Duality of Shadows-Chapter 961: Invincible Figures

Everyone on planet Gloom roared and, all at once, drew their weapons. Without hesitation, Kisala and her army pulled back their bowstrings, while Thea turned her arms into weapons. The dwarves, on the other hand, donned their armor and took position, pointing forward.

An overwhelming offensive power was unleashed, meeting the thousands of heroes who breached the barrier. Surprised, they widened their eyes and scrambled to defend themselves.

**BOOM!**

A violent, brutal clash erupted. Outside, the queen and the immortals watched what was happening within. However, their gazes were filled with rage and bloodlust — they’d been deceived.

The first barrier was never designed to be the main one. Its power was just a fraction of the real one, but its destruction had been premeditated. Normally, raising two barriers would be a waste of energy; anyone sensible would focus on building a single, powerful defense.

Raising that first barrier only weakened the defenses of the second. However, the first barrier had been deliberately designed to inflate the invaders’ confidence and arrogance upon destroying it.

The immortals, in silent synchronization, had sent the common heroes to lead the charge, treating them like mere pawns — their enemies weren’t worth a direct move. Everything had gone smoothly. But why the hell did they want those heroes inside?

Rehvka chuckled quietly. The whale knew the mindset of heroes so well that he had predicted this arrogant attitude. But… after that day, their arrogance would vanish.

Meanwhile, Ruri, with her unbelievable mental power, had created a new level within conventional mental cultivation. Previously, she had managed to fuse her mental power with the runes of the main formation, creating something that even fooled the queen’s senses.

Of course, if the queen had used all her power to investigate, she would’ve discovered it. But her excessive confidence and contempt for her enemies were her undoing.

The first wave of destruction ceased. No one had died, but the heroes within the formation felt their bodies breaking. They spat blood, dazed.

The power of the Dao of the God Sniper, combined with Thea and the dwarves’ weapons, had pierced even their heroic strength. If they hadn’t funneled all their power into defense, the injuries would’ve been catastrophic. But in a battle where attack and defense blended together, dedicating everything to protection was impossible.

Cold sweat dripped down their spines, but there was no time to reflect as war cries echoed.

"KILL!"

The sky filled with thousands of figures charging at the heroes. At that moment, the soldiers’ armors glowed intensely, and their weapons lit up.

Outside, the immortals’ eyes widened. "Weapons of… divine legendary level…"

**BOOM!**

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A devastating wave of power erupted with the combined attack. The sound of metal shattering echoed across the universe.

Alm and Bruno hadn’t wasted the last ten years with the planet’s inhabitants for nothing. During that time, they used the Tree of Chaos to imbue the weapons with the will of the heavens. As a result, all the array’s main soldiers had been equipped with weapons of this level. There wasn’t enough time to arm all the allies outside the array, so only the core soldiers were fighting.

On planet Alpenglow, only high-level heroes owned such weapons, and even then, their evolution demanded immense effort from the queen; only a few were born across generations.

When the dust settled, a bright golden light spread in all directions. The thousands of heroes radiated a supreme force that seemed to possess them.

The queen snorted and funneled as much power as possible to strengthen her heroes. With a sharp gesture, she activated the spatial laws surrounding the region.

In an instant, thousands of spatial channels opened, and from within, millions of figures began pouring out endlessly.

"The first line, attack the formation with everything," the queen ordered, her voice dry and merciless.

She mobilized two-thirds of all available heroes. Millions of non-immortal combatants were given crystal-clear orders: they were to attack, regardless of their own lives.

Without hesitation, they roared in unison, burning their very existence to fuel their strikes. One by one, they crashed into the formation.

**BOOM! BOOOM!!**

Waves of explosions, even more devastating than the previous ones, reverberated throughout the queen’s universe. Despite the colossal size of that universe — a hundred times larger than any other — nearby galaxies suffered from the impact. Planets exploded, and countless lives were destroyed.

Inside the formation, a brutal fight unfolded. The heroes, wary of being shot in the chaos of battle, quickly formed groups of a thousand to protect themselves. However, these groups were blocked by others of about two hundred soldiers, who prevented any progress.

These two hundred were soldiers led by a single squad leader. Using the array, they shared power and information, fighting as one perfectly synchronized entity.

The generals coordinated devastating attacks, ensuring the heroes couldn’t gather enough power to launch a large-scale assault.

Meanwhile, the soldiers and squad leaders surrounded the heroes, attacking and defending with pinpoint precision, constantly walking the line between life and death while keeping them blocked.

The heroes’ cultivation was at the peak of divine power, the absolute limit. In contrast, their opponents barely had anyone at the same level. With all the heroic power bestowed by the queen and three times the numbers of their enemies, the heroes still found themselves being crushed.

The heroes’ weapons were a level lower, while the soldiers had much more: armor, Divine Daos, a magical and almost impossible synchronicity, and countless runic seals they wielded with mastery. The heroes also had runic seals, but the difference in quality was like heaven and earth.

Rehvka dove straight into the battle, leading his troops. Almin, however, stayed back with Lyra, both focused and waiting for the decisive moment.

Within the array, there were a total of 16 generals. Each general trained five squad leaders, each commanding around 200 soldiers. This meant each general commanded close to 1,000 people, totaling 16,000 elite combatants.

