Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

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The Stormrider brothers are now learning from their mothers...

Gerald was learning Ice Magic from Isabella, Gilderoy was learning poitioneering from Chrissy, and Godwyn was learning more fundamental applications of magic from Erica.

The lessons were simple yet very fulfilling. It's made even more special since it allows them to spend more time with their mothers. This made the brothers know that their mothers weren't simple people either. It couldn't be helped; Cedric's brilliance was so bright that it overshadowed the rest, making them forget that their mothers were strong too.

The ladies can offer a bounty of information to them that they can access anytime they want. They almost couldn't believe that they took this for granted, especially after their awakening ceremony, but this has been remedied now.

Days passed by in their lessons, and on each day, their abilities grew. The kids absorb knowledge like they're starved from it. And seeing them chew through knowledge and become stronger each passing day was equal parts amusing and gratifying for their mothers.

None of the kids leveled up just yet, but they have certainly become stronger than before. This visible growth in their skills also boosted their confidence to take on the upcoming Hell Dive as well.

And so, more days passed, and eventually, the day of the Hell Dive came once more.

The bothers gathered inside one of the many rooms within the Sky Castle. The tension was palpable, and it's obvious that all of them were nervous.

They checked their gear and equipment, making sure that everything was in place before they went to their task. Gerald meditated to calm his heart; Gilderoy was counting his vials and going through his plan to approach the challenge, while Godwyn was pacing back and forth.

Time passed in their wait, and eventually, the moment came.

With a sharp beep in the system alarm. They were notified that they can now begin their Hell Dives.

The brothers looked at each other, and with a nod, they went to their beds to lie down. One by one, they initiated the dive and disappeared from the room.

Fwoosh!

**

The brothers opened their eyes and saw the familiar scene before them.

Surrounded by charred earth, dark and gloomy skies, the pungent scent of decay in the air, and the unmistakable presence of demonic corruption—yep, they're back in the purgatory realm, alright?

Even though they were all in the same environment and must clear the same task, the brothers aren't in one place. Each one of them must face this challenge alone; they can't help each other out.

Above them was the huge system window that displayed the time. It counts down from an hour—the length of time they must persist in this task. And like the old time, it doesn't really matter how long or short their stay here was because once they return to their reality, only 30 minutes will pass.

The brothers made their own preparations, be it psyching themselves up or making sure that their equipment was all ready—anything to alleviate the nerves and jitters for what they're about to face. Once they're ready, they indicate their will to the world, and the countdown begins. Experience new tales on empire

ooooOoooooOoo!!

The ominous sound of the undead awakening from their slumber sparked the beginning of their hellish task. The brothers momentarily froze, remembering their miserable endings at the hands of these things.

Fear shrouded their hearts for a brief moment, but they swiftly got over it.

Godwyn fired his first shot. His arrow streaked through the air, splitting into smaller projectiles that pierced the heads of the first batch of zombies he saw. And while it didn't take long before another batch spawned somewhere, the ease of how he dealt with them gave him a level of confidence back.

If this was his previous attempt, he would've needed to fire multiple arrows, which was more work and required more of his energy and stamina. His lessons with his mother were already showing it's worth this early.

Gilderoy threw multiple flasks of potions all around him.

The flasks broke the moment they made contact with the ground, spling their contents and leaving behind pools of murky liquid. Any zombies who mistakingly took a step in any of these puddles will disintigrate shortly after.

This potion was called the Corpse Disintigrating Potion. It's an old potion that assassins usually commit from the witches to aid their work. It's effect was as straight-forward as its called. However, the old version of this potion was a one-time-use thing. The dosage needed depends on the size of the victim as well.

Gilderoy spent many attempts of trial and error to adjust the potion to his needs. He wanted its potency to increase sharply and make it last longer so that it could dissolve more zombies.

He succeeded thanks to his growing skills at witchcraft, more specifically at transmutation and probability manipulation, resulting in the flasks of potions he threw earlier.

Now, Gilderoy was surrounded by a puddle of corpse-disintigrating liquid that functioned as an impassable wall protecting him. He's also throwing more of these potions at a distance to create more puddles, hoping to shave more zombies so that he won't get mobbed later.

As for Gerald, he's in the middle of setting up his domain.

He sat on the ground, eyes closed in concentration. A chilling breeze surrounded him, leaving a trail of frost behind. Gerald's mana steeped into his surroundings, serving as nourishment for the coldness to grow and expand.

All of the zombies that try to approach him turn into frozen statues in less than a second, and they also lowered the temperature around him even more.

For now, this frozen domain was only about 200 meters in size. However, as more and more time passes, it will continuously grow until it becomes self-sufficient. Gerald just needs to be really patient about it.

This was how the boys chose to approach their second try at their Hell Dive.

Compared to their previous attempt, this was already a huge improvement.

Unfortunately...

**

"Argh! Damn it!"

Godwyn complained after waking up to reality with a sharp gasp. He looked around him and saw that his brothers just woke up as well. And from the frustrated look on their faces, it seems that their results weren't any better than his.

He sighed and recalled what happened, which could be summarized in one word.

"Lacking."

Yes, their second attempt at surviving the endless undead horde failed as well. Their preparations and their skills are still insufficient and lacking to complete their task.

It all started great for them. Godwyn was easily demolishing clumps of zombies with a single shot. It allowed him to preserve his stamina and arrows.

But the longer the task went, the more zombies that spawned and the stronger they got as well. It came to a point where the early advantage he had become completely meaningless.

Gilderoy and Gerald faced the same problem.

Gil's acidic pools were only effective against common zombies. It barely had an effect against mutated zombies at all, especially against that acid-spitting zombie and the raging muscular zombies, as well as the hunter zombies who could use the bodies of his peers as trampolines to get to him.

Gerald's frozen domain was the same. Was only effective against ordinary zombies. He was relying on the frozen corpses to lower the temperature even more, but with the appearance of the exploding zombies, who destroy the frozen statues he's trying to preserve, he found his domain weakening constantly until it became completely ineffective.

The bothers looked at each other in dismay. The results were evident in their faces.

"I mean...hey, at least we didn't wake up screaming, crying, and throwing up like the last time, so it's an improvement, I guess," Gilderoy said in attempts to lighten up the atmosphere.

"Oh, yeah. True." Godwyn wholeheartedly appeared. "Definitely an improvement. But it's still bad. I actually lasted shorter compared last time. I was killed around the 30 minute mark. How about you two?"

"Same." Gilderoy nodded.

"It's 35th minute for me. The swole zombie popped my head." Gerald sighed.

"Yikes, dude!" Gil winced. "Me, I got tied up by the long-tongue zombie, then a boomer sneaked up next to me and blew me up as well."

Gerald and Gilderoy looked at Godwyn and saw the dark look on his face. He rubbed his face and said,

"Argh, fine! Two hunters got me. You can imagine what happened next."

"Oof, my guy."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

"Yeah, RIP to you."

The hunter zombies are highly agile and incredibly sadistic. His death was definitely worse than Gil's and Geld's.

"Well, it doesn't matter, I guess." Godwyn tried to stay positive. "Even though I lasted shorter than last time, I'd still count it as an improvement. We're already halfway there. We just need more training, and this will be a piece of cake."

Godwyn then collapsed on the bed and said, "Right now though, I just want to sleep—hey! Where are you two going?"

"Showers. We smell nasty, bro. We can't sleep dirty."

Godwyn was stunned before he got up as well.

"Yeah, good point."