Chapter 10 - Tit For Tat
When they entered the depths of the Grassland World, they quickly saw a spiderweb of countless passageways.
BOOM! An awesome domain filled every single passageway with countless streams of sword-light. The World of Liberation’s power blew through every single formation like rotting wood, crushing all barriers in its path! It must be remembered that even before Ji Ning and the others had gone all-out, they had been able to reduce Iyerre and the others by 30% to 40% of their maximum power. Now that the Autarchs had gone all-out, the World of Liberation was so incredibly powerful that it was able to almost instantly crush ordinary Autarchs to death!
Even the nine layers of clouds were completely unable to block this intensity of energy, much less the barrier formations deep inside the grasslands.
“I’ve found it. The quintessence core for this world lies in that palace over there.” Thanks to the World of Liberation, Ning and the others were able to sense a completely sealed castle located at the very bottom of the Grassland World. The castle was roughly ten thousand kilometers in size, and all of the energy emanating from the Grassland World actually stemmed from this castle. They could clearly sense how the deep, dense azure aura covering the castle was constantly being dispersed in every direction.
“If we can destroy the quintessence core, Iyerre and the others will be dramatically weakened! Those three warbeasts won’t be able to escape us.” They immediately transformed into a streak of light, bursting through the chaotic passageways and moving closer-and-closer to the castle.
Iyerre was able to dodge with ease because of his high level of insight, but the three warbeasts were only able to dodge because of the power of the Grassland World. The Sithe in charge of the black warbeasts had insights which were merely on par with Ning’s. In Ning’s Chaosverse, their escape techniques were far inferior to Ning’s! So long as the Autarchs could destroy the Grassland World, they would then be able to defeat and capture the three warbeasts one by one.
Once Iyerre was the only one left, he’d be much easier to deal with! But of course… all this was only possible if they destroyed the Grassland World!
“Dammit!” When Iyerre sensed the Sword Titan and the Avatar Titan moving at high speed towards the quintessence, he immediately grew anxious. “How are they able to stay in control of all that power and prevent it from exploding?”
If someone was filled with too much power, there would be no way to maintain control of it. They would have to immediately release it in the form of an attack. However, Ning and the others had already thought of this problem. They only discarded 60% of their bodies, rather than 90% as they originally envisioned. The resulting levels of energy were just barely within the realms of what they could control; they could release it or retract it at will. Although it was much weaker than the pure destructive power which would be generated by sacrificing more in a one-shot attack, it allowed for an attack that they could aim and control. In the end, the latter was much more dangerous.
“Iyerre, what should we do? Are we going to just watch as they destroy the Grassland World’s quintessence? Once they do, we probably won’t be able to beat them,” the red-robed man sent mentally. They had a huge advantage right now, but this was in large part due to the strengthening effect of the ignited quintessence core. The formation they were using also required them to draw upon the energies of the ignited quintessence.
“Go go go go go! Go stop them!” Iyerre roared. “Stop them at any cost!” The core of the Annihilation Hive was the sphere of annihilation, which contained the mysteries of total destruction. It was extremely hard to destroy. The core of the Grassland World, however, was just a normal quintessence which would be much easier to annihilate.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Iyerre and the three warbeasts easily warped over to the outsides of the core castle.
“They are about to arrive!” Iyerre and the others stared at the dark passageways before them. A terrifying aura was beginning to approach those dark passageways. The area had long ago been filled with the power of countless streams of sword-light, but the sword-light wasn’t strong enough to claim their lives.
“This is way too much power. Way too much!”
“Can we possibly stop them?” The silver-robed woman, her two colleagues, and the many Sithe Exalts all felt their hearts tremble.
“You can and you must. If we lose, the cultivators will not spare you. All of you will die!” Iyerre gritted his teeth, his eyes savage. The most critical moments had arrived. “And these three warbeasts were personally fashioned by my master. Not even I have the power to destroy them, much less these cultivators.”
The others calmed down slightly upon hearing this. They were filled with absolute, blind faith in Iyerre’s master.
“Here they are!” Iyerre and the others all felt their hearts clench as those two towering figures emerged from the dark passageways. The Sword Titan and the Avatar Titan flew out right next to each other.
“It’s Iyerre and his lackeys. I knew they wouldn’t just watch as we destroyed the quintessence.” Ning and the others knew that the moment of truth had arrived.
“Charge!”
“Break into that castle at all costs!” Ning and the others didn’t hesitate at all. The Avatar Titan took the lead while the Sword Titan brought up the rear as they charged towards the castle. As long as they were able to touch it, they would be able to blink inside it.
