Chapter 785: Fertilizer for One’s Path
Rhodium burned with anxiety as he saw Artolo fall, unable to withstand even the opening salvo of the Eveningtide Asura. Ovo was still standing, but the Godslayer Spike the Rox’At Elemental controlled had been damaged to the point it might as well be considered an ornament by this point. It was already leaking its energies, forming a zone of destruction stretching a dozen kilometers in each direction.
Things had gone out of control too quickly. They had all been in meditation to reach a sublime mental state before the battle, but they had been forced to wake early and immediately set out. Why had the realm crumbled early, and why had the System involved itself? They had no choice but to make their move before the Godslayer Array had properly charged up, and they had decided to control the spikes themselves instead.
That cut the might of the spikes in half, but Rhodium knew that was only part of the problem. How could someone native to the frontier be this powerful?
Especially someone who had spent almost half of his lifespan in secluded cultivation, unable to gather rare treasures and honing his skills in battle. According to their estimates, Alvod Jondir had been severely wounded when usurping the throne, to the point his cultivation had regressed to Middle C-grade. They had figured the false lord to be powerful thanks to having forcibly increased his cultivation to Divine Monarchy, but he actually surpassed his grade in strength.
It made their mission almost insurmountable, and Rhodium was filled with regrets. If they only found out about these plans earlier they would have been able to enact more airtight plans. They had barely managed to construct these spikes, yet they didn’t even have a proper delivery system. But Rhodium knew they couldn’t stop here.
The spikes had been activated, and they would only last for a few more minutes before their pathways would crack from the rampant energies contained within.
“Alvod Jondir shouldn’t be able to unleash more attacks in the short run,” Heryes’s voice echoed out in his mind. “I will try to deal with one of the bloodsuckers.”
“I will assist you,” Rhodium frowned as an azure river appeared around him. “We need to restrain them at least, allowing the others to finish the objective. The Faebloom Monarch will restrain the ghosts with Ovo and Ubulo.”
“Alright,” Heryes agreed.
Rhodium sent a command to his spike and it changed course, now heading straight for the two sanguine avatars instead of the anomaly. The necromancer followed suit, and a towering skeleton appeared behind her. The skeleton grabbed the Godslayer Spike, intent on using it as a weapon.
The two bloody avatars got ready to meet their attack, the mage choosing to deal with the skeleton. The rivers that had surrounded her shot forward, each one of them containing boundless amounts of Essence Blood, making it wildly powerful.
The skeleton responded in kind as it spat out a shroud of condensed putrefaction. Heryes had no doubt implanted the ancient skull of her prime servant with terrifying toxins, and Rhodium prayed it would be enough to putrefy the blood of the Eternal Clan. Rhodium had no time to worry about his ally though, and he rather focused his attentions on the other avatar.
Tens of thousands of runes were appearing around the vampire’s spear as he had retracted his weapon. He was building momentum, and Rhodium knew he couldn’t tarry. He infused his Dao into the azure river, prompting it to shudder as it grew massive scales. An earth-shattering roar caused space itself to crack as the river turned into the simile of a primordial flood dragon.
It shot forward, its advance causing space itself to freeze before cracking.
However, the vampire had finished his preparations, and he stabbed forward with furious momentum. Rhodium thought to block, but he suddenly felt the shadow of death loom over him, and he quickly formed a few incantations, prompting himself and the spike to shift ten kilometers away.
It was a wise decision, as the space where he had previously occupied simply disintegrated, forming an almost endless scar in space. The dragon was badly maimed as well, but its core runes were still intact, allowing Rhodium to reform it.
The stab had carried a shocking amount of force, far beyond what Rhodium had expected. He looked over with worry, just in time to see the three rivers break out from the restrictive haze of Heryes. The streams had darkened considerably, but they still maintained more than half of their essence. They shot forward with almost untouched momentum, and Rhodium’s face sunk when he saw Heryes’ prized possession get ripped apart by the three frothing rivers.
The Necromancer paled in response, and her mind was no doubt wounded after the destruction of her puppet. She wasn’t ready to give in though, and a storm of millions of bones poured out of her sleeves, forming a dense cloud that spread over five kilometers. The bones swirled and crashed into each other, causing a deafening cacophony that rippled toward the rivers.
They were forming an ancestral curse, and Rhodium shuddered as he unwittingly moved a bit closer to Heryes. Space around her was bound to be excluded from the cursed field, which was important to know considering the crazy Necromancer’s proclivity for wanton destruction when going all out.
Meanwhile, a huge explosion behind Rhodium confirmed what he had been worried about. The monstrous jab had continued until it slammed into a world disk. The disks were covered in extremely mighty arrays, but Rhodium could feel that most of the restrictions had broken down already. He needed to make a move. If things continued this way, there wouldn’t be anything left to salvage even if they won.
His heart bled, but he still took out the small blue gemstone he had saved for over two hundred thousand years. It was supposed to be one of the core components the next time he expanded his inner world, yet he was forced to use it in a situation like this. He absorbed the primordial force within, and another roar echoed through the cosmos as the azure dragon doubled in size and shot toward the avatar with newfound vigor.
Meanwhile, Rhodium formed a series of seals, and tens of thousands of lances appeared behind him, each one a hundred meters long. a series of azure halos lit up around each one of them, filling the spear with energy until they suddenly shot forward with enough speed to cleave the void itself. They fell like deadly rain, heading straight toward the three Monarchs below.
