Soaring Through the Heavens (Continued)
As the Flame Sword pointed straight at the core of the behemoth and pierced down, a pale hand suddenly emerged from the depths of the behemoth and collided directly with Laevateinn's blade!
'Clang--!!!'
The grinding, metallic tremor resonated through the bones and reached the auditory system—the Land of Land of Fire's territory was violently propelled outwards in a small arc. And a completely new form had been recreated deep within the colossus!
Surtr saw a sword, one she had never seen before but which looked very familiar, and the only sword in the world that remained intact after directly clashing with Laevateinn.
The front of the sword depicts the sun, moon, and stars. The back depicts vegetation, mountains, and rivers. The blade itself is constructed from pure starlight.
—Xuanyuan Sword.
—You Heavenly Emperor, you actually Human Emperor's sword... Was that a flaw you deliberately left behind?
As thoughts turned, the adversary's new appearance came into view—pale and cold. Dressed in magnificent robes, yet all woven from starlight. And in those eyes that still radiated endless brilliance, the blazing sunlight had been transformed into silent starlight.
The blades crossed each other countless times in an instant.
—The third ability... no, it should be the result of being completely corrupted by starlight. The physical distortions will be canceled, or at least become controllable. And the reason it still acts in its original form... presumably...
—Can one fully master all the powers, skills, and even wisdom that existed before the erosion?
The blades clashed violently, unleashing powerful shockwaves. The flames were extinguished, and the offensive reached a stalemate. Within this state of suppression and stalemate, a mechanical whisper suddenly resounded.
"Hear my command, and heaven and earth will be separated."
Word Spirit, or perhaps laws. The moment language found its vessel, the entire Heavenly Court suddenly and violently crumbled from the middle outwards, splitting into two parts!
A huge rift was created.
Beyond the rift lay the material world of the mortal realm—snow-capped mountains, plateaus, and biting winds. When the matter of this mortal world touched the undying fire that nearly filled the entire Heavenly Court's divine domain, a massive material reaction occurred. The sudden explosion of elemental storms further destabilized the battle!
—It's going to run away!
"By my command, the Cosmic Time Shift."
The four directions, up and down, are called the universe. The past and present are called time. The light of time is time itself.
And at the moment this decree ends, the macroscopic timescale of the entire Earth changes slightly as a result!
The Corrupted Celestial Venerable, who was originally sealed in the center of the Land of Fire, suddenly appeared without warning at the huge breach outside the Heavenly Court's divine domain!
All living things inhabiting the plateau witnessed at the same moment the raging fire that instantly painted the sky—snow-capped mountains melting, glaciers evaporating. An intense heat, incomprehensible to the creatures of the plateau, arrived in an instant. And above the blazing fire that blanketed the sky, starlight flickered, chased by the flames!
Is that starlight?
Perhaps.
Some ignorant herders knelt down, wanting to worship. However, at the moment they bent their knees, they were blocked by something.
Some saw the woman with green hair, some saw the red plaid skirt, some saw the parasol blocking the reflection of starlight—many people had these impressions, but these thoughts only lasted for a moment. After they came to their senses, the memories that surfaced in the depths of their minds were gone.
No one knows or remembers exactly what happened.
But the ultimate result was that on this entire plateau, not a single sentient being could directly see that ray of starlight piercing the sky.
All people could see was the flames. Only that crimson that covered the entire sky and dyed everything with new colors.
Some highland animals underwent slight mutations, but the next moment, a fiery tide descended from the sky, swallowing them all without exception. To the uncontaminated creatures, all they could see was a fiery tide chasing something unidentifiable, crashing headlong into the snow-capped mountains of the far southwest!
That's... the Himalayas.
The mountain range snapped instantly upon impact, yet the immense kinetic energy—enough to reduce the entire plateau to wasteland—was inexplicably abducted and deflected. In an instant, the towering mountains, stretching for dozens of miles, along with the broken world's highest peak, were ripped from the ground, enveloped by this powerful kinetic energy capable of fracturing continental plates, and propelled straight upwards!
Break through the troposphere, break through the stratosphere.
Something struggled and fought its way through the trillions of tons of rock, but was always engulfed and sealed by flames and lava. It was unable to return to the real world!
Break through the middle layer and the thermal layer.
The sea of fire covering the plateau rose up as if it were alive, transforming into the shadow of this shooting star flying backwards, clinging tightly to it.
Amidst the meteor shower, the intensity of the battle continued to escalate.
Slash, collision, combat, strike.
Surtr and the corrupted Celestials unleashed every imaginable and unimaginable skill imaginable into this battle.
Cut off their heads and sever their hands and feet.
A new head regenerates from the severed neck, and the limbs detached from the body can still fight like autonomous living beings.
The starlight's erosion continuously appeared in the lava and fertile soil, only to be instantly evaporated by the sudden bursts of flame—this was not difficult; once one's life level was elevated to the level of the myriad transformations of a human-immortal, the human form was no longer a necessary structure. All Miss Surtr did was temporarily cut her knee-length hair to ear length. The severed ends turned into diffuse dust, seeping into the lava layers surrounding the battle zone to form a dynamic barrier, and that was it.
The starlight from another land had no effect on her.
Therefore, as long as the entire area surrounding the battlefield is 'her', neither the corruption of the Fallen nor the command of the mass-energy spacetime can break through the battlefield she has defined.
Fight, keep fighting.
The retrograde meteor trembled violently, accompanied by an exceptionally massive impact. The meteor's impact point was ultimately etched into the moon's surface— the Lunar Sea were struck and then torn apart. Vast amounts of lava and fire surged into the moon's interior.
—Moon Lunar Core is not your territory, Great Celestial Venerable.
Since ancient times, the Heavenly Emperor's authority over the sun and moon has always been limited.
—Of course, it's relatively limited. But it's still limited. And this is the shortest point on the wooden plank beside the bucket.
She clearly sensed the weakening of her opponent's aura—so that's it. Since he had reverted to his original form from his previous life, he would naturally inherit his weaknesses from that life as well.
So the girl slightly increased the intensity of her breathing.
"I have learned the final lesson." The surge of energy was accompanied by a strike that was several times heavier than any of the previous exchanges. As a result of this shift in power, the Fallen Celestial Venerable lost his balance and exposed an opening, thus falling into the deepest part of the Lunar Core, which was enveloped by layers of dense lava.
Miss Surtr's form then broke through the lunar surface, exposed to the clear expanse of space. She reached out and grasped at the lunar surface, where every inch of land was subtly trembling. The next moment, Earth's only satellite abruptly shrank inward by nearly one-tenth!
On Earth, scholars have frequently speculated that the moon has a hollow structure because its volume and mass do not conform to ideal mathematical models.
And now, Miss Surtr can prove it. The moon at this moment has a solid structure.
She gripped her sword tightly, her eyes slightly lowered as she stood in the vast sky.
"Through my endless adventures in the dream world, I have been trying to summarize all the power systems I know, see, and hear. In doing so, I have constructed a unique combat technique that can be used in many worlds."
Her fingertips brushed against Laevateinn's blade—the sword did not harm her, but blood dripped from her fingertips, staining the blade and igniting a dark, karmic fire, hotter and deeper than any flame before, almost like Twilight.
"I haven't succeeded yet because I haven't seen enough and don't know enough. I can't design a path of power that can function normally even in a pixelated world or a two-dimensional plane. However, there are three techniques that, after my continuous improvements, can now be used in most dream worlds."