Published at 22nd of August 2024 7:02 am

Chapter 1976: Started Marching

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Master's divine perception noticed something fell from where Lucifer blew up.

"Loot dropped by a divine...?" Master asked in astonishment. The Gods in the game design were not slayable characters. They weren't supposed to have a loot system.

Master reached for the fallen loot using his divine power. That loot flew toward him. When it arrived, Master recognized the item. It was one of the top legendary artifacts like his Necronomicon. The item dropped by Lucifer was the Book of the Damned.

Master stored the book. It's not like he needed any artifacts now that he was a God, but perhaps he could use this item to reward his loyal followers. After storing the book, he flew back to the ground. He landed before the four statues that used to be the upperworld Gods. Despite the insane blast, these statues remained unharmed. There was not even a scratch.

He probed these statues. To his annoyance, the four Gods were still alive. They were confined, though. The energy that confined them waned with time, but it would be decades before that happened.

He cursed Lucifer for not finishing the job. The best scenario would be for the devil to kill all the Gods. But no, the devil had to transform these Gods into a testament to his glory. What a conceited way to satisfy his vanity.

'Never mind,' Master thought. He could not expect all his plans to proceed perfectly. Problems always arose. At least, this was within a tolerable margin. He only needed to reinforce the energy confining these Gods when Lucifer's energy weakened. He was not powerful enough to do that now. But with decades of practice, he was confident it was within his capability.

He aimed his arms at the ground. The ground beneath the four statues started to soften. The hard soil turned into mud. The four statues started sinking. Before long, the statues were completely submerged. He then pulled rocks and earth from the surroundings and piled them atop the spot where the statues were. In a matter of minutes, a mountain had formed there.

It was the only mountain for miles. Everything else had been flattened by the detonation of Lucifer's death. If one flew high enough, one would see a colossal crater caused by that explosion.

Master looked to the East. He gazed in that direction for a while before turning back to the West. He then vanished from there.

At the main underworld portal, the demons were busy clearing up the surroundings of their brethren's corpses. They simply tossed those corpses further away. They cleared up the space because more demons came out from the portal. After Lucifer's barrier was destroyed, the demons from the underworld could enter again.

The newcomer demons were flabbergasted to find so many of their brethren were slain. Some high-ranking ones came to the demon in charge of the portal, Xugguth, to ask for an explanation, but Xugguth was in no mood to explain.

While the demons were reorganizing, a strange feeling descended upon them. They felt lighter on the inside, but at the same time, they were at a loss. The low-level demons did not know what to make of this feeling. The high-level ones, like Xugguth, knew what it signified. "Im... Impossible... Lord Lucifer...?" Xugguth muttered.

The other high-level demons had the same reaction as him. They just stood there frozen. They didn't know what to do.

While they were stumped, crackling thunder was heard. The air above them exploded. They all looked above and saw an ethereal there.

Xugguth's eyes went wide. He remembered this ethereal, and so did the other demons who guarded the main underworld portal. They gazed upon this ethereal with fearful eyes.

The newly arrived demons, however, lacked the news. All they saw was an ethereal showing up in their territory. One of the high-level demons in the midst, an archdemon, flew up and barked in a loud voice.

"Upperworld scum! How dare you intrude upon our territory? You must be tired of your-" The archdemon didn't complete his sentence because he had turned into dust. The incident had been so swift no one understood what truly happened, except for the demons who previously guarded the portal.

"Kneel!"

Master didn't waste any time explaining his intention. His one word caused a shockwave through the air. All the demons who heard the word felt their bodies trembling involuntarily. Xugguth was the first to drop to his knees. Following his lead, all the demons who witnessed how Master dispatched Volgroth also knelt.

The demons were a hierarchical society with Lucifer on top. The lives of those with lower status could easily be decided upon by the ones with higher status. It could be said the demons were slaves to the devils. They were used to subjugation. Freedom was an alien concept to them. Without someone governing their lives, they felt a void in their hearts. That's why they felt a sense of loss when Lucifer was gone.

Now, another God had come to fill that void. Why would they resist?

