Chapter 42 - 418-433

418 Finding Them

"We don't know," he shook his head before adding, "even our paragon didn't know. He just got the news, and when he contacted other races' paragons, they also weren't aware of the identity of who sent this tip to them."

"Other paragons? Are they here?!!" It was something totally unexpected, and Nortan just nodded, making me feel more puzzled.

Damn! Things here were taking a different route than I expected!

Paragons of other races were also here? That meant they placed great importance over killing my forces. "But there are other races entangled with my forces in that illusion," I said while hiding my uncertainty about this.

"Ah, those two archlords, right?" Nortan seemed to know about Fang and Wryly, "it's just their race's paragons arriving here declared them traitors."

"Traitors?" that was bad, "are they fighting them now?"

"No, their forces are also in that big sphere," Nortan said, making me realise the whole story.

So my forces after securing the south from Hectors, came north and joined hands with Fang. Wryly was already with them, while the jumper just joined them later on.

But when they wanted to control the entire central zone, they met with that weird human army. For a reason, they accepted them. And for another reason, they all ended up under such massive illusion, letting them all face such disaster.

If the elites of mine were able to handle many hours of constant fighting with these monsters, then my normal humans wouldn't.

Just thinking about the losses would have made my heart drop. It wasn't that doo, not good at all!

Ending up saving my elites was great, but losing most of my human forces that I worked so damn hard to acquire and train would leave me vulnerable.

Securing a large piece of land without having enough forces to defend these was a grave mistake. And above that, the two allies I did my best to strengthen them were now considered traitors.

I didn't need to ask to know that their paragons weren't the ones here. Paragons in the same race were also enemies under cover. So this declaration just came to undermine the strength of the rival paragons.

I first had to save them, or what was left of them. Then I'd evaluate the situation better. Hopefully the losses wouldn't be too grave, or else I'd be forced to go back all the way to my capital, defend myself there and hope for another silverlining chance to thrive again.

Damn! How did things reach such rock bottom?

Just as I thought about it, I saw a dark thing looming from the distance.

At first I mistook it to be that damn paragon flying at me with his island. But soon I realised it wasn't him, it was that illusion.

The closer I got, the bigger and wider it appeared. When I reached less than a mile from it, I could see how gigantic this thing was.

It spanned for almost thirty miles in radius, and rose up for almost half a mile. It looked slightly like the shield of Hectors I used to fight against and use later on.

But unlike that shield, this illusion was pitch black with no holes or gaps at top or anywhere. It was tightly closing at those inside, not letting anyone see what was going in there.

I was the only one able to see what was happening. I looked at the screens that I never closed. My boys were doing fine, killing fervently without pause for long straight five hours for now.

But this wasn't indeed the case for the rest of my forces. I couldn't see anything related to them, but I could already guess how bad it was.

"Alright… This… Is it," Nortan said, turning to me and I just motioned for him to retreat.

"Go inside the chariot," I said without turning, "you were all saved by Nortan. So you are spared from fighting your people."

I knew how big this was for them. But Nortan led me here, and they were just spared on his behalf.

As they left into the lower floors, I started to test this damn illusion.

"Come out," at first I summoned one of my dragons. "Go, try to attack the moment you are in."

"Roar!"

My dragon roared and lunged without fear towards the illusion. From my side, I stood erect, used even the hawy eye skill, trying to see through this illusion.

But that damn thing was so thick and didn't let me see anything. As my dragon reached it, a mighty fire breath came, clashed against that illusion, and a mighty explosion occurred.

Things might look calm from the surface, but with my skill I saw the surface of that illusion getting affected. It was like a calm lake surface got disturbed by a single rock.

Then like nothing happened, that small ripple vanished and that damn illusion regained its former shape and calmness while eating away my dragon.

"Time to test you, buddy," I didn't select that dragon just to try its breath. "Come back!" I used it as I was able to summon it back.

Each time I called my dragon back it took not a single moment to return. Yet this time it took a few breaths, few that left me on the edge here.

Eventually he returned, and when I summoned him, I noticed he was slightly weaker.

Damn! He didn't stay there for a few seconds and was affected by that illusion.

He got weaker, much weaker than I expected. And it happened in just a short time to make me wonder about the condition of my forces once getting out.

Damn! So even if I saved them, they'd end up so weak to even run away!

That… Was totally bad. I never expected this illusion to have such a bonus effect.

So… I looked around and saw the massive numbers of the enemies surrounding this sphere. "I have to prepare for a big fight then," I muttered and without any hesitation I sent a message to the one who could help me now.

419 Fight Erupts In A Big Way

[Do you know how I can crush a big and strong illusion?]

[Illusion? Is it done by someone or something?] the green nymph sent back, and I responded.

[I believe it was done by an artefact]

[Believe? You aren't sure?]

[I didn't see the bastard who casted it]

[Well… The fact that you are talking to me now means that illusion isn't that strong]

[I'm not inside] I had to break her hopes, [I just arrived and want to break it]

[Ah, that changes things then…]

She weirdly paused, giving me a bad feeling about this.

[You don't know how to break the illusion, right?]

[There are ways, but…]

[You don't own such a thing right now] I knew what she was struggling to say.

[It's not our specialty to be frank. But I can give you this tip, either you overcome the illusion with force, or find the one who casted it and kill him]

[Well… I doubt that dude is anywhere near here]

[Then you'll have to throw anything you have at that damn thing]

[Ok, I now need more soulers, Bulltors, big fighters]

[For the illusion? It won't work]

[No, it's for another way]

[Damn! Things look interesting at your world]

[Not that much interesting] I didn't like how she was feeling about all the disasters I was facing.

[Alright, I'll see what I can do… Anyway you got the old batches of soulers ready. They are enough to satisfy your needs for now I guess. Also I still have your big weapons]

[Send everything over] I didn't hesitate to ask for all of the soulers and weapons. At this moment I really needed them, hopefully they'd be enough to bring that damn illusion down.

[On the way]

The next minute I got messages about the arrival of many things. They were all delivered to my inventory.

"Cool! One hundred thousand soulers? That's great!" I looked up at the inventory and saw the big number added there of tokens.

Then there came the big guns.

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

They were really big! Just like my central and big ballistae, these things weren't losing in size, but also were also competing in weight.

Just taking a single one out made a loud bang sound as it landed over my chariot. She bought me almost fifty of these, and bringing them out made the spacious deck of my chariot look crowded.

"Come out," then I summoned all of my Bulltors and shield warriors, "take over these, and be ready to fight."

The weapons she brought me weren't much different than those machine guns I had before. They were much bigger and heavier.

[Where is their ammo?] I looked around but couldn't find any ammunition in my inventory.

[They work on energy, just use the crystals I sent over to you before]

"Energy crystals?" I took a few of these energy crystals and looked at one of these weapons.

There was indeed a place for placing such crystals in it. As I saw it, I took much of my energy crystals, and let my boys fill the weapons with them.

As they did, I started to consider my next move. These bastards were gathered here like wolves, waiting for my poor boys to come out and eat them alive.

That wasn't acceptable. So the first thing was to cause some trouble for these bastards.

And the first dude I had to deal with was that stupid paragon.

He was coming fast at me, with such intention and persistence, that dude was a source of trouble.

"Come out," even if I lost most of my forces, I still had my elite boys.

I summoned first my fallen gods. I could summon more if I wanted, but that wasn't to work better for now. I needed my souls to save for any change in the upcoming fight.

These forces around here were all big and strong, but they were weak against one single element; aerial attacks.

So it was better to use dragons, as they would keep attacking without getting much damage in return. Plus my enemies seemed to study me quite well.

My strongest weapon was already known… These fallen gods were strong but they lacked mobility.

As long as they kept over my chariot, they were like sitting ducks. So instead of that, I decided to go all out for my dragons.

Each dragon would cost me five thousand souls. And I have more than five million now. That meant I could summon a thousand dragons.

Thinking about raising their stats wasn't going to work. Their number was big and their enemies were mostly the common soldiers in each race.

They had large numbers, but weak strength compared to my dragons. So it was fine. As for that bastard coming at my direction, I'd save my fallen gods for him.

"Come," I started summoning my dragons while watching my fallen gods open the battle. They attacked the island coming at me, and that sudden attack startled that paragon.

"I killed lots of your friends, so dont be stupid and come at me or you'll die," I shouted while letting him get a taste of how mighty my boys were.

But I knew that wasn't enough to scare him. My boy's attacks were strong but not deadly enough against the sturdy shield around that island.

Yet at least it could buy me enough time, keeping that bastard quite busy while I was dealing with that illusion.

First step was done, and now it was time for the second step.

"Go, kill as much as you feel like," I summoned all the soulers I had and released them like loose dogs over the forces here.

Of course the forces here don't just sit tight and wait for me to come and kill them. They arranged their forces the moment my chariot appeared.

But when my soulers appeared, they couldn't get any problem at all in killing large numbers of these weaklings in the first few minutes.

