Chapter 88: The Darkspawn Legion! The Azure Origin Planet Enters the Middle Expanse
Whrmm!
The entire planet and its moon shook with a deafening tremor. The very structure of the Azure Origin Planet trembled as the space around it literally split open. The following moment, the world lost its light, and people across the planet only saw the ground moving towards the sky. Light turned into a stretched, blurred line as the planet shot into a higher plane of existence.
"The planet is moving." Across the globe, some players trembled in fear, some cheered wildly, and others looked at the sky in pure anticipation.
Their planet was ascending!
Boom!
The planet shook once again as it finally came to a complete halt.
[Ding!]
[Azure Origin Planet has reached the Middle Expanse territory.]
The following moment, the entire planet and the players on it glitched. The world twisted and turned as an even more potent, powerful wave of mana violently surged into the atmosphere.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Across the planet, countless Lower Expanse race gates were violently crushed into the ground. Still, some remained; the ones that belonged to the worlds that ascended alongside the Azure Origin Planet.
The planet was now undergoing a massive transformation. Its size increased exponentially. More and more beasts began to rapidly mutate as entirely new terrains erupted from the middle of cities and kingdoms. Ancient structures that previously didn’t exist sprang up from the ground, a protective golden barrier forming around them immediately after.
[Ding!]
[Ancient Domains have been added to the Azure Origin Planet.]
[Ancient Domains contain the history of the domain’s past. Clearing them grants boundless power and a special connection to the gods that overlook the domain.]
[The players across the Azure Origin Planet will now undergo baptism.]
[Everyone’s existence has been adjusted to the Middle Expanse.]
[+10 Combat Score.]
Caelus felt raw power course through his veins as his body forcefully adjusted to the density of the Middle Expanse.
Right now, Sylvia and Caelus stood on the balcony of their villa as they eyed the shifting sky.
However, just then, the sky suddenly darkened.
Boom!
Crrkt!
"This." Caelus frowned deeply.
Right in front of their villa, a gate had suddenly torn open. It wasn’t just there; across the Dragon Luxury Estate, countless other gates also ripped open in reality.
Boom!
The gate cracked as beings swarmed out from it. The creatures were pitch dark in color and radiated a suffocating, dark miasma.
[Warning! The Darkspawn Legion has arrived on the Azure Origin Planet.]
[Please fend off the Darkspawn for rewards.]
[The Origin Domain will negate the Darkspawn Legion’s access after a threshold is met.]
[Keep fighting until the threshold is met.]
[Ranking initiated.]
[Iron Ranking for Fortis City: None]
Caelus looked at the screen with a dark look.
"Caelus, aren’t these creatures..." Sylvia observed the things closely.
"Yes, it is the Darkspawns from the tower we entered in the second area of the newbie plains." Caelus said as his expression turned entirely serious.
"Let’s go." Caelus addressed her as he vaulted directly off the balcony. Sylvia swiftly followed, both of them rushing towards the gate where the beings were pouring out.
The beasts had already taken notice of Caelus and Sylvia. Glaring at them with pure bloodlust, they lunged forward in a rabid pack.
[Skill Activated: Glacial Prison!]
The air around the Darkspawns instantly plummeted below freezing. A massive clump of unbreakable ice rapidly formed, fully encasing the first five beings that rushed out of the dungeon.
[Elite Darkspawn]
[Level: ???]
[Combat Score: 100]
[Common Darkspawn]
[Level: ???]
[Combat Score: 60]...
Only one of them had a combat score of 100; the rest were significantly weaker.
The Darkspawns thrashed and struggled to break free from the glacial prison. However, Caelus had already closed the distance, arriving five meters away from them. With a sharp twist of his head to the right, a crushing mental pressure erupted from his mind.
[Trait Activated: Telekinesis!]
Boom!
The solid ice and the trapped Darkspawns were violently compressed, crushing them entirely into ice shards and dark blood the following instant.
[You’ve obtained +2 Points]
[You’ve eliminated an Elite Darkspawn]
[You’ve received +29 EXP, 10 Origin Credits]
[You’ve obtained +1 Point]
[You’ve received +29 EXP, 10 Origin Credits]
[You’ve obtained +1 Point]...
[You’ve received +29 EXP, 10 Origin Credits]
However, just as the notifications rapidly rang out, more enemies flooded out from the gates.
