The Desolate Era

A giant one-eyed bear, a red-eyed white-furred humanoid, and a giant stormcloud! The three Autarch-class void dwellers circled Autarch Bolin and his golden bridge from three different directions.

Autarch Bolin didn’t panic in the slightest. He had experience in dealing with Autarch-class void dwellers, as he had worked with the others to kill two of them during the Dawn War. Later on, Ji Ning and Autarch Mogg had captured two in the Annihilation Hive and then negotiated with the strongest one to have it leave their Chaosverse. Thanks to these experiences, Autarch Bolin knew two important things about these void dwellers.

First, there was no way to compel Autarch-class void dwellers to swear lifeblood oaths – they had simply entered verbal agreements with the Sithe which they could renege upon at will. Second… they could be negotiated with!

“Gentlemen,” Autarch Bolin sent to the three, “We cultivators have fought against you and your fellow void dwellers on multiple occasions. During the last war we killed two of your kind, and just recently we fought against three more in the behemoth hive the Sithe constructed. We ended up capturing two of them, while the other one decided to work with us and so we granted it safe passage out of our Chaosverse.”

“Hrm?” The three Autarch-class void dwellers circling around Autarch Bolin were slightly startled. They knew that others had been captured by the Sithe, but the three didn’t know what had happened to them.

“We have a decided advantage against the Sithe in this war!” Autarch Bolin said persuasively, “Not a single one of us Autarchs have perished in either the Dawn War or this war, while the Sithe have suffered heavy losses and countless casualties. We’ve captured and slaughtered a large number of their Exalts! I would wager that the one you fear the most is their leader, ‘Iyerre’, right?”

“Heh. Iyerre should be an Omega Autarch. He’s very powerful, and outside this Chaosverse he would vastly outstrip us in might. However, this is our home! The Chaosverse rejects him, preventing him from using any of the Dao’s power. He’s merely on the same level as us in power! He tried to ambush Autarch Mogg earlier, but in the end he had to retreat with his head hanging low.”

“They’ve suffered catastrophic losses, while not even Iyerre is able to do anything to us. All of us are alive and well. Our side stands a much greater chance of winning this war!” Autarch Bolin continued, “I know that you have been forced to take part in this war. If you insist on battling us to the death, once we win there’s no way we will spare you!”

“However, if you choose to betray them and work with us instead, we’ll help you out. Afterwards, I’ll send you out of our Chaosverse and grant you your liberty. I can swear a lifeblood oath on this,” Autarch Bolin said.

“Betray them and join you?”

“Impossible!” The three Autarch-class void dwellers instantly sent messages of rejection.

“Haha, fine. I won’t force you to actually betray them. All you need to do is to pull your punches during these battles. Both of us will hold back by 50%! All we need to do is put on a show for the Sithe to watch. I, Bolin, will definitely remember your show of friendship and can swear an oath that once the war concludes, we won’t make things difficult for you. We’ll send you out of our Chaosverse.”

Although the three Autarch-class void dwellers had many misgivings about this, a short while later they sent back a response: “Fine.”

“Deal.”

“We’ll believe you for now.”

These void dwellers might look stupid, but in truth the Infinite Void they wandered through was unfathomably vaster than any Chaosverse. The Chaosverses were merely the largest celestial bodies that existed within the Infinite Void! The Infinite Void was so vast that it contained truly innumerable lifeforms. As creatures who rose to reach Autarch-levels of power, they naturally were quite crafty and understood how to balance pros and cons.

They harbored great hatred for the Sithe, but Iyerre was so overwhelmingly powerful that there was no way for them to fight back against him. Still, Bolin’s words had indeed convinced them. There was no guarantee that the Sithe would truly win this war, and so they wanted to prepare a way out for themselves.

“Attack!”

The mental conversation had been an extremely quick one. Anyone watching from the outside world would have simply seen a brief staredown, followed by immediate combat. The three Autarch-class void dwellers began to launch a frenzied series of blows against Autarch Bolin. Even though they were holding back on their strikes, they were still forceful enough to cause spacetime to twist and distort around them.

Autarch Bolin was at a complete disadvantage and had been completely suppressed, but his six arms were able to work together in marvelous fashion, allowing him an airtight defense that completely protected him against their attacks.

Both sides were holding back by 50%, but no one watching from the outside would be able to notice anything at all.

