Chapter 533: A Curse?

Yasashii Hito’s laughter boomed across the cities.

It started softly, but at the end, it seemed more like clouds rumbling before a storm than a man laughing.

The Heavenly Emperor eyed him quietly, a bad premonition rising in his chest.

There was no way he could tell anyone why he wanted all his disciples and subordinates to walk the path of the Light element.

A secret he couldn’t tell, even as the fate of all Realms rested on it.

The air around the Lord of Shadows grew darker and more oppressive.

It continued to grow until weaker cultivators even miles away began to suffocate from pressure.

To control these effects, the Emperor countered with his own aura.

Yet, the pressure steadily increased as black shadows began to revolve around the Lord of Shadows. They sucked in all colors from the world, leaving only white and black around.

"I am done playing around with you!" His scream tore through the violent storm brewing with him in its center.

Soon, he realized that although the Land Above All could sustain the pressure, it also had its limits in allowing the concentration of energy in one place.

The Realm had a mechanism in place that simply wouldn’t allow any cultivator to gather and manipulate energy that could damage its own fabric.

The moment the Lord of Shadows felt the tug of the Realm Ego, he cut open a spatial rift and escaped the Realm, appearing far from it in space.

It was a place where no cultivator could survive forever, but with his power, there was no trouble attacking from there.

His target was quite evidently the Land Above All itself.

It seemed that in his rage, the Lord of Shadows had given up on preserving everything.

The shadows grew larger, and the color began to drain from the entirety of the space around him.

It was an attack that would completely drain him once performed, leaving him vulnerable if his enemy survived somehow. But as things were progressing, he had no other advantage over the man he once used to call his Master.

*ZMM!*

*ZMM!*

*ZMM!*

Waves of reverberations attacked the Realm as the storm of color-draining shadows exponentially grew around him.

As every Empyrean and above stopped their battles temporarily and peaked out with their Spatial rifts, no one could find words to explain it.

Far from them, pointed directly at them, was a small star, pulsing with shadows and draining color from reality itself!1

One moment it looked like a dying, collapsing star, and the next moment it just seemed like a storm of shadows and decaying elements swirling into themselves.

Each pulse sent shockwaves in all directions, but hit them the hardest.

Ozul too saw this, his lips curling into a smile,

’No wonder he is called the Lord of Shadows...’

For the first time ever, he appreciated someone’s abilities.

The power displayed by that man was working on roughly similar principles to his own.

Yet, he had never thought his power could collapse reality like this. Yet, an application of his own powers was right in front of him, threatening to destroy the very Realm he currently stood on.

He was able to discern that Yasashii was really just accelerating the decay of reality with his Darkness element. After all, everything dissolved into darkness, and where there was nothing, there was darkness.

His own powers felt even superior to the simple Darkness element. He felt them to be on a more conceptual level.

As if it wasn’t just darkness, but the space that was filled with it—the emptiness.

But he could also feel the emotions radiating from inside that storm of shadows.

The killing intent was not aimed at the entire Realm; it was still targeting the Emperor.

’He knows the man will intervene...’

It seemed the Lord of Shadows had grown tired of fighting a mock battle with the Emperor and wanted to go all out right then and there before the supposed Darkness of the prophecy had the chance to intervene.

It wasn’t a hysterical move after all.

This was Yasashii Hito’s final chance at revenge. Either he was defeated, or he would win.

Either his countless centuries of preparation for revenge were just petty illusions, or he would make it a reality.

All of it would be decided by this one attack!

Right when everyone thought to open spatial rifts to leave the Realm, they were stunned to see a blur of gold rushing toward the spiral of black and white.

Like a shooting star, it shone across the darkened space, illuminating everything around it.

The vast distance in space was quickly covered by the blurry golden light shooting toward the ’collapsing star’.

Everyone held their breath.

The two entities collided at once!

And then the pulsating reverberations, the humming of ancient clouds, halted all at once.

There was stillness.

*Zmhz*

The humming of the void filled everything as the giant spiral of shadows stopped spiraling.

Just as people like Kami and Old Gu wondered if they should also go there and check, an explosion overtook everything.

