Chapter 3 - Skycleaver Stance
A great star-like temple was silently floating within the Great Dark, surrounded by formations and flowing barriers that surrounded it and kept it completely sealed away.
Riiiip. A rift in the darkness appeared, followed by Ji Ning and the rest of the seven emerging from within it.
“Let’s begin.” Ning, Titanos, and the others exchanged smiling glances.
“This will be the first time we have the Sword Titan release its full power in battle,” Ning said with a laugh. All of them began to pour energy into the formation-bases they were holding. Boom! They quickly summoned the awesome power of the Chaosverse, which began to swiftly condense into the form of a nearly nude giant who was clad in just a fur loincloth. This titan stood there in the Great Darkness, his long dark hair spilling across his shoulders.
He had two arms and a face which looked similar to Ning’s but had more of the cold, pure remorselessness of the Dao of the Sword.
The Sword Titan had two different ‘modes’. The first mode was the seven-faced, fourteen-armed mode they had used previously. This mode used up more energy but it had so much power that the other six Autarchs could each be responsible for controlling two arms as well.
The second mode was this mode. It had just a single face and two arms.
Ning and the others had already concluded that they would have to fight together during the final battle. If they had enough time, they would of course set up formations to prepare the battlefield. Before the battle near the Nine Cicadas Temple, they had actually spent nearly a month setting up that grand formation (the ‘real’ time they spent was 100x as much). However, oftentimes battles would break out suddenly and without warning, giving you no chance to slowly establish the formations you needed.
During such times, they would need to make use of mobile formations they could carry with them. They would have to shrink the size of the formation while preserving as much of its power as possible… and so they developed the ‘second mode’ of the Sword Titan!
The second mode was activated by the various formation-bases which Ning and the others carried with them at all times. It allowed them to summon the power of the Chaosverse and then materialize this body. Given that it had access to less power, they had to be a bit more sparing with their energy usage and so they only kept the two strongest arms which Ning controlled.
The two arms which Ning was in control of was where most of the power of the entire Sword Titan was concentrated. More than 90% of the power was there!
“Gentlemen, let us use the Skycleaver stance in cracking this temple,” Ning said.
“Alright.” The other six understood and agreed.
Rumble… the loincloth-clad Sword Titan strode through the void, a longsword appearing within one of its hands. This was one of Ning’s Northbow swords.
Autarch Titanos, Autarch Skyfeeder, Autarch Mogg, Autarch Stonerule, Autarch Ekong, and Autarch Bolin were inside the Sword Titan. They immediately unleashed their various techniques, filling the Sword Titan’s body with their six roaring streams of energy. Under Ning’s guidance, all of the different energies merged perfectly into the Omega Sword Dao, allowing the Sword Titan to unleash the most powerful of its many fusion attacks – the Skycleaver stance!
Whoosh! The Sword Titan’s two hands came together to grasp the Northbow sword in a double grip, then lifted it high into the air. A heartbeat later, it brought the Northbow sword down in an utterly indomitable chop towards the trapped astral temple before them.
Boom! Crack! The entire astral temple began to shudder. This strike destroyed three of the six formations protecting it, and even the remaining three formations were shuddering as explosions rang out across the temple.
“What in the world is happening outside?”
“Didn’t almighty Iyerre say that he’s about to arrive and save us? Why are our formations collapsing?!” The seven Sithe Exalts inside all felt quite terrified, but the formations sealing them in here prevented them from seeing what was happening outside. All they could sense was that just now, an incomparably sharp power had come crashing down upon them and had nearly blasted the entire temple apart.
“Kill!” The Sword Titan delivered a second chop, then a third chop. Every single blow was filled with utterly terrifying power.
The reason why these two arms were the ‘strongest’ arms was precisely because these were the arms which Ning was in control of. The other six Autarchs worked together to unleash their Daos, while Ning guided the power of their Daos into ‘his’ two arms to unleash the most powerful of attacks. If they were in the ‘first mode’ with fourteen arms, the other Autarchs would individually control the other twelve arms. However, they were unable to make perfect use of their colleagues’ energies. They were only able to mobilize a fraction of it.
In other words, those twelve arms combined weren’t nearly as strong as the two arms which Ning controlled. Thus, even when the Sword Titan was at ‘peak’ power, more than 90% of its strength came from these two ‘primary’ arms!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
“Quick, go into lockdown mode!”
“Completely seal the temple off from outside attacks!” The Sithe Exalts within the temple were panicking like mad. The formations had already been disposed of. Now, their only choice was to try and use the natural sturdiness of the temple itself to defend against these attacks.
