The dim forest blocked out the sky and sun, cutting off all light.
Numerous gnarled branches stretched out in every direction, and combined with the originally pitch-black, hardened bark of ancient dead trees, they looked like the arms of countless demons and devils, brimming with gloom and terror.
This was none other than the infamous death zone of the Northern Lands — the Darkness Forest! After the establishment of the Orc Empire, it had been thoroughly occupied by the Black Blood Tribe of the Beastkin, who performed merciless hunting rituals against any outsider who dared set foot here.
But now, a figure in black robes walked calmly through the undergrowth, and the half-orcs and other modified fierce beasts that happened to pass by seemed completely unable to see him, letting him stroll right past.
"The Darkness Forest, the Black Blood Tribe... It's been quite a while."
Leilin studied the somewhat familiar terrain, and memories from his time in Silvermoon City came flooding back, vivid as ever.
To his long life, this was merely a small scenic vignette along his journey, so he quickly resumed his composed expression.
"You're late!"
When he arrived at a certain cave, Leilin's figure seemed to pass through some kind of barrier, disappearing directly into the cave entrance. Then he heard an impatient voice ring out beside his ear.
In the pitch-black surroundings, two figures slowly emerged — none other than the Legendary Druid Aragu and Lilian, whom he had met before. The Paladin Patrick was also there. To think that the four of them would be working together on a mission again after their last encounter — it had to be fate.
"Sorry... the ritual preparations beforehand needed a little time."
Leilin said apologetically. "After all, we're dealing with a True God. Even if it's just an avatar, we need to be fully prepared."
His companions said nothing in response to his explanation, clearly having accepted it.
"If you're done on your end, then the only thing left is Patrick's part..."
Lilian said meaningfully.
Yes! This team of Legendary-class powerhouses had gathered together with one goal — to hunt the Hunt God, Marah.
After the last secret meeting, several more Legendary figures who "aspired to justice" had suddenly received a calling and come to join the righteous cause. Among them were many familiar faces Leilin had seen at the secret gathering.
Although they all knew these Legendary figures had impure motives, the Church and the Silver Moon Queen still accepted them. After all,
As for their true objectives?
Even the Goddess of the
After all, to command Legendary powerhouses, one naturally had to offer compensation! Even gods were rarely exceptions to this rule.
The gods largely turned a blind eye to these Legendary figures' covetousness of Divinity and even Godhead power, since they still needed the strength of Legendary powerhouses for the time being.
As for some Divinity and Divine Power? On the continent, there were no shortage of Legendaries who possessed Divinity, but it could at most boost their power slightly. After hundreds or even thousands of years, they still couldn't ascend to godhood.
For the path to becoming a True God, Divinity was only the first step. The subsequent steps of igniting the Divine Flame and obtaining a Divine Portfolio were far more difficult endeavors.
Not to mention, Divine Avatars were no easy opponents. If Leilin's group could manage to obtain even a sliver of Divinity's power, they should count themselves lucky.
Overall, regarding the little schemes of Leilin and his group of Legendaries, the two Greater
What they didn't know was what terrifying thing had infiltrated this particular team, which would inevitably bring enormous variables to their original plans.
"Good. Once the Transcendence Isolation Matrix has been deployed, the avatar's transcendent properties can be sealed off by us. The trap is set. Now we just wait for the prey to walk into it on its own..."
Lilian said softly.
Gods were powerful! Extremely powerful! Even a Demigod possessed formidable spell resistance. Leilin's previous Legendary arcane spell
What was coming down this time was only an avatar, but it would still carry a trace of the god's own transcendent properties. Near-total immunity to spells of seventh or even ninth level was almost a certainty, and it would also possess all manner of inconceivable physical regeneration and enhancement abilities.
One could say that even with their traps and contingencies in place, what Leilin and the others were about to face was a terrifying monster at the absolute peak of the Legendary tier!
"Is everything fine on Patrick's side? Are you certain Marah will be enraged enough to send down its avatar?"
Leilin frowned.
A god's avatar was practically the True God's greatest manifestation of power in the Material World, and the avatar was intimately connected to the true body. If the avatar were destroyed, the true body would also suffer devastating damage.
He truly had his doubts about whether they could successfully lure out their prey this time.
"Speaking of which, Marah is really quite unlucky this time around! Not only is it being targeted by hidden Legendary figures like us, but even the Church of the God of Justice can't tolerate it..."
