North Africa, Adus.
It was nighttime in Adus. The capital, Adis, had officially entered the deep night, and the entire city, which was undergoing revival, had fallen silent.
After the lights in the streets and residences were extinguished, Adis's streets were plunged into darkness. Currently, only a few key institutions in Adis were still illuminated, and among them was the General's Residence.
Inside the heavily guarded, brightly lit General's Residence, Shadi, the General of the Adus Revolutionary Army, was still working at his desk in his office. Piled high on the large desk in front of him were stacks upon stacks of various documents.
Shadi, holding his forehead, used the pen in his hand to examine and approve these documents recording the conditions and administrative work in various parts of Adus page by page. Shadi's movements were very smooth, and soon, more than half of the piled-up documents in front of him were dealt with. It wasn't until Shadi reviewed a document about the Adus border that he couldn't help but frown.
""The situation with the 'Wasting Decay' from Buserite... has worsened again. The newly built refugee camps were full in less than three days. Not only that... the pressure from illegal border crossings is increasing sharply, and many have successfully snuck into the country. At least nine towns have reported 'Wasting Decay', and the situation is potentially getting out of control.""
Looking at the report in his hand, Shadi said with a slight frown. Not long after his voice fell, an old, hoarse voice sounded out of thin air.
""I said before, this plague is extremely strange. Your ordinary response methods are completely ineffective. Now the situation is starting to worsen, let's see what you do..."" At this moment, behind Shadi, a gaunt, translucent undead being adorned with various Golden ornaments slowly materialized. Seytut, who had appeared here, was speaking to Shadi with mocking words.
""It's not that I want to use ordinary methods to respond, but besides these so-called ordinary methods of yours, what other response methods do I have? The border is so long, and there are no walls. If you don't build refugee camps to concentrate and accommodate the main population, they will cross illegally everywhere, putting even greater pressure on the border. Now there are more than just a few infected towns... We don't have the financial and material resources of the great powers on the Main Continent...""
Shadi shot Seytut a glare and said irritably, while Seytut chuckled in response.
""No methods beyond the ordinary? Impossible... I remember hinting to you before to increase troop presence at the border and provide those suffering, sick illegal crossers with the service of ending his pain early. This way, you wouldn't have to maintain so many refugee camps, and more manpower and resources could be used to strictly guard the border towns. Secondly, it could also deter other refugees who want to cross the border, making them stop heading towards Adus.
""Ending the suffering of those patients... your army can do that, right? You're not so naive and benevolent that you actually want to save all of them, are you.""
Seytut said this, and Shadi waved his hand in response.
""Naive and benevolent? No... this isn't a matter of me being naive and benevolent... You asking me to directly slaughter those sick refugees is indeed an efficient method. But have you considered the consequences? Adus was only recognized by the Church not long ago, and this recognition was obtained through long and difficult negotiations. Now, within the Church and in a bunch of countries on the Main Continent... there are still plenty of people who dislike the current Adus regime. As soon as they find a handle, they will immediately take action.
""Large-scale slaughter of refugees is very difficult to conceal. As soon as the relevant news reaches the ears of those enemies who are dissatisfied with us, they will immediately seize the opportunity. The entire situation in Adus will immediately become severe, and at that time, the diplomatic pressure we face will be enormous...""
Shadi said to Seytut in a stern tone, while Seytut replied irritably.
""So what? If we don't take some strong measures now, it will be too late to say anything when this plague spreads throughout the country! You absolutely cannot delay on this issue; you must quickly make a decision and take more decisive action. You keep dawdling like this, are you perhaps expecting this damned plague to completely disappear when you wake up tomorrow, and all the sick to instantly recover overnight! I wouldn't even dare to dream like that!""
Seytut said this in a serious tone. Listening to his words, Shadi was silent for a moment, then replied with a somewhat helpless smile.
