Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 825 Victory
war.

Regarding this term, neither Xin Lailai nor the White Demons or Deathbringers, who belong to the same tier of outsiders, are unfamiliar with it. In their minds, war has always been inseparable from words such as smoke, fighting, roaring, and noise.

But today, they suddenly realized that when the scale of war expands to a certain extent, the battlefield feels... so quiet and deathly still!

Abyss Blade Style: Dragon Flash!
A silent blade flashed through the vacuum of zero gravity. Below the fortress, a white demon, its body glowing with rings of pulse-like propulsion patterns, pierced through the center of an abyssal creature over three hundred meters long, resembling a ghostly jellyfish. Amidst the wisps of smoke rising from the demonic blade, a series of jet-black blood droplets spread erratically outwards from the weightless environment.

[Note: The Abyssal Spawn · Evil Spirit (Variant) has been defeated. The current temporary team's expedition contribution has increased by 8 points.]

The thirty-first one.

A chilling kill notification sounded in White Demon's mind. In the silent fortress, White Demon, barely managing to stop his momentum thanks to the armored platform and expeditionary combat suit, avoided crashing into the plasma grid used to prevent the abyssal creatures from escaping. He glanced at the abyssal creature's remains, which were gradually disintegrating into abyssal energy and pitch-black ash, several kilometers away, and remained silent.

"White Demon, how's it going on your end?"

"It's been resolved..."

The next second, Randy's voice rang out in his mind thanks to the imprinted communication function. White Demon merely glanced at the other area, thousands of kilometers away, and was about to tell him that he had resolved the situation when the withered skeletal hand gripping his shoulder suddenly moved, forcefully pinching White Demon's shoulder while simultaneously sending out a wisp of soul thought, urgently informing him:
"Lord White Demon, behind us!"

"!!!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Bai Mo's expression changed drastically on the armored platform. Without any hesitation, he instinctively raised the Dark Steel Shadow Shields on his left and right sides to block behind him, and with the help of his expeditionary combat suit, he quickly dodged to the side.

Wow!
The next instant, a beam of dark purple light, hundreds of meters thick, swept past White Demon's field of vision. Accompanied by a faint, almost negligible whooshing sound, it instantly struck the armored platform below. The beam collided with the energy barrier that appeared on the armored platform, creating an extremely violent energy fluctuation that sent White Demon flying backward uncontrollably for hundreds of meters.

The White Demon, almost instinctively, swung a massive blade of dark steel energy in the direction from which the purple beam of light was coming. But the next second, his expression darkened as he realized that his strike had been a complete waste of effort.

Wow!
The jet-black blade flashed across the sky, traversing a distance of over a thousand meters in a mere 0.1 seconds, and then... was easily evaded by the abyssal creature, which was located tens of kilometers away and resembled a catfish, in a reaction time span of several seconds.

too slow.

Although the speed of the blade's edge was significantly increased in this vacuum environment where air resistance was almost negligible, compared to the vastness of this planetary battlefield, a long-range attack of this blade's edge was simply a joke to these abyssal creatures born from space and with a strike range of tens, hundreds, or even thousands of kilometers.

Moreover, not only that, but because the information that constitutes intuitive ability, such as sight, sound, smell, and energy fluctuations, is severely diluted in a vacuum environment, his perception ability in a vacuum environment has also obviously declined to a certain extent, as a master of technique.

Otherwise, given his intuitive abilities as a master of technique, he should have been able to react to that attack even without the warning from the cloth on his shoulder.

Of course, the most fatal flaw is the perception of distance itself.

He didn't realize it on the ground, but when he actually arrived at the vast battlefield of the starry sky, which was beyond the comprehension of ordinary people, White Demon discovered just how fatal a flaw it was for a master of technique to rely too much on intuitive concepts.

Both attacks came from enemies beyond their perception range, but Black Sword's side had a perception range of several kilometers or even tens of kilometers. Not to mention, there was a huge difference in their ability to retaliate.

The former can rely on visual information and high-speed brain calculations to retaliate with beam-type spells or attacks from the same great distance. However, as a master of techniques, he can only symbolically throw two blade beams that are impossible to hit. Moreover, due to the great distance, even if the enemy stands still, the blade beams he swings will often be greatly reduced in power or miss due to insufficient effective flight distance.

"Lord White Demon! Watch out, the second one is coming!"

"Ok, I know."

