Ten million enemies was a lot. Them being C-rank made it worse. As if that wasn't enough, Cohorts weren't born completely dumb like normal Void Spawn. Each creature had the collective experience from the ones previously absorbed by the Emissary.
Survival would be impossible if not for Shen being able to recover his qi.
Emissaries never appeared far from their target. In fact, this one had meant to manifest beside Shen, but he deflected the lightning bolt. That was the right decision to escape, but it made his current goal harder to achieve. To kill the Emissary, Shen had to go through the thousands of Void Spawn between them.
Shen didn't have time to help his Brigade. Trying to keep the crowd of enemies from killing his people would be an exercise in futility. He might have attempted it if he knew reinforcements were on the way, but the latest S-rank order was to cease all operations and protect the Center of Operation. Even Rayna had to give up on the Brigade and get there, much less anyone who might come assist them.
So, even if Shen could hold for a while, it should be a matter of time before the Cohorts grew strong and smart enough to overwhelm him. And they would grow stronger. Shen couldn't kill every one of them in time even if it wasn't for a unique trait from Cohorts.
Shen killed the closest Void Spawn with a simple swing of his spear. The creatures were goblin-sized, so although harder to hit, each hit that struck their bodies caused more damage. In other words, as long as you hit them, they were easier to destroy.
That's what happened. Shen moved too fast for the creature to react in time, bisecting it from head to toe. It dissipated into smoke.
Alas, the smoke rushed toward the Emissary, was absorbed, and then became a black lightning bolt thrown in a random direction and distance. It morphed into a new Void Spawn.
In a Cohort, only Emissaries didn't regenerate when killed, but killing Emissaries put a target on you. Cohorts were dangerously annoying to deal with unless you were strong enough to kill them all at once. That was usually accomplished with a domain, but Shen couldn't push his out of his body.
Still, he moved as fast as he could. His goal wasn't to kill the Cohort but to get to the Emissary, so he dodged and passed by hundreds of Void Spawn before being eventually besieged by seventy who worked together to bar his way.
The first Void Spawn reached the first C-rank from his Brigade.
Shen felt tempted to use his domain to get to the Emissary faster but now wasn't the time. Not yet. It would be his hidden card to get rid of the Emissary. Using it even a second before he reached the creature meant giving it a second to potentially adapt and except his domain-enhanced strike.
He merely used his full domain-less power. Mid tier 9 strength was unleashed upon his foes. They weren't prepared.
Fortunately, he was faster and stronger than them. They were only as strong as the Void Spawn had been before being absorbed. His spear danced, and the blade sang of killing. He was like a hurricane of death, easily disposing of every creature surrounding him, dodging attacks as if they were too slow, and advancing despite the blockade.
It still took too long; every C-rank from his Brigade was engaged in battle by the time he had breached the siege.
Or rather, not every C-rank. Almost every one of them, and a third of the weaker Guardians, used life-saving treasures to try to leave the Voided Subnode. Those people had been handpicked, so half the treasures worked. Half the Brigade was gone. The success rate was greater among C-ranks. Only four remained, Luthdel and Xi Liling among them.
Xia Liling was a curious case. She had taken a metal token from her spatial ring but not crushed it. She fought with it on her hand despite probably knowing the longer she took to use it, the more likely it was for the Void to counter escape treasures.
Shen found it both stupid and endearing. If she was manipulating him, she knew what to do.
On a not so bright note, few C-ranks meant the Cohort had gotten to the D-ranks on the outermost layer of the defensive sphere. The Guardians didn't survive first contact. The Void Spawn kept going.
Shen also continued ahead, going for the Emissary. He killed more Void Spawn, dodged more, and finally arrived at his target, which was also coming at him.
Void Emissaries always had the peak power allowed in a Voided Subnode. That Emissary was just one step below B-rank. If put in numbers, it would be at peak tier 10.
Kind of.
That estimation was only raw power output. The creature was fast, as it proved by becoming a blur and almost getting behind Shen. It was strong, as evidenced by swinging the enormous hammer it formed from its body against him, and space itself seemed to shatter under its weight. The lightning around it came at Shen, a constant attack that cut through the Laws of Reality and wholly denied the layer of qi superimposed on his spearhead.
Nevertheless, its intelligence was based on the Void Spawn it absorbed. It had limited tactical expertise. It was a little better than Shen's people, but although elites, they weren't as good as him. The Emissary would grow fast, but not fast enough to avoid being killed if Shen used everything he had.
Shen's True Self shook with greed and excitement on facing such a wondrous foe. He would've loved to see how long he could last against it. He could benefit greatly from using the creature as a grinding stone for his Path and techniques.
