Through the orc petitioners’ consecutive sacrifices, they were able to stall Great Adept Sala, who was only growing ever more anxious and impatient!
Chapter 1495 - Death Tides
Compared to Greem, Rick, and Sala, Great Adept Colin was probably the one having the easiest fight of them all!
The only ones he had to deal with were the hordes of low and intermediate-grade orc warriors swarming at him.
There might be many of them, but not one could pose a lethal threat to Colin.
However, his situation wasn’t exactly optimistic either.
The main reason for that case was that the orcs fought desperately!
For some reason, all the orc warriors near the temple had all started gathering here. They did not employ any strategy, nor did they attack in sequence. Instead, all of them lunged recklessly at Great Adept Colin the moment they appeared.
Colin was a Fifth Grade body-refining adept. All his flesh and bones had already been trained and refined harder than adamantium. His physical and magic resistance were equal to a pureblood dragon of the same grade. He had even used various terrifying magics to modify every part of his body into magical organs. He was more fearsome than a tireless slaughter machine when setting foot on a battlefield.
A layer of fine scales appeared on his body. These scales were tough yet flexible. No axes, nor blades or needles could penetrate them. His hands had also transformed into a pair of powerful claws. All sorts of unusual magical light shimmered upon them.
It didn’t matter how ferocious the orc warriors that rushed toward him were or how well-trained their techniques; they were little more than fragile sheep before Great Adept Colin. He disposed of an orc with every claw, his black claws piercing their chests, grabbing their hearts out from within, and crushing them.
The orc warriors couldn’t possibly survive such a terrifying attack, even with their stubborn life force.
A horde of orc warriors would charge forward and perish in less than five minutes. Another group would rush forward before being decimated once more. It was like a resilient rock standing by the shore. No matter how ferocious the waves were, they could only shatter into tiny droplets, leave behind bubbles, and retreat helplessly.
Those who could remain anywhere near the main temple were all orc elites. However, elite orcs were no different than ordinary orcs in front of Great Adept Colin. The corpses of one orc after another littered those ten thousand stone steps, their viscous purple blood gathering into a tiny stream that flowed down the stairway.
While Colin was having the time of his life slaughtering these pigs, he heard Sixth Grade Great Adept Briel’s furious roar ring out in his mind.
“What are you still wasting time there for? Destroy the orc temple! Who knows what those orcs will summon with a little more time…go!”
Briel’s tone sounded incredibly furious. It was obvious that his battle against Garon’s projection wasn’t going well.
Great Adept Colin’s body trembled. He knew he had messed up.
He clapped his hands together, sending out an invisible force shockwave. The few dozen orcs that had gathered in front of him were instantly blown away. He took this opportunity to turn around and promptly charged toward the mountain peak like a bolt of purple lightning.
He stopped himself in front of the stone plaza, looked around, and saw Greem fighting to the death against the gigantic Earth Prophet. The dense, powerful halo radiating from the Earth Prophet kept Greem bound firmly to its side.
Moreover, this giant slab of stone was incredibly tough and resilient. Even Colin wasn’t sure how he would break the enemy down with his offensive power.
Colin didn’t choose to help Greem. Instead, he took a small detour, circling around the Earth Prophet’s Halo of Gravity and heading straight for the temple’s main doors.
The orc petitioners gathered around Great Adept Sala instantly tried to split up their forces to intercept Colin when they saw this. However, they were stopped by Sala, who smiled wickedly and immediately unleashed even more power.
Colin’s body quickly disappeared into the hall, a series of afterimages left behind his silhouette.
“Hahahaha,” Great Adept Sala, who was beyond frustrated with these orc petitioners, couldn’t help but let out a long, brazen laugh. “Just watch as your faith crumbl—”
Before he could finish his words, a dull thud came from within the temple. Great Adept Colin flew out of the building faster than when he had entered.
Judging from his posture and horrified expression, he had not flown out of his own accord. He had been sent flying by something.
What was happening? Could there be more opponents left in the temple!?
Just as the Great Adepts’ expressions turned into shock, an ugly double axe flew out of the hall, catching up to Colin with a howling sound and cleaving him across the chair.
Boom! A muffled boom rang out.
Great Adept Colin’s body abruptly exploded. His body had actually been destroyed by the berserk divine power contained within the axe. Moreover, the wild divine power had even exterminated his soul at the same time his body exploded.
Great Adept Colin had been murdered without even being able to utter a single cry!
Wha…what?
How could that be possible?
A Fifth Grade body-refining adept had been sliced to death with a single slash. That…was simply unbelievable!
Could it be…could it…?
Greem’s heart trembled. This was not good. He immediately prepared to flee.
The large, vicious axe inscribed with ancient runes flew backward. It was guided by a mysterious force and landed right in the hands of a tall orc stepping out of the temple.
The orc was tall and muscular. He wore a full set of crude, black armor. What muscles were exposed outside of the armor bulged violently, the skin covered in all sorts of scars. He had a savage, brutal face and a bone helmet on his head. He was also completely shaved, save for a small braid at the back of his head.
