Chapter 126 - Quasi-Immortality

Harun and Jiyan remained still like statues, letting the mystical phenomenons emanating from them mirror the intensity of their silent cultivation. Mukri's eyes darted between the pairs at his front and back, seeking help in his boss' closed eyes. The 14th Landgrave's incoming pressure snatched back his attention, and while fixing the diminutive doll with his bull eyes, Mukri sent Birandar a mental message. "Can you replay that 'mortal defeats the god' show?" The bull seriously asked. Alas, Birandar shook his head. "That blood-craving monstrous doll is hundreds of times stronger than the Grief Incarnation. About seventh-level Ascending God. Worse, he has no soul and doesn't possess the tiniest grief in him. My Wheel of Causality cannot create miracles here," Birandar stated the facts, while naming his third eye for the very first time. 

"You can even rank him on Divine Path standards? Holy cow, you are more knowledgeable than I am!" Forever impressed by young Birandar, Mukri blurted out. But as stoic as a rock, the youth didn't let the praise get to his head. "You are a cow. And I'm not sure this is the right time to throw compliments," Birandar countered, stood up, and activated his third eye. Purple-white light flashed in the Wheel of Causality, sheltering everything in a ten meters radius from the herculean youth in a forcefield. 

Golden aura shimmered across the 14th Landgrave's porcelain skin, giving it a holy l.u.s.ter his murderous eyes readily clashed with. His lips curled into a lopsided grin, and without a word, he threw out a casual punch. Formless energies rippled from his fist, becoming a space distorting squall that bulldozed its way through Birandar's barrier—and slammed the youth like a truck-sized sledgehammer. Flying backward, Birandar went past Harun and Mukri to crash in the wall behind.

But altering the laws of physics, Birandar vanished and crashed in the 14th Landgrave's back instead, using the momentum of that terrible blow to ram his elbow into the doll's skull. The move hit an invisible spatial wall—stopping Birandar mid-air. Grabbing his arm, the 14th Landgrave hurled the youth into the ground and stomped his c.h.e.s.t with an unforgiving kick. 

Birandar's eyes went bloodshot, the iron taste of blood filled his mouth, but restraining a cough, the youth unleashed his extra pair of arms, grabbed the 14th Landgrave's ankle, and attempted to yank his foot off his c.h.e.s.t—to no avail. The 14th Landgrave was like an immovable mountain pressing down on the youth. Birandar's control of Truth and Fate clashed with the Landgrave's golden aura and mastery over Space, making all attempts to alter his condition end in failure. "You do realize that we see everything that happens in this mine, right? Whenever we make a move, we take your skills into consideration. So while I don't understand the root of your powers, I do know how they work." The 14th started and increased the pressure on Birandar's c.h.e.s.t, making the ground crack underneath the youth. 

"With middle-accomplishment in Truth, you can alter your fleshly body's level to match a low-level God. With the same in Fate, you can foresee all my moves and possible patterns, and among them pick the most likely outcome. The farther you go, the deadlier those abilities will become. But right now, they're only useful before weaklings. Refiners excel at suppression. Add to that my fleshly body's level and my Mystery of Space, and you become no better than a flea." If there was one thing the Sanguine Dolls excelled at, it was hubris. How could Birandar not know the gap between the two of them? And so what if he knew?

Ignoring the Landgrave, Birandar activated his strongest skill. Hypnotic purple-white spirals rotated in his third eye, his Dual Soul Root turned into fuel, and engrossed by the Wheel of Causality, the 14th Landgrave landed in a magnetic world of spiraling mirrors, each drawing him toward a random fate. 

Seizing that moment of torpor, Mukri summoned a tribulation cloud right above the vulnerable Landgrave, battering him with dozens of lightning bolts. But before the first could even graze his hair, a golden shield formed around the 14th Landgrave, suppressing the tribulation lightning. His eyes regained their l.u.s.ter, and despite Birandar's best efforts, the Wheel could no longer entrap him. 

"I told you…" 

BANG! 

But as the 14th Landgrave prepared to gloat at Birandar's desperate attempt, dark-blue chains smashed into his cheek, lacerating his doll-like face while sending him to spiral across the cavern roads. The Landgrave's surroundings spun, but before he could regain his footing, a silver sword dropped on his neck. Pushing his body and Space Mystery to the limit, the 14th Landgrave vanished and reappeared several steps behind. A perfect sword line appeared on his neck, blood gushed from his jugular, and before the 14th could make sense of this gruesome wound, a mesmerizing knee crashed into his face.

His bones snapped instantly, and reeling back, the doll-like monster dropped beside his brother, who lunged at the assailant—at Jiyan—with a knife-hand thrust. Trapping the blow between her left elbow and knee, Jiyan rammed her sword straight at the 17th Landgrave's forehead. His lips curled into a sneer, and as he prepared to alter space to turn her move against her, his surroundings became an achromatic zone where Jiyan's will reigned supreme. "Oops," the 17th Landgrave thought before the lady's sword stabbed into his brain. 

Ignoring the 17th's fate, the 14th broke free from Jiyan's Forbidden Zone and stabbed at her heart. A trio of massive tree branches sprouted from the rugged ground, locking the Landgrave's waist, arms and legs. Shockingly, each of those three trunk-sized branches drained his formidable Life Essence, leaving him as weak as a wobbling toddler. Pulling her sword out of the 17th's brain, Jiyan hacked it at the 14th's neck—this time lopping it off, only to find 17th Landgrave's fist aiming for her chin.

BANG!

A tree trunk rose to block the move and split the two sides. Leaping back, Jiyan returned to her original spot, standing beside Harun who, though awake, still sat crossed-legged. The 14th Landgrave's blood-spewing head floated upward, fixing a savage glare on Harun, whose eyes opened to meet the challenge. 

"One lost his brain, the other lost his neck. Why are they not dead?" Mukri, who'd never witnessed such absurd survival abilities, blurted out. Calmer than his bull partner, Birandar leaped back to Harun's side. The Dual Soul Root and Third Eye's exhaustion left his face livid, but though he barely had enough strength to stand on his own, the youth held on. 

"Mhm…some people can't take the hint. Let's try again," Harun said, and joined his hands in a prayer sign.

"Blight of the Underworld."

A bottomless swamp of blight and decay formed across the rugged ground, with gray lotuses sprouting and blooming at n.a.k.e.d eye speed. From those lotuses, gray filaments poured out, staining the atmosphere with an irresistible blend of lethal forces. The filaments latched on the two Landgraves, dragging their extraordinary bodies down the noxious swamp.