Desolate Era

by RWX

A single Golden Emperor was equivalent to an Otherverse Lord in power! Nine Black Emperors fighting in concert were also a match for an Otherverse Lord! The amount of pressure they brought to their foes was truly incredible.

  “Waveshift?” The Golden Emperor, Lord Wulf, turned to look at Emperor Waveshift. A hint of astonishment flashed past his eyes. He snorted coldly, “No wonder Daolord Darknorth just so happened to be waiting for us right here. So he has you standing behind him, Emperor Waveshift! I’ve heard of you long ago, but today is the first time we’ve met. Are you here to stop me?”

  Emperor Waveshift laughed. “If I asked you to leave, would you actually leave?”

  “Of course not.” Lord Wulf had a more baleful and more dominating aura than anyone Ning had ever encountered, and he held Emperor Waveshift in no regard at all. “Those who like you, Emperor Waveshift, will flatter you… but to those who don’t like you, you aren’t worth half a damn!”

  Lord Wulf was an incredibly proud figure. There was nothing he wanted from Emperor Waveshift, and this was actually the very first time the two had met despite both having lived for countless years. He naturally felt no respect for Waveshift, an Emperor who didn’t even have the combat power of a Hegemon.

  “Yes, I’m quite weak; my talents lie in Numerancy and Numerancy alone. My friends flatter me, but to those who have no need of my talents I truly am worth very little.” Emperor Waveshift remained quite calm and composed.

  Lord Wulf’s face was a mask of icy arrogance, but many thoughts flitted through his mind. “Emperor Waveshift is actually here… can this be a scheme of some kind? But as a Golden Emperor, I’m even better at staying alive than actual Otherverse Lords. Given my power and the power of the nine Black Emperors who serve me, the only person in this area who would pose a threat to me should be Realmslord Windgrace! Even if Emperor Waveshift is plotting against me, he won’t be able to do anything to me at all.”

  “I’ll overwhelm them with raw power. In front of absolute power, all schemes are nothing more than jokes.” Lord Wulf was extremely confident in his abilities.

  “Daolord Darknorth.” Lord Wulf stared at the distant white-robed youth who bore that black sheath on his back. Ning was looking at him as well, and their gazes met in the air.

  “General Wulf,” Ning responded.

  “You are an impressive Daolord. Truly, you are incredible,” Lord Wulf said. “I’ve been alive for a very long time, but you are the only Daolord I have any respect for.”

  “You praise me too much, General,” Ning said.

  “Don’t be modest. A Daolord who can reach Hegemonic levels of power and even command a Hegemon retainer truly is incredible.” Lord Wulf glanced sideways at Azurefiend, who was by Ning’s side. “However… your retainer is a bit too cowardly. I would’ve committed suicide long ago.”

  Cold light flickered through Azurefiend’s eyes.

  “My contempt is reserved for those who commit suicide,” Ning said.

  “Hm?” Lord Wulf frowned as he looked at the white-robed youth, then said coldly, “You really don’t know what’s good for you. No wonder you dared to make an enemy out of our Icepeak Army! Daolord Darknorth, as a Daolord you shall merely live for 108,000 chaos cycles. This is an incredibly short period of time! Once your lifespan comes to an end, you shall perish and your realmship will fall into the hands of others. In fact, there might even be a great battle over it. Emperors like myself who possess limitless lifespans can use it to wander the many realmverses and see more things… but for you to hold a realmship is an absolute waste! I urge you to hand it over. That way, you’ll at least remain alive,” Lord Wulf said.

  He had been planning to attack immediately, but when he saw Emperor Waveshift… he still felt extremely confident in his chances, but he chose to be just a bit more cautious than he otherwise would have been.

  “Hand it over?” Ning shook his head. “Why should I just hand my treasures over to you?”

  “Are you sure you are going to refuse me?” The baleful aura surrounding Lord Wulf began to froth and churn. The hint of caution he had felt upon seeing Emperor Waveshift was beginning to dissipate, and his innate brutal disposition was beginning to reveal itself once more.

  “I refuse.” Ning shook his head.

  “You are courting death.” Lord Wulf’s gaze turned cold. He pointed angrily at Ning as his voice echoed throughout the surrounding area: “Kill them all, and exterminate Vastheaven Palace! Let everyone know what happens when they make enemies out of our Icepeak Army!”

