Death… And Me

Chapter 4342: There It Is

By now, Kentucky and Roan had already returned to the mainland, although they didn’t directly join the battles taking place in Terno Dore. Simply discovering the existence of the Godly Horrors had already been an enormous achievement on its own. As for combat experience, the two had spent many consecutive days fighting nonstop already. At this point, what they needed most was time to properly digest everything they had learned and acquired during those battles.

Of course, that didn’t mean they stopped paying attention to the situation unfolding in Besgol Region. Through their soul connection with Rean and Celis, they continuously kept track of the developments around the Sacred Relic. Besides, just because there wasn’t much left to gain through direct combat experience didn’t mean Roan and Kentucky intended to sit around and do nothing.

’What exactly is Tobao trying to do?’ Kentucky couldn’t help but ask through their soul connection as he flew above the mainland before stopping on a hill.

Roan already had a rough idea.

’If I’m not mistaken,’ Roan began, ’he intends to completely withdraw the defenses from Turanzo and send those cultivators toward Lesgez and Terno Dore instead. The countries behind Turanzo will probably become even more undefended afterward.’

Kentucky’s eyes widened in disbelief.

’What?!’ he exclaimed. ’How many people are going to die if he does that? No, wait... first of all, why would the Godly Horrors even continue forward? Shouldn’t they focus on attacking Terno Dore instead and wiping out the armies there? There’s no way we can defend against that many Godly Horrors at once.’

Roan faintly smiled.

’That,’ he replied calmly, ’you’ll understand very soon. Tobao’s idea is actually very good. In fact, this might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’

Without explaining further, Roan jumped onto Kentucky’s back again.

’Come,’ he said. ’Let’s join the festivities.’

Kentucky remained completely confused, but he still spread his wings and took off once again, flying directly toward the central region of Besgol.

Back at the Sacred Relic, Rean had been tasked with assisting the Array Masters in repairing and stabilizing the arrays and runes connected to the relic itself. Just like the other Array Masters present, Rean couldn’t truly understand how the Sacred Relic functioned at its core.

He could identify some of the materials used to build it and even repair several of the simpler runes. However, the ancient runic structures composing the main body of the relic were completely beyond his current understanding.

The complexity of those runes was simply absurd.

’Sister Orb, record as many of these runes as possible,’ Rean secretly transmitted. ’See if you can analyze them and figure out how they work.’

[I’m already doing that,] Sister Orb immediately replied. [But these runes are completely different from anything we’ve ever encountered before. Besides, the Orb System’s processing power is still extremely low at the moment. Don’t expect miracles from me.]

Rean smirked faintly. ’Then you’d better come up with some methods to improve yourself in the future.’

[Easy for you to say...]

Tobao, meanwhile, was nowhere to be seen.

After the last two puppets had been eliminated, he left the Sacred Relic area, claiming he was returning to Terno Dore to assist Arcis against the Godly Horror there.

At least, that was the official explanation.

As for the surviving puppet hidden among the Array Masters, he didn’t make any suspicious moves whatsoever. He simply continued working normally on the arrays as if nothing had ever happened.

Naturally, there was a reason behind that behavior.

---

Far away in the Godly Creatures Territory, Ranka remained connected to his puppet through his Godly Pressure, allowing him to continuously observe the situation inside the Sacred Relic.

The moment he realized Tobao had departed, he finally opened his eyes slightly.

"Nazzun," Ranka called calmly. "You’re controlling the Godly Horror attacking Terno Dore, correct?"

Nazzun nodded.

"Tell me immediately if Tobao appears there," Ranka continued. "Once he arrives, force the Godly Horror to stop retreating. Make sure it remains engaged no matter what."

Nazzun grinned viciously.

"Very well."

Meanwhile, in Terno Dore, the Godly Horror’s eyes suddenly turned bloodshot.

A violent wave of Golden Energy erupted from its body as it raised its head and roared toward the skies.

*ROOOOOAR!*

Unlike before, it no longer held anything back.

The massive beast instantly shot toward the defensive lines at full speed.

Arcis naturally moved immediately to intercept it. His Ice Laws exploded outward, freezing the surrounding air as the temperature in the entire battlefield plummeted dramatically. Fortunately, he controlled it so he wouldn’t affect his own cultivators.

The two collided head-on a moment later.

*Craaaaack!*

*BOOOOM!*

Arcis’s massive ice feathers shattered apart almost instantly as one enormous claw tore through the frozen space toward him.

The claw barely missed Arcis’s body by a hair.

Arcis quickly retreated backward, his eyes narrowing in alarm.

The power the Godly Horror was displaying had suddenly increased significantly. It still remained within the limits of a Godly Horror, but now it had clearly reached the very peak of that level.

’Shit...’ Arcis cursed internally. ’If the Sacred Relic wasn’t suppressing it, there would be no way I could hold it back for long.’

Still, Arcis obviously had no intention of giving up. Taking advantage of his superior mobility in the air, he immediately began launching long-range attacks instead. Unlike the Godly Horror, Arcis could naturally fly using his own wings, meaning he didn’t need to constantly waste energy maintaining flight.

However, the Godly Horror suddenly ignored Arcis entirely the moment he created some distance.

Instead, it charged directly toward the defensive lines again!

’What?!’

Arcis was stunned for a brief moment before immediately chasing after it.

