"Urgh!" The Boar King shouted as he felt his bones melting from the attack. He couldn't move, locked in place by the tremendous ultrasonic pressure impacting from all sides.
After enduring for an hour, his body was unable to hold on anymore, exploding in response, causing his death.
"We…won?" Bora Tusk muttered in surprise, "The Boar King is…dead?"
Thud!
The 36 Empyrean Tusks collapsed in exhaustion, almost drained of Prana. The exoskeleton armour covering their bodies retreated like the tide, reforming into the buildings that formed the settlement.
Their joints too hardened, preventing them from doing acrobatics like before. Now, they could only walk around like usual. The Empyrean Tusks had returned to their energy-saving forms.
The Mammoth Clan was stunned, in disbelief, wondering if they had truly killed the Boar King. After all, the Boar King was a Mystic Grade Pranic Beast, the only one of his kind at Sumatra. Despite laying witness to the entire battle, it still felt incredulous.
"It's finally done." Yahard Tusk said and slumped to the ground, trembling nonstop once his adrenaline waned, "He's a ridiculous opponent."
"Our fated enemy is dead." The Mammoth Clan Chief announced.
Boom!
There was a surge of energy from behind them as Resha got up, bloody, but raring to fight. He growled, "It's not over!"
"The Boar King is no longer a Pranic Beast." He announced.
Tertiary Nature—Cultivator!
"You're right. I dropped from the 3-Life Stage to the 2-Life Stage." Came a reply from atop the 1st Empyrean Tusk's head. At some point in time, the Boar King had appeared there, unbeknownst to even the 1st Empyrean Tusk. He patted its head and stared at Resha, "Though, I wonder how you came to know about it. I haven't revealed it to anyone, you know?"
"Kurr-rahh-alala!" The 1st Empyrean Tusk trumped, intending to attack him once again. But it had already undone its battle mode. Hence, it couldn't use its exoskeleton armour to target him.
"Be quiet!" The Boar King growled as he condensed strength in his hand and brought down his fist, causing a thunderous sound as the 1st Empyrean Tusk lost its balance and fell.
The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Empyrean Tusks targeted him with their trunks. But suddenly, his figure vanished. Appearing on the ground was a massive boar spanning a height of a hundred metres. It seemed like an ant before the Empyrean Tusk, but its imposing momentum was higher now.
After all, the Boar King was strongest in his Pranic Beast form. Opening its mouth, the Empyrean Boar King unleashed ten waves of Prana Shock, causing the three Empyrean Tusks to collapse.
Just as it was about to deal the killing blow, the remaining Empyrean Tusks joined the fray, resulting in a bloody dogfight. At the start, the Empyrean Boar King unleashed Prana Shocks at its opponents.
But after some time, it simply strengthened its body using the two layers of Internal Inertial Gravity and rammed into its opponents. It too was running low on Prana. Large plates of exoskeleton armour fell to the ground as blood spewed like a fountain from the wounded Empyrean Tusks.
By now, all the masters of the Mammoth Clan too joined the fray, targeting the Empyrean Boar King with all sorts of attacks. And leading the fight was Resha, ignoring his battered body to attack his enemy.
After losing a life, the Boar King's strength dropped by a level. And it was apparent that he was hesitating to use up his remaining Natures. After all, he had spent thousands of years collecting those strong Natures.
Unless the situation was dire, he intended to save them up, 'It was a mistake to attack them head-on like this. I'm still not strong enough.'
While being attacked nonstop, the Boar King thought and reverted to his human form, using the chance to evade the Mammoth Clan masters as he rained down punches upon an Empyrean Tusk, puncturing its eyes.
At present, he intended to incapacitate all Empyrean Tusks and flee. Once he recovered his strength, he would return to pick them off one after another. 'By now, all Mammoth Clan masters have died at least once. Their strength as a whole has dropped severely.'
He clapped once, unleashing powerful shockwaves that pulverised the masters. But suddenly, an Empyrean Tusk pointed its trunk at him and unleashed its compressed air. And shooting out like a bullet from it was Resha, transferring all the momentum upon impact.