“Stop them!” Iyerre roared ferociously. One violet-gold chain after another began to dance defensively in front of the castle, while all three black warbeasts charged in unison to block the Sword Titan and the Avatar Titan.
“Fuck off!” The Avatar Titan’s job was to clear the way, but the violet-gold chains were being controlled in an absolutely marvelous fashion by Iyerre. They all parted before the Avatar Titan, coiling behind it to strike at the Sword Titan! Iyerre and the others all knew that the Avatar Titan wasn’t that great of a threat. The true threat remained the Sword Titan, which was in command of an enormous amount of power.
“Grow, grow, grow!” The three black warbeasts suddenly expanded dramatically in size. The tunnels weren’t that large, and their sudden increase in size resulted in them filling up much of the tunnel with their bulk. If Ning and the others wanted to reach the castle, they would have to first defeat these clawed terrors.
“If we have to fight them, we’ll go ahead and destroy all three of them!” The Sword Titan wielded a longsword in each hand, lifting them up while the seven inside of it began to unleash the prodigious power which they had been keeping in abeyance.
Whoosh! The right sword sliced out, chopping towards the three black warbeasts which sought to bar the titan’s path. The power contained within this sword caused spacetime itself to disintegrate. There was nothing which could impede this terrifying strike! All three warbeasts were utterly terrified by the might of this blow, while Iyerre gritted his teeth and prayed, “They have to block them!”
Whoosh! When the divine sword slammed against the body of the first warbeast, it suddenly transformed to become as soft as silk. It twisted, seeking to wrap itself over the black warbeast and bind it. The black warbeast, however, transformed to become a black liquid which the sword could not bind.
“You want to capture it? Do you think the most powerful machine warbeasts my master created would be so easily captured by the likes of you?” the distant Iyerre laughed coldly.
The Autarchs instantly understood that there was no way to capture them, and so they immediately changed strategies. “Destroy them!”
Whoosh! Whoosh! The two divine swords were filled with ineffable power as they came crashing down towards the three beasts. It must be remembered that even an ‘invulnerable form’ would be destroyed if the amount of power facing it surpassed the limits of its tolerance! These three black warbeasts were currently forced to face the full, absolute might of this twin-attack from the dominating Sword Titan! The black warbeasts were extremely tough. They weren’t the slightest bit injured, and in fact they were able to deflect 99% of the concussive force… but that remaining 1% entered its body and reduced the Sithe Exalts it encountered to dust.
“No!”
“Ahhh!” Bowenya and the others only felt an overwhelming amount of power pass through them, followed by their bodies completely disintegrating.
Boom! Boom! Boom!!! The three black warbeasts were sent flying backwards and smashed into the walls of the passageway. They were physically unharmed but filled with dead Sithe.
Thanks to the local formations, Iyerre was able to clearly see what the situation was inside the three black warbeasts. The three powerful allies he had half-coaxed, half-forced to come had been able to withstand that terrifying blast. However, all of the Sithe Exalts in the first and second warbeasts, which had taken the brunt of the strikes, had been slain! Three Sithe Exalts had died in the third warbeast as well. Now, only his three allies and five Sithe Exalts were remaining.
Boom! Crunch! Crunch! Crunch! The nine violet-gold chains had worked together with the black warbeasts to defend against this attack. Two of the chains actually blew apart! The Sword Titan shrank in size, seeking to fly through the gap, but the remaining chains flew over to block it once more.
“Ahahaha!” Iyerre’s loud laughter echoed throughout the passageway. Ning and the others were anxious, nervous, and resentful.
“You have lost! LOST!” Iyerre roared with laughter. “That last-gasp desperation attack was very powerful, but both the warbeasts and the chains are completely fearless. You weren’t able to destroy them and blast open a route to the castle!”
It was true. That final, frenzied strike had not done what they needed it to do – clear a path to the castle! Ning and the others gritted their teeth. Those warbeasts were simply too difficult to deal with.
“Those three warbeasts are finished. You are the only one left. You are the one who has lost, Sithe.” The Sword Titan and the Avatar Titan charged straight towards Iyerre.
“Who said they are finished?” Iyerre let out a loud laugh.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! The three black warbeasts once more flew over to block in front of Iyerre.
The black warbeasts were under the control of Iyerre’s three powerful allies. The Sithe Exalts merely provided additional support.
Ning and the others stared at the untouched Iyerre as well as the three enormous black warbeasts. Their hearts grew cold. As soon as they had witnessed the black warbeasts rise up once more, they had already begun to feel a sense of despair. Those things were still battle-worthy? How was this even possible?