Desolate Era Book 39, Chapter 2 - Struggle

“T-that many legendary Black Emperors?!” The Eternal Emperors who had simply been drawn over by the aura Ji Ning had emanated during the Daomerge were utterly terrified out of their wits when they saw the Icepeak Army appear. Even the basic soldiers were all at the Hegemonic level of power, capable of wiping out the ordinary Emperors with ease… and the three generals had also come, alongside their leader the Lonely King himself!
“Is that the legendary leader of the Icepeak Army, the Lonely King?”
“I heard that Daolord Darknorth led the Flamewing God in attacking and killing quite a few Black Emperors of the Icepeak Army! However, the Icepeak Army hasn’t responded at all. Now, the Lonely King has finally appeared.”
“Both the Lonely King of the Icepeak Army and Realmslord Windgrace of our Sixteen Realmverses Alliance has appeared as well. Hmph… they must have all come for the Flamewing God.”
“It is a legendary Chaos Primordial. Who WOULDN’T want it? Daolord Darknorth is just a Daolord, but no one would dare to offend him with the Flamewing God by his side. Now that he has failed his Daomerge, the Lonely King and Realmslord Windgrace have come out to fight over the beast.” This was what the Eternal Emperors were whispering mentally to each other.
In truth, they all wanted to just flee, but they were simply too slow. As for tearing through spacetime? The Icepeak Army emanated invisible ripples of such incredible power that they simply didn’t have the courage to do so, for fear that the Icepeak Army might kill them out of irritation.
……
“Long ago, during the Dawn War, I encountered and fought far more Sithe than you have in your puny little Icepeak Army. If I activate the Blacksun, I’d massacre them all.” Realmslord Windgrace’s voice was filled with danger: “Lonely, if you are also interested in the Flamewing God, let’s sit down and have a peaceful little competition over it. But for you to bring the entire Icepeak Army… if we actually got into a fight, it’d probably impact the entire Vastheaven Everworld. If we aren’t careful, the shockwaves might hit Vastheaven Palace.”
“Don’t worry. If I wasn’t able to control my power, there’s no way I would’ve been able to live as long as I have.” The Lonely King continued to sit atop his throne as he said coldly, “As for massacring my Icepeak Army? The only reason you were able to render so many merits during the Dawn War was because you had many other major powers helping you out and fighting alongside you.”
“Gentlemen, let’s sit down and talk this over,” Ning said, wine cup in hand. His voice echoed out and shook the air above the everworld, but did so via riding alongside the natural ripples of the Dao. He would no longer use divine power or Immortal energy unless truly necessary.
“Don’t get involved. Windgrace and I will decide amongst ourselves who is superior,” the Lonely King replied coldly. “Come on out, Realmsgrace. If you don’t come out, I’m going to batter my way inside.”
“Hmph.” Realmslord Windgrace let out an angry snort, then rose to his feet. “Darknorth, my young friend, let me shoo the Lonely King away.”
“Go ahead.” Ning didn’t stand on ceremony. Wine cup in hand, he simply watched as Realmslord Windgrace flew away.
Boom! Boom! Boom! The Lonely King’s silver throne suddenly glowed with dazzling light which flew out towards the right and left sides of his throne. There, a second and third Lonely King appeared, all seated on silver thrones of their own. There were now three Lonely Kings seated on three silver thrones, and they all looked identical and had identical auras.
“Assemble the formation!” the Lonely King ordered. Whoosh! The silver diagrams covering his three Gold Emperor generals all lit up, as did the silver diagrams covering the many Black Emperors. They had always emanated dense, frigid auras, but now the aura swept out to form an entire silver-white wave of ice which roared out in every direction. The three generals and the many soldiers came together to form a strange silver formation-diagram, with their bodies being covered by a layer of silver armor.
“Come. Let’s see if my Icepeak Army is stronger or if you are, Windgrace,” the Lonely King said coldly.
