Chapter 278: Doomsday Tempest
"Leon, look—" Salomon grabbed his staff, but his expression suddenly shifted. The joy on his face vanished, replaced by terror. His hand trembled as he pointed into the void...
"What's going on?"
"Over there, look over there!" Salomon's voice had completely changed.
"Damn!" Leon cursed in shock, following Salomon's trembling finger. The sight made him blurt out a profanity.
The deep, shadowy void ahead was suddenly stained red.
At a glance, it looked as if blood had been splashed across the void, accompanied by thunderous roars and howling winds. Violent magic surged, filling the emptiness in an instant...
"Hell, that's the Doomsday Tempest!" Leon spat, furious. He had seen this exact scene thirty thousand years in the future, when Northend World was on the brink of collapse—earth crumbling, sky torn asunder, blood and fire singing the world's final elegy.
Leon remembered it vividly—the last thing he saw was blood staining the void, thunder and wind tearing the land apart, the whole world plunging into eternal darkness in a single moment.
The Doomsday Tempest was the world's last frenzy before death—like a dying gasp, all its power erupted at once, devouring and destroying everything, turning all existence to nothing with incomparable force.
That kind of power could destroy everything—even the Plane Path beneath our feet...
"How can this be..." Leon felt like dying. Why did the Doomsday Tempest have to show up now of all times? Not sooner, not later—just now.
This makes no sense...
Just looking at this Void Graveyard, you could tell the Apocalypse Plane died at least ten thousand years ago. So why didn't the Doomsday Tempest happen back then?
And now, after all this time, the Apocalypse Plane is as dead as can be, and the long-delayed Doomsday Tempest suddenly shows up...
What the hell is going on?
Could it be that our group barging into the Apocalypse Plane triggered this Doomsday Tempest that never erupted before?
But that doesn't add up either...
Our whole group has always been under the protection of the Plane Path—including Hubert merging with that drop of Golden Three-Headed Dragon's blood, my acquisition of Silver Dragon's Blood, and those two suspected True Spirit-level staffs. From start to finish, we've been shielded by the Plane Path.
The Plane Path may look like a road, but it's really just a twisted pocket of space. So, while it seems like we're inside the Apocalypse Plane, the spatial distortion means the plane can't perceive us at all. As far as the Apocalypse Plane is concerned, we simply don't exist.
It's a bit complicated to explain...
Anyway, it's pretty unlikely our group caused the Doomsday Tempest.
But if not us, then what was it?
Could it be because I disturbed the Silver Dragon's corpse?
No, that makes even less sense...
Hubert messed with the corpse of a Golden Three-Headed Dragon and nothing happened. That beast stood at the very top of Northend World, rivaling ancient gods and demons. Even its decayed remains didn't bring about the Doomsday Tempest, so how could a mere Silver Dragon corpse do it?
No matter how much Leon thought about it, he just couldn't figure it out...
Aside from that, there really aren't any other factors...
"Hm?" At that thought, Leon's heart skipped. No, maybe there is another factor after all.
Leon slipped a hand into his pocket and immediately felt the Crimson Crystal...
The way this Crimson Crystal appeared was strange—too sudden, too bizarre. If Leon hadn't reacted fast enough, he'd have paid dearly for it.
Besides, Leon remembered it clearly...
When the Crimson Crystal struck his chest, there was a faint magical distortion all around. And that was while he was under the protection of the Plane Path—he shouldn't have been able to sense any magical fluctuations from the Apocalypse Plane at all...
Could it really be connected to the Crimson Crystal?
At that thought, Leon's right hand in his pocket unconsciously gripped the Crimson Crystal tighter...
Unfortunately, there was no time left for Leon to investigate the Crimson Crystal's secrets. The sky was now awash in red, flooding the void with endless, dark crimson. Thunder boomed, lightning flashed, and wild winds howled. For a moment, it felt as if the whole void was ablaze...
"Leon, this is... this is..."
Salomon was completely stunned...
The endless flood of crimson spread like mad, like blood unleashed. Even with the Plane Path's protection, the power could be felt clearly—enough to destroy worlds, let alone a handful of mortals on the Plane Path.
