Chapter 1904 - 1903 - Fleeing Fate

The damage was not limited to the central control room. The entire fortress was falling apart as harmonic Qi of all kinds was now racing nearly unimpeded throughout its formations!

The Great One had hoped to find some areas to recover his half depleted dantian. It was only as he escaped that he realized with horror that he was far below his expectations.

Why? He had carefully tracked his usage and he was far more experienced in close combat than the current Lind Frey. It could be said he was the supreme expert as close combat was where Fiends thrived to kill their foes.

Yet, his dantian had somehow become half depleted. How? He had felt no attack and the feeble attempts to alter time were repelled by him. A Mystery was powerful but the facets dictated its strength.

Lind had focused on controlling the flow more than anything else. For an Eternal Realm, that had very limited uses. It could have been applied to his dantian but he would have noticed any invasion like that instantly.

He saw another hall collapse and exposed a brief glimpse of the feeling remnant of their army. He wanted to give chase but it vanished as soon as it appeared. There was no way to be certain he could reach them in the current chaos.

It was better by far to get away and recover as swiftly as possible. Lind had proven far more resilient than he had expected. The trick of feeding Fiend Qi to his harmony was not the same as before!

He was not absorbing it at all! He was straight up converting it right there! How did he deal with that?!

He could hurt Lind forever but if he could just keep stealing every scrap of Fiend Qi for his harmonic aura, he could use his dantian to keep repairing himself for far longer! Compared to alchemists, an elixir master was horrifying in the variety of effects they could create on the fly.

Thus, an Eternal Realm elixir master generally unlocked nearly unbeatable healing or enhancement abilities!

The efficiency put any healer to shame!

The only issue was only the elixir master themselves benefited from it. They still had to make an elixir to help others.

In the current battle, Lind Frey held an advantage none of the rest had! His harmony could be kept fueled externally while the rest of his energies could go into battle enhancement or healing!

Worse, his draconic regeneration and vitality meant that he already had a massive advantage multiplied by each of those effects! It enraged him! Heaven and Earth always played favorites but it was way too blatant now!

He slipped in his emotional state and fell through the floor into a barely working schism trap. It not only cut away space but time as well. It hid the time layer beneath the space. To anyone else, it was a sure death sentence if both were not accounted for but he saw it burst apart as emerald Qi raced along the formation creating it!

That also was making him terrified. The arrays should be able to resist even in the current state but now they were collapsing so easily. What changed?!

Each space had its own protections so losing one area should not affect the others so easily.

He raced trying to find a way out when a roar came from behind him. He looked back to see the fully transformed Lind Frey racing at his heels. How had he found him so fast?!

Moreover, why was nothing slowing him down?! He should be as impeded, if not more by the chaos around them!

He returned his focus to fleeing. He just had to get outside. Once outside, the dark was too vast for a single being to be found. He would bide his time and wait.

Lind Frey had walked the edge. He could not stop the process now. Once the current battle was over, he would ascend and the entire Sea of Realms would be his!

He would take them all and make his wives watch as all they love was reduced to his fuel for his ascension! Once he was a Full Tier Eternal Realm cultivator, nothing could touch him ever again!

He saw a gap and shot toward it. He was going to make it!

A massive shadow suddenly moved in front of him. His eyes went as wide as saucers to see the First waiting to knock him back!

[HOW DID IT FIND ME?!] That thing had never shown much interest in anyone before but now it moved so freely to attack him twice?!

{You must be undone. You cannot be allowed to continue or everything will have been done in vain. The being you allowed to exist also breaks the rules yet heals them at the same time. A contradiction that should not exist ever, you have made possible.}

The Great One sneered and railed against the accusation!

[If he could be allowed to exist, why could I not live forever?! Why was I denied what every other race could strive for?!] He had annoyed the spirits in their world for answers but none ever did.

He was always given some kind of platitude or other meaningless message.

