System's POV

King Xanmara could already see another dust cloud in the distance, which meant that a second group of Jinns was now headed in their direction.

The moment their barrier breaks, it will spell doom for him and their people.

His ancestors, who were much more powerful and more numerous than the population of his Kingdom, had failed to thwart the Jinn invasion.

Since that was the case, it was impossible for him to resist them with the current forces under his disposal.

Knowing that only annihilation awaited him and his people, he decided to go all in, sacrificing even his people for the sake of survival.

"Give me your lives!" King Xanmara shouted. "For the Absolute!"

All the people inside the city suddenly knelt on the ground, with the weaker ones collapsing and losing consciousness on the spot.

King Xanmara didn't plan to kill them but only took half of their Life Force to complete the ritual.

He even burned a quarter of his own life force to hasten the process.

Suddenly, a loud cracking sound reverberated in the surroundings as the first crack on the barrier appeared.

However, King Xanmara ignored it and focused his attention on gathering the life force that he had harvested from his people.

As more cracks appeared in the barrier, something happened in the sky.

A red dimensional gate was forcefully opened, and from it, an eight-headed snake emerged from the sky.

At the same moment, Thirteen, as well as all the Wanderers who were hiding under the ground, received a notification that made their faces turn grim.

——————

Trial of Courage [Part 2]

This is the second mission of your chain quest.

— The King of the Northern Kingdom is planning something sinister. He plans to use every means possible to subjugate all the races in the Fractured Heaven and make them obedient to him.

— Your Mission is to stop the Summoning Ceremony that will take place within 30 days.

[Quest Failed!]

– Due to an unexpected event, the Summoning Ceremony was completed before the time limit ended. Because of this, another mission will be given to you.

——————

Mission: Fight or Flight!

You can choose between the two options. Clearing any of the two options will automatically clear the current mission of all Wanderers within the territories of the Fractured and Absolute Heaven.

[First Choice]

Defeat the Eight-Headed Serpent.

Special Rewards:

– For those who are experiencing their First Wandering, all of you will automatically become a Rookie even if you haven't absorbed any Beast Cores. This means that you can continue your next mission as Rookies, giving you greater strength to clear the last mission.

– All Apostles will also break through the next rank and become Elites even if you didn't absorb the required number of Cores.

– Each Wanderer will also gain an Adamantine-Grade Weapon, and Peak Adamantine-Grade Armor that they can use regardless of Rank.

— All Wanderers will gain the Title "Survivor."

— Triples the speed of your Stamina Regeneration.

— If even one person can clear this mission, all Wanderers will gain the rewards listed.

——————

[Second Choice]

— Find a way to survive for thirty days.

The Eight-Headed Serpent can detect any life force even if they are invisible or hiding underground.

It has the ability to burrow into the ground, making hiding from it extremely difficult. If you manage to survive its detection, consider yourself lucky because you have managed to escape from a Majin King!

Special Rewards:

– Each Wanderer will gain a Peak Gold Weapon, and a Peak Gold-Grade Armor that they can use regardless of their Rank.

— You will be teleported to a safe location away from the center of the battlefield.

——————

"Rocky, get away from this place. Now!" Thirteen ordered, prompting the Magma Bal-Boa to flee as fast as it could, heading toward the location where the other Wanderers were hiding.

Half a minute later, the ground shook as the Giant Monster fell from the sky and landed at the city, destroying the barrier, as well as half of the city in an instant.

King Xanmara laughed out loud as he looked at the Monster that appeared in front of him.

"Yes!" King Xanmara raised his fist, feeling overwhelmed from succeeding in summoning a monster that would make his dreams come true. "Kill those monsters in the name of the Absolute!"

The Eight-Headed Serpent glanced in his direction for a few seconds before one of its heads moved to take a closer look at the King of Seneros.

"Are you the one who summoned me?" one of the heads of the Eight-Headed Serpent asked through telepathy.

"Yes!" King Xanmara replied. "It is me! I am the one who summoned you here. I am your Master!"

"Good." The serpent head that was looking at the King nodded. "You did well, mortal. Now, become part of my strength."

