78 Finale

The fortress had a somber atmosphere. The had passed the 37th to 43rd wave easily, with only 5 mythic magicians dying. Once again, in the 44th and 45th waves, they faced another kind of monster similar to last time. This time, the three Demigod-8 magic beasts could petrify magic spells up to Divine-1 power, causing them to collapse into nothing.

It took them the sacrifice of 1 demigod and 2 severely injured demigods to slay them. They only managed to do so because they grasped a pattern in its attacks, allowing them to see a momentary weak point in the magic beasts. However, they were down to 9 demigods, 4 of which were out of commission.

Once again, the monotonous voice sounded out, explaining their current situation. By this time, most of them were already quite numb, and they merely began to exchange for the available wishes they could do so.

They wished for 7 things, with the number of magic crystals they currently had. The wishes were now able to affect up to 5 people. The following wishes were:

1. Complete recovery of the injured Demigods.

2 and 3. Allowing all the demigods to gain 2 cultivation levels.

4 and 5. Improving the concentration of element particles in the area of the fortress for the next 9 waves.

6 and 7. Save the following people: ...

They didn't purchase anything, for now, waiting for the decisions concerning their wishes. After a few minutes, the monotonous voice sounded off.

"Wishes 1 to 5 have been granted. Wishes 6 and 7 were rejected by the popular choice of the viewers. Recovering all injuries… complete. All demigods will gain 2 cultivation levels temporarily for the next 18 waves. The elemental particle concentration in the fortress has been improved."

"Wave 46 beginning…"

The demigods were listless, as it seemed their opponents outside didn't want to leave a way out for their clan. They even managed to manipulate the choices of the viewers.

In truth, it wasn't the case. Xander merely showed Wishes 1 to 5 to the viewers and wishes 6 and 7 were automatically rejected. After all, he wanted to teach them a lesson and make an example. It would be quite pressing if he had to rescue each of his friends for just interacting with him, right?

Wishes 1, 2, and 3 each had a close vote, with a percentage of 50.01% agreeing and the rest disagreeing. Human nature truly is scary once their limits in their choices were removed.

The fight raged on. This time, waves 46 to 52 were also quickly resolved, but the death count of mythic magicians was increasing. Roughly 7 died this time, reducing the remaining 50 to 43 mythic magicians.

The 53rd and 54th waves were quite hard because 8 magic beasts with the cultivation of Demigod-9 appeared, but their powers could reach Divine-2. It was great that their current leader was temporarily raised to Divine-2, and with the boost of the weapon artifact, he could showcase the power of Divine-3. The other Demigod-7 magicians were also raised to Divine-1, improving their combat capability. However, since originally the weapon artifacts they were using were designed for demigods, the effects were decreased when they reached Divine class.

This time, there were no casualties amongst the demigods, raising the morale once again in the fortress and those watching.

However, when it was intermission time, they only had 5 minutes to prepare and recover.

Not only that, but the monotonous voice also sounded again, bringing bad news.

"54 waves have been completed. The number of survivors: 52. Survival percentage: 32%. Increasing difficulty mode from Normal to Hard. Elemental particle concentration all over will decrease. All spells' effects will be reduced by 25%. All monsters in the following waves will now be invulnerable to attacks below Demigod-3. The wish system can now affect 8 people. You may now use wishes during the waves. Improving magic beasts intellect and strategy. Doubling the current number of beasts per wave. The number of natural disasters decreased to 1; however, the disaster is now Divine-level, affecting those below Divine class. Crystal drop has increased, as well as the quality of the drops."

The faces of the demigods fell. It would seem that not only did they have to do the brunt of the work, but they also had to face twice the previous amounts in the recent waves. However, they didn't dwell too much because another voice sounded out in the fortress and in the communicators of the viewers.

"A new shop has been unlocked~ Besides weapon artifacts, there are now plant materials Class 8 and below, as well as sprite essences for sale~ You can use them in the midst of the battle, or save them and bring them out~" Once again, these demigods were easily motivated by greed. When they checked the prices of the shop, however, their faces fell.

A low-class 8 fruit of any element costs around 600,000 high magic crystals. The cheapest fruit, a perfect-class 6, was around 400,000.

The same goes for the sprite essences.

