Chapter 556: Chapter 556

Crackle... crackle...

Beneath the firmament, the sky-piercing giant tree shook violently as though a dying being were wailing and struggling. Bark, branches, and leaves peeled away in succession, and the wind turned them into vast sheets of white ash.

Whoosh... whoosh... whoosh...

A gale driven by flames brushed Pale Origin's canopy, causing large swaths of branches to collapse. The body that had once been unbelievably sturdy now resembled drifting sand. It was easily swept away with a single gust, scattering in every direction and corner.

Pale Origin's furious roar shook heaven and earth, and the sky trembled. Yet the two Holy Fists standing against it showed neither fear nor mercy.

Flaming Sun Holy Fist, incarnated as a gold giant of fire, spread his massive hands, tearing at the giant tree with five fingers. One after another, branches as thick as train carriages crashed down, smashing into the ground and blasting deep craters.

White Bird flew beneath the crown. He devoured and shattered Pale Origin's massive trunk and densely packed roots with terrifying Thorn Feather Force. Each delicate thorn feather blasted a deep pit in Pale Origin, stacking blow upon blow, deeper and deeper.

It looked as though he would blow the trunk of Pale Origin clean apart.

The waterbird that had taken flight revealed his form once more. White Bird Holy Fist quietly watched Pale Origin below, which had little strength left to resist. His fingers brushed the air slowly. His arms unfurled like the wings of a lakeside bird, graceful and wide.

Arc-shaped traces of white radiance were left suspended in the air.

"Flaming Sun!" White Bird Holy Fist shouted a reminder.

Then, his whole figure dove once more from the heights, a colossal waterbird exploding into a glide that accelerated.

"Understood!" The crimson fire-wreathed head in the sky responded with a savage laugh. Flaming Sun Holy Fist glared, the flames at his eyes compressing until they thickened into a profound black.

"Pale Origin, you deserve to die!!!"

The giant waterbird formed by White Bird Holy Fist swooped down. Wings sharp as metal severed every root that leapt skyward to block the way. At last his entire body, like a massive fighter jet, slammed into the largest breach in Pale Origin's trunk.

The blast shook the heavens! Vast flames gushed forth, forming towering mushroom clouds.

Crack-crack-crack-crack...

An unending sound of fracture rang out, heralding the fall of some enormous mass. The immense tree was collapsing!

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Pale Origin was cleft in two by White Bird Holy Fist!

"My turn!!!" The crimson-gold giant roared, spread his arms, and suddenly embraced Pale Origin's trunk.

Black flames that twisted the very air burst from his eyes, carrying terrifying heat. When the fire fell upon Pale Origin, crackling sounds erupted as bark peeled away. The black flames spread like viscous asphalt. The searing heat pierced the bark, penetrated the wood, and reached the heart of the tree.

There was endless detonation and the burning of an inextinguishable fire.

"No!!!!!!" The Ultimate Dark Form, Pale Origin, let out its final roar.

The combined strength of Flaming Sun Holy Fist and White Bird Holy Fist had finally overwhelmed it!

The entire ordeal had been unimaginably arduous over endless ages. Flaming Sun Holy Fist had even adopted a stance of mutual destruction and paid an exorbitant price. No Ultimate Dark Form was easy to slay. They had myriad methods, endless trump cards, and terrifying vitality. Even the Moon God slain by White Bird Holy Fist had left behind a hope of resurrection. It showed how tenacious the lives of these monsters were.

Cassius looked into the distance as the sky-piercing tree wreathed in flame collapsed. The ground shuddered, hurling everyone into the air as the soil rolled rapidly like waves in the sea.

"Aaaaah!" Nearby, the paradise fighters who had been battling the Covert Martial Arts's camp and the Hellsing camp all froze. Gold-red flames burst from their bodies, burning them to cinders.

The former leaders of the Ripple Order from every era trembled and twisted in agony. Some of their eyes gradually grew clear, gazing at the fallen Pale Origin as they realized something. Tears of an indescribable meaning slid from their eyes, only to evaporate in an instant by the flames that incinerated their very eyeballs.

