Chapter 382: Are You Waiting for Me? (Part 2)

  The Gravity Field had slowly dissipated completely, but not a single one of the giant skeletal monsters around could stand up again, or rather, not a single one still had a complete body.

  It wasn't just the giant skeletal monsters; the entire sea of the dead seemed to have quieted down. All around were only fragments of bones covering the ground. Although undead were still continuously approaching from a distance, for the first time since entering this forbidden land of death, everyone had a chance to rest quietly.

  Even the strongest Ogre almost sat down on the ground. The entire coalition army had long been exhausted to the brink of collapse. Although everyone wanted to continue forward, they simply had no strength left to move.

  The glow of Battle Qi on Gru faded, and he landed back on the ground. This person, who had single-handedly stirred up such a large space in this sea of the dead, did not look around at his achievements. Stepping on the thick layer of bone fragments, he looked forward.

  It was unknown if it was due to his unparalleled attack from moments before, but the black aura in the air no longer seemed as thick; even the strong orcs in the coalition could now stand without relying on the white magic of the priests. In contrast, the immense darkness ahead, that which stood from the earth to the heavens, seemed even blacker, darker, more condensed, and larger. On the ground, Ethan, sprinting forward, looked like an ant rushing toward an ancient giant beast.

  And at some unknown time, the center of this darkness, which had been continuously moving toward Diya Valley, had paused. It remained there quietly, as if waiting for something.

  Gru stood firm, slowly bent his knees, assumed a stance, and drew his bow.

  Moments before, he had already shot countless arrows, but this was the first time he was drawing this Phantom Divine Bow with such a formal, solemn, and slow posture. As if knowing he would do this, Lancelot had already pulled Master Graden back toward the main coalition force.

  With his movements, the bow was slowly deforming. The ground around him was also caving in.

  There were no changes in the fine details of the ground, but the entire ground within a hundred-meter radius around him began to sink downward. Strange creaking sounds and small popping noises also rang out throughout the space, as if it wasn't the ground that was under pressure, but the entire space that was caving in.

  Although they were far away, and many in the coalition couldn't even see Gru's movements, everyone could hear a strange creaking sound. It was the sound of something having reached its limit, about to crack and explode. It didn't just come from the air; it seemed to emerge from within everyone's heart.

  The bow was drawn like a full moon, but there was no arrow on the string. What this Phantom Divine Bow shot was not originally an arrow, but the archer's Battle Qi, power, spirit, and soul. Now, the entire appearance of the bow was completely different from other times; the bow's body could no longer be seen in its original black color. Countless ancient elven runes made of light were densely churning and surging around, not only submerging the bow itself but also making Gru appear and disappear indistinctly within this layer of fluttering, luminous runes.

  Crack, snap. It seemed to be a real sound, yet also an auditory hallucination from within. Everyone felt this sensation of shattering. The scene before their eyes had begun to shatter and distort. This single, undrawn arrow, with its fully stored power, had already swollen everything around, including space and sensation, to the point of bursting.

  The runes emerging from the bow's body had grown to the size of a palm, had become dazzlingly bright, and were already flying all over the sky. They flowed at high speed through the space, which was on the verge of breaking apart, in a strange and peculiar way. The light of the runes was not the emerald green of arrow light, but a powerful, dazzling, and blinding white, within which a faint, immense vitality of green could be seen. This was the color of Gru's Battle Qi.

  Around these flying runes, the originally pervasive blackness was rapidly receding like water vapor under a fierce fire. Even the aura of The Black Star began to avoid these green luminous runes. This time, it wasn't just seemingly retreating, but was truly retreating, dissipating.

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  Almost everyone was captivated and shaken by the aura of this single drawn bow. Only Lancelot and Roland did not look here, but instead turned their heads to look behind them.

  Above the endless sea of the dead, a small shadow was flying rapidly toward here. The direction it came from was precisely the direction they had come from, or in other words, the direction of Diya Valley.

  Soon, the shadow flew closer, revealing the form of a massive cyan dragon. This was not a skeletal monster like a skeletal dragon, but a real, incomparably massive green dragon. In the aura of The Black Star, which could devour everything, it showed not the slightest discomfort. Instead, the surrounding blackness flowed into its body, with a freedom and smoothness not even a fish would have in water.

  There were also several figures on the dragon's back. The only ones who could get this close at this time could be the Necromancers from Diya Valley. The one in the lead, seated on the dragon's head, was Vedenina. This was the Dark Dragon she had summoned.