Caelus snorted upon seeing this.
[Trait Activated: Mental Requiem]
A devastating sonic boom erupted from Caelus’s hand, shooting directly towards the oncoming Darkspawns as a concentrated wave. The following instant, their ferocious expressions went completely blank. A sickening crack echoed as their heads fractured internally, and they all collapsed to the ground, dead on the spot.
The sound of points gathering and EXP gaining chimed in his ears, but Caelus remained sharply focused.
Behind him, Sylvia conjured up her Origin Blood Blessing, instantly buffing his stats.
Just as quickly, a massive behemoth with a twisted, pitch-dark physique erupted from the gate.
It roared deafeningly as it charged towards them with immense speed, shaking the ground with every step.
Clank!
Caelus’s dagger flashed in his hand as he met the beast head-on, expertly parrying a heavy blow. The following moment, a volatile explosion erupted from his leg. He launched himself high into the air and fiercely brought his heel down directly onto the behemoth’s skull.
[You’ve eliminated an Elite Darkspawn]
[You’ve obtained +2 Points]
[You’ve received +29 EXP, 10 Origin Credits]
[Iron Ranking for Fortis City:
1. Caelus Kross (513): 12]
2. Sylvia Reign (513): 12]
Due to the Rookie God passive, Sylvia received the exact same points as Caelus simply by being in his party. This title was an absolute cheat.
Then, the black gate fissure that had spawned them snapped shut and disappeared.
"Let’s go. Since things have come to this, we should make use of this opportunity to get more rewards and level up," Caelus spoke to Sylvia, who readily nodded.
"I am ready." The Progenitor Sword appeared in her hands.
"Good." Caelus then used the EXP Booster Card (Rare, 1-star) he got from the Space League during his harvesting.
In an instant, their EXP gain increased by 30%.
In the main plaza of the city, cars were being thrashed by Darkspawns and buildings were fully engulfed in fire.
Players constantly fought against the monsters that were continuously spawning around Fortis City.
"Attack! Attack them!" Kevin shouted as he unleashed a barrage of light towards a group of Darkspawns, felling them under his assault.
Around him were the students of Fortis-01 High.
"There are way too many of them." Ivy was among the crowd, staring at the scene with pure terror on her face.
At least a hundred of them were rushing towards their position. Ivy, Brad, and Julian, everyone was bracing themselves for the inevitable impact.
However, before they could even react, a powerful wind swept past them.
Boom!
A terrifying spear the size of a redwood tree manifested high in the sky before plummeting to the ground.
[Skill Activated: Icicle Spear Impalement.]
[Trait Activated: Telekinesis.]
Boom!
The following moment, as if erased from existence by a god, the Darkspawns caught in the blast radius of the Icicle Spear Impalement were directly crushed into nothingness.
Everyone slowly turned their heads. Caelus stood near the massive spear, golden lightning violently crackling across his body. He looked like a divine being spawned directly into the mortal world.
"Caelus." Kevin’s eyes shot wide open.
So did everyone else’s.
The person that effortlessly dealt with those monsters was Caelus?
That pure power they just felt... that was not something someone with an E-Rank affinity should possess.
Brad was in the back, glaring at Caelus with a heavy mix of anger and shock.
Ivy, on the other hand, was too stunned to even speak.
Caelus’s old classmates, the ones that once relentlessly made fun of him, looked at him in total awe.
They didn’t even see him move, and he directly crushed a whole horde?!
"Stop dilly-dallying, Kevin," Caelus casually spoke to the boy. "Try getting more points. I am sure we will get some sort of rewards."
He had intentionally stopped here to get his MP back up using the spear’s passive effect. It was essentially killing two birds with one stone: it dealt massive AoE damage to the Darkspawns and also helped him recover energy. The best part was the spear helped him recover mental energy as well, since mental power restoration potions were something he did not have.
"Alright. Got it!" Kevin nodded seriously.
Caelus then glanced indifferently at the students who were looking at him in awe before he began extracting from the dead Darkspawns, which only left behind dark stones as their remains.
[Combat Score: 123.43 ↑]
His combat score had increased by leaps and bounds. He let Sylvia have her fun on the other side of the city while he came here.
With that thought, he pocketed the dark stones into his inventory; they must have some use later.
