Chapter 626 - Demon Wave
Chapter 626: Demon Wave
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Even though it was almost dawn, pitch-black clouds still covered the sky, giving all elves an oppressive feeling.
The rangers’ Eagle Eye technique and the elven mages’ Farsight spells all made the dimensional cracks in the sky quite easy to discern. The aura of Chaos emanating from the cracks made the elves instinctively afraid and their stomachs heaved.
The moment that this aura from the Chaos Abyss descended here, it brought great trouble to all the local elves. Gentle domesticated pigs swiftly transformed into incredibly aggressive demon hogs, while large numbers of demonized beasts appeared in the wild. These demonized beasts all instinctively attacked everything living that they could see, tearing apart and devouring other life forms in order to achieve their own strange self-evolution.
By now, no elf doubted the information about the demon wave’s arrival any longer.
“The eternal sun and moon shall be covered in clouds as countless cracks appear in the pitch-black sky. The wind will blow, carrying only the stench of corrosion and sulfur. Even the clean water stored in jugs will become tainted and black as domesticated beasts begin to demonize... Everything is identical to the coming of demon waves recorded in history. Oh, venerated Anslo, why must we elves suffer so much misfortune? Are we truly unable to escape our doom?”
At this point, all lies meant to keep the elves from panicking became meaningless. Even if the Moonwheel Capital Elven Empire government refused to admit the veracity of Roland’s warning, there were plenty of lucky older elves who had survived and experienced the previous Holy War. They had been lucky to survive until today. Of course they would remember the aura of the Chaos Abyss.
Everything in the description was caused by corruption stemming from the high purity aura of Chaos, and as the demon wave descended, this location would soon become more Chaos Abyss-like than the Chaos Abyss itself.
While the aura of Chaos here wouldn’t be able to compare to what was in the Chaos Abyss itself, the aura of Chaos here would actually be of far higher quality than in the Chaos Abyss!
Normally, Chaos Abyss existences which tried to forcefully descend upon the mortal plane would have to go through a filter constructed out of the power of Order. This would take time and effort, as well as reduce the existence’s power while in the mortal plane. It was also likely that most existences could only descend as incarnations or projections rather than in their true bodies. However, since the Holy War was starting... or maybe calling it a dimensional war would be more accurate as the mortal plane and the Chaos Abyss would be directly dimensionally connected here.
Any location which became connected to the Chaos Abyss would become demonized and corroded. This was caused by the very nature of the Chaos Abyss. This was also why the Chaos Abyss was known as the Endless Abyss.
The mortal plane of Eich represented the foundational source of Order and Chaos. This was the most important battlefield for the Order and Chaos Factions. Every time that the Chaos Abyss connected to the mortal plane, not only would it bring catastrophe for the linked location in the mortal plane, it would also bring catastrophe to the Chaos Abyss’ linked location.
The Chaos Abyss itself was like a wild bloodthirsty beast that had detected prey. It was expectant, it was roaring, and it was furiously absorbing the delectable scent of the mortal plane. The will of the Chaos Abyss would send tremendous amounts of the aura of Chaos to the location in the mortal plane that it connected to. This amount would even break all dimensional limitations.
For Chaos Abyss creatures, the aura of Chaos was naturally a good thing—it was a reward from the will of the Chaos Abyss. Absorbing the aura of Chaos could help Chaos creatures to become even stronger.
However, just as how an appropriate amount of nutrition would be helpful in becoming stronger, an overly excessive amount of nutrition would become a toxin.
Right now, in the Wildsnow Forest Mountain district of the seventh level of the Chaos Abyss, countless Chaos Abyss creatures, demons, and devils were fully enveloped in the aura of Chaos. They were distorting painfully and rolling around on the ground in pain, but also laughing manically as if they had gotten the best deal ever.
Some small demons were unable to take it as their bodies directly changed forms. A tiny demon that had only been one meter tall directly distorted to become a great demon more than three meters tall. However, these newly transformed demons had tears all over their bodies from which they constantly bled. Yet, they felt no sense of pain at all as their eye whites showed. They were also drooling while crawling on all fours like wild dogs. They were roaring at that Dimensional Door leading to the mortal plane.
These were war slaves of the Chaos Abyss. They were failures who were unable to handle the power of Chaos. When the two-way Dimensional Door connected to the mortal plane opened up, these demons would become the first wave of cannon fodder for the demon wave.
Overly stimulated physical bodies would be highly unstable. However, they were now filled with magic power that would allow themselves to easily self-destruct. The countless number of large demons would all kill themselves with self-destruction if they met with powerful enemies, destroying anything that obstructed them in the mortal plane at the cost of their own lives.
The victors who successfully powered themselves up with the aura of Chaos here would also be unable to leave this location. They were bound by the will of the Chaos Abyss to also become part of the vanguard. The aura of Chaos was constantly powering them up, but this would come at the price of their ability to reason and think. When the Dimensional Door opened up and they went out in the demon wave, their intelligence level would only be slightly above that of the war slaves.
