Volume 8, Chapter 43 – The Wall of Chaos

“Your Majesty?”

The intense light suddenly appearing in the dark underground caught the attention of the Thirteen Attendants. They immediately noticed Lucitine approaching. However, joy lingered on their faces for less than a second before it was replaced by anxiety.

“Don’t come over!”

But it was already too late.

Lucitine’s path was blocked by three golden-eyed Chaos. As if to amplify Lucitine’s anxiety, the Chaos deliberately let her see the Thirteen Attendants struggling to hold on amidst the tidal wave of Chaos. This made Lucitine’s already sharp expression even fiercer. There was no room for negotiation. The death blade Fia had seen in the immortal sanctuary appeared once more. The spreading gray blade, seeming to split the underground world in two, instantly drew everyone’s attention. Not only did it dim the light filling the underground, but even the gurgling sounds of the surrounding Chaos weakened.

However, the Antler Chaos weren’t as easy to deal with as the memory entities in the immortal sanctuary. The spreading arc-shaped blade did indeed strike the Antler Chaos, even cutting their bodies in half. But this kind of injury was nothing to them. Their azure antlers burst with intense radiance, and then a large amount of black mucus gushed from the severed sections of their bodies, seemingly about to restore their original forms.

Immortal body?

Lucitine’s brow furrowed tightly, her heart sinking to the bottom. Her mind stored information about the Antler Chaos, but neither the stored memories nor her experience fighting them over the past three years showed them possessing regenerative abilities. In fact, the Ninth-Tier Antler Chaos weren’t truly Ninth-Tier either; their bodies were as fragile as paper. Even a sneak attack from the Thirteen Attendants’ magic would turn them to ashes like ordinary Chaos. This was precisely why the undead, with only one Ninth-Tier queen, could suppress the Chaos, who had several Ninth-Tier individuals, beneath the anthill.

But now the Chaos were showing regenerative abilities…

Damn it.

Pursue while their bodies haven’t recovered.

Even as she thought, her body was already in motion. Lucitine’s eyes sharpened. A huge hand condensed from death energy crushed the leftmost Antler Chaos. The floating scales sword beside her emitted a chilling hum. White flames erupted from the pitch-black blade with a “whoosh.”

The flames brought not heat, but bone-chilling cold. The violent magical fluctuations caused the lake of Chaos beneath Lucitine’s feet to sink several meters. Anyone could sense that a large-scale magic was brewing.

Splash.

The leftmost Antler Chaos was crushed by Lucitine’s hand. The remaining two Antler Chaos escaped disaster, but their golden eyeballs trembled manically. They could feel the magic gathering on the scales sword—power enough to destroy them.

Seeing this, Lucitine began to feel confident. Although she couldn’t use the undead’s investigation magic to gauge these golden eyeballs’ strength because Fia was nearby, special individuals capable of regeneration definitely weren’t low-level. Killing three golden-eyed Chaos at once was extremely rare even in the ten-thousand-year history.

Ignoring the burning white cold flames on the scales sword, she gripped its hilt. At that moment, the scales sword seemed to possess a weight that even the Queen of Death found strenuous. Lucitine raised it extremely slowly, but with each movement, one could see the terrifying sight of air rippling layer upon layer. The two remaining Antler Chaos tried to flee, but they felt as if they were being repelled by space itself. Huge pressure from all directions rendered them unable to move.

In despair, golden flowing lights composed of countless particles of light appeared around their golden eyeballs. These flows converged together, forming slowly rotating three-layered magic circles. As the magic circles condensing vast magical power tightened, the pressure around the Antler Chaos suddenly decreased. They accelerated the contraction of their magic circles. What had been a predator-prey relationship between the two sides now became a race to see who could complete their magic first and win.

Lucitine couldn’t withstand the golden flowing lights of the Antler Chaos head-on, and the Antler Chaos couldn’t escape unscathed from Lucitine’s magic either. A massive pressure surged between them. Thick black blood vessels spread across the Antler Chaos’ eyeballs. Sweat also appeared on Lucitine’s forehead. Apart from facing over ten golden beams simultaneously a few days ago, she had never encountered such a critical situation.

Fortunately, Lucitine still had the upper hand.

[Lament of Calamity]

As Lucitine fiercely swung the scales sword, death flames sufficient to turn the underground world into a sea of fire erupted. The white fire wall grew as it caught the wind, instantly becoming a flaming tsunami filling most of her field of vision. Bone-chilling cold filled the entire underground world. Before the sea of fire from [Lament of Calamity] even touched the two Antler Chaos, their bodies had already frozen into ice sculptures from the extreme cold. By the time they turned to powder, their eyeballs were still in the state of condensing golden beams.

