Chapter 43: Final Battle
Gulu descended through the skylight, crashing down between Su Xiao and the Eternal God. Seeing this, Su Xiao knew that the odds of defeating the Eternal God had risen from 25% to around 30%.
This had nothing to do with the individual abilities of Gulu and Holy Psalm. Against the Eternal God, even Su Xiao, if careless at close range, would die on the spot. Gulu, a fragile assassination-type contractor, would die very suddenly if she engaged the Eternal God in melee. She might charge in, and then she'd just be gone.
Holy Psalm appeared to be the strongest eighth-rank healing-type contractor, but she was now Gulu's exclusive healer. Her soul body was within Gulu's consciousness space, meaning she could only heal Gulu herself and apply buffs.
As for having Holy Psalm transfer into Su Xiao's consciousness space to assist him in battle, they had tried that before the fight against the Wolf Cavalry Captain.
It was worth mentioning that, compared to entering the nightmare region of Dead Silence City, attempting to invade Su Xiao's consciousness space was the closest Holy Psalm had ever come to death. If she hadn't suddenly realized something was wrong, she would have been devoured.
Su Xiao's soul was too powerful, and coupled with his Soul Devourer talent, Holy Psalm's soul body invading him like that was equivalent to being devoured completely naked.
The reason Gulu's appearance raised the win rate to 30% was mainly because she came through the skylight, which represented many factors.
First, after Su Xiao shattered the seal stele, the temple's exit closed and the space was sealed. But don't forget, the Eternal God descended from above, and its descent created a gap in this impregnable temple.
This gap was both a path of survival and a possibility. It represented a passage in the sealed space, a passage that could connect to the outside world, and even, through setting up formations and coordinates, connect to other worlds.
Furthermore, Gulu could make other contributions. She was a single person's worth of blood. As an eighth-rank contractor, after numerous enhancements, the transcendent blood within her body was very useful.
Zzzt~
The Realm Severing Thread tightened, pulling Gulu in front of Su Xiao. He grabbed the back of her collar with one hand.
"Th-thanks."
Gulu knew what was good for her. The position she had been in was very dangerous. She immediately continued, "In this battle, I'll give it my all, I'll flank and... cough~, I'll just use my ultimate for mid-range attacks."
Gulu was smart enough to know that Su Xiao wouldn't save her for no reason, so she quickly pledged her allegiance.
"Hide near Bubu Wang, minimize blood loss."
Hearing this, Gulu, who was being held by the collar, shuddered. This situation was too abnormal. Su Xiao had not only saved her but also told her to hide in the back. Remember, during the desperate fight against the Wolf Cavalry Captain, she had hidden far away. If she hadn't, by the end of the battle, Su Xiao might have even used her as a projectile to throw at the Wolf Cavalry Captain.
"You... what are you going to do, my father, ah no, daddy..."
Before Gulu could finish, Su Xiao had already thrown her out.
"Hoo~"
Su Xiao looked at the Eternal God ahead and slowly exhaled. If this battle were only him, Amu, Bubu Wang, and Baha, they would surely die. Fortunately, he had tricked two good teammates into coming.
Su Xiao had cooperated with these two good teammates for so long but still couldn't figure out their true capabilities. In terms of frontal combat power, he was the strongest. But if it came to survivability and methods of weakening the enemy, he couldn't compare to Zuiyasi. If anyone could survive today's defeat, it would be Zuiyasi.
As for Wude, this guy was becoming more and more unpredictable, even giving off an abyssal feeling. But a fraudster like Wude wouldn't throw himself into the abyss. It was more like he had created a variant type of abyssal energy to temporarily enhance his own abilities. As the previous holder of the Abyssal Jar, having such means wasn't surprising.
Su Xiao was a Hunter of Reincarnation Paradise, who had been obtaining a large amount of resources and rapidly growing stronger. But Zuiyasi and Wude were representative figures of Doom Star and the Devil Clan. Their ability growth rate wasn't much slower than his, and sometimes, it was even slightly faster.
Thinking about it, during the World of Paintings Struggle back then, Doom Star and the Devil Clan each had one slot, and they chose these two to fight. That already said a lot.
Su Xiao had fought alongside these two 'good teammates' many times before, so he naturally knew their ability tendencies.
In this battle, Su Xiao was responsible for the most dangerous aspect: blocking the Eternal God head-on and dealing maximum damage to it.
Regarding blocking the Eternal God, Su Xiao had some confidence. The Eternal God's roar ability seemed terrifying: six stages of damage judgment leading to six Death Flame burns, six beast damage instances, and six probabilistic body paralysis effects. But Su Xiao's Dragon Shadow Flash ability wasn't just for show.
It wasn't about creating distance, but about using a faster method to evade. After the Dragon Shadow Flash ability reached X, it gained the following characteristic:
「New Characteristic: Space Penetration state can be maintained for 0.2 to 3 seconds (duration determined by user's will).」
Furthermore, regarding dealing heavy damage to the Eternal God, Su Xiao wielded the Immortal-rank +14 Dragon-Slaying Flash. With the temporary enhancement of Silver Moon Blade and Spirit Blade, the sharpness of Dragon-Slaying Flash had reached an astonishing 1062 points.
In addition, there was the damage tier of blade-type weapons. This characteristic had an incredibly high judgment. Su Xiao felt it was on the same level as True Damage judgment. Therefore, one could imagine the slashing intensity derived from +5 Blade Weapon Damage Tier.
The Eternal God, dozens of meters away, seemed temporarily inactive due to the erosion of the Dead Silence Origin. Even from such a distance, the violent aura growing stronger could be felt.
Zheng~
The long blade was drawn. Silvery-white moonlight scattered from the tip. The next second, the entire blade was covered in Cyan Steel Shadow Energy.
Boom!
Pebbles and debris exploded from under Su Xiao's feet. He vanished from his spot and reappeared in front of the Eternal God.
