The Abyss, the 136th floor of the Molten Core.
An abyssal layer filled with volcanic lava and covered in toxic volcanic ash.
The one who rules this level of the abyss is the descendant from the Nightmare Civilization, today's Molten Lord Garrett, an Abyss Lord who is equivalent to a medium-level god and whose strength at the Molten Core level is comparable to that of a powerful god.
The Giant God Crystal Wall System can only accommodate five powerful gods, but those like the Abyss Lord who obtain the blessing of the will of the Abyss in his own territory and temporarily possess powerful divine combat power are not counted among them.
Similarly, powerful life forms like the hundred-armed giant, which have no divinity or priesthood but possess combat power comparable to that of a god, are not included.
Of course, although this kind of combat power is not included, there will not be many of them.
In the center of the huge Molten Core lava lake, there is a red floating land of tens of thousands of square kilometers floating on the lava. The palace of the Molten Lord is built in the center of this floating land. It looks like a huge head of a fire demon, with two huge devil horns burning with flames piercing the gray sky.
As the only palace that dominates the Molten Core level, usually no other powerful demons dare to set foot here except the many fire demon subordinates such as the Molten Lord. But today, hundreds of powerful demons scattered in various levels of the abyss gathered here at the same time.
Demons were dancing wildly in the palace. The Molten Lord, whose body was burning with green flames, sat on the lava throne at the top, overlooking the area below. Not far away was another equally tall bone throne, on which sat another Abyss Lord among the Nightmare Descenders - the Lord of Poison.
A humanoid demon made entirely of green crystals sat there, a circle of dark green poisonous aura blooming along the throne, and no other demons dared to approach within a dozen meters.
There are two Abyss Lords, forty or fifty Abyss Lords who are equivalent to true gods, and the remaining hundreds are all top-level demons or upper-level demons. Their combined strength is comparable to that of a powerful pantheon.
When the time was almost up and no demons arrived, the Molten Lord stood up as the host. He looked like an enlarged version of the Fire Demon. Endless lava flowed from his body to his feet and then sank into his body. His loud voice shook the palace slightly:
"According to the news sent by the outpost, the human race and the Zerg race have noticed unusual behavior. The head of the human descenders in the main world, the God of Magic, was promoted to a powerful god five hundred years ago. The head of the Zerg descenders, the God of Fear, Vidus, reached the fourteenth level of godhood three hundred years ago. The Eldar descenders have all descended to the elemental plane. Although I don't know their current strength, I don't think they are weak."
He paused here and continued:
"Combined together, the human race has the strongest strength. With one powerful god plus twelve medium-power gods, they are already qualified to conquer the entire Crystal Wall system. They are our greatest enemy, and we must stop them."
The Sons of Nightmare did not speak, but just looked at him and waited for him to continue.
The Lord of Molten Fire glanced at the Lord of Poison and continued:
"The commander of our outpost has contacted the Zerg and the Spirit Realm respectively, and has reached a preliminary cooperation agreement. The Zerg will instigate the God of Justice and the Sun to launch a full-scale war against the Dark God System. We and the Eldar will take advantage of their chaos to launch a sneak attack on the Dark God System. By combining the strength of the three parties, we can defeat this greatest threat in one fell swoop."
At this time, a son of nightmare asked:
"From what I know, the Dark God System has tens of billions of high-quality believers, and has built the Dark Region into a watertight place. Over the past few hundred years, twelve medium-level gods have been born, and an unknown amount of divine power has been accumulated. We are demons, and our strength will be weakened when we enter the main material plane. The same is true for the Eldar. I think even if we go together, we may not be able to break through the Dark Kingdom."
The Molten Lord nodded and said,
"You are right. We may not be able to defeat the Dark God System with its strength, but we do not need to completely destroy the Dark God System. We just need to significantly weaken them."
At this time, the Lord of Poison, who had been silent, said:
"We will take advantage of the human gods' siege on the Dark Kingdom to open the Abyss Gate leading to the Underdark and plunder the followers of the Dark God System. As long as we plunder too many people, the Dark God System will decline, and we will become stronger, and more Abyss Lords will be born. In the long run, the enemy will be weak and we will be strong. By then, we can rely on the Abyss, and we will not be afraid even if the Dark God System survives the crisis."
In fact, there was one thing he didn't say. If he plundered enough souls, he might be appreciated by the will of the abyss and become an extremely powerful son of the abyss. That is a terrifying existence that possesses power comparable to that of a god even if he leaves the territory of the abyss.
He glanced at the Molten Lord, and the Molten Lord looked at him at the same time without exposing his thoughts because he had the same idea.
There is not only one Son of the Abyss; several can be born at the same time.
Just like the Abyss in the Toril multiverse has three demon princes: Demon Lord Demogorgon, Dark Lord Graz'zt, and Undead Emperor Orcus. They are usually called Demon Lords to distinguish them from other demon lords.
Intelligent creatures all have selfish desires, and it is normal for them to seek some benefits for themselves without affecting the overall situation.
