Chapter 146: Steel Cataclysm (3)

The severed hind leg of the metallic behemoth was covered in rust. The entire limb was riddled with fractures that kept splitting and collapsing, sending down showers of debris and dust.

It looked nothing at all like the limb of a pseudo-sovereign monster, but rather resembled a crumbling colonnade from an ancient city ruin that had endured tens of thousands of years of wind and sand erosion, now on the verge of total destruction...

"How can this be... The laws have completely failed... My body as well... This... is impossible..." The giant beast attempted to struggle to its feet, but its four arms suddenly snapped off as well, and its massive torso crashed to the ground, shattering with a resounding crunch like fragile porcelain...

"Ah, I knew it wouldn't be that simple." Ereshkigal sighed as she looked at the scene. "It's the highest-tier Law of 'Time.' Truly terrifying. This is a terrifying law that can transcend 'causality.' Even if it's just a tiny bit of acceleration..."

Zhao Tianhe looked at the disintegrating metallic body with a mixture of emotion, realizing why this particular ceremonial equipment wasn't activated using his own body as a medium like the previous two disposable ones.

His body wouldn't have been able to withstand even one-millionth of the side effects and aftershocks of such a terrifying power.

However, before Zhao Tianhe could finish marveling at the sight, he suddenly realized that he had leveled up!

The Dead Fog Abyss normally yielded a particularly large amount of experience anyway, and this pseudo-sovereign had delivered quite the package, so leveling up was normal. But the problem was, the monster from the Otherworld previously hadn't given him any experience points at all!

"What's going on?" Gelus asked, looking at Ralph and his companion.

"It's very simple. Because this monster entered before yesterday's dungeon reset, it was incorporated into the dungeon system," Ralph explained. "Still, for even a pseudo-sovereign to infiltrate this place... The situation can no longer be described as just bad!"

Zhao Tianhe stepped into the wreckage of the metallic behemoth and rummaged through the debris to find the loot.

Without a doubt, the drop this time was undoubtedly exclusive to Zhao Tianhe.

However, what dropped left Zhao Tianhe completely dumbfounded!

Hand of Guda-ko, Disposable Holy Relic
Method of use: Consume it.

"What the hell, why is it this thing again?! And it looks like the exact same hand!" Looking at the dropped item in his inventory, Zhao Tianhe discovered that not only was its shape identical to the last one, but it was even the right hand once more!

"What is this thing?" Artoria asked with some curiosity, gazing at the item in Zhao Tianhe's hand.

"This... actually, I'm not entirely clear myself." How could Zhao Tianhe dare to tell her that this thing was specifically designed to charm them?

According to Zhao Tianhe's estimation, the primary reason Ereshkigal had a change of heart and decided to assist him in conquering Artoria was most likely the emergence of this hidden anti-Servant attribute. On the other hand, Pixie's secret photography had also stirred up a sense of crisis within Ereshkigal.

Though somewhat reluctant, Zhao Tianhe gritted his teeth and swallowed the item.

"Not a bad taste, kind of like a gummy candy." Zhao Tianhe consumed the Hand of Guda-ko, and simultaneously, the system prompt rang out.

"Repair progress for hidden talent 'Grand Summoner (Incomplete)' initiated, repair progress at 1%."
"Talent skill unlocked: Command Spell (1/3)."

Command Spell: Instantly restores the magic power or health of a subordinate Servant and oneself.
Refilling time: 72 hours.

"Hmm..." Zhao Tianhe felt a hint of regret. To be honest, the two things he wanted most right now were either items or skills that enhanced immediate combat capability, or the anti-Servant charm attribute that could help him win over Artoria and unlock that hidden mode.

After explaining the changes in his body to the others, they returned to the apartment on the island.

"Other dungeons are very likely to have been invaded as well, and the intrusions haven't been discovered yet," Ralph said. "Keep in mind, not every team has a perceptive genius as formidable as Ah-He."

"No, I didn't sense that pseudo-sovereign at all," Zhao Tianhe shook his head and said. "If it hadn't revealed itself voluntarily, I probably never would have noticed it."

"You silly kid, if you could see through pseudo-sovereign-class methods, none of us would be alive right now." Seta patted him on the shoulder with a smile. "Anyway, Ralph and I will go report this to the guild; that carries more weight. Don't wander around aimlessly; there might be major actions coming soon."

Located directly west of the Ink Sea was a continuous range of mountains.

The vegetation growing within this mountainous region was not ordinary foliage, but rather a bizarre flora covered in fiery red leaves.

Occasionally, when a leaf detached, it would instantly ignite and transform into a ball of blazing flame.

Deep within the mountains lay a massive basin, inhabited by a race of monsters.

They had built a sprawling cluster of cities within this basin, possessing a brilliant civilization.

In the official records of the Divine Council, their name was Fire Fiend!

Inside the colossal Fire Fiend imperial palace, a stalwart and robust man knelt on the ground. Instead of hair, his head was crowned with a raging, purple-red inferno.

He wore heavy deep-purple armor, and his massive physique exuded an astonishing aura.

Behind him, across the enormous plaza outside the palace, stood a massive altar.

A large volume of dark purple liquid was flowing along the drainage channels of the altar into a gigantic magical array spread across the surrounding ground.

Centered around the altar, this massive magical array emitted faint pulses of purple light. Within that purple light, twisted faces would occasionally surface, looking inexplicably bizarre and eerie.

