Desolate Era Book 24, Chapter 39 - The Battle Begins

“The Windsource Ruins. Mm. Thank goodness Daolord Windsource set up an estate just before he died. All of his treasures should probably be inside that place. I hope my information is correct and the talisman is truly inside there as well!”
The raggedy old man took another step through the void of space, then completely disappeared.
……
The Blacklotus Chaosworld.
Above the city shaped like a black lotus with nine petals was an enormous planet that glimmered with boundless amounts of astral light.
The two forces faced each other watchfully.
Within the God Emperor’s estate.
“What do you think we should do, everyone?” God Emperor Blacklotus glanced at the other four World-level experts.
“Help me out, everyone.” Chaos Immortal Owlsoar looked at the other four as well, a hint of ill-disguised entreaty on his face. At a time like this, face no longer mattered. If God Emperor Blacklotus and the other five weren’t willing to stand up for him and he was forced to face the might of the entire Fogstone Army by himself, he would most assuredly perish.
“Owlsoar, you…ugh. Forget it. It is far too late now.” A man dressed in a white robe embroidered with flowers shook his head.
“What, are all of you shrinking back already? The Fogstone Dominion isn’t that much more powerful than us. If they force us to bow our heads this time, how will we ever be able to raise our heads again when meeting the other World-level powers of the Badlands Territory?” An alien covered in oily black armor spoke out, his golden eyes filled with anger.
“The entire reason we all joined together in an alliance was so that we could jointly deal with any threats, right? It’s also been a long time since I’ve had a good fight. My hands itch.” The chubby cyclopean alien spoke out in concurrence.
A look of delight and gratitude appeared on Immortal Owlsoar’s face.
“I’ll listen to what Blacklotus says,” the bald, gray-robed elder said calmly.
“Blacklotus…” All of them turned to look at God Emperor Blacklotus. Immortal Owlsoar had a hopeful look on his face.
God Emperor Blacklotus gave Immortal Owlsoar a glance, secretly shaking his head. He had always felt rather contemptuous towards Immortal Owlsoar. Immortal Owlsoar had only been able to break into the World-level due to a stroke of tremendous luck, not talent. After breaking through to this level, it had become extremely difficult for him to improve any further at all. Thus, Immortal Owlsoar had chosen to embark upon an evil path…and yet, despite having chosen this path, Immortal Owlsoar was always worried about the consequences of his actions. As a result couldn’t be considered a truly demonic figure.
Based on what God Emperor Blacklotus knew…
The truly demonic figures of the legends were able to throw an entire territory into utter turmoil despite merely being World-level figures! They would cause all the living creatures of tens of thousands of chaosworlds to perish for the sake of refining a single terrifying sin-treasure. Compared to those figures, Immortal Owlsoar was quite lacking.
“Everyone, I agree with what you said.” God Emperor Blacklotus nodded. “Since we’ve chosen to stand together, we need to remain unified.”
Immortal Owlsoar was delighted upon hearing this.
“In addition…although Starchild claims that he holds a huge grudge against Immortal Owlsoar, who knows if he’s even telling the truth?” God Emperor Blacklotus laughed coldly. “He might have simply come up with a random excuse to force us to give up Owlsoar. After he kills Owlsoar, what’s to stop him from coming up with another random excuse to kill another one of us? Are we supposed to give up our fellows one after the other? By then, we’ll be even weaker before. They’d probably be able to wipe us out at one blow.”
“Right, right! This is probably a plot!” Immortal Owlsoar said hurriedly.
“Enough! Shut your damn mouth. I only said he ‘might have’.” God Emperor Blacklotus cast him a cold glance. “The more likely answer is that he really does hold a grudge against Owlsoar. To engage in such a large battle for just a bit of territory wouldn’t really be worth it. It is very possible that his Dao-companion truly was killed by Owlsoar.”
Immortal Owlsoar nervously bit his lips.
“Still…for him to force his way to our doorstep is a sign of completely disrespect towards me and towards all of you.” God Emperor Blacklotus said calmly, “They have nine World-level experts while we only have six, but we also have the protective formations surrounding our imperial capital. How dare they act so brashly?”
“Agreed.”
“They really are holding us in no regard whatsoever.”
“They’re actually kicking in our doors. Let’s have a fight with them and see who is really stronger.”
……
Atop the warship in the air.
The Starlord of Fogstone and the rest of the nine World-level experts were waiting quietly. The stick of incense hovering in midair continued to slowly burn, with less than half of it remaining.
“Starchild.” A voice rang out from below.
“Have you made your decision?” The Starlord of Fogstone replied coldly.
“You say you wish to kill Immortal Owlsoar, and so I must let you kill him? What if you then demand to kill my other World-level experts? Am I supposed to offer them up as well?” God Emperor Blacklotus’ voice was icy cold as well. “In the end, I’ll be all by myself…and then you’ll just gang up on me and kill me, right?”
The Starlord frowned then sent back, “Blacklotus, if you don’t believe me, I’m willing to swear a lifeblood oath.”
“No need for a lifeblood oath. Even if Owlsoar truly did kill your Dao-companion, he is still a Chaos Immortal of my Blacklotus Empire! All of us have joined together in an alliance, precisely because we saw the value of joining together against powerful enemies.” God Emperor Blacklotus’ voice grew even colder. “If you leave right away, I’ll forget about your affront and your invasion of my territory. If you do not…then I have no choice but to let this be settled through combat.”
“A true pity.” The Starlord waved his hand, causing the half-burnt stick of incense to disappear.
“It seems we will still have to face them in combat.”
“We expected that.”
