401 I Won't Fall Here!
"If we met in any other place and time, we might have fought together. It's a rare chance to fight against such a faction. But I'm sorry. You are part of my enemy camp, so I have to put an end to your adventure here."
"Screw you!" This time I didn't refrain from insulting him out loud like this.
"Don't feel this bitter. In fact you should be proud. After all the forces coming to you are only dispatched to fight the hegemon calibre forces of your side. It's an honour to die in their hands."
Damn! I looked up and all I could feel was the breaths of death lashing out at my face. These clouds were bringing terrifying dudes indeed.
That hegemony wasn't joking around. He was calling forth a mighty army this time, one that was enough to crush me with fear just before their arrival.
What should I do? I had to do something! I had to stop these things from coming here.
The first thing I thought about was that damn portal. It needed to be shut down. But how?
"Hahaha! You are a dead meat! The hegemon I summoned is someone famous for his bad temper. If he decides to kill you, then you can kiss goodbye to your life. Hahaha! I can't wait to see you die!"
"You…" the moment he laughed and spoke in such a way, he alarmed me of his presence. Yes, he was the one who summoned this portal. Could I kill him fast? Would killing him be enough to seal this portal?
I had no time to think. And just at this moment, a pleasant message appeared in front of my eyes. One that I had long forgotten about, and it just came like magic to my eyes.
[The curse is 100%]
[The curse is completed]
[The curse is active]
[Your enemy is cursed for eternity to lose half of his…]
The Libra's curse was now active! At last! And it just came at this moment to change literally everything.
"Listen up," the next moment I shouted. I was already burdened by the immense pressure of the energy gushing into my body. "Aim everything you have, attack that damn bastard. Bring down his damn island down. Don't stop until he is dead."
My shout wasn't just loud, but it held all the desire for me to live. I didn't cross all this path just to fall here.
I came from being nobody, one without a class, nameless dude in the apocalypse after ninety-nine years from now.
But I got a chance of my life, a chance to return to the beginning of the apocalypse. And so far I was doing my best to take the best advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity.
I wasn't blessed like the jumper with the ability to shift myself through worlds. I wasn't blessed like Hilary to jump through time and repeat everything.
This chance… This life… it was my only and sole life that I could do everything at. Each moment for me was like a lifetime to others. I wouldn't settle for such fate here, I wouldn't resign to death no matter what!
A hegemon from another universe? A paragon of a mighty Hector race? All odds were against me, even time itself. But even in such a dark moment, I never even considered stopping.
I wouldn't stop! I wouldn't lower my first control of my technique. I wouldn't let my boys stop attacking until my last breath would come out of my body or I'd crush this desperate moment with sheer will and pure rage.
Wanting to kill me? You had to be a thousand better than the current you to do so!
"Keep attacking!" my shouts never ceased while I totally ignored the influx of energy. I already showed these energy paths, and they had to just follow the steps of their previous energy pulses to my left arm.
I watched… on one side that island shook and got bombarded with endless attacks of my boys. Even the dragons flew up there and started using their deadliest ultimate breath attacks.
Even my bulltors and shield warriors kept releasing all the bombs here without pause. I could hear the sounds of explosions like it was the normal music of this world.
It never stopped. It never halted. The attacks kept raging, rumbling not just that damn island, but my heart, my body, and my soul.
Die… Die you bastard!
I kept an eye on the other side. These clouds were getting thicker and larger. Luckily for me they didn't act like the previous clouds, not aiming to the ground directly.
Instead they went to the sky, twisting and swirling around like they were thick gigantic serpents moving in the middle of the sky.
If they went directly to the ground like the previous time, then I'd be doomed. But it seemed these clouds needed an immense amount of dead energy, to even twist in the air, sucking all the energy they could suck from everywhere.
Few went to the central zone, but most went outside. I could see the dark death energy gushing into this region in torrents.
"Suck these energy dry!" Who said I had no way to interfere even in this process? I turned instantly towards the few thousands of my controlled creatures, "suck all! Get stronger, get stronger with all your might!"
At this moment, I was really like a crazy god of war, standing on top of his chariot, commanding various armies to execute deadly attacks at the same time.
*Rumble!* *Rumble!* *Rumble!*
And just in a few minutes, a very pleasant flashes of different lights started to come from the direction of that island with a series of deafening explosions that rumbled the world.
That bastard… That damn bastard was on his last leg from the door of death.
Come on motherf*cker, the door of death was wide open, warmly welcoming sons of b*tches like you.
402 Eggs!
It was now a pure race against time.
I made sure to buy myself more time by pushing all the controlled exile creatures to compete with those thick clouds over death energy.
I didn't have time to observe how this affected my controlled creatures, nor had time to enforce contracts over them. All my attention now was focused over the fight with that damn paragon.
He must die.
"Keep hitting him!" I kept giving orders to my forces to never stop firing their attacks. Even if that bastard was this close from death, I had to make sure this happened faster than the arrival of those damn enemies.
"Screw you! I'm going to die and bring you down with me!" just as this moment, that paragon screamed in such a way all of sudden.
He seemed to get this close from depleting everything he got. I watched the flashes of light getting intensified all of sudden before few moved towards that gate up in the sky.
"Damn! Pulse wave attack!" I didn't know what he was going to do, but I was sure it was nothing good.
The only thing I thought about was to use the pulse wave attack of my chariot, in hope to stop these lights from reaching the portal.
*Fwoosh!*
The next instant my chariot attack expanded and reached these lights in a blink of an eye. I watched many of these lights being pressured and pushed aside, missing their target by metres luckily.
But one or two fell on that gate eventually. Well, from the initial dozens of beams, two weren't that much to be worried about.
"See you in hell, I'll make sure your stay there will be a real pain," yet that distasteful voice of his came to make me worry again.
What were in these two beams? Were they going to change anything?
The next wave of my boys' attacks came and cleared everything at that damn island. That dude's voice vanished and suddenly the world ushered under weird silence.
"It's closing…" the first thing I did was to raise my head up and watch this gate. "It's not vanishing, but shrinking?!!" instead of fading away like the last portal, that one here didn't experience that.
Instead it kept shrinking in size, until it reached the size of a portal enough to pass a hundred human forces side to side.
During this, the clouds coming out from the portal started to twist fiercely as if they were getting under much pressure. I was sure if these things had mouths, the world would be bathed under their deadly screams of pain right now.
Many started to crush down, fade slowly as their stalks were cut by the shrinking gates. But in the end as the gate stopped shrinking, only few clouds remained.
"Hmm… It seems I underestimated you again," at this moment, that hegemon bastard spoke again. Just saying he underestimated me gave me goosebumps already.
Come on dude, after all this and you say you underestimate me? Damn! Don't you have any bottom for your plans for me or what?
"Killing the one who summoned the portal so it can be closed? That dude seemed to have a death enmity with you, sacrificing his bloodline in return to support this portal for one more hour."
"One hour? Phew!" Once I heard that, I couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief.
"Hahaha, quite relieved aren't you?" but when that bastard spoke again, I felt cold shivers down my spine.
Damn! I should have kept that to myself!
"I know one hour might seem little, but I promise you this fight is going to be far more interesting. I'll send in one of my beloved Childs, and be sure to treat him nicely."
What the f*ck?!! For a second there I paused in my place, not knowing what he was talking about.
Was he trying to crack a joke here or what? Sending one of his kids and asking me to be nice to him?
What did this even mean?
*Vroom!* *Vroom!* *Vroom!*
Just as if machines were turned on, all the remaining clouds started to emit such weird and loud noise. I looked at these without knowing what was going on.
With that sound, the ends of these clouds started to shine, releasing pulses of light before it started to expand and distort.
Cracks appeared slowly there, and the light beams started to seep through these cracks. I couldn't see what was going on inside, but for sure something bad was coming.
All I could think about was that the bastard must have changed his plans, doing something new to these clouds.
I expected the clouds to act just the last ones, absorbing the death energy before releasing much of the deadly forces out of their guts.
But as things started to change, I didn't know what would come next.
*Flop!* *Flop!* *Flop!*
As if something was oozing balls out of their gut into the ground, these cracked clouds started to emit weird looking eggs on the ground.
At first they released a few of them each second, but soon after the first minute, these eggs started to appear in massive numbers.
Each egg was like a big rock, covered with a thick black shell that had many shallow drawings on the surface. Each passing second, these drawings kept shining in bright green light.
It gave me an eerie feeling. Coupled with what those archlords here said before about the eggs, I knew something disastrous was about to happen.
These eggs… I had to do anything and prevent them from hatching.
But just before I could give any order for my boys to attack, I was surprised to see these clouds go into a berserk mood.
They started twisting, throwing eggs everywhere like they were splashing water. I saw many of these eggs fall even beyond the reach of my shield ring, giving me the impression the world was going to be bathed with these eggs.
403 Let's Have Peace For Now
The eggs didn't only land on the ground, but they also started piling up over one another. Rows above rows of eggs started to appear in the next few minutes.
That was just less than five minutes, what would be the situation once the one hour was over.
"Dammit! Attack! Kill these eggs, use everything to destroy them," I pointed at these eggs, taking out my glaive as I decided to join this battle.
As for my threads, for some reason they were stopped just a few metres away from these eggs. They were not normal eggs, as they came with a shield protecting them.
