CHAPTER 234: CALAMITY 3

Chapter 234: Calamity 3

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Chaos spread across the three empires as the defensive forces began losing more and more ground.

Every defensive and offensive mechanism had started to fail while the march of the corruptive beasts continued to advance, slow, but constant.

Desperation rose, just like the number of dead.

Several small and large villages near the borders were wiped out, while those that had not yet fallen had been evacuated in time. But even so, if the tide wasn’t stopped, it was all useless.

Amid the roar of the clashes, a soldier at the fifth stage of the Mortal Realm found himself surrounded by two corrupted beasts that pressed him relentlessly.

In front of him, a massive gorilla with gray skin growled with bestial fury, while to his left a black panther, with violet streaks running along its body like living tattoos, darted back and forth looking for an opening.

Both were creatures of the fourth stage, not as strong as him individually, but together... they were a nightmare.

The soldier slashed the air with his blade, cutting a wide Qi enhanced arc. The gorilla charged, completely ignoring the wound already tearing open its side. It didn’t seem to feel pain or hesitation, only a blind, animalistic rage.

"Damn it... just die already!" the soldier growled, gritting his teeth.

The moment the gorilla raised its arm, ready to crush him like an insect, the soldier drove his blade forward with all the strength he had.

An inhuman scream tore through the air as the gorilla’s limb flew off in a spray of dark blood.

But the soldier didn’t waste time; he returned to position and prepared to strike again, this time aiming to finish the wounded opponent while he had the chance.

Yet just as he braced to attack, a shadow appeared beside him and, before he could even understand what it was, a black claw struck him full force.

It was the panther, taking advantage of the opening and dashing at full speed to strike him head on.

"Tch!"

The beast hit him from the side with all its weight. The soldier was flung away like a rag doll, crashing against a tree with a dull thud that knocked the breath out of him. For a moment, the world spun and his ears rang.

He gasped for air, his chest burning, but forced himself to stand.

’Shit, I let myself get distracted,’ he scolded himself internally as he struggled to get up quickly.

They were in the middle of a battlefield, and there was no time to waste on useless things like this. He knew that the more time he lost, the worse the situation would get, and it could even become fatal for him.

He regained his footing and was just about to steady his stance in preparation for another attack from the panther, when suddenly,

a sharp scream ripped through the air to his right.

The soldier turned, and what he saw froze him on the spot.

One of his comrades, a boy at the second stage, was lying on the ground with a long gash along his side.

Near him stood the culprit, a beast resembling a gigantic wolf, with eyes reflecting that same mad gleam present in all the other creatures.

The attack had struck the comrade directly, draining his strength and leaving him limp, ready to be finished. But unlike what he expected, the beast didn’t kill him; instead, it withdrew, not completing the strike.

For a moment, it seemed almost as if the creature had decided to spare him.

But then he understood why.

Black veins were spreading from the young man’s wound, branching across his skin like rotting roots.

A dark aura, with blood red glimmers, began rising from his body.

"What..." the soldier muttered, paling.

He almost thought he was dreaming with open eyes as he felt the peculiar energy present in the beasts carving its way into his comrade, and for a moment, he froze.

The comrade began convulsing on the ground, screaming in a mix of agony and madness. His eyes clouded with pain and dim, once clear, turned completely black, with a crimson spark pulsing at the center of his pupils.

Then, with no trace of reason left, he shot to his feet in one leap.

The soldier didn’t even have time to call his name.

The former comrade snapped his head toward another defender a few steps ahead, and with a broken, almost inhuman roar, hurled himself at him.

His hand, now strengthened and twisted by the corrupted aura, pierced the man’s chest as if it were butter.

Blood splattered through the air as the body collapsed lifelessly to the ground.

The soldier remained motionless in horror.

What stood before his eyes was no longer a human being, but something else, something similar to these creatures, something dangerous.

And so the three empires had their first encounter with corrupted beings, an encounter far from pleasant. But they couldn’t know that beyond the mountain chain, the expedition team had been granted the same honor.

In the vast battlefield that had previously been covered by three beings at the peak of the second stage, there was now a completely different scene: the three emperors, who had finished dealing with their own opponents and had lent a strong hand against the remaining beasts, now stood once again united and in position as they prepared to face what was coming toward them.

Barely a few hours had passed, giving the expedition team just enough time to reorganize.

Losses had been contained, but the presence of that corruptive energy had put everyone on edge.

They had understood that the worst was about to arrive, and indeed it didn’t take long before it did.

What they encountered next wasn’t a group of powerful beasts like before, but rather an army several times larger than the previous one, composed entirely of corrupted beasts.

Their presence was so overwhelming that the air around the place had become thick and oppressive, while everyone could feel that strange yet dangerous energy floating everywhere, particularly concentrated toward the cluster of beasts ahead.

Everyone could see the vastness of these creatures, their nearly endless number, but even more terrifying was their strength.

They were all powerful, too powerful for them.

Setting aside the beasts at the Mortal Realm, which were the overwhelming majority on both sides, what stood out the most were the beings at the Spirit Realm.

They had encountered several of these boss type beasts at the Spirit Realm in previous battles, but their numbers had been low and manageable. Now, that was no longer the case.

Their number was enormous, far greater than what they had on their side. Dozens of beings at the first grade of the Spirit Realm, several beings at the second stage of the Spirit Realm, and worse yet, one being at the third stage of the Spirit Realm, whose strength was unfathomable for many.

It was clear that it was the leader of the group. But what the rest of the army hadn’t noticed, yet the three emperors had, was that this being was at the peak of the third stage of the Spirit Realm.

In other words, a being that had fully grasped a law.

Under normal circumstances, such a being would still have been manageable for the three of them, since they were at a similar stage. But they knew. They knew the difference between a being corrupted by that energy and one that wasn’t was abyssal.

They knew that a massacre was about to begin, one that might very well swallow them all.