Skyfire Avenue

Lan Jue explained. “My brother will continue to press them, you’ve seen how they react to the bastions. As they get closer the aliens will have to respond in some fashion, maybe even leave the planet. If their aim is buy time then they won’t want a straight confrontation – I think we’ll have a better opportunity.”

After thinking for a moment, Luo Xianni nodded. “Alright, we’ll wait and see what happens.”

As the minutes passed the aliens swirled in a chaotic tide. Only the Violet Prince was still, a boulder in a stream of writhing purple bodies. His eyes were closed as though he were deeply thinking on something.

The waves of energy that radiated from him were no different from the last time they encountered him. However, Lan Jue sensed something more in the beast, like he was more… human. With all the victims of their recent attacks it was likely he used their genetic material to improve himself as well.

Lan Jue watched the time. His brother never told him how he intended to harass the creatures, but he did tell him how long the window would be before they turned back. In less than an hour the bastions were due to return to the fleet.

As anticipated, as the bastions drew nearer to Sheol’s surface the aliens grew more agitated. However, there was little change in their formation. As time crawled by, they swirled through the skies and crawled along the ground as the progenitor writhed. Its massive tentacles swiped erratically, and caustic mist belched upward in an unending stream.

None of the aliens dared draw near the progenitor. It seemed as though they feared it on some level. By contrast there were any number of monstrous creatures surrounding the Violet Prince.

Waiting was sometimes a form of torment. Such was the case now as the humans looked on, yet they had no choice. The time was not yet right.

Finally, as the time for withdrawal was nearly upon them, Lan Jue saw a slight change in the Prince’s face. He began to wave his arms. In response the aliens around him soared into the skies above.

Are they leaving? Lan Jue’s heart began to beat faster.

Then, all of a sudden, they sensed something looking at them.

“No good!” Lan Jue growled as blue light sprang up around him. Luo Xianni also reacted immediately, and after a brief flash of pink their surroundings changed.

Now they were in the sky, but they could sense the violet power brazenly penetrating Luo Xianni’s parallel reality. All around them an oppressive tension descended.

Now wasn’t the time to ponder how they were discovered. The first to act was their strongest, Luo Xianni, who transferred her other five teammates several hundred meters away.

Half a breath later the Violet Prince’s fist was bearing down on the Photographer. His whole arm went through her face. To his surprise, her only reaction was to ripple. All at once the world around him changed and he was caught in a vortex of power. He fought to extricate himself, and when he eventually did he was out in space. Utter darkness closed in one him, but only for a moment before a pink light started to creep in from all directions.

“Quick!” Lan Jue and the others heard Luo Xianni’s voice in their ears. They had already started moving once they saw their team leader capture the Violet Prince in the vortex.

Ten tentacles thick as buildings were already coming their way. Each one of them was covered in enormous suction discs, and their vacuum force was felt even before they arrived. Stranger still, this suction force didn’t affect their bodies, so much as it started to drain their life force.

The progenitor below was upright. Its enormous body was riddled with grotesque lumps. As its tentacles wildly whipped through the air, everything around them was consumed in a fog of purple.

In this poisoned environment the humans could feel their vital energy begin to warp.

Paragons had a level of control over their bodies that approached legendary levels, and yet despite this they could feel the creature draining their essence from them. One could imagine how immediate and catastrophic the result would be for a normal human. They would be a desiccated husk before they knew what had happened.

The Pharmacist grunted, and a beam of white light erupted from her and into the sky. It shattered into tens of thousands of glittering shards, sharp as razors, roiling through the area like a tempest. The Harbinger Faerie released her slaughter Domain, and with it a tide of murderous energy surged through the area.

The Driver reacted next, calling his Domain to bear. He pressed his power to its limit, nearly a Reflection of Heaven and Earth. Since experiencing primordial lightning for himself his comprehension of his own powers had deepened. The opportunity to sense its true nature had empowered him significantly.

A dense net of purple lightning was constructed around him, and diffused outward until him and all of his companions were contained within. The nearest tentacles were blasted back, and their suction discs fell away. They sloughed off, as though some inexplicable corrosion had infected them.

The Pauper’s body rocked, and then he appeared a short distance away. His hands were pressed together in front of him, and at his back the image of his Taming Dragon Arhat appeared. When the dirty man thrust his arms toward the heavens a golden dragon burst from him.

