Versatile Mage c1-2021, page 265
Chapter 608 - City in Grave Danger
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
"I don't know how the Black Vatican did it, but it's exactly the same method they used on Bo City! It happened out of nowhere, and it was during a heavy rain too, enraging all the demon creatures! Perhaps you might think that the rain was just a coincidence, but I think they are related. Something like this doesn't happen for no reason; natural disasters like these must have a human conspiracy behind them!" said Mo Fan.
The Ancient Capital had been safe for so many years. Mo Fan would not believe that the current century was this full of disasters. If it wasn't because God wanted to punish humans, then it must be some sort of conspiracy aiming to lead mankind to destruction!
Mo Fan admitted that he had no proof to justify his statement, he was only following his instincts...
However, after the calamity of Bo City, and being involved in the Black Vatican's conspiracy once, if he hadn't held onto the Underground Holy Spring that the Black Vatican desperately wanted to acquire, they would still be hidden in the dark among the people, no one could have torn their mask off!
"Come with us, otherwise you might not make it to the inner walls safely..." Zhu Meng believed Mo Fan's words.
Not long ago, Zhu Meng had spent some time trying to learn what the Black Vatican was up to. They had been behaving strangely in many places across the nation, yet they were extremely quiet here around the Ancient Capital, as if they had been wiped out, just like the Magic City.
However, the quieter they were, the more likely it was that they were up to something, as they were so cautious that they could not allow any of their Blue Deacons or Gray Priests to leak their conspiracy.
Mo Fan shook his head. He did not tell Zhu Meng about his experience just so Zhu Meng would bring him along. He was only hoping that his information would help the higher-ups to make the right call.
"Then why are you staying here? The army of undead is going to overrun the outer walls soon. Everything outside of the inner walls' barrier is lost. The purple alert means that even Magicians can not survive inside the barrier!" Zhu Meng grabbed Mo Fan up. It was clear that he was going to bring Mo Fan along with brute force.
"I still have some friends in City North. I'll withdraw to the barrier with them..." Mo Fan said sternly.
Zhu Meng loosened his grip when he saw the determined look in Mo Fan's eyes.
"I'll send someone..."
"It's fine, I can take care of them myself. Your men are precious now, go and save the people you should. The effort I've put in over these years isn't just so I can do nothing in a disaster like what happened to Bo City..." said Mo Fan.
Yao Nan stood beside Mo Fan. He glanced at Mo Fan and said, "It's true that the people of Bo City are extremely courageous when anyone mentions the Black Vatican."
"We still don't know if they are involved," said Mo Fan.
"It's very likely, the information that the Clearsky Hunter Agency has collected trying to hunt Salan down all leads here to Ancient Capital, but we were too late," Yao Nan tapped Mo Fan on the shoulder, and came to a realization. "Who would have thought that it would turn out like this. I've been hearing how scary the Red Cardinal Salan is, and now when standing on these walls that will be overrun by the army of undead soon...I'm afraid I will never forget the name."
"Salan..." Mo Fan repeated the name, thinking deeply. It was not the first time he heard it.
"My energy hasn't recovered yet, I won't be able to help. See you on the inner walls," said Yao Nan to Mo Fan.
"Mm, see you in the walls."
The truth was, many people were also telling each other they would see them on the walls.
The Magicians had gathered together to secure a victory for the battle, yet they were going to lose half of the city.
Everyone had people they wanted to look for in the chaos. Instead of losing hope here, they would rather head out as soon as possible. Therefore, the few words were all that mattered...
It was a blessing, a hope, but more like bidding farewell.
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In addition to the northern walls, the same purple alert was sounded in three other directions.
The outer walls could not hold any longer.
After all, the outer walls were surrounding the whole city. It was difficult to defend all directions at the same time due to its wide area. On top of that, the number of undead had long surpassed that of the living. If they continued to hold their positions on the walls, everyone would be devoured and surrounded by the sea of undead.
When the purple alert was sounded, it meant everyone was required to retreat back to the barrier as fast as possible.
Mo Fan remembered that during a Blood Alert, the commoners basically had zero chance of surviving outside the barrier. Even Magicians would have trouble surviving...
Run! The whole Ancient Capital had come to an agreement that they should retreat and flee for their lives!
Every city had a last line of defense, its barrier. The Ancient Capital's barrier was the inner walls, with a perimeter of fourteen kilometers. Above the densely packed streets and zones, one could barely see the golden flicker from the barrier above the inner walls.
Meanwhile, Mo Fan could see people in the form of black dots fleeing toward the inner walls. The roads were jammed with vehicles, and helicopters were in the sky providing assistance...
Bo City was even smaller than the City North of the Ancient Capital. The city had been around for centuries, its population was almost a hundred times that of Bo City.
And now, the entire population was racing against time. How many of them would reach the inner walls before they were devoured by the army of undead?
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The sound of the ground quaking mixed with the shocking cries and swept from behind like a storm.
Not many people dared to turn around. The number of undead was a lot greater than what the Magicians had imagined. The force generated from their march toward the city alone was enough to set the walls and buildings on the verge of collapse.
Mo Fan summoned his courage and turned around to take a glance...
