Chapter 118 - Poison Immunity is a Hoax

"Love, there is 'over the top,' and then there is you. First it was golden incense and shrouds. Now it's kaleidoscopic flames and multicolor incense. What's next? The sun, the rain, the moon, the stars and the mountain? You put the bar too high already. In the future, how will you top that?" Jiyan asked with a zest of sass. Undisturbed, Harun placed his left hand on her forehead, releasing a surge of incense that healed her wounds and erased the blood stains—then kissed her temple. "What can I say? I did not choose splendor. Splendor chose me. And the best proof is…the girl I have in my arms," Harun replied with a radiant smile, making Jiyan's cheeks blush for a second—just a second. "Shameless…" she whispered, yet made herself more comfortable in his grasp. 

The scene made the Colossi feel extra. B.u.t.t when they glanced at their fallen brothers, seriousness returned to their golden hues. Though startled by the miracles Harun just performed, the colossi blamed their brothers' instantaneous defeat on carelessness. First, Jiyan swindled them, breaking their pace long enough to behead and injure the Ninth and Eighth Landgrave respectively. Building on that momentum, Harun dealt the eighth a fatal blow. So while the destructive powers they displayed put the remaining colossi on high alert, very few feared an open confrontation. 

"Quick, join me in the formation. Once all seven of us make our powers overlap, while we won't be able to use refiner abilities, the strength leap will more than compensate for that—enabling us to crush him!" The First Landgrave offered, still shrouded by the Rust Storm Formation. However, his six brothers ignored him entirely. Red energy lines swirled across their forms, destroying their rationality to make their strength skyrocket: the Mystery of Savagery. 

That choice made the First Landgrave despair, "Even at this juncture, you'd rather look down on me than unite to fight?!" He barked, but got an insulting silence as his answer. The six Colossi's eyes went from golden to crimson, and exhaling red vapor, they raised their battle-axes and war-hammers, taking resolute steps toward Harun. Under their feet's pressure, the ground fractured, but ignoring the display of physical might, Harun glanced at the Chimeric Fiend whose skull had been crushed by the Ninth Landgrave's hammer strike. 

"I heard that you refiners don't fear any kind of poison. That's the type of statement you better be able to back up. Let's give it a shot," Harun said, released Jiyan from his grasp, and aimed one finger at the Chimeric Fiend. Multicolor incense mist poured out, restoring the wolf-spider chimera's life and senses. Immediately, the beast's four green eyes nailed the frenzied Colossi, and leaping toward the six, it spat out streams of silver liquid that twinkled like a sequin tree. Paying the stream no heed, the frenzied refiners left their Anasrava-level armored flesh resist the liquid's properties, and rushed through it to demolish the Chimeric Fiend. 

The silver streams seeped into the armors, and to Jiyan's surprise, the Colossi's brute strength increased at an alarming rate. Barbarous ax and hammer blows hissed through the air, raising rampant wind gusts in their path. Now several times faster than it used to be, the Chimeric Fiend wrapped itself in a silver cocoon, letting the blows bounce against its defenses. Each of the strikes carried enough strength to send the Flame Spirit King packing. Thankfully, they couldn't all aim at the same area or the poor chimera would have again turned into a bloody pulp. Still, one-third of the silk threads broke instantly. 

Relentless, the colossi rammed their weapons in the Chimeric Fiend's silk threads, putting 100% percent might behind each swing. But if their strength exceeded it, the Chimeric Fiends' spider silk defenses regenerated too fast for the Colossi to break through. A stalemate settled in, but seeing the Colossi' strength steadily increasing from the chimera's venom, Jiyan was confused. 

"How is that poison? It just turned them into mons—" she started, but before she could finish her words, the colossi teetered, lost their balance and tumbled—some on their asses, the others on their knees. Jiyan's eyes arched up, Harun's lips curved into a grin of satisfaction. Silver light shone across the colossi's bodies, and the First Landgrave who still hid in his formation witnessed his brothers' stainless physiques turn into rust. Right, bits by bits, the colossi's armored flesh rusted under the silver lights' influence. The strength leap turned against them, making them unable to control their motions, and with the feral state they'd thrown themselves into, they had very little control to begin with. 

"Young plaguebringer, this is a lesson you must take down. Poison Immunity is a hoax. Stainless or not, the body is as clever as it's stupid. Disguise your poison as a tonic, reinforce and feed the opponent's p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e center if they have one, let them enjoy clear benefits first, and when the substance has conquered their body—reveal its true colors. Make the internal organs, circuits or whatever ensures their bodies' functions breakdown, adapt your poisons to fit sentient or insentient foes, if they find a counter, change your toxins' properties, and under these vast heavens few can resist your craft. The Nine Venoms Sect will subdue the world through its toxic arts, and the day will come when we can poison even Mysteries," Harun declared and raised his hand. Instantly, the First Landgrave realized that if he didn't intervene, his brothers all faced destruction. And though his heart carried endless grudges, he couldn't abandon them.

"Stop this at once!" Magnified by the formation, the First Landgrave's strength could match the best among fifth-level Ascending Gods, and his voice reverberated like a divine command that subdued all in its wake. Sandy rust hands dropped from the formation, grabbing the six Landgraves to throw them into the storm—almost. A formless pressure rippled from Harun's hand—blasting away the First Landgrave's sound waves and rust hands. 

Irresistible telekinetic forces pulled the six crippled Colossi toward Harun—one after the other—and with complete composure, Harun slapped their heads off their necks. The First Landgrave used all the tricks at his disposal, maroon missiles, beams, hurricanes and so much more, but all failed to get into a 15 meters radius from Harun, and so he could only watch the Plague Overlord slap his brothers to death. 

Following the sixth's fall, Harun raised his eyes toward the Rust Storm, looking past it to fix the First Landgrave whose trembling form and glowering eyes spoke tales of his incandescent rage. "I'm confused. In their eyes, you are no better than trash. Despite having your forte, they showed you no respect. Worse, they spit at your skills and bring you down at any given opportunity. Why work so hard to save them?" Arms crossed behind his back, Harun asked.

The First Landgrave's eyes went from a fallen brother to another, and his heart grew more chaotic. "Only a sick man would ask why the elder brother tolerates and supports the younger. We were born from the same source, share the same mother, so even if they despise and insult me, I can never turn my back on them." The First Landgrave clenched his hands as he spat out those words. 

Confusion flashed in Harun's eyes. "But even your mother abandoned you. Otherwise, why haven't you received reinforcements yet? You've been sacrificed to either access my strength or diffuse the feud," Harun said with a helpless shrug. The words hit the First Landgrave like a collapsing mountain peak. His thoughts underwent a 180 turn, and instantly, he realized that Harun spoke true. 

From the start, the 20th Landgrave should have been here. Had he been leading the fight, the situation could never reach this point. But despite his eagerness for merit, he didn't follow them—the reason was obvious. 

"Mother…how could y—" As the First Landgrave realized that his "mother" had restrained the 20th Landgrave and sent them to probe Harun's strength and satisfy his rage, the First Landgrave grew desperate, countless flaws appeared in the formation, and exploiting them, Harun stabbed into the First Landgrave neck—slaying him as well. Yet, even at the gate of death, the "why" was all he cared about.

"If kinship strangles you, how is it still kinship? And why must you cling so hard on it? What a pity that you learned the basics of brotherhood, but never succeeded in loving yourself."