41 Book 3 Chapter 37

Atop the highest watchtower stood Peter, Lavos, and Shenlong's elite squad. Peter looked down upon the battleground, wondering if he missed anything. If there was, it was the lack of haven upgrades. Nobody had come across any blueprints, so the haven was still in its most basic form. Besides that, he felt he did his best.

Peter couldn't help but notice the lack of runes on the 'elite squad.' Turning to his companions, he voiced a complaint. "I thought you guys would have multiple runes by now. Did you not kill any demons?"

"We did." Shenlong paused, then added. "Many."

Peter raised an eyebrow, wondering where exactly the problem lay. If it wasn't the lack of essence, then what?

"Ugh! Fine." Amara extended a delicate hand to Shenlong. "Hand it over."

After taking the group's essence gathered over the past week, Amara pursed her lips as black tendrils spread from the ball of essence. It formed a rune across the back of her hand. In total, the rune consumed over ninety percent of their savings.

Olivia gasped. "You greedy princess!"

"Hmph," Amara replied shamelessly. "I'll pay you back, little shadow."

With a flick of her finger, Amara showed everyone the details of her rune.

Spell Echo - Tier 1 Rune

5% chance to duplicate any spell cast at no mana cost. The duplicated spell has 20% of the original's power.

Passively adds +1% intelligence.

2,000,000 essence required to upgrade to tier 2.

���It costs twenty times as much to upgrade compared to mine," Shenlong remarked grumpily. Did this mean his rune had less potential or was of lesser quality?

Lavos gave a soft snort. "You're overthinking it. The cost of a rune is determined by how much it influences the world. Due to the specific focus of your rune, it will manifest its potential much faster than hers."

Shenlong felt better after thinking it over. The cost scaled exponentially. Amara's rune required one million essence to upgrade to tier 2, so how much would it need for tier 3? Tier 4? While she would struggle to get her rune to tier 5, it was much easier for Shenlong.

All of a sudden, an invisible ripple came from the eye. It spread out to encompass the entire floor. When the ripple reached the haven, it hit the barrier and disappeared. While Jason and the others were safe, the demons across the floor were not. A nefarious will entered the monster's souls, compelling them towards havens across the world.

BOOM!

There was a tremor as one of the pre-placed traps went off, followed by a yelp. The ascenders on the walls ceased their discussions and focused. Only a moment passed before another trap exploded, this one magical. Then another.

In every direction, traps went off like popcorn in a microwave. At first, there was only a couple, but more went off with every passing second. In no time at all, all everyone could hear was explosion after explosion. They could no longer hear the monster's screams over the deafening blasts.

Sam stood on the northern watchtower, his eyes covered with mana as he peered closely at the miasma beneath him. With his exceptional eyesight, he was able to see deeper than most. At that moment, his expression changed as he screamed. "Contact!"

The miasma churned as thousands of demons rushed out, their eyes filled with madness. Aside from their cruel appearance, no demon looked the same. They appeared to be the experiments of a mad scientist who loved making hybrids—a genius who took the strengths of different beasts and combined them to create horrific monstrosities.

In the face of this terrifying monster horde, everyone wore grim expressions. On top of the tallest watcher, Peter shouted. "Activate the sigils!"

At his command, ungodly amounts of mana surged into the sigils engraved on the outer face of the wall. The sigils represented an equation and not a simple one. It took the most skilled engraver hours, along with countless resources, just to create a single one. But it was worth it.

Time seemed to stop. The haven trembled as hundreds of heavenly beams shot out from the wall, leaving only destruction in their wake. The demons couldn't mount the slightest resistance as they turned into ash, forever gone from the world.

"What the hell?!" Everyone's jaw dropped at the unexpected result. None of them expected the sigils to be so powerful.

"Hehe! Behold the power of my profession!" In the center of the haven, Ricky, the most talented engraver, cackled madly. However, just as his words entered everyone's ears, a tenth of the sigils abruptly collapsed, releasing a small explosion. The load was too high to bear.

Ricky gagged as everyone turned to give him a strange look. Amongst them all, Peter was outraged. How many resources and gold went into making just a single sigil? Peter's heart bled just thinking about it. Ricky saw Peter glaring daggers at him, so he made a 'hehe' sound, then found somewhere to hide.

