Chapter 294: The First Invasion
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The Astral Road.
It was the “heaven above heaven” of the world of Bestia.
A place that connected the world with space, outer space.
Because the world was tightly protected by nine layers of powerful ki-infused clouds, it was almost completely isolated from space.
However, there was still some sort of atmosphere here, with oxygen, although barely breathable. I could notice that as I watched the world from all the way here, it seemed the world was indeed spherical.
The thing is, there was no sun outside, no moon, or anything. Both the sun and the moon were inside the world itself, within the heaven layers.
The world also stayed still and didn’t rotate either, or it was completely encompassed by these fluffy layers of clouds.
Everything outside, this Astral Road area, was just empty… void, and I could feel something beyond this, perhaps some sort of invisible wall.
Maybe it led to the “chaos” that lie outside the boundaries of worlds, what lies within the emptiness of the void.
These stars we see can be seen because these things are almost transparent, veils that encompass things without anybody knowing their true power until you touch them.
Since the Awakening began, Earth, or perhaps the whole solar system, was confined within a similar “veil” encompassed by chaos.
And in this chaos and void is where the Void Rulers roam, endlessly, across all universes and dimensions.
Anyways, this enormous area was vast, the same size as the entire world and perhaps a bit more after all; the heavenly demon led us across the area, pointing at the distance.
Until we finally reached the destination, perhaps after flying for millions of kilometers at lightning speed.
The atmospheric Ki in here was very thin, but that didn’t really affect me, as I focused on internal ki rather than external ki respiration.
Well, I did have a Skill to gain more Ki like that, but… well, it’s not like it’s completely necessary!
However, in such areas, Ki regeneration speed is much slower.
“This is the place…” The Heavenly Demon pointed in front of us. “Expand your senses, and you will see it too, this disturbing force that keeps growing, as if… digging through space and time.”
“This is…?!” the heavenly empress gasped as she did as he told us. “It’s true! But what is this thing?! What is this disturbing force? I-It keeps coming here… Something, something is doing this!”
We also expanded our Ki Senses as much as we could, and… Well, they weren’t wrong at all, there was indeed something in there, something terrifying.
To give a comparison, it is as if this empty space is the ground, and there’s a giant thing, a claw or something, digging through the ground and trying to reach somewhere else.
And it was doing it very quickly, in a matter of hours they would be able to get here.
So this is how they created Gates? Are the Void Rulers doing this or the High Administrators? Or perhaps the Constellations?
No, Constellations can’t directly intervene like that, can’t they? They can’t make Gates directly… It is most likely an Order from the High Administrators and also the Void Rulers.
A cooperative work: after all, the High Administrators are constellations that decided to serve them instead of joining the others in the Realm Beyond.
But this feeling…
No, it might not happen in a couple of hours, in fact…!
It’s about to break open already!
Crack…!
The tiny sound of something shattering, like a small piece of glass.
It was almost impossible to hear in this vast area of empty vacuum.
Yet… everyone heard it.
Their eyes were directed towards the tiny crack in space.
“I-It’s breaking…!” The heavenly demon muttered. “Space is breaking! Something is coming; I knew it!”
“W-Watch out, don’t stand too close to it!” The heavenly empress said. “Ah!”
Crack, crack…!
CRACK!
The cracks continued expanding at a rapid pace; this was going to open in less than a minute.
Things couldn’t continue as they were forever; we had to do something, and quickly!
“We need to alert the heavenly court and the heavenly demon sect immediately!” I said. “Can you two call them here? I know you can move super-fast; it shouldn’t take too long, right?”
“W-What are you suggesting?! To leave you alone as we go bring back up?!” asked the heavenly empress. “Anna, you’re insane! Whatever is coming from those cracks…!”
“No, Hue Xian, they beat us, remember?” The crow smiled. “I am sure they can handle it! Whatever is coming is strong, but so what? Those bastards beat the two of us, hah! We can trust they can hold whatever is coming for a minute or two, right?”
“T-That’s…!” The heavenly empress hesitated.
