Xyrin Empire-Chapter 706 Sighing Wall

Unlike the withered or rotten images depicted in myths and legends, the real Netherworld God Hades was very tall and strong. He had the typical features of an Atlantian—the imposing, sturdy build; a stern face; slightly sunken eyes; high cheekbones, a high nose bridge; and disheveled black hair that trailed down to his back. His thick beard made this immortal superhuman appear somewhat old. All these attributes combined formed the perfect image of an Ancient Greek hero. While brandishing the scythe-like weapon in his hand, this cloaked giant looked more like a War God stepping out from religious murals rather than a schemer dwelling in the Netherworld.

Ah, right, this mighty warrior was about twelve meters tall...

"Do Atlantians rank their hierarchies by height?!"

Amid Hades’s furious roar and the ceaseless cannon fire from the scorpions, I shouted out to Ares standing next to me, with only one thought in my mind: no wonder the miserable Netherworld God, unable to find a partner in myths, ended up resorting to abducting one. He must share the same woes relating to their height as Akmonde, who also couldn’t find a partner and ended up marrying a tree.

Ares shouted back in a loud voice, "No! Our three forefathers underwent an even more powerful Ascension ceremony, achieving superhuman-sized bodies far beyond mortals. They are special—the gods placed eternal energy and indestructible internal skeletons within them. Be extremely careful of his Death Power, it is a curse that can even corrode Divine Metal!"

"Don’t worry, his power definitely won’t hurt me!" While responding loudly, I quickly moved further away from Ares—the kid had such a loud voice that I couldn’t even hear the surrounding cannon fire anymore.

Sandora switched to Spiritual Connection and said, "This is real thorough bioengineering. The old Empire’s science team didn’t just alter Hades’s spirit and body, but also provided him with an artificial backup skeleton and internal organs. I even detected the energy feed wave of a Ghost Energy Reactor inside him. They spent so much to enhance a soldier; his Death Power must be substantial."

"I told you, it can even destroy the armor of interstellar warships, almost matching the firepower of interstellar warfare." I watched the giant warrior on the Dawn Terrace, spasming among the filthy smoke that shrouded most of his body. The giant scythe, adorned with blood-red runes, exuded ominous black patterns from the handle—a clear sign of severe Abyss infection. However, it was evident that he was still trying to resist the madness deep in his soul: his eyes were blood-red, his face distorted, and while he wildly swung his weapon, he never launched a true attack. Occasionally, he would toss out gray orbs of light, but these strikes always landed far from the city’s defenses. All signs indicated that Hades was still barely discerning friend from foe and was controlling his actions as much as possible.

And from those orbs of light, I saw the so-called Power of Death.

No one knew how those ancient science teams had managed it, but Hades indeed possessed a mysterious ability that could severely damage Life Force and "intact objects." The gray orbs of light he threw contained no energy, but they could cause vegetation to quickly wither into ash, transform towering ancient trees into dust in an instant, and even non-living entities like sturdy temples and spires to rapidly decay. This power treated living and nonliving the same, swiftly bringing them to obliteration. Perhaps this kind of orb, purely in terms of power, might not compare to an Imperial Battleship’s main cannon, but on the battlefield, its threat to soldiers was clearly much greater.

But even with such combat power, he shouldn’t be a match for a large group of Heroic Combat Soldiers, right?

"Could our Armored Scorpions still not defeat him?" Watching the stalemate at the defensive line, Sandora spoke with some dissatisfaction.

"Hades is formidable, but he’s definitely no match for a squadron of Armored Scorpions," Vega replied somewhat disheartened, "The biggest trouble now is that this Super Soldier’s abilities have gone out of control. His Power of Death is uncontrollably gushing out of his body, and he must rely on his last vestiges of consciousness to ensure he doesn’t self-destruct. Once we knock down Hades, he will immediately perish from his power backfiring, turning his organs into ash in an instant, and his soul likely won’t remain. That’s the best-case scenario; the worse situation is his corpse could be preserved and then turn into an Abyss Undead Creature, at which point the dangerous Power of Death would be used against our soldiers."

Vega’s frustration immediately translated into my own—afer all, our original goal was to rescue this strong, afflicted warrior. If we really wanted to kill him, I had plenty of ways. The easiest would be to deploy a Pandora to this place; I guarantee Hades would instantly split into different parts and gradually land in various places across Atlantis, with each segment not exceeding one meter in length—but how ridiculous would that be?

"We need to first figure out a way to stop Hades’s Death Energy," Sandora frowned.

I grew frustrated, "Those gray orbs aren’t energy, but something as mysteriously akin to Qianqian’s time; I can’t control it."

"Visca has a skill to suppress Superpower reactions..."

Sandora said halfway, then glanced at Hades’s twelve-meter height.

"But after the fight, we’re probably going to have a tough time putting Hades back together."

I racked my brains, then an idea suddenly struck me, and I began fumbling in my pocket.

