Immortal Paladin

Chapter 457 444 Loneliness Kills

444 Loneliness Kills

[POV: David?]

It hurt. It hurt far more than I expected. Going against the oath felt like my soul was being flayed from the inside, every thought dragging barbed wire through my chest. Still, I endured. I had endured worse. I could endure this. Da Wei was at his most vulnerable state after destroying the Source, and that alone was enough to justify everything.

"Void Step."

Space folded, and I reappeared directly before him.

Before I could strike, the little boy with dark hair, Ren Zhe, shouted, "Asura Path: Tyrant of the Stars." His body ignited with blue and red flames, brilliant and violent, like newborn stars tearing themselves apart. His fist slammed into me with terrifying force. I silently invoked Human Path: Enlightenment of the Fool, intending to reverse his Asura Path on instinct alone.

"Human Path: Enlightenment of the Fool."

The words came from Ding Cai.

My eyes widened. She had timed it perfectly, as if she had read my silent casting before it even finished. My reversal failed outright. The backlash rippled through my meridians and mana road.

"War Smite," Ren Zhe followed up.

Despite his lacking cultivation, the residual gains from the Source and the Asura Soul roaring within him fed him enough power to send me flying backward, the knockback effect detonating through my ribs. Pain exploded, but it wasn't enough. Not yet.

The abilities I stole from Da Wei were never limited to the Six Paths.

"Divine Zone."

My domain bloomed outward, authority crashing down like a descending sky. Before it could stabilize, Yuen Fu spoke calmly from behind Da Wei.

"Heaven Path: God of Creation."

His eyes glowed gold. A radiant halo formed above his head, and his aura expanded, swallowing mine whole. My Divine Zone was overwritten, smothered, and dominated. Impossible. I had stolen Da Wei's mastery. I had copied it perfectly. That meant only one thing.

This kid's aura mastery surpassed Da Wei's.

In the split second I was still being thrown back, I unleashed a thousand smites within the collapsing Divine Zone. Every single one of them was severed mid-formation. Yuen Fu created the concept of "cut" itself, manifesting it through quintessence and aura alone. My skills didn't disperse. They were cleanly divided and erased.

"Halo of Restriction," Lu Gao, Ren Jingyi, and Hei Mao uttered in unison.

Three silver hoops snapped around me in midair, locking my limbs and binding my movement. I shattered one instantly, forcing raw power through it, but Hei Mao was already below me, dragging Ren Zhe along.

"War Smite," Ren Zhe shouted again.

"Shadow Smite," Hei Mao followed.

Their combined strikes sent me hurtling upward, my vision fracturing as darkness swallowed my sight from a shadow curse. I clenched my jaw.

"Cleanse."

The debuffs peeled away just in time for dozens of spell projectiles from the players below to slam into me. Reflect triggered violently, killing scores of them in an instant, but the delay was enough. I stabilized myself in the air, wings beating hard.

"Animal Path: King of the Wild."

Ren Jingyi was suddenly on me. Her hand clamped around my neck as she lunged forward, her teeth sinking into my armor. The fangs shattered on impact. I raised my hand toward her face.

"Eldritch Blast."

The spell rebounded instantly.

Pain tore through my arm as the backlash rattled my bones. Ren Jingyi roared as her body erupted outward, scales forming and expanding as she transformed fully. A colossal western dragon bloomed in the air, golden scales streaked with deep red gradients, divine power pouring off her in waves.

Divine Transformation.

I could feel her strength skyrocketing into the realm of an Ascended Soul, the Animal Soul within her burning itself out to fuel the form. It was temporary, but lethal. My instincts screamed retreat. I needed to flee, thin their numbers, and break their coordination.

I shattered the remaining Halo of Restriction.

Before I could move, players below began spamming Halo of Restriction again. Some failed outright. Some barely worked. All of them bought fractions of a second.

That was enough to hinder me.

Ren Jingyi inhaled.

A torrent of draconic flame erupted, a breath attack so dense it distorted the air itself. I crossed my wings over my body and endured the blast head-on. My armor screamed, my bones rattled, and the pain nearly drowned my thoughts.

Still, I remained aloft.

There was one way to endure this without suffering more than necessary.

"Ghost Path: Mark of the Hollow."

A black diamond bloomed on my forehead, cold and absolute, then vanished as if it had never existed. The moment it disappeared, my heart sank. I turned my head sharply and glared at Ding Cai.

How was she anticipating me again?

I had thought this would be a poetic end, something I could jeer over Da Wei with, one last mockery carved into fate itself. Instead, that Human Path ability reached me from this far away and snuffed it out cleanly. The Human Path was never meant to be used like this. It was designed to disorient, to creatively manipulate power, energy, and intent in indirect ways.

