Chapter 225: Brink
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
This was a giants’ temple. Massive purple gemstone-embedded doors towered at the entrance, and were large enough for multiple titans to enter together. The tall ceiling seemed as distant as the clouds, and the interior was wide enough for multiple gigantic dragons to fly around as they pleased. Even the ground was paved with rare and valuable types of jade.
The drawings on the walls of the temple were countless fairy tale-like stories, with various epic battlefields, including enemies that were incredibly strong. There were True Gods from the ancient past, Legend-ranked demons, and countless extinct creatures that were unidentifiable. The giant in the drawings, who stepped on dragons and slew Gods as the main character, was the master of this temple—the Earth Elemental God Emordilorcan.
In the past, the Earth Elemental God had been the most ancient God at the very top. For all the undying, this legendary title represented countless years of history and epics and legends.
Generations of True Gods had perished and risen up, while Emordilorcan had existed throughout all these years. He had left his own mark upon history, which was plenty of proof for his strength.
The countless ages had allowed Emordilorcan to arrange his old nest into a glorious divine temple just for himself. In the past, this place had been filled with his loyal servants and worshipers that would come from thousands of kilometers away just to see him. Emordilorcan would sit high on his throne and observe the teeming lifeforms below.
However, right now, this place was entirely empty. The only guest standing in the plaza seemed like an ant compared to the temple’s size. But, he was an unmistakable uninvited guest, as well as the most dangerous challenger.
“Emordilorcan, come out here! I know that you’re hiding in here! If you don’t come out, I’m going to smash the Elemental Throne to pieces!”
“…How did you know that I wasn’t dead?”
Emordilorcan’s familiar voice echoed throughout the temple, and I could hear the suppressed rage contained within his words. For him to have been forced down from his glorious throne all the way to hiding in a corner was completely the fault of this “ant” before him. Of course he would hate me.
His angry question was as loud as a thunderclap, but I ignored him. I had no intention of giving a long speech, which would give my enemy enough time to prepare and overturn the situation.
Actually, I knew from the very start that he couldn’t possibly have been defeated just like that. The title of the oldest and strongest Elemental God couldn’t have possibly been for show. I had guessed, from the very start, what Emordilorcan would do when our forces gained an overwhelming advantage early in the battle, and he had refused to show himself no matter what.
“Emordilorcan’s pretending not to notice me while secretly making his own preparations? He must be planning on winning without even taking part in battle himself. You want to know how I came to this conclusion? Because if I was in his situation, I would do the same thing!”
If I was in the situation where my power level was at an all-time low, and I was facing an enemy where I had a less than 20% chance of victory, then I would naturally also want to think of ways to avoid this battle.
From his viewpoint, as an Elemental God, this place would be my home field. Fleeing without battling was rather impossible to think of. Even if I ran away, my enemy would surely chase me wherever I fled, and I might very well be discovered by my enemies while in my seriously injured state. And if I was to fight a battle where I was certain to lose, that would be even more foolish.
Using oneself as the standard to measure the enemy was an iron maxim that guided countless undying individuals past numerous calamities. In a way, Emordilorcan was no honest and direct good person, so his choices were incredibly similar to what I would have chosen.
“Is he going to fake his death or escape? He’s the Earth Elemental God, after all, and he’ll be greatly weakened if he leaves this plane. In that case, that only leaves faking his death.”
Tossing out some bait and having the bait die off in his own place so that all his enemies believed he was dead was one of the most common and effective tactics that old sly foxes like him preferred to use in order to continue surviving.
In order to make things realistic enough to where all the Elemental Lords believed that he was dead, Emordilorcan would have to pay a heavy price. He was even willing to sacrifice the majority of his power for this, as just surviving was enough for him. As long as he survived, he had the hope of becoming stronger again and regaining everything he had lost.
And what absolutely confirmed for me that the Emordilorcan up above had only been yet another clone of his which contained the majority of his true power was the scene where he was devoured. As the Earth Elemental God, even if some of his earth element power was absorbed by the Divine Sins, he could have just replenished his power again using the Elemental Throne. However, I didn’t see any signs of him gathering the earth element again to reform himself. He died too quickly—it was almost as if he was trying to die as fast as he could.
And since he already made such a large sacrifice, I supposed that even having the Elemental Throne be destroyed, which would cause him to lose his identity as the Earth Elemental God, was within his limits. He would definitely hide in silence until the very end unless I managed to threaten his life like with the Divine Sins.
“…Even if I lose everything, it’s fine as long as I’m still alive! I shall pay back my losses today tenfold tomorrow!”
I could even imagine the way he looked, grinding his teeth in the shadows. After all, I did the same thing in the past, but I definitely didn’t want his idea of surviving and taking revenge in the future to come to fruition.