The Pauper vanished, but the golden dragon he’d summoned roared and rose toward the skies. It continued to grow until mere moments later it was a majestic beast thousands of meters long. With a roar it shined its golden light all around them, an aura thick with power that clashed with the aliens as they descended to the progenitor’s aid.

Lan Jue and Qianlin exchanged a glance. Their hearts as one, a flash of light heralded the appearance of their swords.

The moment Lan Jue took Captus into his hand, pockets of reality around him collapsed. Qianlin took up her own blade and in doing so, countless wisps of blue light sprang to life. With the appearance of the Banishing Blades, in addition to Occisus’ aura, the progenitor’s tentacles were suddenly uninterested in coming their way.

The Pharmacist thrust forward with her weapon and the dharmic image at her back mimicked the move. She and her manifestation fused into one, and Occisus swelled to a hundred times its original length.

A brilliant wave of white light issued forth. Where it passed the air would change from a prismatic display to a stark canvas of black and white. It was though the beam of life carved a schism between life and death, separating two halves of reality. Ten of the monster’s tentacles froze mid-squirm then disintegrated as their life energy was consumed.

The progenitor screeched from the sudden, blinding pain. Several more tentacles quickly grew to replace the ones it had lost. These monsters were among the apex of their species, thus were they able to recover from nearly any injury. So long as they had vital energy to support them, and weren’t sudden killed, they could overcome tremendous punishment.

Though its tentacles were quickly replaced, the beast didn’t dare press the attack. Yet the Pharmacist did not let up. She was a whirlwind of motion, releases waves of protogenia that swept passed the Pauper’s golden dragon as waves of sword-swipes.

As a Reflection of Heaven and Earth, her sword technique was different than it had been before. Each bloom of light cut through the aliens in their path as though they were nothing. Any creature unfortunate enough to meet Occisus’ power was cut into dozens of pieces and slain.

With her Slaughter Domain and Occisus power as one, nothing could withstand its bloodcurdling power. It of course went without saying that as the Pharmacist grew in strength, so too did her Domain.

Two figures were then spotted above the progenitor. Behind Lan Jue, a regal image appeared wearing a golden crown. Middle Heaven Emperor of the North Pole Star of Purple Subtlety. Behind Qianlin was her own dharmic image; Guanyin, the Queen of Heaven.

With their dharmas revealed, Lan Jue and Qianlin did not merge. Instead, together as one, they thrust forward with their Banishing Blades.

With this simple movement the skies shuddered. A rainbow of colors radiated from the two of them.

A series of resplendent gold runes appeared within the emanating power of Captus. As the dharmic image at Lan Jue’s back motioned a halo of indigo light arose. It reflected off of Captus’ blade, which hummed in response, followed by sparks of red electricity.

A haze of white descended upon them. As the Queen of Heaven’s powers washed over Lan Jue and Qianlin, they felt their abilities grow.

Ten thousand swords focused flow! The invincible Harmonious Swords! As the weapons struck in tandem a colorful beam of light descended unto their target, rich with lethal and imperatorial power.

When that light appeared, the Violet Prince – locked in combat far above the planet – shuddered. Disbelief shimmered in his eyes.

Luo Xianni also unconsciously cast her eyes toward Sheol 1. In contrast to her foe, she smiled.

For Lan Jue and Qianlin the attack was nearly automatic. As he looked on, Lan Jue saw that his partner’s unique style was even more fluid and ethereal than it had been. Both of them only had each other in their hearts, mutually devoted, resulting in the Harmonious Swords!

Sensing the danger it was in, the progenitor retracted its tentacles and coiled them tightly. Wrapped up in an undulating purple column, it thrust them into the sky in attempts to withstand the beam of rainbow light.

But it was to no avail. Where the tentacles and light met, the monster’s appendages disintegrated. It was incapable of stopping the righteous onslaught. Like a spear descended from heaven, the column of light pierced the progenitor.

Squelch! It penetrated the beast’s sickening purple flesh then began to spread. It struck with such force that the light was reflected off the ground and bounced back into the air as thousands upon thousands of individual shards of power.

1. TJSS again switches the name to the Demon Planet.