Second World

With Jack wreaking havoc inside her, the eldritch beholder had trouble thinking straight. Her reaction and spellcasting became slow. She even experienced brief paralyzes from Jack's attacks. The four outside didn't let go of this chance.

Broidrireg swerved around the eldritch beholder before sinking his claws and fangs from behind. The rest of his lengthy body coiled around the eldritch beholder and held her in place.

Arlcard's crimson rapier slashed and thrust with lightning speed. He couldn't deal much damage because most of his skills and spells had dark elements. He could only use normal attacks or physical skills, which didn't pack much of a punch.

Spark was the weakest among the five but its expertise was second only to Jack's. The multiple blades on its body accurately struck the tentacles that came at it while its bladed limbs slashed the eldritch beholder's real body. It stayed close to the eldritch beholder like glue and only moved away when it sensed a spell targeting it, which it could easily detect due to its advanced mana sense.

It also used the Nine Yin Phantom Sword regularly. This ancient art was able to cause a hole in the eldritch beholder's anti-magic planar wall, but the hole was too tiny to have any significant effect. The hole was also quickly mended, so the ancient art couldn't disrupt the eldritch beholder's ultimate defense. Perhaps things would have been different if it was the Nine Yin Abyssal Finger.

Therras shone the most in the fight. It mostly relied on its physical prowess, after all. It forewent defense and focused on bashing the eldritch beholder from its flank. With Broidrireg taking the eldritch beholder's attention, it was free to dish out attacks. It relied on its armor and high HP to tank the tentacles battering its body while continued sending one attack after another.

Jack's Lightning God Incarnation didn't last long. After the three-minute duration ended, Jack focused the accumulated mana and punched upward onto where the eldritch beholder's brain should be located. The impact from the finishing move sent tremors all over the eldritch beholder's body. She also suffered massive damage.

Without the protection from Lightning God Incarnation, Jack's HP quickly fell. He activated Lightning God Suit and Gold Scale Armor. Even after using the two defensive skills, Jack's HP still dropped at a dangerous speed. The dark energies swirling around him were extremely thick and eroding. If he didn't have mana sense, he wouldn't be able to know which way to aim.

Jack didn't panic. He continued sending attack after attack. When his HP almost zeroed, he used Gold Dragon Vitality. His HP was back to full and his max HP increased again. He was already in beast form. His beast form had ten-star upgrades, which added his max HP by 200%. With Gold Dragon Vitality, his max HP was added another 100%. At this moment, he had an HP bar of 266,666 HP.

Jack didn't stop there. He also activated Life Elevating Art. His attributes increased and he gained a boost in HP recovery. As his HP lowered, his HP recovery increased.

Yet, even with these recovery boosts, his HP still returned to a dangerous level very fast. When his HP fell to critical, Jack used his cloak's Elemental God Barrier which had been switched to the dark element.

The Elemental God Barrier absorbed the damage from the dark energies while the Life Elevating Art slowly brought Jack's HP up. Protected by the Elemental God Barrier, Jack activated Overlimit, cast Superior Acceleration, and cast his mega spell before continuing with his rune technique. After completing his rune technique, he stabbed his rune technique into the ground where he was standing, which was also part of the eldritch beholder's body.

When the Elemental God Barrier was destroyed, Jack's HP was already back to full.

He continued to exhaust all his high-level and mid-level skills and spells. When his HP almost fell to zero again, he cast Reset. He used Lightning God Incarnation and then repeated everything all over again.

The eldritch beholder was in anguish. Jack continued to ravage inside her while outside, the four never stopped hitting her. She was very bewildered as to why the ant inside her had not died yet. That ant was an outworlder who was supposed to have much lower HP than a native. Even the native spellcaster who had audaciously entered her the first time didn't last this long. How did this outworlder achieve the feat?

*

Mistress saw events transpiring from the top of her palace. The roofless and wall-less throne room granted her a full view of the battle. Either the battle of the eldritch beholder in the sky or the battle of the armies on the ground outside the capital wall, both didn't look good for her force. No matter how she wished, she could see that they were losing.

Lead Designer came to her side. He let another member use the war table. There was not much he could do under the situation, anyway. He hesitantly asked Mistress, "Perhaps… Perhaps it's time we think about cutting our losses…?"

Mistress continued to be silent. When Lead Designer was about to ask again, she said, "I'm going to activate the scorched wall enchantment."

"But… That will leave us defenseless," Lead Designer said.

"Didn't you propose we cut our losses?" Mistress replied. "We can no longer keep this country. We will take down as much of those bastards before we leave."

She walked to the throne. She sat on it and activated the monarch system. She then opened the enchantment window.

*

Outside, the battle continued to rage. The defenders continued to get pushed back. They suffered many casualties. Many of the defenders wondered why their leaders had not yet ordered them back to the wall. Even if it was only delaying the inevitable, it was still better than an open battle like this.

As they were hoping for the sound of the horn to retreat, they heard rumbling from their backs instead. They turned and saw the walls they hoped to return to shudder violently. When they were still confused as to what was happening, the wall crumbled.

They were baffled. No enemy was hitting the wall. The enemy siege weapons had retreated when the battle outside the wall started. Those siege weapons remained at the back. Why was their defensive wall destroyed for no reason?

While puzzlement filled their minds, they saw the remnants of their wall move. The thick vines that used to compose Lorethion's wall started gathering together. They gathered into many lumps which then grew limbs. These lumps reformed themselves into gigantic humanoid shapes. There were more than a hundred of these automatons.

These automatons then started walking toward the battlefield.