Chapter 11: Darkness
The heavy snowfall turned the sky a dreary gray. Dozens of meters away, the Twinborn Lord held a greatsword wreathed in black flames, from which a burning liquid like asphalt dripped. That black flame, mixed with mottled white, was definitely troublesome—it was a power of devouring annihilation.
Boom!
Su Xiao and the Twinborn Lord vanished simultaneously from their spots. The ground where they had stood shattered and erupted upward, yet the two were not charging at each other. Instead, they headed toward a group of opportunists hoping to profit from the chaos.
The Twinborn Lord flickered twice at high speed, leaving trails of black embers in the air before arriving at the hiding place of Winter King and his men.
The light-dark greatsword—no, it should be called the Devouring Annihilation Greatsword—came crashing down on an empty space. A crisp cracking sound echoed from that spot, triggering a chain reaction. Like a shattered mirror, a hidden space exploded with a boom. The old space-system mage maintaining that hidden space was instantly engulfed in devouring black flames. He only had time to let out a pained cry before being burned into pale ashes.
Winter King's hundred elite guards immediately surrounded him, forming a protective circle. A few guards pressed so close that their backs nearly touched Winter King's armor. The burly Winter King, standing over three meters tall in his dark-gold armor, raised his hand to push these guards back. As a war king, he didn't need such close protection.
Amid the swirling snow, Su Xiao and the Twinborn Lord flanked the group of guards from both sides. The two of them were surrounding over a hundred people. Though it sounded strange, no one present doubted this fact.
"Protect your king—"
Winter King stopped mid-sentence, surprised at himself for saying such a thing. The hundred elite guards around him had firm gazes, ready to die protecting their king.
Su Xiao caught the brief surprise on Winter King's face. He had been gathering blood energy, planning to form it into a Blood Beast—a newly developed ability—but now it seemed there was no chance to use it.
Across from him, the Twinborn Lord thrust his Devouring Annihilation Greatsword into the ground. A thunderous shockwave spread, sending layers of dark energy rippling outward. The surrounding earth rose like stacked rings, expanding in all directions.
Thud!
A massive suit of Fierce Winter armor enveloped the guards and Winter King. At the center, Winter King clenched his hand, and a frost core in his palm crackled. He had clearly used this treasure to block the Twinborn Lord's attack.
The Twinborn Lord shot forward with a whoosh, his tattered black wings trailing behind him like a worn cloak. He gripped the Devouring Annihilation Greatsword with both hands, raising it above his head. Black flames surged along the blade, instantly extending it to a hundred meters in length.
"Darkness... Descend!"
Boom!!
Darkness engulfed everything within dozens of kilometers in an instant. A few seconds later, the darkness dissipated, revealing the once-majestic Fierce Winter armor now in ruins. Only a few fragments floated in the air. All hundred elite guards of Eternal Winter City had been reduced to incomplete skeletons, crumbling into ash as they fell.
From above, the snow covering hundreds of kilometers had been cleared, forming a massive circle. Within this area, the ground looked as if it had been corroded by asphalt, burning with devouring black flames.
"Cough, cough, cough!"
Winter King coughed dryly, blood spraying from his mouth and nose. His Frost War Hammer was now battered and broken. Though a war king, Winter King's strength lay not in personal combat but in leading armies. The Fierce Winter Legion under his command was a force even the Wizard Faction feared.
The remaining darkness in the air melted away. A whoosh came from Winter King's side. Just as he tried to recover his breath to counter this attack, a layer of translucent blue crystal instantly spread over his body, sealing him like a statue.
Su Xiao appeared behind Winter King and delivered a clean side kick.
Bang!
The crystal layer shattered. Winter King flew in a straight line to the side. Almost simultaneously, space twisted two kilometers away, forming a spatial vortex that swallowed the high-speed Winter King. It was Baha, who had rushed over. At that moment, Bubu Wang, Amu, Baha, and Alanna were all dealing with a group of black wizards that had suddenly appeared.
After the side kick, Su Xiao landed. He had originally planned to kill Winter King and his hundred guards, but upon noticing the surprise in Winter King's words about "protecting your king," he decided Winter King couldn't die here.
