The Dawn of the Third Day: A City on the Brink
At dawn on the third day, the sky was a dull, ashen gray—as if even the heavens could not bear to witness the carnage below. The hundred-thousand-strong relief army led by Beast King Nuti Ursa finally arrived at Cinder Moon City, travel-worn yet radiating murderous intent.
This proud beastman capital—built of rugged rock and adorned with beast bones, its main gate sculpted into the gaping maw of a colossal monster—now had its once-majestic "jaws" brutally torn open. Black smoke still rose from the jagged wounds. The towering walls, forged from a mix of rock and metal, were covered in dried black bloodstains, scorch marks from energy weapons, and massive impact craters. Atop the battlements, four of the five legendary beastman generals were still hoarsely shouting orders, directing the utterly exhausted defenders in their final stand:
- **Flame Lance Mias** — her never-extinguishing fire spear moved like a living thing in her hands, piercing undead skulls with deadly precision.
- **Iron Wall Balg** — the old general famed for unbreakable defense stood like an immovable boulder above the main gate. His two trusted lieutenants—**Giant Axe Mans**, swinging a door-sized battle-axe, and **Roaring Bear Bakov**, whose bellows shook the heavens—served as his sturdiest bulwark.
- **Dominant Bow Komir** — the newly risen archery master whose arm never rested; the twang of his bowstring sounded like the whisper of death, and his arrow storms always sealed enemy advances at the perfect moment.
- **Earth Mage Simeng An** — a rare female beastman spellcaster, pale-faced but resolute, continuously chanting to raise solid earth walls and trigger ground fissures, hindering enemy formations and charges.
Their former comrade, the famously ferocious **Mad Axe Rog**, had fallen two days earlier in the most desperate siege battle—sacrificing himself to hold a collapsed section of wall. His body now rested in the cold mortuary chamber of the citadel.
With a grinding screech, the heavily patched beast-head gate slowly opened once more. Nuti Ursa strode through first, stepping onto the familiar scorched earth. Seeing his ravaged homeland and the grievously wounded warriors, even this iron-blooded beast king's eyes reddened with moisture. His voice was hoarse yet filled with power as he roared:
"Mias! Balg! Raise your heads! Look who I've brought back to you!"
The battling Flame Lance Mias and Iron Wall Balg whipped around at the sound. When their eyes fell on the figure beside the Beast King—worn by hardship yet still standing tall, eyes as sharp as ever—they froze as though struck by lightning.
Ten years!
That face, that presence, had long been etched into their very bones.
"K… Kael?! Thunder Claw Kael?!" Mias could hardly believe her eyes. She forgot the enemies in front of her, rushing forward and seizing Kael's callused hands. Her voice shook uncontrollably with emotion: "Old brother! It really is you?! You're alive! These ten years… where in the world have you…"
Balg's reaction was even more direct. His massive fist, carrying the wind of excitement, slammed heavily onto Kael's shoulder with a muffled thud. Then he erupted into earth-shaking laughter—laughter mixed with tears:
"Hahahaha! I knew it! I knew you wouldn't die so easily! Thunder Claw still lives! The soul of the Roaring Claw Empire has not faded! You came back at the perfect time! No more talk—pick up your weapon! Let these damned filth taste what it means when the 'Three Giants of Roaring Claw' fight side by side!"
Dominant Bow Komir and Earth Mage Simeng An also looked over with shock and respect. Komir gave a solemn nod:
"General Kael—your reputation precedes you! Your return is worth more than a hundred thousand soldiers in raising morale! It's just… General Rog… he fell heroically two days ago…"
Kael's face instantly turned ashen. Grief and fury intertwined and blazed in his eyes. He gripped his legendary companion axe "Rockbreaker" so tightly his knuckles whitened, forcing the oath through clenched teeth:
"Mad Axe Rog… my clansman… your blood will not have been shed in vain! I, Kael, swear here and now—I will take tenfold, a hundredfold the heads of our enemies to sacrifice to your heroic spirit!"
Outside the city, the scene was as horrific as at Steelforge. Remains of Mandras's three-colored Blight Vines dotted the landscape, but far more numerous were the layered mountains of corpses—beastmen, human soldiers, elven allies, mixed with the cold mechanical wreckage of Doomsday legions, stiff-moving undead soldiers, and grotesquely shaped variant creatures. In the distant enemy camp, the massive, twisted silhouette of Cthulhu could faintly be seen, Shux was giving the mutant orcs a pre-battle pep talk, while Virginia was testing her mechanized army. They had clearly noticed the arrival of reinforcements and were urgently mobilizing their forces to prepare for a larger fourth wave of attack.