420 Getting Things Under Control

That created a state of shock in all the different forces here. Another side effect of bringing too many different races to the same place, they wouldn't work together like they were supposed to do if things went south.

Just like now. They were trying their best to contain my boys, shouts to arrange their lines, more shouts to bring more to the front.

But just when they were trying their best, I, with a snap of my fingers, called forth for my dragons. Alongside my newly summoned ones, they formed a decent and quite scary force.

"Go, wreck havoc and spread terror everywhere," I simply said, as if I was asking them to go around in a stroll or something.

As the sounds of brutal fighting kept ragging around, and sounds of agonising screams began to form a chorus in the background, I shifted my attention finally towards that damn illusion thing.

I didn't do all this without a plan to bring that damn bastard down.

As I knew, and the green nymph lady told me, this illusion was something that depended entirely on energy.

To crack it down, I needed a mighty source of energy to crush it down.

Frankly, I doubted anything I'd use would be effective. I needed not just for a single weapon or dozens of these, I needed a strike equal to the ones I controlled once from the sky.

A strike on the same calibre as those scary red beams would do the job. However I didn't have such a weapon or force by my side.

So the alternative? Humph, it was none but my new technique.

"Portal!" I said while writing it down. Of course this might seem weird, but I intended to link the shadow world with this illusion.

My shadow world was endless. Its energy was mighty enough to contain lots of energy in there.

Didn't I also trap all of the scary creatures there? Then why wouldn't it also work to put that illusion energy away?

I didn't intend to crush this illusion by using a mightier force. I planned to bring it down by depleting its energy and let it crash on itself out of energy depletion.

"Let's do it!" I instantly felt the connection with my shadow world and thought about linking the illusion with my shadow world.

And then magic happened.

I saw a gigantic swirlpool of energy forming all around this illusion. I controlled it to just touch a small area, not the whole damn thing.

I didn't want it to be totally transferred to my shadow world. I just wanted part, and from that part the energy depletion would happen.

The few seconds at the beginning were stressful. But when I saw the swirlpool moving at the illusion, tearing it apart, I could finally heave a sigh of relief.

It worked! I had only to wait and watch for my beautiful swirlpool here to tear it down to the last bit, and finally reveal my boys.

"I'll kill you, motherf*cker!" at this moment, that stupid angry paragon screamed while a pillar of cyan light rose up from his direction.

Those Hectors… Those damn Hectors… There was no bottom to their wealth of treasures and fancy items.

I looked at that pillar rising in the sky, taking the shape of a mighty dragon before turning around and roaring in my direction.

Great! Hector was using a dragon to kill me. It was fantastic!

"Pulse wave," I released a strong attack in response, before pointing at my boys standing in wait over my chariot, "fire! Tear it apart!"

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

Just the sound of their release of the energy missiles was so devastating. Then they hit the target, and the entire world ushered under an awe inspiring ball of light and a very terrifying rumble.

Then the shockwave came, pushing everyone and everything away.

Even my chariot flew back for a few hundred metres before stopping. I tried my best to not lose control over my technique, while bringing out many bones to exhaust as a source of energy.

Bones? After this fight here, I'd end up restoring what I lost and even gain benefits.

This shockwave wasn't just simple. It held tons of devastating energy from that clash, ending up killing lots of the forces around, leaving behind much more deeply wounded.

My soulers weren't affected much by it. But my dragons fell to the ground and had many injuries that forced me to call all of them back.

After this explosion, the forces here ended up in such a miserable state. My soulers worked their magic and brutally killed them while my dragons returned to heal in my inventory.

And now all that was left was for that illusion thing to get depleted.

"I'll kill you!" from the side, this angry roaring scream came from that bastard. In fact his island didn't end up as well as my chariot.

The shield he was using seemed to get depleted after the constant attacks from my fallen gods. So when such a shockwave came and from such close distance, his shield showed cracks all over it.

The island was like a feather in the middle of a mighty storm. Just losing the aid of the shield dealt a big blow to the island.

So I had to watch him fly away while screaming such empty threats.

"Sigh… That dude… He really needs to see a therapist," I shook my head while pointing in a lazy way towards his island, "keep attacking, let the fireworks flash like christmas eve."

Well… that dude couldn't blame me. After all I warned him, and he just was too stubborn to listen to me.

Anyway, everything returned to being under my control, all but one simple thing.

Who the hell was that dude who did all this to me? To all of us? He seemed very patient, waited all this time on the side and watched until the perfect moment appeared.

He didn't attack when I was in the dungeon… The set wasn't ready yet. He waited until all of the forces became united against us, and then he acted.

His action was swift, deadly, and decisive. He didn't show mercy, didn't use any flashy things, and used the most perfect attack to paralyse everyone and place us in such dire situations.

Well… He calculated everything, but missed me. Did he think I was dead over there or what?

421 The Illusion Is Gone

Such a person wasn't that easy to deal with. I knew finding him would be hard, and he wouldn't just let me away after this.

I didn't bother thinking about whom I offended, I already offended a long list of enemies. I had to just keep my guard up from now on, and be wary from such moments just like what happened here.

*Crack!*

Just as I was lost in my thoughts, that damn illusion thing started to break down on its own. It seemed my shadow world absorbed enough to make it crumble on its own.

I watched that massive thing crash down as many cracks started to appear and spread. It was a good sight to see, especially after all the hardship I got to crush it.

But now wasn't the time to appreciate such a feat. The fight wasn't over yet, and I still didn't know the status of the survivors.

And that was the most important thing here. I waited, while my boys kept wrecking havoc all over the place.

That paragon was really persistent! He kept trying his best to get closer to me, but failed. Since the last time he used that green dragon attack and he stopped bringing up any flashy items.

I totally ignored him. My purpose for now was to secure my surviving forces, and try my best to protect them until they'd be able to run away with me.

*Flop!*

It burst out like a big bubble, releasing what was inside in front of my eyes. I looked at the ground, blinked twice before feeling relieved.

"We didn't lose much!"

The area there wasn't flat, but it had many deep ridges that were filled with my boys. I looked closely at a few, and from the look of it they were all exhausted.

"Spread out," and at this moment, my boys needed help and protection. So I gave the order to my soulers, and made them move towards the area covered previously by that illusion and seal it.

From now on, it was all defensive battle, with no offence at all but against that crazy paragon.

"They are out!" and just as my boys surrounded my forces, using the moment of their appearance that startled everyone here, that damn paragon crazily shouted.

"They look weak! They aren't that much either! Go, go and kill them. Don't let a single one live!"

Damn you! Yet I knew enemies were destined to not show mercy to their foes. He did his part pretty well, and it was time for me to move.

"Listen up," at this moment, it wasn't that great to keep attacking him, "half of you keep him away, and the rest focus on the areas around here. If anyone tries to get near, kill."

My fallen gods were weapons of mass destruction for these forces. So letting them handle the defence made a direct impact to the already rising morales of the enemies.

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

Just the first waves of attacks were enough to clear a large area around my forces. I looked at this situation in content before turning over to my messages.

[Are you ok? Can you stand up and fight?] I sent this to all of them, including Fang and Wryly.

[Boss… It's my boss…]

[Finally we are saved!]

[Thanks Hye, this time I owe you big!]

Many useless messages came that told me how hard they all felt during this fight. I couldn't lie and say I understood their feelings, but I had to ask again, [Can you stand up and fight?]

[No!]

[We are… Tired!]

[I can rile up my forces, but they are already exhausted]

[I lost good deal of my boys]

The answers I got were around the same answer; they couldn't fight right now. That was clear to me. Just watching their tired faces, their weak bodies falling on the ground, made me know how deeply exhausted they were.

Even if they were tired, the anger swelling inside their heart would drive them to fight. But the first thing they did was to fall weakly on the ground, panting for breath.

Seeing them like that told me they were in no shape to even stand up and lead their forces. I didn't want them to fight, I just wanted them to take charge of their forces and start arranging their lines.

The area covered with that illusion was massive. So I had to move around with my chariot and station myself in the centre of it.

Also I had to rise up for a mile, to allow my boys and weapons to reach further away.

The last thing I wanted to see was to harm them using my weapons or boys' attacks.

As for my dragons, they started to roam the entire zone, making sure no one survived or escaped the attacks from my fallen gods.

"Forget about leaving here alive," just as things were starting to cool down, that damn paragon shouted from far away, "you and your pathetic forces are surrounded with tons of armies from all sides for tens of miles! You have no chance to survive this. Just give up already."

"In your dreams!" My answer came swift and decisive. Leaving my boys here to die? That was a joke!

Besides, even if we were surrounded with millions of enemies, what would have been their effect if they couldn't even bypass my tight defences?

My forces were lacking in numbers indeed, but they were superior, far superior than their enemies.

That was the reason that the bastard kept talking nonsense like this. He tried to affect the morale of my forces, letting us mess up for the other forces here to take advantage of that.

