Chapter 398 A Desperate Counterattack
Chapter 398 A Desperate Counterattack
Two divine-level demons voiced their concerns, and in their over-excited state, the turbulence in the mental domain could be felt by Sterl.
"It doesn't dare to lose all its bodies!"
"Will of Hell, actively manifesting to attack is a violation of the rules!"
"If it loses all its bodies, it will be treated as a BUG!"
The two divine beings roared, driven by their instincts.
Regarding bugs and certain game mechanics, while the two divine-level demons and even the three gods of the main world could not engage with the system as frequently as Sterl did, they had lived long enough to know a thing or two!
As the strongest combat units in the lower realm, divine-level entities, over the centuries, had learned some secrets about the game system, and they understood that all things in the world must abide by the rules of Swallowing Heaven/Transcendence.
Even though the emergence of the Will of Hell, possessing such a strong sense of autonomy, was a low-probability event, there were always some instances in the myriad worlds. The Will of Hell in the Archduke of Blood layer of hell was the first autonomous entity encountered by five divine-level beings.
This mostly indicated that the Will of Hell had interfered with the external world, violating the system's rules.
Other autonomous Wills of Hell would not dare to operate in such a manner!
The two divine-level demons, understanding the mechanism of Swallowing Heaven better than the gods of the main world, had made their earlier declarations.
They were not entirely certain but knew that the Will of Hell could not hide its intentions.
Despite the Will of Hell being relatively intelligent, it did not angrily deny or react excessively; instead, it let out a cold sneer and continued to unleash lightning.
However, its change in style—from mocking to silence—was in itself an admission.
Sterl, through his Holy Spirit Bloodline, sensed it—
The Will of Hell was displaying an emotion of fear for the first time!
It had fallen into madness!
Initially, the Will of Hell had been holding back, and its efficiency in siphoning the Blood River was not particularly high, but now it erupted completely!
The barrier formed by the Oil-paper umbrella swayed precariously!
Then...
Boom!
A beam of lightning descended.
Before the shield could react or show signs of energy dissipation, from high above, the second and third strikes followed...
Finally, the tenth Thunder erupted with a deafening roar!
This was the full force of the Will of Hell!
It was now entirely drawing upon the Divine Power of the five gods, extracted through the array of seizing heaven and creating fate, connecting to the life force, and forcibly launching a powerful attack!
The initial wave had only ten strikes of lightning, solely because Sterl occupied half of the array's efficiency, resulting in insufficient Divine Power for the Will of Hell; otherwise, there would have been twenty supreme Sky Thunder!
However, the three gods of the main world revealed a glimmer of delight.
"Good, it's coming!"
Even though the Oil-paper umbrella was an artifact from the upper realms, it was still merely an abandoned tool, inferior in status to the lower realm items of Transcendence. It was also something the two figures from the upper realms had looked down upon.
Its defensive capabilities were not strong enough to ignore the theoretically strongest output in the lower realm, equivalent to the divine authority of the Origin of Chaos!
The Oil-paper umbrella's limit was to block a few supreme Sky Thunder strikes at most.
Ten strikes bombarding together was a sheer waste!
And more importantly—
"It actually worked."
"We've seized the only opportunity."
The eyes of the two divine-level demons sparkled with excitement.
The earlier shouting had also been communicated with the three gods of the main world.
Knowing that they were destined to die, how could divine-level beings easily lose their reason? Their excited cries were merely a ploy to lure the Will of Hell into a trap!
Amidst the ten strikes of Thunder,
the shield formed by the Oil-paper umbrella was easily torn into countless fragments, scattering across the sky.
The surroundings were filled with blinding light!
Sterl's expression shifted slightly; he had just been pulled into the shield's range by Licitris in an instant—not because he was ambushed, but due to a moment of confusion; he almost instinctively dodged Licitris's movement…
Wouldn't that expose the true power of Mephistopheles as being formidable? Fortunately, Sterl managed to suppress this reaction and skillfully feigned astonishment, which then shifted to a look of gratitude.
The other divine-level units ignored Sterl; they were gradually realizing that Licitris seemed to have developed genuine feelings for Mephistopheles.
But it was meaningless.
The five divine-level beings could at most drag the Will of Hell down with them; they could not survive. Licitris was just a grasshopper on the same rope, no need to target her.
If Mephistopheles wanted protection, then so be it.
Sterl observed silently.
In the midst of the lightning, everything around had become indistinguishable from the Divine Power density, and he could not glean any information.
Moreover, from the external viewpoint, one could not see the shadows of the five divine-level units…
The river valley was also affected by the Thunder, and under the immense power, this special point in the layer of hell was utterly destroyed!
The rainbow-colored Polluted Blood, accompanied by the lightning, flowed drop by drop toward the only pure area in hell.
As for the remaining blood in the river valley?
The Will of Hell moved swiftly, refining all the blood before the Thunder obliterated the river valley, transforming it into more than a dozen Archdukes of Blood, floating in mid-air for backup.
"Ants!"
The Will of Hell sneered.
