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Immediately after the Tarot Club ended, Hobert heard many prayers coming from the "Nation of Disorder", and some prayers were directed straight at him.
After listening briefly, Hobert roughly understood what was going on. While the Tarot Club was in session, the Balam Empire had released some terrifying things.
It was said that currently, more than half of the people in the western part of the entire Balam Empire had either turned into monsters or died.
These terrifying things were attacking the western Balam Empire. After Medici arrived at the scene, he immediately reported the matter to the "Creator" and King Hobert through prayer.
Since he received no response, he exercised his "Supreme Military Decision-Making Authority" and ordered the soldiers in the eastern Balam Empire to withdraw immediately.
Although they tried their best to evacuate the civilians before the retreat, because Atlantis had not yet established effective rule there, the local people didn't take it too seriously.
Medici then ordered: Regardless of the local people, the Atlantis army should retreat as quickly as possible.
At the same time, Medici had designated the eastern Balam Empire as a "buffer zone". All the angels in the kingdom had rushed to provide support after hearing the news.
Hobert didn't expect the opponent to be so good at picking a time, choosing to launch an attack during the Tarot Club meeting.
Fors, who was beside him, saw Hobert's solemn expression and asked, "What's wrong?"
"The war in the Southern Continent has changed. I need to go there quickly." Hobert got out of bed and tidied his clothes.
"Be careful," Fors said.
"Okay." Hobert stepped out, entering the "Shadow of Order", and sent his substitute ahead to the Balam Empire.
...
More than an hour ago, east of Cevas, the capital of the Balam Empire, at the Death Altar.
Although it wasn't a day for sacrifice today, it was unusually heavily guarded, with many demigod-level Beyonders patrolling.
Suddenly, the sky darkened, and an ugly arm appeared in mid-air. The surface of the arm was covered with a layer of evil mucus, from which grew skulls, eyeballs with evil gazes, and tongues with fangs.
Many people who saw this scene immediately went mad or lost control and turned into monsters.
Many Beyonders turned into goats and rabbits. Around the solemn altar, flocks of sheep and a nest of rabbits suddenly appeared.
Creak~
Not far from the arm, an "Underworld Gate" opened. The death aura from the world of the undead immediately blocked the curses and evil gazes of the "Abomination" Suah.
A middle-aged man walked out of the "Underworld Gate". His eyes seemed to have turned into two clusters of pale white flames. All the eyeballs on Suah's arm burst, leaking some disgusting liquid.
The battle here gave all the residents of the city a bad feeling. They all came out of their homes and fled in the opposite direction.
In the very center of Cevas City was the massive Death Temple. At this moment, the "Pale Empress" Sia Palenque Eggers stood before the main hall's entrance, coldly watching the battle to the east, with no intention of going to support.
"There shouldn't be infighting between us," Trunsoest stepped forward, suddenly appearing not far from Sia.
Sia, with her Southern Continent features, said coldly, "The monsters whose seals were broken aren't rampaging in the Paz Kingdom, so of course you can speak so leisurely."
Trunsoest and Sia had a serious disagreement on how to use the batch of monsters sealed by the Underworld Emperor back then.
Sia hoped to use these monsters to force the Kingdom of Atlantis back to the negotiating table. They knew they were not opponents and no longer wanted to continue fighting.
Trunsoest, however, was intent on using these monsters for a sneak attack, to at least kill one or two Atlantis angels.
Ultimately, the two sides parted ways unhappily, but Trunsoest did not give up. He continuously sent people to infiltrate the high levels of the Balam Empire to find out how to open the Underworld Emperor's seal.
"How about this," Trunsoest said upon hearing this, "When the war ends, I will compensate you with double the number of citizens!"
Sia said coldly, "When the war ends, it's still uncertain whether you'll even be alive."
"You don't need to worry about that. I've already found a way out," Trunsoest said. "I'm different from you. If I fail, I can just leave the Southern Continent. If you fail, you'll have nothing.
"Do you see Suah over there? What if he has the help of an Outer God? Without his own power and base, he still has to obey my orders.
"He said solemnly, "Now we can only fight with all our might, consuming as much of the Kingdom of Atlantis's strength as possible. Even if we fail, we will still have a place to stay.
"If we are perfunctory now, after we fail, we will be like Suah, completely worthless."
Sia's expression was cold, as if she was thinking.
Trunsoest added, "You don't really think Hobert will solve the problem through negotiation, do you?"
Sia's eyes moved. After glancing at the eastern part of the city, she said, "We tried to stop the Paz Kingdom, but failed."
Trunsoest nodded, "That's right, you tried very hard to stop me."