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The Eighth-Tier [Lament of Calamity] certainly didn’t end there. The white tsunami continued roaring towards the lake of Chaos. Like throwing a burning torch into a barrel of gasoline, the flames ignited with a whoosh, using the lake of Chaos as fuel. In an instant, the underground world was dyed white. Fortunately, the flames only emitted extreme cold; otherwise, one would wonder if the underground world might be blown upside down.

Lucitine didn’t become complacent. Feeling her racing heart and heavy breathing, she felt lucky to have escaped death by a hair’s breadth.

She had fought the golden-eyed Chaos many times and knew their terror well. The Antler Chaos’ defenses were indeed poor, but correspondingly, their offensive power was solidly close to Ninth-Tier. The golden beam magic activated unusually quickly. Normally, the Antler Chaos’ magic would arrive first. Today, for some reason, she was slightly faster.

Maybe these golden-eyed Chaos were only Seventh or Eighth Tier, which was why their magic activation was much slower.

Using large-scale magic without protection was too risky.

Lucitine reflected inwardly while quickly adjusting her state. In the past, when she used this kind of magic, the Thirteen Attendants would cover her. Now they were all surrounded. This was her first time using large-scale magic without any protection.

Speaking of which, where had Fia gone?

Before coming, Lucitine had noticed Fia flying straight into the cavity with the many large stone pillars. Presumably, Fia was dealing with more troublesome enemies.

Not good.

Lucitine’s heart tightened. She knew Fia was much stronger than her, but this was unexplored territory. Who knew how many enemies there were? When Fia’s [Solar Fire] had illuminated the entire underground cavity earlier, she had seen countless golden-eyed Chaos mixed with ordinary Chaos flowing out of the holes in the stone pillars. Judging by the scale, this was the Chaos’ lair. They were now deep into enemy territory alone with no difference.

Discovering the Chaos’ main base was already a massive success. They could barely hold their own against Chaos attacks on the front lines, let alone capture the entire main base with just a few people. Now wasn’t the time to greedily seek results. They should retreat first.

Thinking this, Lucitine took a deep breath. [Lament of Calamity] was condensed from death energy and wouldn’t harm fellow undead. Using the white flames as cover, she flew straight towards where she remembered the Thirteen Attendants being. But when she passed through the sea of fire and reached them, confusion appeared in her pink eyes.

The Thirteen Attendants were indeed right before her, but their condition was very strange. Although each faced Lucitine, their gazes weren’t on her. At first, Lucitine thought they’d been hit by mental magic and were staring into the void. But looking closely, she saw their gazes were all fixed behind her. The azure flames in their eyes were extremely faint, like humans whose pupils had contracted to the limit upon seeing something terrifying. Each stood rooted to the spot, mouths slightly open. Lucitine even saw some of them strenuously swallowing.

“Run!”

Lucitine shouted, trying to wake up the Thirteen Attendants. Her voice did make the azure flames in their eye sockets flare up a little, but only a little. The Thirteen Attendants regained their senses. As if making some kind of decision, they immediately rushed to Lucitine’s side and shouted at an unprecedented volume.

“Run, Your Majesty! We’ll buy you time!”

“What do you mean run? [Lament of Calamity] is enough to buy us time. You all escape through the hole on the cliff first. I’ll wait here for Fia to return.”

“There’s no time! You go first!”

How could there be no time?

Lucitine wanted to shout this, but because the Thirteen Attendants had run behind her, she had to turn around. Then, her heart felt as if gripped by an invisible hand—lurching. Her blood and breathing seemed to stop functioning together.

Behind her was a tightly packed, countless mass of Antler Chaos. These Chaos with golden and blue eyeballs floated in the air, packed tightly together like the Wall of Sighs separating the living from the dead, occupying Lucitine’s entire field of vision. Lucitine could even catch a glimpse of these Antler Chaos’ eyeballs moving. Their gazes were all focused on her, their eyeballs slowly rolling as she moved.

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Lucitine finally understood why the Thirteen Attendants had stood frozen as if hit by a mental attack.

The Chaos the undead had fought for ten thousand years weren’t stragglers at all, but an extremely massive, powerful organization far surpassing them, to the point where the Chaos with eyeballs alone numbered in the tens of thousands.

So that’s why I said that blue eyeball was definitely luring us into a trap…

Lucitine strenuously swallowed.

At least I’ll take a few down with me!

