GDK 596: With you, the Empire is invincible!
The swarm of gargoyles formed dark clouds as they dove downwards. The sea of undead creatures blindly charged ahead. Little Skeleton, mounted on a bone dragon, skillfully released waves after waves of necromancy magic covering a large area against those orc warriors.
When a godly existence descended onto the mortal world, without any expert of the same class of strength, the god was practically unstoppable!
Although Little Skeleton was just a lowgod, necromancy magic was suitable for large scale battle. The flood of necromancy creatures had actually drowned the orc warriors.
Han Shuo’s avatar transformed into a longsword that traveled with a long trail of radiance and he meandered about above the battlefield. Anywhere he passed, he would leave the orc warriors reduced to pieces, not one of them left in one piece.
This battle was a total imbalance to one side in terms of strength. Against Han Shuo and Little Skeleton, two lowgod existences, these orc warriors who had been acting like overlords for the past few years, all turned into sitting ducks waiting to be slaughtered. They had no capacity to put up any resistance.
Even the shamans dispatched by the orc warriors were slaughtered on the spot by Han Shuo and Little Skeleton like breaking dried twigs. The strength possessed by the duo had far, far exceeded these experts. Their deaths caused the orc warriors a tremendous psychological blow.
Cruel slaughtering continued to happen at the battlefield. The undead creatures found all over the battlefield did not feel fear and did not perceive pain. In these aspects, they were undoubtedly the most terrifying soldiers. As long as their souls remained, they could continue to attack even when their bodies were destroyed.
With all kinds of aiding boundaries deployed, the strength and speed of the undead creatures were boosted substantially. They continued to wildly attack the orc warriors…
Unwittingly, the army of orcs that had been eyeing the South Border City covetously for the last few years had suffered disastrous losses under the joint assault of Han Shuo and Little Skeleton. Not a single one of those orc experts dispatched to obstruct the duo could make it out alive and were all cleanly eliminated. Faced against the undead creatures that seemed not to know pain nor tiredness, more and more orcs of this enormous army shrieked like ghosts and collapsed into their own pool of blood…
Whoosh!
A bloody light harboring an apocalyptic power that trailed more than one hundred meters long suddenly pounded at the camps at the center of the orc encampment.
Rumbles…
The earth trembled. Sand and rocks were sent flying in all directions. A dozen or so military tents burst apart in the deafening explosion. A mixture of blood, minced meat and camping structure was propelled into the air.
A dozen or so tents along with the tens of leaders of the Orc Empire housed within were completely wrecked just like that!
“The orcs are done for!” Firenze, observing from the top of the southern border wall, shouted in a deep, excited voice.
“Without any leaders or experts, leaving just the soldiers, they are destined for doom.” Fanny nodded in agreement. Gazing ahead at the orc warriors being massacred, she shook her head and gently sighed, “Why were these orcs so determined to invade our land? Now that they’ve been wrecked by Han Shuo, how many of them will be left?”
“Such is the cruelty between countries. You don’t have to sympathize with them. South Border City has lost a lot of men in the past few years. Their weapons are stained with the blood of the people of South Border City. Perhaps Bryan’s arrival is the punishment they deserved for their transgression,” as a general, Firenze was not a naturally merciful character. Having lived through so many battles, death was just all too normal to him. His heart did not feel the slightest discomfort for the deaths of these orc warriors.
Without the leadership of their leaders, without the protection from their experts, these orc warriors, who had been on the defense throughout the battle, were completely crushed as expected. As blood spurted in all directions, more and more orc warriors collapsed to the ground for good, becoming just another body lining the ground…
Two towering altars were erected at the center of the battlefield at some point. The energy stones on the altar emitted a dazzling radiance. Two cyclones of constantly changing shapes collected the strands of energy drifting about above the battlefield, supplementing divine energy for the two deployers of the altars.
Of the two altars, one was shrouded with an intense aura of death, while the other had strange, indistinct light, which appeared to come from the edict of destruction. The two altars emanating auras of different energies were simultaneously operating at the center of the battlefield. Bit by bit, they sucked in and absorbed the unique energies formed due to death and destruction.
As the energy of death and destruction on the battlefield increased, the number of orc warriors decreased. Along the passage of time, the miserable cries continuously reduced in frequency to become intermittent before they completely ended.
Han Shuo transformed back into his human form and hovered loftily in midair. He looked below and discovered that every inch of the ground was hidden beneath the bodies of orc warriors. It became exceedingly difficult to find any orc who had yet to perish. Other than the carcasses of orcs, there was the undead creature mechanically scavenging for any living targets.
It appeared that the battle was at an end.
As he floated above, Han Shuo could sense that strands and strands of energy were flowing into his body a little at a time via the altar in the center of the battlefield. The energies then fused with the divine energy in his body. He watched closely as his divine energy increased.