He glanced inside the temple, "It's almost three o'clock. Can we begin?"
Sia was startled, "You know that the key to breaking the seal isn't at the Death Altar?"
"That's obvious," Trunsoest smiled. "The process by which we obtained this information was simply too easy!"
Sia said no more but waved her hand towards the temple. Several priests opened a hidden door behind the Death statue and entered one after another.
Trunsoest, standing at the temple entrance, looked at the very tall Underworld Emperor statue and suddenly sighed, "This reminds me of the time I fought with Salinger. Haha, this world has long forgotten us."
At this moment, the "Language of the Dead" echoed from inside the hidden door, sometimes high-pitched, sometimes melancholic.
Trunsoest asked, "Do you know what monster is sealed inside?"
"I know," Sia said. "They are the favored ones of three Outer Deities from the cosmos. They broke through the barrier at a certain opportunity and came to the real world.
"Because they all descended on the Southern Continent, they were all sealed in the Underworld by the Underworld Emperor."
"I remember now! There was a period when Outer Deities frequently projected their power into the real world. It was because of this that the Seven Deities entered the Astral World to resist the Outer Deities," Trunsoest cautioned. "However, I suggest releasing only one first. That should be enough to give the Kingdom of Atlantis a headache for a while.
"If all three are released, the Orthodox Deities are likely to intervene."
Sia nodded, "Okay!"
Trunsoest asked again, "Should we hide?"
"No need," Sia said coldly. "As long as we stand within the 'sight' of the Underworld Emperor statue, the monsters that come out of the Underworld will not actively attack us. However, the negative status they generate can still affect us."
The "Language of the Dead" in the hidden door suddenly stopped. Before the Death statue, a dim space suddenly appeared.
This space became deeper and deeper, as if it was connected to some unknown space somewhere.
Suddenly, in the darkness, an eye with blue pupils appeared. Only one eye!
It looked at Trunsoest and the "Pale Empress" and blinked. A third eye immediately appeared between Trunsoest's two eyes.
Trunsoest reached out and casually grabbed at his face, as if grabbing a piece of dirt that had accidentally fallen on him. The eye that had grown between his two eyes was already in his hand.
Looking at the blinking eye, Trunsoest said, "What strange authority and ability!"
At this moment, another eye with blue pupils grew on his cheek.
The "Pale Empress" beside him suddenly said, "I forgot to tell you, you can't look directly at that eye. Otherwise, even if you are a King of Angels, you will gradually be affected by the things that eye makes you see and begin to believe in an Outer God called the 'High-Dimensional Overseer'."
Trunsoest glanced at the "Pale Empress." This emperor of the Balam Empire was indeed keeping her eyes closed.
So Trunsoest also closed his eyes, but found that he could still see the scene before him, the vision coming from the eye on his cheek.
He saw that the eye in the Underworld completely emerged from the deep space. It completely ignored the Archangel and King of Angels before it and immediately jumped to the outside world.
At the same time, the residents of the entire Cevas City and Beyonders below the demigod level suddenly stopped in their tracks.
They all seemed to see something incredibly beautiful at once, revealing satisfied smiles.
The next second, their left eyes all turned into blue pupils, and then they began to move, going to find other people to look at. As long as someone looked into their eyes, their left eye would also immediately turn a seductive blue.
The demigods within Cevas City fled in panic. At their level, as long as they were not directly gazed upon by the main body, they could still hold on for a while without being affected by the surrounding "people."
Returning to the temple in the city center, Trunsoest solemnly declared, "Eyes other than the two normal eyes violate common sense and must disappear."
What disappeared, however, was his original left eye. The eye on his cheek was still there.
Although Trunsoest's two eyes had a normal right eye, his left eye had grown on his cheek, making his face extremely strange, but he had temporarily suppressed the power of that eye.
At the same time, he realized that the monster just now had a high rank and its abilities were very strange.
At this moment, Sia raised her hand, and the sound of the "Language of the Dead" echoed from the hidden door again.
The priests who had entered the hidden door earlier now also had blue pupils in their left eyes, but they were already dead, so they were still under Sia's control for now.
The dark space before the Death statue was slowly closing. For now, they would just release that one eye.
Just then, Trunsoest suddenly raised a hand and "exiled" the dim room with the several priests, along with the magic array controlling the seal, to a space outside the world!
Sia's eyes narrowed. She immediately opened an "Underworld Gate" at the location of the exile, trying to pull the dim room back.
But because she hadn't been prepared before, she didn't have time to stop it.
Trunsoest laughed twice, saying, "Enjoy the happiness that the Outer God brings you!"
As he spoke, he took a step and disappeared with a strange face.
