Chapter 553 Battle of Kings
"I offered you peace, but you refused it, I offered you a wing under me and you chose to go against it, I've given you chances many more than any before you and you still denied, thus, you chose to refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit," the Fire Lord spoke with all the disdain he could muster as he spat the words.
He then pointed the fire jewel at me and said, "Thus one should know their place, young Emperor, you've yet to see the true world, and you dare defy me with your measly cultivation! Perish!" he said.
"Dodge!" shouted the Queen as she shouted, rupturing space itself with a soul-shattering scream, the fabric of space seemed to crumble at her loud voice as it came rushing toward the fire Lord.
"I also learned Soul Magic!" he called as a reverberating wave of soul energy shot out from within him, confronting the Queen's own shout and rendering both neutral. While the jewel in his hand was fully charged and shot its ray toward me.
"Damn it!" cursed the grand elder as he appeared right next to me and pushed me away while he pointed his right arm forward, a blackness like the darkness of the night encompassed it, shrouding his arm in darkness like never before he then pushed it forward to confront the jewel's ray, only for his entire left side to be evaporated unable to compete or contend.
I twisted my hand and called upon all the poison in the air to transform into spears, sword axes, and all sorts of weapons, courtesy of the Poison God's teachings, and shot them forward to stagger and buy some time from the Fire Lord. Only for the Fire Lord to prop up the second jewel, the Metal Key, and manifest a barrier of inexplicably condensed metal to shrug off the poison.
My corrosive poison couldn't even make a dent into that barrier.
The Fire Lord then called with his free arm and pushed down, morphing the barrier into a fist of a god that came down upon us threatening to destroy all.
Blocking this moon sized fist would be nothing but idiocy so we all chose to move in different ways only for him to call upon the third jewel, propping up the entire island and contorting its sides to grow and create a wall around the island, the floating island for a moment became like a jar, and the first was its lid, and we were trapped inside it.
"How can someone control the elements this freely without cost!" I cursed inwardly as I saw the fist coming down.
"Take them All in automaton!" I called.
"I cannot my lord! The Keys are interfering with my special law!"
Seeing death coming in close, my mind kept roiling trying to find a way or clue on how to solve this only for it to fail time and time again. I have no ability to fight against the keys, nor do I have any protective treasures to stop it, my poison is rendered useless and my power is meager.
True despair began creeping up my heart as I found myself in a situation where I can't help but despair.
Suddenly, a surge of energy like never before came from underneath us.
The ground that was our prison tore apart and broke, cracking and fissuring, sending endless surges of water from underneath, like a tidal wave it surged out, harmless as it passed through us yet forceful and destructive as it came in contact with the fist and the walls trapping us.
"Yuyu?!" I called and looked down, she was already there. I already scanned the entire Heavenly Academy and didn't see her before, did she just arrive? But why? She's far weaker than anyone here.
"Even I can help! Move forth and bend Ice Age!" she muttered, and the key to her words was willed and transformed the endless surging water to ice. Sparing no one but us cultivators, and hitting hard against the incoming metallic fist, it bore and tore against the walls and surged like spears of death as it ripped apart the metal fist and shot toward the Fire Lord.
"Weak!" he called and pointed his Fire Jewel, having greater and more refined control over it, the Fire Jewel came down with a reckoning like never before, conflagrating the flames of hell itself as it sent them down with wanton abandon to destroy and eradicate all life.
The flames surged and merged with ice, creating vapor explosions that shot all, around the heavenly academy with force enough to disintegrate the very meteors that were surrounding the whole area.
Destruction like never before was threatening to befall the Heavenly Academy, as the surge of explosive vapor was going to burn and boil anything that lived.
"Winds of the North! ROAR!" the words came down like the reckoning of a deity, as a surge of endlessly cold and brutal wind came down upon, the entirety of the heavenly academy blowing away the vapor to disperse in the Vast Expanse and revealing the situation of the Heavenly Academy.
Looking at it from where I stood, the entire upper island of the Heavenly Academy was eradicated, with nothing but the barren island remaining, a gigantic cone of ice remained on top of it, seemingly trying to grasp the heavens, while the metallic fist was shattered to bits and pieces. The flames were no more, but the heat from the Fire Lord was still rising and a few miles from him was the new entry to this battle of kings.
The Wind King arrived.
"Husband of mine, what took you so long?" she asked.
"I had issues handling he Water King, though where is Old Beast... I see his key but I fail to notice his presence, did he perish?"
"You come in here, ruining my fun, Old North,"
"Of course, if we let you be, you'll ruin everything Old Flame..."
"Do you think you can win though? Your Wind Key isn't strong enough to contend, nor is your Water Key, since it's being hosted by a weak being."
"Weak of cultivation isn't being weak of heart, thus you shall learn today, Wind of The North, come forth!"
The Wind King spoke, and like the Old King, he too manifested a sword made of pure wind that seemed to vibrate and breathe as if it was alive.
"Let's finish this, once and for all!" he said.
"Show me if you have what it takes!"
The two instantly went into a clash of power.
This was a good chance to assist the wind king, but before I could even think up of a way to help, once again, my mind went blank.
My heart was affected by the same spell from before, looking at the originator of the spell, who should have been sealed.
He was back in his body and with full control.
"No one can save you from it this time! DIE!" the Creedless shouted as he tried to once again stab himself.
"Shen Bao! That's a Demonic Technic use your Avatar!" spoke Master Rain.
I immediately understood what he meant.
"Come out!" I called and from within my Book came my avatar, he who was full of malice and darkness, Shen Mo's body instantly harvested the Death Mark onto himself, and once the Creedless finished the Ritual, Shen Mo's heart burst causing it to die... or what seemed to be the case as he instantly rejuvenated the shattered heart.
The Demonic Qi from the Death Mark acted as a fuel to Shen Mo's cultivation propelling it forward into crossing the Ascendant Stage.
The Heavens roiled threatening to call upon a heavenly Tribulation, suddenly dimmed down and calmed down.
Thinking about why the tribulation of ascension didn't happen took me a second, me and Shen Mo share the same soul, and I was already promised to not be punished for ascending, thus it was denied. And with Shen Mo ascending.
The ascendant Shen Mo rushed toward the Emperor Ranked Creedless.
"I don't know how it survived but you can't hope to beat me with this weak cultivation level!" the creedless called as he prepared to intercept
"Fist of Demonic Roaring Ki! Devil's Impact!" the avatar shouted as it manifested a gauntlet made of devilish energy, pure darkness, and a claw of pure putridness and hatred.
I followed after him not missing a beat. "Fist of Roaring Ki! Golden Titan's impact!"
Hearing the name of the Golden Titan instantly caused the Creedless to immediately react.
"How..."
His words were cut short as the fist of the avatar struck home then it was soon followed by mine.
Rattled and unable to understand, I wasn't willing to give him the chance. n-)o/)V--e(.l//B/-I/(n
"Fist of Roaring Ki! Fist of Eternal Gold!" I followed with a second punch to his abdomen, that seemed to rattle his very existence.
"HOW DO YOU KNOW SUCH ART!"
"I know even more! Golden Titan's Madness! RUMBLE!"
Suddenly electric waves of energy shot out from within me washing the world in a color of gold as my size began growing to incredible proportions, manifesting power like never before.
This caught everyone by surprise.
"That... that should have been a lost art! How do you know the Golden Titan?!" the Creedless shouted.
But he spoke to deaf ears, since I was already in the Golden Titan's madness, my sanity was quickly seeping out and all I could see was gold and red. And all I could feel was an insatiable urge to destroy.