As everyone was in between crying and laughter, Sam's voice rang out. "More incoming!"

Due to the sigils clearing out the surroundings, it took some time for the monster horde to reach the walls again. Peter knew there was a ten-minute cooldown between each use of the sigils, and as only a few moments had passed, they had to defend via other means. Peter raised an arm and swung it forward. "Fire at will!"

As the second wave of demons exited the miasma, a barrage of projectiles and magic greeted them. The frontline collapsed as blood dyed the ground. The monsters behind them cared not; they continued their charge without fear.

Even as archers and mages fired without end, the horde reached the walls, albeit with heavy casualties. With their stats, the wall was nothing a jump couldn't solve, but first, they had to break the haven's barrier.

"Die, you bastards!" Hundreds of ascenders jumped off the wall. All of them specialized in close combat, and with the barrier blocking the demons, they didn't have to worry about defense.

"Back to the wall!" Peter shouted from above. Unfortunately, the barrier was of the lowest grade and could only withstand a million damage. That was nothing to thousands of demons. In only a few minutes, even under the ascender's assault, the barrier was broken.

With the barrier gone, the demons on the frontline jumped. They soared over the wall, far beyond the reach of close combat ascenders. Just then, thousands of red dots landed on their bodies. On the other side of the wall sat thousands of auto-turrets, purchased using reputation from the robot floors. They locked on and fired, riddling the demons with holes in an instant. They died almost instantly.

It was a strange sight – many demons continued to think it was best to skip the wall. They didn't know they were jumping to their deaths.

On the watchtower, Peter had the best view of the battlefield. He saw the endless horde outside the haven and knew he couldn't hold anything back. "Activate the artillery! Fire at will!"

The bombardment of artillery, both magical and conventional, decimated the horde of monsters. With the auto-turrets, artillery, sigils, and ascenders combined, thousands of demons died every minute.

With the power of their contraptions, the ascenders were able to save on stamina and mana. Every time the demons overwhelmed them, the sigils would reactivate, giving them a brief break. The monster horde would end soon, they thought.

After an hour, they thought the same.

After two, they began to doubt.

After three, they were confused.

Why did it seem like the horde was endless? It almost looked like they would attack all night, but that was impossible, right?

As there was no boss monster for Shenlong's team to hunt, they had long ago joined the fight, quickly killing one demon after another. Only Peter and Lavos remained on the watchtower. Seeing the situation, Peter couldn't help but ask the experienced minotaur. "Does the monster horde last all night?"

Peter cussed upon receiving a nod. Worse, he noticed several auto-turrets run out of ammo. Helpless, he joined the battle as well.

Two hours later, the artillery and auto-turrets ran out of bullets. Shortly after, a human scream came from the walls. Unfortunately, the inevitable happened. A shadow panther had ripped through the throat of a spear-wielding ascender.

With over half of the sigils broken, and the auto-turrets and artillery useless, the monster horde finally overwhelmed the ascenders. Demons ran rampant inside the haven, while many parts of the wall crumbled. It was chaos.

Still on the watchtower, Lavos overlooked the battlefield while deep in thought. Honestly, he didn't expect these humans to have so much strength with only a single rune. They possessed such power by relying on their abilities. If one day they had as many runes as he, would they threaten the demon king?

Lavos activated two of his runes. A gnarled wooden longstaff appeared in his hand while a crown hovered above his head. Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind in a tangible form made up the crown's material.

Lavos' feet lifted off the watchtower as he rose into the sky. Using his free hand to point down, lightning coursed around him, before being guided by his finger. Moving at the speed of light, it hit a demon in the middle of the haven, killing it in one blow. The lightning split into two before finding two more targets. It split again and again, and in just a second, all of the demons in the haven were dead.

Letting out a breath, Lavos glanced outside and waved his staff. Twenty tornados, each hundreds of feet wide, were conjured into existence around the haven. Thousands upon thousands of demons were picked up and chopped into pieces. Astonishingly, the tornados continued to rampage across the battlefield, even after several minutes. They wouldn't run out as long as there was enough ambient mana in the air, all thanks to Lavos' crown.

Two moves were all he needed to turn the battle around, and with the demons mindlessly dying to the tornados, two moves were all he needed to defeat the monster horde.

Lavos was on another level.

He alone was a calamity.