The stubbornness of the undying helped him to decide, from the very beginning, to sacrifice almost everything in order to live. If it was someone else, perhaps I would even praise him a little, but since this was that bastard Emordilorcan, I only had one comment.
“You want to live? Dream on! Why didn’t you ask those who you killed, all those innocents that died because of war, whether they wanted to live or not!?”
I have many personality defects. Probably the ones at the forefront are stinginess and always bearing a grudge. I probably wasn’t going to be able to change them ever in my lifetime, nor did I intend to change them.
For the true secret perpetrators that destroyed the Mist Kingdom back in the day, I spent hundreds of years to find them all and kill them. In this battle, all the beastmen tribe leaders had died off, and we were still finishing up the post-combat dealings with them. But if the only “escapee,” Emordilorcan, didn’t die, I wouldn’t be able to sleep well at night!
“The Earth Elemental God? Heh heh, no wonder you have the nickname of a cowardly turtle. You don’t even dare to come out when I’m by myself; are you that afraid of me? Ha! For an Elemental God to actually fear a newbie who just entered the Gold rank, if everybody knew about this, your reputation would be ruined. Oh, my apologies, I forgot that you didn’t have much of a reputation to begin with.”
“Roland! You’re courting death!”
Emordilorcan’s angry roars kept echoing within the empty temple, but I still had no way of knowing just where he was hiding. None my detection magic worked in finding him, so it seemed that he was hidden quite well.
After paying such a price, it was almost impossible for Emordilorcan to be willing to show himself. He would almost certainly hide like a cowardly turtle till the end. When an existence like Emordilorcan abandoned everything and focused only on hiding his presence, it would be exceedingly difficult to find him. So, that was why I kept taunting him to try and get him to come out. I needed to make him think that he could take me on one hundred percent, as well as inflame the deep grudge he had for me, so that he could no longer calmly tolerate his most hated enemy parading about in front of him.
With all the above factors completed, I would also give Emordilorcan hope that he could protect the Elemental Throne and his Godhood status, as I personally went about destroying the Elemental Throne, which only his interference would be able to stop me from doing. With all these factors added up, I felt that he would never be able to resist coming out.
“Come! As long as you kill me, you can have your revenge, as well as keep your divinity.”
Yep, I was using myself as the bait to reel in a big fish. Although I might be reeling a whale, only by showing him that I had truly come by myself and making him think like he could win would Emordilorcan be willing to appear. This would be my only chance at personally taking revenge!
And the moment he appeared, it would definitely be a battle to the death. The fact that he still hadn’t appeared using his true body meant that he was still testing to see if I had some type of ambush waiting for him.
“Alright then. If you won’t come out, I’ll just destroy this Elemental Throne, and you can sleep for eternity!”
I walked forward casually like I was taking a leisurely walk, but the air within the temple suddenly changed pressure to the point that it was slightly suffocating. This caused me to smile.
“An ambush? He’s finally fallen for the bait!”
I suddenly stabbed my pale white sacred sword of justice into the ground. Ice instantly covered this area, and the sound of pain that came from underground was incredibly pleasing to my ears. That bastard had finally taken the bait.
“Roland, we found him. Not only is he underground, he’s all over. In a way, we’re inside his stomach.”
Harloys’ notification astonished me. Whatever was beneath me still wasn’t his true body? But soon, I received a more detailed explanation.
“He probably separated the concept of his very existence and placed them within the different drawings on the wall. Only by putting them all together will it become a complete Elemental God. This basically means that he forcefully separated his power and soul. Not only will this greatly weaken his power, it’s more painful than you can imagine. It’s far worse than dying over and over again, so this guy is definitely quite vicious even to himself! Only by treating oneself viciously will one be able to treat others even more viciously. Be careful! This time, you’ve hooked a brutal, man-eating shark!”
At this moment, all those truly realistic-seeming drawings flashed through my mind. Now I understood how he had hidden himself so well.
After I blocked his underground ambush and glanced over at the drawings on the walls, Emordilorcan knew that he had been exposed.
The next second, all those drawings came to life, as all the Emordilorcans depicted within them started materializing into ethereal flashing figures. The next moment, the figures combined together and a familiar figure was once again in front of me.
“Emordilorcan!”
Just like that day, when I had met him in the underground labyrinth at Antuen, a pitch-black stone giant was viciously glaring at me with hatred in his eyes.
Meanwhile, I started laughing out loudly.
“Ha! I can finally have my revenge! Beifeng! Now!”
After I shouted out in anger, the entire earth started trembling. Behind us, the Giant Sand Worms now under the command of the Dracon hunter were beginning to enjoy the finest meal they had ever tasted, the symbol of authority that countless high-level earth elemental creatures dreamed about—the Earth Elemental Throne.
