Chapter 125: Perfection Realm [Law: Moon]
Sterl stood there almost in a daze as the Divine Power and Law Powers within him expanded rapidly, far exceeding the efficiency of any previous attempts!
So much so that he was forced to quickly rummage through his backpack and learned a blue-quality skill, [Purple Lightning Vortex]. This skill wasn't particularly useful. Its damage was low, and it lacked any outstanding additional effects, but its audiovisual effects were impressive.
Sterl swiftly released a series of lightning vortices to swirl around him, and he charged up the wall alongside the frenzied players.
The main reason for this was that as various Divine Powers and Law Powers rapidly flowed into his body, a faint glow could be seen wrapping around Sterl. He had to use the chaos of the battlefield and the light pollution from the Purple Lightning Vortex to mask this effect.
Simultaneously, he kept an eye on his status panel, growing increasingly excited!
Divine Power: 2.88, Law Power Growth Progress: 188/1000.
Divine Power: 4.12, Law Power Growth Progress: 312/1000.
Divine Power: 5.61...
Finally, after about an hour, a hint of wild joy flashed in Sterl's eyes!
At this moment, the carnage on the wall had reached a new level of intensity.
The armies clashing were both far from normal. On one side were the fanatically suicidal players, eager to self-destruct at the sight of an enemy, and on the other were the emotionless, fearless NPCs.
In their battles, there was no fear or retreat, just kill, kill, kill!
Thus, the battle resembled a hellish landscape! No one retreated, no one fled wounded. Players and NPCs collided in a fight to the death!
In a little over an hour, nearly a thousand players had been killed or wounded! The NPCs suffered three times the losses, with over three thousand casualties!
The battle had reached its final stages. No matter how fearless both sides were, their living forces were nearly exhausted.
The Netherworld realm, after all, was only a world with a cap at second-class, level 100. The soldiers on the wall and the army that previously marched out to fight were the elite of this world.
With their forces depleted, the remaining tens of thousands of soldiers below had no second-class strength or higher.
Clearly, those soldiers could only be slaughtered by the players.
On the players' side, the situation was equally grim. The weaker ones, including those with slightly lower mental attributes, had almost all become cannon fodder, filling the wall.
At this moment, the Coughing Blood buff had ended. The players stood on the wall, looking around at the horrific scene of flesh and blood flying everywhere, bones, excrement, and flesh piled together.
Many couldn't help but cover their mouths, feeling the urge to vomit. Such intense warfare was something even many third-class players had never experienced, let alone second-class players!
Even during resource wars between Sterl's Earth human race and other races, it was usually second-class players clashing, and such large-scale casualties were rare.
At this moment, even those with the best mental states were starting to break down.
The players couldn't even celebrate their victory. Instead, their hearts were filled with fear and hatred toward the Dark Moon Alliance!
Of course, Sterl was in a great mood.
His Divine Power continued to rise rapidly! The growth progress of his Law Power was also skyrocketing!
He kept his eyes on the status panel—
[Divine Power: 10.13, Law Power Growth Progress: 913/1000.]
[Divine Power: 10.44, Law Power Growth Progress: 944/1000.]
…
[Divine Power: 11, Law Power Growth Progress: 1000/1000.]
In Sterl's excited gaze, the growth progress of his Law Power was finally full!
In an instant, Sterl felt as though his entire soul had undergone some kind of cleansing. The bright moon disk in his mental realm rapidly expanded and intensified. Although it was just a moon, it shone as brilliantly as the sun!
The moon law within Sterl's body was swiftly evolving from incomplete to perfect!
Only now did he understand what the true moon law entailed. It represented the symbolic attributes of mysticism, signifying mercury and the purest of poisons. Simultaneously, it was one of the celestial trinity, governing tides and phases.
The essence of the moon's existence lay in foreknowledge and curses within the mental realm, and in mercury and gravity within the physical realm.
At this moment, Sterl felt reborn!
He sensed that with this perfect law, his perspective on the world had fundamentally changed, allowing him to grasp its essence directly!
Sterl even thought that his previous, incomplete moon law was nothing more than a child's toy, merely a skill or a spell at best.
And now, he felt as if the principles of the universe had merged within him. Although at this moment, Sterl had mastered only one "principle"—the moon!
This transformation was also reflected in his skills, all of which had been completely revamped through the moon's power!
[Enemies cursed by the power of the moon will have their level reduced by twenty. This effect can only be removed by an equivalent Law Power.]
[Reduce the opponent's three resistances to zero. This effect can only be removed by an equivalent Law Power.]
