Chapter 754 Sacrificer - I
Chapter 754 Sacrificer - I
Win? By what means?
Should the frontline falter, a tempestuous tide of dragons would ravage the Western Lands in an inconceivably brief span. Unless Ansel could vanquish that monster emerging from the rift with a single, instantaneous strike, then swiftly reconstitute the defensive line; or, in the blink of an eye, annihilate the oncoming draconic horde before confronting that enigmatic monster...
The rift materialized at the epicenter of the realm previously consumed by devouring flames, bereft of not only civilians but any living entity. No justification of safeguarding Western Lands's populace could prioritize addressing that front.
It coldly surveyed the chessboard as the situation crystallized, compelling Ansel to make his move.
Yet why should I dance to your tune and make such a choice?
As Seraphina and Ravenna attempted to interject, Ansel had already ascended skyward. The nine-headed serpent demon's true form loomed, blotting out the heavens. Rather than exuding solitary valor, it emanated an aura of unparalleled ferocity and dominance.
The extraordinary beings, long embattled on this front, had initially resolved to flee this doomed land upon witnessing the resurgent dragon tide. However, upon sensing the shadow overhead and that undisguised, spine-chilling abyssal presence, they breathed a collective sigh of relief.
— One last windfall, mused the vast majority of extraordinary beings who chose to remain.
Barring a scant few genuinely invested in sparing the Western Lands from draconic calamity, the rest were audacious rogues of insatiable appetite. Unless truly cornered, they would not readily depart, for the timing of their exit remained their prerogative. After all, Lord Hydral had never compelled their presence.
Indeed, such compulsion was unfeasible. Disregarding the extraordinary beings' self-preservation tactics, the mere notion of forcing them to sacrifice their lives for civilians was laughable.
Had Lord Hydral taken leave of his senses?
Ansel, aloft, gazed upon the distant dragon horde, seemingly more frenzied than in days past. The four lively serpent heads languidly flicked their tongues, their enormous obsidian pupils gleaming with an otherworldly light.
In this moment, he remained oblivious to the cause of the dragons' sudden frenzy, but that was immaterial. What mattered was preventing this line of defense from crumbling.
A black sun ascended above the nine-headed serpent demon.
In the next instant, a earth-shattering roar reverberated through the endless dragon horde, traversing hundreds of kilometers!
Ancient dragons, their thousand-meter-long bodies covered in iron-hued scales; the mightiest of the magma dragon species, their forms flowing with molten lava; and pure white colossi reminiscent of holy spirits from minstrels' ballads... They all bore wounds inflicted by Ansel and the God from the Machine. Some had tattered wings, others nearly decapitated, and many were covered in bloody gashes.
The most grievously injured seemed but a breath away from death.
What compelled these behemoths to emerge en masse was not Ansel's immediate concern. Led by the kilometer-long titans, these apex fifth-stage dragons roared defiantly at the obsidian sky above. Their draconic voices, imbued with primal power, echoed ceaselessly through the heavens.
Even the distant extraordinary beings felt the soul-shattering force of their cries. They watched as these dragons, each capable of wreaking catastrophic havoc upon the empire, coalesced. A surge of varied hues of energy gathered among these apex predators of the continent, shooting skyward, as they battled against an unseen adversary.
In the next moment, all would witness what they battled.
The black sun, having merged with the firmament, descended.
No, not descended—it transformed into an all-annihilating dark radiance, as if divine retribution pierced through from beyond the celestial sphere, from outside the world itself!
Even from tens or hundreds of kilometers away, all beheld an immense pillar of obsidian light crashing down in utter silence.
Silence, for this strike, drawing upon nearly all the aether of the abyssal entity, had obliterated even the concept of sound. All could only watch as the light column smote the earth.
Everyone stared, transfixed, at the distant horizon as the black radiance, potentially a kilometer in diameter, raged for a full half-minute before finally dissipating.
As the dark light faded, a visible gap appeared in the sky-blotting dragon horde. Of the dozen or so colossal dragons that could have shattered the empire had they united, only four or five remained—barely clinging to life, their bodies hardly more than tattered remnants of flesh, teetering on the brink of collapse in mid-air.
Seconds later, the extraordinary beings on the defensive line erupted in deafening cheers. Experience new stories on My Virtual Library Empire
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