’It’s not retreating this time?’

Previously, every single time Arcis intercepted it, the Godly Horror would retreat almost immediately. Most of the time, it escaped before Arcis could even properly engage it.

But now everything had changed.

The Godly Horror completely ignored Arcis’s freezing attacks and violently crashed into the defensive lines, instantly slaughtering dozens of cultivators.

’Fuck!’

Arcis bombarded the creature with ice attacks from behind, but the Godly Horror moved incredibly fast, dodging most of the incoming attacks despite its enormous size.

"Arcis! I’m here!"

At that exact moment, Tobao finally appeared on the battlefield.

"Let’s attack it together from both sides!"

---

Far away, Nazzun watched the entire scene unfold through the Godly Horror’s senses before immediately relaying the information to Ranka.

"That monk arrived," Nazzun reported. "He’s fighting together with Arcis now."

Ranka coldly smiled.

"Good," he replied. "Do whatever you need to keep both of them occupied there."

---

Meanwhile, not too far away from Turanzo Country, a group of thirty-two Godly Horrors advanced toward the mainland at terrifying speed.

The moment they passed by one of the guardposts near the coast, the entire structure was obliterated instantly.

Fortunately, nobody was stationed there anymore.

Since that direction had become one of the primary attack routes used by the Godly Horrors, the cultivators previously guarding the area had already retreated long ago.

The massive group continued advancing inland without slowing down.

And among them, one particular figure stood out.

A tiny yellow lizard calmly rested atop the head of a gigantic bull-like Godly Horror, casually enjoying the ride as if everything around it was perfectly normal.

Yet every time the surrounding Godly Horrors glanced toward that little lizard, obvious apprehension could be seen in their eyes.

Their instincts screamed at them not to provoke it.

As for the bull carrying the lizard, it appeared to be the most terrified of them all.

On the now mostly empty battlefield, the advancing Godly Horrors rushed past the few remaining cultivators responsible for collecting the corpses of fallen Godly Creatures.

Those support teams existed to retrieve the Godly Crystals and later distribute them appropriately.

Interestingly enough, the Godly Horrors didn’t even spare those cultivators a glance unless they happened to stand directly in their path.

If someone wasn’t blocking the way, the Godly Horrors simply ignored them completely.

As for the unfortunate few who were directly in front of the charge...

There wasn’t much anyone could do.

The speed of the thirty-two Godly Horrors was simply overwhelming. Among the cultivators in Besgol Region, probably only Arcis and Tobao could match them somehow.

One after another, the defensive arrays erected across Turanzo were shattered apart as the horde violently charged through the country.

It didn’t take long before Arcis and Tobao received the emergency reports.

The Godly Horrors had appeared in Turanzo and were advancing directly toward the central regions of Besgol.

"What?!" Arcis was horrified. "That’s bad! We need to retreat immediately!"

*ROOOOAR!*

However, the Godly Horror they were currently fighting suddenly became even more violent than before, completely preventing them from disengaging easily.

"We’ll think about that later," Tobao declared as he punched forward against the creature. "If we retreat now, all the cultivators fighting here will suffer catastrophic losses. We have to remain here for now."

Then Tobao continued.

"Besides, don’t worry too much. Those Godly Horrors won’t be able to advance too far. The Sacred Relic’s suppression will weaken them more and more the deeper they enter Besgol. For now, we can only let them continue."

Arcis frowned deeply.

He didn’t believe Tobao’s words at all.

That explanation made absolutely no sense.

If left unchecked, those thirty-two Godly Horrors would slaughter countless living beings not only throughout Turanzo, but also across every border country lying around the borders.

Still, there wasn’t much Arcis could do about it anyway.

There were simply too many Godly Horrors.

"Fuck!" Arcis cursed loudly. "You’d better explain all of this later!"

Surprisingly, even after the Godly Horrors reached the central regions of Turanzo a little over an hour later, they still didn’t stop to massacre civilians or attack cities.

They merely destroyed any defensive structures standing in their way and continued advancing nonstop.

Sure enough, Ranka and Nazzun were directly guiding them toward the Sacred Relic itself.

---

Much, much further ahead, Roan and Kentucky watched the situation unfold through the Besgol Network.

"Roan..." Kentucky muttered. "They’re really coming."

Roan nodded calmly.

"They have to," he replied. "At this point, it’s obvious that their real objective is to destroy the Sacred Relic."

Kentucky glanced at Roan again.

"Can they actually do it?" he asked.

"No doubt," Roan answered immediately. "There are more than thirty Godly Horrors, while Besgol only has two Law Gods capable of stopping creatures of that level. Under normal circumstances, there would be absolutely no chance of defending the Sacred Relic."

Then Roan continued. "The only thing capable of changing the outcome now... is the Sacred Relic itself."

Kentucky quickly noticed something strange.

Despite the terrifying situation, Roan didn’t appear worried at all.

"Can you finally tell me what Tobao is trying to do?" Kentucky asked impatiently. "You already figured it out, didn’t you?"

Roan’s cold smile never disappeared.

"No need to rush," he replied calmly. "They should arrive soon enough. But before that..."

Suddenly, both Roan and Kentucky felt the environment around them change completely.

The suppressive influence of the Sacred Relic...

Vanished!

Roan immediately turned his eyes toward the center of Besgol Region.

"And there it is," he said quietly.