Alright… as they came from a universe using energy similar to mine, it was expected for them to have something to interfere with my threads.
So it was time for my boys to shine.
However as the first wave attacks landed, two things happened. There was one good and one bad news.
The good news was that the eggs could be destroyed. But the bad news was that these shields around the eggs worked to absorb and divert all the attacks, combining them at one single egg, ending up in bursting just one.
One from tens of thousands of eggs? That was simply ridiculous!!
The smashed eggs released disgusting sticky black and green material from it. Half was fluid and half was solid, with weird shaped creatures half created inside.
So that meant these eggs still needed time to hatch. But if this kept on this rate, things wouldn't end up well here.
"Attack on periods," I had no other choice but to give such an order, "each ten gods in the same group, with each group attacking once in ten seconds."
I roughly arranged my forces like this while I pointed at the outside, you, go and attack the outer eggs in such order. Come and replenish your energy using these first."
I took out the energy crystals in large amounts and gave them to my weakened and exhausted dragons. I knew I was spending too much on this fight, but I had no other choice but to do so.
As I arranged my forces in such a way, I kept my brought up races here and let them attack the eggs from the ground. As for my controlled exiles, I left them to keep sucking the death energy.
After all these eggs were still absorbing the death energy in torrents. I had to elongate the time for their hatch.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!*
Well, the good news was that these eggs were destroyed by the few numbers of my troops attacking. But the bad news was that once the races came closer to them, it felt like the shields protecting these eggs started to turn into claws, grabbing these races in large numbers and feeding the eggs directly with them.
I was this close from calling them back. But when I saw at these moments the shield protection weakened and my threads started to find their way to the eggs, I had to let them keep coming.
As for my threads, it felt like they got attached to some kind of behemoth. These eggs gave me the impression I got from the dark realm monster I once fought against.
"So few threads won't work… I'll control you then using most of them," I knew once my thread controlled a few of them, they'd spin out automatically and assault other eggs around.
So instead of fanning them out, I controlled them and let them gather up, attacking a few eggs that weren't hit by my boys.
The controlling process started to grow faster. In one minute, I managed to control almost one hundred eggs.
Now what?
I controlled the eggs, but I didn't know what to do with them.
All I could do for now was to let them continue absorbing the death energy. Whatever would come out from these would be under my control.
However when my threads tried to move to other eggs, I felt like my control over these one hundred grew weaker.
"Damn! So I can only use these threads only?" It was really depressing and frustrating.
What would one hundred do against tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Or even millions when the one hour period would be over?
[Dude, do you know a good way to kill eggs?]
[What eggs?]
It was Fang. If there is anyone who could help me here then it would be him. I described the shapes of the eggs and told him about what happened.
[Frankly bro… You are a trouble magnet]
[Do you know how to stop these from hatching?]
It wasn't time to give me such words indeed.
[It's my first time hearing about something like this. Let me ask my paragon then]
Damn! Even Fang never heard about these eggs. What should I do now?
The only thing I had was to push everything I had and try to smash these eggs.
"Listen up," at this stressful moment, I had to unify all the forces here, "these eggs are something we can't face. We have to unite, fight together and smash as many eggs as possible."
I had no other choice but to do that. In terms of numbers, I controlled large forces here. But the forces of mine were weak, not as strong as the other forces of other races here.
I just hoped the archlords here would be smarter, leave aside our differences above anything else.
"We need a guarantee first."
The first answer came from one of the archlords down below. Without the need for him to say anything more, I knew what he was asking.
"You'll have my word to leave here alive after all this is over," I shouted but that dude was too smart to believe in a human's word.
"We will sign a contract," he shouted back and I had to put clear conditions here.
"You are free to leave, peace for just half a day," I shouted, "after that we will return to fight each other. If I face any of you in a battle before this time is over, you'll have to leave the fight."
404 We... Are Doomed!
"That's unfair!"
"That's bullshit!"
"We won't sign this!"
Many shouts came in response to my proposal, but I didn't say but this:
"Then let's all perish here together."
"…"
The eerie silence that came next made me more reassured about closing up this deal.
From watching their forces all this time I knew there were around seven to nine archlords here. I took out ten contracts, filled them with the content of our deal, and waited for five more minutes.
"Here are the contracts," I raised my right hand with them for all of them to see, "I'll fly over, anyone wanting to sign, just shout and I'll drop one for you. They are signed by my end, only missing your signatures."
As I said so, I waited for a couple more minutes before moving out. I moved around and in the first circle, not a single one raised his voice to ask for a contract.
I didn't hurry them either. After this cycle was over, I moved at a much slower pace this time, letting them all reconsider.
"Throw me one."
All it needed was for one to ask for a contract. Once one asked, others started rolling in.
I missed four of them in the count. The final archlord count was thirteen. Once I gave them the contracts, they signed and now we have a temporary alliance together.
The races down below belonged to all of the races of the apocalypse, even Hectors were there.
I killed their two paragons, but that didn't mean I killed all of their forces. The difference of four archlords came from the Hector part that I totally missed.
After doing this, I felt a little relieved. "Attack, let's smash these eggs together," I shouted the moment the last archlord signed the contract.
I didn't need to say that. Just any archlord who signed the contract responded by ordering his forces forward.
With their addition, the speed of clearing these eggs rose up significantly. But in return, many of their forces started to die over the hands of the eggs' shields.
In fact I doubted they'd have substantial forces after this battle was over. Looking at how these shields grabbed their frontlines and crumbled them into the eggs made me sigh.
We were useless against such a foe. We had to feed these with our forces in order to maintain control over the situation.
But what would that result up at? I frankly didn't know. I just hoped the energy these eggs would get from their bodies wouldn't be enough to let them hatch faster than expected.
As time passed by, more eggs were thrown here at a faster pace with each passing minute. At the end of the first half an hour, almost the egg count here reached one million.
Even with all our efforts, the number still reached such a terrifying figure.
"I have to say you are doing a great job here."
Just as I was thinking about what else to do here, that hegemon bastard spoke up.
"Shut up!"
"Pretty fierce you are! But let's see how you'll do in the face of my kids. They are about to hatch, so prepare yourself."
"Thanks for the tip," I knew he didn't volunteer to say so out of good will. He was just making fun of me, just like a useless piece of sh*t watching this going on as fun.
But what he said managed to make me nervous. I lacked anything to do here. All my forces were now attacking from far. I didn't send in anyone to attack these eggs directly but those are good for nothing fodder.
Even my soulers and Albany city monsters were called back. I lost almost half of these Albany monsters during the brutal fight so far.
The remaining half stood with my soulers, forming a big array that was close to one hundred thousand strong.
They stood all beneath my chariot, waiting for my next orders.
As for my dragons, after they ate these crystals, they restored part of their former strength and activity. They went outside, and started attacking the eggs out there.
The fight was least described as hectic! Inside, outside, everywhere everyone was fighting desperately against these standing still eggs.
But it looked like we were fighting against a mighty tornado, an act of nature that couldn't be stopped.
*Crack!*
The first egg hatched in a loud noise that left the entire battlefield silent.
From the depths of that egg, a creature started to come out. At first thick limbs started to extend, fix themselves over the ground before expanding up.
It looked like this creature had its body pressured within themselves, like tubes encompassing smaller tubes within, and all were unfolding at the moment.
The end result was a fifty metre tall creature with thin limbs that looked like lances. It gave me the feeling of a gigantic spider first, before it extended its back and showed its head.
"A one-eyed behemoth?" I looked at the ugly and hideous looking face of one eye and no mouth at all. Its skin was emaciated, just the same as the exiles I controlled before.
"…"
Once it appeared, it moved its head around as if it was screaming in silence. A wave crashes over almost instantly, pushing anyone and anything back.
Even my ring of shield that stood erect all this time was pushed back and pressured by this scary dude.
It had a tubular body with a bulging belly and large arching twelve legs. It had no arms, only its legs ended up with sharp spear-like ends.
And they all got inserted deeply in the ground, fixing that damn bastard to enable it to be stable.
"…"
Another shocking wave came and this time it hit my shield.
My chariot's shield had enough stat points to sustain heavy attacks for one long day. But at this moment, and just with that simple attack, it lost one tenth of its reserve.
Damn! Damn! Damn! One attack did that? One silent scream? Damn that creature!
And the worst was it wasn't one of a kind. As that one big dude scared all of us and made all of the surviving races here look up at its gigantic body, more started to come out from their eggs.
We… We were doomed!
405 [Bonus chapter] Despair
If it was one or two of these creatures, then it wouldn't be that hard. If it was hundreds of them, we could manage to escape here unscathed.
But there were millions of them, and many more eggs were pouring out from these clouds.
Just looking at the increasing number of these gigantic creatures made me lose any hope of living. There was no hope, in front of such brutality and might one had no way to survive.
I now realise how hard that battlefield was. Just one hour and this terrifying scene appeared here. What if I joined that battlefield? One which our enemy was well prepared and coming with all of his forces.
"Feeling despair already? Don't feel down, you already fought proudly against me. It's just you are a thousand years younger to be able to fight evenly with me."
And at this moment that damn hegemon had to speak up and say such frustrating words. I was boiling with rage. What did I do wrong to fall down to such a deep abyss?
I was just doing great! I was unstoppable, killing left and right. But now, and in front of such unstoppable might, I felt like a dwarf.
