Chapter 846: Breakthrough and Advance
Southwestern Seleucus, Apocalypse Zone.
"Roar——!"
A thunderous roar split the sky, echoing across the Earth, unleashing a ferocious gale that sent sand and dust flying in every direction. In this wasteland of molten lava, a colossal serpent coiled its massive body, rearing up and bellowing to the heavens. Its length stretched nearly a hundred meters, scales armored with jagged rock spines, its entire form encased in a layer of hardened stone—seen from afar, it resembled a winding, undulating mountain range.
Around it, tens of thousands of Players surged like a tidal wave, wielding an array of bizarre and strange weapons, swarming the beast like ants. Some daring souls even climbed onto the monster’s back, scrambling across its impenetrable scales with acrobatic precision.
“Hurry up and deal damage!”
“Don’t just stand there—give it a good scrub!”
“Where’s the Dragon Cannon? Let’s blow it sky-high!”
“Explosives are loaded! I’ve stuffed every gap between the scales—preparing to detonate!”
“Hold on—damn it, I’m still in the blast radius! Wait a sec—”
“Boom!”
“Boom! Boom!”
Explosions erupted across the serpent’s body, flames and smoke engulfing it in a fiery maelstrom. The beast roared in agony, thrashing violently, instantly crushing over a hundred Players into pulp. Yet the Players pressed on, unrelenting—bullets, shells, arrows, fireballs, beams of light, flaming arrows—raining down like a relentless storm upon its armored form, inflicting deep, grievous wounds.
"ROOOOAAARRR!!"
The serpent roared again, its eyes blazing crimson, pupils flaring with fiery light. The ground beneath it ignited, molten magma bursting through the soil in violent geysers, swallowing over a thousand Players in a wave of searing heat.
But from afar, the Aether Armor raised its arm.一道 blinding, devastating light beam sliced through the air, crisscrossing with lethal precision. One strike slammed into the serpent’s massive head, sending it staggering backward with a shriek of agony.
“Boss health is low!”
“Of course it is—after two hours of grinding by tens of thousands, this thing’s a walking fortress! Hard as rock, every part’s a knife-fight, pure garbage monster.”
“Keep up the damage! Our Mechanical Divinity’s output is already 27%—if we pull ahead, we’ll claim the best rewards!”
“Blow it up!”
“Boom!”
With a deep, earth-shaking roar, the serpent collapsed in a final, thunderous fall, cracking the ground beneath it into a web of deep fissures. Rivers of molten blood—hotter than lava—gushed from its wounds, scorching countless unprepared Players to ash.
“We won!”
“Finally cleared the death!”
“Holy crap—this garbage monster even dropped a Death Explosion effect! My teammate just got burned to death!”
Amidst the cheers and scattered shouts of the Players, the monstrous Fire Elemental Python lay dead, its body curled into a massive, serpentine regiment. In time, it might even form a permanent mound.
This beast also bore another status: the largest, most grotesque physical form among the Cultists of Karsul—a symbol of greed incarnate. Nasu, the Mountain-Eater Serpent.
Legend says Nasu was once a greedy noble official who, after gaining Karsul’s divine favor, devoured his entire family, friends, and servants without pause. Driven out into the wasteland, he survived for hundreds of years, feeding endlessly on volcanic rock, slowly transforming into this monstrous form.
Now, after being besieged by over a hundred thousand Players, this mythical, legendary serpent met its end.
But it was not the first Cultist of Karsul to fall.
For days, more and more Players had gathered to challenge the Apocalypse Zone, and five such Cultists had already been slain.
Now, the Players stood atop Nasu’s colossal corpse, like sharks scenting blood, greedily mining its remains for resources.
“My claim!”
“This boss is made of stone—harder than steel! Mining its corpse feels like digging through rock—so who’s the lucky bastard who found a rare resource?”
“Haha, just mined a high-concentration Fire Elemental Core—worth about fifteen gold coins.”
“Lucky Emperor, get lost!”
“That bastard’s setting off explosions again—almost blew me to pieces! Come out here, you idiot!”
