Defiance of the Fall

Spirit Tool War Regalia were extremely expensive, high-quality ones even surpassing the price of Cosmic Vessels. It was also an issue of supply and demand. You wouldn't necessarily be able to get your hands on one even if you had the money to spare, even in the Multiverse Heartlands. Artisans who could create something like that didn't exactly grow on trees, and it could take years to make one.

Not even Zac had managed to get his hands on any, and not for lack of trying. There had been a few for sale in Vastness City, but none suited Zac's Daos. Few living practiced the Dao of Death, and the fusion of Life and Conflict was quite uncommon too. The Undead Empire had promised to provide him with something for his Draugr half, but they'd held back on delivery before he broke through.

As such, Zac still lacked any real War Regalia. However, getting your hands on regular D-grade equipment that could mimic their effect wasn't too difficult, especially not in the Perennial Vastness. The [Ossuary Bulwark] was a good early D-grade armor set comprising six linked pieces. It was a beastcraft too, making it a suitable partner to [Verun's Bite], providing a protective domain and a very sturdy protective exterior.

It obviously wasn't at the level of Izh'Rak Reaver Warbones, but then few things were. At least it let him ignore the flames, and these E-grade Kan'Tanu warslaves without Dao Branches or high attribute pools could attack him until they ran out of energy without leaving a mark on Zac's body.

The downside of the armor, except for costing thousands of D-grade Nexus Coins inside the isolated economy of the Perennial Vastness, was the lack of spirituality. In other words, Zac had to manually control the arrays powering the thing. It also lacked the natural ability to absorb energy from the surroundings like a Tool Spirit, making the cost of running it noticeably steeper.

Keeping its arrays active reserved a good deal of Zac's energy capacity. Common Hegemons with unimpressive or imperfect cores would find it difficult to keep the thing running, even with their pathways fully upgraded. In Zac's case, the cost didn't really matter, considering he had few avenues to use it anyway.

Zac initially hadn't planned on taking out his [Ossuary Bulwark] during his first engagements. He didn't think himself so powerful that he was unkillable in these small-scale engagements. Vilari was absolutely right with her warning; this early battlefield could pose a threat to him if he grew careless. Things had been smooth sailing so far, but the [Celestial Sun Talisman] had ensured that every single Kan'Tanu knew of his presence. They were already adapting, forming a defensive perimeter in the distance between himself and the third living bomb.

The real reason he'd wanted to avoid using his armor was that these things had very limited self-repair capabilities. High-quality D-grade Equipment was too complex for the holistic repair arrays you saw on most E-grade equipment. Or rather, those arrays were so expensive that it didn't make sense to add them to anything but Spirit Tools in the D-grade. Buying a couple of spare sets was cheaper than engraving repair arrays.

The [Ossuary Bulwark] would naturally recover from minor damage, partly thanks to its inherent nature as a beastcraft. Anything more would require the attention of a D-grade Blacksmith skilled in beastcrafting, something the Atwood Empire lacked. One day, Zac might be able to deal with these kinds of issues himself, but the unlocked sections of [Cosmic Forge] didn't cover equipment repair.

Not a single Kan'Tanu stepped onto the burned fields around him, but Zac knew it wasn't just out of fear of him. Rather, he could sense the familiar ripples of an imminent self-destruct from the scorched living bomb. Zac still wasn't sure if these things were actually sapient or just flesh controlled by the arrays, but he supposed it didn't matter.

Zac didn't back down from the increasingly erratic energy fluctuations ahead. Instead, he shot forward, a set of golden runes appearing across his face as an enormous fractal leaf teaming with Life and Conflict formed in front of his axe. The air around Zac groaned from his mere presence, and Zac felt a surge of golden fury course through his body.

His berserking skill was one of his last to reach Peak Mastery, mostly because it had proven difficult to evolve while in secluded cultivation. It needed the fury and purpose to unleash a crusade to improve, something that was impossible to emulate while sitting in his cultivation cave back home.

He had eventually accomplished it a few years into the Perennial Vastness, and the effect was quite useful now that he'd entered Hegemony. Even at peak mastery, the skill only provided a 35% attribute increase. However, Zac felt the skill fast at work as he approached the self-destructing bomb—the skill actually provided cooldown recovery at Peak Mastery, apart from further lessening the backlash to the point it was almost negligible for Zac.

True to its name, [Arcadian Crusade] allowed you to keep fighting longer and harder, provided your energy stores could keep up. Normally, Zac would require around three minutes before he could use [Rapturous Divide] again, but the golden energy from the berserking skill was already pouring into the divided skill fractal.

It would be a minute at most before he could use it again. Unfortunately, [Arcadian Crusade] could only cut down on the cooldown of [Judgment of Arcadia] by a few hours, which meant it was still a once-per-fight type of skill. For now, he'd keep at hand.

One minute was not long, but the sphere before him wouldn't give him the time to recharge [Rapturous Divide]. That was why he'd gone back to using [Nature's Edge]. The gleaming leaf reached one hundred meters in no time, yet it kept growing with extreme speed as Zac poured more and more energy into the skill. Soon, it dwarfed even the enormous sphere, and a piercing scream echoed through the battlefield as it descended in a murderous vertical arc.

