The time I took while moving from south to north took six hours alone. I stopped for almost half an hour each at the two cities, but the distance already was vast.

In total it took me twenty hours to clean all the cities, twenty hours since I left the outer region of Jersey city.

I didn’t have any camera feedback from my fighting warriors. And the count of my gained souls was still rising non-stop all the time. So I had to call back one drag and asked him about the ongoing situation back there.

The fight was still raging on! That was simply unbelievable! Even after twenty straight hours of fighting, the enemy kept sending fresh troops to the frontlines, which kept all my forces busy.

Hearing such intel made me frown. “I took control over all the cities around Jersey… So from where did these troops come?”

I revised the map drawn by Isabella and Leo, and even sent messages to the two to make sure they didn’t miss anything.

No, all the cities are marked with rough distance from my memory Leo sent.

The map is right, there is no doubt about that! Isabella seemed a bit busy as she sent such an answer back.

So the map was right and I took control over the cities to the south and west of Jersey. Even a big part of the north was about to be secured by the upcoming city.

I didn’t even meet a single force coming out from any city. And even if they were moving under stealth, I already cut off all the illusionists’ gates inside those cities.

The only city that I was sure to keep sending reinforcements was Hackensack city. After all that jerk was hiding there.

But if that was true, then the main battlefield should come from north not west. What was I missing here?

Just as I was feeling puzzled, I finally saw Paterson city on the horizon. From the first moment I saw it, I knew something was wrong there.

The first thing I usually saw about any city was the five small sparkling stars, each race realm gate.

But this time all I saw was one giant star sparkling in fierce and dreadful blue light and one smaller one channelling in silver light.

What was that? I stopped my chariot the moment I got close enough from the city to be sure there were only two gates there.

Gates would never disappear even if another race conquered it. For instance the gates I controlled so far still stood erect inside my cities.

Fang… Something is wrong dude at Paterson city I sent instantly to Fang and the response took a few minutes before coming.

He seemed to be not aware of what was going on here.

One race took over the other three gates and merged them together he sent before adding, That city now holds a mega gate, or one close to it

I looked up again at that big sparkling gate, it looked really giant even from all this distance. I was almost two miles away from the city, yet it felt like I was standing under the walls of the castle holding a normal gate instead.

From the colour I could guess the origin of that race. Dragons were famed for their golden coloured gates. As for Berserkers, they had red.

Succubus were grey in colour, so this left only one race behind. Illusionists? I sent it just to be sure.

Bingo! and his answer told me I guessed it right.

How the hell did that happen? If I looked into the good relationship with the Berserkers, I’d doubt their leader would strike a deal with illusionists.

Something stincted here, and I had to get to the bottom of this before going inside that hell of a trap.

All I know is that our forces got bambered all of sudden with that angelic star weapon Fang sent such a weird message, They cleaned almost all the forces on our side and the Berserkers as well using such a method. If not for the swift interference of my people on the other side, things would end up uglier than that

My face darkened when I saw that news. Do you know how many attacks landed over your gate?

I think there were three he sent, Unfortunately only a few managed to retreat through the gate and asked for reinforcements. They witnessed three hits landing one after another before leaving. So I can’t be sure

“Three at each race? That means the angels went all out to make sure the illusionists will have their mega gate…”

What’s that mega gate benefit anyway I asked the most crucial question at this moment.

They can bring anything from their realm he sent back almost instantly, Normal gates won’t allow for big forces to come here. For example warriors who served under the leadership of our race at other apocalypses can’t pass through the normal gates. Also hybrid monsters or big weapons won’t be able to pass either

My eyes flashed in the cold light. So you are saying they are bringing big ammunition and strong forces here?

That’s my bet he sent, Or else this move won’t bring anything but a mere city under their control

Can anyone do that merge? I asked again, and the answer that came made me pinpoint where the problem emerged from.

Only archlords can do it! And only after paying a hefty price, a price that I can surely tell you it will stop me from using such method except at dire situations

He paused for a brief second before asking the question that seemed to fester inside his mind: Do you know why such a person appeared here? And why would he do such a big move?

Of course I knew the exact reason behind this. That dude wasn’t just a nameless illusionist, but an archlord.

Damn! An archlord was doing all his best to stop me from flanking him. Dude, I raised my hat for your effort, and had to lower it for your stupidity.

