Desolate Era

by RWX

  However, the fourteen figures standing here were even more noticeable than the vortex of destruction. Ning and his peers stood side-by-side, while the seven avatars did the same.

  The fourteen calmly watched as that ovaloid object flew through space towards them. The only person standing on the surface of the ovaloid object was Iyerre, and he smiled thinly when he saw the fourteen. He swept his gaze across them, then let out a chuckle which echoed throughout spacetime: “No more running? No more hiding?”

  “There’s nowhere to run,” Autarch Titanos said.

  “We’ll give you what you want. We’re going to fight you to the death.” Ning smiled.

  “Iyerre, I hope you don’t piss yourself when you see our real power,” Autarch Ekong said with a laugh.

  “I think he probably will piss himself,” Autarch Bolin smirked.

  Ning and the others all smiled or laughed as they spoke. Iyerre wasn’t angered by this. He simply smiled back and nodded. “You natives are quite brave.”

  Book 45, Chapter 7 - Doll

  The two sides stared at each other from far. They seemed relaxed, but the atmosphere was already beginning to tense up.

  “Hmph. Talking won’t solve anything. Come and stop my Grassland World, if you dare,” Iyerre said, then sank into the gray clouds and vanished. At the same time, the ovaloid object transformed into a streak of light and shot towards the vast behemoth hive.

  Ji Ning and the others traded glances.

  “Iyerre vastly surpasses us in terms of insight. Now that he’s personally in control of the Grassland World, no formation we can use would be able to slow it down.” Autarch Titanos smiled. “The Grassland World can enter the Annihilation Hive with ease, protecting it and allowing it to continue devouring our Chaosverse’s energies. The only way to stop it is to go inside of it!”

  “Charge into the Grassland World and break it apart.” Autarch Bolin nodded slightly.

  “That’s the only option. Gentlemen, let’s do this.” Ning laughed.

  “We’ll have to trouble you to lead us in this fight, Darknorth. We’ll need your guidance for the Sword Titan and the Avatar Titan,” Autarch Stonerule said.

  “I can serve as the leader, but I’ll need all of your support.”

  “Let’s go.”

  “Let’s do this.” Ning and the others shared a few quick words, then began to make their moves.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! The seven Autarchs and their seven avatars began to simultaneously call upon the power of the Chaosverse, gathering it around them to form vortexes of energy that quickly transformed into a pair of towering titans! Both titans were nearly nude and clad only in fur loin-cloths, but one had a slightly more powerful aura than the other.

  The Sword Titan and the Avatar Titan advanced side-by-side towards the ovaloid object.

  ……

  Iyerre appeared out of nowhere within the palace hidden deep within the Grassland World. Flanking him was the silver-robed woman and the two men, while below him stood the Sithe Exalts and the three Autarch-class void dwellers.

  “Vilesky, you three come over here to the center,” Iyerre instructed.

  The three Autarch-class void dwellers exchanged puzzled glances, then nervously advanced to the center of the palace. The cyclopean bear, the red-eyed white-furred humanoid, and the tentacled stormcloud harbored distrust towards the Sithe, but unfortunately they were much weaker than Iyerre. There was nothing they could do! In the Infinite Void they were weaker than Iyerre, and even here in the Grassland World they were still weaker than Iyerre.

  “Those native cultivators are about to attack. This shall be the final battle.” Iyerre glanced down at the three void dwellers, then smiled: “I’ll need you three to be prepared to make sacrifices for our victory.”

  “Just tell us what you need us to do. We’ll do everything in our power,” the three responded respectfully.

  “Excellent.” Iyerre nodded. “What I need is for the three of you to offer me your lives.”

  Surprise appeared in the eyes of the cyclopean bear and the other two, only to be quickly replaced by utter terror. Suddenly, nine violet-gold chains appeared in the area around them. Each chain moved in an abstruse and profound manner, and they howled through the air as they lashed out at the three Autarch-class void dwellers.

  “Iyerre, what the hell are you doing?!”

  “Didn’t you promise to give us our freedom if we helped you?”

