Desolate Era

by RWX

  Rumble… an awesome amount of the Dao’s power was being gathered here, with Ning and the rest of the seven guiding it to form the towering, loincloth-clad titan. They simply didn’t have enough time to set up the full formation, as the Sithe would be arriving in nearly half a month. Using the second mode of the Sword Titan was the best they could do.

  “Destroy the sphere of annihilation!” The Sword Titan strode through the air, a greatsword appearing within his hands.

  “Attack!” Ning ordered. Within the Sword Titan, the six Autarchs immediately began to unleash their most powerful attacks. Six massive streams of energy quickly began to course through the Sword Titan’s body, then slowly began to coalesce into one. The Sword Titan lifted up its arms, double-gripping a massive greatsword and then delivering a furious blow towards the shadowy orb before it.

  As the sword chopped out, it destroyed all the different types of energy that were in its path, reducing them to nothingness. This was the Skycleaver stance!

  “It has to break.” Ning and the rest of the six watched hopefully.

  BOOM! The sword smote furiously upon the shadowy orb, which instantly began to twist and distort. The power of this sword was simply too great! The orb was distorted, transforming from being a perfectly round globe into an ovaloid shape. Some cracks actually began to appear at its edges as the sword slashed right through it.

  “Did we succeed?” When Ning and the others saw the black orb elongate and crack, they couldn’t help but feel a sense of wild excitement. But then… their hearts turned cold. The shadowy black orb once more returned to its normal spherical shape, continuing to devour everything around it while the cracks went back to normal.

  “Try again!” Autarch Titanos commanded desperately.

  “Again!” Ning gritted his teeth. He truly didn’t wish to admit defeat!

  Boom! Boom! Boom! The Sword Titan began to strike again and again against the shadowy black orb, each strike filled with such incredible power that the black orb repeatedly cracked apart… but each time, it quickly healed afterwards and then continued to devour away at its surroundings. It wasn’t weakened in the slightest.

  After striking several thousand times, Ning and the others finally gave up. Their hearts were ice-cold. The Sword Titan vanished, revealing the bodies of Ning and the other six. They all stared silently at the shadowy black orb.

  A long silence ensued. Suddenly, Ning spoke out: “We haven’t failed yet.”

  “Eh?” The other six looked at Ning. They had already attacked with all their might. Could it be that Daolord Darknorth had another suggestion?

  “Bolin… ever since you mastered the Samsara Daobirth Essence, I’ve been ruminating on creating a new sword-art,” Ning said. “When we came together to form the Sword Titan, the Skycleaver stance we used was based off a sword-art I created which was meant to use the Space Daobirth Essence, Time Daobirth Essence, Claw Daobirth Essence, Illusion Daobirth Essence, Destruction Daobirth Essence, and Karma Daobirth Essence!”

  “It employs six types of Daobirth Essences… but now, brother Bolin, you have also mastered the Samsara Daobirth Essence. I think I can create an even more powerful set of sword-arts which employs seven different Daobirth Essences, which would make our Sword Titan even more powerful.”

  Titanos, Bolin, and the others were all delighted by this. Right! Their sword-art was based off of using six Daobirth Essences. There was no reason why they couldn’t upgrade it to use seven instead!

  “I already have the rough outline of this sword-art in my mind,” Ning said, “But I’ve still been in the process of perfecting it. Give me enough time to finish it and make it even more powerful!”

  “Alright.”

  “I’ll accelerate time for you.”

  “Take it at your own pace, Darknorth. Don’t try to rush. We still have more than half a month.”

  Titanos and the others instantly worked to assist him. If he was able to create a new sword-art, even if it wasn’t enough to destroy the sphere of annihilation it would still strengthen their Sword Titan and make it more formidable during the battle to come.

  Autarch Skyfeeder took over the responsibility for accelerating time, letting Ning calmly set his mind upon perfecting this sword-art. Ning himself had long ago mastered the Samsara Sword Dao. All he had to do was to link it to Bolin’s Daobirth Essence, which was fairly easy. However, what Ning was trying to do was to perfect this technique and make it even more powerful! He actually had Titanos and the others try the new stance out, then went back to continue working at it.

