novelraw Chapter 127 : Chapter 127
Chapter 127 : Chapter 127
Chapter 127: Leaving on a Whim
It was impossible to tell whether it was day or night.
In the massive curtain of the sky, the floating city crashed to the ground, the rising dust deepening the sky’s hue.
Time passed, ticking second by second toward the end of the god’s promised deadline.
Finally, the time arrived.
In an instant, the entire Floating City seemed to freeze.
Whether nobles or members of Tide, whether on the verge of a victorious turnaround or still cautiously engaged in a duel, everyone’s movements halted, like lifelike wax statues.
But the dust still rose, the sounds of collapse and roars continued, and the world kept moving forward.
This change drew everyone’s attention, whether it was the nobles who already knew or the Tide members who vaguely sensed something.
Their bodies couldn’t move, but their minds surged with the passage of time.
They knew it was the god behind the imperial family, the one who single-handedly built this empire filled with blood and inequality.
He had appeared.
As if white emerged before the chaotic sky, His spreading hair resembled the branching of a growing tree, unfurling.
His posture was light, like a white elf, stepping on dancing petals, His ethereal eyes veiled by a thin mist, exuding a sense of detachment from the world.
“Time’s up,” He said in a gentle tone.
Then, maintaining that demeanor, as His words fell, He lowered His gaze.
As if something was tearing apart.
Invisible, intangible cracks descended from the sky, and the SS-rank ability users who had been freely wielding their powers—whether nobles or Tide’s Yishi—simultaneously curled up in agony, falling freely into the city’s ruins.
All SS-rank ability users were powerless before Him, not even having time to utter a cry of shock!
But at that moment, the god merely turned His pale pink pupils slightly, His eyelashes trembling faintly.
The immense power disparity froze everyone’s thoughts for a moment.
It was a chasm-like gap that neither numbers nor tactics could bridge, perhaps something commonplace in this world.
Ability ranks suppressed one another, just as the classes of this world pressed down layer upon layer.
And the god at the pinnacle was beyond their defiance.
As long as the god continued His imperial rule, the empire would remain in chaos.
Exploitation, oppression, the blood-soaked path paved by nobles with the bones of commoners, and the precarious lives of the ordinary people who formed the empire’s foundation would continue to languish in misery.
Their bodies still couldn’t move, but beneath the metal mask, the resolute metal warrior’s blue gaze burned with rising flames.
They had come this far, witnessed too much in this empire, seen too much, and their convictions grew fiercer by the day.
They would not retreat; this was the final chance they had fought for with everything they had.
They had to defeat Him, to change this empire manipulated by an unjust god!
The brown-haired youth beneath the metal armor opened his mouth.
His heart blazed, his blood burned fiercely, and he sought to break free from the confined space the god had set for him.
Ability [Metal Heart], his will could surpass his limits!
Then, with a nearly torn throat, he let his voice erupt from his chest.
“We can’t stop!”
They had to move forward!
In the god’s domain, in this frozen moment, they took the first step.
And broke through it!
It was like a symbol shattering the silence.
Then, from the vast void, the corpse of the Sang Clan Patriarch suddenly leaped forth.
The slain SS-rank ability user became a specter under An Heyu’s [Necromantic Prelude], having evaded the god’s attack as a dead soul.
His red hair scattered in the wind, the former noble youth’s gaze sharp as he commanded his specter to aid Yiming’s [Metal Heart].
The SS-rank wind surged irresistibly, as if to tear apart the invisible chains in the god’s grasp.
The god’s expression remained unchanged, watching the insignificant ants struggle before Him.
The stiffness began to fade, and the next moment, everyone moved.
Rao Yue, with her moonlight-white hair, raised her long rifle, multiple bullets firing instantly toward the sky.
The god didn’t move, and the bullets scattered.
The wind carried Yan Changxiao, eager for battle, to the god’s presence, but as he raised his fist, he was struck down as if by a heavy blow.
Yet Yiming followed closely, thrusting his metallic body toward the god who gazed at them coldly.
This was a battle with no chance of victory, but no one would back down.
Amid the ruins, Yishi clutched his chest, peering out from the rubble.
“It’s useless like this,” he said to Sang Feiling, who rushed over. “The rank difference is too vast; these attacks mean nothing to Him.”
“Do you have a way?” Sang Feiling asked.
“You know, high-rank ability grades are S-rank, SS-rank, and SSS-rank,” Yishi said, catching his breath.
His face was pale, as if he had lost something vital.
If An Huyu were there to check, he would have seen Yishi’s life energy being rapidly consumed, as if it were being channeled elsewhere.
