Chapter 607: Scramble for Spoils

Chapter 607: Scramble for Spoils

The blurry silhouette floated before the spatial rift, its presence still so overwhelming that the entire void trembled.

The creatures of the Myriad Realms Alliance continued their frenzied shouting, while the wizards from the parallel worlds shivered in despair. But the moment that voice rang out, everything fell silent.

“I didn’t expect you to push things this far.” The Alliance Leader’s voice was deep and carried a trace of weariness, like a giant roused from sleep. “It seems I still underestimated you.”

The silhouette tilted its head slightly. Its blurry gaze swept across the wizards of the four major factions, then it nodded, as if rendering judgment. “I acknowledge your strength.” Its voice rose a little, carrying a generous, almost condescending tone. “As compensation, I permit you to join the Alliance.”

The void fell silent for a moment.

The upper echelons of the Myriad Realms Alliance were first stunned, then erupted into chaos.

“Leader!” An eighth-rank giant beast covered in golden scales abruptly raised its head, its voice urgent. “These wizards have killed so many of us—how can we…”

“That’s right, Leader!” Another energy aggregate flashed wildly, its emotions agitated. “These creatures who call themselves wizards are far too greedy. They’re definitely not good news!”

“Leader, please reconsider!”

The commanders whose factions had suffered lighter losses all chimed in, vigilance and hostility practically overflowing from their eyes.

They had finally secured a position within the Alliance. If these wizards joined, with their combat power, it would not take long before they climbed over everyone else’s heads.

But the commanders whose forces had been crippled reacted completely differently.

A heavily wounded beastman commander struggled to his feet, his voice hoarse: “The Leader is wise! These wizards have strong combat power—having them join us is a good thing!”

“Exactly! We’re short on this kind of fighting force right now!”

“Welcome! Warmly welcome!”

Their smiles looked worse than crying, yet the desire to survive in their eyes was crystal clear.

As long as they could live, as long as they could preserve what little remained of their foundations, they were willing to step aside.

The most intense reaction came from the defected wizards.

Walder stood at the back of the crowd. His expression shifted from fear to deathly pale, then from pale to iron-gray.

If the four major factions were truly absorbed, then they—the defectors—would be traitors who had surrendered to the enemy and would be the first to be purged.

“Leader!” He rushed forward desperately, his voice trembling. “You cannot absorb them! They will never submit to anyone! They exterminated our civilization…”

The Leader did not reply. It merely glanced at him.

Walder felt as if an invisible hand had seized his throat. He could no longer utter a single sound.

The expressions of the parallel-world wizards were also changing.

When the ninth-rank pressure had descended earlier, they had thought they were doomed.

The veterans who had survived world-ending wars had even begun recalling their short and painful lives.

But now, the Leader had said “I permit you to join the Alliance”…

What did that mean?

Did it mean they didn’t have to die?

Did it mean their civilization still had a path to survival?

Hope flashed in some people’s eyes. Others quietly clenched their fists. Still others subconsciously looked toward the four major factions, wanting to see how those powerful peers would respond.

Then they saw that the wizards of the four major factions showed almost no reaction.

It was not that they had no reaction at all, but the eighth-rank wizards simply floated in the void with expressions as calm as if they were listening to a joke that had nothing to do with them. Although their expressions looked somewhat strange, the oddity seemed directed at the wizards around them.

As for the Leader of the Myriad Realms Alliance, they did not seem to care much.

The parallel-world wizards were stunned.

That was a ninth-rank being!

A ninth-rank creature had just offered to absorb them, and this was their reaction?

The Leader of the Myriad Realms Alliance seemed to sense the strange atmosphere as well.

Its gaze swept across the expressionless eighth-rank wizards, and its voice grew heavier: “What? No response?”

No one answered it.

Because the moment the Leader asked the question, the eighth-rank wizards glanced at one another and then… suddenly attacked each other.

The hundred thousand eighth-rank wizards instantly split into four camps in the void—Star Ring Federation against Crimson Court, Void Architecture Academy against Anti-Entropy Alliance—before quickly breaking apart and reforming into a chaotic melee.

Waves of laws and energy surged outward like tsunamis. The entire void trembled under their battle.

Space was torn apart and healed, healed and torn apart again. Time accelerated and decelerated in localized areas, decelerated and accelerated again. Causal lines were snapped and reconnected, reconnected and snapped again.

The Leader of the Myriad Realms Alliance narrowed its eyes slightly as it watched the scene before it, showing a hint of surprise.

The combat power displayed by these eighth-rank wizards from the parallel worlds was even stronger than it had anticipated.

Their application of laws, their degree of control over power, their understanding of the world’s essence… when all these factors combined, the fighting strength they displayed was nothing short of exaggerated.

If it could absorb such a batch of combat power…

Its gaze grew even more fervent.

The Leader was now certain that its earlier decision had been correct.

The commanders of the Myriad Realms Alliance were also startled by this sudden infighting.

But they quickly reacted, mocking smiles appearing on their faces.