Her expression ferocious, against the backdrop of the white sea of fire burning on the ground, Lucitine’s pure pink eyes reflected the sight of the Wall of Chaos, like a swarm of insects, blotting out the sky and flying towards her.

◇

After parting with Lucitine, Fia flew straight towards the largest of the many stone pillars. Although ordinary Chaos flowing out of the pillars occasionally pounced towards Fia along the way, each time they would lose their power of their own accord when still dozens of meters away from her, plummeting straight down into the lake of Chaos below.

Ordinary Chaos had an innate instinct to attack Fia. As for them suddenly losing power, of course, it was the Eye hidden within the pillars deliberately controlling them.

Fia quickly reached the largest pillar. She landed familiarly at the edge of an opening in the pillar, then put on a serious expression, straightened her clothes, and confirmed she looked like a Father God before stepping into the dark cave, her footsteps producing echoing clicks against the cave walls.

All of these stone pillars were man-made results. Fia had first roughly excavated a large cavity with magic, leaving several pillars inside. Then she had Milan manipulate Chaos to erode the pillars, turning them into spindle-like shapes—thick in the middle and thin at both ends—reminiscent of breeding chambers. Finally, she hollowed out the centers of the pillars, leaving a large number of holes on the surface. A nest that looked the part was thus formed.

The ordinary Chaos serving as the underground lake were manipulated by the Eye to flow upward through the hollow channels of the pillars. When the Chaos flowed in reverse to the center of the pillars, they would then flow out through the numerous holes. This created the illusion that the pillars were continuously producing Chaos, deceiving Lucitine’s eyes.

Judging from Lucitine’s sharp intake of breath upon seeing the large cavity, the stage setup was quite successful—perhaps she should stuff some gems emitting pink or purple halos into the centers of the pillars, and carve ferocious vein patterns on the surface, making it even more like a breeding chamber.

“Welcome, Father God.”

When Fia arrived at the “operations room” within the pillar, several respectful thoughts were transmitted to Fia’s heart. A total of five blue-eyed Chaos knelt on both knees before Fia. However, because a gem lamp emitting cyan-green light hung from the operations room ceiling, the scene appeared quite terrifying, reminiscent of a biochemical laboratory or a cult gathering place.

Chaos didn’t need light to survive. Strictly speaking, the Eye tribe didn’t perceive the external environment through vision, but through vibrations in the air and ground, the flow of elements, and keen perception of magic power—”seeing” the outside world. The reason there was a gem lamp here was to accommodate Fia, their Father God, who needed vision. The eyeballs on top of Milan and the others’ heads served more as a medium for spellcasting, equivalent to a human’s magic staff.

Fia went to the stone table displaying a map of the anthill and waved her hand, feigning profundity.

“Rise. How is the plan progressing?”

Milan crossed his hands over his shoulders, stood up, and bowed to Fia. The other four blue-eyed Chaos did the same.

“Everything is as you predicted. The min… the undead have fallen into the trap according to your plan. Our people have also gone to intercept. Presumably, in a little while, they will be deeply convinced that this is our nest.”

“Good work.”

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“Obeying the Father God’s commands is our destiny. It’s not worthy of being called work. Moreover, the new nest you found for us is far better than the current second Nursery. Although the nourishment there is savage, its quality is extremely high. Once we develop that area into a third Nursery, our population should double, better enabling us to assist you in crusading against the rebels in the future.”

“Mm. Very good.”

Fia nodded in approval, then quickly grew curious.

In the plan, Fia had only guided the construction of the fake nursery and told Milan and his group how to lure the undead into the trap. Other parts she had left quite vague. She had told Milan that the reason for going to all this trouble was to make the undead deeply believe this was the Chaos’ nest. For this, the Chaos’ resistance here had to be strong—strong enough that Lucitine, the strongest undead, couldn’t ignore it.

But she hadn’t specified how to achieve this. One, because of time constraints—Fia had to rush back hastily to avoid Lucitine waking up and not finding her. Two, because Fia lacked understanding of the Eye tribe’s strength composition. Rather than giving blind directions as an amateur, it was better to tell Milan the goal and let him figure it out.

So Fia was very curious how Milan would make Lucitine deeply believe this was indeed the Chaos’ nest.

Maintaining a composed tone, she asked calmly.

“I should have instructed you not to kill them. At the very least, leave them alive. Did you heed that?”

“Please rest assured, Father God. We will not forget your instructions.”

To help Fia understand more deeply, Milan, whose eyes were entirely blue, beckoned towards the operations room wall. Then a lump of Chaos, like putty, flew before him. He used his mind to control the Chaos, condensing it into humanoid forms, representing the undead and his own people respectively. Then he supplemented it with a spoken explanation.

