Chapter 272: The Advancing Behemoth

Chapter 272: The Advancing Behemoth

Karen and Ophelia were following Dolons forward, albeit keeping an absolute safe distance between them.

In truth, if Karen were alone right now, he would likely prefer to find a high vantage point with a better view, standing or sitting there to observe Dolons's advance and the countermeasures that would soon emerge.

Ophelia could not possibly do that; her status dictated her position, and even if she weren't crazy enough to rush forward with her greatsword to hack at Dolons directly, she couldn't simply stand afar and watch the spectacle with Karen.

The Blade of the Dark Moon provided Ophelia with greater speed, and her physical constitution offered an excellent vessel for the weapon's potential to manifest.

On this front, Karen possessed no advantage; his physical condition could be described as well-nourished by now, but that was only impressive on the level of an ordinary human, though fortunately, the spiritual power accumulated within him was deep and profound, requiring nothing more than a greater expenditure of spiritual energy to trade for a blessing of speed.

However, to prevent being spotted by outsiders, Karen did not use the Blade of the Dark Moon to accelerate his movements like Ophelia did, but instead alternated between Order’s speed-enhancing spells and transforming into black mist.

It had to be said, witnessing the sight of Dolons crushing everything in its path during its advance was truly breathtaking; it was no mere vehicle, but a bona fide calamitous beast.

Wherever it passed, whether forests, streams, or hillsides, everything was flattened into barren earth.

At this moment, over a dozen black specks appeared ahead of Dolons.

Ophelia slowed her pace, leaping onto a large tree nearby, while Karen's form materialized on the opposite side of the tree.

"It's my uncle and the elders."

Karen, however, cast his gaze further back, seeing that a small army composed of Dark Moon Guards had already been organized there, and they had begun to form up.

Yet, whether in terms of numbers or temperament, although both relied primarily on cold weapons, they truly bore no comparison to the Knights of Order he had seen before.

The terrifying sense of suppression and suffocation he felt that day while watching the Knights march out from the cavern remained fresh in his memory.

But this was already all the strength the Dark Moon Island could gather at the moment; this force was usually perfectly sufficient for maintaining port operations and local public security, and even when the two great orthodox churches held their meetings, they could spare enough personnel for security detail.

However, attempting to mobilize them to face a grand spectacle like this left them somewhat lacking in strength.

When the Church of Order waged foreign wars, the Whiplash of Order squads were merely positioned in the third echelon; no matter how excellent the police were, if you forced them straight onto the battlefield, the results would certainly not be very ideal.

At a time like this, employing a single-point breakthrough method might instead yield miraculous effects; it was true that this was a colossal entity, but its massive frame was its advantage, and it could also become its disadvantage.

Tafman stared at Dolons before him; if only his fleet were here right now, for against such an immense existence, the magic crystal cannons on warships were always the finest means.

But thinking of these things now was meaningless; if they did not take action to stop Dolons immediately, this big fellow would crush the town into dust!

"Tafman, your injury..."

"It won't affect my fighting. The patriarch has already gone to request aid from the Church of Order, and though the Church of Order will definitely not sit idly by, we must still demonstrate our worth as much as possible.

I believe the elders would not wish for our Dark Moon Island to be looked down upon like this either!"

"We will listen to you, give the order."

"Tafman, we follow your command."

"Even if we are to be dogs, we cannot be the most useless ones."

"It's very simple: break through its defense, protect Elder Qimal to reach Dolons's head and lay down the formation, move out!"

The order given was very concise, because Tafman trusted that these elders were each highly experienced and capable of making their own choices according to the situation; everyone only needed to be clear on a common purpose.

Most importantly, everyone was also extremely unfamiliar with Dolons; the records concerning Dolons passed down within Dark Moon Island were sparse, because after Dolons carried Philias and his party to the island, it was arranged by Philias to enter a deep slumber.

The elders shed their long robes, revealing the armor beneath one after another; some pieces of armor were heirlooms passed down through families, while others were personally designed and forged by the individuals themselves.

The forging techniques of Dark Moon Island had always been famous, but they were not trade goods exported by the island; it wasn't that they were unwilling to let the weapons and armor they forged circulate outward, but rather that the things they forged required the cooperation of the Power of the Dark Moon to exert their greatest efficacy, so to outsiders, aside from a bit of collectible value, their practical value would be very low.