""Sometimes I really want to go to sleep and not wake up, not deal with this huge mess... Dreams are truly good, you can have whatever you want. Speaking of which, Seytut, can you actually dream?""
""Undead don't dream. I haven't dreamed for thousands of years. All I've ever seen is the cold reality, which is why I constantly remind you not to always harbor unrealistic fantasies..."" Seytut said seriously to Shadi, and Shadi continued to ask.
""If you could dream, Seytut, what kind of dream would you want to have?""
""Me?"" Listening to Shadi's words, Seytut paused slightly, then fell silent for a while. After an unknown duration of silence, Seytut slowly opened his mouth to reply.
""If I could dream... I would probably dream of the past, like about people... and places from the past...""
""People... and places from the past, huh..."" Shadi savored Seytut's words carefully. Just as Shadi was about to say something else and looked at Seytut again, he noticed that Seytut's behavior was somewhat strange at this moment.
At this moment, Seytut was completely silent and frozen in place, staring motionless out the window, seemingly lost in thought. This was a situation Shadi had never seen before.
""What are you doing, Seytut? What happened?""
Looking at Seytut in this state, Shadi asked with a slight frown, while Seytut slowly turned his head to look at Shadi and replied.
""I have something to do and need to go out for a bit. I don't know when I'll be back. Whatever happens, you handle it yourself..."" After Seytut finished saying this to Shadi, he floated upwards alone. Seeing this, Shadi couldn't help but shout loudly.
""This... what exactly is it? Tell me!""
Seytut ignored Shadi, who was full of confusion, and floated alone through the ceiling to the rooftop. From there, he looked towards the distant sky, seemingly waiting for something.
Two seconds later, beneath Seytut, a complex and mysterious'Silence' magic array suddenly appeared. Amidst the dazzling Light of this array, Seytut's spirit body directly disappeared from the spot, leaving not a trace of his figure.
Within the Netherworld, Seytut's spirit body sped along at an extremely high speed in a dedicated high-speed Spirit path. During this process, another high-speed Spirit path merged with the one he was on. At the moment of the merge, Seytut felt something familiar enter his Spirit path. Subsequently, Seytut noticed that his ethereal spirit body gradually began to become dense and opaque.
""Even my remains were specifically summoned from the tomb for me... Shepsuna, what exactly are you trying to do?"" Looking at the changes in his body, Seytut couldn't help but ask himself in confusion. His confusion lasted only a short time before his Spirit path traversal reached its end. Under a dim Light, Seytut reappeared in the present world.
Then, he was immediately stunned by the scene before him.
Beneath the bright moon in the night sky, a crimson land constructed of flesh and blood was surging. Horrific eyes and mouths growing on it were constantly opening and closing, following the rhythm of the flesh and blood undulations. Deformed human limbs grew vigorously like trees on the flesh and blood land, the branches of arms swaying slightly, and the leaves of fingers trembling.
This place was very eerie and unfamiliar to Seytut, but from other perspectives, it was also very familiar. He was surprised at why this familiarity had become so strange.
""The Place of Records... why has it become like this! Shepsuna!"" Seytut, who had gained a physical body the moment he left the Netherworld, was startled upon seeing this scene. He immediately looked around, trying to find familiar figures. What he saw were three such figures.
""Blasphemy! Pollution! Corruption! The filthy crimson attempts to defile the Holy Domain! Seytut, Tahaka... I won't settle scores with you today! Completely destroy this blasphemer before anything else!"" Furthest from Seytut, the gaunt, emaciated, and terrifying figure of Hafdar, draped in decaying robes and rags, was angrily waving the staff in his hand.
""Such terrifying power of the 'Cup'... is this the chosen one of the Cup Mother goddess today? This filthy power form, compared to the Tree King of the past... has truly degenerated to an unexpected degree...""
On the other side of Hafdar, a deceased being named Tahaka, covered entirely in a robe inscribed with spells, his face shrouded in the Shadow of a hood, revealing withered hands, looked at the current scene and sighed with emotion.
