Depthless Hunger Chapters 641-644

Chapter 641: Final Choices

When the command ca over the crystal, Kojajix couldn't believe his ears. He had thought it was just a threat, not sothing they would ever actually do. Their treatnt of the Irunians, who seed to be a noble people, had already turned his stomach. The idea of actually slaughtering them indiscriminately...

Even more unbelievably, both the n with him were picking up their swords and getting ready to attack. There were Irunian servants nearby... except there were two won rushing in, trying to pull them to safety. Foreigners, but too slow to escape them, practically not moving. They were throwing their lives away for civilians who weren't even their own people.

"Wait!" Kojajix grabbed his sword as he scrambled after the others, trying to get in their path. "You aren't really going to do this, are you?"

"You heard Fodajix," one of the n said. "They're trying to kill us."

"It's just stepping on a few bugs," the other agreed.

"No, this is madness." Kojajix raised his hands as if he could physically block their path. "Have you forgotten who we are? We're just sailors, blown to a strange land. I shouldn't have gone along this far, but this... this..."

"You going soft on us, Kojajix? Now?"

"Fine then, die with him."

One of the n slashed across Kojajix's chest and his body erupted in pain. The man started to turn away...

And Kojajix stabbed him through the stomach.

They had forgotten who they were. They'd grown used to being able to cut opponents in half without effort, to being invincible to all attacks. But amongst themselves, they were just ordinary n. The man opposite Kojajix stared in shock at the sword through his stomach, as if he couldn't truly believe it.

Kojajix struggled to pull his sword out and swing at the other man, even though he was growing light-headed. They exchanged blows in a clumsy brawl, each drawing blood. He was no hero... Kojajix couldn't have beaten two n on his best day, much less with an open wound across his chest. They collapsed in a pile and he couldn't feel his sword anymore.

As he lay there, his vision fading, he realized that the two local won had managed to grab the servants and run. They couldn't have gotten far, at their speed. The others would get up and chase them down, so the most he could possibly have done was buy them ti.

It was basically nothing, and it was the first ti he felt that he had done sothing right ever since they had seen the gray man. Kojajix couldn't smile as he died, but he died with his eyes clear.

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..

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The phased fights were ending, the unphased fights had barely begun, and Omilaena and Jonijix remained locked in a fully phased battle, nothing but a blur to everyone except perhaps the Windlord. She hadn't seen them in so ti, so she had to assu that they were still engaged with the other invaders.

Virtually everything in the central street had been demolished by the waves and blasts of water that Jonijix hurled constantly. Now that she had the speed and endurance to face them, Omilaena was surprised by how crude the attacks were. Instead of building up power in a practiced way, he just hurled huge concentrations of chakra into forming water and then blasted it at her.

Or at where she had been a little while ago. Omilaena's new Physique made her far faster and more agile than before, and her Azure Core continued powering her movents... there were no longer any bottlenecks to her strength, so she could fight even an opponent like this.

"Dammit!" Jonijix summoned even more water, lifting himself into the air so that he was surrounded by a full sphere of water. Damn unfair that even he could fly when she couldn't.

Omilaena hurled another ice needle and this ti Jonijix t it with a burst of water - her needle froze through it, but got stuck in his sphere. She didn't let up, dodging his water blasts while throwing ice needles back, freezing more of his sphere with each one.

At last he let out a cry and surged even more power, circulating the water in his sphere and sweeping away all her ice. Omilaena hurled several more needles, barely covered in ice, as if she was getting tired. He laughed, an oddly echoing sound in the water.

After she had managed to blow poison smoke into the hollow part within his water shield, Jonijix had just surrounded himself with water - apparently he didn't need to breathe, and it certainly didn't stop him from shouting. Her needles sank within the sphere, then were caught up in the flow that circled around him.

"Co on, is this the best you can do?" Jonijix continued hurling blasts of water at her as he shouted. "You know I'm the strongest, of all of us. Even Yangix doesn't have my raw power! You really think a few needles are going to get through to ?"

Omilaena responded by hurling a jar at him. When he shot a blast at it, the glass shattered in an explosion of ice qi that only partially froze his sphere. From behind it, Omilaena wondered how well she could do in a direct battle of power. Her current thods were going to take forever, so maybe it wouldn't hurt to try a direct assault.