Seeing this, Zuiyasi and Wude had strikingly similar thoughts: Bai Ye, who hadn't yet defeated the final boss, was damn reliable!
An obscure, cold death approached. Upon ambushing the Eternal God, Su Xiao felt he had entered a domain dense with death energy. His health points didn't drop, but his mana points decreased at a moderate rate.
If an ordinary melee-type contractor encountered this, they might be instantly discouraged. Melee contractors generally had low amounts of body energy. Su Xiao was an exception. With 59,348 mana points, he could easily withstand this passive domain.
The distance closed to within three meters. A gust of wind rushed towards him. Su Xiao, holding the long blade, stopped abruptly. Not only that, but he also began to lean backward.
'Blade Path Sword: Time!'
Dong~
Everything around him slowed down. Within his perception range, the Eternal God had raised a massive claw, about to smash down on him.
As Su Xiao leaned back, whoosh, the massive claw swept past just in front of him. The sharp claws nearly grazed his chest.
Rip~
The long leather coat on Su Xiao's shoulder tore open. Then, the wind force from the massive claw made the hem of his leather coat flap violently. His hair was temporarily blown into a hairstyle resembling Kingsley's.
Slap!
The ground around Su Xiao's feet cracked and exploded. Although he wasn't hit, a few drops of blood were left in the air. Instead of retreating, he advanced towards the Eternal God.
Clang!
The long blade slashed down but was blocked by the Eternal God's other claw. This claw was covered in a layer of grey bone. If one didn't look closely, they might mistake it for rough skin. But this layer of defense was extremely solid. Dragon-Slaying Flash couldn't budge it at all.
This was only natural. These beastly claws were the Eternal God's weapons, so they were naturally indestructible.
An almost irresistible force came from the blade. At that moment, a hand pressed against the spine of Dragon-Slaying Flash. A large number of black tentacles spread out, extending over most of the Eternal God's body.
Suddenly, the Eternal God made a slight tilting motion with its head. Seeing this, Su Xiao's pupils contracted. His perception screamed a warning: he had to enter the Space Penetration state immediately.
But at that moment, he noticed something wrong within his perception range. Zuiyasi, who was nearby, hadn't retreated. Was this bastard trying to commit suicide?
To be precise, Zuiyasi wasn't trying to commit suicide. He was trying to invade the Eternal God's body to continuously deal internal damage. This was his preferred fighting method. However, he hadn't managed to invade earlier; he was pushed out by a powerful death force.
It felt like Zuiyasi was riding a small electric scooter with a rocket engine attached to the back, going 800 miles per hour, and then crashing head-on into a steel wall. Since the scooter had no protection, he slammed into it face-first.
Although it was a metaphor, this was Zuiyasi's most realistic experience at that moment. He was a bit dazed from the death force impact.
"Roar!"
The Blood Beast lunged out fiercely, exploding against the Eternal God's upper body and head. Although the Blood Beast's power had been relegated from an ultimate move to a secondary one, its activation speed was ridiculously fast.
Boom! The Eternal God was momentarily stunned by the explosion. As for damage, it was completely unharmed.
In that precious instant, Zuiyasi, transformed into a mass of black tentacles, surged towards the Eternal God's head. Countless pinky-finger-thick black tentacles drilled into the Eternal God's head. If a normal living being endured this, they would be scared half to death.
Unfortunately, the Eternal God wasn't in that category. Its claw grabbed at its head, tearing off a bunch of tentacles and crushing them in its hand.
Squelch~
Black blood and tentacle fragments splattered everywhere. Then, Zuiyasi's broken corpse slid from between the Eternal God's fingers. When the damaged corpse hit the ground, one could see that the corpse had slightly long hair. It was the dead 'Young Zuiyasi'.
Zuiyasi didn't have five lives, but his five fingers each represented a different age of himself. As long as his current self didn't die, he could use other versions of himself to die in his place in dangerous moments. After the battle, he would gradually recover at a painfully costly price.
Zuiyasi had succeeded. He would continue to deal internal damage to the Eternal God. As for whether the terrifying amount of death energy inside the Eternal God's body would erode him to death, that would test Zuiyasi's undying ability.
At this moment, Wude, who was behind them, had transformed into a humanoid form made of black mist, floating in mid-air. Unlike before, a pair of black smoke demon wings were spread, and a strange, dark aura continuously spread to the surroundings.
Not to mention Bubu Wang, even Baha and Gulu's hearts trembled. Their thought was: thank goodness this guy is a teammate.
Faint, barely visible black smoke threads connected Wude and the Eternal God. This way, the Eternal God's powerful body was not only slowly weakened, but its health points also decreased at a slow rate.
The moment he was affected by Wude's ability, the Eternal God locked onto him. The Eternal God slightly lowered its posture, as if about to pounce towards Wude.
Just as the Eternal God was about to pounce, blood energy poured into the long blade in Su Xiao's hand.
'Blade Path Sword: Slay.'
Whoosh! A blood-colored chain slashed out, enveloping the pouncing Eternal God and forcibly cutting it down.
Because this move had been developed multiple times, after being slashed, blood flames ignited on the Eternal God's fur all over its body. It slammed one claw onto the ground.
Dong!
A shockwave spread from this palm strike, too sudden to avoid.
Su Xiao felt numbness in his feet. His legs from the knees down lost sensation from the force. At this critical moment, the Eternal God directly in front of him made another slight tilting motion.
"Roar!!!"
A roar spread out. Even though the temple was very large, nearly a kilometer wide, the grey soundwave from this roar still covered over 99% of the temple's interior.
It was impossible to evade this roar with speed. Su Xiao felt waves of force penetrating his body. Whoosh, Death Flames ignited on his body. But at the same time, he entered the Space Penetration state.
The roar had a total of six stages of damage judgment, but they didn't happen simultaneously. They came in high-frequency waves. Su Xiao endured two stages of the roar's impact. Even so, his health points dropped below 60%. The intense pain throughout his body felt like he was being shaken apart.
