“They died?!”

“Didn’t the Soul Annihilation Spears damage its soul?”

“No! It was acting! Its soul isn’t heavily damaged!”

When the players in the plaza saw the three Level 120 MTs getting eliminated and the grin that had suddenly formed on Diaclo’s face, they instantly understood what was going on.

The various experts from the Desolate Star God’s Domain were no strangers to the three MTs who were just killed. This was because all three MTs were God-ranked experts equipped with at least one Fragmented Legendary item. Combined with their higher races, they could defend against the attacks of even Superior Mythic monsters of the same level if they worked together. Although the Nether King’s attacks would still be stronger than the average Superior Mythic of the same level even if its soul was heavily damaged, it still shouldn’t have the ability to eliminate those three MTs in one attack.

The only explanation was that Diaclo’s soul wasn’t actually heavily injured.

“Foolish humans! Did you think that I would cross the Netherworld Gate unprepared?” Diaclo said mockingly as it gazed at Frey with its glowing red eyes. “I will turn all of you into my puppets and have you assist me in taking over this world!”[1]

As soon as Diaclo finished speaking, a ripple of power spread from the trident it wielded. Immediately afterward, ten Level 120 Superior Mythics emerged from the Netherworld Gate.

…

[Revenant Manipulator] (Undead, Superior Mythic)

Level 120

HP 60,000,000,000

…

“Dammit! Why did it have to be Revenant Manipulators?!”

“It’s over… A Revenant Manipulator is no different than an army of ten thousand. With ten Revenant Manipulators…”

Everyone’s complexion paled when they saw the ten Revenant Manipulators emerging from the Netherworld Gate. Even Menghao and Flanders revealed grave expressions.

Revenant Manipulators might have below-average individual strength among Superior Mythic monsters, but they had unparalleled summoning capabilities. One Revenant Manipulator could effortlessly summon an undead army to destroy an entire city. Ten Revenant Manipulators could summon an army of 100,000 Undead and destroy an entire kingdom.

Although all of the players present were peak experts or above and their numbers exceeded 10,000, even the weakest Undead summoned by a Revenant Manipulator was a Great Lord. This meant they had to go up against an army of 100,000 Level 120 Great Lords. To make matters worse, the Boundary Mountain Range’s environment was also restricting them. Even an army of 10,000 peak experts would die from exhaustion if they had to fight against 100,000 Great Lords under such restrictions.

Not to mention, the Revenant Manipulators could continue summoning more Undead even after their initial summons were killed…

“The Tower Alliance’s and Bright Dragon’s teams will distract the Nether King. Everyone else, defeat the Revenant Manipulators as quickly as possible! Do not let them summon their Revenant Protectors!” Flanders quickly commanded after analyzing the situation.

As soon as Flanders finished speaking, everyone in the plaza returned to their senses and acted according to Flanders’ orders.

Everyone might be afraid of the Revenant Manipulators, but the real headache in this battle was Diaclo. If nobody could keep Diaclo in check, it was only a matter of time before the Nether King annihilated everyone here.

However, so long as someone could keep Diaclo distracted, completing this Legendary Crusade Quest wasn’t entirely out of the question.

Immediately, the many teams in the plaza split up and targeted the ten Revenant Manipulators under the lead of their respective God-ranked experts. They needed to interrupt the Revenant Manipulators’ summoning magic before the Superior Mythics managed to summon their Revenant Protectors.

The Revenant Protectors were the Revenant Manipulators’ strongest trump card. It wasn’t only because Revenant Protectors were Mythic monsters. So long as the Revenant Protectors remained on the battlefield, the Revenant Manipulators would receive a magic barrier that would protect them from all damage. Unless the Revenant Protectors were eliminated, it’d be impossible to damage the Revenant Manipulators.

Subsequently, the many teams led by God-ranked experts charged into the tens of thousands of Great Lord ranked Undead and quickly cut open a path to the Undead Manipulators. The sight was so spectacular that it shocked even veteran experts like Su Qianliu, Rampant Blade, Blackie, Lin Yaoyue, and Zhuo Yalin.

Great Lord ranked Undead were nothing in the outside world. However, this place was the Boundary Mountain Range’s second underground level. Players’ Stamina and Concentration were no different than an ordinary person’s here. Even a Refinement Realm expert would lose to a Great Lord ranked Undead in a one-on-one fight in this situation.

However, the many teams tore through the defensive lines of the tens of thousands of Great Lord ranked Undead as if they did not exist. Reaching the Revenant Manipulators in only five seconds. The 100-plus God-ranked experts, in particular, reached the Revenant Manipulators in only five seconds, their grasp over their surrounding space and Stamina reaching an unbelievable level.

On the other side, the performance of Flanders’ and Menghao’s teams allowed Galaxy Past and Liu Wusheng to understand just how big of a gap there existed between hegemonic powers and their homeworld’s various superpowers. The two simply couldn’t be compared to one another.

With the help of a magic array formed by 16 God-ranked experts, Flanders summoned a gigantic phantom of himself to fight Diaclo. Although Flanders’ phantom was only 20 meters tall, a paltry size compared to the Nether King’s 60-meter-tall frame, the phantom wielded strength greater than even Tier 4 Mythic monsters.

