Chapter 267: "King of the Sky" |
The middle layer of the Bedrock Abyss, a supermassive cavern.
A Level 4 Mobile City battle group belonging to the War Alliance was slowly advancing.
Unlike the Stone Sea and the Stone Mountain Range, what existed within this supermassive cavern was an enormous stone city.
It was not a modern city, but one built in an ancient architectural style. Every structure within it was bizarre in appearance and colossal in size.
The commander of the force—a beastman general clad in Steam Battle Armor—was especially cautious.
He first dispatched a reconnaissance squad to investigate the stone city.
The result surprised him.
There were no enemies inside.
A trace of confusion immediately appeared in the beastman general's eyes.
Several minutes later, his question was answered.
The entire stone city had been disguised by Stone Elementals.
As elemental monsters, Stone Elementals possessed the ability to alter their rocky composition and transform themselves into all kinds of shapes.
At this moment, countless Stone Elementals discarded their disguises and revealed themselves.
The first to appear were Obsidian Giants.
Their bodies were massive and majestic, their smooth black surfaces reflecting everything around them like mirrors. As groups of these giants charged forward, the earth trembled beneath their footsteps. Their arms had naturally formed into gigantic stone blades, whose swings sliced through the air with piercing shrieks.
Next came Granite Giants.
Their entire bodies were covered with moss and fossils, while rock fibers resembling muscles writhed in ways that completely defied geology.
There were also swarms of Crystal Cluster Beasts.
They resembled six-legged spiders made entirely of gemstones, producing crisp wind-chime-like sounds as they moved.
They leaped lightly throughout the cavern, and wherever they landed, the ground rapidly crystallized.
Clearly, this was one of their special abilities.
Finally came several Rock Dragons.
Each of these dragons had been transformed from an entire mineral vein.
Their spines consisted of continuous Iron Ore crystals, while their wings were formed from expanded layers of shale.
Whenever a Rock Dragon raised its head, the stalactites beneath its jaw collided like enormous fangs, producing deafening roars.
Besides them, there were countless other varieties of petrified mutant creatures.
Neither Li Ye nor Fang Ying had realized one crucial fact.
Within the Bedrock Abyss, every petrified mutant creature was actually a Stone Elemental.
For a time, tens of thousands of Stone Elementals surged toward the War Alliance forces in a magnificent tide.
The beastman general immediately raised his Steam Battle Axe and ordered his troops to engage the enemy.
Although the enemy's momentum was overwhelming, he believed his army possessed enough combat strength to deal with them.
Unfortunately...
He had been far too optimistic.
Without warning, countless abnormal ripples spread across the cavern floor beneath the War Alliance forces.
Innumerable stone spikes of every imaginable size burst violently from the ground.
Mobile Cities.
Land combat vehicles.
Soldiers...
Almost all of them were impaled in an instant.
As if that were not enough, towering rock tsunamis hundreds of meters high formed on every side of the War Alliance army before crashing toward them.
The beastman general immediately ordered the troops to open fire and bombard the rock tsunamis to halt their advance.
Meanwhile, ripples continued spreading across the ground.
A few seconds later, countless Stone Giants and every variety of Stone Elemental emerged directly from the rocky earth, launching fierce close-range combat against the War Alliance forces.
Every one of these Stone Elementals was coated in thick slime.
In truth, the entire Bedrock Abyss was the perfect natural battlefield for the Stone Elementals.
Using the slime secreted from their bodies, they could freely swim through the Elemental Plane within the Bedrock Abyss.
Even when injured, they could directly absorb surrounding rocks to repair their bodies.
This was precisely why the Stone Elemental Civilization had the confidence to reject even world-class monster organizations.
A uniquely advantageous environment...
Combined with an Elemental Plane on the scale of a small world.
The War Alliance forces quickly found themselves trapped on every side.
Even so, the monster soldiers of the War Alliance erupted with unprecedented ferocity, charging madly into battle against the enemy.
The beastman general leaped into the air and shattered an Obsidian Giant with a single strike from his Steam Battle Axe.
Yet it did not die.
Its shattered body slowly began repairing itself.
Witnessing the scene, the beastman general slowly shook his head.
He raised his battle axe and let out a thunderous roar.
Its meaning was simple...
"Fight to the death."
......
Six days later.
The upper layer of the Bedrock Abyss.
Tomorrow's Armor Deck.
Li Ye nodded in complete satisfaction.
During these six peaceful days, everything had remained calm.
The Tomorrow Alliance had not only earned resource drops by hunting mutant creatures, but had also gathered enormous quantities of mineral resources from the Stone Mountain Range.
18,234 units of Level 4 Iron Ore.
5,210 units of Level 4 Saltpeter.
