Dyon’s eyes seemed quite dead as he silently stared at Loki’s bowing figure. He didn’t have the normal despair one would expect, nor did they bear any resignation. He simply watched.
From the name Patriarch Ragnor used alone, Dyon had already guessed many things. He had wondered why his breakthrough into sainthood was capable of dispelling a wound caused by a supposed celestial so easily, but the answer was now laying bear before him.
Even with his will to survive still burning as furiously as it had been before he realized Loki had lived, Dyon couldn’t help but laugh at himself.
The person everyone had been so worried about. The very same mighty Patriarch Ragnor that King Belmont spent centuries preparing and cultivating for. Was a mere trickster… A man who in terms of just combat power, probably lost out to his demon generals.
That said, something was telling Dyon that defeating this Loki mighty very well be more difficult than defeating a celestial. A man who could hide himself so well in the face of even celestial level beings as a mere saint was someone who could probably toy with a warrior on his level to death.
“Oh?” Loki chuckled lightly as he tilted his head up from his bow, “Your eyes don’t seem to have given up yet.”
There was a savage light in Loki’s eyes. No matter how at ease he pretended to be, Dyon had seen through him as a petty man long ago. He wouldn’t allow Dyon’s disrespect of him to slide so easily, not when he had been forced to his knees to the point of having no choice but to reveal his identity.
Seeing that Dyon had no change of expression, Loki casually clasped his hands behind his back, looking down with curiosity flashing in his snake-like eyes.
“Aiyah, I made such a big reveal to you and you don’t even have the decency to look impressed or surprised. Sheesh, at least give me the chance to explain my glorious master plan to you before you die.”
Dyon could feel his consciousness slipping away. Maybe most of the reason he had no reaction was simply because he didn’t have the energy to.
His heart felt like it wanted to be ripped out of his ribcage, his muscles were torn in just as places as his bones were broken, and none of that was to mention the fact his soul wanted to dissipate into nothingness. If it wasn’t for the fact his soul grade was so abnormally pure, to the point where describing it as a first-grade soul simply didn’t do it justice, maybe he would have long since collapsed.
Dyon’s scythe morphed into a sword in his hand before he gripped it with both as tightly as his remaining strength would allow. There was no way he could make use of death qi anymore, so what was the use in sustaining his airs as a reaper? He had to focus his remaining strength in the most efficient way possible.
His brain ran through the possibilities. He tossed away any avenues that led in defeat and only searched out victory. His master wanted him to live. He knew his parents would want him to live. He couldn’t leave Clara behind, alone in a world she didn’t know or understand. He didn’t want his wives to shed any more tears for him. He had a little brother and little sister who were both still relying on him… He had the legacy of billions of people riding on his shoulders!
Loki sighed, “This hurts you know. I can’t decide what pains me more. The fact you don’t care about the plans I so painstakingly laid out.” The temperature suddenly dropped as Loki’s playful demeanor disappeared. “Or the fact you have the audacity to still think you can win.”
Dyon had no time to react. His soul was too fatigued to help him sense Loki’s movement, and even if it could, his body was in no shape to act on that information.
Blood spilled from Dyon’s mouth as a heavy kick connected with his arm, cracking it the instant it made contact and sending him flying tens of meters.
Regardless of his tricks, Loki was still a true peak saint. Even in Dyon’s healthiest state, it would be nearly impossible to beat him unless he brought out all of his trump cards. And that was assuming Loki didn’t use any of his illusion techniques!
Soil, grass and crippled flowers flew into the air. Dyon’s body skidded against the ground with no sign of him resisting. At this point, relaxing his entire body seemed to be the only thing that relieved the pain.
In an instant, Loki was over looking Dyon’s sorry state. But, seeing the fire in his eyes still there, Loki couldn’t help but want to do everything he could to extinguish it.
“You have a lot of nerve.” Loki kicked at Dyon’s rib cage, shattered a large section before grinding his feet downward.
Dyon grunted in pain. He wanted to roar out, but his remaining energy simply wouldn’t allow it. He had given too much to survive to this point.
“Ha,” Dyon’s muffled laughter came of as an aggrieved sigh. He rotated Devour as furiously as his soul would allow, using the contact Loki provided as a set point.
However, when Loki felt the tug on his soul, his anger only increased.
“You…” Loki’s jaw set. “Okay then.”
Dyon didn’t know what Loki meant and he almost sighed a breath of relief when he felt Loki’s foot leave his chest. But, when he felt the next attacks, he almost regretted his actions.
Loki backed away, no longer giving Dyon the opportunity to take more of his soul strength before raining down bolts of lightning on Dyon’s decrepit figure.
