Zac came out of the gates swinging, knowing that Ylvas wouldn’t last much longer. He needed to finish this as quickly as possible before they completely ran out of energy because there was still the issue of Vasidas and the missing Thea.
Energy ripped around Zac as he pushed forward, activating [Hatchetman’s Rage] in order to boost the wooden hand to the absolute limit of what he could unleash. Both the hand of [Nature’s Punishment] and himself were rapidly approaching Nenothep until Zac finally stopped 50 meters away while the hand kept moving.
Nenothep’s aura had noticeably weakened due to losing the effect of the War Array, but he still emitted a tremendous fighting spirit. It didn’t look like he had expended much energy to whittle down Ylvas and his generals, meaning Zac would essentially be fighting him at full capacity.
The large fractal that hovered behind the emperor moved to intercept the giant hand, stopping ten meters away from Nenothep like a shield. Surprisingly the emperor started to launch a frenzy of stabs at the fractal, his arm and spear turning into a blur.
Zac’s brows rose in alarm when he saw that the fractal both multiplied and empowered the strikes, resulting in hundreds of spear-silhouettes stabbing into the approaching hand. It felt as though his whole arm was getting eviscerated by the relentless attacks, and wood chips were raining down on the ground as each spear fractal ripped away piece by piece.
A sudden burst of energy made the emperor stop in his tracks, and he quickly turned in alarm when two fractal snakes ripped toward him from behind. They weren’t very large, reaching only a few meters in length, but they emitted terrifying energy. Both were pitch black, and it appeared like they had small horns in their foreheads.
They flew toward Nenothep in a swirling circular manner, forming almost what looked like a spring as they approached. An azure fractal sword traveled in the empty space within the spring the two snakes formed, and it was as though the snakes guarded the real attack on its way toward its target. The attack originated from Ylvas who had paled and fallen on his hands and knees after the attack.
The emperor growled in frustration as he ripped an amulet from his chest and threw it at [Nature’s Punishment] before he focused his attention on the incoming snake-strike. Clearly, he considered an attack from an actual E-Grade warrior a higher threat than that of Zac who was only level 63. Even the fractal swapped position to instead be pointed toward Ylvas.
A torrent of spears shimmering with lethality moved to intercept Ylvas’ strike, but the two snakes that protected the sword strike suddenly opened their mouths and the space in front of them started to distort. It was as though they had small black holes in their mouths as they caused a huge suction of the area in front of them, dragging everything inside.
Everything in the vicinity was sucked into the maws of the snakes, and even the spear fractals from the emperor were simply swallowed up by the two snakes as they flew closer. But there was a limit to how many attacks they could gobble up since they got more and more engorged as they kept diverting the incoming attacks.
Finally, one of the snakes couldn’t take anymore and it flashed ahead of the other one and appeared almost right in front of Nenothep who swung his spear to destroy the incoming threat. But the moment the spear touched the beast it exploded like a bomb, instantly releasing dozens of spear strikes in every direction.
Ylvas had turned the emperor’s unceasing attacks against him as the snake spat out everything it had eaten at the last second with almost as much force as the attacks initially had. The emperor’s fractal once again flashed and Nenothep almost turned into a six-armed asura as he deflected attack after attack with impossible speed.
But he didn’t even have time to destroy half of the attacks before the second snake flashed over, and this one exploded by itself even without being attacked. It released another barrage of attacks at him, joining the remaining strikes an effort to rip the emperor to shreds. Nenothep was barely visible within the sea of spear strikes, but an almost blindingly strong golden glow erupted around him.
It looked as though a bomb exploded, erupting outward from the emperor and disintegrated all the fractal strikes around him in an instant. The assault wasn’t over however, as the final blade strike that had been hidden within the two snakes flashed forward, stabbing straight through the golden glow and flying toward Nenothep’s heart.