She tensed her fingers, concentrating her power until her fingernails glistened, then lunged forward. Jonijix was so shocked that she managed to slash at his watery sphere several tis before he could even retaliate, her fingers cutting deep into the chakra that made the sphere rotate, making the entire balance begin to destabilize.

Of course he tried to attack her, shooting out more blasts, but he always telegraphed them so obviously with his arms, she dodged around them and continued cutting down his sphere. It was like slicing through mud, but the mud was weakening, so it was only a matter of ti...

Suddenly the sphere expanded in size, slamming into her while she was in the middle of dodging. Omilaena struck the wall of a nearby building, groaning at the impact. Their strength was about equal, so that definitely hurt. On the other hand, Jonijix looked shocked that she hadn't been eliminated by the attack - at least he was trying to kill her now.

While she got her footing, Omilaena hurled more needles, both ice and poison. Jonijix was being more cautious now, watching her carefully and only occasionally shooting one of his water blasts. She needed to distract him, so maybe it was ti for another trick she had been working on...

Omilaena moved closer again, drawing in a deep breath. She anticipated his water burst and took this one with her shoulder - the impact blasted away so of her dress, but then she was in close and ready.

When she blew, she exhaled ice qi directly into his watery sphere. She was able to freeze a surprisingly large part of it, nearly reaching Jonijix himself, before he rallied. With another surge of chakra, he surged his shield around her ice, lting it.

While he was doing that, she tossed a couple more jars into the water. He crushed them as easily as the rest, not even seeming to notice.

"Is that... all?" Jonijix was panting for breath within the water now, but his eyes still burned at her. "You... you can't..."

"Not feeling well?" Omilaena asked. "Have you been drinking?"

"What? I..."

Even as his water destabilized and Jonijix slumped toward the ground, he still didn't seem to understand. The truth was that Omilaena had given up on the ice strategy almost imdiately, instead using it as cover for her real plan: injecting more and more poison into the water of his sphere. She'd noticed that he circulated the water instead of recreating it, so it was only a matter of ti until her poison chakra managed to seep into him.

The poison needles, the ice needles ford from poison, the jars, even her fingernails... all had been thods of increasing the dosage. Even though she thought her poison had been fully phased, it had taken a lot more than she expected. Now, at last, Jonijix seed to be faltering, and she didn't intend to take any chances.

Omilaena pierced directly into his watery sphere, striking him in the chest and dragging him out. She slamd him down to the ground and then, for good asure, brought her heel down hard on his crotch. The squelch combined with the cry of pain was so very satisfying after enduring him for so long.

"You're still just brimming with chakra, aren't you?" She bent down on his chest, driving her knee in hard, and injected him with another poison. But once that was done, she used an empty syringe on his heart and began drawing out the chakra within him.

"Wait... I..."

"No, not anymore." Omilaena smiled as she focused on her syringe and tried to draw out as much of his life force as she could. "This is all you're good for, and good riddance."

By the ti she had filled her syringe, Jonijix was a withered husk. Omilaena had never drawn energy like that before, because there had never been a need, but phased chakra was worth the experint. It struck her as disgusting, but she was certain she could find a use for such potent power, and in fact she could think of so imdiately.

As she rose to her feet, she saw that the Windlord had arrived, and Ceryyn wasn't that far behind. Good to know they had made it.

"Any problems here?" Omilaena asked.

"So got away," Ceryyn said. "We intend to h-"

"You take care of that. I'll be back."

With that, Omilaena drank her teleportation potion. She ended up back on Deadwaste faster than she had expected, deep within the Frontier. There was no one waiting for her, though - the elites she saw were rushing around as if they all had sowhere to be. If the invaders really had struck across the continent, perhaps they did.

Well then, ti to get to work.

Chapter 642: Transformation Through Impurity

One hundred and nine percent.

No, beyond that, but not quite enough. Zae Zin Nim flickered at the edge of a breakthrough, and her struggle was not to manage it, but to avoid breaking through too early.

She sat in the center of a circular room ford of pure white marble. All around her, the most powerful mbers of the Pureflower Sect sat in two rings, extending their hands and imparting their qi toward her. The result was a locus of incredible density, yin energy of extraordinary beauty and power, yet it wasn't enough.

In one sense, what she was trying to do was simple. She no longer viewed Sky Soul as a mystical limit to cultivation, it was rely the next step in preparing her dantian and qi for more intense cultivation. But with that limit removed, she found herself in unknown territory, basing her thods on nothing but heretical techniques and her own intuitions.

