SSS Awakening: I Can Devour Gods to Evolve My Goddesses

The second wave was nearly twenty percent larger than the first.

Its minimum Level was higher too.

But that was not what made the Battle Channel go quiet again.

Three minutes later, a second golden announcement appeared.

[Cassian Vale has successfully defended against the second invasion wave.]

On Seraphine’s side, the first wave had only just ended.

She looked over her losses.

Three sections of outer wall needed repairs.

One Rare melee unit had to be rotated out to recover.

Dame Maelin had not spent much power.

Overall, the wave had not been difficult.

But Seraphine did not immediately reach for a Warden War Drum.

"He used them?"

Maelin nodded.

"Two."

"His first wave didn’t disrupt his recovery rhythm."

Seraphine looked at the second announcement in the channel.

"Being fast doesn’t make him first."

"The Warden seat is decided by Points."

"But he was willing to erase ten minutes of recovery outright."

She paused.

"That means his recovery is faster than ours."

Maelin did not argue.

Seraphine stopped looking only at Cassian’s high-Quality Troops.

"Add recovery capability as its own category."

Maelin asked,

"Source?"

"Unknown."

Seraphine kept her eyes on the second-wave announcement.

"Write unknown."

"The fact that he can treat the system’s ten minutes as optional is enough."

Riftwind Canyon.

The second wave dropped another War Drum.

Later waves produced more as well.

Cassian did not stockpile them.

Third wave.

THOOM—!

Fourth wave.

Another one.

THOOM—!

After the fifth wave ended, Veyra finally turned her head.

"You’re not racing for ’first to finish.’"

"No."

"Then why are you in such a hurry?"

Cassian looked behind the first line.

The third Legionnaire group that had rotated out was already back to combat-ready condition.

The Aether Mist was faint enough that it barely affected visibility.

But after five consecutive waves, Forgotten Shrine simply did not need all ten minutes of the recovery window other Lords were using.

"Waiting ten minutes doesn’t give me anything new."

"Right now, it does."

Veyra understood.

This was not about the announcements in the channel.

It was not about being the fastest.

The real value of the War Drum was that it handed the density of battle back to the Lord instead of leaving every interval fixed by the system.

Whether he could handle that density depended on his own recovery.

Veyra raised one hand.

"Then first group goes back in for wave six."

"Fourth group rests one more round."

Cassian did not interfere.

"Your call."

Wave six.

Wave seven.

Wave eight.

The Levels inside the war fog kept rising.

So did the numbers.

By wave nine, the first Rare target appeared.

Cassian checked its panel as usual.

No Core Trait.

No reason to preserve it.

The Highbloods pressed it into the shield line from both flanks.

For the first time, the Praetorians truly joined the second line.

The Stormlance still did not fully commit.

By the time wave ten ended, only a little over half an hour had passed since Regional Boundary Defense began.

[Cassian Vale: Warden Points 20,000]

The Battle Channel no longer seemed to know which question to ask first.

[Anonymous Lord: Wave ten???]

[Tobias Reed: I just finished wave three.]

[Anonymous Lord: Do his Troops not need rest?]

[Rowan Ashford: They do. His recovery window is simply shorter than the system’s ten minutes.]

[Elara Vayne: Don’t look only at recovery. His high-grade units barely took direct pressure through the first five waves.]

[Anonymous Lord: Then what exactly is doing the fighting?]

[Anonymous Lord: Don’t tell me it’s that Eclipse force whose Quality he still hasn’t shown?]

Cassian did not explain.

Veyra glanced at the channel instead.

"They got half of it right this time."

"Which half?"

"It is Eclipse."

She lifted her chin slightly.

"But not ’that force.’"

"It’s my line."

Cassian looked at her.

Veyra had already turned back to the front.

As if she had only stated something obvious.

The countdown for wave eleven began.

Cassian still had War Drums.

This time, he did not strike one.

Veyra did not ask why.

The Beacon Watchtower had already exposed the new silhouettes at the edge of the war fog.

Much larger than anything in the first ten waves.

[Cinder Ravager]

[Race: Demon]

[Quality: Common]

[Level: 22]

Past Level 20, even the same Quality carried a completely different weight from the early waves.

And behind them were three things that actually mattered.

Bodies built from black stone and flowing magma.

