Master the Abyss, starting from an apprentice priest.

Chapter 608 Melee
"..."

The dark Grand Duke stared silently at the three "floating cities" high in the sky.

"……Roar."

To his left, a black dragon coiled, its jaws emitting a low growl. The Grand Duke of Black stroked its black scales with his left hand, while the greatsword in his right hand began to emit fine black light.

【Divine Spine Black Sword - Rift of the Void】, that is the name of the black sword held by the Dark Grand Duke - it is a divine artifact that surpasses the quality of "divine forging" and is at the level of "creation".

Its unique power is the black light that erupts from the [Divine Spine Black Sword], which can easily sever most of the magical links formed by spiritual energy.

Although each strike consumes a considerable amount of energy, as long as the sword is in hand, it is no exaggeration to say that the "Black Grand Duke" is invincible.

Spirituality is the essence of the world. Even "demigods" cannot completely detach themselves from the medium of "spirituality" to demonstrate extraordinary power.

Thorin, the demigod of [Wisdom] and the "Great Sage Chief," relies heavily on it as a true alchemist at the pinnacle. The [Divine Spine Black Sword - Rift of the Void]'s restraint on Chief Thorin is obvious.

"...Bartel, Mastert."

The Grand Duke in black slowly spoke.

Behind him, the two "Pillars of Darkness," who had been standing there waiting for the Dark Duke to give them orders, stepped forward.

"You are all my most loyal protectors. I trust you and entrust my life to you."

The Grand Duke's voice was deep and powerful, like a lion suddenly roaring in the darkness.

"Go to the battlefield, Batel and Mastert."

“You don’t need to follow me.”

"Because this place will soon become a graveyard."

"..."

……

--boom!!!!!!!

Just as the Rainbow Veil that Thorin had placed outside the floating city was lifted and the "Black Grand Duke" revealed his true form, a deep red streak, like a meteorite falling from the sky, was instantly cast down from mid-air!
Everyone—almost everyone on the entire battlefield—clearly felt the air become scorching, and the temperature suddenly rose, becoming unusually hot.

The deep red light fell straight towards the direction of the black Grand Duke, and behind him was a deep red figure, like riding in a heavenly chariot—that was "Emperor Augustusville"!
The moment Emperor Augustusville saw the Dark Duke, he acted without the slightest hesitation!

Crimson meteors streaked across the sky, igniting the clouds like burning flames. The entire battlefield was bathed in this deep red heat; this was truly a battlefield belonging to the "demigods"!

……

And then there's that "Holy Crowned" Pope Laurent—

Having completed all the prayers of the Seven Luminaries of Revelation, he now turned his gaze toward the Dark Grand Duke.

Pope Laurent's face still held a kind and gentle expression as he gazed at the Grand Duke in black, but unlike Emperor Augustusville, he did not fall to that side like a falling star.

Even before the final battle began, Pope Laurent had his mission.

He will continue to stand high in the sky, monitoring the battlefield and keeping a close eye on the entire battle between Emperor Augustusville and the Dark Prince.

Besides the "Black Duke," Pope Lorend, Emperor Augustusville, and Chief Sorin all knew that another terrifying culprit was lurking in the Black Capital.

The demigod of the Void—"The Matriarch of Delusion" Arivia—has yet to appear.

Furthermore, information obtained from Monigne suggests that the "Primal Order" and the "Lich Council" of the Holy Tower Theocracy might send cardinals from the "Sevenfold Fate" or even the Lich King in person. There is also a small but undeniable possibility that the Theocracy's three highest deities might personally intervene in this war.

These were all possibilities, Pope Laurent considered, and thus he gazed at the figure of Emperor Augustusville from afar, then nodded slightly, his robes billowing, and his scepter raised.

Holy light emanated from the scepter, and Pope Laurent continued his prayers.

The power emanating from [Radiance] was inexhaustible to Pope Laurend, the "Divine Crowned Celestial." Divine rifts opened in the sky, from which streaks of light and fire fell as he exercised his authority of "divine judgment."

The decisive battle is drawing ever closer to its climax.

……

Thomas the Tank Engine: Holy crap! Augustus the Great has entered the war!
Thomas sent a message in the chat channel of the Church's Descent Guild "Mirror of Radiance".