"Keep fighting," I kept shouting at my forces from time to time, encouraging them. I knew my private army didn't need any encouragement. But for the rest of the weakened troops here, they surely needed that.

The first thing I tried to solve here wasn't the weakness of their bodies, but their souls. Once they regained the clarity and the will to fight like before, even if they were on the verge of death they'd show more signs of life than now.

422 Let's Kill More Paragons

So I kept shouting, raising their morale, and even went to the extent of announcing the losses of the enemy every now and then.

"Good boys! Ten thousands are dead now."

"Great! More than twenty thousands are killed."

"More are dead! Good job!"

In fact I never counted any losses here. I just made up such big numbers and kept exaggerating what my forces were doing.

The real loss might be something bigger than what I said. Yet saying losses in such a way made an immediate impact over the shuttered souls and spirits of my forces.

One by one they started to stand up and look around. They looked much livelier to my eyes than before, making me grin in satisfaction.

Now they were better than before, and it was time to let them heal their bodies for a bit.

And to do so, I hurriedly opened the market and started to buy a large number of healing potions and pills from there.

Then using my chariot, I started flying around and throwing these pills and potions to them.

"Use these to recover," I kept shouting while taking a slow tour around. This might have cost me a fortune, but they were worth buying.

With these pills and potions, my forces down the ground started to recover on a rate visible to naked eye.

Of course that wasn't feasible without raising their morale. With shattered souls, they wouldn't make such a difference.

Even if they got slightly better, I didn't urge them to act. I had first to find a good plan for our escape from here.

Just rushing them out of this trap would bring more losses and might also bring a negative impact on them. This fight seemed to go towards a heated up clash at its end. A big fight must erupt between my forces and everyone else.

With this, even if we lost more, their morals and self esteem would still be preserved. Who knew, we might even crush a good deal of our enemies and end up controlling a good deal of land.

With most of my big army being intact, I had a good chance at controlling more lands now. The darkest vision about losing most of my forces and saying goodbye to most of my planned territory didn't happen luckily here.

So I had to revise everything, and start to plan for another fight before calling this a day.

As they started to heal, I kept attacking everyone around. I didn't need to shout anymore, as the ongoing brutal fight was attentively watched by all of them.

[We are ready]

[We can fight]

[Let's get our revenge, boss!]

[My boys are ready]

[I want to fight everyone]

[I'll f*ck those bastards!]

[Bring me on your chariot, babe]

The last two messages came from the jumper and Hilary. Of course the jumper was the kind of the guy to not let his grudges die down on their own.

As for Hilary, she just wanted to be with me. It was a wish I couldn't grant for her right now.

[Just rest for now] I sent this message to everyone, [The time for you to fight isn't far away]

[I heard there is a paragon of my race here]

[I got the word from my paragon, a rival one is here]

These two came from Fang and Wryly in order.

[I'm going to kill them] I sent this message to both, clarifying my intentions here. I didn't plan to play that long with the Hector paragon. After all, I got tired from killing his paragon.

If it was another race, then killing more would leave them weakened. But such races seemed to have an endless supply of paragons like they were cabbage or something.

On the other hand, killing Berserkers' and Elevators' parsons had much more impact here. If that happened, then the future of these two would be limitless.

Like this one paragon seat would be void in each race. Not to mention it would send a strong warning message to other paragons of their races.

Come at me with the risks of losing your lives; that was the simple message I wanted to send here. Not only to the remaining paragons, but also to their own paragons as well.

The performance of these two paragons with my boys in this fight from the start wasn't that satisfying to me. They got ditched from the start and got such cold shoulders for no reason.

By killing these pardons and letting these two own their dead bodies would send a strong message to their own paragons as well.

Don't mess up with us; that was the message I intended to send to their paragons.

But there was a slight problem here.

[Do you know where your paragons are?]

[I'll look for such info] Fang sent.

[I… Don't know such a thing] Wryly was useless in such regard as always.

[I'm waiting for the good news] I sent to Fang.

[Just ask your paragon, he must be aware of his rival's location and activity all the time] I sent to Wryly, [Also tell him you will bring back a paragon head tonight] I added, to make sure that paragon wouldn't do anything funny.

This last statement was a warning. I didn't like these two paragons, especially the one of Wryly.

I never forgot that this dude sat his eyes over Hilary. So I'd never remove the possibility of him selling us out to the other paragon, warning him about our intentions.

So I made sure to say that Wryly would bring back a paragon's head, not just the one here. That meant if Wryly's paragon messed up, then he would pay the price for it.

Of course it was apparent that the one to do that wasn't Wryly or Fang, but me. And such a message was sent from me to that damn bastard.

All I had to do now was to wait, look around for any sudden movement. After all, a paragon trying to run away wouldn't leave his trusted aides behind.

He would run away in a big envoy, one that I'd be able to spot even from miles away.

I didn't trust Wryly's paragon, so I had to be cautious and not lower my guard against him.

[Tell me what exactly happened here]

423 One Is Trying To Run Away

As I decided to let my boys rest, of course aside from that crazy jumper, I asked everyone to know the mysteries behind all this.

That jumper was really crazy! Once he got on his feet, he summoned all his forces, and led them to attack the enemy. He was mad, revengeful, not resigning to rest when his enemies were this close by.

I let him do whatever he wanted. After all he faced a horrible time and he deserved to take his revenge personally.

As for others, they were oblivious to what he was doing, or they decided to close an eye over it. They started to narrate everything that happened, with much news I didn't know.

It all started with the arrival of a new army. According to all of them, they led their forces south as I ordered before. The lands there weren't much protected.

With the help of wryly and his forces, they managed to control the southern regions.

Then I vanished and that left them unable to decide their next move. According to them, the jumper took over and decided with Hilary to go north and keep clearing the areas there.

The two decided to go north as that was what I'd ordered. Of course they were right in their decision. But when they went there, they were met with a new challenge.

A human army at west was fighting a brutal battle against a combined Dragon and Selvator army. That was something I knew. Also Wryly was aware of it.

As for Fang, that dude kept his distance even after taking a good bite off the southern region. He was reserving his forces, not rashly joining any battle like Wryly did.

That dude was just acting too cautious, something that seemed to backfire at him.

From the stories I heard, the first battle that happened was against Fang. It seemed his presence just stirred up his rival, making him retreat alongside the dragons and come at him.

He asked for help, a request that was honoured by the jumper in a very weird move.

No one knew why the two armies retreated. All they knew was that they came fast and took a detour around their armies to get to Fang.

As the jumper led everyone to help Fang, all the scattered forces of other races came to attack the human army in the west.

All thought it was on the brink of collapse, or else why the two armies retreated and came to attack Fang?

Their bet baid off as that army was indeed on the verge of collapsing on itself. No one knew who was the leader of that army, or where they came from.

But as the jumper helped Fang and managed to rout the enemy off, everyone decided to move out and help that small human army.

Like this everyone got to meet each other. After all, the human army when cornered found no other hope to survive but to move East and try to join my forces.

As the two sides met, a big battle erupted. In the eyes of everyone, this was the last battle to control these lands.

However when everything was heading right for our side, a massive fog moved out of nowhere and covered up everyone.

Then the illusion appeared and they became trapped in there until I managed to free them.

Per their words, that second human army should be here. But as I could see it, there was no sign of that army anywhere!

Did they manage to escape here? Or were they very exhausted and died fast at the illusion?

That didn't make any sense actually. [Search for any survivors of that army] I sent to all, while feeling something fishy was going on here.

They were fighting all the time, so they didn't have any chance to interrogate that army or gain any valuable intel about them.

Also that army came without any leader, making it impossible to track the origin of this army.

A human army appeared out of nowhere and brought such trouble with them. And now they are gone. It was indeed fishy.

I looked at all my forces down there. They got it hard this time. Even my Bulltors and advanced humans were lying on the ground exhausted and tired.

They didn't show many wounds or injuries like the rest of humans here. After all they had their cultivation bases opened and lots of stat points and battle experience on their backs.

But I didn't try to order them to join the fight. I had to leave some kind of protection for my forces here. Who knew what else would happen here.

So I let my forces rest and my personal army fought. As for that jumper, he kept fighting fervently without any regard to his own safety.

So I had to assign a few dragons to help him and also minimise the losses at his side.

Things kept going on smoothly until Fang finally returned to me.

[That paragon is trying to run away, he is at West]

[Got it!]

As I got a whim about one paragon, I looked back at the one persistently coming at me. That dude… He didn't know that he was screwed the moment he decided to come at me.

[Curse is completed!]

All this time I wasn't sitting idly or just blindly attacking him. I used my Libra and cursed him.

The moment he got cursed, he started to show much weakness as expected. His shield became weaker, alongside many of his forces at the frontline.

I didn't need to keep attacking him. In fact I felt too lazy and too bored to kill another paragon of that race.

It was indeed weird and ironic. How such a race that was supposed to be terrifying had such losses on my hands.

