The great river surged, but its churning waters were now filled with countless gods.
Those medium and small gods, several to dozens of meters long, some bearing scales and others wings, crowded densely into the river like shoals of migrating fish, swimming toward the Safe Zone.
Waves battered the long river, where countless more medium and small gods tumbled through the swells, struggling to cross toward the Sigma District.
In the mountains, a dark tide of beasts swarmed like ants, spreading along the ridgelines and dividing into two forces that advanced toward the Safe Zone and the Sigma District.
These medium and small gods seemed to have been stripped of their wills, united by the sole goal of entering the Safe Zone.
Yet beyond all that chaos and noise, a quiet standoff unfolded at the boundary of River Ridge.
The gods whose bodies were as massive as mountains had all stopped outside River Ridge's natural defensive line.
It was not that they did not want to advance, but that large gods had appeared throughout River Ridge, standing before them and blocking their way.
Before them, the surging river suddenly burst open, flinging countless medium and small gods into the air. Two giant monster fish, hundreds of meters long, surfaced with backs as jagged as mountains of blades. Their bodies clad in heavy blue-black bone armor, they lay across the middle of the river.
On the mountains beside the riverbank, a giant bull with muscles bulging like steel and a pair of enormous horns on his head occupied the mountain pass like a guardian deity.
In the turbulent river, three enormous carp, crimson from head to tail and with scales like burning flames, flickered in and out of view through the mist, sealing off the shallows.
The large gods at these