“Don’t hesitate, master!” said Zero One. “We got this; believe in us!”
“Please go! We will hold them back as long as necessary!” Fang Shuan summoned his golden dragon spear soul weapon. “I shall stand in the frontlines; I am quite durable after all!”
“Yeah, we got this!” Wai Tian said, her powerful Aura surging. “With Anna here, even more!”
“Leave it to us; bring it back up, please,” said Yin Sheng, unsheathing his daggers. “Whatever comes from there… We will take it head-on.”
“Everyone,” the heavenly empress sighed.
Crack, CRACK…!
CRASH!
The cracks continued spreading, making a larger and larger crack, and we could hear something coming from within.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
It was the sound of hundreds of metallic pieces hitting each other, creating a horrendous and loud sound that made your ears buzz.
They’re definitely coming here!
“Just go!” I said, activating all my equipment effects like in the first trial, their combined aura surging, forming like a sea of gold, black, purple, red, and emerald colors. “Please bring everyone that can fight; no matter the differences, there will be a common enemy all of us will need to face! We either unify together, no matter the faction… Or we perish alongside the world!”
“Ah! R-Right… There’s no time to hesitate!” the heavenly empress said.
“She’s not wrong! I am not letting this world be conquered by anybody else than me and my faction!” roared the heavenly demon.
The two nodded, rushing down like a black and a golden star.
“And there they go…” I smiled faintly. “I hope they come back quickly… This is about to get wild, very wild…”
Crack, crack…!
It was coming; I could hear the sound of their metallic legs.
I could see the neon lights that helped them see.
CRACK, CRACK…!
And I could sense the electrifying auras they exuded, electromagnetic energies that controlled their very movements.
Zero One was nervous but not afraid; she was unleashing her powerful Aura. After obtaining her new Skills after I sponsored her, she had changed completely.
“You two come out too!” I quickly brought out of my pocket the two Primordial Beasts of Yin and Yang, who were in their smallest crystal forms.
FLASH!
“ROOAAR!”
“AWOOO!”
Within seconds, the two of them took their gigantic true forms, overflowing with mighty Auras of Divine Ki, despite being in an area with thin atmospheric ki!
Crack, CRACK!
“They’re almost here… At any minute now…” I said. “All of you Apostles! You’ve been training enough; come fight as well!”
I opened a portal to my Purgatory Realm, as all the Demons I had sealed inside quickly ran outside, unleashing their Demonic Auras combined with Ki, they felt much stronger than before.
“Hah! You’ve finally called us; we were dying of boredom!” said Astaroth, growing to a large draconic form over fifty meters of height. “Hahaha! Admire my much larger form! I can finally attain it again!”
“CRAAH! We’ve cultivated a lot of Ki! We’re stronger! You’ll see!” said Neberius, spreading out his wings as he held two spears of darkness.
“Finally time to test our prowess?!” Aim growled, his body growing up to fifteen meters tall, resembling a huge demonic saber-toothed tiger, overflowing with golden and crimson lightning over his entire body. “Heh!”
“I would have preferred if you left us train some more…” sighed a huge centaur-like demon clad in crimson armor, with several arms, each arm holding many weapons, Agares. “But fine! Let me show you how much I have improved my {Radiance}!”
“I still require a stronger sword, since I lost Gram that it’s simply not the same!” growled a huge, tall demon clad in black and dark purple armor, holding a giant black sword, Bael. “But this’ll do! Let’s start the slaughter; who do we kill, ma’am?!”
“M-Master Anna! Must I fight too? My abilities aren’t really suited for battles!” and the only non-death apostle, the Castle Demon Jeremias, stood behind me. “I can only manipulate space within a certain range, and that’s an ability I only attained recently. Before it was only within the demonic castle my former master, Lord Beelzebub, created.”
“Don’t worry, Jeremias,” I said, patting the head of the small imp-like demon. “Turn into a ring; I’ll wield you; once I ask for your powers, you’ll do what I ask. Is that better?”