It was this orc, who was no more than five meters tall and who radiated barely any power, that had killed Colin with a single strike.
Greem’s heart pounded wildly the moment he laid eyes on him.
This…this guy looked exactly the same as Garon Arcadas, the orc pantheon’s God of Slaughter.
Greem instantly struck at the Earth Prophet beside him without any hesitation. He couldn’t even be bothered to check the true power of the new enemy.
It couldn’t be helped. The Earth Prophet’s Halo of Gravity firmly locked Greem’s body down to the stone plaza. He couldn’t escape if he didn’t deal with this enemy first.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
All three fire giants rapidly encircled the Earth Prophet, baiting the stone giant into swinging its palm and pulverizing the tiles at its feet. In the short instance the Earth Prophet bent down in his swing, Greem’s actual body had snuck behind it.
A violent breath of flames blew out of Greem’s mouth against the steelrock at the Earth Prophet’s waist. A hole was instantly corroded in the stone armor that could endure Fourth Grade spells. Dirt-yellow light shone from under the armor. That was the actual body of the Earth Prophet– a yellow, lava-like substance.
Greem did not hesitate at all. He immediately unleashed the Critical Wildfire, stored within the Orb of the Fire God, into the Earth Prophet’s body.
The next second, the glowing yellow body of the Earth Prophet became searingly hot as if it had just swallowed a miniature sun. The flames instantly exploded.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Several large explosions could be heard all over the Earth Prophet’s stone body. Chunks of steelrock were sent flying everywhere, and lava began to spill onto the ground.
The Earth Prophet could not endure such a devastating attack. It reared its head and let out a pained howl as flames engulfed its body.
However, even such ferocious Fifth Grade fire magic could only severely injure it. The thing was still alive.
If this had been in the past, Greem would have teleported away and dodged this violent retaliation from his enemy. However, Greem now had his own reasons not to back down with how desperate the situation was.
He traded a punch for a spell!
The fire clone that Greem had left on the spot was smashed to sparks by the Earth Prophet’s fists. Meanwhile, he sent Fiery Reflection into the stone giant’s body before swapping positions.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A cluster of fire glowing with golden light bounced and reflected over and over inside the Earth Prophet’s already tattered body. With every reflection, the ball of fire absorbed a portion of magic energy from its surroundings to enhance its impact. After just a few ricochets, the intensity of the berserk fire had reached 13,000 degrees.
If the Earth Prophet had been unharmed, he might have been able to suppress such a violent fire spell with the protection of its steelrock armor and the aid of the Halo of Gravity.
However, its body was broken and crippled. Even the earth’s origin within him was rapidly leaking away.
The Earth Prophet could no longer stand the abuse under such conditions. The life force quickly faded from its giant body.
Aaaaaaaaah!
The Earth Prophet let out a booming howl before its body crumbled to pieces.
The Halo of Gravity it had emitted also vanished!
After destroying the Earth Prophet with two Fifth Grade fire spells in succession, Greem instantly grabbed the watermelon-sized earth principle crystal from within the rubble. He turned and fled without hesitation, disappearing from the plaza with a single teleportation spell.
While Greem was eliminating the Earth Prophet, the tall orc that had strode out from the temple looked around with his savage eyes. A violent and brutal aura instantly locked onto Greem, Sala, and Rick.
The savage aura within him erupted even more fiercely upon witnessing the scene of the orcs being slaughtered.
A ferocious glint in his eyes shone as he instantly decided on his next target.
Sala!
It couldn’t be helped! After all, there was a whole group of dead and injured orc petitioners laying around Sala.
Even the god couldn’t help becoming furious at the sight of someone slaughtering orcs in front of his temple.
He lifted his right arm, swung the axe, and threw it forward in a single motion.
And so, Great Adept Sala greeted his doom in his own desperate attempt to escape!
Chapter 1496 - Desperation
Supposedly, it shouldn’t have been so easy for Great Adepts to die.
After all, adepts had way too many mysterious spells and magic with which to transfer damage or create substitutes. Even in the face of absolute death, they had various abilities to snatch survival from the jaws of death.
However, none of these were helpful in front of a God of Slaughter.
The ferocious double axe radiating a destructive aura of slaughter seemed to possess the unusual effect of being able to destroy the soul. Every adept the axe struck had their souls extinguished at the same time their bodies blew apart. They could only turn into a bloody sacrifice, screaming and howling in agony as they were wiped out from existence.
Surestrike, Shatter, Soulquell.
Greem could tell that the axe possessed these three principle characteristics just by seeing what happened to his companion. Of course, there were probably a whole series of other principle attributes that he wasn’t privy to as well.
Great Adept Colin had been a body-refining adept with an indestructible body. Yet, even he had been cleaved apart and torn to pieces by a single axe without the ability to resist.
The second unfortunate sacrifice to the God of Slaughter’s wrath was Great Adept Sala.
