake! That means your survival chances are near to zero. Damn! Why is it this bad?]
[What?]
[My damn luck!]
[Alright, send me a contract and I'll sign over any amount you send. Send them once you have them, now is better]
She sent me a contract in the next minute and I signed it. My Albany city monsters appeared in their full array for the first time. One hundred thousand of them stood under my chariot, waiting for my orders.
But I didn't hurry to issue them anything. I just noticed the second weakness.
During their attack and killing spree, my fallen gods' supreme attacks all failed to do much damage to them. It felt like the energy they used to unleash those deadly waves of attacks also worked to protect them.
Just as the attacks stopped and these creatures started absorbing the death energy again, my boys' attacks started to show better results.
Without the help of the supreme attacks, these creatures were more vulnerable. But the most noticeable thing here was that the damage was rapidly healed by the death energy they were absorbing.
That mean? They could be harmed and killed when they were absorbing energy. But that had to overcome their absorption speed.
In other words, my boys should focus their attacks together over a smaller group of enemies. Like this they could get rid of them without giving the chance to absorb death energy and heal themselves.
That might look brilliant, but in fact it wasn't up to much. After all the number of enemies I estimated to be killed was in tens. That would mean my boys would take hours to kill them.
The more time they got, the stronger they'd be. Also I heard something about laying eggs. I didn't know what that meant, but I was sure it couldn't be any good.
After thinking about this and observing the effects of my concentrated boys' attacks for a few minutes, I decided to abandon this plan.
[I got many of weak races and warriors, they won't cost you much but they have great numbers]
And at this moment, my saviour sent me this message.
[Send them in batches, each one million at a time]
[Am I now working for you or what?]
[I'll give you ten bones when this is over]
[Give them now to me!]
[Ok]
I didn't hesitate to open my inventory and sent ten bones to her. [Done] I sent to her, [Send me now them in batches]
[On the way]
As she started to send them, portals appeared all over the central zone.
For the first time I saw this zone to be very useful in limiting the fight here. If not for the shield ring around, those bastards down there might have expanded and ran to different places.
If that ever happened, I'd find it more difficult to kill these bastards.
Of course I wasn't acting crazy here like that green nymph lady thought. I didn't think by keeping them busy killing around it would be enough.
But I was depending on my technique. All this time, the energy expenditure expanded to a terrifying degree, making me even take one bone each five minutes.
400 Shadow Faction Of The Other Universe
Of course I decided to replace the highest grade bones I had with the lowest grade of green and silver bones. I had tons of these, but they weren't enough to sustain my energy consumption rate but for five minutes at most.
So my chariot turned into a big reservoir of these bones. At the same time I also added a few of my energy crystals into the heart of my chariot.
That bastard never ceased his attacks even for one second. During the past fifteen minutes, he depleted nearly five hundred million stat points.
That meant my energy reservoir inside the heart of my chariot wasn't even close from sustaining these attacks for more than one to two hours at most.
But now I made sure it would last for an entire day with that bastard's attack rate. Either he would get bored or I'd be done from this fight and turn my full attention to him.
Just wait, b*tch, I'd turn you to my loyal dog soon enough.
As I arranged everything, I shifted my attention back to this fight.
Portals released lots of weird looking races. Some even were in the shape of big dogs with legs of leopards and heads with hair like horses.
I looked up at these races and couldn't help but think of how big this universe was. Such dogs and others here were weak looking. They were just unlucky.
They were living peacefully in their worlds before the apocalypse hit them. Just like humans here, we lived our lives to the fullest without any worries about tomorrow.
But who said fate was merciful? Looking at these races and how they ended up to be sold and thrown like this in such a war that had no hope for them at all made a great impact in the depth of my soul.
We weren't that far from being like them. If that bastard from the angels managed to succeed in his mission, we would end up like these, being sold to whoever got the highest price, thrown into desperate fights and be treated like worthless dogs.
I clenched my fists, feeling how bitter and far dangerous our situation in the apocalypse was. That damn communication system… That damn system must be established.
Without it, we had no hope for a better future. Without it, we would be rendered powerless in the later stages of the apocalypse.
I looked at those creatures. If I had to walk through hell and ice just to get that goal accomplished, I'd not back off or regret it.
"Come on!" I shouted, out of the blue, igniting all the will I had in my body. If I had a chance, then this was it. I had to crush those bastards no matter how much it took.
I looked at the large pile of bones and without even flinching I released my energy to encompass them all. As they turned in bright green and silver lights, I took out much more and did the same with them.
Just with the fourth attempt, I felt like my body was going to explode. All this energy was gushing through my body without any restraints. I needed these, I needed all these.
As I felt like this, I closed my eyes and started channelling all this energy through my dantian and swollen and aching meridians towards my left fist.
I controlled my technique using my left hand. As I did that, my entire left arm started to burn like it was channelling fire and not energy.
But I never thought of stopping this or even decelerating the passage of energy through my arm. I knew the only obstacle standing in front of my threads was the difference between my energy and the needed one.
I had to bridge this difference, no matter what cost I should pay.
If that Hector race paragon turned crazy, I also turned the same at this moment. Come on bastard, let's see who is much crazier than the other here.
In less than one minute, I felt like something got breached by my threads. Like a thick membrane that got burst open by my threads.
My energy influx… It was finally enough to overcome the last obstacle in front of my threads.
Alright… Let's turn all these damn bastards into my slaves.
I knew that doing so would take a minute or two. But to my surprise, this didn't take even a blink of an eye.
Just the next moment all of those attached by my threads got under my control. They stopped releasing their deadly attacks, and with it they were outnumbered and stumbled upon by my forces.
During this last attack, only my summoned forces were fighting. The rest just stood on the side watching, trying to think of ways to escape from here for sure.
"It's finally over," as I controlled these creatures, I knew this battle was over. But it seemed I celebrated too soon.
"Amazing! The dark energy of the shadow faction? Interesting! Since when have you, illiterate and primitive races, learnt such an advanced knowledge?"
At this moment, and just before I could give my newly controlled creatures any command, that deep and scary voice of that hegemon came through that gate.
I looked up at him, feeling much worse omen from his words.
What did he mean by what he just said? I didn't have any time to consider what he just said, as the next moment large and much thicker clouds started to gush out from that damn portal.
"Sorry, I didn't know someone like you existed here. Out of my deep respect to the shadow faction, I'll bring you the forces that deserve your status."
Damn you! I just burnt myself up just to take control over these scary dudes of yours. And you are apologising for taking it light with me? Dude… were you for real?
But no matter what, I had to deal with that upcoming danger.