Chapter Eighty-Four: The Water Floods Three Thousand Miles! [Fourth Update]
After conquering the Bronze Fortress, the path ahead was smooth.
However, the demons did not feel at ease; instead, they found the battles becoming increasingly difficult.
Powerful high-level devils, working in close coordination, began to appear on the first layer of the Hell of Bartok. They were the vanguard troops returning from the Material Plane, tasked with blocking the demonic offensive to prevent the situation from worsening.
The first layer of the Hell of Bartok is a massive armory.
Here lies the crystallization of countless years of bl**d and sweat from demons. If thousands of armories are destroyed and seized by the demons, rebuilding them would not be an easy task.
The battle fell into a stalemate.
It was as if everything had entered an eerie calm, but an even more terrifying storm was brewing.
Avernus.
A gigantic portal had been established behind the demons’ defense line, and legions of demons began to retreat from the Material Plane back to the Hell of Bartok. They left behind a group of cannon fodder to block the enemy, enough to delay the mortals for a while.
Powerful discipline allowed the demons to quickly reorganize after returning to the Hell of Bartok.
Then, one after another, the demon armies began to depart for the front lines. They had to first stop the demonic offensive, then find a way to reclaim the Bronze Fortress, and finally drive the demons back into the Bottomless Abyss.
At an unknown time.
The waters of the River of Underworld, which had peacefully flowed for millions of years, began to surge. The bl**d river flowing from Avernus had started to rise.
Dimly,
Countless souls came with waves of wailing, rising and falling with the waters of the River of Underworld, as if chanting a dirge.
On this day,
Even the ferryman of the River of Underworld and the memory-stealing demons fled the vicinity of the river, as if something frightfully terrible was about to erupt!
The exuberant demon army was returning to the Hell of Bartok.
Although they had not conquered the Material Plane, all demons had plundered vast wealth from it, harvesting countless souls, which could be used to enhance their strength or transformed into low-level demons for their enslavement.
Above the River of Underworld.
Soren’s figure appeared at some point.
His gaze pierced through time and space, locking onto the demon camp in the distance in Avernus.
The giant portal was still operating, but the main forces of the demons had quickly and efficiently retreated from the Material Plane, leaving behind only some cannon fodder. They were organizing a counterattack against the demonic army while some eager demons were consuming the spoils from the Material Plane.
“No one can despise d*ath!”
“Anyone who challenges the God of d*ath must pay the price!”
Soren’s figure gradually became ethereal, and then a towering black giant appeared in the River of Underworld. Tens of thousands of wandering souls flew up from the river, and as the hundred-foot tall black giant took a deep breath, tens of thousands of souls were drawn into his body through his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.
Then!
The waters of the River of Underworld began to boil; countless souls soared into the air, and the desiccated bones settled at the river bottom were lifted by the souls, forming terrifying, sinister undead. They surged in the River of Underworld, emitting sharp, mournful yet filled with resentment and anger roars. The hundred-foot tall black giant raised both arms as if lifting the Milky Way, accompanied by a strong divine power that shook the laws of the Hell of Bartok, the river that had quietly flowed through the multiverse for millennia raised immense waves!
Boom!
Terrifying waves were stirred up from the River of Underworld!
The waters before him seemed endless, directly sweeping up the bl**d river to form terrifying giant waves that surged onto the land towards the direction of the demons.
For a moment,
Heaven and earth changed color!
The powers of time, space, and laws crumbled, and a door of d*ath opened in the void, as countless reapers crossed space to reach the Hell of Bartok.
The waters of the River of Underworld swept across heaven and earth! Everything happened so quickly!
Even the elite demon armies had no time to react; countless demons let out terrified screams, desperately trying to fly if they could, or teleport away if possible, but the laws of the entire Hell of Bartok seemed to be interfered with by an immensely powerful divine power, rendering some of their abilities completely ineffective.
This powerful divine power altered reality and space!
There was no chance to react; the waters of the River of Underworld poured down like the Milky Way in reverse!
Countless demons couldn’t escape in time and were swept into the River of Underworld in the blink of an eye. This terrifying river rapidly corroded their flesh and bl**d, and even the Hell Alchemist quickly disintegrated under the waters.
In an instant, the demon army suffered immense losses, and with the d*ath of those demons swept into the River of Underworld, countless souls surged forth from their broken corpses. The number of these souls was beyond counting, a tide of wandering souls burst forth from the demons, trying to break free from the river’s shackles, but no matter how hard they struggled, they were ultimately swept away by the waters of the River of Underworld toward the front!
The True God’s rage!
The water floods three thousand miles!
