Chapter 43: Extreme Joy Begets Sorrow
Bernice, Ogwen, Hambritt, and Gatenby were all stunned.
They had all witnessed the battle scene just now. Adkins, in front of Beirut, was like an infant, completely powerless to resist. The most absurd part was... Adkins had struck with all his might, stabbing Beirut right in the head. Yet Beirut didn't suffer a single scratch.
"Ridiculous. Ridiculous."
Beirut shook his head with a sigh and then flew directly north toward the metal castle. In truth, Beirut had long been prepared for this battle. If not, he wouldn't have taken the initiative to leave the metal castle and fight Adkins in midair.
"Whew..." Ogwen and the others let out a long sigh of relief.
Fortunately, Beirut ignored them and left directly. Otherwise, even if the four of them joined forces, they wouldn't have been able to withstand a single strike from Beirut's staff.
"So terrifying." Hambritt exclaimed.
Bernice looked down at the two headless corpses below, his pain overwhelming: "Young master!" Bernice immediately flew downward. He and Adkins shared a deep bond, having spent an extremely long time together. Now that Adkins was dead, Bernice's heart was filled with immense grief.
But Ogwen's eyes lit up.
"Space ring!" Ogwen spotted, among the two corpses below, a space ring on the finger of the light god clone's body. "Inside Adkins's space ring, there's a highgod divine spark." Ogwen's heart began to tremble.
Ogwen dreamed of becoming a highgod!
And now, the opportunity had arrived!
"Perhaps that space ring is of the light attribute," Ogwen thought to himself. Ogwen immediately sneaked a glance at Gatenby and Hambritt beside him. But unexpectedly, Gatenby and Hambritt were also exchanging glances, their eyes flickering as they looked at each other.
The three looked at one another and all smiled.
They all understood each other's thoughts. Among Adkins's four subordinates, only Bernice probably had no great ambition for the highgod divine spark. After all, it wasn't suitable for Bernice to refine. But the other three all had some designs on it.
"Hambritt, Gatenby. You both want the highgod divine spark in that space ring too, don't you?" Ogwen transmitted his voice directly via divine sense.
Hambritt and Gatenby both had a hint of a smile in their eyes.
Gatenby transmitted back: "But the first thing we need to deal with is this Bernice. He's the strongest. If we don't kill him, we won't be able to get that space ring."
"Alright, let's work together and join forces to kill Bernice. As for the divine spark, we'll take it out first and see its attribute. Whoever it matches gets it!" Hambritt said. Ogwen and Gatenby immediately agreed.
The three exchanged glances and then, without further discussion, flew downward.
"Lord Adkins!" Gatenby spoke with feigned pain.
"Mr. Bernice, don't be too sad," Hambritt also said as he flew down.
At this moment, Bernice was immersed in grief. Scenes of his time with Adkins over so many years kept flashing through his mind. Tears even rolled down Bernice's cheeks. He had no idea what Ogwen and the other two were thinking.
"Now!" Ogwen transmitted his voice as a command.
Ogwen, Gatenby, and Hambritt moved almost simultaneously, each producing their weapons. In an instant, they all lunged toward Bernice, who was not far ahead. The three midgods had murder in their eyes, holding nothing back.
"Not good." Bernice instantly sensed the terrifying aura behind him and immediately transformed into a bolt of lightning, fleeing forward.
Unfortunately, no matter how fast a strong warrior is, there's always an acceleration phase at the start of a retreat. At that moment, his speed wasn't at its peak. Meanwhile, Ogwen, Gatenby, and Hambritt were all moving at their maximum speed, attacking from three sides.
"What are you doing!" Bernice's furious divine sense roar echoed in the minds of Ogwen and the other two.
Bernice had already turned around, facing Ogwen and the others head-on while still retreating backward.
"Die!"
A cyan sword light, a holy radiance of light, and a war blade imbued with destructive aura—the three midgods struck with all their might. The ancient, primeval trees and thorns that had stood for who knows how many years instantly turned to dust, and the ground itself sank inward.
"Bastards!" Bernice was sharp-witted and immediately guessed their intentions.
He had no time to escape. Gritting his teeth, Bernice transformed into a humanoid bolt of lightning, wielding the highgod artifact "Goths Spear" and thrusting it directly at the strongest of the three, Gatenby, vowing to break through and save his life.
How could Ogwen and the others let him escape?
"Boom!"
Three against one!
The earth undulated like waves, shaking violently. Within nearly a thousand meters, boulders, trees, and magical beasts instantly turned to powder. Dust flew everywhere, but the battle was already over. Bernice's eyes dimmed, and he collapsed with a crash, following in Adkins's footsteps.
"Thud!" Gatenby, whose chest had been pierced through, also fell to the ground with a crash.
That Goths Spear wasn't just a physical attack; it also carried a soul attack. Although Bernice died under the combined assault of the three midgods, even in death, he dragged the strongest of the three, Gatenby, down with him as a sacrifice.
Bernice, after all, was the strongest of the original four.
"Whew." Ogwen and Hambritt both felt a shiver in their hearts. Amid the swirling dust, the two exchanged glances, both feeling fortunate. If Bernice's dying blow had been aimed at either of them, they wouldn't have been able to dodge it either.
"Hambritt, whichever attribute the divine spark in this ring has, it goes to whoever it matches," Ogwen said with a smile.
"Of course," Hambritt replied with a smile. "But the one who doesn't get the divine spark gets the Goths Spear. How about that?"
"Haha, I agree wholeheartedly," Ogwen laughed.
On the ground now lay four corpses: Adkins's two headless bodies, along with Gatenby's and Bernice's. Yet Ogwen and Hambritt were cheerfully discussing how to split the spoils.