Black!
White!
Gray!
Zombies, Corpse Generals, Skeletons, Skeleton Generals, Phantoms, and Phantom Generals covered the entire area densely. The ground was trembling as they moved!
Creatures of enormous size stood out among the undead. Anyone could easily see them in the black tide of undead like a crane in a flock of chicken. The tide consisting of zombies, phantoms, and skeletons would split in half and continue flowing around them as if they were reefs in a river.
The most terrifying sight was still the Nether Bone Ruler circling around in the air, who had destroyed the walls with a single breath of death!
It was an intelligent creature, fully focused on destroying the walls that were stopping its people from entering the city. A few kilometers of the northern walls had collapsed. The towers crumbled to the ground one after another. The line of defense that humans had relied on to protect them could not withstand a single blow from it!
Mo Fan had no idea what terrifying creatures had appeared in the other directions, but from Zhu Meng, Du Xiao, Fei Jiao, and the others' terrified expressions, he could tell that the skeleton ruler was still not the most terrifying creature. The actual creature that had forced the Super Magicians to run for their lives was the Mountain Giant Zombie that was capable of commanding all undead!
The creature was standing in the midst of the tide of undead like a mountain. Its eyes, so high and proud in the sky, were emitting an icy glow, staring at the city that was in grave danger a few dozen kilometers away!
Chapter 609 - Zombies from Above!
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
The Mountain Zombie took a step forward. Its movement was fairly slow, yet each step it took brought it much closer to the city.
The head in the rain was moving closer. Somehow, the creature had already advanced over ten kilometers. If there was anything providing some relief to the humans, it would be the discovery that the creature halted its movement for some reason around ten kilometers away from the walls.
A fat Corpse Official, looking like a lump of flesh, stood close to the creature's feet. Its size was like a hill, yet it only reached to just below the Mountain Zombie's knees.
The Flesh Mound Corpse Official had a giant mouth. It opened its mouth and swallowed the surrounding skeletons, zombies and phantoms inside. It managed to hold more than a thousand undead!
Mo Fan did not dare to watch any further upon seeing this. Even though he was clueless about why the Corpse Official was eating the undead, there was no time for him to think about it. He had to find Liu Ru, Zhang Xiaohou, and the others as soon as possible, and retreat to the inner walls together!
"Mo Fan, what should we do now?" Zhou Ming glanced at Mo Fan with a hint of panic.
"Come with me," said Mo Fan sternly.
"I must go to Bo City Street. I don't want to be involved in the same thing twice," Mu Bai said in a deep voice.
"Yeah, Mo Fan, we can't leave them behind," said Zhou Ming.
"Mm, let's head to Bo City Street first," Mo Fan nodded.
As Mu Bai had stated, the people of Bo City had already gone through a similar disaster once. They had barely survived the first time; it would be too cruel if they died in this one!
Mo Fan knew he could only bring a limited number of people along. However, since Zhang Xiaohou and Liu Ru were going in the same direction too, he could not leave them behind!
"Count me in," Shorty said to Mo Fan, slowly getting to his feet.
Mo Fan glanced at Shorty, who was still overwhelmed with grief, and nodded.
It seemed like he had thought it through. The dead could not be resurrected. It was important to look after himself in chaos like this, before he had the ability to look after others.
"Then let's hurry up! A bunch of undead that was roaming close to the walls has already invaded the city. The walls were heavily damaged, more undead are going to break through. Mu Bai, do you have any relatives in City North?" said Zhou Ming.
"Only my uncle, but I believe he's quite close to the inner walls. He mentioned that he was heading into the inner walls to attend to some business," said Mu Bai.
"Mm, that's good to know. To Bo City Street, let's hope they are not too scattered across the place!"
"Bo City Street is a fair distance away from the inner walls. With how the traffic is tied-up now, they won't be able to reach the inner walls safely," the worried Zhou Ming told him.
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Transportation was completely at a standstill. Even Magicians were forced to travel on foot.
Even with Wind Magicians, everyone was still moving slowly. Meanwhile, the undead that had invaded the city were chasing after them at full speed. These bloodthirsty creatures would simply chase after anything alive and tear them apart. Fresh blood mixed with rain soon dyed the area close to the beleaguered walls red.
Several teams of Magicians were evacuating the civilians, yet regardless of how hard they were blasting the undead with Magic, the undead were rushing into the city through the gap faster than they were dying. The Battlemages were gradually losing ground...
Although it did help slow down the invasion, Mo Fan was well aware that those fighting could at most buy a little time for the civilians.
When the Nether Bone Ruler's army of skeletons or the Mountain Zombie's tide of zombies arrived, every Magician would be torn into pieces...
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Mo Fan, Zhou Ming, Mu Bai, and Shorty hurried over to Bo City Street. Everyone in the group was an Intermediate Magician, thus they were a lot fitter than the commoners. Since the streets were stuffed full of cars and fleeing crowds, the roofs became their path instead. The densely packed buildings allowed them to run along the walls and travel across rooftops.
"Mo Fan, isn't your energy fully recovered yet? I've got some serums here that will help your recovery," Mu Bai took out some serums he had brought along and handed them to Mo Fan.
