Chapter 268
CHAPTER 268
WORLD ON ITS KNEES
A magnificent wail crossed the boundaries of space and ti, piercing through its thin veil, echoing out through the millions of hearts and souls, causing them all to cough up a mouthful of soot-layered blood . Shadows veiled the sky, turning the bright days into darkest of nights . Far and wide, people looked up in terror, feeling chilled winds bursting through their hearts .
Alison was currently shaking terribly like a leaf in the wind, held by four arms tightly as they cried out for help . Her eyes had turned pure, milky white, skin seeming as though sunburned . There wasn’t an inch of her body that wasn’t billowing smoke out into the air, one bearing the stench of rotten corpses .
Even Hannah was feeling terribly unpleasant now, her expression distorted as she looked toward the looming mountains in the distance . She forcibly stopped her heart from beating quickly, forcibly held back her soul from stretching out into the wail of solidarity .
Ella stood far up in the sky, her expression a mixture between worry and sadness . There was a faint trace of blood on the corner of her lips, her eyes shining strangely as she focused on the figure standing solitary in the field of red-glowing ash, his shoulders sunken, strands of hair covering his expression entirely .
Alison’s Master, Alex, was currently standing on top of a tallest spire, his eyes shining bright purple within the shadows . His body, too, was shaking faintly, yet he remained inaudible, as though he wasn’t even there . Following a few minutes of still-standing silence, he suddenly vanished from the spot .
Seven people sat in a circle around faintly cyan fla, two n and five won, their expression a mixture of strange exhilaration and awe .
Primal Spirit Ananith was staring at a stone plaque hanging above her in tepid confusion, her lips trembling faintly, Qi around her terribly restless .
Within the world of edgeless mirrors, tears and inconsequential nothingness, tepid whispers echoed one after another, clashing against the invisible edges of everything .
Red threads shook in the sky, tearing and ripping as though cut by scissors, as their source shook violently, causing the entire world around to quake and rumble .
A black-haired, black-eyed youth was currently standing on top of a pile of dismantled corpses, feasting on an arm, as his lips suddenly trembled and curled up into a grin of fanaticism . He looked up toward the sky and saw the shrouded edges, blaring out into a maniacal laughter .
Patriarchs, Matriarchs, Elders, Arch Patriarchs, and even so Disciples of the Holy Grounds all uniformly groaned, so of them disappearing from their spots into a puff of smoke .
The entire world, for an entire minute, had gone entirely mute . It was then, by the very end, that a pair of jet-black eyes erged like suns up in the sky, overlooking the entirety of existence . All looked up and t them, so in terror, so in anger, so in unbridled rage, so in pride, so in awe, so in joy, so with tears in their eyes .
The pair of eyes looked down like an overlord, like the judge of everything beneath; though hundreds and millions and even billions wished to leave the ground and bolt into the sky above, they found themselves frozen in spot . They couldn’t move an inch, nor could they utter a sound . They could only stare at the pair black eyes, a pair so void of emotion they didn’t seem human . Beneath that judgnt, soon billions cracked, falling to their knees, shaking .
Beneath that gaze, even the most indomitable Wills began to shake . Figures that had already turned into the myths of the cultivation world found themselves fighting with all they had to resist .
Within the inconspicuous-looking lake, a bladed elder and a pair of opposite-looking n stared through the mirror into the world outside, all three shaking, yet not bending . They stared hard and long, their expressions muddied in shadows, their eyes marred in clouds .
An old-looking woman and an old-looking man, sitting cross-legged on opposing mats within a squared room with no decorations suddenly shook as their eyes opened . The Qi around them imdiately turned to ash, extinguished from the reality itself . They but glanced at the sky beyond for less than a breath, yet Qi within tens of thousands of miles around them was all gone .
" . . . wait for . . . " a resounding, low growl of the thousand voices bellowed through the minds of all those who stared at the pair of now vanishing eyes . Those that endured so far broke and bent forward, crashing onto their knees, bleeding from their eyes and ears .
Even the old man within the Great Descent’s headquarters, and the two Disciples standing next to him, found themselves on their knees, unable to endure . It lasted for nigh a second before they stood back up, yet it was all evidenced by the four trails of blood on each one of them .
" . . . was that really . . . Lino?" the crimson-haired, stalwart-looking man asked with a lanting expression .
