Chapter 27 – Battle to the Death

Book 12, The Descent of the Gods – Chapter 27, Battle to the Death In the dark, gloomy underground room, that hazy gray fog instantly filled the entire room. If Linley chose to dodge, the only option he had would be to move backwards, in which case, the Grand Warlock would seize the opportunity to flee far away. When Deities did battle, everything happened in an instant. “Hrmph!” Linley’s eyes were fierce and determined. Ignoring the gray fog, he charged straight towards the Grand Warlock. “Since when have I had enmity with this person?” The Grand Warlock, seeing that Linley wasn’t dodging and was still charging straight for him, was so frightened that ignoring everything else, he flew straight upwards. “Bang!” The stone ceiling above them split apart like tofu, and a tunnel was easily dug out. The gray fog completely ignored the protective wind-style divine power covering Linley as well as his draconic scales, directly entering his body and pouring towards his mind. Linley laughed coldly to himself. “As I thought, a soul attack!” Linley had already made preparations for this duel against the Grand Warlock. “Crackle, crackle…” The gray fog attempted to attack Linley’s soul, but unfortunately, as soon as they touched that translucent, scaly membrane, they instantly dissipated. Only the gray fog which struck against the gap which Linley used his own spiritual energy to ‘patch’ over was able to last a bit longer. But the amount of gray fog at the gap was simply too small, while Linley had focused a large amount of his spiritual energy to block that part off. “This old bastard really is fast.” Linley raised his speed to the limit, pursuing after the person through the newly formed tunnel. Actually, upon reaching the Deity level, there was no longer much of a distinction between a ‘magus’ and a ‘warrior’. The ultimate goal of both a ‘magus’ and a ‘warrior’ was to become a Deity. After becoming a Deity, both classes would train in the Elemental Laws. Only, because one was a warrior or a magus in the past, when battle began, one might be more skilled in close combat or distant combat. But in terms of speed! A light-style Grand Magus Saint, such as Desri, upon becoming a Deity would most likely be faster than even most warriors who became Deities. The Grand Warlock was extremely fast, most likely above average amongst Demigods. But Linley’s speed…was simply astonishing. The only area in which Linley dared to claim superiority over other Deities was in speed, and from the underground room of the gorge to the surface, there was a distance of just a thousand meters. A little bit of distance like this was nothing. Linley quickly caught up to the Grand Warlock. The humming sword song was so clear and distinct. The Grand Warlock forced himself to stay calm, not allowing his soul to be affected. “This Deity is capable of a sound-based soul attack. When did I ever anger someone like this?” The Grand Warlock wondered angrily to himself. Facing this deadly sword attack, the Grand Warlock waved his own black sickle as well. “Clang!” The Grand Warlock’s attack speed was at an inconceivably fast speed as well, and was able to block Linley’s attack. After reaching the Deity level, the might of a divine-power fueled ‘Dimensional Decapitator’ was simply too great. Enormous rips in space had appeared nearby, and the terrifying force of the blow struck onto that black sickle. However, the Grand Warlock clearly had many more tricks and much more experience than Linley. “Bang!” Relying on the momentum generated by the collision, the Grand Warlock quickly fled across the skies, with a massive explosion following him. The buildings on the ground of the gorge were blasted apart by the colliding blows, while the Grand Warlock himself charged high into the sky. However, the even faster Linley caught up to him in the blink of an eye, blocking off the Grand Warlock in mid-air. It must be understood that this gorge was an important base for the Dawson Conglomerate which was responsible for all sorts of missions of the Dawson Conglomerate here in the Baruch Empire. There were over ten thousand people stationed here long-term. Linley and the Grand Warlock’s battle caused the ground of the entire valley to shake, and even those buildings began to crumble. Instantly, lamps started to be lit throughout the valley. Angry roars could be heard successively, as the managers of the Dawson Conglomerate’s base here began to restore order to their people. “What is going on?” Yale barked furiously as he walked to an empty spot. Right now, most of the people in the valley were walking out of their residences, arriving in the empty grounds. Just then, the earthquake as well as the sudden explosion of that building had startled many people. They now no longer dared to stay in their own homes. “Lord Chairman, just then, that building over there exploded for no reason at all. A person was killed by having their head smashed in by flying rocks, while three others were wounded.” Someone instantly reported to Yale. “There’s people above us!” Suddenly, excited shouts could be heard. “And they are floating in mid-air!” “Saints!” Many people cried out in shock. The people here all raised their heads to stare up into the air above the canyon. Although it was currently night, many people had already lit lamps, and the light of those lamps, as well as the hazy moonlight, allowed them to make out those two blurry figures in mid-air. Seeing those two figures in mid-air, Yale’s face changed. “The Grand