Akasha clearly remembered Wodred’s race, a divine beast known as the Sable Leviathan. He had a body comparable to a Sovereign artifact, but of course, that should be only after he became a High Sovereign of Destruction. At most, his current body should be comparable to a highgod artifact like Akasha.
But the thing Akasha was most wary of was his divine ability, Soul Cage. As the name suggested, it was a divine ability that targeted the soul. Aside from that, Akasha didn’t know much about it since the novel didn’t go into much detail about. Instead, it used Soul Cage to highlight the power of Spacetime Paradox, the supreme technique Wodred created based on the Four Divine Beasts’ combined divine abilities.
He ignored the painful throbbing on his body and stared at Wodred. “Who are you?”
Although Akasha knew who Wodred was, he still had to keep up appearances. To Akasha’s surprise yet expectations, Wodred didn’t answer and attacked again. Since Wodred didn’t want to talk, he would comply.
Akasha immediately unleashed his strongest technique as two blades of destruction formed behind his hands. The blades of destruction clashed against Wodred’s many claws and wings. Although they gained the upper hand and destroyed the claws and wings, many more took their place. The divine power within the blades of destruction could no longer sustain them, and they cracked.
Wodred’s body slammed into Akasha’s body and caused numerous lacerations. Black divine power burst from Akasha’s body, giving him a temporary reprieve and allowed him to distance himself.
Once at a safe distance, Akasha immediately fled into the distance.
Wodred did not chase after Akasha, and only stared at his back.
The Sable Leviathan closed his eyes and sunk deeper into the Extinction Abyss. His serpentine body seemed to merge with the surrounding, causing him to become invisible. “However, that strange item will belong to me in the end.”
He was born in the Extinction Abyss, but back then, the Extinction Abyss had not appeared, and it was just an ordinary seafloor. However, one day Wodred returned from his journey and discover a strange whirlpool. At the center of the whirlpool was a strange crystal that resembled a divine spark, only far more translucent.
Wodred didn’t know what the strange crystal was, but he discovered that the black whirlpool created by it could help him comprehend the Edict of Destruction, so he accompanied it. As time passed, the whirlpool increased in strength, as did the clarity of the Edict of Destruction.
He knew how precious the whirlpool and crystal was, so he killed any deities that discovered it. However, his actions could not last for long, as the black whirlpool grew too large. With the black whirlpool’s growth, the highgods that appeared also became stronger.
Although Wodred could defeat each individual highgod one-on-one and even kill them, he couldn’t withstand all of them at once. So, he could only protect the deepest layers of the Extinction Abyss. By now, he had already discovered that the black whirlpool was just a phenomenon produced by the crystal gestation. Once the crystal finished forming, Wodred planned to take it away and keep it to himself.
That was already over a million years ago. Many highgods appeared during this time. Wodred killed some, but most succeeded in fleeing. Wodred estimated that over a hundred highgods of destruction inhabited Extinction Abyss, and over half of them were only a little weaker than himself. And despite the brief clash, he judged Akasha was the one closest to him in strength.
“A troublesome fellow has arrived,” Wodred said. He closed his eyes and continued to comprehend the Edict of Destruction.
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Akasha only stopped after making sure Wodred hadn’t chased after him. In the brief clash, he had already guessed the overall difference between the two.
Wodred didn’t have the same instantaneous attack like his blades of destruction, but he had a more enduring and long-lasting attack based on his immense body. Furthermore, Wodred’s physical body should be more powerful than Akasha’s. Even if he showed his true body, Akasha didn’t think he had a higher chance of winning—at most thirty percent.
“Who’s there?” Akasha asked, breaking out of his thoughts.
“Sure enough, you sensed us,” a blue-skinned titan said. Unlike a normal titan, he had a third eye between his glabella. He wore an elaborate headdress that accented his third eye and a dhoti, leaving his torso bare. In his hand, he held a trident. “My name is Shiva.”