After entering the Space Penetration state, Su Xiao looked around. Being in the spatial gap, everything was black and white. This proved that as long as one reacted fast enough, the Eternal God's roar could be evaded with Dragon Shadow Flash.
The grey soundwave spread within the temple. Looking now, Wude, who had just been like a demon descending, with his black smoke wings spread wide, was now pressed against the metal door at the entrance.
Gulu was even standing in the corner like a punished student. She had never stood in such a perfect posture for punishment.
The roar ended. Su Xiao exited the Space Penetration state. Seeing this, Gulu, standing in the corner, knew the opportunity had come. Since she had chosen to participate in the battle, she couldn't just watch.
Gulu's three short blades all flew up. These three short blades split into ten slender, long blades. Her pupils turned golden-red. After activating her ultimate, she pointed at the Eternal God.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!...
The ten slender blades either hit the Eternal God's throat or its head. This made the Eternal God look towards Gulu. It used the claws of its thumb and index finger to pinch a slender blade stuck in its jaw, pulled it out, and with a little force, snapped it with a crack.
What Gulu would never forget happened next. As if it had glanced at her, the Eternal God turned its head back, re-locking onto Su Xiao. After taking her full ultimate, the Eternal God completely ignored her scratching.
Gulu was stunned. At that moment, she sincerely wished her profession could enter its final awakening stage.
Could she tolerate this? The answer was yes. Charging in now would mean certain death. No suspense, no chance, just death here.
The roar hadn't completely dissipated within the temple when Su Xiao felt wind pressure coming from the side. By the time his perception caught it, one of the Eternal God's massive claws was already beside him.
The Death Flames brought by this claw caused Su Xiao's health points to plummet below 50%. If caught by this claw, the 'Death Scepter' ability would trigger.
'Blade Path Sword: Blood Blade.'
Su Xiao vanished from his spot, leaving a straight blood line across the air. Not a blood line towards the enemy, but straight upwards. No one said blade techniques had to be used to cut people.
Blood-colored feathers drifted down in mid-air. Actually, these were crystallized blade aura and blood energy. When Su Xiao shot out at super-high speed, they served as protection. After fulfilling this mission, the crystals shattered. Due to the nature of the blood energy, they looked like blood-colored feathers when they dissipated.
With a crackling sound, the blood-colored feathers scattered in mid-air were smashed into dust by the Eternal God's claw.
Su Xiao stepped onto the semi-circular ceiling. He sheathed the long blade in his hand.
'Blade Path Sword: Blood Blade Fang.'
Zheng!
A straight blood line swept from top to bottom. Logically, this slash should have created a vertical wound in the center of the Eternal God's body. Unfortunately, the Eternal God crossed its two claws in front of its body, palms facing outward.
Even though there were ways to avoid 'Roar' and 'Death Scepter', the Eternal God's melee combat ability was not only not inferior to Su Xiao's, but actually stronger. This being had fought bloody battles for years against various abyssal spawns on the abyss battlefield. Sometimes, a single battle would last for months or even one or two years without pause.
Almost the moment Su Xiao crashed to the ground as a blood line, a dark sphere appeared between the Eternal God's hands. A continuous beam shot out from the dark sphere.
In the dust cloud Su Xiao had created, a blood-colored phantom, equally tall as his upper body, condensed above him.
'Super Blood Smoke Cannon.'
The Blood Smoke Cannon clashed with the dark beam. At the point of impact, energy expanded, forming a sphere about ten meters in size before exploding violently.
Su Xiao's ears rang. He was blasted away by the shockwave. When he slammed into the wall, it wasn't as painful as he imagined. The wall was soft?
"You... you definitely did that on purpose."
Gulu spoke, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. Su Xiao crashing into her almost made her lose her breath and die on the spot.
If it were just Su Xiao crashing into her, that would be one thing. But the key was that to reduce the damage he took, Su Xiao had instinctively covered his back and the back of his head with a crystal layer during his flight.
Gulu's experience from this crash suddenly reminded her of grilled squid. Not because she was hungry, but because she now had a shared language of empathy with the squid being pressed on the iron plate.
'Super Blood Smoke Cannon.'
The blood-colored phantom above Su Xiao fired another Blood Smoke Cannon. On the other side, the Eternal God raised a single claw, catching the Super Blood Smoke Cannon bare-handed. Even more absurdly, it walked forward with big strides while holding the continuous beam of the Blood Smoke Cannon with one hand.
Su Xiao vanished from his spot and reappeared in front of the Eternal God. A massive claw swung towards him.
Clang!!
The long blade blocked the claw. Wounds, like cracks in flesh, appeared on Su Xiao's body under his long leather coat, blood gushing out. This was the price of withstanding one of the Eternal God's claw strikes.
Boom! A shockwave spread outwards from Su Xiao. Baha, who was about to come and assist, was helplessly pushed back by the wind pressure. If one looked closely at Baha's eyes, the look was resolute enough to pierce the soul.
Just as Su Xiao managed to withstand one of the Eternal God's claw strikes, the Eternal God made a slight tilting motion. This was a sign of the roar, just like the previous two times.
One could say this was also a possibility of defeating the Eternal God. The Eternal God's divine soul had passed away. For some attacks, it had obvious habitual movements. If its divine soul were still present, there would be absolutely no chance of winning.
But who would have thought, this time it wasn't a roar. As the Eternal God lowered its head, Death Flames spewed from its mouth. It was terrifying enough when this thing was attached to attacks. If directly hit, forget eighth-rank, even a ninth-rank tank-type would be done for in an instant.
After a series of crackling sounds, Su Xiao, in a posture of holding his blade up to block, turned into a lifeless stone statue in the Death Flames. As the Eternal God's claw pressed down, the stone statue shattered. The material inside was translucent blue crystal.
At some point, Su Xiao appeared behind the Eternal God's neck. Having temporarily lost Dragon-Slaying Flash, he held a Blood Spear in his hand.