""Long time no see, everyone... I foresaw this moment in destiny, so I summoned you all. You've seen the current situation, right? Now is not the time to dwell on past grievances... Let us gather our strength once again... and jointly guard the Holy Domain one more time.""
Floating in mid-air, wearing a veil and an exquisite robe, Shepsut spoke to the three deceased beings she had summoned before her. After seeing this scene, Seytut also roughly understood the situation before him.
""The four of us can actually gather together for the same goal today, is this fate?"" Seytut also sighed with emotion at this moment. Witnessing the widespread flesh and blood land before him, he couldn't help but think of the information he had recently leaked about the Place of Records to the so-called Judge of Heaven. Now, the Place of Records had problems so quickly; could it be related to them?
Just as Seytut was thinking in confusion, beside them, in the distance beyond a 'fence' of giant red wolf heads biting each other, the crimson, eyeless, and faceless Yonina continued to stand there. With one hand, she reached into the disturbed space to maintain the erosion of the False History world, while with the other, she 'looked' at the distant battlefield.
""The decaying dead people in the tombs... have increased...""
As soon as Yonina's voice fell, the red wolf heads that had grown from the flesh and blood land around the four deceased beings, which were originally biting and devouring each other, finally stopped their mutual slaughter. After the souls possessing them were directly eroded and assimilated into flesh and blood by the powerful 'cup' power, the red wolves finally returned to normal one after another. They roared towards the four deceased beings in the center of the circle.
The fearful roars emitted by countless red wolf heads layered upon each other, and spiritual sound waves attacked the four ancient deceased beings.
Spirit bodies are extremely susceptible to disturbance and interference from various fluctuations due to their floating and unstable nature. Therefore, fluctuation attacks are an effective form of attack against spirit bodies and even various ethereal bodies. Hafdar's spirit body projection was directly shaken into instability by such attacks before. Ordinary souls would even be directly dispersed and shattered under this level of fluctuation and vibration.
Facing the vibration attacks emitted by the red wolf heads, the four deceased beings were completely unmoved. At this moment, they already had their mummy remains as a basis, which not only allowed them to exert more powerful strength but also greatly optimized the instability characteristic of souls, making them completely unafraid of the red wolves' roars.
After seeing that their roars were ineffective, the red wolf heads derived from the flesh and blood land couldn't help but roar. Amidst the roars, they detached themselves from the flesh and blood land. Besides their heads, they also grew bodies, claws, and legs. In an instant, more than a dozen giant red wolves, about ten meters tall and standing on two legs, appeared around the pharaohs.
Subsequently, these red wolves landed on all fours and charged rapidly towards the four deceased beings. Facing the red wolves' charge, Hafdar waved his hand, and immediately the bodies of those demonic wolves began to become shriveled and emaciated. All the wolves slowed down due to weakness, and some even collapsed directly onto the ground, motionless. They all seemed to have contracted some fatal illness at the same moment.
Although the red wolves became weak due to the powerful curse, under the almost endless supply of life force from the flesh and blood land behind them, they continued to push through the weakness after a delay, accelerating their charge. Although Hafdar's cursing ability was significantly stronger after his true body arrived, it still seemed unable to withstand the endless life force support from the flesh and blood land, from Yonina.
""Shepsuna... the tomb..."" Looking at this scene, Hafdar called out, while Shepsuna nodded slightly and said softly.
""Understood.""
After speaking, Shepsuna spread her arms and murmured softly.
""The Tomb Where Souls Slumber...""
Amidst the soft murmur, Shepsuna's hands opened, and subsequently, countless ethereal objects materialized out of thin air in the vast surrounding environment.
Long-burning lamps, burning with nether-colored fire, lit up out of thin air in various places in mid-air. Towering obelisks were neatly arranged in rows. Various statues with arms crossed stood everywhere. Heavy Stone coffins were placed on solemn tiered Stone platforms, and thick Stone pillars were covered with circles of murals and wild ancient texts.