But now I had to go and attack that running away paragon. As for Wryly, I had a feeling that Wryly's paragon was going to betray us.

Anyway, I'd know such a thing soon enough.

424 Making An Offer To A Paragon

As I headed West, I noticed a big group of people running away in a big manner. It was surely that paragon. And it was time for me to kill a paragon of another race other than Hectors.

If I was going to be a king, shouldn't I select a name for myself? A paragon slayer, it was a cool name indeed. And I deserved to be called one.

"See that running chicken? Aim at it and kill all those around him," I pointed at a running giant in the middle of lots of strong looking other giants.

It was indeed that Selvator paragon. Unlike Dragons, Selvators didn't like fancy things or showy items. But they paid much importance towards getting themselves strong looking items and gears.

The gears over that dude didn't have much ornaments or golden particles. But they had strange protrusions and writings, making me feel how strong and unique these gears were.

So he was that paragon, and he seemed to run away in such a scary and frightening manner. Someone must have tipped him about my plans towards him. Or why was he running away in such a way?

As I gave the order, my boys shifted their attention away from that Hector's crazy paragon and hit the Selvator's. The explosions erupted and led to a massive shockwave that swept clean most of his nearby forces.

"Attack the other one," as the first hit did all this damage, so I decided to shift the attack back to the Hector paragon.

If I thought for a second that a single hit was enough to kill that Selvator paragon then I'd be greatly underestimating paragon and Sevlators.

But this attack was enough to force him to stop, and give me a chance to curse him as well.

As the dust settled, what I expected appeared in front of my eyes. That paragon was surrounded with a mighty shield, formed entirely out of pure energy.

It was big enough to encompass thousands of his elite forces, but not as big as the shield of the Hector paragons.

And as he was forced to stop, my chariot managed to catch up with him. I stopped in midair, hovering almost five hundred metres above that shield, seven hundred metres above his head.

"So it's you," he said in a deep tone, a tone that held much authority and pride, "let me go and I'll richly reward you."

"I can't be bought by money," I shook my head in confidence, "just one thing can be accepted to save your neck."

"No f*cking way! I won't turn into a dog to serve others, especially a lowly human like yourself!"

He was smart indeed to guess what I wanted from him. In fact he was mistaken. I wasn't just trying to reach a bargain, I was just wasting time until my curse would work.

However, in less than two minutes, my curse was completed, giving me a surprise. It seemed I grew used to the long time my Libra used to take over the Hectors and mistook that other races would show the same resistance.

But Hectors were a special case indeed. So in just our little talk here, my curse worked. From the ashen white expression on his face, the dim light coming from his aura, I knew my curse worked successfully.

"How about now? Do you accept it?" I snorted while offering up this deal again.

I knew Selvators pretty well. They might look fair and just lovers from the outside. But after dealing with Fang, I knew how cunning and a little dirty they were.

In fact I suspected a link between the Selvators and Dragons, as if the two shared the same ancestors one day.

So the chances for him to accept my offer were nearly null. But I had to offer this. After all, if I ended up having a paragon under my control, it would save me lots of trouble.

Fang showed me how Selvators placed great importance over knowledge. That dude was a mere archlord, not favoured by his paragon till now, and yet he knew lots of info all the time.

"I decline," as I expected, he didn't take the bait, "if it was up to me, then I'd definitely choose my life. But paragons aren't that easy. We are forced to serve none but ourselves, or else we can't get the rank of a paragon in the apocalypse."

His words were an eye opener for me. It seemed that paragons were really a special rank. They couldn't serve others, and that wasn't an option they could decide on their own.

"Then abandon paragonship and join me," as he treasured his life so much and didn't want to die, but couldn't do that either as he was bound by the restriction of the system over his rank, so why not ditch this rank?

"This…" my words seemed to give him a possibility he never thought about.

"What? Don't tell me dying as a paragon is more important for you than living as a normal person!" I raised one eyebrow, faking my surprise for his hesitation.

I knew he hesitated now because he never thought about this. Leaving his place, the rank he lived his entire life dreaming to obtain, was indeed something unexpected for such a figure.

But he had no other choice here. He must be aware of my Libra and its deadly curse. With it, he had no chance at standing against me.

His life was indeed in danger, and his only option to survive was by serving me loyally.

"Make up your mind," I turned my chariot around, "don't run. I'm well aware of your position all the time. And as you can see, no one can run away from me."

"W… Where are you going?" he asked in doubt and I just shrugged while moving away.

"Sorry, but I got two other paragons to kill. Will finish them off and return to you."

Damn! Just saying this line made me look so damn cool!

425 The War Is Almost Over

I left him and was pretty confident in his agreement to my offer. After all, I just said I was going to kill two other paragons in such an easy and carefree way.

As for these two paragons, I knew I held zero chance at convincing them to agree to such an offer. The first was that crazy Hector paragon. That dude was blinded by his hatred, not knowing what to do but to chase after me like a cat running after a feather dancing in the air.

As for the second one, it was the Berserker's paragon. Berserkers were a race that couldn't be reasoned with. They loved wars, and value nothing much about their lives.

So trying to force such a warmaniac dude to surrender to me was a dream. I just got lucky with Wryly actually. As that dude wouldn't be convinced by anything except brute strength.

If not for the circumstances we two met at, he wouldn't end up serving me. Also trying to seduce him with prestige and benefits wouldn't work, and that was why I kept throwing him around, fighting at every possible chance.

Unlike Fang, who valued what I was doing to him to make him ascend higher. Fang wanted power and prestige, and so it seemed much easier for me to deal with him.

He was just so self focused to care too much about his own benefits, to the degree of making me feel insulted at some occasions.

Just like how he dealt with this entire battle here. Yet in the end he got what he deserved anyway. Losing many of his troops on the hands of the coalition of Dragons and Selvators just looked fair in my eyes.

One paragon was chasing me around, so I didn't need to find him. But the other was nowhere to be seen.

Wryly didn't respond back to me yet. He didn't find any trace of that paragon. It seemed his paragon did as I feared.

But who cared? If that paragon decided to betray Wryly and help his friend and rival, I'd still end up finding that damn paragon here and kill him.

No one was stupid. They were all smart to be paragons. So they all saw through my plan and knew I was just killing one to create a place for my two boys to rise at.

Instead of risking letting people under my leadership be their rivals, meaning I'd be their rival, they would better choose their already known enemies and help them escape.

Who knew? Fang's paragon might have played on the two sides. He might have warned that paragon here to run, and at the same time he told Fang about his place.

Whoever ended up winning here wouldn't suspect or hold a grudge against him. Smart, cunning, and dirty… That was typically what a Selvator would do.

Especially if all this remained hidden and wasn't revealed at all.

"Where are you, dude?" as I kept looking around, I murmured to myself. That paragon must be too terrified to stay. So I was looking for a large convoy running as fast as they could, as far away from here as possible.

After half an hour of constant flying and looking, I finally saw him. He was running East, the last direction I thought he'd go.

After all, the entire East from here was under my control directly or indirectly. So trying to run there looked weird to me.

But anyway, as I found him I did the same tactic I did with that Selvator paragon.

First I attacked with my fallen gods. Then I used my Libra. Last I didn't offer anything and only let my boys over the chariot to release all their weapons at him.

That dude was really pathetic! He didn't have a chance to fight back at all. From the start, he was on the defence, trying to survive as hard as he could.

Burning away treasures was a familiar signature mark for the approach of their deaths. These paragons seemed to have more defensive treasures than anyone I'd ever seen before.

It took roughly ten minutes from my arrival to kill him. That dude fell and I could only sigh.

If not thanks to my Libra treasure, killing them would be hard or even impossible. Also I realised something from fighting against all these paragons.

At the early stages of the apocalypse, these paragons weren't as mighty as I imagined. After all, we were all limited by our stats. But at later stages, they'd keep growing stronger, gain much force on their sides and would show a great disparity with people like me.

I had to work hard over my forces, over the project of transferring human weaponry systems into something that could be used here and now.

Like this I'd have a chance to fight them equally later on. I was quite sure that after this battle, facing another paragon would become so rare, much rarer than even my chances to ascend heavens.

They'd all know how threatening I was. So they'd prefer to hide for now, build up their powers until they create a massive difference with me. Then they'd come at me with everything they got.

As I killed him, I had now my time to turn over that annoying Hector paragon.

"I gave you lots of chances to retreat and survive, but you still acted stubborn and kept coming at me," I helplessly said. In fact I didn't feel like killing a Hector paragon today.

But that dude was so stupid to keep knocking on the gates of death like this. If he was this desperate to die, then I'd just fulfil his dreams.

"Die then!" without showing mercy anymore, I let all my boys here attack with everything they got.

And hell opened fire over that pathetic dude and lasted until he let out his last breath after twenty minutes.

With his death, the curtain of this big and all time changing tides war would be closed.

426 Another Follower With A Complicated Secret

Only that last paragon remained, alongside the bunch of fools here waiting to be slaughtered.

