Defiance of the Fall

It was impossible to mistake the overbearing aura that just suppressed the whole region with anything but the Left Imperial Palace. However, as impressive as it were, there were undeniably some important differences. Despite destroying miles of land, the explosion was like a matchstick compared to a sun in front of the Left Imperial Palace.

Had a seal appeared on the battlefield? No, there would be signs. The explosion felt different to the pulses of annihilation brought by the seals. Besides, the seals he’d encountered so far hadn’t an aura resembling that of the Left Imperial Palace. The two were connected, but Zac didn’t know exactly how.

“…Shit,” Tussar exhaled as he returned to Zac’s side in the sky. “So that’s what triggered this all.”

Zac turned to the old veteran with surprise. Zac should be one of the people with most inside information to this matter, and even he wasn’t sure what was going on. Why did a captain from the Allbright Empire seem to have the answers? The man’s eyes briefly wandered before taking a steadying breath.

“I can’t say for certain, but there’s been some rumors lately. About this ancient aura. The constant fighting at the edge of the Million Gates Territory has weakened the barriers between dimensions and even stirred the Void. Ancient things have been dragged to the surface—powerful tools from a war preceding our sector. Most of it has broken down already, but a few terrifying treasures have emerged.

“This is not made public yet, but the Sixth suffered disastrous losses after the Kan’Tanu unearthed an ancient weapon. It was just a rusted sword with a shattered edge, but it released such a murderous aura even Monarch had to stay clear. Those bastards somehow managed to launch it towards us. It tore through our defenses and disintegrated one of our War Fortresses before disappearing into a spatial tear. I bet the aura we just felt is related to that mess.”

“But this explosion just now was nowhere near that level of destruction,” Emily muttered.

“It must’ve been a small sliver that bled through to this dimension,” Zac said, and Tussar nodded in agreement. “So, the Alliance ordered this sudden assault because they noticed something was emerging?”

“Probably. Can’t let the Kan’Tanu get another inheritance. It’s also an opportunity to get our hands on something that can turn the tides.”

Zac thoughtfully nodded. It was true, any random array or treasure from the Limitless Empire could have a huge impact on a frontier war. A few of the manuals they’d found in the Ensolus ruins had become core techniques of his Atwood Army, others were so complex he could only hold onto them until their foundations grew deeper. And those ruins had belonged to simple commoners living in the vicinity of the Left Imperial Palace.

“But it’s already wreaking havoc,” Emily countered. “Doesn’t that mean someone is already in control of the weapon and using it on their enemies? What if they hit this world with a direct blast the next time?”

Zac shuddered at the thought. Accumulations, treasures, and being an elite were useless in the face of such destruction. He’d be no different than the E-grade cultivators around him when faced with something like that. At best, his Danger Sense might give him a brief window to activate [Flashfire Flourish] or Sendor’s seals, but survival was up to the Heavens.

“No idea,” Tussar said with helplessness. “I’ve only heard some rumors, so I’m mostly guessing here. But it shouldn’t be? The operation just started a few minutes ago. I can’t imagine it’s that easy to take over these ancient relics. I bet there’s an intense battle going on right now.”

Zac sighed, gazing at the huge crater in the distance. “Fate is gathering.”

His anxiety only increased after learning their mission might involve a war machine built by the Limitless Empire. They were already under immense pressure after being flung into such a dangerous battlefield the moment they arrived, and now they had to fight for a relic that could impact the whole war?

They’d already known this clash involved huge man-power, but Zac realized they’d only seen the tip of the iceberg. All nearby field armies were undoubtedly mounting all-out offenses of their own, hoping to stop reinforcements from joining the fray. But the past months had proven the Kan’Tanu were anything but pushovers, and there were also the outsiders to worry about.

Prehistoric weapons were not the only thing that would emerge from the Void. There was a good chance for seals to be unearthed along any relics related to the Left Imperial Palace. And if he could realize that from a single glance, then so could the other established factions. Sealbearers and promising elites would be dragged together by the winds of fate and hunger for power.

Was this situation orchestrated by the System? Was his arrival on the frontlines the trigger for the carnage around him?

Zac wasn’t sure what their best move was, but he ultimately ordered the Acheron company to increase their pace by half. The army passed the flattened mountains but had to circle around the enormous crater. A dense storm of chaotic energies had gathered within, making it resemble an active caldera. Ultimately, it was just a small delay on their road toward the Wolf Teeth Camp.

The sea of soldiers moved like locusts through the land. They were swift but kept a sustainable pace. Zac wouldn’t forget the most immediate threat because of the glimpse of that ancient aura. Their War Machines were ready to attack or defend at moment’s notice, and all tainted ground they passed was burned and purified. The World’s Blight would eventually undo their work, but the Acheron Company would be long gone by that point.

Even then, it proved impossible to avoid conflict or prevent more cultists from teleporting over. The sea of thorns seemed almost sapient, gathering spatial energies to summon hordes of war slaves as they advanced. It was also impossible to completely avoid the surrounding conflicts, and the Acheron Company was repeatedly embroiled in larger conflicts.

