The Desolate Era

“My friends, I can’t even describe how happy I am to be able to fight alongside all of you in this battle,” Autarch Bolin said with a smile.

“We’ll fight to the bitter end together.”

“Haha...”

“Come, come! I think we need to share some wine before this battle begins.” Autarch Ekong waved his hand, causing an estate to appear before him which was filled with stone tables and chairs. Ji Ning and the others all smiled as they sat down.

Ning picked up his wine cup, then glanced at his six friends. He felt as though this was almost a dream. He could still clearly remember how he had been reborn from the Netherworld Kingdom into the Ji clan of the Grand Xia, and how he had slowly trained step-by-step until he had reached the apex of the cultivator world. Now, he would stand alongside his six friends and peers, entering into a lethal battle by their sides. This was a battle which would determine the fate of all cultivators!

If they lost, it would all be for nothing. His friends, his family, and all of civilization would be destined to die.

“Y’know, I was thinking. Darknorth... should we have your true body stay out of this final battle?” Autarch Titanos suddenly said. All of the other Autarchs nearby were stunned.

“Not take part?” Ning was stunned as well. “Titanos... are you saying, the rest of you would fight but I wouldn’t?”

“Your avatar could,” Autarch Titanos said slowly. “Here’s what I’m thinking. We could have your avatar form the Sword Titan with us. Your avatar has 80% of your true power! You are already the strongest of us seven. Your avatar is more than strong enough to merge our powers together. I wager it’ll still be able to keep the Sword Titan at 90% of its full strength.”

“If we lose, at least your true body would still be alive! So long as you are alive, our civilizations will have a chance to eventually recover.” Autarch Titanos looked at Ning. The other five began to hesitate, considering his words.

“If my true body doesn’t get involved in this fight, it’ll have a major impact on our combat prowess,” Ning said. “Both my avatar and myself will take part in this fight, guiding the six of you in forming the Sword Titan! If my avatar guides your avatars in forming a giant, it’ll have roughly 50% to 60% of the the strength of the main one.”

“We’ll have one Sword Titan and one Avatar Titan. That way, we’ll be able to unleash the maximum amount of power possible. If my true body doesn’t take part, we’ll only have a single weakened Sword Titan,” Ning said.

The Avatar Titan would be using the same type of formation. The other six avatars were only at half power while Ning’s avatar was at 80% power, but the Avatar Titan would remain a powerful tool in this fight. It would be even stronger than the giant sword they had used in the Grassland World.

“But if we lose, we’ll have lost all hope,” Titanos said hesitantly.

“Brother Titanos!” Ning said sharply, “Are you still thinking about a ‘backup plan’ at a time like this? Do you really think that I can reverse the situation all by myself if I’m the only one to survive? Even if I do eventually become an Omega Autarch, by then I would’ve had to watch as the Sithe bound our Chaosverse and Iyerre became a Chaoslord. In the end, I would still die!”

“We should put everything we have into this fight instead! We’ll use both the Sword Titan and the Avatar Titan to maximize our chances.” Ning stared at Autarch Titanos.

“Titanos, I agree with Darknorth. This time, screw the backup plans,” Autarch Ekong said.

“Let’s fight.” Autarch Skyfeeder was by nature a fearless woman. She had previously been planning to attempt to bind the Chaosverse, even though the others who had tried all died!

“I agree that we should do everything we can to win this battle.” Autarch Bolin, Autarch Mogg, and Autarch Stonerule all turned to look at Titanos.

At their level, life and death mattered very little. They actually approved of Ning throwing himself into danger, because they had to consider what was good for the whole of civilization. They wanted to live... but they didn’t want to live a life that was worse than death! They didn’t fear death... so long as their deaths were meaningful!

Autarch Titanos hesitated a moment, swayed by the rebukes of his six colleagues. He then let out a self-mocking chuckle: “All my life, I’ve laid schemes upon schemes and have always had a backup plan ready. All of you are right. Even if Darknorth survives by himself, the chance of him being able to reverse a defeat here is minuscule. Him leaving would lower the strength of our forces. It’s better for us to fight them to the bitter end.”

“That’s more like it! How miserable would I feel, watching you all perish while I survived by myself?” Ning lifted up his tankard of wine and poured a cup for Titanos. “Come, Titanos, come! I’m going to punish you with some wine.”

“I accept, I accept.” Titanos immediately took the wine cup.

The seven had already decided to do their utmost in this upcoming battle. They no longer felt any worries, and so they happily drank together while awaiting Iyerre’s arrival.

“Iyerre will be arriving in two hours,” Autarch Mogg said suddenly.

