Chapter 481 - 387: Thunderbolt Catastrophe and the Duke Arrives in Person
Chapter 481: Chapter 387: Thunderbolt Catastrophe and the Duke Arrives in Person
A thousand-meter-long giant serpent!
At these words, everyone present gasped.
A sea of clouds paved with thunderbolts, from which a thousand-meter-long serpent emerged.
It was a sight beyond what most people could possibly imagine.
This was no mere creature that mortals could oppose, but Divine Punishment made manifest, walking the earth.
In the eastern sky, the violent, silent thundercloud raged for over ten minutes before finally, slowly, subsiding.
The lightning faded and the clouds dissipated, as if the apocalyptic scene had never happened.
Night fell.
The sky was clear, without a single cloud. The stars were brilliant, and a crescent moon hung high above.
Yet, the camp was shrouded in a deathly silence.
The recent apocalyptic spectacle, combined with the hopeless message brought back by the Knight, weighed on everyone’s hearts like a great stone.
The air was filled with fear and unease.
Raylo stood there, silent for a long while.
He looked up at the starry sky.
The terrifying, Catastrophe-Level aura had vanished along with the thunderclouds, disappearing without a trace as if it had melted into the night itself.
The night passed in silence.
A deathly silence enveloped the camp. The soldiers slept in their clothes, clutching their weapons tightly. The slightest disturbance was enough to jolt them awake.
Fear was an invisible bog, and it had swallowed them all.
「The next day.」
As dawn broke, a thin layer of mist spread across the plains.
Raylo was already fully dressed and stood in the center of the camp.
Baofeng lay quietly beside him, its tawny Iron Feathers glinting coldly in the morning light.
"My lord, are you really going yourself?"
Ed hurried over, his face etched with worry.
"Relax. The war is over. I’m just going to fly up high and see the final outcome for myself," Raylo said.
He swung himself onto Baofeng’s back and patted its powerful neck. Baofeng let out a low cry, its wings snapping open, kicking up a fierce wind that blew away the morning mist on the ground.
"I’ll be back soon. Maintain high alert until I return."
Before his voice had faded, Baofeng had already shot into the sky, turning into a tawny shadow and speeding towards the eastern expanse that had once been shrouded in thunderclouds.
High in the sky, Raylo gazed down at the earth below.
The terrifying aura that once filled the world had completely disappeared, as if everything last night was just a nightmare.
The closer he got to the Black Water River, the thicker the faint smell of blood and scorch became in the air.
When the familiar river came into view, even Raylo—a man accustomed to life, death, and the battlefield—felt his pupils constrict.
The once-roiling Black Water River looked as if it had frozen solid.
The river channel was clogged with countless enormous corpses, most of which were Magical Beasts from the Black Water River. Their twisted bodies were layered on top of each other, dyeing the river water a strange, dark red.
The dead Magical Beasts floated belly-up on the Black Water River, forming a sea of death that stretched as far as the eye could see.
Baofeng let out an uneasy, low cry, clearly intimidated by the scene before it.
Raylo’s gaze swept over the riverbank.
A large number of Demon corpses covered the ground, as if it had been brutally plowed over.
There were no signs of struggle, no wounds from fighting. Their deaths were bizarre; some bodies were charred black, some looked as if they had been crushed by an invisible force, and even more were completely intact, but their life force was utterly extinguished.
This was the scene in the aftermath of a catastrophe.
In the face of absolute Power, all struggle was futile.
Raylo steered Baofeng and continued flying east along the riverbank.
Soon, he spotted a rise.
On the rise, a small mountain of white bones had completely scattered. Huge bone fragments were strewn everywhere, like building blocks knocked over by a mischievous child.
These were the remains of that Domain Level White Bone Giant Beast.
Every single bone was covered in fine cracks, as if it had been repeatedly lashed by thunderbolts.
Raylo’s gaze slowly swept over the battlefield from above, as if searching for something.
There was no sign of the Eternal Giant Turtle.
Nor were there any traces of the two Witch Demon Mages on the battlefield.
’Were they completely vaporized by the Hydra’s thunderbolts?’
’Or... did they escape?’
Raylo was more inclined to believe the latter.
Although Catastrophe Level Demons were powerful, cunning creatures like Witch Demons always had incredible means of self-preservation.
And the Eternal Giant Turtle, as an old rival of the Nine-headed Demon Serpent, hadn’t reached Catastrophe Level, but it wouldn’t be so easily annihilated either.
He didn’t linger any longer.
Baofeng circled once, let out a high-pitched shriek, changed direction, and flew towards the Black Stone Territory’s border camp.
Now was not the time to search for answers.
The Nine-headed Demon Serpent’s Thunderbolt Clone had already made its move.
Raylo would absolutely not allow Black Stone Territory to be the next place to suffer the wrath of a catastrophe.
He had to lie low now, to go dormant, to wait silently for the right moment like a real stone.
It was noon by the time he returned to the camp.
Raylo’s return made everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
He didn’t say much about the situation on the battlefield, simply issuing a series of concise and clear orders.
"The entire army will pull back thirty kilometers, tighten the defensive lines, and assume a full defensive posture."
"All Scouts will no longer enter the Jade Swamp. Avoid any conflict with the Jade Swamp for the time being."
"Alex, take twenty Griffin Knights and one hundred Pegasus Knights to form a mobile unit. Clear out any Swamp Magical Beasts that cross the border."
The orders were quickly relayed.
Fear still lingered, but the clear commands gave the soldiers a backbone, pulling them out of their state of confusion and helplessness.
That afternoon, Raylo led his main force back to Black Stone Castle.