For the next half month, under the lure of immense rewards, over a million Players flooded into the Apocalypse Zone. The ground, scorched and charred by countless corpses, rose several feet as layers of rock were stripped away.
Through relentless human-wave tactics and the full-scale advance of the Allied Forces, this vast, hundreds-kilometer-wide禁区 was finally breached.
The twelve favored disciples of Kazul—Crimson Eye Grimagoss, Swallower of Mountains Nasu, Rupture Wings Jer, Flame Omen Star Tala—fell one by one, felled by the combined might of the Players, despite suffering casualties numbering in the hundreds of thousands.
Each fallen Cultist weakened the Apocalypse Zone. And when the last of these divine enforcers were destroyed, the zone itself dissolved. Mountains returned to stillness. The skies, once choked with ash, cleared completely. The sun reemerged, bathing the Earth in radiant light. Even the once-raging, furious Fire Mountain calmed, tamed like a beast now under control.
In the sunlight, hundreds of thousands of Empire’s main forces gathered at the southern border, stretching for over ten kilometers like a mottled current. Steam tanks, armored vehicles, and Aether Armor units guarded their flanks, their auras so powerful they made the Earth tremble.
Above, fleets of Aerospace Warships cast massive shadows across the land. Thousands of Wyverns and Flame Wyverns flapped their wings in chaotic, dense clouds, like dark storm fronts.
Behind them, the army of the Kingdom of Seleucus followed—tens of thousands strong, but their gear was uneven, a mix of regional styles from across Seleucus, far less refined than the Empire’s elite forces.
Great Goblin Dolo rode atop the largest Wyvern, gripping a loudspeaker in his left hand, a thick stack of speech scripts before him. His voice, deep and commanding, carried across the battlefield for miles.
"Comrades of the Allied Forces! For years, we have suffered under the tyranny of the Dragon Worship Church. Their influence has plunged the entire region of Seleucus—and indeed, the southern continent—into chaos."
Worse still, the people of Seleucus had endured unspeakable suffering. Over a million had been forced from their homes. Countless others had died in the wrath of this heretical dragon’s devastation.
Our Empire has always pursued peace. King Kai Xiusu himself made multiple attempts to negotiate with the Five-Colored Dragon Queen, striving tirelessly for peace in the region. Yet all efforts were in vain—nothing changed.
On the contrary, the followers of the Dragon Worship Church grew more ruthless, more fanatical. Not only do they threaten us, but any civilization that values freedom, justice, and order—any race that dares to resist—has reached its limit!
Thus, the Allied Forces were born.
In the past year, we have fought across the land, reclaimed vast territories, driven these cruel monsters back to the far south. Yet they still refuse to die.
These faith-obsessed fanatics now seek to summon their divine arrival upon Earth, bringing catastrophe upon the entire Feanso Continent. To achieve this, they sacrificed millions of citizens from Southwestern Seleucus—burying them forever beneath molten lava and ash.
Any being with wisdom should be horrified. Any soul with conscience must be enraged.
Our Empire’s love for peace and our patience are not signs of weakness. They are signs of strength.
Today, the atrocities continue—and grow worse. Evil Dragonborn descend upon the border, massacring entire villages. The Allied Forces must unite, march southward, and strike back!
Our shared objective:
First, eradicate the remnants of the Dragon Worship Church—annihilate these monsters once and for all.
Second, resolve the long-standing crises in Seleucus, so that this land, scarred by war for so long, may finally know peace.
As the commander of the Allied Forces and a soldier of the Empire, I know the stakes. I will give my life for my people. I will fight for their glory. I solemnly swear: No matter what divine arrival they summon, we will never submit!
Before us, countless righteous martyrs have already walked the path of destruction—sacrificing their lives to dismantle the leadership of the Dragon Worship Church. Their courage and sacrifice fuel our resolve today.
With that, Dolo turned his gaze across the battlefield, his voice swelling with passion.
"Finally, I leave you with a phrase His Majesty once spoke to me: As long as our will remains unbroken, nothing can stop us. The iron will and strength of the Allied Forces will overcome every difficulty, every challenge—crush every obstacle in our path. Departure! The Allied Forces shall prevail!"