“We still have two hours left?” Ning and the others exchanged glances.

“Let’s go out and get ready to welcome these outsiders.” Titanos rose to his feet, as did Ning and the others.

Whoosh! They all put away their respective estates and flew out together, blinking out of the black tower. This time, Ning brought his avatar out alongside him. The Annihilation Hive once more exploded with power and began to generate that incredible sucking pour, but the Sword Titan formed from the seven Autarchs was able to easily pass out of it.

Rumble... the Annihilation Hive began to furiously devour the energies of the outside world at its previous pace as a vortex once more appeared around it. Ning and the Autarchs, however, simply ignored it. Although it was a formidable weapon, it needed to devour energy for an extremely long period of time to do real damage. A few weeks wouldn’t make much of a difference. Not even a century would have a real impact.

Thus, for now they would ignore the Annihilation Hive and focus their efforts on the Sithe. Neither side was going to shirk away from this battle! Victory or defeat would be determined very soon. The winner would rule this Chaosverse. The loser would never be able to rise again.

Whoosh. Whoosh. Two figures suddenly warped over to them. It was the avatars of Autarch Mogg and Autarch Skyfeeder.

“All our avatars are here. We’re ready to fight now. A pity that we lost one of the Golden Bridges of Freedom. Otherwise, we’d be at absolute maximum power,” Autarch Titanos said with a chuckle.

They quickly separated into two squads, both led by Ning. The seven true bodies stood together on one side, while the seven avatars stood next to each other on the other side. Fourteen Autarch-class combatants were ready to do battle.

“It’s all my fault for losing that Golden Bridge.” Autarch Bolin shook his head.

“You aren’t to blame. Those things simply required far too many precious ingredients. I did everything I could but was only able to create seven of them. Sometimes, I can’t help but think to myself about what a coincidence it all was. We originally had an extra, but Darknorth rose just in the nick of time to round out the seventh,” Titanos said with a sigh.

“To be able to battle alongside my six predecessors is Darknorth’s honor,” Ning said with a smile.

The seven of them stood in empty space, their hearts at peace. They had already cast aside all their worries. At a time like this, worrying wouldn’t make any difference. They simply had to do everything they could to win.

If they died, all of civilization would die with them, but there was nothing for that. The seven of them had truly done all they could.

......

The ovaloid sphere continued to warp through space. Atop its outermost layer of grayish clouds stood a tall, gray-robed man who was slightly balding. His eyes seemed to contain the cosmos within them as he calmly stared at the empty space before him.

“It is finally time for the last battle.” Like the cultivators, Iyerre knew that he had reached the most critical moment in his entire life. He would either soar to the heavens and become a Lord of Chaos, becoming the most invincible figure in all the Infinite Void aside from his master... or he would be defeated and never have this opportunity again, even if he managed to survive.

He hadn’t worried about the sphere of annihilation being destroyed, because he knew just how marvelous an object it was. There were only two ways by which it could be destroyed. The first way was to overpower it. As an Omega Autarch, outside of this foreign Chaosverse he himself would just barely be able to summon enough power to destroy it. The second way was to comprehend the apocalyptic mysteries it contained, at which point one would be able to easily deconstruct it.

Neither Autarchs nor Omega Emperors would be capable of such a task.

“This realm truly is a mesmerizing one,” Iyerre murmured. “This realm and all things within it should be mine to rule. These weaklings have continued to bar my path. Now, I shall sweep them all away.”

Whoosh. The Grassland World warped through spacetime one final time. By the time it reappeared, Iyerre could now see the enormous Annihilation Hive off in the distance, surrounded by that even-larger vortex which was destroying and devouring all things around it.

However, the fourteen figures standing here were even more noticeable than the vortex of destruction. Ning and his peers stood side-by-side, while the seven avatars did the same.

The fourteen calmly watched as that ovaloid object flew through space towards them. The only person standing on the surface of the ovaloid object was Iyerre, and he smiled thinly when he saw the fourteen. He swept his gaze across them, then let out a chuckle which echoed throughout spacetime: “No more running? No more hiding?”

“There’s nowhere to run,” Autarch Titanos said.

“We’ll give you what you want. We’re going to fight you to the death.” Ning smiled.

“Iyerre, I hope you don’t piss yourself when you see our real power,” Autarch Ekong said with a laugh.

“I think he probably will piss himself,” Autarch Bolin smirked.

Ning and the others all smiled or laughed as they spoke. Iyerre wasn’t angered by this. He simply smiled back and nodded. “You natives are quite brave.”

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