Every step left dark-red sparks on the ground.

[Hellfire Brute]

[Race: Demon]

[Quality: Rare]

[Level: 26]

[Skills: Hellfist / Flame Resistance]

No Core Trait.

Cassian closed the panel.

"No need to keep these alive."

Sigrid already understood what came next.

"Stormlance?"

"Go."

For the first time, all twelve streaks of lightning left the rear line together.

The eleven Highbloods switched to heavier arrows at the same time.

The Hellfire Brutes kept advancing through the first volley.

Flame Resistance did nothing against the arrows.

Their black-stone armor was simply hard enough on its own.

The first one reached thirty meters from the shield line.

Stormlance arrived.

Thunder Javelin.

The twelve spears did not all focus one target.

Four to each.

All three Hellfire Brutes exploded across the chest at the same time.

They did not die.

But their speed collapsed.

Two hundred Legionnaires caught the Cinder Ravagers behind them.

Nine Praetorians reinforced the three heaviest impact points.

Silver lines of Aegis Fold flashed repeatedly.

This time, the first line finally gave ground.

Not a break.

The combined Level gap and enemy mass forced the line back half a step.

Veyra did not shout for them to hold.

She checked both sides first.

"Second line, reinforce."

"Rotate the first line."

"Don’t take it head-on for no reason."

The weakness Ghostwater Field had exposed yesterday was being handled before the formation had time to become disordered.

The second Stormlance volley fell.

Two Hellfire Brutes died.

The last took a Highblood arrow through the opening in its armor.

Less than five minutes later, wave eleven ended.

[The twelfth wave will arrive in 10 minutes.]

Cassian did not reach for another War Drum.

Sigrid asked,

"Done racing the clock?"

"The first ten didn’t need the wait."

Cassian looked at the Legionnaires rotating back to recover.

"Now we use it."

The corner of Veyra’s mouth lifted.

"Good. You’re not addicted yet."

The later battle no longer compressed time the way the first ten waves had.

Wave twelve.

Demon formations began hitting the second line in real numbers.

The Hill King entered the formation for the first time.

Its hammer came down hard enough to shake the entire canyon.

The nine Praetorians locked around both sides of it.

Not to chase enemies for the Hill King.

To make sure no gap opened while the first line rotated.

Wave thirteen.

Flying units crossed over the canyon walls in numbers for the first time.

Highblood arrows dropped the front ranks.

Stormlance intercepted everything that remained.

Wave fourteen.

Aurelia drew her sword.

Thunder Crown fell over the formal Warden battlefield for the first time.

Lightning tore open the thickest section of the Demon formation.

Veyra remained behind the Eclipse line.

Which side could give ground.

Which side could not.

She called it before anyone else.

Cassian handled only two other things.

Reading every new high-grade panel that appeared.

And deciding which high-tier force to reveal, and when.

None of them carried another Core Trait worth reserving the final blow for.

So he did not reserve one.

After wave fifteen, the tempo truly slowed.

Not because Forgotten Shrine was beginning to fail.

Every wave had simply become worth taking the full ten-minute window.

Shields needed repair.

Injuries needed treatment.

Stormlance and Highblood had to rotate so they could recover between waves.

Aether Mist accelerated recovery.

It did not erase damage that had already been taken.

The names in the Battle Channel began disappearing too.

Some Lords voluntarily withdrew after wave five.

Some lost half a wall by wave six.

Others had already damaged their main force while forcing Rank III and barely survived wave three before deciding not to take wave four.

No one mocked them.

The rules had been clear from the first day.

This was a real battlefield.

Leaving alive was worth more than losing an entire Domain for ten Free Attribute.

As the waves continued, fewer and fewer Lords remained standing.

Several hours later, the ground in front of Riftwind Canyon was buried under more Demon corpses than Cassian cared to count.

His personal Warden Points passed one hundred fifty thousand.

[Regional Warden Points]

[Cassian Vale: 150,000+]

Wave nineteen ended.

The full ten-minute rest period passed.

When wave twenty emerged from the war fog, the Beacon Watchtower locked onto the tall silhouette at the front first.

No new Core Trait.

Only a much more direct number.

[Berserk Demon]

[Level: 30]

It was faster than the Hellfire Brutes.

Heavier too.

The first Highblood volley tore several cracks into its shoulder.