Before he even finished, the ground below erupted in a thunderous wave of cheers—Imperial soldiers roaring in triumph, Seleucans screaming through tears of pain and fury.
"Allied Forces shall prevail!"
"Destroy the Dragon Worship Cult! End the war! For Seleucus!"
"For the Emperor! For the Ember Empire!"
Dolo nodded in satisfaction. This victory would secure the Empire’s dominance across the Feanso Continent.
Then, the Empire of Ashen would surpass the ancient Sacred Fedran, forging a legacy of its own. And he, Dolo, would become a titan in the history of the Great Goblin race.
High above, Kai Xiusu spread his vast wings, surveying the Earth below. The million-strong Allied Forces looked to him like a swarm of migrating ants—small, insignificant.
Days earlier, Kai Xiusu had arrived from Dragonblood Mountain, monitoring the situation in Seleucus with unwavering vigilance. After all, this concerned the true descent of Tiamat—its outcome could shift the fate of the entire Feanso Continent, even the grand balance of Ailezegai itself. Even he dared not take it lightly.
If Kazul were to perform the ritual directly, Kai Xiusu would tear open this so-called “Apocalypse Zone” and charge straight in, stopping Tiamat’s descent.
But Kai Xiusu’s gaze remained cold, indifferent. He ignored the marching army below, instead lifting his chin toward the distant mountains. His piercing eyes seemed to pierce through hundreds of miles of space, focusing on Seleucus’s capital—City of Dusk.
"A powerful disturbance in divine energy."
In his molten-golden vertical pupils, an unusual light flickered.
To Kai Xiusu, the majestic, ancient city—forged through millennia of hardship—was now shrouded beneath an endless veil of dark clouds, as if a storm was about to break. He could feel Tiamat’s immense, chaotic, frenzied divine power pulsing through sky and earth, sending chills down his spine, a creeping sense of dread.
Yet Kai Xiusu remained still. He did not act.
After all, the Dragon Queen was a master of deception—a cunning conspirator. This grand spectacle might be a trap, a lure designed specifically for him.
He knew well: Tiamat had long coveted his flesh. To step into the open, driven by mere suspicion, would be a fatal mistake.
And yet, Kai Xiusu sensed something else—gazes of immense willpower, unmasked and unhidden, descending from the Outer Plane.
Among them, he could feel the presence of:
Platinum Dragon King Bahamut,
Silver Moon Goddess Shahanini,
God of Justice Tyr,
God of Weeping Ilmat,
God of War Karexus.
No wonder. For thousands of years since the Second Age, the gods had been bound by the Supreme Will, forbidden from entering the Material Plane. They could only grow in faith.
But if Tiamat truly descended, that ancient barrier—the separation between Heaven and Earth, the divide between gods and mortals—would shatter. The long-lost era of gods walking the Earth would return.
Every deity watched silently, some supporting, some opposing, others seeking to use Tiamat as a probe—sending her to test the shifting laws of reality.
And though Tiamat herself was a lesser divine power, her true form was that of a Dragon—far beyond ordinary divine strength. She had once been called "The Enemy of the Gods"—her power and uniqueness were legendary.
In the multiverse, countless mortals and deities alike were watching this battlefield.
But what surprised Kai Xiusu was another presence—one he recognized.
A familiar aura, radiating destruction and chaos.
Clearly, it came from Lord of Flames, The Utter Null, World Cleanser—Karex.
Kai Xiusu let out a cold, mocking laugh. His gaze darkened instantly.
"So it’s true. They still want to seize Karex’s divine position. Then I suppose I’m the final sacrificial offering Tiamat has chosen."
"But I’d like to see if they actually have the strength to claim it."
The Red Dragon Emperor’s eyes narrowed. With a single, powerful flap of his wings, he stirred a storm in the sky, circling high above the endless ash wasteland.
Below, the Allied Forces marched forward—rivers of soldiers flowing southward, their sole objective: the capital of the Kingdom of Seleucus—the ancient City of Dusk, the City of Sunset.
(End of Chapter)
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