Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

A little runt in a princess pump—Willie was not the only one who could not believe his eyes, neither of the heretics nor church knights believed that she could possess such strength. Yet, that two-and-a-half ton attack struck hard. A crimson flash later, Willie, a top ranking heretic was smashed into the ground. The lower part of his body bent instantly, and the solid concrete floor cracked under the impact of his knees, sinking almost a good half meter!

The ripples expanded further, and a little blonde loli clad in a princess dress with horns on her forehead jumped out of the portal. The little girl giggled as she gave Willie another violent kick. She then lifted her hand up into the air, and a meter-wide hellfire orb appeared out of nowhere. A brutal crunch later, the hellfire orb smashed directly into Willie’s back.

Blood sprayed all over as bones cracked. Goddess above, so this is how effective a hellfire orb is when used as a hammer!

The surviving heretics slowly recovered as they scrambled for a countermeasure. Some started to cast spells to attack the newcomer while the rest dashed to Willie’s side to protect him. As the puppets had already sworn to protect their lord, their loyalty was unwavering, and the thought of death had long since been forgotten.

But many more ripples appeared in the air, and the heretics were caught flat-footed again.

A few more silhouettes leaped out of the dimensional ripple, and soon, clashes were heard all over the place.

“Beat the bloody snot out of him! Beat him hard! These bastards are all heretics! Turn them all into dumplings!”

“There’s someone lying here. He’s still breathing! Anyone can hand me a brick, nya?!”

“Go look for one yourself! I’m a technological marvel you know!”

“Y’zaks, there’s someone heading your way! Get him!”

“Stop messing around, Sanba! Go look after Lil Pea with your sister! She’s getting stepped on…”

“Hey, leave some for me! It’s not every day you run into a pack of dying mobs! I’m a DPS character for crying out loud…”

The scene was as eye-popping as it could get. You would not find any other battles like this.

The clueless heretics were beaten up black and blue by the unknown force that popped out of the dimensional ripple. The latter was as unreasonable as their lack of formation and coordination. They pretty much ripped into anyone who wore a black robe with their fists and blades. There was a smattering of lightning bolts, frost bolts, bricks, and hellfire orbs in the mix. Worse still, chivalry seemed to be a non-existent thing among these monsters, and a few of the dying heretics were picked up, healed with a restorative spell, and beaten up again. Such was the scene that it was hard to tell who the good guys were from the heretics.

The bunch that had been moping about for a month outside Collow was unleashing their pent-up frustrations now!

Hao Ren’s eyes widened as he saw Muru leaped out from the rift, and with just two fingers he squashed a heretic into dirt. He soon remembered that the honest giant gardener too was a powerful semi-divine warrior in his own right.

Hao Ren then started yapping. “Muru?! Why are you here? Aren’t you supposed to be manning the antenna?!”

“Heve is standing in for me,” Muru said as he squashed another heretic into the dirt with his fingers, scrubbing that sorry bugger along the length of the ground. “I know the people here have been using evil means to corrupt Mother’s legacy. My anger is beyond assuaged.”

Before Hao Ren could say anything more, the fight was over.

All of the heretics were taken out, and the luckier ones were probably half-dead. While Hao Ren’s troupe were indeed a bunch of powerful juggernauts, they were imbued with holy powers—the anathema of Chaos—after eating a whole lot of celestial food items; the heretics themselves were pretty much a spent force after fighting with Lily, Calaxus, and the allied company of knights and abhuman warriors. Resistance was pretty much a foregone notion.

Nangong Wuyue, with the little mermaid in tow, popped her head out. After carefully surveying the area, she slithered out before stabbing an already downed foe with the tip of her tail. A satisfied grin soon appeared on her face as she considered it an accomplishment.

Well, just look at her.

Hao Ren blinked as he was at a loss on how to greet this bunch of misfits who crashed the party. He laughed dryly. “Hehehe…. you guys came, huh. Oh, Vivian, you’re here too?”

Vivian was retracting her bat wings and the frosty aura surrounding her. She approached Hao Ren with a radiant smile on her delicate face. “Did we make it in time?”

Hao Ren did not say anything but lunged forward with a hug.

Vivian was caught by surprise but quickly returned the hug.

After this very natural hug, Hao Ren took a step back and shrugged. “Actually, by the time you all got here, we were pretty much done. See the blood pools all over the place?”