Bone spurs appeared on the back of the Eternal God's neck, growing wildly towards Su Xiao. At the same time, Baha swooped in front of the Eternal God, its eagle claws extended, striking at the Eternal God's throat.
Even the Eternal God had to make a choice between the two at this moment. Among all the combat units present, except for the Eternal God itself, Baha was the fastest. Its ambush couldn't be underestimated.
Su Xiao, behind the Eternal God's neck, posed a greater threat, but he had temporarily lost Dragon-Slaying Flash. At that moment, Dragon-Slaying Flash was flying in front of the Eternal God, having been ejected when the crystal statue was crushed. It was only half a meter away from Baha.
Su Xiao and Baha's positions were suddenly swapped due to Baha's ability.
Puchi, puchi~
Baha was pierced through the body by two bone spurs. Meanwhile, Su Xiao, who appeared in front of the Eternal God, had already grasped the hilt of the blade.
'Blade Path Sword: Extreme!'
The 'Extreme' move, which had the highest slashing intensity among all blade techniques, was unleashed. Swish, the long blade seemed to lengthen, slashing diagonally across the Eternal God's chest, leaving a bloody wound that reached the bone.
"Nice!"
Gulu shouted involuntarily while continuing her ultimate's 'scratching'. This was the first time in the battle that the Eternal God had been truly heavily wounded.
Struck by this fierce slash, the Eternal God roared and leaned backward. Just as everyone thought this powerful enemy was about to fall, two more arms suddenly grew out from below its original two arms.
What was even more unexpected was that the Eternal God's four arms all extended slightly. Four claws grabbed and crushed Su Xiao from all directions.
A loud bang exploded in Su Xiao's ears. Everything around him turned pitch black. It wasn't that he didn't want to use Dragon Shadow Flash to evade this move, but during the process of the four claws grabbing him, they continuously compressed the space at his central point.
If the usual spatial density was 0.5, after this compression, the surrounding spatial density had reached at least 400. Penetrating space would not only be slow but also dangerous. Along with this was the physical pressure caused by the surge in spatial density. Even at the bottom of the sea ten thousand meters deep, Su Xiao hadn't felt such immense pressure.
The Eternal God's four claws bound Su Xiao in its grasp. Its posture straightened from leaning back. It spewed Death Flames from its mouth towards its own claws.
Just as the Death Flames were about to engulf Su Xiao, Old Zuiyasi, at some point, appeared about ten meters to the side.
Old Zuiyasi, with his graying hair, seemed to sigh. Eyes opened all over his body. These were the 'Retrospective Eyes', Zuiyasi's trump card.
Everything in the temple suddenly stopped. A horrifying scene unfolded. Everything here was like a videotape being rewound. The Death Flames gradually retracted back into the Eternal God's mouth.
As everything rewound, the 'Retrospective Eyes' on Old Zuiyasi's body burst one by one. Even more terrifying, Old Zuiyasi's body dissolved like a candle. This showed how terrifying the backlash of a time-based ability was. Just to rewind local time within the temple by 3 seconds required such a price.
During the rewind, the Eternal God's four claws gradually opened. Everyone present could feel the rewind of everything around them, but they couldn't move, including Zuiyasi himself. He couldn't attack during this opportunity.
When the Eternal God's four arms were fully extended, everything around could no longer bear it. Like glass, it shattered with a crackling sound.
Boom! The Eternal God seemed to break free from a large piece of transparent glass binding. Its four claws gathered again. Taking advantage of this brief gap, Su Xiao used his Dragon Shadow Flash ability to retreat over ten meters away, landing firmly on the ground.
Looking at Old Zuiyasi again, most of his body had shattered like an explosion. His remaining right arm raised, pointing at the Eternal God.
'Decay.'
Bang! Blood exploded from all over the Eternal God's body. While still in mid-air, this blood rapidly rotted and dried up, turning to dust as if experiencing thousands of years.
The Eternal God's health points plummeted by a significant chunk, at least over 15%. When Zuiyasi went all out, his methods were surprisingly powerful.
Old Zuiyasi completely shattered. Su Xiao wouldn't miss such a golden opportunity.
'Blade Path Sword: Flow.'
An elegant wind mark slashed across the Eternal God, blood splattering everywhere. This made the Eternal God intend to roar again.
'Blade Path Sword: Azure Demon.'
A blue-green blade aura shot out. The Eternal God, whose throat had just been cut open by 'Flow', immediately interrupted its roar and swung a claw to meet it with full force.
Slap~
Azure Demon dissipated into tiny fragments smaller than rice grains in the air. This made the Eternal God pause for a moment, as if puzzled by the vast difference in slashing intensity.
"Boss, I've scouted it. The hole above connects to the outside."
Baha landed on Su Xiao's shoulder. Hearing this, Su Xiao made a decision in his heart. To win, they had to fight outside. Although the temple was large, one roar turned most of the area into a death zone. It was too difficult to fight effectively here.
As for how to get out, now was definitely not the time. Anyone who dared to jump towards the skylight above would be swatted down by the Eternal God's claw.
Only when the Eternal God's health points were reduced below 50% and it entered its second form would there be an opportunity. That would be a good time to attack, but also a chance to jump outside.
Su Xiao needed an opportunity. Currently, only Zuiyasi could create it.
Dang~
Su Xiao's left index finger, wrapped in the Black King Bracer, tapped on Dragon-Slaying Flash. A sound wave spread silently. This was the signal agreed upon during the previous battle against the Sin God.
Before Su Xiao could receive a response, the Eternal God opposite him had already charged. The swinging claw seemed to be infinitely magnified, impossible to dodge. Otherwise, Su Xiao wouldn't have had to withstand that heavy claw strike earlier.
Just as he was about to block with his blade again, the pouncing Eternal God suddenly paused in mid-air. This was Zuiyasi, who had invaded its body, creating an opportunity for Su Xiao.
Ignoring his health points, which had already fallen below 30%, Su Xiao stepped forward. Facing the charging Eternal God, he delivered a straight kick.