"This space ring—who will drip blood to claim it and take out the divine spark?" Ogwen looked at Hambritt.
Hambritt said, "Ogwen, don't I trust you? You go ahead and open the space ring first." Ogwen nodded with a smile and walked toward Adkins's light god clone. But just as he reached Hambritt—
A glint of cold light flashed in Hambritt's eyes.
"Get ready to die. The highgod divine spark and the highgod artifact are all mine." Hambritt suddenly moved, launching his strongest attack at Ogwen.
But the most bizarre thing was that at the exact same moment Hambritt moved, Ogwen, who was ahead, flickered and transformed into an arc, swinging his greatsword as he struck.
Stunned!
Both were slightly taken aback, surprised that the other had thought the same thing.
"The highgod divine spark and the highgod artifact are all mine!" Ogwen roared in his heart.
The cyan-tinged longsword and the greatsword radiating a dazzling holy light stabbed toward each other simultaneously. In that instant when Ogwen and Hambritt's eyes met, they both saw the killing intent in each other's gaze. It was kill or be killed!
Kill the other and seize all the treasures!
"Clang!"
The cyan sword light was extremely bizarre. As it clashed with the holy light greatsword, the cyan sword trembled. The space seemed to part like a curtain being drawn open, and a spatial rift instantly sliced through Ogwen's body. Ogwen retreated explosively, his body bursting apart, leaving only a head flying into the distance.
"Haha..." Ogwen, now just a head, laughed triumphantly.
"Thud!" Hambritt's body crashed to the ground. He was dead!
Hambritt had trained in the wind element laws. He didn't understand the profound mysteries of soul attacks. His strongest move was dimensional attack. Although he had severely wounded Ogwen, the sword strike Ogwen had just delivered, imbued with a soul attack, had directly extinguished his soul.
Of the four midgods, only Ogwen remained!
"Finally succeeded." Ogwen's expression twisted with excitement. His head immediately floated over to Adkins's corpse.
At the same time, his neck was regenerating beneath his head. Ogwen couldn't wait any longer. He controlled a drop of blood and let it fall onto the space ring. The space ring absorbed the blood like a sponge. By now, Ogwen's arm had already grown back.
"It has to be light attribute. It has to be light attribute!" Ogwen muttered to himself.
His heart pounding with anxiety, Ogwen grabbed the space ring. Gritting his teeth, he instantly retrieved the divine spark from within.
"This..." Ogwen stared wide-eyed at the divine spark before him. It was a black divine spark radiating a white glow.
"A light highgod divine spark. It's light attribute!" Ogwen trembled with excitement.
"Haha, it's light attribute! It's light attribute!!!" Ogwen wept tears of joy. "Adkins? Haha, I endured under you for so long, all for this day! It really is light attribute! Soon, I'll be a highgod too. I'll be a highgod!!!"
Ogwen's heart quivered.
"Once I become a highgod, Kinsley, my son, your father will avenge you. I will!" Ogwen's eyes burned with determination. By now, his body had regenerated down to his waist.
Ogwen then looked at the highgod divine spark in his hand, an uncontrollable smile of excitement spreading across his face. He had been waiting for this day in the plane prison for who knows how many years. Finally, he had obtained this highgod divine spark.
"I, Ogwen, am finally going to become a highgod."
A drop of blood fell onto the highgod divine spark. The divine spark immediately merged into his body. Ogwen's face was full of anticipation for the future. But at that moment—
"Hmm?" Ogwen's expression changed. He couldn't help but turn his head to look—
A pair of cold, dark-gold eyes were staring at him.
The eerie purple blood soft sword and the black boulder greatsword emitting a faint cyan glow.
"Linley!" Ogwen's expression shifted.
After two life-and-death battles, his soul force had been depleted by ninety percent. And this highgod divine spark hadn't even been refined yet. Refining a divine spark takes decades. The most critical issue was... Linley was too close to him. With his body not yet fully restored, he couldn't reach his top speed.
No time to escape!
"Die." Linley, descending from above, struck simultaneously with the black boulder greatsword and the purple blood soft sword.
"Hmph, you're asking for death." Ogwen sneered inwardly.
Escape? Why escape?
A mere demigod!
Ogwen's holy light greatsword, carrying the last vestiges of his soul force, struck directly at Linley's purple blood soft sword without hesitation. His choice was the same as Anras's back then. With his insight, he could clearly see that this purple blood soft sword was extraordinary.
"Clang!" The moment the purple blood soft sword and the holy light greatsword touched, Ogwen retreated, trying to dodge the black boulder greatsword's strike.
"Hum!"
From the black boulder greatsword, a faint, pale yellow virtual sword shadow shot out like lightning, darting into Ogwen's body. Linley's long-prepared, strongest strike—
The fusion of Earth Pulse and Earth Element, his ultimate attack—
Void Sword Wave!
"No—"
Ogwen's eyes bulged wide. He didn't even have time for regret or sorrow before he crashed to the ground. Ogwen could have become a highgod, lived freely ever after, and become a powerful figure in the Infernal Realm. But unfortunately...
"When it comes to soul attacks, you're not even as good as that midgod who tried to assassinate me at Copper Gorge Mountain," Linley said, looking at Ogwen's corpse.
"Fighting over a highgod divine spark?" Linley glanced around at the corpses of the several midgods and shook his head with a sigh.
But Ogwen's eyes remained wide open. At the moment of death, his gaze was filled with disbelief and despair! Just moments ago, he had been trembling with excitement, imagining a beautiful future. But all of that was shattered in an instant.
He, Ogwen, died with his eyes wide open, unable to accept his fate!