The Era of Gods

The city square’s ready and waiting defenders swiftly moved forward, and hundreds of arrows rained down, intermingled with the piercing screech of a dozen bed crossbows that had been fired. The whale-hunter knight who had just emerged from the city gate alley suddenly lurched backward, his body pierced by over a dozen thick fine steel crossbow arrows as well as a few awkwardly inserted regular arrows.

“Continue firing!”

The defending commander waved his hand and roared, as the second volley of arrows shot out, accompanied by the creaking sound of bed crossbows being wound.

This Transcendent Level Supreme Naga braced against the second volley of arrows and crawled out of the city gate, clearing the way for the second whale-hunter knight who rushed in through the gate alley. His thick and robust snake tail swiftly swept aside ground arrows and rubble, stirring them into chaotic flight, as he let out a roar charging towards the enemy formations on the square, ready for battle.

Then came the third, the fourth, the fifth, and a horde of Fishman cannon fodder and Forest Lizardmen cannon fodder flooded in, and the square instantly descended into chaos.

When the swarms of Fishman Naga took advantage of the river to attack the city, and the city gate was breached, it was only a matter of time before the city fell. The only differences were when they would completely crush the opposition and how significant their losses would be.

After all, the disparity in strength was too great, they had not yet fully applied their full strength. At least the heroes under the three of them had not yet joined the battle, Shen Yuexin’s hero, The Lord of Wrath, had not yet joined the fray, nor had those seventy or eighty Sky Wrath Magicians.

Moreover, considering they had nearly launched a surprise attack directly at the city’s doorstep, Duke Alfonso of the Blood Count had been entirely unprepared, his troops had not been concentrated, with only less than twenty thousand of his own forces defending; his other forces were not present. Remember, when Lin Xiao faced the invasion of the Blood Count, the enemy had an army of thirty or forty thousand of the Blood Legion. A Duke is more powerful than an Earl, so it stood to reason there would be more than this meager force.

Lin Xiao squinted, surveying the Vampire Duke enveloped in an invisible distorting veil – he could already sense a force, not belonging to Duke Alfonso, a Vampire Duke, slowly emerging, clearly indicating the Semi-god Vampire took this Legendary Fanatic Believer very seriously and was in the process of preparing an incarnation to descend.

In his fanatical state, Alfonso disregarded his own territory. Without this Legendary Vampire to intercept, the city’s defenders would be powerless to stop them.

Even though there were quite a few Transcendent Vampires within the city, it was useless.

With no advantage from city walls, many Supreme Nagas took advantage of the nominator’s Body to charge through unopposed, carving through the defenders at the city gate in a back and forth rout.

A Transcendent Blood Knight in full armor pointed forward with a blood- colored greatsword, his shadow flashed, and he traversed a hundred meters and slammed into the back of a Transcendent Supreme Naga. The blood sword, over two meters long, penetrated the thick scales and the exceptionally tough ’ muscles, cleaving deep into the flesh, with the sword tip protruding from the other side.

The struck whale-hunter knight, as if uninjured, twisted his body and slashed with two Dual Hand Greatswords. The Blood Knight, gripping the hilt tightly, tried to pull the sword out but couldn’t – the whale-hunter knight’s muscular twist had clamped down on the blood sword, preventing its immediate removal.

This split-second mistake was fatal in a fight at the Transcendent Level, especially since the whale-hunter knight was stronger than the Blood Knight. In that instant, both the Blood Knight and his mount, even if they had abandoned their sword, could not evade the oncoming strike.

Two piercing tearing sounds and a horrible whinny later, the Blood Knight and his horse split into two halves, even his thick armor was cleaved asunder.

However, the very moment he slew the Blood Knight, a column of flame several meters in diameter burst forth from the central tower in the city and struck the whale-hunter knight. The strategic level spell’s terrible power instantly turned the lower half of the whale-hunter’s body to ashes. The resulting explosion of dark red flames covered hundreds of meters, blasting a huge crater at the city gate and killing innumerable Fishman Great Naga and foes in this fearsome strike.

Yet, the terrifying power of strategic level spells did not affect Lin Xiao’s fervently loyal and buoyant Clan members. Those who had entered the city continued their assault, and the next wave followed through the breach into the city.

Whale-hunter knights, with their superior vitality and resilience, adopted a strategy of trading wounds for wounds and overran their opponents. Being inherently stronger than the Blood Knights and using shameless tactics, these Blood Knights were powerless to fight back.

In less than five minutes, more than a dozen Transcendent Blood Knights were killed or heavily wounded; the survivors led the remaining defenders to abandon the city outskirts and retreat to the three Magic High Towers within the city, making their stand there.

The three Magic High Towers were manned by Duke Alfonso’s Mage team – these were not the legendary Mage Towers but a type of military structure. They weren’t as powerful as the Mage Towers, but they also had greatly enhanced spellcasting capabilities for the mages inside and the ability to launch highly potent spells for war.

From the onset of the siege up to now, only a few minutes later, these three Magic High Towers had unleashed five waves of terrifying strategic spells. Already, two Transcendent Supreme Nagas had been killed and four more grievously injured and forced out of the fight.

