Chapter 898: Corpses

Strongest Hammer God

After reading through the information about his predecessors, Kyle read through all of the rules and guidelines.

'They are very strict, as expected,' he thought. 'There's a lot I have to keep track of. Can't talk to anyone who's designated as a Standard Shield without orders. I have to keep mission-relevant conversations as concise as possible. I have to report regularly. I have to kill a certain number of Demons every century unless I have an exception. If I don't kill enough, I have to request a transfer to a more active part of the battlefield!'

'Well, at least I'm not as restricted as Standard Shields. Also, my jobs are actually just what I wanted. If I do it right, I can earn a shitload of Military Merits, which give me access to very useful things. I can basically buy everything in the world with Military Merits. It seems like powerful soldiers are treated very well in Ayuvar.'

'Anyway, enough reading. It's time to work.'

"Black Sin Hammer 37 accepts his designation and mission," Kyle said. "I'm ready to start my duties."

"Black Sin Hammer 37, proceed to Bulwark S-878 and report to Commander Sirius Vult Meristo. Good luck," the Spirit Lord said.

Then, Kyle left the house without saying anything, which was how he was expected to act. At the same time, his emblem was updated with new public and private information. Others could now see that he was on his way to the frontlines, while he could see the details of his mission.

As soon as Kyle left the building, he flew towards the east. According to the map in his emblem, the world was flat and was vertically split into five parts.

The westernmost 10% of the world didn't have a lot of Energy and was a place for Mortals. Any aspiring Seeker in these lands needed to travel east to advance due to a lack of Energy in the west. This westernmost part was called the Outer Edges.

The next 40% of the world was called Ayuvar, which was the same name as the actual Primary World. This was Humanity's domain, and for the entire time Kyle had been here, he had been in this part of the world. During his journey, he had already seen a lot of Ayuvar and how it worked.

East of Ayuvar were the frontlines, which were "only" one million kilometers across, not even a millionth of the width of the entire world. This place was designated as the Corpse Mountains.

Then, there was a gigantic ocean that took up 20% of the world's width. This was the Divide, and it was eerily calm. Due to the constant battles, the Divide rarely had any sea beasts near the surface, but if one went deep into the Divide, one would see countless powerful beasts.

The easternmost 30% of the world was the Abyss, and it was the territory of the Demons. The Demons sent a constant wave of Demons towards Ayuvar in an attempt to eradicate all of humanity. This constant tide of Divine Beasts had been going on for countless years.

The Forward Bases were constructed about a billion kilometers away from the frontlines, while the Fortifications were in the middle of them. Their names also said where they were located.

Fortifications starting with an A were in the very back and rarely saw battle, while Fortifications starting with a Z were directly on the coast of the Divide. The numbers just dictated where the base was located from north to south. The northernmost was one, while the southernmost was over ten thousand.

'I'm assigned to Fort S-878, which means it will be quite busy,' Kyle thought. 'I wonder what it's like on the frontlines.'

As Kyle kept teleporting, he noticed something peculiar.

'There's a lot of Biological Energy in the air,' he thought.

After another teleportation, Kyle saw the source of the Biological Energy.

There was a humongous corpse that was nearly a thousand kilometers long! This thing had the size of a moon!

Instead of skin, scales, or hair, the outside of the corpse was covered in black metallic plates that were almost a hundred kilometers thick. The corpse itself had countless spikes for feet and was quite bulky. In a way, it looked like an armored woodlouse. Yet, there were also several armored heads growing out of its sides with terrifying teeth and blades.

Kyle also saw over a hundred Transcendents hacking away on the corpse, using Formation Arrays to deconstruct and harvest it. After reading all the information in the emblem, Kyle knew what positions these people had.

'When you join Humanity as a Transcendent, your first job is to harvest dead Demons. It shows you the enemy and teaches you about their strengths and weaknesses.'

As Kyle glanced at the corpse, he took a deep breath. 'Sure enough, this is a Divine Beast. You can't really split Divine Beasts into different species since almost all of them are unique in some way. It's better to divide them according to what they can do, how they will act, or what animal they resemble the most.'

'Most likely, this is a Fortified Burrowing Expander. They can shrink their bodies to a tiny size and try to sneak past the frontlines by digging through the ground. If they are spotted, they grow to a tremendous size and storm forward, defending against attacks with their significant defenses.'

'As far as I can tell, this is a Crusher Divine Beast.'

After looking at the corpse for a bit, Kyle continued. Yet, after just one more teleportation, he saw ten corpses. Most of them looked similar to the first corpse. He also saw more people harvesting the corpses.

The blood of the gigantic corpses created rivers that were over a kilometer deep. The plant life mostly consisted of thistles and crooked trees that had adapted to the constant flow of blood.

Another teleportation later, Kyle couldn't see the ground anymore due to all of the blood.

There were over a hundred corpses, and a flowing sea of blood bubbled as it released considerable bursts of Biological Energy.

By now, Kyle had entered the range of the first Fortifications. This was the back of the frontlines.

For just a moment, Kyle paused and looked forward.

'This is the back, and we already have so much blood and so many corpses. I think I know why these are called the Corpse Mountains.'

Kyle teleported again.

This time, he saw over 500 corpses, and he also saw a battle. One of these gigantic beasts had broken out of the ground and kept running towards the west. A team of five Crushers launched a stream of attacks while avoiding the counterattacks of the Demon's many appendages.

The members of the team combined their powers by launching unified attacks, which managed to take kilometer-wide chunks out of the Demon's armor.

Kyle watched as the Demon killed one of the Crushers, but after a couple more attacks, it also fell. The Crusher's corpse was put on top of the Demon's corpse, while a red tarp and an emblem were placed on the Crusher's corpse. The red tarp represented that this person had died for humanity.

An Honorer patrolled this area. They knew where the corpses were due to the emblems. They would douse the corpse in the blood of the Demon that killed them before incinerating them. The majority of their belongings would be handed to their next of kin.

Honorers had a high status in Humanity. Every Honorer had helped Humanity in a plethora of ways before assuming their current position.

The workload of an Honorer was unending since there were simply not enough Honorers to honor all of the corpses.

Kyle released a sigh before teleporting again.

When he reappeared, he had to take a moment to come to terms with what he saw.

A wall of Divine Beast corpses.

An unending stream of blood that would douse all of Earth.

Over 50 fighting teams of Crushers.

Now, Kyle could see with his own eyes why the frontlines were called the Corpse Mountains.

'I'm only in the F-range of Forts right now...'

'I'm assigned to Fort S-878...'

'I can see why all of Humanity is so unified.'

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