Defiance of the Fall

Zac glanced at Vilari and felt the spiritual nudge that confirmed she'd set up a mental network for their group. Petrus' voice immediately appeared in his head.

'The Havarok Empire only has one Monarch in Zecia as far as we know, and he should be stationed with the second field army. I doubt this is a premeditated ploy. We could have been sent anywhere. The Havarok shouldn't have enough pull to set up such an elaborate plot.'

'Not premeditated,' Zac emphasized.

'You always have to be careful. Just your fancy equipment might give birth to greed in some commander's heart.'

'We knew that going to the frontline as sealbearers comes with unavoidable risks. This shouldn't be any different,' Vilari added.

Zac knew Vilari was right. People would be eyeing him and his people no matter which battlefront they visited. Not even the threat of invasion could curtail the greed in some people's hearts.

At least there hadn't been any rumors of Monarchs targeting the young, snatching their seals. The System's unspoken rules and the risk of ending your faction's fate with the Left Imperial Palace acted as safeguard. There were even stern warnings for such actions in the public bounties. That didn't guarantee anyone's safety, but Zac felt they had enough measures in place to deal with any insider threat.

Zac wasn't worried about any Hegemons. His armies were strong enough to tear even Peak Hegemons apart if they spared no expense. Just his Hegemons throwing out a bunch of D-grade Talismans would probably do the trick as long as it wasn't a top-tier Heaven's Chosen. As for Monarchs… Well, he did have two lifesaving graces from Sendor hidden within his bodies.

"Ah damnit," Tussar swore. "I can't help you transfer, but I'll tag along and make sure you don't get the short end of the stick. I can't let you newbies run onto the battlefield blind."

"So what do we do?"

"For now, nothing," Tussar said. "Your people are still being sent through the battlefront array. We can use that as an excuse to let others take the lead."

"When does the operation start?"

"Any second now," Tussar said.

The city had already come alive. An endless stream of warriors emerged from the huge barracks and rushed toward a gathering spot on the platform's opposite side. They stayed put while Tussar gave a crash course of fighting on the front and the situation in the Sixteenth Field Army.

Reading a bunch of redacted reports back on Earth couldn't compare to the practical experience of a seasoned veteran, and Zac learned a lot. Even Petrus looked at the old warrior with respect after a few minutes. Most important were the unspoken rules and hidden hierarchies within the Field Army.

The Havarok Dynasty had the official responsibility for this region, but it turned out that less than a fourth of the Everfast Army came from the Havarok Empire. It used to be higher, but so much new blood had joined over the past month. The Havarok were still influential, with most generals present at the highest levels, but they couldn't act as they wanted.

For instance, activating the Space Gate required the go-ahead from multiple parties, including the Alliance Headquarters. Tussar even said it was entirely possible that another C-grade Cultivator than the Everfast Monarch would oversee the mission.

Some Monarchs were constantly on the move, looking for openings on the other battlefronts or even in the depths of the Million Gates Territory. Even those who were officially stationed in a region might be elsewhere. Their names alone were a deterrent, making the Kan'Tanu leery about going all-in. The Everfast Monarch might be gone, but he might also be waiting for the cultists to reach too far and overexpose themselves. They were like Shroedinger's nuclear warheads.

The old Hegemon only had time to go over some surface information before there was a change. The streets of the continental plateau lit up with blue light, forming a shockingly large array. Similar scenes could be spotted on the neighboring barges.

A monstrously condensed beam shot out from each vessel, converging on a singular spot in space. It was hundreds of miles away, yet Zac's hair stood on end upon feeling the shocking amounts of energy that had been gathered. Unsurprisingly, space quickly buckled. It clearly wasn't a simple attack, though, as a huge portal appeared instead of a spatial tear.

The azure beams lost some of their intensity, but they didn't dissipate. They resembled tunnels of light leading into the gate, and it didn't take more than a few seconds before the first group of warriors were sent through. Dozens of ships turned into streaks of light and entered as well. The operation had begun.

Another alarm blared through the city, and Tussar grunted. "That's it, can't stall any longer. Follow me."

The expanded Acheron Company had already passed through the Battlefront Array. Zac gave the call, and his enormous army set out. The city turned into a blur as they stepped onto the glowing streets, and Zac realized it was outfitted with a space-contracting array like Twilight Harbor. Their army was moving at over fifty times their original speed, reaching the platform's other side in no time.

There were hundreds of races gathered at the platform's far end, a sea of people waiting with somber faces. Every few seconds, one of six city-sized platforms lit up, sending the army atop it through the pillar of light. A group of administrators adjusted a complex array tower between each batch before reactivation.

"What's that?" Zac asked with a low voice.

"Calibration Array. Can't send everyone to the same place, or they'd have to stack you until you formed a mountain of flesh," Tussar explained. "It's a big battle. It'll cover dozens of planets, at least. One or two should be the main targets, while the other battles are distractions or preventing reinforcements from arriving. We're locking down a whole region."

