Chapter 390: The Golden Behemoths Charge

Darian waved a hand.

The air above his flagship’s bow rippled. A veil of concealment parted, revealing a statue dozens of meters tall.

Cassian recognized it at once. Darian had paid to build another of his father’s statues aboard the flagship, using the same design as the one in his Domain.

"Bloodline Invocation!"

Several drops of golden lifeblood left Darian’s palm and entered the statue. Light blazed from it. A pillar shot through the clouds, carrying his call across the void through the bond between father and son.

The answer came almost at once.

Power a hundred times greater poured back through the connection. An invisible wave spread from the statue, sweeping hundreds of kilometers across the allied army. A faint red glow settled over Lords, Heroes, and troops alike. Their attributes rose by more than ten percent.

Billions of fighters strengthened at once.

Apart from Cassian, everyone nearby stared in delighted surprise. Darian had brought that statue all the way to the battlefield without telling them.

Then Elara noticed his face.

"Darian, are you—"

He was pale, but his eyes were bright.

"Don’t worry. I brought this."

He raised a bottle of Life Essence and drank it down. Some color returned to his cheeks.

A thunderous roar rolled across the fleet.

On the bows of dozens of warships, a hundred and eighty Golden Behemoths raised their heads to the sky.

The war against the Bloodmaw Court had continued for another half month after Vargul’s death. In that time, Divine Province had obtained five more Golden Behemoth Troop Sigils. Darian had used them, paying to recruit another sixty troops and bring his force to Level 95.

The campaign’s extraordinary drops, together with Cassian’s support, had supplied the Troop Souls for their advancement. Every Behemoth was at least Legendary Five-Star. Thirty-six had reached Nine-Star.

Towering above them stood a fifty-meter Golden Behemoth.

Brannok, the Hero Darian had recruited after reaching Rank XVIII.

"Sovereign Beastheart!"

His roar carried over the others. The power of the Mythic skill gathered around the Behemoth corps, concentrated on just a hundred and eighty troops. Their attributes surged again, rising by more than forty percent.

Cassian had finally sold Vargul’s Skill Book to Darian for a hundred billion Aether. Brannok had consumed it and learned the skill.

Even at Beginner, the result was astonishing.

"What the hell is that?"

Alwin Valcrest was a powerful Warbound Lord himself. Feeling the pressure rolling from the fleet’s bows, he drew a sharp breath.

"They haven’t even used Blood Boil yet!"

The first Golden Behemoth leaped.

Then the rest followed, huge golden bodies breaking the sound barrier as they shot toward the battlefield. The force of their departure drove the Legendary warships several meters lower in the water.

Darian turned to Maren.

"Come on. We’re going too!"

He rose from the deck. Two thousand Iron Eagle Elites and Hundred-Battle Guards followed him and his Hero into battle.

"Always in a hurry."

Cassian smiled, then raised his hand.

"Dragon’s Blessing. Strengthen the main attributes of every army in Divine Nation. Duration—one day."

Three hundred billion Aether burned away.

The blessing swept across the battlefield, adding more than ten percent to the main attributes of Divine Nation’s armies. Strength built upon strength, until even the Lords receiving it could scarcely believe the power in their bodies.

Crystalkin flew out in Dragon form. Elemental Emissaries, Hill Kings, Bone Dragons, and Champion Knights entered the fighting. Epic Eclipse Legionnaires advanced with the Divine Arsenal Corps, Retinue Guards, Repeater Corps, Black Armor troops, and Longblade Corps.

Dain led thousands of Warbound Lords into the fighting, with the Valcrests supporting the assault.

Cassian took to the air, issuing orders in quick succession.

"Rhea, Aurelia, Celia, Liora, Sylvara, Lys. When the Black Banner’s War Marshals show themselves, take their heads."

He turned to the troops.

"Dawnwings and Eclipse Legionnaires, clear their Legendary fighters as quickly as you can."

"Lethria. Seven. Watch the whole battlefield. If they launch a Peacebringer, intercept it and detonate it immediately."