As soon as his phantom took shape, Flanders brandished his spear and sent nine gigantic shadow serpents striking at Diaclo, his attack forcing the Nether King to halt its advance and block the nine attacks. While blocking the ninth attack, Diaclo’s body even froze for a moment. Evidently, the power of Flanders’ ninth attack had already exceeded the Nether King’s defensive threshold.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Menghao worked together with the God-ranked experts of his team to summon purple-gold chains from the void. Not only did these chains restrict Diaclo’s movements, but they also lowered the Nether King’s reaction speed significantly. This, in turn, caused Diaclo to have an even more difficult time keeping up with the attacks of Flanders’ phantom, allowing the Elven Knight to land attacks that caused over twenty million damage on the Nether King.

As expected of hegemonic powers. The extent of their foundations far exceeded the various superpowers, Gluttony inwardly exclaimed when he saw Diaclo getting pinned down.

Even if the Five Great Super Guilds joined forces, they’d still have no way of fighting a Tier 5 monster with only Tier 3 players. Yet, the Tower Alliance and Bright Dragon had accomplished this feat. They had even put the Nether King into a disadvantageous position.

Meanwhile, the sight of Diaclo being overwhelmed boosted the confidence of the many teams on the plaza.

Only, before everyone could start to celebrate, ten seconds after the Tower Alliance and Bright Dragon engaged Diaclo, the Nether King suddenly raised its trident in annoyance and dyed the sky crimson. Immediately afterward, all Mana within a 1,000-yard radius of Diaclo froze. This, in turn, caused all players within the affected area to lose control over their surrounding Mana.

Because of this situation, Flanders’ phantom, which was created using a magic array, rapidly shrunk in size and strength. As for the mana chains summoned by Bright Dragon’s teams, they became so fragile that the Nether King tore them apart easily.

Subsequently, Diaclo’s hands suddenly ignited with black flames. The instant these black flames appeared, every player in the plaza could sense their soul growing restless.

Before anyone could react, Diaclo launched these black flames at a random group of several hundred players, the flames enveloping these players and killing them instantly. However, it was apparent that these players did not die a normal death as everyone could see the souls of these players being burned and erased by the black flames.

“Not good! This is Soul Fire! Run!”

Nobody knew which player said these words. However, the instant these words appeared, many players promptly fled out of the plaza, none daring to stay for even a moment longer.

Soul Fire!

This was one of the few powers capable of destroying a player’s soul. So long as a player got killed by Soul Fire, their soul would be eradicated, and they’d have to start over their progress in God’s Domain from scratch.

Of course, if a player’s tier was sufficiently high and their soul was sufficiently strong, they might only lose a few levels or be prohibited from logging into God’s Domain for a certain period of time. However, if a Tier 3 player got killed by Soul Fire, there would definitely be nothing left of them…

The compensation Frey offered might be excellent, but it wasn’t worthwhile if obtaining it came at the cost of all of their progress. Not to mention, the details of the commission never mentioned the operation being so dangerous.

In no time at all, more than half of the teams in the plaza had withdrawn from the battlefield.

“This is completely different from what we agreed, Lady Frey. We cannot gamble our entire team for only some Star Coins, so forgive us for taking our leave,” Menghao said to Frey. When he saw the ugly complexion on Frey’s face, he knew that even Frey did not expect the Nether King to have a Soul Fire. So, after leaving behind an excuse, he promptly withdrew from the plaza with his team.

“Retreat!”

As for the Flower of Seven Sins and some of the remaining teams, they, too, started to retreat after seeing Bright Dragon’s team retreating. Although they would still lose some of their members while retreating, it was much better than getting annihilated.

Several seconds after Diaclo started attacking with its Soul Fire, a majority of the teams had already fled out of the plaza. Now, less than 3,000 players remained in the plaza.

“We should quickly retreat as well, Vice Guild Leader,” Maria hurriedly said to Flanders when she saw that Flanders’ phantom was close to faltering.

The Tower Alliance might stand to gain a lot more than the other teams since it was the overseer of the commission this time, but it definitely wasn’t worth sacrificing an entire team for some Star Coins. Not to mention, there was no way they could defeat the Nether King in their current state.

The Tower Alliance had already fulfilled its duty to Miss Frey and the various powers to the best of its abilities by staying until now.

While Flanders was hesitating to make a decision, Diaclo suddenly lashed out at Frey with its trident, the Nether King’s attack so abrupt that it had caught Flanders completely off guard.

If Frey hadn’t used seven Soul Annihilation Spears simultaneously just now, she would have had more than enough energy to dodge this attack from the Nether King. However, in her current exhausted state, all she could do was watch as the trident descended on her.

Just as the humongous trident was about to reach Frey, an equally massive greatsword suddenly appeared in its path and stopped it. Although the collision of the two massive weapons had turned the surrounding space into an empty void, the greatsword had successfully stopped the trident in its path.

“Guild Leader…Black Flame?”

When Flanders followed the origin of the Mana used to form and manipulate the massive greatsword, he found that the person controlling the greatsword was none other than Zero Wing’s Guild Leader.

…

TL Notes:

[1]Netherworld Gate(冥土之门): This is most definitely referring to the “Door of the Dead” mentioned in the previous chapter. However, I’m not sure if the author simply forgot he used “Door of the Dead(亡者之门)” in Chapter 233 or if this is another name for the Door of the Dead.