The Era of Gods

Chapter 539: Chapter 539: Authority – Blazing Heat

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“Boom!”

A long-prepared explosive fireball hit Lin Xiao’s back, dealing 13 points of damage.

When neither side is willing to give ground, and both harbor secrets, it’s certain that nothing will be gained from asking questions; the outcome would only be determined by personal combat.

Although there’s a huge difference in levels, normally, these Level 70 players would basically be immune to his attacks. But once they were controlled by Yarji, they had essentially become part of Yarji, and since Yarji’s level was two higher than Lin Xiao’s Incarnation, his attacks and spells naturally could hit.

It’s just that the damage…

Under Yarji’s control, hundreds of thousands of Nightmare players in the Underground World grouped within the main city began moving towards him with expressionless faces, abandoning everything in their hands, ignoring the attacks from monsters that spawned along the way.

Lin Xiao soared into the sky, and looking down from mid-air, the scene resembled a zombie siege, these will-less, fearless Nightmare players no different from zombies.

Ascending high, most close combat players couldn’t reach him, leaving only ranged professions to shoot numerous arrows and bombard him with a rain of fireballs and frost arrows from the sky.

These close combat players circled below him several times before suddenly gathering together. Their arms and legs deformed upon touching other players, melding into their bodies. A large number of close combat players crowded together, quickly forming a ball of humanoid creatures fused together, rapidly melting into one huge mass.

Lin Xiao raised his palm, forming a Shield with as high as one million defensive strength to protect himself. From his extended palm, light converged, quickly condensing into a dense orb of holy light. As he reached out and made a grasping motion, holy light spilled from his fingers, the tumultuous Mana fluctuations swelled, and the holy light rapidly expanded into a huge orb. Countless arrows of holy light flew out in all directions.

From a distance, countless arrows of light seemed to shoot in all directions, hitting all the Nightmare players within a five-kilometer radius centered on him. In an instant, thousands upon thousands of damages, each amounting to over two thousand, burst forth.

And this was just the beginning; the holy light arrows that shot out from his orb of light weren’t just a single wave. Three seconds later came another wave, and then after every three seconds, another wave followed, as if endless.

These Nightmare players, the close combatants, had health ranging from twelve to eighteen thousand, while the ranged players usually had less than ten thousand health. Even if controlled by Yarji and granted an enhancement of thirteen thousand life points, it only meant they could weather a few more waves.

At this moment, Lin Xiao felt like he was a boss being raided by players, except the raiding players were too weak and he easily massacred them repeatedly.

It’s worth mentioning that the thirteen thousand life point enhancement granted to these controlled Nightmare players came from the Ancient Treasure effect, because Yarji had used True-Body Descend, the effects of the Ancient Treasures within his Nightmare Realm could extend over here. Therefore, they not only had a high life point enhancement but also high attack, defense, and speed enhancements.

One point of Ancient Treasure Constitution provided a thousand life points and a certain amount of toughness, as well as enhancements to Defense Level and related attributes.

One point of Strength added approximately 10% of physical attack and crit level, attack strength, and so on.

One point of Agility granted a certain dodge level, Moving Speed, and Attack Speed, among others.

One point of Intelligence provided 10% of Spell damage, crit level for spells, and other Spell-related enhancements.

Lin Xiao’s current Ancient Treasure attributes included 20 Constitution, 30 Strength, 20 Agility, and 20 Intelligence. If these could be transferred over, it would be truly terrifying.

But he dared not use True-Body Descend; he didn’t have the guts or means like Yarji did.

But even now, it wasn’t too bad; just a projection of his could directly confront Yarji.

He condensed a total of ten waves of holy light arrows, each wave inflicting damage between two thousand four hundred to two thousand five hundred, totaling almost twenty-five thousand. With just one wave, he cleared out most of the nearby ranged professions, except for a few nearby ones who had healing support or life-saving Skills.

Normally, for a team to be reduced to such a state would be tantamount to a complete wipeout. But Yarji had no shortage of one thing – an abundance of Cannon Fodder under his control, as wave after wave of more Puppets rushed over to besiege him.

Even though the damage was pitifully low, it was overwhelming in numbers.

An assault dealing a dozen or so points of damage, maybe twice or thrice that, can accumulate into a considerable sum when thousands attack at the same time.

After all, he was just a projection with a total life of only a few million.

After massacring four waves in one breath, before the fifth wave began, a giant humanoid Flesh Puppet formed from the fusion of countless close combat players, towering hundreds of meters tall, had already taken shape.

Once they became the Flesh Puppet, the players had vanished, replaced by a super boss with a staggering fifty million life points and terrifyingly powerful Strength.

It didn’t rise into the air; instead, it just aimed a punch from a thousand kilometers away towards Lin Xiao, the Void before him crushed by an invisible force, a circle of transparent spatial distortions rippling outward like waves, his remaining Shield of over four hundred thousand shattered instantly.

At the same time, a tentacle rose up from the distant Nightmare Main City, automatically severed and shot out towards the Flesh Puppet, landing on its body and burrowing in like a snake.

