Chapter 29: Xi, Completely Countered
At the bottom of the Abyss, the Divine Ritual Hall.
The nearly three-meter-tall double wooden doors were wide open, sunlight filtering through the gaps in the roof, casting patches of light on the ground. Broken stones and shattered tiles lay everywhere, covering the engraved patterns on the floor.
The giant war boar was driven into the Divine Ritual Hall. As a thick-skinned and tough cannon fodder, it naturally had to act as the vanguard.
Su Xiao stood at the entrance. After the giant war boar scouted the way, he stepped into the Divine Ritual Hall.
Crack~
A piece of broken tile was crushed underfoot. The tile had weathered to a grayish-white, clearly showing its age.
Over a dozen stone pillars stood within the Divine Ritual Hall, most of which were broken. Judging by the marks on the fractures, this was man-made damage, likely caused by battle.
A broken sword was embedded in the red stone floor. The sword was a full palm-width wide, completely encased in rust. The end of the hilt was round, pitted and scarred. Due to severe decay, it could only be identified as the image of some kind of animal.
Su Xiao stepped forward and carefully examined the end of the hilt, confirming it was the image of a Moon Wolf howling with its head raised.
Stretches of red stains spread toward the depths of the hall. These stains had weathered into a powdery form, and their patchy shapes were most likely bloodstains.
The metal had oxidized and decayed, yet these bloodstains remained. Although they had turned into red powder, they still showed their peculiar nature.
Following the bloodstains, Su Xiao gradually ventured deeper into the hall. After advancing over ten meters, he stepped onto a few stairs and looked toward the innermost part of the hall.
The innermost area was a flat space, where two skeletons lay. Near the wall, another skeleton sat propped up.
These three skeletons clearly indicated that these individuals had fought here in life and ultimately died here. Among them, the skeleton propped against the wall was the most peculiar. It had a pair of wing-like bones on its back and a horn on its skull.
On the wall beside this skeleton, a line of small text was engraved.
‘I was born human, yet so greedy. I will kneel forever before the Abyss, forever mourning. Son of the Ancient Dragon, Ross.’
Seeing this line of text, Su Xiao roughly understood what had happened. The person who left this message was the first God-Eater in history, Iwill. She had killed many gods and strengthened herself by seizing divine power.
Then, one day, Iwill sought out the Son of the Ancient Dragon, Ross, intending to kill him. Iwill succeeded, but Ross was a hybrid of Ancient Dragon and god. While seizing the divine power, Iwill also absorbed fragments of Ross’s memories.
After absorbing these memory fragments, Iwill learned that the Holy War from hundreds of years ago had truly existed. The gods had once formed an alliance with humanity to resist the ‘monsters’ crawling out of the Abyss—nearly endless ‘monsters.’
In the end, the gods and humanity won, suppressing the Abyss’s ‘monsters’ beneath the ice.
Upon learning this, Iwill silently left and continued her god-slaying. But when she defeated another female god, stepped on her spine, and prepared to sever her head with a war scythe, she hesitated. The female god’s words nearly broke her.
“If you believe this is right, it’s fine. Cut off my head.”
Iwill left in silence. She didn’t kill that female god, but she continued searching for her next prey.
The result was that, relying on her own strength, Iwill defeated another god. But when she swung the final scythe, she chose to stop.
From that moment on, Iwill gave up hunting gods. She revealed the secrets she knew to other God-Eaters, but it caused no ripples.
From that moment on, Iwill understood one thing: god-slaying was not because of the gods’ ‘evil,’ but because of the greed in human hearts. Nothing more.
Iwill began to wander. Until one day, she discovered her life force was dissipating. She had been cursed—a curse of immortality.
Iwill returned to the Abyss and found the corpse of the Son of the Ancient Dragon, Ross. She silently recounted her past deeds. To her surprise, Ross’s corpse sat up, placed a hand on her head, and forgave her.
This completely shattered Iwill’s heart. Her purpose in hunting gods was because she had ‘perceived’ the ‘evil’ of the gods. As the one who ‘discerned’ all this, she chose to stand up and punish the gods.
