The Era of Gods

Chapter 654: Chapter 654: City of Chaos and Children of Nightmare

Although the Great Arcanist Brigade doesn’t have a presence yet, under Fu Haofei’s efforts, they have selected around two hundred Divinity Level Sons of the Divine Realm from tens of thousands of reservists. Demigods and above usually aren’t interested in the mage’s path, typically beginning their studies at the level of Divine Beings.

Over these two hundred plus years, the reserve force of the combat team has been replenished continuously, now counting over sixty-three thousand members, roughly one-sixth of the Giant God Combat Team’s heyday.

About seven thousand of them are High-Level Demigods, over forty thousand are Normal Demigods, and the remaining sixteen or seventeen thousand are Divine Beings.

A few more official members were added; from the original twenty-six, there are now thirty-three, an increase of only seven people in two hundred years. Together with Lin Hong, Lin Bao, and Fu Haofei’s combat team, there are only thirty-six official members in total.

Reservists can be replenished through various war zones, but official members cannot. They can only be cultivated internally.

Lin Xiao’s Divine Enthronement process reveals the enormous gap between Demigods and True Gods. Achieving divinity is much more complicated than the Aboriginals of the exotic world becoming gods, and since the combat team currently doesn’t have a stable world, they naturally cannot cultivate on a large scale.

The seven New Gods that were added all achieved divinity on their own. Of these, four currently reside in the Dark Territory and serve as his subordinates, while the other three are in other planes of this Crystal Wall Universe, not in the Primary Material Plane.

After selecting these two hundred or so mage learners, Fu Haofei took them straight from the Outpost Base to a large plane within the CY-00801 Crystal Wall Universe. He is now the Grand Magician of a duchy called Gaman in this large plane, also serving as the chief Grand Magician of the Gaman Mage Academy, colloquially known as the dean.

Studying spells requires a good atmosphere, so Fu Haofei took them to a specialized Mage Academy. There, the guides began teaching them the basic curriculum. He couldn’t teach over two hundred apprentices by himself. Once they’ve learned the basics, they can return to the Main World to study the improved Arcane system used there, which is stronger and more complete than the native mage system.

When they had left, Lin Xiao also felt his stay here was long enough. He made an agreement with Major General Single-Sword Peak about the attack time, and his incarnation quietly left the Outpost Base to return to the Primary Material Plane.

His target is a base of the Nightmare World within the CY-00801 Crystal Wall Universe, located in a plane called the Dark Highlands between the Primary Material Plane and the Bottomless Abyss. At the center of this plane lies a City of Chaos, ruled by an extremely powerful Demon Magician known as Lady Chaos, whose strength is comparable to that of a True God.

It is said that this Demon Magician known as Lady Chaos has the bloodline of one of the ancient three giants of the Bottomless Abyss in this Crystal Wall Universe, the King Chaos, and that she is rumored to be one of the bastard daughters of King Chaos. According to records, this formidable lady has ruled over the City of Chaos for over five thousand years, and during that time countless Demon Lords have coveted this gateway to the Bottomless Abyss. Yet up to now, Lady Chaos has firmly held control over the city.

The Descenders of the Nightmare Divine Realm civilization in this Crystal Wall Universe are not primarily concerned with conquering the Primary Material Plane but rather the Bottomless Abyss.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on ƝοѵǤᴑ.сᴑ

Indeed, they follow the path of the Abyss Lords, descending into the depths to become demons, rapidly rising in power on their own to defeat various Abyssal Lords and even greater Abyssal Monarchs, taking their places. The Descenders who are Sons of the Nightmare Divine Realm have now become a significant force group within the Bottomless Abyss that cannot be ignored.

Therefore, the bases of the Children of Nightmare within the world are located nearest to the Bottomless Abyss. The Dark Highlands plane is one of the several entrances to and exits from the Abyss; the base being situated here allows for the quickest access and support for the Bottomless Abyss.

The reason they don’t place it directly next to the Bottomless Abyss is that it’s impossible to do so.

Not to mention the massive chaotic consciousness of the Abyss impacting the base, if the base was located right by the Abyss, it would be perceived as a plane by the Abyssal consciousness and become corrupted and dragged into the Abyss.

The virtually inexhaustible layers of the Abyss are not generated out of thin air; they are formed primarily by the power of the Abyss capturing other planes, causing them to become corrupted and fall, and eventually becoming part of the Abyss.

Of course, only the Bottomless Abyss within the Toriel Multiverse is the genuine endless abyss; the Abyss within the CY-00801, a Crystal Wall Universe with the same rules as the Toriel Multiverse, is not boundless, given that this is merely a mid-sized Crystal Wall Universe and the planes within the entire world are finite; thus, the Abyss is not limitless.

According to data published by the Traveling God five hundred years ago, the total number of layers in this world’s Bottomless Abyss is about nine hundred or so. In the past five hundred years, some may have been added, but certainly not by much.

The Dark Highlands plane is called so because the only continent on the plane is a high plateau with an average elevation of nearly one thousand five hundred meters. Instead of beaches at the edge of the continent, there are cliffs over a thousand meters high, with a dense mess of rocks and cold seawater below them.