It was such a bitter feeling, one that made me want to just close up my eyes and resign for my approaching death.
What was the value of resisting? I had zero hope in running, and trying to win this was just a crazy man's dream.
*Thud!*
Without feeling myself, my legs bent and for the first time ever, my body fell on the ground on my knees. I looked in despair towards the fast growing creatures out there.
Their numbers were simply exceeding hundreds and approaching the first thousand. Just this number was enough to take almost one third of the central zone, taking large space at the outside zone.
All the forces here felt the same as me. I even saw many dropping their weapons, falling on the ground, resigning to death like me.
Who could blame me? Who could blame us? If there was a single ray of hope, then I swore I'd not let it slip by my fingers before trying my best to seize it.
"…"
"…"
"…"
More silent screams came and with these, I felt like my chariot was a feather in the middle of a storm. The earth and sky kept rotating fiercely while my chariot was trying to stabilise itself.
"No point baby, we have no hope here," I patted on its body, feeling the warmth running through it. "We are… Going to perish here together," I held my tears, feeling my eyes burning like two blazing embers.
And with such pain, I was this close to succumbing to closing my eyes and letting my body fall on my back.
But just when my chariot was trying to control itself, and the speed of its rotation became slower, I noticed something weird in the depths of the dimly lit sky.
And with this, a message popped up in front of my face.
[Don't give up yet, kiddo! Our universe won't let you fall like this. The system won't let those bastards do whatever the hell they want in our worlds! Stand up! Pick up your glaive and fight! Fight!]
"S… Sith?!!!" At this moment, I couldn't help but get startled by this message and the strong voice that echoed into my mind.
[You are facing something you shouldn't face at your current stage. But sh*t happens, and as a man, as a part of my pantheon, you shall stand up and raise your head against such tyranny]
"There is… no hope…" I laughed, bitterly laughed. At this moment I wanted to cry, but even my tears went dry and refused to come out.
[You must have noticed it! The universe, our universe, isn't giving up on you yet. Just raise you head up to the sky, and see the bright red stars shining above your head]
"What's the use of that?" I already noticed these stars. They were the old and familiar star weapon. It wasn't only one, but I saw the sky shining with hundreds and even thousands of these red stars, reminding me of the old night sky humans used to see in the old days before the apocalypse.
But what was the use of that? These star weapons were nothing to threaten even my chariot. Even with such numbers, what they could do against the larger number of creatures coming up with each passing minute.
[Don't give up! These aren't the normal star weapons, it's the star guardians devised by our system and higher ups]
"And?" I still couldn't get what he wanted to say to me, "leave me alone, leave me to die alone," I didn't have the power to wave my fist in the air.
[Are you stupid? These weapons are devised to face such things!]
"Then let them come and kill them, why wait up there?" I said in bitter sarcasm. Even if I was feeling the most despair in my life, I didn't lose my intelligence and logic.
If they could do that, then why the wait.
[Idiot! I don't know if my pantheon accepted a moron or what! These weapons need someone to control and trigger them. Be that man, raise your head up and use your cultivation technique threads to trigger these weapons]
"Me?" I didn't know how or when, but I found myself standing up, looking at the sky in a different light. These red stars weren't now the source of my worry or concern, they were my hope.
If what Sith said was true, then they'd be my personal saviour.
"But… How?" When I thought about what Sith said, without rashly jumping to cling to such hope before making sure it'd work, I found a major flaw here. "My threads… My technique… They aren't that mighty to reach even beyond the sky!"
[Just do it, and stop whining like a little girl! Man up! It's not time for you to cry and break like this!]
406 Trying To Reach Beyond The Sky
"Cry?" I moved my hand and weirdly enough, two lines of tears were flooding my face. I didn't even feel that, but it seemed when I felt hope, when I heard what Sith said, I released everything I held inside.
Tears? I was crying? That was the first time ever! I wiped these tears with my hand, looked up at the growing number of scary creatures while they were starting to move towards all the forces here.
Everyone, all the races without exception were on the ground motionless with grave looks over their faces. I didn't need to use my hawk eye skill to see their desperate ashen white faces.
I was just like them moments ago! "Are you sure it will work?"
[Our universe wasn't created yesterday kid, we were fighting this war for thousands of years ago. We faced such situations before, or how come the lost worlds, the dark realm worlds, were created in your opinion?]
"This…" just hearing what he said made me feel more hope. I clenched both fists before relaxing again.
"Tell me it will work and I swear I won't even rest for a second to catch my breaths," I said, in a tone that wasn't loud or strong, nor weak nor shaky… It seemed like I lost all the feelings any living being in this universe would have.
Only one thought flashed in my mind, kept flashing and thundering inside without any rival… Live! I had to live, no matter what I won't die here!
[Just release your technique, use these stars as weapons in one arm of yours, and direct their missiles using your threads]
"Ok," I didn't get exactly what he wanted me to do here but at least I knew I had to use my technique and release my threads in two directions.
[Ah kid, also your cultivation has links with that universe as you must be aware of this by now…]
He paused, letting me ask while drawing the circle fast with my blood, "and? I heard my power comes from some shadow faction out there."
[Aside from these details, I want to notify you about this chance. After all these creatures all came from the same universe your cultivation originated from. Also your class is part of this as well… So, you know, try your best and do something miraculous here]
"I… Got it," I certainly didn't get anything from all this weird sh*t he kept talking about. Anyway, if I got any chance to use these creatures, then I'd not let such chances go away.
But I had only one technique for now, and that depended only on controlling the shadows of my enemies and forcing them to fight for me.
Just during the past minutes, most of my controlled exiles were killed. They got attacked first by those creatures, making me believe their hegemony placed killing them as a priority.
Should I try to control these behemoths? But looking at them and their scary silent shockwave attacks made me refrain from thinking about this.
That wouldn't work! My threads wouldn't even get close to them. I sighed, this was way beyond my level at this moment.
I just wanted to live, that was all I hoped for at this moment. I didn't want anything else if I could escape here unscathed.
"It's ready," I sucked in a deep cold air of breath when my circle was done and my technique was this close from activation.
I only needed to place my bleeding left fist into the heart of my circle. I looked around, looked at the deadly massacre happening miles up front of me.
Just the last wave of attacks pushed my chariot a few miles away from the place of my shield zone.
I looked up at those red sparkling stars at the depths of the sky. Would they be the ones to save my neck here? A weapon of mass destruction that many times tried to take away my life was now the only thread linking my hopes to survival.
Sigh! Life… in the apocalypse was really complicated.
"Let's do it," I took another deep breath before summing up all the anger, frustration, helplessness, and powerlessness I felt all this time and released them all in one loud roar.
"Go up to them!" I shouted while controlling my threads with all my might to ascend upwards.
I knew this was futile. Trying to let my threads escape the sky… That was simply hilarious.
The distance between the ground and the sky was at least tens of miles. Not to mention the presence of that sturdy doom, that wouldn't let a rocket even pass through.
But the moment my threads flew high towards the sky, I felt something weird.
It was like gentle hands were trying to seek for anything to touch. And the moment my threads just rose a few tens of metres in the air, these mysterious hands started to react and bind to my threads.
They… were like shaking my threads. I didn't know what was going on but just when that happened, I felt like my threads got a sudden boost and linked to a grander network.
This… this thing was really massive and looking endless to me.
But anyway I felt these things were trying to guide my threads somewhere. The words of Sith echoed in my mind at this moment.
[Just follow them. And remember, you aren't fighting here for yourself or your people, you are fighting on behalf of the entire universe. And our universe isn't that weak or a pushover]
His words encouraged me to let my control loose over the threads. Just like thunder, my threads kept travelling through weird places and crossing massive distances in each second.
At the same time, I saw the creatures starting to show a new type of attack. They raised their bodies, depended upon four of their legs before slamming the rest deep into the ground.
*Rumble!*
The ground shook, and with it a massive shockwave was generated and spread through the ground.
407 Bathed With Deadly Red Beams
Deep grudges and gaps appeared like deep wounds in the face of the ground, even extending beyond the limits of my ring shield.
The span of their attack spread across the entire world, vanishing into the horizon in each direction. Damn! If these things were left to grow stronger, then the entire world was threatened to die.
Even if a miracle happened here and I managed to kill them, the world I knew before would change. I looked up at the sky, feeling the urge to connect with these stars up there and start my retaliation.
And hopefully that would be enough to crush those bastards out there.
As my threads kept spreading, they finally got attached to something. It felt like each thread was connecting to a massive ball of fire, like a star, a real star and not a star weapon.
Was that how these star weapons looked like? Or was it a different version of these stars?
[Just release their power] at this moment, it felt like Sith was just standing by my side and watching me while controlling my technique threads. [Release more threads and control the direction of their power. If you don't do that, they will just miss and hit anywhere randomly, even hitting you]
Damn! Was that weapon on my side or what?
"Ok," I could only say that before I looked up again. I took a deep breath before taking out many bones and started to suck their energy dry.
If I was going to fight, then there was no guarantee this would be a normal one. So I had to make sure I was prepared for anything, even to exert my own energy to support these attacks.
I swarmed my chariot with different grades of bones. I didn't keep my hand at this, and even took the highest grade bones I got.
