The heavenly palace, as well as mountain itself on which it stood, were cut in half with cleanest cut as if a red-hot knife went through butter. Two men flew out of collapsing palace, and each of them looked, to put it mildly not very good. While one had his right arm torn off, other had no obvious injuries but his morale was greatly shaken. Both warriors were not in best shape, so it was pointless for them to continue fighting. But not one of them intended to retreat because whole world is at stake and for this, you can sacrifice the lives of two old men.
"Oh, I see you managed to avoid my attack! Ah, I see not everyone managed to get out intact. Kui is decided to lose weight in such a cunning way?" Ares calmly rose above palace while holding a weapon of greatest warrior in one hand, and teasingly pulled hunter's hand out of rubble by another. "Sick demon, who could know that this lunatic can easily copy Guan Yu's technique! Yu lost his fighting spirit after what he saw, so I had to pull him out myself, even sacrificing an arm in process. Tsk, we have no choice but to stay here and fight to end, otherwise, fall of Dao is inevitable. We must buy as much time as possible!" Kui tried to think of a plan of further action as quickly as possible, meanwhile growing a hand with the help of demonic magic.
"Ah well, let's finish this quickly since I have a meeting with emperor himself" Ares yawned while stretching his neck. "Guardian of gates, come to my call!" With a loud shout, Kui drew a symbol with a huge brush. The whole mountain trembled when a giant in black armor and a sword poised came out of ground. "Guan get together! It's not time for such a weakness! I need your help otherwise this monster cannot be stopped!" Shouting to his comrade, hunter slapped him in face. Having come to his senses, holy warrior immediately smiled, and grabbed his friend by shoulders, and nodded. "It's certainly not same, but we don't have a choice, so take what you can" Zhong handed his friend a weapon woven from demon qi.
As taking a weapon Guan, pounced on enemy while calling for a faithful horse along the way. "I see you don't intend to give up, which is even good, I won't have to chase you all over forest!" Grinning, spartan tightened his grip on the weapon, thus imbuing it with his rage. Guandao was covered in orange cracks and its blade burst into flames. The huge demon did not hesitate any longer and struck with a sword, cutting air with its powerful attack, demon completely destroyed palace. Turning it into ruins, and same fate befell mountain. It would seem that a colossal sword is about to plunge into ground, but no, it froze a few meters from it.
Ares blocked blow with a weapon, warlord didn't even move as if he didn't feel pressure from a demon. "Can you summon someone stronger?" Butcher gloated while summoning many swords with spears from holes that opened up in space. Instruments of death immediately plunged into demon flesh tearing it apart. Guan plunged his dao into earth and then abruptly pulled it out, as a result summoning many spikes from it. Raising hand, Ares collected demon's blood into a huge sphere, then with a snap of fingers caused a bloody rain. Earth spikes could not get close to spartan, since warrior used his own ability to repel attack. Swords with spears crushed stones without much effort and prevented saint from taking a breath.
Kui was about to summon more demons but was stopped by bloody vines that pierced his entire body. "Damn, he called this rain, not just for fun! Drops of blood under his control are now everywhere. He demon this time was able to outplay me, well, until our next meet Olympian!" With a wild cry, Kui blew himself up, releasing an incredible amount of qi. The blast wave hit Ares, knocking him far into the woods. During spartan's flight, Guan was able to time a moment and used his sky-splitting technique to hit a target. Destroying many trees, warrior landed in a remote part of forest, forming a huge crater.
Spitting out a clot of blood, Ares hissed angrily, "Damn pig had such a trump card ha-ha!" Half of spartan's body was missing, but by some miracle, he was still alive. A huge shadow appeared over warrior's head. It was none other than Guan, he decided not to take risks and finish off Olympian for sure. Having descended into crater, saint looked at spartan with pain in eyes: "None of this could happen! But you preferred death to peace, and for what?" Guan raised his weapon to deliver finishing blow but stopped abruptly. Blood gushed from his chest, and a huge blade was sticking out there. Turning around, he saw Ares standing behind him with a sword in hands.
Half of his helmet was destroyed showing several new scars on Olympian. Apparently, explosion still managed to cause some damage to Spartan, but not so serious as to immobilize him. Ares used a blood replica to outsmart saint and deliver final blow. "I hope you find long-awaited peace, warrior!" Whispered last words, executioner beheaded greatest Dao warrior. Taking off his helmet, Ares breathed a sigh of relief, and a smile of joy appeared on his face. "Just a little bit left soon" Combing his hair back, Ares summoned chariot. Spartan needed to be in time for a meeting with emperor after all.
