A Dimension's Demise

"Beto, let's go!" Heian Ciemnosc looked at Beto before kicking the ground and jumping towards Elga, trapped and with her eyes' contents shrank. When she noticed Heian Ciemnosc coming, she was still somewhat powerless, and the blood essence cage around her made her feel weakened. Heian Ciemnosc wasted no time. He brandished his dark claws from his arms and legs and stabbed Elga's body repeatedly.

Phhshk!! Clank~! Cling… fwoosh! Swish, swash! Phhshk!! Phhshk!!...

Heian Ciemnosc did his best to take Elga down. He couldn’t give half a fuck that he was being unfair and to a woman. Especially one that was above what he could confront. If the cage didn’t exist, Heian Ciemnosc would’ve been trashed with just a swing from Elga. As he stabbed and targeted Elga’s spots, she dodged and defended her body. It was all she could do in this situation.

Elga didn’t look at Heian Ciemnosc asking for clemency or roaring to get freed and fight one-on-one. She moved and tried forcing Heian Ciemnosc, pulling him towards her, but the blood essence effectuated inside this cage made it impossible. Elga couldn’t use her Neutral Energy at all despite having the same cultivation base as Beto! She could’ve done the same, and Sandra, too, and they wouldn’t be killed. But they were well trained to only use their blood essence when the young master was in danger, not any other time.

“Bghah! Urghk!” Elga continued to be stabbed, all while Heian Ciemnosc looked at Beto, whose arms powerlessly fell to his sides, and he could barely hold himself standing. Meanwhile, everywhere around the Dimension world was like the wind took control of every Fauna and flora. They weren’t going berserk or growing in size and gaining untold strength. Simply put, they were being raised into the air and crashed against the ground as an invisible tornado-like spectacle even took the atmosphere itself and spun it unnaturally.

Even from the tunnels’ perspective, as coalition and enemy cultivators rushed to the portals, they could see several strange happenings occurring everywhere in the Dimension world. Some seemed about millions or tens of millions of kilometers away, but they were still large enough to look like a Frigate was just a few kilometers away from them.

Nobody cared, and they rushed towards the 2 tunnels available from which Riquel, the other elite Teams, and Yun Tang’s Team had taken. Yun Tang didn’t leave, and seeing the situation of Beto’s Team, he rushed towards Elga to help Heian Ciemnosc before assisting them to rush out.

Whooooosh!! Clank- POM! Pah! Thud!! Futomp!!

“Aaah!” Elga didn’t have time to react when she felt an incoming threat greater than Beto. Before she could look back, the cage behind her was broken apart after being slammed with something heavy and tall. Then, her back was hit in the middle, forcing her to arch her body backwards and letting Heian Ciemnosc stab from her collarbone to her sternum and finally at her Dantian with his 2 arms’ dark claws and his left leg’s dark claw.

Blood splurt from her throat into the air, her jaw wide open as she faced the sky, and finally, the hits and stabs slowly came to a halt. Her eyes’ battle spirit faded, but her upper back remained arched backwards. Her blood formed a pool in her mouth before emptying itself back into her body.

…sshglaaghh… “...” Heian Ciemnosc pulled his left leg’s dark claw out slowly, looking at Elga as she gradually lowered her chin, but so did her body fall backwards. The blood essence cage dissipated, and neither Heian Ciemnosc nor Yun Tang caught her up. Heian Ciemnosc didn’t even look at her as he analyzed Beto’s situation while the world around them kept getting crazy with the laws and reality.

WHUUUUUUUUUOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSHHHHHH~~!!!!!!

Whoosh… Heian Ciemnosc’s body floated down, where Elga’s powerless and weakened body could only afford to tremble and move her limbs as her chest heaved up and down ever so slightly. He finally looked down at her from the ground and said, “You were doing your job. It wasn’t a wrong choice. Go.”

“Uuf- kkh…!” Hearing those words, Elga’s face with dried blood stains on her skin twisted her neck and agitated her head before gulping, looking at Heian Ciemnosc with downturned eyes as she struggled no more and let Beto’s blood essence inside her body destroy it from within. She stopped moving and let her final breath out, but she wasn’t dead. Either way, Heian Ciemnosc ignored her and walked past her to help Beto. Before he could crouch and support his team leader, Heian Ciemnosc heard Ezquivel from behind, still in the same position Heian Ciemnosc left his body.

“... Save me… Sigil… of Darkness… no… no, please…”

Heian Ciemnosc turned his head, only to see Ezquivel’s body, which had become trillions of pieces, slowly fly into the sky as an invisible tornado-like thing started forming above… them all!

