The Innkeeper

Chapter 2373: The beginning of the end times IV

With the universe disconnected, the three battlefields for human legacies turned into three giant traps. While there were still many Dao Lords present there who had been sent there to protect the battlefields, they were cut off from backup and support, meaning the very nature of the fight had changed.

They had gone from protecting the humans to fighting for survival. The battles were happening within the Joro, Geb and Tyrannum realms. The Humanoid Alliance was remotely monitoring the situation because they could not afford to lose so many Dao Lords all at once.

Lex had entered the Gilded Hollow through the Joro realm, and so had River and Pearl. The Grand Conqueror had been active in the Geb realm, and the Henali had personally intervened in the Tyrannum realm.

Originally, the Humanoid Alliance had assumed that the reason that the Henali had targeted the Tyrannum realm was because they had also heavily invested in humans and wanted to take advantage of the situation. Besides that, there was a general understanding between the Humanoid Alliance and the Henali, so it could also be taken as them supporting the alliance.

Yet when the universe’s order was disrupted, only then did the unusual behavior of the Henali come to light. While the Humanoid Alliance itself was merely monitoring the situation in case they needed to react if the situation turned dire, the Henali actually strengthened their position in Tyrannum.

An external blockade was no longer needed since inter-realm travel was already basically non-existent, but the Henali set up one anyway, preventing anyone from coming in or going out.

With the recent attack on the Path of Chaos by Elizabeth, the Tyrannis race which was a part of the Path of Chaos had been weakened as well, and had no back up en route. Thus they could not repel the Henali.

Yet oddly enough, the Henali took no special actions within the Tyrannum realm. The regions where the humans were searching for legacies was still restricted to those below the Dao Lord level, but the rest of the realm was unaffected.

They weren’t even attacking the realm to attempt to claim it, thus no one could understand what their motives were. On paper, it seemed like they were trying to keep them trapped within that realm, but that didn’t make sense. Why would the Tyrannis race try to escape its own realm?

Considering all that was happening in the universe, some people occasionally checked up on the status of the Tyrannum realm, but they couldn’t be bothered to constantly monitor it. In the grand scheme of things, it was not too important or relevant.

Yet only the Primal race knew that there was something happening in the undercurrents of that realm, for the ranking of the Human race on the Cosmic Ascendance Spectrum was on a steady rise, and its source was not the three realms associated with the human legacies. Instead, it was solely linked to the Tyrannum realm.

Within the realm itself, a small group of humans had formed a cohesive team, working perfectly together to tackle issues that should have been far beyond them.

The group consisted of Rafael, Alexander, Souta Ito who had the Ronin system which was formerly the samurai system, Anakin, Larry and Giselle! That, in itself, was not so surprising. What was surprising was that they were being hunted by countless Tyrannis as they ran across the realm.

Due to their history of killing off so many Human Dao Lords, the Tyrannis race had an inherent superiority when facing humans, causing normal humans to become suppressed in their presence. Even the best of humans could, at most, perform at 80% of their usual strength when facing them.

A Celestial Immortal Tyrannis suddenly appeared in front of the group and slashed at Giselle, aiming to disrupt the Time barrier she had kept active for days already. Yet even as the blade neared her throat, she did not blink in the slightest.

Darkness - total, inescapable darkness erupted from the ground and wrapped the sword itself, causing it to get lost. From within the Tyrannis’ very hands, the sword became lost in the darkness, never to see the light of day again.

"Like lambs to the slaughter," whispered Anakin Indiana McClane as he controlled the laws of darkness and surrounded the Celestial whole. None of the others were surprised, as if they were used to it.

The entire group consisted of Heaven Immortals, but each of them controlled a power that did not match their realms. Of course, that strength was not actually their own, for they had not magically become all-powerful simply for convenience just because they happened to know someone special, say Lex for example.

Reality was not as convenient as story books, and Heaven Immortals could not magically gain the power to fight off Celestial Immortals - at least not without centuries of training and honing.

No, the power they controlled came from the broken, crumbling sword that looked like it was on the verge of being destroyed. In fact, that was not far from the truth, for while the shabby sword contained unbelievable power, its physical form was on the verge of turning to dust.

Only through a technique called Stasis was Giselle able to keep the sword from being destroyed. Stasis did not actually freeze time - it just slowed it down to an inconceivable amount!

"How much longer do we have to keep this up?" asked Larry in an irritated tone, not in the least because there was a massive hole in his chest that was taking its sweet time in healing.

"At the current rate, it will take us nearly a decade to deliver the sword to where it wants to go," answered Alexander coolly. Unlike most of the rest of the group, his strength genuinely did exceed his cultivation level, and not by a small amount. The only other person who could boast that was Giselle.

Even against the Tyrannis, Alexander and Giselle were the strongest in a fight, and held up their own just fine. Since they got the sword, however, not a single fight had been an issue - mainly because they just became conduits for the sword’s power. Regardless of how strong the opponent was, the sword only needed a single move to kill the enemy.

Yes, kill. Not overpower or temporarily incapacitate. The sword could directly kill Celestial level opponents, even when using them to channel its power through. None from the group could imagine just how strong the sword actually was - all they knew was that they needed to get it to the place where it needed to go.

"Why is it that since I’ve met you guys, we are always on the run, or are always getting targeted by armies," asked Giselle, though her tone was a lot more casual, and it didn’t sound like she was complaining. It almost sounded like she was having fun.

"As if that army of Profane energy using freaks totally weren’t after you," said Anakin as he rolled his eyes. "Also, I’m pretty sure all humans are being hunted here, not just us."

The group continued to run even while they bantered with one another, with only Rafael staying silent throughout. That’s because no matter what future he saw, he kept seeing their own demise right before reaching their objective. No matter how he tried to change their future, he only saw death.

He kept hitting a wall, and he had no idea how to get past it, but that’s exactly what he needed to figure out.

While the group was facing their own demise, within the Dream realm, Marlo too was facing a threat that had caused the fearless man to hesitate out of caution.

It was not fear for his own life that caused him hesitation, but the sheer gravity of what he had encountered. For reasons unknown to him, the two Drama-cats on his shoulders seemed to have completely hidden his aura, making him undetectable to many powerful beings, as well as some of the laws of the Dream realm.

He had, inadvertently, encountered a city within the Dream realm where normal residents of the Dream realm lived alongside the dreaded Sandmen! They had not yet realized that he was an outsider, but he wasn’t sure how much longer that would last.

The Dream realm, simply because of how often it changed his surroundings, had suddenly brought him into a death trap. The slightest mistake could end up getting him killed. Although Marlo was generally fearless, he was not deathly stupid. Even he would show sufficient prudence in a city where Sandmen who could capture Dao Lords walked around like menial workers.

"Have you heard the latest news?" one of the Dream realm residents talked to another within earshot of Marlo. "Because of the destruction of Major realms, the Dream realm itself is becoming weaker since we have fewer dreams to access. The Dream realm has passed along a message to prepare thoroughly for in the future, many more Major realms will be destroyed. I think I heard them say that the plan is to destroy 3000 Major realms."