Chapter 28: Invincible
The semi-fluid surged like black mud, splitting the black mountain peak from within and rapidly eroding it into slag.
Standing atop the ‘black mud,’ Hun raised both arms high, his manic laughter echoing far and wide. He had been cowering for far too long, and now it was finally his turn to strike back with full force.
“Descend upon this world, ancient god from the primordial era.”
The moment Hun finished speaking, the black mud beneath him ceased its surging. Thick, arm-length black roots extended outward, intertwining together before their tips pierced into the surrounding air.
Several dozen meters away, Su Xiao had yet to make a move. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to, but a transparent barrier stood before him, enclosing both Hun and the black mud within.
Without even needing to test it, Su Xiao knew this barrier was unbreakable. Unless he could cleave the Dark Prison itself in two with a single slash, there was no way to destroy this thing.
Boom, boom…
The rumbling continued without pause. Amu was hacking at the transparent barrier with his Dragonheart Axe, but after a few strikes, he found that the barrier didn’t even ripple significantly. This was a seventh-rank world. Even if it hadn’t come into contact with other world civilizations, its world rank was set. The Dark Prison was part of this world, and destroying it was extraordinarily difficult.
Inside the barrier, the black mud had stopped moving. The massive vortex in the sky had also frozen in place. Dark red lightning flashed across, but it was eerily silent.
One by one, black roots either pierced into the air or into the earth. They clustered together, forming a low hill.
With a crack, a bolt of dark red lightning struck downward, aimed at the ‘hill’ below. But just as it reached a hundred meters from the ground, it was blocked by the barrier.
A deafening roar later, the world fell silent. After a few seconds of stillness, countless bolts of dark red lightning rained down.
Inside the barrier, Hun looked up at the sky. He was no longer a wraith. As the ancient god gradually revived, he was transforming into a follower of that god. A physical body was being constructed, and his soul was undergoing some kind of change.
The madness and fervor on Hun’s face faded. He stared at the sky with a look of dread. His earlier display had been both a release of pent-up frustration and a performance for the reviving ancient god. Hun had manipulated so many people; he wasn’t stupid.
Under Hun’s fearful gaze, the dark red lightning in the sky subsided. The world’s rejection phase was over. Hun had gathered world force precisely to survive this stage.
As soon as the dark red lightning stopped, the hill of black roots stirred back to life. The dull-colored roots twisted together, forming a massive seat several meters high. A figure entirely encased in exoskeleton sat upon it—it was Haogui.
Apart from his left eye, Haogui’s entire body was wrapped in exoskeleton. The pupil of his left eye was gradually losing its light. Just before his vision went completely dark, Haogui looked toward Su Xiao in the distance. The meaning in his gaze was clear: ‘Kukulin, cut off my head.’
Haogui had no fear of dying in battle. Even if his head were severed and his body torn apart, he wouldn’t care. That kind of end was the only one he could accept.
“Ahhh!!”
The exoskeleton on the lower half of Haogui’s face cracked open. From that roar, one could hear just how unwilling he was. Long ago, Haogui had pondered a question: even if the Dark Demon was a monster, didn’t it still deserve the right to survive?
Crack, crack, crack…
The exoskeleton all over Haogui’s body split apart. His pupils began to shatter. In the end, his entire body was torn open and pulverized.
Though Haogui’s body was destroyed, his life force gathered together. This life force shifted from bright red to pitch black.
Dull-colored flesh grew at a visible rate. First, a humanoid form about four meters tall was constructed, followed by the internal skeleton. Once the flesh and internal skeleton stabilized, the external skeleton began to form.
In just over ten seconds, a figure nearly four meters tall sat upon the throne woven from black roots. The ancient god had been reborn.
This ancient god’s chest bore rib-like exoskeleton. Its back was lined with bone spikes nearly a meter long. Curved bones jutted from its elbows, like palm-length bone blades.
At the head, an exoskeletal skull provided protection. Around the eye sockets was black flesh. Its eyes were completely black, with a blood-red glow at the very center. Just seeing those eyes would strike fear into anyone’s heart. For an ancient god, fear was the root of all power.
The ancient god sat on its throne. Finger-thick black roots coiled toward it, eventually connecting to its back through the seat.
“Welcome to your reclamation of the world.”
Hun knelt on one knee but didn’t lower his head. Sometimes, being too humble yielded no rewards.
The ancient god looked down at Hun, its gaze devoid of any emotion. It raised a hand, as if pondering whether to destroy this servant or grant him a reward.
In the end, the ancient god lowered its hand. Several black roots coiled around Hun.
Hun’s body trembled. His pupils shook violently as a highly corrosive energy surged into him. This was his reward.
The ancient god shifted its gaze. The first thing it saw was Douglas, who had already broken free from the exoskeleton’s restraints. It glanced at him and then ignored him. There was no hostility in its gaze, just as a human wouldn’t regard an ant as an enemy. In the ancient god’s eyes, Douglas was an ant.
