Chapter 734 - 457: Like Sunlight Through the Dark Night

Chapter 734: Chapter 457: Like Sunlight Through the Dark Night

RUMBLE...

The Final Holy Hall shook violently and began to collapse. Zhou Chen’s vision went black as he was teleported back to the razed Gaia Imperial Palace.

Immediately, he saw the colossal body of the Sea Serpent Emperor Dragon, as immense as a city wall, bearing down on him. He quickly summoned the Dragon-Calling Flute and blew it again, recalling the three Demon Dragon Souls.

As far as the eye could see, the magnificent Gaia Royal City had been completely wiped off the map by the rampage of the three Demon Dragons. All that remained was a vast, flat expanse of ruins.

"Look up," Tang Ling reminded him.

Startled, Zhou Chen quickly looked up. The Black Sun high in the sky had swelled to five times its original size and was spewing pitch-black flames as if about to explode. Anyone could sense the volatile, terrifying Power roiling within it.

The light of the Artificial Sun was suppressed, shrinking violently. The entire World plunged back into profound Darkness, and a bone-chilling cold and despair seeped into every Soul.

High on the mountain of the Holy Hall Church, Lisi Jeanne and dozens of women sang a Holy Song from within a massive golden Magic Array. The solemn Holy Chant spread across Gaia Land, making their lances unstoppable and their shields unbreakable. The soaring melody echoed in the Soul of every listener, bestowing upon them a will of stone.

But as the Darkness descended, the holy chant grew faint, stifled by the encroaching gloom. Blood trickled from the faces of the Saintesses, but they did not stop, defiantly continuing their song. This only accelerated their corruption; the blood flowing from their wounds turned black, and one by one, they collapsed, weak, and were carried away for treatment.

In one corner of the city-state, blood, smoke, and death were the new reality. The army was locked in a desperate battle with invading Abyssal Demons. They threw up street barricades as the roar of gunfire echoed throughout the city. More and more Contamination and Twist poured in, brutally trampling peace and safety underfoot.

Civilians fled toward the few remaining safe zones, their cries of terror echoing through every street. The swelling Fear they produced was a delectable feast that drove the Abyssal Demons into a frenzy.

Some prayed amidst the apocalypse, hoping one of the Gods might save them, but their pleas were answered only by the escalating roar of artillery.

On the corpse-strewn wasteland, battle-scarred soldiers tightened their formation, leaning on one another and gasping for breath. Scalding steam vented from the seams of their Exoskeleton Armor. Their guns had long run dry, and even their Magic-blessed Alchemy Weapons had been hacked dull.

The Defense Barrier of Hundred Herbs City had been breached, and tens of thousands of Abyssal Demons were pouring through. Everyone was now occupied with fending off the invading Demon Fiends; there was no one to spare for reinforcements.

It was a hopeless situation.

A blood-soaked Priest used his last ounce of Power to conjure a guiding flame, holding back the Abyssal Contamination closing in from all sides. In a world plunged into absolute Darkness, this single spark of light was their final comfort.

Facing a seemingly endless horde of powerful enemies, even the most elite, best-equipped troops were numb with exhaustion. The sudden surge in the Black Sun’s power was a crushing blow to their morale.

An unprecedented Darkness shrouded Gaia Land, surrounded on all sides by an inexhaustible sea of monsters. It was as if they had fallen into a terrible Hell, where only pain and death awaited.

The hideous Abyssal Demons shrieked with mockery. As the Black Sun’s Power surged, they too were greatly amplified. Even the once-trivial walking corpses now had hides of bronze and bones of iron, impervious to blade and bullet, to say nothing of the more terrifying and powerful Demons. They lurked in the Darkness, watching the soldiers’ futile resistance with contempt.

"All units—" the one-armed commander ordered grimly, "prepare for self-destruction."

A crimson prompt appeared on their displays. A single confirmation would cause their armor’s power cores to detonate. The explosion was powerful enough to level a one-kilometer radius—a final resort to take the enemy down with them when all else was lost.

"All units, char—" Before the commander could finish, his voice cut off abruptly.

A sound like the world itself shattering boomed from the heavens. A pillar of warm light descended abruptly, tearing the Darkness asunder.

Countless people stared at the sky in disbelief.

The sky had shattered.

Brilliant golden light flooded in through a massive hole, like a surging ocean. The sky fractured like a broken mirror, shattering into countless pieces. Then, myriad beams of light burst through the cracks, descending upon the dark, desperate World.

The light illuminated the cracked earth, the shattered wasteland, the blood-soaked ruins, and the countless dim, hopeless eyes. It brought a warmth that soothed despair, bestowing upon them once more the precious gift of hope.

The exhausted soldiers basked in the light of the Sun, and the gloom and despair in their hearts were swept away. They shouted with excitement, for they saw not only the brilliant sunshine but also the vast, boundless blue sky—and they knew exactly what that meant.

The moment the light of the real World shone upon Gaia Land, the defeat of the Abyssal Legion was sealed. From the mighty Abyssal Spirits, whose power rivaled that of a King, to the lowly walking corpses that could be slain by a common person, all faced the same fate under the light of the Sun: Purification.

