Gate of Apocalypse

The quiet valley is covered with sky-high trees.

A bright moon overhead, bright moonlight spilled down, leaving dappled shadows under the cover of the leaves.

From time to time the sound of sparse bird calls suddenly stopped, and in an instant the valley from the quiet into dead silence.

A huge spatial rift suddenly appeared and slowly expanded. The moment the rift just appeared, all the surrounding trees, rocks, birds and animals and even air, as if by a huge gravitational force, swept toward the rift.

But in the midst of this huge gravitational force, a hand reached out violently.

A white, slender, stable and strong hand.

That hand rested on the edge of the spatial rift, as if pressing on some kind of entity, forcefully backward, and then a second hand.

Despite the gale caused by the inhaled air, wind speed has been comparable to a typhoon, but Tatsu in that wind does not seem to be affected in any way, but against only the gravitational force in the rift behind him.

After most of his body was exposed outside the gap, a golden aura appeared on his body, and then the whole person shot out like a cannonball and landed on the ground tens of meters away.

After Tatsu landed on the ground, even the gravitational force could no longer affect him.

He just turned his head and looked at the rift behind him gradually shrinking.

"You finally ...... still came out one step faster than us."

In the rift, Du Wei's voice sounded, with a hint of helplessness.

"It won't be too much faster. But ...... it's already enough for me to do what I need to do." Tatsu smiled and shook his head, "To be able to come up with this kind of solution and trap me for so long, you are already very impressive."

"If I could beat you, then would I need to use such a crooked idea?" Du Wei's voice laughed bitterly at the gap. As the gap became smaller and smaller, his voice also gradually became faint: "I only hope that that boy Chen Xiaolian ...... can ......"

"Stay inside in peace and wait for me to finish the entire world template." Chen waved his hand at the gap, as if he was saying goodbye when he broke up: "It's good for me to be able to avoid killing you all with my own hands."

The rift closed and there was no more sound.

What remained in place was only a large pit that was tens of meters in circumference. All the dirt that was originally in the pit had disappeared without a trace. And within a larger area, all the trees were either uprooted and disappeared without a trace, or fell to the ground.

Tatsu turned around and inclined his head for a moment in thought, "After being away for so long, it's time to go see my lovely men."

......

This is a very large conference room, but apart from the various luxurious furnishings around it, the conference table in the middle is not very large.

Outside the wide floor-to-ceiling windows, the buildings lined up are not very tall, and in the distance is the Washington Monument, which stands tall and is the tallest building in this American capital.

In front of the round conference table, sitting around five men and two women seven people, each with a grim face, the atmosphere at the conference table is stark and somewhat bizarre.

"How did the European zone ...... change people?"

A long time, a black person only spoke: "Africa District's ground fire and Greater China District's stiff dragon died in the copy, which is nothing unusual. But the European zone ...... Dimitri actually died? He is the only former Patroller among us, and the only one with S rank."

He was wearing an eye patch over his left eye, and one single eye was staring at an old white man sitting across from him, the very same Shamash that Chen Xiaolian had once met in Paris.

"Dragon Eagle, we don't need your North American district to care about the affairs of our European district." Shamash lowered his eyelids and looked at the steaming cup of coffee in front of him, "You didn't invite us all to Washington to study our internal personnel changes, did you?"

"Of course." The one-eyed black man named Dragonhawk nodded and swept his gaze over everyone in front of him, "Since we broke away from the Thorn Blossom Regiment, we have been governing ourselves in our own way with district divisions. North America, South America, Europe, Greater China, Africa, Central Asia, Australia ...... although nominally collectively known as the Starfall Warriors, but never acted together. But now ...... we've had to really join forces.

I don't know how things are going in your area, but at least in our North American zone, three more teams have announced this month that they have broken away from our outlying organization status and joined Zero City. And all of them are not weak. This is a situation ...... I can't possibly tolerate any longer! They are drastically taking in new blood and expanding their strength!"

"This is all nonsense!" A woman at the other end of the conference table gave a stifled grunt. She was also a black person, wearing a normal skirt, but her body was covered with metal rings of all sizes: "Everyone knows that the union is needed, but the question is, who should lead the union! If not this fundamental problem can not be solved, when we left the Thorn Blossom Regiment, it would not have been in such a fragmented state as it is now."

"It has come to this point, do we still have to do this pointless battle of wills?" A white man covered in tattoos sighed, although his appearance looked wild, his tone was civilized: "Dealing with the zero city of returned souls is our most important matter at the moment, let's put the other matters aside for the time being. Not to mention the temporary union, as long as a unified commander is elected for the time being. Once that's settled, we'll just remain with the status quo."

