Chapter 578: Web


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    Ss took deep breaths. Balgros'' head dripped with blood from his hand, sorge that it seemed to have as much mass as half his body.


    His Aether had hit rock bottom, and his mind waspletely drained. Slowly, the pocket of poison he had formed around himself copsed, and it wasn''t long before he was practically suffocating again.


    ''There''s no way this is sustainable. Dying this was definitely the right option.''


    But it wasn''t lost on Ss that this was just the beginning. It had taken him three hours to clear this vige, and that put him well behind schedule.


    Unless he could clear viges at a rate of 30 minutes or so, including travel time and sleep, he wouldn''t be able to make it.


    Ss was about to turn to leave, but his steps hesitated.


    ''There''s something else I can do.''


    The Demon Gate looked muchrger than it actually was. It was a pir of energy that connected the ground to the clouds above, at least on the surface. But in reality, this was mostly just the Demonic Aethering from it.


    Ss took a step into it and felt the pressureing at him from all sides.


    The Greed Seed began to stir, seemingly sensing something that it liked. But Ss pressed it down. If the ring warning signs from his Luck weren''t enough, he was already aware that he had to control the growth of the Greed Seed. He had no intention of allowing it to outpace himself and eventually lead to his downfall.


    Soon, Ss found what he was looking for in the murky darkness surging around him.


    The City Lord''s cabin.


    He took a step inside and found the City Stele and the Demon Shrine.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    The energy around here was particrly vtile, so Ss could only restrain his Rune control to a minor segment around himself, simr to a second Aether skin.


    Then, he stepped toward the City Stele.


    The City Stele of demons was clearly different. For whatever reason, Moose had been able to move out of his city freely without worrying about it copsing on him.


    But this wasn''t what Ss wanted to take advantage of. There was no point in him conquering a Demon City Stele because every time a Demon spawned, he would have to kill it. After all, he didn''t have the ability to control them like Moose had.


    While the City didn''t have an active City Lord, though, ording to his understanding, the spawns shoulde to a pause.


    But...


    [Woond Web (Silver) (Fortress)]


    [Protect your City with the Spirit of the Woond Spider Queen]


    Ss brought out an orb.


    The Fortress was originally something that he wanted to use on Cassarae''s or at least an ally city. But there were too many problems with it.


    Unless every citizen of the city had high poison resistance, it would just slowly kill the entire poption. It was ironically not something that Ss could even use unless he formed an army of poison affinity elites and never raised up any normal citizens.


    That was obviously impossible.


    However, if he set the Woond Web here, he would gain a huge advantage.


    For one, poison would saturate the air, so any existences that happened to step out of the portal would find themselves in a continuous state of perpetual Damage.


    There were likely Elixirs that could be used to deal with this, and the Demons might have poison resistance masters of their own. But Ss bet that this would dy them for an even longer time.


    If he was lucky, then the first group would only appear after a day or two. Due to the time dtion, that would be upwards of six to eight months.


    By then, he would certainly have his first Legendary ss already.


    He didn''t believe that E-Grade existences would be able to make it across the portal from everything he had asked the Madness Key. So he would definitely be confident enough to deal with the situation when the time came.


    If they were dyed a day or two on top of that, trying to figure out a way to deal with the dense poison, Ss might have bought himself over a year of time, even more if luck was on his side.


    As such, the sacrifice of the Woond Web was a necessary evil.


    Plus, he had noticed several things more...


    Poison Aether wasn''t obstructed by Demonic Aether in the slightest. In fact, it almost seemed at home. Or at the very least, it wasn''t as rejected as usual Aether was.


    In a situation where the Poison Aether concentration was continuously increasing thanks to the Web, the Demonic Aether would have a much harder time spreading and overtaking normal Aether in the region.


    This was essentially killing two birds with a single stone, and Ss couldn''t pass up the opportunity.


    He allowed the orb to float forward and fuse into the City Stele.


    A rumble shook the ground, and tree roots began to spring up and out of the ground, wrapping around the already wooden walls of defense and sinking into them.


    Usually, a Fortress would need to fuse with an encampment building. But this was a Demon City. The entire City was an encampment.


    There were no women and children, and militia units directly spawned from the City Stele. As such, this was all that needed to be done.


    However, while this much was expected, Ss'' expression flickered when he sensed that the Woond Web Fortress was actually mutating.


    Influenced by the Demonic Aether-not present in the air, but rather present in the City Stele itself—it morphed and changed, bing darker and more potent.


    Ss suddenly felt that even he wasn''t 100% immune to the poison that began to pump itself


    into the air.


    ''I need to leave.''


    Ss looked toward the Shrine and punched out.


    Originally, he didn''t know if it would be worth it to destroy the Demon Shrine. Although it would slow those from the other side, it would also increase the flow of Demonic Aether.


    However, with the Fortress here, it was less of a worry.


    ''Dammit...''


    Ss shook his head. This Shrine was sturdier than it looked.


    It reflected his blow as though it was thrown by a child.