Chapter 1981
‘How do we kill him?’
Faker was reminded of the strength of the cultivators now that he was watching Braham fight one of them. They used offensive skills, as well as defensive ones. Unlike normal defensive skills, the shields of the cultivators allowed them to move and act with no restrictions. One could almost say those shields resembled a dragon’s Absolute Defense, though that was a bit of an exaggeration.
Even though they had shields deployed, the cultivators were able to move and attack freely. A cultivator wasn’t restricted by anything when their shield was up. The shield also counterattacked while defending against enemy attacks, making the fight rather one-sided. Of course, doing this required a lot of spiritual energy.
Faker had learned a voice-based technique from a Full Moon Fortress destroyed four days earlier and succeeded in condensing a spiritual root. He understood how these shields worked. He was certain that no cultivator could keep them up forever.
However, the white-haired cultivator currently fighting Braham was an Absolute. Surely, he possessed an unimaginable amount of spiritual energy. It wouldn’t be too much of a hassle for him to keep activating his shields throughout the battle.
In fact, the white-haired man had had his protective shield activated ever since Braham hit him in the forehead with the staff. Since the power of a cultivator’s shield was proportional to their realm level, the shield was able to withstand even the barrage of Disintegrate.
“You can’t use Quasar anymore?”
[Not for two more days. To activate Quasar, it takes a lot of time to modify the structure of the mana core. It’s impossible to use Memorize on it and the side effects are quite considerable.]
Considering how strong of an ability Quasar was, the two days cooldown time was relatively short. Though it was a shame, considering the situation they were in.
Braham’s Mana Shield flickered. The vivid blue magic faded and became dark. It couldn’t withstand the power of the techniques flying non-stop from the white-haired, dark-skinned man.
The man handled too many attributes. He could freeze the target, pour hot water on them, burn them, create a storm to damage them, stun them, crush them by applying substantial pressure, and so on.
Colorful techniques exploded against Braham’s shield, systematically weakening it, to the point where Braham needed to respond by changing the attributes of the shield accordingly. In other words, it was a high-speed battle that an average person couldn’t keep up with, because Braham changed the attribute of his shield every 0.1 seconds.
Faker was a Transcendent who could win a battle with his high insight and quick decision-making, but he couldn’t really keep up with what was occurring in a battle between Absolutes, since everything was happening too fast for him to see.
The battle between the Absolutes, who deployed spells and techniques, or activated artifacts and orbs, was on a different level.
The battlefield that Braham had restored was being devastated again. Braham’s spells and the white-haired man’s techniques repeatedly changed nature and caused disasters, such as the grassland becoming a snowy field before being swept away by a tsunami, or an active volcano suddenly rising before turning into ashes and disappearing.
After a few more exchanges, Braham glanced at Faker.
[Join the resurrected personnel and move to the next Full Moon Fortress.]
“Right.”
Faker was cool-headed. He wasn’t a talkative person, so he immediately turned around. But the gray-haired man mocked him as he was about to leave.
“Give up any hope that you will survive. This battle will be over soon anyway. You are destined to die. It will only be a hassle for both of you if you keep dragging this out unnecessarily.”
Faker couldn’t move. It was as if he was nailed to the air. Maybe some technique was at work. Braham noticed this and cast the Cure spell.
Faker, now freed from the influence of the formation, turned into a shadow and left. The white-haired man glared at the spot where Faker had just been.
“So, he’s the type of person who easily abandons his master. I’m familiar with people like him.”
[Didn’t you understand the context of our conversation? You are quite incompetent. Maybe if you evolved, you’d finally be as intelligent as a monkey.]
“Haha, there is no point in having a conversation with someone as clueless as you.”
“The strength of your blood... To train it this much... How many humans did you use for your blood sacrifice...?”
His heart was on the verge of exploding. He couldn’t even control his spiritual root anymore.
There was only one way for him to get out of this. He had to let his nascent soul escape. Giving up on this body would cost him tens of thousands of years of cultivation, but it was a million times better than dying.
[You are speaking nonsense again.]
An irritating thought was engraved into the space. Braham appeared before the white-haired man’s eyes, and he was in a much better state. Blood rose like vines from his severed neck, tangling until it morphed into healthy body parts and limbs...
The white-haired man was horrified. The blood that was regenerating Braham was the same that was currently pouring out of the cultivator.
Braham was absorbing all the blood that he forcibly took from the heart that was beating at over a thousand times per second.
[How dare you try to understand me given your knowledge as a cultivator? That’s impossible to do, and it feels unpleasant.]
“You blood demon...”
The white-haired man’s mind went blank with rage. He didn’t want to allow Braham to live by using his blood. He wondered if there was even a reason to live after giving up tens of thousands of years of cultivation.
After dedicating his entire life to cultivation, did he really have to give it all up just because he was desperate to survive?
Absolutely not.
He wanted to at least anger his enemy, who was smiling arrogantly at him. But the cultivator felt hopeless. He just wanted to preserve his dignity, which he’d maintained for all his life...
The white-haired man became determined and his spiritual root vibrated like crazy, faster than even his heart, which could explode any minute now. This distorted the heaven and earth origin energy around him.
He was aiming to take down Braham with him.
He used his last remaining strength to take control of the area and managed to smile. He expected Braham to look surprised and frightened. This enemy, who made the cultivator feel like his whole world had fallen into an abyss of despair...
The man thought that taking Braham with him to the underworld was an acceptable gift.
However—
“......?”
There was no change in Braham’s expression. He still looked arrogant, and he didn’t seem to panic at all.
Just then, the man’s spiritual root reached its limit and exploded. A massive blast engulfed everything around him, bathing the world in light.
Despite the explosions, some indigo barriers retained their shape. They were the only things that resisted without being swallowed up by the light.
Multiple Weakening Barriers. Braham recreated the strongest defensive skill that Grid had gotten from Judar. The research carried out with the help of Grid had been very rewarding. The skill was still imperfect, but he was able to bring out around 50% of its power thanks to just becoming an Absolute.
“This guy...!”
The white-haired man scowled as he turned to ashes and disappeared. The indigo curtain stood alone in the area where not a single blade of grass was left. It soon shattered and scattered in the air.
Braham was pale as he stepped out of it. From an outside perspective, he seemed relatively unharmed, but his internal injuries were serious. Every organ in his body had been torn to shreds. It was hard to move his blood, let alone his mana.
However, Braham didn’t have time to catch his breath. He struggled to collect the loot left behind by the dead cultivator and immediately tracked down Faker.
Stronger enemies kept emerging. He had to work hard to take the pressure off Grid...