  Seated upon this materialized Forbidden Spell, the Lich now showed not the slightest hint of pride. Although she had no expression, from any aspect, one could see that her mood was very wrong. The ball of green-white light from the runes in the distance shone on her face from so far away. The withered muscles on her face, like dry grass, began to wither even more, like moss that only survives in dark, damp places suddenly exposed to the scorching sun, beginning to shrink and fall off. Even the flames in her eye sockets seemed to be affected by something, flickering and wavering.

  "Don't let him make his move." A hoarse, sharp screech came from the Lich's body. With the screech, the Dark Dragon beneath her opened its giant maw, and a ball of green flame transformed into a thin, long afterimage, shooting straight toward Gru's back. An ordinary flame breath could not travel far, and might not even be able to break through that layer of glowing runes. This was an attack that condensed all the flame into a single point, like a Blazing Might Shot. And this was the Dark Dragon's Blazing Might Shot. Even the flame magic of the former fire grandmaster Asri was not worth a fart compared to this fireball.

  But this fiery afterimage only made it halfway before dispersing. First, it was split in two from the middle, then the two halves were split in two again, and then those halves were split in two again... until it became a mass of extremely fine, fiery dust.

  "Roland, you bastard, how long are you going to keep obstructing me? Do you think you're still my match now?" Vedenina screamed again. The net that chopped and shattered this flame was a dense web of sword energy, cast from the sword of Regiment Commander Roland below. Only his Sky-Breaking Sword Qi could shatter this fireball, which almost no physical object could resist.

  Following the Lich's scream, a green firebird flew out of her hand. The moment it left her hand, it madly began absorbing the dark aura in the air, expanding in the blink of an eye to almost the same size as the Dark Dragon. The surging heatwave and the stench of corpses even overwhelmed the dark aura itself. But this magic, with its astonishing momentum, still failed to fly far. A white sword of light shot into the sky, decapitating the firebird with a single strike. The firebird was merely the form of a magic spell, not a bird with actual life. But after being decapitated by this strike, the firebird's form immediately collapsed. This single Sword of Holy Cross had shattered the entire structure of the spell along with it.

  Under the cover of the two strongest swordsmen working together, Gru finally fired his arrow. The runes flying all over the sky seemed to have finally gathered enough momentum and power, all converging onto his hand. It surged forth with a sound that seemed to tear the world apart.

  All the living people and orcs almost made the same movement: covering their ears. Even so, they felt as if they had been shattered to pieces by the sound.

  The heavens trembled and the earth shook. All of time and space seemed to have been shattered by the runes filled with his Battle Qi. They then transformed, along with the sky-filling runes, into a churning, dancing green rainbow that crushed everything in its path. The entire sea of the dead trembled from this single arrow.

  Boom, this beam of light struck the darkest patch of black just before Ethan did. The darkness cracked open. This was a blackness so dark that nothing could be discerned, like chaos before creation, and it was broken by this dazzling green light. Seizing this opportunity, Ethan, who had already reached the edge of this darkness, leaped forward and charged into the broken darkness.

  It wasn't just that patch of blackest black; the blackness that had shrouded the sky above the entire sea of the dead also cracked open, like cracks appearing on a black crystal dome after a violent blow. Long-unseen sunlight shone down through the fissures. The countless undead surging toward here suddenly stopped moving, like marionettes whose strings had been suddenly cut. Many of them simply collapsed on the spot. This single arrow had truly shot the entire sea of the dead until it cracked open. The rolling, circulating deathly aura within it had stagnated and cracked open along with it.

  But this was only a momentary rupture. The next moment, the blackest patch of black and the black aura above merged back together. Ethan's figure was submerged in that darkness as if devoured, with no more sound or sign of him. Only, the darkness in the air had faded significantly. After all, this was the deathly aura that The Black Star had gathered for tens of thousands of years. No matter how strong one person's power was, it was impossible to truly and completely break it.

  Gru paid this no mind, because what he needed to do was done. He turned to look at the Dark Dragon flying down toward him. His body seemed truly insignificant beneath this giant summoned demonic dragon. His hands were empty. The Phantom Divine Bow, and the arrow, were gone. This single shot had fired not just the arrow, but the bow as well, which had transformed into the sky-filling runes and been shot out along with it.

  "To actually attack the great Lich King..." Vedenina stood high on the dragon's head, looking down at Gru, her whole body trembling. "Unforgivable. I will turn you all into zombies."

  "What took you so long? Do you know how long I've been waiting for you?" Gru said flatly.

  "Waiting for me?" The Lich was taken aback. She suddenly realized that Gru wasn't even looking at her, but at something behind her. She turned to look.

  In the distance, a black figure was breaking through the surrounding darkness as it came. Although this figure was also black, it was not the lifeless black of the surrounding aura, but a black that was powerful, vast, and so intimidating that one felt a sense of dread upon seeing it.