At this moment, throughout the entire Fire Fiend basin, every city possessed such a massive altar and magical array.

"Great Hardened One, I have already followed the instructions of the Holy Lord 'The Undying,' sacrificing eighty thousand citizens to activate the 'Calamity Fire Fiend,'" the stalwart man said expressionlessly. "Please show mercy; we are willing to submit and become the loyal servants of the Great Hardened One for all eternity!"

"Servants?" On the throne, a humanoid creature with a jet-black metallic body propped its chin on its hand and said leisurely. "You soft creatures were always meant to be our slaves—pitiable organisms that ought to be eliminated, permitted to survive only through our mercy. Things like the Calamity Fire Fiend will be deciphered very soon, so you must launch it a second time."

The kneeling man clenched his right fist tightly and shuddered slightly, but that was all. He—or rather, it—had no choice.

As the king of the Fire Fiend race, it had fallen into despair.

Those overwhelming metallic monsters were simply not something their race could withstand. Aside from following orders as agreed and gambling on whether the enemy would show mercy and grant the Fire Fiend race a sliver of a chance to cling to survival, there was nothing else it could do.

"As you command!" The Fire Fiend King lowered its head even further.

"Very well. Next, you shall lead the vanguard charge. You must stall a heavyweight powerhouse; otherwise, the infiltration squad might face total annihilation," the jet-black metallic humanoid said. "The defense system established by the soft creatures of the Divine Council is extremely solid and flawless. There are no weaknesses from the outside; only by moving from the inside out is there any possibility of easily shattering it."

"Come to think of it, you seem to be the strongest faction among the natives around here. Hmm, someone like you should make a suitable bait," the jet-black metallic humanoid smiled as it spoke. "Fight to the death, Fire Fiend King, or your entire race will be thoroughly eradicated by the army of the Hardened Ones."

"...As you command!"

Meanwhile, within the Endless Sea garrison's mage department, a researcher mage watched the conditions in the experimental waters with pleasant surprise.

In the previously crystal-clear seawater, pale-red mist-like particles were slowly spreading.

"Was it really that simple?" A female mage nearby said with a mix of laughter and tears. "It was actually about 'color'?"

Yes, after extensive experimentation, the mage department finally discovered that the unknown causality spell targeted the "color" of the algae!

As long as it was the previous ink-green magical sea algae, they would all inexplicably perish, lose their functional capabilities, and gradually fade and die. However, as long as the color was changed, there was no problem at all.

"From now on, we shall call this place the Crimson Sea. Quite a grave name, all things considered," a male mage shrugged and laughed.

The Ink Sea crisis was resolved. Of course, the name of the place remained unchanged—regardless of whether the seawater was red or green, it was still called the Ink Sea.

On the other side, outside the vegetation barrier to the west, the Fire Fiend King looked at the massive jungle before it, where every single tree soared over a hundred meters high, and an involuntary sense of insignificance welled up in its heart.

This jungle had been meticulously designed by Elven Archmages and was named the "Jungle of Broken Halberds." Although it looked like a dense forest of ordinary magical vegetation, it was actually connected to the earth's veins through its root system, forming a flawless grand array.

The moment one stepped into the perimeter of this jungle, one would directly enter a different spatial dimension—regardless of whether one approached from the ground, the air, or underground.

Every ten kilometers constituted a sector, and any entity stepping into this range would be teleported directly before a War Treant Fortress located within the pocket dimension, receiving a baptism of firepower from the garrison forces!

Furthermore, every War Treant Fortress was equipped with teleportation arrays, allowing various supplies, garrison forces, and peerless powerhouses to be transported between them at any moment.

It could be said that this array had no flaws. Aside from breaking through it with absolute firepower supremacy, there was no other way.

The Fire Fiend King, having previously fought against the Divine Council, naturally knew how formidable this array was.

Even the metallic creatures known as the "Hardened Ones," which had conquered their race, found themselves quite troubled when facing this array.

While they believed they could overwhelm this formation using human-wave tactics, the losses would be too immense and unnecessary.

Thus, they had ordered the Fire Fiend race to use the sacrificial altar to trigger the "Calamity Fire Fiend," a technique that could truly be called a taboo of their race.

Just the name made it clear that this was a spell of absolute devastation, costing the lives of eighty thousand clansmen with a single activation. It was a top-tier spell that must never be launched unless the nation and race were facing the brink of extinction.

Yet now, the Fire Fiend King had no choice but to use the lives of its own people to act as a lapdog for others.

There was no help for it; the Hardened Ones were simply too strong!

According to its estimation, the faction of the Hardened Ones possessed a massive military might capable of fully contending with the Divine Council on equal footing.

As for the tribes living along the outer coasts of the Endless Sea, they had long been forced to pray that the Divine Council wouldn't have the spare bandwidth to deal with them, especially since that bizarre forest was too expensive to construct and impossible to expand easily...

Though comparable in strength, the Hardened Ones were not restricted by the earth's origin, allowing them to roam freely without worrying about dying if they left their native territory. So when all was said and "done," the Hardened Ones were truly terrifying—they could genuinely annihilate you simply on a whim if they were displeased.

Meanwhile, the Divine Council hadn't launched a large-scale military expedition outward for several centuries, only occasionally sending out small-scale reconnaissance teams, presumably to evaluate whether the outside world held any resources worth expanding for.

"King, the twenty thousand vanguard troops are fully prepared," a stalwart warrior with burning orange flames crowning his head stepped forward and reported.

"Begin the attack!"