Did you think doing such a thing would make me believe you are inside that city? Come on! You already were aware of me coming all the way here.

Trying to trick me in such a way wouldn’t work. If you wanted to play in such a way, then let me show you how futile this move was, or how really desperate it was.

I’m going to withdraw all my warriors from the west of the city the first thing I did wasn’t to go inside that deadly fight directly from the start.

I first sent a message to my girl back in Jersey city.

I have little enemy at my side for now she sent back, before adding, Isn’t there already that elite army of Selvators and ours?

I’m just notifying you I sent, Make sure to stay safe. If anything bad happened, just send me a distress message and try to go either outside the city up north or to the heart of the city itself. I got eyes there

Got it!

I had bookmarks stored in the heart of that city and at the north and west of it. Also I got many bookmarks left back at all the cities I conquered so far.

I didn’t expect such a move from my enemy. I thought he might try sneaky attacks from the cities I conquered already as my guard would be lowered there.

But it seemed he got valuable intel regarding my staff and its usage. Those damn angels! Really good intelligence was always a nuisance for me.

As I closed that chat with her, I sent other messages and got the answers I wanted. My team was already rocking things everywhere. We just gained control over three more cities from other teams.

Of course the jumper was hitting the fifth city by now. He seemed to stop for a few hours to replenish his exhausted forces with new ones from the previous cities he visited.

That dude went from all boring and complaining to all active and impulsive when he knew about that deal. He didn’t hesitate to throw his forces into the heated fights, sacrificing lots of humans inside his force based on the fact he could get more and better troops from the cities.

So by this we had control over thirteen cities, with thirteen training camps working against the clock to raise strong troops.

If I gained one hundred thousand elites from that deal then I’d say I had struck it gold. If I got more then I’d be blessed with heavenly luck indeed.

But now… I had a hard city to crack in front of me.

The city was already in ruins. Everywhere I saw obvious signs of the brutal destruction. Using my hawkeye skill, I could see many Selvators and Berserkers bodies lying over many places there.

It seemed the fight wasn’t only limited to the gates, but it also extended to the entire city. It was a massive genocide inside that city, and that would look terrible.

But in my eyes, that thing was a good excuse for me to ask for more reinforcements from those two.

I need two hours to arrive there. I’m already on my way to that damned city even before you sent that message to me

A large army is waiting for your mark after waiting for half an hour, I got these two messages in response to my request.

What was remarkable though was the message from Wrayly. That warmonger dude was already leading his forces himself here. How cool was that?

Two hours? I thought before nodding, “it just seems about right.”

I knew such a battle wouldn’t only need all my entire force, but it would also need me to do some tricks as well.

Hey, I want to ask about something without any hesitation, I opened my friendlist and chose a single name without hesitation.

Oh, long time no see, human boy she sent back before adding, What’s up with you sending a message for me?

I want to strike another good deal with you I sent, I wanted more soulers, the more the better

Oh she sent this and paused for a long few minutes. She was a lady green nymph, that winged nymph whom I met before at Bringold impact auction.

She already was friends with me. In fact I didn’t want to do this kind of exchange. I didn’t yet make up my mind about what I should ask in return for my bones.

But in such an upcoming fight, I needed not only my personal force of warriors and summoned creatures, but also to add as much as I could.

Having the threat of soulers was nothing to someone like me. I already had a massive amount of souls added with each passing hour. If this continued, then I’d have no worry to add even an army of thousands or even tens of thousands of those soulers to my current force.

Do you have a way to deal with that soul consumption thing? she sent again asking about the same thing she asked me before.

Didn’t I answer that point before? and like before, I didn’t answer the question and simply chose to avoid it.

I’m just asking as there is another race that’s pretty similar to soulers her words raised my expectations.

Is that race as strong as soulers? it seemed her impact ran short of souler warriors at the moment. Of course she knew what was on the stake here, my precious bones.

It’s even stronger in some ways she managed to pique my interest here.

Tell me about that race I waited and this time she seemed to hesitate or had trouble giving me such info or something as she took almost half an hour before returning back.

Did you hear about gods before?

Don’t be silly! I sent to her, Of course I know about them

How could she ask someone like me such a silly question? Damn!

So did you hear before about fallen gods? yet her next message made me all pumped up.

Damn! Damn! Damn! Don’t tell me I’d get something on par with the true strength of gods as my warriors! Damn! How cool would that be?!