booktalesy Chapter 173 The Last Stand of the Ring of Ashes
Chapter 173 The Last Stand of the Ring of Ashes
Chapter 173 The Last Stand of the Ring of Ashes
Everything seemed calm, but both the Holy Tower and the Empire felt the suffocating oppression before the storm.
Suddenly, in the dead of night, just three days before the start of the low period, energy monitoring stations set up throughout the fragmented world simultaneously received a strong and abnormal surge in global energy readings!
It wasn't that a weak point was opened, but rather that the energy background of the entire world of the Scorching Hell fragments began to boil violently and chaotically, like water droplets falling into a hot oil pan!
The energy reading curve fluctuated wildly, completely losing its regularity. The free energy particles in the air became abnormally active and volatile, even triggering a small-scale natural energy storm.
"What's going on?!" Luo Lin, who rushed to the monitoring center after receiving the emergency notification, frowned as he looked at the glaring red alarm and chaotic waveforms on the screen.
Duden, pale-faced, operated the terminal, attempting to analyze the data source.
"The source of this energy burst is not just one!"
"At least three, no, four powerful energy sources have been activated simultaneously in different locations within the fragmented world!"
"They're frantically draining the surrounding earth's ley line energy and—life energy?!"
"Wait, the life energy reading is abnormally low!"
"Life energy is waning?" Roland's heart sank.
Just then, reports of chaos and panic came from various observation posts and patrols on the front lines.
"A dark purple pillar of light erupted from the direction of the Eternal Throat volcano!"
"The pillar of light contains numerous distorted, ghostly figures!"
"Deep within the Ash Plains, the ground cracked open, spewing forth a torrent of energy mixed with dark purple and blood!"
"Similar energy bursts have been discovered in multiple locations in the northern and southern parts of the Burning Mountains!"
"Members of the Ring of Ashes have been observed gathering; they—they are performing a massive sacrifice!"
"The sacrifices are—the slaves and monsters they themselves have gathered, and—their own low-ranking members!"
"The plants and animals around the energy burst point are withering rapidly! Life energy is being forcibly extracted!"
The Ring of Ashes has gone mad!
They are not using weaknesses to guide others, but rather activating multiple massive sacrificial arrays simultaneously throughout the entire fragmented world!
At the cost of massive amounts of life energy and ley line energy, a certain ultimate and destructive ritual is performed!
"What the hell are they trying to do?!" Commander Hector's angry voice came through the communication crystal, with the background noise of energy explosions and battle sounds.
Imperial forces are attempting to approach the nearest flare point, but are being held back by raging energy turbulence and the desperate, dying resistance of the Ash Ring.
Master Veranika's projection appeared in the monitoring center, her voice more solemn than ever before: "They are carrying out a world-class sacrifice—the goal is not to guide a certain being, but to completely corrupt and distort the energy core of this fragmented world, transforming it into an eternal, chaotic, and destructive gate to hell."
"Or some unimaginably evil creation! They want to sacrifice the entire fragmented world and countless lives!"
The energy reading on the monitoring screen has exceeded the safety threshold and continues to climb.
The spatial structure of the fragmented world began to show signs of instability, with spatial distortions and minute cracks appearing in some areas.
"We must stop them! Concentrate all our forces immediately and attack the nearest sacrificial core!" Wizard Horn's voice was urgent.
However, once the sacrificial array is activated, the extracted energy forms a powerful self-protective barrier and is deeply connected to the ley line network of the entire fragmented world.
A forced attack could trigger a larger-scale energy backlash and spatial collapse.
"It's too late—" Roland stared at the apocalyptic energy diffusion diagram on the screen, his brain racing.
"Multiple sacrificial cores are linked together, and the energy has formed a closed loop."
"Forcibly interrupting one will cause energy to surge into other cores through the ley line network, which may actually accelerate the process."
"Unless—all the cores are destroyed at the same time, or their connection to the ley line network is severed."
"Destroy all the cores at the same time? We have no idea of their exact locations or numbers!" Duden said in despair.
"Sever the connection of the earth veins—" Rolin's gaze fell on another screen, which displayed a distribution map of the Observer Relics Network.
The Infernal Observation Tower and Hub-2—these observer anchor points were established to stabilize the fragmented world and regulate the energy of the ley lines!
"Perhaps—we can do the opposite." Roland suddenly raised his head and looked at the projection of Master Veranica.
"The Ash Ring is frantically drawing energy from the earth's veins, causing the entire network to overload and become chaotic."
"If we can activate all available observer legacy anchors, not to stabilize them, but to actively guide and amplify this overload and disorder according to the extreme case response protocols in the observer network design, causing the entire ley line energy network to collapse and restart in a very short time!"
"Crash and reboot?" Duden gasped.
"That would cause the ley line energy in the entire fragmented world to be temporarily and completely depleted, or even go berserk!"
"This could trigger a major geological catastrophe, or even permanent damage to the spatial structure!"
"But it can also instantly cut off the energy supply to all sacrificial arrays, and may destroy the array core itself due to the energy backlash!" Rolin spoke very quickly.
"This is choosing the lesser of two evils!"
"Once the sacrifice of the Ring of Ashes is complete, this fragmented world will become a true hell on earth, and may even become a springboard for the corrupted source force to invade the prime material world!"
"Observers may have established these anchor points precisely to address this level of catastrophic threat!"
The monitoring center was deathly silent.
The only sounds were the instrument's sharp alarm and the beeping sound indicating that the energy reading had exceeded its limit.
Master Veronica's projection remained silent for a few seconds, then her sharp gaze fell upon Roland: "Are you confident in activating and controlling multiple relic anchor points to perform this kind of overload guidance?"
"Although Hub-2 is damaged, its basic control loop should still be able to respond."
"We've explored the Infernal Observation Tower before; its control core is relatively intact."
"There are several other discovered secondary remnant nodes that I can try to access remotely and coordinate control through the underlying protocol of the observer network," Rowling said quickly.
"But this requires the highest level of authority, immediate authorization from the Holy Tower and the Empire, and the mobilization of all available energy sources to provide me with remote control support and fuel!"
"I will communicate with the Empire immediately!" Commander Hector's voice rang out decisively.
"We are willing to provide all our reserves of fire energy cores and priestly power!"
"The Forge can serve as the largest transit node!"
"The Holy Tower grants its authorization! All resources will be directed towards you!" Master Veranika made the decision immediately.
"Duden, you're in charge of coordinating all data support!"
"Horn, you take men to protect Rolin and make sure he's not disturbed! Execute the Anchor Point Overload Plan immediately!"
There was no time to hesitate.
The energy readings of the fragmented world have begun to trigger small-scale spatial rifts, and the dark red clouds in the sky are spinning wildly like vortexes.
Roland was urgently escorted to the core control room at the Santa headquarters, where the energy was most stable.
This place connects to the Holy Tower's vast energy pool and remote transmission network.
Commander Hector also temporarily opened access to the Furnace Fortress's energy core via special communication.
Before them were several enormous crystal screens, displaying the status of each discovered observer remnant node, the real-time flow graph of the ley line energy network, and the energy burst status of the Ash Ring sacrifice point.
Luo Lin sat cross-legged on the central magic circle, his mind connected to the helmet and control system.
He wore the Insight Ring on his left hand and held the polyhedral crystal that served as the secondary access key in his right.