Han Shuo gradually came to comprehend the motive of the two overgods of death and destruction. Through some unique means involving altars and soul brands, even if separated by multiple material planes, the two overgods could acquire energy from death and destruction. The higher the death toll, the greater the energy they would obtain.
As Han Shuo absorbed the energy of destruction on the battlefield made available with the deaths of the several hundred thousand orc warriors using the altar he deployed, he clearly felt his divine energy rapidly increasing. After running some calculations in his head, Han Shuo discovered that the accumulated energy of destruction was equivalent to the power of faith he could collect from a few hundred thousand people over a few dozen years, or equivalent to several dozen years of self-cultivation.
It was no wonder that the overgods of death and destruction were so desperate to dispatch lesser gods under their control to bring on death on other material planes. It was much easier to harvest energy using this method compared to painstaking cultivation. Of the innumerable material planes, if countless living beings were to be destroyed on every one, then the overgods of death and destruction would certainly gain a considerable amount of energy which would greatly deepen their divine energies.
“Father, they are of no threat anymore. I must return and digest the energy I just obtained,” Little Skeleton transmitted while Han Shuo was thinking to himself.
Han Shuo raised his head and saw Little Skeleton silently hovering over the altar of death on his bone dragon. The gravestone on his chest looked as though a small whirlpool that was rapidly whirling. The altar below him seemed to have exhausted all its energy and no longer sparkled with light.
“Ok,” Han Shuo replied. He noticed that the gravestone on Little Skeleton’s chest seemed to have the function of accelerating his gathering and absorption of the energy of death. Han Shuo had deployed his altar at nearly the same time as Little Skeleton did, but at this moment, not only had Little Skeleton vacuumed away all the energy of death around the altar, he had even completed the energy conversion inside his body, while Han Shuo was only halfway there.
Naturally, Little Skeleton would not be courteous with Han Shuo. After he recited some miraculous incantation, the altar beneath him, which was originally used for gathering the energy of death, suddenly glowed with a hazy neon green light. The swarms of undead creatures rushed to the center of the altar and faded away among the light.
The undead creatures went as quickly as they came. It took only a short while before the enormous amount of undead creatures returned to the Netherworld via the altar below Little Skeleton.
After seeing that all the undead creatures had orderly entered the altar, Little Skeleton turned to Han Shuo and transmitted, “Alright. Please send me home, father.”
Although Han Shuo felt somewhat astonished, he did not voice it out. After reciting a simple necromancy incantation, Little Skeleton seemed to be grabbed by spacetime and disappeared in a bright flash of light.
“This kid is getting more and more miraculous,” Han Shuo lamented with a smile. Instead of rushing to leave, Han Shuo hovered at the same place and silently absorbed the energy of destruction above the battlefield using the altar below him.
The energy of destruction produced by the death of a few hundred thousand orcs was considerable. Without a miraculous treasure like the Little Skeleton’s gravestone, Han Shuo needed to spend more time and effort to absorb the energy.
Han Shuo was in no hurry. He hovered in midair as he linked his soul to the altar below him. His Domain of Divinity deployed to form a barrier similar to spiderweb and absorbed the energy of destruction collected inside the altar bit by bit. Han Shuo took a deep breath before flying downwards with the palm of his hand facing at his altar. It seemed to be shrouded by an incorporeal canvas as it disappeared inch by inch.
Han Shuo gazed all around at the battlefield. He looked at the dead bodies, weapons, and armor scattered all about, shook his head, and flew towards South Border City.
Before, Han Shuo would surely have stayed over to collect the weapons and armors. However, times had changed. Those weapons and armors were no longer worth anything in Han Shuo’s eyes and therefore he wouldn’t waste his time on this junk.
After a streak of light flashed through, a majestic figure appeared beside Firenze who was still gaping at the battlefield.
“South Border City will not be confronted by any threats from the Orc Empire for a while. Right, do clean up the battlefield. Some of the items might be worth some money,” Han Shuo smilingly said as he looked at Firenze beside him.
Firenze was suddenly awakened and turned to look at Han Shuo. This tough man who had been unrestrained and crude all that time was now fumbling for words. He stared blankly for a while before forcing a smile and nodding as he said, “Hundreds of thousand of orcs – all gone – just like that. Even if the Orc Empire still has troops left, they will never dare infringe on our South Border City again until they figure out the matter.”
Han Shuo grinned and calmly said, “Oh, good then. After I take care of the big menace that is Kasi Empire, we can reassemble our military and invade them instead!”
Firenze listened, then kept silent again for a long while as he looked deeply into Han Shuo’s eyes. After ages, he finally proclaimed, “With you, the Empire is invincible!”