But he didn't waste time; he would sacrifice a part of his potential and future for the people endangered by his folly.
Shen activated Domain of Infinite Improvement and got an Absolute hold of everything up to the Horizon—or, at least, up to 30 miles.
Suddenly, his Will felt the black lightning surrounding the Emissary move on the boundaries of the fourth spatial dimension, yet his every other sense only detected the bolts instantly turning into a perfect armor of constantly moving lightning around the creature. Shen's Absolute Horizon could crush even Void Spawn—at a high willpower cost—but not penetrate the armor. Emissaries were really no joking matter. If it had time to grow...
But it wouldn't have it.
Even as it was swinging the hammer at Shen's side, Shen was moving his spear, and his True Self was honed every single instant.
The last time he used his domain, he improved way too much in every possible way. Now, the gains were significantly less impressive. Shen had had a lot of space for growth back then, but most of his untapped potential had been spent. After he reached the best his current self could be, the improvement slowed down to a crawl.
Fortunately—and sadly—there was still one clear way for him to improve: his qi techniques.
Shen was moving his spear to deflect the hammer strike, and every split instant, his muscles moved differently. If anyone took an energy picture of that moment, the image captured by light would fail to show the countless different ways Shen's qi behaved. His technique evolved way too much almost at the same time. His Energy changed to better adapt to his body and soul and the secrets of the Axioms of Reality.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
His True Self pulsated, and Shen found out for the first time that using special symbols to harmonize with the secrets of Reality came with a cost. It was imperceptible most of the time, but when he did it way too many times at C-rank, it took a toll. His entire being shook at the impact of harmonizing that tiny corner of Reality, his body, with something grander than himself. It looked like a beating heart but felt like Reality was trying to bomb him out of existence.
Spacetime shook around him. Hundreds of Void Spawn were killed just like that. His Brigade would also be affected if not for Xia Liling. She used a mysterious counter-technique, and her spear cut through the metaphysical vibrations his body released before they could get to the Guardians.
Shen's previous activation of his domain assisted in making his improvements even faster. His True Self was currently distorted, as his qi techniques weren't up to par with everything else he was. Most of his domain's gains piled up in that area and pushed him into excellence.
When Shen's spearhead, filled with qi, struck against the hammer's handle, Shen was the very best he could be.
His domain kept burning through his potential, but considerably slower now. Everything he was was now being improved at the same pace, together. His stats, techniques, Path, and even some understandings of Reality. The three seconds he had wouldn't be enough to push his stats to peak C+, but he would be at least midway through.
His spear cut the hammer's handle. The hammerhead dissipated into smoke as Shen's blade kept going. The Emissary moved his body to avoid the incoming threat, and Shen redirected his strike midway through. Qi burned fiercely inside him.
In C-rank, there was peak tier 10 strength, and then there were externalized domains. Shen's domain was still only inside himself. His perfected abilities still had no mastered Laws and only reached peak tier 9, on the boundary to low tier 10. But he had the experience and ability that the Emissary lacked—for now.
The creature's lightning armor denied the qi blade coming out of Shen's spear, but he continued cutting. Metal struck lightning and found as much resistance as an ice pick on ice. Shen's True Self found the path of least resistance and applied way too much strength. The lightning gave.
His metal spearhead advanced until it met the Emissary's peak C-rank resistance. The previous lightning defense was enough to keep Shen's weapon from biting too deeply. His blade only got halfway through the creature's torso, which it struck sideways, before stopping.
Then Shen willed the Emissary to cease existing.
Shen was his True Self and the source of his Absolute Horizon. The spear he wielded was an extension of himself. The lightning armor couldn't stop him from touching the creature underneath.
His Will grasped against something much stronger and bigger than the Voided Guardians. It felt like a baby's hand clenching a car-sized balloon. It seemed impossible to pop that thing upon first contact.
But Shen's domain was active, and the most obvious answer came to him almost before he felt the creature's existence resist him.
He shaped his mind outside his body, something he didn't even understand to be impossible, or exactly how it worked. Without his domain, doing so would require a lot of trial and error. With it, it was instinctive. He also felt something else push him, and he recognized battling the Void made him improve faster. The source was strangely similar to how Long Hei had pulled at his body.
His hand became a metaphysical spear of sheer willpower, burning white hot from killing intent.
A car-sized balloon might have thick rubber walls, but not enough to resist Shen's willpower attack. His mind got inside the creature and found only nothingness. He was like light in total darkness, heat in a place so barren it had never known anything but absolute coldness.
He pushed, and his Will exploded.
The Emissary blew up unlike any Void Spawn. Liquid darkness and lightning shot in every direction. Many lightning bolts struck Shen and pierced through his robe but stopped at his body. It could affect physical matter but wasn't very good at it.