One could not tell whether it was regret, despair, or unwillingness...

Bang, bang, bang, bang.

One fiery figure after another exploded into ash and fell to the earth. With a crisp snap, Supreme bone rings whose surfaces were already veined with cracks dropped into the heaps of ash. Their various colors dimmed and at last turned pitch-black.

"Paradise... has been annihilated... Pale Origin... has fallen as well..." Ripple Master Monchi's clothes were in tatters, his face and hair dusty. Yet his eyes shone brightly, as though lit by flames.

Monchi looked at the carpet of ash, then at the fallen Pale Origin. His fists clenched, causing veins to bulge on the back of his hands. His face was lit by ruddy firelight, and his eyes were deep. No one knew whether his heart felt the exhilaration of vengeance fulfilled or the emptiness of a twenty-year obsession that had been completed.

Monchi raised his right hand and pinched the bone ring on his middle finger. Purple lightning coursed across it like little serpents as he removed the ring.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Let everything of these decades have a complete ending..." He gazed at the ring that had accompanied him for more than twenty years, reluctance flickering in his eyes. However, Monchi tossed the ring into the Inextinguishable Flame in the distance. It exploded as the flames eagerly ate it. Lightning flickered, and finally fell silent. The purple Supreme bone ring darkened to black and shattered completely.

On the other side, within the billowing flames, Flaming Sun Holy Fist, now a crimson-gold giant, slowly stood up.

He raised his head to the sky, gazing at the ash that swirled afar like falling snow. His eyes were blank and hollow. "Pale Origin is dead... How many tens of thousands of years have passed? Far, far too long..."

A streak of white traced through the sky, and the aged figure of White Bird Holy Fist appeared. "Indeed, it has fallen. But Flaming Sun, Pale Origin still has the other half of its body in the Pale Lands of the World of Calamity. If we leave it unattended, a second consciousness might emerge."

"Yes, it still has half a body! The battle is not completely over... I will return to the World of Calamity... and burn Pale Origin to ashes..." Flaming Sun Holy Fist's eyes gradually cleared, flames rising within the emptiness.

White Bird Holy Fist nodded silently. He had in fact already seen that something was wrong with Flaming Sun Holy Fist. His Will had hovered on the brink of collapse. Therefore he had spoken to remind Flaming Sun Holy Fist of his goal, gathering and fortifying his resolve. Had White Bird Holy Fist not warned him, Flaming Sun Holy Fist might well have broken down after slaying Pale Origin.

That was understandable. Flaming Sun had ignited his own Qi into an inextinguishable fire to entangle the stronger Pale Origin, burning alongside it for all eternity. Every second he endured terrible pain, his Will had been strengthened.

Flaming Sun was a Holy Fist, yet his style and condition earlier resembled that of a Dominator Fist. His emotions were high, his temperament explosive and even manic. Indeed, this was the change wrought by tens of thousands of years of torment.

Without venting through intense emotion, Flaming Sun Holy Fist would likely have gone mad in endless agony. In such a state, continuing to live was exhausting and painful. Once his Qi was ignited into the Inextinguishable Flame, it could never be extinguished again. This was also why Flaming Sun Holy Fist had grown dazed and his Will weakened after Pale Origin fell. He wanted to die...

Yet White Bird Holy Fist reminded him that everything was far from over. He had to live on for the worlds that follow and for the human race. Even if it was only for himself, he had to continue his unfinished vengeance. He had to find the courage to bear this pain!

If another Holy Fist had said the same, he might have lacked the right. However, White Bird Holy Fist had that right, not because his strength was supreme, but because he too was suffering under the Moon God's curse and the Dead Abyss seal.

Both were extremely vicious and sinister, subjecting the victim to eternal torment. Take the Dead Abyss seal: every moment, the bottomless trench in the Black Sea exerted its pull upon White Bird Holy Fist. It tugged at his organs, his blood vessels, and his very bones and cells. It was practically tearing him limb from limb. At certain intervals, the pull intensified more than tenfold.