This was completely the scene of a super-large tomb's internal underground palace, currently appearing as a translucent projection on the vast flesh and blood ground. This... was the result of Shepsuna psychically projecting the pharaohs' tombs from the site.
The ancient pharaoh undead from the Second Epoch, although possessing Extraordinary power of the Golden level, were not complete. As the deceased who had remained in the world for over seven thousand years, they could only exert their maximum and most complete Golden power within their own sleeping tombs, with their mummy remains as a reliance.
Beyond this, whether they projected power outwards through curse mediums or simply traveled in spirit form, their power would be greatly reduced to varying degrees.
After psychically summoning the pharaohs' souls, Shepsuna also psychically summoned their mummies to serve as a reliance. However, each of their tombs was simply too large, and they were also massive physical structures, not spirits. It was basically impossible to directly psychically summon them. Therefore, Shepsuna could only settle for the next best thing, psychically summoning the tomb's projection, transforming the surrounding environment into a spiritual field of extremely high specifications.
However, given the current situation, even the tomb's projection could effectively enhance the current pharaohs' power, allowing them to almost reproduce their most perfect state.
After the massive tomb projection appeared on the scene, Haftar felt his power ascend to another level. He glared at the red wolves attacking him from all directions, then launched a curse based solely on the information gained from that glance as a medium.
"Die!"
Haftar spread his two withered arms, and then countless evil characters lit up on his arms. Immediately after, a dozen or so illusory wolf heads appeared between his outstretched palms.
The next moment, the eerie light in Haftar's eyes surged. He suddenly clenched his hands, directly crushing the illusory demonic wolves in his palms. In an instant, the heads of those roaring red wolves exploded simultaneously. Large amounts of blood, brain matter, flesh, and other contents were ejected in these explosions, splattering everywhere.
In one breath, all the red wolves were instantly cursed to death and resolved at this moment. However, the headless red wolf derivative corpses had not even fallen before new heads rapidly grew from their severed necks. These red wolves, revived during the "near-death" process, let out even more terrifying roars and attacked the pharaohs with speeds countless times higher than before their "near-death" state, nearing the Golden level, baring their fangs and claws.
"Weak and powerless!"
With another wave of his hand, Haftar once again released the curse of weakness. Instantly, the speed of the red wolves, whose explosive power was nearing Golden, plummeted and significantly decreased, their movements severely delayed, completely lacking the ability to ambush the pharaohs.
Seeing the giant red wolves slow down, Haftar glared at them again, then opened the palms of his hands. On his palms, the heads of the red wolves condensed.
"Die again!"
When Haftar crushed the illusory images in his hands, the dozen or so red wolves that were attacking the pharaohs had just grown heads before they exploded again. Amidst the flying blood, the red wolves that had lost their heads once more fell down and did not stand up again.
The red wolves did not show any signs of the flesh and blood ground receding. Amidst a surge of the flesh and blood ground, many arms extended towards the headless corpses of the red wolves, dragging them back to be re-devoured. At the same time, more red wolf heads grew on the flesh and blood ground, baring their sharp teeth at the pharaohs, and besides the red wolves, more things were also being nurtured on the flesh and blood ground.
Just as giant red wolves were growing out of the flesh and blood ground again, behind the red wolves, large, fleshy tumors burst forth, and countless tiny flies and insects flew out from the bursting tumors, buzzing and flying everywhere. In addition to these tumors, countless thick, soft worm-like tubes also grew out of the flesh and blood ground, and after a series of wriggling, they aimed towards the pharaohs.
Afterwards, at the moment the newly grown red wolves charged again, dense, wave-like swarms of insects also surged forward, and the worm-like tubes in the back also began to spew out thick, gray-green gases in large quantities. These gases also rapidly surged towards the pharaohs.
