Chapter 594 - Final War! Utterly Feral, Utterly Savage

At that moment, whispers echoed everywhere across the earth. The wind and clouds stood still, and endless red rain fell, sweeping from one county to the next. The entirety of the Hongli Empire was shrouded in a blood-colored downpour.

It was like the world was shedding tears.

Plip, plop...

The rain grew heavier, dropping from the dense clouds. All of Florence was veiled in a ruddy mist; rooftops and streets flooded, while hair and clothes were soaked through.

The Chief Mechanist jerked his head up, wet red bangs clinging to his brow, and gazed at the sky. "What... what is that..."

The blood-rain poured down like a waterfall. He looked up to the sky where lightning crackled, illuminating a colossal silhouette like some kind of demon god! It was the only form of light in the Lightless Night.

The black mud giant towered over the land. Black mud writhed across its surface, rising in tsunami-sized waves that were tens of metres high. Countless dark creatures were entangled and fused within those surges. The grotesque aberrations thrashed madly, roaring in despair. Some were crushed, some entombed alive, and others sucked in.

"Aaaahhhh..."

Countless screams overlapped, as though hell had descended.

The black mud giant was a walking hell, bringing nothing but despair. It was the same for humans and dark creatures alike.

"Go!" The robed figure in the giant's palm suddenly roared. The terrible voice blasted the surrounding clouds apart, revealing the pitch-black sky. That void was as desolate as outer space.

Rumble!

The palm that held Xiadu dissolved, its five fingers liquefying into viscous black tendrils.

With a

bang,

it smashed against the Gate of Heaven!

Ding!

An invisible shock-wave rippled from the gate. The dreadful force nearly tore away every cloud over an entire county, causing the rain of blood to halt by sheer force. The colossus's right arm collapsed, raining black mud from the sky. It pounded the ground, toppling even mountains.

Xiadu, hovering mid-air, raised his arms again. "Lifeless thing, you cannot stop me! Return!"

Thunk!

The giant's arm re-formed with a roar and lashed out as though to whip the whole world apart! Sludge howled in its wake.

Boom...

Terrible ripples rolled again across the Gate of Heaven. Whether it were the birds, flowers, insects, fish, mountains, rivers, each engraving on its surface seemed to light up. The images were shifted and wriggled like they were alive. The gate looked more like a mirror reflecting all of creation.

Boom!

A dreadful violet-red bolt ripped across the sky. Though the flash was brief, it still lit Xiadu's upturned face. He was laughing wildly. He seemed ready to vent emotions he had pent up for millennia in a single day!

"Hahahahaha..."

The giant's arm shattered time and again, yet the origin of calamity below replenished it each time. Thus it needn't worry about the cost. It only had to smash the Gate of Heaven at full strength!

"Soon... Very soon!" Xiadu stared at the portal.

Ding!

Suddenly, a pale-gold acupoint lit up. Within moments, it triggered every other acupoint.

Ding-ding-ding-ding...

Seventy-seven points blazed like stars, forming a vast cross that resembled a sword of judgment. At the same instant, the remaining one hundred and ninety eight points flared bright. There were the domineering Blood Vulture, the icy Sonic Snake, the graceful White Bird.

The Giant Falcon constellation, the Star Python constellation, the Cygnus constellation, and the Southern Cross constellation. Two hundred and seventy five points from four constellation maps contracted across every inch of Xiadu's body like chains. They resonated with the Southern Dipper constellation in the night, wrapping him in dazzling starlight.

Hum...

Three vast Wills descended, and two huge phantom gates appeared together. An exceedingly dreadful pressure instantly fell upon Xiadu.

Bang!

The mountain-sized mud giant disintegrated instantly, unable to endure a single second of that power. All the dark creatures trapped in its mud perished in that same heartbeat.

At the same time, at the origin of calamity in the World of Calamity, hordes of dark creatures writhed in layers of tar-black asphalt that draped the mountains. At the center, the Totem King faced off against Blood Vulture Dominator Fist, each painting half the field in black or crimson.

Suddenly, the crimson shrank drastically as its power plummeted. In turn, black roared out like a mudslide.

"Bold indeed, Blood Vulture. Last time, you diverted a sliver of your strength. This time, you divert more than a third while facing me?" The fearsome bronze giant thundered, "You will not stop me, and you will pay dearly!"

"Demon Totem, Dragon Totem! Blood Totem, Ghost Totem!"

Wings opened on the bronze giant's back, stabbing straight into the sky. Their tips suddenly blazed like fire. Four totems lit up across its mountain-like body, each spanning near the whole torso. Black, gold, red, and violet streams all charged toward Blood Vulture Dominator Fist!

Five fingers as withered as old bone pressed hard into the ground. "Cygnus Flight, Blood Vulture King..."

Rumble...

A huge crimson Blood Vulture slowly rose from the earth.

Rooooar!! Screeeech!!

The beast's roar and the clash of explosions devastated the entire region.

***

Elsewhere, an inconceivably huge volcano in the World of Calamity held a vast cavity within. A bloody bat monstrosity and a purple-scaled giant serpent grappled ceaselessly, at war for millions of years until they seemed almost fused. Terrifying sonic waves had become a lethal cage.

