785: Final Stand [1]

Final Stand [1]

Two figures flitted through space at their greatest speeds, almost matching each other as they shot through Calypto's atmosphere.

If they hadn't seen each other in the starry sky before entering the planet, they wouldn't have been able to see each other at all due to the distance between them.

When they touched ground, they were on opposite sides of the world.

But it didn't matter.

The second they landed, they both plunged into the nearby sea and made beelines towards a single target.

In the middle of the sea, there was a section of chaotic whirlpools where the seawater was heavily disrupted. There was a massive chasm separating the seas as if a scene from a holy scripture, and within stood a single man.

Pitch-black wisps of mana swarmed around him like dancing fairies, giving off a strange and eerie sense of beauty. The playful behavior of these fairies completely contradicted the actions of the mana they represented.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The aftereffects of Damien's interference in the World's structure became more evident with every passing second. Underwater volcanos erupted due to the shifting tectonic plates, and heaven-reaching tsunamis spread in every direction with Damien as their center.

This chaos was mirrored in the World Core Space.

As Damien's interference continued, the World Core's fundamental properties shifted. The pure mana that originally formulated the core began to fight alongside him, clashing with the murky Nox Mana that had possessed its form.

A secondary clash took place between these two forces, and frankly, without Damien's careful aid, their battle for dominance would've torn the entire world in two.

'Fuck!'

When he first started, Damien never expected things to be like this. He obviously understood that changing the World Core's properties wouldn't be a smooth process, but to think it would be so violent…

'Even I wasn't prepared to hold an entire world together with my power!'

Mediating the struggle between two extremely powerful forces while protecting the world's foundational laws so it wouldn't collapse entirely was almost impossible. If Damien didn't have a myriad of skills as a Celestial, as well as immense mental strength gathered through various trials, he would've never been able to hold on for as long as he had.

However…

'They're coming.'

His eyes sharpened.

Above his head, the air was sundered into nothingness and space shattered.

BOOOOOOOM!

The resulting explosion was delayed. The impact was too fast.

"BLIGHT EMPEROR!"

"Hahaha! Another interesting one has come!"

Two booming voices resounded one after another. Standing opposite each other with Damien at their center were two domineering men whose combined presence would cause 90% of life in the existing universe to tremble beneath their feet.

On one side was a grey-skinned fiend with piercing snake eyes. His long hair fluttered in the wind, and though his body was lean, the power emanating from his every fiber was not to be underestimated.

On the other was a man who looked far more average. He didn't have any sort of kingly demeanor or aura, but he gave off a staunch and stalwart impression that made people automatically trust him. It was a completely different kind of charisma.

These two glared at each other fiercely, but after their first greeting, they looked away and ignored each other.

They'd come for one man, after all.

"We finally meet in person, young human." The Saint Emperor said with a smile.

Damien looked up in the air at the Emperor and rolled his eyes in disgust.

"I expected the guy who's been giving me so much trouble to be at least somewhat domineering, but you're just another chuuni cultivator. What a disappointment."

"Your mouth has gotten worse since our first meeting. Now that I'm here in person, do you think I would allow you to spout nonsense so freely?"

The Saint Emperor's eyes turned cold. A wave of power shot from his body towards Damien, but someone got in the way before it could strike him.

"Now, now. For an Emperor, aren't you a little trigger-happy? If you came to have a conversation with our little friend, then do it properly."

The Commander spoke with a grin on his face. He wasn't originally this type of person, but after seeing how the Blight Emperor conversed with Damien, he decided to try a more roguish approach than his usual demeanor.

It was strange, but it was fun. It made him feel young again to insult someone with such authority without care.

Damien grinned at the commander who was exploring his youth. "Old man, you're a good one. Help me hold that bastard off until I finish what I'm doing. Trust me, he'll only get angrier the longer he can't touch me."

"You're an interesting cadet, you know that? None have ever dared to act as you do on this cruel battlefield."

"That's just because they're too weak."

"Hahahaha! Indeed, Heaven's Army is a batch of weaklings! Why don't you join our side instead?"

Damien sent a deadpan stare at the Saint Emperor. "What kind of idiocy are you spouting?"

"Is it truly idiocy? I merely wish to recruit a promising seedling to a place where he can be properly nurtured. After all, don't we both have things that the other person desires?"

Damien's gaze turned cold. The longer he entertained this conversation, the harder it became to keep the world intact.

He was acting fine on the outside, but his mind was in utter chaos trying to manage every task he was trying to accomplish at once.

Perhaps even he himself couldn't process the grandiosity of what he was trying to achieve.

"Old man, how long can you hold him off for?" Damien asked through sound transmission.

"Realistically, I can keep him occupied for as long as necessary. But to do so while minding the environmental damage is far harder. I can at most mitigate damage for 15 minutes before I'm forced to use more devastating attacks." The Commander responded.

'15 minutes…'

"It's enough."

Damien hardened his gaze.

To completely shift the World Core in 15 minutes was impossible, but if it was just taking control of half so that the Saint Emperor's domination would be affected…

'Good, we just need to weaken his Avatar. He definitely won't want to take a backseat in the war for the next few years, so he'll retreat as long as his advantage is taken away.'

By the time Damien returned his attention to reality, the battle between the two experts had already begun.

The air above was submerged in the same chaos as the sea and world below.

'This'll be my first time watching a clash of this level, right…?' Damien thought to himself.

He'd seen even Demigods fighting with his own eyes, but he'd never seen an intricate single combat match between them where they displayed the height of their Laws.

Something like that…

Wasn't it the best sustenance for his growth?

His eyes gleamed like a predator that locked onto its prey.

15 more minutes until this entire damn battle was over.2

15 more minutes until he could finally relax and tie up all the loose ends that'd been piling up due to the battlefield's constant state of disorder.

'The objective is simply too easy this time. This battle…has basically already been declared our victory.'

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