Over a dozen people, their bodies bursting with dark red lusters, began running toward Dolons together.

Elder Qimal consciously moved within the protected area at the very center, his arms already laden with all sorts of formation scrolls.

The blood mist surrounding Dolons's body became the first line of defense blocking them; this layer of blood mist had already swallowed countless animal and plant lives during its advance.

Four elders split into two rows, forcibly accelerating to detach from the group, each drawing their sabers and swords, unleashing the Power of the Dark Moon within their bodies to the absolute limit as they slashed directly at the blood mist.

The blood mist was instantly torn open into massive gashes; these four elders, two on each side, continued to pry open the rifts in the blood mist, creating a passage for those behind them to enter.

Cleaving open this layer of blood mist was not particularly difficult; the true difficulty actually lay in maintaining it, which was equivalent to using the Power of the Dark Moon within their own bodies to contest and consume the power within this giant beast.

Tafman led the remaining elders straight into the blood mist.

Seeing this, the four elders who had opened the rifts withdrew their weapons one after another, their figures quickly retreating; regardless of whether those inside succeeded or failed, when the people who entered were to come out later, they would still have to work together to reopen the rifts in the blood mist.

Dolons's gaze shifted slightly downward, as if noticing the scene beneath it.

But it did not choose to stop and deal with them, nor did its speed alter in the slightest, continuing its charge toward the town on the island.

There lay the greatest concentration of the Dark Moon lineage; there was the core of vengeance!

"Mount its body!"

Tafman held his saber with his single arm, serving as Elder Qimal's final line of defense, while the other elders began to scatter at this moment, helping to block the upcoming dangers.

Although Dolons did not stop specifically to deal with them, just as a body would have some instinctive movements and reactions when bitten by a mosquito, to minuscule existences, it remained a terrifying threat.

The scales on Dolons's body began to fly off automatically, ejecting outward, each scale as large as a house; the Dark Moon elders continuously swung the weapons in their hands to cleave them apart. One of them, after continuously cleaving seven scales, found that a layer of small scales was unexpectedly hidden within the shattered fragments when he slashed toward the eighth scale; he could completely dodge at this moment, but the consequence of letting the scale fly past was that the group being protected on their way up might be caught in the aftermath and have their progress affected.

So he chose to endure it with his own body; in the end, although he altered the direction of the scale, he himself was struck so hard that he flew backward down through the air, and before he could even adjust his center of gravity in midair, his body was directly sucked into the wind vortex formed by Dolons's movement, his life or death unknown.

Next, when the team clambered onto Dolons's neck, massive whiskers swept over continuously, each whisker falling with a horrifying force.

One elder was swatted away, his fate after falling unknown.

There was also another who, caught in a pincer attack by two whiskers, was directly blown into a mist of blood.

Humans actually possessed many methods when facing this kind of massive calamitous beast, but when the emergency forced them to choose a close-quarters approach, the gap in absolute power would become especially prominent.

On this point, the system of martial artists on Dark Moon Island was particularly at a disadvantage, because their attainments in spells and formations were generally not high, and this was even under the circumstances where Bernard had introduced some systems of the Church of Light to strengthen them in this regard.

They preferred and were more accustomed to using their bodies and martial techniques to fight; spells and formations were only treated as auxiliary items.

Of course, a primary reason was that the research and inheritance of spells and formations required a constant and immense price; it didn't count as an inheritance just because it was recorded in books. The learning and tempering process of each individual, this kind of generation-after-generation maintenance expense, was the greatest cost.

This was also the reason why, after the Allen Manor declined, the family didn't even possess a single usable teleportation formation.

At the same time, this was also where the orthodox churches were powerful; they possessed the most massive pool of resources and talent reserves, enabling them to maintain the oldest and richest inheritances generation after generation while still developing and pioneering on that foundation.

On the tree, Karen glanced at Ophelia, seeing her gripping her greatsword tightly; clearly, she truly wished to rush up herself, yet she understood even better that rushing up with her current strength would only make her a burden and an encumbrance.

