Chapter 46: Overwhelming
Su Xiao closed the faction shop. The origin of this reputation shop was not difficult to deduce. The Calamity Legion had slaughtered many worlds, and the world of the Giant Spirit Clan was one of them. Unfortunately, the Calamity Legion was too powerful. Before the Giant Spirit Clan was destroyed, their chieftain, who had contact with the Void Tree's notarization, used all the resources in the clan's treasury to apply for notarization from the Void Tree.
After deducting the resources needed for notarization, the remaining resources were all incorporated into the faction shop, which was what he was seeing now.
For Su Xiao, this was an unexpected bonus. He manipulated the Storm Flame Dragon to lower its flight altitude and looked at the front high wall of Giant Armor City. The city wall, dozens of meters wide, was almost fully packed with soldiers. The surging corrupted ones opposite them had the city guard soldiers on edge.
A corrupted one stepped on the corpse slope outside the city wall, running on all fours and leaping onto the wall.
"Roar!"
The corrupted one let out a roar. The black tentacles behind its neck flew wildly, and the bone spurs on its back stood up from excitement. Blood and slaughter were the only catalysts that could change their emotions, making them bloodthirsty and excited.
"Don't retreat!"
The city guard squad leader, He. Keen, shouted loudly. The biggest scene he had seen in his life was a melee with the Sea Serpent Tribe. That battle cost him his left eye. The generous welfare benefits of the Wizard Legion allowed him to live comfortably for the rest of his life because of that battle. Also, because of that medium-scale legion melee, he felt he was a man who had been on the battlefield, different from those city guard squad leaders who gambled, slept with women, and drank every day.
But now, city guard squad leader He. Keen felt himself trembling. Even though the electromagnetic barrier more than ten meters away blocked the leaping corrupted ones, sizzling and crackling with electricity, and a smell of burnt flesh spread, squad leader He. Keen still couldn't help but shiver.
The ferocious beast more than four meters long, with its tough, oily black skin, the stench of saliva from its mouthful of sharp teeth, the sounds of roaring and electric burning, and finally, the corrupted one's radial, ferocious pupils, all stimulated squad leader He. Keen's nerves, making him instinctively take half a step back.
After taking this half step, squad leader He. Keen felt a strong sense of shame. It was not only a disgrace to the City Guard Legion but also a guilt towards his wife and daughter living in the city behind him. He quickly withdrew this half step, and even in this tense environment, he looked left and right, worried that someone had seen his retreating action.
Just then, squad leader He. Keen heard a rumbling sound from behind. He looked and saw that inside the city behind him, a teleportation gate several thousand meters high had appeared. The shape of this gate was somewhat irregular, emitting a dark fluorescent purple. It was mysterious, yet also gave a sense of biological technology, a kind of technology composed of flesh, nervous systems, and so on.
Seeing this, squad leader He. Keen's heart gradually filled with despair. The powerful enemy in front was already unmanageable, and now they had directly descended inside the city. Under a pincer attack, the defensive forces on the wall would collapse in a short time.
Before squad leader He. Keen could think further, a roar came from the front. The electromagnetic barrier had shattered, and the corrupted ones were charging.
Bang, bang, bang...
Squad leader He. Keen fired several shots with his kinetic energy gun. According to intelligence from the last battle with the Calamity Legion, three shots could kill a corrupted one.
The first shot hit the corrupted one's head, making it tilt, flesh exploding, revealing white skull. The second shot hit its front claw, exposing the joint bone. The third shot hit its blocking right front claw, blasting the claw down to the bone.
The flesh on this corrupted one surged, and the wounds quickly healed. It licked its right claw with its barbed tongue, then bared its sharp teeth and smiled at squad leader He. Keen.
Squad leader He. Keen's scalp tingled. He drew the melee weapons from both sides of his waist, clicked them together, and charged at the corrupted one.
Bang!
The corrupted one slapped down with its claw. Although squad leader He. Keen blocked with his spear, he nearly fell to one knee. The corrupted one's claw pressed down, and with a bang, sent He. Keen flying.
Squad leader He. Keen crashed into the rear parapet, his internal organs churning. He smiled bitterly and spat out bloody saliva, staring at the corrupted one opposite him. His thought was that he was unlucky this time, encountering an elite corrupted one.
"Roar!!"
A roar came, and a corrupted one over 12 meters long leaped nimbly onto the wall. It had a city guard in its mouth, chewed a few times, then tilted its head and swallowed. Seeing this, squad leader He. Keen realized this was the elite corrupted one. The enemy that had beaten him senseless was just an ordinary corrupted one.
