Chapter 673: Doomsday Prophecy

Reslin also heard of the Doomsday Lord Aiken for the first time, and was very surprised.

The Ai Lun E Si world differs from the previous life; any prophecy that has been widely circulated and existed for many years is generally true. Such prophecies usually come from a deity, or from beings involving great transcendent power, and have been common throughout history, eventually being fulfilled.

If this prophecy also comes true, the key is not the Doomsday Lord, but the end of the world!

The Abyss will destroy the races and civilizations of the Old Continent!

This is truly astonishing.

For tens of thousands of years, the Abyss has threatened the whole world.

Three large-scale Abyssal invasions caused three epochal transitions; no one ever despised the Abyss's power, the Abyss was like an immovable mountain pressing on everyone's hearts, making one feel powerless each time it is recalled, heavy enough to choke.

Yet, when it comes to the Abyss ultimately destroying the world, people still refuse to believe.

If it is the Fourth Epoch, belonging to humanity's new era.

Humanity's strength increases step by step, the elves and dwarves also recover, perhaps with minor setbacks, but overall civilization flourishes, developing positively. Many optimists predict that in another three to five hundred years, the civilizations of all Ai Lun E Si peoples will reach unprecedented heights, surely able to reclaim the New Continent and drive the demons completely back into the Abyss.

Moreover, records show that the previous three Abyssal invasions were each spaced over six thousand years.

The Third Epoch and the Second Epoch each lasted over six thousand years, the First Epoch even exceeded ten thousand years. The current Fourth Epoch has only about two thousand five hundred years, seeming still far from the next Abyssal invasion.

Even if the Abyssal invasion occurs early, it would not destroy the world.

The heavenly gods would never stand idle; just as in the previous three times, the gods paid a huge price to preserve the spark of civilization and entered the next epochal cycle.

Asina immediately questioned, "Could this be a rumor spread by the Nethif?"

"Perhaps," Yizite spread his hands, indicating uncertainty, "this prophecy has been circulating for two thousand years, and no one believed it before. But since Aiken suddenly rose, becoming the strongest Chosen Champion within less than two hundred years, more people have started mentioning that prophecy."

"Aiken also claims to be the Eternal Chosen mentioned in the prophecy."

"He swore to destroy the Old Continent, and has been working toward that goal ever since."

"Now Aiken has already conquered more than half of the Nethif tribes, ruling a vast area in the eastern New Continent, and is very likely to become the first Abyssal Lord in Nethif history."

Mentioning the Abyssal Lord made everyone's hearts flutter.

Any Abyssal Lord possesses terrifying power, with the top ones even rivaling deities. Aiken daring to boast of becoming an Abyssal Lord and successfully conquering more than half of the Nethif tribes shows how strong he truly is.

This time they hunted the Barro Flame Demon, a demon lord whose strength equals that of a Chosen Champion, but compared to Aiken it may be far weaker.

Aiken calls himself the Doomsday Lord, and it is no empty boast.

Belak said, "The overall strength of the Nethif is comparable to a human empire; if Aiken succeeds in uniting the whole tribe, humanity's footholds and cities on the New Continent would hardly survive, posing a terrible threat to the Old Continent as well."

The teammates all nodded lightly, yet felt helpless.

Even if this matter reaches the human realms, it would not cause much turmoil; perhaps some discussion, but hardly any nation would truly respond.

The reason is simple: the whip is too long to reach.

The New Continent is too far; conducting a cross‑continent campaign would require astronomical manpower and resources, and likely fail. The risk is high, the cost steep, and even if successful there is little benefit; no human nation would undertake such a thankless task, and even the most foresighted leaders would choose temporary compromise.

The most crucial point is that this is only a prophecy.

Daoensos said anxiously, "Aiken's news is no longer a secret on the New Continent; if a top strongman from the Old Continent, like a Holy Soul Wizard of the Oriense Empire, could directly strike down Aiken, that would be ideal."

"It's not that easy…" Belak laughed, "Aiken is the most powerful Chosen Champion, said to be comparable to a human Thirty-level transcendent, ordinary Holy Soul Wizards cannot defeat him, unless the three heads of the Empire intervene."

"Those big figures wouldn't act lightly; we can't even reach them," Yizite said helplessly.

As the three conversed, they saw Asina's expression shift, and she glanced at Reslin.

"What's wrong?"

Daoensos keenly sensed that Asina's expression was a bit odd.

"Nothing." Asina shook her head lightly.

The barbarian priest said without further thought, "Even if the three heads of the Empire act, they might still not be able to kill Aiken; several Saint Rank strongmen have already died at his hands."

"Indeed."