Zac nodded, silently observing the proceedings as they quickly moved closer to one of the platforms.

"Do you have some greeting gifts?" Tussar suddenly asked with a hushed voice.

"Ah?"

'Bribes,' Tussar explained with a mental message. 'I'll try to have the controllers send us to one of the less dangerous spots. Or at least not mess with you because of the deadies in your ranks.'

Zac inwardly sighed but handed over a Spatial Ring with some D-grade Natural Treasures.

"Damn," Tussar swore, his eyes wide upon scanning the contents. "Should've become a shipwright."

"Didn't save me from being sent here," Zac smiled, realizing he might have overdone it.

Their turn was coming up, and Tussar approached the somber-looking man overseeing the randomizer. He looked at Tussar with a frown, but both smiled like they were old friends after exchanging a few words. Zac couldn't hear them, but his scouts transmitted their words.

Tussar simply mentioned that he was caring for newcomers, and it would be a shame if they ruined an important mission by creating disorder on the important battlefields. The overseer hesitated but happily agreed after scanning the spatial ring. Zac shook his head at the scene. It was simply impossible to curb human nature.

'No mental communication,' Vilari confirmed as Tussar walked back.

Zac only had the chance to bark a few quick orders before the Acheron Company was ushered onto the stage and whisked away.

The transfer was nigh-instantaneous, and their appearance resulted in a spatial explosion that leveled a whole forest. [Verun's Bite] was already in Zac's hand as he soared into the air, but the familiar grip of his old companion wasn't enough to sweep away the fear in his heart as he looked at the scene around him. Only one word could convey the vast, earth-shattering battle already raging in every direction.

Armageddon.

Flashing lights illuminated a twilight continent filled with vaguely tainted energy. The sky rumbled like a thunderstorm, yet there was not a single cloud above. The source was an intense battle in the sky. Zac didn't have any skills that would let him see the details, but he knew each flash of light represented an attack at Early D-grade or higher. And the spatial ripples indicated new Cosmic Vessels joined the fray every second.

The sky was full of smaller eruptions of power where Alliance Hegemons clashed with either cultists or manmade calamities made from enormous Heart Curses. Most chaotic was the war raging on the surface. There were everything from clashes between armies dwarfing the Acheron Company to smaller engagements taking place all around them. Their side had the advantage in some regions but barely held on in others.

The chaos was unrelenting, and it was getting worse by the second. How could he possibly lead his people through this meatgrinder? Unfortunately, Zac barely had time to take in the deadly tapestry before his mind screamed of danger.

"Defend!" Zac roared, his voice empowered by urgency and Cosmic Energy.

A talisman had already appeared in his hand, and torrential amounts of Divine Energy poured into it. A golden bridge appeared before him, blotting out a huge swathe of his army. It barely formed in time to intercept a purple pillar of destruction that descended from above. Spatial tears spread in every direction as the D-grade talisman blocked the unrelenting force of the ambush, and the region shook from the collision.

It wasn't enough.

The bridge shattered before Zac could activate another, having only partly exhausted the attack. Dozens of purple splinters pierced toward the ground, each filled with the force of a D-grade attack. There wasn't nearly enough time to erect the War Machines. Still, an early warning and great discipline allowed the defenders of the Acheron company to erect a series of barriers and blockades.

Even then, the rampant energy reaped thousands of lives before it was exhausted. Zac was furious, but there was nothing he could do to exact vengeance because the attack came from outer space. Zac's enhanced vision could barely make out a small dot, which could either be an orbiting Array Tower or a Cosmic Vessel. It had targeted them the moment they appeared through the group teleportation.

They weren't the only ones hit. Zac had noticed a dozen streaks crashing onto the ground. Each was like the descent of a sun, destroying everything in a huge region. Whatever had attacked them was not the strongest defense prepared by the Kan'Tanu, and not even Zac felt confident of his survival chances against some of the blasts he saw.

As expected, the result was devastating. The weaker armies had lost large chunks of their men, and Kan'Tanu was already swarming toward them to take advantage of the chaos. Thankfully, no second salvo followed the first. Such powerful attacks should need charging time, and their side's Cosmic Vessels were already launching a counter-attack. But they couldn't just sit around and hope for the best.

"Spread out and activate the formations!" Zac roared, and he sensed hundreds of commands rippling through his army through a mental network.

"Incoming!" another voice boomed through the region, and Zac turned to Rhuger far in the distance.

A sea of building-sized tendrils had burst through the ground and rippled toward them like a tsunami of twisted flesh and sin. It resembled a Kan'Tanu War Array, but Zac could tell it was part of something far bigger. The whole world they stood on was inflicted with a curse, drawing energy from the World Core itself. No matter which direction he looked, Zac saw various facets of the Heart Curse.

World's Blight.

Zac had read about the method in reports but never encountered it while fighting in the graded battlefields. On the surface, it resembled the Realignment Arrays of the Undead Empire, but it shared more similarities with the low-grade Heart Curses of the Kan'Tanu war slaves.

