Death Cloud was a unique combined spell tailored by the Cemetery faction's necromancers for the Archlich Mage Corps.
This spell possessed astonishing power. It could rapidly age and decay living creatures while inflicting severe corrosive damage.
However, Death Cloud caused no harm whatsoever to Undead Creatures.
Clearly, neither Honkai Zombies nor Honkai Beasts fell within the category of Undead Creatures.
Thus, when the filthy yellow-green cloud, under the control of the Archlich Mage Corps, slammed into the charging ranks of Knight-class Honkai Beasts, it instantly dealt a devastating blow.
The sturdy inorganic shells covering the Knight-class Honkai Beasts rapidly disintegrated beneath Death Cloud's corrosive power, while the Collapse Energy within their bodies violently clashed with the Death Mana contained in the spell.
Under the assault of the Death Cloud unleashed by the Archlich Mage Corps, the vitality of all Knight-class Honkai Beasts engulfed by the yellow-green cloud rapidly drained away under the dual onslaught of corrosion and Death Mana.
If an ordinary human army witnessed this scene, they would certainly have avoided its edge, taken a detour, or done everything possible to disperse the lethal Death Cloud.
However, the Honkai Legion composed of Honkai Beasts and Honkai Zombies would not retreat because of this.
Faced with the terrifying yellow-green cloud that had nearly wiped out the cluster of Knight-class Honkai Beasts in an instant, the Honkai Legion charged straight into it without the slightest hesitation.
The first Honkai Zombies and surviving Knight-class Honkai Beasts to rush into the yellow-green cloud had the breath of life wiped away without any resistance.
However, as more and more Honkai Zombies and Honkai Beasts fearlessly poured into the cloud, the Death Mana within the yellow-green cloud was rapidly depleted.
If this consumption continued, then relying on the fearless Honkai Zombies and Honkai Beasts, the Honkai Legion truly might have been able to wear down the powerful combined spell—Death Cloud.
But reality allowed no ifs. After Death Cloud successfully blocked the initial assault, the Honkai Legion no longer had spare time to continue exhausting the Death Mana within the cloud.
"Behold the radiance of death!"
Amid Moros's chant, a massive orb of light glittering with dazzling magical brilliance suddenly appeared in the sky above Xinke City.
Fifth-tier Dark Magic: Curse of the Underworld!
Under Moros's control through the Hero Panel, the protective spell array surrounding the spherical core spell array wrapped around the magical orb instantly disintegrated, revealing the softly glowing core within.
At the same time
, purple death runes and pale blue curse arrays rapidly revolved around the core orb. Their paths seemed to weave a strange and solemn dance of death, as though announcing that death's countdown had quietly begun.
Magical particles glimmering faintly sprayed from the orb and slowly descended like a purple meteor shower, gradually covering more than half of Xinke City's urban area.
As the outer rune arrays spun faster and faster, an indescribable sense of unease gradually descended upon everyone within the area covered by the magical particles.
This feeling stemmed from the instinctive reaction stirred within life when facing an irresistible natural disaster.
At that moment, even the Honkai Beasts and Honkai Zombies, who normally did not fear death at all, sensed that ominous aura. They began to display obvious agitation, as though fearing the terrifying attack about to arrive.
As the outer rune arrays continued accelerating, the core spell array's radiance grew ever more dazzling, and intense unease gradually spread through everyone's hearts.
Thus, whether they were Honkai Beasts, Honkai Zombies, or survivors who had lived until now, they all raised their weapons in unspoken agreement and attacked the shining Curse of the Underworld spell array with every means available to them.
But it was futile. Before Curse of the Underworld erupted, its core spell array appeared to be in this plane, but in truth, it was already outside this plane. Unless they could shatter space itself, ordinary attacks were meaningless.
Soon, the wind began to blow...
In an instant, it was as if nothing could be heard. There was not the slightest sound.
Then, with the magical orb as its core, a blinding white light burst forth.
The white light was so dazzling that viewers even had the illusion that their eyes would be scorched.
"!"
Along with it came a piercing shriek utterly unlike anything a human—no, any living creature—could produce.
It lasted only an instant.
Only a shift of light and shadow.
The entire area covered by Curse of the Underworld fell silent. The Charge-class Honkai Beasts that had been battling wraiths and Spectral Dragons in the air began to fall.
From Moros's perspective, centered around the orb formed by the core spell array of Curse of the Underworld, the Honkai Beasts, Honkai Zombies, and survivors who had just been desperately attacking the magical orb were now all lying silently on the ground, motionless and soundless.
Under the terrifying might of fifth-tier Dark Magic, their lives had been erased in an instant.
