The Void Ocean fully reasserted itself so the krakens and leviathans had taken the role of helping those cultivators that could not endure sustained flight to travel on them. There were very aggressive bans on certain people but otherwise, they compromised.
Lind's remaining ships were also used to carry the bulk of their materials and allow crafters to work their magic the best they could. They could not make miracles but they could make more standard weapons.
It took them 4 years before the horizon changed. The krakens and leviathans were their guides. The once unbroken blue sky and white clouds beca darkened in the distance.
Lind erged onto the top deck and let his aura shoot outward. The previously hidden artifacts were now so much trash smoldering in ruins. He had expected that but the barrier around the continent was wrong.
It was still shimring smokey black and cutting off all access, but his instinct told him there had been a chance.
He shot into the sky and left the army far behind. Many were shocked but only a few could match his speed. So wondered if the Bastard was waiting for them.
Lind knew nothing was waiting. He now floated above the barrier. His erald eyes glowed as his aura carefully interacted with it. He was not trying to break it, but to understand what was wrong.
It was more than the barrier. The very fabric of the realm felt thin. Sothing was very wrong.
[Stop the advance.] He transmitted the command. The ships stopped. Lind continued his analysis but he could not confirm what was wrong.
He simply knew it was.
He flew back after a day of checking and the wall was solid in all the areas he could reach in that ti. Nothing indicated what was wrong yet he could not ignore it.
He quickly had the surviving leaders assemble on his top deck. They just barely had room.
"What has happened, Lord Frey?" A demon missing his right arm spoke up. He had a mace strapped to his back but no one doubted his capacity to fight. His body was as well muscled as any warrior.
Lind paused to consider his response. He closed his eyes and tried to put into words what he felt.
"There were several things wrong. The largest you will feel certainly is the Divine Lands feel thin there. It is as if they barely exist." That part was easy but important. It ant they could not rely on the Eastern Continent as a landmass.
Reason enough to pause and re-evaluate but those closer to Lind knew there was more. His face was easy to read when he found sothing difficult to talk about.
"Lind, what is it?" Lysanna spoke up. Her voice made many swivel to look at him and he sighed.
"It is hard. It is like trying to find words to describe water but not water." He conjured a view of what he had seen for them all to look at the barrier. "In reality, nothing seems to have changed but that wall is no longer what it was before."
The contradiction in his words was clear enough. How could the barrier be both unchanged and changed?
Lind sighed but he had no better way to say it.
"Is the barrier not made by the Great One anymore?" A human man spoke up at that ti. There was no disrespect but Lind could not truly answer. As he was about to try again, an Elental butted in.
"Does it change anything? We have to breach the barrier and take the war to the Fiends. The state of things is important but we now simply adjust our plans, yes?" His point was well made.
The discussion followed that maybe what Lind was sensing was a shift in the barrier due to thinning of the Divine Lands. It was not impossible but Lind disagreed.
He felt it, sothing was wrong and dangerously so.
"Lind? Show ." Karu suddenly spoke. Her recent involvent in healing Sun made all give her space. He frowned but nodded.
He held out his hand and she took it. They shared his mories. The instant his sense of the barrier reached her, Karu reacted violently.
She began to throw up right there on the top deck. It was not easy to make a Divine Realm nauseous so all took it very seriously. Karu was on all fours and her bestial features had begun to override her human looks.
Lind was shocked until an idea ca to him. He instantly shot up and roared. Erald flas slamd into the wall even at that distance.
The mont they did, the world collapsed. It fell into a smokey void he had seen before!
{Ha ha ha ha! So cautious but wise. I thought I hid it well enough.} A familiar yet unfamiliar voice violated their minds. It was far more powerful too! Lind's harmony flared as all his ships activated ergency protocols.
Harmonic arrays snapped together until they all realized their souls had almost been extracted! They looked below and saw many more blooms of erald light.
{Ah yes, your little toys are still effective. Only just. I am still bound by so rules trapped in this damned place. I had hoped to knock you into despair once more but you seem to have learned.} The dark barrier shimred and then fell away.
Billions of Fiends quietly stood there. Lind could see them all. A shiver went down his spine.
[What have you done?] They felt even more of a violation than before.
{Haven't you guessed? Divine mory is not the only reality warping facet of a Divine Realm cultivator. These beings lived before. They beca part of
and are still connected to
via my little echo.} Lind's eyes went wide in horror.
The very thing that gave him hope could be flipped to the reverse. He was not facing the Fiends of the current iteration but all past versions! How?!
Dark laughter rocked his barriers but they held.
[What did you do with the Bastard?] Lind could not sense him at all. The laughter only increased.
{It no longer matters. He is around, sowhere. You have long planned this conflict, how are those plans looking now?} The words made all realize Lind had only overco the trap in the barriers.
Now, they faced not a desperate or final gasp of an army, but a well trained and highly experienced set of foes. Foes that had died over and over.
Lind knew their power was not that different, yet they could apply that power in ways he could not conceive. How many battles had he won by using knowledge of old Earth? How many tis had he seen things and unlocked powers none knew existed?
Now, he was facing a horde that had experienced every failure possible. They knew what would and would not work.
Their disturbing eyes were now matched by smiles that spread viciously on their ash gray faces. The dark horde flew up until they began to move towards them.
[RUN! RUN NOW!] He gave the order and it snapped everyone into motion. Yet, when commands were inputted into the ships, nothing happened. They did not even budge.
{I may not be able to take you, but stopping you is an entirely different matter. You ca too close. I can almost see you with my eyes Lind. I can almost reach–} Lind felt power flowing around him.
It infused itself into his arrays and they were wrenched from him. They were no longer his!
The frozen ships began to move quickly as the others protected by his arrays were also freed. Yet, Lind felt fear. Only 1 thing could take over his creations like that, himself!
All other versions were dead. They were gone or left little pieces behind. How could a version be alive? The answer was they weren't.
The only thing left was the cage one of them had built!
{HA HA HA HA HA HA! ALWAYS THE HERO! ALWAYS SO FOOLISH! I HAVE ONE MY GAM–} The dark joy was cut short as Heaven and Earth suddenly surged.
Power unlike anything he had felt flowed from above and slamd into the Eastern Continent.
{DON'T INTERFERE! I AM FINALLY–} The original Bastard suddenly scread and everyone almost collapsed. Lind had never heard such pain in any living being ever. Even the Fiends froze.
{Do not waste the chance, boy! Move!} The old man! He recognized the old man's voice and realized the other Eternal Realms had acted! They had acted against the Bastard!
None of that could be good for them! It would be like Divine Realms fighting in a mortal realm!
Lind moved quickly and flew over the Fiends. None dared stop him for fear of calling the attack on themselves. He fell like a teor as erald light flared.
[SEAL!]
A weaving far more complex than any attempted flew outward. He had thought of many ways to win the war. Killing was the ultimate goal but might take ti.
In order to buy ti he had created sothing his trial had revealed to him. The mightiest Fiend could be bound!
The layers of the traces beca so thick no sigils could be made out. The feeling of thinness fled imdiately and the danger of the other side vanished.
Lind had no chance before but he did now. He was completely drained.
[Haro.] His ring spirit appeared and whisked him away. None of the Fiends tried to stop him again as they did not trust he was defenseless. The armies fled from each other.
They needed to wait and see if the higher realms would interfere again or if it was only them left now.
As darkness closed in, one thought perated Lind's mind. Where was the current Bastard?
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