"Let's do it," as everything was ready, it was time for me to start bringing these deadly beams over their heads. I closed my eyes and felt the gush of energy through my body, controlling them to channel through my dantian to my meridian dense network to my left arm.
Once that path was created successfully, I felt the birth of more threads.
"Come down! Burn them to pieces!" I screamed while the next moment I felt like a mighty presence fell over my body.
My armour began to shiver violently and with it, my chariot also kept shaking. Things looked strange but I kept trying to direct the massive fiery balls my threads were attached to and let them fall towards the ground.
It was a new experience for me. It felt like I got eyes up there, at my threads, while they passed through these massive balls and felt the scorching and unbearable heat coming from them.
But my threads passed successfully without any harm before they started to point towards the ground. Earth looked like a massive ball of dimly lit planet, looking much desolate and without any charm.
I had no time to appreciate this mind blowing scene. The stars all over the cosmos gave a stunning image in my eyes, but there was no time for that.
I pushed my threads to the ground and yet they refused to budge. Before I could get what was going on, a strange thing happened.
It felt like I was holding big cannons and pointing their openings towards the ground. The next second massive gush of energy beams started to fall, from all of my threads up there, falling fast towards the ground.
Damn! They were moving fast, even faster than what I thought!
Without any thinking, I started moving my threads towards those creatures. I now realised what Sith told me. If I didn't control these beams, they would fall randomly over any place here.
That wasn't good. I could feel how terrifying these beams were. If they touched the ground directly, then they might even pierce it to the other side!
Damn! Just control these threads of yours! I kept telling myself this while pushing my mind over its limits.
It was a deadly race against these beams. I could see them penetrating through the thick and dull looking sky doom. Now I realised why the world looked dim when these suns were gone.
It wasn't because the world was deprived of stars or the moon, but because earth was surrounded with a tight shell made of a dark material that would block any outside light.
Only a little light was allowed to come through. And now these beams forced their way towards through.
Alright… It was the moment of truth…
I held my breaths while my threads were so close from their targets. I didn't know how these fast falling beams would link to my threads, but I long lost any logic in my dealing with this.
I knew I was dealing with things that exceeded my current comprehension and status. If not for such trespass, I wouldn't even have to experience such a weird presence of a massive net of energy on my earth.
As for my threads and getting to these creatures, I didn't even think about it. If Sith said they would go there and touch these scary behemoths, then they surely would.
Under my opened eyes I saw tens of thousands of red beams falling from the sky, forming a spectacular sight, like hell itself was falling over this part of the world.
"Please… Please link…"
I muttered while counting down the impact of these beams. Running away? Taking shelter? Nothing would work to do that!
Either these falling beams or those terrifying gigantic behemoths, everything here was simply deadly to me and others.
This war… This battle… It was on another level, much much higher than my wildest imagination.
"Come on!" I was literally standing on my toes here, watching these beams fall and get this close from the ground.
Yet just seconds before they'd hit all the area spanning hundreds of miles around me, something started to resonate in my circle.
It was like it was responding to something. I looked at my circle before watching a red gas appearing out of its centre, spreading fast to surround my expanding out threads.
And just for the record, this gas only spread and surrounded the newly summoned threads, the ones I just sent towards these creatures.
The beams… The deadly tens of thousands of beams… They were linking to my threads under my naked eyes.
Damn! That was just… Awesome!!!
408 Awkward Meeting
It felt strange, feeling the connection that started to grow at a fast pace with these beams, feeling these beams turning their direction and falling over my threads.
My threads weren't that far from the creatures, but they didn't get in touch with them yet.
And at this moment, I saw the tens of thousands of those behemoths scream in silence, releasing their terrifying shock waves towards the world.
My threads were going to be crushed! And the most frustrating thing was that I didn't have anything in my power to stop it from happening.
At this crucial moment, when I was this close to see the effect of these beams over these creatures, my threads were going to shatter.
I felt the parts close to the creatures getting crushed. I watched in silence and agony these threads getting smashed under the mighty effect of these shockwaves.
And I watched the miracle happen.
It happened when the red gas surrounding my threads clashed against the shockwave.
Unlike what happened just now, the threads stopped getting crushed. It felt like they got some kind of boost, a defensive shield that strengthened the endurance of these threads.
Getting crushed was something I didn't want to see. So when the threads stood erect against the shockwave, I realised I got a chance here.
Then another miracle happened!
My threads surrounded with the red gas moved faster, penetrated through the shockwave and got themselves attached to these creatures.
I sent lots of threads, mostly got smashed to pieces and lost half of their lengths. But now they got extended and managed to surround those creatures.
Then things started to grow hectic from this point.
The beams of light fell over the small zone, guided by my threads. I couldn't see anything but bright redness that looked like the world was welcoming a new red supernova or something.
And then shocking and rumbling explosive sounds started to rock the entire world. It felt like the real end was here, the real apocalypse, the one that would sweep away everything green and alive in its path.
I stood on the top of my chariot, overseeing such a horrifying scene. At this moment, I felt little, so tiny in front of such might.
This battle… It was going on a whole different scale than what I ever imagined!
In front of such might, what anyone could ever feel but dwarfed and belittled?
"That damn thing…" Just as the creatures were getting hammered by these red beams, I recalled something.
Without any hesitation, I controlled a few threads and moved them towards a different target.
I just hoped I wasn't too late to act. The normal star weapon would take a few minutes, up to ten, before it would go silent.
I controlled my threads and moved them towards the nearby gate. I wanted to smash that piece of sh*t and watch it burn under that red beam of light.
I just worried that all the red beams were already focused over these creatures. Killing the creatures was good, but as long as that damn portal stood, more would keep coming.
I had less than thirty minutes left here before this gate would be closed on its own. But I didn't want to just wait for another threatening wave of creatures to come here.
My threads moved and got to the portal. I felt another weird feeling at this moment. It was like my threads linked my consciousness with another.
And that one was much, much stronger and bigger than anything I ever felt before. Even when my threads got connected to the hidden net here, I didn't feel the same.
[Oh, you came to visit me before you die?]
At this moment I felt like standing naked in front of a mighty presence. I felt like I was a butterfly standing in front of a blazing star, something that made my thoughts freeze out of pure fear.
What was that? Was that the hegemon who sent those things here? Damn! If I thought these creatures were scary, then I had to reconsider this.
This… Thing… This… Dude… He… Was on a level of his own!
[I'm here to say goodbye to you, but I'm not going to die] I wanted to speak but weirdly enough only thoughts were allowed to move and not words.
[Interesting… I rarely get surprised by anything, but you made me feel this way… Who are you?]
[I'm just Hye] I said, not knowing what I should say to this dude here.
[Ok Hye, I like you… Why not leave that crappy universe of yours and join me?]
Join him? What a joke! Just thinking about that made me want to laugh.
[Don't feel this belongs to your universe. If not we are fighting two other universes at the same time, we'd have crushed this pathetic universe of yours]
His words shook me down to the bones. They weren't fighting us with even half of their strengths? That was… Shocking!
We were struggling like this and they weren't even focused or getting serious with us… Damn!
[Sorry] but even so, I had no intention of considering what he just offered. [But I'll have to bring down your offer]
[That's ok, you are still small] he said it as if this was something taken for granted, [You will understand things better when you are good enough to stand on a bigger stage. At that time, you'll seriously consider my offer and it will be valid till I say otherwise]
[Ok] I didn't know what to tell such a behemoth, but if he was acting like this then I'd just have to respond with the same courtesy.
And just before he would say anymore, I felt the connection getting severed. The portal was being hammered with red beams, freeing my consciousness from that awkward meeting.
Just as I came back to my senses, I was shocked to see myself bathed in my sweat. Damn! Just meeting that dude was more taxing than I thought.
But it was over, for now at least!
409 Sith's Valuable Guidance
[Good lad]
Just as I was trying to regulate my racing breaths, I heard the sound of Sith echoing in my mind, [It's not easy for anyone to refuse such an offer. But you did great. You are going to be a real powerhouse in the future if you kept walking on the same path]
"Thank you," my thoughts were feeling like legs walking in thick layers of sand at this moment. So all I could say in return to his praise was this.
[Now isn't the time to be wasted on talking, you have a great chance now. Don't miss it]
"A… Chance?!" my mind was slowly processing what he just said. In a few blinks of an eye, I realised what he was talking about.
He mentioned this before. I hurriedly closed my eyes and tried to feel the threads attached to the stars high above and the creatures down below.
Just feeling the stars didn't bring me anything. It was all like before. But at the creature's side, things were looking much different.
At first the beams landed and I couldn't feel but scorching heat blazing everything these beams touched. But when I felt it now, I could feel a form of energy, somehow familiar to me.
"The dark monster energy…" it was the same type of energy that I used to absorb from the dark realm bones. But this time it was much purer and looked like a much higher grade than my bones.
Even the red graded bone didn't give me such a feeling! And what was awesome now was for that energy to not come just from one target, but from all the creatures bathed right now under the red beams.
Yes… It was a chance! A very big chance for me. But the bad news was that the burning was going fast, so damn fast for me to handle all this energy.
What should I do? My mind regained its former strength, thinking like a super computer and started to find a good way to use this immense amount of energy.
[Don't think, just act!] at this moment of loss, the sound of Sith came to guide me again, [Did you forget? You already have a massive shadow linked to you]
"Shadow? But…" I realised what he was talking about, but the execution seemed a bit impossible.