{You were told over and over but refused to listen. Reincarnation is not a passage to ultimate power. Cultivation cannot expand without some kind of regulation to keep it in check. Otherwise, creatures like you and Lind Frey can break reality entirely in the hundreds.} He paused at such a straightforward explanation. {You were told that the Celestial Race had but one reason to exist, to learn and expand the horizon of cultivation safely. You were granted a life few get and you wasted it. You could have enjoyed thousands of years but you became obsessed only with gaining more without any thought to the cost.}

Here, he was enraged again.

[Humans and demons are reincarnated all the time! Why are they allowed to live forever but I am not?! Answer me! Why was I not allowed to live forever but they were?!] The First glared at him as if he were very slow and he hated it.

{Before you broke the rules, were there any reincarnations from non-cultivation worlds?} The question brought him up short. It was something he had never considered before. In fact, as his mind cast back, all barren world souls from the universe he knew were exclusively Celestials.

They were never any other race!

A dawning realization flashed through him. Almost without fail, the vast majority of old Earth souls or other mortal worlds reborn as cultivators became ruthless and self-serving monsters that sacrificed everything in the pursuit of power and unending life.

He also now recalled that invariably, they tipped karma so far against them they had to hide from it to avoid paying the price while making it worse trying to break the rules.

[That–that is not my fault! All you had to do–!] An emerald tail suddenly came from behind and he had to dodge it as a chunk of wall nearly crushed him where he arrived. He realized he had gotten caught up but the emerald eyes looked at him, truly looked at him as if he was missing something critical.

[You don't get it? I did a long time ago. Our world was a place of suffering and pain for no reason other than the few who could not accept they were mortal. They wanted to burn their names into history even if it was an atrocity. What would happen to those oppressed or living as humbly as they were forced to were freed to acquire powers and long life as they wished?] He shook his head.

[YOU CAN'T BLAME ME! I AM NOT AT FAULT FOR WHAT–!] Golden claws ripped his left leg and right arm away. The pain made him focus enough to dodge but strangely Lind Frey did not pursue him.

They were at the edge of the fortress and the worst of the chaos was pulling everything inward.

[You still do not understand. We are outsiders to this place. We do not understand it but we come from a place with vast knowledge. We can test and confirm by parallel what is possible via direct manipulation of it. Such dangerous existences cannot be trusted to live forever. We are given time and then it is over. It is fair given the risks. Our soul will–] The Great One lashed out.

It was all self-serving platitudes. How could anyone accept that?! Being told he was just a tool for the cultivation world? Being told that he was meant to die no matter what? He refused!

He would always refuse!

Yet, when he went to strike, he felt pain. He was shocked as he checked and his dantian was dangerously low. His eyes narrowed as he saw the smile spread on Lind Frey's face!

[YOU TRICKED ME! YOU WERE JUST BUYING TIME!] Lind dodged his desperate thrust as he shook his dragon maw at him.

[The truth is far more useful. I have been trying to learn how things worked all my life because I needed to. It may be the only reason I did not turn out like you. I wanted to wipe away entire nations for what they had put my family through yet I had no time to do so. I had to go the long and slow path forward.] Lind Frey turned back into his human form. He looked pale and tired.

Was he finally spent too?

[You actually believe it is fine that we are forced to die for these people?! We are not tools to be discarded once we finish a task!] Both froze as Lind simply looked at him. The dragon's perspective was clear and the Great One felt angry that he said it.

[Only at the end do you start to grasp what you have done. It is far far too late. It is time to stop running and face the consequences of your actions!] Lind Frey seemed to gather the last of his power but the Great One frowned.

Why was his dantian so depleted, what was going on? He then remembered the strange acceleration of the arrays being ripped apart and his eyes narrowed.

[YOU HAVE BEEN LEECHING MY POWER ALL THIS TIME?!] Lind Frey smiled ear to ear at him as his aura flared slowly.

[Not leeching exactly. I just pulled on it with every attack and every defense. I used so many ways to distract you that it was not exactly easy, yet the result was clear. You were so busy fighting and looking for traps you never realized all I needed was you. This is the end, so face it head on as you should have faced life so long ago. There is nowhere left to run!] The Great One felt the world slow as he became desperate.

There had to be something, anything to get out of his current predicament! There was always a way!