Her first and strongest theory was that she should use far more qi than was normally recomnded, the sort of energy that was freely available in the outside world. Normally that would spill over, but she had prepared several thods to try to open her dantian and her ridians to absorb it.

Second, she was going further than focusing on simple qi. She had already done so of this in past breakthroughs, in order to not leave behind her Coldfire Corona and Pure Yin Shroud, but now she went further. These powers were not simply part of her, they were part of her cultivation.

So far, she had nearly reached 110% simply via her own power and the huge rush of yin energy from the Pureflower Sect. In front of her, she had arrayed various qi and dicinal pills from the Brightwind vaults, just in case. The most obvious treasure was the Jade Key Pill, of course. From Lostwreck, she held the deathly black pill. She had a potion of her own concentrated mana from Juray and the pill Omilaena had forged just for her. Heavenly Qi gathered from both the Brightwind and Coiling Island sects. Currently she was overflowing with yin energy, but she still held balancing yang from Kai within her dantian.

All of that should have been more than enough, yet she remained at the precipice, fearing that all of this would lead to a fire deviation. It made all too much sense that this hubris would lead her to go too far, cracking her dantian and leaving her cultivation forever leaking...

No, there was no more room for doubt. Zae Zin Nim had heard Cragrila's grim ssage and knew that there was no more ti. In this battle, she would not be too late.

With a rush of determination, Zae Zin Nim began consuming every single one of the resources available to her, embracing them all, forcing her cultivation to widen to encompass more than she had been taught. For several glorious monts, her potential seed to soar and she felt sothing loosen in her stomach, as if her dantian was opening.

The flood of power made several of the Pureflower cultivators faint, and that distraction threw Zae Zin Nim off. There was so much power, she was rushing toward the edge, but what was shifting within her? Was this a sensation that she needed to suppress with discipline, or sothing to be embraced? She was in entirely unfamiliar territory here.

No matter what she tried, the next tier seed to recede from her. Even with so much power surging within her, she felt as though her dantian was leaking, so she desperately consud one of the Brightwind qi pills. That would only last so long, however, and another Pureflower maiden had collapsed in exhaustion.

She felt a mont of pity... and her cultivation surged in response. Zae Zin Nim frowned and tried to suppress her emotions, then reconsidered. The surge hadn't been a bad one... emotion could easily destabilize a cultivator, but it didn't need to be eliminated.

Now that she thought about it, she realized that her initial step on the path had been pushed by thinking about Cragrila, Wan Fei, and everyone else who depended on her. Had that actually been the right path, which she had abandoned by shedding emotions?

Zae Zin Nim let her heart enter her cultivation, pouring everything she could into her soul, and it seed to heat up in response. The heat should have scared her, but she embraced it: she added in her love for her spouses, her determination to return to them. That took her closer, but it wasn't enough... next she drew on her anger, her wrath at her father and everything he represented.

All at once there was too much. Zae Zin Nim let out a cry of pain, cultivators fell all around her, and her world went dark.

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..

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Kai's vision flickered darkly and he realized that even Behemoth's Heart was struggling to keep up with the battle. He had been fighting the Abhorroid for what felt like hours, preventing it from assaulting the city, but he was nearing his limits. His body and stamina regenerated, but the monster seed to have unlimited amounts of both.

Was there even a point in still fighting? He felt as though the inhabitants of Hantron City should all have fled... but no, they hadn't. Human beings were slow and disorganized, and even with an abomination floating in the sky overhead, they couldn't all get out at the sa ti. If he knew people, when they saw him fighting for them, they might even have delayed to grab more of their things.

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If he was that bitter, he really was injured. Kai groaned as he pulled himself up to a sitting position and looked toward the floating monster. It continued toward him inexorably, despite all of the wounds he had dealt to it.

He might be done. Kai's monstrous body could keep fighting, but he had been pushing his mind for so long, fighting over and over with so little sleep... there was only so much of him to go around, and he had stretched himself thin. This fighting while giving in to his instincts was the last straw, leaving his mind barely intact...

"Here we are again." Omilaena embraced him from behind and new life surged within him.

"You." Kai smiled blearily at her. "Did you... beat Jonijix?"

"Beat and drained his life force into a syringe."

"Good. But..." Kai shook himself and refocused. "I'm glad to see you, but you shouldn't be here. There are invaders attacking all across Deadwaste, and most people can't defend themselves like I can. I don't even know how many... oh, and Fodajix. He slipped away and he could be doing anything. There's literally no one on the continent who can beat him except for the two of us."