[Just use yourself as a medium. Shift and store all of these energy for later use]
"Will they stay? Not dispersed?"
[It's not a good time to be dumb! Anything that passes through your dantian will be branded by your energy. Whatever you absorb and channel won't stay the same, and will be under your control later on]
"Thanks!" I said it in a strong tone, in a way that expressed how I was feeling right now.
This chance… I shouldn't let it slip by my hands no matter what!
Looking at all these blazing scorching heat burning all the creatures and acting like purifying the dark energy of these creatures made me drool.
Tens of thousands of creatures, all were releasing immense amounts of such pure and high grade energy… It was like a dream coming true.
"Ok… Ok… I have to go all out then," I didn't hurry to do as Sith said. Instead I looked around, at all the bones scattered here.
"Come to me," and like a mad man, I released my spiritual energy outside to envelop all of these bones. The next moment these bones turned into shining balls of lights, releasing an awesome amount of energy that gushed into my body.
"Follow my lead," and like I was riding on top of a mighty army, I started to guide this energy through my dantian, meridians, ending up at my left arm.
And then they all went through my technique. As a result, not only the existing threads got stronger and thicker, but much more threads kept coming out from my technique.
What stood in front of me absorbing as much as possible from this dark energy? It was the limited amount of my threads, side by side with the small amount of time I had here.
I couldn't change time, but I could increase my thread count to a much bigger degree.
I was going on a wide scale of releasing such absorbed energy and gushing all of them into the technique. I had no reserve over my safety at this moment.
Just like any disaster at the apocalypse, it held a massive opportunity if one dealt with it right.
As new threads appeared, I wasn't afraid of them getting crushed. These creatures were getting barbecued literally with each passing second.
And with the release of such thick and dense dark energy, I knew they were dying.
So I moved all of them without thinking twice, and pushed them towards all the tens of thousands of creatures here.
Once they got attached to them, I started to try my best and guide these loose dark energy through my threads. I had a tone of these threads connected to the creatures now.
But controlling them wasn't that hard, or perhaps out of my adrenaline I felt like it was going smoother than I expected.
The first was the hardest, I knew this. So I paid extra attention to the first wave of dark energy that gushed through my threads and came towards my direction.
Now… It was the moment of truth. Either I'd excel and guide them safely though my dantian and then towards my shadow world, or I'd fail in such an attempt.
I never considered how they'd be in my shadow world. As Sith said it, anything that passed through my dantian would get branded by my energy.
The dark energy from the red bone of the dark realm monster ended up transformed into my silver white energy. I held no doubts about doing this, but held much doubt towards dealing with a huge amount of much higher grade energy.
Just watching such darkness coming at me like a gigantic black landslide made me feel cold shivers at the back of my spine.
But as I survived through all this sh*t, I braced myself and summed every speck of will I had and didn't even consider failing.
I wouldn't fail here, not a chance!
410 [Bonus chapter] Getting Done With Dark Energy
The first wave of this energy reached my body. The moment it touched my skin, I felt like thousands upon thousands of needles kept pricking me deeply without any mercy.
But this was nothing at all compared to the torture and agony I faced the next moments. As more energy arrived, my body started to absorb these.
The plan was to absorb and direct them towards my dantian, the same way I did with the bones from before.
However when the energy passed through my skin, it started to move according to its own will.
I tried to force them towards my dantian like I used to do, but that didn't yield any result at all. This energy acted berserk, not responding to any attempt of mine.
"It's… trying to get control over my body!!!" that's what I felt when looking at the movements of this energy inside my body. Once it entered, it started to roam around, surrounding every single part and organ of mine.
If I left it to do whatever the hell it wanted, then I might even lose control over my body.
"Not without a fight," I roared, releasing all the energy that I was already absorbing from the bones and instead of letting them flow outside my left arm, I directed them towards my body.
And a big fight erupted between the two energies, one that made me feel pain like never before.
It was like someone was holding a dull knife, cutting through my body parts in a slow and vicious way. Every part of my body started to grow numb fast, giving me an instant scare as I started to feel my head dizzy.
This… This couldn't keep going on… Not like this…
I knew I had little time to act, and I had no time to even think about how to solve this. So I followed my instincts and rushed my energy out, not to clash against this dark energy but to surround and try to control it.
Even if they got all over my body, as long as they were contained with my energy, they would stop hurting me.
In the first few seconds of doing this, nothing new happened. I was this close from giving up until I started to notice a change.
The clash between the two energies changed from being a direct flight into calmly circulating together. It wasn't that calm actually, but compared to before it was indeed.
And when that happened, the pain caused by this energy started to go south and slowly faded away. At the same time I noticed that the energy of mine was getting stronger and more abundant, giving me the impression that it was turning part of the dark energy successfully into mine.
But the rate of such conversion was still low. More dark energy gushed at me, and at this moment they couldn't get into my body, only hanging around my body.
This created a big typhoon of dark energy that surrounded me and hid me within. I had to act, I had to find a way to turn these energies faster.
But when I tried to push my energy to clash with this dark energy, the old pain returned so I had to stop.
"This… Won't work," I muttered in dejected tone while the entire world around me turned all pitch black. The dark energy kept gathering around my body, making me feel I was doing nothing at all here.
"Screw it! I have to store these in my shadow world, so I'll just send them with my energy surrounding it," As I lost any hope to change this situation, I started to consider risking everything.
Even if I ended up losing much of this dark energy, at least I'd gain a little of it. Without delaying any further, I controlled my energy circulating around the dark one, and pushed the two through my meridians at both feet.
Once they reached there, they vanished like getting sucked by a hidden force. I had no time to see what was going on in my shadow world. After all, once the dark energy inside my body decreased by a noticeable chunk, a new wave of energy penetrated directly through my skin.
This new wave tried to act the same way the previous one did. But I was much prepared this time. The moment they entered, they got surrounded fast with energy absorbed from the bones and branded with my energy through my dantian, and then all were pushed through meridians of my feet.
I had no time to rest, or even breath. I kept doing this for an unknown period of time. I felt like I was pushing a big rock up the mountain. One single pause would cost me everything, forcing me back to the bottom once more.
So I never dared to even shift my attention away. Every time I moved the dark energy with my silver white through my feet to the shadow world, a new amount entered and needed me to deal with them.
It looked like an endless loop, a vicious circle, where the dark energy had no limit and I had to keep myself alert and responsive all the time.
After an unknown period of time, I felt the dark energy coming from outside started to be scarcer. At first this didn't show much difference, but later on it became apparent to me.
The dark energy… I was already so close to consuming it.
At this moment I never felt regret about losing any of this dark energy. I just realised I bit what I couldn't chew. So even if I lost most of this energy, this wasn't a bad thing in the end.
"Phew… It's done!" After long minutes of struggling with the weakening dark energy, the influx of this energy ceased at last. And I could finally heave a breath of relief.
*Thud!*
Without any surprise, my body fell on my knees, feeling all tired and exhausted. I didn't deplete much of my energy at all during this process. In fact I suspected that my energy got slightly stronger and was closer to upgrading to the next level.
411 A Really Weird Situation
But on the soul level, I was really worn out. This fight with the dark energy of those creatures held a great toll over my soul, making me feel like I was empty and tired like never before.
I closed my eyes for long minutes, trying to regulate my breathing and feeling the fresh air once more breezing at my face. It felt refreshing this way, and slowly I started to regain my former strength.
Once I opened my eyes, the world all around looked much different than before. First the red beams that shone the entire world brightly and dyed it all red weren't there.
Only the original dim world was here. Compared to the bright red world from before, this world looked gloomier and darker than ever.
"This…" and just as I stood up and leant over the edge of my chariot to stand erect, I saw something weird.
When the fight erupted, the ring shield I created was formed but it still surrounded the central zone. As the creatures came out from the eggs, they attacked fiercely, pushing my ring shield behind for almost one mile, creating lots of gaps in it.
But now? The ring shield was gone, and only a massive dome of shield appeared instead. It spanned to cover a large distance of almost twenty miles in all directions, making me feel puzzled about this.
"What… Just happened here?!!" I looked around before controlling my chariot to take a tour around.
The forces here were gone! The forces fighting in the central zone and outside my ring were nowhere to be seen.
The world looked so desolate, all silent and creepy in my eyes. "Did these beams kill everyone? Or did the creature kill them?" I was lost in thoughts while entering into my shield zone.
In there I saw a totally different world. There was no trace of any foreign race like I expected. I thought that my shield retaliated fast once the threatening creatures were gone, expanded fast and merged together to enclose over the forces in the central zone.
That meant I should see lots of forces in the shield. But all I saw was my forces, the remnants of the burnt down creatures with their gigantic bodies and limbs being torn to pieces, thrown everywhere without arrangement.
The fire I expected to see wasn't present at all, not even a single pillar of smoke rose from anywhere here. It felt weird, really weird. In my eyes, it felt like a long time just passed here, letting the dust settle like this.
And to add more weirdness to this, I saw a few creatures standing erect like they were frozen in time.
They looked intact, nothing missing, not a single wound over their bodies… They looked fine to my eyes.
And around them, many of the much weaker exiles also stood in the same way.
All were surrounded with my forces, but not a single one of my boys was attacking them.