But in the end, Iwill discovered she had been used all along. The ‘ramblings’ of the dying gods were all true.
Filled with rage, Iwill sought out the Abyssal Serpent. In that battle, Iwill tasted defeat for the first time. Yet she accepted the defeat willingly, even willing to die in that fight.
Iwill did not find release, so she chose to kneel forever before the Abyss, repenting to the gods she had killed.
At this moment, at the cliff edge above the Abyss.
Drip, drip…
Blood dripped along the scythe blade. Iwill stood atop a towering pile of corpses. The skin on her face had regained its vitality, and her waist-length, disheveled black hair was blown by the wind.
“Cough, cough, cough…”
A violent, dry cough came. Old Wolf sat slumped on the ground, one hand clutching his throat.
“Xi, I can’t hold out much longer. This boss gets younger the more we fight.”
Old Wolf’s voice was hoarse because his throat had been slashed.
“I can hold… for thirty more seconds.”
A burly man holding a tower shield spoke. He was Xi’s teammate, Kangba, a taciturn middle-aged man.
As soon as Kangba finished speaking, Iwill vanished from her spot and appeared before him in an instant.
Boom!
Iwill delivered a straight kick, striking Kangba’s tower shield. The next moment, she shouldered her war scythe, stepped forward with her left foot, and leaned her body slightly back.
“Damn it! Does her ultimate have no cooldown?!”
Old Wolf slapped the ground beneath him and sprang up.
Crack, crack, crack…
Transparent crystals spread, instantly engulfing the team’s main tank, Kangba. The ability Iwill was about to use could not be withstood by a tank.
Whoosh~
The scythe blade cut through the air, and a ring-shaped wind slash spread outward.
After delivering this slash, Iwill leaped into the air.
Boom!
Thunder roared in the sky. A bolt of lightning struck down, clinging to the war scythe in Iwill’s hand.
“Ahahaha!”
Iwill’s laughter was almost sinister. She flipped in midair and brought the war scythe down on the giant crystal ball ahead.
The crystal ball shattered instantly, sending Xi, Old Wolf, and Kangba flying out.
With a whoosh, Iwill slashed out a wind blade, heading straight for Xi. Iwill immediately shifted her gaze and charged back to the main tank, Kangba.
Clang! Clang!
Kangba retreated a few steps, his shield covered in slash marks.
“Ahahaha…”
Iwill laughed maniacally. She leaped high again, and a giant Thunder Beast in the sky dove down, enveloping Iwill.
“Roar!!”
The roar spread as the Thunder Beast swooped down.
Boom!
Lightning spread. Iwill stood amidst the lightning, head lowered.
“God of Death, lend this sinner your power. Let this sinner… bear the sins of the past.”
Iwill slowly raised her arm. A phantom appeared behind her, gripping her war scythe, like the Grim Reaper.
“Xi! This is fucking impossible! This boss has switched forms at least twenty times!”
Old Wolf roared. After fighting this long, he was almost in despair.
“Retreat.”
Xi didn’t want to continue either. This enemy was like a madwoman, never stopping her frenzy and constantly switching forms.
After fighting this long, Xi still hadn’t figured out Iwill’s abilities. She could use lightning, wind, life, light, earth, death, and so on, even combining two forms.
Wind + Lightning = Ultra-High Speed (self-buff), Life + Death = Instant Death (chance to instantly kill enemies on attack), Light + Life = Self-Healing (self-buff), Earth + Death = Undead (summoning + explosion), Death + Wind = Plague (debuff on enemies).
Xi’s ability to control crystals was strong in its versatility. Xi would change her fighting style based on the enemy’s ability traits. But after facing Iwill, Xi was mentally defeated.
Iwill switched forms every thirty seconds on average. One moment, she was thunderous and laughing madly in midair; the next, she transformed into the God of Death, charging forward, absorbing life force in an area and dealing percentage-based true damage.
As for the northern soldiers Xi brought, they were slaughtered into a rout by Iwill. Originally an old hag, after massacring over ten thousand soldiers, she directly reverted to her twenties, her condition improving and returning to her peak.