Immortal Paladin

[POV: War]

War stood like a harbinger of apocalypse, dressed on the occasion and wearing his full armor.

The fringes of the Greater Universe stretched into infinite darkness, where a lone black sphere known as the Hollowed World drifted silently. Atop an enormous flying ship that cleaved through the vacuum of space was War. The colossal vessel drew its power from the seething hatred of every soul he had ever slain, fueled by the damned echoes of countless conflicts. Beside him loomed Heavenly Flame, her fiery red hair blazing like living embers, her regal robes shimmering with divine authority as she proclaimed the presence of her lord.

“The flames of War shall consume all who dare oppose us!” Heavenly Flame declared, her voice ringing with unyielding fervor across the void. “Surrender! Surrender! O Holy Emperor who sought to summon my lordship, appear before us!

Below them, rank upon rank of warriors held perfect formation, their weapons gleaming as they cheered thunderously for their lord. Scattered around the flagship in a vast, chaotic armada floated various vessels, beasts, and all manner of war machines. They mercenaries drawn from every corner of the Greater Universe, forming the military force of Famine.

Suddenly, Famine materialized before War, his form appearing on the deck. He clutched a single spear in one hand, his torso eerily absent, replaced instead by a small, swirling black hole within which delicate scales of balance hovered. His voice boomed like grinding stone.

“WHAT. IS. THE. MEANING. OF. THIS?”

War offered a broad, predatory smile beneath his helm. “Oh, brother, apologies for appearing unannounced, but I’m sure—”

Before he could finish, a booming voice interrupted him, carried across the emptiness through Qi Speech, loud enough to echo across the entire fleet.

“Oi, War! You overcooked tomato in a helmet of tin! Strutting ‘round like chaos is some grand discipline! Your horse needs a nap, your armor’s outdated! Your ‘legendary wrath’ is wildly overrated! So ride, little riot, go clatter and roar, We’ve seen scarier tantrums from toddlers before!”

An awkward silence fell over the armada.

Then the same voice cried out again, full of gleeful mockery. “WOOHOO~! Man, what a boring crowd.”

The source of the taunt was none other than Da Wei. He stood boldly atop the Dark Veil that encapsulated the Hollowed World, a figure clad in dark armor, visible even across the vast distance. War’s enhanced senses picked out every detail: the way Da Wei performed a ridiculous little jig while pointing a brazen middle finger directly toward the fleet.

Famine’s voice rumbled with cold intent. “I. SHALL. DEAL. WITH. HIM.”

War’s smile widened, sharp and dangerous. “Sure.”

He reached up and lightly touched the invisible thread of the Binding Vow that bound him and Da Wei, the sacred oath that the two of them would one day fight to the death. Da Wei had led him on a long, humiliating chase ever since that vow was made, slipping away again and again like smoke through clenched fists. The frustration had burned deep within War’s core.

Now, the time for repayment had come.

War would make Da Wei suffer a hundredfold for every moment of irritation he had caused. If the fool broke the Binding Vow first, then War would be freed from its chains entirely, and he could do as he pleased without restraint through the blank contract imposed on the Binding Vow.

“Let’s see how long you can dance, little clown.”

…

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[POV: Da Wei]

I stood right there on top of the Hollowed World, right on the surface of the Dark Veil that wrapped around the massive black sphere like a second skin. I had just finished dishing out my best taunting performance, hands on my hips, dark armor gleaming under the faint cosmic light, and a big, shit-eating grin plastered on my face.

What did War do? Of course the overgrown tomato in a tin can sent his big brother straight at me.

Famine appeared before me in an instant, that grotesque figure materializing out of nowhere with eerie grace and he wasted no time thrusting his spear forward with lethal intent.

I clapped my hands once.

The Dark Veil answered immediately.

Earlier, Famine’s army had launched a brutal infiltration offensive that gouged out an entire continent on the Hollowed World. The place was an inverted realm, its land existed on the inner surface of the shell while the sky was the core at the center, which made this little maneuver possible thanks to its bizarre anatomy. When I opened the Dark Veil right then, it aligned perfectly over that freshly gouged wound in the continent. One clean drop, straight down.

Famine’s spear pierced straight through the illusion I had left behind. The fake me dissolved into shimmering motes of light, born from the perfect fusion of Divine Possession and Ophanim. Together they formed the Divine Phantasm of Dreams, an illusion so potent that even a Ruler of Laws could be completely fooled by it.

Before Famine could react, the Dark Veil surged forward like a living tidal wave. Dark chains erupted from its depths, wrapping around his body and dragging him mercilessly into the opening. With a violent toss, I hurled him straight into the Hollowed World below. Inside that inverted shell, his realm should be forcibly suppressed, at least long enough for my people to handle him.

I could only trust that Ren Xun, Nongmin, Zai Ai, and Da Ji would do their part down there.

Now came the next stage of the plan of luring War himself closer so I could pull the exact same trick on him.

I turned toward the distant flying ship where War stood, raised my voice through Qi Speech, and shouted with all the mocking sweetness I could muster.

“Hey, War! Come down here. I’ll be gentle.”

