Book 19, Metamorphosis – Chapter 29, Four Against One
In terms of fame, Bayer’s fame had shaken the various realms countless years before Beirut had appeared. As a Highgod Paragon, he was someone whom even the Sovereigns would fight over to make an Emissary. After having been at the very peak of power for so many years, how could he possibly fear Beirut?
More importantly, deep in his heart...Bayer actually somewhat looked down upon Beirut.
Beirut hadn’t reached the Highgod Paragon level, but because his body was simply too powerful and his innate divine ability was too monstrous, even if he encountered Paragons such as Bayer, Beirut wouldn’t be any weaker. Many commanders, in fact, feared Beirut even more than Bayer.
“He just relies on his innate divine ability.” That’s what Bayer believed.
Within the mountain cave estate.
Bayer was there by himself, against Reisgem, Linley, and the other two. The atmosphere, however, clearly seemed to indicate that Bayer held the advantage.
“This is trouble.” Linley was extremely panicked.
“Boss, if we can’t beat him, then run! Perhaps we’ll be able to throw him off.” Bebe sent mentally. “But Boss, this Paragon is very terrifying. Don’t try to hold on if you can’t; what matters is preserving your own life.”
Linley gave Bebe a glance. When Linley had been eight years old, Bebe had begun to follow him. Even if he had to die, Linley wouldn’t abandon Bebe.
“Bayer!”
Linley stared at Bayer, feeling resentment in his heart. If he had the power that Beirut had, then today, he wouldn’t be so helpless.
“What the hell is Occluar doing? He was killed in the Planar Battlefield, and then asked someone to get revenge for him? He really motherf*cking...!” Reisgem cursed, his violet pupils still staring fixedly at Bayer. He called out in a shrill voice, “Bayer, listen up. The person you want to kill belongs to my squad. It was my squad which worked together to kill Occluar. If you want to kill, then you’ll have to kill all four of us!”
Bayer’s forehead creased slightly. Those two forceful white brows seemed as sharp as knives, and a baleful aura began to gather between them.
“Reisgem, don’t get involved!” Bayer said coldly.
To kill an entire squad? Kill all four of them?
No matter what, Bayer wouldn’t have the courage to kill Reisgem. That was the only child of the Redbud Sovereign. If the enraged Redbud Sovereign truly wished to kill him, although he, Bayer, as a Highgod Paragon, had the ability to stay alive and flee, his only option would be to flee into a material plane. He didn’t want to have to forever hide within a material plane.
“Occluar was killed by this Godeater Rat. Today, I am only killing him as well. The three of you, off to one side.” Bayer’s voice was fierce, and his narrow eyes seemed like the savage, sinister eyes of a lone wolf.
“Crackle...” Linley’s body suddenly became covered with azure-golden draconic scales, while at the same time, his body moved slightly to stand in front of Bebe. Linley just stood there, staring at Bayer fixedly.
“Boss!” Bebe actually laughed.
He wanted to make Linley leave, but Linley’s reaction was exactly what Bebe had thought it would be; over the course of countless years, during each life-and-death crisis, neither the two brothers had had ever fled and left the other behind.
Reisgem and Reihom moved slightly as well to block in front of Bebe.
“Thank you.” Bebe laughed.
“For what? We’re bros. You and me, together, form a powerful team. We can’t possibly do without you.” Reisgem chortled. Bayer couldn’t help but frown. The three in front of him had clearly already made their decisions. They clearly weren’t willing to just think of their own good!
“I always hear people talk about how incredible Paragons are, but I’ve never given one a try.” Reisgem snickered.
The other three were prepared to fight at any moment as well.
“Very well!” Bayer said calmly. His lips were very thin, making him look very mean and sinister.
Linley was staring at Bayer the entire time, but suddenly, Linley felt his vision grow blurry. The white-robed man that had been tens of meters away suddenly turned into a blur. Linley, Reisgem, and Reihom weren’t able to react before the white-robed man’s figure charged into their midst.
His speed was incredible! He was definitely the most terrifyingly fast person Linley had ever seen!
The wind element specialized in speed to begin with. One could only imagine how fast a Paragon of Wind was!
“Too fast. I couldn’t see his body clearly at all.” Linley’s face changed. He couldn’t even see the enemy movements; how, then, was he supposed to fight back or to block?