What made her even more helpless was that going to the newly assembled army right now wouldn't allow her to play much of a role either; she was not adept at commanding a war, and although she had read books on the subject and received personal instruction from her uncle, she had, after all, never encountered actual combat, so she naturally couldn't run over to command them at this moment.

Ophelia turned her head to look at Karen, asking with some anxiety, "Why hasn't the Church of Order stepped in to help yet?"

"Assembling personnel takes a bit of time," Karen could only explain it this way.

Because today's meeting ended early, combined with the fact that the Order side was originally the victorious party, everyone was generally quite lax mentally; yesterday was fine, but today there were exceptionally many people slipping away to enjoy themselves. Even if the massive commotion caused by Dolons's awakening was definitely perceived by them, gathering quickly still required time.

However, seeing that the guard forces of Dark Moon Island had already gathered into a loose army, Karen believed the gathering speed on the Church of Order's side would only be faster than theirs, because each Whiplash of Order squad consisted of elites from various grand districts; once the black crows took flight, they could immediately pinpoint the location to assemble.

But he could hardly tell Ophelia:

Our Order side is deliberately holding back, wanting to step in only at the most critical moment so we can demonstrate our importance and reap the greatest debt of gratitude and appreciation.

Nor could he tell her:

Our Order side also wants to see just how much capability this newly raised dog of ours possesses, so we're letting you show your faces first.

Under the path-clearing protection of the group of elders, ultimately, Tafman and two other elders successfully escorted Elder Qimal to the top of Dolons's head.

But just as the four of them landed on the crown, two of Dolons's long brows swept over; the two elders leaped up respectively, each slashing at one of the long brows, but the long brows that had just been severed scattered a moment later, transforming into countless iron chains that were exceedingly thick to them, locking them down one after another.

The two elders unleashed roars respectively, their figures deliberately dropping down to the neck area, driving their respective weapons into Dolons's neck position; Dolons's skin was simply like a rock wall to them, yet they used the method of treating themselves as nails to fix the two long brows here respectively.

"Set up the formation!" Tafman shouted to Qimal.

"Understood!"

Elder Qimal began to lay out the array. He held the highest mastery of formations within the Council of Elders, and at this moment, he used up every tactical scroll he had amassed, solely to complete the array at the absolute fastest speed.

By now, the colossal form of Dolons had advanced to a point perilously close to the Dark Moon Legion.

"Our families are right behind us! Brave warriors of the Dark Moon, steel your courage, we cannot retreat!"

The elder leading the military formation issued the final order to lock the ranks.

Though this legion was hastily cobbled together and their formation was dreadfully loose, they had still not broken in the face of such a terrifying entity, which was already an admirable feat.

Once the distance closed further, they would have to begin swarming Dolons like ants to attack, and the casualties would inevitably be devastatingly heavy.

At the rear of the army, the urgently transported artillery had just finished assembly. There were not many pieces, only about thirty or so, and they were small-caliber cannons capable of firing only tactical magical shells.

The Dark Moon Island's offshore fleet possessed immensely powerful firepower, but by the time they returned, the town would have already been trampled over countless times.

The island also had large-caliber tactical artillery and magic crystal cannons, but they were all stationed at the port where landings were easy. Because the home island of Dark Moon had seen almost no warfare for nearly a century, with all threats eliminated out at sea by their own fleet, this kind of military equipment likely suffered from years of neglect and improper maintenance. Yet even without such issues, there was simply no time to transfer them here now.

Dismantling large-caliber tactical artillery took time, and magic crystal cannons required re-deployment and the carving of internal formation runes after transport before they could be used, making it completely impossible to manage in time.

As for striking this area from the docks or coastal military facilities, that was also impossible; Dolons had been slumbering on the island all along, rather than making a landing from the sea.

Karen had once seen the catapults carried by the Order of Knights when they went to war. Although they appeared much more primitive than artillery, one had to understand that every single catapult was etched with spatial formations. They merely looked somewhat retro, but their practical offensive effects and striking capabilities were incomparably higher than those of magic crystal cannons.