Realmslord Windgrace strode out of Vastheaven Palace, his eyes narrowing slightly. In truth, he was quite wary of the Icepeak Army. It wouldn’t be too hard for him to deal with the Lonely King, but the Icepeak Army represented an enormous number of opponents. If he wanted to deal with them, he’d have to activate the Blacksun multiple times! In addition, to actually kill a Black Emperor would require the Blacksun to unleash a high level of power each time… and this would cost him greatly.
He felt a 50% degree of confidence in dealing with the Lonely King and was 100% certain in being able to stay alive… but now that the entire Icepeak Army was here as well, his chances of victory were 10% at best, while his chances of staying alive dropped down to 80%-90%. Fortunately for him, the Lonely King felt rather nervous when faced with the Blacksun as well. This was why the Lonely King had immediately used a protective ability to divide himself into three.
“You split yourself into three bodies? So long as I wipe out all three of you, you’ll probably die,” Realmslord Windgrace said.
“Kill me? Go ahead and try.” The Lonely King’s voice remained as arrogant and domineering as ever. As soon as he spoke, the blood-red diamonds in his three foreheads simultaneously shot out rays of light.
Swish! Swish! Swish! The three blood-red rays of light flew even faster than Flamewing as they struck out towards Realmslord Windgrace.
Realmslord Windgrace remained quite calm. In front of him, a small fist-sized planet suddenly appeared out of nowhere. This planet was covered with countless runes, and it rapidly expanded to become thirty meters in diameter. Boom! Boom! Boom! It effortlessly deflected the attacks of the three blood-red rays of light. Realmslord Windgrace then walked straight inside the small planet.
“The Blacksun.” The Lonely King couldn’t help but feel frustrated. He had more treasures, but Realmslord Windgrace’s Blacksun was a terrifying war machine which had allowed the Sithe to influence and control an entire sector of the battlefield. The controller of the Blacksun could remain hidden within it in perfect security.
“He might have the Blacksun, but he isn’t an actual Sithe; he doesn’t have their limitless reservoirs of energy. I, on the other hand, have many tricks up my sleeve. I can have the entire Icepeak Army attack him. So long as they can surround and entrap the Blacksun, even if he remains hidden inside it’ll be like he’s in a prison. The only result will be death,” the Lonely King mused. However, he also knew that his chances of actually killing Realmslord Windgrace were quite low, while the cost would be quite high.
“So long as I can force Realmslord Windgrace to flee with the Blacksun, I’ll have won.” The Lonely King knew exactly what he needed to do. If the Realmslord fled, he felt certain that Daolord Darknorth would know what decision to make.
“Attack!” the Lonely King commanded.
Boom! The three Lonely Kings on the three silver thrones began to build an aura of increasing and terrifying power. This aura was so strong that even Ning, who was calmly drinking wine below them, to grimace slightly. He raised his head to stare into the skies, then murmured softly, “The legends say that the Lonely King was once able to annihilate an entire otherverse. Was this the technique he used? I can’t let them continue like this. If this fight progresses, they might accidentally destroy the Vastheaven Everworld.”
“Halt!” Ning shouted as he rose to his feet, his voice tinged with a hint of anger.
Up above him were Realmslord Windgrace, the Lonely King, and the Icepeak Army. They were just about to engage in combat, but all of them turned to stare blankly.
“Are you afraid?” The three Lonely Kings stared downwards and laughed coldly: “Realmslord cannot kill me, and he doesn’t even know all the tricks I have available. Faced with my Icepeak Army, he’ll probably have no choice but to flee. Thus, Daolord Darknorth… I recommend that you simply go ahead and hand the Flamewing God over to me and let it serve me. I am the most appropriate master for it.”
Although the Lonely King had heard of the Blacksun long ago, when he actually saw Realmslord Windgrace produce it he couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
The same was true for Realmslord Windgrace. When actually faced with the entire Icepeak Army, he could sense that this would be a truly vicious battle. It would be best for them to end this without a fight. Once Daolord Darknorth came out to openly support one side, the battle would becoming meaningless, because the side who had the help of the Flamewing God would be the side to win. The Flamewing God was virtually indestructible, and nothing could withstand its charge. Even the Blacksun would be knocked aside, while the Icepeak Army would be torn asunder.