"So what if they are elected?" Shamash took a small sip of coffee, as if he was talking about something completely unrelated to himself: "I don't want to throw cold water on everyone, but - don't forget, in all those years before, even with Chief Tatsu leading the way, we never really solved Zero City. Even that time, after the entrance to Zero City was exposed ...... we had thought it had been destroyed, but now it has still been reborn again. But the head of the Tatsu also disappeared without a trace."

"Don't open your mouth and shut up is the head of the head of the head. We have long since separated from the Thorn Blossom Regiment, and he has long since ceased to be our chief." The black man, Dragon Eagle, gave a stifled grunt: "Shamash, what exactly do you want to express?"

In response to Dragonhawk's complaint, Shamash still didn't seem to have any mood swings: "I just want to say that Zero City can't be completely solved, because the root it relies on to exist is that space! Even if our power is strong, it is impossible to eradicate them completely, they will always be able to recover their energy in that base."

"When did I say that I want to eradicate them completely?" Dragon Eagle sneered, "The existence of Zero City or not, it has nothing to do with us in the first place, that is something that that guy Tatsu cares about. What we have to deal with is just its power that has been expanding extremely. As long as we can convince the other Awakened teams that Zero City is not that powerful, and that everyone who is on Zero City's side will be struck by us, that will be enough. As for whether the people of Zero City are dead or not, does it mean anything to us?"

"I see." It dawned on that black woman, "You don't intend to attack Zero City, but just want to strike their prestige."

"That's it! But our target is not just Zero City!" Dragon Eagle nodded triumphantly, "What we want to do is to send out a joint declaration to tell all the Awakened teams that they can only choose one side to take sides between Zero City and us. And anyone who decides to take the side of Zero City is our enemy!

Whether in the replicas or in the real world, our seven regions will unite to hunt and kill all Zero City people, as well as their outlying teams. Soon, all the Awakened will know that we are the true rulers of this world! Those outlying teams that have turned their backs on us will come back, and those teams that were still on the sidelines will thus realize their previous foolishness and can't wait to join us!"

Dragon Eagle said, simply stood up from his chair, waving his hand heavily, his face full of ambition, as if he saw the many Awakened once again bowing down in front of him: "At that time, we also no longer need to worry about the Thorn Blossom Regiment's pursuit and siege!"

"Dragon Eagle ...... you seem to have forgotten a very important thing." Shamash, however, seemed to be completely unattracted by Dragonhawk's impassioned enthusiasm, but remained with his eyelids lowered and a look of lack of interest: "The prerequisite for this would have to be that we are able to ensure that we overwhelm those Zero City people in terms of strength."

"You've always been so timid and fearful since a long time ago, Shamash!" Dragon Eagle threw back his head and laughed wildly, "I've already contacted several members of other teams who have seen the Zero City people in their copies. According to them, that group of dead leftover species in Zero City is not very numerous, and the average level of individual strength is far less than usual, only because they have regained Zero City and have a large amount of technological equipment."

"Yes." The tattooed man also nodded: "The intelligence we got in the Australian district is the same. Although there is a lot of equipment, the overall magnitude of skills and enhancements possessed by individuals seems to have even regressed. It should be said that that previous sacking cost them a large number of elite members. And ...... so far, the only top fighting force they've ever appeared has been one Dark Knight Order's Adric."

"Could it be that ...... there are other people who have not shown up?" The black woman with a full body wearing rings hesitated: "The Zero City before the war had several S-class experts."

"Haven't you seen their actions!" Dragon Eagle heaved a disdainful grunt: "These guys suddenly appeared and then entered other copies in large numbers, yet the number of people in each copy was not particularly huge. With this number and frequency, it's obvious that they want to quickly establish their authority and are eager to reestablish their prestige as soon as possible. In such a situation, if they have more S-classes, how could they continue to stay unseen?"

"What you said ...... makes sense." The ring-wearing woman pondered for a moment and nodded slowly, "But even if that's the case, we don't have a single S-class member around right now. With Dimitri dead, there's no one to go up against him. And with just us, it's not impossible to kill an S-class, but it's still too difficult, and the price to pay must be huge. This kind of price may not be something we can afford."

"Dimitri is dead ...... so what?" Long Ying smiled faintly and slowly squeezed his fist.

A strong and domineering power fluctuation flew outward from his fist.