The Divine Forbidden Land.
As the darkness spread,
whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
every solo player who had come running from nearby and charged into the darkness was crushed into white light in an instant by an invisible force.
When the darkness had completely swallowed the Divine Forbidden Land,
in the endless black mist on every side, Ghost Race soldiers rose, each in fully enclosed black armor with a pitch-black greatsword slung across the back;
their whole bodies radiated a powerful dark aura, their eyes glowed blood red, and they looked like demonic familiars from hell.
Like demons awakened in hell,
they stood up, one after another!
Right in front of Super God Athena,
one Ghost Race soldier stood up.
Super God Athena looked the soldier up and down.
A plain look of disappointment rose in her eyes without her noticing.
"This is the Ghost Royal Guard we went to so much trouble for? We freed the Ghost King, hunted down the Soul Refining Orb, upgraded [Soul Devourer] to SSS-Rank, schemed every step of the way, and this is what we awakened?"
"Apart from the nice skin, what's the difference between this and the NPC soldiers you see everywhere in Purgatory City?"
"A grunt like this can't accomplish anything big. I doubt it could even handle Mo Shouchenggu: Rulebound."
Just as disappointment filled Super God Athena's eyes,
footsteps suddenly came from behind.
Super God Athena went on guard at once and looked back. It was only a group of solo players from the nearby wilds who had heard the commotion and barged in!
A dozen or so solo players, Levels 76 to 77, charged eagerly into the black mist.
They ignored Super God Athena.
All their eyes fixed on the Ghost Race soldier standing in the black mist.
At once, none of them could hide their excitement.
Solo Player A: "Holy crap! What kind of monster is that?"
Solo Player B: "That dark armor set on it looks so damn cool! I want one!"
Solo Player C: "Guys, cut it down! Make it drop its gear!"
As they spoke, the dozen or so solo players grabbed their weapons without another word and, hearts full of greed, charged at the Ghost Race soldier!
While Super God Athena frowned,
the Ghost Race soldier's blood-red eyes suddenly moved, killing intent rising.
Swish!
It vanished from where it stood in an instant.
In the next blink, a blood-red shadow dropped in among the dozen or so solo players.
Slash, slash, slash, slash!
In a flurry of lightning-fast movement,
a field of blood-red damage numbers jumped up above the solo players' heads.
-153649!
-149873!
-152437!
...
For players of Levels 76 to 77, even Knights barely cleared six figures in HP.
Without a doubt, damage like this was lethal to these solo players.
With screams rising all over the field,
in just an instant,
the dozen or so solo players hadn't even had time to react before they were all killed in one hit, rising away as white light!
The next second,
the Ghost Race soldier who had just vanished from in front of Super God Athena appeared in the middle of that pillar of white light.
Bright red blood stained the shadow greatsword in its hand.
An overwhelming, world-ending intimidation poured off the soldier.
Like a demon awakened from hell.
A pressure like nothing before or after it
made Super God Athena's heart race in spite of herself!
A strange fear surged up inside her in an instant!
The contempt and disdain that had been in her eyes a moment ago were gone without a trace.
'Such terrifying strength...'
In this moment, Super God Athena could even feel it: a single glance from it would be enough to kill her ten times over in the blink of an eye!
'This is the true strength of the Ghost Royal Guard?!'
Amid her shock,
Super God Athena's stunned gaze landed on the blood-red ID above the Ghost Race soldier's head.
[Ghost Royal Guard · Ghost Swordsman] (Lv100 Physical-type · Ghost Soldier)!
A single Ghost Swordsman already had this world-shaking killing power.
And right now, all across the vast Divine Forbidden Land,
the black mist was already full of thousands upon thousands of Ghost Swordsmen identical to the one before Super God Athena's eyes!
She looked at the Ghost Swordsmen filling the black mist around her.
The thought that a Ghost Royal Guard this terrifying took its orders from Ghost King Soul-Commanding Envoy · Sade, and that the Ghost King took his orders from Godfather,
meant this world-destroying Ghost Race force, the Ghost Royal Guard, would all be under Godfather's control.
Super God Athena couldn't hold back her excitement. "With the Ghost King, and now this Ghost Royal Guard too, even if Mo Shouchenggu: Rulebound comes out of the Land of Abandoned Ghosts, there's only a dead end waiting for him!"
But then Lonely Island said in a low voice, "The Ghost Royal Guard can't deal with Mo Shouchenggu: Rulebound."
"Divine Oracle is still a game world. The strength the Ghost Royal Guard has now comes entirely from overwhelming stats."
Super God Athena nodded. "Yes, Godfather. I understand what you mean!"
"Ghost Soldiers have the bloodline bonus of the Ghost Race, one of Divine Oracle's Supreme Races, so their stats are far above ordinary monsters of the same level."
"These Ghost Swordsmen are already Level 100 themselves, and with the Supreme Race bloodline boost, they're at least on par with a Level 105 monster! Ordinary players in Purgatory City, with their levels still under 80 at this stage, definitely can't stand against them."
Super God Athena looked at Lonely Island. "But, Godfather, I don't understand."
"Mo Shouchenggu: Rulebound is only Level 80 right now. He doesn't even have the chance to finish his Fourth Turn. Even if he comes out of the Land of Abandoned Ghosts, he'll still be stuck at Level 80 until he completes the Fourth Turn, and the level gap between him and the Ghost Royal Guard is huge."
"If the Ghost Royal Guard can crush ordinary players, why can't it crush Mo Shouchenggu: Rulebound?"
Lonely Island looked at the record panel in his right palm, the one left over from the last time he used the power of Prophecy, and said in a low voice,
"With Mo Shouchenggu: Rulebound's strength right now, he really can't stand against the Ghost King and the Ghost Royal Guard."
"But when he breaks out of the secret realm with the Tier 8 set he gets as the reward for the SS-Rank quest, the maxed-out stat boost from that Tier 8 equipment will put his strength high enough to crush the Ghost King and the Ghost Royal Guard."
Super God Athena was thunderstruck.
"Tier 8 gear is that strong?"
"Then, Godfather, if even the Ghost Royal Guard can't deal with Mo Shouchenggu: Rulebound, what's the point of all the trouble we went to awakening them?"
As if everything were in his grasp, Lonely Island said offhandedly, "Awakening the Ghost Royal Guard was never about using them directly against Mo Shouchenggu: Rulebound."
Super God Athena didn't follow. "Then what was it for?"
Beneath the fully enclosed black heavy metal helmet,
Lonely Island's eyes were calm, but a sharp edge was stirring in them. "A siege."
...
Purgatory City.
At first, people didn't pay it any mind.
They thought it was just a local thunderstorm.
Then the black clouds over the Divine Forbidden Land started spreading outward, and in only a few minutes they covered the whole domain of Purgatory City!
It was four in the afternoon.
Black clouds rolled across the sky.
All of Purgatory City, in an instant, lay under pressing black clouds.
Day was like night!
It felt like the eve of the end of the world...