Chapter 368: The War God Statue

"Spatial Lock."

"Silence."

Cassian stepped through the Gate and used the two scrolls at once. He had already scouted the location. The seals spread over the entire Bloodmaw Region.

The defending Lords noticed immediately.

"A spatial seal? Who reached the heart of our kingdom without being detected?"

"All forces, prepare for battle! Defend the Court!"

Vargul had taken the main army to Pandora, but he had not left his capital undefended. General Ghorvek issued his orders in alarm. Powerful auras rose outside the Region’s entrance, and streams of Orc troops poured out to meet the intruders.

Then the general emerged and saw what he was facing.

He almost laughed.

"An outsider Lord. That explains how you appeared at our gates."

His gaze passed over Cassian’s army.

"You brought this little force to invade the Bloodmaw Court? Did you think I was bored here and needed some amusement? Even the Giant Court, the strongest in this part of the world, wouldn’t dare be so reckless!"

Cassian answered with an attack.

The spatial seal was in place, but he refused to waste a moment. The Nest’s new trait had just reminded him that a Spatial Lock was not absolute. Who knew whether the Beast Emperor could receive a warning and find some way back?

"Human Sovereign. Godslayer."

He supplied Godslayer with fresh premium Aether Crystals and brought his combat-slot bonuses into effect.

"Dragon’s Blessing."

Two hundred billion Aether burned away.

The closer he pushed a blessing to its limits, the more expensive it became. In the Thousandfold Labyrinth, a hundred billion had bought roughly a fifty-percent increase to his troops’ primary attributes. Spending another hundred billion this time raised that increase to sixty percent.

A fortune for ten more percentage points.

Cassian paid it willingly. He intended to finish this in a single assault.

Together with his other bonuses and his Heroes’ Command, the blessing more than doubled the army’s fighting strength. The total increase to its primary attributes approached two hundred percent.

"Attack! Take the entrance first!"

Harriet formed Heaven’s Battle Array. Dozens of Crystal Maidens merged into One, their bodies flowing into the Crystal Princess.

The Blood Chalice consumed fresh blood for six summons, and Cassian supplied the upkeep to hold them. With Katrienne guarding his Domain, eleven permanent Blood Emperors remained here. The six temporary Emperors brought their number to seventeen.

They swept forward in a storm of blood.

Aurelia became a Lightning Giant a hundred meters tall.

Heaven’s Judgment cut across the entrance.

Several Golden Behemoths disappeared beneath the kilometer-long blade, along with dozens of other Legendary troops and thousands of mid- and high-grade Orc soldiers. Blood mist burst across the battlefield.

The blade flickered. Power flowed into it from more than a thousand four-wing Dawnwings, and it became solid again almost at once.

Those Legendary Dawnwings were now all Nine-Star, Level 95. They were vastly stronger than they had been when Cassian first entered Pandora.

Nothing in their path could stop the blade.

One followed with crystal edges a hundred meters long. Thin as an insect’s wing, they were hard enough to sweep through the defenders without slowing. Rows of Orcs fell with every stroke. Only Heaven’s Judgment killed faster.

Aurelia, Celia, Liora, Lethria, and the Blood Emperors tore through the other formations. Their attacks struck with Mythic force, leaving the defenders no time to recover.

Ten seconds after the fighting began, the Orc army was reeling.

"This is an outsider Lord?"

Ghorvek’s disbelief became a roar.

"How can one of them be this strong? Even Rank XVIII shouldn’t make this possible!"

A commander of ten thousand shouted over the fighting.

"General! Their troops can match Level-105 peak Legendaries. Some have Mythic combat strength! We must notify His Majesty!"

Ghorvek’s expression shifted. He hesitated only a moment, but the order still came through clenched teeth.

"Abandon the entrance. All armies, fall back to the Royal Palace! With the War God’s blessing and our Barrier, they won’t be able to touch us!"

For an established native kingdom, being driven back inside its own Region by an outsider was a bitter humiliation.

Cassian saw the retreat begin from his sheltered position several dozen kilometers away.

"Lethria. One. Kill the Lord leading them."

"Yes, my lord."

Sovereign Bindings reached out of the void and coiled around Ghorvek as he turned toward the entrance. The chains pulled against one another, threatening to tear him apart.

"A Mythic Faerie Dragon!"

The general roared. His body expanded, muscles straining against the bindings.

He was a Level-110 Legendary Lord, strengthened by what appeared to be a Warbound office. For the moment, he held against Lethria’s constriction.

One needed only ten seconds.

She charged straight through the Orc ranks, cutting a path toward him. From hundreds of meters away, a crystal blade flashed across the trapped general.

Ghorvek died in one stroke.

The strongest Lord left to guard the Bloodmaw Court had fallen less than a minute after the battle began.

"The general is dead!"

The remaining armies fled deeper into the Region.

Cassian drove his force after them. Twenty minutes later, he reached the defenses around the Royal Palace.

More than a thousand Domains surrounded the royal seat. By some means Cassian could not yet identify, their Barriers had merged into a single blood-red canopy spanning over a hundred kilometers.

He could make out the palace beneath it.

Beside the palace stood a statue a kilometer tall. Its features were indistinct, its sword raised toward the sky. Blood-colored light gathered around it, growing steadily denser.

"A War God Statue?"

Cassian frowned as he watched the defending troops.

"Judging by the change in their strength, its aura reaches about three hundred kilometers. A twenty- to forty-percent increase. That’s a powerful Building."

His gaze moved to the red canopy.

"And that merged Barrier looks troublesome."

The Bloodmaw Court had more in reserve than he had expected. Attacking it carried a risk, but he had already committed himself.

"All forces, attack!"

The roar of impacts filled the air.

Every one of those thousand Domains was at least Rank XX. Vargul’s own Domain had reached Rank XXII. Their combined defenses were immensely strong.

Cassian looked toward the Crystal Princess.

"Good thing I chose to advance One."

With the Maidens merged into her and every bonus in effect, her Physique had reached two million six hundred thousand.

She dived at the Barrier and drove a fist into it.

The impact thundered across the royal seat.

A depression several kilometers wide and hundreds of meters deep appeared in the red canopy. Violent ripples spread from it, racing across a hundred kilometers of defenses.

Orc Lords stared upward in horror.

"What is that thing?"

The Barrier struck back. Invisible attacks burst against One’s body in showers of sparks. Beneath it, the defenders added volleys of their own.

None of it did more than tickle her.

Her fists came down again.

And again.

For half an hour, the Crystal Princess hammered the Barrier without tiring. Aurelia and the rest attacked at full strength beside her, steadily draining its power.

The blood-red canopy grew paler. The faces beneath it grew more anxious.

Then the light around the War God Statue reached its peak.

A brilliant red beam shot from the tip of its sword and pierced the void overhead.

The Orc Lords erupted in cheers.

Cassian drew a sharp breath.

"It forced open a passage to the outside. Right through the spatial seal."

A towering figure, twenty meters tall, took one step out of the broken void.