These gases, needless to say, were plagues that could infect and corrode spirits. These plagues were also carried by those countless insects. The number of these flies and insects, loaded with deadly germs, was extremely large, so large that a dense black mass completely obscured the red wolves that were attacking in coordination with them.
For a time, these insects completely concealed the red wolves' figures, and the chaotic spiritual fluctuations they carried severely interfered with Haftar's perception. Unable to obtain information as a medium, Haftar was temporarily unable to curse the red wolves, which were high-risk targets. All he could curse were the dense swarms of insects flying everywhere, but how much meaning was there in cursing those things?
Just as the combined forces of plague aura, red wolves, and insect swarms were launching an attack on the pharaohs, anomalies also appeared in the sky. Unbeknownst to anyone, heavy dark clouds had covered the pitch-black sky, blocking the light of the scattered stars and moon. Amidst the uncontrolled and violent thunder, a torrential rain, extremely rare in the desert, had poured down. The dense downpour fell on the flesh and blood ground, further reducing the perception and visibility on the scene.
In this downpour, eight giant water snakes, composed purely of water, extended their heads from the clouds, gazing down at the battlefield. They all opened their huge mouths, and thick, shooting water jets rapidly pierced downwards.
The water snake spears from the sky, the strong red wolves, the deadly fungal mist and insect swarms, so many attacks coming at the pharaohs at once. It was impossible for Haftar alone to withstand them, but fortunately, the other pharaohs were already prepared.
While the crimson power was moving the clouds and rain in the sky, and hatching insects and giving birth to red wolves on the flesh and blood ground, the undead pharaoh called Taharqa silently took out a small papyrus scroll from his sleeve. After opening the scroll, he whispered a couple of words, and then a magic circle appeared on the scroll. A faint soul flame emerged from the magic circle.
Then, Taharqa gazed at the faint soul flame and muttered in ancient words.
"Bulwark of the Kingdom of Shadows... Hero of the people of darkness... Chosen of Baipokah, Lord of the Night... Eidandwin, cross the long passage of time, and revive with my power..."
During Taharqa's chant, a dark red light enveloped the floating soul flame. Then, the dark red light surged, and after the light dissipated, the soul flame had disappeared from its original spot, replaced by a standing figure.
That was a strange humanoid creature. He had a relatively tall build, about 1.9 meters, with deep black skin all over his body. He had obvious male characteristics, his limbs were very long, his facial features were Stereo (pronounced: lìtǐ, meaning three-dimensional), his yellow eyes had vertical pupils, his ears were slightly more pointed than human ears, his gray hair was braided and hung down his back, and he wore a strange, form-fitting leather armor. Many places on the leather armor had mysterious runes that were incomprehensible.
"Follow our covenant..."
Looking at the humanoid creature called Eidandwin that had appeared before him, Taharqa muttered. After listening, Eidandwin nodded silently, then looked at the crises attacking from all directions.
Then, Eidandwin waved his hand, and as the various rune stones on his body lit up, an incredibly violent hurricane arose out of thin air around the pharaohs, swirling and spreading wildly. These fierce storms instantly swept away and blew away all the swarming insects attacking from the sky. The surging dark green plague fungal mist was also completely blown away by such violent storms in one breath. These winds contained countless tiny wind blades, and the insects caught in them were eventually finely cut into fragments.
Instantly, the red wolves hidden within the insect swarms and fungal mist were revealed. The countless sharp wind blades attached to the storm mercilessly cut into their bodies, creating countless wounds and causing a massive amount of blood to burst forth. The red wolves were immediately and completely delayed by this massive amount of wind blades.
After losing their cover, the red wolves were completely exposed before Haftar's eyes. He did not hesitate to directly curse this new batch of red wolves, causing their heads to explode, then after they revived from their corpses, he cursed them all again, instantly filling the entire scene with a blood mist.
