Chapter 514: Incident in the Wasteland

Individual Void Creatures were incredibly powerful, let alone when they formed swarms.

After the Magic Defense Barrier blocked the enemy’s Ranged Attacks, the Void Creatures’ melee units surged forward relentlessly, while their rear units maintained a constant barrage of fire.

Against a single Fortress, Kroger couldn’t be bothered with tactics. He simply ordered his troops to press the attack, intending to crush Li Ziyu with sheer force.

Li Ziyu knew he couldn’t win a direct confrontation; the disparity in strength was too vast. All he could do was defend to the death and buy Bebuta five minutes.

It might only be five minutes, but this was a matter of life and death.

The Magic Defense Barrier primarily blocked Ranged and Magic Attacks; it didn’t offer much protection against melee assaults.

After passing through the Magic Barrier, the Void Creatures began to scale the Fortress walls.

“Should I go take that guy out?” Damenevsky asked Li Ziyu, craning his neck to look at Kroger.

Li Ziyu shook his head, his attention still on directing his forces.

‘Damenevsky is strong, even stronger than Bebuta, but that thing over there is clearly a Void Lord. Not even Damenevsky could kill him instantly.’

‘There are only five minutes until the Teleportation Gate opens.’

‘If the enemy manages to pin Damenevsky down, what do we do when the Teleportation Gate opens? Do we leave or not?’

‘If we don’t leave, we’ll probably be annihilated.’

‘If we do leave, Damenevsky will be left to die.’

‘With so many powerful Void Creatures, they could wear Damenevsky down and kill him through sheer attrition.’

Li Ziyu didn’t want to send Damenevsky over. They just had to defend.

Skeleton Undead, attack!

Elite Heavy Hammer Skeleton Warriors, attack!

Skeleton Short Bowmen, attack!

Skeleton Longbowmen, attack!

…

Black Knights, attack!

Skeleton Knights, attack!

The Evil Spirit Wanderers who had been patrolling outside were now completely wiped out.

They were the first to encounter the Void Creatures and were overwhelmed almost instantly. Though they fought back with all their might, it was useless.

Li Ziyu had no time for further thought; the Void Creatures had already reached the Bone Plate Platform.

All the Undead sprang into action, clashing with the Void Creatures in a brutal melee.

At this point, the Skeleton Undead served merely as cannon fodder and shields, their only job to tie down the enemy so that the Black Knights, Skeleton Knights, and other High-Level Undead could land the killing blows.

The Skeleton Undead equipped with crossbows, however, still packed some punch.

The volleys of crossbow bolts managed to inflict at least some minor damage on the Void Creatures.

It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing and could slow them down a bit.

The Bone Plate Platform had descended into utter chaos.

Beads of sweat formed on Li Ziyu’s forehead.

The crisis had come too suddenly; he was completely unprepared.

Fortunately, they were still holding on for now. The moment any Void Creature set foot on the Bone Plate Platform, a wave of Undead would surge forward to meet it.

The battle immediately reached a fever pitch.

The Undead could not allow the Void Creatures to advance any further, while the Void Creatures were intent on destroying the place completely.

Watching from the Void, Kroger was somewhat surprised. He hadn’t expected the Undead’s resistance to be so fierce.

He had thought his forces would take the enemy down in a single Charge, but they had actually been stopped.

‘Interesting.’

He glanced up at the Wormhole in the sky, which was still expanding, and understood what Bebuta was planning.

If he could just collapse this Wormhole, the enemy would be done for.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that.

It wasn’t that Kroger lacked the ability to collapse the Wormhole; it was that he was forbidden from doing so.

Destroying a Wormhole would trigger numerous chain reactions.

The most immediate would be the rupture of the Void Barrier, destabilizing the Void in this region of the world.

An unstable Void would create countless void rifts across the world, and not even the Void Creatures would know where they led.

Furthermore, it would allow torrents of raw Void to flood into this world.

Of course, as a Void Lord, Kroger wasn’t concerned about any of that.

It was just one Void Land, after all. He could afford the loss; he was a veteran Void Lord.

What he could not bear was the prospect of Void Chaos!

Too many void rifts would cause this entire section of the Void to collapse, the rifts extending endlessly and consuming even more of the Void. Now *that* would be a real disaster.

Forget what might happen to other living beings; not even Void Creatures could survive in a collapsing Void.

Such a thing had happened before.

Long ago, in ancient times, a terrifying civil war had erupted among the Void Creatures.

A Wormhole had been collapsed during that conflict.

The consequences were catastrophic.

The collapse of that Wormhole triggered a cascading collapse of the Void itself. To survive, the Void Creatures were forced to end their civil war and unite. Only by paying an immense price were they able to halt the Void’s destruction.

Even so, the Void Creatures’ living conditions remained incredibly harsh for a long time afterward.

Therefore, under the laws of the Void, deliberately collapsing another Void Creature’s Wormhole was strictly forbidden.

Kroger knew this. And Bebuta knew it too.

Bebuta was exploiting this very law, which was why he hadn’t stopped opening the Teleportation Gate even after Kroger’s arrival.

Kroger was no madman. He would never choose to collapse the Wormhole—not for his own sake, and certainly not for some Undead. The consequences were more than he could bear.

Atop the Bone Plate Platform, the Skeleton Shooter-1 Types and Gargoyles had now joined the fray.

Five minutes. It felt like an eternity.

Li Ziyu had never felt time pass so slowly, not even when he was in class back in school.