4,371 units of Level 4 Coal.
4,281 units of Copper Ore.
3,621 units of Silver Ore.
1,821 units of Gold Ore.
In addition, there were 3,921 units of various Level 4 rare ores, one Level 4 Molten Crystal, and one Level 4 Shadow Crystal.
"This time we've truly had our fill," Li Ye thought.
The sheer abundance of mineral resources within the Stone Mountain Range had completely exceeded his expectations.
By now, the Tomorrow Alliance had thoroughly stripped the Stone Mountain Range of its mineral wealth.
Not only that, they still had a considerable stockpile of unused metal resources.
Once they returned to Home Island, Li Ye would still need to purchase another batch of copper, silver, and gold ore.
After all, every unit of a Level 4 vehicle component required not only one unit of Level 4 Iron Ore, but also one unit each of copper, silver, and gold ore.
Li Ye opened the System Panel.
The new round of intelligence had already refreshed.
【1. The Level 4 human assault-type Mobile City "Emperor" has fallen during battle against a United Sect Mobile City battle group.】
【Intelligence Value: Ordinary】
【2. Within the Level 1 region "Hill Zone" in the southern corner of the Ruins Continent, there exists an Old World human civilization city fortress.】
【Intelligence Value: Excellent】
【3. The Fertile Earth Continent contains a total of forty-nine regions. Its average regional level is 2.9, while its highest regional level is Level 5.】
【Intelligence Value: Rare】
【4. The Stone Elemental Civilization has a 35% chance of successfully defending the Bedrock Abyss.】
【Intelligence Value: Outstanding】
【5. Several minutes ago, the Emperor Beast "Azgor" awakened. Azgor is a world-class Emperor Beast known as the "King of the Sky."】
【Intelligence Value: Outstanding】
【6. Refreshing...】
【Intelligence Value: Epic】
【7. Refreshing...】
【Intelligence Value: Epic】
After reading the ordinary-grade intelligence, Li Ye sighed softly.
"To be named Emperor... only to have already fallen."
Just as he had previously concluded, there were actually very few Level 3 or higher Mobile Cities surviving in the wasteland.
This had been a Level 4 assault-type Mobile City.
It possessed enormous land, sea, and air combat forces, along with a population numbering in the tens of thousands.
And just like that...
It was gone.
"Speaking of which, the Fertile Earth Continent truly deserves to be called a supercontinent. It actually contains forty-nine regions?"
An average regional level of 2.9 meant that low-level Mobile Cities simply had no chance of developing there.
"There are probably quite a few high-level monster civilizations on the Fertile Earth Continent..." Li Ye pondered.
As for the city fortress mentioned in the second piece of intelligence, he guessed it had been an Old World human project built around an entire city for the purpose of resisting the Great Catastrophe.
"I'll go take a look after reaching the Fertile Earth Continent."
Finally, Li Ye turned to the fifth intelligence report.
The Emperor Beast "Azgor."
This was the second world-class Emperor Beast he had learned about since the World Serpent Jörmungandr.
"I wonder what it actually looks like."
Recalling the enormous chaos Jörmungandr had caused previously, Li Ye's heart skipped a beat.
"Surely this thing isn't going to change the world again...?"
Fortunately, that wasn't something he needed to worry about.
Meanwhile...
At the Leviathan Heart Research Base within the Titan Throne.
The entire base had descended into chaos.
Nearly everyone was scrambling frantically.
The reason...
The awakening of Emperor Beast Azgor.
"My God!" one researcher cried out in despair. "Jörmungandr had only just settled down, and now Azgor has awakened too!"
"Has senior management come up with a response yet? What are the Apocalypse Sect and the Iron Oath Brotherhood saying?"
"What do you mean, what are they saying? We're the first to receive the information—they don't even know yet."
Amid the confusion, the person in charge, Kane, slowly entered.
He walked directly to the display screen and looked at the satellite imagery.
The satellite image showed an enormous cloud formation stretching for over a thousand kilometers above the Antarctic Continent.
Within the clouds, a colossal silhouette appeared and disappeared intermittently.
Looking more closely, the outline resembled a tangled mass of intertwined seaweed.
The view then shifted to the skies above the Antarctic Continent.
The gigantic cloud formation stretched across the sinking continent.
It extended from one horizon to the other, casting undulating shadows across the entire landmass.
Unlike ordinary clouds with soft, cotton-like shapes, this supermassive cloud was a colossal structure composed of countless overlapping waves of clouds.
The lowest layer consisted of pale gray rolling clouds resembling farmland freshly plowed by an invisible giant plow, so heavy they seemed almost within reach.
The middle layer churned with blue-violet anvil clouds, sculpted by stratospheric winds into a colossal dome spanning multiple regions.
