Chapter 277: One Battle After Another
Listen While Reading: 天光玲瓏 & 天地の鼓動-----
“My body…! Why is it so heavy?! Heavier than ever before! I can’t… move properly?! UGH!”
She was imbuing her entire body with her Hope, trying to boost her movement speed enough to counter the debuff, but it wasn’t working; even now, the power of Skills seemed absolute.
Yeah, there was no Mana, but their effects still worked; as long as I replaced their Mana requirements with Ki, it worked.
And I’ve been cultivating to gain as much KI as possible to finally be able to use my abilities much more easily!
And I wasn’t done—no, WE weren’t done.
“{Rampage}!”
I rushed forward and activated the Nameless Axe-Sword strongest Technique, {Rampage}.
The blade glowed with a red color as my Aura suddenly changed, becoming like a tall, muscular barbarian that stood behind me.
His giant, muscular arms merged with my movements, and so did the axe-sword, cutting down against my foe with several, mighty slashes and crushing blows.
It was an instantaneous rampage of blows; the Empress was unable to respond or evade; she had been slowed down to a complete halt.
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
Twelve attacks hit her, all of them dealing an additional 400% damage per Attack, which ignored 5% of her defenses with each blow, and I restored 50% of the damage I dealt as HP too.
“UGH…!”
My health started to rapidly regenerate as I unleashed my onslaught of attacks; the Heavenly Empress could only defend, conjuring armor and shields out of her Hope Essence, which seemed endless.
Crack, crack…!
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
I kept shattering her defenses, yet she kept conjuring more and more; it was an endless exchange of attacks, and it was quite clear that she still had the advantage, resisting the blows while contentiously trying to regenerate her wounds.
It had become a battle of attrition where I would obviously lose.
That is, if I was alone.
Wai Tian and Zero One pummeled her down, shattering her armor within mere seconds. Zero One opened her hands, revealing two holes within and firing two blasts of electricity.
BOOOM! BOOOM!
At the same time, Wai Tian unleashed her powers fully, suddenly becoming twice as big again, draining all her Ki to unleash a devastating storm of claw attacks, explosions of white and golden flames emerging with each attack.
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
The empress was beginning to take damage; she groaned, quickly trying to swing her arms against them or her wings; both were too slow, easily avoided. Zero One kept electrocuting her, and Wai Tian destroyed her flying projectiles with her bare claws.
And I charged towards her again; this time, with everything I had, I activated the power of Hope once more, imbuing it into my body and boosting my physical prowess. Then, with the Cursed Seals, a swirl of emotions filled my mind, but I perseverated.
Their combination, the meld between Evil Ki and Hope Ki, created something else, a spark of rainbow light, something deep within my very heart, my very being.
Something… yeah, I can feel it.
“{Myriad Self Arts}: {Hundredth Self Fist}”
My Aura turned rainbow; the convergence of everything started—my egos, my skills, my radiance—everything into a single power, a single form, but then many.
Countless, hundreds of copies of myself appeared made out of my Aura. The Heavenly Empress gasped, merely looking at my technique brought shivers down her spine.
“A complete… harmony between his Curses and my Hope? T-This is…!”
They all fused into a gigantic rainbow fist, slamming her down into the ground with so much force the entire floating island was split into two.
BOOOMMM!!!
And then silence.
We all looked at one another, and then the rainbow fist disappeared.
And the Heavenly Empress was… still conscious.
“Magnificent…” she muttered with a smile. “You… You’re truly… worthy of my teachings… girl…”
Before she could say anything else, her eyes closed, and she fell unconscious.
We won…
“S-She finally croaked! Oh my god! Why was she so tough?!” asked Sepa inside my heart.
[“She was a monster! Even if this is just a copy of her inside of this dungeon-like tower…!”] Gram commented.
“Hahhh… I’m so tired, but we can’t stop now!” said Wai Tian. “The other guys are fighting that crow bastard!”
“Yeah! Anna, let’s go!” Zero One said.
“I know!”
