Master the Abyss, starting from an apprentice priest.

Chapter 620 Red Tide and Blue Ocean

Above the sky, Luo Xiu looked down at the battlefield.

His burning golden eyes reflected everything on the battlefield, and he saw it all—the sealed black pillars and the Lich Kings had instantly fallen into a huge, almost irreversible disadvantage.

The angels he summoned from the "Eternal Kingdom," along with Quesanx, had completely taken control of the sky. And under Roshu's commands on the battlefield, the first "Pillar of Darkness" had been slain—

You have defeated "Blind Shadow" Archirad (lv.87)

【…】

A brand new kill notification has appeared on Luo Xiu's panel.

This was the first "Pillar of Darkness" he had killed—meaning he was now anchored to receive a special mission objective reward for "Judgment Day of Dark Omens"—a "God's Birthday" quality feat.

This is the sweetest reward, but it can only be obtained by killing the "Pillar of Darkness"—killing the "Brown Demon King" Bridget previously did not meet the requirements for the special mission objective, as Luo Xiu has confirmed.

In the corresponding mission, "Judgment Day of the Dark Omen," the mission status bar and additional mission objectives have also been updated in real time.

[Existing "Pillar of Darkness": 13/14]

【…】

— "The Blind Shadow" Archirad was the first Black Pillar to be killed on the battlefield of the final battle of the "Judgment War"!

This means that he is the first Imperial Saint to kill the "Pillar of Darkness"—outside of the mission, the "first kill" is a very high achievement in either the Empire or the Holy Court. Upon returning victorious from the final battle, he will receive rewards personally bestowed by Emperor Augustusville and Pope Lorend.

Luo Xiu knew all this.

then,

The number on the panel, "Current Number of 'Black Pillars': 13/14", quickly dropped another place. The "Emperor of Peace" Valentina, who was in the "Void" Black Pillar, had also been killed by the "Red Deacon" Hardy. On this local battlefield, only three Black Pillars remained, including the "Skull Incarnation" Bartel.

The fall of Archirad, the "Blind Shadow," was just the beginning, like the first snowflake to fall before an avalanche.

Looking at what was displayed on the panel, Luo Xiu felt a surge of excitement.

Whether from the player's perspective or from the perspective of the saints belonging to the "Holy Court," he felt exhilarated. He then closed the panel and looked at the black pillars still struggling on the battlefield, as well as the Lich Kings.

"Skull Incarnation" Batel is still deeply trapped at the axis of the seven-fold inverted ring of [Unforgivable Holy Manifestation] opened by Franya;

"Blood Crown Venerable" Bogula, who had previously unleashed a terrifying spiritual shock, was now like an uncontrollable, raging beast, frantically spitting blood and bombarding the surroundings.

"Red Demon King" Morsori was entangled by another [Supreme] Heavenly Pillar Knight. Although that Heavenly Pillar Knight was not as strong as "Spear of Heavenly Law" Asleil, he was strong enough to protect himself and effectively prevented Morsori from taking any unnecessary actions.

……

And the last "Pillar of Darkness"—

That is the seventh destiny of [Wisdom], "Bloodworm Fool" Calidorn, who is summoning and maintaining their respective puppet legions with the Great Sage of the Empire's "Sage's Tower", "Blue Sea Sage" Aurelian, and engaging in a tug-of-war on the edge of a local battlefield.

That was a very distinct scene—

The crimson tide and the blue waves crashed against each other, and countless golems were crushed into scrap metal by lasers, cannon fire and physical force. Meanwhile, seemingly endless golems surged up from behind, crushing each other with the enemy's golems on the front lines.

That was actually the battlefield, much larger in scale and scale.

Whether it's the battlefield where the seven paths of destiny of [Supreme] or [Radiant] lead to sainthood, those of slightly lower levels of transcendence and sainthood simply cannot get close to the surrounding area.

The tug-of-war between the two sides' fresh forces was mainly fought by the puppet legions maintained by the [Wisdom] Sages and Great Sages; that was the real battlefield for ordinary soldiers.

……

The Dark Principality's [Wisdom] Pillar of Darkness, "Bloodworm Fool" Kalidon, is skilled at refining flesh and blood into worms, which he then uses as the core to embed into magical puppets.

The puppets made in this way can spontaneously pick up corpses from the battlefield and use them to "complete" themselves.