The ancient god then looked at Su Xiao, Bubu Wang, Amu, Baha, and Ta·Balder. It dismissed them all with a single glance.
But an instant later, the ancient god’s gaze snapped back, re-examining Su Xiao. Its look seemed puzzled. After a moment of scrutiny, it recognized Su Xiao as a Law Destroyer. During the Law Destruction era, it had visited the Void. Though it had never fought a Law Destroyer, it knew they were not to be trifled with.
The ancient god looked at its own arm. In this world, its limit was low, but revival was just the beginning. It still had much to do before it could return to Doom Star. It had never forgotten the Underworld God that had nearly annihilated it.
Hum~
A fist-sized transparent crystal appeared before the ancient god. The rib-like exoskeleton on its chest opened. Part of its flesh turned into black tendrils, wrapping around the crystal and pulling it into its chest. The black tendrils reverted to flesh, and the exoskeleton closed back up. What the ancient god had taken into its chest was the core of this world.
The moment the ancient god claimed the World Core, the massive barrier around it disappeared. The world force Hun had gathered was now depleted.
Hun climbed to his feet. His face under the hood was deathly pale, and his eyes were pitch black. He had fully transformed into a follower of the ancient god.
“It’s over.”
Hun’s tone was relaxed. The instant the ancient god took possession of the World Core, he knew everything was finished.
In fact, he couldn’t even imagine how he could lose. Now, to even harm the ancient god, one would first have to shatter the World Core. This was no longer a fight against a person or an entity; it was a battle against the entire world. Even if hundreds of Dark Demons with strength equal to Haogui’s attacked together, they couldn’t break the ‘Realm Barrier’ formed by the World Core.
Even if the Watch Guild sent all its Hunters, along with every Dark Demon and Wraith, and the two sides united, they still couldn’t destroy the ‘Realm Barrier.’ This was an ability possessed by only a very few high-ranking deities. To use it, one must have a World Core.
“Hun!”
A shout rang out. Recognizing the somewhat familiar voice, Hun turned his gaze and saw Douglas.
Deep blue arcs of electricity surged across Douglas’s body. Veins bulged on his neck. He was furious beyond measure.
“I let you live, so get lost…”
Before Hun could finish, he sensed something was wrong. The sky had become blinding. Blue electric light gathered in the heavens.
“You all… will pay… for Haogui… with your lives!”
Bare-chested, Douglas’s deep blue energy made his flesh nearly transparent. In that moment, his aura became terrifying.
Boom!
A pillar of lightning nearly fifty meters thick fell vertically from above, instantly engulfing the ancient god and Hun, along with the hill beneath them.
Seeing this lightning pillar, the feathers at the corner of Baha’s eye twitched. If he took that hit, he’d evaporate within two seconds. Even Amu couldn’t withstand it. Douglas was aiming for mutual destruction.
As the lightning spread, Su Xiao charged backward. He ran about a kilometer before escaping the lightning’s range.
“Ahhh!!”
Douglas extended his arms, his fingers curled like claws, roaring in agony. His body cracked like ceramic. It seemed that in the next instant, he would be torn apart by the energy within him. The lightning pillar in the distance continued to pour down, visible even from over a dozen kilometers away, connecting sky and earth.
The lightning pillar lasted a full five minutes before thinning and finally dissipating. Douglas fell to his knees with a thud. His entire body was covered in cracks, and green smoke seeped out from them.
Douglas lifted his head with effort, looking at the hill of black roots.
Suddenly, his eyes widened in disbelief. The ancient god still sat on its throne, and Hun nearby was unharmed. A layer of angular, shimmering barrier flickered and then faded into the air, protecting the hill of black roots within.
If viewed from above, one would see a massive crater two kilometers in diameter around the black roots, with electricity still crackling inside.
“How… is that possible?”
Before Douglas could finish his sentence, a black beam as thick as a millstone shot toward him. He dodged desperately, but his condition was poor, and the incoming beam was incredibly fast.
With a sizzling sound, the lower half of Douglas’s body vanished. He was nearly killed instantly.
On the dull-colored throne, the ancient god raised its arm, pointing at Bubu Wang a kilometer away. Bubu Wang instinctively shuddered and instantly merged into the environment.
The ancient god paused, then pointed at Ta·Balder. A black beam shot from its fingertip.
There was no energy roar, no explosion, no terrifying power. A kilometer away, Ta·Balder took half a step back. A bowl-sized hole appeared in his chest. The edges of the hole had no blood, only sparks flickering.
Through the temporary team interface, Su Xiao could see that Ta·Balder’s health had plummeted by 81%. Setting aside his own strength, the bulky full-body armor he wore, enhanced by numerous wills, had defense equivalent to a Holy Spirit rank +13 heavy armor. Yet under the ancient god’s attack, it was like paper.