“Darknorth, you can choose for yourself.” Realmslord Windgrace looked at Ning.
“Hmph. Windgrace made you some promises, I expect?” The Lonely King said coldly, “But you should know what type of a person I am. No one can stop me from doing what I want to do. If anyone offends me, I’ll pay any price needed to exact my revenge.”
The entire area descended into a deep silence. All of the Hegemons and Emperors were quivering inside. They all knew of the Icepeak Army’s brutal reputation. The Lonely King truly was a terrifying figure when angered.
“I’ve been waiting a long, long time for that Flamewing God,” the Lonely King said coldly. “You have failed the Daomerge. Even if you live with the utmost of caution, you will still be nothing more than a puny Daolord with at most a thousand chaos cycles of longevity left. If you make an enemy out of me… I swear that I will annihilate any friends or family who have any connection to you whatsoever, and I’ll wipe out your homeland as well. Based on the reports I uncovered, you first appeared within the Badlands Territory, yes? Back then, you were just an Elder God! I imagine a puny Elder God couldn’t have travelled all that far, which means your homeland should be near the Badlands Territory. Given my power and the power of the Icepeak Army, we’ll definitely be able to locate it.”
The three Lonely Kings stared intently at Ning, the diamonds in their foreheads glowing with that eerie, evil blood-red light.
“I trust you know what the right choice is.” The Lonely King all but palpitated with malevolence.
Originally, Ning had been quite calm… but when he heard the Lonely King threaten to ‘annihilate any friends or family who have any connection to you whatsoever’ and say that Ning’s ‘homeland should be near the Badlands Territory’, a cold look flashed through Ning’s eyes.
Snick. Ning drew a sword from the black sheath on his back.
“What, are you about to go crazy? I hear that some Daolords who failed the Daomerge will cast caution to the wind and go berserk… but not even your Flamewing God is able to harm me in the slightest. No matter what, I’ll be able to annihilate everyone and everything you care about!” Murder all but radiated from the Lonely King’s eyes.
Whoosh. Ning took a single step forwards, his body flickering as he moved so fast he vastly surpassed both the Flamewing God and the light which had shot out of those blood-red diamonds. He appeared right next to the left-most Lonely King, and he delivered a casual chopping blow with his Northbow sword.
Swish. It was an ordinary strike which even the distant Hegemons and Eternal Emperors were able to see with clarity. It seemed so very slow, but it sliced through the Lonely King’s neck with ease, cutting through his silver robes and even his golden body as though they were made out of tofu. The cut was so clean that one couldn’t even see a wound actually appear on the Lonely King’s neck.
The attack looked slow, but that was just a deceptive illusion caused by the temporal disruption inherent to this strike. In truth, it was so fast that no one was able to react at all.
“Y-you…” the Lonely King’s eyes bulged out. An invisible power struck at him through karma, instantly wiping out his soul.
At his current level, Ning didn’t need to worry about which of the three was the ‘real’ one; Ning’s sword was connected to karma itself. Even if the ‘true’ Lonely King was hidden away in a completely different realmverse or otherverse, he still would have perished.
The Lonely King’s bulging eyes suddenly softened. A look of release appeared in his gaze, and his lips actually curved upwards in a smile. Moments later, his aura completely vanished.
All three Lonely Kings slumped downwards. Two of them completely vanished, while the other lay fallen atop his silver throne.
Ning glanced sideways at the already-perished Lonely King, then murmured softly, “You are right. As a Daolord who has failed the Daomerge, there’s a limit to how long I can live. I really didn’t want to use up any energy… but once you made those threats, I had no choice but to respond.”
Snick. Ning resheathed the Northbow sword back into the scabbard on his back.