“!!” Heian Ciemnosc became alarmed, and he looked at Yun Tang, who nodded solemnly at him and rushed towards the tunnel as the other cultivators continued to rush to the other 2. Heian Ciemnosc’s teammates looked at him as Yun Tang joined them but didn’t leave. Heian Ciemnosc helped Beto up and placed his right arm above his shoulder, but Beto aggressively cut him off and pushed him forwards, making Heian Ciemnosc stumble before immediately stopping and looking back.

“Beto?!” Heian Ciemnosc yelled. But Beto looked at him, with fresh blood still around his mouth, unlike a dying cultivator’s that would’ve dried up within this strange event. Then, Beto turned around and gave his left profile side to his Team and was about to walk away to their confusion but decided to stop and look at them again. His Soul energy was extended and reached his Team members.

“There’s still not much time before they can safely run inside. Go now! I can hold this place for enough time to ensure your safety! My Team, whatever awaits you, I name Heian Ciemnosc— the new team leader! He already has Light/Dark realm near-late-stage battle prowess. We’ve all seen it. I’m sorry, this… I cannot leave it to luck. I know I can hold this place for enough time… You just have to leave it to me. Leave it to me now.”

“Nooo!! Beto!!” Ruo Wei wanted to make a last effort to rush towards Beto’s arms, even though they were dozens and dozens of meters apart, and he was bleeding with his limp arms. Yun Tang was in time to grab her, as she had now broken into the 10th stage but was in its early levels. Ruo Wei couldn’t fight away from Yun Tang’s hold from behind as he formed a lock at her stomach. The other teammates could only look as Heian Ciemnosc faced Beto, the only one who could bring him away.

But Beto was prepared to deal with him.

Pshift~~~!!! Thud-~~... crrk- shiing~!

“!!” Heian Ciemnosc barely noticed Beto’s usage of a few blood essence drops. When he did, his chest was already hurting, and Beto was tens of meters away in a headbutting position. Paler than ever. Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes widened, and he immediately dragged his legs’ dark claws into the ground, but it was too late. His darkened feet met the tunnel’s passage floor before 1 second passed with the dirt being prepared to plant seeds. It was cut off, and his dark claws made sparks come off inside the tunnel.

“...” The Team was silent, astounded, and silly by the success of the events. Beto slowly raised his head, feeling more painful to move every iota of his body. No cultivator could easily maintain his consciousness after losing half their blood essence, let alone more than 99% but less than 100% like Beto.

Beto’s blood rapidly dried as the invisible tornado-like thing increased its intensity. Far away, even the Team members and Yun Tang inside the tunnel could see the strange emergence of colors rushing about everywhere in the Dimension world. It was like colorful pencil tips barging into the sky and skyrocketing against the ground. Every time they crashed, everything collapsed. The land shook and trembled as it lifted in the air, along with any bodies of water and living beings within it. But afterwards, the colors would emerge and ‘eat’ everything they touched, extending over the Dimension world and imploding with tiny traces of thin, one-dimensional-like colors.

Hundreds of millions of colors rushed towards the portals, where only Beto and the fleeing cultivators were left behind, and they could very-well reach them in a matter of minutes. Beto slowly exerted all the strength he could possibly have. Heian Ciemnosc was 3 meters before his teammates and Yun Tang. He was also the closest to the Interconnecting Rupture Dimension world, and he could feel the mighty pull urging him to come inside but also scanning him.

Pshift!!~... A sound that made everyone in the tunnel alarmed arose. Beto’s body exploded outwards with a rush of Neutral Energy that seemingly dissipated immediately and smacked into thin air as the world of colors kept rushing towards them from tens of millions of kilometers away, but looking like it was already there before them.

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“!!” - “Gasp…” The world around Beto rapidly changed, but not like the destruction and consumption of this world, for as strange as it seemed. It was as if Beto had suddenly set unprecedented force from within his body to his surroundings, and the nature around him was drawn towards him by instincts. A sensation only a type of living being in this world goes through once. A Third Step cultivator!

However, while Beto was breaking into the Third Step, his vitality returned as his body seemed to change in the fundamentals of one’s knowledge, and not physically…not yet. It was evident that Beto forced that breakthrough to halt, but he couldn’t continue doing that for long, or he’d simply implode. Not a self-detonation or suicidal bomb, he would merely dissipate from the inside as if he was attacked by a Godly being, but from the inside.

But Beto wasn’t using that chance to help and find a way to keep them safe. Instead, as he gave them a look to get the fucking hell out, he used that restored vitality to form a pale goldish dome around him. It was translucent at first and only a few hundred meters in diameter. But it quickly expanded, gaining color and losing the crucial fundamentals of a cultivator’s body. He was sacrificing himself whole… risking extinction.

