Chapter 44: The Apocalypse Array
The sky was extremely gloomy. Volcanic ash, water mist, and suddenly appearing dark clouds obscured the sun. Haze spread everywhere, the setting sun vanished, and the world was plunged into darkness. Yet a massive luminous ring slowly rotated in the firmament, releasing the only light. Mysterious as it was, it also instilled a fear of some unknown, great entity.
Then, a blazing white pillar of light fell straight down from the center of this glowing mass. It pierced through the clouds with a violent hum. Under this power, all clouds within dozens of miles were swept away, while the remnants churned violently, collapsing into heavy downpours.
The light descended and then instantly expanded. That distant mountain was swallowed by the white radiance in a flash. This was a catastrophe far more terrifying than the previous tsunami, for the tide of light engulfed the peaks, hills, and surrounding rivers. Along the way, everything—cities, villages, and panicked elves—was submerged within it.
And then...
There was no "then."
Amid an eerie humming sound, all regions swallowed by that scorching white light vanished completely. There was no explosion, no shockwave. After the light faded, the Babel Province had lost a mountain. In the place where the peak once stood, only a deep crater several kilometers in radius remained. At its bottom, molten lava churned, reflecting a blazing firelight.
And in midair above this great pit, a deep rift appeared. This rift tore through space, with fragments of the world scattered around it. Behind it, something terrifying seemed to be roaring. Vaguely, one could glimpse an enormous golden stone statue flashing by.
—Too small. This rift was still too small for it to enter.
What the hell is going on?! Whether it was Black, the others in the armored convoy, or even those watching this scene through the observation array in the High Commander's office, the Federal Central Research Institute, and the Military Headquarters—everyone was asking themselves or others this question. But no one could provide an answer. Everything was too sudden, leaving people unable to react.
"Something is coming out!"
The closest were still the armored convoy. A scout, holding a high-magnification telescope, stared at the distant scene. Suppressing his trembling, he spoke in as calm a tone as possible: "Many... very many... Ah!"
The scout suddenly screamed. He shouted loudly, "They're stone demons!"
"They have wings! They can fly!"
"What?!"
This astonishing report left everyone unable to process it. Black ignored the armored convoy, which had fallen into chaos. It silently stared into the distance. Its dragon eyes could see even more clearly than the telescope. Earlier, the golden giant statue that had flashed before the rift made the half-dragon feel a fear it had only ever sensed from its master.
That was an aura far surpassing itself—beyond Gold Peak, even beyond the Ultimate Realm.
As for the others, just as the scout had said, hundreds or even thousands of stone demons were swarming out of the rift. Their bodies were much smaller than their meteor-like counterparts that had descended earlier, and their power was far weaker. But on their backs, they bore various kinds of wings. They flew out from the rift in midair and then spread out in all directions.
In the sky, the Apocalypse Array slowly faded, and the rift gradually closed. But before it shut, nearly several thousand flying stone demons had entered this world. Counting the large stone demons that had descended earlier, the total number exceeded five thousand. Some of the flying stone demons seemed to have detected the refugees of Sapphire Harbor. They sped toward the direction of the convoy, and the aura of chaos rapidly spread, tinging this world with a touch of deathly stillness.
*Slap.*
A dragon claw landed on the ground.
Black looked at the sky and let out a low growl.
Unlike the panicked armored convoy, it vaguely felt a sense of nostalgia—nostalgia for the days when it had charged and galloped freely alongside its master through the Chaos Monster Tide in Moldavia.
This would be a tough battle, indeed.
For a warrior's mount, this was more than suitable.
(To be continued.)