Chapter 5: The Day of Destruction
“What the hell is going on?”
Yale, Reynolds, and George were completely bewildered. Just moments ago, they had been attending a wedding banquet, when a Saint-level magical beast, the ‘Violet-Eyed Golden-Furred Ape’, had suddenly descended from the sky, accompanied by what seemed to be a massive horde of magical beasts. The sky was filled with a dense swarm of Winged Wyverns, a truly terrifying sight.
It wasn’t just the three of them who were stunned; the entire city of Fenlai was in shock.
“Get out, now!” Yale immediately shouted.
Yale, George, and Reynolds quickly rushed out of the Debbs family estate. Fortunately, the Violet-Eyed Golden-Furred Ape paid them no attention, as the entire city of Fenlai was teeming with people. The only ones worthy of its notice were at least Level 9 experts, or Saint-level powerhouses.
“Young master.” The guards of the Dawson Chamber of Commerce, most of whom had trained in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, managed to stay calm despite the sudden influx of beasts.
“Quick, get to my father.”
Yale commanded immediately.
Under the protection of the Dawson Chamber of Commerce guards, Yale, Reynolds, and George hurried towards their family’s headquarters. Along the way, they noticed that flying magical beasts dominated the sky over Fenlai. There were not only Winged Wyverns but also Twin-Winged Pegasi.
There were also Level 7 beasts like the Thunder-Winged Pegasus and the Emerald-Eyed Thunder Hawk, as well as Level 8 beasts such as the Golden Sun Eagle and Dragons.
The sky above Fenlai, and the ground below, were filled with these giant magical beasts. The entire city had descended into an apocalypse, utterly defenseless. Dragons were typically at least Level 8 beasts; with over a hundred dragons attacking, who would dare to resist?
Even the Holy See’s elite knight order would likely be decimated by a single, coordinated blast of Dragon’s Breath from over a hundred dragons.
“Doomsday. Doomsday!”
The entire city of Fenlai was plunged into misery and chaos. Yet the residents didn’t know that the beasts that had arrived were only a small fraction. The majority of the magical beasts were land-dwelling, and they were slower than the flying ones.
Thus, the flying beasts arrived first.
*******
On the walls of Fenlai, the soldiers were completely dumbfounded. Today was the Ten Thousand Year Magnolia Festival; at noon, they had celebrated with a hearty drink. Now, they faced an endless tide of magical beasts. Especially before them—
“Beasts… so many…” The soldiers were utterly stunned.
The ground trembled. Outside Fenlai, a dense, countless horde of Wind Wolves, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, was charging at full speed. The sheer terror of seeing hundreds of thousands of Wind Wolves in a coordinated charge was enough to chill anyone’s blood.
“Mages! Mages!!!”
“Prepare the magic crystal cannons! Now!!!”
The city guard officers roared, desperately trying to organize their troops. But they knew it was futile; a large number of flying beasts had already descended inside the city.
“Captain, what’s that?” A soldier suddenly stared blankly at the sky.
The captain looked up as well. In the distant sky, a giant magical beast was flying towards them at incredible speed. This giant beast had no wings, yet it flew through the air, its speed astonishing.
“Flying without wings… It’s a Saint-level beast! A Saint-level beast!”
The captain felt all hope drain away.
“Roar~~~”
At the same time, a terrifying roar came from the distance outside Fenlai. A massive figure was rapidly approaching from behind the Wind Wolf horde. This giant figure moved ten times faster than the Wind Wolves, almost matching the speed of the Saint-level beast in the sky.
It was a giant beast, a full thirty meters tall. It looked like an oversized lion, but its eyes were blood-red!
A mage on the city walls screamed in terror: “The Saint-level beast ‘Blood-Eyed Mane Lion’! Heavens, another Saint-level beast! The Blood-Eyed Mane Lion—among the Behemoth race, only the Golden Behemoth can compare to it!”
Everyone was stunned.
The disparity in power was absolute.
“Haha, Ah Blood, why is a Saint-level beast like you running on the ground?” The giant beast flying through the sky spoke, its voice booming like thunder.