[Have you rested up well enough? It's time for a counter attack now] before going to meet that dude, I made sure to take a wide tour around, killing as much as I could, creating as much chaos as I could, and eventually I gave the green light for my forces to attack.

The area around them was already cleared all the time by my dragons and soulers. As for the jumper forces, they were too deep in enemy lines, killing fervently without any specific goal in mind.

[Get ready, we are attacking now] and as I gave the order to my boys, I also sent this message to both Fang and Wryly.

[Are you trying to seduce our paragon? Did you like her this much or what?]

Just as I sent this to Fang, he responded with such a weird message.

[Her? Is your paragon a girl?!!] I never noticed this. Was that paragon a girl? How come I didn't know it?

[She uses a camouflage technique to make her appearance look like a man. But she is one of the fiercest, and most beautiful ladies of our race. Are you sure you aren't after her beauty?]

Just reading this made me not know if I should laugh or cry. That dude just said that she used a technique to hide her appearance from the world. How come I'd be after her then?

[Dude, this is all a misunderstanding]

[Tell this to her big army of fans then]

For a reason, this phrase looked familiar and left a melancholic feeling in me. Somehow, somewhere else someone told me such a sentence before, or one similar to it.

[I'm not after her, but she is going to be mine anyway]

[Contradictory words coming from a tyrant man]

[Dude, I'm just trying to help you here] I rolled my eyes, [Don't you feel like thanking me or something?]

[Humph, as if it's easy to fill up her place like this]

[You are such ungrateful bastard]

[Learnt from the best]

[F*ck off!] I closed the chat, feeling a little irritated by this ungrateful dude.

Why the hell didn't he just say a simple thank you? Was it this hard to thank me?

Humph, if he didn't know his place, then I'd end up replacing him with someone else.

As for that girl, she wouldn't be the first by my side to act like a boy. I had Hilary for now, and had problems still waiting to get solved back at my capital with Karoline.

Last thing I needed was to bring myself another disaster or a pile of trouble.

[We are ready!]

[Let's go, boss!]

[My boys are hungry for blood]

[I'm leading out my forces right now]

[Can I come over now?]

Of course the last message was from Hilary. I didn't know what went into her mind. But anyway, it wasn't time yet to rest and have fun.

[Go, start the big and final battle boys. Follow the spearhead, he will clear the way with his ability]

[Me? Damn boss! Why give me such a risky task?]

[Dude, don't act like this] I responded to the spearhead before adding, [You have to help others. After all the forces here aren't in their top shape]

[But I'll be at the frontlines like this]

[My dragons will protect you, just keep your ability rolling all the time]

[… Fine boss… Whatever you say]

[If you don't how a better attitude, I might call my dragons back]

[No boss, I still have Isabella to live the rest of my life with. Please boss, I swear I'll name my first kid Hye, I swear on my honour]

[Screw off!] I closed the chat while laughing. That dude… he was feeling so well to even crack such a joke.

Anyway, I took a detour to tell my dragons to protect the spearhead after locating his place. I also took a few circles around, killing lots of the enemies and made sure the first few clashes wouldn't be that fierce on them.

Then I had time to go and see this chick acting like a dude.

Would she wear a mask as well from now on or what?

"So, have you decided, girl?" as I arrived at that paragon, I said while stressing over my last word.

"You… Damn! Fang must have told you! That damn talkative bastard!"

It seemed Fang was famous for not keeping his mouth shut. But he didn't speak that much with me anyway. Compared to Wryly, that dude only spoke when there was something important to say.

"Anyway, have you decided?" I ignored her useless remark over my boy, and waited to hear her answer.

"Just a question…"

"I'm not after your body, wake up I didn't know about your secret identity until later on," I rolled my eyes as I knew what she wanted to say.

"Then can you…"

"Don't worry, you aren't the first anyway in my team to hide such a secret from others…" I again read through her mind and knew what she wanted to ask for. "But for Fang's part, I can't guarantee that."

"I'll teach that bastard a lesson later on, leave him to me."

I didn't know why when she said it, I felt sympathy towards Fang. that dude was going to have his as* kicked with a former paragon, and a mighty and fierce girl on top of that.

"Any more questions?" I asked and she shook her head. "Then let's sign the contract," I took out the highest grade contract I could get.

"One second…"

"What?"

"I need to resign from my position first," she said and strangely enough, she took out a big sword. Without any warning or a speck of hesitation, she cut her left arm from the elbow, leaving me all speechless while looking at the fountain of blood coming out from her wound.

"We have to pay the price of what we pledged when we joined this rank," she said in a slightly weaker tone, before she started wrapping the wound in a shaky way.

"Damn you girl! Wait, I'll get you a healing potion."

"No need, it won't work anyway… This is a pledge price, something that had to be paid fully to get free," despite being shaky and looking weak, she gave such a strong front and said such strong words back.

And without saying anymore, I inwardly nodded in respect to her courage and strong will.

427 Dealing With The Crazy Jumper

She was a brave girl, so I gave her that.

Just her decisiveness made me realise how she intended to serve me.

"Ok, from now on you are part of my elite team," I had to reward her for what she did, "Come on board, let's talk inside."

"Ok," she said in a loud tone but when she moved, her body shifted to the side all of sudden. I inwardly sighed, jumped off my chariot and grabbed her body before falling to the ground.

"Foolish girl," I said to her when I saw her white face and closed eyes. She seemed to pay much more than I thought, and she was now unconscious.

I thought about using a healing potion or pill, but her last words made me stop from doing so. Such a price was like a curse, not easily healed without doubt.

I returned back to my chariot using the stairs, and left her to rest in one of the beds here. Of course thinking she might betray me was out of the question.

She just abandoned everything she held dear and paid a hefty price for that.

As I went up to the chariot, I started to roam the battlefield.

This place was already chaotic. The dense numbers of different races here played a role in adding more to this chaos.

Unlike what anyone would expect, this gathering without a strong overall general would be a thorn in their backs.

And now my boys were fighting fiercely, releasing all the frustration they had against those races.

Of course I knew these races were innocent from what happened to them. None of these races was behind what happened, and I doubted anyone would know who caused all this mess.

Anyway, I just roamed around, killed everyone I got near to, and eventually reached the dead paragon bodies. I simply got them up to my chariot, claimed my prize, and kept roaming the battlefield without any specific purpose.

The loot I got wasn't that great anyway. Aside from tons of coins, stat points, gears, and few low grade treasures, nothing big was there.

Only high grade bones might be considered the good loot I got from the two. As for their elites, it was so damn hard to find them amidst all the devastation and death here.

If not for me recalling where I slain these two, I'd have never found their bodies this fast.

[Head north] as the fight seemed endless and pointless, and my forces weren't indeed in top form, it was better to start and shift slowly towards our escape route.

I gave them five to six hour to vent their anger, release whatever they held deep in their hearts. But I feared about the other races getting the glaring mistakes fixed and their big names would take charge of their large number of forces.

"Form a wall from here to here," as I gave that order, I entrusted the task of stopping and defending the back of my army to my newly acquired Bulltors and humans.

These dudes were strong, hellish strong. So leaving this part to them was more than enough. I knew they'd excel at defending my army while retreating, stopping any problems that might rise.

But the only problem I had left was none other than that crazy jumper!

[Hey! If you don't stop now and turn around, I swear I'll come down there and drag your ass all the way to my chariot!]

[Leave me alone! I won't stop before killing all of those bastards!]

Well… That was a problem indeed. That jerk was focusing on the wrong enemy, wasting his time and effort over such useless foes.

[I swear if you don't turn around now I'll tell everyone about your little secret. These races are nothing but useless sh*t! They aren't the ones who trapped you in there]

[Then who was it? Tell me his name and I swear I won't stop until butchering him in the most brutal way ever!]

[Dude, calm down please. No one knows who is he, and I swear to you I won't forgive him]

[I want to kill that bastard! I want to kill someone! Let me keep fighting here and come to me in a week or two]

Week or two?!! Damn dude!!! Do you plan to keep fighting like this for all this time?

Sigh, I didn't want to do it but I had no other option then.

I moved my chariot towards his location. Other than this stubborn dude, everyone was fighting together and listening to my words.

They were moving slightly to the north, supported by my boys and the mighty Bulltors and humans who formed a big wall to defend their retreat.

Only that jumper stayed there, deep in the enemy lines, giving me such a worry. Something seemed wrong in that dude's mind, like he saw something unbearable or forgivable at that illusion.

What just happened there? Damn! This was getting more complicated than I thought.

But that crazy dude was forgetting that even if he had the will, he couldn't keep that up with his body and his forces' general conditions.

They were tired and still wounded. They couldn't maintain such a high intensity fight without getting weak at some point.

And if that happened, and with their presence deep and isolated in enemy lines, they would face a disaster.

"Listen up," I first took a half circle in the air before adding, "hit this zone as if this is the end of the world. Don't let any single bastard survive, and slowly expand the attack towards that direction."