Yizite sighed, "Aiken is only half Nethif, his age is about the same as mine; I truly don't know how he attained such terrifying power within just two hundred years."

Reslin raised an eyebrow, surprised, "Is Aiken mixed‑blood?"

"Exactly." The dark elf replied, "It is said Aiken's mother was a transcendent from the Oriense Empire, who during an adventure encountered the Nethif, was captured back to the tribe and raped, then gave birth to Aiken. Apart from him, no one knows his pre‑fame history."

Reslin nodded, his gaze flicking over Daoensos.

The barbarian priest is also mixed‑blood, having grown up under discriminatory gazes, his experience similar to Aiken's, no wonder he cares so much about Aiken.

"Enough about him." Yizite looked at the sky, "We should continue our plan."

"Alright."

The teammates gathered their spirits, rested briefly to recover the earlier battle fatigue.

Reslin cast a group teleport, the whole party entered Danmofor, chose a demon nest within the Barro Flame Demon's territory, and began the slaughter.

From dawn till dusk, that day destroyed five demon nests.

At night, the party teleported to the Rokkis Mountains, hid in Yizite's shelter for the night. Reslin spent a quarter hour draining today's absorbed energy, including the souls of Akoglag and over a hundred Abyssal Knights, as well as five demon nests, totaling more than fourteen hundred units of energy!

In the following several days, the entire squad kept striking throughout Danmofor.

Five Legendary High-rank strongmen teamed up; no demon nest could withstand them, each battle ended within three minutes, then they teleported away.

On average they could destroy five to eight demon nests per day.

This was still the squad acting cautiously, carefully selecting targets; before acting they would meticulously scout the nest's interior to decide whether to strike.

Otherwise, they could destroy over thirty demon nests in a day.

According to Yizite's calculations, the Barro Flame Demon's Danmofor territory contains at least five hundred demon nests; the closer to the Abyssal Gate, the denser the nests.

The nests destroyed these days were mostly on the outer fringe of the territory, and not clustered together.

After destroying one nest, the next target sometimes lay in the exact opposite direction, sometimes only dozens of li away, with no pattern.

As the number of destroyed nests grew, everyone became more vigilant.

All preparations were complete, waiting only for the Barro Flame Demon to become intolerable, abandon the Abyssal Gate at all costs, and appear before them.

Yet even by the fifth day, nothing had happened.

At midnight, in a hidden canyon more than a thousand li south of Dan Mo Fu, Yizite set up the Rio Mon Shelter within a stone crevice, blending perfectly with the surroundings, so that one could not tell at all that a powerful squad was hidden inside.

Reslin finished allocating today's energy.

In the past few days, he has been able to harvest seven hundred to one thousand energy units each day, most of which he poured into his spells, and every spell that could be improved basically reached its limit.

Just the Eight-Ring Spells number more than ten!

The number of Seven-Ring Spells doubled, and there are even more Six-Ring and lower spells; the surface of the Lake of Stars reflects a sky full of stars, each sparkling brightly.

Because of surplus energy, Reslin temporarily set aside Time Stop and prioritized constructing a batch of spell models.

He fully activated the multi‑core crystal, sparing no energy.

By destroying demon nests by day and meditating nonstop by night, wasting no minute, in just five days he built over thirty spell models, covering Rings One through Five, then poured energy into raising them to the ring limit; he now commands more than 150 spells in total.

In just a few days, Reslin's power surged severalfold, nearly reaching the limit of a legendary caster.

Aside from not having mastered the Nine-ring Technique, he is hardly distinguishable from a Grand Mage or a Holy Soul Wizard. If only spells below Nine Rings are considered, some less experienced Saint Rank casters are still inferior to him.

"If we can still absorb a thousand energy units tomorrow, I'm afraid we won't be able to use them all,"

Reslin thought to himself.

The energy increase is too rapid; even his nonstop day‑and‑night construction of spell models can't keep up, so only Lei En's body can consume it.

Lei En has fewer Elements than Reslin, but possesses many bottomless energy wells.

Legendary Power, Iron Body, Mithril Body, True Dragon Form, Wish Spell, Titan Divine Power, Thunder God's Spear, Destructive Critical, Blood Frenzy, Energy Devour, War Trample, and so on—many of these sit on the brink of advancement; one more level and they become Legendary Elements.

Pouring in a thousand energy units makes hardly a splash.

Even if Lei En's body cannot use up the energy, it can be allocated to Extreme Warriors; after two hundred forty Extreme Warriors ascend to Legendary, their power gains all slow down.

Without energy input, the Extreme Warriors alone find it hard to ascend quickly.

"They're all big energy consumers!"

