<It's dead.>
But there was no time to stop, because the World-Carver Behemoth was still coming. The towering creature had closed the distance during the fight with the Progenitor, and it was now less than a kilometer away, its eyes fixed on the spot where the Progenitor died.
The residual mana from the Progenitor's body was fading fast, but the Behemoth had already locked onto it and was acting as the ravenous fiend it was.
<Your turn.>
Reidar directed the Demon-Lord army toward the Behemoth. The effect was immediate. The level 757 Demon Lords reached the creature. Where Reidar's original level 582 Demon Lords had been mosquitoes against the Behemoth's hide, these new summons were something else.
An Inferno Tyrant at level 757 unleashed a fire blast that struck the Behemoth's leg and burned through the outer layer of flesh, leaving a wound that would have previously healed.
A Frost-Blight Sovereign froze a section of the Behemoth's ankle solid, and the ice held rather than shattering on contact.
The Behemoth noticed. Its eyes moved from the dead Progenitor to the swarm of Demon-Lords around its lower body, and for the first time in the entire battle, the creature showed something that might have been confusion. These things were hurting it.
The Behemoth's arm swept sideways—the same motion that had killed fifty of Reidar's original Demon Lords in one pass.
The arm hit the level 700+ Demon Lords, and some of them died because the Behemoth was still strong, and its physical power was immense, given its size.
But not all of them died. Several Demon Lords at level 740 and above survived the hit, battered but still functional, and they resumed their attack within seconds.
<They can take a hit from it now. >
Reidar ordered them to kill the behemoth. Every generation of Demon Lords converged on the creature.
The level 607s and 632s attacked the feet and ankles, maintaining a base layer of damage. The level 657s and 682s hit the legs and torso, concentrating their fire on the joints where the creature's natural armor was thinnest.
The level 707s and 732s targeted the head and eye, trying to blind the creature and disrupt its ability to track targets. And the level 757s attacked the chest—the center of the creature's mass, where the mana concentration was densest and where the creature was most vulnerable.
The assault was unlike anything the battlefield had seen. Thousands of sources unleashed fire, ice, lightning, shadow tendrils, and a dozen other elements on the Behemoth all at once.
The creature's regeneration, which had healed every wound before the next attack could land, was overwhelmed. Wounds opened and stayed open. Fire burned through flesh that didn't close. Ice-crystallized tissue that didn't thaw. Lightning cooked internal organs that didn't repair.
The Behemoth gave a mighty roar. The sound shook the earth for kilometers in all directions, and survivors inside Kingsgate felt the vibrations in the ground, walls, and bones.
The creature tried to move, tried to walk away to stop the pain, but the Demon Lords followed, never stopping their attacks.
The Behemoth's leg buckled. The wound at the ankle—carved out by a sustained bombardment from hundreds of level 700+ Demon Lords—had eaten through the tendons and connecting tissue that supported the creature's weight, and the leg folded.
The monster fell.
The impact was powerful enough to cause an earthquake. Buildings within a kilometer collapsed due to the shock. The ground split open in cracks, and a cloud of dust and debris rose into the air, visible from the settlement.
The Demon-Lords did not stop. They poured fire, ice, and lightning into the fallen creature, destroying every exposed surface, wound, and crack in the massive body.
The Behemoth thrashed, destroying the area and the Demon Lords who didn't dodge quickly enough, but the numbers were too great, and Reidar won the level gap for the first time.
The Behemoth's eyes grew dimmer. The light faded as the creature's mana reserves ran out more quickly than they could be restored, causing the swirling galaxies inside them to slow down. The flailing became less intense. The roars slowed.
And then it stopped.
[World-Carver Behemoth defeated.]
[You have gained 117,703,040.00 C.L.A.S.P. Points.]
[You have earned 69,444,793.60 Survival Points.]
[QUEST COMPLETE: Bulwark Against Annihilation]
[Quest Reward: 50,000,000 C.L.A.S.P. Points, 10,000,000 Survival Points, Aegis Phalanx Favor]
[Bonus Reward (Subjugation): 150,000,000 C.L.A.S.P. Points, 30,000,000 Survival Points, World-Carver Core Fragment, Permanent +100 to All Attributes]
[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 571.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 584.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 598.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 611.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 622.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 630.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 636.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 641.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
[LEVEL UP! You have reached Level 645.]
[You have gained 0.5 attribute points to distribute.]
[You have reached level 600. New perks have been created based on the path you chose. Next unlocks at level 700.]
The notifications flooded his brain in a wave that took almost ten seconds to finish scrolling.
Reidar sat on the condor's back, hands gripping the feathers, his body shaking from exhaustion and the aftereffects of draining his health to near-zero.
<Level 645.>
The number didn't feel real. He had jumped over a hundred levels in minutes, powered by the C.L.A.S.P. points from killing two of the most powerful creatures on the planet. His health had climbed back to full from the level-ups alone, and his mana pool had expanded to a number he would need time to process.
But there was one more thing to deal with.
Reidar turned the condor and looked toward the rooftop where Jorik had been standing when he first appeared. The old man was running.
Jorik had seen the Progenitor die. He had seen the Behemoth fall. He had watched thousands of Demon Lords fill the sky above Kingsgate like a second cloud layer. Not only that, but he had seen Reidar get to an even higher level. The conclusion was obvious.
<There's nowhere to run. >
Jorik moved fast for a level 440 human. He had dropped from the rooftop to the street below and was sprinting toward the northern edge of the city, where Marlene had pointed out the breach in the wall. His two personal guards ran beside him, and Colt was somewhere behind, also trying to flee.
The Elemental Demon-Lords close to Jorik had already identified the man as a target, and they descended on him.