The fourth wave struck almost the moment the reinforcements caught their breath! Cthulhu's death legion surged forward like an endless gray tide. Fearless and tireless undead soldiers endured the rain of arrows and boulders from the walls, crazily piling their bodies to climb the blood-soaked battlements, trying to tear into the defenders with teeth and claws. Shux's variant beastman legions launched furious flank assaults—these twisted, empowered kin possessed terrifying strength, swinging massive axes and flails, madly battering the already tottering gates and weak wall sections. Virginia's mechanized legion was mixed in with the enemy lines, their arms modified into bio-cannons that sprayed out large areas of corrosive poisonous mist and bizarre neurotoxins, constantly dismantling the defenders' organization and defenses.
The defenders fought to the death. Mias's flame lance carved fatal arcs, igniting swathes of undead; Balg and his lieutenants formed an iron bulwark, repelling wave after wave; Komir's arrows always struck the most critical points, sniping enemy commanders or powerful individuals; Simeng An's earth magic constantly reshaped the terrain below, creating chasms and pitfalls to slow enemy charges. The battle instantly reached its most brutal phase—every inch of wall contested at the cost of countless lives. Undead constantly poured over the crenellations; variant beastmen roared deafeningly; corrosive fog made many warriors collapse in agony. More sections of wall were in critical danger, teetering on the brink.
Though the situation remained dire, the timely arrival of a hundred thousand fresh troops greatly relieved the defenders' pressure, granting precious breathing room and reserves—barely keeping the battle line from total collapse.
Salsa, Kayla, Yuyuer, Zhamisi, and Lin Ya also did not immediately throw themselves into this chaotic meat grinder. They stayed in the rear like hidden hunters—calmly assessing the battlefield, searching for the decisive moment that belonged to them, waiting for the true powerful presences in the enemy camp to reveal themselves.
Mutual Generation and Conquest
Deep within the starlit space—far removed from worldly clamor and the flow of time—Fa was fighting a war far more perilous than any on the outside world: a war that belonged to her alone.
Three full days had passed for her—an endless torment. Twelve utterly different, violently opposed elemental primal forces had been forcibly crammed into her body. They were not gentle streams but twelve raging, untamable dragons of destruction! They crashed, tore, and tried to devour one another throughout her meridians, dantian, and even the depths of her soul. Every clash and friction of energies brought pain comparable to being flayed alive.
Metal's keen edge shrieked to tear everything apart, only to be barely restrained and embraced by wood's exuberant vitality (metal overcomes wood, wood exhausts metal). In the next instant, water's vast gentleness tried to extinguish fire's explosive fury (water overcomes fire)—yet risked igniting even more violent steam explosions (fire counter-overcomes water). Earth's steady weight instinctively tried to suppress and calm all chaos—only to be instantly ripped apart by thunder's extreme speed and violence (thunder breaks earth). Ice's frigid stillness tangled with wind's directionless frenzy, further intensifying the chaos. Poison's insidious corrosion merged with darkness's devouring annihilation, constantly gnawing at the boundaries of Fa's will. Light's pure cleansing force stood in absolute opposition to darkness—every contact igniting explosions at the soul level!
"AAAHHH——!"
Her already hoarse screams could no longer express the boundless agony. Fa's body twisted and shuddered violently within the brilliant light pillars of pure energy; at times it swelled unnaturally like an overinflated balloon. Beneath her skin, twelve colors of light raced and flashed at terrifying speed—as though the next second she would burst from the inside out and dissolve into fundamental energy particles!
Yet every time the energies reached critical instability and her body verged on disintegration, her right eye—the one that held the stars—would undergo a transformation. The deep pupil suddenly dilated; within it was no longer an ordinary iris but a miniature, ever-rotating cosmic black hole! An invisible, colossal suction force erupted from it, forcibly devouring the rampaging energies on the verge of destroying everything!
Inside that black hole was a realm beyond laws—where the concepts of time and space were twisted. The destructive energies sucked inside were madly compressed, decomposed, stripped of their violent attributes. Then, in the depths of that stellar vortex, some mysterious power reforged and fused them—transforming them into a purer, more ancient energy carrying a trace of cosmic origin—slowly feeding it back into her limbs and bones.
Though this process saved her from instant annihilation, the pain did not lessen—it deepened. It was the ultimate torment of having her soul forcibly torn apart and rewoven, each cycle pushing her consciousness to the brink of total obliteration.