In mid-air, Fabu, who had been instructed by the Death Slayer to have a portion of his hand bone specifically assigned to assist the White Demon, reminded him. Fabu, who had also noticed the enemy's attack animation with his naked eye, simply responded with a word, then, with a thought, controlled his expeditionary combat suit to accelerate through a wide arc in mid-air, deploying his Dark Steel Shadow Shield, and charged straight towards the catfish-shaped abyssal creature tens of kilometers away. Just as he was about to close in and kill it with his demonic blade, a black and white light suddenly flashed through his vision—

[Note: Temporary team member Black Sword has killed Abyssal Spawn Witch, and the temporary team's expedition contribution has increased by 13 points.]

A beam of light formed from annihilating energy flashed past the White Demon's line of sight, then exploded the instant it hit the catfish-shaped abyssal creature, transforming into a massive black and white sphere of light hundreds of meters wide. The terrifying annihilation force brought about by the annihilation reaction evaporated the catfish-shaped abyssal creature into nothingness.

At the end of the black and white beam's path, one could see Xin Lailai, thousands of kilometers away, standing on an armored platform, silently unleashing a pitch-black domain with a radius of several thousand meters, frantically devouring the extremely thin mana around her, preparing for the next attack.

"I'm sorry, but it seems like it's planning to escape, so I have to act ahead of schedule."

"...It doesn't matter."

The next second, Xin Lailai's voice rang in Bai Mo's mind. Upon hearing this, Bai Mo simply shook his head slightly, looked at the remaining black and white energy fluctuations in the distance, lowered his eyes, and remained silent.

According to the opponent, the move just now was a spell that they temporarily developed using their own domain, based on the principle of a beam-type heavy cannon they had used in the past. Although it had the problems of a long wind-up and excessive energy consumption, it perfectly solved the problem of conventional spells not having enough attack range on this planetary-level battlefield.

In fact, during the week of waiting after arriving at the fortress, White Demon also considered imitating the other party's behavior and developing a move suitable for the current situation. However, even the longest-range blood energy attack could only fly a hundred kilometers at most, and that was only after he used more than half of his blood energy and charged it for more than ten minutes.

Therefore, after a brief trial, White Mage decisively abandoned the idea of ​​developing so-called ranged moves.

To paraphrase what Xin Lailai and Randy said, from an efficiency standpoint, as a master of techniques, it would be more practical for him to practice how to quickly construct and use magic-destroying teleportation arrays rather than thinking about how to develop techniques for extremely long distances.

"My lords, His Majesty the Commander has instructed me to inform you that the skies above area Z-07 have just been invaded by abyssal creatures, estimated to number five. Among them, one is a 'Ghost Armor' capable of deflecting conventional energy beam attacks, one is a mutated 'Sapium Dream' with super-fast movement and the ability to break through spatial suppression, and three are extremely powerful in individual combat..."

Suddenly, Sister Chris's calming and gentle voice resounded in the minds of everyone present. Upon hearing this, the White Demon and Xin Lailai, who were located in different directions, moved their eyes slightly, nodded gently, opened their spatial portals, and quickly moved towards the area indicated by Chris.

...Three days later, at the World Fortress.

[Notification: Teleportation complete. You have arrived at the designated area: Blackthorn Main Ship - Command Room]

"Phew! Finally done. That monster that slipped through was really troublesome. It almost made it into the middle area. Luckily, I'm a bit more skilled!"

"Welcome back, sirs. Is there anything I can do to treat you?"

As the relieved rant subsided, in the command room, Randy, who had emerged from the portal, collapsed heavily onto the sofa, looking utterly exhausted. The blindfolded nun, who had been quietly waiting in the command room with her hands folded in front of her, stepped forward and gently inquired about the various reactions of the people before her.

"We three don't have any, but Brother White Demon was injured this time, so we might have to trouble Lady Chris to check him out."

"Okay, I understand. Please wait a moment, Lord White Demon, while I examine you."

Xin Lailai, who looked completely relaxed and didn't seem to have just gone through the tough battle Randy had described, shook her head slightly. Then she glanced at the White Demon next to Yamu and spoke. The White Demon nodded slightly and silently walked to the blindfolded nun, allowing her spiritual perception to penetrate his body.

Om-! !

A soft white light descended, and a gentle warmth flowed through the White Demon's body, causing him to subconsciously close his eyes and calmly savor the warmth. Meanwhile, wisps of black smoke quickly emerged from the wounds on his arms and abdomen, which had been temporarily sealed by the Dark Steel Shadow energy. Then, the injuries that even Xin Lailai's Crystal Spirit Healing Technique had been unable to heal, along with the fatigue within the White Demon's body, rapidly subsided.

"Alright, Lord White Demon, the abyssal energy and hidden injuries in your body have been completely removed. If you still feel any discomfort, please let me know in time."