The Bloodworm Puppet can even possess some of the supernatural powers remaining in the corpses it collects. This is essentially a "wise" version of "resurrection of the undead," but this battlefield ghost has a body of steel.

This is undoubtedly a highly taboo skill—

It is said that "Bloodworm Fool" Calidorn was once a sage in the Empire's "Sage's Tower" who was skilled in alchemy.

However, he harbored a rather secret yet fervent desire and pursuit for forbidden techniques that transcended the boundaries of human reason. Ultimately, he was expelled and wanted by the "Sage's Tower" because he killed another sage with whom he had a theoretical debate on alchemy, and used his flesh and blood to create the first three worms.

These three worms were then embedded into three golems by Calidorn, creating the original three "Bloodworm Golems"—the beginning of Calidorn's mastery of Bloodworm techniques. He later defected from the Tower of Sages and went to the Dark Duchy, where, with the Duchy's support, he advanced to the seventh level of the [Wisdom] destiny, becoming the "Bloodworm Fool" he is today.

None of the sages and great sages of the "Tower of Sages" had not heard of Calidorn—

All sages, especially great sages, hated him to the core. Pursuing knowledge that shouldn't be pursued beyond its limits is a red line that the Tower of Sages has always forbidden. The existence of people like Kalidon constantly shakes the very foundation of the Tower of Sages' existence.

—Boom! Boom!! Boom!!
Terrifying explosions echoed across the battlefield.

"The Sage of the Blue Sea," Aurelian, summoned and maintained his puppet army, and together with his sorcerers, fully mobilized their spiritual power to launch a fierce attack on the bloodworm puppet army of "The Bloodworm Fool," Calidorn, which resembled a red tide.

One after another, the golems covered in horrifying flesh and blood collapsed, dismantled into blood, flesh, and scrap metal. The mutilated golem corpses even emitted mournful whimpers, causing many expeditionary soldiers to pale in fear.

—That was a rather chilling scene.

It was as if the weapons in the warriors' hands and the armor they wore had come to life. They seemed to howl as they were cut or shattered, instilling a subconscious fear in the warriors, for they had never seen such a bizarre scene before.

These are not the only eerie and chilling scenes.

The wriggling creature that emitted the previous mournful wailing sound then emerged from the piles of scrap metal—a blood-red worm the size of an adult's arm, with a human face on its head, its mouth in an exaggeratedly open position, and a sharp, needle-like thorn protruding from what might be its "throat."

When a relatively intact golem passes by these blood worms, they will spring up like lightning, cling to the golem's surface, and then burrow into the golem's interior through the gaps in the joints.

Soon, the surfaces of the golems burrowed into by the blood worms will bulge with flesh like wildly growing vines. The connection between these golems and the sorcerers will be severed, and they will be completely controlled by the blood worms, joining the golems fighting against "Blue Sea Sage" Aurelian, becoming part of the red tide controlled by Calidorn. ...

The "Blue Sea Sage" Aurelian's expression was solemn. His deep blue eyes looked across at the "Bloodworm Fool" Calidorn, who was hiding behind the Red Tide, and he sensed that the traitor's face seemed to be wearing a dark and sinister smile.

Meanwhile, Calidorn was retreating step by step—as a Saint who had reached the seventh level of the [Wisdom] destiny, Calidorn was undoubtedly intelligent. He had long since realized that the situation was not right, and under the cover of the other dark pillars and the red tide of his accumulated puppets, he had retreated to the edge of the area.

There were no other imperial saints with the seventh destiny to block their way, and behind them was a chaotic battlefield—but at most, there were imperial saints with the fifth destiny active there. Although there were an unusually large number of extraordinary beings with the third destiny, Calidorn did not take these ant-like extraordinary beings seriously.

Calidorn knew that as long as he appeared there, all these extraordinary beings who weren't even "Saints" would flee in terror. No one would joke with their life; for someone on a triple destiny to try and resist the advance of a sevenfold destiny was simply overestimating themselves and a futile attempt to stop a chariot.

Even if he had to use all his puppets to block "Saint Aurelian of the Blue Sea," Calidorn wouldn't care. As long as he could escape the area sealed off by the "Saintess" in the sky, the dragon, and the young archbishop, his retreat would be wide open.

——Buzz buzz buzz!