A shimmering barrier appeared around the bomb, but over a dozen beams ripped through the sky and pierced into the shielding just before Zac's attack landed. They had come from the wall in the distance, where the Atwood Empire's siege engineers tried to pave a path for Zac.

It worked.

Between the already damaged patterns across the sphere's surface and its rapidly destabilizing energy, the Array Towers managed to shatter the barrier. Zac's attack continued unimpeded, digging deep into rocklike flesh. The result wasn't quite at the level of his previous use of [Rapturous Divide], even if his attributes had been empowered by [Arcadian Crusade].

Still, it carved a fifty-meter-deep gash, which was all he needed. Zac stepped forward with [Earstrider], arriving inside the enormous body. Wild torrents of unstable energy tried to rip Zac apart, but [Ossuary Bulwark] kept the chaos at bay as Zac flooded [Nature's Edge] with energy. An eruption of hundreds of leaves shot out from his body, digging into flesh around him.

Normally, the activation of the skill would end there, and Zac would have to wait a few seconds before he could activate the leafstorm again. This time, it was different. The leaves never stopped forming when empowered by [Arcadian Crusade]. Hundreds of blades grew to thousands, turning Zac into a walking calamity.

Each individual blade only held a fraction of Zac's strength, but they were still equivalent to a Late Stage E-grade cultivator's attack. Together with the empowerment of two Dao Branches, they rapidly carved out a gory chasm within the sphere. Soon, a five-meter pitch-black orb was exposed, and Zac bisected it with a direct strike.

An incredible surge of Kill Energy confirmed the creature had died, yet Zac inwardly grimaced when the energy poured into what felt like a bottomless chasm. In the E-grade, Kill Energy directly entered the nodes, either to force them open or fill them with energy after they'd been unlocked. It was similar in Hegemony, except it all went into the Cosmic Core.

The flood of energy poured into the surface pathways he'd arduously crafted just a month ago, and it almost felt like the section 'came alive.' Zac had no better way to describe the feeling. Every corner of the core was filled with vast amounts of energy, but it almost felt mechanical rather than spiritual.

Progressing through Hegemony was to unlock the true potential of your core until it was perfected and could be transformed into an Inner World. However, it felt like the core's insides were already the size of a planet. These miscreations were somewhere in the middle of Early D-grade, yet all that Kill Energy only filled up a corner of a single surface pathway.

He still wasn't quite able to make a perfect estimate of how close he was to his next level, but he guessed he'd have to kill hundreds of these things. The amount of energy he'd have to accumulate to reach the limits of Middle D-grade was staggering. Time was limited and every kill counted, even if Zac knew he was better off targeting Middle- and Late Hegemons or Beast Kings for their exponentially larger reward.

But there were none of those on this battlefield by the looks of it. He hadn't lost his mind, even if fiery anger still smoldered in his chest. But no matter where he looked, he couldn't spot any real elite. And since Zac had already lost out on a huge amount of Kill Energy by using a talisman, he opted to deal with the bomb rather than simply moving out of the way.

With the energy secured, Zac flashed away just before its broken body exploded, further ravaging the region. As he moved toward the third siege weapon, a golden haze spread around his body, attaching to every surface, even forming floating pockets of life in the air.

It wasn't another talisman's work, but his Peak Mastery [Primal Edict]. Since what little Creation Energy he had couldn't be used to save that child, it would instead be used to reap the lives of his enemies. Zac had pushed his Supreme Pathbound E-grade skills to their peak years ago while collecting materials for his Omnitool, knowing it would be a while before he managed to upgrade these incredibly complex fractals.

The energy across the battlefield stirred as innumerable deadly roots sprung up wherever Zac passed. [Primal Edict] contained the essence of his Evolutionary Path, and it fed on the aura of struggle that permeated the whole region. It became fodder for the cycle of destruction and rebirth, letting the roots grow at an accelerated pace as they joined Zac in his advance toward the defensive line.

The whole sky lit up as thousands of Kan'Tanu fearfully unleashed whatever skills they possessed, sacrificing coordination in favor of speed and widespread destruction. The scene reminded Zac of his exit from the Tower of Eternity, though there were some critical differences. For one, he was in perfect condition. Secondly, he had gone from a crude strongman relying on a superior attribute pool to a true powerhouse.

Not to mention the fact he had a grade advantage against his attackers. Zac moved like the wind, forming the vanguard of a tsunami of bloodthirsty vines. The battlefield looked like a war of man against nature, and man initially seemed to be winning. Innumerable attacks ripped into the advancing tangle, destroying roots and vines by the thousands.

Only Zac was unscathed, dodging or ripping apart any skill that came close. He didn't need to activate [Empyrean Aegis], and neither did he need to rely on his [Ossuary Bulwark] to survive this particular gauntlet. Soon, he'd pushed through the first barrage, and the roots around him had turned into a chimeral mesh containing hundreds of different Daos. They had died and been reborn, incorporating the truths that felled them.