  “Acknowledged,” the nine onyx humanoids simultaneous said respectfully. “Kill them all!”

  “Kill!” Murderous looks appeared on the faces of the nine Black Emperors, and their auras began to flare with awesome power. They were like nine streaks of black light that split apart the void as they shot forward. They had long ago grown accustomed to warfare and conquest! They had completely uprooted and destroyed quite a few powerful organizations; to them, an organization that was merely headed by a Daolord was nothing worth mentioning at all.

  “Flamewing, kill them all!” Ning pointed towards his foes and issued an order as well.

  “I’ve been waiting for you to say that.” Flamewing had been standing restlessly by Ning’s side. Upon hearing the order, he wagged his big butt excitedly, then let out an excited roar. This ordinary-looking fatty suddenly transformed into a dazzling ball of blazing fire which had a strange creature inside of it, a creature that looked like a fiery-winged bear.

  The nine attacking Black Emperors all revealed looks of nervousness and puzzlement. They could sense incredible danger, but they had no idea what it was they were looking at.

  “Eh?” The distant Lord Wulf suddenly turned pale.

  “GWAAAAR!” Flamewing let out a shocking roar, and as he did so he belched forth a torrent of dark-red flames from his mouth. It almost instantly covered the surrounding void, including the nine Black Emperors who were charging in their direction.

  “What’s that?!”

  “ARGH! Not good, those flames are too powerful. Quick, run!”

  The nine Black Emperors felt tremendous pain as soon as those dark-red flames touched them. Even their black skin began to slowly melt away! Although they were a bit more powerful than Whitethaw, they were still just Black Emperors; in other words, they were living beings who had used the Ritual Sacrificium to inherit a certain level of power. In contrast, Whitethaw was a ‘pure’ golem who was designed for defense; his survival abilities were far superior to theirs.

  “What terrifying flames. These flames are far more powerful than even a Hegemon’s flames,” Waveshift said with an amazed sigh.

  “Ordinary Hegemons would be burned to death by those flames,” the nearby Azurefiend said. “These Black Emperors have incredibly tough bodies; they are just melting slightly from the heat.”

  Whoosh. As Flamewing belched out those terrifying dark-red flames, his wings fluttered and sent him streaking forwards like a bolt of terrifying light.

  “That’s fast!” Ning was shocked. Flamewing was flying far faster than even a realmship!

  “That creature is far too fast!” Hegemon Thunderstar, hiding off in the distance within his own realmship, was shocked by this as well. He had become a Hegemon via the Dao of Lightning and could be described as having reached the very apex of speed amongst cultivators, but he still felt astonishment. “He’s far, far faster than me. How can he be this fast?!”

  Why was Flamewing known as the Flamewing God? It was precisely because of how incredibly fast he flew. This was why many classified him as a bird, as his prowess lay in his flight speed. Attacking techniques were of secondary importance.

  Riiiip. Flamewing transformed into a streak of light and almost instantly shot towards a Black Emperor. He reached out with one of his chubby paws and swiped at the Black Emperor with it, causing the Black Emperor’s arm to twist unnaturally. A large wound appeared on the Black Emperor’s chest as well, so deep as to expose the countless sto
ne passageways located within his chest. One of the planets inside his body completely exploded. This was a lethal blow for the Black Emperor, who instantly lost his life as a result.

  Slash! Yet another paw-strike, this time aimed at the head of a Black Emperor. Although Black Emperors had incredibly sturdy heads, it was still possible for one to shatter those heads with enough power. As a result, this second Black Emperor died as well.

  “Retreat, quick!” Lord Wulf could do nothing but watch as this all happened, his eyes threatening to leave their sockets. As soon as he had seen those dark-red flames, he knew something was wrong and so he immediately charged forwards to rescue his subordinate… but compared to Flamewing, his flying speed was far, far slower. They were on completely different levels.

  * * *

  Book 38, Chapter 16 - The Shocking Chaos Primordial

  These Black Emperors moved far more slowly than the Flamewing God, and the terrifying dark-red flames had only caused them to slow down even further.