The fierce resistance had essentially locked most of the Alliance armies in place. Only the strongest managed to advance, but not even the Acheron Company had managed to reach their target after a day of struggle. Half of that time had been spent fighting, the other recuperating while on the move.

Their strength and equipment had made them a core force among the Alliance armies. Moving by their side was an army of Springsteel Demons, an elite race from the Ar’Khar’Khit Horde. More alliance factions had tried to join their protective umbrella, but Zac had ruthlessly rebuffed any forces that wouldn’t be able to hold their weight.

Just like Tussar said when they first arrived, a lot of the fighters sent to the frontlines were barely better than the Kan’Tanu war slaves death. These weak factions opted to trail behind Zac at a distance, essentially using him them as a meat shield. Some had suggested they forced these armies to take the lead for a bit, but having a large clump of soldiers trailing behind them had its uses.

By now, the rear was ten times the size of their Acheron Company. The orbital bombardments were still going, and this huge clump of soldiers became a more promising target than their smaller, spread-out squads. The World’s Blight had also proven just how fast it could recover and send over more people, and the rear had been forced to rebuff multiple assaults.

Only the demons had proven their mettle as they pushed toward their destination. They weren’t as strong or well-quipped as the Atwood Empire, but they were a grade higher on average. Zac would still have preferred to go at it alone, but the roadblocks between them and the Wolf Teeth Camp had grown increasingly difficult to overcome. The Springsteel Demons helped share the pressure, and they had multiple Middle Hegemons who could deal with the stronger cultists.

Zac was still in good condition, and he hadn’t been forced to use any of his aces so far. His new skill, [Adaptive Symbiosis], had proven its worth ten times over already. Haro still slumbered inside the Worldring, but the Half-step Plant King was constantly feeding Zac with Vigor. In return, Zac supplied streams of his Dao and the bloody aura that gathered on battlefields.

His soldiers lacked his unique methods to sustain their energy. Rotating squads and getting capable helpers wasn’t enough to alleviate the accumulating exhaustion. And judging by the immense energy fluctuations they could sense beyond the horizon, the battle for the Wolf Teeth Camp had entered a fever pitch.

The good news was that the Calamity Company had avoided being dragged into this mess. As reluctant as he were, Zac had a deadline to follow. Their second elite army had teleported over half a day after the first, appearing in the 33rd Field Army. From there, they’d smoothly transferred using the prepared decree and were currently undergoing orientation and group drills under the Allbright Empire.

It was with mixed emotions they finally reached their target three hours later. Coming this far meant relative safety as the sky above the Kan’Tanu base was clearly in control of their side. But the ongoing war was of an almost unbelievable scale as dozens of units had gathered around the Wolf Teeth Camp.

It was an almost comical understatement to call the Kan’Tanu base a camp. Let alone Port Atwood, the military complex dwarfed his whole island. But it had clearly seen better days. Its towering walls were destroyed, their accompanying array towers forming rubble the size of hills. A heated war was raging within, with hundreds of powerful auras clashing in the sky.

Innumerable alliance soldiers were pushing toward the central district from every direction, but the Kan’Tanu weren’t giving in. Ash and dust obscured the exact situation, but even Zac could sense the immense spatial fluctuations. The Kan’Tanu was clearly unwilling to give up the Wolf Teeth Camp and was still transporting reinforcements.

The war wasn’t just taking place inside the camp. An outer perimeter of alliance armies had formed a wall between a sea of Kan’Tanu and the Wolf Teeth Camp. Their side were essentially surrounded, furiously fighting cultists and enormous curse constructs to stop them from reaching the camp. The situation looked dire when looking at raw numbers, but the alliance held an advantage in quality and equipment.

Neither side enjoyed a clear advantage, but the World’s Blight would keep teleporting over people and growing new goretides. Their side needed to thin out the hordes and create an unshakeable position. Besides, standing by the sidelines wasn’t an option. The cultists had already noticed their approach, and a flood of warriors were ready to meet them.

“Go!” Zac ordered, and the Atwood Empire war machine roared into action.

The Kan’Tanu were forcibly drawing on the World’s Blight to empower their side, but huge swathes of tendrils and thorns were shredded with every swing of Zac’s axe. Only a small part of [Evolutionary Edge]’s fractal design were responsible to create blades, but it was ultimately a Peak Quality D-grade skill. Each attack could create as much destruction as the E-grade skill’s special burst just based on the huge discrepancy in energy.

The strongest fighters among the cultists were already held up by the alliance defenders, giving the Acheron Company free reign to the rear. A few Early-stage Hegemons tried to bar Zac’s path, but they only lasted a few seconds against [Verun’s Bite] before dying. All forms of tricks and last-ditch measures, from self-destruction to escape treasures, were useless in the face of overwhelming power.

Zac dug deeper and deeper into the Kan’Tanu ranks. The cultists fell in droves, and the mayhem only grew worse when the vines of [Primal Edict] joined the fray. World’s Blight rose in the pockets of death Zac created, trying to use corpses as fodder to grow. However, the lingering Dao inside Zac’s victims were too brutal, and the few tendrils that managed to take root were strangled by vines before they could grow.

