Chapter 552: Chapter 552

Rumble, rumble, rumble...

Huge black silhouettes emerged one after another, their forms gradually taking shape amid the heavy ash-fall that filled the sky of the Pale Lands.

A two-headed giant python nearly a hundred metres long, its body armored in crimson scales, was slowly uncoiling. Elsewhere, a rhino-like monster clad in plates, its hide sheathed in magma-like flame, was also silently waiting. The fire was unnaturally dense, clinging to the beast like molten glue and radiating searing heat. There was also a demonic eagle with feathers entirely made of gold. Its beak, talons, and every plume gleamed with a faint metallic gilt. They looked so sharp they seemed able to slice the wind itself.

Measured footsteps echoed in strict unison. The fierce mutants clustered beneath the ash stirred uneasily, their territorial instincts yielding as they stepped aside.

Figures of black stone, seven or eight metres tall, marched forth in lockstep and showed themselves. They were massive stone statues wearing warrior helms and armor. Scarlet eyes under the helms stared ahead with solemn, ancient gravitas, as though piercing the curtain of falling ash. They seemed no more than ordinary monuments.

They neither moved nor roared at the snarling host before them. Yet a silent might clung to them that no onlooker could ignore. Many mutant eyes swivelled toward them. With wary looks, the creatures drew back of their own accord. That included the near-hundred-meter, crimson-scaled two-headed python coiled like a hill.

After all, size did not always equate to power. This was the supernatural realm, not the natural one; the rules differed.

Roughly two minutes later, every mutant had gathered. When Cassius had slain Ice Spirit, Pale Origin had already recalled the mutants it had hidden throughout the Eternal Archipelago. Releasing them in one wave naturally took little time.

White ash fell like snow upon the earth, drifting in misty veils. Grotesque, towering black shapes flickered in and out of that haze. They exuded crushing pressure and mortal dread.

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The Root of Pale Origin network shuddered as it issued its assault order. Immediately, the ground began to rumble. Beasts and mutants stampeded like a tide in one direction.

The scaled two-headed python led them from the front. Its overlapping red scales were stacked like shields and seemed utterly impregnable. It flicked its tongues and bared a row of savage fangs. The tips gleamed, slick and eager for blood.

Five minutes later...

A black fist sheathed in an iron gauntlet gouged a vast cavity in the air. It smashed squarely into the python's maw, causing blood to geyser outward. The serpent that had lunged like a released spring hurtled backwards. Its body was whipped straight like a flung rope drawn taut.

The creature now had but one head left. The other had been pulped the instant it met the Golem's fist. The surviving head was mangled as well, with a dislocated jaw. Its polished fangs sprayed free, spattered with its own blood, as it bounced along the ground. Its vaunted scale mail proved useless before that overwhelming destructive force.

While the python streaked back like a flying cloud, a giant hand shot out and clamped its tail. With a swift pull, the hundred-metre snake became a whip, whistling across the advancing mutants.

Explosions chained together like rapid firecrackers as plumes of blood burst toward the sky!

They stained the falling white ash red. The tougher mutants were swatted away like baseballs while the frailer ones were battered to pulp. They smashed into the ground and gouged deep bloody pits.

A gold-crimson flame swept across the earth like a fire-dragon.

Razor-sharp ice shards shot forth and were sucked into a howling tornado. Together, they formed a shredding twister that roared toward the Golem. More rocks vaulted skywards, squeezed by an unseen hand into a boulder dozens of metres wide. It descended in an arc, aimed at the Golem's head.

Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!

Metallic humming and impacts reverberated in the air without end. Yet the armor-clad Golem simply stood like a towering statue, as it allowed its assailants to drench it in strikes.

Its heart was as still as an ancient well—flat, unruffled, even indifferent. The boulder burst on impact, yet the Golem's head did not dip a hair. The gold-red dragon flame engulfed it, but it failed to make it twitch even a finger. The crystal-ice tornado tore by, unable even to score the armor.

All those grand, fearsome attacks that would murder ordinary folk were child's play before the Golem. Their effect was helpless, juvenile, and feeble.

Once Cassius entered Golem state, even top-tier combat artists could not penetrate his guard! Only an extreme combat artist of equal might barely manage it—and only with killing moves at full strength.

Such was the calibre of his defense and physique. It left foes feeling utterly powerless. No matter the stratagem, no matter the move, they could stake everything yet not even break his guard. It was better to kill themselves on the spot!

"You send this worthless rabble to stop me?! Begone, all of you!" The Golem smashed the roaring gold-crimson dragon to fragments with a single savage swipe. It barreled forward, grinding the savage ice tornado flat and dead.

Fist after fist crashed into the charging mutants. Those due to burst exploded; those due to fly were hurled far afield.

The colossal fist halted, hurricane winds roaring past. The Golem drew its hand back and regarded the motionless stone legion before it. A faint oh-so-that's-it smile crossed its face.

Five minutes later, the Covert Martial Arts force set off again, flanked now by rumbling stone giants. Deep footprints trailed behind them. No one knew why the statues had appeared on the Eternal Archipelago, nor why Pale Origin had been able to sway them.