I even added a little wink and a beckoning gesture with my middle finger.

“How about no?” growled War. Without missing a beat, he barked the order. “Attack him.”

Qi beams lit up the darkness like a meteor shower gone wrong as thousands of them, all screaming straight at me from the armada.

I just grinned and submerged myself into the Dark Veil. The moment I sank beneath its surface, every single beam turned into harmless noise, scattering like static against a shield that didn’t even flinch.

I shifted my position fast, sliding across the Veil’s membrane to the opposite end. I could feel Famine down there somewhere inside the Hollowed World, clashing against my players and all my friends. No way was I letting that walking black-hole bastard claw his way back out of the hole I’d dropped him into.

When the barrage finally quieted down, I rose back up, pulling the Dark Veil around me like a living cloak. It parted just enough to let me stand exposed once more, the inverted realm of the Hollowed World visible through the opening behind me like a window into another universe.

“Hey, War, look!” I called out in Qi Speech, loud and clear across the vacuum.

With a thought, I summoned Jue Bu through an Egress. His head materialized right in the center of my palm, the Hollowed Star crown gleaming on top like a captured sun. He looked up at me with that familiar wicked grin.

“Jue Bu,” I said, “do me the honors.”

“With pleasure!” he answered, eyes sparkling with pure mischief.

He reached out through me, channeling the Dark Veil directly through our bond. The Binding Vow I shared with War didn’t even twitch as Jue Bu bypassed it completely thanks to the indirect representation of his existence and the insane quintessence pouring from the Hollowed Star. The Veil surged outward in a massive wave, shaping itself into an enormous hand that swept across the entire armada like a god slapping a table full of toy soldiers.

Explosions bloomed everywhere. Screams of Ascended Souls tore through Qi Speech. It was raw, furious, and panicked. They wouldn’t actually die, not permanently anyway. I doubted any of them would stay down for long. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t make them hurt. A lot.

Jue Bu laughed wildly from my palm. “I’m gonna increase it a notch!”

The Dark Veil twisted again, stretching into long, sinuous tentacles that lashed out in every direction. They whipped through the ranks of cultivators, wrapping around them like living chains and sealing each one inside layers of void energy. Killing an Ascended Soul was a pain, sure. Sealing them? Way more manageable. There’d be consequences later, but we could worry about that another time.

I threw my head back and laughed, the sound echoing across the battlefield.

War appeared directly in front of me without any warning, his flaming sword already drawn and burning with apocalyptic fury as he snarled through clenched teeth, “I had enough of your clowning, fool.”

I thrust both arms forward, wrapping them thickly in layers of the Dark Veil for protection, but his blade sliced straight through the barrier as if it were paper and sent me hurtling backward across the outer shell. If the Veil had not absorbed most of the impact, that single strike would have carved me clean in half.

“Have some more,” said War as he swung at me a second time.

I managed to block with my arms again, sending me flying further, but he wasn’t done yet.

“Here’s some more!”

War’s speed suddenly surged to another level entirely, so fast that even my Ophanim eyes could not track his movement. At first I thought my senses were playing tricks on me from the earlier chaos, yet it quickly became clear that he was bending space itself with some kind of divine displacement technique.

I continued tumbling across the Dark Veil.

“Divine Step.”

I flickered upward in a burst of motion, already anticipating the knee he meant to drive into my face, and shouted back at him, “Let me return the favor.”

My own knee rocketed upward instead, slamming toward his helmet, but in that instant his sword dissolved into living flame and reshaped itself into the red-haired woman.

Heavenly Flame straddled me from above in a blur, clamping both hands around my throat while War seized my leg and drove a brutal uppercut straight toward my ribs with the clear intent of launching me into orbit.

I saw all of this happen in my Ophanim.

“Two can play at that game.”

My armor, Strashroud, let out a manic cackle that vibrated through every plate as it roared, “Ha ha ha ha ha~! It’s time for my debut!”

A rapid barrage of Eldritch Blasts erupted from my chest piece, each one connecting with searing, screaming force against Heavenly Flame’s form until the impacts finally ripped her away from my shoulder and gave me the split-second I needed to block War’s uppercut. I used the Dark Veil to cradle myself gently from the impact while I recovered.

Without wasting another heartbeat I unleashed a storm of War Smites through my fully expanded Divine Zone, every strike aimed at hammering War straight down into the Hollowed World where his power would be crushed.

A burning hand suddenly punched through the Veil, seized my face in a vise of fiery qi, and hurled me away with enough force to make the stars blur. It was Heavenly Flame again, back in the fight and angrier than ever.

I tumbled and bounced across the surface of the Dark Veil like a stone skipped over water, the impacts jarring every bone in my body. I tried desperately to grab hold of the Veil so it could anchor me, yet the momentum kept slamming me down again and again until I finally poured raw Divine Qi through my limbs and triggered Divine Step once more, flickering sideways until I stabilized in mid-air.

War was already there waiting for me, hovering with a manic grin visible beneath his helm and that same flaming sword back in his grip while wings of pure fire unfurled behind him. I tried to open the Dark Veil beneath his feet to drop him straight into the Hollowed World, but he simply vanished and reappeared behind me in another spatial shift. His blade slashed clean through me. However, it was in fact an illusion I had woven with my Divine Phantasm of Dreams.

