Chapter 800 The Battle for Kael
Outside the Inner Cosmos lay a planet built entirely from machinery.
The Machine Race’s homeworld resembled an enormous technological sphere covered in spikes.
Each spike extended more than ten thousand miles into space, with a Machine Race flying vessel docked at its tip.
No voices could be heard anywhere on the planet. The only signs of activity were the faint vibrations produced by the machinery.
Inside one of the flying vessels, Machine Patriarch Hadrian Stahler slowly opened his eyes.
A series of booming pulses erupted ahead of the vessel. The resulting waves spread rapidly into deep space.
“So she sent someone after all.”
Hadrian laughed without humor.
His vessel detached from the tip of the spike and shot into the depths of the universe.
In less than fifteen minutes, it had traveled nearly a hundred million miles from the Machine homeworld.
Two figures floated motionless in the void ahead.
“The Broodmother has certainly spared no expense this time. She actually sent two Celestial-grade insect warriors here to die.”
Hadrian regarded them calmly.
“The Broodmother has no desire to drag the Machine Race into a conflict that would devastate both sides,” Goldgnaw said. “Hand over the human named Kael, and we will leave Machine Race territory immediately.”
Inside Hadrian’s Inner Cosmos, Kael’s attention sharpened.
Although this was the Inner Cosmos of an Eternal Tier 9 cultivator, Kael possessed a Chaos Spirit Root, Spatial Spirit Root, and Temporal Spirit Root. By drawing upon all three, he managed to overhear the conversation taking place outside.
The discovery left him deeply conflicted.
From the moment he was imprisoned, Kael had hoped that someone would force the Machine Patriarch into battle. Such an opportunity might allow him to use his Spatial Spirit Root to escape from the Inner Cosmos.
But even if he escaped now, he no longer had enough Immortal Spirit Liquid to satisfy the devouring beast within him.
Worse, the Machine Patriarch also controlled his supply of Blood Dragon Pills.
...
“Hadrian Stahler, the Broodmother wants only Kael,” Goldgnaw continued. “Name your price.”
As he spoke, the surrounding space shifted in and out of focus. A faint resonance like countless vibrating swords spread through the void.
“I also want only Kael,” Hadrian replied. “The Broodmother may name her price.”
Hadrian had no intention of surrendering a living treasure like Kael.
Possessing Kael was equivalent to possessing the hope of elevating the entire Machine Race to the Real Deity Realm. No one would willingly surrender such an opportunity.
“The Broodmother originally sent us here to retrieve Kael peacefully,” Goldgnaw said. “If you refuse to hand him over, we will have no choice but to use force.”
The sword resonance within his body intensified.
Beside him, Soulweaver’s form became indistinct.
Although he stood directly in front of Hadrian, Soulweaver seemed to exist in another region of spacetime, completely disconnected from the reality around him.
Without warning, a flying sword shot from Goldgnaw’s mouth and streaked toward Hadrian’s face.
“You dare attack me in my own territory?”
Hadrian’s fury erupted.
His figure shifted several times before reappearing above Goldgnaw.
An enormous sword condensed in his hands, and he brought it down with tremendous force.
Goldgnaw remained motionless in the void.
He opened his mouth again.
An immense mountain of swords, towering more than twenty miles high, formed before him and surged toward Hadrian’s colossal blade.
The Machine Patriarch’s weapon proved every bit as durable as expected. It cleaved halfway through the mountain through sheer force.
But the mountain contained far too many swords. The remaining blades continued surging forward, threatening to engulf Hadrian.
The entire mountain suddenly exploded.
A rotating beam erupted from the void and swept across everything within several light-years.
Barren planets caught in its path were reduced to debris. Violent explosions rippled through the depths of space.
When the terrifying beam struck the Machine homeworld, countless metal plates emerged across the planet and interlocked to form a massive protective barrier.
Chaotic arcs of electricity spread across the shield as the beam burned against it like a welding torch cutting through steel.
Yet even that devastating cosmic ray failed to penetrate the Machine homeworld’s defenses.
Kael couldn’t see the battle outside, but the relentless rumbling allowed him to judge its intensity.
This was an opportunity that might never come again.
He had to take it.
Kael vanished through several spatial shifts and reappeared at the edge of the gray boundary.
“What are you doing?”
Arno, Magnus, and Orson reacted in alarm and hurried after him.
“What am I doing?”
A flame burned within Kael’s right eye.
“You dare!”
Magnus moved in front of him first.
The Myriad Spirit Light tore through Magnus’s metallic body and continued into Orson behind him.
Both Stellar Realm cultivators were pierced straight through.
“Heh. Kael, do you think members of the Machine Race are that easy to kill?” Magnus sneered. “Don’t forget—our bodies are only half flesh.”
Then his voice caught.
Magnus looked down at the wound.
More than a dozen colors were spreading through the damaged area. Some corroded his mechanical body, others devoured his living flesh, and several continued expanding the wound.
Kael’s Myriad Spirit Light contained more than a dozen divine abilities.
Even bodies that were half flesh and half machine could not escape destruction.
Magnus and Orson collapsed at the same time.
Their agonized screams shook the Inner Cosmos.
“Kael, you dare!”
Hadrian’s enormous eyes appeared within the gray boundary.
Kael’s heart sank.
He prepared himself for the Machine Patriarch’s judgment.
Then both enormous eyes widened.
In the outside world, a golden sword had pierced Hadrian’s chest.
A battle between Eternal Tier 9 cultivators was extraordinarily dangerous. Hadrian’s momentary distraction had given Goldgnaw the opening he needed to strike.
The golden sword expanded inside Hadrian’s body.
Hadrian roared and shifted several times, narrowly escaping before it could split him in half.
He was about to counterattack when a dark shadow plunged into his body.
“Argh... AAAAAH!”
Hadrian’s flesh-and-blood half became completely paralyzed.
Only the mechanical left half of his body could still move.
Within his sea of consciousness, a dark shadow struggled against his soul for control of his body.
The shadow was Soulweaver.
Three figures raced toward them from the distance and attacked Goldgnaw together.
They were all Machine Race elders.
Every one of them had reached the Eternal Realm.
Goldgnaw glanced at the motionless Hadrian before engaging all three elders at once.
The battle between the four Eternal Realm cultivators tore through the surrounding starfield.
Without the Machine homeworld’s powerful defenses, even the planet itself might have been destroyed.
The nearby planets and stars were far less fortunate. Vast waves of sword energy swept through them, reducing one celestial body after another to cosmic dust.
...
Kael clamped one hand over the top of Arno’s head.
Even Arno’s half-mechanical body couldn’t withstand Kael’s immense strength. His metal skull groaned under the pressure, spraying iron-gray fragments into the air.
“AAAAARGH!”
Arno screamed as though his mind were about to collapse.
Kael was preparing to crush his skull when Aethera suddenly spoke.
“Wait!”
“What is it?”
Urgency strained Kael’s voice.
He was terrified that Hadrian might free himself at any moment. Inside the Machine Patriarch’s Inner Cosmos, a single thought would be enough to reduce Kael to ash.
“You’ve consumed Immortal Spirit Liquid for years,” Aethera said. “Try using your Spiritual Sense to invade his sea of consciousness.”
“Oh?”
Kael immediately released his immense Spiritual Sense and enveloped Arno’s entire head.