At this moment, above the tide of corrupted ones, one of the Three Attendants, the Evil Spirit King, stood on the back of a corrupted wyvern. Its dark cyan eyes looked down at the city guards on the wall. The roars of ferocious beasts and the wails of humans entered its ears. Its heart, which had been startled by the "Sun's Fall," calmed down, and it began to enjoy the endless painful wails on the wall.
A drop of darkness appeared in front of the Evil Spirit King, causing it, who had been standing with four arms crossed, to quickly lower its posture and kneel on one knee on the wyvern's back. The darkness expanded, turning into a slowly rotating black vortex. A majestic voice came from within, not in Void language, but in an ancient, obscure tongue.
Kneeling on one knee, head lowered, the Evil Spirit King replied in the same ancient language, and finally seemed to make a promise. Only then did the black vortex disappear. The pressure from the Corrupted Lord's aura faded. The Evil Spirit King breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and looked down at Giant Armor City with increasingly unfriendly eyes.
The Evil Spirit King looked at the giant teleportation gate inside the city, its eyes narrowing slightly. Although it didn't know where it led, it decided to deal with it with all its might.
"At all costs, launch a full assault. Within two hours, level all the land within sight."
The Evil Spirit King ordered its dozens of high-ranking leaders. These terrifying-looking leaders leaped from the backs of giant flying creatures one after another. With their entry into command, the corrupted legion's offensive surged explosively.
Looking down from above, one could see that the city guards' armor was blue-white, while the corrupted ones were dark red. The dark red tide gradually engulfed the blue line, pushing it back to the inner side of the wall. It seemed that within ten minutes at most, it would be completely swallowed.
Boom!
An explosion came from the front side. Squad leader He. Keen was pushed back two steps by the blast. He was panting like an ox, his entire pseudo-external armor soaked in blood. The strong smell of blood in his mouth made him feel so close to death. He had fantasized countless times about becoming a hero who saved the world one day, but when the opportunity really came, he found himself so powerless. Killing a few enemy grunts was the best he could do.
"Roar!"
A corrupted one pounced, so close that squad leader He. Keen could smell the sour, fishy venom in its mouth. The broken bones stuck between its two blood-stained fangs were so clear. Faced with such a terrifying sight, he suddenly remembered the faint orange fragrance of his wife on their wedding day.
"Too bad, I won't be able to see..."
Zheng~!
A sharp cutting sound came. The head of the pouncing corrupted one flew off. Its headless body lost direction, brushed past squad leader He. Keen, and slammed heavily into the parapet.
Having escaped death, squad leader He. Keen did not relax. He felt that an even more terrifying existence was beside him. A long tail with a blade at the tip, composed of segments like black vertebrae, swept past. This tail was six or seven meters long, and the blade at its tip, over a meter long, was blood-red and extremely sharp.
This war beast, over five meters long, walked past squad leader He. Keen. Unlike the corrupted ones, this war beast neither wasted time roaring nor leaped violently. Its several eyes on its head and tail blade scanned the surroundings, searching for enemies, quickly advancing, and finally killing. This war beast only repeated this process; nothing else concerned it.
One by one, demonic beasts climbed up the wall from the inner side. Their tail blades swept continuously, slaughtering all enemies in the vicinity. The secondary tails on both sides of the main tail of these demonic beasts extended, launching living missiles. The tip of each secondary tail was a living missile, which could only be replenished by worker scorpions near the mother nest later.
Boom, boom, boom...
The sound of orderly explosions came. The first batch of demonic beasts to reach the wall did not primarily aim to kill enemies but to clear the area. The next moment, an endless stream of demonic beasts surged from the inner side of the wall.
Looking down from above, a black tide surged from the Void Gate, heading straight for the wall, crashing into the corrupted ones on it.
In a total of 10.8 seconds, the wall turned black. All the corrupted ones on it were dead. The fungal carpet spread, and the corpses of corrupted ones everywhere were decomposed at a visible rate.
It wasn't that the corrupted legion was completely vulnerable. There was still a corrupted high-ranking leader on the wall, over a hundred meters long, covered in demonic beasts hanging from all parts of its body. Although its entire body was bloody, its struggling strength was still fierce.
This corrupted high-ranking leader roared. The intense pain all over its body made it charge forward recklessly. Squad leader He. Keen, who had just escaped death, now found it impossible to dodge sideways. Facing death when he had a chance to live, his eyes widened to their maximum.