Ruri wasn’t present, so with Yue fighting from a distance and using her talismans, she had taken over command in her general’s place.

Every general trained under the whale had cultivated and prepared their troops with extreme care. The battle formation was balanced; Fey dominated the ranks, but except for Ambry’s clan, they were defensively fragile. To cover for this, humans using the Dao of the God Berserker, Barbarian Fey, and Golems formed the defensive line, mixed evenly across the groups.

The new generation of Fey had begun cultivating Yang, with many specializing in healing. Coupled with high-level pills from the alchemists and Life-Recovering Trees, they played support roles, fighting from the rear while healing and assisting allies.

As for the rest — demons from the Underworld Shadow Sect clan, space-time beasts, humans, Fey, and dragons — their focus was entirely offensive. Each carried high-level weapons and runic seals.

Inside the formation, the heroes quickly realized — in less than a minute — that they were up against an invincible steel fortress. These heroes, supreme figures worshipped by mortals, were being utterly defeated by an army of "common people." They stared death in the face and couldn’t believe it.

The power the queen had granted them was the absolute limit their mortal bodies and souls could handle. With all the heavenly laws on their side, they dominated Qi, the world’s power, and could suppress any cultivator — but not the ones standing before them.

Thanks to the runic seals on their weapons and the array, the whale’s army wasn’t greatly affected by the heroes’ powers. They attacked strategically, using only a third of their forces at a time. While the heroes’ powers suppressed them, their equipment remained deadly. The soldiers on the front lines attacked, then retreated, immediately replaced by others, maintaining a constant offensive.

Alm and Bruno knew the heroes well, but Corin had been much closer to them before, and Thea herself had once been a hero. Combined with the knowledge brought by the people of Alpenglow, the whale gave detailed instructions on how to fight and deal with these figures.

"FUCK THIS!"

In less than five minutes, the heroes inside the formation realized they were about to die and began sacrificing themselves. A surge of even greater power emanated from them, pushing the limits of heroic power in exchange for their lives, but...

All the generals and squad leaders burst into sarcastic laughter. A distinct mark appeared on their foreheads.

It was the power bestowed upon them by the whale, born from the fruit created during the battle against the Ice Phoenix. There wasn’t enough for everyone, but over a hundred had received this power.

This mark connected them to the heavenly laws, granting them abilities identical to the heroes. But with this power, they were actually more adept than the heroes at controlling the heavenly laws. Of course, this was because Alm and Bruno held the heavens’ will, making their subordinates more naturally recognized by the laws than the heroes themselves.

At that moment, the queen, watching from outside, widened her eyes. She recognized the technique behind it: it was the same one she had used to create the Empyreans’ mark, which later turned them into heroes.

Moreover, a dense amount of condensed karmic fortune was tied to them, favoring them with the heavenly laws’ support.

"He... he even stole that idea from me..." the queen murmured coldly.

**Boom! Boom!! BOOOM!!!**

The heroes outside continued crashing into the multicolored formation, but more than two-thirds of them were already dead. As the barrier began to weaken and cracks appeared, the queen ordered the immortals to exploit the fractures, attacking with full force.

In a few minutes, even this terrifying formation would crumble. The queen didn’t bother attacking personally, as no one inside had anywhere to run. Her focus was on eliminating any chance of escape. For her, the sacrifice of millions of mortals was irrelevant.

*CRACK!*

It didn’t take more than two minutes for the formation to start breaking apart. Inside, the heroes were covered in blood, which made the queen grow serious.

They clearly had enough power to kill her heroes, but... none of them had died. Until...

Her celestial soul sensed a terrifying fluctuation. Focusing her perception, the queen saw a gigantic cauldron radiating red and white lights, swirling and intertwining with a brilliance as intense as stars.

**CRACK!!**

"It’s opening!" roared an immortal hero.

Inside the barrier, Almin and Lyra, holding hands, opened their eyes. At that moment, the cauldron trembled, and the laws of the entire universe shuddered in submission.

"Did they master the primordial chaos item?!" the queen exclaimed, shocked. In response, the two roared in unison:

"Refine!"

The cauldron’s lid, now nearly 100 meters wide, opened, and an irresistible force enveloped all the heroes within the formation. Then... they felt their souls and bodies being drawn in.

The external observers watched in disbelief as the heroes disappeared into the cauldron. The lid closed with a sound that made everyone swallow hard. Then...

"Birth!" Almin and Lyra roared together.

The lid reopened, releasing a wave of red and white energy. It was the purest manifestation of chaos and order, spreading outward and enveloping all the allies.

The soldiers, squad leaders, and generals felt their bodies and meridians opening up, their hearts pounding with indescribable energy. Their eyes glowed like stars: one red, the other white.

The sensation lasted only a moment. A shattering noise broke the moment, bringing everyone back to reality. They watched as the multicolored formation disappeared completely.

The measures left by the whale had been deployed, and the army had achieved an unimaginable victory: defeating thousands of heroes without losing a single life. All of this in less than fifteen minutes.

Now the immortals advanced furiously, thirsting for vengeance and blood. All the warriors snorted. They were just divine cultivators, with no one at the peak of cultivation, and much room left to grow. But now they stood before invincible figures who had existed for countless eras.

Still, none of them felt fear. Immortals? So what? Before that round figure, they were nothing but ants. All they needed to do was buy time... though none of them knew how much they could manage.