Chapter 5 - Laughter
Ji Ning and the rest of the seven stared at the shadowy black orb. There was utter stillness. Even their auras seemed to have frozen. All of them had experienced countless things as they had ascended the path of cultivation to reach their current heights, but they now felt a sense of tremendous pressure.
This sphere of annihilation was an inimical threat to their entire Chaosverse. If they could destroy it then things would be much simpler… but if they failed, they would have no choice to begin the final, deadly battle.
The seven of them exchanged a glance, nodding silently to each other. They were out of options. They had already tried to destroy both the behemoth hive and the black tower, but they were unable to do so! Now, their last chance lay in attacking the ‘sphere of annihilation’ at the center of the tower.
Rumble… an awesome amount of the Dao’s power was being gathered here, with Ning and the rest of the seven guiding it to form the towering, loincloth-clad titan. They simply didn’t have enough time to set up the full formation, as the Sithe would be arriving in nearly half a month. Using the second mode of the Sword Titan was the best they could do.
“Destroy the sphere of annihilation!” The Sword Titan strode through the air, a greatsword appearing within his hands.
“Attack!” Ning ordered. Within the Sword Titan, the six Autarchs immediately began to unleash their most powerful attacks. Six massive streams of energy quickly began to course through the Sword Titan’s body, then slowly began to coalesce into one. The Sword Titan lifted up its arms, double-gripping a massive greatsword and then delivering a furious blow towards the shadowy orb before it.
As the sword chopped out, it destroyed all the different types of energy that were in its path, reducing them to nothingness. This was the Skycleaver stance!
“It has to break.” Ning and the rest of the six watched hopefully.
BOOM! The sword smote furiously upon the shadowy orb, which instantly began to twist and distort. The power of this sword was simply too great! The orb was distorted, transforming from being a perfectly round globe into an ovaloid shape. Some cracks actually began to appear at its edges as the sword slashed right through it.
“Did we succeed?” When Ning and the others saw the black orb elongate and crack, they couldn’t help but feel a sense of wild excitement. But then… their hearts turned cold. The shadowy black orb once more returned to its normal spherical shape, continuing to devour everything around it while the cracks went back to normal.
“Try again!” Autarch Titanos commanded desperately.
“Again!” Nint gritted his teeth. He truly didn’t wish to admit defeat!
Boom! Boom! Boom! The Sword Titan began to strike again and again against the shadowy black orb, each strike filled with such incredible power that the black orb repeatedly cracked apart… but each time, it quickly healed afterwards and then continued to devour away at its surroundings. It wasn’t weakened in the slightest.
After striking several thousand times, Ning and the others finally gave up. Their hearts were ice-cold. The Sword Titan vanished, revealing the bodies of Ning and the other six. They all stared silently at the shadowy black orb.
A long silence ensued. Suddenly, Ning spoke out: “We haven’t failed yet.”
“Eh?” The other six looked at Ning. They had already attacked with all their might. Could it be that Daolord Darknorth had another suggestion?
“Bolin… ever since you mastered the Samsara Daobirth Essence, I’ve been ruminating on creating a new sword-art,” Ning said. “When we came together to form the Sword Titan, the Skycleaver stance we used was based off a sword-art I created which was meant to use the Space Daobirth Essence, Time Daobirth Essence, Claw Daobirth Essence, Illusion Daobirth Essence, Destruction Daobirth Essence, and Karma Daobirth Essence!”
“It employs six types of Daobirth Essences… but now, brother Bolin, you have also mastered the Samsara Daobirth Essence. I think I can create an even more powerful set of sword-arts which employs seven different Daobirth Essences, which would make our Sword Titan even more powerful.”
Titanos, Bolin, and the others were all delighted by this. Right! Their sword-art was based off of u sing six Daobirth Essences. There was no reason why they couldn’t upgrade it to use seven instead!
“I already have the rough outline of this sword-art in my mind,” Ning said, “But I’ve still bee in the process of perfecting it. Give me enough time to finish it and make it even more powerful!”
“Alright.”
“I’ll accelerate time for you.”
“Take it at your own pace, Darknorth. Don’t try to rush. We still have more than half a month.”
Titanos and the others instantly worked to assist him. If he was able to create a new sword-art, even if it wasn’t enough to destroy the sphere of annihilation it would still strengthen their Sword Titan and make it more formidable during the battle to come.