However, his Clan’s resolve remained strong; faced with such dreadful magic, they were still spirited warriors. On the contrary, the city’s defenders could not withstand this indiscriminate devastating assault and began to collapse first. A small contingent of the defenders had already forsaken the fight and fled further into the city.

Above the Vault of Heaven, a large host of Wingmen had flown over the city walls and entered the city, many Wingmen encircling around several dozen Thunder Wings.

These Transcendent Thunder Wings inherently possessed lightning control Talents, and now with Shen Yuexin having specifically provided them with the career of Thunder Magicians, the combination was particularly formidable.

One could see them with their hands poised, lightning constrained into numerous spear-sized bright blue lightning javelins that they violently hurled downwards.

“Boom, boom, boom…”

Each arm-thick, two to three-meter long lightning javelin stricken its target exploded like missiles, countless bolts of lightning demolishing everything within their range.

The destructive range was not as extensive as that of the Kobold Dragon Vein Magician’s Dragon Breath Flame Explosion, but the direct damage within the area was terrifying, and the lightning also dealt massive additional damage to undead demons and other evil creatures.

And vampires, being the epitome of evil creatures, were right within the range of the lightning’s punishment. A single lightning javelin could instantly kill any non-Transcendent Level vampire, and even a Transcendent Level Blood Knight would be injured if struck.

Dozens of Thunder Magicians bombarded furiously, flattening all buildings around the three Magic High Towers, scattering and slaughtering a large number of soldiers with the aftershocks, who were then intercepted and annihilated by the encircling Fishman Great Naga.

Lin Xiao and the other two stood quietly in the void outside the city, looking in Duke Alfonso’s direction, but their gaze was not on the battle within the city. They had no concern for the three Magic High Towers, as these powerful but long-cooldown war constructs were useless without allies to buy time. With dozens of Thunder Magicians taking turns attacking, the Blood Mages inside the towers were too busy defending to even think about using their war spells in the next round.

What they were focused on was the Duke of Vampires, Alfonso, who had finished praying. The continued prayers of this Legendary-level Fanatic Believer, along with the death of a vast number of followers, finally prompted a response from the Semi-god Vampire, who began to descend.

In their perception, a strong and evil will was emerging in this space, gathering strength.

If the three of them acted now, they could disrupt the descent before its completion, as no Legendary Vampire could stop them.

But there was no ‘if,’ for this was the very opportunity they had all been longing for. Why would they disrupt it? They were more than eager for the Semi-god Vampire to send a few more incarnations their way.

Seizing the opportunity before the Blood God’s arrival, Lin Xiao and Lin Xu Shen Yue Xin simultaneously ordered their troops to retreat to avoid their subordinates being caught in the upcoming clash of legends and above.

On the flip side, compared to their anticipation, the Duke of Vampires, Alfonso, snapped out of his fervent state once his worshipped Blood God responded to his prayers and began descending. He was dumbfounded for several seconds upon seeing that the situation below had been decided in just a short fifteen minutes, before he could come to his senses.

Had he not been a Legendary Vampire himself, he would have thought he was under an illusion.

How could his city have fallen so quickly?

Where was his army?

Where were my so many troops?

For some reason, Alfonso had a bad feeling, but upon sensing the divine might emanating from the Blood God Incarnate about to emerge from the twisted void above him, the unease in his heart quickly vanished, replaced by renewed confidence.

From a distance, Lin Xiao found the changing expressions on Alfonso’s face quite interesting, and he felt a bit envious too.

A demigod having a Legendary-level Fanatic Believer, it was indeed enviable.

The Power of Faith provided by a Legendary-level Fanatic Believer was no small amount; theoretically, a hundred of them could sustain a newly enthroned Deity’s God Level, preventing them from falling. According to the information Lin Xiao had, the Vampire Kingdom had several Duke of Vampires, and dozens of Marquis and Earl-level Big Nobles, in addition to a large number of Transcendent Level believers. The quality of the followers of this Semi-god Vampire was quite high, theoretically sufficient to sustain a True God.

But having lived so long, this Semi-god Vampire was still only a demigod, not even a High-Level Demigod…

Hmm, Lin Xiao now had some doubts about this. He suspected that this Semi-god Vampire was more than just a Normal Demigod, but he had no proof.

Still, whether it was a Normal Demigod or a High-Level Demigod, one thing was certain: Divine Enthronement was not easy.

After all, if there was any certainty about Igniting the Divine Fire to become a God, anyone would seize the chance. The fact that this Semi-god Vampire had lived so long without achieving Godhood only meant that there was no certainty of Divine Enthronement, or the conditions were not yet sufficient.

They wondered what the Semi-god Vampire was doing since the incarnation was descending so slowly. Their subordinates had started evacuating from the city, yet the Divine Incarnation had not completely arrived. However, they could clearly sense that the will of the demigod had indeed descended, only at an unreasonably slow pace.

It was as if…

It was as if the Semi-god Vampire was too far away from this place, unable to descend swiftly.

Standing alone in the void, Alfonso felt something was amiss. Why had their opponents stopped advancing? What were they waiting for?

Meanwhile, Lin Xiao and the others did not dare to move forward, fearing they might scare off the incarnation of the Blood God. Thus, both sides were at a deadlock.

Fortunately, after a long wait, a massive will appeared in this space, and the twisted void above Alfonso’s head parted,