Chapter 617: The Array

The incarnation of the sun god Apollo was also very surprised: "Has that master of fate concentrated all his forces here?"

Olympus placed great importance on today's war. Not only had the War God's Temple mobilized in full, sending almost all the power it could invest in the material plane here, but his Sun Temple and Poseidon had also provided some support. Especially the latter—while in the midst of a fierce conflict with the Lord of Radiance, the King of the Sea had deployed two entire Titan legions.

Yet this armed merchant fleet under the Rising Sun Group had not only withstood their attacks but was even showing signs of turning the tide and annihilating two legions of the War God's Temple.

The sudden appearance of over a thousand magical armor suits, each possessing legendary or even demigod-level power, had already made Apollo sense a conspiracy.

"It's nothing more than a desperate gamble!"

Ares's face was also grimly dark. He was gazing into the distance, where about 720 nautical miles away, a full forty-nine magic towers, including the 'Land of Fate' magic tower, were simultaneously tearing open the void and appearing before them with great fanfare.

Among them, Ares could identify Bessel Einstein's 'Supreme Truth', Lafat de Robespierre's 'Scepter of Destruction', Conshuli's 'Crown of Silence', Jennifer's 'Conservation of Energy', Paracelsus's 'Universal Matter', and even the Mechanical Sovereign Anthony Braden's 'Mechanical Throne'. None of these were below the sixteenth level, all controlled by archmages. The remaining towers were all above the eighth level, and their masters were no lower than legendary fourth rank.

Centered around the twenty-eight-story 'Land of Fate', they formed a massive magic tower array in the clouds about thirty thousand kilometers above the sea. The immense magical energy contained within made even Ares's heart pound with fear.

The magical network built by the magic goddess Diana had not constrained these powerful mages who possessed magic towers; instead, it had made them even stronger.

This should also be, in the history of human civilization, the most powerful assembly of mages and the most colossal magical energy array!

Ares even sensed the breath of the Source from within; if he were not confident that his own arrangements were foolproof, at this moment he might even have thought that the armed merchant fleet heading to Australia not far away was actually a trap to lure his true body into the main material plane!

The Lord of Fate, amplified by this magic tower array, even though he had already used his 'Longinus Holy Lance' on the Amerikan underworld, he and the mages under his command could still increase their overall combat power by three to five times compared to normal conditions! It might even help that Lord of Fate forcibly break open the gate of the Source and elevate some divine power to pseudo-truth!

Was this colossal magic tower array the reason why Andre Lee Wieldenstein dared to use the 'Longinus Holy Lance' to annihilate the divine incarnation of the Night Goddess in the Amerikan underworld?

This indeed caught him very much off guard, and also caused all their preparations for the 'Longinus Holy Lance' to come to nothing.

"But their strategy is quite clever, isn't it? The space around here has already been sealed."

Apollo's divine thought swept through the void, and as expected, he found that the void within seven thousand nautical miles around had been blocked by a massive void storm.

This meant that their twenty-three Cloud Warships here, along with Poseidon's Sea God Legion, had already had their retreat cut off.

What surprised him was that within this space-sealing power, there was actually mixed in the aura of the Lord of Radiance—making the scent of 'conspiracy' even stronger.

"If we don't fight him here, then we must be prepared to pay the price of the total annihilation of your Third Legion and Fifth Legion. And, of course, my Sun Temple's Third Legion."

At this moment, his twelve cloud ships were tailing another armed merchant fleet of the Rising Sun Group, poised to strike. And they were extremely close to the battlefield here, less than three thousand nautical miles away.

This cast a shadow of gloom over Apollo's heart. Did the so-called 'Rising Sun-Light Demon Second Joint Escort Fleet' possess strength comparable to the First Joint Escort Fleet?

If so, they might pay a heavy price in this war.

Ares was also aware of this. His gaze was both fierce and calm: "Isn't a decisive battle what I want to see? I don't believe that with Tyr and His Majesty Odin joining forces, we cannot defeat him."