But as more time passed, Heian Ciemnosc realized the dangers in the Interconnecting Rupture Dimension world were far beyond what he could imagine, and maybe not something peak Third Step cultivators could hope to stop even.

Pshift!!! PSHIFT! PSHIFT!!...

Beto raised his arms. His skin not having fully recovered as a thin layer of skin still showed his insides. However, his Neutral Energy became more powerful. More than Heian Ciemnosc could have hoped to believe, astoundingly surpassing his. The pale goldish dome expanded for a few kilometers before stopping, and that’s when things got rougher than they already were.

The invisible tornado-like strange occurrence suddenly increased in intensity, and Beto started shaking as the pale goldish dome was hit constantly. Thunderous ‘POMB’ and ‘POTOMB’ sounds echoed everywhere as Beto struggled. The other cultivators finally rushed into the tunnels, including the enemy cultivators. When Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes trembled. He prepared his body to rush out, but not without turning his head to look at his teammates, who were dispirited just now, becoming extremely alarmed.

“No! Heian Ciemnosc!” - “Don’t go there!! You’ll make this all pointless!” - “It’ll be in vain, black monster! Don’t!” Heian Ciemnosc’s teammates went at it, but he just looked at them. Then, Yun Tang worryingly looked at him and said, besides everyone else. “Black monster, go ahead if you can do whatever’s on your mind. If not, I’ll stop you right now!”

“...Thanks, I’ll be returning a little later. Ruo Wei, I’ll bring Beto back somehow. Return. Now. I am your Team Leader from now on. Listen to me.” Heian Ciemnosc calmly dropped those words in a soft voice before looking at the view outside the tunnel. His darkest eyes started turning completely dark, and the veins under his pale skin darkened as they bulged.

Bowwbooumb!!

Myriad Darkness Materialization!

A dark dome spread from Heian Ciemnosc’s position. It trembled and was constantly pulled into the tunnel’s depths, but he struggled to aim it at the entrance. Forcing his way outside the tunnel as all the others could see was a dark dome with Heian Ciemnosc inside it, slowly moving forwards.

Heian Ciemnosc gritted his teeth as his darkened eyes stared straight at Beto. When his Myriad Darkness Materialization extended outside the tunnel, it was still constricted and forced to remain in the tunnel’s shape. The Dimension world started collapsing around Heian Ciemnosc and Beto as the former crawled towards the latter, and the latter wasn’t in a position to move. The pain he felt was too much, and he couldn’t even feel shaken by Heian Ciemnosc’s act.

The rest of the Team and Yun Tang didn’t leave. They couldn’t. But they were prepared to rush into the tunnel at any moment, and Heian Ciemnosc counted on that. They also knew that.

Heian Ciemnosc gradually reached Beto’s front, only 1 meter before him. Beto’s tongue had already regenerated, even if not entirely, and his arms were still extended midair sideways. He stared at the tunnel and seemed to easily see through it. “Heian Ciemnosc, I know you’re there… you can’t be here anymore. You’re slowing the rest…”

“I…” Heian Ciemnosc’s voice echoed from the dark tunnel. Afterwards, a left pale hand extended, and its fingers clenched around Beto’s collar. Once the connection was made, Heian Ciemnosc forced his head and shoulders out of his dark tunnel and looked upwards at Beto since he was at Beto’s chest level. The dark dome finally formed around them, but only in a smallish area of not even 2 x 2 meters. Heian Ciemnosc continued his words. “Didn’t come here to just talk.”

“...” But there wasn’t a response from Beto. Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes nature-read through Beto’s physical body and noticed… His body was dead. His was his Soul barely moving the body, but it was so near to death! Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes shook, and a tiny, ordinary yellow-orange flame sparkled from his left eye, with sparks passing to the right and crossing to his other darkest eye.

“No! Wait!! Not yet! I have an idea!” Suddenly, Heian Ciemnosc’s instincts were interrupted by Sara, who shouted like hell had broken loose in his head. Heian Ciemnosc skipped the greeting and stared directly at Sara. In an instant, she spoke and instructed Heian Ciemnosc as he listened and acted upon hearing her words.

Pushuong!! Heian Ciemnosc’s dark Soul extended everywhere, setting a carpet on the ground as Beto’s Soul stopped responding to him and Spirit Sense pokes. Heian Ciemnosc took his Golden Array Snakes, appearing on his left palm. He looked around before letting it expand in a 30 x 30 meters cage behind Beto’s Soul. Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes fixated on the latter and lost their whole darkening as the dark tunnel behind him dissipated nearly instantly. At the same time, Vocón Link exited Heian Ciemnosc’s upper back and shot towards the tunnel. The others… were being destroyed by slight traces of colors!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH~~!!! CRAAAAAAAACKKK!!!! PPUUUUNG~!...

