Chapter 1990: Overwhelmed

“Oh, God, what kind of calamity has befallen our world...”

In a remote corner of Divine Descendants World, within a small, ordinary village, a woman wearing a headscarf clutched her child tightly to her chest, murmuring prayers over and over.

At the edge of her vision, a pitch-black tide was already sweeping down from the sky.

The woman did not know that the black tide was actually made up of hordes of ferocious Insectoids. She only instinctively felt a dreadful sense of unease.

Under the invasion of these powerful foreign enemies, the entire world was shrouded in an ominous atmosphere.

When the planar barrier shattered moments ago, nearly every living being in Divine Descendants World sensed the collapsing, destructive aura of the apocalypse descending upon them.

In Frantes City...

“Fight for the God of Righteousness!”

Hundreds of golden-armored templars raised their holy-water-soaked swords and cried out in defiance at the insect horde surging toward Frantes.

Because they rarely engaged in foreign wars, the Divine Descendants Star Domain actually possessed very few organized military legions.

Many of the Divine Descendant deities maintained only enough divine emissaries to keep their temples functioning.

This was a pyramid-shaped social structure. If the number of divine emissaries grew too large, it would inevitably destabilize the foundation of rule and trigger major changes among the upper ranks.

That was something Overgod Marduk would never tolerate.

Whenever he saw deities growing too quickly or acting too far out of line, he would grow suspicious of them and begin questioning their motives.

Over the years, the native deities of Divine Descendants World who had been eliminated by Marduk, whether openly or in secret, were not limited to those with the potential to reach the peak of Rank Six.

There had even been Rank Four and Rank Five beings whom Marduk either disliked or deemed too promising, and thus eliminated in advance.

This was the tragedy of Divine Descendants World.

Its planar barrier was so fragile that even after being reinforced by the Ark and the faith of all its inhabitants, it was still shattered so quickly by Fermont the Deathspawn.

Perhaps this, too, was connected to Marduk himself.

The Immortal Realm Civilization believed in karma and retribution. The Magus Civilization pursued the law of balance. The Gallant Federation, meanwhile, placed its faith in the scientific nature of computation.

As for Marduk’s fate today, it was surely the consequence of all he had done in the past!

“The creatures of this world have quite a strong will to resist. As expected of a large plane whose inhabitants have been blinded by their faith in the gods. Still, below the overlord level, I don’t see anyone worth paying attention to,” the Empress of Blades remarked.

As she entered Divine Descendants World with Fermont, her gaze swept over the vast Insectoid legions surging in every direction below, quietly assessing the situation within this world.

“Father once said that destruction and slaughter aren’t the true purpose of interplanar war. When nothing is left, what is the point of fighting? Profit is the core of war!”

With that, the Empress of Blades immediately issued an order, commanding all Insectoid legions to slaughter only those who resisted. As for ordinary beings incapable of resistance, they were to be spared for the time being.

The Magus Civilization had a comprehensive and effective set of methods for developing every plane it conquered.

Moreover, over the past several hundred thousand years, they had grown increasingly skilled at applying those methods.

Needless to say, the short-term gains from wiping out an entire plane paled in comparison to the long-term benefits of enslaving and exploiting it.

Even Sein, after recently observing the situations in Black Mist World and the Kales Star Domain, came up with an even more efficient system for exploiting the member planes of the Magus Alliance.

When the Empress of Blades had previously led the Insectoids across the cosmos, she had not had as many professional mages assisting her as she had during her time with the Magus Alliance.

As a result, the swarm’s standard practice toward the planets they occupied had been simple—kill, devour, and plunder everything.

Nearly every planet that had endured the rampage of the Insectoids had been reduced to a desolate wasteland.

There was simply no other way.

Until they found a rich Tide Crystal vein, the Insectoids had no choice but to keep moving from place to place. They could not settle down anywhere for long.

Perhaps this was their fate.

However, before returning to the Magus Civilization this time, the Empress of Blades had heard through certain channels that the Magus Civilization had rediscovered a batch of extremely rich inert crystal veins.

Perhaps a new opportunity for the Insectoids to make another leap forward was about to arrive.

It was said that the mages of the Magus Civilization were already attempting to mass-produce inert crystals by studying information left behind in the ruins of ancient civilizations.