The creature let out a low roar, its flesh rapidly writhing. Tentacles stretched out from the surface of the Flesh Puppet, with large eyes growing on its chest, shoulders, and forehead. A red light rapidly spread out, and the ground began to Corrupt.

“It really is an Ancient gods’ tactic!”

This Corrupt light was terrifyingly powerful, even changing the substance of rocks and soil, corrupting them into a material that was somewhere between stony and living, able to Corrupt any biological matter on the ground into pus and absorb it, forming a mycelium-like substance.Nôv(el)B\\jnn

Every living being within the range of the Corrupt light suffered from both spiritual and physical Corruption and would soon fall into Corrupt Fallen, becoming the minions of the Ancient gods.

Unfortunately for them, this move was useless against Lin Xiao.

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The power of the Ancient gods could affect even the Star Soul, but it couldn’t affect a Titan that had already awakened, even if it was just a projection.

Moreover…

Lin Xiao looked at the Flesh Puppet that had become Yarji’s Incarnation with great interest. To be honest, he quite liked the thing.

So, twisting his neck, he said:

“The game is over!”

With a point of his finger, a voice as grand and authoritative as thunder exploded in this underground space:

“I see, I conquer, I destroy everything!”

“Power, blaze forth!”

In an instant, an indescribable force descended upon this world. The force was so vast and boundless that Yarji felt the whole world pressing down on him, as if all was aflame, the consciousness that had spread out being burnt away and losing contact one by one.

“Who are you exactly?”

Yarji roared in wrath, the enormous Nightmare Main City pulsing as if awakening. Buildings within the city rapidly collapsed, and as the massive city walls at the edges rolled inwards, the Nightmare Main City vanished, transforming into a huge flesh ball that resisted the omnipresent searing burns of the Void.

Stunned, Wind along with several teammates from the stealth team opened their mouths wide, staring at the distant ruins of the Nightmare Main City, faces full of shock. They looked at each other for a long time, opened their mouths to speak, but couldn’t find the words.

They had formed a stealth team with a few other players skilled in stealth, originally accepting a quest to explore the Nightmare players’ main city underground. After much effort sneaking past the Nightmare players below and reaching this place, they hadn’t seen much but had witnessed this scene that would shake them for a whole year.

After who knows how long, a team member asked softly:

“If I’m not mistaken, that should be a Human player just like us, right?”

“Too far to scout, but it looks like it, however…”

In everyone’s minds, there was one thought:

“Since when did the Human Camp have such a supreme master? The strength displayed here, even the esteemed first powerhouse of the Human Camp, the Dragon Emperor, is nothing compared to this, right?”

At this moment, they were full of doubts, with a hundred thousand whys in need of answers, but clearly, no one could give them those answers.

Moreover, at this time, what they were seeing was still hazy. In their eyes, everything in front seems normal, the underground Vault of Heaven still bright, but the Nightmare players underground were falling one after another, rapidly disintegrating into pus, attempting to merge into the ground, yet turning dry and scorched out of thin air. The huge flesh ball in the distance kept having its surface burnt and peeled off layer by layer, scorching and peeling away like a burnt husk as if it was being roasted by an extremely high-temperature Flame.

The power of dominion isn’t something any Spell can resist; it can only be withstood with absolute Strength.

Perhaps Yarji was two levels higher than him, but in terms of actual Strength, Yarji was no match for him at all.

Their current situation was akin to that of a Demigod facing the projection of a True God. Even if it was just a projection of a True God, in terms of understanding the rules, a True God could crush a Demigod, as a sliver of divine power could deliver tenfold or even a hundredfold effect, naturally overpowering a Demigod whose power could only do so much.

In mere seconds, Yarji’s body had shrunk slightly, and the recently congealed Flesh Puppets fared even worse. All the small tentacles that had sprouted from their bodies were burnt off, leaving only a charred humanoid figure kneeling there, unable to move. Flesh buds were still growing on the body surface, but each growth was promptly burnt off, looking quite dismal.

Sensing his own state and the utterly irresistible force, Yarji roared unwilling to accept it:

“How is this possible, are you the True-Body Descend of a True God?”

“Why would the Dominator allow True God Level Powerhouses to descend?”

“I cannot accept this! Dominator save me!”

“Hmm?”

Lin Xiao raised his eyebrows and instinctively retracted all his power, looking up at the empty Vault of Heaven with a cautious face.

But after a good while, he saw no anomalies and didn’t feel the presence of the Nightmare Sovereign descending.

“Good fellow, you scared me!”

Lin Xiao said to Yarji, feeling both annoyed and amused:

“You really are related to the Nightmare Sovereign. Actually, there’s something I’m quite curious about. How did you manage to conceal your True-Body Descend from the two Dominators?”

“Although your True Body is only a Demigod and not a True God, a Demigod’s True Body Descend would start with extremely formidable Strength. With a bit of luck, there’s a great chance of Divine Enthronement in this world. By then, combined with the power of the Nightmare Realm, you could affect the outcome between the two Dominators—and perhaps even further. Isn’t the Nightmare Sovereign worried that you might threaten Them at that time?”