Warlock? And…Dragonblood Warrior?” Because of his spiritual connection, Yale could clearly sense that the Grand Warlock was up above him. But as to who the Dragonblood Warrior was, Yale couldn’t be sure, because the draconic scales of the Dragonblood Warrior up above was glowing with a faint azure-gold light.” “That’s a Dragonblood Warrior!” Someone called out in surprise. Everyone below all stared upwards excitedly. Linley stared at the Grand Warlock in front of him. He was secretly shocked. “I didn’t expect that this fellow is so amazing, even in close combat.” He had launched three sword attacks just now, all of which the Grand Warlock had been able to block with that black sickle. If he was poor at close quarters combat, the Grand Warlock would have died long ago in the Gebados Planar Prison. To survive in a place like that, one couldn’t have too any obvious, glaring weaknesses. If one had too great a weakness, there would definitely come a time when someone else would seize that weakness and kill you. “Who are you? It seems the two of us shouldn’t have any enmity against each other?” The Grand Warlock stood in mid-air, staring at Linley as he spoke. “Are you perhaps mistaken about something?” The Grand Warlock didn’t want to start a pointless fight, especially right now, when he was badly wounded. Staring at the transformed Dragonblood Warrior in front of him, the Grand Warlock’s first thought was of Linley. But in the next instant, he discarded that notion. “It isn’t Linley. Linley is only a Saint. In addition, Yale told me that after Linley became a Dragonblood Warrior Saint, his draconic scales are deep azure, and not this coloration…the person in front of me is clearly a Deity.” “Can it be that he is one of the elders of the Dragonblood Warrior clan?” The Grand Warlock muttered in his heart. After returning to the Yulan continent, he had learned a few things, and knew that five thousand years ago, four Supreme Warrior clans had appeared. “Can it be that the elders of the Dragonblood Warrior clan have discovered that I sent Yale to kill Linley?” The Grand Warlock couldn’t help but guess. “No enmity?” A cold, calm voice rang out from Linley’s mouth. “If we didn’t have enmity, why would I come…” Halfway through his words, Linley transformed into a gust of wind, striking towards the Grand Warlock. The Grand Warlock’s black sickle once again transformed into a blur to block. “Hrmph.” The Grand Warlock now was filled with a killing desire as well. Since the opponent wasn’t willing to call it quits, then even if he had to risk being injured yet again, he would still kill this person in front of him. The black sickle shook, and the green light in the Grand Warlock’s eyes shone dramatically brighter. A low, sinister sound erupted from the Grand Warlock’s mouth, and instantly, an enormous black sickle appeared out of nowhere, chopping towards Linley. As for Linley, he slanted his body, moving to dodge it while striking out with the Bloodviolet sword in his hands in a stabbing blow towards the Grand Warlock. Trillions of sword blurs appeared… Profound Truths of the Wind – Rippling Wind! At his current level, when executing the ‘Rippling Wind’ technique, every single sword was able to create tears in space. The trillions of swords instantly enveloped the Grand Warlock’s entire body. Although the Grand Warlock wielded his sickle very quickly, no matter how quick he was, he couldn’t block these trillions of sword shadows. The Grand Warlock’s heart was filled with fury. His sickle instantly swung up, transforming into a blur to block the sword shadows stabbing towards his head. At his sword-wielding abilities, this was the best he could do. He simply wasn’t capable of blocking all of the sword shadows. The many violet sword shadows chopped the rest of the Grand Warlock’s body to mincemeat, which was devoured by the tiny tears in space. The Grand Warlock’s head immediately flew far away, and even that black sickle flew away alongside it. “I’m badly injured, but, you are about to die.” The Grand Warlock knew exactly how powerful that last attack of his had been. Generally speaking, the souls of most Demigods, upon encountering that enormous, spiritual energy sickle attack he had just used, would be split in half. The enormous black sickle that had been formed by the Grand Warlock out of nothing but spiritual energy had chopped straight through Linley’s skull, chopping against his mind. “Clang!” The black sickle, upon smashing against that scaled membrane, instantly shattered, more than half of its energy immediately being dispersed. A small amount of remaining energy transformed into black energy, but only a good amount of this wildly striking, unfocused black energy struck against that ‘hole’. The ‘patch’ which Linley’s spiritual energy had formed only lasted a short while before being broken through, but by then, only a small amount of black energy was remaining as well. Linley quickly used his remaining spiritual energy to break it all down. “What a terrifying soul attack.” Linley was astonished. It was very difficult to control spiritual power. Generally speaking, an Arch Magus of the ninth rank was only capable of expanding and contracting their spiritual power. As for Saints, they generally could only move their spiritual energy a little bit. It was very hard to form spiritual energy into an attack. As for this Deity in front of him, he had been able to use it to form a black sickle that was essentially solid. This truly was astonishing. “He lives up to his reputation as