Piercing shrieks filled the air as the dense, ocean-like Abyssal Army evaporated at a visible rate, turning to dust and smoke.

[You have completed the Main Quest: King of Gaia!]

[+200,000 Wish Points!]

[You have slain the final boss: "Abyssal Incarnation"...]

[Game Over.]

The prompts appeared before Zhou Chen, and Gaia’s game-like Rules vanished.

But then, within the tyrannical Black Sun, a figure of pure Darkness emerged. It looked down upon Zhou Chen, sending a chill down his spine.

—The Abyssal Incarnation!

"It’s not dead?" Zhou Chen frowned in disbelief.

’The game is over. The prompts were crystal clear: I killed the final boss. But why...?’

"So that’s how it is. I suspect it gradually infiltrated the game’s Rules, seized a portion of its authority, and hid the majority of its being inside the Black Sun. That way, even if its main body died, it could resurrect within the Black Sun and deceive everyone.

"At the same time, it used that authority to change the game Rule to ’Only the Sword of Ten Thousand Kings can slay the boss,’ then waited for the sword to be brought to it. Once someone used the Sword of Ten Thousand Kings to kill it, it would corrupt the sword and seize the Authority over all of Gaia. At that point, Gaia would be completely corrupted, irreversibly transformed into a Hell."

Tang Ling finished calmly, "That was its plan to escape its inevitable demise."

"Correct."

The Abyssal Incarnation lowered its gaze as the Black Sun behind it began to turn. On the ground, countless Abyssal Demons were drawn up by a powerful gravitational force, flung into the sky and fed into the Black Sun like firewood. Then, from all across Gaia, dense plumes of abyssal energy shot skyward—the Abyssal Calamity that lay dormant within its mountains, rivers, and plains.

A torrent of Darkness that had accumulated for over a dozen centuries ascended to the heavens, pouring into the Black Sun. The Abyssal Incarnation’s power skyrocketed, and in the blink of an eye, it was restored to the Demigod Level.

It fixed Zhou Chen with a venomous glare.

If the Sword of Ten Thousand Kings hadn’t been a fake, it could have plunged Gaia completely into Darkness and achieved its Ascension to Divinity. Unfortunately, things hadn’t gone as smoothly as it had planned.

Still, it was content. It had escaped the cage that had imprisoned it for over twenty centuries and attained true freedom. A hitch in the plan was a minor setback.

Amidst the turbulent heavens and earth, the Black Sun spun, spreading a bone-chilling aura in all directions, freezing all creation.

Shrill alarms blared through Gaia’s Satellite Cities and the Stars Association Headquarters in the real world.

Space shattered, tearing open a rift to another World—a dark realm filled with eternal pain and calamity.

The Gate of Hell was thrown open!

As if drawn by a Power from the same source, a pair of cold, merciless eyes from the depths of the dark world glanced toward the mortal realm.

BANG!

Tang Ling knocked Zhou Chen aside. The blow sent him flying at supersonic speeds for over ten kilometers before he crashed heavily to the ground.

Meanwhile, the ground beneath Tang Ling’s feet cracked and splintered. Traces of corruption from the Darkness appeared on her full Battle Armor; the master-forged steel grew mottled and rusted.

’I’ve been targeted by a Demigod Level Abyss Ruler... No, the battle has already begun!’

"A Godslaying Weapon..."

...a cold voice said. "I have long heard of your reputation. Today, I shall see what you are truly capable of."

The next second, a skeletal figure in an ornate black robe, holding a dark Scepter, appeared in midair. The Demigod Level Abyssal Sovereign had forced its way into the mortal world, causing the very heavens and earth to tremble.

"Kill her, and I shall permit you to enter the Dark Realm and grant you a territory of your own," the skeletal figure promised the Abyssal Incarnation, its voice condescending.

Though they were both at the Demigod Level, its power far surpassed that of the Abyssal Incarnation. It was one of the overlords of the Dark Realm.

"Done!" the Abyssal Incarnation agreed without a second thought.

A viscous, ink-black torrent surged from the Black Sun. The Abyssal Calamity erupted, instantly transforming the thirty-kilometer area below into a literal Hell.

The skeletal Abyssal Sovereign raised its Scepter high. A vast concentration of abyssal power gathered around it into a storm. Obscure, malevolent Abyss Curses materialized around the Scepter, weaving a vicious Curse that birthed Abyssal Essence, which then descended mercilessly upon Tang Ling.

[Anti-Abyss Barrier activated... Anti-Curse procedure activated...]

[Procedure ineffective. Curse attack sustained...]

[WARNING! Adaptive Evolution Array overloaded, exceeding operational threshold... WARNING! Adaptive Evolution Array sustaining Contamination... Initiating emergency Purification procedure... Contamination neutralized...]

[ERROR... ERROR... ERROR... Weapon module damaged... Power module damaged... Emergency lockdown of personality system... WARNING... WARNING...]

[Severe Abyssal Contamination detected!]