by RWX
On one side was Hegemon Thunderstar and his realmship, along with the four surviving Black Emperors. On the other side was Ning’s party and the three newly arrived Hegemons. All of them stared, stunned, as the battle progressed between Flamewing and the crazed Lord Wulf.
“Damn, damn, DAMN! AAAAAAARGH!” Lord Wulf let out an infuriated bellow which rang out in every direction, his voice filled with rage, resentment, and humiliation. He had never been as angry as he was right now! He had launched countless attacks, but he wouldn’t be able to continue fighting like this. This was because the energy stores in his body would begin to be exhausted if he kept this up, at which point he would be in mortal danger.
“Daolord Darknorth, I won’t forget this. I won’t forget this!” Lord Wulf turned to glare at the distant white-robed youth, his eyes filled with terrifying hatred and malice.
“Let’s go!” Lord Wulf immediately began to flee.
* * *
Book 38, Chapter 17 - Pursuit
“Oh, NOW you want to flee?” By now, the Flamewing God had been thoroughly enraged by Lord Wulf as well. Its wings fluttered, sending it soaring through the void at terrifying speeds as it instantly caught up to the fleeing Lord Wulf. Flamewing once more sent its clawed paws against Lord Wulf: “So you think you can just attack and run as you please?”
BOOM! A titanic explosion rang out. Lord Wulf remained undamaged, and the warblades in his hands seemed to spin like circles of light. He himself arced outwards, borrowing from the momentum of the shockwave to continue fleeing. His body was so tough that it was completely undamaged.
Lord Wulf continued to flee, while Flamewing pressed the attack.
“Chase him down, Flamewing!” Ning ordered mentally.
“Leave it to me. This guy thinks he can just flee whenever he wants? It wont be that easy!” Flamewing chased furiously, giving vent to his rage.
“Let’s follow them!” Ning waved his hand, producing his realmship. Ning, Azurefiend, Emperor Waveshift, and Whitethaw all flew into it.
“Darknorth, let us watch as well!” Hegemon Brightshore flew over, followed by Hegemon Netherlily and Hegemon Windrain. They were extremely interested in watching a battle between Otherverse Lord-level combatants, especially since they themselves were in no danger. The brief part of the battle they had seen earlier had already caused them to learn a few things. Without question, the mysterious and terrifying beast which had completely dominated the Golden Emperor had to be on Ning’s side.
“Alright, let’s go together.” Ning didn’t refuse them. And so Ning, Emperor Waveshift, Azurefiend, Brightshore, Windrain, Netherlily, and Whitethaw all rode the realmship as it chased after the two combatants. Although in raw speed alone Ning was unable to make the realmship move as fast as the Flamewing God, Lord Wulf was much much slower than both of them. As the Flamewing God continued to hunt after and beat down upon Lord Wulf, Ning and the others were able to keep up with ease.
“Waveshift!”
“Long time no see, Waveshift.” Hegemon Brightshore and the other two Hegemons all greeted Emperor Waveshift. Like them, Emperor Waveshift was a native of the Flamedragon Realmverse; he had naturally met all three of them long ago. They chatted amongst themselves as they watched the distant, high-level battle occurring before them.
“Darknorth, is this creature one of those legendary ‘Chaos Primordials’?” Hegemon Brightshore soon asked the question he wanted to ask the most. The nearby Hegemon Windrain and Hegemon Netherlily were both curious as well.
Ning nodded. “It is indeed a Chaos Primordial. Its name is the ‘Flamewing God’.”
“No wonder.”
“I knew it. Only the legendary Chaos Primordials could possibly possess such a level of power.” Hegemon Brightshore and the others were enlightened. Although they had their guesses, they had never actually seen a Chaos Primordial before. Those were legendary creatures which were never seen.
“Incredible, simply incredible! Flamewing God, a Chaos Primordial, is battling against the Icepeak Army. It must have been tamed, right?” Hegemon Windrain asked.
Hegemon Netherlily turned to look at Emperor Waveshift. A smile on her face, she said, “Waveshift, did you tame this Chaos Primordial?”
