Chapter 84

Initially, it was merely a twisted shadow in the shallow waters of Blackwater Sea, as if space itself had been torn open by a long, narrow wound—just wide enough for a single person to crawl through. Youzisededianguangzaiqibianyuansisizuoxiang ， Sanfachuliuhuangyufuroudeechou ， Touguofengxi ， Keyikandaowushushuangchongmanzenghenhefengkuangdeyanjing 。

But peace vanished in an instant. With a grating, bone-chilling crack from deep beneath the earth—as if the very skeleton of the plane were being forcibly snapped—the edges of the fissure ripped outward violently! Seawater surged inward in wild torrents, only to be vomited back out by an invisible force, forming turbid waves as the corruption of the Abyss spread violently outward.

The fissure pulsed like a dark heart accelerating its beat, expanding visibly at a terrifying rate. Its outline was no longer a thin crack but had become a jagged, grinning maw. The faint Youguang had transformed into a towering pillar of violet-black light, churning the clouds above into a massive black vortex.

Within just half an hour, that initial slit had swelled into a vast vortex reeking of the Abyss. Its scale was immense enough for a hundred-foot-tall Abyssal Lord, flanked by an endless horde of demons, to stride across the boiling sea like a tide of death, entering this world without resistance.

Along every irregular edge of the Abyssal fissure, twisted forms clung and tore at one another in frantic competition. They were less an army than a living tsunami driven purely by malice and the desire to destroy.

At the forefront were always the Abyss’s endless, revolting “flesh currency”—the Lesser Demons. These hunched, dark-red-skinned humanoid creatures outnumbered all others, surging like a rolling tide of insects.

They shrieked, clawing and biting each other, all to be the first to step into the Material Plane. Their eyes held no intelligence, only greed and the primal urge to shatter anything glittering.

Amid the sea of Lesser Demons, taller, more brutish figures stood out—these were the Ragefiends. They smashed through anything in their path with brute force, roaring battle cries from jaws bristling with fangs.

They were pure engines of destruction, swinging their innate bone blades or Suishoujianqideyanshi , smashing every obstacle before them to fragments—terrain or ally alike meant nothing to them; only the raw urge to destroy mattered.

Among the demonic tide, discordant figures darted about: the Abyssal Hounds, multi-headed Abyssal creations whose drool corroded seawater and comrades alike. They had no concept of friend or foe; any living thing entering their biting range— Baokuoqitadijieemo —would be savagely torn by their necks.

The air was no calmer. Countless Winged Demons, their membranous wings torn and ragged, poured out from the upper edge of the fissure, swirling and diving like mad bats, striking the backs of the surging demons below with venomous claws and fangs, adding yet more bloodshed to the chaos.

The entire scene was a moving, self-consuming disaster. Demons trampled over the crushed and torn corpses of their own kind, their black demonic blood turning the shallows into a filthy bog. This was not an advance—it was a filtration.

Those who could surge through the obstacles of their own kind with the most savage brutality and finally reach the shore were already the most cunning and cruel of the low-tier demons—future Yubei of the high-tier demons. Of course, if one was not lucky enough to survive long enough, a low-tier creature had no right to become an Abyssal power.

On the command platform overlooking the Saltwater Marsh front, the vertical pupils of the Bronze Dragon Akuilong reflected the chaotic churn far out at sea. His cold gaze held no emotion, only the icy precision of a mathematical formula.

“Connect to the Nolasiens’ ‘Heart of the Tides’ Mage Tower Defense Command.” His voice resonated magically into every mage’s mind. “Tell Commander Vex, initiate ‘Boiling Seabed’ protocol. Give these demons a small shock.”

The moment the order was given, elemental energies atop the mother-daughter towers of Nolasiens Port (one mage tower flanked by two defense towers) began converging at unprecedented speed and scale. The Heart of the Tides tower blazed with light; elemental forces crossed space and acted directly upon the Haiyu where the demons poured forth.

The once-quiet shallow waters of Blackwater Sea erupted violently—not from heat, but from extreme pressure differentials. Driven by supreme arcane force, seawater transformed into countless high-pressure water blades, tearing and slicing upward through the tightly packed low-tier demons.

Simultaneously, the seabed’s mud, activated by magic, came alive as massive, viscous tentacles, dragging entire swarms of Lesser Demons and Abyssal Hounds into bottomless mud pits, erasing them utterly.