Ding Cai was using it as a scalpel, cutting my actions before they existed.

Ren Jingyi finally pulled back, her transformation stabilizing. Players surged toward me from all directions. Through my Ophanim, I filtered them instantly, locking onto the stronger ones. Divine Smite lanced out through my Divine Zone, erasing the most dangerous among them in flashes of light.

The rest I ignored.

They struck me, shattered on impact, and exploded into gore as Reflect tore them apart.

"This is how you're supposed to use it," murmured the voice curling from my shadow.

"Ghost Path: Mark of the Hollow."

I sank into my own shadow, the world swallowing me whole.

"You asked for it," I grinned, even as pain gnawed at the edges of my mind. This time, I reached for something different.

"Heaven Path: God of Creation—"

The world inverted.

I was dropped violently into existence right in front of Da Wei. Two of his disciples stood beside him, Yuen Fu and Lu Gao, already braced. Behind Da Wei, Ding Cai was there, her eyes sharp, her presence infuriatingly calm. She invoked her Human Path again, and my Heaven Path unraveled mid-manifestation.

Yuen Fu spoke without hesitation. "Holy Sword, Judgment Severance."

Lu Gao followed immediately. "Hollow Point: Convergence."

Heaven and hell collided.

A golden burst of celestial force and a spiraling mass of violet hellfire slammed into me simultaneously, crushing my chest and tearing the air apart. The impact drove the breath from my lungs. Both of them were under Divine Transformation. White feathers of condensed aura swirled around Yuen Fu, while Lu Gao's horns curved outward, his presence thick with infernal authority.

It was heavy. Too heavy to ignore.

I had to retaliate. If nothing else, I had to eliminate that Human Path disciple.

I sank into shadow again as something pulled me through it.

"Again!" hissed the voice, eager and insistent.

I emerged mid-fall, only to be met by Ren Zhe. Or rather, not Ren Zhe. The dark-haired boy had become a silver-haired little girl, her expression fierce as she struck forward.

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"War Smite."

The move was familiar and predictable.

"Void Step."

I reappeared a step to my left, already preparing my counter, only to freeze. Another Ren Zhe stood there, this one a dark-haired boy again, eyes burning with intent. Twin Souls. Of course. This was how he was using it.

The strike landed.

I was thrown backward once more, the knockback ripping through me. Before I could recover, a foot slammed into my chest. Ren Jingyi loomed over me, her form now a draconic humanoid, scales gleaming, power coiled tightly beneath her skin.

She hurled me downward.

I crashed through the air and sank into shadow again, the darkness swallowing my body as pain thundered through my senses.

Through all of it, Da Wei had not used the Dark Veil once.

That was my opening. My best chance.

And yet, his disciples, fighting as one, were proving to be far more formidable than I had anticipated.

I needed to find the weak link, because this formation was too clean to break head-on. They were clearly defending Ding Cai as the linchpin of their coordination, the one piece that made everything else fall into place. Lu Gao, Ren Jingyi, Hei Mao, and Yuen Fu had all achieved Divine Transformation, temporarily borrowing power directly from their master. Their presence alone told me they were not the ones I could easily remove.

That left Ren Zhe.

I tore myself out of the shadow and immediately met steel. Yuen Fu and Lu Gao were already swinging their swords toward me, their timing impeccable. I pointed toward Ding Cai, making it obvious, exaggerated, a deliberate bluff meant to draw attention. At the same time, silently and invisibly, I cast Divine Possession on Ren Zhe.

Since Ding Cai was so well-guarded, I avoided possessing her directly.

The world lurched.

I blinked and found myself inside Ren Zhe's body. I immediately invoked his Asura Path: Tyrant of the Stars, reallocating most of his attributes into Dexterity, my intent focused solely on reaching Ding Cai in a single decisive burst. That was when I froze.

Something grabbed me from within.

The Twin Souls.

They slammed into me with raw hatred, not refined intent but pure emotion sharpened by grief and rage. Their voices overlapped, screaming into my consciousness all at once.

"You killed my mom!"

"You must've killed my dad!"

"We hate you!"

"Die!"

"Die!"

I clenched down with my soul, Exalted Renewal flaring at full output as I resisted them. Even so, their grip was terrifyingly firm, far stronger than I had anticipated. I was losing control of the body by the second. Before I could forcibly eject myself, Ding Cai's voice rang out across the battlefield.

"Senior Mao! They caught him!"