All of them felt amazement and awe. The legendary Chaos Primordials were incredibly rare, and taming one of the creatures was something out of the myths! Still, for Emperor Waveshift to accomplish this was shocking but believable to them. Emperor Waveshift was often invited and feted by the most supreme of major powers, who asked him to accompany them to some incredibly mysterious places. It was believable for him to have been lucky enough to tame a Chaos Primordial on one of those trips.
“I don’t have that sort of ability.” Emperor Waveshift shook his head. “It was Darknorth who tamed it.”
“Darknorth?” Hegemon Brightshore and the others all turned to stare at Ning in disbelief. For a moment, none of them knew what to say.
Daolord Darknorth was an absolute monster! They had never heard of such a terrifying Daolord. It would be understandable if a powerful Emperor like the Lonely King or Hegemon Windrain had tamed a Chaos Primordial, but a Daolord?! This was truly miraculous.
“Nothing more than lucky.” Ning calmly watched as the battle proceed, his gaze focused on the enemy realmship that was following from behind like a streak of lightning. “That realmship really is fast. It flies far more quickly than even my own realmship. I can sense from its sudden bursts of speed that its even faster than Flamewing.”
“Hegemon Thunderstar became a Hegemon via the Dao of Lightning. He’s extremely skilled in speed, and when he is in command of a realmship he’s able to more perfectly draw out its full power than many, allowing it to move much faster,” the nearby Emperor Waveshift said. “Thus, personal insights truly do matter. Different treasures in the hands of different major powers will be capable of unleashing different levels of might.”
Ning nodded.
……
Whoosh. Hegemon Thunderstar kept his realmship at the margins of the battle, hiding far away and watching as the Flamewing God continued its pursuit.
“Thunderstar, hurry up and go rescue our general!” the other four Black Emperors urged desperately.
“There’s no way for me to save him.” Hegemon Thunderstar shook his head. “That Chaos Primordial is too fast. Although I’m skilled in flying, my speed still isn’t even close to being on par with that creature’s. Even though I’m in command of a realmship which is famous for its speed, I’m still just slightly faster than it. The problem is, your general Lord Wulf is far too slow, even slower than me flying normally! The Chaos Primordial continues to circle around him. Once I go nearby, I’ll probably be captured by it as well… and once it captures us, we’re doomed.”
“Ugh.”
“Damn.” The four Black Emperors were utterly enraged as well. They had suffered severe mental and physical blows from this, but they knew just how terrifying the Flamewing God was. It had slain five of their comrades in the blink of an eye, after all! If they had been just a heartbeat slower, they would’ve died as well.
“Don’t worry. I can tell that Lord Wulf is more than capable of keeping himself alive,” Hegemon Thunderstar said.
“Yes, the general has stopped launching all those crazy attacks. If all he needs to do is keep himself alive, he’s able to dramatically lessen the amount of energy he uses up. He’ll be able to keep fighting for an extremely long period of time.”
“Although that Chaos Primordial is very strong, its insights are too weak. Its attacks are all quite clumsy, making it easy for the general to stay alive.” All four of the Black Emperors nodded.
However, they also knew that Lord Wulf was only able to keep himself safe thanks to the fact that he had an Otherverse Lord’s combat prowess! Black Emperors like them? Yes, the Chaos Primordial might have an extremely low level of insight into the Dao, but it would still crush them with contemptuous ease. No amount of insights would be enough i
n the face of such an overwhelming disparity in power.
……
Boom!
Slash!
Whoosh!
Lord Wulf was being battered around like a ball. Each time, he was able to exquisitely time his defenses to make use of the momentum generated by the Flamewing God’s attacks to flee, allowing him to use up just a small amount of his energy even though he was sent flying repeatedly. Lord Wulf remained quite calm, and he continued to pay close attention to the realmship following behind them. “Daolord Darknorth. I won’t forget about this. Just wait and see.”
Time flowed on, with the pursuit lasting for tens of thousands of years. Ning continued to pursue the two in his realmship, but the frown on his face was beginning to deepen.
