Chapter 221: Between Laughter and Tears
Chapter 221: Between Laughter and Tears
When Astrion first arrived on Earth at the height of his power, he had assumed he could easily conquer what seemed to be a weak and defenseless world.
Instead, he was the one who ended up being taken down.
That had happened while he was at full strength.
Now Astrion was still recovering.
Forget destroying a universe. At present, he could not even destroy an entire galaxy.
At most, he possessed enough power to shatter a planet.
A long time passed before Astrion finally calmed down.
He began muttering to reassure himself.
"It is fine. I did not come here to invade Earth this time. I only came to participate in a fight."
"It will be fine."
"I will go home once the fighting is over."
"I probably will not run into him."
The black robed man looked puzzled.
Him?
Astrion’s behavior made him wonder whether some terrifying figure lived in this world.
Had Lord God suffered a loss here before?
"Has Lord God visited this world before?"
Astrion refused to answer.
"Lord God, what do you plan to do next?"
Astrion made his decision in an instant.
"We will wait and observe."
He regarded Caelum as Earth’s protector.
Astrion feared that the Secret War might spiral out of control and draw Caelum into personally dealing with them.
He had already died once.
The despair of being utterly powerless had been branded deep into his memories and would never fade.
He had no desire to be torn apart a second time.
On the other hand, if the participants of the Secret War threw the entire world into chaos without anyone intervening, Astrion could finally relax.
Only then would he reveal his full strength and seize victory in one stroke.
Whether it was the God of War or Astrion, both believed they were the strongest participant in the Secret War.
Astrion at least had some concerns.
The God of War, however, had absolutely no understanding of his own position.
The chance of answering a summons across countless worlds and still encountering Caelum was almost zero.
The God of War had never even considered such a possibility.
In terms of strength, the God of War and Astrion were roughly equal.
Both could destroy a planet with ease.
On Earth, either one would qualify as an SSS rank disaster.
Dread Master was somewhat weaker than the two of them.
In a real battle, either the God of War or Astrion could suppress Dread Master.
Planet destroying strength was a broad category.
Those in the Immortal Realm generally occupied the weaker end of it.
More precisely, Dread Master himself belonged to the weaker group.
After all, Caelum had also been in the Immortal Realm during his time in Immortal Ascension, yet his strength had been utterly unmatched.
The black robed man’s successful summoning meant all seven Servants had now arrived.
Although two pairs had already been eliminated early, it was clear that the war was about to begin in earnest.
Over the following days, every remaining Master and Servant pair showed remarkable patience.
The God of War believed victory was already his and watched everything unfold with the detached attitude of someone looking down upon insects.
Astrion did not dare make any careless moves.
With support from the DMB, Van used satellites to monitor all of Travira while waiting for the best opportunity to act.
He also intended to form an alliance with Caelum.
However, before the other Servants revealed their strength, he did not dare approach Caelum too soon.
If the opposition turned out to be weak, then there would be no reason for Caelum to ally with them.
Besides, no one could find Caelum in the first place.
He appeared and vanished without warning.
Neither magic nor arcane techniques worked on him.
Even the God of War and Astrion could not track him down.
Corvus, on the other hand, wandered the streets every day without hiding his movements at all.
Yet after two pairs had paid the price in blood, no one took the bait again.
Corvus could roughly guess what the other participants were thinking.
He was playing a battle of nerves, gambling that none of them would dare attack him so easily.
Truthfully, if another pair did attack, he had no idea whether Caelum would appear.
Caelum was too unpredictable and far too independent.
He looked exactly like the sort of person who would not care whether Corvus lived or died.
Corvus could more or less understand Caelum’s personality because he was much the same.
Whenever they looked at each other, it almost felt like staring into a mirror.
That was the foundation of their unspoken understanding.
Corvus was not wandering aimlessly.
He was also tracking the movements of the other Masters.
Servants were extremely powerful and difficult to follow.
Masters were another matter.
Of course, even that was no easy task.
Servants usually protected their Masters carefully, so finding any trace of them remained difficult.
Then one day, Dread Master finally lost patience.
He had secretly watched Corvus for several days and concluded that Caelum truly did not seem to be nearby.
After a brief hesitation, he immediately struck.
A streak of divine light swept past.
Corvus had no power to resist and was carried away.
Dread Master’s face brightened with delight before he left a message behind.
"Brat who inherited the Divine Firmament Codex, if you still wish to win, come before me before the day ends. Otherwise, I will take your Master’s life."
Dread Master immediately drew the attention of every remaining pair.
No one had expected Corvus’s Servant to truly be absent from his side.
Van stared in confusion.
"What are those two doing?"
Derek and Guy were still deep in thought.
They were certain they had seen Caelum somewhere before.
More than that, they were sure it had not been a simple passing encounter.
The divine streak crossed the sky as Dread Master carried Corvus away.
Before he could travel far, Caelum appeared in front of him and blocked his path.
His expression held genuine surprise.
"You spent several days thinking, and this is the method you came up with to deal with me?"
Caelum did not know whether to laugh or sigh.
He had expected Dread Master to devise something impressive.
Even joining forces with the God of War and Astrion would have been better than this.
It seemed he had greatly overestimated the old man.
"Brat who inherited the Divine Firmament Codex!"
Seeing Caelum again brought Dread Master’s obsession surging back to the surface.
His expression turned wild as he laughed.
"You never expected to have another chance to face this old man, did you?"
His gaze hardened.
He tightened his grip around Corvus’s throat and threatened Caelum.
"Kneel before me and strike your head against the ground three times. Then I will return your Master to you. What do you say?"
Killing Caelum was unrealistic.
Threatening him into taking his own life was even less possible.
Dread Master could not see through Caelum’s Cultivation, so he assumed Caelum had at least reached the Immortal Realm.
In his memories, Caelum had already ascended and become an immortal.
Such Cultivation was hardly surprising.
All Dread Master wanted was to erase the humiliation he had suffered in the past.
However, he had made one crucial mistake.
Caelum had no interest in winning the Secret War.
More importantly, Dread Master had completely failed to understand the difference in strength between them.
Caelum did not care.
"Do whatever you want with him."
Caelum had never allowed himself to be threatened.
Besides, he was not Corvus’s caretaker.
From the very beginning, he had said that he was not Corvus’s Servant.
Corvus was not his Master either.
"What?"
Dread Master froze, wondering whether he had heard correctly.
Thunder crashed.
A bolt of heavenly lightning struck him from above.
Caught completely off guard, Dread Master suffered devastating damage to both body and soul.
Blood burst from his mouth as he screamed in agony.
Corvus slipped from his grasp, then used an arcane technique to land safely on the ground.
Caelum reached out with one hand.
Dread Master immediately fell into his palm.