“Yes! Much better!” He quickly turned into a red and purple colored ring, which I quickly wore.
“Now, brace yourselves!” I roared, my Auras surging from my body as I held Gram with my right hand and my shield with my left hand. “They’re coming in one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine, and...”
CRAAASH!
Space was fractured and shattered into pieces, which flew like glass everywhere; gigantic mechanical entities emerged almost endlessly—dozens, hundreds, thousands! They came like an endless flood of insects. And they were shaped like them; most of them were ant-like, others spider-like, a few mantis-like, and all of them could fly.
[WARNING! Invasion from another World in Progress!]
[The {Murim Worldline: Bestia} is undergoing the Special Awakening Event {Dimensional Invasion}!]
[Face the four waves of invaders and survive, defeating their leaders to claim victory and ownership of your world.]
And as if things couldn’t get more ridiculous, a system-like message was sent across the entire world of Bestia.
So they heard this voice when everything began?!
It was sure freaky for these people, who had no idea what even a system could ever be.
[The Heroic Cosmic Thrones {King of Steel} glances at the poor lifeforms that will soon be consumed by the floods of superior mechanical lifeforms.]
[The Cosmic Throne {Mechanical Librarian} admires what is yet to come, as the superiority of machines will be spread across the many universes. Not a single being made of flesh and blood shall remain, as steel and circuits are of true evolutionary superiority.]
[The Cosmic Throne {Mother of Artificial Life} glances in silence at the first victims of this event.]
They’re here too?!
This is all a simulation, but even the presences of Constellations… can be simulated?!
“Oh shit they’re coming, all of them!!!” said Yin Sheng. “S-So many!”
“Calm down and face them!” I roared. “Fang Shuan! Go All-Out from the start! Get gigantic!”
“YEAH!” Fang Shuan roared; using his Ki and internal Soul energy, his size became enormous, reaching the size of over forty meters of height.
“Violet, you too!” I said. “Snow, protect our surroundings with your frost aura; freeze anything you find and see!”
“KRIEEEHHH!” Violet roared, becoming of almost the same size as Fang Shuan, overflowing with an aura of poison, demonic energies, and ki.
“AWROOOOO!” Snow howled, unleashing a shockwave of frost that suddenly slowed down the incoming wave of machines by a few seconds, freezing their surfaces.
“All demons to the front with me!” I roared, leading them all. “Wai Tian, Yin Sheng, Zero One, behind us!”
“ELIMINATE ALL HOSTILE LIFEFORMS WITHIN RANGE.”
“BEGINNING EXTERMINATION OF ALL HOSTILE LIFEFORMS.”
“STARTING CLEANSING OF A NEW WORLD. TERRAFORMATION MUST BEGIN AT ALL COSTS.”
The machines started speaking in their robotic, cold tones as they clashed against our army. I even summoned all the Undead Machines I had in reserve, their mechanical limbs clashing against one another, creating loud explosions of electricity.
I charged forward, swinging Gram and unleashing a spinning attack against over thirty machines that aimed to tear me to shreds.
“{Thousand Blades}: {Eclipsing Ascension}!”
Celestial and Demonic Energies merged with my Ki Auras, erupting as I unleashed a storm of demonic flames and holy light imbued with dozens after dozens of deadly slashing attacks.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Their metallic bodies were quickly sliced apart; they were rather weak, but their ridiculous numbers were the actual problem here.
I kept fighting, as I saw my friends clash against them with everything they had. Zero One had stopped hesitating the moment she saw their hostile behavior and crimson eyes.
“Y-You’re not my people! You’re monsters!” she roared, moving at lightning speed as her Aura of electromagnetic energy erupted, unleashing countless fists attacks against them all, blowing them into pieces. “I’m sorry, but you must be taken care of!”
BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM! BAAM!
For the first couple seconds, we all worked hard to stop the flood, slowly pushing it back at a ridiculously quick pace! I kept moving, continuously, without ending.
“{Sunshine Blades}! {Black Stars}! {Chaos Novas}!”