In the face of such world-ending calamity, even a Sky Rank powerhouse was no different from an ant. And among our group, the strongest was only a Title Archmage...
"Don't panic, it's the Doomsday Tempest." There was no time for Leon to explain to Salomon, so he offered brief reassurance before turning all his attention to the Doomsday Tempest.
For the first time, the Mana Harness failed...
In the face of such world-ending calamity, the Mana Harness—usually all-powerful—seemed utterly insignificant, like a grain of sand tossed into a pond, unable to stir even a ripple.
At this moment, the only thing Leon could rely on was his own experience.
Leon was probably the only person in the world to have witnessed the Doomsday Tempest and still be alive...
Leon gripped the Crystal Balance staff tightly, standing motionless on the Plane Path against the raging winds. His robe billowed, the void before him endless, the Doomsday Tempest filling the sky. Yet Leon's gaze stayed locked on the deepest, brightest crimson at the storm's heart...
Because Leon knew that at any moment, the Doomsday Tempest would erupt there, and then its world-destroying power would sweep across the entire Apocalypse Plane...
Primordial Deities, Five-Colored Dragons, Pureblood Elves...
Everything would be swallowed by the Doomsday Tempest...
Yet...
For Leon and his companions, this was their only chance...
The one and only chance to escape the Apocalypse Plane.
Once the Doomsday Tempest appeared, it would sweep across the entire Apocalypse Plane. Everything, absolutely everything, would be reduced to nothingness beneath its wrath. This was the most thorough, ultimate annihilation—no force could ever reverse it.
By this point, it was already too late...
Even if Leon Merlin destroyed the Crystal Balance and activated the return function of the Plane Path right now, it would still be too late.
Under the shroud of the Doomsday Tempest, all laws had fallen into chaos—space, time, everything no longer followed their original course. This included the Crystal Balance and the Plane Path...
In the entire Northend World, perhaps only Leon Merlin knew that at the very moment the Doomsday Tempest fully erupted, there would be a fleeting contraction—maybe a tenth of a second, or even a hundredth. In any case, it was so brief that ordinary people could never perceive it.
That instant would be Leon Merlin's only chance—to seize the moment of contraction, destroy the Crystal Balance, and activate the return on the Plane Path...
But... it was just too difficult. Far, far too difficult.
A tenth of a second, or even a hundredth—such a fleeting moment. Without the aid of a magitech array, relying solely on a single experience to judge, this was a task nearly impossible for anyone to accomplish.
Even Leon Merlin...
Now, all he could do was leave everything to luck...
The Doomsday Tempest had already begun to brew. The blood-red hue was growing ever more vivid, and from the distant depths of the void came the sounds of shattering. Leon Merlin knew—that was the Doomsday Tempest annihilating everything, turning all into nothingness...
Time ticked by, second after second...
Beneath his feet, the Plane Path began to tremble. Under the impact of world-shattering power, the once silent Void Graveyard slowly grew chaotic—corpses, wreckage, and fragments began to drift in a single direction...
At first, Leon Merlin could still split his attention, using his skills to keep the Plane Path dodging. But gradually, he started to lose the rhythm. The distant Doomsday Tempest drew ever nearer, devouring the void at a terrifying pace. Corpses and debris moved faster and faster, and the fragments floating everywhere were like hailstones, crashing toward the Plane Path...
For a moment, Leon Merlin was in utter chaos, hands and mind both overwhelmed.
He had to keep an eye on the changes in the Doomsday Tempest while controlling the Plane Path to dodge—this was completely beyond his limits.
"Boom!" Only a moment later, a thunderous crash erupted behind the Plane Path. Leon Merlin, startled, looked back—only to see the corpse of a Pureblood Elf slamming down hard onto the Plane Path...
It must be remembered—the Plane Path was a stretch of twisted space...
The moment the Pureblood Elf's corpse crashed down, it produced a deafening roar. That alone showed just how terrifying the impact was at that instant...
The only thing Leon Merlin could be grateful for was that Pureblood Elves weren't large—their bodies were even more slender than ordinary humans. When the corpse struck, aside from giving Leon a fright, it didn't cause any serious consequences...
But...
Leon Merlin didn't dare relax for a moment. This time, it was just a Pureblood Elf's corpse—what about next time...?