Even the three enormous Chariot-class Honkai Beasts, each more than ten meters tall, had not escaped disaster.
Driven by inertia and the planet's gravity, their massive bodies crashed heavily onto the streets with dull thuds.
This way, the people of this planet would learn how to revere the strong.
Thinking this, Moros's eyes revealed an indescribable satisfaction and pride.
With a terrifying Battle Spell like Curse of the Underworld, capable of instantly erasing the lives of more than half a city, he naturally had every reason to be proud.
As for the survivors whose lives had been indiscriminately erased by Curse of the Underworld, they were nothing more than insignificant dust in Moros's eyes.
As a necromancer who had completely mastered expert-level necromancy, his moral bottom line had long become as elusive and flexible as the shadow of a Spectral Dragon.
Standing atop the Spectral Dragon's head, Moros looked down upon the magnificent scene created by Curse of the Underworld.
The apocalyptic sight appeared as beautiful as a work of art in his eyes.
However, Moros was ultimately a qualified necromancer. After a brief moment of intoxication, he began chanting an eerie and sinister incantation.
Moros wanted to know whether necromancy could transform the corpses of Honkai Beasts and Honkai Zombies into undead troops.
The facts proved that necromancy could accomplish this.
It could even be said that during his first attempt to use necromancy to transform Honkai Beast and Honkai Zombie corpses, Moros was astonished to discover that the quality of these nonhuman corpses far surpassed that of humans.
Unavoidable Conflict of Interests
Just as Moros used necromancy in an attempt to raise the Honkai Legion annihilated by the fifth-tier Dark Magic Curse of the Underworld, his terrifying and mysterious spell drew the attention of everyone watching the battlefield at Xinke City.
Because Moros had not used Death Canopy to conceal the orbital view while opening the Demiplane passage and pulling out the Undead Legion.
Therefore, almost without exception, the predators standing at the pinnacle of power on this planet learned of the conflict between the undead army and the Honkai Legion.
Wanting to gauge the strength of the world's first confirmed Collapse Energy adapter, the powerful figures of the Pre-Collapse Civilization all focused their attention on the battlefield at Xinke City.
They longed to glimpse Moros's true power through this fierce conflict.
In their eyes, only by understanding Moros well enough could they make the right decisions at critical moments, or even kill or capture this Collapse Energy adapter who called himself a "necromancer" if necessary.
From beginning to end, those in power in the Pre-Collapse Civilization had never entertained the thought of peacefully coexisting with Moros.
This was actually perfectly normal.
Extraordinary individuals who emphasized individual strength and nations that valued collective power were inherently opposed.
For the nations of the Pre-Collapse Civilization, the cake of power had long since been divided.
Every position capable of yielding benefits was already occupied, with people waiting in line behind them for their chance to take those seats.
When even internal distribution was insufficient, no matter how valuable or qualified extraordinary individuals might be, those in power would never make room for them.
They would only stingily offer some negligible terms and a tiny token share of benefits.
After all, touching someone's interests was harder than touching their soul.
To preserve their power and status, those in power in the Pre-Collapse Civilization were deeply hostile toward extraordinary individuals.
It could even be said that if the Herrschers who appeared later had not grown stronger one after another, the Pre-Collapse Civilization would never have pushed forward the Flame-Chaser Project, which could grant individuals overwhelming combat power.
Under such circumstances, unless they were thoroughly brainwashed lackeys, any clear-minded extraordinary individual who accumulated enough power would choose to challenge the existing order and make everyone fight for positions based on their own abilities.
In fact, throughout history, whether it was conflict between nations, confrontation between ethnic groups, dynastic changes, or clashes between old and new forces, the root cause often lay in the struggle for power and interests.
Even without extraordinary power, every so often, those without seats would believe that those standing atop the pyramid were unworthy or incapable, and ought to surrender their positions so they themselves could take the top spot and look down upon the world.
However, although this pursuit of power and interests was an important force driving social progress, there was no denying that any ruler would find such challenges and attempts to overturn the existing order unpleasant.
They would do everything in their power to protect their status and interests, ensuring that their authority and rule remained unthreatened.
Therefore, when Moros showed signs of refusing to submit to the social order established by the rulers of the Pre-Collapse Civilization and displayed a portion of his strength, the rulers of this planet became deeply wary of him.
It was worth mentioning that the only reason the rulers of Fuyuan City had allowed Moros to continuously expand his influence was because the benefit he offered—immortality—was simply too tempting.
Otherwise, they would never have stood by and watched him grow stronger.
As one of the strongest individuals on this planet, Moros naturally understood this perfectly well.
