Above the ruins of Shadow City, the darkness had yet to fully dissipate.
This fortress city, once belonging to the Dark Spirit Race, was now left with only half-charred walls and vast collapsed ground. The lingering light spots from the Psionic Nuclear Bomb were still embedded in the earth, while the bloody rain that had fallen when the Starry Sky Behemoths tore through the heavens had dyed the ruins a dull purplish-black.
Farther beyond the city, the battlefield was still burning.
Tier Four Starry Sky Behemoths lurked across the plains, canyons, and Poison Swamps. Native high-tier beasts continuously emerged from deep within the earth, forests, and lakes, while the remaining Dark Spirit Race forces retreated deeper into their territory, attempting to rebuild their defenses around cities and Shadow Altars.
Shadow City had fallen, but the war was not over.
The players had breached the Dark Spirit Race's frontline gateway and finally glimpsed the road leading into their heartland.
The problem was that this road was now packed with Tier Four Starry Sky Behemoths, native beasts, remnants of the Dark Spirit Race army, Shadow Rifts, and a group of Trash Pickers who ran around every day carrying bone saws, flesh hooks, and storage sacs.
In the temporary war room of New Black Rock City, the upper ranks of the Star Spirit Race, the player command group, and the Scientific Research Team sat together. The atmosphere was rather strange for a time.
A map of the eastern battlefield of Companion Star S-1 floated before Elder Twilight Star.
Shadow City had already been marked as gray ruins.
Farther in lay vast shadow-controlled territory belonging to the Dark Spirit Race. Several cities, more than a dozen fortresses, and countless Shadow Altar nodes were nailed across the map like black spikes.
Yet between those spikes,