The others, including Immortal Skyram and Immortal Abyssus, all glanced at each other. All of them had suspected that Fogstone wasn’t powerful enough to force the Blacklotus Empire to surrender without firing a single shot. Thus, they were already prepared to storm this city by force. The reason why they had acted in such secrecy was to ensure that the Blacklotus Empire wouldn’t have the chance to purchase any Elder God Formations of their own.
“Seven formations, attack!” The Starlord commanded.
“Acknowledged!” Ning and the rest of the six called out in unison.
“Let’s go,” Ning ordered. He led his 999 Elder Gods to fly out of the great warship, and the other six armies flew out alongside them.
“Spread out,” Ning sent mentally.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
Everyone, Ning included, began to spread out to cover an area of ten million kilometers. Their bodies then blurred as they each transformed to become massive titans who were ten thousand kilometers tall. These titans each held weapons in their hands and were surrounded by veils of flowing light. Clearly, they were reinforced by the world-energy of the ‘Minor Thousand Elder Gods Formation’.
A thousand titanic Elder Gods had appeared, staying within roughly ten thousand kilometers of each other.
Aside from Ning’s army, the other six armies of Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals had also scattered within an area of ten million kilometers. The Elder Gods all transformed to become ten thousand kilometers tall, and the weapons in their hands grew alongside them. As for the Ancestral Immortals, they retreated slightly but began to take control over their magic treasures.
“ATTACK!” The Starlord of Fogstone pointed downwards towards the lotus-shaped city and gave the order.
“Attack!”
“Attack!”
The seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals howled furiously as they charged downwards. It was as though a giant hemisphere of light formed by thousands of towering Fiendgods had come smashing downwards towards the city…and right behind them were the nine World-level powers!
The World-level powers were worried about the formations guarding the imperial capital of Blacklotus. The formations protecting any organization’s headquarters were bound to be extraordinarily powerful, and ordinary Chaos Immortals and World Gods might not be able to handle them.
However, the ‘Minor Thousand Elder Gods formation’ was expressly meant to block attacks and entangle foes. Thus, part of their plan was to have those seven formations join together and reinforce each other. This was the most dangerous part of the plan, and the nine World-level experts weren’t willing to take the brunt of the danger.
A black cloud suddenly appeared around the black lotus city below them. The black cloud drifted outwards, covering the air above the city and serving as a protective layer.
“Kill!”
“Kill!”
“Kill!”
The seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals simultaneously launched attacks downwards, with the Elder Gods lashing out with their enormous weapons. Ning, for example, was using the flexible Dao sword with his right hand and Violetjewel with his left. Both swords had been transformed to become many tens of thousands of kilometers long, and he hacked down furiously with both of them at the same time! But of course, Ning kept part of Violetjewel’s true power in abeyance, not letting it truly erupt.
Right now, all of their forces were attacking simultaneously. Even if Ning held nothing back at all, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. It was better to keep his true power hidden and unleash it later in a sudden, critical attack against the forces of the Blacklotus Empire.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals launched frenzied attacks at the black cloud, smashing down with their gigantic weapons or striking from afar with magic treasures.
Every single Elder God and Ancestral Immortal was supported by the power of the world which had been created by their formation!
Even the attacks of ordinary Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals had reached the World God threshold of power! The nine captains of each formation were even more powerful, and as for the generals at the center? They were now comparable to true World-level experts. Although the ordinary Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals had merely reached the World God ‘threshhold’ of power, they had the advantage of overwhelming numbers.
None of the World-level experts of the Blacklotus Empire would dare to withstand the combined assault of seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals in formations.
Whoosh.
The black cloud didn’t seem to resist at all, allowing the enormous weapons and magic treasures to pass straight through it.
“It isn’t blocking?” The nine World-level powers behind the seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals all frowned.
If the Blacklotus Empire focused completely on defense and forcefully fought back against every attack, it would actually be fairly easy for them to take it down. In a head-on clash, the Blacklotus Empire’s formation would have to withstand the full brunt of their blows, after all. But now that the Blacklotus Empire wasn’t blocking and was instead enduring and ablating their attacks, things would become a bit more difficult.
“It seems the guardian formation of the imperial capital of Blacklotus is quite profound.” The Starlord sent mentally, “Seven formations, enter the imperial capital and smash all before you.”
“Yes.”
The seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals had joined together to form a half-globe of light that was ten million kilometers across. They pressed downwards forcefully, emanating a thick aura of World energy.
In truth, all World-level experts possessed World energy. Chaos Immortals dispersed their Jindan region into primordial chaos, then formed a chaosworld from it. As for World Gods, the mighty power within their body was equivalent to the power of an entire chaosworld, which was why they were also capable of forming chaosworlds.
As for Ning and his subordinates, they had World energy thanks to the ‘Minor Thousand Elder Gods Formation’.
A thousand Elder Gods who were able to perfectly mesh their energy together through a formation would be able to naturally merge with the dimension around them and be supported by the power of the local World energy.
Rumble…
The seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals were incomparably valiant as they continued their downwards charge, brandishing countless weapons. They soon charged into the dark clouds that were covering the lotus-shaped city.
The black clouds were pushed aside by their World energy, and they continued to crash downwards.
“We have seven formations working together.” A hint of a killing intent could be seen in the Starlord’s eyes. “No matter how formidable your formations are, there’s no way you can break our seven mighty formations.”
A single ‘Minor Thousand Elder Gods Formation’ was already extremely tough to break apart. Seven of them joining forces…
The Starlord believed that most likely only a Daolord would be capable of defeating such a force.
The seven thousand Elder Gods and Ancestral Immortals were what he was relying on to deal with the formations protecting the imperial capital of Blacklotus!