He was over seventy percent sure that Winter King's fate had been devoured by the Platinum Apostle. Moreover, given the strength of Winter King's fate and causality, this was far from a simple matter like devouring the fate of Dark Star Witch Felice. This meant that devouring Winter King's fate was a long-planned scheme by the Platinum Apostle, possibly requiring several world progressions to achieve. In other words, the Platinum Apostle and Shenfu had been conspiring much earlier. The subsequent addition of the Archbishop of the Abyss was like adding wings to a tiger.
Suddenly, Su Xiao thought of something. When Shenfu was dragged into the Eternal Light World, had he chosen to go along with the plan? His strategy might have been: since he had to enter the Eternal Light World anyway, he might as well rescue a powerful ally to join the scheme with the Platinum Apostle.
If so, Shenfu's replacement of the Eternal Darkness Lord's trusted subordinate, Temple Priest Chief Ezler, in the Eternal Light World was no coincidence. It was all part of that old bastard's plan, step by step, until the Archbishop of the Abyss escaped the cage of the Eternal Light World.
More specifically, cooperating with the Platinum Apostle would inevitably put Shenfu at a disadvantage. The Platinum Apostle was a violator who had escaped the Tuanzhang's pursuit, which spoke volumes about his strength and methods. Therefore, Shenfu needed a powerful ally to join the plan, someone to counterbalance the Platinum Apostle. This ally also had to be immensely helpful to the mysterious plan.
The final execution site of this mysterious plan was undoubtedly the Witch Realm. As the absolute ruler of the Dark God Cult, the Archbishop of the Abyss couldn't be refused even if the Platinum Apostle was dissatisfied. One of Shenfu's goals was achieved.
The current situation was: the Platinum Apostle needed Su Xiao to eliminate Winter King, whose fate he had devoured. The subsequent chaos in Eternal Winter City was crucial to the plans of the Platinum Apostle, Shenfu, and the Archbishop of the Abyss. It might even be a turning point in that plan.
Su Xiao had fought his way to Absolute Strength through sheer skill, not brute force. A pure brute wouldn't last long in the Paradise camp—except for the Tyrant with negative intelligence.
Therefore, Winter King couldn't die this time, at least not in this battle. The best outcome was to give Winter King a chance to recover. This way, the Platinum Apostle, Shenfu, and the Archbishop of the Abyss would gain a new enemy. The entire Eternal Winter City faction would become their mortal foes.
Clang~
Su Xiao's left hand, clad in a metal bracer, brushed over the blade of Dragon-Slaying Flash. Standing in the slightly diminished black flames, he looked at the Twinborn Lord across from him. He could tell that the other's devouring annihilation ability had attack power that defied logic.
If this were before mastering Azure Shadow King, Su Xiao wouldn't have been confident in this battle. But after using Azure Shadow King once, he discovered many of its strengths. For instance, the Twinborn Lord's current health cap of 200% could only be restored to 135.3%, with the remaining 64.7% of the health bar turning gray.
This was because Azure Shadow King had dealt 125,000 true damage plus 20% of max health true damage to both the Light Lord and Dark Lord separately. Such a high percentage of true damage caused deep injuries to both. When they entered the third stage, these deep injuries stacked, reaching 64.7% of max health.
These deep injuries could be healed later, but with extreme difficulty and requiring a long recovery period. This meant that even immediate healing after being damaged by Azure Shadow King was useless.
In the burning black flames, the Twinborn Lord, a hundred meters away, suddenly vanished and charged straight at Su Xiao. A mass of darkness surged around the Twinborn Lord, making him resemble a black hole with powerful suction.
Su Xiao felt a momentary weightlessness, nearly getting pulled toward the Twinborn Lord. If he flew over, a single strike from that true strength greatsword would cost him at least half his life.
"Blood Smoke Cannon."
Su Xiao pointed his left index finger at the Twinborn Lord. Compressed blood energy gathered at his fingertip, emitting a chilling red glow. The glow was so intense that it formed a cross-shaped crimson flash.
Bang!
The blood energy, compressed to its limit, shot out as a blood-colored beam. Layers of small shockwaves burst through the air along its path. This incredibly fast Blood Smoke Cannon struck the Twinborn Lord.
Crack!