  As for Lord Wulf coming to reinforce them? They immediately gave up that notion. Given his speed, by the time he flew over, the Flamewing God would’ve pretty much killed them all. Thus… they had to take care of themselves!

  “Join forces.”

  “Work together to buy some time.”

  “We only need to hold on for an instant.” The onyx humanoids were all absolutely terrified. It was as though they had met their natural predator! Fortunately, the nine of them had charged over together and thus were quite close to each other. By the time the Flamewing God had killed two of them, the other seven had already quickly gathered together.

  “Hide inside this estate-treasure first.” One of the Black Emperors tossed out an estate-type treasure.

  Crack! The dark-red flames were powerful enough to kill even Hegemons. This top-grade Eternal estate-treasure instantly began to crack apart, followed by the treasure being completely destroyed.

  Whoooosh! Bathed in flames, the Flamewing God’s wings fluttered a single time, sending it straight towards the seven Black Emperors.

  “Block!” The seven Black Emperors simultaneously swept out with their palms as the silver diagrams covering their bodies began to light up. An awesomely cold aura swept out from them as ice began to form over their gigantic black palms, sweeping towards the attacking Flamewing God.

  “Grrr… die!” Flamewing was a dominating force of nature; it naturally chose to meet their attacks head-on! It flew straight towards its opponents, its giant bear-like paws smashing downwards with such power that even Ning and Azurefiend felt their hearts tremble as they watched from afar. Its attack collided head-on against the giant black palms of the seven Black Emperors.

  BOOM! This was a collision of incredible power, and it instantly caused space around them to completely collapse and crumble.

  When the seven Black Emperors joined forces, they were able to unleash an amount of power that was equal to that of an Otherverse Lord’s. Although they were clearly at a disadvantage when battling the Flamewing God, they were at least able to briefly pause it in its tracks.

  As for the seven Black Emperors themselves, they were knocked flying backwards, their bodies trembling and crackling as a large amount of tears and injuries appeared on them. They had suffered incredibly heavy injuries; even they would need quite a long period of time to completely recover.

  Whoosh. The Flamewing God was enraged at having been briefly stopped in its tracks. It once more fluttered its wings. Swoosh! It instantly swept through the void and charged at the Black Emperors, who were still in the process of being blasted in each direction. They didn’t have the chance to recover yet.

  “Not good.”

  “Flee separately.”

  “Save yourselves!” The Black Emperors had all suffered heavy injuries, and they had been blasted backwards with such force that they had lost control over themselves. It was impossible for them to once more join forces to block the Flamewing God, and so they simply followed the momentum of the previous blast and began to flee for their lives.

  Riiiiip! The Flamewing God was able to move at incredible speeds. Its claws swept past the body of one of the fleeing Black Emperors, instantly tearing the Black Emperor’s chest open. Quite a number of critical systems lay within the chest, and so this strike was a lethal one.

  “GWAAAAR!” Flamewing opened its giant maw and bit down, crushing a Black Emperor to bits with its teeth, then crunching through the remains and swallowing them.

  This was one of the most terrifying beasts in existence in the Chaosverse… a Chaos Primordial! They would often eat entire realmverses when hungry. In comparison, these onyx humanoids were devoured with ease by Flamewing. In fact, Flamewing rather enjoyed the chewiness.

  “Stop that immediately!” Lord Wulf had finally arrive. Slash! Lord Wulf had moved to bar Flamewing’s path, but Flamewing was still able to land a clawing blow to a Black Emperor’s back, causing his spine to completely cave in and a series of crackling sounds to emanate from his body. The Black Emperor’s aura instantly whittled away into nothingness.

  “DIE, damn you!” The enraged Lord Wulf suddenly drew a saber in each of his two hands. SLASH! SLASH! A pair of rainbow-like streaks of saber-light chopped through the skies, filled with Lord Wulf’s boundless rage and murderous will. The twin blows chopped straight towards the Flamewing God, who simply fluttered its wings and used them to block the two strikes like a shield. BOOM! The shockwave from this collision was even more powerful than the one generated by the clash between Flamewing and the seven Black Emperors.

  Lord Wulf was sent flying backwards, while Flamewing came to a halt as well. It glanced at Lord Wulf, slightly surprised.

