The Era of Gods

Chapter 327: 327: Lin Xiao's Demise?

Chapter 327: Chapter 327: Lin Xiao’s Demise?

Bernie said coldly:

“If we don’t use it now, we will die. If we are defeated, this artifact will fall into the enemy’s hands. I believe that even the Leader of Gainey would agree with my decision.”

The other two Children of Nightmare remained silent, or perhaps it was just that Gould had never responded.

Seeing that his companions had no objections, Bernie took a deep breath and said:

“In that case, we might as well retreat for now. I’ll go activate the artifact!”

Isaiah responded:

“I shall also retreat.”

After waiting for a while without a response from Gould, the two Children of Nightmare attempted to communicate with him only to find that his breath was extremely unstable, almost as if on the verge of collapse.

Meanwhile, on the battlefield, Gould’s Nightmare Legion became somewhat restive.

The two Children of Nightmare exchanged glances and were about to say something when suddenly Gould’s Nightmare Legion began to retreat without warning.

This turn of events surprised both Children of Nightmare, with even Lin Xiao finding it completely unexpected.

It was only after Bernie asked repeatedly, his tone getting increasingly severe, that Gould reluctantly replied:

“A Legendary Giant Beast that was previously suppressed in my realm has gone out of control. I need to return to my realm urgently to reestablish control.”

Bernie was somewhat incredulous:

“Even your True Body can’t suppress it?”

“Can’t suppress it.”

After a long silence, Bernie waved his hand and said:

“Go then.”

Another Child of Nightmare, Isaiah, asked:

“Lord Bernie, should we go and have a look?”

Bernie shook his head:

“No need to bother. The situation is the same with or without him. Since we are prepared to activate the artifact, his absence won’t matter. However, since he has not contributed, we will later revoke his eligibility for a share of the spoils of war.”

Then, the remaining two Children of Nightmare each left a portion of their subordinates to cover their retreat, taking their main forces away.

The Supreme Naga and the Lesser Naga Allied Forces wiped out the rear-guard Nightmare Legion and, about twenty kilometers from the city, joined with the Goblins Mage Group of Wisdom to head toward the passage near the two realms.

Since it was clear that the enemy couldn’t defeat them, it was time to counterattack!

Lin Xiao left a portion of the Clan to guard the Divine Realm, including two Legendary Supreme Naga Lords. The remaining five Legendary Satellites marched to war, with Bernie’s Nightmare Divine Realm as their target.

Capture the leader first, then deal with the rest.

However, the army found the passage between the realms sealed off by an incredibly powerful force when they arrived at the realm junction. Although it wasn’t impossible to break through, it would undoubtedly take a significant amount of time to open.

He looked doubtfully at the other two Nightmare Realms. The one on the left had been similarly sealed off at short notice, but the one on the right, which belonged to the hastily retreating Gould, was not sealed.

He assessed the seals laid down with all the might of the opposing realms and knew that even if he used all the Divine Power he had stored, he could not blast them open quickly.

This “quickly” was measured in hours.

“Then let’s go have a look over there!”

The main force turned and quickly approached the realm passage where Gould resided.

This Child of Nightmare named Gould seemed to have retreated in a great hurry; after falling back, he had not stationed any subordinates to guard the passage between the two realms. Lin Xiao sensed no presence of Nightmare Creatures near the breach between the two worlds.

“What’s going on here? An empty fortress strategy, or luring the enemy into a trap?”

This utterly irrational behavior made Lin Xiao hesitate to make any rash moves. After some thought, he sent in a Wise Goblin Mage along with a small group of Small Naga Scouts.

Soon enough, he shared the perspective of the Clan squad and saw that the other side of the breach between the realms was desolate with nothing there, and even the Nightmare Power nearby seemed sparse, like the area had been abandoned.

What surprised him the most was that he could barely feel the natural repression from the Nightmare Realm.

In other words, the gaze of the Child of Nightmare from the other side was not focused here.

Though not as oppressive as the innate rule suppression of a Demigod, if the gaze of a Child of Nightmare were upon this place, the powers around the realm would naturally converge here to suppress the enemy. Now, he could not sense it at all.

Moreover, through the perspective of the Clan squad, he faintly sensed within the depths of this Nightmare Realm what seemed to be a terrifying and palpitating will.

Fear that could drive one mad.

Just sensing it caused the Wise Goblins Mage serving as his medium to faintly feel discomfort.

“Boom!”

A heavy sensation of spatial shock passed over the Clan’s squad with a faint ripple in space. There was neither sight nor sound of anything, but the moment the ripple swept by, everyone’s mind involuntarily conjured an image of a species as massive as a planet smashing forcefully into the Earth, causing an impact of inconceivable mass and strength that shook the Divine Realm, rippling and distorting space itself.

“What is this terrifying existence?”

This feeling…

Lin Xiao was certain that it was real, it couldn’t be a figment of imagination.