"Relax." Omilaena kissed his cheek and the poison on her lips tingled. "As much as I wanted to help you imdiately, I also wanted to spend all day in bed today, and we can't get what we want. I've already talked to Razz and the Irunians, helping them with a few things. Right now, what they all need you to do is fight the battle they can't."

"Right..." Kai pushed himself to his feet and took a deep breath. He didn't entirely understand what she ant, but her logic was sound. "How are we going to play this?"

"I admit, that monster is a problem. Do you think you can grow and release that beam you did while fighting Zae Clen Ban?"

"That drained half the city, rember? Even then, it only lasted a few seconds. There just isn't enough energy to-" He cut off as a syringe filled with blue chakra was waved under his nose.

"This is what's left of Jonijix," she told him. "The only phased chakra in our world worth anything. It's a bit nasty, given who it ca from, but I'm pretty sure you can draw off it. The only problem is that I don't know how long it will last."

"Omi, this is amazing. I could kiss you."

"You absolutely could."

"But if I'm fighting here, you need to hunt down Fodajix. He might not be the strongest invader, but it looks like he'll be the most trouble. We can't win so long as he's lurking."

"Alright." Omilaena handed him the syringe and then took a step back with a fond smile. "As much as I'd like to stay and watch, I suppose there's always a chance you'll try to eat ... in a bad way. So use this and take on the monster. Bringing it down now is our best chance, but if you can't, we'll have your back."

"Right." Kai gripped the syringe tightly and watched her go before he turned to the monster.

The Abhorroid had been floating closer during their conversation, slowly and inexorably. Now, however, it didn't seem so unstoppable. It wasn't simply that he'd taken ti to rest, or that he had a new source of power. What mattered more was that talking to Omilaena instead of enduring an endless brutal fight made him feel like himself again.

Even though he was about to stop being himself. Kai turned the syringe of chakra over in his hands, trying to rember exactly how he'd felt in Floodisle City. It might be difficult to regain that... or it might not. His Savage Heart had improved so much, he could practically feel it thirsting for the chakra.

Instead of injecting himself, Kai tossed the syringe into the air and ate it in one bite. Instantly he felt the difference, making everywhere he'd been on Cloudspire or Rosemount feel like a desolate wasteland. He seized that power, feeling his body grow, far more than it normally would.

He expected to lose control of himself, to fall into monstrous instincts, and just tried to focus himself toward the Abhorroid. But as his view of the world rose and it no longer looked so overwhelmingly large, he realized that his mind was still clear. Hungry, furious, but clear.

Letting out an earth-shaking roar, Kai launched himself at the enemy.

Chapter 643: The Hand of Deadwaste

The people of Hantron City had thought it was the end of the world when the monster lood in the sky, so panicking and so giving in to despair. Those who hadn't been able to escape while it floated closer accepted that this would be their end.

When a new monstrous form erged outside the city, those who still had enough sense to notice mostly groaned in ironic despair. They were already as good as dead, what did another unbeatable monster matter?

But when the new monster hurled itself against the enemy, sothing began to shift. For every person who felt the monstrous power and recoiled, another looked past it and realized that this monster was defending their city. So of them rembered a son of Goralia who had been exiled and condemned as a monster before returning to defend them, in the incursion and again now.

None of them had a fraction of the strength necessary to go out and join the battle that shook the earth outside their city. But a few began to find their courage, helping those who had fallen, unsticking wagons, helping the evacuation proceed. A few hunters picked up their weapons again and so toasted the giant from the walls.

Everyone on the continent had felt when the Abhorroid awakened, no matter how little they understood of power. Now the world trembled again as another monster erged, and yet when they heard a roar in their souls, they felt no despair.

And slowly, with that monstrous roar, Deadwaste began to wake up.

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..

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As hard as Tusquo fought, he realized that it wouldn't be enough. Even with his wife by his side, they were barely able to keep the single remaining invader from taking the city. It burned especially because they had worked so hard to master their phase training, yet just attaining a level playing field still left them weaker than this single brute.

Beyond them, however, there was no one. Because there were only a few invaders left in Irun, the elites had focused on more dangerous fronts. Two of Kai's students had helped with the evacuations, but they didn't have knowledge of phases. A single invader could slaughter untold numbers.