The freshly arrived demons were confused by how willingly their brethren knelt to this ethereal. However, they could sense the power when Master's voice touched them. They knew he was a divine being. The higher-level demons who knew Lucifer was gone also bent their knees. The lower-level demons followed suit. Before long, the entire horde of demons expressed their submission to Master.

Master grinned at the sight.

"How are the other fronts doing?" Jack asked.

"The underworld force at Northern Aurebor had just been routed," John answered.

"This means all the fronts have won," Jeanny said.

John nodded. "Yes. Now, all our forces can start marching into Liguritudum."

"Ah... Here I thought I could go to the other fronts to assist," Jack lamented.

They had defeated the underworld force here half a day ago. Most of the demons were killed. The rest fled to the West, where the main underworld portal was. Jack and the others went into the mobile fortress to sleep. They had been fighting for three days straight, after all.

"You are nuts. Do you not have enough fighting?" Jeanny asked.

"Yeah. I prefer to go back to sleep. I am still tired," Paytowin said while yawning.

"I can repeat my level using the level-down pills. I still have more of those pills," Jack answered Jeanny. He then offered her, "Do you want some?"

"I will lose my level 99 skill if I do that," Jeanny said. After defeating Satan, she had also

leveled up to 99.

"How is the preparation going?" John turned to his mother, who was operating the war table.

"We are ready. The army has rested enough. We can start marching anytime," Linda

answered.

"What about the wounded?" Grace asked.

"They were sent back to Themisphere with the caravans belonging to the Trade Association," Linda answered. "The Church of Creation and the Healer Society will tend to them once they arrive at the nearest settlement."

Jack nodded. He turned to Tip and asked, "How is the concoction of the Reconstruct Potion

going?"

Tip understood why Jack asked for the potion. He answered, "We should have the first bottle soon. I have instructed our members to bring the first bottle to Eoranth."

After the war ended, Jack sent Eoranth back to Themisphere using his King Badge.

"Good," Jack said.

"What about Honuren?" Jeanny asked. Although Honuren was resurrected, he still suffered some wounds due to the prolonged battle against Satan.

"He and most of the members from the Council of Elpo have left," Linda answered. "They should come to our aid again when we engage the underworld force during our march."

"I doubt that. With the devils defeated, I think they no longer consider this war their concern," Jeanny said.

"I agree. They are that kind of jerks," Paytowin remarked.

"Come on, man. Be respectful," Jack reprimanded. "They helped us. If not for them, this army

won't last this long."

"We can chit-chat while marching," John said. He turned to Linda. "Assistant, send the command for the army to march!"

"I am your mother, you disrespectful son. Also, you are not the king," Linda chided. She

turned to Jack and asked, "Should we march?"

Jack nodded. "Let's march into Liguritudum!"

Linda sent the command using the war table. The army was already in formation. They

marched with the mobile fortress at the center. Jack summoned his Runestone of Marching to

increase the marching speed.

John sent the commands to the other fronts as well. Aside from the Northern Aurebor Front, the other fronts were also ready to march. The army here should be the first to arrive in Liguritudum because of Jack's Runestone of Marching, but the others should only be a few

days apart.

"With this speed, we should enter Liguritudum in six days," John estimated.

"Is it enough time?" Paytowin asked with worry. "It should only be another ten days before Master finished merging with the last divine treasure, shouldn't it?"

"We will be a bit too pressed for time...," John agreed. "We might need to forget about facing

Lucifer and go directly to Master to save time."

"How do you propose we do that?" Jeanny asked.

"We use the army as a diversion to attract Lucifer's attention while we infiltrate World Throne

with a battalion of elite soldiers," John answered.

"That will mean sacrificing the soldiers!" Grace exclaimed.

"Sacrificing soldiers is inevitable in war," John returned.

"No! I won't agree to that," Jack asserted.

"Sigh... I expected you would say that. Well, in that case, we will have to deal with Lucifer first

and risk letting Master become a God and deal with him using Chris' method," John said.

"What is the cooldown of the divinity-stripping power again?" Paytowin asked.

"Three days," John answered.

"We need six days to reach Liguritudum. After that, we need how many days to reach World

Throne?" Paytowin asked again.

A booming sound stopped John from answering the question. They turned to where the sound

came from and saw someone floating in the sky above them.

That person was Master.

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