  “Why are you attacking us?!”

  The three void dwellers tried to fight back, but now that Iyerre was personally controlling the violet-gold chains, the void dwellers were vastly outclassed in both power and technique. The violet-gold chains immediately began to land brutal blows on them, causing their bodies to explode. The chains then quickly wrapped around their life-cores.

  The nearby Sithe Exalts all watched in shocked silence. None of them dared to say a word. They knew how ruthless Iyerre was. To him, anyone and everyone was but a pawn to further his goals. The ‘promises’ those three Autarch-class void dwellers had believed in were nothing more than jokes!

  “Give you your freedom?” Iyerre stared down at them, his eyes flickering coldly. “Did you three idiots really think you were qualified to negotiate terms with me? If it wasn’t for the fact that I had a use for you, I never would’ve let you remain alive for this long.” Iyerre then reached out with his right hand, producing three adorably-shaped black dolls. The three black dolls flew out to hover directly above the center of the palace.

  Hiss. Hiss. Hiss. The shattered remnants of the void dwellers’ bodies began to fly towards the black dolls. Even their life-cores, still entangled by those chains, began to fly towards them.

  “No…!”

  “No… but… no!”

  The three Autarch-class void dwellers suddenly felt a sensation of infinite terror. Those ordinary looking dolls were exerting lethal amounts of gravitational attraction, causing their life-cores to uncontrollably fly towards them. Their splattered bits of blood and flesh were also flying towards the black dolls, and as soon as they touched the dolls they were swallowed up with a hiss.

  “Iyerre, you’ll definitely fail. You’ll fail!!!” a life-core with the illusion of a cyclopean bear inside screamed frantically.

  “You’ll die! The cultivators will kill you all!” The life-core which was filled with an illusion of a tentacled stormcloud was struggling and braying as well.

  “Damn you, Iyerre! You are shameless!” the phantom of the red-eyed, white-furred beast bellowed.

  The three life-cores flew towards the three black dolls, which effortlessly devoured them as well as the flesh and blood from their corpses.

  Iyerre couldn’t help but secretly feel amazed by this. “Master’s skills in artifice are simply incredible. Those Autarch-class void dwellers might be foolish, but their bodies are incredibly sturdy. It is their bodies which gave them Autarch levels of power, but the dolls were able to devour them with ease. I may also be an Omega Autarch, but I’m far from being Master’s equal when it comes to artifice.”

  His master was a Lord of Chaos. Although they were both Omega Autarchs, Iyerre felt that his master remained superior to him in many different areas!

  It was much like how Bolin, Titanos, Mogg, and the others were all Autarchs but shared different insights and were at different levels of power. There was indeed a great difference in power between Iyerre and his Master. The creation of the Annihilation Hive and the Grassland World had only been possible because his master had provided him guidance from behind the scenes. As for the black dolls, his master had personally created these things.

  Whoosh! The three black dolls floating in midair suddenly began to dramatically expand in size, transforming into a trio of towering black scaled beasts which now lay on the ground. They pulsed with auras of power but didn’t move in the slightest.

  “Separate into three squads as I previously instructed.” Iyerre glanced at his other subordinates. The silver-robed woman,
the black-robed man, and the red-robed man immediately acknowledged the order while the many Sithe Exalts quickly took up positions behind them.

  “From now on, each squad will be in charge of controlling one of these machine warbeasts,” Iyerre said. “Although each has devoured the full power of an Autarch-class void dweller, it will only be able to fight at peak power for roughly one hour. Thus, we must achieve victory as soon as possible.”

  “Understood,” the silver-robed woman and the other two said. They had known all along that this was going to happen. Indeed, the reason why Iyerre had invited them to take part in this invasion was for them to operate the machine warbeasts. Ordinary Exalts were a bit too weak to truly unleash the potential of these things in battle. Each of the three would control one, with the other Exalts providing assistance.

  “Now go,” Iyerre commanded.

  Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!!! The silver-robed woman and the others quickly flew inside the enormous machine warbeasts and took control of them. This was a major trump card which their Lord of Chaos had bestowed upon Iyerre.

  “GWAAAAAR!” The three black warbeasts raised their heads and howled. Their auras were actually stronger than those of the Autarch-class void dwellers, because the machine warbeasts were burning up all of their power at a rapid pace while holding nothing back. They could also attack with marvelous techniques; they weren’t nearly as clumsy as those void dwellers were!

  “They are coming.” Iyerre raised his head to stare towards the skies. He could see two towering giants wielding divine swords chop through the grayish clouds as though the clouds were nothing more than rotted wood. The two titans charged downwards, easily piercing through the layers of clouds.

  “Follow my orders.” A savage look appeared on Iyerre’s face. “Each of you can only fight for an hour, so we need to do everything we can to annihilate them during that period of time! This is the Grassland World, a battlefield of our choosing. We’re definitely going to win. Now go! Kill these cultivators!”

  “Kill!” Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh. The three black warbeasts quickly warped through space and disappeared from the temple.

  As for Iyerre, his eyes were blazing as he barked, “Quintessence, ignite!” Instantly, the quintessence core located deep within the Grassland World once more began to erupt with power, filling every inch of the entire world with tremendous might. The battle had just begun, but everyone was already preparing to fight like a madman!

  Iyerre disappeared from the palace, going forth to face his foes.

  Book 45, Chapter 8 - World of Liberation

  The Sword Titan and the Avatar Titan both continued to charge downwards. Whoosh! Whoosh! The clouds had become much sturdier now that the quintessence had been ignited, but before the might of Ji Ning’s Sword Titan and Avatar Titan they remained unspeakably fragile.

  Sword-light flashed as they pierced straight through the clouds, charging all the way down to the second layer of clouds. Right at this moment, they all suddenly sensed danger.

  “Eh?” Ning was the leader of this formation and was constantly on guard for any possible movements. Suddenly, three enormous black warbeasts appeared from the clouds nearby. They looked much like armor-clad apes, but they each had a pair of curved horns on their heads. Their knees were bent into a half-stooped position, and they stared intently at the Sword Titan and the Avatar Titan.

  “Where the hell did these three come from?” Autarch Ekong sent mentally. “All of them seem dangerous.”

  “This is probably one of the trump cards the Sithe have been hiding the entire time. Now that the last battle has begun, they no longer see a need to hide themselves,” Titanos sent back. “These three beasts have odd auras. Be careful, Darknorth.”

  “Alright.” Ning nodded.

  “Attack!”

  “Die, cultivators!” The three warbeasts attacked simultaneously, first surrounding the nearby Avatar Titan. The Avatar Titan lifted up his twin swords, ready to meet their attacks.

  The furious claw-strikes of the warbeasts caused the very heavens to darken as they lashed out with overwhelming power towards the Avatar Titan. In turn, the Avatar Titan swept out with his right hand, generating an ephemeral streak of sword-light in the air which struck out at the warbeast. Whoosh! The sword-light immediately retracted, while the warbeast simply howled and continued to press the attack.

  “These three machine warbeasts are extremely powerful.” Ning and the others were all shocked. “They’re actually able to fight our Avatar Titan to a standstill. Our sword-arts will only be enough to hold off two of them at most.”

  “Die!” The three warbeasts fought with uncommon ferocity. Clearly, they wanted to destroy this weaker-looking titan as soon as they could.

  Whoosh! The nearby Sword Titan had already charged over, sending an awesome stream of sword-light slashing through the air with unstoppable force. One of the warbeasts immediately used both of its paws to block this attack head-on. Both combatants had extremely marvelous techniques, but an explosion rang out as soon as the paws struck against the horizontal sword-strike. The warbeast was sent flying backwards, and it only managed to catch its footing after flying a million kilometers backwards. Then, it once more charged over.

  “It is extremely strong, and its scales are just as tough as the black tower which houses the sphere of annihilation. There’s no way to injure it at all.” Ning was secretly alarmed.

