Chapter 42: Get Back There!
"To be honest, I'm curious." Standing on the land that had been reduced to a mess, the warrior said calmly.
He held a greatsword and a giant axe, assuming a standard combat stance, flames flickering in Joshua's eyes. "Just how many times can you resurrect?"
And in midair, Helras narrowed his eyes, a dangerous light swirling in his seemingly empty pupils.
"Then let's try it, warrior far too young." He said with a hint of mockery.
Before the words faded, the High Priest struck first.
In a battle between Ultimate-rank experts, if it doesn't end within seconds, it drags on longer and longer. Two Transcendent Beings with exquisite control over their power, after becoming familiar with each other's combat rhythm and energy frequencies, grow increasingly adapted to each other's attack methods, prolonging the fight. History records instances of two Ultimate-rank experts battling continuously for dozens of days.
But Helras couldn't do that. Although Joshua was classified in his eyes as an extremely dangerous target with priority higher than the Modess Mountain ruins, he couldn't afford to fight a war of attrition with the warrior in the Plague World. Even if he won, it would be a pyrrhic victory, and he would miss the 'that fragment' sealed within the ruins.
So, Helras gripped his staff, then crushed it completely, shattering it into countless energy fragments scattered through the air.
He abandoned his human form.
Life force, materialized like flowing water, accompanied by the power of an indescribable god from the void, surged behind the High Priest, coalesced, and then transformed into a black halo hanging behind him. This halo was like a spiderweb, densely inscribed with unimaginable blasphemous runes. They seemed like manifestations of chaotic will, possessing the power to drive one mad with a single glance.
At the same time, Helras's entire body began to rapidly deform. He raised his right hand, a mocking smile curling at the corner of his mouth. "Let's see if you kill me, or I kill you."
Buzz—
The cult High Priest's originally slender and powerful right hand now flowed like a melted wax statue, turning into liquid life essence. This pale life essence instantly reconstructed into a pitch-black cannon barrel, firmly locking onto Joshua.
Around the arm cannon, gray crystals were arranged. The crystals lit up section by section, terrifying energy fluctuations converging. The targeted warrior immediately felt the gravity around him go haywire. Countless scattered stone chips and mold dust floated up as if losing gravity, flying toward that black cannon mouth.
Decisively choosing to retreat and dodge, Joshua was no fool. Seeing this setup, Helras was clearly using his trump card. Charging head-on without understanding the situation was madness, not even worthy of being called a fool. Just after the warrior dodged, the ground where he had stood suddenly contracted, as if a giant fist in the void had squeezed an area tens of meters in radius into a tiny point.
—Biological Gravity Cannon!
Seeing this, Joshua's pupils contracted. He felt the hair on his back stand on end, an extreme sense of danger echoing in his mind.
Helras might not even know the principle behind this attack, but the warrior, hailing from a more advanced era, knew how incredible this strike was. The cult High Priest had just used his power to distort and collapse the gravitational field of a small area, creating something akin to a small black hole. If Joshua had still been standing there, even if he didn't die, he would have been crushed into a pulp.
Pure life force combined with bizarre divine arts could actually achieve such a feat. This world truly had countless experts, and he must never underestimate them!
"The Void Grasp is too slow."
But it was far from over. Seeing this attack fail, Helras extended his left hand. Under the same transformation of liquid life, the High Priest's left arm took on a form similar to a honeycomb. Lightning flashed within it, and then high-energy beams, each containing tens of thousands of degrees of heat, were crazily fired at the vigilant Joshua!
At the same time, two gaps opened in Helras's chest. His ribs flew out one by one, as if possessing their own will, orbiting around Helras. Their tips flowed with highly condensed light blades, ready to shoot out at any moment, unleashing the destructive power stored within.
The Plague Evil God's High Priest could create countless insects and fungi with special abilities in his own world. Naturally, he could do it better and stronger. Using the spiderweb-like halo behind him as a base, his entire body transformed into a massive, ferocious biological weapon, unleashing fierce firepower at Joshua. Small mushroom clouds rose in the Plague World, high-temperature shockwaves mixed with smoke surging into the sky.
Facing the occasional 'Void Grasp' and lightning beams, the warrior could only dodge continuously. Helras had never revealed this form on the Mycroft Continent—a completely alienated, powerful non-human armament. This gave Joshua a headache while also stirring a sense of excitement.
An enemy using their full power was also proof of the warrior's strength. Besides that, Joshua understood why this was happening.
Under the illumination of his life force radiation, all life in the entire Plague World was exposed. Now, whether it was fungi, mold, insects, moss, or even tiny bacteria and viruses, each contributed a trace of life force. Countless minute life forces converged in the midair of this small world into a winding river, flowing toward Helras's body and the halo behind him.
Clearly, the High Priest's current armed combat form required an immense amount of life force to sustain. Continuous Biological Gravity Cannons (Void Grasps) also needed energy that could be called massive to activate. Although Joshua didn't know why Helras wanted a quick resolution, this danger also meant an opportunity.