The giant wave that surged from the River of Underworld extended for three thousand miles, washing hundreds of demons into the river, and those souls they had plundered from the Material Plane rushed along with the waters, gradually merging into the main flow of the River of Underworld in the Hell of Bartok.
The ravaged land bore the traces of the recent terrible disaster.
Because everything happened too quickly, many demon corpses were left partially intact, scattered across the riddled earth.
“No!”
An earth-shattering roar echoed, followed by a phantom with bl**d-red pain, dusky skin and hair, with a small pair of dark red horns on its head, wearing a glamorous bl**d-red robe, holding a ruby scepter.
In an instant.
The entire Hell of Bartok shook, and countless demons and devils felt uneasy.
This phantom let out a roar filled with fury and quickly transformed into a giant demon hundreds of meters tall, rushing towards the black giant above the River of Underworld.
Booming!
The entire first layer of the Hell of Bartok trembled.
Countless wandering souls surrounded the black giant, ultimately forming a pitch-black armor. He clashed hard with the Lord of Hell before him; under the terrifying collision of divine powers, the riverbed of the River of Underworld quickly cracked and collapsed, and a fissure spanning dozens of kilometers extended from the river to the distant valley.
Space shattered.
At the moment of their collision, clear distortions appeared in the surrounding void, with traces of chaotic spatial currents dimly visible.
The battlefield of the gods is in the Astral Realm.
Since the war between the first generation of demons and the Ancient God of Order began, most True God-level battles have erupted in the Astral Realm, as they can easily destroy a plane. Now, the residual effects of the Saint’s Cataclysm are minimal. If Soren were to fight with all his might, it would be impossible to destroy the Hell of Bartok, but it would certainly be achievable to overturn the first layer of Avernus.
The Lord of Hell gazed at the black giant before him.
As one of the oldest existences today, no one could guess what was on his mind; he simply launched an attack and then stopped, glancing at the wounds left on the ground before transforming back into a phantom.
The black giant also began to dissipate after the Lord of Hell turned into a phantom.
Thousands of wandering souls surged from his body, merging into the tributary of the River of Underworld, where countless souls had already gathered densely. Yet, even the greediest demons at that moment had no thoughts; they could only watch helplessly as countless souls flowed along the River of Underworld, ultimately reaching the places these souls were meant to go.
………………
Underworld. The City of d*ath.
As the black giant dissipated, Soren, standing at the top of the palace, swayed momentarily, and then a trace of golden bl**d oozed from the corner of his mouth.
“Master!”
A reaper servant flew over with a drastically changed expression.
But Soren quickly waved his hand, saying, “It’s fine. Send someone to take over the main route of the River of Underworld in the Hell of Bartok.”
The Lord of Hell actually held back.
According to Soren’s thinking, Asmothiels would surely confront him head-on, but he did not expect the Lord of Hell to be so formidable, even in this situation, managing to restrain himself.
A golden radiance flickered.
In the next moment, Soren’s figure appeared in the Astral Realm.
“He still hasn’t come out?” The Lord of Radiance materialized.
His expression seemed somewhat disappointed yet also appeared to be expected, murmuring, “It looks like our plan has been seen through by him!…”
Soren said nothing.
After a long while, he finally said, “After all, he is the Lord of Hell – Asmothiels! Even if he can’t guess that we are teaming up, he would still suspect whether I appearing in the Hell of Bartok was part of a plot against him!”
What a pity.
If they could lure Asmothiels to the Astral Realm, he and the Lord of Radiance could possibly take down this super boss in the multiverse!
This was the only time he and the Lord of Radiance could potentially team up.
It was the arrangement of fate, as well as history; if it were not for all that had happened in the Saint’s Cataclysm, neither he nor the Lord of Radiance would have had the chance to join forces against another.
But unfortunately, the Lord of Hell saw through it all!
He held back.
Even after watching Soren stir the waters of the River of Underworld and slaughter countless demons, reclaiming the souls they had plundered back into the river, he still managed to suppress the urge to act.
Such cooperation could only happen once.
Once the Saint’s Cataclysm ended, Soren and the Lord of Radiance are the light and dark sides, and it would be absolutely impossible to join forces against the Lord of Hell again.
………………
Endless Void.
The disappointment on the Lord of Radiance’s face did not last long, as he turned to look at the Origin of Chaos, slowly saying, “Everything is about to end.”
“Yes,” Soren also murmured, “It’s finally coming to an end.”
The power of the deities was recovering.
The increasingly bright stars in the night sky heralded all this; the energy storm that had triggered the Saint’s Cataclysm was vanishing, and it would not be long before the gods would return to their divine kingdoms.
At that time, all struggles would temporarily cease.
Because everyone would need some time to face the shattered world after the end of the Saint’s Cataclysm.
