69: Chapter 69 Despair

"Wh-what happened? Didn't we already clear the stage?!" A-Dai wiped away her tears, looking around in terror.

At this moment, the system's holographic projection forced an interruption with a CG scene viewed from high above.

It was the originally azure Persian Gulf.

But at this moment, the entire ocean was boiling!

Countless mud, black as ink and exuding a nauseating aura of destruction, surged wildly from the seabed, rapidly devouring the azure seawater and spreading toward the land of Uruk with an overwhelming force!

Within the black mud, a giant lifeform, so massive it exceeded the limits of human cognition and bearing a pair of huge, twisted horns, was slowly rising from the sea level.

[System Highest Level Red Alert ———!!!]

['Evil of Humanity' Manifested!]

[Beast II ——— Mother Goddess of Creation · Tiamat, seal released!]

Looking at those glaring blood-red characters, especially the words "Evil of Humanity" and "Beast II", the tens of millions of players worldwide experiencing "FGO" felt as if they had been doused with a bucket of liquid nitrogen, chilled from head to toe.

In the control room of Chaldea, the color drained from Dr. Roman's face. He gripped the console tightly with both hands, his voice trembling uncontrollably:

"Impossible... This is impossible! It exceeds the scale of a god... This is a calamity capable of destroying the entire history of humanity! It is a 'Beast'! One of the seven Evils of Humanity, the 'Beast II', has manifested!"

At this moment, after a brief silence, the live stream chat exploded.

Those veteran players who had been immersed in the plot instantly awakened the trembling hidden deep within their memories.

"Holy sh*t! Evil of Humanity?! Isn't this the thing that the Mage King mentioned back in the fourth singularity in London?!"

"Yeah! Back at the Uruk temple, Gilgamesh and Merlin gave us a long lecture about it! They said it was the ultimate calamity capable of devouring even gods!"

"Damn it, when I heard their explanation, I thought this high-level concept was just background lore for the game. Who the f*ck would have thought Old Thief Gu would actually put a monster of this level as a stage boss!"

The number one lore analyst, Chu He, turned pale in the live stream. His voice trembling, he frantically drew lines on the tactical sand table to analyze:

"It's over, brothers, it's completely over. Do you remember the setting of the 'Grand Servants' mentioned in the main storyline before?"

"Those official GM-level Heroic Spirits exist solely to deal with 'Beasts'! What does this mean? It means that in the face of this mechanic, the regular Servants we have in our hands are nothing but cannon fodder!"

"Wh-what kind of joke is this..."

A-Dai collapsed into her chair, staring blankly at the black mud sweeping across the land like a tsunami.

"Tiamat?! Then what about Gorgon, whom we fought to the death and barely managed to defeat just now?!"

"We exhausted all our trump cards and sacrificed Anna, and yet... that was just an appetizer? The real boss is only just waking up now?!"

The "Congratulations on completion" posts on the forum vanished without a trace, replaced by the collective wailing of completely broken players across the internet!

Before the players could catch their breath from this suffocating despair, a new tactical sand table, bearing a darker and more oppressive tone than any previous stage, unfolded with a boom in front of A-Dai and the others!

As soon as the stage began, a few remaining Demonic Beasts came rushing in from the front of the sand table, roaring.

"Just ordinary Demonic Beast mobs?! You scared me, I thought Tiamat had come down to the field herself!"

A-Dai's tense nerves relaxed slightly upon seeing these familiar, conventional monsters. She skillfully deployed several Lancer Servants on the main road, attempting to establish a defensive line:

"Brothers, hold off this wave of small fry first, let's save up some cost!"

However, this seemingly ordinary tower defense opening lasted for less than ten seconds.

Just as A-Dai was preparing to engage the Demonic Beasts rushing at the front, the edge of the tactical sand table suddenly flashed with blinding, blood-red warnings!

[Environmental High-Risk Warning: Chaos Tide (black mud) has begun to spread!]

[Mechanic Explanation: Ground deployment tiles on the tactical sand table will be gradually devoured by 'black mud' over time! All Servants within the range covered by the black mud will be instantly killed and forced to retreat! Furthermore, that tile will be permanently unable to deploy any units!]

"What the hell is this?! The ground tiles can be eaten?!"

A-Dai looked at the front of the sand table, watching the black mud icon spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye, her eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

The most terrifying thing was that the mob of Demonic Beasts, which had been roaring and rushing toward Mash, didn't even have time to scream the moment they touched the black mud. They were completely melted into white bones amidst a "sizzling" sound, then sank into the mud and disappeared!

It even kills its own monsters?!

The few ground blocking slots available were marked one by one with red "disabled" crosses by the black mud! This meant the players' survival space was forcibly compressed, and ground Servants were forced to retreat constantly!

But what was even more despairing was yet to come.

As the black mud churned, those nauseating, eerie monsters that had torn Kingu apart earlier crawled onto the tactical sand table in dense swarms.

[Enemy Unit: New Humanity · Lahmu]

[Monster Mechanic: Possesses 'Flight' and 'Ignore Block' traits! They will fly directly over the heads of our ground-blocking Servants and rush straight to the rear defensive line!]

"Hee hee hee... Hahaha... Fun... Fragile..."

These monsters called Lahmu, in the process of charging, actually emitted a chilling, eerie laughter that imitated human speech!

"Quick, stop them! Mash, get up there!"

A-Dai scrambled to place Mash and several other melee Servants on the remaining ground tiles, attempting to establish a defensive line.

However, a horrifying scene occurred.

Those twisted Lahmu actually let out nauseating, mocking laughter, their bodies rising into the air in a bizarre manner, and flew directly over the top of Mash's massive shield!

Mash could only watch helplessly as these monsters bypassed her and pounced directly onto the fragile high-platform healer Servants and DPS units in the rear.

"Crunch—crunch—"

Teeth-aching chewing sounds erupted from the rear; the Lahmu's outrageously high attack power instantly tore the squishy Servants on the high platform into pieces.

At the same time, the "Chaos Tide" at the front finally spread to the tile beneath Mash's feet.

"Senpai, I'm sorr..."

Without even having time to scream, accompanied by the system's cold [Forced Retreat] prompt, Mash was instantly engulfed by the black mud, turning into specks of light and disappearing!

"No——!!!"

A-Dai looked at the screen in despair.

It had been less than thirty seconds since the start.

Blocking was ineffective, the high platforms were slaughtered, and the ground was completely devoured by the black mud.

There was no room for micromanagement, no room to bait skills. This was pure mechanical suppression, the doomsday for the players.

[MISSION FAILED]

All around the world, from countless VR experience pods, came the hysterical, near-breakdown roars of the players.

"How is this beatable?! How the f*ck are we supposed to beat this!"

"Melee can't defend, high platforms get blown up, and there's nowhere left to even stand!"

"Old Thief Gu! This isn't a tower defense game at all, this is a one-sided slaughter!"

Watching the overwhelming black mud and the Lahmu emitting eerie laughter, at this moment, all the players on Blue Star finally experienced firsthand what it meant to face the "Evil of Humanity"...

That unreasonable, abyss-like despair.