The truth was that Dyon hadn’t even taken much of Loki’s soul strength. Without much strength of his own, how could he? But, that didn’t stop Loki from retaliating in the cruelest way possible…
Dyon’s body lay in a crater, ravaged by shock waves of lightning, endlessly bombarding into him…
His life was hanging on by a string so thin that even a slight breath could snap it in half.
King Acacia rushed through the skies. He had been forced to leave his wife before, mostly because of her insistence. If he had to divert his own power away to protect her from the harsh conditions, he would slow down drastically. As such, this really was the only choice.
It would take him hours to reach Earth and he didn’t know how much of an impact he could have after being gone so long, but he had to try it!
**
Arena City had fallen into complete chaos. The red crystal organisms latched onto any lifeforms that dared to get close, and it seemed as though the Ragnors were the only ones with counters to this.
The original Ipsum formation had targeted the dead because they knew that those without will couldn’t resist the pull of the red crystals. As such, it would take next to no energy at all to implant them.
However, as soon as that initial implant occurred, the red crystals would automatically have something to feed off of and grow stronger, which would allow them to gain enough power to start effecting living beings. This was why the Ipsums had waited until enough people had died from battle first. If too few had, and the Pakal managed to quarantine them or directly kill them off, none of this would have worked!
The ten Ipsum elders who had stirred all of this chaos were nowhere to be found. After activating such a savage formation, they were completely drained. If they used any more power, their own red crystal will would begin to devour even them. This let all one needed to know about how savage this artificial will was.
The Pakals were completely helpless. As body cultivators, they honed their battle prowess. Hardly any of them had counters to such a thing.
Unsurprisingly, the Ipsums were created as a unit perfectly tailored to countering the Pakals in war. Because of their robust bloodlines, they were the perfect targets for such a hungry will and were obviously the preferred targets.
It was a losing battle. The more powerful one’s bloodline, the more fuel the red crystals would have to devour you. You would need exponential increases in will mastery and power in order to hold it off. And even then, it would be for but a moment!
However, in this war, the Pakals were not alone. Although the Belmonts were incapacitated because a large majority of them had remained in the Belmont Holy Land as a precaution, the Pakals still had the Elves. The only problem was that due to the alliances that Loki had formed, many of the elves were occupied and couldn’t be organized quickly. Nor did the armies have the same communication measures Dyon’s armies did.
Because of this, it took much too long for the Elves to see the spreading epidemic, leaving time for the red crystals to grow stronger and stronger. They even showed signs of wanting to combine into larger and larger entities! The sea of red on the battle field was growing larger and larger, and yet it wasn’t blood at all!
Grand elder Cormyth’s voice boomed over the battle field, “Aedre, Sigebryht, Ingram!”
The elves of those three families immediately realized that something big was happening. It was very rare for Grand elders to give out battle instructions and calling out three families at once was even rarer, but it was clear that this was needed.
There were very few capable of ordering the Elves in mass, but luckily the Elves had three grand elders who were capable of holding such authority. Their King and Queen were gone, and their eldest stateman, Grand elder Deryth was fighting with the other celestials, this left military decisions up to Grand Elder Cormyth and Kroak.
Grand Elder Cormyth had been the first to notice the problem among the Elvin highest officials and he automatically commanded for the most apt responders.
The Aedre were water will specialists. The Ingrams were light will specialists. And the Sigebryht were Seal specialists. Although Grand elder Cormyth had no way of knowing if this would be effective against the plague he was witnessing, he knew that the healing and control abilities of these main families far surpassed that of any other family and had to be relied upon.
As a poison master, how could he not tell just how potent this red crystal will was? In fact, describing it as a poison was probably the most appropriate comparison.
The three main families made their move, breaking away from their battle as best as they could.
Swarms of sub family members rushed in to take their place. There was no question that the elves were undermanned. They were already a race with a low birth rate, so this was to be expected. Despite the fact they had the most families under their rule as a God Clan, they were still among the smallest in number. But, that didn’t stop them from still being among the most powerful.
Endless red seals appeared in the air as numerous grey skinned Sigebryhts flew into the air above the chaos.
Their eyes flashed as beads of sweat poured from them, attempting to configure their seals to properly stop the flow of this odd will. However… Their manifestations were completely incapable of doing so!
In order to seal something away, unless you had access to The Seal itself, you needed a level of understanding just what you were sealing. This hurdle can be jumped over by having more sealers active to share the burden, or by having a stronger seal legacy that could make up for your deficiencies. But, this will was something they had simply never seen before!