As the demon vanguard struggled in the sudden hell of water and mud, the accumulated destructive energy atop the tower detonated. It was no ordinary lightning—it was Vex’s meticulously shaped spell: “Chain Disintegration Lightning.”

A thick, heart-stopping bolt of white lightning tore through the sky, striking precisely into the densest cluster of demons. The lightning did not vanish upon impact—it writhed like a living silver serpent, leaping and refracting wildly through the demon ranks. Each jump brought blinding flashes and the screams of demons instantly vaporized.

A Ragefiend might be pierced mid-swing of its bone blade, its massive body glowing intensely as if ignited from within, then exploding into charred shards. Within seconds, this chain of lightning covered the entire front line, clearing a vast swath of “pure” death.

Vex’s strike was precise and cruel. The surging demonic “wavefront” had slammed into an invisible wall of annihilation. At least half the low-tier demons were crushed, charred, or dragged underground before ever reaching the shore. The shallows floated thick with severed limbs; the stinking demonic blood stained vast stretches of sea a grotesque violet-black.

Yet Akuilong’s brow furrowed slightly. The magical strike had been devastating—but the demons pouring from the Abyss seemed endless. The first wave cleared, and the next immediately stepped over their fallen kin. More importantly, he sensed several vast, malevolent shadows stirring deep within the fissure.

“Vex, execute the order. Evacuate Nolasiens immediately. Its fall is inevitable. Your sacrifice will be meaningless.”

Akuilong’s command was clear and cold. On the other end of the communication array, Vex fell silent. The elegant arcs of lightning swirling around him suddenly turned wild, exploding outward. As a Blue Dragon who prided himself on mastery over lightning, fleeing without battle was the ultimate desecration of his bloodline.

He raised his long neck proudly, as if to protest—but finally, his storm-laden wings tensed and unfurled. In the most silent posture possible, he expressed his most agonizing surrender, leading the five Blue Dragon Beasts away from the mage tower they had poured so much effort into building.

Soon after Vex’s figure vanished beyond the horizon, the several vast shadows deep within the Abyssal fissure locked their eyes—filled with pure malice—onto the distant, still-glowing port of Nolasiens.

They had no patience to dismantle the mage tower’s defenses one by one. Instead, they chose the most brutal, primitive, and effective method: absolute power to erase it from the map.

One Abyssal Lord raised his massive arm, forged from lava and obsidian. The other demon titans poured their unrestrained dark energy into it. The air around the fissure screamed under the strain; space itself twisted and collapsed, as if forming an unstable micro-black hole in his palm.

The next instant, a stream of energy beyond color definition, carrying the wails of countless destroyed worlds, tore through space. It pierced the fragile reality before the fissure, carving a brief, temporary Abyssal corridor directly above Nolasiens Port.

This torrent of destruction appeared like a judgmental spear from another dimension—materializing directly above the port. The strike came instantly—no warning, no process, only result.

First came the sound of the mage tower’s defensive array overloading and shattering—like a billion panes of glass exploding simultaneously. Then, an absolute, blinding white—swallowing all color, searing the eyes—spread outward from the impact point.

Wherever the white reached—whether towering towers, sturdy walls, crowded houses, or fleeing lives—it disintegrated into fundamental particles within a hundredth of a second, leaving not even a wisp of smoke.

Only then came the delayed, world-shaking roar, followed by the shockwave and hellfire rain. When the light and dust finally settled, the once-thriving port of Nolasiens was gone.

In its place remained only a vast, blackened crater with crystallized edges—a grotesque scar upon the earth. Seawater surged in wildly, yet could not wash away even a trace of the lingering Abyssal stench.

“My Lord Akuilong, Nolasiens… no echoes from our forces remain. All troops entrenched in the city ruins have been confirmed annihilated. Additionally, the Lizardman Legion patrolling the port perimeter, unable to evacuate in time, was directly struck by the residual wave of destruction… only one in ten remain. Preliminary count: only about a thousand troops are still capable of organized combat.”

“I understand, Shadowclaw. The blood flowing in Nolasiens is your Lizardman kin. The burning Saltwater Marsh is your homeland. But the demons’ invasion was not our choice. The cost of war is this cruel. To earn the right to survive, we must bear these sacrifices. This is the price.”