The group set off in a grand, majestic procession.
Walking out of the gloomy, damp, and heavy cave, the night outside had already ended. The dark clouds had dispersed, and the sun was rising in the east. Warm light shone on their bodies, refreshing both mind and spirit.
Vibrant Asphodel flowers bloomed like spurting flames across the vast plain. Rusted weapons and armor lay scattered everywhere, giving off a strange yet tragic beauty.
The magnetic fields emitted by the three directional anchors had driven all the Dark Tide creations from the entire Sanguiis Plateau onto the Asphodel Barrens.
Although there were thousands of Dark Tide creations gathered here, they still appeared sparse across the wide plain.
"The terrain here is flat and open. There is no need to worry about other Tacet Discords launching sneak attacks. In every gladiatorial battle in the past, we have welcomed the final decisive fight right here."
Augusta stood with her arms crossed in front of her chest, her gaze sweeping across everyone:
"This is a life-and-death game of evenly matched opponents. Everyone, go ahead and chase the glory that belongs to you!"
As soon as her words fell, the first response did not come from the gladiators, but from the tyrant Corrosaurus roaring and pouncing over from the plain.
"The prey has arrived." Augusta's lips curved upward. "I'll set an example for everyone first!"
Facing the aggressive tyrant Corrosaurus, she held her giant blade and charged forward first.
"Avidius, the Ephor has already gone up. What are you still waiting for? Hurry up!"
Elder Falco was extremely anxious and quickly urged Avidius. However, the latter actually bowed to him:
"I'm sorry, Elder Falco."
Avidius stood up straight, his face carrying an apologetic smile:
"I am an undercover agent."
"What!"
Elder Falco's eyes nearly split open in fury. His finger pointing at Avidius kept trembling:
"You—you—you are a traitor!"
With Augusta's charge, most of the gladiators did not stay idle. They spread out across the Hunting Ground, striding forward and chasing their respective prey.
"Laureate, can I go up?"
"Go ahead."
After letting Cartethyia go to kill Tacet Discords, Noah walked to Iuno's side. The latter was staring intently at Augusta's fighting figure, her expression grave.
"What's wrong? The genius priestess doesn't look very happy?"
"I'm thinking about one thing." Iuno didn't turn her gaze, biting her lip tightly:
"The tyrant Corrosaurus was the bait that me and Augusta prepared for 'it'."
"Before, we all believed that 'it' would definitely take the bait."
"But now... I have a vague premonition that 'it' won't take the bait anymore..."
Noah, who was familiar with the plot, knew that the "it" here referred to the strongest creation in the Dark Tide—the False Sovereign.
In the original plot, when Augusta beat the tyrant Corrosaurus to a heavy injury, the False Sovereign would release the Dark Tide to devour the tyrant, while also exposing itself.
This time, would it still appear?
Noah was unsure. He simply switched his perspective to Iuno's and looked toward the people on the Asphodel Barrens.
A scene immediately unfolded before his eyes.
Dark clouds spiraled in the high sky like a black giant beast, yet they were strangely clear, like an inverted sea. The air was filled with stagnant, round water droplets everywhere.
The originally bright and vivid plain became eerie and sinister. The number of humans and Tacet Discords had suddenly multiplied several times, appearing illusory and real, making it hard to distinguish truth from falsehood.
A large amount of information flowed into his mind through this scene. Noah's thoughts froze in shock:
"Etheric Sea… Retroact Rain… But—how is this possible?"
A piece of ancient information was immediately recalled by him.
That was before Phrolova's main storyline, when the Shorekeeper personally shared intelligence with him: the Black Shores had detected frequency fluctuations of Ovathrax within Rinascita's range.
...
"Hello hello everyone~ Welcome to the live stream of the 'Future Champion of the Gladiatorial Tournament'. This is the Asphodel Barrens, the once-every-four-years Dark Tide surge period!"
Lupa enthusiastically introduced using the floating recorder produced by Montelli:
"Through the previous efforts, the warriors of Septimont have already driven all the Dark Tide creations here. Next, we only need to hunt the creations here, and this hunt will be perfectly concluded."
She revealed her signature canine teeth. Her delicate face looked very cute as she spun her flame-flag spear:
"The streamer has already set up automatic tracking. Everyone, follow me to hunt the Dark Tide creations!"
With that, she switched to combat stance. A pair of mechanical wolf ears perked up as she charged fiercely toward the nearest Dark Tide creation with her spear.
She gracefully dodged the Frostspearman's arrow with a sidestep, swiftly swept to the side of the Tacet Discord, spun her flame-flag spear half a circle to lift the Frostspearman, then delivered a heavy, powerful stab into its abdomen.
Her movements were clean, neat, and extremely efficient, drawing cheers from the five thousand viewers in the live stream.
[Dreaming of Becoming a Gladiator: The streamer is too strong! She instantly killed one creation.]
[Lupa Loyal Dog Fan: That's the gladiatorial champion. She's super awesome.]
[Participants in the Hunt Are All Great: I think I saw the Ephor. Can the streamer turn the camera over?]
"The Ephor?"
Lupa obligingly shifted the camera. She saw Augusta throwing her giant sword into the air, then swinging a heavy punch into the side of the tyrant Corrosaurus's face. The powerful strike sent the tyrant spinning in place.
She slightly bent her knees, then leaped high, caught the giant sword in mid-air, and using the momentum of her descent, swung the giant sword and smashed it fiercely toward the tyrant.
[Little Priestess: Ah! This is the scene from the prophecy! The Hero King—Ephor Augusta is the Hero King from the prophecy!]
[Medium Priestess: Screenshot taken. I'm going to ask Granny Lillibet.]
