Chapter 397: Keep Killing!

Coming from opposite directions on the horizon, space began to distort and tear apart in violent waves.

Amid continuous spatial fluctuations, two colossal armies emerged in the air. Tens of thousands of Sages marched in formation, bringing with them a true apocalyptic tide.

Right behind them, a colossal black wave of Specters advanced at a certain distance like a tsunami, filling the skies with distorted roars.

Upon witnessing that terrifying scene, the core disciples of the Ironweald Sect felt as if their souls were about to leave their bodies. Terror paralyzed them. It became crystal clear to everyone that this was a coordinated and malicious maneuver: those two armies wanted to use the horde to completely wipe them out!

However... while terror dominated the defensive line, Nise turned toward Dandara and Priam’s six Generals.

She expected to see hesitation or concern. Instead, she found everyone’s eyes glowing with an almost sickening bloodlust.

At that moment, the communication tablet in Dandara’s hands emitted a quick signal. Priam’s voice resonated through the device, calm and indifferent:

"Everyone is cleared to go all out."

Dandara burst into laughter and turned toward the other six Generals.

"You heard the Boss! The show has finally started! Kill them all!"

They took a deep breath in unison. The next second, a majestic and overwhelming golden light erupted from their bodies, rising like divine pillars that reached the clouds.

The core disciples froze, becoming completely catatonic. The suffocating pressure emanating from that light was unmistakable.

’C-Celestials?! All of them?!’ The disciples’ minds simply stopped functioning.

Without wasting a single millisecond, Shione, Flaris, and Lumiere waved their hands.

Five small spheres of radiant light appeared, floating around each of them. They were their spirit partners. Now that they had advanced to the Sage level, the number of partners they could have had increased drastically. Their limit was two dozen, but it took time to get used to and train each new ally; therefore, they only had five each for now.

"KILL!"

With a unified roar, Shione, Flaris, and Lumiere shot forward like bolts of light toward the army approaching from the left. The other two Generals advanced right behind them, providing support for the offensive.

At the same time, Dandara stepped forward.

An aura of extremely dense black miasma suddenly covered her body, taking the shape of a long, dark dress. The color of her hair lost all its shine, turning pitch black, while her eyes took on a macabre blood-red hue.

It was as if she had completely become another person.

"!"

Nise’s and the other three members of the Sacred Families’ eyes widened.

That was because all of them had read countless accounts of the power of the Sovereign Goddess in the past. Whenever she became furious, she completely transformed into something very, very similar to Dandara’s transformation.

’That can only be a coincidence, right?’

They all thought the same thing at once. Right afterward, another absurd possibility crossed their minds.

’Could it be that the Sovereign Goddess left behind a much greater legacy than the sect possessed, hidden somewhere else?’

Back to the battle.

Dandara alone charged directly toward the army on the right—tens of thousands of Sages—crossing the distance in the blink of an eye.

"Come at me, you worms! Let’s see if you can defend against this!" she taunted with an insane smile, appearing just a few meters from the enemy vanguard.

With a flick of her wrists, her three daggers shot forward like ballistic missiles.

*Blinding Break!*

The dense miasma intertwined with the blades, merging with the power of her three elements into a single devastating technique.

**KBOOOOOOM!**

The resulting impact was similar to a nuclear explosion. A mushroom cloud of energy rose into the air, swallowing the enemy vanguard and catching everyone by surprise.

"Come! Come some more!" she laughed amid the chaos.

On the other side of the battlefield, Shione and Flaris collided with the second army, unleashing their most devastating attacks without holding anything back.

Shione channeled Primordial Ice fused with pure Soul Power.

Flaris unleashed her Yin Flames, likewise combined with pure Soul Power.

The enemy Sages widened their eyes as they saw two gigantic waves of power advancing like unavoidable storms.

"DEFEND! FULL BARRAGE!"

The enemy commanders roared desperately. Thousands of Sages activated their Essence of Creation simultaneously, raising runic shields and elemental barriers to stop the advance.

**BOOOOM!**

The collision made the air crack with deafening sounds. Indeed, the vanguard managed to withstand the first impact, but...

*GATES OF HELL!*

Lumiere’s cry echoed through the skies immediately afterward. Her Yang Flames, imbued with pure Soul Power, descended like a scorching sun crashing directly onto the heads of the enemy forces.

Right after a maximum defense, this even stronger attack made them explode.

In mere seconds, both armies that had marched to crush the Ironweald Sect were met head-on by an offensive that would make any expert tremble in terror.

The reality of the situation was insane. Dandara, Shione, Flaris, and Lumiere were only early-stage Enlightened Sages. On the other side, nearly two-thirds of the invading forces were composed of Philosopher Sages—an entire realm above them!