This was an extremely difficult task. At the same time, it was a project of tremendous significance to the Insectoids.

Even the Empress of Blades was looking forward to the day when they could achieve self-sufficiency in inert crystals.

After taking in the entire world and gaining a general understanding of this large-sized plane, the Empress of Blades finally lowered her gaze to Overgod Marduk.

Marduk was still rather quick to react. After spitting out a mouthful of blood that stained the floor of his temple, he swiftly took refuge inside the Ark.

Following Fermont’s crushing assault, that world-class secret treasure was now severely damaged.

Its walls had cracked in many places. From a distance, the once-beautiful crystalline-blue vessel now looked like a dilapidated spaceship.

However, its status as a world-class secret treasure had not diminished.

Given enough time, Marduk would undoubtedly be able to restore it.

Unfortunately, the Empress of Blades had no intention of giving him that chance.

“Still want to fight like a cornered beast? Or are you thinking of running?” she taunted.

“Fine. I’ll play along. You don’t look so good right now, so I won’t activate my combat form,” the Empress of Blades said with a faint smile.

After entering the plane, Fermont crouched in place, facing the world-class secret treasure, the Ark, from a distance.

The Empress of Blades had never said she intended to fight Overgod Marduk one-on-one.

Overgod Marduk and the Ark against the Empress of Blades and Fermont.

Fair enough, right?

Opposite the Empress of Blades, Marduk sat in the Ark’s cockpit, his face pale.

He was more than tempted to abandon his homeplane outright and flee this civilizational battlefield, which filled him with dread and extreme unease.

But the Ark’s response was that it could not jump away.

It was as if the surrounding space had been frozen solid by the Empress of Blades standing before him.

Facing near-certain defeat, Marduk felt a chill spread through his entire body.

He wondered if those young native deities he had slain all those years ago had felt the same way when facing him.

In truth, from the moment he chose to withdraw from Typhoon World and return to his homeplane, Marduk had already forfeited his final chance to escape.

“If you want to fight, then I’ll fight,” he said, his voice utterly lacking confidence, as he handled the control of the Ark with one hand.

Immediately afterward, another divine scepter appeared in his other hand, emitting the law fluctuations of a world-class secret treasure.

This fellow had lived for so long and monopolized more than ninety percent of the high-tier resources in the entire Divine Descendants Star Domain. Naturally, he had quite a few valuable items in his possession.

The Empress of Blades glanced at the divine scepter in Marduk’s hand, but said nothing. Instead, a crimson blade suddenly materialized from her arm.

***

On the battlefield of Buros Plane...

The overlord-level battle was still too far away from Sein.

Another battle of such caliber had been taking place near Phylis Plane. However, the venerable from Myriad Manifestations World was being steadily overwhelmed and clearly had no intention of simply dying here. Thus, in the middle of the battle, he flew with all his might toward Divine Descendants World.

Only by reaching Divine Descendants World and drawing upon the power of laws bestowed by that large-sized plane would he have even the slightest chance of survival.

If he had tried to break directly out of the Divine Descendants Star Domain, neither the Dawn Empire nor the Insectoid overlords would have allowed it.

After several twists and turns, the battle on Buros Plane had once again turned firmly in favor of Sein and his allies.

The combat legions of Myriad Manifestations World, much like their fleeing venerable, were now on the verge of collapse. They could barely hold their ground against the Magus Civilization legions attacking them from both inside and outside.

The arrival of the Insectoid legions on the battlefield quickly caught Sein’s attention.

Having only recently acquired a mechanical legion, Sein suddenly developed a keen interest in the Insectoid legions as well.

More importantly, these Insectoid legions seemed to be their allies. He could not help but wonder whether he might have a chance to study them up close.

Sein had never been the type to merely fantasize. He preferred to roll up his sleeves and get things done.

The powerhouse from the Myriad Manifestations World who had originally been Sein’s target was now being overwhelmed by the newly arrived Insectoid powerhouses and Sein’s forces.

As a result, Sein had the luxury of overseeing the battlefield while flying toward the Insectoid base that had been established in this world.

“I’m just going to take a look. These Insectoids probably won’t mind, right?” Sein mused, barely resisting the urge to pull out his scalpel right then and there.

Whoosh!

A swarm of Winged Drakons flew past Sein.