Dong!!
It was like a powerful explosive bomb detonating. Wind pressure scattered in all directions. The charging Eternal God was sent flying backward by the straight kick.
'Blade Domain.'
While switching 'Soul Severing Shadow' to Soul Slash Soul Core, Su Xiao activated Blade Domain. Countless slashes appeared around the Eternal God, forming a dense spherical slash zone.
Su Xiao charged forward. The long blade was coated in blood energy, making Dragon-Slaying Flash look slightly longer. Taking advantage of the paralysis time from the straight kick and the suppression of Blade Domain, he unleashed a series of slashes on the Eternal God.
Blood and severed fur splattered everywhere. Gulu, standing in the corner like a punished student, also increased the intensity of her scratching... cough, increased the stabbing force of her ultimate.
Zheng! Zheng! Zheng!
Su Xiao slashed again and again. But at that moment, the Eternal God, submerged in the dense attacks, suddenly flashed with golden-red light all over its body. One of its abilities triggered. The Eternal God entered a brief state of strong super armor.
"Roar!!!"
The roar spread. If Su Xiao was caught by this roar now, it would trigger instant death. Even though he could enter the Space Penetration state, he would have to withstand 1 to 2 stages of the roar's damage before he could use this ability.
Death was within reach. No, death was already coming, unstoppable.
In the distance, Baha, who hadn't directly participated in the battle but was constantly alert with its ability half-activated, spread its wings and instantly swapped positions with Su Xiao. The grey shockwave from the roar engulfed Baha.
What was even more fatal was that if it took the full roar, the rapid drop in health points wasn't the most deadly thing. There was a life-saving item, [Bud of Creation], in the team storage space. The problem was the instant death characteristic attached to the Death Flames.
「Bud of Creation·Tree's Blessing (Passive): When the health points of the memory life-marked person fall below 0.5%, this item will immediately activate, granting the user a high-level invincibility shield for 2 seconds. During this time, the user will recover 50% health points and 50% mana points, and gain a large movement speed bonus.」
During the roar, before Baha's health points even dropped to 0.5%, it had already suffered the instant death state. In that instant, Baha felt like it had fallen into water, sinking continuously. The light on the water's surface was fading away. Darkness crept in from all sides. It knew it was going to die.
Inside the temple, the moment the roar ended, metal spikes pierced Baha's wings and pulled it back.
Retracting the Realm Severing Thread, Su Xiao threw Baha towards the corner diagonally behind him. Bubu Wang, who had blended into the environment, appeared. In his dog paw was a metal device that looked like a defibrillator. As soon as Baha landed, Bubu Wang pressed it against its chest.
「Sacred Awakening: If the target has been dead for less than 5 minutes and its body integrity is above 60%, using this item on it has a high probability of reviving it from a 'false death state' and healing critical injuries.」
Dada da~
Electric arcs surged over Baha's body. In Baha's perception, it was sinking in water. Suddenly, golden electric arcs appeared around it, shocking it. This made it stop sinking into the darkness below and instead shoot straight up towards the light above.
"Damn it!"
Baha suddenly came back to life, its eyes wide open as it bounced up. It took deep breaths. Although it knew that helping to tank this roar meant certain death, this was the best option it could think of. If Su Xiao fell, even if he could also be revived from the false death state with high probability using [Sacred Awakening], this period of time would be enough for the Eternal God to wipe them all out.
"Almost kicked the bucket, damn it!"
Baha spread its wings and flew up, continuing to prepare to swap positions with Su Xiao at critical moments.
Blood dripped from Su Xiao's chin. Everything he saw was a bit blurry. The problem was, they still hadn't overcome the Eternal God's first phase. Plus, he wouldn't suddenly explode with power or break through his limits temporarily. In this situation, if he couldn't win with all his abilities, then he couldn't win. There would be no miracles, no luck, only total annihilation here.
Su Xiao was about to step forward again for another round, at least to bring the Eternal God's health points below 50% and into its second phase.
Before Su Xiao could make a move, he noticed something was wrong. He was in such a bad state, why hadn't the Eternal God opposite him attacked?
After careful observation, he saw that faint black smoke was emanating from the Eternal God's entire body. It was Wude. This guy was also about to use his ultimate technique.
Wude, floating in mid-air, descended. The black smoke he had transformed into spread partly behind him, forming the image of a Grim Reaper holding a scythe. The next second, this Grim Reaper beheaded the black smoke version of Wude.
The head of the black smoke humanoid Wude hit the ground. His entire body knelt, dead, motionless.
Almost simultaneously, blood sprayed from the Eternal God's neck. It felt like it had almost been decapitated by the scythe.
The two arms the Eternal God had grown later collapsed, leaving only its original two arms. Its claws pressed against the ground. Darkness spread from its entire body. Its 'Abyss Awakening' ability was activated.
Black tentacles swarmed out from the slashing wound on the Eternal God's chest. Zuiyasi, who had escaped, ran with big strides, then hit the wall and fell.
After falling, Zuiyasi chopped off his own head and entire left arm with a hand blade. These parts had been eroded by abyssal energy.
"Baha."
Su Xiao spoke. Baha, who was nearby, flew towards Wude. One eagle claw grabbed Wude's black smoke head, the other grabbed his body, and flew towards the skylight.
Su Xiao was about to jump out when he felt a dizzy spell.
"Moo."
Amu, whose health points had recovered somewhat, arrived beside Su Xiao. Su Xiao jumped onto Amu's shoulder, crouching. Amu, with a large hand, grabbed Bubu Wang and leaped towards the skylight.
Zuiyasi and Gulu weren't slow either. They had to seize this hard-fought opportunity to get outside. Otherwise, the Eternal God's roar ability was too unstoppable, or rather, its Death Flame ability was unstoppable.
This ability had almost killed Su Xiao twice. Once, Zuiyasi's 'Time Rewind' saved him. Then, Baha died in his place.