Sia glanced at the dark space that had become large again. A disgusting green mucus appeared inside. She hesitated slightly and immediately left the temple.
Returning to the Imperial Palace, He spent some time covering the escape of the angels and Beyonders who had not been attacked by the Outer God's favored ones.
Finally, after the entire city of Cevas had become a territory of the "Outer God's Favored," Sia opened a giant "Underworld Gate," preparing to leave through the Underworld.
However, after the "Underworld Gate" was summoned, it couldn't be opened.
Sia had a bad premonition. At the same time, the afternoon sky suddenly darkened, starlight quickly filled the air, and a surging darkness descended.
Sia's eyes narrowed. In her panic, she wanted to burrow underground to escape.
Buzz~
From the pitch blackness, a giant black scythe extended, hitting perfectly and cutting off Sia's head.
Immediately after, the head, with a surprised expression, vanished into the void.
Sia's body paused for a few seconds before collapsing to the ground.
An Archangel, and one from the "Death" pathway at that, just died like this.
The Beyonder characteristic of the "Pale Empress" rapidly precipitated, was covered by a thick layer of darkness, and disappeared from the real world.
...
When Hobert arrived in Cevas, he happened to witness the Evernight Goddess killing the "Pale Empress."
He hadn't expected the Uniqueness of the "Death" pathway could kill a Sequence 1 so easily.
However, Hobert felt that the Evernight Goddess must have made extensive preparations and only struck at the opportune moment.
Hobert said to the dense darkness, "Respected Goddess, thank you for your help."
You can't just take the Beyonder characteristic and leave. At least stay and help solve the problem.
An ethereal female voice came from the void, "The Balam Empire released three favored ones of the Outer Deities. These favored ones are from the cosmos and entered the real world with the help of the Outer Deities during the Fourth Epoch."
"Currently, I have re-sealed the Underworld. Other deities will do their best to guard the Astral World, making it difficult for the Outer Deities to respond to their return. Now, we only need to resolve those three favored ones as quickly as possible."
As she spoke, darkness spread, and instantly, more than half of the Balam Empire entered night ahead of time, and also entered the hidden world, preventing the influence brought by the favored ones from the cosmos from expanding further.
Hobert asked, "What abilities do they likely possess? Will there be any unknown corruption?"
"There are no existence at the level of deities among them," the Evernight Goddess said. "I'm not very clear about their specific abilities."
"As long as you don't get injured in battle, you won't be corrupted."
Hobert nodded. That was fine then. He was about to go into the hidden world to search for the Outer God's favored ones, but the ethereal voice in the darkness said again, "According to my observation, the 'Mother Goddess of Depravity' and the 'Uncertain Mist' have a tendency to join forces."
Hobert was slightly taken aback. "Thank you for the reminder."
Then He asked, "What should I be careful about?"
The Evernight Goddess wouldn't give such a baseless reminder.
The ethereal voice hidden somewhere unknown said, "Trunsoest has completely defected to the 'Uncertain Mist'. Be careful He enters the cosmos after being defeated."
"Among the three favored ones of the Outer Deities released this time, one is suspected to be a favored one of the 'Mother Goddess of Depravity'."
"I understand," Hobert said with a smile. "Please rest assured, I am fully confident I can keep Him in the real world."
It wasn't surprising that Trunsoest would defect to the "Uncertain Mist."
At the same time, Hobert was also very clear that unless Trunsoest was truly desperate, He would not go to the cosmos.
Because going to the cosmos would mean His Beyonder characteristic could easily be taken by the "Uncertain Mist."
As for the possibility that the "Mother Goddess of Depravity" might join forces with the "Uncertain Mist," and that the Balam Empire's release of monsters this time had influences and plans from the level of Outer Deities, this was something Hobert hadn't anticipated.
The ethereal voice in the darkness stopped speaking.
Only then did Hobert enter the city of Cevas within the "hidden world." The monsters here hadn't realized they had entered another world and were still searching everywhere for people whose eyes hadn't turned blue.
Hobert's substitute "tampered" with his state, making all the monsters here ignore Him.
Next, Hobert had the substitute "distort" the mind of a nearby monster. That monster immediately reached out and gouged out his blue left eye. The eyeball rolled wildly in his palm, not at all like a gouged-out eyeball.
Immediately after, the monster let out a scream. To be precise, he had transformed back into a human.
His scream attracted the attention of the surrounding monsters, so Hobert had that person "fill" the blue eyeball back in. Although his left eye looked very gruesome, it looked "normal," and he became a monster again.
The surrounding monsters also turned their gaze away and no longer looked in this direction.
Hobert pondered for a moment: These people could still be saved, but they would lose a left eye.
