Darkness swallowed his vision.
Ten seconds.
Not long.
But long enough for the enemy to reposition.
Almond reford beside Lily inside the Crystal Tower’s 1000-kiloter barrier. The Pulse Core within his chest stabilized instantly, atmospheric energy flooding back in.
Lily didn’t look surprised.
"I saw it," she said calmly. "Two of them. One archer. One assassin. Both are nimble and stealthy."
"How many shards did they steal?" Almond asked.
"Three. I intercepted the rest."
Behind her, dozens of Dreadlings were already mobilizing. The Skirmisher Fighters had fanned outward. Tactical Control units spread across the intersection zone, forming layered perception grids.
Sylvia’s voice echoed through Mind Bind.
[Master. They are looking at us.]
Alfred’s eyes glinted as he also kept an eye on them.
[They hunt efficiently. Their coordination is precise, and they are waiting for us.]
Almond exhaled slowly.
"Good. Then we stop farming separately."
The continent stretched endlessly in layered plateaus of fractured obsidian, violet forests that bled light from their leaves, and floating landmasses chained together by gravitational anomalies. Tier-10 beasts road freely—storm serpents coiling through thundercloud ravines, basalt colossi trudging across magma fields, crystalline leviathans burrowing beneath mineral deserts.
And now, players hunted each other within it while killing monsters and gathering resources.
Lily raised her hand.
Seven hundred Dreadlings shifted formation like a living tide.
"We push toward their boundary," she said. "Not fully invade. Just pressure. We farm on the edge and force them to engage."
Almond nodded.
The eight Paradox-rank Grimblades rose again, orbiting him like a fractured crown.
They advanced.
The first clash ca fast.
A volcanic plateau split by glowing magma rivers beca the battlefield.
The obsidian archer stood atop a spire of black stone, bow drawn. Beside him, the dagger woman had respawned and was already phasing between heat distortions.
This ti, Almond did not advance alone.
Lily’s Giant Tank-class Dreadling—Colossus Virethorn Bastion—erupted from the ground, a four-legged titan of armored bone and dark resin plating. It absorbed the first volley of spatial arrows, shields rippling but holding.
Bomber-class Dreadlings took to the air—Nyxflare Oblivion Moths—releasing cascading explosions of green-black dreadfire.
The archer fired again.
Stormdirge Executioner Halo intercepted, lightning shredding two arrows mid-flight.
The third bent around it.
Sylvia stepped forward.
Worldroot Binding.
Spectral roots exploded upward from the basalt, snapping toward the archer’s perch.
He teleported.
Alfred was already there.
Mirrorstep Etiquette.
A spatial blur.
Leviathan’s Verdict Blade clashed against a conjured black scythe the archer had drawn mid-transition.
Shockwaves tore through the plateau.
anwhile, the dagger woman phased behind Lily.
A mistake.
Dread Spread-class units triggered simultaneously.
Black sigils ignited beneath her.
Tactical Control-class Dreadlings—Chronohex Lantors—unleashed layered slow-fields.
Her phasing stuttered.
Voidrend Sovereign Fang flashed through the distortion.
Dead.
The Archer instantly vanished, not wanting to die before his partner respawned.
TRUUNNNNNN!
Tier-10 monsters, drawn by the destruction, entered the battlefield—two Ironspine Rift Mammoths charging from the west, their backs layered in crystalline armor.
Lily smiled.
"Good."
More shards.
The battlefield beca chaos.
Bomber-class Dreadlings bombarded mammoths while Tanks held aggro.
Almond activated Grim Piercer on Riftpiercer Monarch Spike.
Crystal armor shattered in spiraling fractures.
The obsidian archer exploited the chaos, teleporting between shadows, targeting Lily.
Three arrows pierced through the Protection-class Dreadlings shielding her.
She flicked her whip—Stormheart Chronolock Hunter—paralyzing him mid-draw for half a second.
Enough.
Blazecrown Cataclysm Edge tore across his chest.
He died.
Ten seconds.
The dagger woman was instantly targeted while she was attacking.
Alfred intercepted her.
Glacial Stillness Protocol.
Her motion slowed.
Sylvia’s Sky-Bloom Cataclysm flooded the plateau with radiant pollen, healing allies while corroding enemies.
The respawned archer returned just in ti to see his partner fall again.
They retreated.
Hours passed.
The third pair appeared briefly—only to be crushed between Almond and Lily’s pressure and the Tier-10 monster density. They lost too many shards and withdrew.
Shard count climbed.
The obsidian duo made one final attempt.
They lured Almond into a canyon carved by gravitational distortions.
A trap that Almond didn’t care about. It was ti to finish off these two.
Three summoned constructs erged with them—Tier-10 siege entities ford from compressed voidstone.
Almond grinned.
"Good. I needed more."
He raised his hand.
Eight Paradox blades converged.
Grim Convergence Slash.
The blades converged into a single exotic sword that unleashed whip-like beams, unleashing utter destruction as he obliterated Tier-10 summon constructs of that Archer with ease.
Grimblade Essence Factory activated.
Hundreds of destroyed Grimblades dissolved into Essence within his inner domain.
It was ti.
The eight Paradox-rank Tier-10 Grimblades were destroyed, and he destroyed two more in his factory.
Ten Paradox Essences fused into a Paradox-rank Tier-10 Grimblade—Voidrend Sovereign Fang.
Its fracture-light deepened from violet to sothing darker.
Patterns cracked over it while gleaming, handle extended and curved, tiny gemstones forming an esoteric symbol.
The blade condensed inward.
Then it changed.
A crown-like structure ford around its guard.
Its edge beca impossibly thin, swallowing surrounding light.
Its aura stabilized instead of flaring wildly.
[Exalted-Rank Grimblade Created]
Na: Oblivion Tyrant’s Final Testant.
Tier: 10.
Attack: 1 (500% Arihant 500% Will).
Effects:
1. Voidfracture Bloom.
—Every slash multiplies into recursive fracture-lines that deal the sa damage, up to ten lines for ten extra hits.
2. Pulse Devour Sigil.
—Dealing damage that reduces the vitality of living beings restores Pulse exponentially.
3. Voidtrace Elent.
—Detects weakness and path to the most vital part of the target.
4. Silent Execution.
—Striking targets below 10% of vitality instantly executes them as the blade launches an automatic, intent-less, undetectable attack at their most vital part found by Voidtrace Elent.
5. Dominion Feedback.
Almond exhaled slowly.
The canyon howled.
Fragnts of shattered constructs he destroyed with Grim Convergence Slash rained from above. Magma veins along the canyon walls flickered erratically as gravitational distortions rippled from the aftershock of Grim Convergence Slash. The three voidstone siege constructs were nothing but drifting black dust now, dissolving into particles that the wind could not fully carry away.
Oblivion Tyrant’s Final Testant hovered before him.
Its edge did not gleam.
It erased.
The obsidian archer stood on a fractured ledge across the canyon, cloak snapping violently in the unstable wind. The dagger woman phased in beside him a heartbeat later, having used the chaos to regroup.
They had expected Almond to be weakened after forging the blade.
Instead, they felt it.
The pressure.
’He got stronger.’
’What kind of deck does hehaves? He is a frigging Tier-3, while we are Tier-8!’
’Sa with his partner. Both are nuts, but I don’t want to lose to them.’
User Comments
0 comments from readers