Chapter 268: Guardian of Zalo

The silver creature arched its back upward and turned its head towards the ocean of monsters approaching. Each one was an amalgamation of all kinds of flesh and blood, their forms shapeless yet seemingly briming with other worldly power. The first line jumped after the silver avatar, allowing it no place to escape to. However, with each attack being sent at its thin body, all they managed to hit was its afterimage.

Suddenly, it bent its knees towards the ground and prepared to dash. Using all its strength, it dug its feet into the earth and pushed. The force from its dash was so incredibly powerful, the continent itself shifted backwards by three whole feet. The area behind where its feet once were was turned into a wasteland of carved rock so deep that magma began to fill its bottom. The ground beneath everything start to shake violently. It had managed to create its own earthquake by simply dashing forward.

Its indestructible figure blasted through thousands upon thousands of monsters of all different classes. Spirits and even leviathans couldn’t get between its trajectory without suffering the severe consequences. However, it wasn’t satisfied with such weak things, it wanted to go the very source of where they were all being created. Right before it was ready to crash into Zalo’s body, for the first time since its creation, something managed to hit it. A jade sword slammed into the back of its head, sending it crashing into the shattered streets of Iron Kingdom, still vibrantly brimming with fresh corrupted creatures. The avatar exploded itself out of the small crater it made from its impact and looked up at the knightly creature floating down to meet it. A deathly cold voice escaped from behind the glimmering, dark green helmet. It turned out that whatever attacked it was some kind of other-worldly cavalier. Perhaps, even creatures had figures of immense responsibility and power in their rank.

"Hmm. You are quite a powerful one for a thing created by mortals."

It lifted its sword in front of itself as a white fog dripped from its tip.

"Care to identify yourself, Avatar of Silver?"

The faceless creature stared at the knight, bending its body to prepare for another assault. The afterimages behind its body began to multiply and become more frequent. After seeing that the silver being was not in the mood for a discussion, or that it wasn’t capable of one, the knight tightened its grip on the hilt of their cursed blade.

"Then, as the Guardian of Zalo, you shall die by my hand. Goodbye."

The Jade Knight lifted its blade above its head. A dark glow began to emanate within its depths as it shimmered in the dim light of the stars above them. The Avatar of Silver didn’t wait for whatever attack was charging up to be finished. It jumped up to meet its opponent head on, throwing their hand as hard in front of them as they could. The Emerald knight moved its blade to block the attack, but all it was met with was an afterimage of what was about to hit. Instead, the fist landed on the opposite side of their armor, creating an explosive ring from the impact. Even with such destructive force going against it, the Jade Knight didn’t so much as flinch.

"Interesting. So, mortals are capable of becoming creatures this powerful?"

A green glow shimmered behind the knight’s visor before is slashed forward. With each swipe of the sword, all that was capable of touching the afterimages was the dense fog that was now rapidly spilling from the blade. Another hit snaked past the guardian’s defense and slammed into his helmet. The guardian reached for the arm as it struck but was met with another afterimage. A kick landed inside its groin. No reaction. The green armor appeared to be nearly indestructible. A kick that was capable of moving an entire continent was not even creating a dent.

The fog was now drowning around the Avatar of Silver as they continued their onslaught. However, the afterimages appeared to be diminishing the longer they stay in the fog. Realizing this, it tactically retreated backward to create a brief amount of space between them. The Jade Knight kept their blade up and descended toward the Avatar of Silver while thrusting its sword down.

Suddenly, a strange silver spike stopped inches from their helmet as they grabbed on to it. This spike wasn’t just any spike; the entire Avatar of Silver had somehow managed to teleport right next to them before they could finish their attack. A low chuckle escaped from the helmet.

"My, my. Did I read that right?"

Their jade glove caught another spike before it pierced their back. It pulled the Avatar forward and sliced down at its body, connecting perfectly with its torso and sending it flying back once more.

"I did! I did read that right, haha! These attacks are from the future! You’re so fast your future self is sending attacks back at me! This is astounding! It’s like I’m fighting two people at the same time but it’s really just you from different points of time! Absolutely fascinating!"

The Jade Knight caught another attack from its side, then another before it pierced its neck, then another before it could slash its leg. Soon, hundreds of attacks were seemingly popping into existence around them, yet still they managed to block, deflect, or counterattack each and every one. The knight’s form was beyond flawless and refined, its strength was well above human limits, and it stood as one of the strongest creatures to ever exist. This knight was carrying a power that went beyond continents, and perhaps beyond worlds.

The Avatar of Silver crawled out of its hole with a large cut across its torso. There was fog that was constantly seeping into its wound like a poison.

"And just like that, I win!"

Or so it thought. More attacks began to appear around them, each one more vicious and powerful than the last. The Jade knight wasn’t caught off guard, but it appeared to be putting up a greater effort for defending itself. Each Silver Avatar that blinked from the future to attack it had the same scar on its body, yet each one somehow was increasing their speed even further with every second. Molten silver spouted over the Jade Knight as their battle continued on further. it was then that the knight came to a realization.

The avatar was moving so incredibly fast that its own body couldn’t keep up with the speed. It was literally melting itself from the force it was constantly undergoing. That meant all it had to do was survive the current attacks until there was no silver left. However, that task was becoming more and more difficult by the second.

A massive boom exploded into the back of the knight’s armor, creating a large hole revealing an infinite black void underneath. For the first time in centuries, the Jade Knight had been harmed.

"It’s getting stronger and faster? It’s a suicide attack..."

The Jade knight tried breaking free from the insane number of attacks constantly being unleashed on them, but every time it moved away, it never mattered. The attacks were already there because the attacks had already technically happened in the future. Another thing that the knight noticed was it appeared to be mixing the timelines of attacks with its power. There were sometimes attacks that appeared to have been sent back from five seconds in the future whereas there were some that had been sent back from only two seconds in the future. Because of this, there were multiple instances of attacks stacking on each other and hitting at the same time. It was those attacks that the Jade Knight was desperately trying to avoid.

They soared higher in the air as their fight continued. The sky itself began to quake under the immense pressure of their clash. The Jade knight dropped all forms of attack and relied heavily on its defense, hardly letting a single attack pass through its guard anymore. Even after managing to hit such a crazy blow, and even with their speed and power increasing, it was completely hopeless for the Avatar of Silver. It simply couldn’t compare with the powers of an experienced Guardian Deity. And to make matters worse, there was hardly any silver left on its extremely thin body. It was over.

The Jade Knight threw its sword outward and began to slash down the spikes. Hundreds of small shards rained from the sky over the battlefield below. It looked like a storm of shrapnel was being created with each passing second. This continued until there wasn’t as much as a single thin piece of silver left. The Jade knight grabbed it before it could attack them. It brought the sharp fragment to its face and laid its sword against its surface.

"Not many have pushed me this far. I commend you for this battle, Avatar of Silver. If only you had not rebelled against our lord. I feel we could have made excellent allies."

With that, the fog consumed it in its entirety like a beast. There was nothing left. Soon, the Jade armor that was busted open repaired itself back to its normal state, allowing the knight to confidently descend towards its next opponent: a being of inextinguishable flame.