Wave of Bones's face turned grim as he stared at the arriving Earthquake. It was unclear how much time Force of Nature had left in the void. Should he take the risk and fight both guilds? He glanced towards his friends, noticing the sparkle in their eyes. Everyone wanted to prove themselves in an exciting battle against Dream Avenue. So be it!
[Wave of Bones: Follow me!]
Just as Wave of Bones was about to lead his friends into battle and Dream Avenue together with Force of Nature prepared for a difficult fight, Watchful Eye was the first to notice a strange change:
[Watchful Eye: The void energy is thinning out…]
[Cyclone: What?!]
Everyone was surprised, hesitating for a moment. During the brief delay the void energy dissipated even more. The rate was way faster than previously. Everyone's vision cleared up gradually.
"Could it be…"
Wave of Bones had a bad premonition. He stared towards the distance where the void energy was so dense that it formed a pitch-black abyssal barrier. But now the darkness was receding. Dense, deep-purple void energy appeared. And with each second passing even the void energy became thinner and thinner.
"Did we... lose?"
Such a thought formed in the minds of all the chaos players. Disappointment hit them. After such a long battle, were they really about to lose the event?
"Hey, we can speak again."
"The fog is clearing up."
"Look, over there are other groups."
"Oh my god, we are basically surrounded by enemies…"
As the players discovered the various changes the fight gradually came to a stop. Everyone stared in the direction of the NPC armies, seeking an explanation from them. But when the players who had been deep in the void just now got a good look on the NPCs they were shocked by the scene.
Both the armies of the order and the chaos faction had been reduced by half with the chaos faction suffering more casualties. However, at the commander level it seemed the chaos faction had the upper hand. Liam's gaze immediately fell on Therim Riverbell. The powerful guardian had just dispersed a cloud of void energy. Although his face still looked brave and determined he had shockingly lost his left arm, most likely cut off to stop the spread of void corruption. Opposite him was a strange shadow being, its body constantly churning unstably. Void energy dyed patches of the shadow purple, backlashing against the shadow demon.
Not far away was a brutal battle between three people. King of Basilisks Lennreo was attacking in rage. A deep wound in his abdomen was dripping with blood, clearly a heavy injury. His enemy was shockingly someone of the order faction. It was the third prince of the Rising Basilisk Empire. Obviously, some form of betrayal had taken place. The third person in the fight was an old acquaintance, Endral Yntheno, the second prince. Formerly ousted by the empire he was now fighting together with Lennreo. Yet they were unable to suppress the third prince.
With such infighting it was obvious why the order faction was in trouble. But not everything was going badly. Chieftain Ogruz was chasing a famous necromancer through the battlefield, shattering all kinds of undead beings with his immense strength. One could imagine the outcome if the orc's club where to land on the frail necromancer.
Elsewhere a towering demon with an incredibly intimidating height throned over the order faction army. Just from his presence one would think he could decimate the army single-handedly. But he was shackled by golden chains controlled by Lewriova. Black magical blades pierced into his body, bit by bit taking his life away.
At another point Ynahvla, headmaster of Svebrial's magic academy, was facing a human mage in dark robes. This mage was a former headmaster of the academy, supposedly extremely powerful. But he fell for the temptations of the high devil called Souravnimn. Borrowing the devil's might he could grow stronger in battle, indeed a fearsome opponent. But right now, multiple magic scrolls were hovering around him, suppressing the devilish magic, granting Ynahvla a huge advantage in the fight. It was only a matter of time until the dark mage would fall.
All of these battles were eye-openers for the players. However, the most important fight was less exciting than one would have expected. High in the sky Golden Tiger and Orion were facing each other. The godspawn was emitting a dazzling light which blocked void energy and dark magic alike, looking extremely domineering. Only some scratches on his armour and his ruffled wings showed that the godspawn had just gone through an intense battle. Golden Tiger looked down on his opponent who had numerous bloody wounds. Streaks of violet could be seen below Orion's pale skin. His condition was quite miserable.
"Don't think you have won yet, godspawn!"
Orion stared at Golden Tiger with eyes filled with hatred. But his enemy remained composed.
"It is time to stop your meaningless struggle. Find salvation under my blade. The purpose of our order faction has been achieved."
"Even if you can lift the void prison, as long as I remain, your order faction won't be able to advance!"
"So I just have to get rid of you…"
Although the two enemies were talking fiercely, they momentarily didn't move. Their attention laid elsewhere. Both were observing the void energy in the distance, which was gradually thinning out. It didn't take long until the view at the scene behind got revealed. There was a barren landscape with faint void energy covering the ground. At the centre was the corpse of a terrifying beast. It was a strange bear the size of a mountain. Only few people recognized the celestial beast, the Earth-Born Mountain Bear. However, right now the bear looked anything but majestic as its corpse was being corroded by void energy.
Around the celestial beast was a large, shining magic circle. Nearly a thousand dark mages sat cross legged at the edge of the magic circle, chanting something under their breaths. As the spell proceeded, the magic circle pulsed, sending energy along sinister void chains. These chains were wrapped around three gigantic beings at the back, immobilizing them.
The three beings all had strange appearances. One was a mountain of bones wriggling with countless skeleton hands. The second was a blood giant with three heads and six arms. And the third was an ancient tree with black branches, having countless runes engraved in its bark.
"What are we looking at?"
"Eww, what are they doing over there?"
"Such ugly things…"
The players, especially those belonging to the order faction were confused and apprehensive. They could feel an enormous evil might from the magic circle as well as from the three strange beings.
"Expert! What is going on over there?!"
Seeing Cyclone turn towards him, Liam quickly gave an explanation:
"Those three giant beings are the devils we are supposed to free. They look strange because these are their real bodies. Devils usually transform out of convenience but only in their real bodies can they bring out all their strength."
"Well, they don't seem that strong if they ended up like this…"
Liam only smiled faintly. Cyclone would probably change her opinion in the future.
"The curtain has been lifted! Increase your efforts!"
Suddenly a thundering voice could be heard. It came from a surprisingly dignified-looking demon with white skin and four wings hovering in the air above the celestial beast corpse. Even the chaos faction players looked at the demon in confusion, unable to recognize him.
But the demon obviously held a great authority. The dark mages followed his order and sped up their effort. The magic circle shone brightly, sending more energy along the void chains and towards the devils. Patches of violet pulsed on their towering bodies. They spread quickly, trying to overwhelm the devils. They were just short of being entirely corrupted.
Everyone watching the scene felt their blood freeze. One could only imagine the destruction a void-corrupted devil would cause. Perhaps even the gods would find it difficult to suppress them.
"We need to do something! Hurry up!"
"Why is there no new task?"
"The NPCs aren't moving!"
"How can they move? Look at them, they are frozen in fear!"
The order faction players felt some panic. Everything seemed to go their way, and victory was almost in their grasp. Could it be that they were still too slow?
Void energy climbed up the bone mountain, only leaving a white tip. The blood giant only had a single head unaffected. The black tree gradually turned violet, its leaves withering, and only its roots untouched. The three high devils were about to fall.
Suddenly a blanket of darkness appeared out of nowhere, covering the three devils and the magic circle. The sound of metal clashing could be heard. The next second, two broken ends of a void chain flew towards the sky out of the darkness, dissipating into the air. The angered voice of the white demon could be heard:
"Basnimn! Have you gone mad?! Are you betraying Hell?! Betraying your brothers and sister?!"
"Hahaha! Betray? BETRAY?! What is there to betray if they have never treated me as one of theirs?! Even you dare to call me, a genuine devil, by my name! I am done with enduring your humiliation! This will be the day of my revenge!"