[All surrounding enemies will enter a slowed state. The degree of slowing depends on the invested energy. This effect is not considered a control effect and cannot be resisted.]
[You can implant the moon law into any entity, allowing you to suggest or curse the implanted entity.]
Sterl felt elated with his strength's improvement!
The effects of the first few moon laws were straightforward power boosts, needing no further explanation.
However, the last Law Power application, which was originally only useful for tracking enemies, had now evolved to be on par with Gloria's abilities!
The Dark Moon Goddess Gloria used the fourth effect of the moon law to place players under the Lunar Restriction/Mark status, forcibly applying the [Coughing Blood] buff.
Of course, Gloria's domineering use of this ability was also due to her investment of higher-level Divine Power.
Sterl, having just acquired this new ability, could at most cause a sudden drop in the target's attributes or suggest confusion to the implanted entity.
Achieving Gloria's level of seamless control would require extensive practice and possibly further upgrading the moon law.
While Sterl quietly contemplated his newfound abilities, the players had all climbed the wall. Originally numbering nearly 2,000, only about 300 remained.
Surrounded by the hellish scene, their eyes gradually filled with a fervent intensity.
Because from now on, those ordinary soldiers posed no threat at all!
It was time for the players to reap their rewards!
Although the surrounding environment was a bit disgusting, so what? Players could completely ignore the discomfort for the sake of profit.
Very quickly, the first person who couldn't hold back rushed down the city wall. Then, the other players were stunned for a moment and one by one jumped to the other side of the pass.
At this point, the [Coughing Blood] buff had not been reactivated. In fact, the surviving players all found that the [Lunar Restriction/Mark] had dissipated from their bodies. Clearly, the resilience and enhancements provided by [Coughing Blood] had consumed the stored power of the [Eye of the Moon] (the ring players received before entering the Netherworld realm).
This was yet another piece of evidence of the Dark Moon Alliance's deceit. The reward of Netherworld Water to remove the [Lunar Restriction/Mark] was a complete lie! Richard had preemptively consumed the [Lunar Restriction/Mark]!
The previous quest was simply a ploy to gain without any cost.
And now, the reason the surviving players were so eager was that they were preparing to seize the Netherworld Water!
"The Netherworld Water is mine!"
"Get out of my way!"
"Anyone who stands in my path will die."
Many shouted loudly.
The soldiers below, who were not even second-class, were quickly slaughtered, unable to put up any resistance.
Players could kill a huge number with just a casual skill.
Sterl also mingled among them, casually collecting some blood power.
Incidentally, he felt both satisfied and a bit regretful. His Divine Power had finally stopped at 17.63, and the growth progress of his Law Power had halted at [663/10000].
When Sterl's Law Power upgraded, he was still absorbing the battlefield's energy, which made him quite satisfied—a bountiful harvest!
However, he regretted that the remaining 300 or so players were no longer useful for extracting energy. Their Divine Power and Law Power had been completely consumed by the [Coughing Blood] buff...
The one-sided battle didn't last long.
The soldiers below were killed at a rapid pace. Their numerical advantage was useless because during the [Coughing Blood] buff's duration, the players had been fighting manically without any thought of using potions for recovery.
Thus, when facing these minor soldiers, the players still had ample supplies and stamina.
After about 10 minutes of slaughter, the area below the wall turned into a horrific landscape of countless mountains of corpses and seas of blood!
However, just as the first wave of players who had jumped down broke through the soldiers' formations like a sharp blade and reached the Netherworld Water...
Sterl, who had been charging along and collecting blood power, suddenly retreated! With the perfect moon law, he had an inexplicable sense of the world's changes.
At this moment, he sensed something was wrong.
Sure enough, a sharp wail echoed in the next second, a sound that didn't seem human, extremely eerie! It was as if the Netherworld realm's world consciousness was chanting its own dirge!
Then...
The corpses and flesh of countless soldiers were drawn away and surged towards the location of the final Netherworld Water, directly pouring into it!
Seeing this, Sterl was momentarily stunned but then nodded thoughtfully.
"Of course, this battle is the final showdown to end the Netherworld realm. How could there not be a boss fight?" This was a classic setup in all the large-scale online games he had played before his transmigration!
He stood firmly to the side, unwavering.
Countless players' expressions changed drastically, one after another. They ran away as quickly as they had charged!
At the location of the Netherworld Water, the gathered flesh and blood began to form into a mass of purplish-black sludge, which continued to accumulate and slowly took on a humanoid shape...