Chapter 874: Tragedy
Lin Li’s knowledge of the Whispering God was not from any myths and legends or literature pieces in Anril, but from the Endless World, which was the in-game world with countless players.
The so-called Whispering God was not an actual god, but the horror it brought to every player in the Endless World was far greater than any other real god could bring. The power of the gods might be stronger, but they had never personally descended into the world, and the Whispering Gods had brought major disasters to the Endless World. The destruction of the City of Stars and many other cruel wars and calamities were all caused by the Whispering Gods.
Even though the disasters caused by the Whispering Gods only happened in the in-game world, Lin Li still had a clear memory of it. At that time, he received a notification from the system which called on high-level players to go to the City of Stars to participate in the defense mission which offered extremely generous rewards as soon as he logged on. It felt like a gift of benefits. However, when he arrived outside the City of Stars, he realized that it was a damned scam by the system because it was simply an impossible task.
In the sky of the City of Stars that was known as the largest city in the Endless World, there was a Whispering God, massive in size and waving its countless tentacles while filling the entire city with endless whispers. All the mage players would instantly lose their mana as long as they had not entered the Legendary-realm. They would become worse than a level-1 novice, and no amount of potions would help. Legendary-mages would not last long, either. They were still flying in the air and casting spells at the start, but they fell like raindrops soon enough, cackling in the air. Only the Warriors, Assassins, and Hunters could retain their combat power. However, they could not cause the slightest harm to the Whispering God.
The high-level leaders of various profession unions in the City of Stars like the Guild of Magic, Guild of Warriors, and Guild of Assassins, who were also the NPCs who were originally responsible for imparting skills, all rose into the sky one by one. They exhibited their powers unreservedly and exerted their unknown strength to the fullest. To be honest, even a person who had lived in the City of Stars for a long time would never imagine there to be so many Legendary powerhouses in the city.
However, although the strength of those NPC Legendary powerhouses was incredible, they still couldn’t do anything to the Whispering God. According to the official statement, the first person to fall had reached the pinnacle of the Legendary-realm, and was only a step away from the Sanctuary-realm. Next, all 10 senior executives of the Guild of Magic, from Chief Judges to mage instructor, failed to escape from the tentacles of the Whispering God.
The President of the Guild of Warriors, Sword Sage Casparo, fell next, and the 13 Legendary-level Sword Sages who were senior executives of the guild all fell too. As the President of the Guild of Assassins, Etow, fell, the 12 Master-level Assassins of the guild followed…
Only Daniel, the President of the Guild of Hunters, managed to lose just an arm and his Hunter King bow after summoning his pet, Thunderhawk Queen, which blocked a fatal blow for him. He then escaped from the City of Stars in time. However, none of the other senior members of the Guild of Hunters were as lucky as him. They all died together with their pets.
Seeing those powerful NPCs growing weak and helpless in the face of the Whispering God like novice players, all the other players present were on the verge of breaking down and collapsing. Originally, they were full of confidence, and wanted to get the generous reward for the mission, but at that moment, they dropped their weapons and fled for their lives.
However, in the face of the players who had lost their intentions to resist, the Whispering God did not show any mercy. Instead, it slowly moved over the City of Stars like a hot air balloon while its countless tentacles constantly fell down, stabbing the bodies of the players and NPCs one after another like harpoons of fishermen.
In that disaster, the Whispering God unscrupulously slaughtered hundreds of thousands of players, as well as countless NPCs who had been living in the City of Stars. Even the castellan of the City of Stars was not spared, and the City of Stars was almost destroyed and completely erased from Endless World in one day.
Although Lin Li was still some distance away from the City of Stars then, he was hiding in the grass and did not dare to move. Seeing the Whispering God slaughter and destroy the City of Stars, he could only secretly thank himself for procrastinating and missing out on the “benefits”.
Afterward, the official website of Endless World was almost overwhelmed by players who cursed their hearts out and demanded a reasonable explanation. The Endless World officials finally gave some information and explanations about the Whispering God, claiming that it was not a creature that was part of the background setting at the beginning of the game design, but was automatically generated by some algorithms in the game. In other words, it was a game loophole that was beyond their control.
According to the official statement, the Whispering God was not a creature that could reproduce naturally. Instead, it was a monster that transcended the laws of nature, and had been condensed from the countless Souls of The Dead of those that died during the war between the City of Stars and the City of Moon.
Of course, the debris of the stars and the Endless Labyrinth that Lin Li designed had all appeared in the world of Anril. Hence, there was nothing too strange about the Whispering God appearing too. However, Lin Li still clearly remembered that the official announcement in the Endless World mentioned that only the Souls of The Dead that had been around for thousands of years or tens of thousands of years could condense into the Whispering God, so why did such a monster appear in Prince Brahere’s mausoleum?
However, time did not allow Lin Li to think about the answer to that question. No matter what, he was sure that the monster in front of him was the Whispering God, and he now had to think of a way to escape. In the game, he could die and respawn, but they were not in a game now. If he were to die, everything would be over.
At this time, the Whispering God was producing endless whispers while launching ferocious attacks on the expedition. The countless tentacles looked soft and weak, but at the moment of attack, they became sharper than any other weapon. The Warriors in the team were all wearing top standard armor, yet it seemed like fragile paper in front of the Whispering God’s tentacles.
“All Warriors must protect mages!”