As he thought this, Kalidon continuously crushed the magic crystals that sealed the Bloodworm Puppets, throwing the shattered crystals onto the battlefield in front of him to summon new Bloodworm Puppets.

In reality, the number of true "Bloodworm Puppets" in his inventory was definitely less than that of "Blue Ocean Sage" Aurelian. But Calidorn never considered truly competing with the "Tower of Sages'" profound reserves in terms of the "quantity" of puppets.

The golem summoned by Calidorn had now taken shape.

—It was a puppet with extremely disproportionate features, including a "round head" that was two meters long and wide, and dozens of legs that were like spiders, each a dozen centimeters long.

Moreover, its surface was simply covered in slime and pouches, without any firepower. It didn't look like a combat puppet, yet it was surprisingly fast.

The dozens of legs wriggled rhythmically, carrying the puppet toward the center of the battlefield—and at the same time, the surface of the puppet's "head" began to flash with a chilling red light, and the surrounding temperature rose sharply.

--boom!!!!!!!

The first "big head" exploded, followed by the second and the third. Hundreds of wriggling creatures flew out of the shattered "heads," and blood worms were thrown onto the battlefield.

Some of them will be trampled into mud by the running golems, but most of them will cling to the surface of passing golems, burrow into them, and transform them into new "bloodworm golems".

This is Calidorn's "Red Tide"—its largest component and source. Essentially, what he's raising isn't a "puppet," but a "virus."

For "Blue Ocean Sage" Olejan, this was undoubtedly a rather underhanded tactic, but Olejan did not have a sufficient means to counter it.

“...Truth favors me...not your Tower of Philosophers, foolish Aurelian.”

Gazing at the blue tide, and at Aurelian, the "Sage of the Blue Sea" who was still holding the puppet army together against the red tide, Calidorn smiled with pleasure before turning and leaving.

It is enough.

He had already deployed all his blood worms to the battlefield, keeping only two "annihilation" tier magical puppets with him. The crimson tide now spreading across the battlefield was enough to give Aurelian a headache, but also enough for him to escape unscathed.

Calidorn was thinking about these things.

The ground beneath his feet trembled as a giant earthworm golem carried him forward. Calidorn had already crossed the edge of the battlefield where the "Seven Fates" Saints were fighting—retreating towards a more chaotic battlefield where high-ranking Saints were scarce.

The feeling of being locked by the spirituality of several "Seven Paths of Fate" Saints and shrouded in an aura of extreme danger disappeared. Just as Calidorn had predicted, when he arrived at another battlefield, he only needed to emanate a high-level spiritual pressure in his surroundings, and the Imperial Transcendents he encountered would show fear and flee in the direction away from him.

He casually crushed several Imperial Transcendents and Saints at the fourth or even fifth level of Destiny. With the actual withdrawal from the battlefield drawing ever closer, Calidorn could no longer contain his smile.

But then he heard—

"Holy crap, a pillar of darkness!"

"Huh? Holy crap, it's a pitch-black pillar!"

"..."

"...?"

A gaze that sent a chill down his spine came from beside Calidorn, a transcendent being from the Empire's "Triple Fate," yet who seemed... utterly devoid of fear of him.

As soon as he shouted, almost instantly, hundreds of identical gazes shot towards him.

Those eyes were filled with curiosity, eagerness, greed, and other things that sent chills down Calidorn's spine, but there was no fear in them.

wrong.

This feeling is not right.

Calidorn had never experienced anything like this before. In an instant, he realized that he was surrounded by thousands of such extraordinary beings with "triple destinies".

They were like a swarm of bees with a unified mind—without a shred of fear of themselves.

Just like the "Gestalt" of honeycomb thinking—[knowledge] does indeed have the concept of "Gestalt".

"The Apostle of Balance!"

Calidorn instinctively lost his voice.

He thought he had encountered thousands of Apocalyptic Apostles with "Triple Fate" [Balance], and that only they could be so fearless and share the same goal!

—How could an empire possibly control the balance or the power of “Apocalypse”?

Such doubts cannot be answered.

Then, Calidorn saw that the extraordinary beings of the Triple Fate were holding something the size of a head in their hands.

Calidorn's pupils contracted sharply.

He recognized what they were—they were all skulls of martyrs!
—Thousands of martyrs' skulls!
……

(End of this chapter)