World's Blight was a parasite, and this planet would rapidly be drained to fuel its growth. The world might be Early D-grade now, but it would likely be F-grade within a few decades. The Kan'Tanu would never do something so destructive to their homeworlds, but what did they care about the frontier planets in the Zecia sector? This way, the Alliance Army wasn't just facing the Kan'Tanu defenders but the world itself.

The bloody tsunami teemed with spatial energy, and an army matching theirs in size poured out of nowhere. They moved toward the Acheron Company with great momentum, but Zac still felt them the lesser of the dangers they faced. The army was decently equipped, but Zac didn't sense any deadly threats from within.

Zac was more worried about the threat above, but he breathed in relief upon seeing a blinding flash in the sky. It looked like a purple star igniting, but it was actually their attacker exploding after being hit by a very familiar beam—the main cannon of a Starflash Cosmic Vessel.

The immediate and overwhelming chaos had far surpassed Zac's expectations, but there was no time to worry about anything but the most immediate threat. The tide of Kan'Tanu was already about to ram into the defensive line formed by his soldiers. The vast gore cascade had visibly withered after summoning such a huge army, but it acted as a wallbreaker against the Acheron Company's protective barriers.

Screams and explosions filled the air as the Atwood Empire joined the mayhem. The familiarity of life-and-death struggle helped settle the soldiers after being thrown into the thick of it, and Zac was the same. Over twenty Hegemons had emerged from the Kan'Tanu party, making a beeline for his warriors while burgeoning with power.

Zac shot forth to deal with the leader and his assistants while familiar faces emerged from his ranks. Soon, their situation mirrored those around them, where desperation and killing intent formed a tangible storm.

The Kan'Tanu leader conjured dozens of bloated heads staring down at his army, their eyes radiating malevolent light. The skill resembled the large avatar of the lipless Aural Cultivator Zac fought in the Void Star, though Zac could sense the Daos of Water and Poison within. Poison Masters, especially, were a huge threat to lower-rank cultivators, so Zac immediately activated his skills.

A vast forest of twisting trees appeared before the cultist could unleash his strike. Not two trees were exactly alike, but most were over ten meters tall and had large crowns with either silver or golden leaves. Together, they formed a dense canopy that blotted out the stellar battle above. The trees grew out of thin air, their roots disappearing into golden scars, creating a magical, floating forest.

The scene could have been mistaken for a vision of paradise at first glance, but it was clear the forest was not a blessed land. A sharp and ruthless aura radiated from the plant life, like each tree was a general of a hundred battles. Their fierce emanations were so strong that one's perception could easily shift, making one think you were looking upon huge axes with gleaming blades.

Some Kan'Tanu had managed to move out of the way, but the leader and four more Hegemons were trapped within. The demonic faces opened their mouths just as the forest had been conjured, spewing a torrential downpour of sin. The other Hegemons similarly unleashed attacks, though only two used D-grade skills.

Judging by their mottled auras, Zac guessed at least half the Hegemons of the opposing army had forced their way into the D-grade through taboo means. In other words, they weren't part of the Kan'Tanu elite chapters. The realization allowed Zac to relax and fully focus on his targets, knowing his subordinates could handle the rest.

Poisoned water, infernal flames, and a river of conjured weaponry swept through Zac's forest. Some of their power was aimed at Zac, while most targeted the ground. It was an attempt to create some havoc and nudge the war in their favor before dealing with Zac. However, it was as though the trees had eyes and a desire for battle as they moved to intercept the attacks.

They moved according to a mysterious pattern that would seem random to most outsiders, but Zac felt the echo of the trajectories he'd observed in his Soul Core. Echoes of the Dao of Life, based on the trajectories his Life-attuned Outer Cores had before he reached Minor Sublimation. However, there was also a warlike purpose in their movements, where Conflict joined Life to form something greater.

The whole forest moved in accordance with the Evolutionary Stance.

The trees blocked everything, even absorbing the poisoned liquid without letting a single drop escape. A few dozen trees collapsed, but most survived the onslaught with just scarred trunks or withered canopies. Meanwhile, dangerous auras seeped out from the trees hit by the Kan'Tanu's attacks.

Streaks of light shot out from their tree crowns, moving toward the floating heads and the Hegemons themselves. One moment, the streaks looked like all kinds of primordial beasts, their fangs and claws bared at their targets. The next, they were deadly arcs of axe light, not two identical.

A few demonic heads were instantly ripped apart, spewing a seemingly impossible amount of tainted blood into the surrounding trees. Flames were suppressed, the sword river dimmed, and the E-grade skills crumbled, exposing the attackers to the onslaught. The situation rapidly descended into a state of madness where the jungle grew increasingly hostile to everything within.

The Kan'Tanu were quickly forced into a passive state thanks to Zac's Daos and attributes clearly surpassing his foes. The weakest Hegemon already sported a grievous wound across his chest after an unpredictable strike snuck past his defenses. And their situation would only grow worse from here on out.

They had entered the [Apex Jungle], where even the strongest predator would become prey.

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