They crashed into the protective barrier, which almost broke from the first strike. A storm of bloody thorns and attack tried to push back [Primal Edict], but a gleaming axe hidden within the chaos crashed into the barrier with devastating force. A breach had been formed, and vines flooded the opening like a pack of bloodthirsty beasts. Meanwhile, a grand forest sprung from the ground, half of it right in the middle of the Kan'Tanu's ranks.

The warslaves knew the trees spelled danger when they saw it, but they didn't even have time to channel new skills before vines spewed out from the trees. The display resembled the end of every fallen Kan'Tanu, but these vines were far more potent and deadly than any common Heart Curse. Fearful screams echoed through the region, and Zac was filled with a steady stream of Kill Energy as his deadly tangle autonomously spread through the battlefield like a bloodthirsty infestation.

Many were cut as the Kan'Tanu fought back, and others were infected by the Heart Curses of the fallen. In seconds, the defensive line had collapsed. A few voices cut through the mayhem, trying to restore order through the ranks, but Zac appeared without a sound through the nearest tree. In no time, another four Hegemons had died, and a hidden assassin squad had been ripped asunder before they could even reach Zac as he teleported back and forth.

However, the number of warriors on the battlefield was just too many, and Zac was right in the middle. The dominion of [Primal Edict] was gradually pushed back by over a thousand invaders fighting together. Still, it was enough. One skill had reaped hundreds of lives and created chaos in the Kan'Tanu ranks. It should have lessened the pressure on the breach far in the distance, and it had let Zac close in on the third bomb. He even saw that his people had managed to destroy a fourth sphere while he ran amok, with a regiment of elites making their way toward a fifth.

Maybe his antics had worked too well. Over a dozen Hegemons had appeared between him and his target, and six huge runes had appeared in the sky. The patterns seemed to fuse with the living bomb, prompting Zac's Danger Sense to give a weak warning—nothing that would make him back down. [Rapturous Divide] was finally off its cooldown, and Zac rushed forward while an enormous fractal leaf grew in front of his axe.

The slaughter lasted another twenty minutes before things finally calmed down. Zac panted as the final sphere collapsed, his pathways throbbing from overuse. Activating multiple talismans with half-finished pathways had taken its toll, yet Zac felt he had more to give. But looking around, there was nothing left to target. The Kan'Tanu had all fallen or retreated by now, and the ground was littered with corpses and dried-out Heart Curses.

Instead of enemies, he saw Ra'Klid rush over with a squad of powerful tribesmen radiating a bloody aura. The Warchief and his men had left for the other frontline while Zac singlehandedly dealt with things here. A third volley of spheres had eventually arrived, but the tides had already turned by that point. Zac only needed to deal with two, while his soldiers and array towers dealt with the other three.

Ra'Klid and the others had clearly seen a pitched battle on the other side, with all of them covered in wounds and grime. However, their bedraggled state couldn't douse the flames in their eyes as they looked at Zac with veneration.

"How's the situation?" Zac said as he took out a canteen of water, the skull-like helmet opening up and shrinking into the breastplate.

"They called for retreat after their third summon failed to change the situation," Ra'Klid said, having the same look in his eyes as his men. "I don't know what to say. I've never seen anything like your offense. One man singlehandedly overwhelming an army—you'll become a legend after today."

"As long as our people are safe," Zac sighed. "What happens now?"

"The quest will automatically finish as soon as things have calmed down. We'd rest, repair our defenses, and collect our fallen," Ra'Klid said before sharing a look with his bodyguards. "There is one more option, though. We can strike back."

Zac frowned at the idea, and not because he was feeling tired. His other half back on Earth was already fast at work absorbing energy from a Cosmic Crystal to restore his energy reserves, and he only sported some surface wounds. However, the thought of dragging an exhausted and wounded army into another engagement made him hesitate.

"Emperor, a Warchief cannot put all the tribes' burdens on his shoulders," a shaman next to Ra'Klid said, clearly understanding the thoughts in Zac's mind. "Wars will come, and people will die. Such is life."

"Striking our enemies while they're at their weakest will keep casualties at a minimum," Ra'Klid added. "If we seize their teleporters, we'll have conquered this planet. It will take at least two weeks before the Ruthless Heavens opens a new path leading here. If we wait, who knows what the Kan'Tanu will come up with next?"

Zac looked to the dark sky and slowly exhaled. He'd just enlisted, yet he already felt spiritually exhausted. It was one thing to walk the path of War and Conflict while traveling alone and another entirely when so many fates depended on your choices. But the demons were right. His gaze slowly turned to the fortress in the distance. The enemy fortress stood waiting in the distance, and a trickle of escaping Kan'Tanu poured through its gates.

"Oh, they're here," Ra'Klid muttered, and Zac turned over to see four D-grade Minotaurs hurrying over. "What do you wish to do?"

"Do we have the tools to break through their barriers?"

"We can crack them open like an egg," Ra'Klid said, a ruthless smile spreading across his face.

"Then we attack," Zac growled. "Mobilize our men immediately. Don't let the Kan'Tanu recover."

"As the Emperor Commands," the demon bowed, and a screen appeared before every able-bodied soldier. "It is good to have you back."

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