Chapter 529: Seal Released
On the west gate tower of White Pagoda City.
Isabella gripped the Staff of the Wind God tightly, the blue light at its tip illuminating a rare expression on her face in the darkness.
She stared at the plain outside the city, now completely empty, her beautiful face filled with undisguised shock.
Beside her, the other two city lords of the Eternal City stood frozen in place, their eyes filled with disbelief.
"This...this was done by the Nightmare Clan?" One of the city lords murmured, his voice trembling.
Isabella gazed at the dark sky that seemed capable of swallowing everything, her expression gradually becoming serious.
“Whether they are Nightmare Clan or not...” she said softly, her voice exceptionally clear on the silent city tower, “I only know that this is a huge problem.”
Isabella took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the turmoil in her heart.
She turned her head and looked at the two city lords beside her, who also had solemn expressions.
"The vanishing of the undead army is not an excuse for us to breathe."
Isabella gripped her staff tightly, her tone regaining its usual coldness, "Pass down the order: the entire army is immediately on high alert! Archers and crossbowmen are on the walls; no one is to disarm without authorization!"
"I'll take charge of the city's defenses!" The city lord on the left was the first to react, nodding slightly and accepting the order in a deep voice.
“Alright.” Isabella immediately turned to the other city lord and issued a rapid order, “Take your men and find out the situation outside immediately. Make sure you find out... exactly how many troops the Nightmare Clan has!”
"Understood!" The third city lord nodded emphatically, without any hesitation, and turned to walk quickly down the city wall, preparing to arrange for people to return to Blue Star to obtain the latest intelligence.
The two orders were swift and decisive.
There were no unnecessary words, only the tacit understanding and trust between colleagues who were bound together by life and death.
...
Central Plains Domain, Demon King-level Dungeon H5-307-02.
The sound of the seal breaking came from deep underground, dull and long, like an entire glacier being cracked open.
The ground trembled slightly at first, and then cracks spread outward from the entrance to the underground city, like an expanding spider web, covering an area of several miles.
Dark purple mist seeped from the cracks. When the mist touched the withered grass and gravel, the grass stems quickly turned black, curled up, and eventually crumbled into powder.
The Nightmare Clan's army surged out of the cave entrance like a black torrent bursting its banks.
The first to emerge were countless low-level troops, tens of thousands of Shadow Wolves with their limbs bent backwards, black veins throbbing wildly beneath their dark purple, translucent skin. They ran silently, yet with a suffocating killing instinct.
Hordes of rotting corpses strode with stiff steps, their grayish-white skin exuding a sweet, putrid stench, and their empty eye sockets revealing an endless greed for the living.
Beneath their feet, countless wriggling shadows clung to the ground like crushed shadows, their tiny tentacles swaying gently in the air, leaving trails of white corrosion wherever they went.
Five hundred thousand elite Lv19 soldiers filled the plains outside the dungeon in a very short time.
Following closely behind are elite units that truly possess tactical skills.
Hundreds of Nightmare Cavalry charged out of the crevice with a sharp whooshing sound.
Their upper bodies are humanoid, while their lower bodies are fused with a dark purple nightmare horse. When the horse's hooves tread through the air, they do not touch the ground, but instead glide at a low altitude, suspended about a foot above the ground.
They wore tattered black iron armor, and beneath their visors were no faces, only two dark purple dots of light that flickered.
Each Nightmare Rider held a long-handled scythe, the blade wreathed in flowing black mist.
After emerging from the crack, the cavalry automatically split into dozens of small teams, each dispersing to the flanks and front of the formation, their scythes drawing cold arcs in the darkness.
In the midst of the army's formation, one hundred and fifty enormous Nightmare Spiders, each the size of a mobile fortress, crashed to the ground.
They are over five meters long, with eight spear-like limbs deeply embedded in the soil, and their abdomens are swollen.
They have no eyes; the tentacles on their heads tremble wildly, sensing every vibration in the air.
One hundred and fifty Lv35 Nightmare Shadowweavers moved across the ground like ghosts.
Their entire bodies were covered by dark purple cloaks, beneath which there were no bodies, only a constantly swirling cloud of black mist.
On the white mask without facial features, a vertical crack emitted a dark red light.
The sounds they emitted were like countless people whispering simultaneously, chaotic and overlapping, yet they managed to organize the 500,000-strong army in an orderly manner through "thought pulses".
Three hundred meters in the air, three figures exuding terrifying pressure floated silently.
They are Hela, the Demon Queen and the Weaver of Spells.
The three women all appeared to be around thirty years old, with slender figures, and were wearing tight-fitting gold robes with the hem almost touching the ground.
Her long, dark gray hair was tied back, with a few stray strands falling beside her face.
In the light gray eyes, there is a very fine dark ring around the edge of the pupil.
They held slender, straight, dark gray metal staffs in their hands, the dark crystals inlaid at the top and the flowing gold necklaces around their necks being the only bright spots on their serene bodies.
Surrounding the three Hela were two hundred Level 39 Nightmare Faceless Ones.
These slender figures, nearly three meters tall, were covered in flowing black matter. Their heads had no facial features, only a white crack extending from their foreheads to their chests, emitting a cold white light.
"The Final Judgment (Sequence: EX-0001) has begun. The very essence of the Nightmare World has poured its maximum military force into us."
Hela, at the forefront, spoke slowly, her voice cold yet imposing: "From this moment on, we can no longer replenish our forces by any means. Every one who dies is one less."
She tilted her head slightly, her light gray eyes gazing into the distance: "Moreover, the final battle with Ulysses must be saved for last."
Hela, in the middle, took over the conversation, her gaze fixed on the western horizon: "I have reached an agreement with Ulysses. The humans in the west are the weakest, and their defenses are the most vulnerable. We will first combine our forces and attack the humans in the west."
"Conquer the west, then north, then east, and finally south."
Hela, who was at the forefront, made the final conclusion.
The two Hela behind her nodded slightly.
The next second, the three demon kings simultaneously raised their staffs.
There were no earth-shattering battle cries, only a chilling silence.
Two hundred Nightmare Faceless Ones simultaneously emitted chilling mental pulses, while one hundred and fifty Nightmare Shadowweavers uttered overlapping whispers.
The 500,000-strong Nightmare Army, under the command of the three Demon Kings, transformed into a black tsunami that swept everything away, and roared toward the western horizon.