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As a commercial hub connecting the southern and western continents, the Shattered Star Abyss boasts vast city grounds and a dense population. Built from pristine white gravel rock, the city resembles a small snow-capped mountain from afar—low on all sides but rising steeply toward the center. Four broad, heavy walls encircle it in layers, each higher than the last. At the very top stands the glazed palace of the mercenary empire, alongside the towering white spire known as the so-called "Skyreach Tower."

Though called the Skyreach Tower, it does not literally touch the heavens. Nevertheless, immense effort was poured into its construction. Standing 437 meters tall, its base spans nearly 100 meters in diameter, while its apex measures over 50 meters. The hollow interior serves as a conduit for torrents of magical energy, while ascending requires traversing the external spiral staircase.

Perched atop the city's highest point, the tower rises nearly 500 meters above the surrounding desert. With no hills or forests obstructing the view, the desert stretches endlessly, making the tower visible even from hundreds of kilometers away on clear days—justifying its lofty name.

Yet the Skyreach Tower is no mere landmark—it is a weapon of unparalleled destruction.

At its summit lies a deep, well-like pit encircled by 108 golden spikes, each eight meters long and as thick as a barrel, engraved with intricate magical runes. These spikes connect to tens of thousands of magical circuits embedded within the tower's inner walls, channeling the elemental energies from deep underground into devastating magical projectiles.

With a firing range of 20 kilometers—beyond the visual limits of ordinary humans—the Skyreach Tower is equipped with a magical detection system to monitor this vast distance, ensuring precise targeting. At such ranges, even a dragon would appear smaller than a speck of dust, making indiscriminate bombardment impossible despite the tower's boundless energy.

Beyond the detection system, the desert for hundreds of kilometers is dotted with hidden sentinels of the mercenary empire, tasked with spotting enemy movements. However, the Shattered Star Abyss's fearsome reputation has deterred attackers for centuries, leading to lax vigilance. Moreover, most sentinels focus on the southern Green Corridor and the northern Starfall Canyon, leaving the barren wastelands to the east and west poorly monitored. Thus, when a beastman army of over 100,000 emerged silently from the ruins of the Netherspire Tower—100 kilometers west of the Shattered Star Abyss—via spatial magic arrays, the mercenary empire failed to detect them immediately. By the time scouts were dispatched, the swift leopard and eagle clans had already eliminated several outposts. It wasn't until noon on the sixth day, with 120,000 to 130,000 beastmen already through the portals, that their presence was finally discovered.

By then, the beastmen had even established new camps. It was clear that nothing short of a million-strong human army could defeat them. Yet the Shattered Star Abyss, though the mercenary empire's capital, could not maintain such a force permanently. By the time mobilization orders were issued, the beastmen's full 150,000 troops had already arrived. When scouts spotted the cursed clans and the unmistakable six colossal war Behemoths in their ranks, plans for an encirclement were swiftly abandoned.

While a million humans could typically overpower 100,000 beastmen, elite warriors from the five major combat races reversed the equation—especially in open battle, where the lion clan's charges, the eagle tribe's aerial dominance, and the Bear Tribe's heavy armor combined into a one-sided massacre.

Thus, the humans could only consolidate their forces around the Shattered Star Abyss while dispatching urgent pleas for reinforcements across the land.

"The Shattered Star Abyss is the lifeline of all human battlefronts! We must reinforce it immediately!" a frontline officer shouted to his commander.

"And then what? Leave our backs exposed to the beastmen?" the commander retorted.

Humans understood the Shattered Star Abyss's importance better than the beastmen. Yet, just as the beastmen had never imagined attacking it, humans had long considered it an impregnable rear. Thus, all fronts had relentlessly drawn troops from it. Had the mercenary empire's "decadent" and "cowardly" royal family not stubbornly retained control of the capital's 300,000 minimum garrison, the Shattered Star Abyss might not even have had enough soldiers to man its walls.

Beyond this accidental defensive force, however, hopes for reinforcements were slim.

Even Grand Mage Enlai Ke, Southern Front commander of the allied forces—though not at the front—was vexed by the situation.

"What a predicament. Who could have guessed the beastmen's earlier reckless assaults were just a feint for this unexpected masterstroke? I suspected a scheme, but never imagined they'd teleport 150,000 troops through spatial magic arrays—this grants them an unfair tactical advantage!" Rubbing his temples, the young leader glared at the map. "What now? The nearest and strongest force is Xi Luo's front, but they're facing the beastmen's elite and that empress of theirs. Pulling back would cost us terrain advantage and likely collapse the entire line."

"As for those Western Continent remnants—forget them. Even if they wanted to help, how? Crossing the desert south or breaking through beastmen lines north to link up with Xi Luo? Impossible. Unless they, too, find a spatial array... and a grand mage powerful enough to sustain it."

"The Yellow Dragon and Tiele expeditionary forces might be an option, especially with Sacred Dragon Mountain's newcomers. Their dragon beasts could swiftly cross the wasteland to reinforce the Shattered Star Abyss. The original front could hold with a strategic contraction. But... sending thousands of those voracious creatures? The Shattered Star Abyss might collapse under the logistical strain before the beastmen even arrive."