being an expert capable of refining souls. He truly is formidable in the area of souls.” Linley felt amazement. If he hadn’t had the protection of that damaged, semi-translucent membrane which had absorbed the vast majority of the attack, Linley probably would have been badly injured at the least by that simple attack. “Crackle, crackle…” The Grand Warlock’s body quickly healed, while at the same time, he caught and wore the interspatial ring which had fallen down. A Deity’s body usually stored a large amount of divine power. The Grand Warlock naturally wouldn’t make the mistake of not doing so. His body quickly completely recovered to its normal state. “That fellow should be dead by now.” The Grand Warlock looked at Linley carefully. He discovered…that Linley was looking at him with the barest hint of an upward curve to his lips. Was he smiling? “What?!” The Grand Warlock was astonished. Even in the Gebados Planar Prison, he relied on this attack to dominate. This attack had only failed a single time; that was when he encountered the peak Demigod, Muba. Afterwards, he had been forced to badly injure his own soul in order to utilize his ultimate attack, which deeply wounded Muba and forced him to flee. “I want to see how much divine power you can spend on recovery!” Linley sneered. Linley knew very well that gathering more divine power was a very slow process. Being able to quickly repair one’s body was the result of using up the divine power that had been already accumulated in the body, but the amount of stored divine power was only enough to be used once or twice. After all, the amount of divine power which the Grand Warlock had to use just now, with nearly his entire body destroyed, had been an astonishing amount. The devilish violet light flashed again, and that pleasant, humming sword song rang out once more. Trillions of sword blurs descended. The Grand Warlock’s face was pale. After having experienced so many life-threatening battles in the Gebados Planar Prison, he was capable of instantly determining the eventual outcome of this battle; if this was to continue, his divine power would be all used up, and then he would no longer be able to block Linley’s attacks, and he would definitely die! “Aaaargh! This is the second time!!!” The Grand Warlock felt utterly aggrieved. No longer hesitating, the Grand Warlock made his choice…to use the same technique he had used against Muba. “The last time I used this technique, my soul was badly injured. I hope this time, after using the technique, my soul won’t directly collapse.” The Grand Warlock had no other options. If he didn’t do this, he would definitely die. The Grand Warlock’s eyes shot out two rays of black light, which pierced directly into his black sickle, which began to shake. Instantly, nine rays of illusory black sickles appeared out of nowhere in midair. Moving in accordance to a strange rhythm, the nine illusory black sickles actually swirled around then chopped towards Linley, giving him no place to dodge. Soundless and all but undetectable! “Not good.” Linley wanted to flee, but those nine illusory black sickles could actually curve, giving him no place to flee. Linley was unable to block those nine illusory black sickles, which chopped directly towards his mind. “Bang!” Most of those nine illusory black sickles slammed against that translucent, scaly membrane and dispersed. But one sickle chopped directly against the gap, and the patch Linley had recreated with his spiritual energy instantly crumbled, and the black sickle chopped directly towards Linley’s soul. Spiritual energy flooded in like waves through the opening, charging towards that sword-shaped soul. “Clang!” The black sickle chopped directly against the sword-shaped soul. “Rumble…” The sword-shaped soul trembled violently. At this moment, of the three azure water droplets hidden within the Coiling Dragon ring which Linley was wearing, one emitted just a hint of energy, and instantly, the protective azure light on the surface of Linley’s sword-shaped soul increased dramatically, in the end destroying that black sickle. “Ah!” Linley himself, holding his head, collapsed from the sky with a miserable scream. His soul hadn’t been destroyed, but the trauma from the massive collision had truly been very severe. Watching Linley fall from the skies, the Grand Warlock revealed a hint of a smile on his face. “He’s finally dead.” But just as Linley’s original body fell from mid-air… “Swoosh!” The divine clone (the light green robed Linley) came flying out from Linley’s original body. Bloodviolet flew into his hands, and gripping Bloodviolet tightly, the divine clone charged directly towards the Grand Warlock, whose soul was already at the point of collapse. Countless sword blurs flashed and lit up. The Grand Warlock raised his black sickle in despair. “No—-!” The Grand Warlock’s body was chopped into mincemeat by trillions of sword blurs, and some blows from Bloodviolet even smashed violently against his divine spark, causing the Grand Warlock’s soul, which had been fused into the divine spark, to shatter. As for the divine spark itself, it fell straight downwards. The divine clone stretched his hand out and snatched the divine spark, then transformed into a blur, flying directly into the original’s body. A look of confusion flashed through Yale’s eyes, but then in the next instant, his gaze grew clear again. Staring at Linley, who was already back in human form on the ground, Yale’s eyes instantly turned red, and he immediately charged over. “Third Bro!”