Reborn As A Ghost: Time To Build My Undead Army!-Chapter 1769: Invading The Heavens
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As Maria rested, the wars raged on in Hell. Leviathan and Satan’s combined armies swiftly overran outposts and fortresses, targeting only soldiers and warriors who dared oppose them while sparing cities and wandering demons. Such mercy was unheard of in Hell, especially from two of the trio notorious as its most vicious rulers alongside Beelzebub.
The Layer of Gluttony stretched vast and teeming with gluttony demons—gigantic frog-like monsters and fly-like creatures that devoured everything in sight to fuel their power. They resisted fiercely for a time, but once the two Archdemons unleashed the gifts Maria had bestowed, their defenses shattered. Beelzebub’s ten Demon Generals fell in brutal slaughter, and soon it was the giant fly’s turn.
"GUUUHHH! YOU FILTHY MAGGOTS! HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO MEEEE!"
Beelzebub fought with savage fury, hurling destructive cursed magic and gluttonous spells that could swallow anything in their path. Like Satan, he raged as if he were the victim, despite having struck first against Leviathan’s lands and personally butchering thousands of his demons.
Yet against the united might of Satan and Leviathan, Beelzebub—his body riddled with bleeding, cursed wounds—perished like a common mortal. Once his corpse and soul separated, Maria forcibly reunited them, raising him as a colossal fly-like zombie.
Her third Archdemon Zombie.
"I have ascended! My hunger no longer devours my sanity! I am freed from the Heavenly Father’s curse! Hahaha! Mother of Sorrow! At last, I truly see!"
Like Satan, he ranted in madness, but his words struck Maria deeply. From them, she learned the truth: these Archdemons had once been Archangels, former Administrators who rebelled against the Heavenly Father. Cursed and twisted into Archdemons by his wrath, they were imprisoned in Hell.
"Each Sin they embody is their Curse. That is how they ’copy and paste’ it onto worlds, spawning Calamities across the Tower—their desperate rebellion against the Heavenly Father, even as they unknowingly hasten the destruction he desires..."
After recruiting Beelzebub, Maria grasped the hidden nature of the Archdemons and their Curses, seeing how deeply it intertwined with the Tower’s mechanics and the Calamities themselves.
Michael, who had once helped punish them, believing them irredeemably wicked, now suffered a similar fate—transformed into a System and bound to a mortal soul. He offered no comment on the Archdemons and avoided interacting with them, perhaps out of lingering shame.
While questioning Beelzebub, Maria briefly considered absorbing all of Hell into her Soul Realm to collapse the Tower’s foundation. She quickly dismissed the thought; it would only unleash ruin upon countless worlds.
The true way to destroy the Tower was to slay its master. She knew that any other path would merely allow a new Tower to rise, rendering everything meaningless.
Setting such thoughts aside, Maria reveled in the immense surge of EXP. She leveled up steadily as days blurred into one another.
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[...]
[Your Level has increased from Level 446 to Level 479/500!]
[All of your Stats have greatly increased.]
[You earned 33,000,000 System Points.]
She had soared to Level 479. Each advancement demanded ever more staggering amounts of EXP, so even after slaughtering countless demons, she had not yet reached the cap.
Only twenty-one levels remained until maximum, and Maria felt a quiet thrill mixed with uncertainty. She had no idea what awaited her species evolution—if she would hit an unbreakable wall or unlock something beyond her already extraordinary form, stats, and powers.
The Heavenly Father rivaled the Outer Gods in strength, perhaps surpassing them. Maria clung to hope that she could keep evolving as she always had.
Of course, she fully expected the same outrageous requirements as before.
"Well, even if evolution stops, it’s all right. My Martial Arts and the Cultivation Method I derived from them let me grow in other ways. I will keep forging this path with my own hands."
Filled with renewed determination, Maria emerged from her Pagoda. Her family, sect, and countless allies stood ready for the final battle over Murim. Wu Lieng and his disciples had grown immensely stronger. Familiar faces—once bitter enemies—now stood beside her, tempered by hard lessons and prepared to topple the world’s tyrant, even if reluctance lingered in some hearts.
"Let’s do this, everyone! Let’s free Murim!"
"OOOOHHHHH!"
Thousands roared as one. Maria activated the massive Teleportation Artifact, infused with her power and evolved beyond its original limits. It transformed into a vast ghostly portal, swallowing the entire Pagoda like a hungry void.
High above in the Heavens, a colossal black hole tore open without warning. The Heavenly Emperor’s forces, still scrambling to complete preparations, stared in shock. Calamities had been lured into containment formations, and the Golden Dragon Emperor waited elsewhere on standby.
They had assumed Maria’s delay would grant them at least another day. After all, the Emperor had disabled the teleportation device, certain she could not bypass it.
Yet she had simply modified it and used it, defying all expectation.
TRUUUM!
"W-What...?!"
"What is that?!"
"No way—they’re already here!"
Immortals circling the Heavenly Palace panicked. Soldiers hastily formed defensive ranks against the emerging threat.
RUMBLE!
Space fractured as the enormous ghostly pagoda materialized, radiating chaotic energies that continued to warp reality around it.
"They’re here...! No!"
"That Pagoda...!"
"The Ghostly Tower!"
"The Madwoman has come! The Madwoman is hereeeee!"
Unlike their ambush against the Heavenly Demon in the Mortal World, Maria had launched a direct, audacious assault on the High Heavens themselves.
"It’s heading straight for us?!"
"Stop it!"
"Don’t let it smash into the Palace!"
Hundreds of Immortals surged forward, channeling their Auras and merging countless Artifacts and Formations into a towering golden barrier—a semi-transparent deity with thousands of arms.
"{THOUSAND-ARMED VAJRA PROTECTION CELESTIAL FORMATION}!"
Anchored to the Heavenly Palace, the colossal figure thrust its myriad hands outward, straining to halt the oncoming Pagoda.
RUMBLE!
"Hahahaha! HAHAHAHAAH!"
A chilling, malevolent laugh boomed from within the tower as Maria’s Aura of Void, Chaos, and Death erupted. She mirrored their effort, weaving her own formation.
"{TEN THOUSAND-ARMED GHOSTLY GOD FORMATION: GOD OF DESTRUCTION SHIVA}!"
"WHAAAAT?!"
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