novelraw Chapter 602: Despair and Excitement
Chapter 602: Despair and Excitement
Chapter 602: Despair and Excitement
In the dueling arena, Jie Ming was watching a sixth-ring wizard battle.
Suddenly, every wizard’s magic network terminal vibrated as an emergency message popped up with only a few words: “Spatial defenses breached. Unknown enemies approaching.”
Upon seeing the message, Jie Ming’s pupils contracted sharply.
He raised his head and looked toward the sky.
In the extreme distance, countless tiny points of light were appearing.
Those light points were rapidly expanding, clearly surging toward this location.
And their numbers were staggeringly vast, filling the entire field of vision almost in the blink of an eye.
The wizards in the spectator seats noticed it as well.
Some stood up, some gripped their staves tightly, and others subconsciously took a step back. The wizards currently dueling stopped at the same time and looked up at the approaching lights.
For a moment, the entire dueling arena fell into a deathly silence.
Felix’s figure manifested. His voice remained calm, as if stating something trivial: “Large-scale invasion detected. All units, enter combat readiness.”
The instant the words fell, the void was torn apart.
At the periphery of the parallel world’s wizard civilization core plane, the endless chaotic void seemed to be violently ripped open from the inside by some brute force, forming a massive gap. At the edges of the rift, spatial fragments scattered like shattered ice, each piece carrying energy capable of annihilating small planes. The rift rapidly expanded, devouring all light like an abyss.
Then, they poured out.
The first to appear was a colossal star beast.
Its size was immeasurable. Even the portion that had emerged from the rift was enough to block the starlight of several planes.
Its body was composed of some semi-transparent material, with countless glowing veins flowing inside, like a network of ignited blood vessels. The beast’s head had no eyes, only a horizontally split giant maw lined with tens of millions of slowly rotating teeth. With every breath it took, the surrounding void trembled.
Behind it, more star beasts were squeezing out from the rift.
The smaller ones were hundreds of kilometers long, while the larger ones exceeded the size of some small planes.
Their forms varied wildly. Some resembled spheres formed by countless intertwining tentacles, with a closed eye at the end of each tentacle. Some looked like corroded meteorites, their surfaces covered with constantly opening and closing cracks that seeped black liquid. Others had no discernible shape at all, merely masses of energy that continuously expanded, contracted, expanded, and contracted, releasing radiation capable of distorting space with every pulse.
Most importantly, nearly all the star beasts had reached eighth-ring energy rank.
Behind these star beasts came a tsunami-like tide of creatures.
Hundreds of billions of sixth- and seventh-ring beings crowded together, piling and trampling over one another, completely clogging the rift’s exit.
Their sizes ranged from several meters to several kilometers, and their forms were even more bizarre.
The moment they emerged from the rift into wizard civilization’s territory, these creatures roared in the void, churning the already fractured space into a mess.
Tens of millions of eighth-ring beings. Hundreds of billions of seventh- and sixth-ring beings.
As for the mid- and low-ranking creatures of other levels, their numbers were so vast that statistics had lost all meaning—so vast that any rational being would abandon thought and be left with only instinctive fear.
The parallel world’s wizards fell into dead silence at the sight, then collapsed.
Those wizards who had just signed contracts and were happily holding their new robes had their smiles freeze on their faces the instant they saw the star beasts.
Robes slipped from their hands. Food fell from their mouths.
Some collapsed to the ground, some clutched their heads and screamed, and others had their spiritual seas collapse directly from terror, collapsing with blood flowing from all seven orifices.
“It’s over…” A seventh-ring wizard knelt on the ground, his voice hoarse. “The coordinates were exposed… They’re here… All of them… Why were the coordinates discovered?!!”
He was a veteran who had survived three world-ending wars and knew the terror of the Myriad Realms Alliance better than anyone.
Last time, the Myriad Realms Alliance had only deployed less than one-tenth of its forces and nearly shattered their civilization.
This time, the force they had sent was even stronger.
Another eighth-ring wizard floated in mid-air, trembling as he watched the colossal entities pouring out from the rift.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but ultimately only let out a despairing sigh.
The parallel world wizards who had just been incorporated completely broke down.
Some tried to flee, some knelt and begged for mercy, and others frantically tore at their own hair, muttering “doomsday,” “it’s over,” and “we’re all going to die.”
Even more had madness flashing across their faces as they began condensing dangerous information, preparing to explode together with the enemy!
For a moment, the entire dueling arena descended into chaos.
Then, they heard laughter.
It was not the laughter of despair and collapse, but excited, heartfelt laughter—even tinged with greed.
An eighth-ring wizard from the Star Ring Federation stood at the edge of the Quantum Entanglement Ship, eyes shining as he looked at the star beasts pouring out from the rift.