Ning’s Sword Titan did not elect to blink inside the temple. Instead, the sword Titan continued to launched frenzied blows from outside using the Skycleaver stance! Every single strike contained the full power from seven Autarch-class combatants which had been perfectly fused together via the Eternal Omega Sword Dao.
This was a level of power that far surpassed that of the ‘giant sword’ and the ‘black serpent’ which had fought in the Grassland World, and it was also mightier than the violet-gold chains.
Boom! Boom! Boom! The temple was even sturdier than Universe weapons, but after nearly a hundred blows it finally began to crumble. Moments later it completely blew apart, with the Sithe Exalts inside being reduced to dust by the leftover power from the final Skycleaver stance. This was as to be expected – even the Autarchs, the creators of the Skycleaver stance, would’ve been destroyed in one blow from this overwhelmingly powerful fusion attack.
“That felt incredible! Unleashing the full power of the Sword Titan was a wonderful feeling.” The Sword Titan broke apart, revealing the figures of the seven. Autarch Ekong was particularly excited by what they had just done.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve had that much fun. The Skycleaver stance truly is astonishingly powerful,” Autarch Titanos said with a smile.
“In my opinion, all the various techniques and trump cards we have accumulated over the aeons should make it so that we are entirely capable of fighting the Grassland World head-on,” Autarch Ekong said. “Last time, we retreated before we really had a chance to test ourselves. That was irritating! I think we were entirely capable of winning if we fought them head-on.”
Ning shook his head. “Don’t underestimate the Sithe.”
“Darknorth is right. There’s no need for us to risk ourselves like that. The longer we can delay the final battle, the greater our advantage shall be. We need to slowly bide our time and allow our natural advantage to accumulate into an overwhelming one. You need patience to win a war,” Autarch Titanos said. “We don’t need to be anxious. It is the Sithe, it is Iyerre, who need to be anxious!”
Both sides were led by wily old bastards who had been alive for unfathomable ages. Both had plenty of patience. Iyerre, for example, had made preparations for all possibilities. Even though he had encountered repeated setbacks, he felt certain that it wouldn’t impact the grand scheme of things. He knew that victory would be his.
The cultivators, in turn, knew what their own advantages and disadvantages were. If they could make maximum use of their advantages, they’ll gain victory in the end.
……
“Eh?” Iyerre was seated in the lotus position on the grass within the Grassland World, which was hurtling through spacetime. Suddenly, his face tightened. He could sense that the auras of the seven Sithe Exalts he had been planning to rescue had suddenly vanished.
“Dead?” Iyerre frowned. “Did the cultivators somehow predict that we were going to go rescue them and so moved ahead of us to destroy the temple and kill the Exalts?”
He began to feel rather suspicious. “Let’s head in another direction.” Iyerre immediately sent the Grassland World to move towards a different temple, the Six Seals Temple.
Half a month went past. Iyerre had yet to reach the Six Seals Temple, but he could sense that it had also been destroyed. This caused his face to darken.
After another half-month, the final remaining temple was also destroyed, with the six Sithe Exalts within being slaughtered.
“Damn. This Chaosverse continues to suppress us, making it so that we cannot warp through spacetime as fast as those weak natives. In fact… are they perhaps following us in secret?” Iyerre was quite irritated, but there was nothing he could do. He was at an environmental disadvantage here. “Fine then. The Exalts didn’t make too much of a difference. We shall still win without them.”
“Hear my orders.” Iyerre’s voice suddenly echoed throughout the entire Grassland World. His three colleages, the Autarch-class void dwellers, and the Exalts including Bowenya all heard his voice.
“We are heading to the Annihilation Hive right away! The cultivators must fight us, which means they must engage us in battle. There’s no way for them to avoid this! They’ll have to battle us to the end… which means that this is the last battle. If we win, we’ll have achieved victory and I, Iyerre, promise to give you everything you desire. If we lose, none of you will survive.” Iyerre’s face was cold and calm, and his voice was very peaceful as well, but his subordinates all shivered when they heard it.
Whoosh! The Grassland World suddenly changed directions once more, moving towards the Annihilation Hive!
It was possible that the cultivators were secretly following them from behind, but Iyerre didn’t care. He was going to head straight towards his target openly. The cultivators might know what he was doing, but it wouldn’t matter. They would still have to come and fight him!
……
The avatars of Autarch Skyfeeder and Autarch Mogg were charged with following the Grassland World. After following its new trajectory for over half a day, they were able to realize where the Grassland World was now headed.
“The Annihilation Hive?” The two avatars traded a glance in the darkness. Both of them understood what the Sithe were planning, and they couldn’t help but turn pale.