The Desolate Era - Volume 42 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Book 42, The Five Truncheon Chapters, Chapter 5 – Exhaust Him!

Ji Ning remained quite calm, because this entire time he had the feeling that this sealed continuum had not finished revealing all of the dangers hidden within it . Although none of these dangers were truly lethal, if he didn’t handle them correctly he would pay a heavy price for it .

……

Inside the brightest of the three Elder Halls in this hidden dimension . Exalt Bowenya was looking nervously at the images in the air before him . The images were displaying the chaotic battle going on within the sealed spacetime continuum . Explosions were occurring everywhere as energy blasted about willy-nilly . Even though he was in control of the Sacred Realm, he wasn’t able to clearly see what was going on in the battle . Clearly, a chaotic and terrifying war was going on, with all three Exalt-class Daoguard Towers focusing their long-distance firepower against Daolord Darknorth, with all the Hegemons working to assist the towers!

“What’s the situation?” Exalt Bowenya barked coldly . He was able to get a vague sense of what was going on from watching the images, and it seemed as though his side held the advantage . They had surrounded Daolord Darknorth and were blasting him with attacks .

“Exalt . ” More than twenty avatars belonging to the battling Hegemons and Emperors were gathered next to him . True Sithe did not have avatars, as they were constantly being rejected and suppressed by this Chaosverse . It was impossible for them to use their godsense to keep and maintain an avatar .

In contrast, the Sithe descendants were native to this Chaosverse . They all had avatars . Clearly, then, the avatars located next to Exalt Bowenya all belonged to the Sithe progeny . These avatars belonged to the various squads who had been assigned to take part in this battle . Through them, the Exalt was able to quickly issue new orders as well as be updated how the battle was progressing .

“Exalt, don’t worry . We have an absolute advantage in this battle . We’re definitely going to win,” a horned man said excitedly . “The astral chains have completely countered Daolord Darknorth’s advantages . Each time, he is forced to use his sword-arts to defend against us . He’s constantly using up energy, and his truesoul is crumbling at an increasing pace while we are sending more and more people into the sealed continuum to assault him . He’ll only be able to capture or kill one of two of us within a short period of time .

This sealed continuum was a hundred billion kilometers in size . Ning moved much more slowly due to all of the attacks raining down on him, and he was using up a lot of energy . As a result, he had to slowly move from Emperor to Emperor as he captured them .

“With our grand formation having been established, he won’t have any chance at all of capturing anyone from our team of thirty-five Hegemons and Emperors,” a black-robed elder said confidently .

“He’s already used his sword-arts at least ten times by now, and this is just the beginning! We have many tools remaining that we haven’t even used yet . ”

“Exalt, let us use all the tools we have at our disposal . ”

“Exalt, let us take part in the battle as well!”

“Alright . ” Exalt Bowenya revealed a look of delight . “Hah! I knew it . He’s not going to pull anything unexpected out of his sleeves . ”

The Exalt was no fool . Each plan he had used against Ning had a very high chance of success . In Purgatory, the Apocalypse-class castle would’ve stood a good chance of exhausting Ning to death, if it hadn’t been for Ning’s Storm Sword Dao allowing Ning to move much faster than anyone had anticipated .

As for the spacetime formation, the only reason why Ning had survived it was because the Apocalypse-class castle had bought him an extra hour of time to gain insight into a few of the formation’s mysteries . As a result, he had launched eighteen strikes and broke through that formation .

After these past two failures, the Sithe Exalt was actually beginning to lose confidence in himself . This time, however, everything was progressing smoothly in accordance with plan . This caused him to feel quite delighted .

“This attack is much more powerful than the two previous attacks in Purgatory combined . ” An expectant look was in Exalt Dowenya’s eyes . “We have three Daoguard Towers working together to rain attacks on him, after all, and we also have a large group of Hegemons and Emperors going all-out against him . Even if we can’t kill him head-on, we can exhaust him to death . ”

“Send in the Bloodfiend Maze Formation as well,” Exalt Dowenya ordered .

“Understood!” Two of the Sithe descendants next to him immediately acknowledged the order respectively, then sent their squad of fifty-two Hegemons into battle as well .

“Have all eighteen of the Death Attendants enter as well!” Exalt Dowenya commanded .

Just a short while later… “Exalt, Daolord Darknorth is completely helpless against the Death Attendants . All he can do is rely on his speed to dodge . The more he dodges, the more awkward his movements become . We’re landing more and more attacks from the astral chain formations and the other formations, and he’s forced to use more and more sword-arts to defend . ”

“His truesoul is beginning to crumble faster and faster . ”

“Exalt, we’re definitely going to win!” All of the avatars of the Sithe taking part in the battle were extremely confident .