  Time flowed on, one day after another. The power of this new fusion sword-art grew increasingly mighty. Meanwhile, the avatars of Mogg and Skyfeeder continued to follow Iyerre’s Grassland World, ready to report anything that needed reporting.

  “You still have two more days before Iyerre’s world of grass arrives here,” Mogg said.

  “I’ve already completed the sword-art.” Ning nodded. “I won’t be able to make any improvements unless I’m given another ten thousand years.”

  There were a total of four stances to this fusion sword-art! Their names remained unchanged: Skycleaver stance, Brightcave stance, Dawnmoon stance, and World stance.

  “Now that my Omega Sword Dao is guiding seven different types of Daobirth Essences when using this sword-art, the power has increased by nearly 30% compared to before,” Ning said. Titanos and the others were delighted to hear this. Given how powerful the Sword Titan was, increasing its power by even a tiny bit was extremely difficult. A 30% increase was absolutely incredible! This was primarily due to the fact that the Samsara Daobirth Essence was an extremely powerful Daobirth Essence to begin with, one which empowered the new sword-art tremendously.

  “Let us begin.” The seven exchanged glances, then stared at the distant shadowy orb. They activated the various formation-bases they were carrying, summoning the power of the Chaosverse and converting it to form the loincloth-clad Sword Titan. The Sword Titan hefted a greatsword, once more preparing to unleash its supremely powerful Skycleaver stance! This time, of course, it was the new version of the Skycleaver stance.

  Seven different streams of Daobirth Essence power coursed through the Sword Titan. Ning was able to easily unite the seven streams into a single whole, forming his Omega Sword Dao with their powers.

  “Skycleaver stance.”

  The Sword Titan once more chopped down at the shadowy orb, but this time it was noticeably more powerful than before. Boom! Boom! Boom! The divine sword plunged deep into the shadowy orb, causing a series of explosions to ring out. The black orb began to crack and shatter in many different places as the sword went into the orb and out the other side.

  The black orb looked heavily damaged, but some invisible law once more pulled it back together. It quickly returned to its normal shape and began to once more calmly devour everything around it.

  “Still no permanent damage?” Ning could hardly believe his eyes. They launched another hundred strikes, but the result was the same. Each time, the black orb looked as though it was so heavily damaged that it would most assuredly break apart, but instead it would quickly heal. It was like a globe of water. No matter how much ‘damage’ they caused to it, it would easily reform into a globe once more.

  The Sword Titan vanished. Ning and the other six stared at the black orb in disbelief.

  “Damn,” Ning muttered, gritting his teeth.

  “Hahaha! Oh well.” Autarch Ekong actually began to laugh loudly, a frenzied look in his eyes. “I’ve wanted to have a good fight against the Sithe for ages now. We have so many tools at our disposal, but we’ve never dared to take on the risk of actually using them because we’re afraid to lose. Now? Now, we have no way out. They’ve forced us to stand and fight! Good. Let’s fight then! We’ll risk it all in this battle. I want to see who will be the survivors – the Sithe, or us!”

  “Ekong’s right. Discard all your fears and all your worries and pour everything you have into the next battle.
” The wily old Autarch Titanos began to laugh loudly as well. “I’ve been alive for far too long. I’ve almost forgotten what life used to be like when I was a weak young cultivator who had to experience one life-threatening challenge after another. It has been a long time since I’ve had this sort of feeling where my very truesoul is shivering in anticipation. Let’s do our best and fight them to the bitter end!”

  Ning joined in their laughter, as did Skyfeeder, Bolin, Mogg, and Stonerule. Hah! If there was no way out, they would fight. They’d literally fight the Sithe to the death in this next battle!

  “Gentlemen. It is my honor to be able to battle with you to the bitter end,” the only female Autarch, Autarch Skyfeeder, said with a smile.

  Book 45, Chapter 6 - The Final Battle

  “My friends, I can’t even describe how happy I am to be able to fight alongside all of you in this battle,” Autarch Bolin said with a smile.

  “We’ll fight to the bitter end together.”

