Desolate Era (Book 41 - Book 45)

……

Inside the brightest of the three Elder Halls in this hidden dimension. Exalt Bowenya was looking nervously at the images in the air before him. The images were displaying the chaotic battle going on within the sealed spacetime continuum. Explosions were occurring everywhere as energy blasted about willy-nilly. Even though he was in control of the Sacred Realm, he wasn’t able to clearly see what was going on in the battle. Clearly, a chaotic and terrifying war was going on, with all three Exalt-class Daoguard Towers focusing their long-distance firepower against Daolord Darknorth, with all the Hegemons working to assist the towers!

“What’s the situation?” Exalt Bowenya barked coldly. He was able to get a vague sense of what was going on from watching the images, and it seemed as though his side held the advantage. They had surrounded Daolord Darknorth and were blasting him with attacks.

“Exalt.” More than twenty avatars belonging to the battling Hegemons and Emperors were gathered next to him. True Sithe did not have avatars, as they were constantly being rejected and suppressed by this Chaosverse. It was impossible for them to use their godsense to keep and maintain an avatar.

In contrast, the Sithe descendants were native to this Chaosverse. They all had avatars. Clearly, then, the avatars located next to Exalt Bowenya all belonged to the Sithe progeny. These avatars belonged to the various squads who had been assigned to take part in this battle. Through them, the Exalt was able to quickly issue new orders as well as be updated on how the battle was progressing.

“Exalt, don’t worry. We have an absolute advantage in this battle. We’re definitely going to win,” a horned man said excitedly. “The astral chains have completely countered Daolord Darknorth’s advantages. Each time, he is forced to use his sword-arts to defend against us. He’s constantly using up energy, and his truesoul is crumbling at an increasing pace while we are sending more and more people into the sealed continuum to assault him. He’ll only be able to capture or kill one of two of us within a short period of time.

This sealed continuum was a hundred billion kilometers in size. Ning moved much more slowly due to all of the attacks raining down on him, and he was using up a lot of energy. As a result, he had to slowly move from Emperor to Emperor as he captured them.

“With our grand formation having been established, he won’t have any chance at all of capturing anyone from our team of thirty-five Hegemons and Emperors,” a black-robed elder said confidently.

“He’s already used his sword-arts at least ten times by now, and this is just the beginning! We have many tools remaining that we haven’t even used yet.”

“Exalt, let us use all the tools we have at our disposal.”

“Exalt, let us take part in the battle as well!”

“Alright.” Exalt Bowenya revealed a look of delight. “Hah! I knew it. He’s not going to pull anything unexpected out of his sleeves.”

The Exalt was no fool. Each plan he had used against Ning had a very high chance of success. In Purgatory, the Apocalypse-class castle would’ve stood a good chance of exhausting Ning to death, if it hadn’t been for Ning’s Storm Sword Dao allowing Ning to move much faster than anyone had anticipated.

As for the spacetime formation, the only reason why Ning had survived it was because the Apocalypse-class castle had bought him an extra hour of time to gain insight into a few of the formation’s mysteries. As a result, he had launched eighteen strikes and broke through that formation.

After these past two failures, the Sithe Exalt was actually beginning to lose confidence in himself. This time, however, everything was progressing smoothly in accordance with their plan. This caused him to feel quite delighted.

“This attack is much more powerful than the two previous attacks in Purgatory combined.” An expectant look was in Exalt Bowenya’s eyes. “We have three Daoguard Towers working together to rain attacks on him, after all, and we also have a large group of Hegemons and Emperors going all-out against him. Even if we can’t kill him head-on, we can exhaust him to death.”

“Send in the Bloodfiend Maze Formation as well,” Exalt Bowenya ordered.

“Understood!” Two of the Sithe descendants next to him immediately acknowledged the order respectively, then sent their squad of fifty-two Hegemons into battle as well.

“Have all eighteen of the Death Attendants enter as well!” Exalt Bowenya commanded.

Just a short while later… “Exalt, Daolord Darknorth is completely helpless against the Death Attendants. All he can do is rely on his speed to dodge. The more he dodges, the more awkward his movements become. We’re landing more and more attacks from the astral chain formations and the other formations, and he’s forced to use more and more sword-arts to defend.”

“His truesoul is beginning to crumble faster and faster.”

“Exalt, we’re definitely going to win!” All of the avatars of the Sithe taking part in the battle were extremely confident.

“Hahaha, I knew…!” Exalt Bowenya let out a laugh as he prepared to issue his final orders, but then he suddenly hesitated. He asked, “How many of our Hegemons and Emperors have been captured or killed?”

“Around sixty-five of them were taken or slain,” a black-robed elder said. Their formation was in control of the entire battlefield, allowing them to know the casualties they had suffered.

“Quite heavy.” Exalt Bowenya couldn’t help but smile, even as he said these words. Even if all the Hegemons died, it would be worth it if they killed Daolord Darknorth. Right now, just twenty percent or so had perished!

“Yes, our casualties are indeed quite heavy, but Daolord Darknorth is extremely important to the entire Sithe race. If we can kill him, it will all be worth it.” The Hegemons and Emperors were brimming with the desire to do battle. They had known long ago that this would be a calamitous battle, but at least the situation was better than they had expected, even though more and more Hegemons and Emperors were being slain.

“If that’s the case, then send in the final two formation squads as well. All remaining Hegemons and Emperors, use your respective treasures to assist. Don’t let Daolord Darknorth focus his attention on any one area in particular,” Exalt Bowenya said.

“Yes.” Instantly, a large number of Hegemons and Emperors charged forth. This final wave included an enormous number of Emperors; there had to be over two thousand of them!

In truth, there was a limit to how many Hegemons could be used by the three Daoguard Towers. At most, eight hundred Hegemons was enough! More than two thousand of the other Hegemons were simply there to obscure Ning’s vision and to distract him. After all, Ning would continuously counter-attack and either kill or capture these Hegemons! If he managed to kill someone who was in control of a Daoguard Tower treasure, the impact would be significant, but if he only managed to kill one of the screeners, it would have no impact on the Sithe combat power.

Of course, even though these Emperors were merely a screening force, they were also provided with formations and Sithe treasures to slow Ning down.

“It seems I’ll be able to deal with Daolord Darknorth just by sacrificing a few Hegemons and Emperors.” Exalt Bowenya smiled broadly.

Time continued to tick past, second after second.

“We’ve already lost more than ninety Hegemons and Emperors.”

“Daolord Darknorth has used his sword-arts over forty times by now.”

“He managed to capture another thirty Hegemons and Emperors, but most of them were useless pawns. It won’t affect our combat power much. By now, he’s used his sword-arts over fifty times!”