“Blackstone Space!” Linley had no other choice. The only thing he could do was to execute his Blackstone Space, and a blurry earthen yellow light instantly filled the courtyard. Not just him; actually, Reisgem was also badly startled by Bayer’s speed, and had also hurriedly set up an Amethyst Space.
The two spaces intersected, but the gravitational power didn’t multiply; rather, the stronger Amethyst Space held sway.
“Hrm!”
Bayer’s terrifying speed suddenly slowed down.
However...
Currently, Bayer had already reached Bebe’s side. Because of the Amethyst Space and Blackstone Space, Bebe was now able to clearly see that Bayer had already reached him. Bayer himself couldn’t help but frown slightly as his speed slowed drastically, but he still struck out with the edge of his right palm like a blade, casually chopping down towards Bebe!
“Bebe!” Linley, Reisgem, and Reihom weren’t able to rescue him at all at this moment!
It seemed like a very ordinary palm blow. That crystalline, almost jadelike palm landed towards Bebe, but the strange thing was, space didn’t even ripple. It seemed as though the air itself had calmed down. Bebe was so terrified, his face changed dramatically. “Boss, I can’t move! What a powerful restrictive force!” Bebe’s body was unable to make any large movements; he was just barely able to raise that godspark dagger, but the powerful restrictive force made it so that he wouldn’t be able to block with it, even though it was in his hand.
Bebe’s voice rang out in Linley’s mind. “What? Can’t move?” Linley wasn’t able to react in time.
Watching the palm blow descend, Bebe only had one option; using his supreme technique, his innate divine technique. An enormous illusion of a Godeater Rat appeared behind Bebe, and the effects of his innate divine ability, ‘Godeater’, immediately took effect on Bayer. “Even though I won’t be able to kill you with it, at least I’ll make you suffer a bit.” This was what Bebe thought.
At the same instant he used his technique, Bayer’s palm blow landed as well!
“CHOP!”
That jade-like palm chopped down at the center of Bebe’s chest. With a tremendous ‘BANG!’ sound, a very low sound rumbled. Like a bubble being popped, when the palm blow descended, the formerly stilled space suddenly tore apart, and right in front of the palm, a terrifying spatial rip that was multiple meters long suddenly appeared!
This was the Planar Battlefield!
And yet, such an enormous spatial tear had been created!
“BANG!” Without being able to resist at all, Bebe was knocked flying backwards, smashing into the rocky mountainside. With a ‘boom’ sound, the rocky mountain terrace suddenly had a meter-wide crevice appear, and the entire side of the mountain cracked as large amounts of rubble flew out.
As for Bebe, the force of this palm blow had knocked him completely out of the hundred-plus meters thick mountain.
“Hurry up, let’s go!” Reisgem hurriedly sent mentally.
“Swoosh!” “Swoosh!” “Swoosh!” Linley, Reihom, and Reisgem flew out through the ‘tunnel’ at almost the same instant towards the outside.
Bayer didn’t stop them. He just laughed calmly, and then his body swayed before he too disappeared from the courtyard.
As Linley’s group of three flew out, then saw the distant Bebe. The clothes Bebe wore, formed out of energy to begin with, had all blown apart, and a terrifying, clearly visible white scar was on Bebe’s chest. Linley, seeing the situation, couldn’t help but feel relieved. “Bebe’s material defense truly is formidable. Bayer, although powerful, isn’t as powerful as the Sovereign had been.”
A casual blow from one of the branches of the Abyssal Fruit Tree had caused Bebe’s skin to split and his flesh to tear.
Clearly, Bayer was a bit weaker.
However, that palm blow of his had actually caused Bebe to be bound and unable to move, and had even created such an enormous rift in space. One could imagine how terrifying the attack power had been. Fortunately, the recipient of that palm-edge blow was Bebe; if it had been someone else, that person probably wouldn’t have been able to take a single blow.
“That freak. We aren’t able to hold him off. Let’s hurry and flee.” Reisgem hurriedly sent through divine sense.
In the past, they had heard talk of how formidable Highgod Paragons were, but hadn’t personally seen one in action. That simple blow, however, had caused Reisgem to no longer have any confidence to fight. His material defense wasn’t as monstrous as Bebe’s.
“The material defense of Godeater Rats really lives up to its name.” A calm voice rang out.
Linley and the other three were stunned. They realized that Bayer’s white-robed figure had appeared in midair. Linley’s heart sank. “It makes sense. Given the power which Bayer displayed, even if we use Sovereign’s Might, we would at most be able to fight on par with him. There’s no way we would be able to escape his attacks.”