" . . . it felt even worse than when Eldon did it," the old man said with a faint sigh . "Age of the Empyrean . . . is truly upon us . "
Thousands of people were currently standing inside a massive hall decorated with glacial gems all around, the centerpiece of it all being seven pillars standing in a circular formation at the very center of the hall . Pillars were made out of glass, their innards transparent for all to see; six of them were currently empty, with only one standing out .
A small bulb of light appeared out of thin air, the size of the grain of sand, in one of the pillars, a low cry shaking the hall for a mont before it all settled . Hundreds among the thousands suddenly fell to their knees and broke out into tears, cries killing out the prior silence .
Alex stood far up front, right in front of the pillars, his expression terrible . He turned sideways where a few spots down a woman stood tall, tears trickling down her cheeks . They stood far out against her dark skin, the pair of silver eyes bleeding in pain .
Then he thought back to the pair of eyes that had caused every single soul inside the hall to kneel for a mont; at that mont, he felt entirely worthless and powerless, as though a re glance from them was enough to end his life . For the first ti in millions of years, well beyond the point he could recall with clarity, he felt fear -- genuine, bone-piercing, soul-shivering fear . And he knew that everyone in the hall felt the sa, though no one would willingly admit it .
"Everyone, leave . " a robotic voice jolted everyone to their feet as a path opened up, exposing a youthful-looking man walking toward the pillars . He was on the taller end, with a pair of beautiful, black eyes focused entirely on the small bulb of light inside one of the pillars . "Alex, Etella, Vars, Murook, Linda and Y’lov stay . "
All but six nad people stayed -- two won and four n, all of whom were currently gathered near the pillars . The young-looking man joined them shortly after, briefly touching the pillar before turning toward the rest .
"All wars, personal grievances, disputes and bad-blood between us ends now . " the robotic voice continued . "This was a declaration of war, plain and simple . So of you have lived through the last ti an Empyrean had beco the Harbinger so you should know all too well what this ans . "
" . . . so that really was the sign of the Harbinger . . . " Alex sighed faintly, frowning .
"How is the Bearer?" the young man turned toward Alex .
"Comatose . " the latter replied simply .
" . . . I suppose that’s the best possible outco for the ti being," the young man continued . "Despite the fact that he had beco the Harbinger, it is different than the last ti; Eldon was already a massive threat, current Empyrean is not . All our focus for now shifts onto locating him or her . Unfortunately, Mother and Fate are unable to help us, so it rests on us to end this before it even begins . We cannot --- I repeat --- we cannot allow the Empyrean to grow . The last ti ended well, but we cannot count on the sa outco this ti around . "
Everyone nodded faintly before disappearing, including the boy; only Alex and the dark-skinned woman who hadn’t looked away from the pillar all the while remained .
" . . . there are two possibilities for Hannah," the woman suddenly said in a coarse voice . "Either she’s held captive, or she’s compromised . What is your bet?"
" . . . the latter . " Alex replied, sighing . "But, I very much doubt she had anything to do with this, Etella . All said and done, she still loved Eos . "
" . . . it doesn’t matter," she said . "We’re making the sa mistakes again, Alex . The sa mistakes we’ve made with Eldon . I’ve no doubt in my mind Eos had done sothing unforgivable for Ataxia to allow the Empyrean to kill Aurora . And again a fool waltzes in and warns us that we cannot allow an Empyrean to grow any further, as though we were aiding and abetting him all this while . "
" . . . " Alex remained silent; save for Heaven’s Y’lov, Etella was the only other person among those who were in the hall that lived through the years of the first Harbinger .
"Eldon, however, was much older," she continued . "Much wiser . . . and much kinder . On the principle I cannot justify what the Empyrean did . . . but, a part of wants to . You must have seen it too; those eyes weren’t the eyes of an old monster who was wronged . Those were the eyes of the child, Alex . The eyes of soone whose heart was broken one-too-many tis . " she glanced at him from the corner of her eye . "If I were you, I’d be happy for Hannah . " she added before finally turning away from the pillars . "Unlike the old, senile fools, it’s the kids among us that make the right choice . Now more than ever I’m certain: Origin War is coming . Don’t be a fool, Alex . The pain’s not worth it . "
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