Hushash…. A whiff of strange exuberance exploded towards Beto from Heian Ciemnosc’s glabella, sending slight color traces hundreds of meters around them away like an explosion chain. This gave them extra milliseconds, enough for Heian Ciemnosc to push Beto’s Soul into his Golden Array Snakes and for his Vocón Link to grab the entrance of the golden tunnel, extend its sub bodies like a mouth, and stop it from closing!

Whooooooooooooooshhh~!!

Heian Ciemnosc’s body was powerfully pulled towards the tunnel as more and more colors rushed towards them, and Heian Ciemnosc could feel death licking his ears and heels with every passing instant. His pale hands were extended to the Golden Array Snakes, rapidly becoming a goldish, transparent beam flashing through the Dimension world and joining his Covert Space bags, where he could keep it safe. Then, in his last moments looking at a doomed Dimension, Heian Ciemnosc’s body entered the golden tunnel with his feet nearly cut off by its entrance.

Plop! Whooooosh! Thud!!

“Agh!” - “No time to speak, let’s moooove!” Clanton was hurt as Heian Ciemnosc smashed his body against his. But Yun Tang was too nervous and scared of something. He looked at the tunnel’s closed entrance and unhesitatingly turned around with a dull-eyed Ruo Wei. Everyone on the Team saw Beto’s body being left behind as Heian Ciemnosc did some sort of movements, maybe trying to at least recover his corpse… But Heian Ciemnosc returned without anyone else in the end.

“Let’s go…” Heian Ciemnosc said, forcing dark blood about to be expelled from his mouth inside it, standing up without looking back, and starting leading everyone. Yun Tang remained in the middle as the others flew behind Heian Ciemnosc. They were hurt but not about to waste their previous team leader’s efforts. Ruo Wei finally sobered up after a few minutes and flew towards Heian Ciemnosc, with Yun Tang having long let her float among them freely.

“Heian Ciemnosc…” Ruo Wei’s nearly tearing up eyes appeared before Heian Ciemnosc’s face just as he turned downwards. Ruo Wei moved to float at the same height and placed her hands, overlapping each other, on his right shoulder. “Beto… he-... he… Did you manage to save something?”

“...” Heian Ciemnosc looked at Ruo Wei as she asked such a heartrending question. Anyone could tell how much it hurt to just speak them…

Pop. “He’s gone, Ruo Wei… but I kept his Soul,” Heian Ciemnosc said after taking his Golden Array Snakes out of his Covert Space bags. It was tiny, just the size of a child’s hand. But that was Beto’s Soul’s size, correlating to its state and… survival chances. Ruo Wei’s eyes crazily widened, and many thoughts popped up into her mind. In the end, she could only look up at Heian Ciemnosc questioningly.

“I won’t turn him into Sub Fauna. I won’t need to. I can… ask the Celestial to recuperate him like they must have done with Kilah.” Heian Ciemnosc’s words made Ruo Wei’s inner body melt, and she finally started tearing up as her hands cupped his cheeks and planted an intense smooch on his forehead. “Thank you!!”

“...” Heian Ciemnosc showed a trace of a smile but not a smile as Ruo Wei returned to her place. Then, he looked at the others… His Team… His Team members, now.

“!!” But suddenly, Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes popped open, constricting their contents by an absurd margin. He looked at Yun Tang and yelled at the top of his lungs, “Yun Tang, take the lead! Help them forward!!”

“What about you?” Yun Tang nodded, flew forth, and lightly asked. Heian Ciemnosc fleetingly glanced at Yun Tang before rushing downwards, leaving his words behind. “I don’t need your help in space. Keep them safe. The outside isn’t ‘nice’ either. Help them into the nearest spaceship… I’ll stop these…”

“?!” - “!!”- “!” - “!?” - “?!” The Team members looked at the retreating Heian Ciemnosc, who flew hundreds of meters behind them or below. One couldn’t tell in this tunnel. Heian Ciemnosc stopped just before he escaped their naked eyesight, turned to face them, and started extending his Vocón Link, darkened his hands and feet, and expanded his dark Neutral Energy from the corners of his skin to form what looked like a layer of dark leather around him, encompassing the entire tunnel’s width.

Fwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuushhh~~~!!!!!!

Deafening sounds echoed from far away as tiny dots forming different colors emerged in their Spirit Sense. Every Team member and Yun Tang constricted their pupils before understanding and rushing, advancing faster than ever… They couldn’t lose another Team Leader!!”

…