Chapter 31: The Lamb
Inside the fourth floor of the Sun Temple.
Contractors from Apocalypse Paradise and Death Paradise gathered here. At present, the total number of people from both sides was 489, with 100 guarding the first floor, and 50 on the second floor engaged in one-on-one duels. Excluding these, only 339 had actually reached the fourth floor.
Even so, their numbers overwhelmingly outmatched their own side. On the fifth floor of the temple, their own side had only 105 people, a three-to-one ratio.
More critically, among these 339 enemies, many were contractors from Death Paradise. These Death Paradise contractors had two characteristics: first, they were strong enough; second, they were willing to fight to the death, often clashing with Reincarnation Paradise to the bitter end.
Furious Hound walked at the front of the group. He was undoubtedly a top-tier combatant at the seventh rank, which also meant he had participated in World Wars many times, having fought to the death with Reincarnation Paradise forces more than once or twice.
Counting this time, Furious Hound had taken part in six World Wars, only missing the first rank. In previous World Wars, he had encountered various types of contractors from Reincarnation Paradise and had killed quite a few.
Furious Hound, his muscles bulging, stopped. Ahead was the staircase leading to the fifth floor. For some reason, even though a bloody battle was imminent, he felt a sense of relief in his heart.
In fact, it was normal for Furious Hound to feel this way. He had indeed fought and killed many Reincarnation Paradise contractors before, and had been schemed against, encountering plenty of old yinbi. But this experience was completely different from before.
Encountering Reincarnation Paradise's Black Demon during a World War could be called extremely unlucky. If you met Black Demon and then ran into Scarecrow afterward, you should reflect on whether you had done anything heaven-defying recently.
Black Demon was a terror that made people tremble, while Scarecrow was a dread that made people's hearts pound.
In a direct confrontation, the two weren't on the same level. Black Demon could devour Scarecrow in an instant, leaving not even ashes. But if Scarecrow had time to prepare, though still no match for Black Demon, she was still a troublesome enemy.
It could be said that Furious Hound and the others were relatively lucky. His act of "sacrificing teammates" had essentially saved Hai Yizuo and Molei's lives.
Scarecrow made her demand, and once it was satisfied, she could only trick enemies to their deaths through inducement. If it wasn't satisfied—meaning she couldn't find a dance partner—there would be a surprise.
"We won't give you another chance to play tricks."
Furious Hound strode up the steps, with Hai Yizuo and the other contractors following behind, Molei among them.
"Molei, if your Apocalypse Paradise people during the battle..."
Hai Yizuo didn't finish. Some things didn't need to be said too bluntly. They were about to fight together, and speaking too harshly wasn't wise, since everyone had their pride.
"Don't worry, they won't."
Molei's expression grew serious. After a moment of consideration, she added, "At least until they start crying 'boohoo,' what you're worried about won't happen."
"I hope so."
As Hai Yizuo spoke, he reached the fifth floor. He looked toward the inner side of the floor, where on uneven stone walls, enemy contractors stood or sat, numbering just over a hundred.
Hai Yizuo recalled the several battles from the past few days, plus the 50 Reincarnation Paradise contractors in the duel zone on the second floor. The current enemy numbers were within his expectations.
Confirming this, Hai Yizuo breathed a sigh of relief. Based on his observations, the temple had seven floors in total. The situation on the first five floors was clear. As for the sixth floor, it was likely a non-defensive area without mechanisms; otherwise, the Reincarnation Paradise contractors would have been guarding the seventh floor.
"Furious Hound, once we take this floor, we've won."
"Yeah."
Furious Hound also thought about the general layout of the Sun Temple. The sixth and seventh floors were nothing to worry about—one was a non-mechanism area, and the other was where the World Coordinates were set up.
To be safe, the Death Paradise group, while on the fourth floor, had selected a contractor skilled in stealth to sneak to the sixth floor during the chaos and scout the situation.
If the sixth floor had no anomalies, he was to head straight to the seventh floor to see if anyone was guarding it, and ideally steal the World Core to interrupt the enemy's World Coordinate generation.
On the fifth floor of the temple, many contractors were positioned on both the front and back sides. Unexpectedly, the atmosphere suddenly fell silent.
In this terrain, the contractors from Apocalypse Paradise and Death Paradise didn't need to worry about Reincarnation Paradise contractors using large-scale explosives to take them down with them.
Before the battle, their own contractors had signed contracts, and under the leadership of Ascension Brother, they had handed over their large-scale explosives.
In this terrain, if one of their own contractors detonated a large-scale explosive before dying, regardless of how many enemies it killed, their own side would definitely suffer more casualties.