On the battlefield, the "Descendants" have followed their respective warbands and are fighting fiercely in every corner of the battlefield.

The impact of tens of thousands of players fighting on the battlefield is actually not significant in a battlefield with tens of millions of players—their "resurrection" feature is indeed diluted, but it is precisely because of this that players can truly "enjoy" such a fierce battlefield.

Thomas's warhammer had smashed countless heads of the Dark Army. He was excited—not only by the immersion in such realistic combat, but also by witnessing many sights he had never seen before!

First came the "Chief Sage" Thorin, then the "Holy Crown" Pope Lord of Lorend—Thomas met both the demigods of [Wisdom] and [Radiance]!

The three floating cities that exerted immense pressure on the entire battlefield, along with the blazing sun previously unleashed by Pope Lorend, greatly shocked Thomas—although he couldn't actually understand these things in his current "Triple Fate Path," he instinctively felt a strong desire to further improve his own strength.

Thomas thought to himself.

While focusing on the battle, he quickly replied in the chat channel.

[Sweating Soybeans]: I blanched them, and they looked so cool!

[Sweating Soybeans]: Loyal to the Emperor!

[Alicia]: ?

[Alicia]: If you change your fate path, you can't enter the 'Holy Abyss' anymore. Someone has already tested it.
[Sweating Soybeans]: Bishop's Loyalty!

[Iron Pot Stewed Crocodile]: I've received my mission.
【Iron Pot Stewed Crocodile】: A "hellish" difficulty quest called 【Sinking into the Dark Battlefield】, with the same difficulty as the 【Tyrant of Ratama】 that we completed before. 【Iron Pot Stewed Crocodile】: The rewards are very generous, brothers, I'm going to grind for it first!
[……]: ……

Players also triggered a hidden quest: [Sinking into the Dark Battlefield].

The basic objective is to win the final battle, while the highest objective is to kill the "Executioner," with rewards including a large amount of experience points, free attribute points, and up to two "Legendary" and four "Epic" quality feats.

For players, experience points are primarily used to compensate for level losses upon death, unless misused. Players value "free attribute points" and "feats" more, as these are the main factors that improve their strength.

Thomas also opened the panel and looked at the mission he had already accepted, "Sinking into the Dark Battlefield".

He has already killed one 'Quadruple Fate' leader and six 'Triple Fate' Blackfangs, which guarantees him at least one 'Epic' quality and three 'Rare' quality feats.

After roughly calculating his current battle record and the rewards he could expect, Thomas closed the panel. He turned his gaze to another group of gathered enemies, picked up his warhammer, and charged towards them.

……

When Emperor Augustus the Great personally led the expedition and truly displayed his "demigod" power on the battlefield of the decisive battle, it greatly boosted the morale and fighting spirit of the entire expeditionary force.

Luo Xiu and the Songyuan Expeditionary Force's battle group had already torn through the first and second lines of defense of the Dark Army, and were now clashing with the Dark Army's true elite battle group.

Luo Xiu also witnessed the scene of Emperor Augustusville tearing the sky apart—he could roughly guess that the "Black Grand Duke" had appeared.

From Luo Xiu's position, he couldn't see the dark capital—he had no intention of intervening in that "demigod" battlefield for the time being. If things had followed the correct course of his previous life, Emperor Augustusville would have been the one to stand until the end no matter what.

His attention was therefore temporarily diverted from that. When he came to his senses and looked around, the scene had already descended into frenzy and chaos.

Luo Xiu could clearly sense that the Songyuan Expeditionary Force, which was originally stuck and tug-of-war with the Black Army, suddenly unleashed an astonishing fighting spirit a moment after Emperor Augustusville appeared in the sky. They actually managed to disrupt and tear apart the Black Army's originally solid formation in the midst of the melee.

The Black Army's tens of thousands of barbarian wolf cavalry were routed by the iron cavalry led by [Supreme] Stuart and Lord Gawain.

The puppet army controlled by the sorcerers of the Dark Army was blocked by the sorcerers and puppet army of "Sage of Mystery" Dukler, forming an encirclement and preventing even a single puppet from escaping.

Meanwhile, the [Radiant] clergy and Templar Knights, led by Rosh and Daveld, provided the [Supreme] and [Intelligent] cavalry and sorcerers with holy magic protection and support in various aspects.