Seeing that the mages under them had all become lambs that were waiting to be slaughtered, and the Warriors’ attacks were unable to cause effective damage to the Whispering God, Joseph and Claus quickly ordered the Warriors to give up and guard the mages nearby to help them resist the tentacles.
At this moment, the situation was a little embarrassing for the Tower of Dusk. Their team was composed of Archmages, and under ordinary circumstances, their combat power would definitely be the strongest of the four teams. However, in the face of the Whispering God, all the mages below the Legendary-realm lost their combat power immediately. Other teams had Warriors to guard them, but the Tower of Dusk did not have any Warriors. Had Joseph and Claus not been dealing with the Whispering God, they would have been thrilled to see the state that the Tower of Dusk was in.
Hoffman also saw the trouble that the Tower of Dusk was facing. However, the Glittergold Trade Union was having a hard time too, and did not have time to even take care of the mages of the Tower of Dusk. However, despite that, Hoffman asked Lin Li, “President Felic, let your people enter our formation. If you go on like this…”
If that were to go on, the mages might not be able to endure until they found a solution, and would end up being killed by the Whispering God! Lin Li knew about that, of course. He felt somewhat regretful for not bringing the Holy Death Knights.
As for now, Lin Li was very clear that even if he joined the Glittergold Trade Union, the Glittergold Trade Union’s Warriors would not be enough to protect everyone. On the contrary, it would cause the Glittergold Trade Union to have many loopholes, and both parties would be at the losing end. Hence, he resolutely rejected Hoffman’s suggestion, and instead handed the duty of protection over to Connoris and Norfeller. At the same time, he summoned the Legendary demon Gordon, whom he had subdued in the Sky Castle.
The demon Gordon was initially not that outstanding when he was under Lin Li, but in a situation like this, it played a considerable role. First of all, its body which was made of various magical metals gave it a strong defensive power that was unmatched by any armor, and the sharp blades its arms formed could also deal certain damage to the tentacles of the Whispering God, though not great. It could also prevent the Whispering God’s attacks to a certain extent.
The Goblin Angelano, who had been shivering out of fear of the Whispering God, also released 20 alchemy puppets at this moment, and joined the team’s defense. The alchemy puppets were not Shadow Iron Shadow Assassins, but Warrior-type alchemy puppets that were made of strong magical metals which were specially used for overcoming melee traps.
With three Legendary powerhouses and 20 alchemy puppets, they could barely protect the mages who had lost their combat power. However, Lin Li knew very well in his heart that those were only a temporary solution. If a way to deal with the Whispering God could not be found in time, the mages and he himself would be doomed.
Due to the fact that they had to take care of the mages who had lost their combat power, there were not many people who could really fight the Whispering God. After all, an Archmage was a precious asset to any force.
However, the Whispering God that they were facing at this moment was already at the pinnacle of the Legendary-level. Unless someone could suppress it, no magic or offensive spell could deal damage to it. The Legendary-level Sword Sage’s invincible fighting power could only give it a huge cut, but terrifying magic spells would disappear even before touching its body.
The only thing to be thankful for might be the direct attacking power of the Whispering God, which was relatively lacking. Since it couldn’t release real magic spells, in addition to constantly devouring everyone’s mana, the Whispering God could only rely on its tentacles to attack. The power that it could exert was below level-22, but that was terrifying enough. If there were only tens of tentacles, it would be fine, but the problem was that the entire room was full of its tentacles, making it impossible to count how many there were.
Joseph continued to wave the King of Flames Staff in his hand. The magic spell that he was casting now was probably enough to destroy a city, but after seeing that the magic light dissipated, and the monster was unharmed, he was overwhelmed with fear that could not be suppressed. What made him feel disappointed was the fact that the massive mana in his body was rapidly diminishing over time as if dozens of Legendary magic spells were being cast every second.
The Whispering God’s rate of mana depletion did not stop, and even sped up. Soon, the level-22 Legendary-mages who were fighting had no choice but to retreat. Although they did not fall out of the Legendary-realm, they could not go on.
What made it worse was the fact that although they had all first arranged to protect the mages, the screams behind them were almost uninterrupted from the beginning of the battle. Among them were the voices of mages and Warriors. Although there was only one Whispering God, the countless tentacles were like countless enemies, and the pervasive attacks were simply impossible to guard against.
In this case, it was no longer time to hide his trump cards. Staying alive was the most important. Joseph had no doubt that if the situation went on, he would not be able to escape his fate of being buried for Prince Brahere.
At the thought of this, Joseph once again released a massive Flame Dragon before quickly retreating a certain distance, and then he began to chant a spell. As he did, a huge Six-pointed Star Array appeared in the open space not far in front of him. The light of the array became brighter and brighter. After reaching its extreme, it suddenly converged and turned dim. However, the light dissipated and left a huge body behind with two horns on its head. It was a black Abyssal Demon Dragon.
The Abyssal Demon Dragon’s summoning! All of a sudden, everyone seemed a little surprised, especially the Dida Family of the Mithril Alliance. They couldn’t believe their eyes. The spell that summoned the Abyssal Demon had always been an unspoken secret of the Dida Family ever since the Ashen Warlock gave it to them. No one had known that Joseph had mastered that spell.
Moreover, the former patriarch of the Dida Family, Charles’ father, was also killed because he summoned the Abyssal Demon Dragon. Although the Abyssal Demon Dragon was only at level-23, it was powerful in all aspects, and it would not be a problem for it to kill level-24 powerhouses. How did Joseph manage to successfully summon an adult Abyssal Demon Dragon?