……

“These creatures of the Infinite Void do not train in the Dao. They have low levels of insight, rendering their incredible natural gifts completely useless. They clearly have Autarch levels of power and are able to overpower Autarch Bolin, but they aren’t able to kill him even though they outnumber him three-to-one.” Three people were conversing via godsense in the void beyond this battle.

“We’re simply using them to tie him down. They serve well as brutes and foot soldiers. It’s enough for them to have completely suppressed him.”

“In the end, it’ll be up to the three of us.”

“Let’s find a chance to make our move.”

……

Autarch Bolin continued to fight from atop the Golden Bridge of Freedom. He seemed to be using all his strength to resist the combined attacks of these three Autarch-class creatures, and in truth these void dwellers had been blessed with ridiculous strength and innate power. They might not have trained in the Dao, but they could break almost anything with raw power! Mogg had found it quite difficult to handle just one of them in the Annihilation Hive. Bolin now had the aid of the Golden Bridge of Freedom, but he still found defending against them difficult even though both sides were holding back.

The reason why he had asked for both sides to hold back was so that he would have the capacity to deal with something unexpected.

Autarch Bolin stood there atop the golden bridge, both himself and the bridge being sent staggering downwards by the force of the void dwellers’ blows. Both were sent smashing into the thick clouds below them.

Suddenly…

Whoooosh! An iridescent violet-gold chain suddenly shot out of the clouds, moving as agilely as a snake as it lashed at Autarch Bolin.

“Huh?!” Autarch Bolin turned pale. This whipping motion from the violet-gold chain had a strange cadence and gave off a strange sensation. Only someone who had reached an incredibly high level of insight into the Dao would be able to unleash such a strike. Without question, this was an Autarch-calibre technique… and the power rippling from the chain surpassed even Autarch Bolin’s own level of power!

Boom! One of Autarch Bolin’s six arms instantly expanded in size, and he reached out with a claw-hand to try and seize that chain.

Faced with Autarch Bolin’s full-strength claw attack, the violet-gold chains suddenly switched from a lashing motion to a coiling motion, seeking to wrap themselves around him.

Clang! Autarch Bolin missed with his grab, but one of his fingers manage to land a clawing blow upon the chain. However, the chain managed to easily deflect the power of his blow and continued with its coiling attack.

Whoosh! Right at this moment, yet another violet-gold chain appeared from the skies above Autarch Bolin. This one descended towards him with overwhelming power, dealing a furious lashing blow against him.

Clank! Clank! Clank! Three more violet-gold chains suddenly appeared from the clouds above, the clouds below, and to his left. Every chain was attacking in a manner which was difficult to defend against! At peak power Autarch Bolin was able to fight with six arms, but he still had to use at least three of them to defend against the three Autarch-class void dwellers while pretending to be wounded by them. And this was with the void dwellers holding back; if they weren’t, he would’ve suffered a truly heavy injury!

Use three arms to fight back against five of those violet-gold chains? He was caught flat-footed and knew that he wouldn’t be able to hold on for much longer.

Whoosh! Finally, yet another violet-gold chain appeared to his right. This time, Autarch Bolin wasn’t able to defend at all. The chain violently lashed Autarch Bolin across the chest, catching him completely off-guard. Bang! His entire body caved in then completely imploded from the power of this strike, but a heartbeat later his body transformed into countless specks of light instead. He had just used his invulnerable form and was trying to heal.

“Haha, still trying to survive?”

“Your body’s been destroyed. Struggling is useless. You are dead.”

Those six violet-gold chains flew out with incredible speed and power, showing no mercy at all as they furiously assaulted those specks of light. Autarch Bolin’s dispersed energies were being repeatedly annihilated, and just a short while later his fleeing form had been completely annihilated.

He had been completely suppressed in power. Autarch Bolin had been slain just a heartbeat after the six chains had appeared! He had simply been overwhelmed by the number of enemies he faced.

The power quickly fled from the levitating golden bridge, and it came crashing down into the deep clouds below it. It tumbled across the clouds, with even the tower being twisted by the collision.

The sounds of battle finally fell silent, while the six chains disappeared back into the clouds once more.

“Well. That’s certainly a shame.” The three Autarch-class void dwellers stared at the fallen golden bridge which now lay atop the clouds, feeling rather regretful. They didn’t like the Sithe one bit, and they couldn’t help but feel a bit unhappy that the native Autarch they had just reached a pact with moments ago had perished almost immediately afterwards.

“Let’s go.” The three void dwellers quickly departed into the clouds as well, leaving behind just the fallen golden bridge and a few scattered treasures.