“To be safe, we prepared four plans. The one we’re using now is the third. First, lure the thirteen undead who arrived early, surround them without attacking, and weaken their strength. When the powerful undead you brought arrives, she will surely want to rescue her companions. At that time, we will have three Eyes of acceptable strength appear on her necessary path. She will fight our warriors. I will have the three warriors deliberately lose to that powerful undead after a fierce battle. This will both make the powerful undead feel the danger and avoid harming her life.”

“Hmm…”

Fia pondered. Although Milan’s tone was casual, Fia could still hear that Milan was deliberately sending three of his people to their deaths.

As the plan’s initiator, Fia felt uncomfortable.

“Since we have no means to revive them, why make them go to their deaths? It’s my fault for not specifying, but next time, do not allow clansmen to do the same.”

“Go to… their deaths?” As if unable to comprehend the word, Milan’s voice was full of confusion. “You mean disintegration? Father God, in our tribe, disintegration represents rebirth. We share the same thoughts and purpose. We are both individuals and a collective. After disintegrating, we transform into nourishment to be reborn as stronger warriors. The newly born warriors share our thoughts. I think this is quite different from your race. What I mean is, your wish is our righteous cause. Disintegration for you is our glory. You need not be perplexed by our disintegration. We have fundamental differences in structure.”

Fia didn’t know how to answer for a moment. She understood Milan’s meaning. In the Eye tribe, because of the thought connection that spans space, individuals were infused with the thoughts of other Eyes from birth. Coupled with having no desires like the undead, the entire tribe had no clear distinction between self and other, like batch-manufactured robots.

When an Eye died, the newly born Eye would possess the same will and thoughts as the deceased Eye. So they didn’t see death as an end, but as a process of strengthening oneself.

As Milan said, the two sides had fundamental differences in structure. She couldn’t impose her own values on them.

Realizing this, Fia sighed quietly.

“Alright, I take back what I just said. Continue your explanation.”

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“Yes.”

Milan bowed respectfully again.

“However, after discussion, we didn’t think this alone would make the undead deeply believe this was our nest. Only by showing our strength, inscribing enough fear and despair in their hearts, could we make them completely convinced that this is our nest. So I borrowed Chaos supplies from the second Nursery to temporarily create a batch of us with eyes. Although they’re not mature, and most will quickly disintegrate back into nourishment, they can temporarily serve as a facade. This should inscribe enough despair. After they break out of the encirclement, they will surely be deeply convinced that this is our dwelling place.”

“Wait, I don’t quite understand.”

“Ah… please forgive my oversight.”

Saying this, Milan beckoned towards the operations room wall again. This time, a bucket-sized lump of Chaos flew over. Milan used his mind to control it, forming a large number of little figures, arranging them tightly together into a spectacular wall-like formation, blocking the path before the undead representing Lucitine.

“Like this. Although we have many warriors, I am confident I can prevent your companion from suffering heavy injuries. No, I should say, even if our warriors used their full strength, they probably couldn’t harm your strongest undead companion. To be called the strongest by you, her strength must not be underestimated. This is also why we decided to increase the stakes.”

“Uh.” Fia faltered. Her expression gradually shifted. Face expressionless, she asked, “Milan, in your eyes, how strong is that friend of mine?”

“Since she is the strongest undead spoken of by you, her strength is fearfully only slightly less than yours. Only that would live up to the name of strongest.”

Sure enough, Milan had overestimated Lucitine’s strength.

Fia momentarily didn’t know what to say.

With this many humanoid condensed Antler Chaos besieging Lucitine, under normal circumstances, even if ten Lucitenes came, they would have to return heavily injured.

She waved her hand repeatedly at Milan, urging him.

“Take your people and pack things up. Leave this place quickly. That friend of mine isn’t as strong as you think. Facing this level of strength from you without suffering heavy injuries—she would definitely be suspicious no matter what. In a moment, I’ll go help them. You hide in the shadows as much as possible and control the Chaos to retreat.”

“I… I miscalculated?”

Milan’s transmitted thoughts showed strong agitation.

“It’s not your fault. I was careless. Go down.”

“Yes…”

Like a child who had done something wrong, although Milan’s voice was faint, he quickly complied. The only problem was that before leaving, Fia saw Milan seemed to melt like ice cream, unable to even maintain human form, leaving only a pile of eyeballs on a small mound, continuously murmuring things like “major failure” and “death would be insufficient atonement” in an utterly dejected manner.