He was continuing the pursuit because he didn’t wish to give up the chance to kill a Golden Emperor. His Chaos Primordial was born with tremendous karmic blessings and had a virtually indestructible body as well as unearthly amounts of strength with it replenished incredibly fast. This was why the Sithe had chosen to use it as a power source for the Jadefire Realm! Golden Emperors, however, replenished their energy stores much more slowly. Ning had been eagerly awaiting the sight of Lord Wulf exhausting his energy stores, at which point he would probably perish.
Alas, his foe was no fool. Lord Wulf had ceased his frenzied attacks and was instead borrowing from the momentum of Flamewing’s own strikes. As a result, he was keeping energy expenditures low enough that he was able to replenish whatever he used up, allowing him to resist for an extremely long period of time.
“Its been tens of thousands of years, but Lord Wulf remains able to defend with ease.” Ning frowned. “It seems clear that his energy expenditure rates are below his replenishment rates.”
“Come back, Flamewing.” Ning finally issued the order.
“GWAR!” Flamewing let out a final, proud roar within the Great Dark. For it, pursuing an opponent for tens of thousands of years was nothing. It could spend an entire chaos cycle just taking a nap!
The fleeing Lord Wulf was briefly startled. Moments later, he realized that the Flamewing God had finally ceased its pursuit. Only then did Lord Wulf turn to fly towards Hegemon Thunderstar’s realmship.
Swoosh. He quickly flew into the realmship, which then sped up dramatically and transformed into a dazzling streak of electric light and disappeared into the Great Dark.
Ning quietly stared into the darkness. The nearby Emperor Waveshift said, “In terms of energy stores, Chaos Primordials vastly outstrip Otherverse Lords. Alas, its insights into the Dao are too low-level. It is like a child, capable of just the most basic forms of combat! Thus, all of its overwhelming power is of no use; it’s only able to suppress, not kill, Otherverse Lords in combat. The legends say that there has never been an Otherverse Lord or a Golden Emperor who has perished to a Chaos Primordial.”
Ning nodded. “It does not make efficient use of its power. The Sithe were able to take all of its terrifying energy to set up the Jadefire Realm, then transform it into a ‘Decimatus Wave’ which could kill Otherverse Lords with ease.”
If Flamewing had reached Ning’s level of insights into the Dao, it would be able to kill Golden Emperors with ease. Alas, its insights into the Dao were negligibly low, and it possessed just the most basic of animalistic instincts. All it knew was the most basic forms of attack.
“A pity that we had to let that Golden Emperor escape,” Azurefiend mumbled.
“We can’t chase after it any longer. If we did, then we’d be in trouble once the Lonely King commanded the rest of the Icepeak Army to come and reinforce them,” Emperor Waveshift said. “By then, we’d have no choice but to hide behind the Flamewing God’s protection.”
* * *
Book 38, Chapter 18 - Two Competing Sides
Ji Ning nodded. The entire Icepeak Army had a total of four Golden Emperors, with the most powerful being the Lonely King due to his possession of multiple Sithe war machines. He had destroyed even otherverses with those machines! The Flamewing God was all by itself, after all; it would be very hard for it to fight that many people at once. If it had to protect others as well, the only way for it to do so would be for them to hide within its estate-world as it fought.
Of course, Ning could’ve ordered for the Flamewing God to charge straight into the Lonely King’s base. In other words, if this battle truly got out of hand it wouldn’t be good for anyone involved.
Whoosh. Flamewing transformed back into a ruddy-faced fatty and re-entered the realmship. “That was a good fight! Its been ages since I’ve had the chance to fight like that. Whew!” Flamewing was quite delighted with itself. “That Lord Wolf or Wolfe or whatever, he sure can take a beating! I can’t even count the number of times I whacked him, but I just couldn’t put him down.”
Hegemon Brightshore, Hegemon Netherlily, Hegemon Windrain, and Azurefiend all stared at the fatty with a look of some dread. This harmless-looking man was capable of butchering Hegemons with ease when he fought. Even Otherverse Lords would be completely dominated, albeit still capable of staying alive.