Indeed, it had panicked! Under the rules of Swallowing Heaven, the Will of Hell could not actively influence the world; it was more like an NPC, a tool for issuing quests.
It could only gather power to initiate hell trials, provide rewards, or issue some mainline quests, creating instances for players to use.
Any act of defiance would incur the wrath of the Swallowing Heaven system.
Earlier in the battle, the Will of Hell had been punished by the Swallowing Heaven system for attempting to refuse the trial rewards designated for Mephistopheles, leaving it in agony and even injuring its essence!
As the gods had speculated, the bodies of the Archdukes of Blood had obscured the mechanical detection of Swallowing Heaven. Even after losing its bodies, the Will of Hell could still unleash the Origin of Chaos, but the power of Swallowing Heaven…
The Will of Hell trembled; in such a blatant violation, Swallowing Heaven could easily erase it with a single strike.
Fortunately…
It had ultimately succeeded!
Under the ten mighty strikes, the Will of Hell sensed its moment and prepared itself.
It aimed to devour their souls the instant the bodies of the five divine-level beings collapsed! The Will of Hell was neither a player nor a god; it could not enhance itself by killing divine-level units and seizing their essence.
It could only absorb souls to strengthen its will or, more accurately, the strength of the souls. Moreover, the Will of Hell would take centuries, if not millennia, to fully digest a soul, making the process extremely inefficient.
Even the remnants of the Archduke of Blood's soul had not been completely refined by the Will of Hell; it could only operate them perfectly, not merge them into itself.
But for the Will of Hell, what it lacked the least was time. Just like the Blood of Contamination, which couldn't harm him, it would leave him in a layer devoid of any living beings.
This would mean the Will of Hell would be unable to use the prosperity of the layer of hell to enhance itself for a long while, nor could it utilize the controlled Archdukes of Blood to venture into other worlds and devour prey.
Yet, it didn't care; it could wait for the Blood of Contamination to dissipate and then prepare for its next power enhancement.
Just as the Will of Hell was filled with joy, the next moment arrived.
The protective shield formed by the Oil-paper umbrella shattered!
The Archduke of Blood showed a hint of a "smile."
As its pupils constricted, the remnants of the Oil-paper umbrella, after breaking apart, formed an energy net that ensnared countless Thunder strikes!
That net, subjected to massive power, compressed and twisted at high speed! It sank inward!
There was a limit to the distortion; when the net pressed against the faces of the five divine-level beings, its elasticity reached its peak!
The net shattered!
However, before it broke apart, it used the tremendous rebound to send countless bolts of lightning and chaotic resources right back!
Under the influence of the Blood of Contamination, the rainbow-colored Thunder was now an unclaimed entity, immediately transforming into a torrential downpour of lightning that shot upward into the sky.
"Good, it's coming!"
The Will of Hell was quite excited; it still had gathered multiple bolts of lightning that it hadn't used yet.
Unfortunately, once again, it made a mistake.
In a certain sense, the Will of Hell was still too young, lacking in combat experience.
In a back-and-forth battle, it wouldn't make mistakes, but when it came to tactics and schemes, it was lost.
As the torrents of lightning surged skyward, they collided with the newly gathered attack of the Will of Hell!
Next, the rainbow-colored lightning clashed and shattered…
Sending forth countless sprays of blood!
Indeed, the strategy of the five divine-level beings was never about a frontal assault; it was about using the already unclaimed Thunder to activate the Blood of Contamination!
Blood rain poured down from the sky, while the Blood of Contamination on the ground had already consumed the last area of the entire layer of hell!
In the high sky, the rainbow-colored liquid spilled forth, tainting all the temporarily created Archdukes of Blood!
These unclaimed bodies were rapidly corroded, and in an environment where the entire hell had already been polluted, they decayed at the speed of light!
Many of the Archdukes of Blood began to sprout tufts of fuzz, transforming into pools of Polluted Blood that fell from the sky.
Plop!
Plop!
They merged into the rainbow-colored currents on the ground.
In a matter of moments, using the rebound of the lightning from the Oil-paper umbrella, the five divine-level beings successfully destroyed all the Archdukes of Blood created by the Will of Hell!
And in the river valley, there was no remaining blood force left.
The Will of Hell could no longer create new bodies.
Moreover, within the sea of Blood of Contamination, the bodies that the Will of Hell personally controlled were also affected, beginning to decay…
However, at that moment, the three gods of the main world did not perceive anything amiss.
The regional will, Sterl, and the two divine-level demons suddenly felt a jolt in their minds, as if they had severed a connection with something, plunging into a brief state of disorientation.
When they snapped back to reality, they could only hear the excited calls of the three gods of the main world.
"Good! Good! Let's descend into hell together!"
"Just hold on for a few more seconds! The last body of the Will of Hell is about to decay; we must drag it down with us!"
The "Archduke of Blood" in the sky had no reaction, caught in a state of bewilderment.
Only Sterl felt a slight sting from the disk tattoo on his arm, which brought him back to his senses.
He understood—