Chapter 497: Go Deeper, Meet the Challenge

"Hmm..."

A long, resonant roar, born from the mechanical rotation and the surging flow of energy, echoed through the heart of the Sky Mechanical City. At the center of the main citadel, four power furnaces synchronized their output to charge the World Anchor, pushing its operational efficiency to nearly eighty percent. The rotating metallic pillar began to project the essence of the material world into the corresponding void.

In the distance, the colossal phantom had held its arms aloft for some time. From the space between its hands, a turbulent tide of consciousness poured forth—a phenomenon invisible to the material world, yet starkly vivid within the void.

Much like the "Divine Kingdom" domain formed during a deity's descent, it eroded the consciousness of surrounding living beings, assimilating their souls into a state harmonious with this singular, alien ideology.

The tide surged forward, yet the Sky Mechanical City showed no intent to summon gods or seek divine protection. The battle raged on. The rune arrays on the chests of the towering iron titans flared fully, their inscribed gravity spells pushed to the absolute limit.

Purple arcs of electricity enveloped a vast expanse, as an immense, invisible force indiscriminately crushed everything in the zone deep into the earth below.

With precise coordination, as one iron titan used its overwhelming hyper-gravity field to pin down the enemy—annihilating the weaker ones instantly—the remaining titans maintained the front line. While their massive frames and high-powered magical shields blocked the enemy's advance, one titan broke formation to assist in purging the forces trapped by the gravity magic.

Diverting shield energy to its arm, the war machine mounted within the limb was charged to its maximum. A high-frequency vibration rippled across the massive metal arm. Then, the titan raised its fist, and with terrifying momentum, slammed the earth-shattering blow into the ground.

Eighth-tier spell: Aftershock Corridor. Countless trajectories carrying seismic force snaked and spread through the struck earth, racing toward targets within the range. Already pinned by the crushing gravity, the enemies were slowed to a crawl, unable to effectively evade.

The trajectories, which shattered the ground and sent soil and dust erupting into the sky, caught up with the immobilized foes, unleashing a ruthless, lethal assault.

The earth split open abruptly. Sharp stone spikes, reinforced by earth elemental magic, erupted from the ground, piercing deep into the bodies of the targets. The powerful seismic force traveling along those trajectories surged through the spikes, forcing the enemies' internal organs, bones, and blood to vibrate in violent, destructive unison.

"Splatter!"

Blood burst from vessels; bones and muscles twisted and disintegrated. From the orifices of eyes, ears, mouths, and noses, blood sprayed out in rhythmic spurts. The bodies collapsed instantly, their life force dissipating in a few brief moments as death claimed them.

Some knights managed to withstand the gravity crush, and the stone spikes failed to pierce their sturdy armor, but it mattered little. Before charging into the enemy ranks, a knight—regardless of rank—could never influence the tide of battle as effectively as a spellcaster.

Within the Allied Legions, waiting among the ranks of spellcasters, were over a hundred legendary knights. These powerhouses, rarely seen in ordinary times, had gathered here for this very war.

The clash had never ceased for a single moment. Massive blades of aura tore through the earth with violent intensity. When the aura released by the knights of the Utopia organization collided at close range with that of the Allied Legions, the resulting power was no less devastating than the energy bursts of the spellcasters.

However, the Utopia organization possessed far fewer legendary knights than the Five-Race Alliance, and their charges failed to exert significant pressure on the Alliance's front line.

The reason, perhaps, was that the flesh of a legendary knight was, to some extent, no longer a construct that could be replicated by void energy. For those who had reached this realm, wounds could generally only be healed through their own regenerative abilities; healing spells had a negligible effect on such existences.

"The tide of consciousness is approaching. Let the priests of the Five-Race Alliance prepare to pray to their gods. Wait, what is this..."

The regional commander, observing the battlefield from atop the Sky Mechanical City, used instruments to track the sea of consciousness surging through the void. The overwhelming, suffocating pressure caused an uncontrollable palpitation in their heart.

Even though the effects of the World Anchor had been verified multiple times, it could not dispel such anxiety. Fortunately, the Sky Mechanical City had long since prepared contingency plans for failure, yet at this moment, the observer noticed something amiss on the battlefield.

"These are... souls? But how were they not annihilated by the aftermath of the battle? There is a non-negligible trace of void energy attached to them. These are the souls of the Utopia members who were just killed."

On the battlefield, the souls of the fallen Utopia members were attempting to return to the void by slipping through microscopic cracks, just as they had done when fighting the Nightfall Church. But now, they were completely unable to do so; they were jammed within the material world, unable to escape, gradually disintegrating as the void energy clinging to them was consumed by the powerful shockwaves of the battle.

At this very moment, the tide of consciousness stirred by the colossal phantom of the Utopia organization in the distant sky arrived.

