Chapter 556 - 540: Willing to Serve
Allen hung up the communication with Hercules, the impeccable smile on his face remaining completely unchanged. He didn’t set off immediately.
"Sargeras."
A cluster of dark red Soul Fire converged in the center of the office, condensing into a miniature Demon form. It knelt on one knee and lowered its head.
"Contact Mammon," Allen said in a flat tone. "Settle the remaining balance of ten million Soul Coins."
Sargeras snapped its head up, its Soul Fire dancing violently. It didn’t quite understand its boss’s actions. "Master, you have already accepted the Association’s rescue mission," it said, its voice laced with confusion. "If the Demons really occupy that place, wouldn’t your rescue mission be considered a failure? Besides, they’ve already launched the invasion and won’t retreat easily. Could this final payment... be saved?"
"I am a man who values credibility above all else." Allen stood up, smoothing out the wrinkles in his Wizard Robe. "We are legitimate businessmen. Since we purchased the full ’demolition service,’ we should pay in full. Credibility is the cornerstone of long-term cooperation. We will continue doing business with Demons in the future."
Sargeras lowered its head, not daring to ask further. It thought that it was no wonder its master’s career was booming. If it had possessed such foresight earlier, it wouldn’t have been reduced to a prisoner.
Half an hour later.
The Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine forcefully tore through the dimensional barrier. Moving at a speed far exceeding ordinary Floating Ships, it leaped into the deep channels of the Sea of Magical Power. Inside the bridge, the coordinates representing the Z-019 Plane on the Star Map’s light screen flashed with a piercing red marker.
Hercules von Older stood before the light screen. He wasn’t looking at the Star Map, but instead fixed his gaze on the very front of the bridge. That was the rear structure of the "Zero" main cannon. Although it had been repaired, the metal surface still bore faint ablation marks. The light in the Rune Eye of the Minister of the Anomaly Threat Response Department flickered slightly, as if he was calculating something.
𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮
"Deputy Minister Wesren, thank you for giving me a ride. Cross-realm teleportation costs quite a bit of money."
Allen wore a faint smile. "Minister, you’re being far too modest. That little expense is just a drop in the bucket for you. It’s an honor for my warship to give you a ride."
Rescue missions were a race against time, so the two had set off immediately without much preparation. They hadn’t even brought any subordinates, as a Dawn Star Level battlefield wasn’t a place an Official Wizard could set foot in.
Hercules turned around, his Rune Eye staring intently at Allen, who was sitting in the commander’s chair. "Haha, you certainly have a way with words. However, three Dawn Star Level Demon Monarchs abandoning the wars of Purgatory to team up and demolish a private Plane—this is a first in the Association’s records over the past five hundred years," he paused meaningfully. "What do you make of it?"
Allen gently tapped his fingers against the armrest, as if composing a rhythm for the impending war. "Yes," he nodded slightly and offered a solemn conclusion. "It truly is a rare and massive headache."
Hercules offered an ambiguous smile and pressed no further. Relying on the intuition of a veteran Wizard, he merely felt that his new colleague had been excessively calm since receiving the mission.
Resource Realm Z-019, Crystal Crown.
When the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine forcefully tore through the Plane Crystal Wall and descended upon the war-scorched sky, a momentary silence fell over the entire battlefield. Both the Demons massacring wildly on the ground and the defenders struggling to hold the line on the Floating Islands noticed the uninvited guest.
A streak of light shot up from the Central Wizard Tower, coming to a ragged halt in the air before the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine. The arrival was none other than Kaspar Murphy. His breathing was erratic, and he appeared somewhat battered. But when he clearly saw the two figures emerging from the warship—especially the young, calm Wizard with black hair and blue eyes—his pupils contracted sharply. Even his facial muscles twitched uncontrollably.
Allen Wesren!
Kaspar’s face became incredibly colorful in an instant, flashing alternately between blue, white, and red, more vibrant than the sunset clouds on the horizon. Confusion, horror, and a trace of suspicion surged into his mind all at once. The business rival he had painstakingly plotted to eliminate had descended like a "Savior" during his most desperate hour. This was simply fate’s most vicious mockery!
But Kaspar was, after all, a Morning Star Wizard who had lived for nearly a thousand years; his mental fortitude was far beyond the ordinary. In the span of a single breath, he ruthlessly suppressed all his emotions back into the depths of his heart. As he spoke with Hercules, thanking the Association for their aid, he simultaneously used Witchcraft to send a rapid, telepathic message to Allen.
"Deputy Minister Wesren, previously... there might have been some misunderstandings between us. I, Kaspar Murphy, will engrave this act of assistance in my heart. Afterward, Mechanical Gears will voluntarily withdraw from any market where Wesren Heavy Industry operates. I implore you, Deputy Minister, to give it your all out of consideration for our collegial relationship!"
Allen looked at Kaspar. This thousand-year-old fox conceded defeat faster than Jarvis’s calculations. The smile on Allen’s face was warm and sincere, like a spring breeze.
"You exaggerate, sir," Allen replied privately through Witchcraft. "As colleagues in the Association, we ought to watch out for each other. Besides, I am someone who doesn’t hold grudges.
"Furthermore, I have always taken my work very seriously. Since I’ve accepted this rescue mission, I will naturally go all out," he added, his smile deepening.
Hearing these words, the massive boulder hanging over Kaspar’s heart finally fell to the ground. He let out a long sigh of relief. Even though he knew it was impossible for the other party to truly go all out, his foundational assets were currently on the verge of being smashed to pieces; he could only choose to trust his rival’s "professional ethics." Little did he know that he was shedding tears of gratitude toward the very mastermind who had single-handedly orchestrated this disaster.