Color returned to the space, and an explosion of golden light shone everywhere!

It was an explosion of molten gold!1

Where once stood the spiral of shadows that could drain the colors of reality, now stood a light so warm that it even calmed the cold of the merciless and endless void.

Between the clash of the darkness and light, the latter had clearly gotten the upper hand.

And soon, as the golden light began to shimmer away, a figure could be seen rushing from afar.

The Heavenly Emperor held the Lord of Shadows in his hand, as if carrying a dead weight.

The moment the Heavenly Virtues noticed this, they ordered everyone to get back to fighting.

They couldn’t let the Empyreans and others see this sight of their commander.

After all, they still had someone who could fight the Emperor. Lowering their morale now would do them no good.

And everyone quickly went back to fighting their bloody war, except for the man who was supposed to have his turn now.

Having witnessed everything, Ozul waited patiently.

The Heavenly Emperor was breathing roughly; his emotions were all over the place, even though he maintained a calm facade. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

Taking into account all that he had seen and measuring his own abilities, Ozul believed it possible to beat the Emperor enough to at least get his answers.

As the Emperor entered the Realm through the rift once again, he came face to face with Ozul.

Those who worriedly glanced at their way could not help but be surprised.

The white mask of gold lining had faded from the Emperor’s face, revealing his otherworldly features.

On the other hand, Ozul didn’t have any royal bearing, yet he didn’t appear any smaller in front of the man people called God.

They both looked unblemished by the world’s taint.

What stunned Ozul was the emotions he was reading in the Emperor.

’Anger, I understand, but what is this sorrow?’

"You have finally appeared..." the Emperor spoke, throwing the unconscious body of Yasashii aside on the ground.

Ozul’s eyes couldn’t help but follow the unconscious Lord of the Shadows, wondering if he should absorb his body as well. However, he shook those thoughts away. He didn’t need more power as he was right now.

"You were expecting me?" Ozul asked, hope taking root.

But right after he had uttered that question, realization seemed to strike his mind.

"Hm. The prophecy?"

There was something unrecognizable in the Emperor’s eyes.

Ozul had seen it somewhere. It wasn’t that he recognized those eyes, but the feeling those eyes evoked in him was familiar. Something he knew, but just couldn’t put his finger on it.

Before he could grasp the emotion, the Emperor smiled.

A smile so bright, so refreshing, that it made many pause in their battles.

Unfortunately, it quickly turned depreciating. A hollow smile, darkening the face of the man whom Light itself obeyed like a slave.

"Prophecy? Ha!" He started, "A curse. You cursed me!"

Anger seemed to boil and bubble out of him as the Heavenly Emperor threw away all the dignity he had been showing, even to the Lord of Shadows.

He rushed straight ahead, charging at Ozul.

The translucent blade of gold shimmered as it tore through the space, aiming for his neck.

Confused, Ozul quickly created a distance between himself and the Emperor.

The tearing space quickly caught up to him, but using the Purity, he held the fabric together and pulled both ends to close it.

He didn’t understand what the Emperor meant or why someone of his stature would charge like a madman.

’Does he mean to say I caused all of this?’

Ozul racked his brains to find an answer, quickly dodging another slash which again sliced open the space.

"I will stop all of this. Just answer a few of my questions!" He shouted, unable to think of anything else.

But his efforts were in vain.

The Heavenly Emperor turned a deaf ear to his words.

Golden light continued to shimmer around him as he continuously charged at him.

Each time, Ozul avoided, diverted the attack, and counterattacked only to keep him at bay.

The calm God, who oversaw all the Realms, was no more. In front of him was an angry beast who only saw red.

"Tch!"

Ozul clicked his tongue and sighed.

He had thought that maybe seeing all the destruction that had already occurred, the Emperor wouldn’t have any choice but to answer his questions.

Yet, his very existence was somehow so irksome that such an unexpected situation had unfolded.

Sighing, Ozul realized there was no other way but to beat him into submission.

Once again retreating, he appeared in some grassy plains, using the moment’s relief to cover himself with the Purity.

"I didn’t want to do this..." He muttered and rushed back into the battle.

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