Three days. Hundreds of these life-death cycles. From the beginning when she needed to gather every remnant of will just to force her star eye to absorb, gradually the strange eye began to adapt instinctively to this violent rhythm. It even… began to "crave" the devouring. It was no longer a passive defense mechanism but carried a faint trace of greedy initiative. The speed and efficiency of energy conversion grew faster and higher.
In this endless extreme torment, Fa's body also began to show visible, bizarre changes. Her skin became more lustrous; beneath it, extremely faint, star-dust-like sparkling motes flowed, forming profound and unspeakable patterns. Her aura grew deeper and vaster—no longer like a mere mage, but more like a nascent, self-aware miniature cosmic star.
"I… can't… give up… must… hold on…"
Fa's consciousness rose and fell in boundless pain and chaos, sustained only by a near-instinctual obsession. Images of her companions flashed through her mind—Arya's gentle yet resolute gaze, Kayla's hearty laughter, TISK's focused hammering at the forge, Salsa's amusing cold jokes from inside her mechanical cat shell… These scenes became her most precious anchors in the endless darkness, holding onto her last shred of humanity and hope.
Gradually, deep within the stellar vortex of her right eye, the twelve violently clashing, mutually incompatible colors of energy began to undergo a subtle and miraculous change. They were no longer purely opposed and repelling—following some ancient, supreme law, they began to revolve, squeeze, and fuse in a way beyond comprehension—
Metal gives birth to water—water's glow became more nourishing because of metal's sharpness.
Water gives birth to wood—wood's vitality was nourished and flourished.
Wood gives birth to fire—fire's explosiveness burned purer and stronger with the infusion of life energy.
Fire gives birth to earth—earth's weight grew more solid and stable from the tempering of flame.
Earth gives birth to metal—metal's edge drew firm foundation from the earth's stability…
A cycle of mutual generation, endlessly repeating; the energies began to flow and grow.
At the same time, the laws of mutual conquest operated with delicate precision—not mere destruction, but dynamic balance and restraint:
Fire overcomes metal—restraining excessive sharpness.
Metal overcomes wood—pruning overabundant branches.
Wood overcomes earth—clearing potential blockages.
Earth overcomes water—containing its tendency to flood.
Water overcomes fire—cooling its violent burning…
The power of conquest ensured no single energy could expand uncontrollably, maintaining an extremely fragile yet real equilibrium.
The flood of energy was shifting—from pure destructive conflict toward a far more complex, powerful, and dangerous stage of fusion and balance!
Yet in this void where only energy and consciousness existed, a shadow—hidden extremely deeply, almost perfectly blended with the surroundings—silently watched everything from within Fa's body. Its presence was nearly undetectable, yet carried an icy, ancient curiosity—as though observing a most fascinating experiment.
Fourth Day, Dawn.
The gray, oppressive sky seemed soaked in Doomsday Rebirth's gloom, pressing heavily down on the two blood-soaked citadels. The outlines of Steelforge City and Cinder Moon City flickered amid smoke and magical flashes. War reignited without mercy. Doomsday's leaders still lurked behind the scenes, but their armies and those eerie three-colored Blight Vines surged endlessly like maggots on bone. The arrival of the hundred-thousand reinforcements had granted the Alliance lines a temporary respite—no longer teetering on the brink of collapse—but the enemy assault remained ferocious, as though connected to an abyss of despair with no end.
On Steelforge City's towering walls, Dwarf King Secret Forging Titan stood like a mountain. His giant hammer "Heart of the Core" slammed down heavily; the impact rang like thunder, shaking every warrior's heart.
"Brothers!" His roar drowned out the battlefield din, molten battle intent bursting with every word. "The forges still burn—so our will shall never be extinguished! Let those scrap heaps taste dwarven fury!"
Wind Staff Anber moved at once—her rune staff whipping up cyan raging wind blades that sliced precisely into the mechanical legion's charge. Mad Hammer Stone bellowed and leaped from the wall—becoming a living siege engine; his giant hammer smashed down, sending stone and metal fragments flying. Blazing Fist Mark's fists spewed searing lava streams, turning variant soldiers into twisted charcoal. Iron Crossbow Marga stood steady at the crenellations—her mechanical crossbow screaming death, accurately dropping diving winged units from the sky. Rune war chariots from the reinforcements rumbled forward; their cannon muzzles spat blazing rune-flame shells, blasting swathes of Doomsday machines into burning wreckage.
Finally, Arya, Celestia, Rex, and TISK joined the battlefield. Their arrival would change the course of this desperate struggle.