Reslin closed the phone interface, meditating on spell construction while listening to teammates discuss opinions inside the shelter's tents.

"We've already destroyed over forty demon nests, nearly a tenth of all Dan Mo Fu's nests; Di Ma E Tu could never tolerate that," Yizite said. "He hasn't moved yet; he must be plotting something."

Bei La Ke raised a question: "Could it be that we acted too quickly, destroying the nest and then teleporting cleanly, leaving it unable to track us, so it has no chance to strike?"

"That's unlikely."

Dao En Sosi shook his shaved head and said, "When a demon nest is destroyed, the Demon Lord knows immediately; my purification of corrupt energy takes about ten seconds, enough time for it to teleport here."

A Xi Na supported the barbarian priest's view.

Yizite said, "Baro Flame Demons are not ordinary demons; they are commanders of the Abyssal Legion, smarter and more cunning than most, perhaps having guessed that we target them and thus acting against us, so…"

"If that's the case, it's troublesome," Bei La Ke interjected.

He was sitting at his stall polishing the Bolt Gun; after several days of use, he had completely fallen in love with these two powerful weapons.

The group thought for a moment, and A Xi Na asked, "Shall we continue tomorrow?"

"Of course, continue!"

Yizite's attitude was resolute: "No matter what scheme Di Ma E Tu has, the demon nest is its Achilles' heel; as long as we keep destroying nests, it will inevitably reveal itself."

"Starting tomorrow, we will accelerate the destruction of demon nests, forcing it to come out!"

"What do you think?"

The dark elf offered his idea, seeking the teammates' opinions.

"Good."

"Fine."

"We'll do as you say."

Except for the meditating Reslin, several teammates voiced agreement. Everyone understood Yizite's strategy: to squeeze the time for the Baro Flame Demon plot, the longer the enemy prepares, the greater the potential threat to us.

The next day, the squad teleported back to Dan Mo Fu to continue the plan.

Following Yizite's method, the team sped up, destroying six demon nests in half a day, matching the efficiency of a full day's work.

Reslin absorbed over twelve hundred energy units and could not use them all.

Far in Mo Du, Lei En sat in his office, channeling energy into Energy Devour, spending a thousand units to raise it to Level Seven; his body can fully devour the energy of two Eight-Ring Spells or six Seven-Ring Spells without any harm.

Level‑seven Energy Devour remains a Super‑Ultimate Element, its potential higher than Lei En had anticipated.

He speculated that only at Level Nine would it advance to a Legendary Element.

Another teleport.

This teleport landed in the north of Dan Mo Fu, at the foot of the Qikelos Mountains, about eighty li from the Abyssal Gate.

Reslin and four others hid within an Invisibility Field, staring at the demon nest ahead.

It was a village built against the mountain, showing more signs of civilization than a typical demon nest; hundreds of low stone buildings bore distinct dwarf architecture—sturdy and solid. If not for a column of rising corrupt energy smoke at its center, it would at first glance seem just an ordinary dwarf village.

In fact, it was a demon nest of Abyss Dwarves.

At the end of the Third Epoch, when the Abyss destroyed the New Continent, besides the Netifu Demon, some dwarves and elves fell, becoming the Abyssal God's minions.

The fallen elves became Corrupted Elves, while the fallen dwarves turned into Abyss Dwarves.

These two fallen races were few in number, far fewer than Netifu people and Evil Beastmen, so their overall strength lagged behind those two, though each had its own strengths.

Abyss Dwarves are a rare Abyssal race possessing forging ability.

They inherited dwarf craftsmanship, forging weapons and gear for the Demon Legion, earning the respect of the Abyssal Four Gods and a high standing among demons. Typically, each Demon Lord recruits a contingent of Abyss Dwarves to serve him.

Previously, the squad had already destroyed two Abyss Dwarf villages; the one before them was the third.

Reslin used the All-Seeing Eye to observe for a while.

Among the over two hundred Abyss Dwarves, the strongest were only at Legendary Mid-stage, with one Legendary Early-stage dwarf mage, posing little threat.

Everything seemed normal.

The teammates saw no problem; Yizite whispered, "Let's move."

Within the Invisibility Field, light blossomed as teammates deftly cast Divine Techniques and support spells, readying for battle; Reslin instantly teleported the entire squad forward.

The next second, five people appeared in the middle of the Abyss dwarf village.

"Enemy attack!"

"The enemy is invading!"

The Abyss dwarf whose whole skin was dark red was extremely alert and shouted loudly.

Axi Na was about to, as usual, charge forward with a shield and unleash a killing spree, but Reslin sensed something amiss and hurriedly called out to her, "Wait, someone is being teleported over!"

(End of chapter)