265 Chapter 264: Heaven and Earth Reversal (1/2)
KROOOM!
Perspiration dripped down Sha Chen's face as he watched the multiple black tornados whip around, surrounding me like a barrier.
Staring into it, he was reminded of a black hole, something that sucked everything into its core. Nothing could esape from it, not even light. Just a bottomless abyss of darkness that continued to devour everything until all creation was destroyed.
Or whatever happened to something after it got sucked into a black hole. Given the tremendous gravity it exerted, I guess anything caught within its wake would be crushed down into an atom or something.
”Ugh!”
Stones and rocks flew past the staggering Dark Sage as he was buffeted by the violent winds. He swayed unsteadily on his feet, unable to hold his ground. His eye twitched as he watched in disbelief, still trying to comprehend what was going on.
”I can't believe that a brat who's not even twenty is capable of unleashing such power!” he growled. Then he shook his head as he analyzed the reversed flow of qi that was unfurling back toward him. His qi. ”No…this isn't even his power. He's using my own power against me!”
He narrowed his eyes, but could hardly make out anything other than my shadowy silhouette. My figure was mostly covered by a swirling black hole that was the source of all the whirlwinds around me. My lenses shone demonically, the only part of my figure that was not black.
”Damn it!”
Sha Chen dug his feet into the ground obstinately, refusing to allow himself to get blown off and sucked into the vortex. Exerting his qi, he crushed two deep footprints into the dirt in an effort to anchor himself.
Whoosh…!
”Are all disciples…no, all members of the Heaven and Earth Sect monsters?” he murmured to himself as dread suffused him. ”No wonder the Martial Arts Alliance was so desperate to destroy them. If they allowed a sect of monsters to run free like this…eventually the whole world would have succumbed to them!”
Gritting his teeth, the pale Heavenly Venom King snarled. A few seconds later, however, he began to chuckle sinisterly.
”Heh…ha ha ha ha!”
Curling his lips into a sneer, he studied me.
”But even the Absolute One never would have thought that his last surviving disciple would be unfortunate enough to encounter me!”
Krack!
An ominous noise ripped across the valley as Sha Chen flexed his ocean of qi, crushing down the gravitional forces that were distorting the environment and devastating everything. He began to grin, excitement filling his aged heart.
”I'll use my ultimate technique this time,” he declared resolutely, his eyes wide with rage and glee. ”Watch how I annihilate all traces of Heaven and Earth Sect…forever!”
I rolled my eyes. ”Can you stop being so dramatic?” I complained. ”If you want to kill me, just do it. Why talk so much?”
Sha Chen took my advice. Instead of retorting or telling me to shut up, he raised his left hand and began conjuring a vortex of flames.
”Mass Incendiary Ball,” he growled as the ever-expanding conflagration began to block out his majestic but battered figure. Trails of embers danced around him like fireworks in a summer festival, blinding, colorful, and powerful. I couldn't help but be mesmerized by his impressive display of force. His mana was also spreading out like an ocean, threatening to drown us in superheated flames. ”Ultimate Explosion!”
”Oh, so you're learning from the Crimson Demonic Mage who specializes in Explosion magic now?” I grumbled. Unfortunately, it was disturbing to see an old man use an explosion spell instead of a crimson-eyed girl with black hair who was dressed in red. Too bad I wasn't Kazuma or I would have been able to come up with a better tsukkomi.
SSSSSwish!
The colossal conflagration expanded exponentially from Sha Chen's body, incinerating his surroundings and blowing a crater into the ground. They swallowed up even my black tornadoes, racing to devour me and the poor forest nestled into the little valley.
Boom!
”Argh…!”
Wincing as my tornadoes were blown back, nonetheless I stood my ground and analyzed the flow of qi. I could see the maelstroms colliding against each other again, the golden lightning that danced from their merciless clashes. Gritting my teeth, I dug one foot into the ground before swinging Azure Lotus Sword with all my might.
”Heaven and Earth Reversal!”
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Veins were throbbing and bulging over my face as I panted heavily, struggling to cope with the enormous exertions my technique was placing on me. I faintly recalled a single warning from my master. Heaven and Earth Reversal was extremely powerful, but if I didn't use it right, it as well as my opponent's attack would kill me.
My will had to overpower my opponent's. In other words, in order for my ultimate technique to succeed, I had to be more determined than my enemy.
Gritting my teeth, I ground my feet in and continued to infuse my technique with my qi, refusing to yield. The Heaven and Earth Strike I sent out to form the basis of my Heaven and Earth Reversal met the Mass Incendiary Ball head-on, and began reversing the flow.
