novelraw Chapter 1723 - 1722 - Unraveling
Chapter 1723 - 1722 - Unraveling
Deep in the mountains of the Eastern Continent where the Fiends ruled unchallenged, a fortress built into the tallest shattered with an explosion.
It was not just the castle, either, but the entire mountain top was wiped from existence as a Fiend screamed into the air.
"LIND FREY! DAMN YOU!" Chaotic Fiend Qi and aura slammed out ward and even other Fiend were consumed by it! Millions died in an instant as the Great One desperately tried to stabilize his condition.
The backlash from the collapse of the 9 Heart Array had caught him entirely off guard.
The delicate network had never been discovered in any iteration but the thrice damned dragon now found it and somehow destroyed it! He also avoided the Death Grasp Snare Art!
Such a weak Journeyman Tier should have been absorbed directly into his foundation. Instead, the entire network had imploded followed by his Art collapsing violently.
The backlash came roaring directly into his foundation and the thrice cursed emerald Qi was with it!
If not for being far more powerful and all too familiar with its effects, the Great One would have suffered far worse. It was bad enough that all his progress for the last 100,000 years was coming undone if he did not stabilize it quickly!
He needed high quality life force and a lot of it! Yet, that very instability made it impossible to use his full strength! The double whammy meant he could only take from the very ground he stood on!
Nothing was spared but it was still not enough to maintain his previous power!
He lost centuries of work because of a single attack!
His shadowy aura surged as he finally brought his power under control. The various forces at the foot of the mountains trembled as they waited to see if the devastation would continue.
The war front was barely affected but the explosive power of a Master Tier hardly went unnoticed.
Many Divine Realm cultivators were aware something had happened but the Great One wove his hands quickly to isolate his mountain.
He floated down and stared at the perfectly flat top of the mountain. His fortress and all his treasures were gone. An accumulation of billions of years had been wiped out from one attack!
Rage was building but he carefully brought it back to an even keel. He knew losing control would possibly make his recently stabilized foundation unravel once more.
He was still in a fragile state and if any of his enemies knew that, it would be the greatest chance to kill him! Even Lind Frey would not be needed. It would be any Master Tier!
He had to focus but before he could even begin to refine the fresh life force, messages came flowing in.
He was still connected to all the Fiends and they were begging for help but the network was shattered! He was in no condition to rebuild it!
The once contained rage now flowed in his veins but he just barely held it back from hurting him.
By the time he was able to rebuild the connections from the mental ones, it would be too late! He could already feel them dying!
They had grown too used to his support and now they were being wiped out! Without all the life force of the lower worlds, even consuming the entire Divine Lands would not be enough! He would have to start over quickly!
If he could trigger catastrophic cascade fractures in the realm foundations, he could get what he needed. Yet, for the first time in his long life, he felt 2 emerald eyes weighing on him.
It was not the annoyance of a gnat nor the game of seeing how Lind Frey would fail once more. He finally felt the golden claws at his throat!
The warnings from his true self now began to ring in his mind.
{I thought we had cornered that dragon in an endless loop of despair but he turned it against me. He sealed me away completely and each corpse added to its power. Do not underestimate him.}
He had always been the one pulling the strings and he just assumed the threat would be at the end when the dragon became a Master Tier. It was a danger but he had been shown the various ways to overcome the threat.
Now, it was all up in smoke! Even if he defeated Lind Frey, he would face the danger of new 6 elementals and the thrice cursed Harmonic Dragons! The current timeline was just littered with too many risks!
His current state was their greatest chance to kill him! If he was gone, all that would remain was his true self in the next realm. Lind Frey was once the only issue but now the world had changed.
If a whole swathe of any of his race or disciples made it to the next realm, it would lead to the end of his life forever!
He had come so close to his goal and was now held up by ants that refused to just obey his will! Heaven and Earth tried to kill him and he had overcome its rules. He had proven it was fallible!
Now, just one more obstacle and all of it would be over. He could take the final step and achieve his true dream of eternal life!
His knuckles cracked but there was nothing else he could do.
He had to consolidate his newly remade foundation and then rebuild the network that took him so many thousands of years to do before!
More and more Fiends died in his mind with none of the life force coming to him! He had to push it aside and accept the loss.
The most valuable commodity had been taken from him but it did not seal his fate.
"You will pay for this, Lind Frey. I have been holding back to focus on my cultivation but no more! I will burn them all!" His disturbing eyes were glowing white as he looked out at this army. They had been merely buying time for so long.
He could have sent them to overwhelm the Divine Lands long ago, even with the Master Tiers fighting back, it would all burn in his dantian forever!
He was about to give the order when his white eyes went wide! It was not just the lower realms that were cut off! All of the Fiends were!
He quickly extended his aura to the battle front and saw a nightmare unfolding.
Divine Fiends were being burned by harmonic flames of human, demon, and dragon origin! They were trying to fight back but the disturbance of his backlash had fed into them as well!
The forces arrayed against them did not hold back at all and unleashed everything when they sensed weakness.
The Great One screamed in rage as his foundation finally destabilized once more. Instead of even trying to calm himself, he shot through space and appeared above the largest battle.
The Fiends and all froze as his imposing presence descended but he did not care.
[Mine.]
The single word washed over the land and the Fiends sneered as all their 'allies' were reduced to nothing. Billions of lives were wiped out in an instant.
He reestablished his connection to the Divine Fiends at the same time and the flow of life force quickly stopped the Qi deviation in his dantian.
A massive dome of dragon flame appeared and it was made of myriad colors but it fiercely resisted his assault.
The Great One was tempted to breach it but he had to stop the bleeding. He vanished and began to appear on every battlefront.
It took weeks and not all enemy forces were so fortunate as to have Harmonic Dragons or 6 elementals to help them. He consumed the remnants of the Western Lament save that thrice blasted Emerald Isle.
Any time he tried to go near it, he felt his dantian quiver with instability! It was like a perfectly preserved haven against him specifically!
Yet, he calmed down and finally returned to his decimated home. The war had faltered for a few weeks but that was all.
The lower worlds were not totally inept and understood something had gone wrong. He began to rebuild the network, intentionally starting with the Celestial Fields.
He was about to connect to a Fiend when a flash of emerald dispersed the threads.
The shield! It had not cut him off before but new connections were still being blocked! Frustration rose but it was mollified as he could tell the shield was fading. It would only be a matter of time.
He focused his efforts on other realms and found no issues. He had to begin again but unlike before, he knew what to do and had far more power. It would take some years but then he would ramp up the death of all the lower realms.
"Enjoy your brief victory, Lind Frey. I am going to kill them all soon enough and then I will come for you. This is the end." Once he was certain everything had stabilized, the order would go out.
Annihilation of all life would begin!