Chapter 1,453.

Putting away the cursed vajra stabilized Zac's faltering core of rationality, yet the Asuran fury remained lodged within his heart. Zac hadn't expected its influence to be so much stronger when taken out mid-battle compared to when he inspected his gains. Granted, a set of specific variables had come together to create something beyond the sum of its parts. Echoes of genocidal sutras had melded with ancient Killing Intent and apocalyptic destruction, turning into a fire of carnage that could only be quenched through bloodshed.

The leader looked surprised that the strike had failed to reach its mark, yet not overly alarmed. He began to channel another strike from within the safety of the protective barrier, unaware that such shields were but a suggestion in front of Zac. The Izh'Rak reaver led the others in unleashing a rain of attacks upon Zac to keep him occupied.

These minor strikes were utterly insufficient in slowing Zac down. They were only good for stoking the fire and reaffirming his resolve. Zac crushed the attacks with impunity by releasing a peppering of axelights as he closed the distance. [Evolutionary Edge] struck the barrier a few times, but as expected, it was extraordinarily durable.

While simple and energy-efficient, the axelights were based on a monstrous attribute pool and backed by two Earthly Daos—one of which had reached middle stage. Adding the berserking skill and his fury's effect on his Eoz Hidden Nodes, even ultimate skills were whittled down by the unceasing barrage. Of course, even Zac in his rage-addled state realized it was because the strongest combatants were waiting for an opening. They wouldn't get the chance, because Zac was finally within reach.

A sprawling jungle appeared out of nowhere, activated with [Void Energy] to improve its growth and allow the skill to bypass the durable barrier. The jungle surrounded the defensive domain, trapping the enemy and blocking their vision at once. Of course, it was impossible to miss the rapidly growing vines spreading through the forest.

[Primal Edict] had been running since before he seized the Primo's eye, and the observatory's ambient death chamber had already lowered by a decent degree. Adding the sanctuary brought by [Apex Jungle], a vast network of vines grew unhindered. And in the midst of that vigorous fauna, Zac made his move. Haro's vines rushed into the nearest trees, and Zac followed right behind. At the same time, there was sudden movement from one of the trees inside the protective bubble of the attacks.

The group turned as one, releasing a set of deadly attacks the second there was a fluctuation. They clearly understood the mechanics of his skill well, which was no surprise. Zac had constantly used [Apex Jungle] during the intersector war because of its wide utility. It was a movement, offensive, and trapping skill wrapped into one. It could even protect his allies to some degree.

Quick reaction wasn't always a good thing. Instead of Zac, what emerged from the tree was a vine holding a small bottle with its stopper already opened. Most of the attackers managed to stop their skills in time, but two of them were a step too slow. The vine and the bottle were torn apart while Zac appeared from another tree outside the barrier.

A chill that made Zac shudder from a mile away roused him from his unnatural state. The source was a mist seeping out of the broken bottle, which froze space itself inside the protective bubble. The mist was another of the treasures Kator had kindly left him. Zac would have preferred rushing in firsthand, but he still retained enough rationality to understand that these people came prepared. They knew who Zac was, and they understood what he'd come to do. No amount of berserking juice could make him enter blind in such a situation.

Three of the weakest, including the closest man who'd destroyed the bottle, directly turned into popsicles that shattered from their own cold. The rest would have followed right behind him if not for a concerted resistance by the whole group. Better yet, the trick cost the group one of their unique treasures. It looked like a pocked nose, which began sucking in the frigid air at rapid speed.

The nose imploded halfway through, taking most of the threat with it to the void. What remained was enough to make the fighters sluggish, but their lives were no longer in danger. At least not from the cold. One of the frozen trees exploded to provide passage to a bloody shadow, and a frostbitten Late D-grade cultivator was decapitated before she could react.

Zac snatched the weird globe from her hand and sent it to the other side where Esmeralda could deal with it. At that point, Zac was like a fox in the henhouse, and he wasn't alone. Haro shot out in every direction, joining the vines pouring out of newly grown trees. While the plethora of vines couldn't take out the elites in the short run, it kept them busy and disorganized.

Following the initial success, Zac planned on snatching a second unique treasure before it could be used. However, the intuition of [Inborn Predator] made Zac sharply pivot his upper body. His elbow connected with something behind him, causing a wet crunch. The next moment, a dead assassin with a caved-in skull appeared out of nowhere.

There was no weapon in his outstretched hand. He'd intentionally avoided any thought of harm to ensure there was no killing intent for Zac to pick up on. Instead, he'd tried reaching into the pocket on Zac's back while invisible, the very pocket where the Primo's eye was stored. Zac released a burst of axelights in every direction while winding a vine a few loops around himself to fashion a protective girdle.

Axelights shaped like spirits began pouring out from the trees as the defenders desperately tried to clear out the overgrowth. Zac used the chaos to take out two more opponents with brutal efficiency, one of whom held a sinister doll that contained the power of a curse. Again, the item was sent to a gleeful Esmeralda through [Purity of the Void].