Daveld was leading the Templar Knights, searching for the heretics who might emerge from any location, while Luo Xiu rode his golden pegasus into the sky, swinging his magic sword and scepter downwards, repeatedly blasting holy light, dragon flames, and ferocious breath into the dark tide.

The harvesting of local battlefields has been ongoing for some time now.

During this period, Luo Xiu has fully maxed out the attribute values ​​of "Sublime Divine Punishment," a sacred technique he obtained when he advanced to the "Sixth Destiny Path."

Although he did not encounter a new "Chief Executioner" or a new "Sixfold Fate" enemy—perhaps the nearby "Sixfold Fate" Saints were deliberately avoiding him after witnessing the death of the previous "Lord of Destruction" Baltat—through continuous battles and reaping rewards, his experience bar had accumulated over 100 million experience points.

I'm just a little over a million experience points away from reaching level 80.

I'm just a little bit away from triggering the [Promotion Quest] after leveling up.

Luo Xiu was thinking this, and at the same time, he felt a burning light flow through his eyes—

--boom!!!!!

A deafening explosion came from not far away, and the light and shadow of a divinely forged holy sword fell from the sky and pierced heavily into the earth.

Luo Xiu recognized that it was the prototype of the holy sword "Supreme Holy Sword" Monine.

Monigne was right next to her, and she seemed to be fighting with something.

Luo Xiu then drew his magic sword and scepter, gave Pegasus new instructions, and rode off toward Monine.

……

—Boom! Boom!! Boom!!
One after another, the nascent forms of divinely forged holy swords condensed from the sky, then fell heavily to the ground.

Monigne's forehead was already beaded with sweat; she had indeed encountered a formidable enemy—

"Pillar of Darkness", [Bitter Tea] Seven Fates, "Blind Shadow" Archirad!
That was the pinnacle of "assassins." Archirad was also one of the most notorious top assassins. He was the first to cross the Sea of ​​Mist from the Broken Continent to the continent of Fanor, but he was not accepted by the Golden Kingdom, the Empire, or the Theocracy, and eventually came to the Dark Duchy.

He initially had only five destinies, but the soil of the Dark Duchy provided him with ample nourishment to grow stronger—

Archelad, who had crawled out of piles of corpses countless times, was appreciated by the Grand Duke, who awarded him the Black Order of 'Executioner' and promoted him to 'Chief Executioner'. Not long ago, Archelad advanced to the seventh level of destiny and became one of the "Pillars of Darkness" under the Grand Duke.

Archelaad is not the strongest of the Black Pillars, but he is the most "useful"—he has almost never failed in any mission assigned to him by the Black Grand Duke.

He has assassinated no fewer than thirty 'Fivefold Destiny' and five 'Sixfold Destiny' Saints. Even his achievement of becoming the "Pillar of Darkness" is that he transcended his rank to assassinate a Great Sage of the Sage's Tower who was at the "Sevenfold Destiny".

The saints of the empire loathed him, and whenever they spoke of the many crimes Archibald had committed against the empire and the enormous losses he had caused, they were filled with hatred that made their bones tremble and their teeth itch.

However, the empire struggled to track his movements. Archirad's advancement to the class "Blind Shadow" in the seventh level of the [Bitter Tea] path—one of the hidden classes—was said to be so stealthy that even gods could be fooled; perhaps, with enough power, he could even assassinate a god.

It was no coincidence that "Sword of the Holy" Monigne encountered "Blind Shadow" Archirad—he had come specifically for them.

During his first encounter, Monigne experienced what it meant to feel the air freeze and his heart stop.

The "Saintess" Franya was right beside her. At first, Monigne only heard a shattering sound—it was the sound of a holy relic that Franya was equipped with being broken—that protected her and shielded her from a blow that would have seriously injured her on the spot.

"Blind Shadow" Archira... came to assassinate Franya!
This was Monigne's first instinct.

at this time.

Amidst the light and shadow of the holy sword cast down from the heavens by Monigne—the shadowy figures on the ground exuded a strange, dark, and ominous aura, and Monigne indeed could not sense Archelad's presence.

Until suddenly, everything around her went dark.

……

(End of this chapter)