***

  The battle of epic proportions had properly started. All sides knew that there was no stopping until one side came out victorious. The diamond ranks that were fighting should have been able to tear apart the landscape with barely any effort, but they were opposed by those of similar strength, so everything stayed relatively stable until one side proved victorious over an area.

  Scars ran deep on the land that was taken, and it was only fixed so further fighters could move forward ever closer to their goal of entering the dungeon.

  In the underground battle, the situation was similar. The main tunnels were a warzone, with elementals holding ground as best as they could while monsters specifically designed to fight them continued to push them back, supported by diamond-ranked mages to help the push go faster.

  The fact was that ETG was holding the underground tunnels way better than the land on the surface. A change was needed by the attackers if they were to get to the dungeon proper in a reasonable amount of time. So, they made smaller side tunnels once again, but this time they had the numbers to push into the dungeon proper quickly enough.

  They found themselves in a difficult position, as the pockets that were not dungeon territory held many creatures constantly fighting to kill and halt their progress. The 21 dungeons and their masters also sent real people through the side tunnels, and while they could bring the fight to those pocket fortresses, there were plenty of creatures prepared to meet their attacks.

  As days of fighting went by, the attacking armies finally reached close enough to the main fortifications to start launching long-range attacks. While almost all of them were ineffectual, some specific skill combinations still managed to get through their magical defenses, killing a few unlucky individuals who happened to be badly positioned so that the physical defenses couldn't help them in that particular moment.

  The battles were chaotic at best—most of the time, they were worse than that. The speed at which physical diamond ranks could move constantly caused shockwaves and sonic booms. Physical ranged attacks often caused explosions, and then there were the spells.

  At any single moment, every color imaginable was exploding on the battlefields, each with various effects. Often, people fought completely blindly, hoping that they were still facing the correct direction so they wouldn’t end up fighting against their own.

  As time went on, both attackers and defenders adjusted their tactics. This battle—this war—was something never before seen. Quickly, commanders and generals learned what worked and what didn’t, constantly changing their approaches to gain the upper hand on their enemy. It was a brutal fight. No one was captured or given mercy, as both parties believed this war was for their survival.

  It took the surface armies three weeks to crawl their way through the outer defenses, finally reaching the dungeon proper and beginning the siege on the most complex and strongest fortress ever built in this world. Mage bombardments were endless, and slowly, the attackers tested the physical defenses for weaknesses, finding no success just yet.

  Mages needed to be careful not to burn themselves out. Even without using mana restoratives, they found that their mana regeneration was so high that they could actually hurt themselves if they continued to use too much of it. Both sides quickly researched this phenomenon, and with that knowledge, they truly began to understand the true cost of this war.

  The world had changed. While the mana percentage hadn’t risen much since before the territorial war between the dungeons began, the constant movement of mana had created zones with higher concentrations.

  The surface world, which had been safe for so long, now had places where even platinum ranks couldn’t survive for long. It was causing devastation all around the world, yet the four great powers decided not to act—they couldn’t spare any forces.

  A plea was made to every adventurer not involved in the war, along with promises of wealth to anyone willing to fight monsters. The doors of the adventurer guilds were opened wide, and anyone could gain truly good skills just by promising to help fight against the encroaching monsters. It truly was going to be the age of adventurers, because without them, civilization was sure to collapse.

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  ETG didn’t exactly feel bad for the rest of the world—he just hoped that everything happening wasn’t too much. Because to properly train someone, you can't put too big of a challenge in front of them; otherwise, they might fail even before they have a chance to get strong. To him, the people attacking him right now—he hoped that he had built a challenge too strong for them to overcome.

  ETG was pushing himself to the absolute limit every moment. His worlds and the dungeon rooms had been forgotten—he simply didn’t have the time for them. He watched his enemies getting ever closer day by day as they sought his destruction.

  While constantly making and teleporting monsters, he was also able to witness acts of bravery from his creatures and the adventurers fighting on his side. He didn’t exactly know what he had done to deserve such devotion, but the way they fought was inspiring.

  Every death ETG felt made him focus more. There was anger as well, but it quickly vanished into the thousands upon thousands of minds he was currently splitting himself into to do everything he needed to do.