Apollo remained silent. The Aesir and the Olympians joining forces could naturally defeat, even kill, the Lord of Fate. The six Fates from both sides were enough to suppress his power of fate.

But if he could severely wound or even kill one of them, the situation would be entirely different. He believed neither Ares nor Zeus would be willing to pay that price.

The sheer momentum of a 'desperate fight to the death' was enough to make them tremble.

This could be glimpsed from the Einherjar legions cooperating with them. Odin's Einherjar had also suffered heavy losses, yet the King of the Aesir, who had also descended here, and the war god Tyr, were still nowhere to be seen.

"But we don't have to dance to his tune."

Apollo's tone shifted: "My dear brother, since he holds nothing back, we need not be polite with him on other fronts, right? This time, I'll have to trouble you for help! The targets are Atlanta, their Australian Grand Cathedral in Sydney, and Manhattan—destroy his foundations, shake his faith! This is a perfect opportunity!"

"Helping is no problem."

The 'Light' that Apollo commanded was almost the fastest in this world. His speed was unmatched even by Zeus's messenger, Hermes.

But he knew that the help Ares wanted was manpower, troops—enough force to breach Atlanta and the two Cathedrals of Fate in Australia and Manhattan!

"But Ares, what if this isn't all their strength?"

"So we have to bring in His Majesty Odin. His forces are also in a predicament; he can't let us—"

Ares was speaking when a voice from beside them interrupted their conversation.

"Your Highnesses, the situation is dire. If the two sea gods continue their struggle, our pirate fleet will soon be annihilated!"

"Pirate fleet?"

Apollo glanced sideways toward the other side of the battlefield. He knew the speaker was Lysander.

One of Ares's subordinate gods, holding the divine offices of 'Naval Tactics' and 'Sea Warfare.'

Originally a commoner, he had gained Spartan citizenship after adulthood through his outstanding abilities. Later, he commanded the Spartan fleet to repeatedly defeat the Athenian navy and capture Athens, trampling this 'crown' of the goddess Athena into the mud.

In his early years, Ares had repeatedly suffered disastrous defeats at the hands of Athena during the internal strife of the Olympian gods. After that, he learned from his pain and took heroes rich in wisdom and military strategy from the mortal world as his subordinate gods to assist him in battle.

After this, Ares rarely suffered defeat again and even repeatedly dealt Athena heavy blows—though that was always with the covert aid of Zeus behind him. Yet during the Macedonian and Roman eras, the many legions of Macedonia and the Roman Empire, under his radiance and guidance, conquered nearly half the civilized world.

Apollo's gaze was soon drawn to the 'tragic state' of those pirate warships. In that direction, ships could be seen constantly capsizing, then torn to pieces by the merciless wind and waves.

"Can you tell me what is going on here, Lysander?"

"The enemy commander is very clever. After Lord Poseidon and Thetis began their battle, they started using concussion grenades on a large scale, deliberately stirring up the waves and increasing the level of wind and waves near the battlefield."

Lysander let out a slight sigh as he spoke: "This is my oversight, Your Highnesses. After returning, I have yet to adapt to the warfare of this era."

The several worlds previously conquered by the Olympian gods had civilizations only on par with Greece and Rome, or even inferior. So he had been in his element, but the modern forms of warfare in the Bright World ran almost completely counter to his system of common sense.

"Then why are their warships and merchant ships unharmed?"

"First, it is related to the special design of these ships. If I am not mistaken, these vessels have exceptionally strong resistance to wind and waves. Second, the wave level near them is relatively low."

"In other words, soon all their artillery fire can be directed at us, right?"

Ares had already foreseen the impending doom of those pirate warships—even if they ultimately escaped, they would likely be unable to continue fighting.

His eyes were filled with rage and irritability, yet he forcibly restrained himself.

"Apollo, it seems we have no other choice. If you do not want your Third Legion to be buried here in vain, we must find a way from other directions."

"I have already conveyed my will, dear brother."

Apollo sighed: "My battle priests will fully cooperate with you."