A world thunderbolt, spanning five meters, struck down. The thunderbolt was so fast and sudden that it interrupted the Twinborn Lord's charge. The black hole-like darkness exploded, and golden arcs of electricity enveloped the Twinborn Lord, paralyzing him instantly.
Whoosh~!
Su Xiao suddenly appeared before the Twinborn Lord and delivered a straight kick.
Boom!!
The Twinborn Lord dropped to one knee, blood spraying from his jagged, fang-filled maw. The force of the kick pierced through his body, making his tattered, cloak-like wings even more ragged.
Su Xiao's straight kick actually had two methods of force application: force penetration or force explosion. The former was used for combo linking, with the advantage of not sending the enemy flying but the disadvantage of not unleashing full power. The force explosion straight kick was the complete form, maximizing damage while turning the enemy into light.
The enemy turning into light was due to high-speed backward flight, repeatedly shattering surface space. The white light from the exploding space fragments made it look like Su Xiao had kicked the enemy into a beam of light.
Su Xiao's control abilities were all so unpretentious—either lightning paralysis from world thunderbolts or body numbness from straight kicks.
"Blade Path Sword: Extreme!"
Clang.
The long sword tore through space, leaving a chilling dark-blue trace. It was dark-blue because deep space cuts left black marks, while his blade technique slashes left blue marks. The two overlapped to create dark-blue slash marks.
Only the strongest melee blade technique, "Blade Path Sword: Extreme," could cut space so deeply and leave such marks. The ideal future development would be for his normal slashes to achieve this effect.
Clang! A large hand wrapped in black scales blocked Su Xiao's long sword barehanded. Though blocked, the blade sank into the flesh, cutting nearly halfway through the Twinborn Lord's palm. If he continued cutting, he could sever half of the Twinborn Lord's left hand.
Crack~
The Twinborn Lord grabbed the blade of Dragon-Slaying Flash and let out a roar. With a boom, the ground in a large surrounding area shattered and rose. Su Xiao, so close to the roar, had his ears ringing and everything before him appearing in multiple afterimages.
The Devouring Annihilation Greatsword came crashing down. Just then, a blood-energy claw grabbed the greatsword with a clang. The impact sent layers of shockwaves outward. The crystal layer covering the blood-energy claw was key to withstanding this strike.
A massive blood-energy beast, resembling the "Beast of Calamity: Fei," formed behind Su Xiao. One of its claws gripped the Devouring Annihilation Greatsword, while its other hand—with only thumb, index, and middle fingers—grabbed one of the Twinborn Lord's wooden, twisted horns. The Twinborn Lord's two horns looked like wooden deer antlers.
The Blood Beast opened its maw and spewed blood flames at the Twinborn Lord, causing his scales to crackle and pop.
Crack!
Another world thunderbolt struck. Though not summoned by Su Xiao's 1,160 points of elemental affinity, its power was equivalent to what he could summon with 580 points. Striking the Twinborn Lord, the effect was considerable.
Being so close to the Twinborn Lord, the thunderbolt made Su Xiao's ears ring and sent him flying backward. His health dropped sharply. Even with his over 600 points of lightning resistance, this happened. One could imagine how severe the damage was to the Twinborn Lord.
As Su Xiao flew backward, everything around him suddenly dissolved. Whether it was the black flames that had been burning him, dropping his health below 60%, or the scattered rocks and dirt, even the sky and earth dissolved into darkness.
Standing in the darkness, Su Xiao could feel it rapidly encroaching on him. It wasn't energy erosion but rather enveloping and swallowing him into the darkness.
His vision was the first to fail, followed by hearing, smell, and touch. It felt like his soul was being stripped from his body, soaked in cold water, gradually numbed by the cold until he lost all five senses.
Relying on his remaining spatial sense, Su Xiao stabbed his long sword into his left arm. He could tell that Dragon-Slashing Flash had pierced through his arm, yet he felt no pain. Facing this situation, he wasn't panicked at all. It was normal for an enemy at the top tier of Absolute Strength to be this troublesome.
Drip, drip~
The sensation of blood dripping was fed back to him. Though his five senses had been temporarily taken away, the feeling of blood hitting the ground became exceptionally clear. This immediately made him realize that the ability to deprive five senses through darkness was acting on him. Once his blood dripped off his body, it was no longer affected by this ability. As for why he could sense his own blood, there were two reasons.