We all rushed towards the other fight happening in the skies. I saw Fang Shuan surrounded by fifty demonic spirits, which he had summoned out of his soul, that the heavenly demon constantly blasted with his bare hands. This was Fang Shuan’s [One Hundred Dokkaebi Souls Summon (S)] Skill.
“Hahaha! The more you summon these, the more your soul weakens, fool!” laughed the Demon King. “I’ll gladly crush these with my bare hands; I love popping these, their sound… It's like popping the heads of those righteous bastards, hahaha!”
“You’re one sadistic bastard,” Fang Shuan smiled; although he looked exhausted, his soul was indeed weakening.
“{Divine Martial Soul Weapon Materialization}: {Soul Blade}!”
He summoned a giant blade made out of his soul using his [Divine Martial Soul Weapon (S)] skill, swinging it down against the Heavenly Demon. The soul blade, made of pure ethereal soul essence resembling golden, black, and purple light, swung down.
SLAAASH!
A giant cutting wave was unleashed, and the blade itself also struck at once. The Heavenly Demon, however, received the attack without evading and then blocked it with a single finger.
CRASH!
“I have to admit that it’s rather impressive you can use Divine Martial Soul Weapons,” he said. “Impressive for whatever thing you are, a walking piece of gold. You’re interesting, but your soul has grown far too weak; you’re going to die soon... Why not stop this? I need a new toy; you could become my new weapon instead, hm?”
Just as I thought, Master loves to play with his prey, to the point you can clearly see how sadistic he is. He loves torturing, giving false hope, and then killing their prey anyway.
“SILENCE! I shall NEVER surrender to you, DEMON!”
Fang Shuan’s righteous ire was strong; he resisted the demon’s temptations and quickly continued attacking, this time swinging his spear as he unleashed several piercing strikes, his aura shaping into a golden dragon.
“{Golden Dragon Spear Techniques}: {Dragon Ascent}!”
CLAAASH!
The Heavenly Demon didn’t evade this time either, taking the attack head-on with his bare fangs. The gigantic golden dragon trying to engulf him was cute for him.
“How adorable! Hahaha!”
His sharp claws pressed tightly as the dragon exploded before it could even burn through him at all; he had so much power he could destroy Ki constructs, what the heavenly empress used and which anybody used through their techniques, with his bare hands.
BOOOM!
“Is that all you’ve got? I’ve grown bored."
He quickly flew with his wings, reaching Fang Shuan within a split second and swinging down his hands against him; his Cursed Seals activated as a blazing crimson, black flame appeared within his hands.
“{Wrathful Fist}”
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
Fang Shuan’s entire body exploded into countless pieces, and so did his soul…
“FANG SHUAN!”
I flew as quickly as I could towards him, using my Specialization to quickly heal him back together through sheer usage of Ki and Holy Nether Essence.
FLUOSH!
“Hahh… I-I almost died again…”
He reappeared by my side, gasping for air even though he didn’t need it—perhaps a reflex from when he was alive to represent how exhausted he felt.
“Hm? How fortunate! You’ve revived him for me. Now I’ll get to kill him twice! HAHAHAAH!”
The crow rushed down, his Aura surging and resembling a black feathered asura with countless hands and sharp claws.
“{Frenzied Rampage}!”
He rushed down, desiring to crush us into smithereens with no mercy or hesitation, while the empress always showed clear restraint with her attacks; despite how ruthless she seemed, she was still holding back against us because she still didn’t want to kill us, showing she was truly a righteous person.
Yet this bastard, he doesn’t hold back.
I have to go all-out or we’re all dead!
Fang Shuan was the only one that could hold him back because of how ridiculous his body and skills are, and Ying Shen is…
I looked down, finding him over a burning crater.
He’s down there unconscious…
Yikes, I guess he did what he could.
I have to do my very best!
“{Myriad Self Arts}: {One Thousand Self Legion}!”
FLUOSH!