  “Damn, damn, damn!” Lord Wulf glanced behind himself, only to see the four heavily wounded surviving Black Emperors fleeing towards the distant realmship. This caused Lord Wulf to feel a sense of pain in his heart. “I had nine Black Emperors… and now, I’ve suddenly lost five of them. The Icepeak Army has never, in all its history, suffered such catastrophic losses before!”

  The Icepeak Army had conquered all within its path, stirring up one war after another, but even then its total losses had merely been eight Black Emperors. This time, they had been planning to slay this puny Daolord with ease… and yet they had instantly lost five of their Black Emperors?!

  “You are pretty strong. You should be on par with those Otherverse Lords. I probably won’t be able to kill you,” Flamewing growled. “So you can go ahead and fuck off. Can’t be bothered to fight you! If it wasn’t for the fact that those seven were able to block me briefly, I would’ve wiped them all out by now.”

  Indeed. Given the Flamewing God’s terrifying speed, he was in fact capable of killing all of the onyx humanoids before Lord Wulf had arrived. However, that extra moment of time the seven Black Emperors had bought themselves by joining forces had caused the Flamewing God to briefly slow down, resulting in ‘just’ five perishing and four escaping.

  “Y-you…!” Lord Wulf felt even angrier. He had never suffered such catastrophic losses before, and felt as though he was about to go crazy. “DIE!”

  “I can’t beat you to death so I was planning on not beating you up at all… but you insist on attacking ME?” Flamewing let out a furious roar as he charged over.

  ……

  Space for ten billion kilometers around them completely collapsed, with the void itself having been ground up into countless tiny scorching pieces of space-sand as the titanic Flamewing battled furiously against that golden figure.

  This was combat on a completely different level, a clash of the titans. Flamewing had the advantage and was completely dominating the golden figure, smashing it backwards over and over again! However, Golden Emperors simply had incredibly durable bodies; not a single scratch could be seen on Lord Wulf’s golden form, and so Lord Wulf continued to attack again and again with his indescribably exquisite Hegemonic saber-arts.

  The terrifying clashes caused Ning and Azurefien
d to both tremble.

  “So this is what a battle between Otherverse Lords looks like?” Ning nodded slowly. Flamewing was indeed quite a bit stronger than an Otherverse Lord, but it was still incapable of actually killing them. In the end, its insights into the Dao were simply too weak. It completely relied on its innate gifts to do battle, and thus Otherverse Lords were able to stay alive in the face of its onslaught. However, there was no way they could actually overpower Flamewing in a frontal clash.

  Even someone whose body was as durable as Lord Wulf, a Golden Emperor, was sent flying backwards with every single clash. However, rage caused Lord Wulf to continue to press the futile attack.

  It truly was a scene of apocalyptic might. Even Hegemons would perish before attacks like these! “And this is just one of the Icepeak Army’s generals…” Azurefiend let out an amazed sigh.

  “He is a Golden Emperor. Even the Lonely King himself is just a Golden Emperor,” the nearby Emperor Waveshift said. “The Lonely King’s advantage lies in his war machines, but those war machines would barely tickle your Flamewing God; there’s no way they can damage the Flamewing God’s nigh-indestructible body. Thus, even if the Lonely King came he would still be dominated and abused by your Chaos Primordial. This is what makes those creatures so terrifying.”

  Ning nodded. Suddenly, a spacetime ripple appeared off in the distance, followed by a white-robed, white-bearded elder with six curved horns on his head emerging from a spacetime rift. It was Hegemon Brightshore.

  “What terrifying shockwaves!” Hegemon Brightshore stared ashen-faced at the apocalyptic scene before him. This was a level of combat which was vastly beyond him, and these shockwaves were on a completely different level as well.

  “Such power! Is this the terrifying force which Realmslord Windgrace spoke of, the force which is beyond even his ability to control?” Yet another figure appeared in the distance. It was Hegemon Windrain.

  “A Golden Emperor? One of the legendary Golden Emperors, who are supposedly on par with Otherverse Lords, is being completely dominated in battle? Where the hell did this beast come from?!” Hegemon Netherlily appeared as well. The terrifying shockwaves from this battle had been sensed by all three of the mighty Hegemons of the Flamedragon Realmverse, and so they had all hastened over here.