Even if I planned to get that bastard with force, his forces would still be trapped in here. So I had to clear a zone for them to retreat and move towards the rest of my forces.

Just as my boys started to rain that zone with their deadly attacks, I called back a few dragons and jumped over the back of one of them.

"Go, let's get that maniac home," I took out my light weighted glaive and pointed it towards the direction of the jumper.

428 Where Should We Go?

The next moment my dragons moved, all stood to protect me while I jumped off, landed over that jumper's back, forcing him to scream in a mighty roar.

"Get off my back!" he roared, but dude I came here to get you. I held him from his armour, and held the leg of my dragon with the other hand. "Rise, take us back."

That dude went crazy the moment he felt himself flying in the air. He kept waving his two swords, trying to hit me.

That jerk! I was trying to save you and your poor forces, idiot!

"No time for that… Come here," as I was this close to getting hit more than once, I called for my chariot to come while waving my arm that held him as hard as I could, throwing that dude towards the chariot.

He had no time to resist, as once he fell, I controlled my chariot and let him fall into one of the rooms down below and be trapped in there.

Facing that dude right now would be a great mistake, one that I wouldn't make. He needed time to rest and cool his head a little. If we talked now, a fight was inevitable for sure.

"Listen up," as I stood over the edge of my chariot, getting surrounded with my dragons, "I'm taking over for now. Follow this direction, I'll make sure to arrive there in one piece."

As I was this close to them, my voice echoed and reached all of them. Also I managed to see glimpses of their faces.

Exhaustions… Anxiety… Fear… All of them showed such negative expressions that made me feel sympathy towards them.

They just got out from hell to be thrown into another by such a crazy leader.

Sigh! That jumper got overboard this time without doubt.

The army here was almost one mile away from the main forces. So getting them back proved to be harder than I thought.

What I feared before happened. Those races got on the same line, seemingly appointing a single leader to them.

They knew they weren't a match for my chariot, dragons, or fallen gods. So they just decided to aim for the weak forces here, trying to kill as many as they could.

They replaced the frontline with cannon fodders, weak races that worked as slaves for them. They wanted to get me busy dealing with them while they sent a few groups of elites from time to time and sniped the jumper's army here.

I just wanted that damn jerk to come here and watch the mess he created with his stubbornness. The situation kept getting worse with each passing minute, and the army down below started to show many losses.

But I was doing my best. There was nothing else I could do here. My other personal forces were fighting and helping the main forces to retreat safely.

I was sure what was happening here was also happening out there. It wouldn't be a good fight indeed, and we would end up losing more than anyone on my team would have ever expected.

However, that was within my calculations. That was why I didn't plan on keeping this fight when we seemed to have the upper hand here.

As I was sure, such an advantage was just temporary. And with time fatigue and injuries would take the best of my forces, leaving them all vulnerable.

Not to mention the role appointing a leader would play in changing the fighting style of these forces here. Just like what happened now.

"Finally," after two stressful hours, we finally managed to catch up with the main army. "Go, go in the centre and keep following our pace."

I let the exhausted and terrified army go into the centre of the big army. Like this they would be much safer and had time to recuperate.

During this journey, they lost almost one fifth of their initial number. As for my main army here, they were also facing up the same kind of tactic.

But they were well protected with my elite humans and Bulltors. Not to mention the dragons that kept flying and hunting any elite enemy forces sent at any time.

My soulers kept a tight hold over the situation. Facing weak races was like a free meal to them.

In general their situation was much better than that stupid jumper's forces. At least they were together, fighting and holding the backline without any big issues.

As for the front, it was already easy to handle. We were at the outer region of the coalition army here.

It was just a matter of time for all of us to get out and break free from such encirclement.

"Where should we go then?" That was the main question that popped into my mind at that moment. I looked at the general map of the central zone over my chariot and was lost in deep thoughts.

The sounds of the ongoing brutal battle kept getting far away from my ears. I was totally focused and absorbed in thinking about this dilemma.

Should we retreat far and go to the capital in the East? Leave everything we fought for till now?

Or should we follow my old arrangement, control Illinois, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan?

In my opinion, ditching everything was a mistake. We wouldn't get such a chance so easily anytime soon. Not to mention I was really planning to hide deep into my territory and start building my forces up.

There were many issues I needed to work upon. But expanding my territory like this would end up putting more pressure over my forces.

I looked down at the forces. They were big, but they were tired. Also if I went to take such a big cut, the enemy forces behind me would keep harassing my boys.

This… Was a really hard decision to make without doubt.

And I had to make up my mind during the upcoming half an hour. As my army would be already free from this entrapment, be ready to go towards any direction I wanted.

So… Where should I lead them then?

429 Meeting Hilary

The two options held much importance in different aspects. However the one that I leant towards was the confrontation solution.

I wasn't the kind to play all safe at such times. Great risks would bring great benefits. But that would require more attention from me towards the situation here.

"I'll store the bookmarks of all big cities and key places here then," I started to think about the best way to solve any uprising problem.

I knew problems would keep rising up all the time. These races wouldn't just accept my presence next to them and swallow their big losses here.

In this war, the races lost big. Many archlords were killed, even paragons were lost. I believed the biggest race to suffer here was the Dragons followed by Selvators.

As for the Illusionists and Succubi, they were a bunch of cowards and cowards lived longer than courageous ones. Their losses weren't any big at all.

If they got a speck of ambition and courage, they'd work to expand their territories in such times. But I greatly doubted that.

So the Dragons would try to expand their territory here. More archlords might come into the picture and their paragons might also appear from time to time.

But after killing all these paragons so far, the paragons here would start growing a fear towards me.

As for Selvators, if that paragon of Fang didn't start depending more over him, let him expand his territory here and even didn't show signs of appreciation and intention to upgrade his rank, then I'd force Fang towards expanding his territory and aim to work on his own.

Having a backup that didn't work for your benefit and just hindered you wasn't a good thing indeed. Getting rid of his useless support was the best course of action.

I might even let Fang seek another paragon's help for now. I didn't know how they could upgrade in ranks in their races. Was it an automatic system action or did they need the decision of a higher up in their race like a paragon?

I frankly didn't know the answer, but I intended to ask Fang for it once we got secured.

[Go up north] I sent this message to all of my teammates, Fang, and Wryly. As for the jumper, he kept sending threatening messages, making me totally ignore what he said for now.

That dude just needed time to rest up.

[Can I come up now?]

Hilary never gave up on getting up to here. Anyway the situation became slightly stabilised. The forces were now almost this close from getting out.

[I'm coming to pick you up, assign someone to lead your army until I arrive]

I knew her current location, but gave her a few minutes to find someone to lead the army. As I reached her place, I threw the robe down and let her climb to my chariot.

"I was sick and worried about you."

The first thing she did was to jump at my arms, leaning her body over, and give me such a warm and deep hug.

I couldn't reject such a body thrown into my arms like this. As I held her and sat over the thick arm of one of my Gollams, she didn't speak for a long time.

I felt something warm running down my arms and chest. When I checked it, it was her running tears.

This girl… She was really worried about me!

"Don't worry like this," I couldn't help but softly whisper while slowly touching her chin, raising it up to make her eyes meet mine, "I'm not that weak or soft to be crushed by such things."

"But… The world was bathed under a mighty red pillar of beam that gave me an instant scare! Then you vanished! Totally vanished like you were never here in the first place."

Hearing her say that made me sigh. It looked horrifying indeed. But that wasn't even close to what happened.

"I was the one to control such a beam," I had to reassure her, "that attack was done by me."

"Really?!!" she looked at me in surprise and doubt, and I nodded. Just seeing her alluring face and eyes from so close stirred all the heat inside my heart.

And when I heard her soft voice coming in such a way, my own will failed me and I ended up painting a soft kiss over her lips.

"Hye… I…" she seemed a little embarrassed, shy as if she wanted to ask for something vulgar or something.

"I know," I painted another soft and slightly longer kiss this time over her lips to seal her words inside, "but let's end this battle now and be together later."

"Is that… For real?!!" her eyes released another gush of tears, and I slowly wiped them.

"Silly girl… I'm all yours."

Saying that seemed to release a great pressure off my heart and shoulders. And when I said it, her eyes stopped crying and her face started to beam in pure happiness.

I had to admit… Seeing her smile and brightened up face made me happy. I didn't know why, but at this moment the image of Karoline's face appeared next to her, then it started to slowly fade away.

Karoline… She lacked a lot when compared with this goddess of beauty and strength lying in my arms right now.

Well… Sorry Karoline, but you first walked away from me and now you lost any chance for us to be together anymore.

What a twist in fate!

"Now what?" she wiped the trails of her tears off her face, adjusted her body to sit freely opposite to me, "where are we going now? What are we going to do?"

"We will not abandon the empty territories here," I looked up at the map before adding, "we will control most of the central zone and east region."

"With our forces?" She seemed doubtful about this plan, "we lost a lot, you know that, right?"

