?Chapter 3276 Falling Apart (Part 1)


    A single Howling Void inflicted negligible damage on the massive trunk of the World Tree, but dozens, hundreds of them, required the Yggdrasill to divert a considerable amount of their mana to heal the wounds and stop the Chaos from spreading.


    Eycos the Garuda helped the Dark Phoenixes to escape by sharing his Life Maelstrom and shielding those grievously wounded with his body. Phoenixes could regenerate even lethal injuries by converting mana into life force with their bloodline ability, Rebirth Flames.


    Yet if they ran out of mana or their bodies were pulverized, they would die like anyone else. Eycos'' Abomination side allowed him to resist all elements but darkness and by absorbing the abundant world energy no wound would last long.


    The one who shone the most, however, was Zoreth.


    Her body was big enough to cover both Gentor and Valtak with her wingspan and her Immortal Flames protected the Wyrms near her from all threats.


    A regular Dragon had to use Immortal Flames sparsely since they burned their life force without the aid of world energy. Zoreth, however, was different. Her troll side had an endless vitality that she exploited to release wide bursts of emerald fire that she manipulated like a part of her body.


    The Immortal Flames answered her every command even after moving away from her body, becoming thicker when they had to absorb the Tower Tier spells from the Yggdrasill and thinner when they just had to warm a group of Dragons enough to allow them to retreat.


    Abthot the Ogre-Eldritch hybrid used her Fae side to heal those too wounded to keep fighting before entrusting them to Aylen''s feline Emperor Beasts.


    She focused on those on the brink of death that not even Surtr''s Sanctuary of Light could save while the Emperor Beasts carried the Divine Beasts back to the safe zone, under the protection of Tezka and his Chaos Dimension.


    The World Tree didn''t even bother attacking the Suneater. Tezka was the closest one to the power of a Guardian and even though the Yggdrasill was certain to be stronger than the Fylgja, cracking his defenses would leave the Tree too exposed to Lith''s forces.


    Despite all that, the advance of the Divine Beasts had come to an abrupt halt and even the white cores were fighting for their lives. Many Dragons had fallen out of the sky, most of them with their lungs intact to use Invigoration or lucky enough to be rescued. Some of them were dead, their bloody corpses littering the Fringe as the bloody rivers they formed painted the grassland red.


    In his mind, Leegaain had a starry sky representing the lives of all his descendants. Whenever one of them died, their star would go out and the Father of All Dragons would mourn their loss.


    The Phoenixes fared better only thanks to Rebirth Flames while the Griffons because they had been trained since their infancy to save a good chunk of their Life Maelstrom for situations like that.


    inflict pain on the World Tree.


    Then, they fearlessly charged against the violet-cored elves and the Golems to protect Bloodhaven. No matter how bad the situation became, the Liches would never leave the Red Mother behind.


    At least as long as their phylacteries were stored inside her tower.


    ''We need to fall back!'' Orion said via the mind link while using the tower shield exclusive to the Ernas Royal Fortress armor, Honor Guard, to intercept a barrage of tier five Spirit


    Spells.


    Honor Guard conjured and controlled dozens of elemental shields that its master could move around with his thoughts and imbue them with Life Maelstrom from a distance. Orion had the elemental constructs converge around Honor Guard to form a Divine Beast-sized tower shield and cover those standing behind him.


    ''Never!'' Lith screamed, looking at the short distance separating the strike team from the World Tree. If we go back now, we''ll offer our back to the enemy and get slaughtered.


    ''Even if we survive, the Yggdrasill will shift their focus on our allies and kill so many of them that we''ll lack the numbers for a second charge.''


    ''Lith is right, Orion.''Vastor stood by his friend''s side and conjured a Decay Bastion. The Tree is pouring millennia of accumulated energy into this attack. If our defenses falter even for one second, we are dead.''


    The Master shared via the When All Are One array the vision of his six auxiliary heads. Even with most of the onslaught focused on Lith and his group, the decoy and support


    teams were being blown away.


    The white cores were barely holding their ground under the barrage of Tower Tier spells born out of the shattered arrays while the Divine Beast lost ground by the second.


    The moment the Yggdrasill shifted his focus, there would be no wounded, only casualties.