Many soldiers below couldn’t help but swallow hard.
“Speaking human language… Saint-level beasts really can speak human language.” Almost everyone present was seeing a Saint-level beast for the first time in their lives. And now, they were seeing two at once. They could now make out the form of the Saint-level beast in the sky.
It was pitch black like rock, resembling a dragon, but without wings.
“It’s the Saint-level beast ‘Tyrannosaurus’! The tyrant of the dragon race!” A mage screamed in terror.
The dragon race is mainly divided into two categories. One type has wings, such as the Level 8 Green Dragons and Red Dragons, the Level 9 Silver Dragons, Black Dragons, Frost Dragons, and the Saint-level Golden Dragons, Prismatic Divine Dragons, Blood Jade Crystal Dragons, and so on.
The other type is wingless, such as the Level 8 Raptors, the Level 9 Spined Ironclad Dragons and Blade-Back Dragons, and the Saint-level Thunder Dragons, Tyrannosaurs, and Triceratops Dragons.
The main difference between the winged and wingless types lies in their physical capabilities.
Wingless dragons possess terrifying physical strength. Whether it’s a Spined Ironclad Dragon, a Blade-Back Dragon, a Thunder Dragon, or a Tyrannosaurus, their physical defense is superior to that of their winged counterparts of the same level.
“Hmph, enough talk. Let’s see who can kill more people.” The Blood-Eyed Mane Lion’s terrifying voice boomed, echoing across the land.
“Deal.” The Tyrannosaurus roared in response.
Immediately, the Tyrannosaurus’s nearly hundred-meter-long, terrifying body angled down from the sky and charged straight at the city wall. The walls of Fenlai were extremely sturdy, reinforced by a massive magical formation. However, due to the overwhelming number of flying beasts, the formation could not be activated.
“Think you can outrun me?” The Blood-Eyed Mane Lion roared, accelerating.
These two terrifying giant beasts, one from the air and one from the ground, charged at the city wall at full speed. The walls of Fenlai were over ten meters thick, more than enough to withstand an army. But against these two monsters…
After all, both the Tyrannosaurus and the Blood-Eyed Mane Lion would require at least a Saint-level pinnacle expert to deal with.
“Boom!”
The Blood-Eyed Mane Lion and the Tyrannosaurus struck the wall almost simultaneously. The over ten-meter-thick stone wall momentarily slowed their charge, but then it completely collapsed under the impact.
“Bang!”
Two sections of the wall instantly crumbled, sending stones flying in all directions. The flying debris alone killed many people.
“”
The Blood-Eyed Mane Lion and the Tyrannosaurus rampaged excitedly through Fenlai. With their incredible speed, ordinary people couldn’t avoid being trampled. Given their terrifying weight, even a Level 9 expert would be severely injured or killed by their stomps, while Level 8 experts would be dead for sure.
“Awooo~~”
Hundreds of thousands of Wind Wolves, an endless sea of them, poured through the breaches. Many simply leaped over the walls, their jumping ability allowing them to clear twenty or thirty meters. The walls were no obstacle.
Hundreds of thousands of Wind Wolves surged into Fenlai…
“Thump, thump, thump…”
The sound of rapid footsteps followed. Behind the Wind Wolves came a dense horde of other giant beasts, like Mammoths, even more terrifying than the Wind Wolves. Some surviving soldiers, seeing the endless tide of beasts in the distance, had already given up hope.
“The Holy City… is finished.” A soldier hiding in a recess of the wall, peering through a lookout, spoke in despair.
“Crunch.”
A Wind Wolf suddenly appeared beside him and bit his head clean off in one gulp.
******
Inside the ninth-floor secret chamber of the Radiant Temple.
“What’s happening?” Linley scrambled to his feet. He could hear all sorts of violent tremors, terrifying roars, screams, and battle cries from outside. Having spent a long time in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, Linley could even identify some beast species from their roars.
“So many beasts… It sounds like they’re coming from all directions.” Linley was completely stunned.
“Boom!”