430 The Big Plan

"We have to adapt," I shrugged, "besides our enemies lost much more than us."

"But they have their worlds backing them up. They can just replenish their losses during the upcoming two quests. You know that we can't take part in these."

"I know," she reminded me of such a punishment that I got from the paragons of other races. Of course the ones excelling in the past quests were none other than those paragons.

Who else would prove himself aside from me in such quests? Of course only paragons would be able to do that.

"And our forces? How do you plan to replenish them?"

"We will start on strengthening our forces," I said before suddenly recalling something, "by the way, do you recognise that mysterious human army? Any past memories about it?"

If there was anyone else beside me to have valuable intel about the apocalypse then the jumper would come second and Hilary would be first.

"It's my first time seeing such a thing," unexpectedly she shook her head, "the only strong human forces here I'm aware of are Ed at West, Larry at South, and Emy at North."

"The three kings and queens," I muttered and she gave me a nod.

"They are deserving to be called this," she said, "but I never met such an army before. You have to know that they faced a combined army of Dragons and Selvators and managed to defeat them."

"They did?!" I already expected that, but hearing it like this was still surprising.

And she nodded.

"That means they are strong. A strong human force led by none of the famous names I and you are aware of is indeed a peculiar case," she said before sighing, "what happened here also is the first time for me to experience or hear about it."

"The illusion trap?"

"I never heard of an illusion that can trap millions inside and cause such considerable damage."

"I saw your feed," I bitterly said, "watching you endlessly fight was something torturing to me."

"Baby," she held my face with her little hand, "it wasn't just a fight. At first it showed me bitter memories of my past, trying to crush my will. If not for my strong will, I would have crumbled back then."

"This…" When I heard that, a face popped up in my mind, one that was wearing a mask.

So that was why that jumper dude acted all this crazy back then… That dude… it seemed what he saw was really taxing on his nerves and mind.

What did he see? Did he see that angelic dude sacrificing his life for him?

I knew such a memory would be deadly to him. Just bringing that past memory in any talk between us was enough to stir him up.

Experiencing everything again must have crushed him. Sigh, he wasn't in any shape to be released free soon.

I intended to leave him here, lead the armies and defend this region. I thought he needed a few fights to vent his anger and frustration. But things seemed to grow much deeper than that.

"The one who did it is a really dangerous one," I seriously said, "he did all this then vanished without a trace. We didn't even get a glimpse of his origin."

"I never thought such a terrifying person was in our apocalypse," Hilary sighed, "even my nemesis of the angels didn't show anything like this before."

"He must be one of the races here."

"But… Which race?"

"That's what we have to find out," I looked at the map before adding, "but first let's go to a secured place from here. We are currently at the western borders of Illinois with Wisconsin. We shall move west from here, and start controlling the eastern side of Illinois, moving up north to control Michigan, then go south all the way to Georgia."

"This…" she even stood up, walked around the map for a few minutes before adding, "it's a very wide stretch of land. Can we secure it?"

"Don't forget we have two archlords from two strong races on our side," I reminded her of Fang and Wryly.

"They lost a lot, especially that arrogant and selfish Selvator dude!" she rolled her eyes before adding, "we asked him to come and join us but he refused, ending up getting surrounded and being attacked heavily by everyone. When we got to him, he lost at least half of his entire force."

"He will replenish them," I shrugged, standing up and holding her from the back, moving my hands across her slim and soft waist, "I'll make sure the two will get enough."

"You… never mind," she looked at me and before I'd steal another kiss, she looked back at the map. Chick, were you trying to make me impatient here or what?

"Where do you intend to let them stay in such a big mess?" she pointed at the map before adding, "in this hot zone?"

She pointed at Illinois, Michigan, and Kentucky. Of course these areas were very hot, considering their presence near the other races' forces in the region.

"I'll leave Wryly here," I pointed at Kentucky before adding, "as for Fang, he will control the southern regions down from Virginia to Georgia."

"Doesn't that mean…" she turned to me with a shocked face, and I nodded.

"The rest will be guarded by us. Don't look at me in that way, it's not that bad at all."

"It's that bad, and even more," she pursed her lips in complaint and I had to admit… she was really a hot chick even when grumbling like this.

"What about that Berserker dude? Wryly isn't it? Which parts will he control?"

"This dude is a war lover," I sighed, "he won't settle in any area without big fights."

"So?"

That dude was the reason why I planned this territory in such a way. If he was slightly sane, I'd have assigned more regions to him.

431 You Seem To Know Him Quite Well!

"Starting from north at west of Michigan, down to west of Illinois and ending up at Missouri, these areas will be his reign of activity," I explained, "he will act as our buffer fighting force, fighting any other race nearby and make sure not a single army stays in peace."

"Will he accept that?" she seemed to not truly understand the essence of these Berserkers.

"He will even thank me for this," I laughed, "but that doesn't mean we'll have to lower our guard in that area."

"Considering your plans…" she returned to look at the map before adding after a long moment of pause, "our south will be well protected by the Selvator dude. Our east is secured by the ocean. So only this region in the west will have our full concentration."

"Indeed," this was the best approach I thought about, "but we won't station all of our forces there. We need to start training them."

"At the dungeon?"

"Not only that," I shook my head, "I want all of them to start their cultivation."

"Cu… Do you think it's that easy? Humans are far away from cultivation!"

"I know," I wasn't surprised by her reaction, "but who said I don't have a cheat code here?"

"A cheat code? Hmm…" she seemed to struggle for a bit longer this time until her eyes shone in realisation, "that Hector chick… Damn! I totally forgot about her…"

She suddenly shrugged her body free from my arms, turned around as she seriously added in warning, "I saw how this girl looked at you. I swear if you dared to play with her, I'd torture that little brother of yours down there."

She pointed at my waist, making me move my hands in reflex to safeguard my little treasure down there.

"Come on! She is full of scales!" I defended myself, or tried to do so.

"Fine and beautifully looking scales? No way, if you dare to come at her, I'll dare to harm him."

I rolled my eyes, moved away my hands while saying in response:

"It's funny! Few days ago you didn't mind sharing me with another girl."

"Because she owned you first! But now I'm the one owning you! If anyone wants you, they have to come and ask for my permission first!"

"This…" I couldn't help but sigh. It seemed pointless talking about this with her, "I'll keep my distance away from her, don't worry about that."

"I'm not worrying about you, but about her," she harrumphed, and I didn't know what went wrong in her mind.

Anyway, it wasn't something I wanted anyway. Lily looked good indeed, but without all her scales. Wait… What if she learnt about the new girl? Damn! Damn! I couldn't let her know or else…

I stole a glance down at my little treasure before inwardly sighing. It was my curse in this life to live my entire life as a virgin, then when I came back here and became hellishly strong, I'd be surrounded with all these beauties.

Damn luck! That wasn't even fair!

"But what about that dude?" she seemed to relax a bit after a few moments of silence, "the one who caused us all this trouble."

"We will just watch out for him," I tiredly said, "that dude… He just is acting like a snake. He will hold himself, wait and keep lurking in the dark, before waiting for the right moment to attack."

"The moment when we will lower our guard, just like what happened here, right?"

"It's not just this simple," I shook my head, "that dude had many chances before to use his ability, but he refrained. He just wants to make sure his strike will be decisive and deadly, to end everything without any room for errors."

"But he failed this time," she moved her hands around, "failed it big."

"That's because he never thought I'd come back," just saying these words made her face slightly darken. She still seemed to feel bitter and worry about what happened to me before.

"He missed me, and when I came back I managed to ruin everything he worked for. But next time he won't make this mistake again."

"It seems you know him pretty well."

"I have to understand my enemies better than myself," I simply answered, "or else I won't be able to defeat them."

"I just hope we can get a clue or something about his identity," she said with a long sigh, and I couldn't deny my agreement with what she said.

"Let's focus on the fight here then," I turned my eyes around.

"Are you planning to leave such big enemies intact?" she came and stood by my side at the edge of the chariot, overseeing the overstretching armies at the distance.

The enemy was indeed in a good shape. Even after all this killing and fighting, they still had a big advantage here in terms of numbers.

At first they lost big. But when they assigned one leader to the army, things started to slightly change.

We began to exchange losses, slightly equal to each other. Of course they were losing a lot per each minute, but most were useless weak races that held no value at all.

"I'm thinking about toying a little with them before we leave," I knew if my army broke free, then the enemies would keep following and chasing us until we stopped.

That meant the area we would stop at would continue to have war. That wasn't a logical end for this war.

"Alone?" she asked in surprise and I snorted.

"Do you think anyone here can stop me? Come on, I even killed paragons!" I rolled up my eyes in response to her words.

"My man is mighty," she said with a chuckle, making me want to punish her in the bed right now.

"I'll hold you accountable for such a comment later on," I said in threat, "but after we end this fight here."

*Snap!*

I didn't give her time to say anything and just snapped my fingers to call my scattered dragons. Of course I didn't have such ability and had to just cancel their summon and then resummon them back.

