novelraw Chapter 1722 - 1721 - Fiend Fronts
Chapter 1722 - 1721 - Fiend Fronts
It took close to 5 years for Lind to consolidate his foundation after all the improvements and changes.
The largest change was to his Arts. Before, he had to actively fuse his Mysteries, elements, and other facets consciously. Now, a simple thought brought whatever he desired forth.
His Storm Arts, which had been only about halfway upgraded, now effortlessly contained the power of his foundation.
He had been able to grasp all the steps others would need too! It took him months to break it down and pass along to the ship to transmit back to their homebase.
It would immediately benefit all races, not just 6 elementals. The main thrust of power was how many Arts could be adapted or learned at each major realm.
Unlike other combinations, 6 elementals still lagged far behind in that versatility. They could conjure raw power but fine control eluded them on many fronts.
When he emerged with a feeling of satisfaction from seclusion onto the beach of the Starlit Refuge, he noticed a group of the crew talking with Qing and Karu.
Their faces were grim.
He flew down and stayed back while listening in with his ears.
"--lost contact with several areas in the Western Lament. The Emerald Isle is one of the few safe havens left." Lind narrowed his eyes but continued to listen.
The gist was bad. The Fiends had begun to emerge across the Divine Lands.
The Eastern Continent was largely unchanged but the rest had deteriorated.
Where once the Fiends pulled strings from the shadows, they now emerged to reap the harvest. Billions had vanished already.
They were not dead as no corpses were ever found, just gone.
The most likely was that they were taken as resources to be refined into fuel for the many Fiends appearing.
The exact numbers of Fiends was also impossible in all the chaos but the original estimates that they had nowhere near enough to launch a campaign across all the continents was demolished.
They had the numbers but had been quietly preparing for the end.
Lind was running out of time. His original estimates appeared to have been still too optimistic.
Karu looked especially pale as she heard that the central areas left to lower quality powers had been essentially wiped clean.
How many people had they called friends in their time training in those places in the Southern Continent?
He also knew for her that it was a repeat of a horrific age to her.
She had described it several times to him but he noticed differences he found odd.
The Fiends had waged battles after the initial appearance. Entire powers had been clinging to life but all to no avail as Divine Fiend Qi shredded their defenses. The true horror began then.
Farms had been built and very few areas had been able to stay free.
Roughly 6 to 7 thousand years later, the Northern Continent was wiped out entirely by the Bastard to reach the peak of the Divine Realm.
After that, all the farms were connected by a Fiend array before the Final Harvest.
Lind had tried to picture it but he doubted it was just in the Divine Lands.
Now that his harmony had improved, he let his aura fly outward in a different way than he had before. The Void Ocean was not far and thus the many stars were present. Unlike before, when the fluid perfectly flowed around him without letting him grasp a single speck, now he could reach them.
The barrier around them was quite powerful but only meant to keep out his existence, not his senses.
He saw world after world of Immortals to mortals in all varieties. Lands with no oceans or seas but floating in skies of pure water Qi with aquatic life.
He saw ravaged lands that only dragons could thrive in.
He saw worlds of only Elementals that had no fixed form but were not harmed by the intent of its residents.
In essence, he saw all that was possible. In those wonderful and myriad realms, he saw them too.
Ash gray skin and white hair with vile voices and Qi emerged in the trillions. The Fiends were not merely sneaking around or expanding anymore. They were killing on a scale unheard of.
Worse, he saw them take damage that would normally kill them but it hardly slowed them down! Only 1 being could do that!
The Bastard was finally stretching out his power to the lower realm Fiends to feed himself! The mortal worlds were going to collapse long before the Northern Continent did!
Had Karu known?
If she had, what would be the point of telling him an impossible timeline? He could not go much faster than his current insane speed.
He was still 2 Mysteries away from the peak of the Journeyman Tier and while he was confident he might get the next one in the next century, he was not so confident with the third.
He had come to the conclusion he had to aim for a certain quality to get the power he needed which added a level of difficulty.
Yet, could he afford to wait? If he waited until he was 100% ready, the victory would be meaningless. All that would be left is the Divine Lands!
The Void Ocean would go dark as all the realms collapsed and would never return. He was unsure how they were all born in the first place, but if all life was refined with no outlet to pull it back down, then it would settle into the most stable cycle inside the Divine Lands.
As he sat there thinking, all the Fiend fronts were expanding and he felt powerless to stop it.
Anger would not help him nor would anything crazy conveniently drop into his lap. What did draw his focus were his Mysteries.
Heaven and Earth layers were fully refined and his Qi layer had a powerful start.
Each Mystery dealt with the world as it was and how he understood how it worked. The raw power was no use for his current needs.
Instead, he focused on the concepts and what he was able to sense with his newly refined aura. He could not help the lower worlds directly but there was something he could do in the Divine Lands.
As his aura alone would not find what he needed, his Talents activated.
His now upgraded Mystery Eyes and Touch revealed even more information about the Starlit Refuge. He pushed it all aside if it was familiar as he was looking for something hidden.
The Bastard had as much as revealed what the Fiend race was to him but they still operated on certain principles. His experience in the Divine Lord trial had confirmed it.
As soon as a tiny window had been opened, the original Bastard locked away had been able to reach places that had Fiends hidden on them.
That meant Lind could cut him off in all but the Divine Lands! It would not kill the Fiends in the lower worlds but it would cut off their virtual invulnerability!
It took days but his Touch found it first. A very fine network hidden beneath space and time itself. It was in a place only a Divine Lord or peak Master Tier would be able to reach!
Lind could only reach it because of the fact he had a harmony. He now understood why it was so damned powerful as it was meant for the final leg of the Divine Realm!
With that power, he followed the fine network back to a point of intersection. It was so numerous to as be tapestry beneath all worlds, but he could follow it back by the intensity.
The stronger Fiend Qi and flow of life was visible to his Eyes! The 2 Talents combined were essential to his quest or he would have failed.
Finally, after what seemed ages, he found not one nexus, but 9! He frowned as he saw the issue. If he destroyed one, the other 8 would not only pick up the slack but restore the 9th in time.
He could try to destroy all 9 yet he felt like a trap was waiting for that exact move. He concentrated but could not discern if he was right.
He sneered, though, in that he did not have to destroy them with force. His Talents allowed him to see the flow of the many threads and he simply tainted them.
Emerald Qi merged, isolated by elements, into as many threads as he could do at once. It was in the billions as they were all absorbed into the nexus points.
Lind did nothing as the nexus refined the power into pure life force and the trap he laid was sprung! All 9 flashed with emerald light and then his head nearly split open as a scream forced him to retreat.
It was only as he pulled back that he saw a fist trying to grasp at his mind! If it had been anyone else, they would have been doomed but the gap between him and the Bastard was no longer as wide!
[See you soon, Bastard!] Lind laughed as the hand was burned by his harmonic Qi too before the network was shredded.
He was exhausted but he was smiling as he returned to his body. He had only bought time, but that time was what all the worlds needed. Now, he had to advance!