My finger stung slightly, and I pulled my hand out with a green Little Elf hanging on it: Dingdang had originally been sleeping in the pocket, and I must have accidentally poked the little thing. Thus, the groggy Lady Goddess opened her mouth and bit, and now she is swaying back and forth in the air, dangling like a fishing lure.

After being swung around in the air a couple of times, the little one finally woke up and clung to my thumb, wailing, "Wah! Ah Jun, don’t just touch someone! A girl’s body is precious! Dingdang can’t get married now! Ah Jun just touched Dingdang’s..."

Sandora burst out laughing beside me, and I quickly stuffed a lollipop into Dingdang’s arms to quiet her down, then turned the little thing toward the direction of Dawn Terrace: "Dingdang, can you see if there’s any Power of Death on that big guy?"

Dingdang looked up and was immediately shocked: "Wow! Humans are so huge! Ah Jun, have you shrunk? Has Dingdang become a microorganism?"

The Divine Race is especially adept at viewing the world dialectically.

With my vigorous shaking, the Lady Goddess finally remembered what was important and analyzed methodically, "Hmm, it’s a much lower tier, but it indeed counts as Death Power, it can turn ’living’ things directly into ’dead’ things, whether it’s life or stone. So strange, clearly he’s alive, so why is there so much scent of death on him? And he still looks so lively and bouncy?"

"Oh, then you should be able to neutralize his power, right?"

"Of course I can! Dingdang is awesome!" The little thing flew into the air, puffed out her chest proudly and said, "Just let Dingdang get close to this big guy, and his power will obediently dissipate, because Dingdang is the Life Goddess~~"

Hearing that, I was relieved, grabbed the little one in my hand, and as I took a step and twisted my waist, I aimed for Hades’s head, with Dingdang’s confused voice coming from my hand: "Eh? Ah Jun? Why are you holding Dingdang?"

I didn’t reply, just kept aiming, and then amidst a round of astonished gazes, I suddenly flung my hand and shouted, "Go! Dingdang Ball!"

What followed doesn’t need elaborate recounting—the little green-glowing thing traced a beautiful parabola in the air, and as the target turned around, it accurately hit Hades’s nape. I held the discus-throwing pose for a few seconds until a thunderous crash echoed from the other side.

The man-made ’Netherworld God’ was knocked out in one round by the genuine Life Goddess—a humiliating and disastrous defeat from 1200 cm to 12 cm. Confronted with a higher and purer Power of Life, Hades’s Power of Death decisively chose to dissipate, and the intense spiritual shock made the twelve-meter giant faint on the spot. It was fortunate that he was not yet fully controlled by the Abyss, for a completely fallen creature would continue to act under the stimulation of the Abyss even if completely unconscious, which would have been troublesome.

The fact proves that forcibly suppressing a released superpower is extremely harmful to one’s health, which is nothing like sitting back down after pooping... Oh, and don’t eat while reading this.

Am I too late with the heads-up?

After confirming that the target was immobilized, Vega quickly led several armored scorpions forward to install fixation locks and radiation crystals for purification on Hades. Due to his massive size, they used the manpower equivalent of several hundred people to arm this giant like a Terracotta Warrior, while Sandora and I walked beside Hades’s huge head, conversing while bowed, searching for Dingdang.

"Clearly, he was knocked out by a spiritual shock," I professionally assessed.

Sandora lowered her head and said, "Based on that bump, it’s likely you knocked him out."

Me: "..." ƒгeewёbnovel.com

"Cough cough, anyway, this method successfully neutralized his troublesome power of death. Speaking of which, where on earth did Dingdang crawl off to?"

Sandora and I struggled tremendously rummaging through Hades’s hair—finding such a tiny thing taller only slightly more than a comb in a brain roughly 1.3 meters high and a pile of hair about two meters long was very difficult. Last time Dingdang flew around the house and accidentally plunged into the storeroom, we searched for her for a long time until Anwina, about to mop the floor, discovered the Lady Goddess already sleeping inside the mop.

Just then, a crisp and pleasant voice rang out, "Ah Jun! What are you looking for?"

Without raising my head, I responded, "Searching for you."

...

A few seconds later, the Atlantian warriors, who were busy clearing the battlefield and treating wounded soldiers, simultaneously looked up towards the noisy Dawn Terrace.

"Hey, hey! Don’t get impulsive, little one! Impulse is the devil! Impulse is the devil! Don’t bite my ear!"

"Dingdang will bite you! Ah Jun, don’t run! Dingdang really is gonna bite! Dingdang is so fierce!"

Vega shrugged and said to the stunned Youyouzi beside her, "Keep working, you’ll get used to it. We certainly have."

The purification of Hades didn’t take too long since he naturally possessed an extremely strong will, and after letting Dingdang bump into his head, the Life Divine Power dispelled about eighty percent of the Abyss energy within him. I fully tried exploring and experimenting to get Dingdang to agree to hit Hades’ head again, but I nearly ended up with a hole in my ear from the little thing, so that plan had to be canceled. However, even if Dingdang was reluctant to help, we had a backup plan: under the barrage of several hundred times the amount of purification crystals, this twelve-meter-tall giant got sifted through and woke up after about ten minutes, looking fine except for the occasional leg cramp while walking.