During the "First Day of War," the reason the Order of Knights could breach the sacred grounds of the Samsara Religion at such a rapid pace was mostly that after a few volleys from the catapults, the defensive arrays of the enemy's sacred grounds would be directly obliterated. The rest was just the grand army of the Knights rolling in to crush any organized resistance.

…

"It seems that after this, Dark Moon Island will definitely beg to purchase some weapons of war from us, and they will be crying and screaming for them."

Hearing the words of a bishop beside him, Wolfrun nodded and said, "Yes, but the foreign sale of weapons of war involves too many things. It mainly depends on Lord Kress's opinion."

Cardinal Kress, who was sitting there, remained silent, merely watching quietly as the massive figure ahead continued to close in.

Behind this group of bishops, the Whip of Order squad had already mostly assembled. At the same time, on the two flanks, two bishops who specialized and excelled in formations had already completed setting up the array with the temporarily gathered personnel.

In terms of efficiency, they were incomparably faster than the Dark Moon Island forces ahead. Furthermore, the expressions among the Priests of Order were quite composed, and they could even point and comment on the scene before them without showing much panic.

One had to remember that they were a negotiation delegation. To be able to easily find professional formation experts from a mere group of negotiators spoke to the terrifyingly deep heritage of the Church of Order.

But just as Karen had guessed, the Church of Order was in no hurry to strike; the giant beast was still some distance away from the town anyway.

Cardinal Kress slightly twisted his neck twice, and then, as if he could no longer be bothered to look at the situation ahead, he directly lowered his head, looking as though he were dozing off.

On the periphery, Patriarch Vina did not wail aloud, nor did he make any hoarse, desperate pleas; he merely knelt there, utterly motionless.

His heart was at peace,

yet his heart was also utterly helpless.

…

"How much longer?" Tafman shouted.

"Soon, soon!" Qimal replied.

At this moment, with him as the center, a large-scale detonation array had already been laid out. He was currently embedding precious formation materials into the array to enhance its destructive power once activated.

Teleportation scrolls burned one after another in his hands, and the rare materials he had personally hoarded were continuously teleported over. Throughout the entire process, he showed not the slightest heartache or hesitation.

Normally, the Council of Elders was a place where factions fought for power and profit, but when faced with the threat of their homeland being crushed, everyone was capable of uniting against the common enemy.

And at this moment, Dolons seemed to sense the threat coming from above its own head. Its mouth breathed out scorching breath, and in an instant, white, high-temperature smoke completely enveloped the area above its neck. Those outside could not perceive anything within, while those inside felt only as though they were in an oven.

Immediately after, Dolons began to shake its head.

The terrifying inertia and the resulting fierce gales formed all around became a tremendous obstacle for Elder Qimal, who was currently setting up the array.

Seeing this, Tafman radiated the power of light from his body, bent down, and pressed his palms against the "ground."

Seeing this scene, Elder Qimal froze.

"Keep setting up the formation!" Tafman roared at him.

Elder Qimal immediately refocused his attention to deploy the array.

And the moment Tafman emitted the aura of light, Dolons, which had been shaking its head, suddenly grew quiet. Although its body continued to advance toward the town, it stopped shaking its head, seemingly thoroughly enjoying the sensation of being caressed on the crown of its head by the power of light.

It let out a low, deep sound, a rarity since its awakening, as if responding to Tafman upon its head, speaking to him of the longing from deep within its heart.

With light serving as the medium, the minds of both sides were interconnected at this moment, more direct and pure than any words.

Tafman continued to radiate the power of light while tears streamed down his face.

…

On the distant hillside, Neo shook his head:

"Oh my, doing it this way, you really have some nerve, tsk tsk. If it actually succeeds, it won't just be boring, it will feel regretful, or even... disgusting."

He reached his hand forward, and a holy rune of light appeared. Once this rune was activated, a phantom figure dressed in a white robe appeared in the center of the pool at the middle of Dolons's turtle shell.

This was the spiritual imprint Philias had left on Dolons, which in the past was used to communicate with the beast. After all, with its body being so massive, even if you sat right on its back, trying to shout to it felt like calling out across mountains.

The white figure maintained the exact same standing posture as Neo on the distant hilltop.

Neo spoke,

and the white figure spoke in perfect sync:

"He has already betrayed the light, watch your head."