"Now! Now at last! Hahahaha..."

True Progenitor of Blood Yumira laughed wildly. The myriad bizarre mouths in the blood-river below also laughed with her, sensing a perfect chance.

Sonic Snake Ultimate Fist had diverted a third of his power. It was unprecedented, causing the sonic cage to be at its weakest. Yumira intended to shatter the cage, return to the skies, and win her freedom. She would not brawl forever with this stone-cold old man until the end of time.

Yumira flung her claws wide, her bat wings spreading like a black cloak. "Eternal Maw, Mystic Mists, Blood Codex!"

Twisted sigils lit up in crimson on her wings. A dreadful power built and burst forth!

"Reverberation, resonance, prison." Sonic Snake Ultimate Fist uttered six words in frigid, plain tones. He emotionlessly let violet light swell between the giant serpent's scales until it filled the cavity entire.

Hum... Boom!!

The volcano erupted! The greatest volcano of the World of Calamity had erupted once more!

The Crystal Sand Sea was a vast region in the World of Calamity. In ancient times, it was not a dead hot sea of sand but a dense eerie forest. However, the volcano's erratic eruptions had razed the surface. By a strange coincidence, they had also birthed the crystal race, reshaping the world. The root of it all was that man and bat entwined within the volcano!

***

Elsewhere on a silent continent under the Lightless Night, three massive Ultimate Dark Forms strode, each step causing the earth to quake. All lesser dark creatures fled in response.

Thoom, thoom, thoom!

They were fixated on the weak point around an origin of calamity, and sought to go together. They were seeking the once in a lifetime chance to rampage in the surface world. Excitement, agitation, and madness spread through the air. It even infected fleeing dark creatures below, who soon slaughtered one another in a frenzy. The final victor was crushed by a giant foot that fell from the sky.

Thud!

The Ultimate Dark Form simply kept marching through the dark. Suddenly, they halted. Ahead of them stood an aged figure glowing with pure white light. He was hunched over, with hands clasped behind his back. He seemed so small.

At that moment, a dreadful double curse weighed upon him. The Dead Abyss seal tugged at his organs, every cell trying to drag him to the endless depths. An even stronger Moon God curse, amplified by the Lightless Night, was squashing him.

Moreover, a third of his power had been diverted away and his strength had fallen to an unprecedented low.

The three Ultimate Dark Forms hesitated but finally unleashed their dreadful aura and charged. Terrible roars overlapped and echoed.

"White Bird Holy Fist!!!"

Chieu!

A crisp birdsong rang clear amid the booming echoes.

"Do you hear it? The Waterbird's cry..."

***

Back in the surface world, beneath the Gate of Heaven, a fearsome abyss yawned open as if to pierce through the earth . It was the power of the Threefold Gate and the Southern Dipper seal!

A figure in tattered black robes suddenly burst up from below. He tore the robe away, revealing a pale-gold body.

Xiadu lifted his head under pressure heavier than mountains. "Not White Bird, Blood Vulture, Sonic Snake, nor the whole world! None of you cannot stop me! Resist and struggle, but I will crush you all!!"

"Sacred heart grown dark, Well of Sin! Return! Return! Return!"

He flung his arms wide; his chest seemed to open like a gate to hell. A howl of ten thousand wailing souls poured out, bringing utter chaos.

Rumble...

The earth's black mud churned and gathered as an elongated arm shot skyward again. Holding Xiadu, it hurtled at the dimly glowing gate with unstoppable fury!

Thud! Thud!

Two overlapping impacts reverberated through the sky. Inside the Gate of Heaven, something too seemed to strike in response to Xiadu. It sought release, sought to descend again and spread eternal calamity over all.

"Hahaha... hahaha..."

Xiadu's delirious laughter drifted down from the sky.

Whoosh!

However, a black and a blue shadow suddenly flew like meteors from the horizon's edge. The black one in particular accelerated madly and at last vanished outright.

Whoosh! Boom!!!

The pillar-like arm suddenly toppled aside. Its mountain-thick base on the ground was smashed off by a crimson fist!

A figure stood, half black and half red. His left side was human, with a black coat whipping wildly. On the right, he was a Blood Vulture, snarling with a scaly-feathered visage. Dense Qi streamed upward from him like burning flames.

Swish!

The figure’s head rose, revealing Cassius's slightly crazed face. "Xiadu, get your ass down here!!!"

He threw his arms wide, torrential Dominator Fist Qi flooding every corner. Merely clenching his fists made vast ripples like an air quake around him. The ground beneath him split inch by inch.

"Aaaaargh!"

Cassius roared in fury. His arms swung wildly, becoming a vast crimson blur.

Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!

The pillar of black mud was pummeled into dust punch after punch and scattered across the ground.

Cassius's eyes blazed red, locking onto the silhouette amid the ash. In his mind, a storm of malevolent dominance and frenzy roared, merging into the iron of his right fist.

Too long... Far too long have I sought you, Xiadu! At last... at last!

Cassius's aura ballooned and exploded! It was several times stronger than ever in an utterly feral, utterly savage way.

"Xiadu, eat my fist!!!"