Although they had around 400+ different elemental essences, the youngest was a 100,000-year old elemental essence, the oldest being 1 million years, and they were of a limited quantity. The prices began from 100 perfect magic crystals, equivalent to 100,000 high magic crystals, to 100,000 perfect magic crystals.

Currently, they had converted their gains to high magic crystals, and with the current gains they had, it summed up to 800,000 high magic crystals. The had already reserved 100,000 for usage in the waves, later on, so they were left with 700 thousand. With the exchange rate of 1 perfect magic crystals: 1000 high magic crystals, they only had 700 perfect magic crystals.

They decided not to spend any of them but checked the weapon artifact section, and upgraded their pieces of equipment, spending 600,000 to buy 4 Divine weapons that can increase their attacks 3-fold. Their previous equipment was then given to the other demigods.

Afterward, the 55th wave began, and the natural disaster caused a problem for them. It was: Random death every 2 minutes. They were racing against time here. They began to venture to where the 30,000-army of Demigod-3 magic beasts were appearing and began to slaughter.

However, it still took them 30 minutes to completely slay them, since their AoE spells didn't work properly as they were easily neutralized. Although the Divine magicians in the family were Divine-rank, they didn't have divine-rank spells.

A total of 15 people died. 3 of which were from the fighting Demigods. There were now 6 demigods and 31 mythic magicians left. However, when one of them decided to use a wish to resurrect the three demigods, it was accepted, but only 2 were resurrected completely without problems. The third one was not resurrected, because they had insufficient balance. All the crystals they gained that round was used up. However, the fighting force increased back to 8 demigods.

The next waves were quite brutal because the following natural disasters, earthquake, firestorm, flood, and decay were able to destroy the fortress, with the giant stone being partially damaged. By this time, only 10 mythic magicians remained, and 6 demigods. They tried the resurrection once again, but the viewers voted against it. However, the fortress was rapidly restored with one of their wishes granted and reinforced to be immune against natural disasters as well.

They almost broke down when they saw the opponents for the 63rd round: 24 Demigod-9 magic beasts capable of space warping. These beasts were quite slippery, and opted for a divide and conquer plan, which the demigods of Corde clan had no choice but to accede to. They managed to kill them after 40 minutes, but only 4 demigods remained: those who were artificially raised to Divine class. Another blow was that the break this time was only 2 minutes, giving them a small-time for a breather.

They were gambling to the next set of waves. They sent their wish request, using up everything they had to forcefully raise up the cultivation of the mythic magicians to Demigod-6, and equipped them with weapon artifacts. All their magic crystals were drained as well.

"64th wave beginning, natural disaster: Narcolepsy." Immediately, all the newly promoted demigods staggered, a bit affected by the disaster. They had to be reinforced and steadied by the other divine magicians. They began their flurry of kills and murder of magic beasts.

__________________________

Somewhere in Eta.

Seeing the situation devolve inside the space, the leader of Eta asked,

"Has the evacuation been completed?"

"Yes sir, the evacuation was completed 20 minutes ago." General Farm replied to the leader, a bit haggard. Although he was a demigod cultivator and had no need for sleep, the situation was quite stressful, leading to the haggard, mentally-drained look. He saw the time and knew it was already 4 am. The fiasco had been ongoing for the past 9 hours.

"Launch the bombs!" the leader said decisively, as he knew they only had this window of opportunity.

"Yes sir!"

"Alpha team, launch the C3-100 projectile magic bombs. Focus on the top of the barrier."

"Order received, General. Launching projectile magic bombs." General Farm opened another monitor, showing a hologram of the area where the headquarters was placed in.

__________________________

Xander's mirror image was still at the top of the headquarters with James Corde beside him, already asleep. He had to conjure some blankets and pillows.

Xander then looked up, his face contorting into a smile. He saw the incoming magic bombs that Eta had launched to the direction of the headquarters, attempting to destabilize the barrier he placed.

In fact, he was quite curious about its effects so he wanted it to hit the barrier. After a few seconds, he could already saw the cluster of circular-shaped bombs heading to the top of the barrier. Once it hit the barrier, a large explosion ensured, covering the entire sky, dyeing it the color of the rainbow. Xander began to observe the elements that made up the spell. He was surprised because he felt the pure elements of light and darkness, which are the Yin and yang origin elements. At the same time, the pure elements of Yin-Yang surrounded the barriers, attempting to disrupt and find a way to destroy the structure.

