"This is what survival of the fittest truly means. Either you survive, or you go down miserably!" Michael shouted at the top of his lungs, throwing the Chaos Pills down into the pit.
The Chaos Pills released a dazzling silverish light when they came in contact with the droplets of water that poured down in the pit. Their luminescence intensified upon falling into the small puddle that filled the bottom of the pit.
By creating the Chaos Pills with a Water Source Stone as a catalyst, Michael could ensure that each of the pills unleashed its fully destructive force inside the water at the bottom of the pit.
The Untamed Jungle's outer ring was flooded in silver light, and the earth tremored.
The next moment, a silver inferno – a cloud formed from compressed chaos – swept through the Untamed Jungle, devouring everything in its wake – whether it was alive, or inanimate.
Within seconds, the deep pit expanded rapidly. Black-silverish flames burst out of the pit, while the ground around the huge crater burst open. Cobweb-like cracks spread through the ground and trees in a range of several kilometers were uprooted and the heavy Storm dispersed upon colliding with the silver inferno.
The Storm had been devoured in an instant, and allowed rays of bright sunlight to reach the forest for a mere fraction of a second before the disaster sweeping through the Untamed Jungle's outer ring blocked them yet again.
The silver inferno spread across the surface, slowly corrupting all lives, whether monsters, humans, or plants. The soil around the crater was devoured, and so were the clothes and hair all over everyone's bodies.
Michael rushed over to the Elemental Mages. He could barely see through the melee, but he could sense their presence and condition. The silver inferno had already reached them, slowly draining their lives and corrupting their existence.
Michael grit his teeth, bent down and tried to lift the three Elemental Mages at once. However, before he could lift them up, Michael sensed something from his right.
A three-meter-tall monkey burst through the silver inferno. It was Sun Demos, who came to his rescue.
The silver inferno was not searing hot nor would it grant instant death. It merely corrupted the living, slowly killing them from within. The inferno devoured all life in the vicinity of the explosion. That was also why Chaos Pills were rarely used.
First of all, Chaos Pills were hard to produce. It was difficult to collect Chaos Ants alive, let alone harvesting their blood without causing a disaster. Second, while concocting Chaos Pills numerous problems could occur. Third, Chaos Pills were fragile. The probability of triggering them long before you wanted to use them was extremely high.
And last but not least, the chaos essence stored in the Chaos Ants' blood would infest a radius around the area of impact. The chaos essence would spread slowly, devouring the life of everything it touched. The life force that had been drained would nourish the chaos essence, allowing it to spread further until all life was annihilated.
Even if a war could be won using Chaos Pills, what was the worth of unusable, barren land? What's the use of land that has been corroded and the infertility slowly spreading, turning the entire region into a danger zone that would expand slowly?
Only being like the Chaos Ants would survive the corruption of the chaos essence, growing stronger by devouring it.
Was it really worth it to destroy the Untamed Jungle's outer ring to kill a few Paladins, and scare the rest away?
Yes.
That was the only answer Michael had to offer.
He was in possession of Extraction, after all! He could afford to be foolish, and produce Chaos Pills without too many issues.
As for the corrupted land, Michael could take care of that in the future using Extraction.
For now, however, he had to deal with the remaining Paladins and survive this mess.
Thus, after shrouding his body with the golden streams of Extraction, Michael extracted the chaos essence that had infiltrated his body. Afterward, he did the same to the Elemental Mages and Sun Demos.
The silver inferno wouldn't affect them for a while now that Michael extracted the chaos essences that had invaded them. This gave them more than enough time to flee.
However, that was not what Michael intended.
He had yet to receive a single energy influx, indicating that not a single Paladin had died yet.
"Save them and stay away until I give you a different order!" Michael ordered Sun Demos aloud.
The Demon Monkey King shook his head, desiring to reject Michael's order, but his body began to move already.
The True Link of Loyalty connecting them forced Sun Demos to obey Michael's order against his will.
Sun Demos grasped the three Elemental Mages, who had fallen unconscious, and he disappeared from the core region of the explosion.
Looking at the fleeting figures of his subjects, Michael sighed deeply.
He turned around, retrieved some more energy pills which he gulped down without hesitation.
Then he accessed his War Rune to retrieve the remaining Chaos Pills.
The Paladins were not yet dead. It was time to change that!
Michael rushed to the huge pit that had expanded to thrice its former size. He activated Eagle Eyes under tremendous pain to search for the Paladins.
It didn't take long to find the Paladins. But instead of eight, ten Paladins entered his field of vision. Two of them must have jumped down to aid their comrades in survival.
The ten Paladins had gathered in a small space. They made use of their Artifacts' enchantments to strengthen their Holy Aura, which surrounded the ten Paladins like a dome of protection.
Michael could faintly make out the cracks in their Holy Aura, and the sweat pouring down their temples.
'Chaos Pills are strong enough to kill Tier-3 Adventurers. Aren't you guys too tenacious? Can't you just die?' Michael cursed in his heart, retrieving the last batch of Chaos Pills in his possession.
The last batch was equivalent to a few dozen Chaos Pills, and Michael was not sure how much more damage they would cause.
However, what he could tell for sure was that the Untamed Jungle's outer ring was destroyed, and that his body was slowly being invaded by the chaos essence.
It corrupted his body and devoured the origin energy inside his body. Michael figured that it was only a matter of time before he died if he continued to stay in the silver inferno. Even the golden streams of extraction wouldn't be able to help him all the time.
Extraction merely drained the chaos essence inside his body. It didn't seal his body to prevent more chaos essence from infiltrating him again.
'I have to finish this immediately!'
Determination flickered in Michael's eyes as he walked around the humongous pit. Once he reached his final destination, Michael took a look into the pit.
Then, he dropped dozens of Chaos Pill straight on the heads of the ten Paladins who were desperately fighting for their survival.
Afterward, Michael fled, trying to escape the aftermath of the Chaos Pills' explosions.
Less than ten minutes later, the humongous energy influx of ten beings flooded Michael's War Rune.
[Sun Demos. Come and get me!]
The next moment, everything around Michael turned black.