"Again!" Resha roared as another Empyrean Tusk sucked him into its trunk and shot him at the Boar King. The strength of the attack was overwhelming, not to mention Resha's capability to pull the Boar King towards him, thereby ensuring the attack made contact every single time.
And when they touched, he transferred all the momentum into the Boar King's body, rattling his insides. Everyone was tiring, running low on Prana, Resha included. But they had no other choice but to keep up the pressure until the Boar King was killed.
"Is that really Internal Inertial Gravity?" Virala frowned as he observed from the side, "How's he able to unleash the effects of gravity outside his body?"
Internal Inertial Gravity was as its name implied, a Nature that was active only in their bodies. No Empyrean Tusk was able to manifest its effect outside, and the same was held true for Blola, Virala, and Inala too.
They all possessed Internal Inertial Gravity. But for some reason, Resha's was different.
"He's a regressor." Blola stared at Virala's sides, hoping for a single window of opportunity to sneak attack the latter, "He might have discovered a secret. Did you do something that forced him to take such a path, Virala?"
"Of course, I didn't…" Virala retorted before recalling that it was his plan that caused Resha to lose all his accumulated Prana. And the same day, he disappeared.
When he appeared an hour before, he was a completely different individual, whether in terms of strength, mind, or presence, 'He's already closer to how he was in the second half of Sumatra Chronicles.'
"I did tell him of your…" Virala intended to trigger Blola by saying that he had already revealed to Resha that Blola was the killer of his parents. But he stopped, noticing Blola had vanished. "Where did he go?"
Virala looked around and noticed the figure of Blola sprinting across the rubble, fleeing towards the Mammoth Clan as if his life depended on it. For a moment, Virala was confused. But immediately after, he noticed the changes happening to the 43rd Empyrean Tusk, "Oh shit."
He too used all his power to sprint towards the Mammoth Clan, for only there could he survive.
Boom!
There was a surge in presence, stunning everyone. The first to react was the Boar King, emanating dense killing intent, roaring in hatred, "Gannala! Is that you?"
He stared at the figure of the 43rd Empyrean Tusk that was charging towards him, emanating the presence of two Empyrean Tusks. It was because the 43rd Empyrean Tusk had swallowed the 44th Empyrean Tusk's corpse.
All space within it had begun to collapse, turning her into a volcano that was about to burst. And in such a state, it charged at the Boar King with suicidal intentions.
The Boar King had no intention to get caught up in such a suicidal charge. He turned around, intending to flee when a bloody 1st Empyrean Tusk appeared before him, having taken on its battle state once again.
It spun 360 degrees in the air and slammed its trunk at the Boar King, sending him flying towards the 43rd Empyrean Tusk.
The exoskeleton armour covering the 43rd Empyrean Tusk extended like tentacles and grabbed hold of the Boar King as it burned through all its Prana, constricting him for two seconds. In that duration, it opened its mouth and swallowed him, leaping with large strides as it ran far away from the herd.
The 42 Empyrean Tusks stared in sadness as the 43rd Empyrean Tusk charged deep into the Dieng Canyon as its Internal Inertial Gravity switched off. Because of the sheer volume of mass present in its body as a cluster, they unleashed their own gravitational pull, bringing all particles closer and closer.
"Shit!" The Boar King roared as he was pulled towards the centre of the mass cluster.
The 43rd Empyrean Tusk crossed dozens of kilometres with every leap, travelling far away before its body paused all of a sudden. Its legs shattered and turned into dust before shrinking into its body. Its stomach, tail, head, and even its prized tusks, all followed suit.
Breaking down into the simplest of matter, they flowed into the centre, acted upon by the sheer gravity. And as matter continued to compress upon itself, a fusion reaction was created for a second.
Hovering atop the Dieng Canyon was a miniature sun that emitted light and heat for one second before it dropped to the ground, exhausted of all combustible fuel. It resembled red hot iron, a dense lump barely a couple metres in diameter.
By sacrificing itself, the 43rd Empyrean Tusk killed the Boar King, resulting in his second death. On that day, a Mystic Grade Pranic Beast died twice. On the very same day, Sumatra Continent lost two of its most majestic creatures.
Volume 1: Empyrean Tusk—The End!