"What's… Going on here?!!!" I stood in midair, over the back of my chariot, overseeing such an unbelievable scene.
[The gods of your channel are all cheering for your safe return]
Just as this moment, such a weird message popped up in front of my eyes.
"Safe return? Return from what?!!"
I stood in puzzlement while long rows of messages came from the gods following my channel.
And from these, I realised what happened here.
"Damn! An entire day? Is that for real?!!!"
The messages told me I went missing from this world for an entire apocalyptic day. According to them, I got surrounded by pitch darkness that engulfed me and took me away from here.
And the more important thing was that they couldn't see where I was or what I was doing. So many asked about what happened, leaving me unable to answer any of that.
"Can you just brief me on what happened here? The last thing I recall is these red beams falling from the sky, and the big fight between the creatures and the allied races' forces," I had to fill in the missing gaps first.
Staying away for an entire day was something unexpected for me. That explained a lot indeed about what happened here. During this time, it was enough for all the forces to safely retreat, for my ring shield to amend itself and unite to form this dome then expand.
It was also long enough for the dust of this battle to settle. Yet I needed to know in detail what happened here. Also I needed to understand how few creatures stood still in such perfect shape, alongside those exiles.
But when I read their messages, I got disappointed fast. They didn't give anything new outside of what I already guessed.
"Sigh, so you know nothing about these creatures and exiles here?" I pointed at these creatures and exiles, feeling more helpless here.
Yet the answer that came next exposed this mystery to my eyes, and it came from none other than my biggest helper in this battle.
[They are in dormant state] Sith's voice echoed in my mind at this moment, making me abandon all the dejection and cheer up.
"Sith… My god, my benevolent god, thanks for all the help before," it was an honest expression of my deepest gratitude for what he did.
If not for him, I'd end up dead for a long time now. If not for his timely advice, I would have missed a lot.
[No problem, I'm just investing in your future, nothing more. Don't think too much about it] even when he said it this way, I still felt touched with what he did to me.
"What about them?" I knew talking more would be pointless. He wasn't a normal god, and he had little time to spare for me.
The fact that he appeared here now meant there was one more thing left for me to do. Also that proved how high he valued me.
All of this were things I truly cherished and appreciated. Such a high god looking after me had its perks as well.
412 Words Have Power
[These creatures were bound by your threads during the last minutes of the war here] his next words started to unveil the mystery of these creatures and exiles, [They got bound to you, but lost their connection with you and their universe at the same time, making them stand in such dormant state]
"Lost connection with their universe? What does that imply?"
I got the logic behind losing contact with me. Per my channel gods, I was gone for an entire day, nowhere to be seen. I just popped up out of thin air, without any warning, falling on my knees as they described.
But what did losing contact with their universe meant?
I knew that the connection was severed when that portal got smashed. But why were they in such a state then? Don't tell me once the portal was closed, these creatures and exiles were doomed to be in such a state.
That meant… Everything I did was for nothing! I just had to bid my time and wait for less than half an hour before the entire deadly battle would come to an end.
[Don't get it wrong] but just as such disturbing thoughts rushed through my head, Sith's voice rang as if he was able to read my thoughts, [If you didn't take control over them using your technique, they'd still be connected to their hegemon and be active]
"I… See…" I got this point, "but what about this state? Why are they in such a state then?"
[They lost any reason to stay alive] he said such weird logic, [Don't get that surprised. In that universe, other than big names there, forces must find a reason to stay alive. Just like these creatures here, they lost connection with their universe and their boss, and that would be you]
"So… I need to shout at them or what?" I got roughly what he wanted to say here, but didn't get what to do with them.
[No, you just need to use your threads to control them again. But… There is a catch here, so don't get excited too soon]
Once he said his first part, I was overjoyed. But when he added the second part, my happiness froze.
"So?" I asked with much doubt and nervousness. These big behemoths here were so hellishly strong to make me drool over controlling them now.
Just owning a bunch of them was enough for me to secure my spot in this apocalypse. And I didn't just get a few, I got hundreds of them, close to five to six hundred.
Such a force was threatening to any major power in the apocalypse, including those arrogant Hectors.
Just remembering them made my blood boil out of control. All of this happened because one son of a b*tch of them decided to go crazy and throw even the universe we were living in.
In my eyes, such an incident couldn't be left untouched like this. The higher ups of the system should do something and punish the entire race, make an example out of them to warn any other from doing the same.
Power and arrogance were intoxicating for anyone. I knew that. But I also knew it wouldn't be easy for things to develop in the same way I wanted.
Anyway, I decided to open this matter when speaking with the higher up I owed souls to.
Recalling him made me rethink our last deal. I now fulfilled my promise and did my part in winning this battle.
It was his time to honour his part of the deal.
[Your energy right now isn't sufficient to control them properly] Smith's voice reverberated in my mind, [You need to first take them to a place you control and they can feel at least there. You know what I'm talking about]
"My shadow world…"
[Indeed. It was built over energy similar to their universe. So they will regain their activity there]
"But… How can I move them there?" I got what he said, and understood his logic. For now I had to put them aside and not dream about using them before getting much stronger.
Taking energy into my shadow world was feasible. After all, that world was built over spiritual energy. But he was asking me to take living creatures and exiles into such a world, a feat I didn't know how to accomplish.
[To do that, you'll need to devise a new technique, one that can open a portal between your shadow world and here]
What Sith proposed was something I never thought about before. The first time I ever created a technique was done out of luck and much of coincidence.
But now he was asking me to create a technique from scratch, with a single purpose in mind. Would I be able to do it?
[Don't think too much, you already have the basic principle for all of your future techniques] he read my thoughts before adding, [use your blood, it's the real link between your cultivation and your techniques]
"Use my blood?!!" I muttered before, lost in daze for a few seconds, "I should use it to open a portal? But how?"
[This you'll have to figure out on yourself] Sith didn't help anymore. In fact he did enough already. [Just remember, sometimes words hold great power within]
As he said this, his voice started to grow desolate and weaker until it vanished. He was gone, for now. And I was left alone, standing in front of these mighty looking creatures in my massive shield.
So it came down to this… I had to create a new technique, one that could open a portal between this world and my shadow one.
"Words have power… So can I use the word portal to create my technique?" Even if he left in such a hurry without telling me much about the new technique, he gave me such a valuable tip.
My blood, and using a word… These were the two basic things I got for now.
"Let's try it out then," I took a deep breath, checked the status of my spiritual energy to just get startled with what I saw.
413 What Happened To My Team?!!!
"Damn! It's… Green now!"
My energy was always silver white since the beginning. But now it was pale green, giving a weird impression like I had the source of life running in my dantian and meridians.
I felt that my energy was getting up, getting stronger when I was dealing fervently with the dark energy from before. But it seemed I underestimated the benefits, not knowing it was enough to push my energy towards the higher step.
Cool! This was an unexpected gain from this battle indeed. I checked this energy and made sure nothing was wrong there.
Then I cut my palm with my dagger, and like before I selected the left hand. From the battles I fought so far, the value of letting my left hand control the techniques was immense.
It gave me freedom to use my right arm, the stronger one, to wield weapons and even fight.
"Word for portal? Let's use a link," I thought before trying to write with my blood. The moment my blood gushed out from my wound, it hung in midair and followed my fingers while writing the word.
But when I finished, a weird thing happened. The word I wrote and was clear in the air started to fade away fast once I stopped writing.
"What went wrong here?" I looked at the place the word took before, as it was now just empty air. "Did I use the wrong word? Then let me try the portal itself."
But when I finished writing it, the same thing happened again. The word was written beautifully before it faded away as well.
I didn't rush to conclusions before I repeated this over a dozen times. With each time, I felt like part of my energy was gushed out to write the words. So after all these failure attempts, I felt slightly weak.
"I… Didn't eat or drink for such a long time," I decided to take a break, thing about this more thoroughly while feeding my body.
"I have to check over them," just sitting there, my thoughts started to grow rational. I realised I was gone for too long, an entire apocalyptic day. That was forty-eight hours.
I was totally absorbed in understanding what happened and getting to know how to deal with these creatures and exiles. But I totally forgot about my forces, their ongoing battles, and the current situation of war.
Part of me wasn't worried. First I clashed with most of the hostile forces here from most of the regions. I fought against Hector , two paragons, the combined armies of races from the north, two armies actually.
Only the army made out of Selvators and Dragons was left alongside the mysterious human army.
So looking at the general map now of the central region, it was clearly void of any threatening existence to my forces.
Also the lack of the always distressing messages from them gave me more confidence. If things went south, then they'd have bothered me with tons of messages, asking for help or guidance.
[Where are you now? What are you doing? And what happened during the past one day?]
I sent this message to all of my team and waited for an answer. As I waited, I kept eating the stored up meat and drank from the liquor.
"I need to find more chefs and let them make real food," I muttered while looking at this piece of meat. Even the best food would taste like dirt after a long time of eating it without any other dishes.
But even after I took my time to eat three pieces of meat, I got no answer from any of them.
That looked… A bit weird. They never ignored my messages, not even once.
Even if few were busy in a fight, others would respond. But for all of them to not send even a greeting message to me? That was unheard of!
As I grew worried, I opened my channel and started to look for the feed of their subchannels.
And as I did so, I couldn't help but stand on my feet, looking at the flying screen in front of my eyes.