If this decisive battle, which was expected to severely wound the Lord of Fate, could not proceed as they had planned, and if these chosen warriors they had invested in might have to be sacrificed.

Then they indeed needed to trade pieces, or even reap more from elsewhere.

It was indeed regrettable that they could not severely wound or even kill the Lord of Fate's true body this time. But if they could destroy Atlanta and severely damage the Lord of Fate's faith, then their current investment would still be very worthwhile.

"But I need the bio-armor technology from Xuri Biopharmaceuticals! No, the entire Olympian pantheon needs it! Those researchers are crucial. Restrain the madmen under your command and make them curb their bloodlust, OK? And we must get ahead of the Aesir. Our father pursued the Moshlar for nearly thirty centuries. Besides craving that 'Wishing Tower,' the Moshlar's bio-armor technology is also what he most desires. But in the end, neither he nor Odin succeeded. He captured several Moshlar warships, but lacked enough clever people to decipher their writing and biotechnology."

"You don't need to remind me of that, Apollo!"

Ares looked out the window at the 'magic-powered armors' fighting his chosen warriors three hundred nautical miles away. At this moment, the greed emanating from him had almost materialized, burning like flames.

"That is precisely why I am so determined to kill this man as quickly as possible. Once we master these two technologies, our army will be invincible in this star region!"

...

"Only thirteen minutes, and the pirate fleet is completely annihilated. Resolved cleanly and efficiently. This Lieutenant General Alec Barth's ability is also quite impressive."

At the very moment when all the pirate ships capsized in the giant waves, on the top floor of the Magic Tower in the Land of Fate, before Li Mochen's divine throne, Anthony Braden sighed from the bottom of his heart: "I only made slight enhancements to the wind-and-wave resistance of these ships, and yet he managed to exploit them. I have a feeling that the competition for the divine office of 'Naval Warfare' under your command will be very fierce."

And at this moment, the expressions of everyone seated here were very relaxed. Although this was a battle against three powerful gods, including one whose power was close to the level of Truth, most of them were watching the battle ahead with a gaze of observation and appreciation.

"He really has put me in a difficult position. The war-related divine offices are incredibly numerous. Odin's Valkyries number ninety-nine."

Li Mochen's gaze was still fixed on those cloud warships and dragon-headed warships.

"It seems my enemies are already feeling fear."

"This is what the East calls 'sharing the same bed but having different dreams.' Any one of them fears being targeted and killed by you. If such a possibility truly existed, I believe the other side would likely be happy to stand idly by. The efforts of the Goddess of Freedom and Strife have left no basis for sincere cooperation between the two sides. So-called gods are just that."

'World Breaker' Robespierre also said with some schadenfreude: "But I guess they will next attack Atlanta City or your Australian cathedral in Sydney. They will probably add other targets too. I wonder if it will be Manhattan or Los Angeles?"

"It's Manhattan!"

The First Source Paracelsus had already provided intelligence. With a wave of his hand, he manifested the scene he had observed before everyone's eyes.

In the image, the two large cathedrals belonging to Li Mochen had already activated their divine force shields. Outside them, numerous fiery snakes of ammunition were pouring toward the churches.

"The护教 warriors and war priests of Ares and Odin in the mortal world have already mobilized in full force. In addition, there are some forces belonging to the gods. Their equipment has been modernized, and they have been prepared for a long time—"

That was clearly intended, after severely wounding the 'Lord of Fate,' to then slaughter his churches and destroy the foundation of the Wieldenstein family in Atlanta!

This scene also made Li Mochen, seated on the divine throne, sneer.

"Do you see, my Paladins?"

At this moment, in several magical projections not far away, six figures including Samson Brute, Thompson Adams, Victor Maxim, and Caroline Zhukov all knelt on one knee.

"Annihilate them as quickly as possible! Then lead your people to tear down their temples and kill their priests! As my arms and sword, proclaim your power to the gods of the Aesir and Olympus."

"As you command, my lord."

The six men bowed deeply, their eyes now all revealing fierce battle intent and killing desire.