Wang Badao flapped his wings and instantly swooped down, unleashing a dense stream of dragon flames that struck the barrier of Darkness City. Despite the intense burning, the barrier remained largely unchanged.
At the same time, the surrounding World Treants launched their attacks. Their golden leaves glowed, releasing energy that condensed into energy balls in their hands and then were hurled forward.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dozens of energy balls came flying! Wang Badao swiftly dodged and shielded himself with his wings. With his strong resistance and defense, he managed to withstand the attacks without significant harm.
Although the attacks weren't a direct threat, the treants' power was considerable. With hundreds of them around, even someone as strong as Wang Badao would find himself under pressure if they all focused their attacks simultaneously. More importantly, while Wang Badao could defend himself, his subordinates could not. As the battle continued, several holy dragons were struck down and killed---each one a crucial combatant, irreplaceable and vital to their forces.
At this moment, Mandell waved his hands through the air, drawing countless complex magical symbols around him. These symbols formed a magic formation hundreds of meters in diameter. When the formation activated, it created a massive black hole at its center, indicating at least a S-rank skill! The energy attacks from the World Treants were all absorbed into the magic formation and the black hole.
Mandell said, "This magic can hold for at most two minutes. We must break the barrier quickly!"
Wang Badao shouted, "Lucas, what are you waiting for? Only the artifact can break the barrier quickly!"
"Alright! Fine!" Lucas responded.
Despite feeling some reluctance, Lucas had no choice but to unleash the power of the Heart of Holy Light. This time, he released four to five thousand years' worth of accumulated faith energy, summoning a massive orb of light. It resembled a sun, illuminating a radius of hundreds of miles with its scorching rays, blinding anyone who looked directly at it.
"Go!" Lucas commanded, and the orb of light shot towards the sky above Darkness City, descending like a falling sun into the valley. It exploded with a brilliance thousands of times brighter than the sun.
In an instant, the explosion's light engulfed a radius of a hundred miles. Even those far away on the Thunder Highlands could feel the intense light from miles away, a testament to the terrifying power of this attack. In a flash, the surrounding World Treants and all the flora were torn to shreds by the piercing rays, leaving only scorched marks. The attack was incredibly powerful, covering a hundred-mile radius and instantly obliterating at least a hundred World Treants. While the sheer force didn't destroy the valley, it burned a massive hole in the barrier and caused significant damage to some buildings within the valley.
"Such power!" Wang Badao and Mandel were both stunned. They knew the artifact was formidable, but they hadn't expected it to be this strong.
Lucas sneered, "Zhang Nu, your death is imminent. Today, no one can save you!"
"Attack!"
Wang Badao and Mandell led their respective troops to storm into the Darkness Valley but were met with resistance from various Level 5 and 6 defensive facilities within the valley. Of course, while these defensive facilities were formidable, they couldn't stop this powerful force, and the number of troops stationed in the Darkness Valley was limited. In such circumstances, the combined might of the three demigod Heroes and their elite combat units could almost certainly breach Darkness City, or at the very least, cause significant damage in a short period.
Noticing the strong resistance from Darkness City, Lucas decided to end the battle quickly. He once again activated the Heart of Holy Light, summoning thousands of gigantic swords of light. Each of these colossal swords was tens of meters long, descending from the sky towards the core area of Darkness City.
Lucas aimed to destroy the Demon King's castle in one fell swoop, disrupt the first Demon King Zhang Nu's breakthrough, either killing or severely injuring him, and thereby deciding the outcome of this battle.
However, as Lucas was ready to strike, something strange happened. An invisible energy emanated from the castle within Darkness City, changing the very fabric of the world around it. This "change in the world" was not just a metaphor. Everywhere the invisible energy reached, all light and color were stripped away, leaving only black and white outlines like an X-ray image.
Simultaneously, all the swords of light froze in mid-air. It wasn't as if they were forcibly stopped by some power; they simply couldn't get any closer. The space around them was infinitely stretched, making every centimeter span thousands of miles. Time around them was also infinitely stretched, so each second outside equaled a hundred or a thousand days for them.
In the blink of an eye, all the swords of light vanished into nothingness. Meanwhile, the invisible energy continued to spread, covering the holy dragons, demonic flame angels, holy order paladins, and radiant archbishops. As soon as this energy enveloped them, these powerful beings became motionless, as if time itself had stopped. Then, the paladins and archbishops alike began to wither and age visibly, eventually turning to dust.
"What is this?!"
Lucas, Wang Badao, and Mandell couldn't react in time and were caught in the energy field as well.
Lucas felt all light infinitely stretched out. He fell into a bizarre dimension where time and space were highly distorted, like an alternate reality.
[You are affected by the Void Chaos Domain. All skills below SSS level are unusable. All non-divine abilities are unusable. Space is stretched by a million times. Time is slowed down by a million times...]
What kind of power was this? A domain skill?
Lucas was incredulous. He had never seen such a domain skill before! He knew his situation was dire. He was now in a space-time that was almost infinitely vast, where distances were unimaginably stretched, and time seemed endlessly prolonged. Additionally, all magic and most abilities were sealed and unusable. What kind of power was this? Was it really a domain skill? How could such a powerful domain skill exist in this world?
No, he had to escape!
Lucas tried various methods, but almost nothing worked in this environment. He could only raise the Heart of Holy Light, burning several thousand years' worth of faith energy. Countless rays of light emanated from the Heart of Holy Light, temporarily illuminating the colorless and lightless domain. Lucas momentarily freed himself from the time-space distortion and also liberated Wang Badao and Mandel from the same state. Using the power of the artifact worked! It could counteract this strange energy!
Before the three could celebrate or devise a plan, a voice came from ahead.
"So this is the Heart of Holy Light?" The voice, calm and composed, continued, "Not bad. As expected of a divine artifact, it truly has some capabilities."
The three Heroes felt a chill in their hearts. They realized it very clearly.
The Great Demon King had awakened.