Chapter 14

Thousands of miles from Serenity Canyon, bordering Mandara Desert and Redpine Rainforest, was Myriad Reefs, a zone filled with underwater ridges. The colorful coral and vibrant fauna that spanned across the entire zone gave rise to a vast population of fish and crustaceans. The water here went no deeper than fifty feet, allowing anyone to witness this beautiful ecosystem in all its glory.

Today, the sky was clear, except for a winged serpent thirty feet long that slithered through the air, its red scales glinting under the sun. Riding on its back was the third strongest squad of the Solar Flare Legion, a military organization loyal to Torg Igneo.

Consisting of three men and two women, they were all over level 950, with well-developed innate gifts and skills.

The squad’s leader was Casadorn, a human with a shaved head and wide shoulders. He sat atop the serpent’s head, one leg dangling off the side as he gazed below, expression gloomy.

Hundreds of years ago, tens of thousands of anglers from his dimension once made a living catching fish in this zone, while now, there was no one in sight.

To defend against Monster King Tyranus’s neverending monster horde required centralizing their forces, so they had long abandoned the zones too far away from their capital zone. As a result, the cities, towns, and military bases in 20-some zones had long fallen into disrepair and ruin, including the teleportation network.

Flying overhead, Casadorn caught sight of a port covered in algae that had collapsed underwater. Memories of his childhood surfaced – scenes of his parents setting off on their boat as he waved goodbye before heading to school. Casadorn was half-certain this was the very same port he had spent the first twenty years of his life on, yet the fact he couldn’t be sure filled him with bitterness.

“We’ve lost so much,” he muttered, overwhelmed with emotion. In the last five hundred years, the population of his dimension went from over three billion to under one billion. Death had taken too many of his friends and acquaintances.

“Captain, don’t worry. It won’t be long before the Grandsky Realm belongs to us,” said a female dwarf sitting nearby, zeal in her eyes and conviction in her tone.

Casadorn glanced sideways at Yolga and remained silent.

Compared to Casadorn, whose mood had slowly worsened over the journey as he witnessed firsthand the decay of his once-prosperous dimension, Yolga remained optimistic.

The difference lay in the state of the world when they were born.

Yolga was less than two hundred years old, and from the day she entered this world, propaganda about serving Torg Igneo and the other rulers shaped her beliefs.

Yolga was not alone in that aspect.

For hundreds of years, the four rulers molded one generation after another into their soldiers, their worshipers.

When Casadorn looked at Yolga next to him, he recalled the day the four rulers took advantage of the threat Monster King Tyranus posed to seize complete control of their dimension. On that day, they swept through the military’s leadership and dismantled the government, catching everyone off-guard.

With the deed done and Tyranus still at large, the other top experts could only capitulate. Today, the few people still alive who rejected the four rulers were like Casadorn, who kept his true thoughts locked in his heart. The others had long vanished without a trace, no doubt secretly killed.

As Casadorn reminisced, a tall elf sitting near the serpent’s tail stood up and looked into the distance. “Someone’s spying on us.”

Casadorn swiftly returned to his usual deadpan expression. He asked, “Where?”

Troyan’s eyes narrowed. “In three directions. The feeling is vague – it must be an array or a pet of some sort.”

Casadorn turned to Yolga as her eyes flickered with mana. She glanced around and reported, “I can’t see anything. Either their array is well-hidden, or it is too high le- Ah, what the slimeballs is that?”

Yolga looked to the north-east in abject shock.

The squad followed Yolga’s gaze and found nothing. Casadorn slowly stood to his feet. “What do you see?”

“A-an array,” Yolga stammered, her eyes wide. “It’s enormous, from north to west; I think it’s covering at least two zones.”

“Impossible,” Troyan spat. The squad struggled to believe her, as an array covering an entire zone was unheard of.

Casadorn fell into thought. Command stated the enemy was a hit squad belonging to one of the other rulers intent on causing trouble. Clearly, the intel was wrong, as a mere hit squad couldn’t possibly set up a zone-wide array.

If not them, who was it?

Survivors from the Conceptual Dimension?

Whoever it was, they were trespassing on Elemental Dimension territory.

That was an act of war.

Troyan asked first, “What do we do, Captain? Probe or report back?”

As Torg Igneo had issued this mission, it might draw his ire if Casadorn’s squad came so far only to return without further investigation. The man detested cowards.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

When Casadorn stood thinking, Yolga growled, “How bold! We shed tears and blood fighting Tyranus’ minions, and someone thinks they can take advantage of us?! They deserve to die!”

Inspecting his teammates, Casadorn noticed the desire for action from their expressions, so he smirked arrogantly, “Of course, we’ll see who dares set up camp in our backyard.”

Voicing their agreement, the squad prepared for battle. However, as they drew closer, their faces turned grim when they spotted the military fortifications behind the zone-wide barrier.

Atop the ramparts were thousands of humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs standing shoulder to shoulder in similar armor, their collective gazes staring up at Casadorn’s squad. They were completely still.

Casadorn forced his mount to a stop. Holding his breath, he looked down and immediately noticed that the military fortification spanning for miles was like a slumbering dragon. It reminded him of the Blockade – the Elemental Dimension’s famous wall that repelled Tyranus’s minions for five centuries. Although Casadorn wasn’t a blacksmith or array artisan, his gut told him the resources that went into the defenses before him were no less than that of the Blockade.

“Captain, their levels, they…” Troyan’s voice trailed off.

Hearing Troyan’s shock, Casadorn used Inspect, and what he found caught him off-guard. Surprisingly, he couldn’t discern the levels of the people below him, no matter who he inspected. Casadorn himself was level 987, and the only way he couldn’t find out someone’s status was if they had a skill or item to block it.