My Aura surged once more; one thousand copies of myself appeared from within it, colorful, bright rainbow essence surging constantly, endlessly, all pointing towards the Heavenly Demon and attacking him with weapons of their own, made of my Aura as well.
“What’s that technique?!”
As he looked with fascination, our two Auras clashed against one another. His own had a clear advantage, easily crushing my little clones with utmost ease.
Yet that didn’t matter at all!
I created them to use them for something else after all.
I combined them further with the power of the Cursed Seals and Heart of Hope.
And he noticed as his raging asura-like aura crushed my aura clones.
“My Cursed Seals! You truly have them?!”
“Yeah, you willingly gave them to me, master.”
“Master?! I take no disciples!”
With a furious roar, the giant beak of his Aura rushed down towards us, yet I quickly moved upwards, all my clones following me as they combined together.
Hope.
Chaos.
Curses.
All into one.
“{Myriad Self Arts}: {Primordial Chaos Palm}!”
A giant palm of dark purple and black color materialized, the rainbow gone, completely corrupted by the darkness of my Seals and the element of Chaos within my Spiritual Body.
“Wha…?!”
CRAAASH!
The giant palm crushed through his Aura, destroying it entirely before hitting his body and blowing him up into the skies. He screamed in pain as the palm then became a hand and grabbed him tightly.
“T-This is…! Incredible! What martial arts are these?! How are you doing this! This is… Hahah…! HAHAHAHA!”
As he laughed maniacally, I blew up the palm.
BOOOMMMM!!!
That was even stronger than the last attack that hit the Heavenly Empress..
So, what’s next? Is he…
“Magnificent! Show me more of that!”
Of course this monster is fine.
He appeared beneath the cloud of smoke; his feathers and skin were slightly burned, and he was bleeding from his mouth.
But otherwise, he was as fresh as a lettuce.
How?
His Cursed Seals, one of them absorbs the damage he takes and converts it into raw power, similarly to some of my Skills or Abilities.
The more we damage, the stronger he becomes.
“He’s not knocked out after that?!” asked Zero One.
“Fang Shuan and Ying Shen can’t fight anymore…!” Wai Tian said. “My Ki is at its limit already… C-Can we win?”
“I can still fight, Wai Tian; go look for Ying Shen and take care of him,” I said. “Zero One, Fang Shuan, you come with me.”
“Yes,” Fang Shuan nodded.
“Only me?!” Zero One cried. “But…!”
“You’re tougher than you actually imagine,” I told her. “You received blows from the empress, yet you don’t even have a single scratch; have more confidence.”
“I… I’ll try!” she nodded.
“Alright… here he comes!” I said. “Fang Shuan, you know what to do!”
“I know!”
His body suddenly turned into liquid gold, encompassing my entire body.
I activated the power of my Specialization, combining with Fang Shuan, as we became one.
“Hahaha! Show me… SHOW ME MORE OF THOSE AMAZING TECHNIQUES!”
The bloodthirsty bastard reached us, his Aura reforming itself into a hydra of hundreds of draconic heads; they opened their jaws, firing beams of pure evil ki.
“{Hydra of Hatred}! {Self-Loathing Breath}!”
My body continued growing larger and stronger, gold covering my skin, changing my very being; the soul of Fang Shuan became one with me momentarily. His experiences in battle, his techniques, everything became mine. I could use that, definitely!
“{Myriad Self Arts}: {Golden Dragon Ascent}!”
My Aura Clones became pure gold, fusing together as a giant spear materialized, and I swung it upwards with tremendous force and speed.
CLAAASH! CLAAASH! CLAAASH!
The beams of the hydra were blocked, and the hydra itself exploded into smoke. The Heavenly Demon tried to block my blows, yet they were stronger than he expected; several of them hit him hard, making him bleed all over the place.
“Hahah…! Y-YOU’RE A MONSTER! HAHAHA! LIKE ME!”
As the smoke dissipated, my new form was revealed, a sentinel of gold, my hair having become a golden soul flame, flowing like a sea of pure soul Aether around me.
“I defeated you once, and I’ll do it again.”
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