Even without falling into the seabed, one would sink into a real hallucination of loneliness, helplessness, and despair, as he was dragged into the Black Abyssal Sea. It was suffocating.

Yet that was only the Dead Abyss seal; there was still the Moon God's curse. White Bird Holy Fist had voluntarily set foot on the land of the World of Calamity. The effects of the curse and seal stacked every second, and had likely reached a level of utter despair by now.

Yet White Bird Holy Fist endured, his attacking stance still as elegant as ever. His endurance was astounding. There was no sign that his body was suffering from extreme pain. Clearly, he was qualified to bid Flaming Sun Holy Fist to live on.

At the very least, he was not someone who urged others to be virtuous after facing no suffering in life.

In the core of the ashy land, two figures descended from the sky. One was a thin, white-haired elder, the other a hazy humanoid flame. They alighted on the ground where the remains of the giant tree behind them blazed fiercely.

A series of steady footsteps rang out as Cassius emerged. He looked at White Bird Holy Fist, then at Flaming Sun Holy Fist beside him. He immediately executed a junior's salute of martial arts to express his respect.

This was not submission to superior strength. Rather, it was respect for the pioneers of Covert Martial Arts and the elder of the Southern Dipper lineage.

"Honored seniors, this is our first meeting. My name is Cassius."

"Hahaha..." The white-haired elder suddenly burst into laughter. "This is not our first meeting. When your Will spread in the World of Calamity earlier, we already met."

He regarded Cassius appreciatively and praised, "Southern Dipper heir, you are qualified... I should say, exceedingly qualified. Without even attaining the realm of Holy Fist, you could break one of Pale Origin's five main roots. Even if it was only half-severed, it showed me the depth of your foundation. At the very least, it is far deeper than mine, Blood Vulture's, or Sonic Snake's back then..."

White Bird Holy Fist never hid anything. If he said he appreciated Cassius, he would list Cassius's merits, and every word was true.

"This time I came from the World of Calamity carrying a gift for you. I believe you can absorb it all." He examined Cassius again. "So, do you intend to receive my impartation now? The Southern Dipper Waterbird Fist and Thorn Feather Force are all within this..."

White Bird Holy Fist lightly swept his palm through the air. A colossal phantom waterbird suddenly appeared midair, skimming the lake surface. Its white thorn feathers were like wrought steel. It emanated a sense of divine clarity, magnificent and imposing.

"Wait a moment first. I still have one unfinished matter." Cassius shook his head and walked toward Pale Origin's corpse in the distance.

White Bird Holy Fist and Flaming Sun Holy Fist exchanged a glance and drifted after him. Wherever the three passed, the blazing Inextinguishable Flame automatically made way, exposing the ground, burned into blackened crystal.

Crack-crack-crack-crack...

Their footsteps produced faint clicks of hard objects colliding.

Cassius arrived before Pale Origin's remains. The corpse had shrunk several fold. First, Pale Origin's own explosive healing had ceaselessly consumed its essence. Second, the Inextinguishable Flame had frenziedly annihilated its vitality. What remained was no longer as exaggerated as a mountain peak.

"What a pity..." Cassius thought to himself.

But there was no helping it. To bring down an Ultimate Dark Form was incomparably difficult; one could only keep draining and weakening it. Such a style of attrition doomed any hope of obtaining an intact Ultimate Dark Form corpse. Even Flaming Sun Holy Fist and White Bird Holy Fist in his special state could not settle it with one blow.

Even so, Pale Origin's remaining corpse was still an unimaginable feast for the Golem Covert Martial Arts. It was practically dragon liver and phoenix marrow to it.

After all, it was an Ultimate Dark Form...

"This time, my Golem Covert Martial Arts shall feast to its fill." Cassius did not hesitate and activated his Golem Covert Martial Arts with all his might.

Streams of black Qi surged from his pores, assembling behind him into a towering colossus. Demonic energy churned like flames and waves. The colossus trod the earth, its steps dull as it advanced.

The armored giant hand slowly reached for the Ultimate Dark Form's remains.