Autarch Skyfeeder took over the responsibility for accelerating time, letting Ning calmly set his mind upon perfecting this sword-art. Ning himself had long ago mastered the Samsara Sword Dao. All he had to do was to link it to Bolin’s Daobirth Essence, which was fairly easy. However, what Ning was trying to do was to perfect this technique and make it eaven more powerful! He actually had Titanos and the others try the new stance out, then went back to continue working at it.
Time flowed on, one day after another. The power of this new fusion sword-art grew increasingly mighty. Meanwhile, the avatars of Mogg and Skyfeeder continued to follow Iyerre’s Grassland World, ready to report anything that needed reporting.
“You still have two more days before Iyerre’s world of grass arrives here,” Mogg said.
“I’ve already completed the sword-art.” Ning nodded. “I won’t be able to make any improvements unless I’m given another ten thousand years.”
There were a total of four stances to this fusion sword-art! Their names renamed unchanged: Skycleaver stance, Brightcave stance, Dawnmoon stance, and World stance.
“Now that my Omega Sword Dao is guiding seven different types of Daobirth Essences when using this sword-art, the power has increased by nearly 30% compared to before,” Ning said. Titanos and the others were delighted to hear this. Given how powerful the Sword Titan was, increasing its power by even a tiny bit was extremely difficult. A 30% increase was absolutely incredible! This was primarily due to the fact that the Samsara Daobirth Essence was an extremely powerful Daobirth Essence to begin with, one which empowered the new sword-art tremendously.
“Let us begin.” The seven exchanged glances, then stared at the distant shadowy orb. They activated the various formation-bases they were carrying, summoning the power of the Chaosverse and converting it to form the loincloth-clad Sword Titan. The Sword Titan hefted a greatsword, once more preparing to unleash its supremely powerful Skycleaver stance! This time, of course, it was the new version of the Skycleaver stance.
Seven different streams of Daobirth Essence power coursed through the Sword Titan. Ning was able to easily unite the seven streams into a single hole, forming his Omega Sword Dao with their powers.
“Skycleaver stance.”
The Sword Titan once more chopped down at the shadowy orb, but this time it was noticeably more powerful than before. Boom! Boom! Boom! The divine sword plunged deep into the shadowy orb, causing a series of explosions to ring out. The black orb began to crack and shatter in many different places as the sword went into the orb and out the other side.
The black orb looked heavily damaged, but some invisible law once more pulled it back together. It quickly returned to its normal shape and began to once more calmly devour everything around it.
“Still no permanent damage?” Ning could hardly believe his eyes. They launched another hundred strikes, but the result was the same. Each time, the black orb looked as though it was so heavily damaged that it would most assuredly break apart, but instead it would quickly heal. It was like a globe of water. No matter how much ‘damage’ they caused to it, it would easily reform into a globe once more.
The Sword Titan vanished. Ning and the other six stared at the black orb in disbelief.
“Damn,” Ning muttered, gritting his teeth.
“Hahaha! Oh well.” Autarch Ekong actually began to laugh loudly, a frenzied look in his eyes. “I’ve wanted to have a good fight against the Sithe for ages now. We have so many tools at our disposal, but we’ve never dared to take on the risk of actually using them because we’re afraid to lose. Now? Now, we have no way out. They’ve forced us to stand and fight! Good. Let’s fight then! We’ll risk it all in this battle. I want to see who will be the survivors – the Sithe, or us!”
“Ekong’s right. Discard all your fears and all your worries and pour everything you have into the next battle.” The wily old Autarch Titanos began to laugh loudly as well. “I’ve been alive for far too long. I’ve almost forgotten what life used to be like when I was a weak young cultivator who had to experience one life-threatening challenge after another. It has been a long time since I’ve had this sort of feeling where my very truesoul is shivering in anticipation. Let’s do our best and fight them to the bitter end!”
Ning joined in their laughter, as did Skyfeeder, Bolin, Mogg, and Stonerule. Hah! If there was no way out, they would fight. They’d literally fight the Sithe to the death in this next battle!
“Gentlemen. It is my honor to be able to battle with you to the bitter end,” the only female Autarch, Autarch Skyfeeder, said with a smile.