“Hahaha, I knew…!” Exalt Dowenya let out a laugh as he prepared to issue his final orders, but then he suddenly hesitated . He asked, “How many of our Hegemons and Emperors have been captured or killed?”

“Around sixty-five of them were taken or slain,” a black-robed elder said . Their formation was in control of the entire battlefield, allowing them to know the casualties they had suffered .

“Quite heavy . ” Exalt Dowenya couldn’t help but smile, even as he said these words . Even if all the Hegemons died, it would be worth it if they killed Daolord Darknorth . Right now, just twenty percent or so had perished!

“Yes, our casualties are indeed quite heavy, but Daolord Darknorth is extremely important to the entire Sithe race . If we can kill him, it will all be worth it . ” The Hegemons and Emperors were brimming with the desire to do battle . They had known long ago that this would be a calamitous battle, but at least the situation was better than they had expected, even though more and more Hegemons and Emperors were being slain .

“If that’s the case, then send in the final two formation squads as well . All remaining Hegemons and Emperors, use your respective treasures to assist . Don’t let Daolord Darknorth focus his attention on any one area in particular,” Exalt Bowenya said .

“Yes . ” Instantly, a large number of Hegemons and Emperors charged forth . This final wave included an enormous number of Emperors; there had to be over two thousand of them!

In truth, there was a limit to how many Hegemons could be used by the three Daoguard Towers . At most, eight hundred Hegemons was enough! More than two thousand of the other Hegemons were simply there to obscure Ning’s vision and to distract him . After all, Ning would continuously counter-attack and either kill or capture these Hegemons! If he managed to kill someone who was in control of a Daoguard Tower treasure, the impact would be significant, but if he only managed to kill one of the screeners, it would have no impact on the Sithe combat power .

Of course, even though these Emperors were merely a screening force, they were also provided with formations and Sithe treasures to slow Ning down .

“It seems I’ll be able to deal with Daolord Darknorth just by sacrificing a few Hegemons and Emperors . ” Exalt Bowenya smiled broadly .

Time continued to tick past, second after second .

“We’ve already lost more than ninety Hegemons and Emperors . ”

“Daolord Darknorth has used his sword-arts over forty times by now . ”

“He managed to capture another thirty Hegemons and Emperors, but most of them were useless pawns . It won’t affect our combat power much . By now, he’s used his sword-arts over fifty times!”

The battle grew increasingly ferocious .

“He’s already captured over two hundred Hegemons and should have used his sword-arts at least eighty times by now . His truesoul is crumbling quite rapidly . ” The avatars continued to make detailed combat reports to the Exalt .

“Over twenty Hegemons belonging to the Iceland Astral Chains have been captured . The formation has been destroyed!” Suddenly, this new report came out . The astral chain formations could still be maintained after suffering light casualties, but at a certain point it would still break apart .

“Keep fighting! Daolord Darknorth won’t be able to last much longer,” Exalt Dowenya said calmly . “He’s used his sword-arts many times… even if he didn’t go full-force for most of them, it should still have exhausted him tremendously . ”

As time continued to flow on, three more of the major formations were breached as well . By now, Ning had either killed or captured over five hundred Hegemons and Emperors, and had used his sword-arts over 180 times .

“Almost . Almost!” Exalt Dowenya was waiting eagerly . “We’re going to win . ” Each strike would consume a significant amount of Daolord Darknorth’s vitality, even if the strikes were not full-force . Based on his calculations, the Daolord would die after a total of around two hundred strikes . ”

“We’ve lost over six hundred Hegemons and Emperors, while he’s already used his sword-arts more than two hundred times . We still have over two thousand people left, but we only have three formations remaining . Daolord Darknorth is quite clever; he’s been focusing his efforts on the Hegemons who are in control of the formations . ”

“Hold nothing back!” Exalt Dowenya ordered coldly . “He’ll be dying any moment now, while we have over two thousand Hegemons and Emperors left . We’ll be able to exhaust him to death!”

But… for some reason, the closer they came to success, the more uneasy Exalt Dowenya suddenly began to feel . He shook his head, forcing down that uneasy feeling and reassuring himself that it had appeared because he wanted to win too badly .

“Over seven hundred Hegemons and Emperors have been captured, while we only have two main formations remaining; the other formations aren’t important and are just meant to screen the real ones . Daolord Darknorth hasn’t died yet!”

“Over eight hundred have been captured . He’s used his sword-arts over 250 times, but he still hasn’t died! We only have one main formation left . ”

“Why hasn’t he died yet?!” Exalt Dowenya was growing increasingly nervous and impatient .

“Not good!”

“Exalt!” Suddenly, half of the remaining avatars turned completely ashen . One of them said frantically, “Exalt, we’ve been counter-trapped!”

“Counter-trapped?!” The Exalt was completely dumbfounded .