"Thanks a lot!" Mo Fan was in dire need of energy.
As a Magician with four Elements, he had twice the amount of energy compared to an ordinary Magician, so it was rare for him to deplete his energy. Luckily, he had retreated to the walls with Yao Nan earlier, allowing him to rest up for a little bit. Otherwise, his energy would be pretty much empty now. He would most likely die to the undead, let alone be able to save others.
As they passed by the hospital that was bulldozed to the ground, Mo Fan purposely glanced at Shorty.
Shorty did not hesitate at all. It was clear that he had experienced situations of life and death too often. He had only lost his mind just then because it was someone extremely important to him.
There was nothing Shorty could do after a person's death. Since he was still alive, he had to try his best to stay that way.
"At our speed, we should be able to retreat to the inner walls before this whole place is overrun by the undead," said Shorty.
Shorty was more familiar with the Ancient Capital than anyone else there. With him leading the way, the group would reach Bo City Street in the shortest time, and could escort the people of Bo City to the safe zone.
"That's a relief. I feel sorry for the people that live close to the outer walls..." Zhou Ming was full of sorrow as she witnessed the death of countless innocent people.
It was likely that in less than an hour after the purple alert was sounded, the casualties close to the outer walls had already surpassed the total casualties of the calamity of Bo City. On top of that, the number was increasing rapidly as they spoke!
"What's that thing in the sky!"
"Is that a lump of meat? How is it as huge as a building?"
"It has eyes, oh my, it looks so terrifying..."
The crowd on the streets cried in panic, prompting the others to raise their heads and stare at the giant object sweeping past in the sky above the buildings!
Mo Fan also raised his head and discovered the giant lump of flesh just as it crashed onto the intersection not far away, like a meaty meteorite.
The intersection was full of vehicles, but when the lump of flesh landed on the ground, it occupied the entire intersection, smashing the surrounding buildings into pieces with the impact!
Mo Fan stared at the giant mound of flesh in astonishment… the thing looked very familiar to him! Wasn't it the Flesh Mound Corpse Official that ate more than a thousand undead close to the Mountain Zombie's feet from before!?
The Flesh Mound Corpse Official had dropped out of the sky. Did that mean the Mountain Zombie had tossed it into the city… that creature was more than ten kilometers away!
As Mo Fan watched stunned with wide eyes, a bad feeling crossed his heart...
As he thought, the Flesh Mound Corpse General that he was staring at suddenly opened its mouth, and the countless skeletons, zombies, and phantoms it had eaten before burst out from its stomach like a surging tide!
The streets promptly filled with screams. The crowd that had finally started to retreat in order began to panic again, trampling, shoving and pushing one another...
Mo Fan was aghast!
He looked up into the sky. The same kinds of giant Flesh Mound Corpse Generals were hurtling in from the distance and crashing into city randomly, like great bombs of flesh!
Mo Fan felt his scalp going numb. No one expected that the Mountain Zombie would simply toss these Flesh Mound Corpse Generals into the city, transporting thousands of undead onto the streets...
It was going to deal a deadly blow to the civilians who were fleeing for their lives!
Chapter 610 - Imperial Magicians
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
"The streets ahead are filled with undead, what's going on?!" yelled Mu Bai.
The remaining walls should be able to hold the undead army off for some time, yet why were the streets already filled with so many phantoms, zombies, and skeletons? They were simply chasing and tearing away at any human they stumbled into. The streets were immediately covered in corpses...
"Run, quick, or else the Corpse Official will be targeting us!" Shorty yelled at the other three.
As he shouted, the eyes of the Flesh Mound Corpse Official, which had just disgorged over a thousand undead, slowly moved in their direction. It was clear that the creature was able to specifically detect the presence of Magicians!
The group knew that they stood no chance against a Commander-level undead with their current strength. They were left with no choice but to flee for their lives. If the Corpse Official decided to hunt them down, it would be too late for them to run away!
The four immediately headed for the alleyway nearby, using the buildings for cover.
Above them, only a tiny glimpse of the sky could be seen in the tiny alleyway. They could still catch a glimpse of the Flesh Mound Corpse Officials hurtling across the rainy sky, being thrown deeper into the city.
If each of the Flesh Mound Corpse Officials were able to carry over a thousand undead inside them, in just a few minutes, the undead would simply fill every corner of the city...
The scene was absolutely terrifying. Even Magicians had to flee like mice. It was not an exaggeration to describe the Ancient Capital as on the verge of being overrun.
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The rain continued to fall, but the giant golden barrier looming over the inner city provided no resistance to the raindrops. It continued to fall on the streets, covering the historical buildings in the Ancient Capital...
A clock tower stood at the heart of the city. A golden beam of light was rising off it into the sky, serving as the main pillar of the golden barrier opening up like an umbrella above. The arc-shaped light fell right on the perimeter of the inner walls. In addition to that, the four corners of the walls also had Light Formations supporting it.
The entrance to the inner city was wide open. A huge crowd was pushing their way through the entrance. The only reason they were able to escape was because they were not far from the inner walls when the purple alert was sounded.