The fake image split apart like smoke.

“Gotcha,” I remarked, focused on him. “Bloom, Dark Veil!”

I was already standing behind him instead, the real me having swapped places at the last instant. The Dark Veil bloomed outward in a sudden dome that swallowed both of us whole while a colossal Heavenly Punishment descended from above, a golden sword of divine fury blazing down with unstoppable force. War endured the impact with a grunt, but I followed up instantly by spamming War Smites through every inch of my Divine Zone. He tanked those hits too and shot upward to escape, shouting as he went, “I saw your trick once already, it won’t happen again—”

Before he could finish the sentence, Jue Bu burst out from my shadow and declared in a calm, chilling voice, “Immortal Art: Reversal of Heaven and Earth.”

The moment War pierced the outer layer of the Dark Veil in his desperate climb, the world flipped around him and he found himself plummeting straight into the Hollowed World. I felt his overwhelming presence drop sharply, suppressed all the way down to the level of an ordinary Ascended Soul by the realm’s natural laws. I sealed the Dark Veil shut behind us immediately, then drew Silver Steel in one smooth motion and charged him with a Heavenly Punishment already infused along the blade’s edge. The strike connected solidly, forcing a grunt of effort from War as I sent him flying upward through the inverted sky.

He stabilized himself in the air a short distance away and looked around at the bizarre, shell-like interior of the Hollowed World. “Brilliant tactics! A brilliant stage you have prepared here, Da Wei. I must admit your efforts have impressed even me.”

I flashed him a cocky grin and replied without missing a beat, “Oh, you haven’t seen anything yet, tin-can. There’s plenty more where that came from, and I’ve got it all lined up just for you.”

Jue Bu vanished, leaving only the Hollowed Star crown floating in front of me. I lifted it reverently and placed it upon my forehead, feeling the enormous and nigh-endless quintessence flood into my body like an ocean pouring into a single cup.

…

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[POV: Jue Bu]

In the gloomy depths of the Eighth Layer of the Underworld, where faint twinkling stars pierced the eternal twilight like distant, dying embers, a headless figure stood regally atop a massive flying ship.

The figure was none other than Jue Bu’s body, which Da Wei had dispatched to this distant layer. Slowly, flesh and bone began to regenerate from the clean stump of the neck as Jue Bu borrowed the overwhelming power of Da Wei’s Supremacy Trait. Normally, such regeneration would have been impossible while he remained tethered to the Hollowed World, but the stolen body made all the difference, granting him a temporary freedom he relished.

“Da Wei, you madman… I like this plan so much!” Jue Bu muttered with growing delight, his newly formed mouth curving into a wide, wicked grin as his head fully reformed.

Around the flagship stretched an entire armada of ships hailing from the Hollowed World, each one packed with eager players and steadfast guardians ready for battle. Ahead of them loomed the vast Soul Horizon, the shimmering boundary that separated the Eighth Layer from the Seventh. The players buzzed with unrestrained excitement, their voices rising in a chaotic chorus across the fleet.

“Hell yeah! We’re actually invading the Underworld for real this time!”  

“This is the craziest event ever… Jue Bu’s leading us straight into the Seventh Layer like it’s a dungeon raid!”  

“I’ve been waiting for this since I joined! Let’s tear through these layers and make history!”

Saber, the elegant female player who served as the player’s representative spokesperson, stepped forward on the deck and asked with calm confidence, “What’s the plan, Lord Jue Bu?”

Jue Bu turned toward her, his eyes gleaming with theatrical flair as he spread his arms wide. “Oh, please address me as the Holy Emperor. As his double, I shall do my duty to play his part and enrich his mythology further. Ha ha ha ha ha~! This is so much fun!”

He threw his head back and laughed, the sound echoing across the armada like rolling thunder. Then, with a dramatic flourish, he raised one hand high, commanding the attention of every player and guardian in the fleet as he launched into a grand, booming speech that resonated through the gloomy layer.

“Warriors of the Hollowed World! Guardians and players alike! Today we stand at the threshold of legend! The Underworld has long thought itself untouchable, its layers a prison for souls and a fortress for the damned. But we are no mere intruders… we are the storm that will shatter its chains! I, the Holy Emperor, your guiding light in this glorious crusade, declare that the time for hesitation is over. Ru Qiu has already begun his assault on the Sixth Layer, carving a path of chaos and glory. Now it falls to us to crash through the Soul Horizon and flood the Seventh Layer with our unyielding will! Let the stars above witness our fury! Let every ghost and demon tremble at our approach! Charge forward, my brave legions! Tear down the horizon, claim the layers as our own, and etch our names into the very fabric of the Underworld itself! The invasion begins… NOW!”

With his final word, the entire armada surged forward as one, ships accelerating toward the Soul Horizon in a wave of roaring warps and battle cries that shook the gloomy void.

Jue Bu stood at the prow, laughing maniacally once more, fully immersed in his role as Da Wei’s double and savoring every chaotic second of the grand performance.