The screens kept flashing, showing feeds from every single one of them. They looked like they were together, standing in the same place with the same background.
But the screens never showed them standing with each other. Only each one stood alone, making me feel they were either in a very vast place with repeated backgrounds or something else was going on.
And with the presence of such ugly and hideous looking face at the back of each screen, I knew there was something wrong.
"Gods… Who is following my boys' channels… Can you explain this to me?" as I had no other way to know what happened but this, I asked the gods without shifting my eyes away from the screens.
The screens showed me everyone standing in their place, fighting herds of weird looking monsters. They weren't big, as small as half of human size. But they were many, so many to make anyone be threatened.
The first impression I got was they were fighting in a dungeon or something. But I knew the fight here couldn't be over this soon for them to try out dungeons.
Besides I was the only one able to control dungeon keys here. Everything looked weird in my eyes, and I started to have a bad feeling about this.
These monsters were like small pigs, with sharp teeth and long flexible horns coming out from their heads. These horns were the real deal here as they kept twisting and acted like someone thrusting out spears at my team members.
[The gods who followed them said that they are in an illusion]
"Illusion?!!" It hit me. It made sense now. Everything made sense.
They all stood in the same place, facing the same threat, but they weren't with each other. I looked at the feed of their channels again before asking:
"Any info about their location? Who is trying to kill them using an illusion?"
414 I Have To Hurry!
Illusions might seem like something trifle, but it was indeed deadly. Just looking at this illusion gave me leads about their fate.
They might look ok for now, but that wasn't guaranteed after long hours of constant fighting. They would be exhausted and any wounds they'd take here would reflect on their real bodies.
Dying in illusions meant death in real life. Human souls were this hard to deal with indeed. But that also made me wonder, which race was this experienced in using illusions?
This kind of illusion wasn't simple. I knew this wasn't the work of someone ordinary. Even the all experienced jumper and Hilary got trapped in that illusion as well.
[The gods says they are up to the north west from your location, fighting at the last battle in the central plains of your world]
"Central plains of my world? Isn't this the central zone? Hmm… I should ask Fang and Wryly then, one of these two must be aware of what is going on here."
I sent messages at once to these two. But to add more weirdness they didn't respond.
"That… Are they also trapped in that illusion as well?!!" that was something big then. Who was exactly that son of b*tch who managed to get all of these strong figures on my side into such a deadly illusion?
"Do you know who did it?" Without even delaying for any second longer, I looked at the direction of these creatures and exiles, deciding to end the job here brilliantly and fast without any more moments of rest.
Every single second passing meant that my people would be in much greater danger. Damn I worked my as* literally to gather all of them since the beginning of the apocalypse.
I wouldn't risk losing any of them no matter what.
[The gods says they don't know what went wrong]
This was… pretty much not expected. So they got attacked out of the blue, without even realising what came at them.
That meant they got attacked fast, and from someone who was well experienced in what he was doing. I thought, but couldn't get any race who would be able to do this feat.
Hectors? They might be the strongest dudes here, but they weren't that good at illusions. Out of all the times that I clashed with their big boys so far, they all used flashy items and strong techniques to get me.
As for other races… Only the illusionists came to mind. But they were cowards! Although they were a race that was named over the illusions, they weren't any good at taking initiative, or dare to come at such big figures at the same time.
We weren't speaking just about my boys, also Fang and Wryly seemed to fall for this trick. So who was it? I was dying to know.
Anyway, I'd get this done fast and then would turn my attention fully towards completing this technique as fast as possible.
Alright… What went wrong here? I reviewed everything I did so far, and tried to compare it with the way I did my first technique.
"The circle!" In less than a few minutes, it hit me out of nowhere. Yes, indeed that was different.
I instantly started trying again, and this time I first drew the circle with my blood. Once it was completed, it flashed faintly for a brief second, standing still and not fading away.
It gave me a good impression. I didn't know what was unique about this circle, but in the end it seemed to work.
"A… Penta star?" but just before I'd write the portal word again, I had this flash of insight for a second. I paused, looking at my circle before I started drawing a penta star inside the circle.
I followed my feeling, followed my hunch. I didn't know if that was right or wrong, but if it didn't work, I'd work more and refine this technique better in the later attempts.
But just as I did the star, another flash of faint green light appeared for a second before vanishing. This time my smile was big while I started to write the word portal in the centre of this star.
Once I wrote it, I looked in anticipation. To make sure it wasn't going to fade this time, I made sure to connect with the sides of the star while writing the word.
And once written, it flashed, not fading away but getting brighter. It kept shining and expanded slightly outwards before finally vanishing.
But this time it didn't vanish without leaving a mark behind. It was like a glowing little globular thing, resembling black hole.
"The last step," I recalled what I did with my first technique and let my blood cover up my left fist before placing it over that globe.
Unlike what I expected, my fist was controlled by a weird force, opening up my fingers and letting me hold this globe.
It didn't give me any bad feeling, only it was slightly cold. I thought that my fist would penetrate it or something, but that didn't happen.
And the moment I held that globe within my fingers, it felt like I was overseeing two different worlds at the same time.
It was a unique feeling, like me standing in the space separating two identical worlds. At this hour, and with the dimly lit world here, it didn't look much different from the other pitch black world.
But I could tell the difference easily. Holding that globe made me feel like a god, a real god, one who could control the fate of anyone in the two worlds.
I saw a very wide version of the two worlds, like I was watching them from high above. I estimated my coverage to be slightly over fifty miles or something.
Alright, it was time to test this new technique of mine.
I didn't know what to do, but I followed my instincts. I looked at the direction of my creatures and exiles, standing still without showing any signs of moving.
415 Empty Towns And Cities!!!
"Come in there," I didn't know if I had to speak up or not, but I felt the urge to say so. Once I thought about it and said it, something new happened.
A swirlpool made entirely out of pale green energy appeared on top of the ones I looked at. I was looking at dozens of these giant creatures alongside a hundred of those exiles.
The swirlpool that appeared was so massive, enough to envelope them within. Once they got enveloped, I felt total control over the situation.
If I wanted them to be thrown high in the air then I'd be able to do that. But I just wanted to move them inside my shadow world. And I simply thought about doing that.
*Flash!*
The next second the swirlpool rotated fiercely before shrinking in size and finally vanishing. I felt like a great deal of my spiritual energy got sucked dry by my left arm, leaving me panting and all sweaty.
"Damn! Why the hell did all of my techniques require such an insane amount of energy? Hoof, Hoof," I painted while resisting the urge to fall.
The next moment I took a few bones and let my energy digest them and guide them into my body.
I managed to move a good portion of them into my shadow world, but that was only one fifth of the entire amount here.
So I had to replenish my energy fast and make sure I wouldn't stop until getting all of them in.
Once the bones started to dissolve into torrents of energy, I felt better.
"Come in," I roared at the remaining creatures and exiles, taking all of them in one move.
It gave me more pressure but I managed. After a few minutes, they all vanished and the world looked much emptier than before.
"It's… Done!" As I ended it, I released a long breath out of nervousness. This simple technique sucked my energy dry again. Even the energy of bones wasn't enough to sustain such expenditure.
Alright… I was done here. "Come in," the next moment I called back all of my scattered forces here. Then without even turning to look back, I turned my chariot towards the north west, and started to fly with the highest speed.
I lacked even the slightest direction here aside from such a general one I got from gods.
"I shall consider recording their feedback," it wasn't the first time I faced such a dilemma. Also when I went into the dungeon and came out later on, I faced the same problem in finding them.
If my channel would record their channels, then it would be easier for me to track whatever happened to them during this time.
I kept flying in the general direction of the north-west, while looking at the feedback from their channels all the time. They were still fervently fighting, and after three hours they started to look a little tired.
The only advantage was that their enemies were small and weak. Even with their high numbers, they couldn't get hurt too much. Of course I had a theory about that, feeling that whoever did this was trying to distribute his energy to maintain these illusions.
Such a work was indeed from someone much higher and far stronger than any archlord. Was it an illusionist paragon or what?
I didn't know, yet this was the most logical explanation I got. Or the only one to be frank.
As my chariot flew for three straight hours, lands below me flashed like they were long dim lines. I couldn't tell much going on in these lands, but what was remarkable was that all the cities and towns I met were emptied.
I even stopped at a few, checked for any remaining forces there. If I get in contact with any Selvators or Berserkers it would be great.
At least I'd know what went wrong with their archlords. But things kept getting weird in this situation.
I never met an empty city or town before. Even when we were at war, there were forces remaining behind to protect the portals and emblems.
But now? All the cities and towns here were void of any signs of life. That was strange indeed. How come this happened?
Was this related to what my elites were facing right now? Or that there was another disaster waiting for me at the corner?
I was tired! After all this time fighting all over the world, I was growing tired. I needed rest, I needed a long rest. I planned to compete at the upcoming quests, but for now I had more desire to stay put and rest.
I deserved this. And if things went good here, then most if not all of the entire central zone here would be under my control. In addition to the west coast and north, this was enough as a base for my kingdom.
I had lots of things to do and prepare for. I saw lots of things that needed my attention, needed my boys to work their best and try to learn new stuff.
I needed them to start cultivation. I didn't know how, but Lily and those Hectors at my capital would know a way for sure.
Also I needed them to start learning natural energy attacks. In the last fight against exiles I needed fiery attacks, but lacked a lot.