He hoped that a direct attack would lessen the pressure on his companion, and hopefully provide an opening for someone to launch their spike at the spatial anomaly. But a deep heartbeat echoed out through the area, and Rhodium was shocked to find cracks appear on his own heart. The damage quickly healed though, and he instilled more and more energy into his spear array.
The next moment, the universe was split apart by a horizontal scar that stretched as far as his eyes could see. Out from it, a celestial army emerged. Tens of thousands of warriors stepped through the tear, each one reaching hundreds of meters in the air. They exuded a bloodlust that drowned the whole Twilight Harbor in a red haze, but their gazes were thankfully trained at the undead imperials and the Spatial Anomaly, rather than at himself.
Behind them, an impossibly large presence took form, its hands holding apart space itself as he pushed his torso through. He was tens of thousands of meters tall, and Rhodium felt his blood boil when looking at the inscrutable tattoos that covered the giant’s face. They spoke of bloodshed and war, of unquestionable might and of victory.
The man’s other half was still on the other side of the void, but his shocking aura forcibly kept the spatial tear open. Atop the man’s head sat a jade crown, the six red gemstones inlaid on it a clear answer to who had arrived. The Sixth Protector. Rhodium’s breath quickened when he realized what was going on, and despair quickly turned into elation. They might just make it after all.
The Havarok Empire had actually managed to send an Autarch through the Tarramak Vault somehow, in the flesh no less.
——–
Catheya looked around with wide eyes, horrified at the auras she could vaguely sense through the golden barrier around here.
“Are you two okay?” she asked.
“We’re fine,” Qirai wheezed, though Catheya noticed her aura was extremely unstable.
It was no wonder. The Mystic Realm had fallen apart, and their exit had been bereft of the stabilizing arrays you saw on Space Gates and Teleportation Arrays. They had been dragged through the void, their bodies exposed to chaotic Spatitial Energies along with the exhaust of the realm itself.
Thankfully, the System had taken mercy on them, erecting the golden barriers after they had withstood half the journey on their own. However, the golden glow around them was slowly dissipating, and she could already smell the cataclysmic danger that waited outside.
“Get ready to teleport away,” she said as she ate a soul-soothing pill, and her two followers followed suit.
Ten seconds later, the shielding dissipated, but they didn’t even have time to activate their escape talismans before they were subdued and immobilized by multiple layers of terrifying pressure. If not for the defensive equipment they wore, their bodies might have started crumbling then and there.
Catheya looked at the scene, her eyes wide with horror. She had known it would be bad, but this was beyond even what she could have imagined. Above in the sky, extremely dense clouds stretched on as far as she could see. In its center, a marvelous light shimmered, but she hurriedly looked away when she felt her soul shuddered precipitously.
She had a good idea of what that light was, and she knew that it was not something an E-grade cultivator herself could meddle with. The Heavenly Secrets were not so easily divulged. Besides, this was no time to enter meditation. Over a Dozen monarchs floated around the Spatial Anomaly, and they clearly had been fighting just a moment ago.
But now, they all faced a terrifying army, led by a man of shocking proportions. Catheya had never seen her family’s Autarch in the flesh, but she had sensed the aura left behind by him and her ancestor. This aura was weaker, but it was extremely condensed, which wasn’t a surprise considering he was here in the flesh.
Catheya didn’t understand what was going on. She knew that this sector of the Frontier lacked proper Space Gates to allow a being as powerful as an Autarch to pass through. Had he sailed here across the vast darkness, spending god-knows how much time and even harming his foundations? And if they knew of this event that long ago, they surely should have come up with some better plans?
It didn’t make sense, yet he was here, his mere presence causing space to shudder. The implications were terrifying, but not everyone seemed to be as subdued by the arrival.
“Since everyone has gathered, let’s get this show on the road,” an unfamiliar man laughed, his voice filled with boundless conviction. It was the Eveningtide Asura.
The next moment, the Twilight Ascent exploded, unleashing a surge of rampant energy that seemed without limit. Catheya looked at the almost blinding display with dismay, knowing that even a fraction of that force would be able to extinguish her in body and soul. Thankfully, the energy didn’t erupt in a shockwave of unbridled energy and Dao.
Instead, it poured into the dozens of twilight rivers that formed a spider web through the Twilight Harbor, and they lit up with unprecedented might as they started to move, gathering toward the heart of the Harbor. The huge avatar snorted as he spat a ball of destruction toward the core, but the rivers formed an enormous cocoon around it.
The power in the attack contained enough power to kill a Peak Monarch, yet the rivers managed to withstand it. Thankfully, the Autarch had controlled his power as well, and not as much as a ripple spread out toward the lower-grade cultivators.
“Alvod Jondir. I have come to enact judgment on your sins,” the Autarch growled, his voice sounding like Heavenly Law.
“Not even the heavens can judge me, protector, let alone you,” the Eveningtide Asura laughed from within the cocoon. “You shall all become fertilizer for my path.”
The sky rumbled in response, as though enraged by the proclamation. Nine purple tendrils started to descend toward the cocoon, and screams echoed out all around her as their aura covered the Twilight Harbor. Catheya squeezed her eyes shut, but she felt herself losing control. The Heavens had been pulled down to the frontier, and nothing could withstand its wrath.
Her mind drifted as she lost sensation, and an endless cold gripped her. Darkness crept closer, and the last thing she remembered was the silhouette of a man sitting on a balcony, enjoying the scenery of the Twilight Harbor.