His eyebrows wrinkled for a bit, and manipulated the order and chaos elements, suppressing the explosion to a singular point, before turning into a bead. He then launched the bead high up in the sky, causing it to explode once it reached the border of the atmosphere of the planet, creating a colorful explosion seen from everywhere around the world. Before it could even affect the atmosphere, causing elemental pollution, it was quickly contained by two different powers on the planet. One was from the Ete continent, while another was in the Yggdras continent.

Xander, who saw the situation stabilize, with the lights fading into nothing, was quite surprised.

"It seems there's another user of origin elements besides me… How strong are you, I wonder?" Xander mumbled, before sending a look at the Yggdras continent. It seems it was truly correct; the Heavenly Tree sprite has been hiding its true cultivation; it had already reached at least Divine-2 with that small burst of power. I wonder, what's its real cultivation, Xander thought to himself. He was excited to know if sister Syn was able to set up a meeting between the two of them, hehe.

He continued to observe the struggling magicians. They had already managed to reach the 70th wave. Two more waves and they would already die.

__________________________

In Yggdras, the area of the gigantic Heavenly Tree. A figure sighed, and mumbled to himself,

"It seems it has already known about my abilities… as expected of a space-time magician. I wonder how that magician is related to that young boy?"

He then recalled that Carla had sent a message to him, but he had not read the contents written. With a wave of his hand, he opened the message, and once he read the contents, his face changed, turning pale, before looking quite grave.

How could a young boy have any experience with these things? Even touching at his origins. He scratched his non-existent beard, quite curious about the boy's origins.

First, there were the sprites, then the magic beasts…

As he delved into his thoughts, he slowly faded into the tree.

__________________________

Somewhere in the Ete continent, in the middle of nowhere.

A young man was looking up at the sky, where the bright glow of light appeared. He was watching the show being broadcasted to his communicator when he detected the large magic fluctuation. He was quite surprised because the elemental signature it released was similar to those of the bombs he had developed for Eta. However, the explosion produced seemed to have been modified, and his face rapidly changed when he saw it explode outward.

He began to channel his powers, controlling the ownerless elements in the explosion, and exerted his elemental dominance and control, calming down the situation. He also recognized the power of the Heavenly Tree sprite acting on the area, blocking the explosion from further spreading. He took this opportunity to disperse the explosive power of the elements by converting them rapidly from matter to a metaphysical state.

It took nearly five minutes for this to be completed. After all, he recognized that the elements had been packed in such a way it was physically impossible to be packed, so they had more exploding power and amount of elemental particles.

After ensuring nothing remained, the young man sighed and looked at where it had originally appeared. It was at the land of Eta. Could it be the mysterious Homer Simpson, the very one who was hosting the video, he thought.

He once again checked his communicator and continued to watch the situation.

______________________

Inside the dimension, they just had slain the last magic beast of the 70th wave, and they were heavily panting. There were now only 3 of them left.

Two died in the 64th wave, their bodies smashed into mush when they fell asleep.

Three died in the 66th wave, dying of the natural disaster: curses.

Another three died in the 67th wave, succumbing under the natural disaster: bloodlust.

One of the Divine-1 magicians died in the 69th wave.

The last two mythic magicians artificially raised to demigod died in the 70th wave.

The monotonous voice this sound out, but rather, the quirky voice.

"70th wave complete~ Wow, only 3 left? Well, the plan was you guys were going to die anyway, haha! Anyways, the 71st and 72nd wave will begin now. However, to ensure you guys die, all the 72 magic beasts would consist of the different species of demigod-9, those that you have faced and those that you haven't~ Good luck, and may you die quickly~!"

At this point, the three looked at each other, before nodding and then looking in the skies.

Then, with a bright light, they committed suicide, under the eyes of 23+ billion people watching the situation.

After they did so, the screens turned white for the viewers. After a few minutes, the light faded, and saw the large destruction in the area.

It was then the quirky voice appeared from their communicators.

"Well, dear viewers, that seems to be the end of the program! Quite anti-climactic, don't you think? I would have believed you Eterians would have a stronger will to fight till the bitter end, and not give up that easily. Pity, they were close, weren't they?" The people still watching couldn't help but disagree. That was their sentiment; they would fight not for a meaningless fight, but they would fight if they see a thread of hope that can guide them to victory. However, most people were pondering on the word mentioned, Eterians… why was it referring to them as a collective? Could it be, this person was… an alien? People were becoming quite hyped with that idea, as well as connecting the dots with the situation.