Just as the fierce battle on the flesh and blood ground was ongoing, anomalies also appeared in the sky. Countless water jets spewed out by the giant water snakes were about to shoot into the pharaohs' position. At this moment, Seytut gazed at the sky. Under the gaze of the flickering eerie light in his eye sockets, the temperature around those water jets rapidly decreased. The water jets instantly transformed into heavy ice spears, falling straight down from the sky and smashing onto the flesh and blood ground.
Seeing the spewed water jets being neutralized in this way, the eight giant snakes coiling and extending from the clouds in the sky let out a series of roars in unison, then suddenly pounced towards the pharaohs below. Seeing this situation, Seytut continued to use cold air to freeze the water snakes, but these water snakes were too large, and the clouds were constantly providing them with water. After the outer shells of these giant water snakes were frozen, they could immediately use twisting to shake off the frozen parts and break free while the inside was not yet frozen, allowing the water snakes to continue attacking.
Facing the giant water snakes that could not be frozen by conventional means, Seytut directly extended his finger towards the sky. Then, a cold white beam of light shot out from his fingertip, piercing the sky.
Waving his arm, Seytut's beam swept across the eight giant water snakes in the sky. Upon contact with this beam, these giant snakes instantly froze completely. In less than a second, they were frozen through and through, inside and out. Because there was almost no "gradual" freezing process, the water snakes also had no time or space to counter. The eight water snakes, which lost their ability to move in an instant, turned into eight giant ice sculptures, falling from high altitude while disintegrating, and crashing heavily onto the ground.
Then, Seytut pointed the rapid-freeze beam in his hand directly at the sky, and increased the output to make it even larger. For a time, the temperature of the entire environment above the flesh and blood ground instantly plummeted. The scattered, dense raindrops of the torrential rain solidified into countless sharp ice needles, falling straight down from high altitude, densely piercing into the flesh of the flesh and blood ground. After piercing into the flesh and blood ground, these ice needles began to spread their cold air, solidifying the circulating blood within the flesh and blood ground.
For a time, the entire flesh and blood ground seemed to let out a wail, bursting out dense blood splatters in a violent Creep (pronounced: rú dòng, meaning wriggling). These blood splatters fell directly to the ground not long after solidifying. Large areas of the flesh and blood ground began to become sluggish and stiff due to the invasion of the ice needles. The progress of retrieving red wolf corpses, hatching new insect plagues, and nurturing new red wolves all slowed down significantly.
Seytut's ice needle rain instantly sounded the horn of counterattack for the pharaohs' side. For a time, Haftar's gaze turned to targets beyond the red wolves, while Taharqa took out two more different papyrus scrolls from his sleeve and released two new souls.
In the distance, Yunina, bathed in crimson, maintained the erosion of the False History world while watching the battle on the front line, and couldn't help but exclaim with emotion.
"They are all decayed and rotten things that have been dead for thousands of years. I didn't expect them to still retain such power..."
"It seems that with just ordinary means... there's no way to deal with them..."
Yunina muttered like this, and then, she slowly began to withdraw some of the Cup Mother divinity used to erode the False History world. She knew that if she wanted to defeat the guardians in front of her, she had to use some "unconventional" methods relative to the Extraordinary in the current world.
On the other side, at the pharaohs' position, Shepsuna, who was fully maintaining the existence of the tomb, was floating in the middle of her three former colleagues. At this moment, she did not have any extra power and was not participating in the battle, nor was she seriously watching the battle. Her gaze behind her veil looked up at the constantly changing sky, which was influenced by Extraordinary power, but she was not looking at the sky itself.
At this moment, Shepsuna's gaze seemed to have pierced through the barrier of the present world, seeing something deeper. This included the False History world that was being continuously eroded by the Cup Mother divinity.
'The path to the Holy Land has already appeared, and the pilgrims are still searching for the correct direction...'
'After seven thousand years, someone has finally arrived here... Just as the Divine Master's prophecy foretold...'