Then, Shen witnessed—truly saw it—something for the very first time: the Void invading this mind.
It wasn't on the boundary of the fourth dimension, but rather, in a thing he took a while to identify: a layer of Reality made of pure Will, holding everything that existed together. The Void mental attack felt to his Absolute Horizon like maggots moving under Reality's Will's skin and entering him unhindered. It tried to infect his True Self but was held at bay by not finding an opening to exploit. Nevertheless, the maggot-like things stood there, adding weight to his psyche, waiting for the slightest weakness in him to exploit.
Even as Shen noticed it, the mental glimpse under Reality's hood started dissipating from his mind. He wasn't meant to see that or keep knowing it after he was done seeing. The memory of what he was seeing refused to be formed. He would never know that thing existed after this moment was gone.
Was that a characteristic of the Void's suicidal thoughts? Was it some hidden rule of Reality that no one should know that layer? Had Shen noticed it in his fight against the Voided Guardians, or was this new? He believed it was new. The Void Tide was affecting the Void and, maybe, also making it ignore sneakiness. Maybe his talent also mattered.
Regardless, the important question here was: was the ability to identify that layer the reason the Infernals didn't want anyone else to use their Absolute Horizon?
Was it something... more?
Shen didn't want to believe he could do what he attempted next, but he had to try. He moved his spear-shaped mind against the maggots and cut. There was no resistance. The thing was shredded and faded away from existence. A moment later, there was no pressure on his mind, and the memory of what he witnessed stuck firmly.
Absolute Horizons could deny the Void's mind invasion—and very easily at that.
Shen was frozen by the absurdity of the discovery. A lot of high-rank people also had to know it, yet no one cared enough to force Infernals to share the ability. Sure, as a non-infernal, he had risked his life to develop the True Self needed to use it, but still, how many lives could be saved with that knowledge?
The only other excuse that made sense was how resisting the Void helped hone willpower, but he doubted it was worth it—unless the Alliance wanted the losses in the front lines to be kept at a certain range, and even the losses to assist in honing the survivors' willpower.
The Alliance was a machine with a purpose, and for the first time, Shen realized Guardians weren't just cogs, but also the fuel moving it forward. The output of strong Guardians on the other end was fertilized on the blood of the weak. And the weak also helped kill other weaklings when they turned into Void Spawn.
That crossed his bottom line.
Shen had always known the Alliance didn't have everyone's wellbeing in mind, but to purposefully hide a useful tool so those infernals' status quo was maintained, and ensure the number of Guardians didn't overflow, was unacceptable. To allow people to be corrupted by the Void like that... It was pure evil. They allowed Reality's beings to become the enemy of all that was for their egoistical gains. For Shen, it was better to lose the war against the Void than to keep existing like that.
He hated the Primordials, but he doubted this was on the Primordials.
While he thought all that, the remaining lightning bolts that had left the dead Emissary changed directions after a while and coalesced on a single point. The next instant, it turned into a new Emissary.
Shen was tempted to lead it to Samir-18's Center of Operations, but the weaklings there were just as guileless and innocent as he had been a moment ago. They didn't deserve it; their leaders did. Shen wasn't like the traitors of Reality who took pleasure in killing the people they pretended to protect.
He wouldn't help destroy the Center of Operations... But he also couldn't stand fighting for the Alliance anymore. He had to leave, and he had to do it now. He couldn't keep waiting for a safer opportunity; his True Self demanded him to either attack the Alliance or leave.
The Cohort had stopped fighting when the Emissary died. Shen turned and looked at Alicia. She was still alive. Hopefully, she would continue like that. Hopefully, she wouldn't fight against him when he returned to crush the Alliance.
He turned to Xia Liling next.
She was looking at him, and she knew. The moment she saw him, she knew he would leave. Their Paths resonated. She wanted to go too, but not now. Not yet. She wasn't strong enough. But she understood him because she was living the same her entire life.
Her Path pulsated with encouragement, and he was grateful for it.
Shen turned away from his Brigade and prepared to desert the Alliance with a smile on his face.
Shen still didn't know how he would escape, but he would do it—or die trying.
If the Cohort had any say in it, he would die indeed. It was simply impossible for him to kill ten million Emissaries in three seconds. The Cohort would keep improving, but he would slow down to a crawl after his domain turned off.
It would also be impossible to dodge them, as every Void Spawn stopped attacking others and rushed at him as soon as the new Emissary formed. His plan had worked. The creatures would pursue him to the end of the Reality.
"Get to safety!" Shen yelled his last order to his Brigade and ran at full speed straight into the Subnode's borders—and the big unknown awaiting him beyond.