Chapter 271: Meat Grinder
The coordinate signal Jie Ming sent out pierced through the turbulent spatial currents like a beacon in the darkness, guiding the wizards still lost in the chaotic flows toward their destination.
The circular spatial gate behind him erupted like a volcano, unleashing the war torrent of the wizard civilization!
Countless grotesque bio-beasts roared as they charged forth—corrosive beasts clad in bone armor, spewing acidic fluids; swift, shadow-like hunters with claws that rent the air; and siege crabs, as massive as mountains, each step causing the ground to quake.
Following them were the cold, unyielding war golems, their steel bodies gleaming with enchanted runes, eyes firing searing disintegration rays, marching in perfect unison to form an iron bulwark.
This tide of flesh and steel surged past the “island” formed by Jie Ming and his black giants, crashing headlong into the Holy Servant army, swarming like locusts blotting out the sky!
“ROAR!!!”
“KILL!!!”
At the moment of collision, the most brutal meat grinder was born.
Roars, clashing blades, energy explosions, shattering bones, and twisting metal…Countless sounds merged into a cruel symphony of war.
The bio-beasts’ claws tore through the Holy Servants’ scales, while the wind-infused bone blades of the Holy Servants sliced through their limbs with ease.
The golems’ rays vaporized swathes of Holy Servants, but more climbed their steel frames with agile precision, hacking furiously at joints and energy cores with their bone blades.
Blood, flesh, and shattered metal parts rained down like a storm, instantly staining the grand altar in horrific shades of red and black.
The sunlight was completely obscured by the dense mass of figures, plunging the battlefield into an eerie twilight.
Only the glow of arcane spells, the cyan gleam of wind power, and the flashes of explosive fire illuminated twisted, frenzied, or impassive faces.
Yet, the tide did not turn as swiftly as Jie Ming had hoped, instead settling into a brutal stalemate.
Two factors contributed to this.
First, the strength disparity between the two sides was minimal.
The wizard legion’s vanguard fodder, averaging the strength of the Holy Servants’ elite warriors (second-tier), had only a handful of individuals reaching the Holy Spirit level (third-tier beings).
The Holy Servant army, however, was not only vast in number but also boasted an unexpectedly high count of Holy Spirits.
Whenever a wizard emerged from the gate to cast large-scale spells, they were immediately swarmed by multiple Holy Spirits, unable to unleash their full potential.
Second, the “throughput” limitation of the passage.
The circular spatial gate, a mere kilometer in diameter, was far too narrow for a war of this scale.
The wizards’ war constructs were generally massive, with Jie Ming’s thirty-meter black giants considered “petite” compared to some specialized units reaching nearly a hundred meters in length.
This severely restricted the wizards’ ability to deploy forces efficiently, leaving them at a numerical disadvantage in localized combat.
Standing atop a black giant’s shoulder, Jie Ming’s “Grand Radiance” continued to spew devastating energy torrents.
Wherever it struck, Holy Servants fell like reaped wheat, none able to withstand even a moment.
But the enemy’s numbers were suffocatingly vast.
They trod over their comrades’ corpses, surging like endless waves, as if seeking to drown both him and the spatial gate with their flesh and blood.
Any normal creature would have collapsed under such slaughter, but clearly, this did not apply to fanatics driven by a divine oracle.
“Tch, what a hassle…” Jie Ming muttered.
With precision, he unleashed a torrent of tens of thousands of energy bolts, dismantling a wind-pressure trap set by a dozen Holy Spirits attempting a flank attack.
The countless energy bolts then scattered under his control, obliterating the despairing enemies into slag.
His wary gaze flicked to the sky, where the four storm-eye-like wills radiated an escalating pressure, like divine judgment about to descend, filling him with deep unease.
Above, the four Holy Gods’ communion reached a critical juncture.
“The gate’s seal is being disrupted! It’s those creatures maintaining the passage!” the God of Blades’ divine thought pulsed with fury.
“We can’t wait any longer! These invaders are uncanny. They must be crushed at the gate!” the God of Gales roared.
“Together, destroy that passage!” the God of Sudden Strikes decided.
The four terrifying wills coalesced, the sky above the altar shifting as their power gathered.
Four attacks capable of rending mountains and evaporating rivers began to form, their destructive energy fluctuations causing even the bio-beasts below to wail in instinctual fear.
“Here it comes!” Jie Ming’s eyes sharpened.
With a thought, the two black giants roared low, their massive frames crouching slightly, energy surging across their surfaces to brace for the impending divine judgment.
At this critical moment!
Three overwhelming auras burst from the spatial gate, intercepting the four cataclysmic attacks!
Three fourth-rank wizards!
With no overseers from Noren Academy or the other two factions, and Dionysius Spencer not engaging directly, these were the expedition’s highest combat force!
Wizard advancement grew exponentially harder at higher ranks, and despite thirty years of plundering, no new fourth-rank wizards had emerged.
These three veteran powerhouses were the expedition’s only high-tier combatants for now.
A blinding energy clash erupted in the sky, briefly dispelling the battlefield’s gloom, the shockwaves hurling nearby Holy Servants and bio-beasts alike.
The four Holy Gods’ forms finally materialized clearly in the light—massive Holy Servant shapes shrouded in endless wind pressure and divine radiance.
Shocked and enraged, they hadn’t expected such formidable opponents.
Jie Ming now clearly sensed the Holy Gods’ level: fifth-tier beings.
And each was exceptionally advanced within that tier.
Fortunately, wizards were inherently powerful, with fourth-rank wizards capable of slaying fifth-tier beings.
The three fourth-rank wizards each locked onto an opponent, engaging in fierce combat.
The clash of arcane brilliance and divine power seemed to fracture the sky itself.
Jie Ming keenly noticed the wizards weren’t fighting at full strength. Their attacks were precise and efficient but lacked the decisiveness of a killing blow, as if probing and restraining.
“Are they wary of drawing out something worse…?” Jie Ming instantly understood their caution.
With no time to gather intelligence on this world, none knew if something stronger lurked beyond these four gods.
The final unengaged Holy God turned its icy gaze toward Jie Ming and the spatial gate below.
The available wizards exchanged glances, instantly aligning their resolve.
“Has Lord Dionysius Spencer not finished yet? Then we’ll have to hold this one off,” Jie Ming took a deep breath. “What a pain. I prefer fighting down a tier…”
The two black giants roared earth-shatteringly, charging toward the descending Holy God!
Led by the giants, several third-rank wizards also soared skyward.
The ground was a meat grinder of billions, the sky a terrifying battlefield of elites.
And the kilometer-wide spatial gate became the brutal frontline of two worlds, two civilizations colliding.