  One of the biggest portions of his mental capabilities actually went into expanding the 75th floor. It was both a curse and a blessing to have such big floors. Right now, he needed to finish expanding this one as fast as possible because, no matter how good their defenses were, the armies facing them simply had too many diamond ranks that would slowly grind their way to his core.

  The defenders were magnificent, and so were their defenses. What was also helping them, especially on the surface, was that the four great powers wanted the other great powers to lose more of their forces so they wouldn’t lose too much themselves. The Pixies got the brunt of that particular strategy, which eventually caused the leader of the Pixies to act.

  It was his spell that the melters were based off of. It was one of the reasons why he eventually managed to get the position of leadership. For this particular Pixie, it had not been an easy journey. Normally, the leaders were only women, but despite traditions, his contribution was so significant that he eventually managed to rise to his position as leader.

  Still angry about so many ruined plans, he and his honor guard finally acted. The defenders tried using long-range attacks to stop what was about to happen, but they simply couldn’t. They had to just watch as dozens of Pixies, including their leader, cast the beam spell multiple times in multiple locations. It took those beams a long time, but eventually, they broke through the local defenses in those areas, and the attackers rushed in, creating beachheads inside the fortifications.

  The attackers celebrated, but in only a few days, they found out that while, yes, they had gotten into the fortifications, those fortifications were designed for such things to happen. The fighting became somehow even more brutal, as it was now happening in tight corridors strong enough to withstand diamond-ranked spells. This created a whole new battle dynamic, where no one actually knew what would work and what wouldn’t.

  It became a constant battle of territory gained and lost, with no clear winner on either side. The Pixies needed time to recover between their combined spell attack that could break through the outer defenses, but every day or two, a new breach was created, allowing more of the attacking forces to enter and start finding their way deeper into the dungeon.

  One place where these beam attacks proved ineffectual was against the entrance itself. The defenses there were on a different level, and soon, the attackers stopped trying to get in from that location.

  The fighting dragged on, and days turned into weeks, but they were slowly making progress. Unknown to them, they were fighting against a ticking timer they didn’t even realize existed.

  It took the attackers longer than they wanted but they had pushed past the second layer of the outer fortifications and into the first. Soon, they discovered that they would still need to break through the outer shell, which would release another pressurized water attack if they breached it.

  They changed their tactics. All their armies started moving ever closer to the entrance—not just from the outside but also inside the fortifications. Their plan was to take it and gain access to the labyrinth. From there, the Pixies could once again launch their beam attacks without having to worry about the defensive layers.

  The underground war had been going a lot better for the defenders, but they all knew what was about to happen. The fighting that was about to follow was going to be just as brutal as the battle raging on the surface.

  ETG tried his best, but everyone could feel it when he triggered the breakthrough. It had been over two months of constant battling, and for a moment, for the first time during this war, everything stopped.

  The defenders now knew they needed to hold for another two to three weeks. But if they could do it, they would win.

  The attackers were confused as to why this breakthrough had been triggered, but all of them could feel that it was stronger than the floor depth of this dungeon indicated. Nevertheless, they used this chance to their full advantage, pushing as hard as they could—yet they found the defenders fighting more zealously than ever before.

  The 21 dungeons pushed their territories forward, and in just two days, they reached where they were at, at the start of the war. The territory here was a lot stronger, so it took them longer to advance, but on the third day, the first pocket fortress needed to be evacuated. Otherwise, they would risk being overrun by a flood of monsters when the dungeons claimed this territory.

  For weeks, monsters had rushed into the pocket fortress areas, making their way further up. With the new surge of monsters reaching this area, they found themselves running into empty pockets that shouldn’t be. Before ETG triggered his breakthrough, he had changed the pathways upward, so now these monsters needed to create and find new ways up.

  It was on the fourth day that everything changed. Every diamond rank in the world, not just those near ETG, in unison, looked towards one location. It was the core of ETG. It had developed a weak shine that was slowly growing stronger with every passing moment.

  The realization hit all at once.

  The disbelief was palpable.

  It quickly changed into panic as every single attacker understood at once—if they didn’t destroy that core before it woke up, they would all die.