After exiting the skylight on the ceiling, Su Xiao felt the surrounding space twist for a moment, then return to normal.
After landing, Su Xiao jumped down from Amu's shoulder and looked around. The ground was covered in dust, with ravines and ridges crisscrossing the terrain.
The distant Atonement Hall indicated that Su Xiao hadn't entered a special space but was still in the deepest area of Dead Silence City.
"Bai Ye, cough cough cough~, I'm afraid I won't be able to go back this time. Ah~, I have a wife, son, and daughter. Dying here with you single guys, I lose the most."
Zuiyasi, with blood constantly trickling from the corner of his mouth, still had the energy to joke. It could only be said that basically no one present was afraid of death. Or rather, if they were afraid of death, they wouldn't have come here.
Time was tight. Su Xiao tossed a potion each to Zuiyasi and Wude. He then took out [Honor Recovery Potion (Eighth Rank)] and injected it directly. His injuries were too severe; he had to use this potion.
「Honor Recovery Potion (Eighth Rank): Upon use, instantly recovers 100% health points and 100% mana points, and quickly heals all injuries. Has a significant recovery effect on organ damage and brain tissue damage to a certain extent.」
In a short time, Su Xiao's injuries were basically healed. As for his condition, although it wasn't as good as before the battle started, it wasn't bad either.
"Gulu, this is the key to get out."
Su Xiao took out the Sanctuary Key. Gulu, who was a bit on edge, cautiously and quickly trotted over. When she was three meters away, her vision blurred.
"I knew it!"
Gulu had felt something was wrong earlier. Before the battle even started, Su Xiao had saved her and told her to hide in a safe place. It was too abnormal.
A crystal layer climbed onto the fingertips of Su Xiao's left hand, forming a claw-like hollow structure. Then, it stabbed into Gulu's lower abdomen.
Gulu felt like she was being completely drained. Blood flowed out at high speed. In the blink of an eye, her face turned pale.
Gulu glared at Su Xiao, her eyes seeming to say: I finally know why the treatment was so good this time. You were treating me like a mobile potion bottle, weren't you?
The answer was no. Su Xiao couldn't recover his health points by absorbing other people's blood, even if it was transcendent blood.
Four-fifths of Gulu's blood was extracted. As an eighth-rank contractor, she could handle it. And as she wished, she ended up riding on Bubu Wang's back.
The transcendent blood extracted from Gulu first turned into blood energy, then was compressed into complex blood patterns that climbed onto the Black King Bracer.
"It's coming. Get ready to surround and attack again."
Wude spoke. He had already returned to his normal appearance.
"No. I'll fight him one-on-one."
Su Xiao pulled his right arm out of the severely damaged sleeve of his long leather coat. This caused the entire coat to hang down in strips. Held by the belt at his waist, the strips of leather covered Su Xiao's legs. Seeing this scene would definitely make Lide's blood pressure spike.
Before Su Xiao finished speaking, Bubu Wang, Amu, and Baha were either running far away or flying at full speed. Bubu Wang was also carrying the heavily blood-depleted Gulu.
"You should run faster."
Su Xiao spoke. Hearing this, Zuiyasi's cheek twitched. Wude turned into black smoke and drifted into the distance.
The two good teammates probably never dreamed that in this battle, their teammate would be more dangerous than the enemy.
The black clouds in the sky blocked the sun. Only a few thin rays of sunlight shone through. On the open ground, a breeze blew up a little dust, creating a sense of pre-battle stillness.
Su Xiao held a large metal canteen. He gulped down several big mouthfuls, then poured the remaining water over his head to wash off the bloodstains.
A beastly roar came from the distant Supreme Sanctuary. Su Xiao casually threw down the large canteen. Soon, the roar grew closer. A figure nearly ten meters tall, covered in black fur, crashed down nearby.
Su Xiao's left index finger, wrapped in the metal bracer, stroked the edge of Dragon-Slaying Flash. Although this might very well be his last battle, he still had to ensure Dragon-Slaying Flash was in good condition.
After the Eternal God arrived, the surroundings were silent for a few seconds. Then, Su Xiao and the Eternal God vanished simultaneously.
Clang!!
The long blade clashed with the claw. Su Xiao was sent flying backward. While in mid-air, his gaze grew sharper.
'Blade Path Sword: Flow.'
Zheng~
An elegant wind mark slashed out, but the Eternal God dodged it by leaning sideways. At the same time, its massive claw reached for Su Xiao.
Before the claw arrived, Su Xiao felt the spatial density around him increase sharply. This was the Eternal God hindering his space penetration. As expected of a true god who had experienced years of bloody battles. Even though its divine soul had passed away, some things were etched into the bones and blood of this divine body.
Unable to penetrate space, Su Xiao still had a way.
'Blade Path Sword: Blood Blade.'
A straight blood line shot upwards. The Eternal God grabbed at nothing. It then slammed the ground. Bone spurs shot up from the ground in a crisscross pattern.
Just before Su Xiao landed, he unleashed 'Blade Path Sword: Slay'. Whoosh, the blood-colored chain slashed the dozens of meters long bone spurs on the ground to pieces.
'Blood Smoke Cannon.'
After landing, Su Xiao pointed at the Eternal God. Unexpectedly, the charging Eternal God tilted its head slightly, as if about to charge, but then let out a roar mid-stride.
"Roar!!!"
Black sound patterns spread. Before Su Xiao could penetrate space, Death Flames had already ignited on his body.
A vertical eye opened on the Eternal God's forehead, staring at Su Xiao who was in the middle of space penetration. In an instant, Su Xiao's entire body went numb, even his fingertips lost sensation.
Su Xiao exited the Space Penetration state. In a one-on-one situation, after just a few exchanges, his health points had already fallen to 20.7%. This showed the advantage of having good teammates nearby to cover each other.
But to win, he had to fight the Eternal God one-on-one. Although it wasn't a guaranteed victory, it was much better than seeing no hope of winning.