Within the void, the tide—which influenced the wills of sentient beings—suddenly seemed to touch a hard, solid entity. At the point of impact, it split violently to both sides, continuing to flow while leaving a spherical void in its wake. This area corresponded exactly to the position of the Allied Legions.

A massive spherical domain enveloped the Allied Legions, completely blocking the tide of thought. The legions within were naturally shielded, safe from the erosion of consciousness.

"Special souls detected. They must be the remains of Utopia members who died in the material world. They tried to escape to the void but were blocked by the material zone created by the World Anchor. The situation is..."

The observer quickly transmitted the intelligence to the internal communication network of the Sky Mechanical City. The conclusions drawn from this data soon pointed toward the structural composition of the Utopia organization.

"The World Anchor is effective; this is good news. And if we can prevent these souls from returning to the Utopia organization, it should be an effective way to weaken them. Keep it up. Advance!"

Icarus looked at the latest summary with a sense of relief. The information they had discovered was no lie; after analysis, it had allowed the Sky Mechanical City's research into the void to leap forward. Encouraged, Icarus issued a passionate call to arms, urging the army to continue pressing into the Ash Barrens.

The reason those souls could not return to the void was precisely the high-powered operation of the World Anchor. If void rifts and "nodes" were the void's invasion of the material world, then the World Anchor was the material world's counter-invasion of the void.

By projecting the material world into the void, a highly material zone was formed within that environment. Within this domain, powers that required the void to function could not affect those covered by the field.

The souls, attempting to return to the void, found themselves trapped by this material domain, unable to achieve their goal, and could only be caught in the material world, gradually perishing in the wake of the battle.

The giant phantom in the sky gradually vanished after the tide of consciousness swept past. The attack that had once posed a massive threat to the Allied Legions failed to take effect this time, and the forward momentum of the Alliance did not falter in the slightest.

By using the highly material domain generated by the World Anchor to suppress the void energy zones that the Utopia towers attempted to create, and with most of their sorcery significantly weakened, the Allied Legions—supported by the heavy firepower of the Sky Mechanical City—displayed their true combat prowess.

Alchemical cannons, spell clusters, giant constructs... overwhelming firepower was unleashed from the Sky Mechanical City, coordinating with the legions steadily pressing forward to destroy the towers the Utopia organization summoned from the void.

This large-scale, highly material domain rendered many of the Utopia organization's advantages useless. For instance, their tactic of using more powerful towers to manipulate beings who had once stood with the sentient races of the continent—as seen on Wang Yu's side—was completely ineffective against the Five-Race Alliance now.

Almost the moment these towers appeared, terrifying firepower would rain down upon the target, as the towers were suppressed by the material domain and unable to turn ethereal or use void energy for large-scale defense. No matter how resilient the material of these towers was, they could not withstand such pure, doctrine-driven firepower for more than a minute.

Before they could exert their intended effect, they were instantly obliterated by the overflow of firepower. The Sky Mechanical City and the Five-Race Alliance were different from small organizations like the Nightfall Church; this massive legion, once a plan was set, would not easily change its course unless a catastrophic error occurred.

No matter what they encountered, they would strictly follow the plan, and what they were executing now was: "Not a single step back, just push through."

The Allied Legions never lacked firepower. Once all available resources were pooled, that power could no longer be simply quantified. What they had lacked was the means to deal with the "new technologies" of the Utopia organization, but now, in a sense, they were the "new" thing to the Utopia organization.

"Boom-crack!"

The massive iron titan slammed its fist, equipped with explosive knuckles, directly into the last tower the Utopia organization had in this area. The resulting shockwave shattered it. As it collapsed and crumbled, the nearby Utopia forces were wiped out. The enemy seemed to realize that summoning more towers would only increase their losses, and they ceased their futile obstruction.

With the relentless advance, the Sky Mechanical City's forces could already see the massive underground entrance at the center of the Ash Barrens.

"President Icarus, we are ready to enter the Ash Barrens underground. How is the situation with the Nightfall Church? We haven't received any news from them for quite a while."

A member of the Truth Oversight Committee approached Icarus and spoke.

"Continue forward. Confirm that the protective devices against the high-intensity 'internal combustion' power inside the Ash Barrens are all functioning normally. We don't need to worry about the Nightfall Church; let's just focus on ourselves."

Icarus glanced at the message Wang Yu had sent privately, put away the communication device, and, ignoring the situation with the Nightfall Church, calmly instructed the member of the Truth Oversight Committee.

"Understood!"

The subordinate took the order and quickly returned to their post.

"The real challenge is only just beginning."

Icarus whispered heavily to himself, eyes deep and focused on a certain direction—not the approaching underground entrance of the Ash Barrens, but the path from which the Allied Legions had come...