Damn! If I had such ability, it would be really cool.

432 Taking A Bite From The Goddess Of Beauty

My boys came around me in a big move.

"You won't stop such childish plays, right?" Hilary rolled her eyes in response, making me laugh despite trying not to.

"Alright, follow me boys, let's give my lady a good show before leaving," I took out my glaive once more, pointed it towards the vast army of enemies all around.

Then my chariot led the charge, while my army of dragons, fallen gods, Bulltors, and shield bearers over the chariot started to rain down the enemies everywhere.

The enemy wasn't ready to stop any aerial attack. So they just kept taking damage for a long time while I kept myself flying around like a poisonous butterfly.

If there was anything like that in the world of the apocalypse anyway.

My attack came as a sudden and unpleasant surprise for the enemy. It seemed that the general of this army didn't expect me to turn around and attack them all alone like that.

But after three hours, it seemed he found a solution. Many small cannons started to fire at me from the ground. Giving me the impression that flies were trying to come at my chariot.

After all this time together, me and my chariot developed such a connection that allowed me to know how well my baby could perform against such attacks.

And of course that wasn't something to worry about.

So I neglected all these attacks and kept moving around, spreading death all over the place.

To make things funny for them, I didn't even target any of these cannons they tried so hard to get.

But after six hours, I found no reason to continue fighting this way.

The enemy seemed to know his limits, ordering his people to stand down and watch my army move away without chasing.

"Just keep them busy for a little more, honey," as I intended to stop, turn around and leave, Hilary whispered softly in my ears. All this time, she stood by my side, hanging her little hands around my neck and leaning over my body with hers.

It seemed she enjoyed such a bloody and domineering scene. Or perhaps she liked the sense of superiority that I gave while doing that.

"You are my girl, so I'll follow your words to the letter," I evilly grinned and kept fighting those bastards for two more hours.

During this, the big army of mine was nowhere to be seen. According to the messages coming from everyone, they decided to go north and take rest and shelter in the big cities in Michigan.

I didn't hurry to follow until Hilary gave me a big kiss on the cheek, whispering to me that it was enough.

Of course it was enough. During these hours, the enemy retreated back and started to diverge.

The general was smart indeed. He knew that by sticking together they'd create a bigger target over their heads. So it was better to retreat and disperse like this, to minimise losses if possible.

As things reached this far, the effects of my boys' attacks became much weaker than before. And the number killed or deeply wounded from the enemy was decreasing by each passing minute.

In the end it seemed illogical to just keep doing this. I listened to Hilary and went north.

[Where are you now?] I sent it to the spearhead, asking him about their current location.

[We are at Detroit]

[Coming!]

I sent a message next for other members of the team to be there. I also made sure that Fang and Wyly would be there as well.

"Do you know where Detroit is?" I looked up at Hilary who stood unbalanced and twisting in a weird way while rubbing her body with mine.

"It's a two to three hour flight from here, why not take a break before we reach there?"

"Ok," I didn't find any reason to keep denying her. Without waiting for her permission, I held her in my arms, went down the stairs, entered my room before fixing her fiery body over the bed.

I let the chariot keep flying for another hour before stopping. I didn't want to get lost or reach a location further away than Detroit while we two were having our little fun.

I had to admit, her taste was much better and more unique than Karoline. Comparing the two would be like comparing a wild fruit with the sweetest strawberry.

Hilary was also experienced. Just damn! Her body twisting over mine, leaning right and left as if she was dancing, or acting like a little snake, was really a new experience for me.

And her moans… Damn! Damn! Damn! Each was like a bomb that exploded into my body, stirring up all the pleasure feelings I could get in the world.

She… was a marvel! And as she went weak and slept over my arm, I started to slowly examine her body with care and lust.

She was a piece of art! Like the best sculpture held a holy instrument and sculpted a magical ore to give birth to her.

Just look at her body curves! Those smooth and small curves that appeared so natural and looked so sexy in any position or state she was in.

A perfection! She was just a perfect model for the entire human female race, a goddess of beauty, allureness, and sex without doubt.

Sigh! Just having her in my arms and tasting her sweeties anytime I'd love to would be one of the best rewards I could dream about in this apocalypse.

And if it was only her, I'd say no to such a reward indeed.

"Time to keep moving," I slipped myself slowly from her arms, gave her a final gaze before silently leaving without daring to wake her up.

It was that damn hard to just leave such a body and girl behind and return to the harsh and cold world of the apocalypse.

If it was up to me, I'd just remain here all the nights and days, enjoying my life to the brim.

433 Meeting Everyone At Detroit

Just leaving my shining little gem back down there and standing up in front of such a dim and gloomy world made me feel a little angry.

Why was the apocalypse showing us such ugliness and brutality? If I got the chance, I'd love to have a world filled with lights, beauty, and music all over it.

"Ok, let's work for that as a goal," I said to myself before resuming the flight of my chariot towards Detroit.

It was a big city indeed, lying on the bank of one big lake. I didn't know what was with this part of the continent, filled with many different sized lakes.

Just when I passed the Illinois border and headed to Michigan, I saw at least three big spaces of water at this place.

Anyway, I went towards the direction of Detroit, to be welcomed with a large stretch of army that even extended beyond the city.

Someone must have told them about the presence of tents in the market as all of them had big white and yellow coloured tents. It was a nice sight to see such a grand lining of tents organised in lines and extending around the city.

Of course my boys were inside the city. So I directly went towards the centre.

"Long live the lord!"

"Long live the lord!"

"Long live the lord!"

Just as I went near the city, flashing fast over the tent section, such earth shattering shouts came from down there without a warning.

I had to stop the chariot for a few seconds, looking around in daze before I noticed a group of people standing in the centre of these tents outside the city.

Looking closer using my hawk eye skill, they were my boys. And it seemed the spearhead was leading the chorus with everyone, shouting this greeting that gave me a pleasant surprise.

It felt so good to be appreciated for what you did by your people. I didn't see any of them as my followers, but my people. They were the closest people to me, and a greeting like that to me felt just great.

"Let's stir more adrenaline then," I took out my pillar and used the shield skill in it. The Thundering Might skill roared and created a spectacular scene here, making everyone pause for a few minutes, watching the magic show unfolding, before the entire city and surroundings got under a protective shield.

"I should do that at all the key cities then," using this pillar here for a show gave me a good idea about how I'd use it in the future.

I had to make sure this part of my kingdom would be tightly and well secured. Using the pillar shield skill to protect the main cities looked cool indeed.

Also if I managed to get time, I'd go and use the pillar's skill over many close by cities and towns, aiming to let them all coalesce at one point in time and create a unified shield there.

It would be great if I could extend a thick shield from Michigan north down to Kentucky at south.

This way my west side of the kingdom would be secured and would relieve a lot of pressure over my boys.

But that needed lots of time for the shields to absorb energy from nature and fuse together. Anyway, I'd start doing this as a long term plan. A for now, I should depend on my armies and use the staff's marking feature to my advantage.

"Long live our mighty lord!"

"Long live our mighty lord!"

"Long live our mighty lord!"

I got jolted awakened by the louder cheering that came from the ground at this moment. My boys seemed to like my shield, feeling more proud and getting hyped up.

Of course for people like them, who went to the border of death for a visit and returned back, they were acting very wild and active. It seemed the last battle against the combined army of races gave them more confidence and repaired their shattered souls and restored their self confidence.

It was good to see that indeed. I was worrying over nothing when I thought about their low morale and the psychological impacts of being in the illusion.

Recalling the illusion made me think about him. That dude was really a trouble for me right now, the jumper I meant.

Just thinking about what he experienced and led him to such a mental breakdown made me sigh. That dude was still sending me curses and threatening messages, promising he would kill me once he got out of his prison.

That wasn't typical of him. And dealing with such shattered people wasn't my specialty. I didn't know what I should do, but for sure that dude here needed help.

"You are doing such a big welcome for me, interesting," as I landed with my chariot at the wide space in the middle of all these tents, I said to all my boys and girls down there.

"Boss, this is my idea," as I guessed, it was the spearhead's idea, "are you happy with it?"

"It's interesting indeed," I laughed while heading down there.

Hilary was still… Well, sleepy from what the two of us just experienced. So I just descended down there alone, and decided to leave her to enjoy this rare moment of rest.

"Are you ok?"

The first to come to me was Angelica. This girl was asking in such care, yet her eyes kept twisting around me, as if she was looking for someone else.

"Don't bother, she is sleeping," I winked and her face froze for a second there before she hit me on the shoulder.

"That's unfair! I asked for you first before she even arrived."

"Asked? Girl, I'm not that kind of a man," I rolled my eyes before motioning towards Alex, "and you got already someone to make you awake at night."

"She… Humph, we broke already," Karoline said before suddenly jumping and holding me by the arm, "what about the two of us? Play together and have some fun?"

"Scram," I pushed her aside, making everyone else laugh.