“And who are these three?” Flamewing glanced at Hegemon Brightshore and the other two, then licked its lips. “Master, should I eat them?”
“Don’t!” Hegemon Brightshore and the others were badly frightened by that offhand comment.
“They are my friends, Flamewing. Stop causing trouble,” Ning immediately said.
“Oh.” Flamewing nodded, then casually slouched over a nearby chair. It then waved its hand, causing some food to appear which it began to munch down on.
“Chaos Primordials truly are exceptional!” Hegemon Brightshore let out a relieved breath. All of them unconsciously moved closer towards Ning, wanting to keep a safe distance away from the Flamewing God.
“My horizons have been expanded after seeing that battle,” Hegemon Windrain said with a sigh. “I’ve often heard of how terrifying the battles between Otherverse Lords can be, but I’ve never witnessed one myself. Experts on that level rarely fight, after all! This was the very first time, and it truly was an incredible sight. They really do completely surpass us in power.”
Ning nodded. He had also been stunned by this recent fight. The Flamewing God’s flames alone would’ve been enough to roast him to death, while the Golden Emperors lived up to their reputation; Flamewing had unleashed everything it had but remained unable to harm Lord Wulf.
Ning was slowly beginning to understand that Flamewing had slightly more attack power than Otherverse Lords, but wasn’t capable of actually killing them! In terms of defensive strength, however, Flamewing was completely indestructible, and its strength was nearly limitless as well.
The Lonely King’s Sithe war machines allowed him to actually slay Otherverse Lords! And yet, he still wouldn’t be able to harm Flamewing in the slightest, and his defensive strength was merely on par with other Golden Emperors. Most importantly of all, he was unable to fight an extended battle. Much like how Realmslord Windgrace would expend an enormous amount of energy with each activation of the Blacksun, the Lonely King’s Sithe war machines also consumed a terrifying amount of energy.
Thus… even though some major powers clearly had greater attack power than a Chaos Primordial, they still remained completely unable to harm those creatures. Flamewing could slaughter all of the Lonely King’s subordinates with impunity, and the Lonely King would be able to do nothing but watch.
This battle truly had been quite stunning for everyone involved. Ji Ning, Azurefiend, Brightshore, Windrain, Netherlily… they were all Hegemonic figures, and today they realized how terrifying the higher-level Otherverse Lords were. The others were also envious of the fact that Ning had actually managed to tame a Chaos Primordial.
……
“Damnit.”
Multiple figures were scattered throughout the realmship. All of them were silent, and the golden humanoid was the first to speak and disrupt the deathly silence.
Lord Wulf stood there, his eyes c
old and filled with murder. The air around him seemed to have frozen solid. He had never suffered a humiliating defeat like today’s.
“General?” The other four looked at Lord Wulf.
“We definitely cannot just let things end here.” Lord Wulf gritted his teeth. “We have to invite his Majesty to help out.”
……
Whoooooosh. An endless aura of cold emanated out to cover the surrounding void.
A giant iceberg was hanging in the middle of the void, and the iceberg was filled with frozen mountain peaks. A figure was levitating in the air above the peak of one of those mountains.
This figure was seated on a giant levitating silver throne and dressed in beautiful silver robes. His hands, his neck, his face, and the other exposed parts of his body were all golden! The silver-robed golden humanoid sat there atop his throne, his arms resting against the throne’s armrest. A blood-red gemstone was affixed to the middle of his forehead like a third eye, and it brimmed with might.
This man was staring into the distant void silently.
Everyone in the Icepeak Army knew that the Lonely King would often sit there by himself and stare off into the void. The Lonely King always had a cold look on his face, a look that inspired terror in those who saw him. With but a thought, he could rescind the Golden Emperor and Black Emperor bodies of his subordinates, then give them over to others. Thus, all of the soldiers of the Icepeak Army were filled with dread towards him. They were terrified of incurring his displeasure.
The only time he ever revealed the hint of a smile was when he was engaged in battle and slaughter.
“Majesty.” A gray-robed figure flew over, then bowed respectfully.