Finally, the leaders couldn't sit back and watch Zac tear through their ranks any longer. The swordsman coughed up a mouthful of blood as he forcibly stopped charging up his sword strike. The next moment, he blinked to appear before Zac. Axe met sword, and a sharp yowl shook Zac's mind. One exchange, and reality crushed Zac's absolute confidence in victory.

Eyes wide from fury and heartache, Zac stared at the inch-deep chip that had appeared in the middle of Verun's edge. A crack went even deeper, reaching halfway to the axe's haft. His companion was grievously wounded. Something snapped, and the cup ran over. More than safeguarding the treasure or figuring out a battle plan, only one thought filled his mind.

She was hurt, so why did these people remain whole?

Vision red, Zac moved like a ghost through the slipstreams of the Void. He snuck past the sentient sword and its owner's line of defense, effortlessly snapping the offending arm's elbow with a punch. His body a vehicle of vengeance, Zac shrugged off a storm of lacerating cuts as he drew his victim closer. Another crunch, and a mangled arm was torn from its body.

Zac felt a vague sense of pain as an oddly familiar hand floated by, followed by a flicker of silver. The top-grade sword had moved on its own, severing Zac's left hand and Haro's vines on its way back. Having escaped Zac's grasp, the one-armed swordsman disappeared in a streak of light. Zac roared in fury, not at losing his hand, but at his prey eluding judgment.

The fire of malevolence responded to his call. It seeped out of his pores, melding with the ninety-nine runes conjured by [Conformation of Supremacy]'s Ancestral form. A cascade of explosions shook the observatory as thousands upon thousands of towering trees exploded at once. From the splinters, innumerable axe spirits emerged.

The shieldbearer's face paled under the onslaught, and attacks from the outside were not the only threat. There were dozens of trees squeezed inside his protective barrier that also detonated with deadly consequence. The spirits rushed toward their closest enemies, driven by the desire to draw blood.

Zac himself became the heart of destruction. The wriggling runes on his armor, each an aspect of Evolution's violence, detached from his body to join the swarm of axe spirits. [Conformation of Supremacy]'s Ancestral Form had two abilities. One, Zac could attach the runes to his skills to add a secondary explosion.

The second was a passive state where the spirits would detach on their own. Forced into hyper-aggression by the flames of fury, they all detached at the same time. The spirits, infused with ancient Killing Intent and a Dharmic drive for nothingness, morphed into demonic avatars that leapt at their prey. And as they approached, Zac unhesitatingly ordered them to detonate.

"Composure!" one of the three remaining Late D-grade cultivators roared as he cut his wrist with a small dirk.

The blood that was consumed fell on an ancient insignia, causing its engravings to light up. The next moment, a veiled scholar wielding a sword made of coins appeared. The coins flew out, floating above each of the embattled warriors. The coins snapped as one, causing a collapse of all energies within a mile.

The out-of-control chain explosions were suppressed into muted pops, preventing deaths and reducing grievous wounds to blemishes. For a moment, silence reigned as the Taoist faded. A wet cough ended the lull. Everyone turned to the Shieldbearer in the formation's center, shocked to see a thick stream of blood pour from his mouth.

The man's face twisted in reluctance as the light in his eyes faded. A vine ripped the tower shield out of his powerless hands, exposing the situation behind. An unusually thick vine covered in red and black streaks had struck from behind while he was busy stabilizing the barrier. The result spoke for itself. His armor was destroyed, and his chest had a hole the size of a manhole cover.

Such a wound wasn't necessarily enough to kill a Late Hegemon, especially not a defensively oriented one. And yet, the resurgence shone with its absence. He died with grievance on his face, grey cracks spreading across his skin. The vine exploded the next moment, releasing a lingering trace of Chaos.

The main vine had swallowed a huge amount of apocalyptic death. By sacrificing some ancient Killing Intent, the pocketed Death had forcibly been fused with the skill's inherent Life. The resulting Chaos bomb had effortlessly broken through the man's War Regalia and annihilated his soul. The barrier collapsed, exposing the group to an enormous tangle of vines—all of which held an unstable mix of Life and Death.

The attackers paled at the sight, any plan of fighting back gone. The swordsman gritted his teeth, barking out orders while staring daggers at Zac. "Retreat!"

His closest subordinate had obviously been waiting for the call. A mirror emitting powerful Spatial Energy lit up in his hands, and over a dozen reflections appeared on the surface. The next moment, all but two were forcibly teleported away.

Zac's gaze turned toward a widening hole in the sky as the despairing cultivators were drowned in vines. Only the eternal gloom of Ninth Hell waited outside, yet he could feel the cosmos urging him forward. The sinners were still out there, profaning the natural order with their enduring existence. Zac gently caressed the edge of his axe before stowing it.

The hunt was far from over.

----------

The storm was gradually settling under the soothing waves of abyssal water. Still, equanimity eluded Tavza as she stared at the observatory's opening gap. With her trapped and unable to reroute the energy flows, the Grand Array had failed after operating for just shy of five seconds. While that technically should have been enough, the group of invaders had managed to sneak inside just before the passage closed.

