Kyle looked at the battle and remembered one of the rules for members of Humanity. In the beginning, this rule had seemed a bit overblown, but now he understood why the rule was there.
When in combat territory, if you are not specifically ordered to kill Demons, you are not allowed to join any battles or help any other member. This is to ensure a timely execution of your orders. Kyle repeated in his head.
‘I thought it wouldn’t be that bad. So what if there are a couple of battles? You would still arrive on time. But…’
Kyle looked at the battles.
Three battles finished, and two more battles started.
Five battles finished, and six more battles started.
Two finished and two started.
‘It’s unending,’ Kyle thought. ‘If you join every battle you can see, you will be fighting until your longevity runs out.’
Kyle took a deep breath. Despite his many years, he hadn’t been involved in a true battle on a frontline. In the Tertiary World, he had only been on one of the frontlines once, but this had been more of a siege from both sides. They hadn’t truly charged at each other.
In the Supreme World, he had been involved in several battles between Organizations in the Secondary Sector, but those were singular battles. The wars themselves only existed for seconds or minutes.
This was an actual war, and even for an actual war, this war was crazy.
A constant tide of attackers. Millions, if not billions, of beasts charged towards Humanity every single day.
Kyle was not someone who cared a lot about the lives of strangers, but even he felt solemn as he watched the battles.
A valiant Crusher with a shield jumped in front of a ranged attacker. The darkness laser from the Demon broke the shield and removed the Crusher’s chest. The attack had been weakened enough that the ranged attacker managed to survive. The ranged attacker gritted his teeth and shouted the Crusher’s name as he launched more attacks at the Demon.
In another battle, a woman with half of a body rammed her spear into a Demon’s head. The prepared attack of the Demon detonated inside its mouth, destroying its head and the attacking woman. Her comrades saluted her.
A man with a mace struck the head of a Demon. A spear-like appendage crushed his body at the same time. His comrades attacked the Demon with greater ferocity.
‘Every single one of these people has lived for thousands of years. They have won countless battles and were hailed as geniuses in their former Mortal Empires. They entered Humanity and successfully got through the several dangerous training periods. They’ve earned and spent Military Merits.’
‘And now, they are dying in droves. In the greater scheme of things, each death is meaningless. One more or less death won’t make any difference. Yet, when they are all put together, they are meaningful.’
‘Every single sacrifice buys some more time for Humanity.’
‘A world bought with the blood of its inhabitants.’
Kyle looked back towards the west. ‘I’ve not seen a single Demon in the lands of Ayuvar. To Mortals, this world seems relatively peaceful. Every Mortal Empire faces threats, but these threats rarely come from another Mortal Empire. In that way, the lands seem almost like a paradise for Mortals.’
‘Yet, the Mortals can only live in this peace because of the ever-increasing number of human sacrifices.’
As Kyle watched the battles, he noticed that not a single person fought passively. All of them were going all out. They were fighting for their lives, and more importantly, for the lives of everyone else.
‘The past has fought for our present, and our present fights for our future.’
Kyle sighed. ‘I can see why so many people from the Supreme World decided to forego all rules to help Ayuvar.’
Kyle looked towards the east and narrowed his eyes.
He teleported again. By now, he had to teleport diagonally upwards due to the mounting number of corpses.
After his teleportation, he finally saw the true face of the Corpse Mountains.
An uncountable number of corpses of different sizes were oozing blood, which flowed into the mountain of corpses through the gaps. An unimaginably dense storm of decaying Biological Energy rose from the corpses. Due to the constant presence of death, the Biological Energy partially turned into Poison Energy. The fresh corpses decayed at greater speeds.
The Corpse Mountains themselves were not unmoving. The corpses shifted as old corpses below them decomposed, destabilizing the corpses stacked on top of them.
The size of the corpses had reduced a lot. That was because these Demons weren’t trying to sneak past the frontlines. They kept themselves small and compact to increase their speed and power.
By now, Kyle could also see the occasional team of Sages.
‘The frontlines work like a funnel. Spirit Lords are at the coast of the Divide, attacking every Spirit Beast they find. The weaker beasts rush past them, and later, they’re engaged by the Sages, Crushers, and Primals. There are almost no Transcendent Demons or weaker.’
‘The strongest protect the strong from the strongest. The strong protect the average from the strong. The average protect the weak from the average.’
Kyle looked towards the east and teleported again.
The surroundings didn’t change a lot. The number of battles was still similarly high, but the average strength of the combatants increased.
After some more teleportations, Kyle closed in on his goal, Fort S-878.
Fort S-878 was a humongous, flying sphere, covered in Formation Arrays. The Fortification was a bit over a thousand kilometers wide, and it was made of extremely dense and powerful materials. Even a weaker Ascendant Beast would need more than one attack to destroy it.
As Kyle felt the Energy emanating from the Fort, he could confirm one of the things he had read.
‘There are ancient Forts, old Forts, and new Forts. The ancient Forts were all made by the second group from Inner World. The old Forts were made by the fifth group of Inner World. The new Forts were all made by the inhabitants of Ayuvar.’
‘The new Forts try to emulate the ancient and old Forts, but they can’t truly achieve the same standard. Even if you know how to make them, making them is not so easy. That makes the new Forts the weakest.’
‘The old Forts are the most powerful. The second group from Inner World hasn’t truly gone all out when helping Humanity. They still kept some secrets, which is why the ancient Forts are still better than the new Forts, but not as good as the old Forts. The fifth group of Inner World really went all-out when making the old Forts.’
‘Fort S-878 is an old Fort, and I can feel its raw power. I know a lot about Formation Arrays, but I don’t even know how anyone could possibly combine so many intricate and complicated Formation Arrays. It seems impossible to me.’
‘Sadly, not even the fifth group from Inner World had someone who knew the Major Law of Space. Otherwise, this thing would be almost indestructible, even in the face of a powerful Ascendant Beast.’
Kyle took another deep breath.
‘Our predecessors have really tried their best to save this world.’
Kyle’s eyes narrowed.
‘I should also do my best.’
Then, he flew towards Fort S-878.
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