Before King Xanmara could even blink, the serpent devoured his entire body, leaving nothing behind.

The Rank 9 Ancient Mastodon, who was feeling confident earlier, immediately ran away as soon as it realized just how powerful the Eight-Headed Serpent was.

Fortunately, the Giant Monster, who was over a hundred meters tall, didn't seem to be in a hurry to hunt it down.

Instead, it relaxedly feasted on the people inside the city, not caring if they were dead or alive.

'Delicious!' the Eight-Headed Serpent thought as it ate one Hybrid Absolute one after another.

The young lady, who was eyeing the serpent from the skies, looked at it with a solemn gaze. She understood that this monster was impossible to defeat even with the current strength of all the Wanderers within Fractured Heaven combined.

'This is bad,' the young lady thought. Just like Thirteen, she didn't expect that the situation would escalate to this level.

"Aethon, let's head farther away," the young lady ordered. "Make sure to hide your presence so that it will not detect you."

Aethon no longer screeched and quietly obeyed his Master's order.

Thirteen, who had also arrived at the camp, immediately informed everyone of what happened, making everyone understand the current situation.

"It's your fault!" Leon shouted. "Because of you, the difficulty of the mission has increased drastically! A Majin King? How can we survive fighting against such a monster?! Even surviving for thirty days is nearly impossible!"

The teenage boy had a lot of pent-up anger against Thirteen, and knowing that everything that happened was the teenager's fault, he was unable to hold back his anger and lashed out at him.

The other Wanderers were also feeling frustrated. Facing a Majin King wasn't something they were prepared to do.

Heck, fighting against a Rank 8 Sovereign was already difficult, much less a Monster that was even stronger than a Majin Prince. From what they knew, they were the strongest creatures in the world, second only to the Fiends and Celestials of Solterra.

Thirteen scanned the faces of all the Wanderers who were looking at him with conflicted expressions on their faces.

"Leon is right," Thirteen replied. "It is my fault that King Xanmara has succeeded in summoning a Majin King earlier than expected.

"But I think you are all having a very big misunderstanding here. Even if I didn't do anything, he would still succeed in summoning a Majin King because there is no way for any of you to break the barrier that protected the City of Seneros.

"Simply put, after the time limit ends, the same thing will happen. Regardless of what you say or think, the situation will circle back to this moment. You are free to blame me if you want—I don't care.

"I have the power to survive this mission on my own. Perhaps some of you can do the same. The only advantage you guys have right now is that we have prepared for something similar to this situation.

"We gathered enough food that will last us for two weeks, and we also have an unlimited supply of water. All of you can decide to stay here underground and wait for a miracle to happen. But as you may already know, the Eight-Headed Serpent can detect life force even if they are buried deep underground.

"It also has the ability to dig and find you guys here, despite being hundreds of meters under the ground. Right now, the only choice you have is the second option of our mission, and that is to survive for thirty days."

Thirteen crossed his arms over his chest as he once again gazed at the pale faces of the Wanderers, who were listening to his words.

"All of you are lucky because the Absolute Heaven is a big place. If the Eight-Headed Serpent chose to head north, it would feast on the Jinns in that direction. But if it heads South, then all of you might die once it notices your presence.

"So to those who are confident in running away, go ahead and run as far as you can, as fast as you can. Summon your Avatars and leave this place to head South and pray that you will be able to survive for thirty days.

"But, know this—the one-way portal connecting the Kingdom of Seneros and the Goblin Domain has been destroyed. The only place you can go is south of the Randall Stronghold.

"However, the Northern side of Fractured Heaven and its Southern Side are separated by a river that has special properties. No one can swim or fly over it, so remember that if you head in that direction.

"Make no mistake. This will be a battle of survival. There is no chance to defeat the Majin King, so if you are confident that you can survive alone, just go and leave this place while you still can."

After saying those words, Thirteen made a gesture for Erica, Sherry, and Diana to follow him.

Now that the situation had boiled down to this, he needed to make a plan for how they would survive against the Majin King, who was still feasting on the citizens of the Kingdom of Seneros, taking the time to savor the power of their bloodline.