Nightmare’s Call

The holy power, pure white and billowing like the swells of the sea, was eroding the dark-red land. Naturally aggressive, the holy power easily suppressed all toxins and any other energies. The holy power had turned every color here into white.

The red land and the mountain of bones turned white—a kind of pure and holy white. Even the clouds in the sky, which was originally pale red, had changed their appearance. The holy power particles, transpired from the surging holy power below, were slowly purifying them into white.

The Fairy Empress stood behind Lin Sheng, watching. Everything within her field of vision had turned into a sea of holy power. Things were happening at a hyperbole scale. It knocked her socks off. This was no more a gold-level strength.

The Fairy Empress involuntarily clenched her wand, thinking, What if she were the Dark Lord? Could she withstand the assault of the holy power? She ran the simulation in her mind, and the result was she would over-exhaust herself, fail, and pass out.

“Utterly… invincible power of the holy…” The Fairy Empress bit her lips, shaking her little thoughts from her mind for good.

The assault of the holy power was not endless. After a few seconds, it slowly subsided, and part of the terrain started to restore. The holy power had subsided, but the Dark Lord-transformed Bonefiend was still standing stock at where it was, great bone sword still in hand, frozen in a down-strike posture. The next moment, the Bonefiend was powderized, turning into bone ash and being carried away by the wind.

The Dark Lord, who hid inside the Bonefiend, dropped to the ground after the Bonefiend dissipated. He was panting, drenched in sweat, and covered in white mist.

“This is… monster… Wahaha…” He laughed awkwardly. Anyone in his situation would have felt hopeless. But right now, instead of hopelessness, he was filled with joy.

“Get up and bow to me.” Lin Sheng looked at him.

“Bow to you?” The Dark Lord laughed. “I still have one last move… If you could withstand it, I will bow to you.”

He raised his great bone sword and spurted a plume of dark-red mist from his mouth. The mist coalesced with the blade, covering it in a coat of faint blood red and a cobweb of veins that looked like the blood vessels of the sword.

“Show me what you’ve got!”

The Dark Lord raised his great bone sword, his bones melting and becoming one with the great bone sword. What was left of his body was going up in flames, turning into ashes. Infused with the bones of the Dark Lord, the great bone sword had grown several times in size. It looked hideous and ancient, with sharp bone spikes on the back of the blade that reeked of hunger for blood and murderous intent.

“Take my final strike: Divinity Annihilation!”

Out came the overlapping shouts of the Dark Lord from the great bone sword. Invisible energy formed a massive force field, covering a several-kilometer-square area, stopping every living thing from fleeing. Expanding to over five meters, the great bone sword was glittering with a strong dark-red light with a twisted and furious face of the Dark Lord on the back of the blade.

“Kill!”

The great bone sword went up in a black spiraling flame and struck down at Lin Sheng like a bolt of lightning. The Fairy Empress felt a chill run up her spine. She trembled from within and bounced back, trying to keep a distance. But the restraining force of the great bone sword was keeping her in place. Her struggle was futile and she could only stay where she was and watched as the great sword came down on Lin Sheng.

“It’s a fusion of soul and life into the great sword?”

Lin Sheng was moved, marveling at what the Dark Lord had done. He had paid with his life and soul to pull off his most powerful move. Lin Sheng had been treating dark spirits as food, never had he once seen them as living beings. But now, with the Dark Lord sacrificing himself just to be one with his greatsword, Lin Sheng could not help but be shocked.

“What a resolute will!”

Lin Sheng reached out his right hand again.

“Holy Sea!”

A massive amount of holy power rushed out from his hand and met the incoming great bone sword head-on.

Amid a loud sound of the tearing of something, the great bone sword ripped through the torrent of holy power. It moved against the current and struck at Lin Sheng’s hand at nerve-racking speed.

It felt the blade had hit the flesh, but the great bone sword was making a dull, shot thud. The torrent of holy power had stopped, leaving behind Lin Sheng and the great bone sword he caught in his hand.

Fine cracks appeared, covering the entire blade of the great bone sword. There was a sudden explosion and the bone saber was flung away, spinning in the air and ripping open a portal. The portal appeared for less than half a second before it disappeared.

Lin Sheng was caught unawares, trying to stop it. But it was too late. He did not know much about portals. If he gave chase recklessly, he could have gotten lost in some boundless dimension and not find his way back.

“Interesting…” Lin Sheng raised to check his palm. The holy power on his hand had been ripped apart, leaving behind a white tearing mark on his skin.

“Pass the words; search this space and the coordinates of other dark spirit caves,” said Lin Sheng.

No dark spirit cave could exist on its own. Every one of them had a portal that connected it to other mysterious realms or worlds. What Lin Sheng wanted to do was find the portal that could bring him to the other dark spirit caves.

“Are you not going to find him?” The Fairy Empress could not help but ask.

“That won’t be necessary. He has exhausted all his strength to pull off that move; he won’t live for long.” Lin Sheng looked in the direction where the great bone sword had disappeared.

….

The seaside city Taris, at the border of Olro.

On a beach less than a hundred meters from the water, a brown-haired young man was waving his straight saber forward when he suddenly looked up into the sky.

A swooshing sound came from the sky. The young man’s heart skipped a beat, and he bounced several steps backward, clenching his wooden saber firmly as he cautiously gazed up in the direction from where the sound came.

A white spot was coming down from the sky and hit the ground not far from the young man. He took a closer look; it was a battered white saber. He would not have believed that a battered saber that spun as it fell could remain intact after hitting the ground if not seeing it for himself.

The young man was gifted in cold weapon skills at a young age. At fifteen, he had mastered every school of saber fighting with which he had come into contact. At eighteen, a saber grandmaster had expressed his marvel and been humbled by what the young man had achieved. At twenty, he went around to challenge all saber masters and defeated all of them. At twenty-five, he hit his bottleneck in his saber skills; he was at the limit of what a human could do. And when he was training hard to get a breakthrough, a battered great bone saber fell from the sky and landed before him.

“Hey, kid. I tell you what, let’s make a deal. You help me with something, and I will teach saber fighting. How’s that?” The great bone saber vibrated and the weak voice of a man spoke.

The young man was stunned, staring at the bone saber. “I’m not a kid. My name is Tungus.”

“Tungus? I’m dying. Are you willing to do me a favor?” The male voice came from within the bone saber again.