Bayer’s speed was a source of tremendous pressure for the others.
“My material attacks in the wind-style and the Destruction-style can both be considered to be at the pinnacle.” Bayer calmly swept the four with his gaze. “I didn’t expect that blow of mine wouldn’t be able to break through the defense of a Godeater Rat. Very well, then...Godeater Rat kid, I rarely use my Sovereign weapon. Today, I will use my Sovereign weapon to send you on your way. I refuse to believe that your defense will be able to withstand my most powerful sword attack!”
Linley, Bebe, Reishom, and Reisgem were all stunned.
Bayer waved his hand, and within it, a longsword that was as thin as the wings of a cicada appeared, glowing with green light.
Linley’s heart clenched. Bayer wasn’t a divine beast; his body was ordinary. But by relying on his understanding of the profound mysteries as a Paragon, Bayer’s casual palm blows had already reached such a terrifying level. If he then used a Sovereign artifact to use his most powerful attack...would Bebe’s defense still be able to withstand it? Linley didn’t have any confidence in that at all!
“Sovereign weapon?”
Reisgem’s eyes instantly turned as round as the moon, and then he shouted explosively through divine sense, “Flee, quick, flee!!!” Reisgem’s body once more emanated his Amethyst Space, covering Linley, Bebe, and Reihom. Immediately, their four-person squad, ignoring all else, frantically fled towards the Stellar River.
“Fleeing?”
Bayer let out a disdainful laugh. Flee by relying on speed? That was impossible.
“Whoosh!” Bayer’s body flickered, and he immediately moved to pursue.
A dazzling Amethyst Space spread out. Linley, Reisgem, and the other two were at the center of the Amethyst Space and continue to flee into the distance. Reisgem also helped Bebe increase his speed.
“Reisgem, we are just going to flee, like this?” Linley sent frantically through divine sense.
“The only method now is to flee to the Stellar River. And then, we’ll find a safe path through the Stellar River to the center, then hide in one of the giant floating boulders. At that time, when Bayer comes over, we’ll knock him directly into one of the spatial tears. We won’t be able to kill him, but we’ll be able to make him disappear forever within the spatial tear.” Reisgem sent mentally. “However...I don’t know if we’ll make it to the Stellar River.”
Linley had no other ideas either. Reisgem’s method was indeed their only option.
“Haha...Reisgem, using your Gravitational Space against me is useless.” Wild, confident laughter rang out in Linley’s mind.
Right at this moment...
Linley and the other three, who were keeping a close watch on Bayer at all times, realized that he had flown in front of them. A wild burst of energy blasted forth from Bayer, instantly causing an area within a thousand meters to instantly begin to spatially distort as the wild energy waves lashed about.
Linley’s group of four could feel the effects of this technique as space itself seemed to constrict them.
“How is this possible!” Linley also trained in the Laws of the Wind, and knew that of the nine great profound mysteries, there were the Profound Mysteries of Spatial Wind, but that sort of restrictive power was negligible for Highgods. But who would have imagined...that when a Highgod Paragon used this technique, even Reisgem would be affected.
Their speed slowed dramatically!
“Swoosh!” Bayer flew directly into the Amethyst Space. Although his speed dropped, he was still much faster than Linley’s group of four now was while under the spatial binding.
Bayer flew at high speed towards Bebe, but he lowered his head to look down at the Sovereign artifact in his hand, as though it was a dear lover of his. Bayer very casually swung out with his Sovereign weapon, and instantly, the already distorted space tore apart like a piece of rotten cloth!
A terrifying spatial tear that was a hundred meters long suddenly appeared. This hundred meter long spatial tear was a rip in space that was a finger thick. Following the movements of the Sovereign weapon, it landed directly on the body of Bebe, who had been unable to dodge. At the same time, the Sovereign weapon shot out in every direction with arrow-like rays of energy, each of which caused minute spatial fractures.
“Slash!” A thin fracture slashed past Linley, who wasn’t able to dodge.
It very easily tore through Linley’s draconic scaled defense. A large chunk of flesh and bone was directly torn from Linley’s arm.
But Linley’s attention was completely focused on Bebe. His face changed dramatically. “Bebe!” Linley was only hit by the side effects of the attack, but Bebe was hit by the Sovereign weapon head on!