“And this is my partner, Kali.” Shiva pointed to the female titan. Kali didn’t resemble a regular titan either, bearing the same colored skin and two pairs of arms, two of them holding a saber and trident, respectively.
“You must have met him, right?”
Akasha would have to be an idiot to not know who Shiva was referring to. “You mean that leviathan.”
Shiva nodded. “You’re not the only one. That deity’s name is Wodred, and he has been guarding the deepest layer of the Extinction Abyss for millions of years. Do you know what’s at the deepest layer?”
Akasha crossed his arms and pretended to think. “Do you know?”
Shiva shook his head. “I don’t, but it must be a miraculous treasure. It must still be gestating, and to protect it, Wodred has attempted to kill everyone who ventured into that layer, and every deity who survived is a powerful expert like you.”
“You want that treasure, too,” Akasha said. “But you know that you aren’t powerful to defeat Wodred, so you want to team up with the others who have survived.”
“Watch it,” Kali said. “Shiva may not be able to defeat Wodred, but he’s definitely stronger than you!“
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Shiva raised his hand at this moment. “Quiet. Look carefully. Although this person was repelled, he doesn’t have much injuries, meaning that he had enough energy to leave almost unscathed. His power should be a cut above the rest, like me.”
Akasha said nothing as he watched the two spoke. From the two’s dialogue, he can gleam some clues, such that Shiva should be a powerful experts close to the asura-level. However, it could also be a play the two acted out for him to see.
“How many many experts have gathered?” Akasha asked.
Shiva smiled. Akasha’s interest meant that he had already half-convinced the latter to join their operation. “Not many. There’s only one other person aside from me and you that could escape relatively unscathed. As for the people who managed to flee at a heavy cost, they number around thirty.”
“Thirty?” Akasha said. In his estimation, these thirty people should have the strength of a peak seven-star fiend. “Are you confident in defeating Wodred and snatching the treasure from his hand?”
“Haha, not even Wodred can defeat an alliance with so many experts,” Shiva said.
“Alright, I’ll join,” Akasha said.
Shiva’s eyes lit up. “Alright, I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
Akasha followed Shiva and saw the other members of the alliance. He had met a few of them while venturing deeper into the Extinction Abyss, but none of them warned him about Wodred. In their eyes, only those that survived under Wodred’s attack can become their allies. If Akasha died, so be it.
After Shiva introduced him to everyone, Akasha waited. Of course, a few people’s hands were itchy and wanted to test out Akasha’s strength. Shiva didn’t stop them. Knowing one’s power and seeing it personally were two different concepts.
Naturally, Akasha showed them a portion of his strength, cowing them. He didn’t show too much. Even if he was in a collaborative relationship with Shiva and the other highgods, they were still competitors that united against a single stronger enemy in the end.
Ignoring the fact that whether Wodred would actually fall under their hands, once Wodred fell, the alliance would fall apart. It would be better if it was multiple treasures, but Akasha knew what the ultimate prize was.
After this, Akasha settled down in a vacant spot and began to focus on improving his comprehension of the Edict of Destruction. Occasionally, he would slash his hands out. Each time, blades of destructions would trail behind his claws. The blades were originally over hundreds of meters long, but they began to shrink and shrink until they were only tens of meters long.
Not only did their power not decrease, but increased instead. When Akasha first conceived the technique, the thin blades actually resembled a three-dimensional cone. From a cone, it turned into a triangle, and finally into a line. His current goal was to condense his attack into a dot. In Akasha’s estimations, the moment he reached this point, he might have fully comprehended the Edict of Destruction. Even if he didn’t, he should be at the last step before becoming a Paragon.
As Akasha’s destruction-type divine clone accumulated strength, so did Aether, his light-type clone. During these millions of years, Aether finally integrated four profound mysteries together. However, after a million years of no progress fusing the fifth profound mystery, he decided to become a highgod.