As a Minor God that also maintained an alliance with the Orc Divine Pantheon, Marah was naturally an excellent target. So it barely took any pushing from Lilian for the Church to formulate a plan against Marah.
In the early stages, weakening an opposing god through avatar battles in the Material World was also a very mainstream approach.
Leilin had his eye on Marah's Divinity as well, so he joined the mission without a second thought. This had actually delighted Rafinia, who assumed Leilin had moved past certain lowbrow interests and resolved to join the great cause of liberating the Northern Lands.
"No problem. The Black Blood Tribe should currently be performing a Legendary hunting ritual to please Marah... According to many records, this ritual is extremely important to Marah. If it's disrupted, the god will immediately fall into a berserk state. If its followers and subordinates can't capture the culprits in time, the likelihood of it sending down an avatar is very high..."
Lilian spoke Marah's true name without any hesitation whatsoever, showing not the slightest concern.
This time they had two Greater Gods backing them, which was more than enough to shield them from Marah's perception, allowing the god to walk into the trap completely unsuspiciously.
"ROOOAR..." "BOOM..."
At that moment, enormous sounds of chaos accompanied by violent tremors came filtering through the barrier. Even after traveling a great distance and being weakened layer by layer, they still caused a tremendous commotion that made Leilin and the others' expressions shift.
"It's begun..."
The massive chaos, combined with the Beastkin war cries drawing ever closer, made it clear that the Paladin Patrick had successfully disrupted the hunting ritual and was now being pursued with terrifying ferocity.
"Everyone take your positions. Keep communication channels open. Await my command!"
Lilian's eyes flashed with a sharp gleam, and her entire body transformed into a dissolving mud puppet — clearly, her true self had already departed.
"The time to eliminate the disharmony of the Darkness Forest has arrived..."
The Legendary Druid Aragu murmured before also departing, his massive beast form moving through the trees with the agility of a spirit.
"What a spectacle. It looks like Patrick really managed to anger this pack of Beastkin."
Leilin narrowed his eyes as he opened a teleportation portal, watching the vast horde of Beastkin bearing down from not far away. These creatures, so similar in appearance to orcs, all had bloodshot eyes as they chased a streak of white light ahead of them.
"ROOOAR!"
At the very front of the Beastkin horde was a black ape-like monster standing over five meters tall. Metallic scales reflected light across its body, and its claws with thick, long nails raked savagely toward the figure ahead.
Whoosh! The air itself seemed to be sliced apart, creating violent sonic booms.
"HA! — Holy Light Shield!"
The figure within the blazing light ahead spun around abruptly. A massive crystal-forged greatsword raised a towering wall of sacred radiance, and a colossal humanoid silhouette materialized behind it, crashing into the pursuing horde.
BOOM!
The surrounding forest and earth were violently shorn away by a layer, and numerous low-level Beastkin were sent tumbling through the air.
Seizing this opportunity, the Paladin finally reached Leilin's side and let out a deep breath. "Watch out — they're coming..."
"You actually managed to draw out a Legendary-tier Hunter? What on earth did you do?"
Leilin was quite curious about the effect the Paladin had achieved.
He recognized it at a glance — the monster pursuing the Paladin nearly to the point of frenzy was one of Marah's modified creations, a Divine Kingdom guardian: a Hunter!
Only, compared to the one he had seen last time, this Hunter had already entered the Legendary tier. Even for Leilin, taking it down would be somewhat troublesome.
"Heh heh... I just stole all of the 'Legendary Blood' the Black Blood Tribe had accumulated. And also this!"
The Paladin Patrick hurled down a massive ape-like head from his shoulder — evidently, this too had been a Legendary-tier Hunter.
Upon seeing this, the remaining Beastkin pursuers went wild with fury, howling as they lunged forward as though they had encountered a mortal enemy — which, in fact, they had. The interruption of the ritual had already sent Marah into a rage, and the god had even devoured several of its former high-ranking priests — those had been among its favorites...
If these culprits weren't caught and blood-sacrificed, it was entirely possible that Marah, in its fury, would completely abandon the Beastkin here.
After all, what could you expect from something half-beast?
"If we wipe out this entire pursuit force, it'll have no choice but to send down an avatar, right?"
Leilin nodded in firm agreement, then cast a spell without a moment's hesitation.
Scorching rings of flame blazed to life around him instantly, so intense that the sky over the area darkened abruptly.
Within the mass of black clouds, streaks of fiery red began to break through, and droplets of magma rained down like a deluge.
Legendary Spell — Rain of Fire!!!