Chapter 43: A World-ending Catastrophe

The being of the void wasn’t about to begin the battle alone.

There was something it had been waiting for.

The arrival of its comrades.

When it had first arrived in this region of the Expanse, it had sensed a foul aura.

It wasn’t something it had sensed by using some technique.

Neither was it something it had sensed with any of its inconceivable organs.

No.

It had simply felt great discomfort.

Like being assaulted with the worst thing it could possibly imagine.

It was more gut feeling than any proper sensing.

It had traced the source of this disturbing annoyance.

It had followed its intuition, disregarding everything else.

Until it had reached this domain.

Where it immediately discovered the source of the foul aura.

Like a being that was possessed. It had attacked with no hesitation.

With full force.

It hadn’t held back at all.

It had wanted nothing more than to end that disgusting being at that very moment.

It had exchanged at least ten moves with the most hated being of its life, before it had bothered to alert its comrade.

Immortal World.

Demon World.

They hadn’t even been in its consideration.

Even if it had been the home of gods, it would have charged in.

Every move it had made was strong enough to blast many low rank immortals to smithereens.

But the Ancient Supreme, that accursed being, had parried it all.

She hadn’t even been interested in fighting.

She had been more concerned with protecting those weak creatures.

What had pained it the most was the fact that it wasn’t even the true body of that damned being.

It had been nothing but a clone.

And...

And it hadn’t even been able to scratch it.

Then, these damned immortals from the two Worlds had decided to bring themselves into the fray.

It had been left with no choice but to end the fight and move into the void.

Truly vexing.

It had tried its best to trace the path of the Ancient Supreme, but it had been a futile effort.

It wasn’t confident that it could track her, and maybe on this day put her to rest forever.

It had turned its anger on the immortals.

A truly stupid decision.

But it had nothing to fear.

It couldn’t truly die, and now.

They had arrived.

Beings just like it.

All of them, members of its lineage.

Beings of the void.

All of them cursed to wander the Expanse for all eternity.

Neither dead nor alive.

*

Despite the apparition of the serpent’s head that occupied the whole space.

The space around the being of the void deformed.

From it, one being after another emerged.

They all looked the same as it.

All of them.

Blobs of shifting, clashing empty spaces.

Their vaguely humanoid form all looked the same.

Like clones manufactured from the same template.

Twenty of them emerged from that deformed space.

"I told you. I will keep that promise."

The being of the void said.

The man looked at the twenty-one beings before him.

He chuckled.

There was no easy way to discern one from the other just by looking.

But the sight of an immortal surpassed such limitations.

"Twenty more pathetic things like you. Even if there were a thousand more, today you will learn your place."

The other seven immortal rank beings seemed to have come to a tacit agreement.

All of them moved back.

They weren’t going to interfere in this.

But there was something important they could do.

Restrictions manifested in the void.

They weren’t to bind anyone.

The space they were in now had an heaviness to it.

It had became more stable.

Low rank immortals would find it hard to even move.

This battle was one that would shake Worlds.

If the previous one had been catastrophic.

Enough to cause all sort of disasters, yet unable to affect the Immortal World itself.

It was the same with the Demon World.

Both Worlds had barely felt the quake.

This one, however, would tax the two supreme formations to the max.

With their strength, they would prevent the impact of the battle from affecting anything beyond this space.

"Have you finished protecting your little Worlds?"

This being seemed to have lost all sense of self-preservation.

Its provocation became more aggressive with every moment that passed.

"I truly hope your undying curse holds strong, for I will make you suffer."

The man was angry, but he remained dignified.

"What are you going to do, little Swallower?"

That was insulting.

But maybe this being had the right to say such words.

"My curse. You can’t swallow it. It is far beyond you. Even your predecessor was nowhere near that level. Are you?"

The man was silent.

Then he spoke.

"I am afraid you won’t enjoy the process of finding that out."

The apparition of the world-defying massive serpent became slightly more real.

It hissed.

Everything in the space that had been strengthened with the restrictions shattered.

Nothing remained.

Not even the beings of the void.

A laughter resounded from the space.

The destroyed beings began to reform in the destroyed emptiness.

"Comrades, this one seems to be not as good as its predecessor."

The being of the void spoke to its fellows.

"If it was that one. We would have taken a few more seconds to reform." One of the other beings replied it.

"See."

That being turned to the man it had called little Swallower.

"Your Immortal World seems to be getting worse with every generation."

"Living a miserable life for eons doesn’t qualify you to speak any nonsense you wish."

The man, who was no doubt the Swallower Supreme.

The strongest being of the Swallower lineage spoke.

"You might have known my predecessor, but you do not know me."

The head of the serpent, rivaling a World, opened its mouth.

It could swallow a world with just a gulp.

And swallow it did.

But it was not a world it swallowed.

It swallowed the very space the beings of the void were.

Nothing remained.

The absence of even the void within that space was prominent.

The serpent spat out something.

It was a bundle of repulsive, eldritch symbols.

They twisted in the emptiness.

Their presence brought a discomfort to even the emptiness that had nothing.

The serpent naturally couldn’t swallow these curses from the Sage Realm.

A laughter resounded from the symbols.

It was no doubt still the same being of the void.

Its laughter wasn’t filled with the mirth it had before.

It was anguished.

But still, this crazy being laughed.

"Little Swallower! You might have surpassed your predecessor in strength."

Its voice held a deep madness.

"You are even able to cause me this much anguish. But in many ways, you aren’t even qualified to hold his shoes."

It laughed hard, despite its pain.

The Swallower Supreme wasn’t bothered at first.

But he sensed something.

Not only him.

Every immortal in that space, whether from the Demon World or Immortal World.

All of them felt it.

Without hesitation, their attention shifted to the true outlands.

The deep void where the two Worlds intersected.

In both Worlds, the immortals within also shifted their attention there.

They had been watching the Swallower Supreme trash those beings before.

But now, something even more important demanded their attention.

In both worlds, more supreme presences awakened.

There was no way they could remain unconcerned.

This was no longer a small nuisance caused by the battle between two supremes.

This was a true world-ending catastrophe.