Finally, he looked toward Nine.

"You’ll lead with Void Sanctuary."

"Yes, my lord!"

The Black Banner knew how little chance it had of winning. Its remaining hope was to spend its troops in exchange for as much of Divine Nation’s strength as possible.

From both flanks, dense masses poured forward in suicidal charges. The armies had already met, and the fighting stretched for more than a thousand kilometers.

Before Cassian’s own force struck, however, every eye went to the Golden Behemoths.

Brannok landed first.

He came down in the thickest concentration of enemy Legendary troops. For something fifty meters tall, he moved with terrifying speed. Golden claws swept through the air, leaving overlapping trails of light.

More than a dozen Beast Kings came apart.

A squad of Swordmasters answered with cutting arcs of sword energy. Attacks that could shear through metal struck Brannok’s body from several directions.

Thin red lines appeared on his skin.

That was all.

The watching Lords felt their eyes twitch. Those marks scarcely deserved to be called wounds.

Brannok bared his teeth. He did not even bother turning toward the swordsmen before his claws swept through the ranks ahead again.

Within seconds, another squad of Legendary troops was dead.

The Black Banner’s prized fighters looked like children before him.

"That’s beyond Mythic strength!" a War Marshal screamed from more than ten kilometers away. "Surround that Golden Behemoth Hero! Kill it!"

Darian had chosen a section held by powerful Lords from the older sectors. There were nearly ten thousand Legendary troops here, with more Epics than anyone could count at a glance.

At the Marshal’s order, those troops rushed toward Brannok.

Then the rest of the Behemoths arrived.

A hundred and eighty golden bodies struck the ground. Craters hundreds of meters across opened beneath them, the impacts rolling together like a sustained bombardment. Within a hundred meters of each landing, troops below Epic were smashed to pieces.

One of the Nine-Star Behemoths drove its claws into a Kodo Behemoth. The beast was twice its size, a hundred meters long and weighing tens of thousands of tons.

The Golden Behemoth lifted it overhead.

Then it threw.

The Kodo flew hundreds of meters before hitting the ground. It rolled another hundred, crushing every lower-grade troop in its path into bloody pulp.

Gasps filled the live broadcasts.

"How does Divine Nation have so many Golden Behemoths?"

Recruiting them was notoriously difficult. Troop Sigils were the reliable route. Even a Legendary Behemoth Den had only a tiny chance of producing one.

Now a hundred and eighty were tearing through the Black Banner’s army together.

The more experienced watchers noticed something even worse.

"They’re Level 95, just like the others. How can Legendary troops be this strong? Even Nine-Stars shouldn’t fight like that!"

"Forget the Hero. Dozens of those ordinary troops can match Mythics! The rest are far beyond normal Nine-Stars too!"

"No wonder Cassian dared march so deep into their lines. He brought an army like this!"

Cassian watched the carnage with an appreciative smile.

Without Dragon’s Blessing, even his ordinary Legendary Crystal Maidens would have fallen slightly behind these Behemoths. Darian’s Talent and Sovereign Beastheart were enough to offset the advantages of Human Sovereign and Godslayer. On top of that, the Behemoths had a Hero of their own race providing Grade-A Command.

"I’d better keep working. At this rate, Darian will catch up."

Had he known a book like Sovereign Beastheart would fall into his hands, he might have raised a Golden Behemoth corps himself.

The golden giants drove into a Legendary force dozens of times their number. Behind them, Darian brought his Hundred-Battle Guards and Iron Eagle Elites through the gaps, cutting down everything the Behemoths left in their wake.

——

Third Realm. Highcrest.

Edran watched the broadcasts with two imposing projections beside him. The Valcrest founder leaned toward the image of the Behemoths, surprise breaking through his usual composure.

"That boy of yours is fierce, Edran. Where did he find so many Golden Behemoths?"

His eyes narrowed at another display of golden claws.

"And his Nation has only just been founded. How can troops backed by offices at that stage already fight like Mythics?"