  “Haha…”

  “Come, come! I think we need to share some wine before this battle begins.” Autarch Ekong waved his hand, causing an estate to appear before him which was filled with stone tables and chairs. Ji Ning and the others all smiled as they sat down.

  Ning picked up his wine cup, then glanced at his six friends. He felt as though this was almost a dream. He could still clearly remember how he had been reborn from the Netherworld Kingdom into the Ji clan of the Grand Xia, and how he had slowly trained step-by-step until he had reached the apex of the cultivator world. Now, he would stand alongside his six friends and peers, entering into a lethal battle by their sides. This was a battle which would determine the fate of all cultivators!

  If they lost, it would all be for nothing. His friends, his family, and all of civilization would be destined to die.

  “Y’know, I was thinking. Darknorth… should we have your true body stay out of this final battle?” Autarch Titanos suddenly said. All of the other Autarchs nearby were stunned.

  “Not take part?” Ning was stunned as well. “Titanos… are you saying, the rest of you would fight but I wouldn’t?”

  “Your avatar could,” Autarch Titanos said slowly. “Here’s what I’m thinking. We could have your avatar form the Sword Titan with us. Your avatar has 80% of your true power! You are already the strongest of us seven. Your avatar is more than strong enough to merge our powers together. I wager it’ll still be able to keep the Sword Titan at 90% of its full strength.”

  “If we lose, at least your true body would still be alive! So long as you are alive, our civilizations will have a chance to eventually recover.” Autarch Titanos looked at Ning. The other five began to hesitate, considering his words.

  “If my true body doesn’t get involved in this fight, it’ll have a major impact on our combat prowess,” Ning said. “Both my avatar and myself will take part in this fight, guiding the six of you in forming the Sword Titan! If my avatar guides your avatars in forming a giant, it’ll have roughly 50% to 60% of the the strength of the main one.”

  “We’ll have one Sword Titan and one Avatar Titan. That way, we’ll be able to unleash the maximum amount of power possible. If my true body doesn’t take part, we’ll only have a single weakened Sword Titan,” Ning said.

  The Avatar Titan would be using the same type of formation. The other six avatars were only at half power while Ning’s avatar was at 80% power, but the Avatar Titan would remain a powerful tool in this fight. It would be even stronger than the giant sword they had used in the Grassland World.

  “But if we lose, we’ll have lost all hope,” Titanos said hesitantly.

  “Brother Titanos!” Ning said sharply, “Are you still thinking about a ‘backup plan’ at a time like this? Do you really think that I can reverse the situation all by myself if I’m the only one to survive? Even if I do eventually become an Omega Autarch, by then I would’ve had to watch as the Sithe bound our Chaosverse and Iyerre became a Chaoslord. In the end, I would still die!”

  “We should put everything we have into this fight instead! We’ll use both the Sword Titan and the Avatar Titan to maximize our chances.” Ning stared at Autarch Titanos.

  “Titanos, I agree with Darknorth. This time, screw the backup plans,” Autarch Ekong said.

  “Let’s fight.” Autarch Skyfeeder was by nature a fearless woman. She had previously been planning to attempt to bind the Chaosverse, even though the others who had tried all died!

  “I agree that we should do everything we can to win this battle.” Autarch Bolin, Autarch Mogg, and Autarch Stonerule all turned to look at Titanos.

  At their level, life and death mattered very little. They actually approved of Ning throwing himself into danger, because they had to consider what was good for the whole of civilization. They wanted to live… but they didn’t want to live a life that was worse than death! They didn’t fear death… so long as their deaths were meaningful!

  Autarch Titanos hesitated a moment, swayed by the rebukes of his six colleagues. He then let out a self-mocking chuckle: “All my life, I’ve laid schemes upon schemes and have always had a backup plan ready. All of you are right. Even if Darknorth survives by himself, the chance of him being able to reverse a defeat here is minuscule. Him leaving would lower the strength of our forces. It’s better for us to fight them to the bitter end.”

  “That’s more like it! How miserable would I feel, watching you all perish while I survived by myself?” Ning lifted up his tankard of wine and poured a cup for Titanos. “Come, Titanos, come! I’m going to punish you with some wine.”

