Chapter 378 - Killing a Family Member

The 3,000-meter-tall Divinosaur loomed over the two forces like a mountain, splitting them apart. The Monster Armor Association erupted in cheers, their morale soaring, while the Armor Civilization fell into stunned silence.

Armor Warriors stared in despair at their fate, and civilians looked up with hopeless eyes. Victory was no longer within reach. Ban Tu—the figure they had revered as the paragon against evil—had betrayed them. Their hopes had been extinguished. Many Armor Warriors seized this moment to defect, following Ban Tu’s lead.

The Monster Armor Association welcomed the large group of defecting Armor Warriors with open arms. As they surrendered and joined the ranks, only a handful of Armor Warriors remained loyal. The Armor Civilization weakened further under the weight of its people’s betrayal.

Ban Tu had been waiting for this moment for a millennium. He intended to exploit despair, annihilate the Armor Warriors, and cement the Monster Armor Civilization as the new ruler of the land. From there, he planned to harness the Monster Armor’s power to strike the Divine Civilization and bend its forces to his will. This had been his ambition for 1,000 years.

“Envoys, stop resisting. None of you will escape death today,” Ban Tu said with smug confidence.

The trio met his gaze with icy resolve. They glanced at the remaining Armor Warriors beside them and understood there was no hope of victory through others. They would have to seize it themselves.

Ban Tu continued, “Why aren’t you answering? Have you succumbed to despair? When Xu Hai invaded our civilization that year, I felt the same despair you feel now. A millennium has passed, and now it is your turn.

“Xu Hai spared my life once, though I was his lapdog. Now I offer you the same chance. Let go of your identity and join the Monster Armor Civilization. I will spare you.”

He demanded their surrender. Those with weaker wills would have likely chosen life as a slave to avoid death, but the trio would rather die. They also knew the situation was not as dire as Ban Tu imagined.

“Ban Tu, your plan is clever,” Han Wu said as he observed the Armor Warriors around them defecting. “You are using absolute despair to persuade the Armor Warriors to abandon their faith. That way, the Armor Civilization weakens, and the Monster Armor Civilization can seize its place. But you’ve overlooked one thing.”

Han Wu’s tone was grave, but Ban Tu dismissed it as mere bravado. “And what is that? Tell me, O Great Envoy, how could a plan I have honed over many years harbor a weakness?”

Han Wu chuckled. In the brief time he had spoken with Ban Tu, he had secretly communicated with the Will of the Armor Civilization and obtained the answer he needed.

“The Will of the Armor Civilization has been weakened so severely that even the Will of the Monster Armor Civilization can infiltrate this place. That also means the Divine Civilization can do the same.” Han Wu’s voice was calm, but Ban Tu’s ears rang as he heard it.

It was too late to stop them. Han Wu, Jing Jing, and Qin Shuang each opened a massive gate behind them, and their units poured forth.

Before this, the trio from the Divine Civilization could summon only one ten-thousandth of their power each day, constrained by the interference of the Will of the Armor Civilization. Any attempt to exceed that limit risked breaching that interference. Now, however, the Will of the Armor Civilization struggled merely to survive. The Divine Civilization could strike it at will.

The sky itself darkened as locusts blotted out the sun. Many were as powerful as the Gods of the Monster Armor Association since they were already King life forms.

From Jing Jing’s divine realm, a tsunami of skeletons poured forth. Their death aura spread like a toxic miasma and poisoned everything it touched. At a single command, ten 10,000-meter-tall Osteomancers awakened. Though they could not match Ban Tu’s Divinosaur form in raw strength, their sheer size made them far more intimidating.

Next, Thunder Sparrows soared from Qin Shuang’s divine realm, their cries harmonizing in unison. Qin Shuang wasn’t a God yet, so her strongest units remained King life forms, but that alone was formidable. Once all of their units were summoned, the army of Armor Warriors surged with terrifying power.

“Damn it! Blast the Divine Civilization!” Ban Tu’s words had become a reflex, repeated so often he could hardly count.

The trio’s summoned army reignited the despair he had felt facing Xu Hai. Anger consumed him, and he shouted in hopeless fury.

In an instant, waves of green gas radiated from his body. Monsters that inhaled the gas began mutating uncontrollably. Some sprouted massive muscles, others grew to enormous size, and a few developed extra limbs. Each mutation stripped them of all rational thought, leaving only a singular drive: destruction. In trading intelligence for raw ferocity, they had become instruments of pure devastation.

“Kill them all!” Ban Tu roared. The mutated monsters charged forward without hesitation.

The trio’s units charged forward to intercept them. Locusts rained from the sky, detonating on impact. Each explosion tore cracks in the surrounding space and annihilated the mutated monsters.

Yet the mutated monsters had evolved beyond expectations. Alongside immense strength, they now possessed extraordinary regenerative abilities. Even when the cracks consumed their organs, the monsters somehow regrew them and reformed their bodies almost instantly.

Behind the locusts, Jing Jing’s skeletons advanced. The 10,000-meter-tall Osteomancers stomped forward and flattened at least six mutated monsters with each step. Still, the monsters healed rapidly, reshaping themselves as if nothing had happened. At the rear, the Thunder Sparrows unleashed vast webs of lightning and incinerated any mutated monsters that survived the front lines.

Han Wu was worried that the mutated monsters would revive and ordered his locusts to consume every fragment of flesh. Only through digestion could he ensure the monsters would not return.

Through the combined efforts of the three armies, the horde of mutated monsters was obliterated.

Ban Tu could no longer remain idle. He concentrated Light Energy into a searing laser and aimed it at the trio. He was confident that killing them would shatter their units’ faith and reduce them to powerless puppets.

The laser moved with blinding speed, and Han Wu was about to activate the True Demon King Transformation when someone even faster intercepted it. The beam tore through his body, yet instead of causing harm, it transformed into a vast reserve of energy for him to wield.

The one responsible was none other than Lie Guang, the God who had once feared the trio’s power and fled. He had returned just as the Armor Civilization teetered on the edge of destruction.

After absorbing the Light Energy from the laser, Lie Guang felt a strength beyond anything he had known. “Envoy, I am here to uphold justice, even if it means killing my father. You wouldn’t stop me, would you?”

Han Wu frowned, skeptical of Lie Guang’s claim. Yet if he truly intended harm, he would not have intercepted the deadly laser.

“Do as you wish,” Han Wu replied calmly. He was equally curious to see how Lie Guang would confront his father.