[Big Priestess: Confirmed with Granny Lillibet. This is the prophecy coming true.]
"Wow! I actually live-streamed such an epic scene!"
Lupa excitedly clenched her fist, feeling her blood surge with pride and honor. She eagerly interacted with the viewers in the live stream:
"The Ephor is fighting the tyrant. I can't fall behind either. Everyone, please continue watching me hunt!"
She shouldered her spear and strode quickly toward another Dark Tide creation on the plain, humming a cheerful tune she had heard from the Troupe of Fools:
"Blade, fiercely slash the Snowwing Eagle~"
[Senate Little Spy: I think I saw Avidius and Elder Falco from the corner of the screen. They seem to be arguing?]
[Not As Good As Jinzhou: Septimont's hunt looks quite average. Not as good as Jinzhou's Tacet Discord tides.]
[Jinzhou Border Defense Taoqi: The person upstairs, please don't say things that are not conducive to unity.]
[Ragunna Bard: Eh, I think I saw the Hero. Streamer, streamer, quickly turn the camera to the Hero. That's the top Quick Tone influencer supported internally by the Montelli family!]
The word "Hero" instantly shifted the attention of the vast majority of people in the live stream. They sent bullet comments and forwarded the stream, asking Lupa to switch the camera.
With a large number of Quick Tone gifts being sent, the number of viewers in the live stream skyrocketed from a few thousand to over one hundred thousand and kept rising.
However, Lupa was fully immersed in chasing and hunting Tacet Discords and didn't notice the bullet comments at all.
She ran, she swung her spear, she shattered Tacet Discords. Only when she finally stopped to rest from exhaustion did she suddenly notice the change in the weather.
At some point, the originally clear sky had been covered by thick dark clouds, shrouding the entire Asphodel Barrens in shadow.
Looking up, the viscous dark clouds were strangely clear like the sea surface. Countless frequencies converged into heavy Reverberation energy, falling like raindrops.
"Wow, what unique weather. Fans, let me show you too."
Lupa adjusted the floating recorder and only then noticed the bullet comments.
[Shining Opal: Rocket*99 sent.]
[Shining Opal: Quickly turn the camera to the Hero.]
[Professional Debunker: What Hero? He's just someone who relies on editing to attract attention. The Tacet Mark positions in every video are different. Probably just a sticker. In reality, he must be an ordinary person.]
[Dark Jellyfish Spirit: ?]
[Blazing Feather Strategist: ??]
[Other Shore Little Resentful Phrolova: ???]
"Oh oh, everyone wants to see Teacher. Sorry, I didn't notice the bullet comments just now. I'll go ask him."
Lupa slightly adjusted her steps and quickly ran toward Noah's direction.
The recorder inadvertently captured the clouds in the sky. Although it should have been a bright daytime, a cold and desolate moon phase slowly emerged from the inverted-sea-like clouds.
Upon seeing this, the bullet comments in the entire live stream fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly erupted like a geyser.
[Midnight Ranger Field Medic General: Etheric Sea, Retroact Rain. Is this really Septimont?]
[Not As Good As Jinzhou: 666, I got slapped in the face. I take back my previous words about not being as good as Jinzhou.]
[Black Shores Intelligence Merchant: Highest Black Shores warning triggered!]
[Buling Spirit or Not: Retroact Rain plus Dark Tide. Buffs are fully stacked. Streamer, run!]
The gloomy clouds diluted the originally intense hunting atmosphere across the entire Asphodel Barrens.
"Teacher, what are you doing here?"
Lupa finally reached Noah. She saw him slightly tilting his head upward, gazing at the sea-like clouds in the sky. His eyes were deep and bright.
Beside him stood Iuno, her face pale.
Just now, she couldn't help but take a look at everyone's future.
Augusta's future was black.
Noah's future was also black.
The futures of everyone on the plain—all of them—were black.
She didn't know what was about to happen, but whatever it was, it was definitely not something she wanted to see.
If Septimont's fate had already been predetermined long ago, then could all of this… really be changed?
Iuno didn't know the answer to this question. She only knew that she hated this feeling of powerlessness to the core.
Raindrops made of pure Reverberation energy pierced through the barrier between sky and earth, falling pitter-patter and dripping onto Lupa's mechanical wolf ears, causing them to twitch.
"It's raining, Teacher. I think I brought an umbrella in my luggage bag. I'll go get it for you."
"There's no need for that."
Stopping Lupa, Noah took a few steps forward. A blue Terminal loop instantly covered the entire Asphodel Barrens.
With another step, the surrounding blue loop domain instantly turned purple, then into a gilded color.
The Crown of Unyielding Fate appeared in his palm. Clear water currents flowed around the sword, reflecting the gloomy sky and earth.
He slowly raised the sword in his hand. In an instant, the surrounding air trembled violently. Invisible fierce winds gathered with the longsword as the center.
His body momentarily expanded to three meters tall, followed by a meteor-like sword swing.
A dazzling white light followed the sword's edge. The arc was fiercer than lightning. At first it was only as thin as a hair, but the moment it was slashed out, it swelled into a sword qi that pierced through heaven and earth.
Wherever the sword qi passed, the thick dark clouds disintegrated inch by inch, like silk torn apart by an invisible giant hand. The surging cloud masses were split into two rolling waves.
One sword horizontally severing the Etheric Sea—what a stunning sword.
Sunlight poured through the "one" shaped crack in the clouds onto the Asphodel Barrens.
Noah turned his head, looked at the dazed Lupa and Iuno behind him, put away his longsword, suddenly patted his head, and only then spoke:
"Furious tides, split the heavens!"
...