Unfortunately, the emperor managed to move his spear in time, hitting the azure sword-strike, though he only managed to swing it downward without much force. He hadn’t been able to gather enough energy or momentum for the defense since he had been occupied by the surprise attacks from the two snakes. Nenothep did what he could, but he wasn’t able to completely destroy the fractal that likely even consisted of Ylvas’ life force.
The fractal sword tore into his side, causing blood to cascade down his golden robes, and it was the first real wound that Nenothep had received during the whole battle. But Nenothep had no time to react before a huge crash erupted from behind him.
Ylvas’ attack had taken less than a second, and during that time the defensive amulet had tried to stave off [Nature’s Punishment]. But some defensive tool had no way to stop the onslaught of Zac’s ultimate attack. Everything he had was loaded into that strike, and it was even empowered by [Hatchetman’s Rage].
The hand had undergone a rebirth after Nenothep was forced to stop attacking since it was imbued by the Dao of Trees with its concept of life from death. If one wanted to stop the hand you would need to completely destroy it, or it would just grow back.
The defensive amulet was a high-quality item, but it was no match to the compounding power of Zac’s strongest attack, and its shield fractured and broke after just a split second with a huge explosion. The hand continued unencumbered straight toward Nenothep who had just been stabbed by Ylvas.
Zac didn’t hesitate and immediately slammed down his hand with as much force as he could muster. [Nature’s Punishment] fell like a slap from the gods at Nenothep who roared in anger. Blazing energies swirled around him as he actually threw his spear straight up at the incoming hand.
A tremendous shockwave blasted outward when the spear slammed into the hand, and an enormous crack in the mountain formed right beneath that spanned the whole summit. Zac screamed in pain as a hole was ripped open in his hand when the power in the spear managed to do the same to [Nature’s Punishment].
Pushing down the pain, Zac arduously formed a fist with his broken hand, and finally managed to slam it down on Nenothep. Another tremendous shockwave erupted when a crater over ten meters deep formed. The fist was on a completely other level compared to the attack that Nenothep’s general generated earlier, and even the Star Ox would have been turned into meat paste from the attack.
However, a badly wounded but very much living Nenothep got back to his feet at the bottom of the crater with a growl, making Zac sigh in regret. E-Grade warriors were a pain in the ass to kill. The next moment another wave of shocking energies gathered around Nenothep and he rose into the air like a D-Grade powerhouse.
“Are you still going to hide, unfilial child?!” he shouted, and suddenly his fractal reappeared after having been destroyed by [Nature’s Punishment]. “Spear World!”
The fractal started growing and in an instant, it spanned hundreds of meters in the air above them. Most of the summit was covered, and Zac couldn’t help but get a bad feeling when he sensed the immense power that the fractal radiated. Zac was confused at first, but he soon understood the meaning of Nenothep’s words.
Vasidas was not only a restraining force upon Zac, but perhaps even more-so on Nenothep himself. He was afraid of expending too much energy, making himself vulnerable to a coup by his own son. But it was clear Nenothep was no longer holding back, judging by the monstrous energies that he was burning up.
Zac wanted to jump toward him before Nenothep unleashed whatever he had planned, but a sense of impending crisis immediately made him swing his axe toward his back. To his surprise, a fractal spear had stabbed at him from nowhere, and Zac barely managed to destroy it due to his honed instincts.
Zac quickly glanced around and saw that no matter where he looked people were assaulted by innumerable spear attacks, making it seem like they were all caught in a hurricane made of fractal spears. Not even the remaining forces of Medhin weren’t spared, and they desperately wailed before being struck down by their own leader.
It was as though the spears were blind while they tried to cause utter annihilation. Even the palace in the distance started to collapse as spears kept slamming into it as well. This type of attack must be the emperor’s strongest attack that he had held off on using. It must cost an insane amount of Cosmic Energy judging by the widespread damage, and it also seemed to not care about friend or foe.
Zac’s thoughts immediately went to Thea, and he desperately started running toward the emperor as he deflected the strikes he could stop and endured those he couldn’t with his body or [Nature’s Barrier]. Wounds were racking up at an alarming rate, and he knew he wouldn’t last too long even with his Endurance and defensive measures. Ylvas was even worse off as he was completely spent from his earlier fight and the ultimate attack.