A terrifying force struck the Radiant Temple. All the walls of the temple immediately glowed with light, absorbing the blow. The temple held firm.
“Hmph, the Radiant Temple’s defenses are quite strong.” A deep, rumbling voice sounded from outside. The voice was so loud that Linley could hear it clearly even inside the secret chamber.
“Someone’s attacking the Radiant Temple?”
Linley found it hard to believe. As one of the six major powers on the continent, the Holy Alliance’s Radiant Temple had stood for over five thousand years without anyone daring to attack it. Yet the recent impact and that loud voice left no doubt.
“My King!”
Suddenly, a chorus of powerful voices rang out, clearly from more than one source.
“Stop!” A furious roar followed.
“That’s the Pope’s voice.” Linley recognized it clearly. But right after the Pope’s voice came—
“Boom!”
An even more terrifying attack struck the Radiant Temple, causing the entire structure to shake violently. The complex magical runes on the walls flickered and trembled, and cracks began to appear on the surface.
“How terrifying.” Delin Covalt exclaimed in awe. “A single blow nearly brought down the Radiant Temple.”
“Boom!”
Another devastating strike. This time, the temple’s massive defensive magical formation, ‘Glory of the Radiant Lord’, could no longer hold. With a series of cracking sounds, the Radiant Temple snapped in two at its midsection, and the top eight floors collapsed.
“The defensive formation is destroyed.” Linley felt the entire secret chamber tilt and begin to fall.
But Linley was overjoyed. The chamber walls had been incredibly tough before, as the formation would deflect the force of any attack. Now that the formation was gone, Linley transformed his hands into dragon claws and punched through the wall in five or six rapid blows, creating a large hole.
Linley leaped out of the chamber.
“The Violet Blood Sword.” When Linley was captured, the Violet Blood Sword had been taken by the Radiant Church. However, Linley had already bonded with it. With a thought, the Violet Blood Sword flew towards him and landed in his hand.
By now, the Radiant Temple was in chaos. No one cared about Linley anymore.
With a light push off the ground, Linley darted into the square. The square in front of the Radiant Temple was littered with corpses. Countless people had died. Even more were locked in battle with the beasts.
“So many people.”
Linley was truly shocked.
The sky was filled with all kinds of flying beasts—Winged Wyverns, Azure Wind Eagles, Twin-Winged Pegasi, Thunder-Winged Pegasi, Green Dragons, Fire Dragons, Black Dragons… and various other dragon types. The sight of them blanketing the sky was enough to make one’s heart tremble.
The ground was even more densely packed with beasts.
“That is…?”
Linley looked towards the Radiant Temple. Above it, a group of over a dozen giant beasts had gathered.
“Earth Collapse Bear, Blood-Eyed Mane Lion, Thunderclap Leopard, Thunder-Winged White Tiger, Thunder Dragon, Tyrannosaurus…” Linley stared at the legendary Saint-level beasts in the sky, completely dumbfounded. So many Saint-level beasts had appeared!
At the head of this group of Saint-level beasts was a human-like figure hovering in the air.
It was a sinister-looking young man, his dark golden robe fluttering in the wind. A vertical mark was etched on his forehead. This sinister young man was calmly staring down at a group of Church leaders led by Haines, including Haines, Mr. Luoye, and seven other Saint-level experts who were also hovering in the air, facing him. But it was clear that the Radiant Church side was in a sorry state.
“You…” Haines and the others were furious.
“Sorry to disturb your Magnolia Festival, but I have an announcement to make.” The sinister young man said calmly. “You, the Radiant Church, should find yourselves a new Holy City.”
Linley heard the words clearly and was secretly shocked by the young man’s terrifying power.
“Boss! Boss!” Linley suddenly heard Bebe’s voice in his mind. Sensing Bebe’s location, Linley turned his head. A black shadow was weaving through the crowds of people and beasts. In an instant, it rushed over and leaped into Linley’s arms.
“Bebe.” Linley’s heart was filled with emotion.
“Boss.” Bebe nestled in Linley’s arms, his small eyes moist with excitement.