Whoosh! A sound of wind cutting through. Half of the corrupted high-ranking leader's head was sliced off. The cut was so smooth that the half head slowly slid off. Due to the speed of the slash, the body of this corrupted high-ranking leader still stood frozen in place.
A figure with streamlined black armor stood on the back of the corrupted high-ranking leader. Its seven or eight-meter-long tail blade cut through the air, making a sharp, light sound. This humanoid figure was both efficient in killing and gave a sense of elegance. What seemed like long hair was actually a sensory system composed of external nerves, fluttering in the wind as if it were real hair.
This was certainly not the strongest combat unit of the insect race, but it was definitely the most elegant. Among the demonic beasts, there were elite individuals. So what were the elite among the elite? The answer was that this type of demonic beast individual was called a "Maidservant." They were the guards of the base camp's nesting nest. Except for the leader-level demonic beast, Abaddon, they were the "Legion's Strongest Unit" among the demonic beasts.
As for why Abaddon was not the strongest, this involved the concept of "Legion's Strongest Unit." This was a term for units that could be cultivated postnatally. The leader-level demonic beast, Abaddon, was an irreproducible existence. Even if the demonic insect race reached its peak, there could only be one leader-level demonic beast. If Abaddon's soul died, the demonic insect race would forever lose this aspect of its leader-level.
The Calamity Legion, which had already breached the wall, was like dirt washed away by a tide, driven back in an instant. From a distance in the sky, the Evil Spirit King, overlooking this scene, had a solemn gaze. It studied the enemies on the wall for a moment and initially judged them to be an insect race. But why the Wizard faction could summon an insect race surprised it.
Obviously, the Corrupted Lord did not know that Su Xiao had a demonic insect race. Those who knew this were mostly from the Paradise factions, and among them, those hostile to Su Xiao were basically dead. As for whether Shenfu, the Platinum Apostle, or the Archbishop of the Abyss knew this, of course they did. However, they would certainly not inform the Corrupted Lord of this. If they were honest, the Corrupted Lord would definitely not come.
Looking at the collapsing front line below, the Evil Spirit King's mental fluctuations spread. With this mental command, a massive number of elite corrupted ones rushed out from the rear, meeting the unstoppable demonic beast legion.
The scene was like a black tide colliding with a dark red tide. The screeching of corrupted ones was endless. On the demonic beast side, there were only the sounds of tail blades cutting and carapaces colliding. Blood and broken carapaces splattered everywhere. The scene instantly became extremely brutal.
It could only be said that the Calamity Legion had real skills. Unfortunately, this time they encountered an enemy that was several tiers more professional as a war race.
"Roar!!"
A dragon roar came. The Void Gate suddenly expanded several times, and giant demonic flame dragons flew out from inside.
Seeing this, the Evil Spirit King on the back of the giant wyvern had a grim expression. The trusted aides and high-ranking leaders behind it looked at each other, their eyes filled with undisguised worry. At this point, they all began to question whether the Corrupted Lord's decision was correct. Was it really right to invade the Witch Realm this time?
When a few hundred demonic flame dragons flew out of the Void Gate, the Evil Spirit King's already pale face turned even uglier. When several thousand demonic flame dragons flew out, its gaze became serious. When tens of thousands of demonic flame dragons flew out, the Evil Spirit King could no longer maintain its composure, and even its four arms, which had been crossed, hung down naturally.
When 300,000 demonic flame dragons flew out of the Void Gate, the Evil Spirit King looked at this scene in shock. It could accurately estimate the combat power of a single demonic flame dragon, so it was even more shocked than others at the appearance of 300,000 demonic flame dragons.
When a full 1 million demonic flame dragons flew out of the Void Gate, densely covering the sky above Giant Armor City, the Evil Spirit King could no longer care about the dignity of being one of the Three Attendants. It swallowed hard. As for the trusted aides and high-ranking leaders behind it, they all looked at this scene with fear in their eyes.
The Evil Spirit King did not issue any other mental commands. It made the corrupted wyvern beneath it turn around and fly at full speed towards Eternal Winter City, which was the Calamity Legion's base camp in the Witch Realm.
Now, the Calamity Legion vs. the Demonic Insect Race was like a level 90 fighting a level 110. At first glance, a 20-level difference shouldn't lead to a complete crushing. But the problem was precisely this. In this standard, the gap between level 90 and level 100 was not insurmountable. However, the fatal point was that after level 100, every single level was a tier.
