Chapter 676: The Goblins Arrive: No one Leave Alive

From underground, a second vibration came.

Dong.

This time, Sophie clearly felt it. She abruptly lowered her head. It was not the World Tree. Something was moving below, and there were many of them.

She immediately closed her eyes, and her consciousness extended downward along the roots beneath her feet, through the old altar, through that enormous contaminated root, and deeper still.

Soon, she "saw" a passage.

It was not a normal underground route used by the elves, but an enormous passage forcibly carved out along the area near the World Tree’s root. Many parts of it still bore traces of erosion by corrupting power, and at this moment, dense silhouettes were continuously advancing through the passage.

Sophie did not react at first. Only when she clearly saw those figures did she realize what they were.

Goblins...

They wore iron armor that was clearly not of goblin make and held standardized weapons. Between the ranks, one could even see vehicles used to transport mana crystals and supplies. As Sophie’s perception continued to extend backward, she still could not see the end of this force.

She opened her eyes, and her expression had already changed.

"Edgar."

Edgar immediately turned. "What is it?"

"There are goblins heading our way."

Edgar frowned. "How many?"

Sophie did not answer immediately. She sensed once more, then shook her head.

"I don’t know."

Edgar’s expression slowly changed. If there were only dozens or hundreds, Sophie would not have answered like that.

Sure enough, the next sentence came quickly.

"At least several thousand."

This time, everyone nearby who heard it went silent. Even Matthew suddenly raised his head. His expression instantly became extremely ugly.

"Impossible."

Edgar looked at him. "What do you know?"

"Goblins shouldn’t appear here," Matthew said through clenched teeth. "Their mission is to attack the outer defense line and draw the elven forces away from the core region. The old altar is not within their operational scope at all."

"Who decided that?"

Matthew fell silent, but the answer was already obvious. The Holy Church, or perhaps Veylor’s Chain.

But Sophie was no longer listening because she had seen something else.

At the very front of that goblin army, a figure far larger than an ordinary goblin was advancing upward along the underground passage. It was nearly three meters tall, with jet black skin and dark red patterns like burn scars covering the surface of its body. It also held a black spear in its hand, and what truly caught Sophie’s attention was the pattern on the surface of that spear.

It was too similar to the corruption around the World Tree’s root.

Whenever the dark red patterns on the spear lit up, the nearby already corrupted roots would tremble slightly. More importantly, the direction in which that goblin army was advancing was not toward the outer edges of the Sacred Forest at all.

Their target from the very beginning was here.

Sophie closed her eyes and looked deeper. "They’re using this root."

Edgar’s expression shifted slightly. "What?"

"The underground passage is right beside the root." Sophie raised her head and looked toward the center of the old altar. "They came throug--"

Boom!

After another collision, Gabriel and the captain stopped at the same time, not because they wanted to stop, but because the entire old altar suddenly sank downward.

This vibration far exceeded the previous ones. A large area of already shattered stone slabs directly collapsed, and a huge fissure appeared in the center of the altar. Dust continuously poured from the crack, while increasingly clear footsteps came from below.

The captain’s face darkened when he saw this.

"You didn’t know?" Gabriel asked with a frown on his face.

The captain did not answer, but that reaction was enough.

He truly had not known.

This actually made things more interesting.

The Holy Church’s people were using the goblins to attack the Sacred Forest, while the goblins were likewise using the Holy Church to open the old altar. As for what exactly Veylor’s Chain had told both sides in the middle, it no longer mattered now because what was below was about to come up.

Crack!

The center of the altar collapsed again, this time directly revealing an enormous underground opening.

In the darkness, one pair after another of dark red eyes lit up.

The goblin legion had arrived.

Gabriel stood at the edge of the fissure and looked down. The figures below were dense and countless, almost with no end in sight.

If it were anyone else, what they would consider at this moment was probably already how to retreat, but the first thing that appeared in Gabriel’s mind was Extraction Points.

He had originally thought that after tonight ended, he would need to personally go underground to find the remaining main force.

Now it seemed there was no need.

They had all come to him on their own.

"Gabriel."

Edgar’s voice came from behind.

"There are at least several thousand down there."

"I know."

"Why do you sound so happy?"

Before Gabriel could answer...

Bang!

A massive black hand suddenly grabbed the edge of the fissure from below, instantly shattering the stone. Then a second hand reached out, and a nearly three meter tall enormous figure slowly climbed up onto the altar from underground.

This goblin had black skin with dark red patterns and held a black spear.

After it stood up, it did not attack anyone. Instead, it first looked toward the exposed World Tree root, and especially when it saw the remaining three corruption nails still embedded in it, a trace of greed clearly appeared in those dark red eyes.

"Finally."

The enormous goblin spoke.

"Opened."

The captain’s expression completely darkened.

"You shouldn’t have come here."

It was at that moment that the enormous goblin turned to look at him before smiling.

"Human. What you promised me is right down there."

Gabriel’s eyes flashed as he understood what was happening. The cooperation between the Holy Church and the goblins had thoroughly ended here.

Behind the enormous goblin, more and more goblins began to approach the opening from the underground passage. The sounds of iron armor scraping and weapons colliding merged into one, and the entire area beneath the old altar seemed to have been packed full by them.

Sophie stood beside the World Tree’s root. The captain tightened his grip on the black sword, while Edgar guarded the other side. Everyone’s attention fell upon the goblin legion that was emerging.

Only Gabriel glanced at the enormous goblin, then at the dense silhouettes behind it, and finally, the corners of his mouth slowly rose.

He tightened his grip on Crimson Judgement. Blood Exhaustion had not yet ended, so he did not move and simply stood there, waiting.

Anyway, these fellows had already come.

And not a single one would leave here alive.