“Hahahaha!” A beastman commander laughed so hard he rocked back and forth. “Look at that—they’re already fighting over positions before they’ve even joined!”

“They’re probably trying to show off in front of the Leader, right?” Another energy aggregate let out a shrill laugh. “Truly the behavior of inferior creatures.”

“Do these guys really think showing their strength will let them become the Leader?”

The parallel-world wizards watched the infighting, and the hope on their faces gradually turned to disappointment.

So even these powerful wizards were no different from the people of the Myriad Realms Alliance—willing to attack their own comrades without hesitation for the sake of power and status.

A sixth-rank wizard who had just signed a contract lowered his head, unable to watch any longer: “It’s over… the wizard civilization is finished…”

His counterpart beside him—a sixth-rank wizard from the Star Ring Federation—looked at him with a strange expression after hearing those words.

“You… why are you looking at me like that?” The parallel-world wizard felt a chill.

“Nothing.” His counterpart withdrew his gaze, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly as if holding back laughter.

“You… aren’t you fighting over command authority after joining the Alliance?” The parallel-world wizard sensed something was off from his counterpart’s attitude.

His counterpart finally couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing with a “pfft”: “Join the Alliance? Who said that?”

He pointed at the group of eighth-rank wizards locked in melee: “They’re fighting over spoils.”

“Spoils?” The parallel-world wizard was stunned.

“Yeah.” His counterpart jerked his chin toward the rift. “That’s a ninth-rank creature, and it’s still alive. Whoever grabs it first gets it.”

The parallel-world wizard’s mouth fell open. He couldn’t utter a single word.

“…Huh?”

The melee ended quickly.

From start to finish, it took only a few breaths.

An eighth-rank wizard from the Crimson Court was the first to break free from the chaos. His body was shrouded in thick blood-colored mist, and his aura was so violent it seemed as if he had just crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Pure, heartfelt excitement shone on his face.

“This material is ours!”

He laughed loudly as he flew toward the Myriad Realms Alliance Leader.

Behind him, the eighth-rank wizards from the Star Ring Federation, Void Architecture Academy, and Anti-Entropy Alliance followed closely, each with uglier expressions than the last.

Some cursed and swore, some gritted their teeth, and others glared back at the companions they had left behind even as they flew forward.

“You meat lumps, you have no shame!! We clearly discovered it first!”

“Bullshit! Whoever grabs it first owns it!”

“You dirt-diggers, didn’t you say you had no interest in this kind of creature?”

“That was earlier! Now we’re interested!”

The eighth-rank wizards hurled abuse at one another, yet every one of them flew faster than the last.

The parallel-world wizards who had been struggling in despair moments ago were now completely dumbfounded.

They watched those eighth-rank wizards charge toward the ninth-rank silhouette with excitement as if injected with stimulants, their minds blank.

The expression of the Myriad Realms Alliance Leader had completely changed.

It stood before the rift, watching the group of eighth-rank wizards flying toward it, seeing the greedy, predatory look in their eyes, and instantly understood what these wizards were thinking.

It had lived for who knew how many tens of thousands of years, seen countless civilizations, and fought countless wars. It had always been the one treating others as prey.

And now, a group of eighth-rank creatures were looking at it with the eyes of predators.

“Courting death.”

Feeling offended, the Leader’s voice turned icy.

It raised its hand and gently pressed down toward the incoming eighth-rank wizards.

【World Modification】.

In that instant, the laws of the entire void were twisted.

The area it had selected was being erased from the level of existence itself.

The creatures of the Myriad Realms Alliance let out earth-shaking cheers.

They knew that anything directly erased by a ninth-rank being would not even leave behind a soul.

Then the cheers caught in their throats.

The selected area had indeed been emptied, but those eighth-rank wizards… were still there.

They floated in the void, their speed not even slowing, still flying forward while arguing.

The Leader’s “World Modification” seemed to have had no effect on them at all.

The eighth-rank wizard from the Crimson Court at the very front even looked up at the Leader, a trace of disappointment in his eyes.

That’s it?

“Tsk! Just a low-grade ninth-rank.” His voice was not loud, yet it clearly reached everyone’s ears, his tone as casual as if he were evaluating the quality of a piece of meat. “Three people should be enough to completely suppress it.”

The wizards chasing behind him immediately burst into dissatisfied protests.

“If you think it’s no good, why don’t you just hand it over to us!”

“It should be my turn this time!”

“You took the biggest share in the last war. It’s our turn now!”

The eighth-rank wizard paid no attention to the protests from behind.

He raised his hand and pointed backward: “You three, come with me. The rest…”

He paused, glanced back at the other factions’ eighth-rank wizards who were still rapidly closing in, and the corners of his mouth curved into a malicious smile: “Stop them.”

The three eighth-rank wizards he had named immediately broke away from the group and accelerated toward the Leader.

The remaining Crimson Court wizards turned in unison to face the iron-faced eighth-rank wizards of the other factions, flashing brilliant smiles.

“Sorry about this, everyone.”

“Bastards!”

“You fucking animals!!!”

In the void, the melee erupted once again.