Hearing that the Grave-Ash Horrors were terrified of concentrated Yang energy, the gathered mercenary captains immediately shifted their gazes toward the Crimson Lotus Pavilion's cohort.
This was a formation of fanatic cultivators who specialized in the chaotic arts of the Demonic Flame.
They all wore robes woven from fire-silk and had their heads entirely shaved, their scalps tattooed with glowing, volatile heat-arrays.
Next to them quietly stood their contracted fiends, massive Inferno-Hounds that dripped molten lava onto the obsidian ground.
Besides the major mercenary bands and the sect's official Vanguard cohorts, several independent slaughter-squads had also arrived at the edge of the Rotting Marrow Swamp.
These squads were usually formed by blood-oath brothers or surviving members of eradicated pavilions.
Some had clear, specialized roles for hunting, while others entirely relied on a single, monstrously powerful fiend possessed by their leader.
A few moons ago, the Elder Council established the Blood-Bounty Registry. They not only offered spirit stones for individual kills, but massive dark-resource rewards for group annihilations.
This further guaranteed these slaughter-squads' terrifying efficiency.
Rumors whispered that in the deeper, central plains of the Demonic Sect's territory, hundred-man slaughter-squads already existed, capable of wiping out small Orthodox towns overnight.
"It seems that this time, Commander Yan of the Crimson Lotus will reap the greatest harvest of marrow," Captain Vane smiled submissively, his scarred face twitching as he kept his head bowed respectfully toward Sunny.
"..." Sunny offered no response, merely staring at the churning, gray ash of the swamp with his glowing crimson eyes. Internally, his stomach was doing backflips.
'Reap the harvest? We are standing on the edge of a literal apocalypse zone! I should have faked a coma. I should have broken my own leg. Why am I standing in the front row?!'
"You flatter our pavilion's flames. Your newly ascended Four-Armed Abyssal Mantises are regarded as the ultimate reapers; I say you will breach the catacombs first," a heavily armored Enforcer interrupted, stepping forward from the command tent.
"I trust you all digested the intelligence scrolls yesterday. The Grave-Ash Horrors do not simply kill; they paralyze a massive amount of cultivators and drag them back into their subterranean tombs. This is to provide sufficient flesh-catalyst for their Grave-Matrix. Once their matrix has absorbed enough cultivators, it will reproduce a tremendous tide of necrotic ash that will consume the entire mountain," Executioner Mian announced, his voice amplified by a localized wind-incantation.
"This is a mission of absolute survival. I expect every disciple to burn their soul-essence if necessary. As long as the catacomb is sealed, the Sect Master will reward you with access to the forbidden scripture pavilion," the Executioner commanded. The High Command was terrified that these volatile mercenary bands would slaughter each other for the bounty before they even reached the target. They didn't want to see these killers waste their dark Qi before the Grave-Matrix was destroyed.
At the edge of the Rotting Marrow Swamp, through gaps in the calcified, dead trees, pale, multi-limbed horrors could be seen twitching in the gloom.
But it was impossible to tell exactly how many millions of fiends lurked beneath the ash.
The Vanguard's rear artillery arrays shifted their alignment, aiming directly into the dead-zone.
Executioner Mian raised a massive, jagged bone-sword, his face twisting into a mask of pure malice. "Death to the weak!"
Then he turned to the swamp and channeled his full demonic aura, commanding out loud, "Unleash the Hellfire Arrays!"
Pillars of blinding, volatile Yang-fire erupted from the heavy spirit-cannons all at once.
The explosions were deafening. Massive spheres of concentrated, explosive Qi fired with absolute fury. They tore through the thick, necrotic air, leaving trails of screaming crimson light behind.
The Grave-Ash Horrors' faint, collective shrieks of panic spread through the swamp. It was too late for the mindless monsters to retreat into the mud.
As the explosive spheres struck the calcified ground, fierce shockwaves of Yang-fire engulfed the dead woods. Scorching, unnatural heat and continuous, earth-shattering booms filled the swamp. There was endless shrieking and floundering as thousands of Grave-Ash Horrors were instantly incinerated into nothingness.
After a relentless round of artillery bombardment, a massive, burning crater was carved into the edge of the Rotting Marrow Swamp, as if the earth itself had been bitten by a cosmic demon.
The remnant Hellfire burned the petrified trees. Piles of charred, smoking husks were scattered across the uneven ground. Miles of the infested swamp were destroyed entirely. Only a few surviving horrors were wailing in the distance.
This was the supreme destructive power of the Heavenly Demon Sect's grand arrays, the absolute force the Elders used to rule the demonic continent.
ROOOAARRR! A guttural, world-ending bellow rent the air. Deep in the heart of the swamp, the calcified earth began to heave and crack.
Petrified trees were shattered one after another, and a massive, rotting spine could be vaguely seen rising in the dark ash clouds.
The snarl came closer. An invisible, suffocating pressure slammed into the Vanguard army. Even the ambient dark Qi in the air froze!
A skeletal hand the size of a fortress suddenly smashed through the edge of the swamp, stretching into a ferocious, decaying shadow.
BOOM! The hand pounded on the obsidian ground, and the entire army felt the earth violently quake.
A towering, four-story-tall Abyssal Rot-Behemoth dragged itself from the swamp. Faint, highly toxic green halos spread from its decaying feet, rotting the stone beneath it.
A Calamity Lord! It was a Calamity-tier Fiend!
There was absolute, deathly silence across the Vanguard lines.