The group stood on the Dawn Terrace, discussing their next move for advancement. The Armored Scorpions had cleared the main facilities of the Central District with their usual brutality and efficiency. The Leader Bee designated that area as the frontline construction site for the ground troops, employing a shameless on-the-spot resurrection tactic to help the army eliminate the Abyss Monsters, greatly outnumbering our forces. The Xyrin Host was also gradually restoring power to the city’s defense systems, and their work was exceptionally effective: looking around, the black fog that had once shrouded the ancient streets was now barely visible, and the two-dimensional patterns on the ground had also greatly dissipated, indicating that everything was progressing in our favor.

Hades, standing twelve meters tall, sat next to us reporting the situation. He was still twitching from the large dose of the Purification Crystal earlier, but speaking was not a problem.

"To breach the Inner City defenses, the first thing that must be destroyed is the Sighing Wall," the colossal Netherworld God said in a deep tone, "It is a wall that surrounds the entire Inner City, powered by never-extinguishing crystals. The Sighing Wall has no thickness or substance; it is a screen formed by energy and can transform external attacks into defensive power, making it a very powerful barrier, one that even the armies of the demons have failed to break through. After the catastrophe, Zeus activated this shield in an attempt to imprison the demon power, but it was too late, my brothers and monsters were trapped on the other side."

"The Multi-Energy Feedback Field," Sandora helped translate Hades’s rambling words into something I could understand, "independently powered, automatically adjusts the defensive coefficient based on external attacks, absorbing attack energy for self-strengthening— it’s a high-level barrier, much like the one outside the bridge of the Imperial Admiral. Of course, this thing is not indestructible, the Multi-Energy Feedback Field has low resistance to kinetic energy, and a sufficient amount of kinetic force can break it."

Knowing that even Hades’s description of the impregnable defense barrier had its weaknesses, I relaxed and said to the towering figure next to me, "Then let’s prepare for battle—where are your Netherworld Fighters?"

An awkward silence followed.

Vega approached us again, bringing up her Imperial-inspired attack plan which involved taking the shortest straight line path from here onward, flattening the Ancestor Corridor and all buildings along the way, to the base of the Sighing Wall directly. Scorpion Sister had meticulously revised this action plan, using about three thousand words as a preamble, thoroughly explaining the advances, effectiveness, representation, and historical inevitability of the straight-line attack. However, her actual action plan ended disappointingly with one phrase: Charge in and slash away. I had to reject this Pandora-style combat deployment yet again, as I noticed that Hades’s trembling never stopped whenever we looked at the combat map.

The subsequent actions went smoothly. Although we did not take the most straightforward route, the city, already partially destroyed by the monsters, still had many roads suitable for a surprise attack. The Helium-3 fueled Armored Scorpions cut through enemies like slicing through melons, and occasionally, powerfully ferocious monsters forced the Regular Army into tough fights. Sandora and I personally intervened, ensuring not a single small monster could survive to see the backs of our heads. During this time, Pandora and Visca, through the Spiritual Connection, sent me several requests to join the battle, but upon learning about the average height of the Atlantians, the two little ones opted to listen to a couple of comic duos first to adjust their mood...

Here, one could see just how merciless Visca was in the past: You almost wiped out an entire race, how could you still not remember their average height?

After a hurried march, the ground troops finally reached the last checkpoint of this battle, a translucent Energy Barrier radiating with a silvery-white glow.

Ordinary city buildings ceased on this side of the Sighing Wall; through the semi-translucent barrier, I could see a completely different style of majestic building areas on the other side. There, sprawling palaces towered majestically along with the withering yet still delicate and beautiful Sky Gardens. Despite being shrouded by dark fog, these buildings did not lose the grandeur of the past days. Beyond these structures, the Sighing Wall closed off on the other end. AssemblyCopyright through the two layers of curtain, we could vaguely see a series of temples built along the contours of Mount Olympus, their remaining radiance particularly striking in the darkness.

Looking at those temples reminded me again of the Saint Fighters.

Sandora stroked the barrier in front of her: "This is the Sighing Wall, the last defense of the Inner City. Breaking through here, we can take over the entire city. The main engines inside are offline and cannot be controlled remotely. We must activate them manually after we get inside."

I listened to Vega’s frontline report through the command link, adding, "Hmm, another unit has already reached the Fragment crash site. Once we clear the Inner City, they will start attempting to move the fragments. They circumvented this layer of barrier, and two Scorpions, upon hearing that kinetic energy can break through the barrier, eagerly tried and ended up with broken tails and being sent back to the Mother Ship..."

"Boom!"

Suddenly, an enormous crash resounded, and an Armored Scorpion, waxed and hobbling, limped past us, her tail broken in half and sparking inside. This probably didn’t hurt much, but it definitely wounded the dignity of the Scorpion Girl deeply.

"... Now there are three of them." (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote and recommend at qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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