"Monster from Eastern Xia?"
"A mere Professional Level 5, and they call him a 'monster'?"
"A rising star from Hengzhou's New Generation? Interesting."
"In my opinion, the people on the Frontline are getting worse with every passing generation..."
Black Partridges blanketed the skies. Like dim shadows moving through the Netherworld, they carried the news into the depths of the polluted zone.
Across the boundless black wasteland stood a vast cluster of imposing lairs. Powerful waves of psychic energy spread like dark clouds, interweaving like flashes of lightning and peals of thunder.
"We mustn't underestimate him! I remember that genius from the Man-faced Spider clan, Dekar, escaped back here. He said that monster from Eastern Xia could summon meteorites?"
"He's only a Professional Level 5, not a grandmaster. How could he possibly do that? That cowardly dog Dekar was scared witless."
"Exactly. On the eastern and western fronts across all of Hengzhou, there are at most two fighters with grandmaster-level strength."
"Humans see us as pests in a rice paddy. Every Great Reclamation is a purge—a campaign to wipe us out."
"But they seem to have forgotten that insects have never truly been exterminated..."
The powerful Servant Creatures at Disaster Level 4 cast enormous projections in the Netherworld, radiating terrifying auras. Some resembled volcanic mountains of molten rock; others, frozen abysses of extreme cold.
"Pull back the defensive lines. Wear down the humans' forces as we draw them in."
"The Great Demon of Chaos wills us to kill and destroy to our hearts' content. We need only obey."
At the heart of the magnificent, mountain-like expanse of lairs, the golden vertical eye that had once appeared in the Man-faced Spider lair hung high above, like the wasteland's deepest "sun."
The psychic waves it sent forth were like an emperor's supreme decree.