At this moment, this opportunity was about to arrive. On the hanging strip-like leather coat, faintly visible black embers appeared.
「Inscription Base: Wrath Statue」
Inscription Effect 1: Dark Embers (Core, Passive). When the base wearer's health points fall below 25%, you will trigger the power of Dark Embers.
Tip: This effect lasts for 30 seconds. Trigger interval is 48 hours.
Warning: To trigger this ability, your willpower must be above 120 points. Otherwise, you will not be recognized by the Dark Inscription.
...
Dark Embers triggered. The effect of this ability was simple: the lower the current health points, the stronger the body's endurance. Overall, it was an enhancement in body toughness and comprehensive resistance.
Fortunately, he had this ability. Otherwise, during the previous battle against the Wolf Cavalry Captain, Su Xiao might have been irreversibly eroded by abyssal power.
Decide life or death within five minutes. Having made this decision, Su Xiao, with less than 20% health points, bravely charged towards the Eternal God. He had life-saving items in hand. This physical state wasn't the most dangerous yet.
The distance between them closed rapidly. A massive claw swung from the side. This proved that if one aspect was strong enough to the extreme, no fancy abilities were needed to beat the enemy into questioning their existence.
Wind pressure came from the side. Su Xiao didn't block with his blade this time. He raised his left arm, preparing to block the Eternal God's heavy strike this way. At first glance, this looked like suicide.
The moment the Eternal God's massive claw hit Su Xiao's left forearm, the blood patterns on the Black King Bracer, formed from four-fifths of Gulu's blood, became almost glowing red.
Boom!
The blood patterns exploded into a large cloud of blood smoke. A ringing sound appeared in Su Xiao's left ear. His left arm was sent flying. Not just his left arm, but his entire left shoulder went with it, along with a small part of his left torso. His beating heart was even exposed. But strangely, the wound from this strike was exceptionally smooth and neat.
The reason it was so tragic wasn't just because of the enemy's strike. It was also because, before being hit, Su Xiao had slashed himself along the left side of his torso.
So, it appeared that the enemy had sent his shoulder and left arm flying. In reality, he had cut them off himself, and then the shoulder and left arm were sent flying.
Although this hit was severe, the parts of Su Xiao that were attacked were all sent flying. The Death Flames couldn't burn along his left arm.
Crack, crack, crack~
A crystal layer covered the wound. Su Xiao, with blood splattered on his face, landed in a crouch as if uninjured.
Blood smoke spread in front of the Eternal God. This blood smoke could not only block vision but also block perception. He had used this before when dealing with the Sin Collective.
After taking this hit, even with the Dark Embers enhancement, Su Xiao's health points fell to a near-death state. The lv.40 ultimate ability of Blood Spear Grandmaster triggered.
「Death and Rebirth (Passive): When your health points drop to a near-death state, your soul power will be fully activated. During this time, all your melee attack damage is increased by 50%.」
Su Xiao charged into the blood smoke. He closed his eyes, lowered his body, dodged a diagonally swinging claw, and as the blood smoke was dispersed, he delivered a straight kick.
Bang!!
The Eternal God was kicked flying out of the blood smoke range. Su Xiao followed closely, slashing across the Eternal God's face. Blood scattered.
Crackle~
Golden electric arcs flashed on the blade. Taking advantage of the Eternal God's body being numb from the straight kick, Su Xiao manipulated the dissipating blood smoke to gather. He couldn't waste the transcendent blood obtained from Gulu.
The Eternal God had indeed entered its second phase. But Su Xiao had entered the third phase of his near-death state. This was the strongest he could achieve.
The large amount of blood energy coating turned Dragon-Slaying Flash into a blood blade, about half longer than usual.
Zheng, Zheng, Zheng...
The blood blade slashed furiously. Even the powerful Eternal God had to temporarily avoid the edge against the third-phase Su Xiao. Its battle instinct told it that this human couldn't maintain this state for long.
And indeed it was true. After less than 10 seconds of furious slashing, Su Xiao's aura suddenly weakened significantly. With a clang, the Eternal God, now bearing many slash marks, grabbed the blood-blade state Dragon-Slaying Flash with its bare hand.
The Eternal God was about to roar. Suddenly, it stopped, looking up at the sky. What it saw was golden lightning.
Just moments before, when golden electric arcs appeared on Su Xiao's blade, he had begun to attract lightning. Not using his luck attribute, but using his 980-point elemental affinity.
Was Su Xiao trying to die together with the Eternal God? Of course not. First, he had [Bud of Creation] to save his life. As long as he didn't encounter high-judgment instant death or decapitation, this item was extremely reliable.
This world had been self-sealed. After self-sealing, it was also certified by the Void Tree, meaning its rank was further sealed by the Void Tree.
The strength of World Lightning was determined by the strength of the world. In places like the Real World or the Void, attracting lightning with elemental affinity was suicide. Here, although the World Lightning drawn down would be terrifying, like the Eternal God, even if it was strong, it had an upper limit.
More importantly, this place was Dead Silence City, a huge independent space within this world. This meant that the intensity of the World Lightning would most likely not reach a level where even life-saving items couldn't protect against it.
Boom!!!
A terrifying lightning pillar, over ten kilometers thick, descended, standing between heaven and earth, continuously pouring down golden lightning.
Su Xiao and the Eternal God were submerged in the immense lightning. The earth cracked. The area hit by the lightning sank. The only groundwater in this area was forced out and evaporated by the intense lightning strike.
In the lightning, Su Xiao's entire body lost sensation. Already heavily injured, he triggered [Bud of Creation]. An eggshell-like shield appeared, enveloping him. It was a high-level invincibility shield. This successfully blocked the World Lightning. Not only that, but his health points quickly recovered, soon reaching over 50%.
The high-level invincibility shield only lasted 2 seconds. The peak of the World Lightning was also very short. After the lightning pillar struck, its power quickly faded. Even so, Su Xiao's entire body was numb, and his health points had dropped.