Unlike the instance at the gate where the essence gathering Sigebryhts sealed away the death qi, this red crystal will wasn’t tempered to a level that was capable of being withstood. The death qi at Lotus Tower was meant to be part of a game for mere essence gathering experts. As such, it was comparatively easier to seal as compared to true death qi. But this situation wasn’t so friendly…
The red crystals wanted to devour everything…
Grand Elder Cormyth grit his teeth when he saw the failure of the Sigebryht. Maybe if Head Sigebryht was here, their coordination would be much better, but how could they call him back now? He was also in the midst of fighting all out with those celestials above!
They could only rely on the Aedre and Ingram to try their hand. Maybe, just maybe, they’d have a possibility for success. If either were able to weaken the creatures, the Sigebryht might then be able to step in again to fully seal them.
The Aedre family formed raging rivers in the air. The Sigebryht were forced to protect them from the onslaught of Ragnors who sought to stop their attempts. This caused the battle field to split into two, the chaotic mess occurring on the arena floor, and the battle for the skies.
In Ingram family sprung into action all at once. Their golden hair shone brightly as their halo manifestations bloomed into existence.
Blinding lights threatened to overtake the pillars of red light, causing them to shy away.
A flash of hope crossed the eyes of Ire Pakal and grand elder Cormyth. If the red crystals were afraid of purity, this would be helpful. The only problem was the light will wasn’t the greatest source of purity… However, it was the best they had!
The blinding golden lights began to slowly merge with the raging rivers formed by the Aedre family, working together seamlessly to create waters of gold that washed over the battle field.
The red crystals shrunk away, almost shrieking in agitation at the new feeling of pain. They were continuously beat away from the waves, allowing the Pakals to hack them apart, dismembering their fellow dead clansmen to immobilize them.
Seeing this, the Sigebryht tried to seal the weakened will, but it seemed nearly impossible and they could only struggle in vein.
However, there was a ray of hope now. With the combined efforts of the Aedre and Ingram families, the battle field seemed to shift its momentum once again.
This sudden change couldn’t help but be felt by the Ragnor clan higher ups. They had hoped that this war would end easily with the use of this tactic, but the control of the Elves exceeded their expectations.
That said… The red crystals were an artificial will. In fact, one might even go so far as to call it a living parasitic organism… There were very few things in the world that could adapt as quickly as it, and even fewer things that had the strength to.
It only took a moment for the effectiveness of the golden water to drastically diminish, and the truth of the matter was that this was just as bad for the Ragnors as it was for their enemies.
All this time, the Ragnors had made counter measures designed for the strand of will they were most familiar with. But, what if it evolved?…
**
Within the Belmont Holy Land, lightning continued to rain down on Dyon’s body.
Loki seemed to purposefully weaken his attacks, laughing to himself lightly as though he was watching what amused him most.
“Aiyah. All you have to do is give up and I can stop torturing you. Think about it, dying peacefully. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?
“I get it, you must be worried about your wives? I assure you I’m not interested in little girls – ah, who am I kidding, they’re two little beauties. But, I can promise to treat them well. I learn from my past experiences. I once had a couple of cultivation incubators commit suicide on me. That’s no good.”
Every time a bolt of lightning hit Dyon, his body was lurch, charring his skin and nearly stopping his heart entirely. In fact, sometimes his heart really did stop…
Loki would watch as his body turned blue, choking and begging for air before he sent another bolt to restart Dyon’s heart…
It was a vicious cycle of torture that made even Dyon wish he was really dead… But every time he nearly closed his eyes, his master’s last words to him would ring in his ears, causing the fire in his eyes that was slowly dimming, to weakly flicker to life…
The flames of his life were akin to a small bonfire left out in a blizzard, and the only thing protecting it from the harsh winds was his body.
But even he didn’t know how much longer he could last…
**
Near a dormant and forgotten gate, wild spatial fluctuations were oscillating. The air whined and groaned as it distorted and bent to the whims of two people much more powerful than it.
An instant later, a man and woman that could only be described as divine stepped out.
The man had sleek black hair that was combed back along with a well-kept and trimmed beard. His eyes shone a bright gold, and his handsome features were chiseled and gave off a stoic atmosphere.
The woman was a delicate beauty beyond words. There would be no doubt that had Dyon been there, he wouldn’t have hesitated to acknowledge that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen…
Her skin was flawless and her legs were long and silky. Her curves were nothing short of perfection and her loose white robes could hardly hide her ample breasts and wide hips. Even her golden eyes gave off a sense of endless attraction and seduction very few could match.
These two were quite literally a match made in heaven and only the most powerful of experts through the cosmos could attain this level of perfection…
“Amell…” The woman spoke softly, with a voice so melodic that the air around her seemed to sing with pleasure.
A serious expression appeared on the face of the man as his brows furrowed. “Let’s hope we’re not too late.”