Even if it became harder to fuse all six profound mysteries of light, or he lost his chance to become a Paragon of Light, the most important thing was to acquire the High Sovereign Spark of Destruction. If the plan failed, he didn’t know how to find another Sovereign spark, much less a High Sovereign spark. The chances of him getting lucky to find one were practically zero.
That’s why he must not fail, even if he had to sacrifice the potential of his light-type divine clone.
Nearly thirty million years passed, and the alliance of destruction-type highgods only grew from thirty to forty. And even then, another asura-level expert like Akasha and Shiva didn’t appear. Of course, it can’t be discounted that one of the seven-star fiends became an asura-level expert.
While their strength grew, so should have Wodred’s.
Finally, everyone sense the powerful energy that formed the Extinction Abyss weakening. The birth of the Sovereign spark should not be far off. Still, they didn’t immediately take action. Attacking too early would be detrimental, but attacking too late would likely make them miss their chance to grab the treasure.
When the Extinction Abyss only retained thirty percent of its power left, the attack began.
Shiva led the charge. He grasped his trident in both hands and charged at Wodred. Wodred, who saw them, didn’t back down and released a mighty roar as he charged to meet the alliance of highgods. “Weaklings who only know how to group together, die!”
Wodred slammed into Shiva, ignoring the trident. In fact, the trident couldn’t pierce Wodred’s scales at all and left a few sparks and a white mark, but nothing more. Unable to withstand the force, Shiva flew backwards while spurting a mouthful of blood.
Akasha narrowed his eyes. He didn’t pay attention to the hesitating highgods and transformed into his true form. Compared to Wodred, Akasha appeared diminutive. Still, Akasha did not shy away and charge forward. Some of the seven-star fiends may want to escape now, but Akasha knew that if Wodred wanted to kill them, it would be as easy as breathing once he became a Sovereign. Since escape wasn’t possible, then he could only fight to the death!
After living for millions of years, Akasha’s mentality had also changed from an ordinary earthling to a mighty existence unafraid of death.
Faint lines exuding an aura of destruction coated the edge of his four wings. Not only that, but two blades of destruction also trailed behind his two hands. Compared to his human form, his true form could display three times the peak combat potential of his humanoid form.
Wodred didn’t back down either and using his gargantuan body as a whip, slamming it into Akasha. His eyes widened when he saw Akasha crack his scales, but no blood came out.
Akasha was launched backward by the blow, vomiting a mouthful of blood. From that initial clash, Wodred’s body had already exceeded a highgod artifact. It probably hasn’t reached the level of completed Sovereign artifact, but it should be far off.
As for how Wodred accomplished this, Akasha already had a guess. Wodred’s body already possessed the potential to become comparable to a Sovereign artifact. Even if he could absorb the Sovereign power, constantly living in an environment dense Sovereign power would temper his body.
Akasha also lived in a such an environment, and so did the other highgods, but their body hadn’t improved as much. As expected of the first lifeform of the Infernal Realm, but Akasha wouldn’t give up so easily. “Don’t attack him with attacks, unless you are confident. His body is too powerful. Use soul attacks!”
He charged forward again. Empowered by Akasha’s lead, the other highgods also charged forward. Most of them used soul attacks like Akasha suggested, but a few tried their material attacks, only to discover that they couldn’t even leave a white mark.
Shiva also rejoined the battle. During this time, he shared a glance with the other asura-level expert, but both of them looked away, not saying anything.
Wodred treated most of the seven-star fiends as small fries and focused most of his attention on Akasha. He didn’t have a choice. It was as if Akasha had gone crazy. He ignored the consumption of divine power and constantly attacked Wodred with his six blades of destruction.
The Sable Leviathan’s defense was powerful, but Akasha was not weak. After over a hundred clashes, many of Wodred’s scales had cracked and bled profusely. However, Akasha appeared even worse. The moment Akasha faltered slightly, Wodred struck.
The thousand-meter-long body coiled around Akasha, and Wodred’s tail snaked forth like a spear. The tail pierced Akasha’s head and a destruction-type divine spark fell out.