Looking at the dim sky of the Plague World and recalling the scene of his full-power punch shattering the void, a flash of inspiration struck his mind.
This was Helras's home ground... Why fight the enemy on their home turf?
"Ying, Lin, time to move."
With that thought, in his mind, the warrior rapidly conversed with his weapons. He dodged another attack from Helras that twisted the void and turned the ground into a tiny point, then leaped high into the air, leaving a trail of black-red light, reaching several kilometers high.
Looking down at Helras, who was turning around, Joshua gripped his greatsword and giant axe tightly, then crossed them in front of his chest, forming a huge cross. Holy and sacred light bloomed from the center where they intersected, like a dim star.
[Divine Mechanism Max]
Ying's fire represented the warrior's will; Lin's light represented the warrior's resolve. Two Divine Mechanisms embodied two aspects of Joshua's soul. Holding the Divine Mechanisms meant this pure will could be converted into tangible power. Every generation of the Radcliffe Family head had burned their will and resolve like this, wielding Divine Mechanisms to fight Chaos Monsters.
At this moment, Joshua had mobilized all his strength. All his life force and Battle Qi converged into these two weapons.
Boom—
The immense power, like a tide of magical light, spread in all directions.
Countless sky-supporting fungal pillars were pressed down by this force. Thunderous roars echoed in the sky. The dazzling light even made the entire Plague World noticeably clearer.
And the tip of a spear extended from this intense light.
It was a ferocious gray weapon, like an ancient cross-spear, with deep red patterns flowing on it. The sharp, flat blade extended backward, widening until it formed an axe-like structure at the end.
Joshua expressionlessly channeled his power. Flames burned on the blade. The power of the Fusion Core Star leaped at the spear's tip, ready to erupt, explode, and destroy everything before it at any moment.
The Dragon-Hunting Sword Lance reappeared in the world. And now, it faced the Plague Demon, the Witherer Helras.
All monsters on the ground, whether creatures or plants, fungi or viruses, every life form fell silent. A premonition of death echoed throughout the small world, making them dare not move an inch. Even Helras, who had fully transformed into a non-human state, felt an electric shock of danger all over his body, as if the next moment, his entire being would be utterly crushed by that distant, overwhelming force.
"I underestimated you," he murmured.
But so what?
Facing Joshua, who held the heavenly punishment spear that had once confronted an Evil God, Helras had a thought. Instantly, his entire body turned into a surging mass of liquid-like life essence. The entire world provided him with life force support, allowing the cult High Priest to complete an incredibly complex biological transformation in a fraction of a second.
Now, a huge depression appeared in his chest, containing a pitch-black sphere. Around this sphere flowed liquid-like plasma. Deep blue high-energy aggregates converged and dispersed around it. A will capable of devouring all things emanated from within, causing the ground for several kilometers around Helras to shatter and churn, rising and converging toward this sphere.
—Void Collapse.
This was not a technique usable at the Ultimate-rank realm. It was the strongest divine art, only usable upon reaching the Legendary realm and mastering the Plague Cult's supreme codex.
Legend said this was the power used by that indescribable god lurking in the chaotic void to devour worlds. That great existence used this power to consume stars and continents, oceans and skies.
Helras hadn't mastered this power either, but he could barely approximate it.
That was enough.
The sphere vibrated. An invisible wave spread, tearing space. Centered on the space-time where Joshua was, pitch-black spatial cracks spread like a spiderweb, then crazily converged toward a central point, as if sucked in by some terrifying vortex.
At the same time, the Dragon-Hunting Sword Lance thrust through the air. Deep red, terrifying flames mixed with the flash of a blazing sun, stabbing straight toward Helras's position.
The two forces met.
So sound vanished.
In the dim, lightless Plague World, a flash far brighter than the sun suddenly erupted. It blazed in the high sky filled with spore-laden black clouds, creating a spherical shockwave that surged outward.
Countless fungal pillars were instantly burned to ash under this force, then scattered by the fierce wind. Countless poisonous insects burrowed deep into the ground, only to be roasted into charcoal by the terrifying heat.
But this violent power rapidly decayed, as if something at its center was rapidly absorbing and devouring this energy.
When the light and shockwaves weakened somewhat, Helras, with a damaged body and his halo shattered, saw Joshua not far away, most of his flesh twisted by the terrifying gravitational distortion.
"You lost," he said.
"No." The warrior shook his head, revealing a hearty smile. "You lost."
Crack. A crisp sound, like something breaking, rang out in midair.
And the next instant, the entire Plague small world, due to the collision of forces, split open a massive space-time rift. On the other side of the rift was the familiar bank of the Maje Freezing River.
At that moment, Joshua, who seemed too injured to move, flew up. He gripped the Dragon-Hunting Sword Lance and, while Helras was still in shock, swept the spear horizontally, cleanly knocking him into the space-time rift.
"Get back there!"