In the distance, the Mountain Giant swung its massive arms, sending the fourth boulder tumbling through the void, hurtling straight toward King Titan. Under everyone's terrified gaze, King Titan was smashed into the ruins of the palace like a pedestrian hit by a speeding car, ground into the shattered walls and debris.
The gust from the wyverns' wings blew away the dust. The robot's hand hung limply at the edge of the boulder’s crevice, twitching as if trying to rise, but finally, with a snap, it turned into motes of light and disappeared completely.
"Holy crap!" Oddball’s eyes nearly popped out as he rolled out, ready to rush to the rescue. But a swarm of wyverns immediately swooped in, trapping him and making escape impossible for the moment.
"Hang in there!" Jasper Xiao gritted his steel teeth, slapped his trusty steed, and prepared to charge back. With his Holy Light cultivation, his horse—blessed by Holy Light—could run vertically for a short time, enough to leap most obstacles. But just then, the Balrog behind the magic mirror, watching his image, gave a cruel order: "Kill him."
As a paladin who’d spent ages in Middle-earth, Jasper Xiao had long been on Mordor’s hit list. Today’s elaborate maneuvering was, in large part, designed to strike a fatal blow at this critical moment.
Buzz—an odd ripple surged from the void, crossing space in a blink and shooting straight for Jasper Xiao’s back.
"What the—!" The hairs on the back of his neck stood up. The cold, sinister, evil energy enveloped him, giving Jasper Xiao goosebumps all over. It was the complete opposite of life, the antithesis of light—the very thing he was weakest against.
And whoever launched this attack was definitely a powerhouse.
It was a Nazgûl! There was still a Nazgûl lurking nearby, hiding all this time just for this strike!
Crackle! The ambush’s dark ripple collided with Jasper Xiao’s hastily summoned Holy Light. In a flash, he was blasted into the air. His warhorse only caught a bit of the shockwave, but in an instant its soul was scattered, turning ashen and dropping dead on the spot. Jasper Xiao himself was flung far, slamming into the White City’s wall before crashing to the ground.
He pushed himself up with both hands, trying to grit his teeth and stand, but halfway there his face suddenly turned deathly pale. He couldn’t help but spit out a mouthful of blood—except the blood wasn’t red, it was a ghostly green, swirling with filth and ominous vibes, a bit like Daoist Baishun.
For a paladin to cough up blood like that, you could tell just how badly he was hurt—and how lethal the attack had been.
"Captain!" "Prince Xiao!" The Holy Light Knights were instantly alarmed, rushing to his side. The healers among them summoned all their strength, letting milky-white Holy Light rain down to heal Jasper Xiao. The rest, led by the paladins, kept watch, guarding against another sneaky, underhanded attack.
But the attacker clearly didn’t feel the need to keep lurking in the shadows. They just swaggered right out into the open.
Just then, the weakened Jasper Xiao opened his eyes and smiled in relief: "There is backup, but it’s not the Nazgûl. Look carefully—who is it, really?"
This thing was four meters tall, glowing green and half-transparent. Black vein-like lines, resembling bones, snaked across its body—clearly visible even though buried inside. It had arms and legs, but overall looked like a blob of runny sludge forced into a vaguely human shape. Its head was just an oval, with waves of eerie green goo pouring down from the top, flowing over its whole body.
It crawled on all fours like a baby, but every move made more greenish, semi-transparent goo bubble out, forming new limbs while old ones got sucked back in like candy taffy. This slime-mud monster was absolutely disgusting—way worse than any Spider-Orc. Not just because of its looks, but because it radiated a total anti-life, anti-light aura.
But if you could stomach the revulsion and look closer, you’d spot countless tormented faces rolling inside that green goo. Sometimes a face would press up to the surface, twisted in utter agony. If Gandalf were here, he’d recognize those faces—they belonged to the martyrs who fell in the Marsh of Ten Thousand Souls. All those spirits had been sucked into the creature.
The sense of desecration flooded everywhere, making people dizzy, nauseous, and terrified—even the Spider-Orcs scrambled away. The holy unicorns panicked and bolted, warning the knights just how scary this thing was.