Combined with the astonishing quality of the battlements, Casadorn’s perception of the forces below turned into one of an opponent he couldn’t underestimate. Even the loyalist Yolga was intimidated by the sight.

Unknowingly, Casadorn’s squad had fallen victim to Yara’s ploy. By using her Karma ability to obscure status panels and the army appearing mysterious, she had successfully deceived Casadorn’s team into believing they were no match for the other party. In reality, the Innate Dimension’s military had an average level of 700 and skill levels of around 600.

Yolga mustered her courage and asked, “What do we do now, Captain?”

Thinking, Casadorn stepped off his mount and hovered in the air. With a solemn expression, he shouted, “I am the third captain of the Solar Flare Legion representing the Elemental Dimension. What intentions do you have to build such defenses upon my dimension’s zones?”

Moments passed after Casadorn finished speaking, yet there was no response from the ramparts below. The air grew thick with tension as Casadorn’s expression sunk. Looking away from the army, Casadorn turned his attention to the transparent zone-wide array. Logically, the integrity of such a massive array should be spread equally amongst its surface. Was it really as intimidating as it looked? He needed to find out.

Widening his stance, flames erupted from Casadorn, turning him into a ball of fire. As he took in a deep breath, the color of the flames turned orange, then blue. Finally, the edges of the flames took on a white hue, causing the air around Casadorn to warp and twist disorientingly.

In the back, Yolga and the rest felt envious when white appeared in Casadorn’s flames. Less than twenty people in the Elemental Dimension could conjure white flames, and everyone who did was destined to become a Paragon – a legendary individual with an innate skill level of 1,000.

In any case, maintaining white flames was strenuous, even for Casadorn. Acting decisively, he pulled back his arm, and as he did, forced all the flames into his fist. Once compressed to the limit, he punched forward.

Followed by a sonic boom, a flame in the shape of Casadorn’s fist shot out and instantly collided with the zone-wide array in a deafening explosion. At the point of contact, the zone-wide array caved inward, cracks spreading across its surface. But that was all. Casadorn’s Meteor Fist eventually fizzled out, leaving behind an intact array that quickly healed itself.

As Casadorn and his squad had their full attention on the collision, they didn’t notice the changing expressions of the army standing atop the ramparts.

In the air, Casadorn was briefly stunned that his full-strength attack was useless, though he quickly understood that he was merely an individual. Breaching a fortress equivalent to the Blockade would take more than one person.

Straightening his back, Casadorn released a low shout, “Form the Molten Elemental!”

Casadorn’s command jolted his squad into action. In unison, they flew to Casadorn’s side as blue flames erupted from their figures. Linking their flames together, they formed a humanoid creature ten meters tall.

Empowered by his squad, Casadorn, floating inside the Molten Elemental’s chest, raised his arms. The Molten Elemental mirrored his movements, and with its palms facing the sky, it conjured a ball of flame above its head. Seeing no movement from below, Casadorn didn’t hold back and drew upon the majority of his teammate's mana, turning the flame into a miniature star. Although it was 99% blue, sometimes, quantity overcame quality.

Maintaining and compressing so much mana put an immense strain on Casadorn’s mental faculties, causing him to break out into a cold sweat, which immediately evaporated. Knowing collapse was imminent, he pushed forward, throwing the miniature star toward the zone-wide array.

Everyone, whether it was Casadorn’s squad or the army below, looked on as the miniature star made contact with the array. Much like a boulder hitting the surface of a lake, the miniature star sunk into the array, its enormous weight creating an exaggerated image.

Just when the miniature star was about to break through, Casadorn’s squad watched in amazement as the zone-wide array came to life. Incomparably dense mana shot over from the rest of the array, reinforcing the imminent breach. When Casadorn noticed the array pushing back the miniature star, he willed it to explode.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!

A blinding flash took away everyone’s vision, followed by sounds resembling that of shattered glass. The resulting shockwave knocked back Casadorn’s squad and forcibly canceled their combination, while the army on the ramparts conjured numerous barriers to maintain their position.

When Casadorn’s vision recovered, his gaze landed on the zone-wide array, finding a gaping hole hundreds of meters across. There, fragments of mana continuously dissipated as the residual heat warped the air. It was an astonishing sight.

Right when Casadorn wanted to celebrate his success, the zone-wide array rippled, reminding him of a heartbeat. Before his very eyes, the intact parts of the zone-wide array extended outward, much like blood forming a scab. In moments, the devastation caused by the miniature star vanished, replaced by fresh skin.

Casadorn was speechless, having never seen an array with so much damage recover so fast. No, more crucial was the fact it had actively responded to his attack, reinforcing where it was weak. It almost felt like the array was alive. Taking a step back, Casadorn looked left, then right, and all he could see was the array. It truly was zone-wide.

How much mana was powering this thing? Were arrays capable of such feats? Why hadn’t he heard anything? Could someone tell him what was going on?

Right then, Casadorn felt a fatal threat lock onto him, forcing him to teleport thirty feet backward in response. Panicked, he scanned his surroundings, but he couldn’t see anything. Nonetheless, his instincts screamed that death was near.

“Retreat!” Casadorn ordered and flew toward the winged serpent. In less than a second, his squad regrouped on the mount, which then flew into the distance. All the while, Casadorn remained tense, his senses extended to their limit.

When Casadorn’s squad disappeared over the horizon, a figure covered in reflective scales appeared not far from where Casadorn previously hovered. With a twitch, the scales withdrew under the figure’s skin, revealing Ska’dur with a disappointed expression. “Even exhausted, his senses were so sharp. I’d love to fight him at his peak. Well, after I level up a bit…”