Even so, the offensive power of those four Celestials going all-out was destructive enough to obliterate Philosopher Sages with extreme ease if they were hit head-on.

If the enemies had known this from the beginning and hadn’t underestimated them, it would’ve been relatively simple to break formation, dodge, and fall back. However, everyone there was an "elite genius" from their respective sects, blinded by the conviction that they could crush any attempt at resistance from these lower-Rank figures.

The result of that arrogance was catastrophic.

In a single engagement, half of both armies were instantly wiped out, while the other half was sent flying through the air, severely wounded and covered in blood.

"COME! GIVE ME YOUR POINTS! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Dandara’s manic laughter echoed through the skies as her figure became a dark blur, tearing through Sages as if they were nothing more than scarecrows in a cornfield. Enveloped in her miasma, with her blood-red eyes blazing, she looked like the very embodiment of a goddess of death, reaping souls without the slightest mercy.

On the other side of the battlefield, the scene was no different.

After unleashing their ultimate attacks, Shione, Lumiere, and Flaris temporarily fell back to recover the energy they had spent. Unlike Dandara, they couldn’t immediately continue the offensive.

But it was the perfect moment for Sallya, Daraen, and Inigo to take over the front line. The three Generals charged forward with everything they had, unleashing a brutal massacre against the destabilized enemy vanguard.

However, the invading force wasn’t made up of ordinary soldiers alone. Mixed into those two armies were around fifty Acquired Celestials.

Some of them had been disintegrated by the initial energy explosion, but they all managed to regenerate quickly. Furious and humiliated, those Celestials tried to organize a desperate counterattack.

However, against Priam’s Generals—whose abilities, techniques, and teamwork were flawless—their attempt at retaliation was crushed without mercy. They were beaten, mutilated, and forced to retreat in complete disarray.

The Battle of Sages lasted only a few minutes before the tsunami of Specters chasing the troops finally crashed into their rear.

Seeing the black wave of monsters approaching, Dandara turned toward the disciples of the Ironweald Sect.

"ADVANCE! There are still two spots left in the Top 10 for you guys! Keep killing! Whoever accumulates the most points will get the grand prize!"

An excited roar tore through the army of the Ironweald Sect.

If Dandara and the Generals had already seemed imposing before, now, with the revelation of their true powers, it had been proven that Priam wasn’t the only monster in that sect.

Tens of thousands of Sages lay dead. When the storm of Specters swallowed their shattered rear lines, the battlefield became a true hell for those arrogant fools who had come from afar.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Priam’s faction advanced in offensive formation, creating a true corridor of death.

At this point, the only surviving high-value targets in the two rival armies were the Acquired Celestials. Thus, the Generals focused exclusively on hunting them down one by one, while the Ironweald Sect’s army held back the flood of Specters.

Now, the number of enemies was insane. The number of targets that had to be eliminated had tripled, pushing the danger of the battle to a critical level.

...

While chaos reigned on the front line, only a few minutes had passed.

The spatial portal had finally stabilized, and the seven remaining Spectral Generals once again began forcing their way through with all their strength.

However, the two Sages behind Priam had gone completely pale after receiving desperate calls for help through their communication plates.

They were being wiped out!

In a panic, they looked at the Rank to confirm what was happening...

1st Priam – Ironweald Sect

2nd Dandara – Ironweald Sect

3rd Lumiere – Ironweald Sect

4th Shione – Ironweald Sect

5th Flaris – Ironweald Sect

6th Sallya – Ironweald Sect

7th Daraen – Ironweald Sect

8th Inigo – Ironweald Sect

The top eight positions now belonged exclusively to the Ironweald Sect!

By slaughtering thousands of Sages, Priam’s Generals had plundered half of all the kill points they had accumulated. Just seven people acquiring points from thousands of high-level figures had resulted in this.

Absolute despair took hold of the pair. With trembling hands, they slowly turned toward Priam.

Priam looked at them with a calm, friendly smile.

"Do you understand the consequences of your actions?"

"Y-YOU... YOU DEMON!" the woman exclaimed, her eyes widening in horror. She couldn’t process how quickly everything had fallen apart. There had been no time to react, plan, or retreat.

"Being called a demon is something new for me... well, it’s not like I care."

Priam spoke slowly, his eyes becoming indifferent to everything around him.

"You ordered your armies to do this. As for your soldiers... they could have refused such a vile order, but they chose to proceed. There are no innocents here. So... I don’t care in the slightest about exterminating every last one of them."

Priam locked eyes with the two of them, his aura taking on bloody hues.

"As for the two of you... you can disappear now."

With a smooth flick of his wrist, Priam extended his open hand.

*WOOOOOSH!*

Without giving them any time to react, two devastating beams of Destruction Thunder shot from his fingers. The pair barely had time to register the flash before they were completely swallowed by it.