The shadow surged upward like a living thing. Ren Zhe's body sank into it, dragging my soul along. Panic flared as I fought, wrenching control back for a single heartbeat. In that instant, I cast Divine Smite through the Asura Path, cleaving the shadow open just enough to escape.

I snapped back into my own body, vision swimming. I didn't hesitate. I fled upward with Void Step, chaining Zealot's Stride and Flash Step together, weaving through the air as attacks chased me from below. Spells, blades, and smites tore past me, some grazing, some landing. I spat blood mid-flight, chunks of it breaking free from my mouth as my body screamed in protest.

They had done serious damage in the seconds I was gone.

"Blessed Regeneration," I uttered, forcing the healing through clenched teeth.

My wounds closed rapidly, flesh knitting back together under divine light. From below, I could hear players groaning and cursing as they watched me recover. I barely had a moment to think before the pressure returned. Da Wei's disciples were already on me again.

Hei Mao literally crawled out of my body.

I grabbed his throat on instinct, fingers tightening, shock and fury surging together. Before I could crush it, a woman erupted from my body instead, carrying Hei Mao's presence but shaped differently, cat-like features sharp and predatory. I seized her throat as well, intent on snapping her neck and ending whatever this was.

She vanished.

In the same instant, she used Divine Possession on Hei Mao. His power surged visibly, his aura thickening as his eyes glowed with a dangerous, unnatural light. The sound of a zither echoed through the air, distorted and haunting, and within his pupils I saw the shape of a torii arch.

His claw lashed out for my eyes with terrifying speed.

I caught it with my free hand just in time. Hei Mao grinned, wide and feral.

"Guess who was still on my shadow?"

Pain exploded in my skull.

Ren Zhe crawled out from my head, his form half-shadow, half-flesh, and plunged daggers straight into both of my eyes. White agony consumed everything. Darkness followed immediately, complete and suffocating. I tried to heal, to regenerate my eyes and force the daggers out, but they were pinned there with relentless precision.

I could no longer see, but I could still feel.

The Divine Zone was still active. Presences crowded around me. I reached up blindly, trying to grab Ren Zhe and tear him away, but Hei Mao slammed into me, wrestling my arms down with brutal strength. A tremendous impact followed as Lu Gao crashed onto me, planting his feet firmly against my body.

The desert exploded beneath us, sand erupting outward as Lu Gao restrained one of my arms completely. Around us, players continued casting buffs and healing spells on Da Wei's disciples, carefully sustaining them so they would not be torn apart by Reflect damage.

"Let go," I said, my voice low and strained. "Or… you will regret it."

They ignored me completely.

"Am I a joke to you?"

Of course, I felt bitter! I'm using Exalted Renewal already, you sons of bitches!

I needed to find the weak link, because letting this drag on any longer would only grind me down. I cast Final Adjudication above myself, forcing power upward despite the pain screaming through my skull and the Hollow Star. Golden scales manifested in the sky, chains raining down in violent arcs. Hei Mao reacted instantly, grabbing Lu Gao and Ren Zhe and slipping into his shadow. The chains barely missed them as they vanished.

The players rushed me in waves, spells and weapons crashing toward my position without hesitation. Most of them died the moment Final Adjudication took hold, their bodies torn apart by judgment and reduced to light. I could have chained more executions if I were capable of creating Manasouls, but that had always been one of my weaknesses. I could manipulate the Manasouls Da Wei created to a limited extent, but forging my own was beyond me.

Even so, Reflect did most of the work. More players died simply by striking me, their own attacks rebounding with lethal force. They still did not stop. Because they perceived this as a game, fear meant nothing to them. Death was temporary. It did not help that many of them carried immense positive karma, dulling the cleansing effect of Final Adjudication.

I layered buffs over myself, paladin invocations intertwining with warlock rites, and tore the daggers from my eyes. Pain flared white-hot as I regenerated the damage, and I forced myself to breathe through it. Around me, player corpses piled up, only to dissolve moments later into motes of light as they were reclaimed.

I searched for Da Wei and his disciples with Divine Sense, but found nothing. They were hidden perfectly. I expanded my Divine Zone and continuously cast Divine Smite through it, killing anyone who crossed into a certain radius. Slowly, the players adjusted. They stopped charging blindly and instead formed a loose ring around me, wary but unyielding.

My gaze drifted to the tree in the distance.

At last, my Ophanim caught what I had somehow missed before. That tree was bound to Da Wei himself, functioning as a massive receptacle for faith drawn from across the Hollowed World. The realization made my jaw tighten. I wondered why I had only noticed it now, and the answer was obvious and infuriating. I had been manipulated into not seeing it.

I needed to destroy that thing.

I ordered my Holy Spirit, David_69 to attack the tree.

