Desolate Era (Book 41 - Book 45)

“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.





Book 45, Chapter 4 - Within the Annihilation Hive


“The Sithe are heading for the Annihilation Hive?” Ji Ning, Titanos, Mogg, Skyfeeder, Stonerule, Bolin, and Ekong fell silent. They stood there within the Great Dark, staring at each other.

Titanos said in a low voice, “I imagine you all know what their plan is. They are going to go to the Annihilation Hive and destroy Darknorth’s avatar! That will allow the Annihilation Hive to continue devouring power from our Chaosverse. We have to fight them there. We can’t let it just continue to weaken our Chaosverse unabated. Yes… we have no other options.”

“We do have another option!” Hard light flashed through Autarch Ekong’s eyes. “We’re faster than them. Let’s get to the Annihilation Hive first and destroy its quintessence core!”

“Destroy the sphere of annihilation?” The others were all intrigued.

“Is it possible?” Autarch Titanos looked at Ning. Ning knew more about it than anyone else present.

“The quintessence of the Annihilation Hive holds the mysteries of a type of destruction which I have named ‘Oblivion’ within it. It is incomparably profound and also tremendously powerful. I’m not even close to being strong enough to destroy it,” Ning said. “However… when we work together, we are also tremendously powerful. Perhaps we might just manage to destroy it after all.”

“We have to! Once we destroy the sphere of annihilation, they’ll have nothing to threaten us with,” Autarch Ekong said eagerly.

“Destroy the sphere of annihilation.”

“When we join forces, we are virtually unstoppable. We were able to crush entire temples in head-on attacks. I refuse to believe we can’t crack that thing!” Autarch Bolin’s eyes were filled with malevolence as well.

None of them wanted to be led around by the nose by their foes!

However, they all knew that it was uncertain as to whether or not they would be able to damage the ‘sphere of annihilation’. It was a completely foreign object that they knew nothing about… but they had to make the attempt! If they succeeded, they’d celebrate. If they failed, then they would have to go stop the Sithe!

“I hope this works.” Ning looked at his six comrades, silently praying to himself as he did. His avatar had been analyzing the sphere of annihilation for many years, and the more he understood the more nervous he felt.

“Come. Let us go to the Annihilation Hive!” They immediately began to speed towards the Annihilation Hive at maximum speed.

Roughly one month later, they finally reached the Annihilation Hive. Iyerre’s team was still far away; they’d probably need over half a month before they would arrive.

“The Annihilation Hive.” The seven of them stood shoulder-to-shoulder, staring at the great hive before them. It remained vast beyond measure, but the sucking power from it was now much weaker than when it was at full power. It was still able to destroy the raw darkness in the area around it, but the energies released by the destroyed darkness all returned to the prime essences of the Chaosverse. There was no way to steal them away at all.

“Let’s try and see if we can destroy the entire thing first,” Autarch Titanos said. “If we can, we don’t need to worry about destroying the sphere of annihilation.”

The sphere of annihilation, by itself, didn’t have the power to forcibly take energy from an entire Chaosverse. It was all thanks to the formation supporting it that made this possible.

“Darknorth.” Bolin looked at Ning.

“Let’s try using the Skycleaver stance with full power,” Ning said. The Skycleaver stance wasn’t necessarily the best technique to use in actual combat, but it was definitely the best for causing destruction.

Soon, the towering, loincloth-clad Sword Titan once more appeared within the emptiness of space. He strode towards the behemoth hive, glowing with pure sword-intent. Every single movement he made radiated power and destruction, and he quickly reached the surface of the behemoth hive. He then drew an enormous sword with his right hand.

“Skycleaver stance!” The Sword Titan held the sword in a two-handed grip, lifting it up high over his head. The six Autarchs began to use their various techniques, allowing Ning to guide their different Daos to merge together and unleash the Skycleaver stance! This was actually just one stance of an entire set of sword-arts which Ning had created for them.