  “I accept, I accept.” Titanos immediately took the wine cup.

  The seven had already decided to do their utmost in this upcoming battle. They no longer felt any worries, and so they happily drank together while awaiting Iyerre’s arrival.

  “Iyerre will be arriving in two hours,” Autarch Mogg said suddenly.

  “We still have two hours left?” Ning and the others exchanged glances.

  “Let’s go out and get ready to welcome these outsiders.” Titanos rose to his feet, as did Ning and the others.

  Whoosh! They all put away their respective estates and flew out together, blinking out of the black tower. This time, Ning brought his avatar out alongside him. The Annihilation Hive once more exploded with power and began to generate that incredible sucking pour, but the Sword Titan formed from the seven Autarchs was able to easily pass out of it.

  Rumble… the Annihilation Hive began to furiously devour the energies of the outside world at its previous pace as a vortex once more appeared around it. Ning and the Autarchs, however, simply ignored it. Although it was a formidable weapon, it needed to devour energy for an extremely long period of time to do real damage. A few weeks wouldn’t make much of a difference. Not even a century would have a real impact.

  Thus, for now they would ignore the Annihilation Hive and focus their efforts on the Sithe. Neither side was going to shirk away from this battle! Victory or defeat would be determined very soon. The winner would rule this Chaosverse. The loser would never be able to rise again.

  Whoosh. Whoosh. Two figures suddenly warped over to them. It was the avatars of Autarch Mogg and Autarch Skyfeeder.

  “All our avatars are here. We’re ready to fight now. A pity that we lost one of the Golden Bridges of Freedom. Otherwise, we’d be at absolute maximum power,” Autarch Titanos said with a chuckle.

  They quickly separated into two squads, both led by Ning. The seven true bodies stood together on one side, while the seven avatars stood next to each other on the other side. Fourteen Autarch-class combatants were ready to do battle.

  “It’s all my fault for losing that Golden Bridge.” Autarch Bolin shook his head.

  “You aren’t to blame. Those things simply required far too many precious ingredients. I did everything I could but was only able to create seven of them. Sometimes, I can’t help but think to myself about what a coincidence it all was. We originally had an extra, but Dark
north rose just in the nick of time to round out the seventh,” Titanos said with a sigh.

  “To be able to battle alongside my six predecessors is Darknorth’s honor,” Ning said with a smile.

  The seven of them stood in empty space, their hearts at peace. They had already cast aside all their worries. At a time like this, worrying wouldn’t make any difference. They simply had to do everything they could to win.

  If they died, all of civilization would die with them, but there was nothing for that. The seven of them had truly done all they could.

  ……

  The ovaloid sphere continued to warp through space. Atop its outermost layer of grayish clouds stood a tall, gray-robed man who was slightly balding. His eyes seemed to contain the cosmos within them as he calmly stared at the empty space before him.

  “It is finally time for the last battle.” Like the cultivators, Iyerre knew that he had reached the most critical moment in his entire life. He would either soar to the heavens and become a Lord of Chaos, becoming the most invincible figure in all the Infinite Void aside from his master… or he would be defeated and never have this opportunity again, even if he managed to survive.

  He hadn’t worried about the sphere of annihilation being destroyed, because he knew just how marvelous an object it was. There were only two ways by which it could be destroyed. The first way was to overpower it. As an Omega Autarch, outside of this foreign Chaosverse he himself would just barely be able to summon enough power to destroy it. The second way was to comprehend the apocalyptic mysteries it contained, at which point one would be able to easily deconstruct it.

  Neither Autarchs nor Omega Emperors would be capable of such a task.

  “This realm truly is a mesmerizing one,” Iyerre murmured. “This realm and all things within it should be mine to rule. These weaklings have continued to bar my path. Now, I shall sweep them all away.”

  Whoosh. The Grassland World warped through spacetime one final time. By the time it reappeared, Iyerre could now see the enormous Annihilation Hive off in the distance, surrounded by that even-larger vortex which was destroying and devouring all things around it.