The army advanced in force, armored soldiers with massive siege engines and floating airships moving steadily forward. The march went surprisingly smoothly, without encountering a single outpost along the way.
"Sir, the latest reconnaissance reports are back... something is off?" The messenger looked confused as he handed over the scroll.
The officer frowned as he read it. "The city walls have turned grayish white? Unknown monsters have appeared nearby? And there's no garrison at all? That is strange."
He tapped the table, thinking seriously, feeling hesitant. But after learning that his colleagues were also advancing, he gritted his teeth and made a decision. "...Forget it. That must be Ludwig pulling back his forces and abandoning the cities. Ignore the color issue. Continue advancing!"
"Yes!"
"Move, move, move! Don't let them get ahead!" "That's mine!"
Based on the frontline reports, the target was an empty city. Every soldier rushed forward, desperate to become the first to enter and claim the right to loot freely, but once they actually went in, many were left stunned. Everything around them had been replaced by a gray-white unknown substance instead of buildings, along with large numbers of unfamiliar facilities that looked industrial in nature.
The hardness was beyond imagination, and even swords could not leave the slightest mark on it. Some soldiers felt confused and uneasy, and even wanted to stop. More of them, however, continued to push forward under the surge of greed.
So many people had already gone in, so what could be wrong? If they hesitated now, the only ones who would lose out would be themselves. Without realizing it, everyone was being driven forward by an abnormal greed that none of them questioned, and no one stopped to think about where that feeling came from.
After seeing this city, that emotion only kept spreading. This phenomenon was not limited to a single place. In the camp outside the city, officers felt puzzled after receiving a report from a Silver-tier Champion who had brought back a sample of the gray-white material.
"These are just ordinary building materials, only the color is different?" The result sounded absurd, but for now they had no choice but to believe it. More importantly, their colleagues were already accelerating the advance, and if they wanted to catch up to the feast, they had to move faster as well.
After Ludwig fell, they had to at least get their share. "Forget it. Leave part of the troops here, we push forward directly!" An abnormal light appeared in his eyes as he ordered his men to keep looting, and he was far from the only one thinking this way.
Deeper inside, a constantly expanding gray-white city filled with technology and unseen facilities stood tall. At the very top of High Tower, a bright crimson flower bloomed. It was dazzling and alluring, as if it could draw in souls, while countless metal particles drifted away on the wind.
Although its essence had declined greatly after losing Authority, its position was still that of Crimson God's Ludwig. He watched his prey with satisfaction as they stumbled into the web under temptation. In terms of raw Magic and flesh alone, the mass these armies brought was far from enough to compare with consuming even a few pieces of an ecosystem.
What truly mattered were souls, higher quality than monsters, and the stronger the better. Tens of thousands of fairly decent souls could serve as an appetizer. "But I'm still so hungry."
Feeling the hunger in his current body revive as he fed, along with the constant erosion and transformation brought by that seed, Ludwig smiled. His old friend was clearly trying to return through his remaining body, and while he was growing stronger, he was also being reshaped into a vessel. "So what? Everything you do is just preparing the way for me."
The web tightened, and the hunter behind the scenes finally bared his fangs.
Inside the city, soldiers searching for anything of value suddenly found themselves unable to move. The gray-white substance they had ignored seemed to come alive, sticking directly to their feet. Worse still, some discovered their armor writhing like a living thing, locking all joints and extending fangs inward like a flytrap, swallowing the person inside whole.
Terrifying sounds rang out, with not a single drop of blood spilling. The armor that had devoured its wearer merged with the surrounding gray-white matter, then extended tentacles and fangs, taking on the shapes of various monsters as it slaughtered all life indiscriminately. At the same time, some soldiers felt their skin stiffen and turn gray-white, paused briefly, then stabbed their blades into nearby comrades without hesitation.
In the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of soldiers were turned into food through senseless infighting and predation. The entire city seemed to come alive and began advancing outward. The city walls grew fangs and writhed like a crawling beast, while troops stationed outside tried to retreat, only to find that the land, plants, and even their own allies had all become enemies.
Most weaker soldiers died quickly in the chaos, and only slightly stronger professionals barely survived, though casualties continued to rise. "Attack! Fire everything!" someone screamed hoarsely as the remaining organized units activated powerful siege weapons and the mage corps began joint casting.
Among them were even Gold Rank experts, with terrifying magic cannons, sweeping Battle Aura slashes, and devastating Magic strikes. In an instant, the city ahead was nearly torn into Shard, walls shattered and fires everywhere, the result of high-level forces attacking without restraint. Before they could relax, the city regenerated like an immortal monster, and the gray-white corruption spread directly into the army.
Massive machines fused into gray-white masses under the corrosion and were rendered useless. Under repeated strikes from Gold Rank experts, the city's regeneration was barely suppressed, but a new mutation appeared. From the ruins crawled gray-white humanoids and monsters combined into abominations that charged the defenses.
Infected humans fused with monsters and building materials, forming grotesque horrors like piled corpses sprouting multiple thin legs, resembling spiders with mouths full of writhing tendrils. More of these creatures appeared one after another, and they even used Magic and Battle Aura, only slightly weaker than Gold Rank experts but far more numerous.
Outnumbered, the army retreated rapidly. Even when they killed the spider monsters, the creatures regenerated soon after, and more crawled out of the corpses as casualties mounted. An entire army was trampled into Shard.
"What kind of Magic is that Ludwig using?" an officer cried before his eyes turned gray-white. He convulsed and was restrained before he could draw his blade on others. "This is too bad. We must leave and report this to…" The Silver-level elite leader was suddenly incinerated by an extremely hot beam from the sky.
A terrifying roar echoed overhead, and everyone who looked up fell into despair. A Red Dragon with gray-white and crimson scales, vines growing from its body, spread its wings and breathed fire downward. Behind it, countless dull-eyed monsters, also eroded, surged forward as a massive Beast Tide that flattened everything.
Even plants mutated into grotesque shapes. This was the true power of the Inverted World Tree seed, reshaping the ecosystem according to its will, including all life, land, and water. Everything became their enemy, even themselves.
The captain felt a chill in his abdomen and turned to see a despairing subordinate, also showing signs of erosion, driving a sword into his back. He lost consciousness soon after and was likewise corrupted. This happened in many places, as armies sent to these mutated cities were surrounded and crushed, with only a few strong individuals surviving.
"That's right. Hahahaha!" As he devoured souls endlessly, Ludwig laughed wildly, his core growing stronger. "Those who blocked me and those who tried to use me, I will repay them a thousandfold. In this era, I will ascend as a god!"
His consciousness expanded across the hunting grounds, sharing vision with the living nodes. He noticed one particularly large army where a few stronger individuals were holding a line, slowing the ecological erosion. This displeased him.
Why not just die quietly? Struggle all you want, the end is the same. These so-called Ascendant Hall-level existences were laughable to him, not even worth comparing to infants. Still, they were a nuisance, so he casually sent a slightly stronger avatar to crush them.
As expected, the situation turned one-sided. Growing power drove Ludwig into greater madness, even changing his original plans. "Wait for that dragon with Authority? No. With my current strength, I can the Lord move out and find it myself, and then…"
Through the avatar's vision, he sensed a familiar scorching presence. It felt painfully familiar, as if he had been hit by it many times before. The avatar's last sight was an expanding orange-red torrent of blazing energy that struck directly.