I bombarded them with my strongest spells; flying swords of light and darkness pierced their bodies; explosive miniature stars blew them up; and my sword cut them all into pieces.
“These are just toys made of steel, so soft, hahaha!”
“They’re pathetically weak, CRAAH! However, too many!”
“I like how they’re loaded with electricity; I’ll absorb it all out of them!”
The demons charged in unison; Astaroth’s gigantic body and deadly breath burned and melted the machines, and his giant claws tore them apart like mere toys. Neberius and Aim remained close to his side, attacking with their shadows and lightning in unison; they had good chemistry and teamwork.
“They’re the same type as we fought before, right? Yet they feel much weaker now!”
“Anna is also increasing our stats, but yes, we’ve grown stronger, hah!”
Agares and Bael fought as if they had known each other since they were kids, though, covering each other’s backs and unleashing technique after technique, masterfully dodging, blocking, and slashing with their weapons, covering each other’s weaknesses.
“KRIIEEEHH!”
Violet roared, unleashing deadly acid over the bodies of the robots, slowing them down or outright making them malfunction and explode. His huge size allowed him to constantly push them away with sheer physical force.
“I’ll show you the might of these “lifeforms” you look down on so much! ORRRAH!”
“Likewise!”
Wai Tian and Yin Sheng kept close with one another as they stayed within my range, both undergoing their transformations right away. Wai Tian’s musculature, size, and appearance became much wilder and larger; her fur turned white as her entire body overflowed with golden and white Ki flames, her mighty paws and claws tearing through her foes, reducing them to scrap.
Yin Sheng, in the other case, also became larger but also slender, and as if he had merged with shadows themselves, his nine tails were a connection to portals of darkness he used to instantly teleport within shadows, destroying foes by controlling his tails and piercing their bodies as if they were spears. Of course, his dagger techniques were still strong, but he wasn’t designed to fight against so many foes at the same time, so he had to improvise.
“I’ll face you all head on, machines!”
Fang Shuan bravely fought them as they came, his enormous body resisting their mighty attacks and beams of concentrated energy, as his gigantic dragon spear pierced them, reducing dozens to smithereens within seconds.
“AWOOO!”
And Snow constantly slowed them down as they came, without letting them escape as he aimed several icicle spears at them or sued his mighty claws and bites to tear them into pieces.
It was about to be a minute since the heavenly empress and the heavenly demon left. I knew they were coming back quickly, so I had to trust them.
As I fought with all my might, beginning to use my Martial Arts and setting up my Aura to use Myriad Self Arts, suddenly…
RUMBLE!
Something enormously strong emerged amidst the flood of machines; its very presence and arrival were so quickly that the machines were sent flying, breaking apart.
Whatever appeared right now didn’t care if they died or not.
“ANALYZING HOSTILE LIFEFORMS… DETECTING STRANGE, ALIEN ENERGIES FLOWING THROUGH THEIR BODIES.”
It was a huge, humanoid machine; it wasn’t like Zero One; it looked more like a machine but with a slight human-like form, but it had six, sharp blade-like arms and a triangle-shaped head with several lights.
However, the power it exuded was beyond just Electromagnetic Energy, although it had a lot of that, at least five cores to have so much of it…
But no, that wasn’t the terrifying part; the terrifying part was that…
This machine had a {Radiance}, overflowing with Cosmic Energy!
“ELIMINATE ALL FOES WITHIN RANGE AT ALL COSTS. BEGINNING EXTERMINATION.”
[The Heroic Cosmic Thrones {King of Steel} celebrates that their champion has finally arrived!]
Champion?!
“This is a Constellation’s Avatar!” I screamed. “CAREFUL!”
But it was too late.
The thing rushed towards Astaroth, piercing through its head with extreme ease.
“Ugh?!”
BOOOM!
His entire head exploded into pieces before we could do anything…
“ONE LIFEFORM EXTERMINATED CONFIRMED. RESUMING EXTERMINATION.”
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