Sterl thought for a moment. Although he had effectively wrecked the event, he still needed to participate. After all...
His goal was to check if the commotion caused by the figures from the upper realms in the main world had settled down and when he might be able to switch back to his main account.
So, Sterl found a Supreme-level player from hell and accepted several quests, which would reward him with contributions within the camp.
At first, Sterl only took on the quests because of his frugal nature; if it was free, he might as well take it.
However, he soon discovered that camp contributions were interconnected across all camps in the entire layer of hell, and the highest tier included Iridescent-Level skills and items for exchange!
For example—
[Will of the Dead (Fragmented)]
[Tier: Iridescent-Level]
[Description: Countless deceased souls believe that losing life brings rest, yet in hell, you will never find the end of your soul's torment; you will endlessly advance without respite.]
[Effect: Each time you complete any skill or attack, you will permanently accumulate a layer of Will of the Dead. When you launch an attack, for each layer consumed, you can deal 1% of the opponent's maximum health as damage. This damage cannot be mitigated and will always hit.]
[Learning Requirement: Death and Rebirth class prestige.]
[Purchase Requirement: Must be in the top three of total contributions across all camps to choose any 1/3 of this skill.]
"That's powerful!" Sterl remarked.
As for the so-called prestige, it equated to divine status in the main world.
At the same time, Sterl was somewhat astonished.
The Will of Hell could offer such high-level rewards?
He recalled the Supreme demon he had killed earlier on the battlefield and suddenly realized something...
Not quite; even if the front lines had collapsed, this expansion event was far from over.
Only divine level demons could compel Supreme-level demons to sacrifice their lives!
Moreover, the incredibly valuable items within this camp were being offered for exchange with other players from hell. Clearly, there were deities standing behind hell, and they would strike sooner or later!
As Sterl pondered this, he decided he wasn't ready to dive into the quests immediately; he wanted to spend some resources to gather basic information about the Swallowing Heaven players.
Unexpectedly, the Supreme who assigned tasks to Sterl was a lich dressed in a wizard's robe, looking much more normal than the average hell player.
However, suddenly, a golden arrow appeared from the sky, flying from an unknown source! It pierced through multiple layers of the automatically deployed mage shields and homed in on the teleporting lich, striking him in the forehead and penetrating his soul fire.
In an instant, the only Supreme in the camp fell dead on the spot.
Sterl quickly activated Shadow Stealth, hiding in the shadow realm. The golden arrow shattered, transforming into a rain of light. Although it appeared like raindrops, each droplet dealt additional damage to demons and hell players.
Accompanied by—
Ding! Ding! Ding!
A series of light sounds rang out as at least dozens of demons and hell players were instantly turned into fragments!
Then... came a series of shouts: "Kill! That asshole Cirilo is gone!"
"Quick, let's farm hard and make up for the lost merit!"
"Charge! We finally found this demon camp; we can't let the Golden Kingdom and Ashen people get ahead!"
At this moment, three Supremes led the Hall of Valor player team into the camp, rampaging and slaughtering!
Under normal circumstances, although the number of monsters in this demon camp was substantial, it wouldn't warrant such a huge uproar.
But Sterl had already eaten his fill; other players needed to fight for the remaining spoils.
Yet the gods high above definitely sensed this scene but didn't respond at all. It wasn't that they allowed mortals to insult them; rather, the hell players were right.
But the gods of the Swallowing Heaven faction were utterly shameless! They could say whatever they wanted; the gods were determined to blow everything up together.
Sterl felt dizzy!
Holy cow!
They could play it like this? The gods of [Transcendence] would never operate this way, as resources used by units below a god hold little significance to the gods themselves!
But the gods of Swallowing Heaven had once again redefined Sterl's understanding.
He realized what the current situation was: the gods were indeed exterminating units from the main world, but when they attacked, they indiscriminately targeted both friend and foe. Blowing up some Swallowing Heaven players along the way was a surefire profit; why not do it?
However...
Sterl was somewhat relieved.
Facing the coordinated slaughter of three gods, even avoiding the aftermath was incredibly difficult. If he were still on the battlefield using Cirilo's disguise, he would be in deep trouble.
Without ascending to godhood, he would undoubtedly perish!
Yet...
Soon, the barrage of energy from the three light pillars ceased.
But Sterl felt even more anxious and hurriedly retreated toward the back of the battlefield.
Because from the direction of the main world, the three light pillars had risen, indicating that the gods representing the three major factions had brazenly entered the fray.
This also meant that the intensity of this expansion event had escalated to—Divine War!
As a mortal, Sterl could hardly comprehend everything erupting in the sky amidst the surging Divine Power.
The sky first transformed into a night filled with darkness, then countless brilliant golden blades descended like a torrential rain upon the entire battlefield. Following that were endless strange crystals filling the sky.
These crystals continuously refracted light, eventually forming a dense grid of energy arrows that sliced through space itself, revealing a massive turbulence!
Meanwhile, the three gods from hell created a swarm that blotted out the sun, exuding a foul odor as they rampaged everywhere. Just the leaked energy caused countless hell players and main world players below to perish simultaneously.
Then there were strange auras of pink and dark purple flashing, and as Sterl watched from below, he had no idea what effects they had. All it did was remind him of that Supreme-level demon's arrival, with a spatial rift behind it leading to another layer of hell.
Once again, it was the god behind that Supreme demon making a move.
But the last divine-level demon remained inactive.
It wasn't until Sterl had retreated a great distance that he suddenly noticed blood pouring down from the vast river in the sky.
At the same time, the entire layer of hell began to rejoice, the will of hell boiling as if welcoming back its master. The natural Blood Sacrifice Swallowing God Array he had noticed earlier erupted with countless streams of blood, transforming into a massive blade.
It was held in the hands of the last demon.
And from a distance, Sterl caught a glimpse of...
The name of that god.
The Archduke of Blood!
How could this be?
Sterl nearly exclaimed—wasn't he already dead? Wasn't that the reason for this expansion event?
Not just Sterl, but countless players below and several gods in the sky were equally astonished.
But facts don't bend to human will.
This once-dead divine-level demon had shockingly resurrected, and his aura was even more powerful than before, with a wicked light flashing in his eyes.