Chapter 519 Restart of Battle
Saint rank, meaning entering the realm of the divine. Since it was called Saint, this was a realm that the great majority of mortals would never manage to achieve.
Iron Bloodline, Copper Body, Silver Might, Gold Will, Legend Master, Mortal Saint, Undying Myth, and Indestructible SemiG.o.d. Those were the nicknames given to each power rank for the mortal plane, as well as a way to separate how much personal potential each person had developed.
Since the great majority of humans in the mortal plane were far too weak, this power level ranking system was far too detailed in the weaker ranks, but overly vague for the higher power levels. As the Elemental Tide increased at a furious pace and average power levels rapidly rose, this power level ranking system would start showing its outdatedness.
It was said that the fairies were in the process of creating a new power ranking system. It was also rumored that the previously well-known Three Heavy Doors of Myth, the hardest barriers to surpa.s.s in order to reach SemiG.o.d, were each becoming their own individual rank. But as for the Saint rank, the fairies only separated this rank into True Saint and Almost Saint. And, the difference between these was whether the Saint rank could create their own realm or not.
Indeed, just their own realm, not a Soul World. Even in the past, when the highest-power-level individuals had far stronger foundations, only a minority of Saint-ranked individuals would have Soul Worlds.
Legend rank was all about finding one"s personal path. And in the Saint rank, the personal path had already been determined. One"s chosen personal path would now have the power to influence the surrounding environment. Those with the strongest will and belief in their personal path would even be able to create their Soul Worlds.
Saints were far stronger than Legends at controlling the surrounding environment and themselves. Perhaps a Saint wouldn"t have a large increase in mana or strength compared to Legends, but the greater control over little details would allow them to do three tasks simultaneously for the same amount of concentration as a Legend. And, more importantly, Saints were finally getting into contact with "Concepts", and would become capable of performing deeds that went against physical or even magical laws. And, the best example of this would be the most powerful Saint ranks, who were capable of using their very willpower to change the world around them.
But in the current generation, as power levels were easier to achieve, so-called True Saints" personal realms were only much weaker editions of Soul Worlds. These Saints were probably capable of no more than forcibly changing the four elements within a limited radius around themselves in order to buff their personal spells and techniques.
Using one"s willpower to directly change the world was ma.s.sively different from using willpower over the elements to change the surrounding environment. Since they were so different, it was only natural that the former was far stronger than the latter. It would seem that even though it became slightly easier to reach the standard of Saint rank, the foundational natural law that "hard work pays off" would never change.
Of course, there would still be new Saint ranks in this generation that could utilize personal Soul Worlds. There would always be a few geniuses out there in any generation. But, the great majority of new Saint ranks in this generation would likely never create a personal Soul World in their lives.
"So, it"s quite normal that I don"t have a Soul World anymore."
Indeed, my Soul World had now transformed into the bugged personal world of h.e.l.l. Even though I had now reached Saint ranked, if you only looked at my personal mana pool, the change wasn"t that big.
"But, don"t tell me that you don"t have a Soul World, Harloys."
If it really wouldn"t improve my power significantly, there would have been no need for me to forcibly improve my power level before the next big battle. Although it was impossible for me to obtain another Soul World as I had my personal h.e.l.l world, my magical pet could have her own Soul World!
Harloys, a former undead at the peak of Myth rank. Although I had never seen her Soul World before, with her powerful will (due to her incredibly deep grudge against the Elf G.o.ds) and millennium of experience, it would be inconceivable for her not to have a Soul World.
The magical pet contract would limit the pet, making her unable to be stronger than the master. This ironclad law of magical contracts limited Harloys" personal development. But now that I had become Saint rank, she naturally entered Saint rank together with me.
"…Yeah, I have one that can be used. But, I"ll be able to summon it one time at most in this battle."
I was immediately delighted to hear this. After all, a Soul World would be the representation of an individual"s greatest desire and ideal. There were also plenty of Soul Worlds that would be unsuitable for direct combat, such as Beifeng"s ideal of all-encompa.s.sing love. Harloys" personal Soul World"s information had never been leaked. I had thought that it was because her Soul World was also unsuitable for combat.
But, before I got a chance to ask what it was, a huge commotion started outside.
"The undead, the undead are coming!"
The undead arrived earlier than expected—on noon of the second day after theirvanguard was eradicated. As always, the undead flying units were the first to arrive. They circled the air as if they were vultures heartlessly following people in the desert—just waiting to enjoy your corroded flesh once you died, yet not intending to directly attack you.
"Undead Winged Tribe, phantoms, bone dragons, flying zombies, undead aerial knights, gargoyles, and so on. There"s really such a wide variety. It would seem that Conservation brought the full forces of her Death Plane."
The undead in the skies seemed like they could fill a museum. Of course, their power level would also vary wildly. There were low levels like level 2 or level 3 gargoyles, all the way to level 5 Legend rank bone dragons. And, there were also plenty of powerful undead individuals that were Undead Thanes or Undead Lords.
I even saw a Desecrating Beholder amongst the undead. This was a gigantic undead monster that possessed its own aura of despair, and it resembled a giant brain with a single eye. It also had several hundred smaller eyes on the tips of each of its tentacles, and each eye was glowing with a black light. These Beholders were almost completely extinct in the mortal plane, and could only be evolved from the corpse of a SemiG.o.d individual.
It was said that each and every one of its smaller eyes was capable of casting magic spells. Perhaps the smaller eyes would be unable to cast stronger magic spells, but just one Desecrating Beholder would have the strength of an entire mage squadron. And, the large eye right in the center was rumored to possess true vision, curse, death beam magic, and all other sorts of powerful abilities. This one Beholder alone would already be like a super mega cannon turret.
