Mage Manual

Chapter 1664 - 1225: Raising the Heavenly Kingdom

Ash finally had the chance to observe the interior of the fortress at this moment.

Although it’s called a fortress, it resembles more a small world or a Secret Realm, with no sound from the outside Forgotten Ones; the fortress is a self-contained entity.

However, the architectural style of the fortress is quite chaotic. In the sky, there’s a city amid clouds, distant lightning mountains, thunder-struck woodlands, and a forest of Corpse Bone. Ash noticed three completely distinct city styles: steam machinery, molten iron castle, and Dark Tower.

At first glance, it seems like a stew of different architectural styles.

Ash also saw the fire trees and silver flowers of Dayless Heaven, instantly understanding that this fortress is a hodgepodge of all Mage encampments within Fantasy Hell. After all, when the war began, this place became the only safe haven; regardless of willingness, Hell’s demigods could only move all their possessions here.

Yet among the peculiar buildings, the two massive guillotines in the center of the fortress remain the most conspicuous. The one on the left is very large, seemingly used for executing colossal creatures; the right one, though smaller, has thirty-three blades, capable of executing thirty-three people simultaneously.

More importantly, these two guillotines are constantly functioning.

Giant beasts with their heads wrapped in burlap, bewildered and ignorant mortals, continually executed by these two guillotines like an assembly line. Below the guillotines is a bottomless blood pool, its pungent stench detectable even from a distance by Ash... How long have these guillotines been operating? Why execute these creatures?

"Ha, Blood Moon concocted such a thing again," Death Mad chuckled.

"What is that?"

"It’s a masterpiece of the Necromancy Faction, thoroughly converting all life into pure Law resources. Beneath that blood pool, Divine Beings are continuously being born, sacrificing life to summon Divine Beings... It’s very reminiscent of the bloody style of the Ancient Barbaric Era." Death Mad remarked, "The left guillotine executes Void Realm creatures, while the right executes souls. Now even demigods can’t survive; naturally, the Void Realm creatures relying on demigods are the first to fall, and it’s likely that most Void Realm creatures in Hell have been annihilated."

"As you traveled, you haven’t seen a single soul; it’s not because Hell lacks them, but because they’ve been absorbed by Uroboros. In Hell, souls are the greatest resource; they follow certain rules and activities throughout Hell, effectively catalyzing resource production, which is why demigods generally do not interfere with souls... But witnessing the total downfall of Hell, the demigods have become ruthless, sending all remaining souls to the guillotines, using their spirit’s extinction as the price to bring Divine Beings to the battlefield."

Ash gasped in shock.

Indeed, now even demigods face dire threats, meaning all life below demigods is a cost they can afford. Whether souls or Void Realm creatures, demigods retained them solely for development, but now with no certainty of a future, they might as well extract their final ounce of value for a chance of survival.

Now, even demigods have to use life to activate Flowing Gold River nodes, with the Forgotten Ones serving as their guillotines. Inside and outside the fortress, it’s ultimately the same, life seeking the final path.

At this point, no life can escape this war; this is the endpoint chosen by Level Six of Hell.

"Take me to meet the highest leader here," Ash looked at the sweating demigods before him, "Where is he?"

The crowd exchanged glances, and Ash calmly said, "Do you have time to waste? The sooner I meet him, the greater the chance of saving the fortress."

Yenifa decided firmly, "The fortress is led by five directors, they are inside the cloud city."

Five directors... Ash glanced at the city amid clouds. Just as he was about to fly over, the fortress suddenly trembled violently, so much so that Ash was nearly knocked down. Regaining their composure, they saw a horrifyingly enormous crack appear in the sky, through which they could see the outside world and strange fragments falling into the crack. From afar, these fragments switched between black and white as if a giant mirror outside had shattered.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!" Yenifa was stunned instantly, "Haven’t we activated the Flowing Gold River nodes... How is this still happening..."

Ash looked to the side at Death Mad, who explained, "Those fragments are the remnants of ’Dawn Morning Star’. Dawn Morning Star has fallen."

Hell’s demigods sacrificed themselves to activate Flowing Gold River nodes to extend the sustenance of the killing Secret Realm. When Ash helped activate nodes, other Hell’s demigods also activated other nodes of Flowing Gold River, theoretically allowing the killing Secret Realm to operate for a long time, as Death Mad mentioned they could withstand a few more days; why has the situation suddenly collapsed?

But soon, Ash saw the reason.

As the sky continued to tear, Hell’s demigods saw tens of thousands of Forgotten Ones outside still attacking, but they are no longer the battlefield’s main characters.

An enormous being, hundreds of kilometers wide, lay beyond the fortress. Compared to it, the killing Secret Realm seemed like foam, demigod mages as small as ants. Its vastness seemed to tear the heavens asunder; merely gazing upon it caused Hell’s demigods to hold their breath, spine chilled.

Its appearance is hard to describe; composed of eight colossal white wings, each feather bearing an eyeball, the wings are arranged with four in a cross spread and four interwoven, each eyeball seemingly harboring its own thought, closing and opening at different frequencies. Ash felt dizzy and dazed after looking longer; his spirit boiled, senses scrambled like dozens of knotted shoelaces!

This wasn’t Ash’s first encounter with such a creature... Rose once had several dolls; their fascinating and bizarre appearance was just like this.

"Uroboros." Death Mad hadn’t noticed the cigarette dropping from her fingers. She looked at the supreme existence outside, softly murmuring, "It... has come."

"After resisting for a month, it’s finally impatient," she noted, "It desires to grant Hell an equal apocalypse."

"Ash, this time you really... arrived at a very unfortunate moment."

Tens of millions of eyeballs of the eight-winged creature simultaneously turned, gazing at the killing Secret Realm’s ’Doll Paradise’. Previously, Forgotten Ones entering the paradise would gradually transform into new dolls. Now, under the gaze of the eight-winged creature, all doll eyes trickle crimson blood, paradise silently crumbles, Forgotten Ones can make a swift entrance.

It’s not about breaking the killing Secret Realm... It simply overwhelmed the finite Secret Realm with infinite power!

Ash had once seen a question asking why the final Boss wouldn’t go all out against the protagonist, arguing it to be foolish to give the protagonist growth chances. The current situation is as if the ultimate antagonist meant to appear last has suddenly gone full-force against the Newbie Village’s protagonist—until now, Hell’s demigods could resist the Forgotten Ones, but the appearance of the eight-winged creature already shattered their proudly upheld Secret Realm defenses.

The disparity so great that all resistance seemed laughably absurd.

What now?

As the same desperate question lingered in everyone’s hearts, someone had already provided an answer. Ash saw a mage darting out of the fortress, bringing the killing Secret Realm ’Far Horizon’ into their Magic Temple.

The killing Secret Realm isn’t supposed to be placed in a Magic Temple, what’s he doing... Before Ash could contemplate further, he saw the mage raising both hands, lifting a realm oscillating between illusion and reality.

Simultaneously, Ash heard a wind full of demons playing violins, children praying, ruffians roaring, and maidens singing hymns; everything good and bad, true and false seemed to take shape in this moment. They gathered into the illusory realm, transforming into its light and dark, air and water, land and sea, sun, moon, stars, fish, and birds, beasts, and insects.

The illusory realm gradually turned into the real world.

The battlefield eerily stagnated as everyone raised their heads to watch the scene, Forgotten Ones included. Hell’s demigods felt a variety of emotions: surprise, envy, longing, confusion, jealousy... but finally, all became indifferent anger.

"Lifting Heavenly Kingdom," Death Mad smirked coldly, "He wants to escape to Heaven."