WHOOSH!

Caught in the powerful pull of the vortex, the beam of deathlight failed to escape. Its trajectory was forcibly altered, causing it to blast diagonally into the uninhabited wilderness.

Soon, the lumbering Skeleton Giant became a sitting duck. Under the concentrated cannon fire and the assault of numerous top-tier powerhouses, the giant crashed down, dissolving into a cloud of bone ash.

Annihilated along with it were a group of despairing members of the Lorentz Clan and their vast manor.

Minutes later, amidst the lingering gunpowder smoke, the fortress of power that symbolized Oran’s old order was reduced to rubble.

This was but a microcosm of the entire annihilation battle.

By two in the afternoon, a Marine Aviation Corps base on the outskirts of Oran City, a key military stronghold, another large manor belonging to the Omega Clan, the headquarters of the Master Organization, and more—all had been bombed to smithereens.

All attempts at resistance were futile.

Two organized counterattacks were also mercilessly crushed.

The bitter consequences of their defeat in the Battle of the Twin Cities were now on full display.

Not only had the twenty to thirty thousand slain Olan People contributed a massive amount of Rune Essence, but the bountiful rewards from the completed world quest had also allowed the seven to eight thousand people of Dongfu City to grow significantly stronger.

Now, the powerhouses from Dongfu City were simply continuing to snowball their advantage.

The offensive only began to wane after they had expended a massive number of shells and many cannon barrels began to overheat and burst.

At five in the afternoon, Su Chen and a top powerhouse from Dongfu City successfully teamed up to kill the owner of a Demon Soul Artifact.

This was no ordinary person.

His name was Shang Xu.

His class was Six-Star Golden Radiance Ruler. He was second on the contribution leaderboard, the undisputed ace of the Investigation Legion, and the one Captain Zhang had mentioned was also on the path to advancement.

His class abilities allowed him to control all metal objects in an area, turning the battlefield into a domain of blades where all weapons, friend or foe, were subject to his will. In layman’s terms, his Authority was similar to Magneto’s.

In the steel jungle of the city, he was like a fish in water.

As he unleashed his Authority, the steel frame of the already ruined main Lorentz building began to tremble.

Without any violent force, the alloy framework of the outer curtain wall instantly softened and gave way. The prestressed steel cables within multiple core shafts snapped in unison.

Before long, sections of the building’s metal skeleton began to collapse on their own.

With a groaning of stressed metal, the skyscraper toppled, crashing into an adjacent building.

‘A one-man demolition crew.’ The shocking scene left everyone breathless.

In a similar fashion, the Omega Building came crashing down just a few minutes later.

This time, it was the work of another top-tier powerhouse.

Beyond the four major legions, there was another top-tier powerhouse among the unaffiliated, ranking fourth on the contribution leaderboard. His name was Feng Jialun, and he possessed the Six-Star hidden class, “Rock Phase Ruler.”

As the current apex of the single-element Earth system, he could control the phase changes of rock, liquefying granite into sludge and reverting concrete to raw mineral dust.

He could create earthquakes, channel tectonic stress into a concentrated burst, and with a mere gesture, multiply the local gravity a hundredfold to create a “heavy earth” zone.

Furthermore, a Rock Phase Ruler’s flesh and blood could fuse with minerals. They could also devour any inorganic substance—crystals, soil, stone—to enhance their personal Physique.

Following the Golden Radiance Ruler’s example, he skillfully altered the building’s concrete structure, using finesse over brute force to effortlessly topple the Omega Building.

Thus, if one were to judge based on class Authority, Su Chen, Shang Xu, and Feng Jialun had undoubtedly stood out from the rest in this series of battles.

With their names not being publicly known, they gradually acquired nicknames.

Su Chen, being rather mysterious and proficient in All Elements, was called the “Master of Elements.”

Shang Xu had several nicknames, but most people simply called him “Magneto.”

The last one, the unaffiliated powerhouse, was known as “Brother Datu.”

This was the downtown Financial Street, just three hundred meters away from Oran City’s Rune Core.