When Tusquo looked over to Quinta, she gave him a grim nod. They could try to hold out for ti... or they could try to end the battle. If they were willing to sacrifice themselves, they could probably land mortal blows.

It wasn't ti for that yet, but Tusquo couldn't help but think it. He had always said that he would give his life for Irun, and if it ca to that now...

Then without warning a sword burst through the invader's chest. As he fell to the ground, it contracted backward... all the way across the courtyard, to where Pourila stood. Tusquo had known the old woman had been a warrior when she was younger, but that should have been impossible. She was clad in the traditional liquid armor, which shouldn't have granted anywhere near so much power...

<

Na: Pourila Goryun of Irun

Total Power: 1006

Ironpath Physique: E-0 (300)

Soul Level: 9 (81)

Path of Steel: Steel 9 (125)

Carbonized Soul ( 500)

>

Sohow her soul registered just over 1000 Power, mostly via an additional 500 from a new "Carbonized Soul". As Pourila marched over to them, sheathing her liquid steel weapon, she gave them each professional nods, one soldier to another.

"How can this be?" Quinta asked.

"Omilaena returned and helped us absorb the outsider tals," Pourila explained tersely. "She said there wasn't enough ti for you: incorporating them properly would take months to years. But to simply inject the new tal, to solidify the soul... I have given up all future growth, but this is the way I can serve Irun."

"You will not be the last to serve," Tusquo said, giving her a deep proper bow. "Others will grow in the shade you have given them."

"Only if we save them now. Co on, we have a lot of work to do."

The last invader may have been killed, but they had a large number of Birtaegali rcenaries fighting with them. Those rcenaries had been at a distance, unable to touch the phased battle. But now, without their leader and facing a new enemy, they quailed.

For a long ti, Irun had been the weak man of Deadwaste. Not anymore.

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..

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In the city of Goraykan, the invaders were still feasting when the rchants received a shipnt from Razzagah Lantrian. It contained a letter, jars of wine, and a vial of blue liquid. The rchants read silently, then went to renew the feast. The invaders drank heartily, laughing in their superiority, enjoying the fruits of their strength.

Minutes later, they all lay dead.

Their rcenaries and collaborators realized what was happening and rushed into action, intending to strike down the defenseless rchants. But the hunters of the city, who had chafed for so long under the rule of the invaders, now vented their frustration against opponents who were not immune to their wrath.

The city of Goraykan returned to Goralian hands within a single hour.

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..

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Sohow, despite it all, Vyorrine was back in Krysal. She had never been truly at ho there, much less in the strange new society that had been created, and it wouldn't have been surprising if she never went back. Yet here she was.

She unleashed all her abilities against the invaders, water and crystal and dragon breath. They stumbled back, shocked at every new ability she revealed, but the problem was that there were three of them and they each had roughly her strength. If she could maintain her phases she could keep them at bay, but she already felt her mind straining...

So of the invaders had been isolated in their own fiefdoms, and the elites had annihilated them. But there had been a group that rushed to Yulthens together, aiming to decapitate the nation. They only learned about this from the leaders, who had been rescued by so of Kai's students, and so Vyorrine had gone with Yuinafal to finish off the group.

Just when she thought she was at her limit, one of the invaders coughed up blood. He fell, revealing Yuinafal behind him, one fist shining like steel.

"These are the last invaders in Krysal," Yuinafal told her. "Remain focused, this will be good for your phase training."

"Seriously?" Vyorrine sighed and readied herself on the last two.

They realized that, at long last, their invasion was over. They turned to flee, but it didn't matter.

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..

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As he fought a grim retreat through the Fire Union, Enalanis of Magma realized that this might finally be the end of his life. He was a practical man, and knew that a death in combat was probable, but he had always assud that he would die in battle against a country-destroying monster, giving his life for the entire continent.

Instead he fought against the invaders in a fire court not far from the place he was born. It was a troublingly simple fight, all his fla and skill against their brute strength and speed. One he could have beaten, maybe two with the right advantages, but four of the invaders had gathered together in the chaos, and he could not overco those numbers.

And so, with his options growing thin, he was likely to die soon enough. His powers could harm them, but he was very vulnerable to their blades, so the end would happen quickly. He would lose phase or move too slowly, one of the swords would pass through him, and that would be the end.

Then a storm surged from the clouds overhead, and even the invaders stopped to stare.

