Black Tide

Biodata

Power Progression

Nature

The Black Tide is not simply a horde of Dark Creatures. It is a large-scale Dark Energy disaster that corrupts life, matter, and light while converging on places where humans gather. Its behavior is likened to defensive code intended to erase concentrated human life and order 61.

Black Tides are a consequence of Blue Star's environmental transformation under the encroaching energy of the Abyssal World. Dark Creatures can continue to form naturally as ambient Dark Energy rises, even without an Abyssal commander deliberately converting corpses or creating them 232 317.

As it advances, Dark Energy rots trees into ash, turns soil into black sludge, and rapidly corrodes stone. Its black fog obscures distance and suppresses ordinary light, making the approaching force difficult to observe or judge accurately 61.

Although Black Tides commonly converge on human settlements, they are not invariably directed at humanity. A later Tide bypassed Lincon's marked safe area and advanced toward Redwood Forest to fight Abyssal Creatures, demonstrating that Dark Creatures and Abyssal races can be opposing forces 297 298.

Appearance

A Black Tide manifests as vast, viscous darkness and black fog spreading across the landscape.

• The air becomes foul and murky before its arrival 59.
• Its darkness conceals light and depth, impairing perception even for Lincon's mental projection 61.
• Dense Dark Energy can coalesce into immense forms, including an abyssal demon-like mass that projects whispers and hallucinations into a besieged fortress 62.
• Its vanguard may include Walking Corpses, Dark Insects, Abominations, Weird Calamities, and Anomaly Calamities of varying ranks 156 160.
• During major assaults, the Tide can appear as a wall or mountain of black mist and densely packed creatures extending across several kilometers 195 197.
• Its arrival can distort the surrounding environment, swallowing snowfall and wind beneath an advancing layer of darkness 174.

Abilities & Traits

Dark-Energy Corrosion

The Black Tide's defining danger is its saturation of the environment with corrosive Dark Energy.

• Corrodes living organisms, soil, stone, and defensive structures 61.
• Suppresses purification-based light domains, including Longwind Fortress's Faint Light Domain 62.
• Can extinguish or weaken defensive fire barriers through black mist and the presence of powerful creatures 161.
• Its concentrated whispers can induce madness and hallucinations among defenders 62.
• Its environmental Dark Energy can continue producing Dark Creatures naturally, making the wider disaster impossible to end merely by killing a single commander 232.

Collective Assault

Dark Creatures within a Black Tide abandon their ordinary territorial instincts and move as a coordinated force against human settlements 61.

• Large numbers of weak creatures overwhelm defenses through attrition and fearlessness rather than individual strength 187 197.
• High-rank Weird and Anomaly Calamities exploit breaches created by the main horde, often bypassing front-line defenses to attack vital positions 198.
• When directed by an Ant Guard or other Abyssal controller, the Tide can pursue strategic targets, split into separate attacking forces, and maintain organized pressure across a region 156.
• The destruction of the Abyssal Ant Queen's consciousness and Ant Guard caused the remaining B-Rank Tide to lose direction, allowing Longwind Fortress to reverse the battle 201.
• The Tide's strategic target can change under unusual circumstances; at Redwood Forest, a large Black Tide advanced to confront an Abyssal force rather than assaulting a human city 297 298.

Adaptive Dark Creatures

Individual creatures within the Tide can possess abilities that make conventional defenses ineffective.

• The C-Rank Mimic Anomaly Calamity consumed Reed Assassin needles, copied their biological traits, and reproduced their golden-spike attack 62.
• The Nest-Nursing Jellyfish could endure and consume sunlight, threatening Spirit Plants that relied on Purifying Fire 63.
• C-Rank Weird Calamities infiltrated Spirit Plant formations during the Territory War and rapidly drained plant life 198.
• The giant beetle-like creatures in the Territory War sprayed corrosive liquid capable of destroying Spore Shooter Mushrooms and melting defensive vines 198.

Instinctive Hierarchy

Dark Creatures can recognize and react to superior Dark-aligned authority.

• Lincon's Dark Overlord aura caused Dark Creatures in the Redwood Forest Tide to instinctively fear him and disregard his presence when he concealed his true strength as that of a C-Rank creature 298.
• Overlord's Dominion allows Lincon to mark captured Dark Creatures, severing prior allegiance and transforming them into controlled troops 231.
• This authority has enabled Lincon to subjugate former Abyssal commanders, including an Ant Guard and the Abyssal Ant Queen, limiting the ability of such entities to direct future Dark Creature forces against him 231 232.

Countermeasures

• Purifying Fire — Burns Dark Energy, dispels hallucinations, and destroys many Dark Creatures within its range 62.
• Rule Edict — Within Longwind Fortress, Lincon's edict reduced all Dark Creature abilities by 20% 63.
• Layered defenses — Hunting Pea Pods, Reed Assassins, explosive plants, treants, Rune Arrays, and fortified defensive lines reduced a Tide before it reached the fortress 61 63.
• Spirit Plant armies — Large-scale plant forces can meet the Tide directly, though they suffer heavy attrition against prolonged assaults and high-rank enemies 197 198.
• Eliminating command entities — Killing or severing the connection to an Ant Guard or Abyssal controller can collapse the Tide's coordination 164 201.
• Nature Edict — Lincon's later Nature Saint authority can grant broad enhancements and mental immunity to his forces, making it particularly effective against Abyss-directed Black Tides 210.
• Early warning and preemptive elimination — Longwind City established Adventurer Guild missions to locate and destroy low-danger Black Tides before they fully form 316.
• Overlord's Dominion — Lincon can use his Dark Overlord authority to infiltrate Dark Creature masses safely and potentially convert captured Dark Creatures into assets 231 298.