It was precisely because he knew how deep human society's malice toward him was that Moros unleashed the fifth-tier Dark Magic Curse of the Underworld upon the battlefield at Xinke City.
As everyone knew, when others accused you of possessing weapons of mass destruction, you had better actually possess them.
Why had America invaded Iraq? Because America "suspected" the latter had weapons of mass destruction. Why had America not invaded North Korea? Because America knew the latter truly had them.
The progress of the Pre-Collapse Civilization's high-level meeting had not exceeded Moros's expectations. When the Undead Legion and Meteor Shower were displayed before this planet's rulers, they had already begun discussing how to arrest Moros.
However, when Curse of the Underworld bloomed upon the battlefield at Xinke City and its nuclear-weapon-level power was confirmed to be in Moros's hands, the powerful figures of the Pre-Collapse Civilization who had solemnly sworn to arrest the necromancer all changed their tune, claiming that their previous words had merely been drunken nonsense and did not count.
Although people often said that when the sky fell, the tall ones would hold it up, regrettably, the helmsmen of human civilization on this planet were precisely those so-called tall ones.
Therefore, faced with the immense strength and terrifying threat Moros displayed, even though they were filled with doubts and dissatisfaction, these predators had no choice but to face reality and seek a response.
Then, they thought of the anti-Honkai organization that had been granted immense authority—Moth to Fire.
Inside the Moth to Fire Council's assembly hall, the atmosphere was solemn and grave.
"So, that is the situation. Everyone may speak freely."
Although the councillors present all understood the purpose and background of this meeting, Councillor Eugene still recounted every detail of what had happened on the battlefield at Xinke City.
As the meeting's host, it was his responsibility.
"We all understand that Moth to Fire exists precisely to address and handle incidents of this kind."
Councillor Eugene's voice echoed through the assembly hall, carrying an unwavering firmness.
His gaze swept across the councillors deep in thought within the hall, as if trying to see through their inner thoughts.
"If Moth to Fire cannot fulfill the responsibilities it ought to bear, then..."
His words suddenly paused, as though giving everyone sufficient room to think.
Then, Councillor Eugene took a deep breath and spoke word by word.
"Then Moth to Fire has no need to continue existing!"
These words were like a heavy hammer, ruthlessly smashing into every councillor's heart and forcing them to reexamine their duties and mission, urging them to face this emergency meeting with a more proactive attitude.
By now, the expansion of Moth to Fire's authority had brought the councillors immense benefits. Naturally, they were unwilling to give up this goose that laid golden eggs.
Therefore, when Councillor Vincent was the first to break the silence and raise the crucial question, the atmosphere in the entire assembly hall instantly became tense.
Councillor Vincent's question was extremely direct.
"Your Excellency Eugene, what is your view on this matter? Are you prepared to define that lowborn wretch as the Second Herrscher?"
What Councillor Vincent was truly asking was whether Mu Continent, standing behind Councillor Eugene, was willing to pay an enormous price to eliminate Moros.
That price might rival, or even exceed, the lives and financial resources spent to annihilate the First Herrscher—Herrscher of Reason.
PS: Bonus chapter 4/6
The Moth to Fire Council's Decision
Faced with Councillor Vincent's question, Councillor Eugene ultimately chose to tell the truth after a brief hesitation.
"According to our research, Moros is not a monster like the Herrschers, who exist only to destroy."
Councillor Eugene's words revealed a clear position—Mu Continent would not pay the enormous price it had paid against the First Herrscher—Herrscher of Reason—in order to eliminate Moros.
This was easy enough to understand.
Even for a world hegemon like Mu Continent, losing ten fighter squadrons and three armored army groups at once was an extremely severe blow.
In fact, only over these past two months had Mu Continent's military recovered from the damage inflicted by the Herrscher of Reason.
Under such circumstances, so long as Moros did not openly raise the banner of rebellion, Mu Continent would not take aggressive action to force his hand.
"So in reality, the actions we can take are quite limited."
Although mocking Councillor Eugene, who had always regarded himself as the leader of the Moth to Fire Council, made Councillor Vincent feel quite pleased, this councillor of the Moth to Fire Council still knew what he ought to do now.
Without intending to leave Councillor Eugene hanging any longer, Councillor Vincent continued.
"We can attempt preliminary contact with Moros and see whether it is possible to bring him into Moth to Fire."
Councillor Vincent's words revealed a pragmatic attitude. Having come from the North American Continent, he understood very well that if you could not beat them, you joined them.
Of course, Councillor Vincent had also considered the matter of preserving everyone's dignity, so he added further.
Before you continue