A young Goralian woman burst from the sky, carrying a fan that looked like it must have been from Cloudspire. When she swung it, the burst of wind cut the court in half, driving the invaders back. Enalanis recognized Inafay, one of the elites in training, but the level of power she was displaying...

The invaders shouted at her, daring her to co down to fight them, but they should have been watching their backs. A heavy Goralian man was approaching, and he brought a whistling storm with him. It struck them from behind and drove them back - not overwhelmingly, but they had to focus on resisting the storm, and they failed to look up.

Enalanis recognized the young man from the Wind Union: he had known Orotaisin when he was just a child. Now he landed as a bolt of lightning incarnate, his power bursting through the invaders.

Even that would not be enough, not against phased opponents, and Enalanis opened his mouth to warn them. But he saw that they were elites in more than power: all three converged, not holding back for a mont until they had annihilated the invaders.

"Hey there, Enalanis." Inafay turned to him and snapped her fan into a salute. "You okay?"

He took a deep breath and faced the three. Little more than children, to his eyes, and yet...

"We do not really have generations at the Frontier," Enalanis told them. "Everyone joins the edge of the battle and fights as long as they can. But today... I think it may be ti to hand over that role to the next generation."

Chapter 644: Just Another Sky Soul

The ending was inevitable, of course. Cragrila knew in her bones that they couldn't win this fight, the most they could do was buy ti.

As soon as she and Wan Fei had arrived in Floodisle City, he had gone out to face the enemy. That had interrupted the executions, but it was the beginning of the end. A few cultivators who had sided with the invaders tried to attack them to gain favor with their new masters and were almost imdiately cut down - Cragrila drew their attacks out of the sky and then drained the bodies of qi.

When the weaker invader arrived, Cragrila unleashed all that qi at him, hoping to bring the man down before Yangix could arrive. It wasn't quite enough, and she knew that they had failed.

They had only a brief window where she and Wan Fei could potentially have wiped out the lone invader, but they couldn't do it: the man was too durable, and he had too many local collaborators supporting him. Cragrila had beco adept at piercing Earth Soul formations, but they slowed down Wan Fei, and while he could take on another Sky Soul, Cragrila felt the limits of her power when she tried to fight any of the leaders.

Of course they had so allies of their own, and so of the weaker enemies were kept back, but the majority were too weak to join the high-speed battle. After a short ti, only Cragrila and Wan Fei fought the invader in a city plaza, everyone watching their phased battle. Cragrila had long ago given up on the watching cultivators stepping forward to help.

Once Yangix arrived, their slim chance to gain an edge vanished. Many of the local collaborators even stepped back, it was so obvious how the battle would go. Cragrila survived only by focusing on a speed phase and staying far ahead of the invaders, plus her spear could absorb so of their broader attacks. Wan Fei was tough enough to survive them, but his Physique was being worn down.

The invaders hurled qi endlessly, pinning Cragrila down in a narrow alleyway of the city. Just when she thought they were going to finish her off, Wan Fei unleashed another of his Deepriver techniques, pushing them both back enough for her to slip out.

Now that she had a mont to breathe, she tried to search for so solution she had missed, starting with Yangix.

<

Na: Yangix

Total Power: 2407

Cultivation: Body Purification 20% (1227)

Human Essence: 400

Brute Cultivator's Physique: D-0 (300)

Soul Level: 6 (216)

Cultivator's Robes ( 100)

Ring of Qi ( 150)

>

But his soul was just too overwhelming, arising almost entirely from a few sources of raw power. A considerable percentage ca from his tools, robes and a ring of qi, but separating him from either of those seed nigh impossible.

Maybe that was the only path available to them, though. If Cragrila was to sell her life, she wanted it to cost the enemy sothing. If she could destroy even one of Yangix's advantages, he would be closer to a range that one of her allies might be able to defeat.

Yangix unleashed a broad wave of qi, not really a technique so much as a shockwave of strength that pushed them both back. His ally rushed forward after it, sword cutting - Wan Fei had learned the hard way that the phased weapon could cut even his body. The old man managed to block with a qi technique, but he was hurled through a wall and into the water outside the city.

That was her mont. Cragrila dove into the water herself, her crystalline body slicing through the waves. Yangix hovered overhead, his finger swinging down in another of those killing techniques, but he was too pompous with it and she was ahead of him.

She grabbed Wan Fei under his arms and pulled him away, arcing deeper through the bay before they ca up beside one of the ships. It was only a matter of ti before Yangix turned to them, but he could catch his breath and she had a chance.