The Kill Energy from an E-grade cultivator was so small that Zac barely noticed it now that he had reached level 164, but the sheer quantity of slaughter over the past day had put him right at the threshold of leveling up. The System must have made teleportation to Zecia almost free for the Kan’Tanu bring over so many.

His people had already slaughtered half the swarm of cultists by the time Zac made his way back twenty minutes later. He unleashed a furious burst of violence that eradicated all stronger targets within a few miles before returning to his ranks. Zaa still retained almost half his Cosmic Energy, but he needed to focus on his core for a little bit.

The process of leveling up was effortless compared to the struggle Zac had faced in the E-grade. That was especially true considering the quality of his Cosmic Core. However, each level meant more energy would be crammed into the small core, and he had to be careful about the balance between conflicting elements.

Zac gingerly guided the Kill Energy into the complex pathways beneath the core’s surface, his Draugr side mirroring his actions on the pathways he couldn’t control. The process required understanding of his core and his Daos, but it ultimately wasn’t nearly as difficult as building the core itself. One minute later, the final sections were activated, and Zac felt a small burst of power coursing through his body.

The war still raged on, and the conflict inside the Wolf Teeth Camp seemed to have reached new heights. Zac was about to rejoin the battle, but a pang of danger and primal fear made him look to the sky. Six magic circles appeared one after another, each teeming with horrifying power.

Each had to be a dozens of miles across, and they formed an intricate array above the Wolf Teeth Camp. He wasn’t the only one to notice their appearance. Millions of faces gazed upon the spectacle with hope and fear, unsure what was going on. But while the power contained within the array made Zac’s senses scream of danger, he breathed out in relief.

“As expected! The headquarters even brought out such a powerful Spirit Array for a subsidiary battlefield!” Tussar guffawed as he flew over. “It’s over for these cultists bastards!”

Zac nodded in agreement. The array was clearly not connected to the heritage of the Kan’Tanu, which meant their side had managed to deploy an incredibly powerful array right at the heart of the battle. The circles lit up, and not even Zac managed to stay afloat from the pressure they exuded. A silver palm appeared the next moment, crashing down toward the military base.

The hand was massive enough to flatten half of Port Atwood, but that wasn’t what made it so extraordinary. It was instilled with incredible amounts of truth, to the point that it left illusory images in its wake. Thousands of smaller hands were formed by the Dao. Some formed mudras, others seemingly in the middle of a strike.

The illusory hands formed, dissipated, and were remade in the wake of the main hand’s descent. Zac mutely looked on with awe. He hadn’t expected to see such profound insights into the Dao of Pugilism.

The truths on display were useless to Zac, and his incredibly steady Dao Heart prevented them from influencing him. However, he suspected that more than one observer today would have their path altered by the silver hand. The large array was likely Peak D-grade, but whoever created it had to be a Monarch whose path were based on the art of pugilism.

Even then, the array’s power obviously far beyond what one could expect, and for good reason. Just like Tussar said, it was obviously a Spirit Array—an array with a soul. The first time he encountered such a thing was when meeting Anzonil in the hunt back during the integration. However, the huge Spirit Array meant to cleanse the Splinter of Oblivion’s corruption wasn’t a true Spirit Array since Anzonil had grafted his soul into it.

True Spirit Arrays were extremely rare and significantly harder to craft than Spirit Tools. Most Array Spirits were born inside arrays installed in unique environments for extremely long timeframes. In that way, they more resembled Realm Spirits than Tool Spirits. For a Realm Spirit to appear in a mobile array, something incredible must have happened during the crafting process.

A treasure like the array before them would be considered a top-tier hidden ace even in a C-grade faction, and Zac doubted there’d be more than a few hundred of them in the whole sector. For a grand treasure like this to be expended on a Middle D-grade battlefield proved just how important this mission was.

The mesmerizing scene briefly made Zac forget why the fist had appeared, but a resounding rumble reminded him. The silver palm had crashed into the haze surrounding Wolf Teeth Camp. An intense eruption of cursed energy rose to meet the attack, and the clash unleashed a storm that covered the whole battlefield. Visibility had become zero, but there were multiple clues to the result.

The powerful spatial fluctuations from within the Kan’Tanu camp were gone, and the sinister energy rising from the ground had become chaotic and directionless. Whatever controlled the growth of World’s Blight had been destroyed along with the rest of the camp. And if Zac needed any conclusive proof of their victory, he only needed to open his quest screen to confirm the alliance mission was completed.

Zac was relieved he wouldn’t have to send any of his men into the high-grade conflict within the camp. Yet, he couldn’t feel any joy over the fact their mission had succeeded. They were just part of a subsidiary battlefield, tasked with one of multiple side goals on this world. But more than fifty million soldiers lain down their lives to create the opening needed for the Alliance to destroy the Transference Array.

Such a heavy price, yet the fighting was far from over.