Returning to the Mysterious Era-Chapter 658 - Fight, Fight, Fight!

Darkness stained the sky. Sullen dense clouds mixed with black fog dimmed the light to almost nothing. In the air, energy motes called calamity which were smaller than bacteria and microbes were altering the world's environment.

This place was once called the underworld, but now it was called the World of Calamity. The World of Calamity was desolate to the eye, mainly gray, white, and black. Of course, a cruel splash of red blood appeared at times.

Ferocious beasts called dark creatures reveled in slaughter beneath mountains and by muddy lakes. They possessed all manner of uncanny abilities, followed the law of the jungle, and vented violence without mercy.

Such was the rule of the World of Calamity. Naked violence was the world's underlying order. The strong thrived like fish in water, while the weak could only tremble. When every perfunctory veil of civilization was torn away and only cruelty remained, the most adaptable beings ascended the throne.

A vast plain stretched beyond a region of pitch-black mountains and rivers. Countless packs of dark creatures hunted or were hunted there. Much like the savannas of the real world, where elephants were kings of the land; wolves chased antelopes; and lions hunted wild horses, there was a similar ecosystem. Only, the dark creatures' immortal traits and fierce abilities rendered the hunt strange and uncanny. Thousands upon thousands of dark creatures dwelled in and roamed the plain.

On that day, however, a strange thunderous clamor suddenly roiled above the clouds.

Rumble...

It was as if hundreds of warplanes had accelerated to maximum speed in an instant. At almost the same moment, the entire plain visibly darkened. Some behemoth in the clouds had completely blocked out the light.

Its immense outline couldn't be seen clearly. Only a corner was visible, seemingly the tip of some ferocious raptor's wing. It trailed a rippling shadow of eerie fire.

A second later, crackling sounds burst forth and a dense rain of flesh fell. It was the remains of flying dark creatures, from shattered bones to clumps of feathers. The bloody rain fell wherever the vast shadow in the sky flew.

The dark creatures on the plain, fearful yet excited, fed on the flesh, even raving with a kind of jubilant frenzy. At times, their appetite easily overwhelmed reason. Thus, they would pay the price.

Across the black plain, every dark creature that tried to eat the flesh or even merely touched the falling gore felt the greatest agony of its life. Bloody sharp teeth tore through their flesh, drilling through brains like a meat grinder set to maximum power. Bodies were pulverized, whirling into pools of mush.

Waves of screams rang out, yet nothing changed. The cries came and went fast. Shortly after, the plain was silent, with only patches of flesh remaining. Eerie magnetic life fields in the flesh become warped ripples, siphoned away by an unknown force.

This was all a premeditated slaughter by a butcher who delighted in gorging! He refused none, spared neither meat nor herb, and displayed his hearty appetite without restraint. He even slaughtered on a vast scale as he crazily climbed the food chain. It was even more extreme than when Ultimate Dark Forms hunted.

Generally, even the most savage Ultimate Dark Forms left some seeds in their feeding grounds, like chive shoots that can be cultivated for the next harvest. However, this being had no such compunctions. He was more brutal and more extreme.

When the shadow passed and the faint light returned, millions of dark creatures had been slain and devoured!

"Feasting before a great battle is quite necessary. To merge with a being of essence as exalted as I is an honor for you weed-like fragile creatures. You should be thanking me..."

Within the gray clouds, the vast Blood Vulture phantom shrank to become a human in a black coat. He floated quietly in the sky, a strange blood moon above his head. He had his hands clasped behind his back, his coat's hem and black hair fluttering in the wind.

Cassius occasionally carried out large-scale hunts to store ample life vibration energy. Of course, it was not to increase his strength as ordinary dark creatures' life vibration energy was useless to him. The life vibration energy was in fact a reserve for healing so that the Golem body would be able to recover quickly.

After all, Cassius was facing an Ultimate Dark Form that ranked among the top ten.

The Totem King, Kassares!

It was the end-point of all totems and totem energy. Creatures like Golden Might that he encountered before were paltry beside the Totem King. Even among Ultimate Dark Forms, there was a hierarchy.

Totem King Kassares and Blood Vulture Dominator Fist had fought each other for ten thousand years. With endless clashes and attrition, their overall strength must have declined severely.

Since Blood Vulture Dominator Fist was the main force and would draw most of the Totem King's attention, Cassius felt freer to join. His Mental Unification stage was now near fifty-five percent, fully past half the realm of a Holy Fist. Furthermore, he had the powers of a Holy Fist, Dominator Fist, and a Golem body at Ultimate Dark Form level. Most crucially, there was the supreme sharpness of the Thorn Sonic Death Armament!

Cassius estimated his killing power to be near the Lord of Flooding Light's prime. Of course, his overall combat strength was several notches lower.

Speaking only of Cassius's offensive ability, he was in the top twenty of Ultimate Dark Forms. He calculated that, if all else remained unchanged, when his Golem Covert Martial Arts progress reached about sixty-five percent, he could be said to rival the Lord of Flooding Light's peak combat strength.

Beings like the Totem King Kassares, True Progenitor of Blood Yumila, and the three Southern Dipper Holy Fists were surely terrifying existences at one hundred percent progress. Whereas those close to the top ten like the Lord of Flooding Light, Moon God, and Pale Origin, their overall power in Cassius's terms of Golem Covert Martial Arts progress amounted to above ninety percent.

If Cassius's analysis was correct, Blood Vulture Dominator Fist and the Totem King were now fighting to decide life and death. Their overall might was surely not at one hundred percent, but likely in the nineties. If Cassius activated his full strength, his battle lethality near ninety percent could already influence the war.