"Cover ," she told him, except it was more of a request. They had worked together, but they weren't truly allies like her fellow revolutionaries.

"You order to..." Wan Fei looked briefly angry, then hesitated, then nodded. "I'll give you an opening."

They both dodged aside as Yangix pointed and the boat exploded behind them. He'd separated himself from his ally, so they had a shot at him and rushed in a pincer movent. Yangix raised both hands, but his exploding technique was slow by the standards of anyone with a speed phase, so they dodged the explosions and closed the distance.

This was where they had always co up short before, because Yangix could unleash an aura of lethal qi that defended him. Cragrila pulled back as the flas lit up around him, readying her spear, hoping it was enough.

In that mont Wan Fei lunged in, striking Yangix with a punch that actually made him stagger a step. He paid a price for it: Yangix swept out a hand and the rush of qi sent Wan Fei hurtling backward, demolishing a wall and collapsing within the rubble.

And Cragrila struck with everything she had. Her spear penetrated the aura, shaking with the effort of absorbing the phased qi, but she drew it back through her crystals and vented it behind her. The tip nearly struck Yangix's chest and tore through his robes.

Just before it could, his hand closed around the point. Cragrila's eyes widened, but it was too late, his strength was overwhelming. Even though the spear was draining away his qi, he simply had too much, so he could afford to pin her in place like this.

"All this effort is so useless." Yangix raised his other hand, qi gathering around one finger to produce a lethal exploding technique. "You can try your tricks and gimmicks, but in the end, cultivation cos down to power. And you can see how short you co up there."

He began to lower his hand, pointing not at her but at Wan Fei. Even now, he didn't consider Cragrila a real threat and only wanted to eliminate the Sky Souls that stood against him. She wished that she could prove him wrong, but he was right, the gap in their strength was too large.

Cragrila let go of the spear and hurled herself in front of Wan Fei, almost before she knew what she was doing. The old man was the only one in the Southern Rivers with a spine, the only one who had stood beside her, but with just his partial qi phase, the finger technique would kill him. She had a split second to build up phased crystals in front of her, then the qi impacted.

Her defenses were barely adequate, of course: the crystals over her body exploded violently and she was thrown back. Cragrila found herself falling in front of Wan Fei as he pushed upright, smiling down at her strangely.

"All of you are mad," he said, not unkindly. "But there is a nobility in your madness."

Was that a complint from a cultivator? It wasn't much of a final gift, considering that they were finally reaching the inevitable end.

From her position on her back, Cragrila saw a dark figure appear in the sky. Even before she recognized the white sash, she knew that it was Zae Zin Nim, because it felt like her. Unlike the other cultivators, there had always been an aura of other energies around her, and that aura had massively increased.

"Don't let her interfere!" Yangix shouted to his underling. The other invader leapt into the air, swinging his sword toward Zae Zin Nim.

His rush was t by a palm of blue fla the size of his body, and this ti, the invader's natural defenses were useless. The phased fla incinerated him instantly, and as the ashes blew away, they revealed Zae Zin Nim still standing in the air, her eyes rciless black slits.

<

Na: Zae Zin Nim

Total Power: 2576

Cultivation: Sky Soul 0% (1200)

*Heavenly Sash: Cultivation 10% (100)

Coldfire Corona: 46 (438)

Pure Yin Shroud: Spinel Rank (285)

True Blackblood Physique: E-12 (472)

Soul Level: 9 (81)

>

Not only did she have an astonishing Power over 2500... she was drawing her palm back for another strike. A much larger one, fueled by both qi and chakra.

"That..." Yangix actually gaped, realizing too late what he was facing. Cragrila didn't think the invaders had developed complex spiritual sight, but they had an intuitive sense for when they were outmatched.

"What were you saying about power?" Cragrila asked.

Yangix snarled and then pointed toward them - not activating his killing technique, rely preparing it. "Stay back!" he shouted to Zae Zin Nim. "If you try to attack , I'll slaughter these peasants you love so much! Co now, we can talk about this. You've clearly attained more power, so we..."

Zae Zin Nim thrust her palm forward and the fiery palm erupted far larger than the first ti, rumbling down toward the city like the sky itself intended to crush them. Yangix desperately thrust his finger toward it, but his qi dissipated as, for the first ti, it was directly overpowered.

As the flas approached, Cragrila closed her eyes and smiled.