Chapter 1266: Cruelty Of War

What left the warriors gathered here feeling even more aggrieved was that the shadow Gremory conjured did not disappear with the death of its original, rather, it came to stand beside her like a normal servant before its master.

Gremory's lips curled upwards and pointed at the next target without waiting for the demoralized group to make a move. The shadow jumped forward and attacked that fighter cruelly, aiming for their head ignoring any feelings of comradery its original body had felt towards its victim.

The fellow managed to defend himself pitifully, but his gritted teeth gave way to blood when he looked down to see a sword piercing his chest from behind. When he turned to look back, he found another shadow coalescing in its final stage, bearing his very own features.

"H-Heh…" He could only mutter with a bitter smile, the life leaving his eyes the next moment.

The other warriors did not have any time to mourn as their own shadows manifested and began fighting them brutally, trading injury for injury without caring about their own lives, quickly putting the original bodies at a disadvantage. In a matter of minutes, screams and cries of death resounded throughout the courtyard, displaying a blood-soaked and gory scene.

The shadows, having slaughtered their true selves, came to woodenly stand beside Gremory in a protective manner as the beauty giggled cruelly.

"Ah, it's so nice when valiant warriors die in the throes of despair~"

"Gremie, get back up here, you troublemaker!" Draco roared, causing Gremory to flinch and lower her head as she floated upwards into the air.

She twiddled her fingers together with a pitiful look, fearing a scolding from her older brother. However, Draco simply flicked her forehead lightly and did not say anything else, a 'punishment' she was more than happy to endure.

Draco then focused on the battle situation, which was developing rather favorably. The members of Umbra had already breached the four zones and were holding the capture points, which were reflected in a game-like manner with Zone A, Zone B, Zone C, and Zone D.

｢War of the Worlds (Part 1) – World Quest

Description: Omitted.

Stage 1: Destroy the Defensive Barrier around Mount Conquest. - Complete

Stage 2: Break the City Gates of Conquest City and capture all the four zones. - In progress (20%)

Stage 3: Capture the City Lord's mansion and keep it for 1 hour. - Incomplete

Stage 4: Use the City Lord's Token to climb Mount Conquest and destroy the War Temple at the peak.

Stage 5: Defeat the Avatar Manifestation of War God Frederick and successfully escape Mount Conquest. - Incomplete

Limitation 1: You cannot leave the Main Plane for the duration of this event.

Limitation 2: The War Maniac Pavilion's Realm Teleporter will be made indestructible until all Event objectives are complete.

Provision 1: All enemies will be forcibly converted to the standard of the Western Fantasy Realm's power base upon arrival.

Provision 2: Enemies who come will drop all their belongings regardless of source, increasing loot drops exponentially!

Rewards: Continuation to War of the Worlds (Part 2), Plane Merger Device Blueprint, Realm Portal Device Blueprint.｣

The initial step of breaking the barrier had been easy enough to accomplish thanks to Draco reflecting the attack, but capturing the four zones was proving to be more difficult and more importantly time consuming. Right now, the fight had turned into a guerrilla and city street warfare that was tough for any invading force.

Once more, the members of Umbra proved that they broke the norm as they swept through all opposition on the way, akin to an indomitable sea of heads seen from above.

Many warriors in alleys and hidden in homes tried to ambush them, some even holding goblinwerk explosives in hand with others strapped to their chests, their eyes red as they intended to take their foes out with them.

However, these desperadoes were left in shock as the tanks among the Umbra members took the lead in those situations, even grabbing the explosive fellows into a bear hug with wide grins.

The ensuing scene was exactly a replay of Nappa and Chiaotzu.

One scene caught Draco's eye in Zone D. A child rushed out of one of the houses wielding a kitchen knife, their expression ferocious as tears flowed from their eyes. They stabbed into the leg of an armor-plated tank who was akin to a giant compared to them.

It was Kicked Bucket, the Koren star of Umbra and the best tank after Uno. He was currently in a relationship with the Spanish beauty Maple Forest, who incidentally happened to be with him in this zone as well.

"Die! Die! Diee!!" The child screamed with all their might, their flimsy kitchen knife striking the leg of Kicked Bucket and becoming more bent with each strike. Despite this, the child didn't stop, as if doing this would give them the closure they needed.

Kicked Bucket glanced down impassively and then knelt down to the child's level, scaring the lad a little as he stepped back. However, he soon gritted his teeth and stepped forward courageously, as if he didn't fear the huge man before him.

"Sup, kiddo, why are you so angry? Did your toy get lost?" Kicked Bucket asked with a playful smile.

The child pointed at Kicked Bucket angrily, hatred evident in his tone. "You evil guys killed my ma and pa! What did we ever do to you?!" Discover exclusive tales on m,v l'e-.com

Kicked Bucket understood. This was a child whose whole world had been turned upside down, their lives ruined as they had gone through the worst pain possible at their age. To him, Umbra was an evil invading force that had taken everything away from him, so he wanted to get revenge at all costs, ignoring all his natural instincts that told him to escape.