For example, the World Devourer was about level 109, only one level apart, but it ultimately lost to the demonic insect race.
A more intuitive way to measure was that any of the world-destroying level races in the Eternal Light World could easily crush the Calamity Legion. The reason the Calamity Legion dared to invade the Witch Realm was not only because the legion flow here was vulnerable, but also because they had the Dark God Cult as an ally, which to some extent restrained the Witch faction. Additionally, another secret ally, the Doom Star, gave the Corrupted Lord the confidence to invade the Witch Realm.
The demonic insect race, which had successfully soloed all the world-destroying level races in the Eternal Light World, now faced the Calamity Legion. Before this, the Calamity Legion, which had destroyed many worlds, always thought they were at the top of the legion flow system. Now, the Calamity Legion was about to experience what true terror was.
Over a million demonic flame dragons spread out horizontally, then advanced northward, continuously spewing dragon flame downwards. The impact of the dragon flame caused the earth to tremble. The black mist it passed through dissipated, and the fallen and corrupted ones within were burned to charcoal, or were chased and fled for their lives by the continuously advancing wall of dragon flame. This was a true dragon flame carpet bombing.
When the final few thousand Titan giant beasts entered the field, the real nightmare began. A rain of plasma cannons poured down on the northern area. Spherical, liquid plasma cannons traced arcs in the air. Looking north from Giant Armor City, it was like watching an endless, dense meteor shower.
At this time, in the area of Eternal Winter City, a large number of elite corrupted ones were stationed there, numbering at least tens of millions. This was the core force of the Calamity Legion. The leader of the aberrant demons, a trusted aide of the Corrupted Lord, was stationed here. In the Calamity Legion, although the Three Attendants seemed to be the highest below the Corrupted Lord, the leader of the aberrant demons was actually more trusted by the Corrupted Lord.
"The Evil Spirit King is too slow. It hasn't taken that fortress city yet."
The leader of the aberrant demons, standing in the shadows, felt dissatisfied. It had already been patient enough this time, not competing with the Evil Spirit King for the credit of taking the city, hoping to ease their increasingly tense relationship. But who would have thought that the other party still hadn't taken that easily obtainable credit after so long. They had already discussed the defenses of Giant Armor City. It seemed strong, but a strong attack would break it.
The leader of the aberrant demons grew more and more uneasy. Just as it was about to mobilize the legion to reinforce the Evil Spirit King, it suddenly heard a whistling sound from above. It looked up and saw plasma cannons falling. Its only thought at that moment was why the early warning creatures in the sky hadn't issued any alarm.
The spectacular plasma explosions began. Plasma cannons, each a hundred meters in diameter, exploded among the elite corrupted ones. Their tough bodies became fragile. Dark blood and flesh fragments splattered everywhere, emitting a burnt smell under the scorching plasma.
The corrupted ones that tried to hide in their giant nests found that their hard-built nests were as fragile as earthen ant nests. The despair of having no escape from the rain of plasma cannons made the corrupted ones roar desperately.
When the first wave of plasma cannon rain subsided, the leader of the aberrant demons crawled out from under a pile of corrupted one corpses. It looked around. The original tens of millions of elite corrupted ones had been scattered. Fortunately, the number lost was probably a few hundred thousand. This was an elite corrupted legion transformed from billions of living beings after invading many worlds. If the casualties exceeded one-tenth, the leader of the aberrant demons wouldn't be able to explain to its leader, the Corrupted Lord.
A sound of wind cutting through came. The leader of the aberrant demons looked and saw the Evil Spirit King returning with a group of high-ranking leaders. Just as the leader of the aberrant demons was about to speak, the Evil Spirit King ignored it entirely, manipulated the corrupted wyvern, and headed straight for the dark space gate. It clearly wanted to escape this world and return to its lair.
The secret patterns on the palm of the leader of the aberrant demons surged. Almost simultaneously, the dark space gate closed, and the space patterns on it dimmed. Seeing this, the Evil Spirit King turned its gaze, glaring angrily, and said coldly, "Open the door if you don't want to die."
As soon as these words were spoken, the Evil Spirit King itself felt it was somewhat inappropriate, so it quickly added, "The insect race is coming. We need to retreat immediately."
"The insect race?"
The leader of the aberrant demons scrutinized the Evil Spirit King. This scene was interesting. The two parties, who had a long-standing grudge, had one side anxious as if their eyebrows were on fire, wanting to flee this world immediately, while the other was full of caution, worried about being made a scapegoat for no reason, so they dared not leave easily.
