Chapter 1589 - 1589: Back Then, It Was Just Us

In less than a day, the entire Dragonspire City compound had been put to the sword. More than ten million people were wiped out.

And just like that, the Cathay Republic—once one of the world's dominant superpowers—came to an end.

Unfortunately, aside from the Atlas Federation, nearly every other country had already fallen. Any survivors had become slaves to the Void Realm species. There was no one left to care whether this former superpower lived or died.

Ethan's group thoroughly looted the Dragonspire City compound, finding a large number of low-Tier crystal cores and some useful research data.

Ethan had just stored everything in his spatial ring when Beast Sovereign flew back, cursing under its breath.

"Damn it! He got away. That bastard had way too many escape tricks up his sleeve." Beast Sovereign looked deeply annoyed.

"He got away, so what? We weren't planning to kill him in the first place," Ethan said.

Theron and Beast Sovereign weren't that far apart in strength. It would have been difficult for Beast Sovereign to keep him from escaping.

Even so, Ethan couldn't help feeling disappointed. He'd thought they might gain another top-tier fighter.

Theron genuinely wanted to protect humanity. He would have been well worth recruiting, but in the end, he had fled.

Maybe he thought I was too ruthless and wanted nothing to do with me.

Ethan sighed inwardly.

"Let's go."

With a wave of his hand, he opened another dimensional rift and led the others away from the Dragonspire City compound.

Not long after they left, a figure appeared in the sky above the compound.

Theron stared down at the rivers of blood below, his expression conflicted.

By now, he had realized that these people did not belong to humanity's original bloodline. But they were still human. Why did every last one of them have to die?

He had even planned to visit the Atlas Federation after saving them. If the humans there belonged to the original bloodline, he would have stayed and protected them from then on.

But the sheer brutality of what Ethan had done left him deeply uncomfortable.

"How am I supposed to face all of you after this?"

Theron sighed. In the end, he still stepped forward and flew in the direction of the Atlas Federation.

Not long after he left, the stench of blood attracted countless Beasts.

The sight of so many corpses sent them into a feeding frenzy.

As more and more Beasts arrived, another savage battle erupted over the bodies.

At the height of the fighting, a thousand-foot wave suddenly rose from the Atlantic Ocean, which lay closest to the Dragonspire City compound.

The wave exploded, and a colossal octopus burst into the sky before flying rapidly toward the compound.

Another thunderous blast erupted from the ocean behind it. A massive shark shot into the air and flew after the octopus.

As the two creatures emerged, hordes of marine creatures crawled from the sea onto land and raced toward the Dragonspire City compound.

The moment the two leviathans entered the battlefield, every Beast stopped fighting and fled in all directions.

The octopus's tentacles stretched out in an instant, wrapping around one giant bear after another.

The flesh rapidly vanished from the trapped bears' bodies. Within moments, nothing remained but skeletons.

The enormous shark was no less voracious. It opened its jaws, and a terrifying suction dragged all the nearby Outland Beasts into its mouth.

Its jaws snapped shut, and it let out a satisfied burp.

Before long, the horde of marine creatures arrived and began devouring the corpses covering the ground.

New Atlas

After returning, Ethan handed Miles everything they had recovered from the Dragonspire City compound.

He had already given him the crystal cores they'd collected on Eldoria the day before.

The entire Fallen Star Guard was once again swept up in a frenzy of absorbing the mysterious energy inside crystal cores to raise their Tiers.

They had brought back hundreds of thousands of Stage S crystal cores from Eldoria, enough to raise the Fallen Star Guard's overall strength by another level.

Ethan still had several dozen Stage SS crystal cores and two Stage SSS crystal cores left.

He hadn't decided what to do with them yet.

The two Stage SSS crystal cores were only Tier 41. Using them himself wouldn't make much of a difference, so it would be better to save them for Chris and the others. That way, they could add two more Stage SSS fighters to their ranks.

The problem was that Chris, the strongest among them, was only Tier 39. He still had a long way to go before reaching peak Tier 41.

More importantly, Ethan had over forty Stage SS crystal cores, but only two of them were Tier 41. That wasn't nearly enough to push Chris all the way to peak Tier 41.

And that was the bottleneck.

That left them stuck.

In the end, Ethan could only use the crystal cores on hand to raise Chris to Tier 41 first and worry about the rest later.

Of the remaining cores, he gave three Stage SS crystal cores to Miles. The Tier 37 and higher cores were divided evenly among the others.

Miles was still at peak Tier 35. With a Stage SS crystal core, he could break through directly to Stage SS.

Ethan had originally wanted him to use all three, but after consuming one and advancing to Stage SS, Miles refused to take the others. Instead, he gave them to Vivian and Calvin.

They were the captain and vice-captain of the second unit. Both were peak Tier 35 and formidable fighters in their own right. With the Stage SS crystal cores, they could break through to Stage SS in one go.

Ethan had no objections. Two more Stage SS fighters would certainly help.

Once the crystal cores had been distributed, everyone began absorbing their mysterious energy and raising their Tiers.

That left Ethan with nothing to do.

He headed for the Beast Enclosure behind New Atlas.

Miles had built the enclosure specifically for their pets. It covered an enormous area, complete with green hills and clear water.

A smile appeared on Ethan's face when he saw the groups of pets roaming inside.

There was Pumpkin, who had been with them from the beginning, along with Goldie, Speckles, Nugget, and the other mutant beasts they had tamed over time.

Because of the limitations of their bloodlines, these mutant beasts had long since fallen behind the others in strength. Miles had never abandoned them, though. Wherever the group went, the pets came with them.

Beyond the mutant beasts, more than twenty thousand Flamebirds played among the trees. On the ground below, several white-furred apes were fighting a Glacial Bear.

The white-furred apes truly possessed exceptional bloodlines. Nearly all of them had already reached peak Stage S, and they were holding their own against the Glacial Bear.

The moment Pumpkin saw Ethan, it rushed over excitedly.

The other mutant beasts quickly gathered around him as well.

Ethan stroked Pumpkin's head, his thoughts returning to their days on the university campus.

Back then, the members of Fallen Star Squad had struggled to grow stronger one step at a time, all for the sake of surviving the apocalypse.

Ethan had never imagined that he would one day reach such heights.

But greater power also brought greater responsibility.

Back then, all he'd wanted was to keep Fallen Star Squad alive.

Now the survival of the entire Atlas Federation rested on his shoulders.

The dimensional rifts within the Void Realm passages around the world were drawing closer to opening by the day, and the pressure on him continued to mount.

"I'll make sure the Atlas Federation survives this disaster," Ethan vowed.