The pitch-black giant looked at me in astonishment. He probably never imagined that his well-defended treasure trove had been dug through to by an underground tunnel.
“Hah! Why are you looking at me like that? Did you really think that I would leave the Elemental Throne alone for you? The Elemental Throne was my main target from the very start!”
Yep, coming here to the Earth Elemental Throne and finding Emordilorcan was for my personal grudge, but destroying the Elemental Throne was my main strategic objective here. As long as I achieved this goal, I would definitely have profited by coming here.
The revival of the Elemental Gods caused an increase in the Elemental Tide. This would then lead to a closer connection between all the planes with the mortal plane. Soon, a new battle and unwelcome invaders would be appearing.
And unlike “history,” the Elemental Gods were being far more active than usual, and the speed of increase for the Elemental Tide had far surpassed “history.” Unless I took action, there would probably be very little time to prepare for the major upcoming battles in the mortal plane. The premature arrival of the Undead Calamity would be the most obvious example.
“The Elemental Throne creates Elemental Gods. If any of the Elemental Planes have their Elemental Throne destroyed, that means that no new Elemental God will be able to be born. The Elemental Tide will flow back just like how water always flows to lower places, as the Elemental Plane will absorb additional amounts of its own element to create a new Elemental Throne. In that case, the increase in the Elemental Tide for the mortal plane should stop for the time being.”
From a certain standpoint, every active Elemental God in the mortal plane was my enemy.
That was why I made Camdian take the blame for me on a certain matter. I definitely didn’t promise a single thing to any Earth Elemental Lord. I only hinted to Camdian that “only by eliminating Emordilorcan can a new Earth Elemental God be born, and this is how we can lure the Earth Elemental Lords into fighting for our cause.”
I didn’t say a single lie. I simply didn’t mention the time it would take for the next Earth Elemental God to be born. Anything “extra” was imagined solely by Camdian himself, and I didn’t even show my face around, so the Earth Elemental Lords would only be able to blame Camdian for not being able to become the Earth Elemental God.
Yep, I had dug a trap that he had kindly fallen into for me. The best result would be that the Earth Elemental Lords were so furious that they ganged up against Camdian and managed to kill him for me, which would definitely save me a lot of trouble.
At this time, all the seeds I had planted were finally sprouting, and it was time for me to claim my rewards from my traps. The Elemental Throne was currently being devoured by the Giant Sand Worms that lacked intelligence, and every bite felt to Emordilorcan as if they were biting into his heart. His diminishing divine power had been gathered by him over the countless years, and he was weakening with every moment.
This scene was basically a reenactment of what happened at Antuen. Only this time, I didn’t leave even a single chance for him to break past any obstacle, setting traps for him every step of the way.
If he had stayed within the walls of his temple, even if he lost his Elemental Throne, nobody would have been able to find him. But now, he had come out already, and the Elemental Throne was destroyed. It would be nearly impossible for him to escape now.
“There’s only battling to the death.”
At this very moment, a sliver of fear shot through Emordilorcan’s eyes. He truly felt that his life was now being threatened, but at the very next moment, his fear transformed into viciousness.
Some people would become cowardly when it came to a junction of life or death, while some people would explosively erupt and go all-out against their enemy, at the very least trying to take their enemy with them in death. It was obvious that Emordilorcan, who had reigned for over tens of thousands of years, was of the second type.
“Rahhh!”
Together with his angry roaring was the collapse of his glorious temple. Emordilorcan had now taken back all of his power as he strengthened his body while the earth shook around us.
His pitch-black stone armor was growing spikes, and his eyes under that armor were filled with maniacal, bone-piercing hatred.
“Roland, he’s coming! You’ve forced this vicious wolf to the brink. This will be the final, most furious attack of all; you can’t be too cautious.”
Before Harloys’ reminder even faded from my ears, I already started laughing out loudly.
“Hah! Isn’t this exactly what I wanted? Come, Emordilorcan! Don’t you hate me, and want to tear me to pieces? It’s the exact same for me. I’ve long since wanted to slice and dice you into little pieces. In that case, let us have an all-out battle to the death, right here, you and me. Let us battle until one of us is deader than dead! Only the side with the deeper hatred that wants to kill the other more will be able to survive!”
My injured vicious opponent used his angry roaring and rushing over to me in lieu of his answer.
As for me, I tossed away the pale white sacred sword in my hands. The upcoming battle wasn’t one that an Epic-level weapon like it would be able to participate in. Once Harloys returned to me, I would have an even better sword, a magical sword that would be able to destroy anything.
“Awaken, Yin’s Extreme—Ice Calamity!”