His originally gentle expression had completely shattered. The corners of his mouth stretched to his ears, transforming from a calm scholar into a hunter who had spotted prey.
“This place… actually has prey delivering itself to the door?” His voice carried irrepressible delight. “I didn’t expect that just releasing a few small bugs would draw such a massive harvest!”
Beside him, an eighth-ring wizard from the Crimson Court pushed him aside and leaned forward, his eyes even brighter. “We saw them first! The Crimson Court goes first!”
“Bullshit!” The Star Ring Federation wizard grabbed his collar. “This is the periphery of our Star Ring Federation’s defensive line. If anyone goes first, it should be us!”
“You Star Ring Federation took the biggest share last war. It’s our turn this time!”
“That was something we earned with our own ability!”
The two eighth-ring wizards argued like wild dogs fighting over food, shoving each other and spitting everywhere. Where was any trace of the dignity of high-ranking wizards?
The wizards from the Void Architecture Academy and Anti-Entropy Alliance were not willing to be outdone and joined the fray.
The Void Architecture Academy claimed their Folded Palace was best suited for dealing with such large targets. The Anti-Entropy Alliance argued that their Flood Star Ring was perfect for drowning the cannon fodder.
The higher-ups of the four major powers argued fiercely, red-faced and necks bulging, none willing to yield.
The parallel world’s wizards watched this scene in complete stupefaction.
They had expected to see despair, fear, and the same collapse they themselves were experiencing.
Instead, these people… were fighting over who got to go first?
A sixth-ring wizard who had just been incorporated stared blankly at the arguing eighth-ring wizards and muttered, “They… aren’t afraid?”
His counterpart wizard gave him a look as if he were an idiot and sighed helplessly, seemingly lamenting that his counterpart’s brain might not be working properly.
But in the end, the wizard still pointed at the shining eyes of those eighth-ring wizards and answered the obvious question: “Do they look afraid to you?”
The sixth-ring wizard fell silent.
After watching for a long time, he finally confirmed one fact.
These people were not merely unafraid—they did not take the Myriad Realms Alliance seriously at all.
In their eyes, those tens of millions of eighth-ring armies were not a threat, but resources. Not enemies, but prey.
A calm voice spread throughout the entire space.
Felix and the other three major artificial intelligences’ projections appeared in the void. Their expressions remained as calm as ever, as if stating something trivial: “Attention all units. Large-scale invasion confirmed. Please enter combat readiness according to the predetermined plan.”
The wizards of the four major powers immediately stopped arguing.
Their expressions shifted from greed back to calm, from the frenzy of hunters back to the solemnity of soldiers.
The change was so swift it was like flipping a switch, leaving the parallel world’s wizards dumbfounded.
The Quantum Entanglement Ship began to accelerate its rotation. The rune nodes on the ring lit up simultaneously, illuminating the entire void as bright as day.
The Perfect Ecological Mother Nest spewed out skies-full of red mist. Within the mist, countless flesh creatures were hatching.
The Folded Palace began to extend outward, generating new defensive nodes and attack platforms every second.
The Flood Star Ring transformed into a silvery-white band of light that encircled the entire space, temporarily blocking the incoming creature tide.
At the same time, countless cannon fodder units surged out from the positions of the four major powers.
There were artificial puppets, elemental creatures, modified beasts, and various combat weapons Jie Ming had never seen before.
Their numbers were overwhelming, in no way inferior to the incoming enemy.
Even more terrifying was that these cannon fodder units were of quite high rank—after all, the vast majority present here were high-ranking wizards.
Jie Ming stood at the edge of the flagship, watching the cannon fodder units surge toward the rift like a tidal wave, entangling the Myriad Realms Alliance creatures that had just squeezed out. The cannon fodder were being consumed at a visible rate. Every second, hundreds of thousands were torn apart or vaporized.
But even more cannon fodder poured in from the rear, filling the gaps and pinning the Myriad Realms Alliance’s vanguard firmly at the rift’s exit.
Jie Ming took a deep breath and suppressed the surging battle intent in his heart, knowing it was not yet time for wizards like them to take action.
Footsteps sounded from behind.
At some point, Clark had walked up beside him, watching the colossal entities pouring out in the distance with an expressionless face.
“Mentor,” Jie Ming nodded.
Clark did not respond.
He simply watched the torn void quietly and the giant beasts struggling within the cannon fodder tide.
After a long time, he spoke, his voice calm as if commenting on the weather: “The numbers aren’t bad…”
As he spoke, the corners of Clark’s mouth curved into a barely noticeable arc: “…just right for me to warm up.”
Jie Ming looked at the rare expression on his mentor’s usually indifferent face and suddenly felt a bit of pity for these invaders.