Meanwhile, in underwater kingdom, roar of battles was heard from everywhere. "I never would have thought that Poseidon himself would decide to pay us a visit!" The dragon of northern sea hissed, reflecting attacks of Charybdis. "I am your enemy, not my father!" With fury, daughter of king grabbed dragon's neck, dragging him to bottom. "Maybe we can come to an agreement?" With some fear in their voice, other two dragons turned to Scylla. The girl put her fingers to her lips, pretending to consider their offer. "Hmm, should we really just stop and leave?" A predatory smile instantly appeared on her face, then her dogs pounced on two dragons. "Ha-ha, I'm sorry but I can't accept your offer. Because my kids are so hungry for dragon meat!" She explained while stroking one of her tentacles.
Standing over bodies of dead, Poseidon, with disgust in eyes looked at how their blood-stained trident. "I honestly don't want all of this Ao Guang, but as you probably know, you can't choose a family" King of seas said coolly, examining children's toys in his hands. "Maybe you will still leave these lands, taking this already destroyed part. Losing people for the sake of emperor and this boy is somehow not for me" Dragon suggested calmly, seeing how his siblings and children were being torn apart. "Hmm, okay, I still really don't want to take everything from you old friend. Let's make it this way, one of your daughters will marry my son Triton, what you say?" Poseidon scratched his gray beard and smiled good-naturedly at the dragon.
"As if I have a choice, well, so be it, choose any of my daughters!" Laughing at his own situation, Ao Guang gestured for his old friend to follow him. The two kings of seas were nevertheless able to come to an understanding, and that day no more one drop of blood of an innocent sea dweller was shed. Unfortunately, same couldn't be said for the rest of Dao lands. Many of other Olympians didn't come here to negotiate but to collect bloody tribute. Athena with an Aphrodite ruined and destroyed many temples of cultivators. While Apollo with others invaded directly into the palace, uniting with the army of demons. Many innocents as well as saints were killed that day.
Haemon, in turn, was busy trying to gain strength in Tartarus by fighting creatures of original chaos. To the surprise of barbarian, it turned out to be much more difficult to meet enemies in the lowest tiers than up there. According to shadow, it's all about size of lower Tartarus, it is so huge that meetings between creatures are extremely rare. Luckily, Haemon was still able to track down one monster months later. And hunting for this one promises to be incredibly exciting since it is a real titan!
The year 1567, October 30
"My research into cultures and languages of native tribes continues to this day. I consider it my duty to preserve the knowledge of these people, since those who don't know their past are doomed to repeat their mistakes. The indigenous population is gradually decreasing due to the increase of whites on land. There are fewer and fewer tribes, so there is no one to tell the legends of their ancestors. As my teacher used to say, a civilized person gradually replaces a barbarian. Thus, killing very nature of man! These lands were once Eden of primitive instinct, and we Europeans, like a tempting serpent, destroyed this paradise"
"On the issue of tribal culture, I have recently become quite interested in a mysterious tribe named Snake Shadow. This tribe leads a very secretive way of life, preferring not to come into contact with anyone. Fortunately for me, I was bitten by a snake as a child, leaving a scar, and therefore tribe allowed me to be present during one of their rituals. According to them, a snake bite is a great gift from their patron spirit. Speaking of which, many other tribes are incredibly afraid to even speak his name, and only occasionally call him father of hunger. He is the one who was born on a great night, rejected, and left to wander among evil spirits. Darkness once made its way into the heart of a good hunter, turning him into an evil beast that torments other spirits"
"The very same tribe that only feels admiration for such an ambiguous spirit calls him Forefather Wendigo. According to shaman of this tribe, the father is currently sleeping and waiting for an hour when his wild hunt can begin again. I also managed to look at the image of this spirit, it was a tall humanoid monster, on whose legs and arms huge claws grew that could tear anyone apart. Instead of hair, there were a lot of snakes on his head, which reminded me very much of the Gorgon from the mythology of the ancient Greeks hmm what a resemblance. I remember bloody eyes most because they seemed to look straight into the soul, ha-ha if my son George were here, he would have a nightmare. I hope to continue to explore this tribe, for how many more secrets can be hidden in the wild world"
Diary of Ikaboth Cain
One of the last entries before disappearance of the author himself.