The ones who freaked out most were the undead warriors.
"We can’t let it keep rampaging!" Paladin charged forward, sword in hand, Holy Light bursting all over, chanting the Second Sacred Word: "I grant you a life of honesty—defend your soul’s faith! Hya!"
Holy Light erupted, shrouding Paladin in a glowing mist. Life and death are natural enemies, so the Desecrator instantly looked furious, eyes widening even more as it shot an even stronger death wave straight at Paladin.
Crackle-boom! Life and death forces collided, exploding as Paladin’s sword struck the death wave. His face changed, flushing red—the power was too much for one person to handle.
"Soul-Shattering Dominator Eye!" A hero with a totally different vibe charged in, roaring his ultimate move. Veins bulged around his eyes, unleashing a blast of fierce energy at the Desecrator, teaming up with Paladin. The monster split open another eye, matching both high-tier Chosen Ones with its death waves, not losing ground at all.
"What are you all standing around for? Get him out of here!" Chainsaw Girl dashed to Xiao Jingzhe’s side. "I’ll clear a path, you stick close—let’s fight our way back into the city!"
"Got it!" The group quickly lifted James Shaw to carry him back. But when they looked up, the Spider-Orc army was already flooding through the gates like a tidal wave, pouring into the White City. Flames and screams filled the air, and many warriors stationed at the first wall were caught off guard and slaughtered by the swarm.
Wyverns ruled the sky, spider-mutants swarmed the ground, the Desecrator lurked nearby, and the mountain giant was about to reach attack range—one swipe and it could touch the White City. The tide had turned; the city’s fall and people’s doom seemed inevitable. Only the magical radiance atop the city shone ever brighter, the last glimmer of hope.
But the Balrog had no intention of leaving any hope behind.
"The time has come," the Balrog gave the kill order: "Give them the final blow—the Earth Devourer!"
That’s right—the Earth Devourer, delivering the last strike. It traveled underground, so even the Balrog couldn’t watch through the volcano cloud, but it could sense the creature had arrived beneath the White City. According to plan, the Earth Devourer would burst up from under the city, munch its way up White Mountain like a cookie, and finally swallow the magic circle whole.
As a worm-type creature, it could regenerate like crazy—even if wild magic blew it in half, it wouldn’t care. But those Alliance of Light heroes didn’t have that luxury; they’d just end up worm food.
Though only one city was taken, for Mordor’s army, this victory meant no one could stand against them in the future. And Lord Sauron’s path to godhood would be unstoppable.
Eat, Earth Devourer, eat it all!
Boom! Under the Balrog’s eager gaze, the ground suddenly exploded.
But things didn’t go as it expected.
Sure enough, a giant worm dozens of meters thick burst from the earth, jaws wide, chomping upward.
Yep, solid mountain rock was right above it, and it bit right through.
Yep, it was unstoppable, charging ahead.
But the Balrog’s face changed instantly—elves, dwarves, humans, even wyverns and unicorns all stared in shock. Because the Earth Devourer didn’t break out inside the city, but outside. And it wasn’t munching White Mountain—it was biting the mountain giant!
That’s right—the Earth Devourer, like a prehistoric beast, burst from underground, but instead of delivering the final blow, it went straight for the mountain giant!
"What’s going on?!"
"What the heck just happened?!"
"Why is that big monster helping us? Whose side is it on?"
The regular warriors didn’t know the Earth Devourer’s identity, but the Chosen Ones did. A female knight stared, dumbfounded: "Isn’t it a Nazgûl? How did it become our backup?"
Just then, the weakened Xiao Jingzhe opened his eyes and smiled in relief: "There is backup, but it’s not the Nazgûl. Look carefully—who is it, really?"
"Huh?" The Chosen Ones squinted, and saw that at the worm’s head, dozens of huge metal pillars were jabbed into its flesh like acupuncture needles. These pillars formed a mysterious array, and at the very center glowed a spot of blue-white light.
Zoom in, zoom in closer—that’s right, it’s none other than Teacher Yang!