The Death Sun lunged at the Wisest Sun with a terrifying, skeletal grace. His body moved like a shadow, flickering in and out of existence. The Wisest Sun reacted immediately, his hands flowing in a blur of movements as the two of them vanished into a fold of space, leaving no trace behind. A deafening silence followed their departure, the residual energy crackling in the air like a lingering threat.
"What the hell just happened?" I spat, the tension snapping my voice.
Suddenly, the Blue Sun appeared in front of me, her titan-slaying hammer materializing in her hands as she blocked an invisible strike. The force of the blow sent a shockwave rippling through the cavern, shaking the ground beneath us as her hammer whistled through the empty air, repelling an unseen force.
"Watch out!" she sent a Divine Sense message to me, her voice carrying a grim urgency. "You're facing a Sun here, Shen Bao!" Her eyes gleamed with a focused intensity. "The two of them are fighting in a different spatial fold. They're doing that to avoid affecting the surroundings, but I'd bet my life on the fact that the Death Sun doesn't want to destroy something here."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
I followed her gaze, my eyes landing on the massive gate pulsating with ominous energy at the far end of the hall. Its dark, swirling patterns whispered with malevolent intent.
"I'd guess it's the gate over there," I muttered, my mouth dry.
"Right. I'll hold down the Cryptic Sun. You need to figure out how to help the other two out. They've been drained of their Qi, but there's still time to save them." The Blue Sun's voice was sharp, but there was a hidden layer of desperation. She didn't want to admit it, but she was feeling the strain too.
"I'm on it," I responded, clenching my fists, my mind racing for a solution. Yet, as soon as I tightened my grip, I felt something off. Nothing happened.
"You think I'd let you use that Heaven Stage treasure?" the Cryptic Sun sneered, stepping out from the shadows. He raised his hand, and a ring glowed ominously on his finger. From it, I could see projections of spatial laws, intricate and complex, woven together in an impenetrable web.
The laws of space itself were being manipulated and frozen around us, locking me out from accessing my own spatial abilities.
My jaw clenched in frustration. His mastery over space was terrifying. It wasn't just brute force; it was a level of manipulation that even restricted me from using my treasures, but somehow, it didn't seem to affect the Wisest Sun and Death Sun, still locked in their unseen battle. Why? The answer was simple. He didn't want to destroy whatever was anchoring the gate's power.
The Cryptic Sun moved his hands in rapid, fluid motions, summoning tens of thousands of seals out of thin air, each one crackling with energy. The formations materialized with frightening speed, hurtling toward the Blue Sun.
She let out a thunderous roar, her muscles coiling like a spring as she charged forward. Her hammer swung in wide arcs, smashing into the incoming formations with devastating force, but the sheer volume of them was staggering. Every time she destroyed one, another two took its place.
The Blue Sun, mighty as she was, could only do so much. The formations came at her like a tidal wave, each one more devastating than the last. Her hammer was a blur, swinging with bone-crunching power, but even she couldn't keep up with the sheer volume.
"Shen Bao, you need to leave," the Blue Sun said, her voice strained. Blood dripped from the corner of her lips, her once-immovable form starting to tremble from the sustained assault. I could see it in her eyes—she was holding back. Not because she couldn't obliterate him, but because she was protecting me and the others. If she went all out, the collateral damage would be catastrophic.
She was forced to fight with her hands tied.
Meanwhile, the Cryptic Sun was ramping up the pressure, bombarding us with an unrelenting onslaught of formations. The numbers were mind-numbing. Millions, prepared and ready, each one tailored specifically for this battle.
I was nothing but a burden. A dead weight hanging around her neck.
And I hated it.
"It's been a while," I muttered, my voice barely a whisper, my hands trembling. "It's been a while since I've been nothing but baggage." My heart pounded against my ribs, fury building up inside me like a storm. I could feel the surge of power clawing at my mind, begging to be unleashed.
"But you know what I hate the most?" My voice grew louder, the anger boiling over. My eyes turned green, the familiar power of the Primordial Serpent God awakening within me. "I hate having others protect me."
My blood burned in my veins, and without hesitation, I raised both hands to my neck. My nails elongated, growing sharper as they began to leak with poisons of various hues. I stabbed them deep into my own throat, injecting a lethal concoction of neurotoxins and accelerants directly into my bloodstream.
"Fuck it!" I roared, my mind igniting like wildfire as the poisons took hold, my brain going into overdrive.
Everything around me slowed to a crawl. My vision blurred as my pupils transformed into slits, and the world around me seemed to lose all sense of time. My body shuddered violently as the poisons worked their magic, pushing my mental faculties to their absolute limits. It felt like my brain was on fire each thought racing faster than the one before it, each moment stretching out into an eternity.
I could feel every single nerve in my body, like they were burning wires, every inch of me screaming in agony. The world pulsed and shifted, yet it was more vivid than ever before.
Ten minutes. That's all I had.