When the World Lightning completely dissipated, the scene before him was a scorched earth. Su Xiao looked towards where the Eternal God was. A tall, charred figure lay there.
In the distant Supreme Sanctuary, the main structure of this building was severely damaged. Inside the temple, Zuiyasi and Wude were lying on the blackened ground. They never dreamed that this time, although they didn't die at the hands of the Eternal God, they were almost killed by the World Lightning their ally had attracted.
Not far away, Bubu Wang was lying down, with Gulu pressed underneath him. If not for Bubu, Gulu definitely wouldn't have been able to withstand it. She had no World Lightning resistance.
At the center point where the World Lightning struck, the ground was covered in shallow water. Just as Su Xiao was about to step forward, the Eternal God, lying ahead, raised its claw and slammed it onto the ground with a bang. Water splashed everywhere as it pushed its body up.
Looking at the Eternal God now, its fur was charred black, its flesh was burnt, and there were crisscrossing cracks all over its body.
Not giving the Eternal God a chance to heal, Su Xiao charged forward and delivered a straight kick.
Bang!!
The Eternal God was kicked to one knee. But its health points were recovering at an alarming rate. Its maximum health point cap of 150% greatly reduced the risk of being killed. To kill it, its maximum health points had to fall to 25% or below.
Facing the kneeling Eternal God, paralyzed, Su Xiao didn't use 'Flow' to slash at its neck, which was several meters high. Instead, he adopted a different strategy.
'Blade Path Sword: Extreme!'
The long blade deepened the existing slash on the Eternal God's chest and abdomen. He didn't continue slashing. Instead, he moved forward, charging into the Eternal God's chest cavity through the several-meter-long wound.
The Eternal God's body regained sensation. Just as it was about to reach its hand into the wound on its chest and abdomen, crystals spread inside its chest cavity.
Realizing this, the Eternal God's right claw stabbed into its own chest. The angle was tricky. One of the claw tips pierced through the crystal layer and stabbed into Su Xiao's abdomen.
But at that moment, a muffled thunder came from the sky. Su Xiao had once again used his elemental affinity to attract lightning.
Crack!!
A lightning pillar several hundred meters thick descended. Su Xiao had just attracted lightning once. Attracting it again so soon, although the World Lightning wouldn't be weak, it would be much weaker than the first time. To attract very strong World Lightning each time, there had to be at least a month's interval.
When the World Lightning subsided, the Eternal God once again fell onto the scorched earth. Su Xiao, whose entire body was numbed by the electricity, fell out from the wound on the Eternal God's chest and abdomen. He had used the Eternal God to shield himself from the second World Lightning.
The battle temporarily stopped. Both Su Xiao and the Eternal God lay in the shallow water, motionless. But a few seconds later, Su Xiao suddenly leaped up and stabbed towards the Eternal God's neck.
Bang! Su Xiao was sent flying by the Eternal God. He landed on the ground several hundred meters away, his vision going dark. He almost fainted.
The Eternal God walked towards Su Xiao. On the way, the wound on its chest and abdomen forcibly healed to prevent Su Xiao from entering again. But it hadn't walked a few steps before it knelt on one knee, spewing hot divine blood from its mouth. Electric arcs could be seen surging within it.
Seeing the wound on the Eternal God's chest and abdomen heal, Su Xiao felt much more relieved. The plan had succeeded.
Dong~!
A muffled sound came from within the Eternal God's chest cavity. Its chest expanded for a moment. It was an Apollo that Su Xiao had left inside earlier, exploding. This made the Eternal God spit out a large mouthful of divine blood mixed with sparks.
But even so, the Eternal God stood up again and walked towards Su Xiao with big strides. At this moment, lying on the ground, Su Xiao sincerely felt that this guy should be called the Undying God.
Su Xiao used his last bit of strength to get up from the ground.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Su Xiao blocked three heavy claw strikes in a row. Covered in blood, he retreated step by step. This time... he was going to lose. The Eternal God, who had endured two World Lightnings, was actually in better shape than Su Xiao.
What was even more helpless was that the Eternal God's health points were only at 17.2% at this moment. But to kill it, he had to land a melee slash. Now, there was no such opportunity.
"Moo!"
Amu's roar came from above, rapidly approaching. Before, the Eternal God could have dodged. But now, after enduring two World Lightnings, it was already impressive that it was in this state.
The reason Amu was falling from the sky was that after the Supreme Sanctuary had weathered the World Lightning, Amu and Baha had also been affected. But they were often struck by World Lightning. Even Bubu Wang had over 140 points of World Lightning resistance, let alone the two of them.
Therefore, Baha had grabbed Amu and flown up, leading to this scene.
Now, Amu fell from the sky. Its posture was the same as at the beginning of the battle. The difference was that this time, its battle axe struck the Eternal God's shoulder, almost making it fall forward. It slammed one hand onto the scorched earth with a bang.
Dark blue smoke climbed onto Dragon-Slaying Flash. Su Xiao turned into a blood shadow. At this moment, the world seemed to pause for an instant. In the world of only black and white, a straight blood shadow flashed by.
With a splash, Su Xiao fell onto the shallow water behind the Eternal God, splashing water. Looking at the Eternal God, dark blue smoke drifted from the wound on its neck. The Demon Blade's kill had succeeded!
"Roar~!"
The Eternal God straightened up and let out one final roar. After this roar, which had no attack characteristics, its massive body crashed down onto the shallow water. This time, it didn't get up again.
After a while, raindrops fell from the sky. It began to rain, as if the world was crying because it had lost the true god who protected it.
Su Xiao stood up from the shallow water. He flicked the divine blood off his blade and slowly sheathed the long sword.
The Eternal God had been slain!
PS: (Sorry for the late update. To finish this decisive battle in one chapter, I wrote 14,000 words. That's why it's so late. Please forgive me, dear readers. It's the beginning of the month, so I'm asking for monthly votes.)