Great Adept Sala had begun fleeing into the distance the moment he saw what happened to Colin.
Unfortunately, he obviously hadn’t run fast enough for far enough!
The axe cut across the horizon, rending space itself apart as it traveled several kilometers and planted itself in Sala’s back. The magical shields, elementium barrier, special defenses, and even principle protections that Sala had activated around him all popped like bubbles beneath the ancient axe.
Great Adept Sala’s body exploded into pieces the moment the axe hit him. Meanwhile, it devoured his soul before he could even let loose a scream.
Pieces of shredded flesh and torn robes fluttered down from the sky along with fragments of magical equipment and two or three items that still glowed with intense magical light.
Great Adept Sala had died!
The towering orc summoned the axe back to his side and looked around him, instantly locking onto the only two Great Adepts remaining.
Greem and Rick.
As for Sixth Grade Great Adept Briel? He had already escaped into the distance without hesitation the moment the orc appeared.
Meanwhile, Greem and Rick had both been delayed by their opponents; they had yet to make it fifty kilometers away. However, they had both separated and gone in different directions and were quite far away from the main temple at this point.
Once they made it fifty kilometers away from the main temple, they would be out of its radius. Garon Arcadas, who had appeared in his true form, would no longer be able to maintain his power as a true Seventh Grade god by then. He would also have to endure the tremendous suppression of the plane’s principle system.
That was why both Greem and Rick were flying with all they had, desperately trying to make their way past that crucial distance!
Garon, the God of Slaughter, frowned.
Forty-three kilometers and forty-seven kilometers.
The two remaining Great Adepts were already reaching the limit of his range. Judging by their speed, he could only hunt down one of them.
Garon’s gaze swept around and locked onto Greem.
It couldn’t be helped. After all, Greem had suddenly powered up and unleashed a devastating series of attacks before he left. He had actually managed to kill an Earth Prophet in a matter of seconds. An intelligent Fifth Grade Earth Prophet wasn’t much, but the swiftness with which Greem had dispatched the creature had still exposed his overwhelming potential for battle.
Meanwhile, Great Adept Rick had barely inflicted any damage to the dark dragon.
Upon comparison, Seventh Grade God of Slaughter Garon turned his third and final attack upon Greem.
He breathed in and raised his wrist firmly, posturing himself to throw his axe. The double axe instantly cut across space and caught up behind Greem.
Greem felt his blood chill as he sped through the skies of the mountains. The Chip in his mind instantly blared out screeching alarms.
[Warning! Warning! Detecting unusual divine will locking onto Host. Attack will arrive in 1.27 seconds!]
“Can we defend?” Greem quickly conversed with the Chip in his mind.
[It is impossible to defend against the primary divine weapon of a god of this level with the magical defenses and principle powers Host currently possesses. Should the divine weapon make contact with Host, the chances of survival are 0%.]
“Can we escape with the fire clones?”
[Negative!]
“Fire Teleportation?”
[Negative!]
“Can we defend with both the Tome of Corruption and the Orb of the Fire God?”
[Negative!]
“Don’t just tell me what won’t work! Tell me something that can help me survive!”
[Assimilating with the principles!]
“Assimilating with the principles? Have you completely analyzed and deciphered the knowledge required to move through the principles?”
[Principle assimilation and movement 31% deciphered. The amount of knowledge currently possessed is insufficient to support complete principle teleportation. However, it is barely eno
ugh to allow Host to complete limited principle assimilation once. However, forced principle assimilation will inflict Host with severe side effects. Please be cautious!]
“Cautious, my ass. I’m staring death in the face right now. Screw the side effects…now…right bloody now! Do it! Assimilate with the principles!” Greem practically shouted out his last order.
Even though he did not hear anything around him or feel an object approaching, Greem’s soul seemed to have gone berserk. He could faintly sense the arrival of death and even smell the aura of slaughter and savagery on the axe’s blade.
The Tome of Corruption and the Orb of the Fire God within Greem’s body let loose a surge of principle power beyond what he could endure. The energy quickly filled his entire body.
Greem’s form paused for a brief instant and then continued flying into the distance at extraordinary speed the next second.
Garon stood quietly in front of the orc main temple. He paused for a moment and lifted his head. His cruel eyes cut across space and gazed upon a certain place in the distance.
Just there, an insignificant little adept had used some unusual means to escape his divine will. He had vanished for an imperceptible instant.
“Merging yourself with the principles of the plane system to escape my divine will?” A vicious smile appeared on Garon’s ugly face. “You dare try something like before me? Die!”
Forty-seven kilometers away, the double axe that had passed straight through Greem’s image had clearly missed its mark.
Garon let out a grunt as the axe unleashed an overwhelming divine power shockwave. Every principle within several dozen kilometers was torn to pieces.
Meanwhile, Greem, who had forcibly merged with the principles, slowly appeared, bathed in blood. Being forced out of the principle system by the turbulent principle powers had made him endure indescribable damage.
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