Even the final general had fallen it seemed. He had erected a wooden barrier around himself, but the consecutive attacks had quickly whittled it down and killed the man inside. And if someone of that power fell in just a few seconds there was no need to guess how the weaker people on the summit were faring.
“Flee from the summit!” Ylvas desperately shouted as he fended off spears coming from every direction while hobbling toward Nenothep as well.
But it was to no avail. The normal resistance fighters couldn’t even stop the spears from wounding them, let alone block them while they made their way off the mountains. People were falling one by one across the whole summit, and in just a few seconds less than 10 percent remained. Those who were spared were mainly the lucky ones who were at the edge of the fractal in the sky since they managed to get out quickly enough.
The emperor kept hovering in the air with his spear pointed up toward the fractal in the sky, and Zac started shooting fractal edges of his own at him as he ran. However, they were whittled down by the innumerable spears in the area and didn’t even reach half-way before being destroyed.
Zac growled as he activated [Loamwalker] and sped toward the emperor at maximum speed. The next moment he pushed himself off the ground toward him and launched a series fractal edges in a split second. The first two held a dark metallic luster, and they were imbued with the Dao of Hardness.
The two strikes managed to withstand the innumerable fractal spears as they paved the way toward the emperor, and the following three strikes were imbued with the Dao of Sharpness. The emperor wasn’t defenseless however, as tens of spears suddenly appeared below him as they ripped the first three fractal edges to shreds in an instant and descended toward Zac.
Then a shadow suddenly appeared in front of him as a blast of energies erupted, destroying all of the spears between Zac and Nenothep. It was Ylvas who had expended even more life force to destroy the final defense.
“Go!” Ylvas coughed as he started falling toward the ground stretching out his entwined hands.
Zac grit his teeth as he used Ylvas’ hands as a plateau, and Ylvas launched him up toward the emperor with all the force he could muster before slamming into the ground like a meteor. The emperor, finally forced to redirect his spear from pointing at the fractal, stabbed it straight toward Zac’s heart.
Zac knew he only had one shot at this, so he completely removed any defensive measures as he slightly tilted his body, letting the spear pierce straight through his body. However, it just missed his heart, and with Zac’s momentum he was within arm’s reach of the emperor in an instant.
Nenothep tried to rip out his spear but it was completely stuck since Zac had imbued himself with the Dao of Hardness while he swung his axe quick as lightning. Out of options Nenothep finally released the grip of his spear to push himself backward, but the last second a small fractal edge grew out from [Verun’s Bite].
Three thumps were soon heard as Zac, Nenothep, and Nenothep’s head fell into the ground, and Zac was immediately infused with a huge amount of Cosmic Energy. It was far beyond anything he had ever gained before, and he knew that he hadn’t just received one level from the kill.
The emperor had been too reliant on his weapon and had tried to hold on to it until the end. It was likely that no one had ever managed to disarm him since he had stood at the peak his whole life. It allowed Zac a brief window to catch the old warrior off-guard when he refused to let go, and Zac decapitated him in one swift swing. Between the E-Grade edge of [Verun’s Bite] and the Dao of Sharpness, even an old monster couldn’t keep his head after such an attack.
Zac let his axe feed on the blood of the headless emperor, and Verun screamed in exultation in his mind. Afterward he slowly dragged out the emperor’s spear, a groan escaping his lips. Blood flowed like a river from the wound, but the bleeding quickly slowed down as he ate one of his best healing pills.
After that, he hastened over to Ylvas’ side. His own state was pretty pathetic, but the champion of Berum was truly on his last legs. Zac quickly got down on his knee and fed him one of his top-grade healing pills while quickly creating a tourniquet for his missing leg.
“We did it!” Ylvas weakly said, his eyes filling with tears of relief. “That old monster is gone.”
Zac nodded with a smile, but just as Zac started to relax his mind screamed he was in danger.
