Chapter 285: The Twin Black Tower is Falling Down!
If there was one word that could describe the current state of mind of both Dareth and the Twin Goddesses, it would undoubtedly be "absurd."
Even though the Twin Goddesses had personally crafted the super-dreadnought-class rock-boring machine, they never imagined it would actually cause such extensive damage to the Black Tower, a creation of the Source of Demonic Energy.
But compared to the Twin Goddesses, who were more inclined towards positive thinking, Dareth was utterly stunned.
The first floor of the Black Tower was not so much destroyed as it was annihilated. Not only its physical form, but even the demonic units belonging to it were completely sealed from any possibility of re-formation due to the loss of their power source.
Dareth even felt the Source of Demonic Energy within him, specifically the wind-elemental part of his power, being directly sealed.
Almost instinctively, he tried to channel his magic to conjure a magical wind, but nothing happened.
This discovery filled Dareth with unprecedented panic and rage!
And just at that moment, Dareth saw a fire-headed skeleton soldier pop out directly from the head of the Tower-Devouring Serpent!?
Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack~
The skeleton soldier rapidly clacked its jaws, letting out an overly obvious and direct mocking sound at him, and after giving him the middle finger to express some inter-universal friendship, it immediately burrowed back in!
"You motherf—!"
No matter how refined and easygoing Dareth usually was, he completely lost it. A curse word he had never uttered in his life uncontrollably burst out at that moment.
But the Great Serpent would not stop its devouring due to his anger, and this time, it was the second floor of the Black Tower, the Water Prison Domain, that began to suffer.
With this bite from the Great Serpent, the damaged outer wall even began to leak water. As the clear water met the infernal flames on the Great Serpent's body, a large amount of steam immediately rose, conspicuously visible!
A peculiar magical fluctuation spread out in all directions, centered around Dareth.
All the demonic creatures, who had originally been executing their initial orders, at this moment collectively abandoned their clashes with the players' front lines and began to retreat without hesitation. Even being attacked from behind or dying did not stop their backward movement—
Dareth issued a command for all demonic creatures to return and focus their fire on the Infernal Great Serpent!
This was the most normal and reliable choice; Cheng Mouren would have given the exact same instructions. After all, if the main tower was gone, what use would further advancing the front lines be?
In a sense, this was the worst situation for Cheng Tian, who was currently pushing the tower.
Since almost all of his abilities were focused on excavation and destruction of tower-like structures, if an enemy stood directly in front of the Infernal Great Serpent's mouth, its attacks could still be somewhat effective. But if they were in other positions, especially during its current operational state, the Infernal Great Serpent could only become a living target.
Dareth realized this point, so he decisively ordered a retreat.
Of course, the demonic side's front lines could sacrifice a small number to achieve a full army retreat. However, the Axe Maniac and Axe Woman combination, who were also tasked with tower-stealing but whose scale and intensity were incomparable to Cheng Tian's personal execution, could not easily retreat.
With Saul, the strongest knight of the ancient Yisu Kingdom, and Hion, the strongest priest of the ancient Yisu Kingdom, these two old-timers on the field, even deeply demonized Kishu and Saba, if they dared to expose their backs, they would face a fatal, merciless blow!
The current confrontation between the Twin Towers was a battle to the death; only the complete defeat of one side would end everything. This alone was enough for the Yisu Kingdom's forces to completely abandon any lingering pity for their enemies.
"Insolent blasphemer! You have only one outcome: to die before me!
The only difference is whether you immediately kneel before me and willingly accept death now, or if you are dragged out of this useless iron lump and crushed into fine dust by us a few minutes later."
Perhaps he had already envisioned Cheng Tian's death, as Dareth, whose emotions had been fluctuating wildly, now calmed down and no longer wasted magic throwing missiles back and forth with Cheng Tian.
At this moment, Cheng Tian was indeed in a dilemma, forced to be stuck here. With Dareth staring him down, even if he wanted to abandon the Infernal Great Serpent and escape alone, the possibility was extremely low.
Devouring the first floor of the Black Tower was impressive, but he also found himself trapped within an inescapable swarm of monsters.
And even in his Ghost Rider form, he couldn't possibly withstand the siege of a tidal wave of demonic hordes alone... However, Cheng Tian had no intention of escaping at all.
Not even the slightest bit!
In fact, to some extent, he had even anticipated the situation of being surrounded.
Cheng Tian was not someone who enjoyed courting death and seeking thrills. Knowing that the enemy would likely gather forces to activate him, he still chose to directly dig a tunnel to ambush the Black Tower, which meant he had a countermeasure in mind.
And that countermeasure, in fact, lay in the Black Tower itself!
When the Infernal Great Serpent finished devouring the first floor, the Crying Domain of the Black Tower, its own form was somewhat similar to a snake with a wooden stick shoved into its mouth. This caused the Infernal Great Serpent itself to become part of the Black Tower's support.
Even if it was constructed with the Source of Demonic Energy, the Black Tower was always a demonic tower supported by the earth, not a floating tower. In other words, without the Infernal Great Serpent as support, the Black Tower, having lost its first floor, would inevitably collapse.
And under Cheng Tian's control, the Infernal Great Serpent had already begun to act as if regurgitating, starting to move backward with very slow movements.
At this time, a considerable number of retreating demonic creatures began to launch long-range attacks at the Infernal Great Serpent. Various forms of magical missiles struck the Great Serpent's outer shell, making clanging sounds.
Although the single-hit damage from the demonic creatures was reduced to single digits due to the Infernal Flames' high magic resistance and the Twin Goddesses' finely crafted shell, they couldn't withstand the sheer numbers!
The Infernal Great Serpent's durability was being tested!
Dareth, seeing this scene, was initially unmoved, believing Cheng Tian was just making a last-ditch effort. But soon, his expression had surpassed panic and anger, escalating to the purest terror.
Because as the Infernal Great Serpent slowly retreated, the Black Tower, which had been standing upright, actually began to tilt, and the tilting of such a colossal structure would be irreversible!
Yet, that wasn't all. The point where the entire Black Tower would fall was precisely the long line of demonic creatures that had formed as the demonic army collectively retreated upon receiving the information!
"Timberrrrr!"
The Ghost Rider Cheng, who had deliberately gnawed away a large chunk of the first floor's base wall on the side facing the demonic front line during the retreat, let out this shout.
And under the gazes of both friend and foe, filled with fright, shock, or disbelief, the tilting Black Tower accurately and mercilessly slammed down onto the retreating demonic front line of the Dark Clan—
Boom!