At this point, it wasn’t just Dongfu City’s forces on the attack. Even some of the Olan People had turned on their own, joining in to kick their former masters while they were down.

Some did it to survive, some to get a piece of the spoils, but most were just trying to scavenge what they could in these chaotic times.

According to the grapevine, the already loosely-formed Master Organization had long since disintegrated, its members completely estranged.

However, directed by a death-type Soul Artifact, a super-charged Corpse Explosion Skill was suddenly unleashed. Bodies detonated like cannonballs, sending bone shrapnel flying, while a bloody mist condensed into corrosive acid rain.

Under the chain reaction of exploding corpses, the several-hundred-meter area outside the Rune Core was gradually enveloped in a grayish-green death-fog.

Within the fog, massive abominations assembled from severed limbs could be seen slowly lurching to their feet.

“Fall back to the camp.”

After more than half a day on the offensive, Dongfu City’s assembled army began a rapid withdrawal.

In truth, to avoid getting bogged down in an endless urban guerilla war, they had been cautious. Only several highly mobile elite units had infiltrated the city, while the main army remained on the outskirts, cleaning up and providing support.

Now, the joint ruling power had only its last bastion of strength remaining at the Rune Core.

A cornered beast will lash out. Considering the utter chaos that had engulfed Oran City, with gangs attacking and looting indiscriminately, pulling their forces back was a necessary precaution.

…

「Night fell outside Oran City.」

The vast Dongfu City encampment stretched for a mile, dotted with points of light. Bonfires, light-storing lamps, and the faint, rotating beams from scout towers silently punctuated the orderly camp on the high slopes.

Taking advantage of the high ground, they gazed down upon the distant, still-burning city.

Nowhere in the entire city was there peace.

Cries, explosions, collapsing buildings… The cacophony blended into an apocalyptic symphony, a lament for the city’s downfall.

“The remnants of the Sect will seize power while order is being rebuilt. After that, we’ll let the Olan People fend for themselves.” Captain Zhang Shihao derived no pleasure from this war. He wasn’t a warmonger, but neither did he feel any great compassion for the enemy.

He felt only a sense of detachment. Since the entire city had been transported here, he had seen too much death. His heart had long since been forged into cold steel.

His only motivation was the desire to make Dongfu City a better place.

The Dongfu City Security Council had already met and decided Oran City’s fate. With limited capabilities and resources, they would provide no material support, nor would they engage in armed colonization or plunder.

To put it bluntly, a city with no resource nodes was of little use to them, and they couldn’t afford to support its millions of inhabitants.

But they did draw one red line. To avoid repeating past mistakes, Dongfu City would remain extremely vigilant against the Demon Sorcerer Association. Any sign of blood sacrifice would be met with a kill-on-sight warrant.

The same rule applied within Dongfu City itself. That entire class system was simply an offense against nature.

Meanwhile, Su Chen, standing on a cliff’s edge, wasn’t looking down at the city. Instead, his gaze was fixed on the Broken Star Ring hanging high in the northern sky.

“It’s definitely closer. The oppressive feeling from that Star Ring is unsettling. I wonder what kind of ill omen will appear when it passes overhead,” Captain Zhang said with a sigh, coming over to take a look.

“The elemental fluctuations in the area feel wrong.”

Su Chen stated plainly, “I can’t measure it precisely, but they’ve been dropping since at least five o’clock this afternoon.”

He had clearly felt a slight decline in his own power during the earlier battles.

It was faint, but as a Master of All Things, he could still tell something was amiss.

“It’s like the entire area is entering an elemental ebb,” he added.

Captain Zhang Shihao mused for a moment, then shook his head with a wry smile. “It seems our troubles are far from over.”

That gray, deathly silent Broken Star Ring didn’t just appear at night. If the sun’s light hadn’t obscured it during the day, it would have been visible then, too.

In other words, if the Star Ring was truly causing this elemental ebb, the implications were dire.

“It can actually affect an individual’s casting strength?”

This was a very bad sign.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.