It did not stop.

Stormlance attacked from the side with the second pass.

The Berserk Demon ate two Thunder Javelins and smashed into the first line anyway.

BOOM—!

Three heavy shields jolted backward together.

Aegis Fold spread the force.

But even after being distributed, the impact still drove the Legionnaire groups on both sides backward.

Veyra did not make them brace against it blindly.

"Open half a step."

The shields in the middle offset at once.

The Berserk Demon followed the narrow lane they had deliberately given it and drove inward.

Veyra was already at its flank.

Crimson Oath flashed.

A dark-red line severed one of its front legs.

The momentum of a Level 30 body did not disappear with the limb.

Its mass kept crashing toward the second line.

The nine Praetorians had already lowered their shields.

Sigrid raised her spear.

Cassian stepped forward first.

Not to take the collision himself.

[Abyssal Pressure I]

Invisible pressure dropped around him.

The range was not large.

It only needed to cover the Berserk Demon as it entered.

The monster drove off its remaining front leg.

Its movement suddenly slowed.

It was not immobilized.

The power trying to explode out of its body simply seemed to sink through a layer of unseen deep water first.

The charge that had already gone out of control gained one brief instant in which it could still be handled.

"Right chest."

Cassian spoke.

Sigrid’s Thunder Javelin was already there.

BOOM!

The lightning spear punched through the opening created when Veyra’s cut threw it off balance.

The Berserk Demon slid several more meters forward.

Then collapsed in front of the Praetorian shields.

It never reached them.

Veyra looked at the corpse.

Then at Cassian.

"Yesterday, you were the one who stayed planted."

Cassian released Abyssal Pressure.

"Yeah."

"Today, you made it slow down."

"That’s why I took it."

The corner of Veyra’s mouth lifted.

She said nothing else.

Abyssal Pressure was not just a new name he had picked up after killing the Ghost Leviathan yesterday.

On the real battlefield, it had already changed how Cassian could help the formation handle something that slipped through.

The golden notification followed.

[Cassian Vale has successfully defended against the twentieth invasion wave.]

Only nineteen Lords were still active in the Battle Channel.

Cassian opened the Region-wide progress display.

[Regional Warden Points: 991,523 / 1,000,000]

Less than ten thousand remained.

A new battle announcement lit up.

Not a private message.

[Elara Vayne has successfully defended against the twelfth invasion wave.]

The total jumped sharply.

It still did not stop.

Another announcement followed immediately.

[Seraphine Valcrest has successfully defended against the fifteenth invasion wave.]

[Regional Warden Points: 1,000,000+ / 1,000,000]

In Riftwind Canyon, the Demons still charging forward did not suddenly vanish.

But golden light covered the Battle Channel first.

Cassian looked up.

Lines of golden text appeared above both the Battle Channel and the Regional Channel.

[Regional Boundary Defense: Success]

[Regional-success reward settlement begins.]

[All effective participating Lords who have earned Warden Points: Free Attribute +10]

[Regional success does not end personal defense sectors that are still active.]

[Lords whose personal defenses remain active may continue fighting and continue earning Warden Points and normal kill rewards.]

[While two or more valid competing Lords remain, the Regional Warden race continues to be decided by Warden Points.]

[When only one valid competing Lord remains, individual #1 locks immediately, and the Regional Warden seat and the individual #1 additional reward are settled.]

[Settling the Regional Warden seat does not force the winning Lord’s still-active Defense Sector to end. Later Warden Points continue accumulating and, once the higher-layer Shattered Marches Ranking opens, count toward that total.]

Another line appeared in front of Cassian alone.

[Free Attribute: 40 → 50]

Veyra saw it too.

Crimson Oath was still dripping blood in her hand.

"The Region won."

"Yeah."

"You haven’t."

Cassian looked at the Battle Channel.

Nineteen names were still lit.

Seraphine was still there.

Elara was still there.

Rowan had not withdrawn either.

Their personal Warden Points were still increasing.

One million had only settled whether the Region failed.

It had not settled who took the seat.

Cassian looked back toward the war fog.

The outline of the next wave was already pressing forward.

"Continue."

Veyra turned back to the line.

"It wasn’t over anyway."

Regional Boundary Defense had succeeded.

But the Warden seat carrying that ten-million-Aether wager was still on the battlefield.