  Clang! Clang! Clang!!! A series of clanking sounds could be heard as one violet-gold chain after another began to appear. They were like great serpents which blotted out the skies, emanating auras of awesome power as they swept out towards the weaker Avatar Titan and sought to destroy it.

  “The chains aren’t that dangerous.” Ning didn’t worry too much about them at all.

  The three black warbeasts and the nine violet-gold chains continued to furiously assault the Avatar Titan, but the Avatar Titan and the Sword Titan fought alongside each other. The Sword Titan was especially mighty, with each of its blows sending the black warbeasts flying with ease and making it impossible for them to gain a true advantage over the Avatar Titan. The warbeasts truly were rather troublesome, as their techniques were brilliant and they were completely impervious to damage.

  “Eh?” Ning, Titanos, and the others suddenly sensed a new threat approaching. They hurriedly turned to look towards the skies, only to see the figure of Iyerre appear. Iyerre’s robes were fluttering around him, and his body was covered by an awesome aura of power formed from the energies released by the ignited quintessence core. He was currently diving downwards head first, his hands folded in a prayer position before him. An absolutely dazzling stream of golden light was emanating from between his hands, preparing to spread outwards.

  Omnipresent… light.

  It almost instantly illuminated the entire Grassland World. The light was blinding, and it weighed down heavily upon both the Sword Titan and the Avatar Titan.

  “Die!” Iyerre changed his stance, pulling back his left hand while pushing out with his right. He had once used this technique against Mogg, but now that he was using the ignited quintessence core’s power this strike was now much stronger than before. When fighting Mogg, he had to spend quite a bit of time to accumulate the amount of energy necessary. This time, he was quite fast.

  “Iyerre isn’t all that powerful, but he’s at such a high level of insight that he can employ his energies to terrifying effect.” Ning immediately made the Sword Titan to slice upwards with a sword, blocking Iyerre’s downwards palm.

  BOOM! This unfathomably powerful palm crashed head-on against the all-encompassing sword.

  Iyerre staggered a few steps backwards, a frown on his face: “This formation-giant is incredibly strong. Darknorth is making perfect use of these native cultivators’ powers.”

  “Hmph.” The Sword Titan had been able to block Iyerre with ease. Even when Iyerre was using his most powerful strike, he was only 30% more powerful than the machine warbeasts. It wasn’t enough
to threaten the Sword Titan.

  “Light!” Boom! Iyerre began to glow with even more dazzling light. The light was everywhere, filling the entire world with an iridescent glow. What worried Ning the most… was that he could no longer find Iyerre! After releasing that blast of infinite light, Iyerre had actually vanished into the light itself. Ning could neither see him physically nor track him via godsense.

  Suddenly, an alabaster arm reached out to grab at the Avatar Titan.

  “That’s Iyerre!” The Avatar Titan hurriedly moved to block. Since Ning was controlling both titans, he was able to make them work in perfect concert. The Sword Titan immediately went over to help out as well.

  The dazzling light continued to suppress both the titans, while Iyerre launched one sneak attack after another with incomparably profound techniques. Blocking his attacks was very taxing, and eventually one would get through.

  “Everyone, prepare the World of Liberation,” Ning sent.

  “Alright.” Titanos, Mogg, and the others all knew that the moment had come. They had been planning to save this trump card for use at a critical moment, but they were now at such a disadvantage that they were finding it hard to even maintain their defenses. It was too hard for the Sword Titan to defend against the warbeasts, the chains, and Iyerre at the same time. The Avatar Titan was in tremendous danger right now, and once it was destroyed their foes would be free to focus their attacks against the Sword Titan. When that happened, the situation would become even grimmer.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Suddenly, six surges of power shot out simultaneously. Golden bridges began to appear directly beneath the feet of the Sword Titan and the Avatar Titan. It was the Golden Bridges of Freedom! The six Golden Bridges of Freedom joined together into a hexagonal shape, forming a single complete edifice! They began to accumulate awesome amounts of power from the Chaosverse that surpassed even the power of the ignited Grassland World.