"Anyways, thank you for tuning in to the late 9-hour pilot episode of… What Happens if you Mess with the Simpson! New episodes would be subject to the actions of people towards the people I deal with. Stay tuned~" The voice, acting like it didn't give anything out of importance, continued to speak.

"With that, I bid you all adieu~! Everyone that tuned in for the whole 9 hours will be getting a special reward, which is roughly… 15 billion people! You'll all be getting a 2-kilogram, random metal with a purity of 99.9%, a metal that doesn't exist in this planet~" With that, all their communicators turned off, and once it did, in front of them, a misshapen, irregular item appeared to their surprise.

The internet was about to be in a flurry. Good luck trying to censor that~

After wiping all his traces in the mainframe, the barrier protecting the headquarters disappeared, with only James being the sole survivor of the Corde Clan, excluding those that had their memories lost. The mirror image disappeared, leaving no trace. Xander's mirror image appeared in the dream dimension once again and disassembled the space. Every item that was present inside the space quickly melted and turned into dream energy, mixing into the dimension.

Truthfully, he wasn't lying to them when he said that they could bring out the items. After all, this was a special space that connected all dimensions, meaning if they did bring out something directly to the physical realm, it would remain.

He was inspired by the idea of the digitizer tool that the Galactic Empire had, but he thought, why not simply connect the dimensions and channel one type of energy to produce a physical product? What better way to do this than with dream energy, which can literally produce anything within one's knowledge and imagination.

Normally, when interacting with a physical realm, such energy disperses and rapidly converts back to other elements that can be utilized in the physical realm. But what happens if they were placed in a melting pot of dimensions? Even Xander wasn't quite sure about the mechanism, but it seemed to work in matter conversion. However, he did see an important point: the dream energy needed a vessel to work its magic, and that was the body of cultivators.

Actually, when the Corde clan members were buying the weapon artifacts, they were utilizing their own bodies to produce that, with the help of the magic crystals and the dream energy present in the crystals. The descriptions and images of the weapons allowed stronger visualization of the weapons, the same with the plant materials as well. Something magical happens inside the body of a cultivator, allowing them to produce such weaponry. That was why he had allowed their wish to gain 2 cultivation levels for the demigods, allowing him to see the limit of the production.

In fact, if someone were to hear his thoughts and see his actions, they would realize the whole thing was an experiment for him, specifically testing the capacity of that unique space to produce items. He also tested if it was possible for them to produce plant materials, but they never exchanged for them, so nothing came out of it. A pity.

After wiping his traces and completely removing the special space in the dream dimension, restoring the space around it to normal, he disappeared, this time, the mirror image was sent to Eon for standby mode.

The real Xander was just lying on his bed, asleep. After all, he had to make sure that he was uninvolved whatsoever in the situation. He had sensed at least 6 different scans from different people, both from the outside, and even those guarding him.

Hmm, he really needed to make them sign a contract as well…

______________________

Somewhere in Eteria, a small room.

A man was lying painfully in a pool of his own blood, every orifice of his body bleeding. Some parts of the body were scorched black, but luckily, none were amputated or blast off. The man was coughing out blood, but the wounds were slowly healing. This man was Captain Hallow, the leader of the 30-man team placed in Eteria planet.

"Damn it… Damn it!" he howled, obviously in great pain. His insides were quite ruined, and even his elemental essence stones were a bit cracked. He had been healing for the past 9 hours.

"Homer Simpson, eh? I'll remember you!" Hallow gritted his teeth, trying to keep a hold of his consciousness so that he would have a faster time healing if he focused on running his cultivation skill to do that.

While he was healing, he received a message from one of the Marshals of Aurora, to immediately report to the headquarters in the dream dimension. He immediately sent a voice recorded response that he is currently incapacitated and his dream body has been destroyed; he needed a month's time to restore it.

A received a notification that it was received, and he was to leave Eteria as soon as possible, and head to the nearest key points of the organization. He acknowledged it and continued to heal.

Little did Hallow know, the disturbance in the Dream dimension was far, far more severe than he had thought.