Libra had used the souls of Yishi and other SS-rank ability users to mend the damage their ten minutes of unrestrained actions had caused the world.
This was His equivalent exchange, requiring no permission or explanation.
As long as the premise of ‘equivalence’ was met, He could make the trade.
Thus, He wouldn’t take the souls of S-rank or lower ability users, as they held no value for His exchange.
“I’ve been thinking all these years: is an SS-rank truly powerless against an SSS-rank?” Yishi said. “I was too obsessed. I kept recalling that day, searching for a way to break through.”
“Then I realized something. Even if He’s akin to a god, He’s still part of the ability hierarchy, one of the high-rank ability users.” Yishi spoke with uncertainty but a trace of hope. “Abilities always have limits, and He should have them too. This is just my guess, but finding His limit is your only hope for victory.”
“That’s no easy task,” Sang Feiling said with a wry smile.
She looked up, her gaze fixed on the white god, surrounded by soft white light, untouched by the outside world.
“We don’t even know what His ability’s nature is,” she said.
But then, Sang Feiling suddenly added, “Maybe someone knows.”
“Who?” Yishi asked.
But Sang Feiling only looked into the distance with worry and hesitation, not answering the question.
Above the city, the ability users’ assault on the god continued.
Untouchable, their attacks ineffective, the suppression of higher ranks rendered their desperate courage useless.
Yiming swallowed the blood surging in his mouth.
His wounds had been fully healed by Tang, but Tang now showed signs of fatigue.
“Doing this alone is pointless,” Yiming also knew.
They couldn’t harm the god, while they couldn’t even touch His simplest defenses.
If this dragged on, they would be the first to collapse.
Sang Feiling’s voice carried through the wind, relaying Yishi’s theory and giving them a direction.
But finding the god’s ability limit in such a crushing battle was easier said than done.
“But… we can’t give up,” he said through gritted teeth.
After what felt like an eternity of their assault, the god in the sky finally moved.
He slightly raised His gaze, His pale pink eyes sweeping over the S-rank ability users surrounding Him.
“You cannot shake the empire,” He said. “This meaningless drama ends here.”
Petals fluttered, like vibrant life in this hellish painting.
But they also pronounced their death sentence.
The familiar sensation of invisible tearing, as if an indistinct crack leaked in the sky, and then, with a gesture from the god, someone fell in agony into the city’s ruins.
In a mere instant, the ability users around Him were swept away.
A world of difference.
“Damn it! How can we defeat a god?” someone roared in anger.
In the Floating City, outside the Floating City, in every place where heads could tilt upward to witness this scene, crowds stood, watching what future awaited their world.
“That’s a god. We can’t win. This is all we can do…” a pessimist murmured dejectedly.
“Abilities, abilities, abilities! Always abilities!”
“Is the Empire truly indestructible? Are we really doomed to never stand in the sunlight?”
Amid these waves of voices, one after another, Tide’s high-rank ability users struggled to rise from the ruins.
Their soul power was being drained, and the abilities tied to their souls were similarly fading, plunging them into deeper despair.
“It’s not time to give up completely.”
Yet their movements, crawling back from the ruins, remained resolute.
Yiming’s metal peeled away, revealing his face.
At that moment, as if echoing his words or perhaps by mere chance, black crow feathers drifted down from a sky half-covered in white veins.
In the ruins, the white-haired youth Dan’s heterochromatic eyes sharpened abruptly, words bursting forth: “Correction! All defenses here are ineffective!”
An SS-rank necromancer darted out with piercing wind, his invisible wind blade aimed straight at the god’s face.
It won’t hit.
Everyone thought so.
From the very start, they couldn’t strike that god.
All attacks passed through Him like painless illusions.
But at that moment.
Red blood sprayed across the sky, a gash tearing the god’s chest from bottom to top.
The god, with His pale pink pupils, revealed a look of astonishment.
An attack that shouldn’t have landed had undeniably struck Him!
Then the SS-rank necromancer’s form crumbled, and the wounded god lightly crushed His own blood between His fingertips.
Turning back, His white long hair speckled with dots of red, like the pale pink petals at His side.
“What are you doing?” He asked the black feathers drifting in the air.
No footsteps, no sound at all.
Black crows flapped their wings and soared, revealing the smiling face of a black-haired youth behind the flock.
“Obvious, isn’t it?” Li Li said. “I suddenly feel that, compared to making a deal with you, crushing you and your Empire underfoot is far more interesting.”
The next moment, she raised her hand, fingers flipping in the air, and snapped.
“This prophet gig? I’m done with it.” She smiled faintly.