However, the powered-up victors were different from the failure war slaves destined to die as cannon fodder. As long as these victors survived the first period of the demon wave, they would be able to recover their ability to reason and think. In fact, in Holy Wars of the past, many great demons that had reached bottlenecks or the end of their lifespan had used such a gamble-like method to finally succeed in powering up to become Demon Lords.
Any great demon that had recently been doing well would never approach the seventh level of the Chaos Abyss at this time. That would be the equivalent of volunteering oneself to become cannon fodder. As long as a demon was close enough, even a Demon Lord would be unable to resist the forceful conscription of the will of the Chaos Abyss. For the Demon Lords, even if they improved their power levels here, having reduced intelligence would mean more danger despite greater power. If they wanted to enjoy slaughter and blood in the mortal plane, they would simply wait for the first demon wave to end first.
Of course, since the first demon wave had its own rules, there were also those who did their best to bend the rules. Near the border of the Wildsnow Forest Mountain district were many demons that were voluntarily absorbing the aura of Chaos to improve their power levels. Although these demons would be unable to absorb much aura of Chaos, they would still be able to avoid getting involved in the first demon wave, which would be the most dangerous. This would be worth it for them.
Even though they were only stealing some aura of Chaos from a great distance, the demons here still had to constantly retreat, nor could they steal too much for too long. This was because as time passed, the chaotic area covered in the aura of Chaos would constantly expand. Soon, the aura of Chaos would envelop the entire seventh level rather than just the Wildsnow Forest Mountain district. That wouldn’t even be the end of things.
The nearby sixth and eighth levels were connected to the seventh level. They would also become infected with the aura of Chaos, becoming a complete and unified dimension of its own. This dimension would become the conscription area for the first demon wave’s soldiers. Soon, all lives in these three levels would become members of the first demon wave, and this entire dimension would become connected... or maybe a better term would be “inserted into” the mortal plane. When the Holy War ended, it would actually be impossible to return these levels to the Chaos Abyss.
And once the will of the Chaos Abyss and the aura of Chaos covered this entire newly crafted dimension, the will of the Chaos Abyss would activate its next step. At that time, nowhere in the Chaos Abyss would be safe.
The Chaos Abyss was greedy. It would think that this would be insufficient to successfully conquer the mortal plane. The will of the Chaos Abyss would constantly connect additional Chaos Abyss levels to this crafted dimension, conscripting even more soldiers until the first demon wave ended.
The levels of the Chaos Abyss were only a unique dimensional concept. The will of the Chaos Abyss wouldn’t only choose from the nearby dimensional levels. This was, in a way, a type of lottery system. Any chosen dimensional level would be forced to join the demon wave. The victors and those lucky to survive would then receive blessings from the Chaos Abyss. Perhaps the will of the Chaos Abyss indeed had a sense of self as it commonly chose large dimensional levels with extremely high population.
And when the Dimensional Door to the mortal plane finally opened up, all ordinary creatures and tiny demons would lose their sense of reason and become cannon fodder. The number of soldiers would be uncalculatable.
This was the foundational reason why the first demon wave would be basically unstoppable. No matter how powerful the country behind the Dimensional Door was, the first demon wave would destroy it. That was because the first demon wave would contain the destructive force of several dimensional levels. The bloodthirsty Chaos Abyss residents would manically destroy everything before them.
Countless powerful empires in history had already been destroyed, falling prey to the first demon wave of each Holy War. That was just how fatal the first demon wave had always been in history.
If the first demon wave had only relied on wild beasts that instinctively slaughtered, that would have been much easier to deal with. Forbidden spells and traps were all capable of large AOE attacks against cannon fodder. However, there was a black giant currently sitting right next to the Dimensional Door. His black obsidian greatswod was dripping with silver divine blood.
This giant was the overall commander of the demon wave—Donatis.
Chaos War God Donatis was the commander of the demon wave. Nobody knew how he was able to maintain his logic and reason, but he was indeed able to do so during the demon wave as he calmly directed this destructive wave.
In past Holy Wars, he always had a large number of heroic spirits as his personal guards. They would become the frontline demon wave commanders under Donatis’s protection, helping him to command the demon wave. Unfortunately, Donatis was a lone commander this time as he had lost all his heroic spirits in Hell.
An army without any mid-level commanders would be totally different from one with them. From a certain standpoint, the fact that Donatis lost all his heroic spirits in Hell had been a tremendous loss for the Chaos Abyss. It would be on par with losing a Chaos Main God.
The Chaos War God currently had his eyes closed. He seemed just like a gigantic statue which was asleep. His breathing was as loud as thunderclaps. Not a single demon dared to come close to him.
Any existence with even the slightest amount of power could instinctively sense that Donatis was gradually improving his power level by absorbing the aura of Chaos. Well, perhaps a more accurate description would be restoring himself to his peak.
In the world of highest-level combat strength, everyone knew that only the Donatis in the demon wave would truly become the Chaos War God capable of destroying anything and everything. He would tear apart any obstruction, even if that was a God!