A few seconds later, the blindfolded nun in front of the White Demon slowly lowered her hands, which had been holding her in prayer, and spoke gently to the White Demon. The White Demon nodded slightly, said nothing more, silently found a place to sit down, closed his eyes, and entered a meditative state.

"Speaking of which, this guy is really pushing himself too hard, isn't he? It's been three days and three nights, and he hasn't rested at all. I'm almost embarrassed to drink with him."

After lying on the sofa for a while, Randy rubbed his shoulders and looked at the front half of the command room, which was separated by a soundproof barrier. He clicked his tongue at the major, who was standing in front of the control panel as if he were possessed, issuing one instruction after another to the legion members who were in a mental link with him at a terrifying speed of hundreds or even thousands of instructions per second. His expression was so fanatical that he showed no signs of fatigue.

"For someone like Lord Jia 3756, this might actually be a rare treat. And it's thanks to him and his legion that we were able to get through this first battle so easily."

Xin Lailai, who was also observing the situation on the screen in the command room, casually remarked, looking up at the scene of beam weapons and spatial portals flying around that could not be felt at all inside the fortress, her eyes slightly shifting.

Just as he said, although from the star map they seemed to be surrounded by the ever-growing abyssal rifts that had been forming over the past few days, in fact their experience in the fortress could be described as quite easy.

While their role in this was partly due to their responsibility to pick off the leftovers and the sheer vastness of the planetary battlefield, the real reason they could operate so easily was actually quite simple:
—That's the Major and the Blackthorn Legion they command... They're ridiculously powerful!
Under normal circumstances, based on the information they learned from the Pioneer Forum, an expedition like this, in the early stages when the front line is under the most pressure, should result in at least 1000 to 3000 troublesome Abyss units that only need to be dealt with, plus 3 to 5 high-risk Abyss units, slipping through every day.

For example, the mutated 'Nightmare' that they encountered today was a high-risk abyss unit that had mutated to have a powerful spatial teleportation ability similar to Dragon Shadow Flash, plus an extremely strong stealth ability that even their True Eyes could only detect a faint trace of. The two incurable wounds on White Demon's body were left by the opponent after accelerating to the extreme, taking advantage of its own characteristics while White Demon was using Dragon Shadow Flash.

Theoretically speaking, as the defenders of the first stronghold, they should face a batch of such Abyss units every day. However, apart from today's large-scale attack, which was clearly the Abyss's last stand before the stronghold was formed, they have not encountered any other high-risk Abyss units... or rather, none of the other high-risk Abyss units have been able to break through the Blackthorn Legion's firepower and enter the fortress.

Even ordinary troublesome abyssal units are the same. Normally, under the overwhelming attacks of the abyssal army, it would be normal for one or two thousand abyssal units to slip through every day. However, the situation they are facing is that, except for today, not a single day has seen a three-digit number of abyssal creatures slip through.

In many cases, if they react too slowly, they might find that the invading abyssal creatures have already been finished off by warships or mass-produced war creatures bearing the Blackthorn Legion's insignia, leaving them with no real opportunity to make a move.

A mature, powerful, and insane legion.

This is Xinlailai's assessment of the Blackthorn Legion.

As a main force legion with a world-class fortress, the Blackthorn Legion's tactics are arguably the most extreme he has ever heard of. They not only enjoy engaging in close-quarters combat with the enemy, but also particularly like to use the strategy of luring the enemy deep into their territory. They are extremely keen on waiting for the abyssal creatures to be divided by their own lines, and then using their absurdly precise command and the execution capabilities of their soldiers to encircle and annihilate them.

The mass-produced war creatures that every legion must have are also a significant improvement in design compared to the legions in the information Xin Lailai found. The Blackthorn Legion's war creatures are clearly superior to the conventional mass-produced war creatures.

In other words, the Blackthorn Legion prefers to control a powerful and elite army rather than using cannon fodder that doesn't require much command. To achieve this, a command center with ridiculously strong command capabilities is necessary; otherwise, it will only have the opposite effect.

As for the benefits of aligning with such a powerful and ruthless legion...

[Attention all members! The elemental barrier strength in the current area is approaching its critical value and is expected to exceed the critical value within 30 days!]

[Attention all members, a large-scale receding of the Abyssal Rift has been detected. The current remaining number is...]

【Complete……】

【…】

[Attention all members! The abyssal rift in the current area has completely receded. This operation has ended, and we are currently assessing the damage. All members in all areas are requested to temporarily enter the defensive phase until the alert is lifted!]

[To reiterate! All personnel in all areas are requested to temporarily enter the defensive phase until the alert is lifted!]

The answer is that they can rest easy and win without lifting a finger.

……

(End of this chapter)