Chapter 69: You Think Hiding at Headquarters Will Keep You Safe? I’ll Use Your Own Trump Card to Bombard Your City!

Chapter 69: Chapter 69: You Think Hiding at Headquarters Will Keep You Safe? I’ll Use Your Own Trump Card to Bombard Your City!

At the same time, at the Novice Map headquarters of the Judgment Alliance.

The Judgment Alliance headquarters was built among a series of rolling hills.

More than sixty Lord Territories were connected end to end, standing side by side. Stone walls linked to stone walls, watchtowers connected to watchtowers, stretching from the highest hillsides all the way down to the valley floor, forming an enormous city.

At this moment, dozens of Lord Altars scattered throughout the camp began flashing with white light.

One.

Ten.

Dozens.

As each flash of white light faded, a pale-faced player dressed in tattered clothes emerged from the altar.

They were the very players who had been wiped out at the bottom of the Ancient Lake.

They had respawned at their respective altars. Their levels had dropped, and most of their equipment was missing.

Still shaken by what had happened, they helped one another out of the altars.

Then, right in the middle of all the surrounding altars, an exceptionally dazzling beam of white light suddenly appeared.

Raine Augustus’s figure materialized once again.

Standing atop the altar, he lowered his head, his hands clenched tightly at his sides. His entire body trembled with barely suppressed fury.

He had been resurrected.

But the sensation of having his head severed with a single strike, of watching it fly high into the air, still lingered around his neck.

Cold. Vivid. Unforgettable.

He had lived for eighteen years and spent six days in Godfall Battlefield.

In just six days, he had gone from an ordinary member of the Raine Family to the Heir Apparent of the Judgment Alliance.

He had awakened an SSS-grade talent and earned the title of the strongest player of this generation on the Novice Continent.

He had been admired and praised by countless people. He had grown accustomed to being the undisputed number one in this world.

Augustus had never imagined that anyone would dare humiliate him like this.

Some nobody who had appeared out of nowhere had stolen his spotlight.

That alone would have been bad enough.

But the bastard had even killed his Hero with a single strike in front of countless players, turned his trump-card troops into fireworks, and finally executed him like a dog.

"Tyrant..."

Augustus slowly raised his head, grinding the name out between clenched teeth, one syllable at a time.

His eyes burned with uncontrollable fury.

"I want him dead!! I want him—"

Just as his furious roar was about to reach its peak—

BOOM!

A golden global announcement suddenly exploded across the sky without warning, transforming into a line of golden text visible to every player.

[Global Announcement: Congratulations to player "Tyrant" for successfully conquering the SSS-grade Hero’s Tomb!]

[Global Announcement: Congratulations to player "Tyrant" for successfully conquering the SSS-grade Hero’s Tomb!]

[Global Announcement: Congratulations to player "Tyrant" for successfully conquering the SSS-grade Hero’s Tomb!]

The dazzling golden announcement appeared three times in succession.

On the altar, Augustus’s furious roar abruptly came to a halt.

His eyes widened as he stared at the three lines of golden text. The anger on his face gradually gave way to disbelief.

The Hero’s Tomb... had been conquered?

How much time had actually passed since he was executed at the bottom of the Ancient Lake and reopened his eyes at the altar?

He hadn’t even had time to recover from that crushing defeat, and Tyrant had already claimed the SSS-grade Hero’s Tomb?

"How is that possible...?"

Augustus felt his throat grow unbearably dry and painful.

"How could he do it so quickly...?"

The players around him had also seen the announcement. Their faces turned deathly pale.

But at that very moment, Augustus suddenly realized something.

His expression changed dramatically as a chill ran down his spine.

Now that Tyrant had claimed the Hero’s Tomb, his strength would only increase further.

And there was absolutely no need to guess what his next target would be!

"Send out the orders!"

Augustus immediately snapped out of his grief and spun around, his voice sharp and urgent.

"Activate the Joint Defensive Barrier immediately!"

"Every territory, gather all available troops! All of them! Everyone, get into defensive positions!"

"Hurry!!"

His orders rang out like thunder over the headquarters.

More than sixty territories immediately sprang into action.

Troops assembled behind the stone walls of each territory.

Archers quickly filled every watchtower, arrow tower, and section of the city walls.

Hundreds, even thousands, of mages took their positions at the front of the formations, raising their staffs as magical lights of various colors began illuminating the entire area.

Immediately afterward, the Lords of the sixty-plus territories each took out an identical silver badge.

It was an Epic-grade item Augustus had obtained while hunting a field boss.

[Joint Defensive Barrier (Epic · Combined Item)]

[Effect: When activated jointly by multiple Lords, the defensive barriers of their respective territories are connected into a single barrier.]

[Special Property: The more Lords participating in the activation, the higher the combined defensive durability of the barrier.]

"Buzzz—"

More than sixty badges simultaneously began glowing.

One translucent silver shield after another rose into the sky above the territories. They approached one another, made contact, and gradually merged together.

Finally, an enormous silver dome of light stretched across the entire headquarters, spanning dozens of kilometers.

The barrier extended from the highest mountain peak all the way down to the valley floor, enveloping more than sixty territories, thousands of players, and tens of thousands of units within its protective coverage.

The defense value displayed in the system interface began climbing rapidly before finally stopping at a reassuring figure.

[Joint Defensive Barrier — Current Durability: 12,000,000.]

Twelve million!

Only then did Augustus’s racing heart finally settle down a little.

No matter how powerful Tyrant was, and even if he had just acquired the Hero’s Tomb, there was no way he could break through a defensive barrier of this magnitude in a short period of time.

As long as they could hold out until the end of today, once the seven-day period was over and the Novice Map merged with the Main Continent, he could regroup with the Alliance’s headquarters—

However, before he could finish that thought...

BOOM!

The entire territory suddenly began shaking violently without warning.

Then came a second impact.

And a third.

"What the hell is happening?!"

Augustus hurriedly stood up from the altar and looked toward the sky.

His pupils began to contract.

In the distant sky, countless black dots had appeared at some point.

They were continuously falling from a single direction, crashing down onto the enormous silver dome.

Every time one of those black dots struck the barrier, a ripple spread across its surface, accompanied by a thunderous BOOM!

Meanwhile, the defensive value that had previously reassured everyone was now plummeting at a visible rate.

[Defense Value: 11,800,000...]

[Defense Value: 11,200,000...]

[Defense Value: 10,000,000...]

"An artillery bombardment?!"

A player beside him cried out in alarm.

"Those are siege cannons! Where did he position the siege cannons?!"

Augustus kept staring at the countless black dots raining down from the sky.

"Wait... no. These things look strangely familiar."

His heart began pounding wildly.

The objects were tumbling and twisting as they fell. Some even had dangling limbs and irregular silhouettes that were vaguely visible against the sky.

Suppressing his growing unease, Augustus narrowed his eyes and focused on them.

But the moment he finally recognized what those black dots really were, the blood in his entire body seemed to freeze.

They weren’t cannonballs at all.

They were corpses.

The corpses of units!

One enormous, mutilated corpse after another was being hurled high into the air from somewhere in the distance. They streaked across the sky before crashing violently into the barrier with thunderous impacts!

And among those corpses, Augustus spotted one familiar figure after another.

Those towering humanoid figures made entirely of flames.

They were his Fire Elementalists!

"How... how is this possible...?"

Augustus’s lips trembled.

He couldn’t utter another word.

...