Chapter 801 Escape from the Inner Cosmos
“Aaargh!”
Agony contorted Arno’s face for several seconds before every trace of expression vanished.
Kael had erased the half of Arno’s soul housed within his organic brain, but the portion concealed inside his mechanical skull had survived. He couldn’t destroy it from outside using Spiritual Sense alone.
Kael compressed his Spiritual Sense into a needle-thin beam and drove it through the metal skull.
Inside, a miniature Arno huddled within a gray recess, staring nervously at the manifestation of Kael’s consciousness.
Kael lunged.
It took only a few exchanges for him to devour the last remnants of Arno’s weakened soul.
Outside, Kael’s physical body opened its eyes. Arno remained in his grasp, his face vacant and lifeless.
“Stand.”
Arno obediently rose to his feet.
“Sit.”
Arno sat down again.
“Kneel.”
Once more, Arno obeyed without hesitation.
“This is your best chance to escape the Inner Cosmos,” Aethera said. “Hadrian is fighting a dangerous battle of souls in the outside world. He can’t spare enough attention to kill you.”
“All right.”
Kael drew a deep breath and transformed into a black shadow that merged with Arno’s body. Controlling him like a puppet, he made Arno step into the gray chaos at the edge of the Inner Cosmos.
“How dare you!”
Hadrian’s furious voice thundered from the sky.
Kael hardened his resolve and forced Arno to leap fully into the gray expanse.
Bitter cold swept over him.
In the next instant, Kael emerged into the real universe and regained his physical form.
Hundreds of miles away, three Eternal Realm experts of the Machine Race were battling a strange figure whose entire body gleamed pale gold. Hadrian stood elsewhere, half of his body completely motionless while the other half twitched faintly.
“Run!” Aethera urged.
“Run?”
Kael drew a long breath and summoned his spirit sword. His heart pounded uncontrollably, because what he intended to do next was extraordinarily dangerous.
His body expanded at a terrifying rate as he activated Stage Twenty of the Fiendgod Transformation. Behind him, his Grand Celestial Manifestation emerged from the void, its head as vast as a planet.
Even that didn’t seem sufficient.
Each of Kael’s four hands took hold of a different weapon—the Time Mirror, Astral Mountain, his spirit sword, and the Tier 10 Sanguine Edge.
“What are you planning?” Hadrian demanded.
He had kept part of his attention fixed on Kael throughout the battle, terrified that his living treasure might slip away. Yet instead of fleeing, Kael had assumed his most powerful form as though he intended to fight Hadrian to the death.
“How dare you!”
Far in the distance, one of the Machine elders noticed what was happening and rushed toward Kael. Before his shout had even faded, a colossal hand reached for the Grand Celestial Manifestation.
The manifestation met it with a palm strike.
The collision shook the void.
Relying on the sheer strength of his body, the Machine elder punched straight through the manifestation’s palm. In an instant, he appeared directly in front of Kael.
“You were supposed to remain inside the Patriarch’s Inner Cosmos, yet you dared take advantage of the chaos to escape? Even if we let you go, how long do you think you can survive without the Blood Dragon Pills?”
The elder suddenly went rigid.
The Time Mirror had frozen him in place.
It couldn’t restrain an Eternal Realm cultivator for long, but Kael needed only a moment.
His other three hands moved simultaneously. Astral Mountain, his spirit sword, and the Tier 10 Sanguine Edge struck Hadrian at the same time.
The Sanguine Edge slammed into Hadrian’s body with a metallic crash. It carved through him from shoulder to abdomen, nearly splitting him in two.
The dagger paid a terrible price. Its spirituality vanished, reducing it to a piece of ordinary iron that Hadrian’s body absorbed without a trace.
Kael’s spirit sword swept across him next.
The blade struck the mechanical half of Hadrian’s body but failed to leave so much as a scratch. The recoil tore through Kael’s wrist and forced him back more than a dozen steps through the void.
He immediately looked toward Hadrian’s organic half.
The flesh that had nearly been severed had already fused back together.
His regeneration is that powerful?
Kael forced aside his shock and brought Astral Mountain crashing down with a deafening roar.
Hadrian was hurled more than half a mile through space, the crown of his skull flattened by the blow.
A shriek erupted from within his sea of consciousness.
A black shadow fled in panic, emerging from Hadrian’s head and transforming into Soulweaver before racing into the distance.
“You think you can escape?”
Hadrian’s organic right eye looked utterly exhausted, but he still raised one hand and flicked his fingers repeatedly.
Soulweaver had lost most of his soul strength during the battle inside Hadrian’s sea of consciousness. Unable to evade the incoming attacks, he was torn apart and reduced to a wisp of smoke that vanished into the void.
“Run, Kael!” Aethera’s voice turned shrill.
If Kael died, she would be trapped inside his Inner Cosmos forever.
Instead of fleeing, Kael transformed Astral Mountain into an enormous warhammer and swung it down.
The impact sent Hadrian flying more than a hundred yards.
Hadrian had barely been driven back before he charged again. He crossed the distance in an instant and seized Kael by the arm.
“Aaargh!”
It felt as though Kael’s arm had been caught beneath an industrial press. Cold sweat poured down his face.
“Die!”
He pushed against Hadrian with his other three hands but couldn’t move him an inch.
Hadrian’s organic eye held only the promise of death.
He could have killed Kael with his first attack. He had held back only because he still needed Kael to produce an endless supply of Immortal Spirit Liquid.
“Do you want to die that badly?”
Hadrian had defeated Soulweaver in their battle of souls, but his own soul strength had also been severely depleted.
There were no true victors in such battles. The winner emerged weakened and risked having his soul contaminated. The loser was annihilated in both body and soul.
A rust-red radiance suddenly spread across Kael’s entire body.
Hadrian faltered.
His grip loosened, and Kael instantly retreated more than half a mile before fleeing at full speed.
“You think you can run?”
Hadrian crossed the void through a series of rapid spatial shifts, pursuing him without pause.
Kael entered Astral Mountain. The divine mountain transformed into a massive spearhead and shot toward the depths of space.
Behind Hadrian, his flying vessel answered his summons and became a streak of light. He leaped aboard, and the vessel surged forward, closing relentlessly on Kael.
The spearhead and the vessel raced toward the center of the Blood Jade Galaxy.
“Don’t go, Kael!” Goldgnaw shouted. “I’ll take you somewhere safe.”
He knocked the three Eternal Realm Machine elders aside and raced after Hadrian. The three elders immediately recovered and pursued Goldgnaw.
The six of them formed a single line across the void.
Kael fled at the front. Hadrian chased directly behind him. Goldgnaw followed Hadrian, while the three Machine elders pursued Goldgnaw from the rear.
All six moved at terrifying speed.
Hadrian’s vessel slammed into the back of the spearhead.
The impact shook Kael from head to toe.
“Don’t force me, Kael,” Hadrian warned. “I held back just now. If I hadn’t, you would already be dead.”
His vessel had caught up to the spearhead.