"Affirmative," he said in an emotionless tone.

I immediately used Void Step to reposition, narrowly dodging a massive arm erupting from beneath the sand that would have grabbed me otherwise. One of the players had gotten creative, reshaping terrain into a living trap. I noted it absently, even as I wondered, not for the first time, how these players were truly made. With the Source gone, stealing control of them from Da Wei was no longer an option.

I unleashed a powerful Frost Smite through the Divine Zone, freezing the ground around me and shattering several attackers mid-motion. That was when I felt it.

The connection snapped.

I lost contact with my Holy Spirit. In the distance, an enormous fox-shaped presence tore through it effortlessly. I recognized the aura immediately. That had to be Da Ji, Da Wei's twin sister. My expression darkened as an illusion spread over the battlefield, swallowing the tree and hiding it even from my Ophanim.

All I could see was an enormous maw devouring everything.

An Immortal Art was at work there, sophisticated and layered. Under normal circumstances, I could have unraveled it without much difficulty. Right now, with constant pressure from every side, I could not spare the focus.

Then it clicked.

The unease sharpened into certainty. This was too familiar.

"Ah, shit," I muttered.

I was in a memory.

It was another application of Divine Possession by Da Wei, subtle and cruel. I tore the memory apart with raw will, forcing myself awake. Reality snapped back into place violently.

I was standing in the middle of the desert, my body screaming in protest, injuries layered over injuries from the combined assault of Da Wei's disciples and his players. The tree was gone, swallowed entirely by the illusion I had seen moments ago.

I looked up and locked eyes with Da Wei in the distance. Blood streamed from his eyes, the price of casting Divine Possession in his current state. I glared at him, fury burning through the pain as I realized just how thoroughly I had been played again.

Da Wei's mouth kept moving, chanting words that made the Hollow Star on my head thrum violently, each syllable driving a spike of pain through my skull. I powered through the headache and stomped hard into the sand, kicking up a dense curtain of grit that obscured vision and muffled sound. Using Void Step, I weaved through the chaos, slipping between players and using their bodies and spells as moving cover. I burst through Da Wei's flank, blade already in motion.

It felt wrong.

Where were his disciples? There was no way it would be this easy, and that realization came a heartbeat too late. My sword met resistance, parried cleanly by Da Wei himself. Purple flames crawled along his blade, twisting like living things.

"Hell Path: Trickery of the Devil."

He vanished mid-motion, and the weight on my sword shifted. Lu Gao stood where Da Wei had been, eyes cold and resolved.

"Die."

Among the Six Paths, there was one I had never truly learned, not because I lacked the talent, but because its innate ability had never manifested back when I stole it. The Hell Path. Unfortunately, I was unable to dwell any longer on my regret.

"Danger…"

I saw it clearly now through the Ophanim, movements accelerating beyond reason as Yuen Fu erupted into existence beside me. His sword crackled with thunder, his legs fractured and reforged by raw power as he lunged for my heart. I twisted aside at the last instant, feeling the air tear where the blade passed.

"That was close."

However, I spoke too soon.

The sand exploded beneath me as another presence emerged. Ren Zhe rose from the ground, no longer a boy. Under Divine Transformation, he had grown into an adult with a powerful, masculine frame and four arms. In each hand, a starlit spear shimmered with destructive intent. I beat my wings and surged upward, desperate for space, only for Hei Mao to appear above me like a living shadow.

"Fall."

The word carried weight, crushing and absolute. Gravity seized me, dragging me down as the spears punched into my chest in a brutal, synchronized strike. Pain flared so bright it stole my breath.

That was when I finally saw Da Wei again.

He stood farther back, calm amid the storm, Ding Cai at his side. She was barely distinguishable from the surrounding players, her Human Path's Art of Transformation blending her presence perfectly into the crowd. It was a formation, a hunt, and I was the prey.

Something enormous surged from the sand behind me. A dragon's roar split the air as Ren Jingyi revealed herself fully, scales gleaming, wings unfurled. Her breath washed over me in a torrent of annihilation, draconic power crashing down without mercy.

It hurt.

It hurt so much that it drowned out thought, drowned out rage, and drowned out even my will to fight. Every wound burned, every breath felt stolen, and the weight of it all pressed down on my soul.

Why did it feel so unfair?

Why did it always end like this?

In that moment, surrounded by enemies and former reflections of myself, I felt the truth surface, raw and undeniable. Beneath the power, beneath the obsession, beneath the hatred, there was only one thing left.

I felt so alone.

I had only ever wanted it to stop. I had only wanted to not be alone anymore.

That was why I've desperately wished to go home.

"I… I just want to go home…"