"I am endlessly grateful," Kaspar nodded repeatedly. A brief tactical meeting was swiftly finalized in midair.
"Sir Kaspar and I will be responsible for frontally stalling the three Demon Monarchs," Hercules said concisely. "Allen, you are a newly advanced Golem Wizard, unsuited for solo combat. I’ll leave the Demon Legion of millions on the ground to you."
"No problem," Allen accepted proactively. "I excel at large-scale ground combat. I will entrust the matters in the sky to you two seniors."
Kaspar opened his mouth. He instinctively felt that having a Dawn Star Level combatant clear out cannon fodder was somewhat inappropriate, but given the current situation, he genuinely needed Hercules to help share the pressure in the sky. The assistance of a veteran Morning Star was barely enough to break the deadlock.
"Alright! Then it’s settled!" As soon as the words fell, the ethereal blue Space Gate to the Cybertron Half-Plane burst open on the ground beneath the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine.
A torrent of steel surged forth once again. A hundred and twenty thousand standard Golems poured down, the Spider-Killer Type IIs spread out in a black tide across the ground, the Peacekeeper PX-3s formed walls of steel, and Red Lotus missile launch sites rapidly deployed in the rear.
Of his forty fully formed Golem Legions, Allen deployed only half. Yet, those twenty legions, accompanied by the elite Golems of Allen’s Guard Series, were enough to immediately halt the onslaught of the Demon Legion.
In the sky, Hercules and Kaspar immediately intercepted the three Demon Monarchs. Both men were veteran Morning Stars of the Witchcraft school for many years, having comprehended at least one Law. Their clash was earth-shattering. The collision of Advanced Witchcraft instantly tore ferocious rifts in the sky, the shockwaves of energy sweeping in all directions like a Storm.
On the ground, Allen’s Golem Legion violently clashed with the endless Demon army. War cries, explosions, the rending of metal, and the crushing of flesh and blood merged into a doomsday symphony.
Allen stood on the bridge of the Ten Thousand Miles of Sunshine, hands clasped behind his back, calmly observing it all. His seventeen sub-threads of thought operated simultaneously, calculating every variable on the battlefield like a supercomputer.
"Area A-3, have the Spider Slayer frontline retreat thirty meters. Don’t block the Frenzied Demons entirely; let them through to the blue crystal refinery in the west.
"Area C-5, reduce the firepower output of the Peacekeepers by 15%. Why are they shooting so accurately? Maintain the visual effect of a ’bitter struggle.’
"Area D-1, have the Purgatory Golems execute a saturation strike. The target... that un-destroyed blue crystal vein," Allen commanded, issuing orders with pinpoint precision.
Allen’s Golem Legion fought "exceptionally hard." They operated like a machine pushed to its limits, fiercely massacring the Demons, yet the Demons’ numbers seemed infinite. The defense line was repeatedly pulled back and forth, and the figures on the casualty reports constantly ticked upward. The entire battlefield plunged into a delicate stalemate.
The Golem Legion neither allowed the Demon army to breach the core defensive perimeter nor truly fought to the death to exterminate the enemy’s effective forces on a large scale. They were merely "escorting" the Demons as they systematically demolished Kaspar’s peripheral assets one by one.
"Commander, based on current casualty ratios and advancement speeds, we can achieve complete Suppression of the ground Demons within four hours," Jarvis’s voice rang out in Allen’s consciousness.
"No rush." Allen’s gaze passed over the ground battlefield and cast toward the sky. Up there, Kaspar Murphy was being sent flying by a swing of the Slaughterer Baal’s axe, hurtling backward for thousands of meters.
He looked at the light screen. On the map of the Crystal Crown, the locations representing mines, plantations, and Alchemy Factories were turning into ruins one after another. "Let the bullets fly a little longer," he murmured. He thought, "Having taken my money, how could they do justice to my investment if they don’t tear this place to ruins?"
High above, brilliant bursts of Magic Power tore through the clouds. Hercules and Kaspar were fighting two against three, battling across the sky from one end of the continent to the other, with neither side gaining the upper hand. Mammon, Baal, and Asmodeus had received a massive sum, and with the dawn of occupying a Wizard Plane right before their eyes, they fought exceptionally hard, every strike meant to kill.
On the ground, the meat grinder of steel and flesh continued to operate. Allen’s defense line was "solid as a rock," while Kaspar’s assets methodically went up in smoke under the Demons’ ravaging.
The battle lasted for a full day and night.
The northern third of the Crystal Crown’s land had been completely reduced to scorched earth. Several Floating Islands had fallen, and tens of thousands of Alchemy Puppets had been turned into scrap metal.
BOOM!
BOOM!
A figure was viciously smashed down from the sky, crashing into the wall of a white Wizard Tower. This was already the third time he had been knocked out of the sky. Fighting two against three was, in the end, quite arduous.
Half of Kaspar’s Wizard Robe had been charred black by Hellfire. Leaning on his broken Magic Staff, he climbed out of the rubble. As he watched a Floating Island collapsing in the distance, his eyes became bloodshot. Although the battlefield had yet to show signs of defeat, watching the painstaking efforts he had accumulated over a millennium turn into scorched earth made every passing second feel like the torment of death by a thousand cuts.
He raised his head and shouted.
"Wesren! Hercules! If this continues, my assets will be completely ruined!
"Is there any other way?!"