Kicked Bucket smiled. "We are the bad guys? From the point of view of our enemies, yes. However, we also consider ourselves the good guys because we wouldn't have come here if the people who your ma and pa worked for didn't attack us first."

The child faltered at this. While he did not comprehend the deeper nuances of politics, he was old enough to know about the playground rules. If you hit someone first, then you had no right to complain and call others bad guys for retaliating against you.

What left the child troubled was that he couldn't tell whether Kicked Bucket was telling the truth. Still, at the very least, he also could not fathom how their parents could have in any way attacked these invaders first.

"Your ma and pa were probably good people, just trying to carve a piece of the world for their son. However, the greed and wickedness of the ones above them caused all of this to happen, and they forced your ma and pa to the battlefield to die on their behalf."

Kicked Bucket sighed deeply. "The evil ones are the masters of your ma and pa, and we are out to get them. However, they keep lying to good people like your parents to come and die while they continue to hide."

At this point, the aggrieved child was completely confused, unsure what to think. Before him were the people who killed his parents, but they didn't do anything mean to harm him even after he had attacked. What's more, this invader had revealed 'the truth' and even offered to punish those responsible…

Maybe… they were right?

"Come, child, take my hand. I will help you get revenge on those wicked people for your ma and pa!" Kicked Bucket offered with a gentle smile as he stretched his hand out.

The lad was hesitant, but thinking about how his beloved ma and pa were now gone forever and with the offer of revenge in front of him, his eyes became red as he slowly but surely reached out…

BANG!

Unfortunately, this moving scene was ruined by a fireball that suddenly crashed into the location, exploding crazily and causing the houses nearby to erupt in flames. The flames and fire were soon blown away like a candle wick by Maple Forest, who was frowning heavily, Kicked Bucket still crouched near where the child formerly stood, now a charred corpse.

Kicked Bucket's smile slowly disappeared as he turned his head towards the rooftop of a nearby building, where a group of warriors was looking down on their area with malevolence. Kicked Bucket wiped away the stains on his face from the child's body when they had been cooked to death, glancing at those opposite him calmly.

"The child was one of yours. Is killing me and my dear so important that you can tolerate such a heinous act?" He asked them coldly.

"What a fool! This is a war, and you blasted invaders all deserve to die for crossing Conquest City!" The mage who had fired the blast spat with hatred as he began to channel another blow at the same time as the warriors beside him leaped down and charged toward them.

"Maldito bastardo! How dare you!" Maple Forest roared as she used one of her class skills to fire a bowl-sized beam of light towards the oncoming attackers, vaporizing half of them in one hit.

Meanwhile, Kicked Bucket sighed and manifested his shield, charging towards the fireball cast towards him by the mage, easily swaying it aside to strike another area and explode. He then tossed his shield like a boomerang, moving so fast that it smashed the waist of the mage, cutting him in half, before circling back into Kicked Bucket's grip.

The rest were terrified and stopped charging forward, trying to run. However, other members of Umbra nearby instantly pounced on them and dismembered them cruelly, clearing the area for the zone capture to continue unabated.

Draco glanced away and noted in annoyance that the progress of the capture had only reached 50%. The capture speed was directly affected by how many members of Umbra were in the zone versus how many enemies.

Not everyone was like Kicked Bucket or Maple Forest who had gone straight to the heart of the zone. Draco found all his original members amongst those in the heat of battle steadily clearing out enemies. However, many of those who had joined more recently had fucked off to whatever corner of the city they could find victims to toy with in ways that cannot be written lest the author gets banned.

As the fount of evil, Draco could not complain about this. As the proverbial Demon King overlooking his little Demons, how could he chastise them for acting according to their nature? Even more so when that very nature was one he himself had instilled in them?

The only reason he even felt annoyed was because he knew that it would only get harder for the members of Umbra going forward. Right now, the Conquest City was fighting on its own, crumbling to defend. But soon, the War Maniac Pavilion who stood behind them would react and dispatch fellows down to help.

Those fellows would be nothing like what existed down here. Those would be real warriors with real power, and even the members of Umbra would be pushed to their limits to fight off an endless wave of them.

Draco didn't alert them, rather he folded his arms to look down casually. This would be his test for them, to weed out those unable to keep up because even if they passed the talent threshold to enter Umbra, that potential might not be as great as expected.

After all, tests are rigid, but the world is fluid.

Take for example two children in the same grade but different classes, One child might occupy the first place in all subjects after the end of term exams in Grade 5 Class A, the other might do the same in Grade 5 Class B.

Despite both having the potential to make it far in life, one of them ended up finishing a top college, even undertaking national science and maths competitions while, the other would flounder and become a low level programmer for a crunch-time dev studio…

30 more minutes passed, and the second objective was complete, the four zones completely captured while the remnants of the city's defenders had been quelled. Half of the members of Umbra collected their captives and led them out of the city and towards the airship to be taken back and thoroughly played with at their leisure.

Meanwhile, the other half converged on the damaged estate of the city lord which was as quiet as a cemetery, the ruined building and the corpses of the guards making even the members of Umbra feel a chill.

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