Coincidentally, while all the Nightmare Descendants gathered in the Molten Core to discuss how to deal with the Dark God System, the leader of the Zerg God Realm, the God of Fear, Vidus, was also entertaining many Zerg true gods and demigods in his own kingdom. Those lower than demigods were not qualified to participate in this operation, but they would be sent messages to serve as cannon fodder when the action was about to take place.
Vidus, who has been stuck at the 14th level of godhood and on the threshold of powerful divine power for hundreds of years, is particularly concerned about this action. Even though he knows that many of his fellow tribesmen may die in this battle, he still vigorously promotes this action without hesitation.
I would rather die than have a friend die. As long as he can ascend to a powerful divine power, the life and death of other fellow Taoists has nothing to do with him.
The other Zerg descenders can basically see through Vidus's thoughts, but they also have the dream of becoming a powerful god. The number of powerful gods in the crystal wall system is limited, and they will have no chance unless they provoke a war and die a few deaths.
As for who will die in the end, it will all depend on how they act.
Nightmare and the Zerg have made a lot of preparations for provoking this war. No less than twenty or thirty Zerg true gods have specially joined the pantheon of the four powerful divine powers on the surface. Even the orc pantheon in the bitter cold land of the north is no exception. According to their plan, none of the five powerful divine powers can stay out of this war of gods, and they must be dragged into the water no matter what means are used.
On the contrary, the Eldar were not very interested in this plan. Although the commander of the Eldar outpost promised that their people would participate in the war, many Eldar descendants in the four elemental planes and the chaos plane were not interested in this. When the Zerg and the Sons of Nightmares were busy with their plans, they not only had no gatherings, but also had few discussions.
The plans of the Zerg and the Sons of Nightmare did not attract the attention of the Dark Gods. They had been suppressed by the gods on the surface for hundreds of years and had basically no power on the surface. Their actions were so secretive that they could not be detected, not to mention the actions of the demons in the abyss.
However, the Dark God System has been in a state of suppression for hundreds of years and has never relaxed its vigilance on the surface.
Half of Lin Xiao's twenty incarnations of gods are stationed in the kingdom of gods all year round, and the remaining five incarnations of gods patrol the various levels of the Underdark all year round. Together with the many incarnations of gods, the entire Underdark is managed so tightly that even the incarnation of a true god would find it difficult to sneak in.
Time passed unknowingly, and the true gods of the Zerg lurking in the four main gods' pantheon continued to stir up trouble in front of the four main gods and advocated the theory of the threat of the dark pantheon.
The God of Justice, who had always regarded the Dark Pantheon as a thorn in his side, finally made up his mind after countless instigations and advocacy. He contacted the God of the Sun and the God of Chaos and launched a war of gods against the Dark Pantheon!
The surface coalition forces gathered near the passages between the surface and the Underdark received the revelations from the priests of the gods and officially entered the underground passages and attacked the Underdark. They engaged in a full-scale battle with the fortresses and legions of the Underdark's Cryptmen Empire at the entrances of the underground passages. Suddenly, battles broke out in dozens of passages on the first floor of the entire Underdark.
The news soon spread to the Dark God System. Lin Xiao immediately summoned all the gods in the pantheon to gather in the Temple of God. He loudly announced the despicable behavior of the surface gods in waging war without declaration, and issued a divine decree for a full mobilization.
The huge Cryptid Empire had been in semi-war with the various races of the Underdark for the past few hundred years, and soon mobilized a huge army to go to fortresses in various places. Strong men from various races also went to various places to kill the strong surface men who sneaked into the Underdark to cause destruction.
Before the rules are completely broken, the true God cannot take action against mortals. Even if the patrolling incarnation of the true God finds strong men from the surface races who have sneaked into the underground using various teleportation spells, he can only notify the believers to send strong mortal men to kill them.
Fortunately, the fifth generation of cavemen had a strong foundation, and with the magic network covering the entire Underdark, with a population base of over 20 billion cavemen, a large number of cavemen warriors and mages were born, as well as tens of millions of cave giants, almost all of whom were soldiers.
A large enough population, a devout faith, and enough priests, paladins, and other clergy can easily form a large-scale mixed formation, which can easily deal with the powerful surface warriors who have infiltrated the area while occupying a familiar terrain.
Therefore, even though they were facing an all-out war of gods involving nearly a thousand true gods led by four powerful deities on the entire surface of the earth, Lin Xiao and the gods of the pantheon were not too panicked.
In fact, in terms of worldly power, the Dark God System, which has more than 20 billion fifth-generation cave dwellers and nearly 10 million cave giants, can be said to be able to confront all races on the entire surface of the earth head-on. The reason why they did not counterattack before was mainly because their number at the level of true gods was too small.
There are only dozens of true gods in the entire pantheon, and the four powerful divine powers on the surface can directly mobilize nearly a thousand true gods. Even if they are all weak divine powers, they can be killed.
Therefore, Lin Xiao had been using the terrain of the Dark Region to defend himself for the past five hundred years. He was waiting, waiting for his divine power to reach the limit that the crystal wall system could accommodate, or for his true body to return, either one would be fine.
(End of this chapter)