He gazed deeply into the depths of the Nightmare Realm, which emanated a heart-palpitating sensation, and once again issued an order. He dispatched five exploration teams, each consisting of two formal Wise Goblin Mages and a dozen Lesser Naga, to enter the Nightmare Realm in different directions, while his will followed these teams into this eerie domain.

It was silent, nothing but dead silence.

The inside of the realm felt lifeless, as if it was missing the Lord’s children of Nightmare, similar to the Nightmare Realm he had previously devoured after killing a Child of Nightmare. Although the realm hadn’t reached that state yet, Lin Xiao felt a tendency towards it.

At this point, he was almost certain that some major event had taken place within the Nightmare Realm, and the lifeless scene before him was unlikely to be a ruse to lure him in.

As the five exploration teams delved deeper into the Nightmare Realm, they discovered nothing—no Nightmare Creatures at all. The Nightmare atmosphere in the void remained as gloomy as ever, but the foreboding sensation only grew stronger, as if they were gradually nearing some terrifying Giant Beast.

Unbeknownst to them, the fastest exploration team had covered a distance of around twenty to thirty kilometers within the domain and arrived at a cliff terrain with confusion and caution.

The team stood at the edge of the cliff looking out. Through the not-too-dense mist, they saw terrain resembling a sinkhole canyon—where a formerly flat surface suddenly dipped steeply to form a canyon, with the opposing side of the chasm faintly visible.

The edge of the canyon wasn’t too steep; it was a… slope?

At first glance, the slope seemed strangely familiar to Lin Xiao. It looked like…

An unbelievable thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.

This sinkhole canyon…

He ordered the Mages to fly overhead into the canyon for a better view, and the more he saw, the more startled he became.

“What the hell is this?”

From above, the canyon resembled an impression made by some colossal spherical object rolling over the Earth.

Unbelievable, but the surface resemblance was striking.

The five exploration teams split into three directions: two followed the canyon to the left, two to the right, and another crossed the sinkhole canyon and moved forward.

Half an hour later, one of the teams sent back an unusual report from the right. Lin Xiao’s will arrived instantly, and he saw the sinkhole canyon suddenly become chaotic at that point, turning into a huge, uneven depression with countless terrible signs of battle stretching far into the distance.

There was no physical matter remaining on the battlefield, but the signs of a desperate battle were palpable not long ago.

Based on these leftover traces of battle and the disrupted terrain, Lin Xiao confirmed that indeed, a Giant Beast beyond description had fought with the Child of Nightmare of this domain.

Yes, integrating the information now at hand, it was clear that some enormously large creature had appeared in this Nightmare Child’s domain for some reason, overpowering the Nightmare Child and leading to this dire scene.

Just then, from the indescribable chaos of the earth far away, strange noises arose, followed by the Nightmare atmosphere in the void getting sucked away by an invisible force towards the distance, and the concentration of the Nightmare atmosphere between heaven and earth plummeted.

Next, accompanied by an ear-deafening roar, the distant earth suddenly expanded outward and rapidly contracted back to its original state, with endless black Nightmare air spreading like a tide in all directions.

At that moment, Lin Xiao felt an extreme instability in the space of the Nightmare Realm, and the vast domain seemed on the verge of collapse.

The surging tide of the Nightmare Power revealed clear sky and earth behind it, where an unimaginably huge silhouette was centralized in the Nightmare Realm, extending arms measured in kilometers, hammering away at the Black Gigantic Tower that represented the core of the realm.

The moment he saw this scene, Lin Xiao’s pupils shrank sharply. He recognized it.

The vast meatball, nearly two kilometers in diameter and exuding an oppressive force unimaginable to ordinary people, was actually the same meatball that had been taken into the Divine Realm with him by the Child of Nightmare.

When it was first taken in, it was just over ten meters in diameter, yet it had grown to such a size in so little time?

Lin Xiao felt like he was dreaming.

Whether it was because he was too shocked and his emotional fluctuations were a bit extreme, the monster that had been furiously hammering the core of the Nightmare Realm suddenly paused, and a huge head on its body lifted to look over, its despair-inducing, terrifying will sweeping over him like a storm. Lin Xiao instantly lost his sensing with that point of will embodied in the Clan, not obliterated but temporarily interrupted, and seconds later, he reestablished his connection only to discover that something extra was on this fragment of will, and as it reconnected with his True Body, that extra…

A mark-like substance extended across both domains to his True Body, leaving this mark on him.

“Too terrifying!”

Lin Xiao quickly ordered the other exploration teams to retreat, at the same time ordering the troops at the junction of the two realms to pull back, and summoned the Legend Mage Alemente to assemble the Mage team to prepare to seal the barrier.

There was no way to fight, absolutely no way.

What did two kilometers in diameter signify?

A meatball as big as a city rolling your way—power transformed to such an extent that even the Legendary Defense Spell would be easily breached—the current Divine Realm couldn’t withstand it at all. The will of the Nightmare World?