It’s said that intelligence life used to exist on this plane many millennia ago, but as the power of the Abyss encroached, the entire world rapidly became corrupted and fallen. Though for some unknown reasons, this plane has not been dragged into the Abyss to become one of its layers, but it has already become semi-Abyssal, and no living being remains there, only Undead and Abyssal creatures wandering the continent.

The City of Chaos is located at the very center of the plane, a gigantic fortress constructed of grey boulders encircling an active volcano that still occasionally erupts clouds of black, spark-filled smoke. The Chaos Gate, leading to the first layer of the Bottomless Abyss, is actually located within the central crater of that volcano.

Figures are seen emerging from the volcano with the plumes of smoke or diving headfirst into it from time to time.

The City of Chaos is bustling with activity since it’s the safest and easiest among the numerous entrances and exits to the Bottomless Abyss. Consequently, it attracts a plethora of powerful beings from various races who wish to enter the first layer of the Abyss, known as the Plains of Blood and War, or to leave from there.

It is worth mentioning that in this world, there are no infernal Devils, and the adversaries of the abyssal Demons in their eternal blood wars are the gods. There are True Gods leading the armies of God’s Kingdoms stationed at the first layer of the Abyss, engaged in constant battle with the Demons.

The reason the City of Chaos has not been taken over by the gods is due to the absolute neutrality of Lady Chaos.

Although she was a descendant of the Chaos King, one of the three giants of the ancient abyss, the Chaos King had died tens of thousands of years ago, and she had long been unaffected by the abyss.

Furthermore, the gods do not need to pass through the Abyssal Gate when they go to the abyss. A true god can go directly to the abyss on their own without going through these portals.

On this day, in the unstable space above the vast City of Chaos, a small area was twisted, and a sliver of space was torn open. A human mage clad in a black robe and wielding a common wooden magic wand stepped out, and a magician stationed on a nearby tower glanced at him and then turned away.

Mages like him arrived by the dozen every day; as long as they didn’t cause trouble, no one cared who you were.

This black-robed mage was a disguised incarnation of Lin Xiao, coming to check out the situation at the Nightmare World base and incidentally get a sense of the customs and people of different planes in this world.

Although a group of undead demons and such wasn’t much to look at…

However, upon his arrival, he immediately sensed the presence of more than a dozen Children of Nightmare within the city.

“It really is the headquarters of the Children of Nightmare.”

His powerful divine thoughts swept through and immediately revealed the details of these sixteen Children of Nightmare.

Among the sixteen Children of Nightmare, more than half were demons, and the rest were other races with demonic powers. The strongest among them was a legendary Demon Dragon transformed into human form, none of whom were strong relative to him.

The next strongest would be Demon Lords. These, at the very least, were comparable to demigods, with the strongest Abyss Lords on their territory almost comparable to true gods, usually staying within their own territories. At most, they might send out an incarnation, but it was unlikely that they would come out in their true bodies.

Within their own territories, Abyss Lords have an extremely powerful strength bonus, similar to a God Country, but slightly weaker than that.

Some powerful Lords who unified an entire Abyssal Plane would gain a virtual divinity effect in their own territory, possessing strength comparable to a true god.

The overall strength of the abyss was not comparable to that of the gods, but in their own home, the abyss, even the gods could do nothing about them unless the gods of the Hall of All Gods could cooperate. But this was clearly impossible.

Not to mention, at least the Chaos God would not agree.

The abyss is a collection of chaos and evil, with chaos as one of its essences and an important source of the Chaos God’s power. If the abyss were destroyed by the gods, the divine power of the Chaos God would greatly decline, a loss no one would want.

Although the City of Chaos was one of the Children of Nightmare’s important areas of activity, Lin Xiao was too powerful, and the Children of Nightmare staying inside the city had not detected him.

It is worth mentioning that after this incarnation of his had undergone Divine Enthronement in this world, the aura from the Main World on him had disappeared, and the Children of Nightmare could not detect him through the Main World’s aura. However, he could sense the Children of Nightmare who still retained the aura of the Nightmare World.

He did not disturb the Children of Nightmare in the city. These few were not worth revealing himself for. He simply entered the city and headed straight to the City Lord’s Mansion.

Soon he arrived in front of the largest tower within the city, guarded at the entrance by two twenty-meter-tall flesh puppets, legendary golems made of flesh and metal, with all the advantages of metal golems, supplemented by flesh to cover the weaknesses of pure metal golems, with very powerful combat capabilities.

Unconcealed, Lin Xiao appeared before the City Lord’s Mansion. The two flesh golems immediately looked up at him, and red light burst forth from two huge gemstone eyes towards him. But as it approached him, the light refracted in other directions, and the two flesh puppets immediately lost their target. The red gaze swept all over the entrance but could never locate him.

At this moment, the gates of the high tower thundered open, and a stream of clear light fell, rapidly transforming into the shadow of a delicate woman whose face could not be seen clearly. She bowed to Lin Xiao and asked in a crisp voice:

“May I know which Highness has graced us with their presence and to whom we owe an apology for the oversight?”

Lin Xiao’s gaze swept over the shadow and looked up at the high tower, smiling slightly as he said:

“Won’t you invite me in for a sit?”

“The honor is all ours!”

The shadowy female figure turned and gestured gracefully with her hand, and the enchantment film on the surface of the gate dispersed.