Just then, the central plaza violently shook as a much bigger behemoth stepped out from the corner of a huge building. It had the general appearance of a bear but was completely pitch black, radiating dark miasma across its massive body.
[Tyrant Darkspawn]
[Level: ????]
[Combat Score: 113 (Iron II)]
"Everyone run! It has a combat score of 113 at Iron II!" one of the students shouted in pure disbelief.
However, Caelus merely smiled.
Boom!
[Trait Activated: Telekinesis!]
His figure shot like a bullet into the air, arriving directly above the behemoth.
Boom!
He spent extra mental force, instantly increasing his Telekinesis area of effect from the initial 5 meters to 30 meters. The large buildings next to the beast both instantly crumbled as unseen forces latched onto the concrete and steel.
With a sharp twist of his hand, the overwhelming power of Telekinesis reinforced the massive building chunks and directly slammed them down, crushing the huge behemoth into the pavement.
[You’ve received +3 Points]
[Iron Ranking Fortis City:
1. Caelus Kross (513): 320
2. Sylvia Reign (513): 320
3. Mia Midnight (432): 310]
"Oh, someone is catching up?" Caelus clicked his tongue.
The Solaris Kingdom did have real geniuses after all.
The majority of the spawned monsters were Iron II and higher; only in rare cases did lower-leveled monsters spawn.
If Caelus hadn’t arrived exactly in time, then perhaps Kevin and the others would have become corpses.
"H-He is flying." One of Caelus’s old female classmates looked at the floating figure of Caelus high in the air.
His figure easily captured the absolute attention of the school people and other players across the street.
Everyone looked at Caelus who in the sky with their mouths open in shock, not believing what they were seeing.
Telekinesis, wasn’t it a talent? How did he get it?!
Caelus glanced down at the girl that spoke, then turned to look into the distance. He could feel several massive power fluctuations coming from over there. It was, without a doubt, Bronze or higher-leveled monsters currently battling higher-level players.
He wasn’t going to go there; his battle wasn’t with the Bronze monsters yet.
Boom!
His figure shot toward an area with slightly weaker fluctuations.
Soon, he saw a massive horde of Darkspawns, almost 200 of them cluttered together. Each of them had a combat score of 60 (Iron II) or more, and they were rapidly attacking 20 Iron I and Iron II players who were desperately struggling to hold the line.
Caelus grinned upon seeing this. He activated Projection Frame as he plummeted from the sky.
The Darkspawns immediately noticed his descent. They all swarmed towards his landing spot with ferocious screams and roars.
"Watch out!" one of the struggling players shouted. However, the next moment, his jaw dropped entirely.
[Talent Activated: First Generation Spark Ignition]
The deafening sound of crushing explosions rapidly rang out as Caelus’s figure completely blurred. The Darkspawns were incredibly fast; just simple movements from them tore through the sound barrier.
But he was infinitely faster.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A rapid chain of crushing explosion noises echoed one by one as Caelus’s palm pressed onto the Darkspawns in blinding succession. Utilizing his Projection Frame, he moved like a literal glitch in reality. With each step he took, a Darkspawn fell, and volatile sparks flew everywhere.
The Darkspawns grew increasingly ferocious, but they never stood a chance.
In less than a single second, Caelus had already cleaned up the entire horde of 200 Darkspawns.
Just then, a brilliant golden light shone from Caelus as he begin extracting.
[Rank: Iron II]
[Level Update: ↑ 21 (Locked)]
[Ascension Available]
[Point update: ↑ 623]
[Combat Score: ↑ 123.43 → 134.43]
"This... what the hell." The players stared in absolute disbelief.
"His level or combat score cannot be seen." One of the players used appraisal on Caelus, only to get instantly rejected due to his Ender passive.
Caelus glanced at the player once, causing the man to shrink away in fear before Caelus shot off into the distance again.
Just then, a massive pillar of golden light rose from the center of the Solaris Kingdom, visible to everyone.
[Threshold met for the Solaris Kingdom.]
[The Darkspawns will no longer be able to cross over.]
[Ding!]
[You and Sylvia Reign are the MVPs of Fortis City. You will both receive the exact same rewards due to you both having the same points and gaining them at the same time; hence, ranking based on gain time is also not possible.]