No one wanted to be caught in the crossfire; everyone understood this reasoning. As for where the explosives from these hundred-plus contractors went, they had all been gathered together.
"Everyone, let's begin."
Revenge Baron stood on a low wall, his hands extended to both sides. On his left and right, figures leaped forward.
All the contractors on their side knew that this battle had to be fought, even at a heavy cost. They wouldn't flee without fighting, even though the retreat was behind them.
The Sun Temple was the advantageous terrain for the victor of the contested node. When the enemy attacked the Sun Temple, they had a retreat. As the defenders, their own contractors also had a retreat, but they wouldn't use it lightly. Once they retreated, the World Core would change hands.
"Kill them all."
Furious Hound's body swelled significantly. With him and Hai Yizuo at the lead, a group of contractors charged forward, with Molei, Gacia, and other top-tier seventh-rank Apocalypse Paradise contractors further behind.
Boom!
Energy ripples spread, the sound low but deafening. The fifth floor became a chaotic battlefield.
A Reincarnation Paradise mage, wearing a robe and holding a staff, stood on a stone wall about two meters high. On the tip of his staff, a flame orb gathered—black inside, gray-white outside.
As the mage raised his staff, the flame orb at the top didn't fly out but sprayed fan-shaped flames forward.
Whoosh! The fan-shaped black flames shot out. Within at most two seconds, several enemy contractors fell to the ground, wailing. Some corpses still held half-exploded potion bottles in their hands.
This mage was gloomy. His collar was high, covering even the tip of his nose. His cold, calm eyes showed he had long been indifferent to life and death.
The black flames continued to surge forward, the mage suppressing dozens of enemy contractors. He didn't care about his mana, which was draining like flowing water; he only wanted to know how many enemies had died.
The sound of skin and flesh being scorched came from the black flames, and a burnt smell spread. Just then, a figure nearly three meters tall charged through the black flames.
The black flames parted. The mage on the stone wall raised his hand, and a gravity field pressed down around him.
Bang! Furious Hound, who had charged forward, stopped. The downward pressure made his entire skeleton creak.
"Yell, so you're here too."
Furious Hound looked at the mage on the stone wall. He had fought him three times in the Tree Arena; they were old rivals.
"Furious Hound."
Mage Yell's gaze remained emotionless. Black patterns spread from his neck, quickly climbing onto his face.
If one tallied the participants from the Demon Spirit Star, the result would be shocking. The participants were:
Black Demon, Furious Hound, Mage Yell, Hai Yizuo, Holy Word, Scarecrow, Flame Master, plus Yueshitu hidden in the shadows, and Shenfu whose whereabouts were unknown. This lineup among the four sides at the seventh rank was no longer a battle of gods; it was a chaotic melee of gods.
...
Inside the sixth floor of the temple, a figure gradually appeared. His body was first semi-transparent, then slowly turned solid. His name was Shadow, a contractor from Apocalypse Paradise, tasked with scouting the sixth and seventh floors.
Shadow's heart was beating faster than usual. For someone skilled in stealth, this was a major taboo, but he couldn't calm his mind. Just moments ago, he had passed through the "Zone of Destruction."
Indeed, Shadow had named the sixth floor the Zone of Destruction. It was filled with large amounts of explosives, with various fuses and trigger devices intertwined like tangled tree roots, occupying the entire floor. In Shadow's view, this setup was nearly unsolvable—once these explosives were activated, everything would be destroyed.
Shadow let out a long breath. Regardless, he had successfully reached the sixth floor. The staircase to the seventh floor was right before him.
A light wall emitting gray mist blocked Shadow's path. He hesitated for a few seconds, then raised his hand to touch the light wall. Just as he was about to make contact—
Snap.
A hand grabbed Shadow's arm. He felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar. As a stealth specialist, he hadn't sensed anyone beside him.
"Child, you are a lost lamb. God is merciful and will forgive your sins."
"You... you are, from Sanctuary... Ah!!"
Shadow's scream hadn't even spread before it was swallowed. He felt as if a black hole had appeared at the center of his body, continuously sucking him in, eventually devouring his entire being into the darkness.
Shadow would never have imagined that the person who killed him was actually someone he himself had brought into the sixth floor of the temple.
A mass of blood in midair swirled into a vortex and was sucked into a black dot, eventually disappearing completely. This contractor named Shadow seemed to have never existed.
PS (Four chapters today, three more to come. Writing a bit slowly, update is late, sorry. The next three chapters will be here soon.)