Now, the gate was reopening like Pandora's Box, and what emerged would decide the course of history.

A sudden flash of blue deposited a dozen cultivators in the air. Almost half the people who had entered were gone, and those who remained were in a much worse state than when they entered. Case in point, one of the Phusudor leaders was gone while another was missing an arm. In contrast, the undead were better off, though they had lost both revenants.

Tavza exhaled upon seeing the defeat and fear on their faces, knowing they had failed to seize the prize. Still, she let down her guard entirely, waiting for the man of destiny to appear. And then he did, in a characteristically explosive fashion. A sea of vines burst through the opening, straining against the limited space.

The tidal wave felt like a harbinger of the end, a chaotic tangle of destruction. There was a palpable, hair-raising aura of murderous intent, as if they were intent on bringing Armageddon to bear. Shockingly, Tavza could even sense traces of Chaos hidden in the mix. Had Zac already gained such proficiency that he could bring forth the Dao of Chaos on such a scale?

The manmade calamity acted as though it were alive. Advancing tendrils swayed in the air before quickly focusing on the group who had just escaped. Then, like a crashing wave, the main tangle surged forth with speed brought by a relentless hunger for annihilation.

Their desire was so great that the vines directly sacrificed their lifeforce upon finding themselves outpaced. From the soil of their demise emerged new strains that moved even quicker. It was a macabre, unnatural display of unfettered life that filled Tavza with trepidation despite knowing its source.

A sharp aura burst from the swordsman as he unleashed a tremendous slash into the swarm. It amounted to nothing. The few thousand thorns that were torn apart were but a drop in the bucket, and their sacrifice provided much-needed fertilizer for the next generation to sprout. Even when adding the other attacks, it barely slowed down the tides.

A few of the Sealbearers finally had enough of their ill-fated adventure. Two tried to break ranks and flee toward the realmgate. While currently deactivated, they were betting their lives on there being a way to activate the pathway from inside the building. The plan didn't hold much hope as far as Tavza was concerned. She'd siphoned off all the energy she could get her hands on to activate the Rapture Curtain. The battle would already be over before the realmgate had gathered enough Miasma to operate.

Two mysterious gates appeared out of nowhere to block their path. Swarms of vines poured through to pull them inside, like ghastly hands dragging their victims to the afterlife. The gates closed, and the victims were gone forever. No, not completely gone. Tavza could vaguely sense flickers of death in the depths of the tangle. Had the two been deposited in the middle of the swarm?

The detached, almost academic dissection of events became all too real when a gate silently opened just before her. From it emerged a single vine distinct from the writhing mass in the sky. Tavza restrained the impulse to lash out at the unknown entity, instead allowing herself to be pulled through. A brief bout of desolate darkness, then she was standing outside the barrier.

There was no doubt about it; she had just traveled through the Void. Tavza's mind spun at the ramifications, but there would be time to examine what she'd been through later. Another gate appeared a few hundred meters away, from which a bloodied Zac emerged. His signature axe was nowhere to be seen, yet she'd never felt such threat oozing from her companion.

Instead, Zac grasped his own severed hand. Just as he emerged, he pushed his hand against his severed stump, and tendrils of flesh swiftly reattached the limbs. Meanwhile, the many scars covering his body were closing up at a visible speed. Tavza could imagine the despair of their opponents upon seeing such a sight. This man was unkillable, unstoppable.

And now they were pincered between two superior forces and a still-expanding tangle of bloodthirsty vines.

A sudden twist broke the standoff. Usoro Kavriel, the traitor, blurred into action, cramming something into the withered Eidolon to his left. Its incorporeal form almost collapsed in a puff of light. The ghost reformed a moment later, but it was leaking ectoplasm. It was dying, its soul leaking into its surroundings.

"Lords! Don't strike!" Usoro screamed as he broke ranks in a desperate attempt at survival. "I've been working undercover, I have infor—"

His words were cut short as a blade dripping with killing intent almost cut him in two. Usoro narrowly survived, but he'd been stranded in the no-man's-land between factions. Tavza glanced at Zac, who'd used his right hand to form the fractal blade. It was impossible to miss the unnatural state of her aura, yet Tavza did nothing to contradict his actions. The fate of Usoro Kavriel was sealed the moment he appeared next to the enemy.

Before she could finish the job with a streak of death, Usoro's entreaties turned into a high-pitched shriek. His body twisted and expanded far beyond its natural form. It clearly wasn't the work of Zac's skill. Sensing something amiss, both she and Zac released a barrage of attacks to reduce Usoro Kavriel to nothingness.

No, not quite nothing.

At the Draugr's center was a small candle burning with an eerie green sheen. It floated untouched by the aftershocks of the attacks and the darkness of the Abyss, proving its extraordinary nature. Despite that, neither candle nor flame triggered any unease or danger in Tavza. She looked over at Zac, seeing his befuddled expression as he inspected the candle.

A light sizzle from within Zac's pocket provided the answer in the most horrifying way.

"NO—!"