Every single contracted fiend present that was below the Commander tier immediately threw themselves down on the ground, trembling violently, their instincts forcing them into absolute submission.
Even the newly ascended Commander-tier Four-Armed Abyssal Mantises looked visibly suppressed.
They barely managed to stand still, their scythes lowered, daring not to make the slightest clicking noise.
"This is the ancient Lord of the Rotting Marrow." Captain Vane tasted bile in the back of his throat. Why had the artillery awakened the true Lord of this forbidden zone?
Massive, decaying arms propped the Behemoth up on the ground as the monster slowly turned its hollow eye sockets toward the army, every agonizing step it took projecting a wave of lethal despair.
Its giant body looked like a walking graveyard from the primordial era, and its skeletal face, wreathed in toxic green miasma, seemed to radiate pure, localized death.
It was the first time many of the Vanguard disciples present had ever laid eyes on a Calamity Lord.
No one had ever expected that the Lord of the swamp would emerge from its deep slumber. It was recorded in the archives that this Lord rarely ever moved from the central catacombs.
Some disciples began to slowly inch backward, desperately looking for an escape route. Facing a Calamity Lord, they had absolutely zero chance to fight back.
Even though the Vanguard possessed dozens of Commander-tier monsters and hundreds of spirit-cannons, they didn't even have a microscopic probability of winning. Minor arrays could not even scratch the bone density of a Calamity Lord.
Standing at the front, Sunny was physically paralyzed. He wasn't projecting an aura of stillness; his muscles had completely locked up in sheer, unadulterated terror. 'I am dead. We are all dead. That thing is going to step on me and I will become a permanent stain on this rock.'
Suddenly, a bright, bubbly voice echoed directly in his mind.
[Ding! Host, what a magnificent specimen of pure evil!] the System girl chimed cheerfully, completely ignoring the apocalyptic threat.
[If you harvest its core, you can utilize the Supreme Merge System to merge two beasts of the Calamity tier! You can merge beast skills to create world-ending plagues! You can merge items, merge terrain, merge everything! As the ultimate villain, this is your perfect opportunity!]
'Shut up! Shut up right now!' Sunny screamed internally. 'I am not fighting Godzilla! I am an accountant!'
SKREEEEEE! A deafening, soul-piercing screech rang from the blood-red clouds above their heads. The bruised sun was suddenly eclipsed as an enormous, shadowy mass descended.
The terrified disciples looked up, seeing a giant, six-winged Blood-Wyrm gleaming with dark, draconic majesty in the sky.
"It's the Sect Protector!" The disciples wept tears of relief. They were not going to be eaten today.
It was the ultimate guardian of the Heavenly Demon Sect's inner sanctum: the Abyssal Blood-Wyrm.
The Sect Protector's sudden appearance was a direct, territorial threat to the Lord of the Rotting Marrow. The skeletal Behemoth stepped back, roaring with defensive anger, pointing a massive, rotting finger at the destroyed swamp, as if it were demanding a blood-price for the bombardment.
The Blood-Wyrm spiraled in the air, releasing a breath of absolute freezing shadow, its cry echoing with supreme coldness.
The Lord of the Rotting Marrow seemed unwilling to risk a fatal clash with another Calamity-tier entity over mere artillery fire.
It stood up and slammed its fists into its own decaying chest, creating a concussive shockwave of sound.
The Blood-Wyrm merely glared down at it with absolute, draconic scorn, screeched once more to assert its dominance, and then banked sharply, flying back toward the high peaks of the Inner Sect.
The Lord of the Rotting Marrow breathed heavily, toxic gas billowing from its jaws. It glared at the Vanguard army with profound hatred, stamped the ground once more to trigger a minor earthquake, and roared with impotent rage.
Finally, it turned around and slowly sank back into the deepest, untouched depths of the swamp, disappearing into the dark ash.
"There are some ancient horrors we cannot currently afford to provoke. You must strike the catacombs quickly, and remember, do not utilize wide-area explosive arrays near the central depths. Otherwise, if the Lord of the Rotting Marrow awakens fully, the Sect Master will personally feed your souls to the wyrms." Executioner Mian narrowed his eyes.
The mercenary captains and slaughter-squad leaders, who were the most arrogant killers in the entire camp, stood in stunned silence.
They had marched here with absolute confidence in their newly ascended fiends.
But they had just been forcefully reminded of their place in the demonic food chain. Either of those two titans could have wiped their entire army out with a casual swipe. Such an experience utterly shattered their arrogance.
To survive the true depths of the Demonic Path, they were still nothing but insects.
Captain Vane, sweating profusely, turned his scarred face toward Sunny. Vane was absolutely terrified that the Young Master would be displeased by the delay, or worse, that Sunny would demand they hunt the Lord monster.
"Supreme One... we await your absolute command. Shall we advance into the breach?" Vane asked, his voice trembling, deeply afraid that Sunny might randomly decide to test his Flesh-Mending arts on Vane's own body if he spoke out of turn.
"..." Sunny remained perfectly still, his crimson eyes staring blankly at the spot where the Behemoth had vanished. He was still trying to remember how to breathe.
To Captain Vane and the groveling Quartermaster Jin, this profound silence was the most terrifying response possible.
The Young Master wasn't relieved the Behemoth had left; he was completely unfazed.
Sunny slowly blinked,
"March," Sunny finally rasped, taking a step forward only because his legs were finally un-paralyzed, completely unaware of the absolute mortal dread he had just inspired in his subordinates.