Chapter 729
Ren Xue
Ares's featureless "face" slowly turned towards Tang Wulin.
"you."
Tang Wulin was stunned.
"I?"
“The inheritor of the Golden Dragon King’s bloodline, the reincarnation of half of the Dragon God, and the bearer of the power of destiny,” Ares said. “Before Isis completely lost herself, she used her last divine power to make a prophecy. She said that a human with the power of the Dragon God would come to this place ten thousand years later. Only he can use the power of the Dragon God to rebuild the seal and permanently close the gate to the abyss.”
“But Tang Wulin’s current strength is at most equivalent to a first-level god,” Dai Chengfeng questioned. “And the Gate of the Abyss is something that even a god-king cannot completely close.”
“It’s not closing, it’s rebuilding,” Ares corrected. “Isis has completed the most difficult part—she temporarily sealed the door at her own cost. But her power comes from life and creation, which clashes with the destructive nature of the Abyss, and is destined to be short-lived. The power of the Dragon God, which contains both creation and destruction, is the only power that can contend with the Abyss and reshape the seal. But to do this, a price must be paid.”
"What price?" Tang Wulin asked calmly.
“Your Golden Dragon King bloodline, your Dragon God power, even… your life,” Ares said. “The process of reforging the seal will drain everything from you. At best, you will lose all your power and become a mortal with a greatly reduced lifespan. At worst, you will die, your soul and spirit annihilated.”
The staircase fell into dead silence.
Only the pulsating sound of the "vessels" on the walls and the unsettling whispers faintly coming from behind the gates of the abyss.
After a long while, Tang Wulin smiled.
"that's it?"
Ares seemed to pause for a moment—though he had no expression, his movements clearly faltered for a split second.
"You are not afraid of death?"
"I'm afraid," Tang Wulin said frankly. "But I'm even more afraid of watching the people I care about die, watching the whole world be swallowed by the abyss. If my life can bring peace to all of this, then it's worth it."
"Wu Lin..." Qian Renxue wanted to say something, but Tang Wu Lin stopped her with a look.
"Besides, I'm not alone." Tang Wulin looked at Qian Renxue, then at Bibi Dong, then at Dai Chengfeng. "I still have them. We will find a way to close this door without sacrificing anyone. This is our agreement."
Ares remained silent for a long time, and then he did something that surprised everyone.
He knelt on one knee and plunged the bone blade into the ground.
"Then, please allow me, Ares, the God of War—or rather, the former God of War—to serve you. For thirteen thousand years, I have finally awaited the one who foretold the truth. I will use my last strength to open the path to the door for you, and before I go completely mad, I will lend you a helping hand."
“But you…” Tang Wulin looked at his twisted body.
“My mind is being eroded by the abyss every moment,” Ares said calmly. “I can feel that ‘me’ is dying, and in its place is a monster filled with hunger and a desire for destruction. Before I completely become a monster, I want to do one last thing—fight for what I can protect, like a true god.”
He stood up and turned toward the Gate of the Abyss. “Follow me. But remember, the world beyond the gate is the Abyss’s ‘reflection’ in the realm of the gods. Everything there is twisted and insane. Don’t trust your eyes, don’t trust your senses, the only thing you can trust is each other.”
He pushed open the door to the skeleton.
A crimson light surged forth like a flood, accompanied by endless whispers, roars, cries, and maniacal laughter.
Behind the door lies a completely unfamiliar, nightmarish world.
The sky was a dark red, like congealed blood, devoid of sun, moon, and stars, only countless enormous, pulsating lumps of flesh, beating like hearts. The earth was black, cracked, scorched soil, from which flowed a viscous, molten liquid. In the distance, twisted mountains, like the spines of dying beasts, pierced the sky. The air was thick with the stench of sulfur and decay, each breath burning the throat.
At the center of the world stands a colossal tree that reaches the heavens and the earth.
The tree's form resembled the Soul-Devouring Tree King of the Fallen Gods Forest, but it was larger, more...sacred, and more twisted. Its trunk was pure white, with golden veins flowing across its surface, radiating a warm, soft light that clashed sharply with the surrounding hellish landscape. Its roots, however, were pure black, deeply embedded in the earth, drawing dark red, viscous liquid from the cracks. And on its crown, instead of fruit, were translucent, embryonic objects, within which humanoid silhouettes were vaguely visible.
“That is…” Qian Renxue’s voice trembled.
“The Tree of Life, also known as the World Tree, is the divine essence of Isis,” Ares said, his voice revealing emotion for the first time—a deep sorrow. “She used her last strength to manifest her divinity as the Tree of Life, using the power of life to resist the corruption of the abyss. But as you see, the tree’s roots have been corrupted, and what grows on its crown is no longer the fruit of life, but… the embryo of the abyss.”
He pointed to the roots of the tree, where there was a faint point of light, almost swallowed by darkness.
“Isis’s true consciousness is there. But she is surrounded by the Abyss’s ‘guardians.’ To get close to her, we must fight our way through.”
Before the words were even finished, the earth began to tremble.
From those cracks, from beneath the scorched earth, from the shadows of the fleshy growths in the sky, countless monsters poured forth.
They come in all sorts of bizarre forms: some are clumps of flesh stitched together from countless limbs, some are beasts crawling on their skeletons, and some are shadows floating in the air with only a gaping maw. But they all have one thing in common—their eyes burn with a pure, unadulterated hatred for all living beings and for order.
The creations of the abyss have awakened.
"Prepare for battle." Tang Wulin took a deep breath, and the Golden Dragon Spear burst forth with unprecedented light. The phantom of the Golden Dragon King condensed behind him and roared to the sky.
"For the divine realm, for the mortal realm, and for ourselves." Qian Renxue spread her six wings, and sacred fire soared into the sky, transforming into a giant, burning sword.
"Thirteen thousand years of imprisonment should end." Behind Bibi Dong, the phantom of the Rakshasa God slowly emerged, and a purplish-black aura of death spread out.
"In the name of the wind." Dai Chengfeng drew his longsword, and a blue storm gathered around him.
Ares, the former god of war, raised his bone blade and tentacles, and unleashed a battle roar that had been silent for millennia against the endless army of the abyss:
"For glory—"
The battle has begun. (End of Chapter)