"Tsk, there"s even a divine mummy created from a G.o.d"s corpse? What generation did this ancient artifact come out from?"
A divine mummy would easily reach the Calamity Rankings in the mortal plane if it was set loose. But here, it seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary member of the undead aerial forces. As Conservation was an Undead Emperor who ruled over her Death Plane for a millennium already, the combat potential of her entire plane now that she finally used her full forces was astonis.h.i.+ng indeed.
"I shall share the world with all undead. The living in that world have beautiful souls and delicious flesh. That world doesn"t have the despairing ice storms that don"t adhere to any Concepts. That world only has lazy pigs that waste the gifts that they have. Come, pa.s.s through this Dimensional Door and enjoy fresh blood and souls."
Back in the despairing snow-white Death Plane, Conservation"s ethereal figure stated her wish. Although she sounded emotionless as if she was reading a prepared speech, the countless undead all rushed to enter the tremendous bone Dimensional Door.
Although the undead there included subordinates under the Undead Emperor"s direct control, there were far more free undead in the Death Plane. There were even plenty of Undead Lords that ruled their personal little domains.
But, in order to pa.s.s through the Dimensional Door, they would all have to agree to Conservation"s contract. These undead naturally all became Conservation"s slaves and cannon fodder.
A black jade gargoyle was knocked out of the skies by one of Timlad"s modified cannons. I immediately destroyed the black jade gargoyle"s soul and recorded its demise in a memory crystal scene to play for all the defenders on the city walls. This would help to improve the living"s morale.
Obviously, the unexpected Seeds of Holy Light spell had a far stronger effect against the undead than antic.i.p.ated. Conservation"s regular undead forces were actually a bit weaker than expected. That was why there were so many a.s.sorted forces rather than a focused army here.
"Maybe she values the top-level strength in her army and only sent a few strong ones here as cannon fodder. That"s because she doesn"t know yet that you"re incapable of using Seeds of Holy Light again. All she has to do is give a few verbal promises, and she pulled so many undead over to be her s.h.i.+elds and cannon fodder. Such a great deal for her!"
"…Can"t you think a little more positively, Harloys?"
"I was worried that you would underestimate the enemy and suffer because of it."
"Relax, you also know about my luck rating of E. I always consider the worst possible outcome with every plan I make. Unlucky coincidences aren"t something that I enjoy."
As we chatted, I was asking Harloys if there was any method to directly win. But of course, she denied this possibility.
The undead aerial forces" arrival naturally raised the living"s vigilance. But, their strange and a.s.sorted appearances were actually a type of disguise in and of itself. Only experts on the undead would know that it wasn"t meaningful at all to judge undead by physical appearance. Liches would barely appear different from a normal skeleton soldier, and even Elite Abominations would be nothing more than ugly corpses. Only the newest-born undead would look the neatest and most orderly.
And, this army that seemed like a random a.s.sortment would actually be much stronger than the previous army of identical gargoyles and bone dragons.
The only part worth celebrating was that the undead seemed to be worried about something. They hadn"t started their attack yet.
I understood Undead Lords" personalities very well as I had to deal with so many Undead Lords back when I was the overlord of Yongye"s Army. The great majority of Undead Lords would be filled with negative emotions. Slaughter and bloodl.u.s.t were in their very natures. It would be natural instinct for them to rebel against orders. The only reason that the Undead Lords here weren"t immediately attacking the fresh blood and souls here would be because of Conservation having direct control over this entire army.
"Since the undead army"s on guard and not attacking yet, it"s perfect because we also need more time. Let"s put them even more on guard. Snap!"
I immediately acted on what I"d said. With a snap of my fingers, the floating fortress Yongye City appeared once again. This time, it appeared right above Starwood City.
Although Yongye City"s current energy level was only just sufficient to keep it floating, the undead wouldn"t know its current energy level. The moment that Yongye City appeared, all the aerial undead immediately scattered and retreated several kilometers. It was evident that their master, Conservation, had commanded the aerial undead to temporarily retreat.
Seeing this situation, I heaved a sigh of relief as well. I was actually quite worried that the aerial undead would constantly hara.s.s Starwood City. If that happened, then the living would suffer quite some losses before the big battle even started.
"Come, take a look at this eternal and undefeatable Naxxramas!"
"I feel like you"re subtly jinxing yourself. Is that just my mistaken impression?"
"Cough, cough, aren"t I stalling for time here?"
And right now, I wasn"t stalling for time just for the sake of the reinforcements that were coming. Right now, above the clouds, an adventuring team of roughly thirty members was riding on top of a gigantic dragon lich"s back. This adventuring team"s goal was the ruins from the treasure map!
It could be seen from the adventuring team"s appearance and equipment that all of them were powerful warriors. However, there was an ordinary girl sitting on the dragon lich"s head. Judging from how all the other members had her surrounded, she was the most vital target for all the other members to protect.
Although the dragon lich was also undead, and although Winlair had already used death magic to conceal the scent of the living, he still carefully avoided all the aerial undead in the skies. However, Winlair"s constant changing of alt.i.tudes made the trip rather unpleasant for the pa.s.sengers.
A certain Legend-ranked mercenary was already dizzy to the point of hugging a dragon bone and holding on for dear life. A certain dark elf completely disregarded her image as a beauty and threw up everywhere. A certain female human mercenary screamed the entire way. There was only a certain baldie that stood on Winlair"s head, looking more and more relaxed as he observed what was before him. His boiling blood seemed to be a prediction of his future fate.
But, what was surprising was that the ordinary girl was quite clear-minded. Her adopted father helped her to get used to the jarring ride on the dragon lich, as images of the past scholars" generation kept flas.h.i.+ng in her eyes. And, Katerina, who had zero combat ability, was the most critical key for this trip!