“Well, the recalibration took a couple more minutes than expected. You know right, transference of anything from the outside is difficult.” Vivian smiled. “Plus, they were squabbling among each other in the queue, and Y’lisabet went in first by staking her claim as the youngest.”

Hao Ren raised his eyebrow. “Isn’t Lil Pea the youngest?”

“She’s too much of a daredevil. No one dared to let her wander around alone.”

Hao Ren blinked a little while before he breathed a sigh of relief. “To be frank, I never thought you guys would appear just like that… I was shocked when I saw Y’lisabet pop out of nowhere. You guys didn’t even give me a heads up.”

“It’s a surprise, heh,” the MDT interjected. “Actually the transference setup was already complete, but due to the perimeters, I wasn’t able to send everyone at once. Thankfully, that little pipsqueak teleported over on her own earlier. I managed to gather more data and recalibrate the system.”

Hao Ren gave a curt “oh” before something struck him. Everyone had completely forgotten about Noobie!

“Anyone of you saw Noobie?” Hao Ren raised his voice. That little pipsqueak’s combat ability was about as effective as her name suggested. She was probably just a little stronger than a rat. And the earlier battlefield had all sorts of spells and attacks flying about. It would be a miracle if that little runt was not hit!

As he spoke, the familiar hissing sound appeared. Hao Ren turned towards the direction of the sound and saw Lil Pea, who was in Wuyue’s embrace communicating with Noobie. The latter even going “Pewpewpew!”

Lil Pea responded in the way she only knew. And sent Noobie flying with a slap of her tail.

That was how the two communicated anyway.

“F*ck me… That really scared me…” Hao Ren wiped off his cold sweat before getting Sanba to find a container to keep Noobie secured. He then turned back to the ruined battlefield, and the giant shining pyramid in the middle of the carnage.

That was the Ark of the Sacred Covenant, which Lady Gloom had been going on about.

Based on the information they have, the key to opening Lockmarton’s prison lay within this Ark of the Sacred Covenant, and the key to activating it was an ancient relic called the Radiant Disc, and that relic was certainly not the plastic plate from the Fifth Plastic Manufactoria.

If they were not wrong, it could be embedded on the wall of the golden pyramid.

Hao Ren came before the pyramid and saw the ten-meter-wide, circular cavity.

“It does look familiar up close.” Hao Ren looked up. “Based on the size and the hole in the middle, it is similar to that Golden Disc we found.”

The MDT had also flown over by now. It deployed a blue ray to scan the details of the cavity, and gave its opinion. “But the microstructure and the information embedded within each Golden Disc is different. It doesn’t seem like they are interchangeable as keys. Seems like the one in Collow is probably saved in a different disc. You have any clues on that, buddy?”

“Based on the local legends, the Radiant Disc was once placed in a place called the Grand Temple of Cassouin. After one of the Wars against Chaos a thousand years ago, Cassouin fell and the relic was lost. But I woke up at Cassouin, and after checking the place inside out I found nothing. You know, I’m a demigod, and I’ve already made contact with three of the discs as well as many other legacies of the goddess of creation. I would be able to sense any similar divinity.”

As Hao Ren spoke, Muru’s heavy footsteps echoed as he headed towards the statues of the 21 wardens.

The guardian giant looked rather at awe at the giant statues made out of stone and metal. While the latter was inanimate, he felt an unknown kindred feeling towards it.

“Are these…” he muttered to himself, “…Mother’s creations as well? They look like guardian giants… but their aura is much, much more ancient.”

“Lockmarton’s existence predates the First Born and the guardians. So do the wardens that watch over it.” Hao Ren heard Muru’s mutterings and recalled some of the details that he saw in the earlier illusions. “So I’m suspecting that… These are the original form of the guardians.”

“The original form?” Muru repeated after Hao Ren, and just as he spoke, a hum rang out from the nearby statues!

One by one, all 21 statues soon started to hum. The dust, debris, and withered plants that covered the statues all started to fall off the statues like rainfall. And before Hao Ren, the largest statue began to move. It slowly moved its shoulders as if it had been roused from a deep slumber. After it flexed its fingers, it opened its eyes.

White and blue light emanated from its giant eyes, which were made out of precious stones.

“Brave warriors, you have defeated the first wave of evil, but the war has yet to be won.”