However, now was not the time to save them. Based on the aura of that blue eye just now, Hobert "linked" to the location of the main body.
Then He "distorted" space, with the substitute in front and the main body behind, arriving before the target.
That was an eye the size of a head. It also had eyelids, but it was only the eye part.
At this time, It had already realized it was in the "hidden world." The blue light flickering in its pupil was examining the space in front, as if seeking a way out.
Under its constant examination, that area of space actually became hazy and started to seem somewhat illusory.
It was as if, through its efforts, it had "stared" a hole into space.
As that small area of space became increasingly illusory, a faint image of streets seemed to appear in the haze. That was the scene from the real world.
Suddenly, the blue eye seemed to sense something and glanced in the direction of Hobert's substitute.
Although it didn't fully see Hobert's substitute, it sensed Hobert's presence, so it immediately rushed towards that hazy space, wanting to escape into the real world.
Hobert had already prepared for attack. The "Sword of Disorder" in the substitute's hand was about to thrust out when suddenly a hand reached out from the hazy space and grabbed the large eye.
Immediately after, Amon, wearing a pointed hat and a classical mage robe, extended from the real world into the "hidden world."
It was He who grabbed the giant eye.
"It seems I arrived just in time," Amon said with a smile to Hobert. "I'll help you deal with one."
As He spoke, the eyelids of that eye were gradually closing, as if it was tired and wanted to sleep.
However, the blue eye showed strong resistance and was struggling against the "drowsiness," but ultimately, with Amon's effort, it still closed.
Hobert put away the "Sword of Disorder." "What do you want it for?"
Listening to the Evernight Goddess, other deities had to guard the Astral World at this time, and only the Evernight Goddess could descend to help.
It was clearly too late to contact "The Fool" for support at this time. So, with only one deity on his side, Hobert naturally wouldn't proactively conflict with Amon.
"For deities," Amon deliberately emphasized the word "deities," "these guys are important sources of information about the cosmos."
For a moment, Hobert wasn't sure if Amon was showing off that He had become a god, or if He was reminding him of the use of these "Outer God's favored ones," implying that the remaining two shouldn't all be given to the Evernight Goddess?
Hobert didn't overthink it and asked again, "Are you doing research on Outer Deities? Was stealing Erebus's thin-necked glass bottle for researching the 'Uncertain Mist'?"
Amon smiled and said, "Something like that."
"Why are you doing this kind of research?"
"My childhood dream was to soar through the cosmos." Amon revealed a rather punchable expression of longing.
Hobert said succinctly, "I don't believe you."
Amon smiled and didn't explain further. "Evernight seems to have noticed me. Let's chat again when we have time."
After speaking, He instantly vanished, as if He had never been there.
Hobert looked again at the monsters with blue eyes all over the streets. They seemed not to have been greatly affected and were still searching around with blank expressions.
They seemed like avatars of that large eye, but there seemed to be some difference from avatars in the normal sense.
Since this "Outer God's Favored" was captured by Amon, Hobert went to look for other enemies.
He came to the top of the Death's temple to survey the surroundings. A lake outside the city quickly caught Hobert's attention. The color of that lake was light green!
When several "blue-eyed" monsters passed by the lake, they were grabbed by light green tentacles extending from within and pulled into the lake. After devouring a few monsters, not even a ripple appeared on the lake's surface.
The next second, Hobert and his substitute appeared together by the lake. The lake water was very calm and showed no intention of attacking Hobert's substitute.
The substitute laughed and said, "I don't know if you can understand our language, but what I want to tell you is that your disguise is really too clumsy."
"It's not that the color of the lake is very wrong, but that you were clearly somewhat aggressive just now, but stopped attacking because you sensed my level. This, on the contrary, shows you have high intelligence."
As soon as these words were spoken, the ground beneath the substitute's feet was suddenly pushed open by a current of water, like a geyser, and a stream of green water emerged, swallowing the substitute.
Hobert disconnected his link with the substitute. He had already gained some understanding of this monster's level. His main body appeared dozens of meters behind.
The water immediately formed two not very thick water columns, shooting out and attacking Hobert again.
Hobert once again disappeared into the "shadows," and had the substitute raise a hand. The surrounding temperature plummeted to below minus one hundred degrees Celsius. Not only did the two rushing water columns freeze into light green solid ice, but the surrounding plants, and the entire lake in front, also completely froze. The severe cold seemed to cover the aura of all life.
Crack~
A stream of heat erupted from the ice, blooming a bewitching flower on the ice surface. The colorful flower rotated clockwise, making one feel dizzy. A mirage appeared before Hobert's eyes.
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