Then the crimson flames began to turn black. However, it didn't stop. The inferno seemed to grow uncontrollably, spreading out to over a few hundred meters. Then a kilometer. Then two. Then several. And that was in radius.
Boom!
The conflagration rose high up into the sky, almost reaching a kilometer and dwarfing several hills in the vicinity. It was so blinding, so huge that even people outside the Sen Lin Forest could see it billowing upward like a mushroom cloud.
”What's that!?”
”Holy Throne!”
”Heavens…!”
The people of Duchun Town were among the first humans to witness it, their town being the closest to the site of battle. They watched in awe as the black flames spiraled high into the sky, almost as if it was piercing the heavens.
”What the hell is going on?!”
”What's that?”
The townsfolk were in a panic, running around and milling about. They could see entire swathes of forest wiped out in the distance, incinerated into cinders. Magical beasts, demonic creatures – no matter how powerful they were, they got caught up in the incendiary blast and were consumed by merciless flames, leaving no trace of them behind.
Meanwhile, the Imperial Guard garrisoned there were being mobilized, the guardsmen grabbing their weapons and forming up at the edge of the town, just before Sen Lin Forest. They gripped their weapons tightly as they watched, getting ready to intervene the moment the flames or battle spilled over to the town under their charge.
”That must be the Heavenly Venom King!”
”Is he even human?”
”No,” a veteran sergeant murmured. ”Even if that's the Heavenly Venom King…just who is his opponent? For him to force the Dark Sage to unleash this much power…”
Everyone fell silent and glanced at the shaking sergeant. He swallowed and shook his head as he turned to gaze at his subordinates.
”Years ago, I had witnessed the Heavenly Venom King fight. Just once. He was a monster. Still is, from the look of things.”
”He's really not showing any mercy, eh?” one of the privates muttered.
”Probably because he can't afford to.” The sergeant gulped. ”That's Ultimate Explosion.”
”What?!” a corporal gasped. ”Isn't that one of the ultimate techniques of the Incendiary Ifrit Sect? Why does he…?”
”Before he left, he was from the Incendiary Ifrit Sect. He was expelled for practicing poison techniques. But that's not the point.”
The sergeant was trembling.
”I don't know who his opponent is…or how on earth he cornered the Dark Sage into using this move.”
”Why? What's the problem” Another private asked, looking bewildered. The sergeant fixed him with an intensive stare.
”Because Ultimate Explosion is normally used as Tong Gui Yu Jin (basically a Chinese idiom for perish together)!”
”…e?!”
All the soldiers stared at the sergeant, even their relatively young officer. Then they stared into the distance, where the colossal conflagration continued to blossom upward and outward. The grizzled veteran himself couldn't help but fix his gaze on the ominous fireball as well.
”Is he really going to…?” he breathed in disbelief.
Boom!
A huge chunk of the forest was blown out, disintegrating into nothingness as the immense inferno ravaged it. Black flames crawled around the edges, scrabbling at the white core of superheated plasma.
In the center of it all, a single figure stood, his red cloak billowing up around him. Surrounded by dancing black members, he cut a solitary figure in the devastation around him. His smoking left hand hung from his shoulder almost uselessly, and he heaved. Despite his injuries and exhaustion, sinister gray qi continued to fume from his silhouette in an imposing manner, signifying that he remained a very potent threat.
As they said, the most dangerous animals were the ones who were cornered.
”Ugh…!”
But even so, the battle was taking its toll on the old man. Sweat poured down Sha Chen's beleaguered face and he grimaced from pain and exhaustion. He bit his lip fiercely, forcing himself to suppress the surge to spit out blood.
In front of him, his flames were disappearing. Instead, they were being drawn into what looked like a black hole…a whirling vortex of black energies that devoured his flames. The more it consumed, the larger the maelstrom of dark qi grew. A tornado was slowly building up again, swirling fiercely as it reversed the flow of Sha Chen's qi and added his energies to its own.
Slowly but surely, the black tornado grew, becoming denser, becoming darker and become more ominous.
”Argh…this brat!” Sha Chen growled in disbelief. There was a tread of dread in his voice as he stared at the expanding vortex. Come now, I knew that vortex grenades made their return to Warhammer 40,000's new edition of Apocalypse, but there was nothing to be afraid of. There were no mortal wounds in Apocalypse, at least not yet. It was different from 8th Edition.
Sha Chen, on the other hand, didn't' seem to care. He probably played the old versions of Apocalypse, which were more like expansions of the main game than a separate game. Thus he was salty about the changes. Dude, if you hate it so much, go play Epic instead.
”…this brat is still all right even after taking my Ultimate Explosion?!”