If he joined Blood Vulture Dominator Fist, they would surely gain an advantage over the Totem King. Additionally, Cassius's massive harvest of life vibration energy could avert the scenario where he was suddenly targeted by the Totem King.

If the Totem King tried to pick them off one by one and decided on attacking him first because he was the softer persimmon, then Cassius had to hold out until the Totem King fell. His Golem body was formidable, but his foe was the Totem King. Without sufficient preparation to the point of exhausting every strategy, Cassius couldn't rest easy.

He had to see the Totem King fall before his eyes, not die first and let Blood Vulture Dominator Fist finish him.

"I've stored about enough. Next is to conserve strength, hide myself, and await the clash..."

Cassius's figure flickered in the black clouds and vanished into the heights.

The World of Calamity was a dim, muddled murk. The passage of time was hard to sense. It was difficult to know how much time had gone by.

Back in the surface world at the Totem Temple, the holiest place in the hearts of totem shamans, shaman after shaman looked at one another in shock. Just now, they had completely lost contact with Totem King Kassares.

That hazy inter-world Will which had lingered at the temple for centuries seemed to have been disrupted and severed.

"What...is this?"

In the World of Calamity, at an origin of calamity amid pitch-black mountains and rivers, horrific shockwaves swept across the land, smashing towering black ridges into sand.

It was a collision of endless energy. The clash of the world's peak existences.

Two dreadful, opposing fields and two vast, resolute Wills had completely replaced the region's environment and laws. They only needed a single thought to make air burn, magma freeze, sky invert to earth, and earth to become a bottomless abyss.

The black blanket of sludge Cassius once saw stretching for hundreds of miles, with dense cocoons like disgusting eggs, had vanished.

"Blood Vulture, the day has finally come... Do you feel it? This is your moment to die! Your countdown to death! You are doomed! No one can save you!"

A colossal bronze gargoyle stood beneath the sky amid raging winds. Its ferocious blade-like wings pierced the heavy clouds, raising a terrifying whirlwind. Dense tiny runes crawled like ants across the gargoyle's body, flickering eerily.

"White Bird has fallen. Sonic Snake and Yumila are tangled forever. For them to decide victory is many times harder than for us. So, this battlefield is fated for only you and me to fight to the death."

The vast Will of Totem King Kassares made even the ground tremble.

"Too many ages have passed. The origin of calamity has strengthened me more and more. The gap between us has gone from imperceptible to visible to the naked eye! You are aged and frail. That so-called final mutual-destruction method can no longer touch me..."

The other Will was succinct, without a shred of excess thought.

"Then come and try."

It was simple, dominant, and pure.

If you dare come, I dare face you. Never retreat, never waver.

Opposite the giant bronze gargoyle, an elder sat cross-legged like a motionless mummy, sixty-six red stars flickering across his body. A dense crimson cloud writhed around him, about to take the form of a raptor. From high above, one could see the land split into two colliding torrents.

On one side, a dense black sea of totems roiled restlesstly. On the other, lava-colored Death's Fang Force decomposed all in its path.

It seemed like the black totems held the advantage, covering roughly seventy percent of the ground while the Death's Fang Force was confined to the remaining thirty percent. Indeed, as time passed, even that thirty percent could no longer be held.

"In that case...let us try!"

The Totem King sensed Blood Vulture Dominator Fist's unyielding Will. It understood that the only way to escape was by completely defeating the man before it.

It was time for this boundless standoff to end!

"Power of Silver!!!" A deafening roar reverberated through the world.

Dense totem patterns blazed with silver light on the Totem King's body and across the vast earth. The dim world seemed to turn to day, as if a star had exploded.

"Ultimate Totem, Netherworld Dragon King!"

Kassares's wings suddenly spread, then beat with an extravagant sweep. A second later, a terrifying dragon nearly its size blasted skyward, piercing through the heavy black clouds.

The totem called Netherworld Dragon King was further augmented by the Power of Silver! In two or three breaths, the savage dragon was dyed silver. Its fangs, wings, and claws all gleamed with a metallic sharpness.

It shot straight to the sky, then accelerated into a dive! In the blink of an eye, a silver meteor trailing a fearsome gold tail flame hurtled toward the motionless elder.

"Southern Dipper Red Falcon Fist. Claw, scales..."

There was no flashy technique. Just two simple, fundamental words describing a claw and scales. Suddenly, a raptor's giant claw soared up from beneath the earth into the sky. Its terrifying size seemed able to seize a star. The claw's surface was covered by overlapping scales like heavy armored shields. Blood Vulture Dominator Fist's energy was silent and mighty, like its master.

The raptor's claw went straight for the sky, colliding with the Netherworld Dragon King.

"Still conserving strength? You know full well this claw cannot stop my ultimate totem! You still want to save the strength to force that mutual-destruction move? Blood Vulture, your wooden punch now hardly counts as an unbridled Dominator Fist... Hahahahaha..."

The Totem King's laugher rippled as the Netherworld Dragon King dove faster. Just as they were about to collide, Blood Vulture Dominator Fist suddenly lifted his head. A pair of sharp eyes flared amid hair messy as weeds.

"A variable has appeared!"

An overbearingly keen gaze cut through the distance, locking onto a rapidly approaching black figure.

"Hm!? You?"

The Totem King was startled for a moment, for the sky-scratching claw suddenly swelled to two or three times its size. With a savage swipe, it tore off one wing of the Netherworld Dragon King!

Furthermore, that half-dead figure on the ground somehow stood up. Though gaunt and frail, his thin shoulders had borne heaven and earth without shuddering. The peerless domineering presence reined in for ten millennia burst outward like a pent-up flood. His unleashed energy twisted the air.

The Blood Vulture Dominator Fist of old seemed, in that moment, to have briefly returned!

"Kassares..."

"Fight fight fight!!!"