However, it was certain they were linked to the Golem. They were not of the Golem species, but creatures steeped in the Ultimate Dark Form Golem's overwhelming life magnetic field.

They were servants, or even an attendant sub-race. The statues were unquestionably natural devotees of the Golem. When Cassius released the Golem's life magnetic field, the statues had knelt at once. They had bowed their heads, prostrating as one would before a deity.

They obeyed Cassius's orders without hesitation, even if he told them to wipe out the Covert Martial Arts ranks behind him or to slaughter one another! That instinctive, deep reverence in their veins meant that, though controlled by Pale Origin, they still could not strike at Cassius. Instead, with a casual wave from Cassius, they had defied Pale Origin's edict and attacked the other mutants.

After Cassius purged the Root of Pale Origin within them, his commands flowed smoother still. He had, in effect, picked up a squad of powerful subordinates for free—ones that might prove useful later.

Thinking about it, he almost felt like thanking Pale Origin.

At the domain's core, a half-ruined giant tree burned fiercely. Great branches and leaves dissolved into endless ash that rose skyward and drifted over every corner.

"Seven minutes... They only delayed them for seven minutes..." Pale Origin seemed far more agitated than usual.

The invaders' momentum could not be stopped!

It further cursed Flaming Sun and White Bird for their joint trap that had weakened it and forced this dreadful stalemate. If not for them, Pale Origin would never have feared such ants, no matter their number or near-Holy Fist leader.

Given a free hand, it would have exterminated them in a matter of time. But the trouble now was that Pale Origin could not spare that hand!

White Bird Holy Fist and Flaming Sun Holy Fist were still watching. If it shifted or split its strength, they would pry into the gap and shatter the balance. It would then likely plunge into an abyss with no bottom.

With luck, the balance would only slip a little and it would be condemned to a slow decline. The bleed of power would last centuries or millennia before death. If it was unlucky, it would be burned to ash at once by the blazing Inextinguishable Flame.

Which fate awaited it depended on luck and how it reacted in the moment. Handle it well and the first path beckoned; mishandle it and the second would accelerate.

Death was certain, only its timing differed.

"Spend everything! Return here at once, at the utmost speed!"

Pale Origin's will surged, issuing the order to the paradise Ripple masters. But in truth, the forces from paradise would almost certainly arrive too late.

By the time they came, the Covert Martial Arts force would already be assaulting Pale Origin. Its sole hope now was that their destructive power would prove too low and that they could not breach its defense.

It prayed that they would do only minor harm before paradise's forces returned. If so, it might just preserve its fragile balance.

The gold-crimson flame upon Pale Origin flared higher. A distorted human visage emerged within the dancing fire.

That vast face floated above the tree, looking down. "Your Will fluctuated violently. Something happened outside. Heheheh. Something very bad for you..."

From afar, a muffled echo reached them through the ash-filled sky. The great face snapped round toward a far point in the ash domain. Flames raged over its features as it broke into a hideous grin.

It was a wild, unrestrained, brazen laughter.

"Not outside—here, right here! Your enemies have broken in! They come for you, to annihilate you!"

The fiery face warped, stretching grotesquely upward: "Whoever they are, I'll lend them a hand and let you savor it properly!"

Rumble-rumble! Rumble-rumble!

The Inextinguishable Flame exploded around Pale Origin, gathering skyward into a still larger gold-crimson head. The deadlock now intensified at three, five times its usual pace!

It continued to climb at a slow, steady rate. By the time the Covert Martial Arts force could see through the ash, the flame's fury had reached ten times its normal blaze!

The air warped violently, as space itself seemed scorched and blackened. White ash burst outward like clouds of dandelion seeds, sucked into whirling vortices that became tornadoes.

"Madman! Madman! You lunatic!" Pale Origin's will throbbed in panic.

To it, Flaming Sun Holy Fist was indeed a madman—madder than any dark creature. He had let the roots impale and absorb him to wage an eternal duel of mutual harm. Though he suffered hellish burning, he stayed lucid enough to heap more flame upon himself.

"Hahahaha!" Flaming Sun said nothing. He only laughed madly.

At the domain's heart, Pale Origin regenerated at ten times its usual speed just to maintain its bulk. It retracted its far-spread roots, curling them into bastion-like knots. Pale Origin meant to weather their siege behind that defense.

Explosions shook the sky as the burning tree's crown blotted out the sun. Cassius stood below, looking up in silence.

Sapphire pupils reflected the gold-crimson blaze, whose madness seemed intent on igniting all. Whether it was the flame's glare or Cassius's long-held yearning and battle spirit upon facing a true Ultimate Dark Form, none could tell.

He had waited a very, very long time for this day...

Ding! Ding-ding-ding-ding-ding...

Violet and crimson constellations flared together on his mighty frame. Together, they numbered over a hundred, gleaming both splendid and perilous.

Southern Dipper Force surged within him.

His bones rang crisply as his five fingers folded into a fist.

Cassius thrilled, craved, and imagined. Against an ultimate being of this world, he would hurl the punch of his dreams!