At the highest level, wispy clouds composed of ice crystals were torn apart by high-altitude jet streams into countless pale strands resembling flowing hair, refracting sickly iridescent colors beneath the sunlight.
The cloud's edges lacked any clear boundary.
Instead, they existed in a chaotic state somewhere between mist and solid matter.
At times they writhed with the viscosity of asphalt.
At others, they dispersed into billions of spiderweb-like strands of cloud.
Then...
A colossal existence slowly emerged from within.
At first glance, anyone would mistake it for a moving mountain range—
Until the mountain ridges began to move.
Revealing hundreds...
No...
Thousands of burning vertical dragon eyes.
The Emperor Beast...
The "King of the Sky"...
Azgor had appeared.
This Emperor Beast possessed countless dragon heads and necks.
Its primary body was grotesquely enormous and horribly twisted.
Each dragon head possessed a different appearance.
Some were covered in bronze-colored scales, with ghostly green flames dancing within their eye sockets.
Others blazed like living lava.
Some were completely encased in frost and shrouded within raging snowstorms.
Several dragon heads had already aged beyond recognition.
Their heads and necks still bore scraps of flesh and exposed white bones—
Evidence that they had been devoured by stronger dragon heads.
Others had only recently emerged from the flesh itself.
Still wrapped in translucent embryonic membranes, they emitted shrill cries like the wailing of newborn infants.
Across Azgor's deformed central body, hundreds of newly born dragon heads continued sprouting from branching flesh.
They bit one another.
They devoured one another.
Whenever one head was bitten off, an entirely new dragon head immediately regenerated from the wound.
To be perfectly honest...
Anyone who saw Azgor's true form would probably lose an enormous amount of SAN.
Compared to it...
That gigantic serpent actually looked rather pleasant.
As a world-class Emperor Beast, Azgor had perfected the use of its Biological Field.
It could create an entirely separate dimension that belonged solely to itself, hiding deep within it.
Just like Jörmungandr, Azgor was an existence that caused enormous headaches for world-class organizations.
Whether human...
Or monster.
This Emperor Beast possessed the power to manipulate the world's climate.
In other words...
If it wished...
Anywhere in the world could be filled with wind, rain, or thunder.
It could create superstorms.
Super hail.
Super droughts.
It could manipulate atmospheric currents to generate countless gigantic tornadoes.
It could even trigger an Ice Age capable of destroying the planet's entire ecosystem.
And...
This was merely one of Azgor's abilities.
The colossal cloud formation enveloping its body had been created solely to conceal its true form.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Azgor was its countless dragon heads.
According to the Titan Throne's preliminary estimates, every one of Azgor's dragon heads possessed an independent consciousness.
Logically speaking, such a world-class Emperor Beast should have possessed an incomprehensibly chaotic mind.
Yet surprisingly...
Azgor consistently displayed astonishing unity.
One member of the Emperor Council therefore concluded that somewhere within Azgor's primary body existed a super neural center—
Or, more simply...
A super brain.
This super brain was responsible for processing and coordinating the thoughts of every dragon head.
Following that line of reasoning...
As long as someone attacked and destroyed Azgor's primary body, the Emperor Beast would perish.
Reality, however, was nowhere near that simple.
Only world-class organizations possessed the capability to accomplish such a feat.
Meanwhile, humanity and the monsters had spent countless years locked in both open and covert conflict.
Whenever one side wished to eliminate Azgor, it first had to consider the other side's reaction.
Therefore, before confronting a world-class Emperor Beast, the world-class organizations of both humanity and the monsters generally had to reach a consensus.
Fortunately...
That process was much easier than one might imagine.
After all, world-class Emperor Beasts were common enemies of both humans and monsters.
More than a century ago, the world-class organizations of both sides had briefly united and worked together to kill a world-class Emperor Beast that had been wreaking havoc across the world.
That battle had greatly intimidated the remaining Emperor Beasts.
As a result, they had become much more restrained afterward.
Naturally...
Both humanity and the monsters had paid a tremendous price.
In a sense...
World-class Emperor Beasts constituted an independent major power within the world's balance of forces.
Somewhere within the Ruins Continent...
The Heaven's Chosen Had seemed to sense something.
Its expression changed slightly as fear surfaced in its eyes.
The gigantic avian beast, standing hundreds of meters tall and normally proud beyond measure, slowly lowered its body in submission.
At the same moment...
Azgor lowered one of its countless heads slightly and released a deep growl, accepting Had's act of obeisance.
After all...
The sky belonged to it.
Although Had had always been arrogant and domineering, before Azgor it appeared exceptionally respectful and humble.
Even obedient.
In truth...
Even Emperor Beasts had their own way of dealing with the world.
They even understood social etiquette.