However, the leader of the aberrant demons' doubts soon disappeared because it saw a rain of plasma cannons dozens of times larger than before flying in, as well as the continuously advancing wall of flame on the horizon. The sight of that flame sky wall was truly too shocking.
The leader of the aberrant demons no longer hesitated and reopened the dark space gate. Just a few seconds after it rushed in, the second wave of plasma cannon rain fell. The dark space gate, which had barely survived the first wave, could no longer withstand it and shattered with a bang.
An hour later, this place was leveled to the ground. The Calamity Legion's proud "Elite Corrupted Legion" was completely annihilated here. The only trace left was the bone fragments remaining on the fungal carpet, which were the parts not worth absorbing after being excessively scorched.
By the evening of that day, the last corrupted one that had invaded this world was killed by a patrolling demonic beast squad on the east coast of the original site of Sky City.
Driving the Calamity Legion out of this world was originally a good thing for the Wizard faction. But at this moment, in the Moon Ring City's 1st District, inside the council hall of the Witch headquarters, all the influential high-ranking members of the Wizard faction were gathered. The Moon Witch was naturally at the head, with the old woman beside her, along with several old clan leaders of Wizard families.
Even the Guild Leader, Po. Yien, who didn't like to attend such meetings, had come in person this time. The Great Noble, Xio, had also come to Moon Ring City. The true controller of this ancient royal city hadn't been here for at least decades.
The dozens of Wizard faction high-ranking members present all looked at the projection above the council table. It showed the scene of the demonic flame dragons annihilating the Calamity Legion. The highly paid helper was very powerful. On the day they acted, they beat the invading enemy into questioning their existence.
A new problem arose. The helper they hired this time was simply too strong. Their legion flow's war capability could only be described as terrifying. Now that the enemy had been driven away, how to deal with this helper was an extremely tricky issue. Everyone present felt that if this person suddenly changed their attitude, compared to the terror on this side, the threat previously posed by the Calamity Legion was nothing at all.
The Wizard high-ranking members discussed animatedly. The old woman was worried and frowned. In contrast, the Moon Witch was calmly savoring her black tea. The reason was that she was already somewhat used to it. This scene was remarkably similar to the time when they had invited a helper carrying five Original Sin objects.
The Moon Witch glanced at her mentor beside her. She was still hiding the matter of the five Original Sin objects from her.
"If, I mean if, that Law Destroyer suddenly turns hostile, this old bones will take him away."
The old woman spoke in a deep voice. This statement, rather than announcing how to deal with Su Xiao, was actually meant to appease the Wizard high-ranking members present, to prevent some people, stimulated by the demonic legion, from doing anything extreme.
It wasn't that the old woman was being petty; it was necessary to take precautions. Even among allies, if there were slight conflicts of interest, they wouldn't fully trust each other, let alone Su Xiao, who wasn't even a member of the Wizard faction.
After he revealed his demonic insect race, being secretly feared by the Wizard faction was perfectly normal. In fact, if the Wizard faction didn't even have this level of caution, there would really be no need to continue cooperating with this force. If their guard was too low, they could easily be implicated at a critical moment.
After all the Wizard high-ranking members present had left, the Moon Witch took another sip of black tea. Seeing this, the old woman became angry and said, "If the Law Destroyer, Bai Ye, really changes his stance, I hope your friendship with him is reliable. Otherwise, I'll have to sacrifice this old life..."
"No."
The Moon Witch took another small sip of black tea. Hearing this, the old woman was first puzzled, then her eyes were full of relief. She asked, "Could it be that you've finally found someone you like? I've been looking forward to this day for a long time..."
"That's not it."
The Moon Witch took another sip of black tea, a little guiltily. Seeing her somewhat guilty gaze, the old woman was overjoyed. She had been young too, so she understood these things. But before she could continue, the Moon Witch told the truth.
"Bai Ye has a 'Book of Original Sin' that seals five Original Sin objects. If you want to die together with him, I estimate that the Witch Realm would probably also be gone..."
"What!!!"
The old woman's shout penetrated the well-soundproofed meeting room. This old powerhouse, who had experienced countless storms, couldn't help but have a complete breakdown when faced with the magnitude of five Original Sin objects.
Compared to the Wizard high-ranking members who were all breaking down, the Calamity Legion's breakdown was even more severe. They were now cowering in their lair. What had originally seemed like a war game of "Corrupted Legion" vs. "Wizard Legion" had now developed into a horror game.