Not to mention at the battle before this, the spearhead shone and showed his true abilities. But that dude didn't have full control yet over his power.
He needed time to train, everyone needed this, including me. So I decided, after taking control over most of the lands here, I'd retreat and build my forces up.
Wasting my energy in such a way, fighting on all fronts in such a fervent way wasn't good. I got great results and gained many good things, but at the same time I lost sight of more important things.
I gathered my team not to let them follow me around like puppets. I needed them to become true generals, able to lead armies on their own and fight any foe without any help from my side.
416 Interrogation
But first… I needed to find and save them. Or else I would end up with nothing, returning to point zero, the same point I started from when I came here from my time.
"Wait boys and girls… I'm coming," I muttered while moving at super speed.
Aside from the mystery of these towns and cities, I decided to focus on finding my team first. The world kept stretching underneath my chariot while I let it fly higher in the sky.
I was flying at a low level, trying to find my team as soon as possible. But this didn't yield any results and I ended up getting distracted by the emptied up cities and towns.
Rising up helped me to uncover more lands all around. Just in less than one more hour, I finally saw the first sign of life.
It was the rear of a big army. Without even waiting for anything, I directed my chariot towards them. This army looked big, very big, but that wasn't the problem.
They weren't human, Selvators, or Berserkers. They were the last race I wanted to meet here; Hectors!
"A beggar has no option in selecting his helper," I muttered while stopping my chariot just on top of their heads.
"Intruder!"
"It's him!"
"Notify our leaders!"
"Prepare to fight!"
Many shouts came clear from down below. But who said I was here to fight?
The moment my chariot landed here, I started my technique, my first technique.
With a flash, my threads moved. I didn't want to control most of them. I just needed a few, few enough to tell me what the hell was going on here.
So even before their shouts started to echo across the entire army, I controlled a group of hundreds, before forcing them to come to my chariot.
For the first time ever, my chariot was seen landing on the ground, just hundreds of metres away from the army.
I wasn't worried that someone would come and target me. After all, my chariot's shield was still running.
"Come on board," under the shocking gazes of everyone, I let the hundreds I controlled into my chariot.
Then I started to take off.
"You… It's you!!!" Just as my chariot flew for a few tens of metres in the air, I saw a big Hector running in the middle of his forces. That dude looked enraged, even pushing across his forces without any care for anyone.
"I'm not here to fight you," I said back, in a carefree tone.
"You killed lots of people, even close friends of mine! I would never let you run away!"
That dude… It seemed like he was the paragon, the leader of this army. Well, if he wanted to come after me then he had to keep up with my chariot's speed.
I didn't move first to force contracts over the ones I controlled here. Controlling hundreds of them wasn't that taxing over my energy.
I could sustain such expenditure, for long hours as well.
As I rose up, I led my chariot to fly as far away as possible. I didn't aim to evade the vast army down below, as my boys must be nearby for sure.
An army of another Hector paragon? That was indeed a good sign. I didn't count Hectors in my calculations, but it seemed these boys had more paragons than any other race out here.
Flying for ten minutes straight, I noticed flashes of light coming from the direction I just left. I knew that paragon wasn't going to let me loose, and would try to come at me.
After fighting many paragons of his race, I got a feeling about what he was going to do. An island, a floating island with lots of forces stationed on top of them.
But that wasn't distressing at all. It wouldn't be the first island I'd crush, nor the last. "Now, let's have a talk," as I forced them to sign a loyalty contract, I recalled my technique threads and asked them directly without beating around the bush.
"You!!!" The first answer I got was such an angry glare from many of them while few shouted in low tone, as if they were gritting their teeth.
"If you are tired of living then you can try and come at me," I knew I was best protected by my contracts. So there was no point in showing me such fierceness or trying to insult me.
They either succumb to their fate or die and let me hunt more of their kin.
"I want answers," I didn't give them any room even to think, "human army, my army, where is it? What happened to it?"
"Hahaha! You lost contact with them? That's hilarious… Ahh!"
The one who tried to act funny was instantly punished by death. I didn't use the power of contract as I killed this rude dude with my light weight glaive.
It moved fast, much faster than it used to be. However this wasn't time to appreciate this or try to understand what was going on.
"Consider this as your last warning," I said in a cold voice, moving my eyes around everyone here, "if I want you dead, you'll die in my hands. Then I'll go down there and bring more of you until I get my answers."
I wasn't joking! Wasting more minutes meant my boys would face more danger. I had to find them no matter what.
"Now, will anyone be smart and be the hero to save others and speak up? Or should I kill all of you here then go down there and enslave more of you?"
"Bast…"
"F*ck y…"
"…"
Just the few who tried to pour out their rage on me got killed instantly by my glaive. That made the rest swallow whatever they wanted to say, looking at me like they were looking at a deadly beast.
"Anyone? Any answers?" I inserted my glaive firmly on the ground while saying these words to them in such a threatening way. At this moment, I knew I did what I could to terrify them.
417 Getting Answers
And now it was all up to them to decide. If they didn't cooperate, I'd throw them off my chariot with a single order; kill your friends and colleagues.
I waited for a single minute. During which I noticed the rise of something dark at the horizon from the direction I just came from. I knew it was that paragon and he was coming at me on his flying island.
But even if he tried to catch up with me, my chariot's top speed was slightly faster than his island. There was little chance for him to catch up with me until I reached my destination.
"No one?" As one minuted passed, I held my glaive up, preparing to start a spree of killing.
They couldn't even raise a single finger to stop me under the effect of the contract or they'd instantly die.
"Wait… Wait…" just before I'd take a single step forward, one of them finally was smart enough to speak up. "I'll… Speak…"
"Nortan! Stop it!" another one tried to stop him from telling me what I wanted, and it wasn't a surprise for that dude to fall over my glaive the next moment.
"I'm all ears," I looked at the white face of Norton who was shocked to see his friend getting killed in such a way.
"I… I'll speak…" he retorted a couple of steps. Those Hectors… Their leaders might be arrogant above any imagination, but their common people looked normal as any human in my eyes.
That dude got terrified and showed reactions befitting any weak human. So they weren't that terrifying as a race after all.
"Ok…" I moved back to my initial spot, giving him space to breathe and speak freely without much pressure.
I got what I wanted here. As he spoke, I realised what happened.
"You are saying that… A human army appeared from the West and joined my forces?" I asked again, trying to make sure that dude here didn't mix facts up.
And he nodded for the second time as he added:
"I swear, mighty one, that is what happened."
I bypassed that mighty one title as I asked: "And then? What happened?"
"We… Don't know exactly," he seemed a bit hesitant, "but we were already going south when we got the tip that the human army was now entangled inside a big sphere. We came here with other races, planning to kill who remains out of them."
"Remains?" His selection of words made me more worried. "You said a big sphere? Then what if they were using a shield to protect themselves? How did you know they are in danger?"
Even if what he said explained much, it still didn't explain everything. Something was still missing here.
"Well… Our paragon… the past mighty one…" he seemed much more anxious than before. I gave him a nod, as I never cared about such titles or past relations, "he said that someone spread the word; the humans are trapped in a deadly illusion. Most of them will fall there, and only a few will come out pretty much exhausted."
"And?" It matched what I guessed already. So that enemy didn't just target my elites, but my entire forces as well.
And he didn't just stop at that, he even spread the word among all races, telling them about what was going on to my human forces.
Another human army joined mine… Was it the mysterious army which was facing the combined Selvators and Dragon archlords? Did they win? Or those two races just retreated after what I did back there with most of their forces?
I solved some, and got more to solve. I looked at Nortan and listened to what he said.
"We came here, surrounded by that big sphere, and waited for humans to come out."
"Do you know where it is?" I looked around, but couldn't see any sign of this sphere anywhere close to here.
If the army of Hectors was here, then they must be close up to that sphere. But even after flying this far, I couldn't find it.
"It's that way," Nortan pointed at North, a different direction than what I was moving at. "We… were moving in the wrong direction from the beginning."
"Ok, lead the way then," I pointed to him to come at the front of my chariot. Hesitantly he stepped forward, while getting bathed with complicated gazes from everyone else.
"Don't give him that look, after all he just saved your lives, idiots," as I noticed much hatred coming at him, I couldn't help but say that.
"That way, mighty one," it seemed that standing up to defend him here left him touched. He pointed in more enthusiasm towards a direction, and I instantly led my chariot towards it.
From far behind, that black spot was still there. It meant that paragon was still coming at me, not caring about anything else.
He wanted me dead. That fool… didn't he learn something from the demise of his friends?
Anyway, I didn't intend on fighting him. He wasn't my top priority for now. I had to first find the one who casted this illusion, or try to break that illusion by force.
I had seen records about illusions left by the old man. But thinking about listening to them would be unrealistic.
The only way for me to break the illusion was by using brute force. Of course as far as I understood illusions, they weren't made out of physical force, but pure energy.
That meant to break it, I needed to pour a much higher form of energy into it and break it down. According to Nortan's words, this illusion was massive.
That meant the one used and controlling it wasn't simple. Could a paragon do it? Or was he using an artefact?
"Do you know who caused this to my people?" as my chariot flew fast towards the direction he was pointing at, I noticed other races gathering at the horizon, letting me feel more reassured that I was heading towards the right direction.