Story Role / Major Arcs

C-Rank Assault on Longwind Fortress

The first major Black Tide faced by Longwind Fortress gathered while only about three hundred residents remained in the settlement. Lincon prepared a defensive Rune Array integrated with his Spirit Plants, intending to weaken the Tide through successive lines before it reached the fortress 59 61.

The Tide breached the fortress's outer light and deployed powerful Anomaly Calamities, including the Mimic Anomaly Calamity and Nest-Nursing Jellyfish. The Solar Sunflower's Life Resonance established a purifying domain, while the Ancient Maple Guardian evolved into the Twisted Treant to kill the Jellyfish 62 64.

Longwind Fortress ultimately won after Lincon entered the battlefield to eliminate the final threats. The victory completed his Resist the Black Tide mission and advanced him toward the hidden Ecological Architect class 66.

Abyssal Regional Offensive

Later Black Tides differed from earlier, seemingly instinct-driven assaults. Abyssal forces split a massive force in two: Luo Chiyou led one toward New River City, while an Ant Guard led another against human factions near the Abyss Rift 156.

New River City was overwhelmed and destroyed despite City Lord Zou Feng's resistance. Luo Chiyou's black vortex annihilated much of the city, leaving survivors and refugees scattered across Jiangzhou 168 172.

A separate B-Rank Tide then attacked Black Iron City amid its civil war during the Ash Snow Lull Period. Chen Siwei held the enemy back long enough to enable an evacuation, but the city was overrun before Lincon arrived as reinforcement 174 175.

The widespread destruction of New River City, Black Iron City, and nearby shelters showed that this regional offensive differed fundamentally from ordinary, instinctive Black Tides. It continued moving between cities instead of dispersing after a single assault 176.

Territory War

The B-Rank Black Tide that reached Longwind Fortress included tens of thousands of Walking Corpses, swarms of Sky Ants, Abyssal creatures, and numerous C-Rank or stronger calamities 195 197.

Longwind Fortress answered with artillery, Rune weapons, Purifying Fire, the Fire God Tree, and a vast “Spirit Sea” of cultivated plants. The battle became a costly war of attrition as the Black Tide's “Black Mountain” wore down the plant formations 197 198.

The decisive confrontation came when Lincon defeated the Abyssal Ant Queen's consciousness within Luo Chiyou, while Chen Siwei defeated the Ant Guard with Lincon's assistance. Without its commanders, the remaining Black Tide failed to breach the outer city and was exterminated beneath the walls 201.

Redwood Forest Conflict

Lincon later encountered a massive Black Tide travelling toward Redwood Forest rather than toward a human settlement. Its Dark Creatures ignored him because of the instinctive pressure of his Dark Overlord aura, allowing him and Luo Chiyou to blend into the horde and investigate its destination 297 298.

At the forest, the Tide confronted an Abyssal army of batlike demons and magma-bodied Demon Shield-Axes. The Dark Creature force included several B-Rank commanders, while Death Scythe and the Flame Demon Lord stood as the opposing A-Rank leaders 298.

This conflict established that Dark Creatures and Abyssal Creatures are not a unified faction. Their hostility can divert a Black Tide's destructive force away from human settlements, though the resulting battle remains a major regional catastrophe 298.

Early-Warning Policy

Following the Harsh Winter regional disaster, Longwind City began treating Black Tide detection and suppression as a standing security priority. The Adventurer Guild offered rewards for reporting forming Tides and issued elimination missions intended to destroy lower-danger events before they could mature 316.

By the time Longwind City developed epic-level combat strength, it was considered capable of withstanding S Rank Black Tides, reflecting the city's growth from a small fortress that had barely survived its first C-Rank assault 457.

Relationships

• Lincon — Principal opposing force; he has repeatedly organized Longwind Fortress's defenses, gained Sunlight from Black Tide casualties, and personally eliminated its strongest command entities. After becoming a Dark Overlord, he can also infiltrate Dark Creature formations and convert captured creatures into subordinates 61 160 201 231 298.
• Longwind Fortress — A recurring target due to its concentrated human population and abundant life energy; it survived both a C-Rank assault and a B-Rank Territory War 61 66 201.
• Longwind City — The successor to Longwind Fortress maintains early-warning and preemptive-elimination systems for low-danger Black Tides and has reached a level of strength capable of resisting S Rank events 316 457.
• Ant Guards — Abyssal commanders capable of directing and strengthening Black Tide assaults; their deaths can trigger disarray or madness among surrounding Dark Creatures. Lincon later subjugated a surviving Ant Guard through the Overlord Mark 156 164 201 231.
• Abyssal Ant Queen — Her consciousness directed the Territory War Tide through Luo Chiyou before Lincon erased it. Lincon later marked and subjugated the Queen herself, gaining authority over the Ant Race and weakening a major source of organized Dark Creature aggression 201 232.
• Luo Chiyou — An Abyss-corrupted controller who led Black Tides against New River City and Black Iron City before the Abyssal Ant Queen's consciousness within her was erased 158 175 201.
• Abyss Rift — A major source of Dark Creatures and Black Tides in the Jiangbei region; later assaults were reinforced by creatures emerging from its direction. It also serves as a point where Abyssal energy intensifies Blue Star's environmental transformation 155 195 317.
• Abyssal Creatures — Though both are threats to humanity, Abyssal forces and Black Tide Dark Creatures can oppose one another. Their conflict at Redwood Forest demonstrated that they are distinct powers with competing interests 298.