Chapter 802 Into the Black Hole
Kael drew a deep breath and drove the spear-shaped Astral Mountain forward at full speed.
A tremendous metallic crash reverberated through the void.
Goldgnaw summoned another mountain of swords and hurled it into Hadrian’s flying vessel. The three Eternal Realm Machine elders continued attacking Goldgnaw from behind, however, disrupting his movements and preventing him from focusing entirely on Hadrian.
The pursuit continued.
At last, Kael stopped in the middle of the void. He studied his galactic chart, then waited in silence for Hadrian and the others to catch up.
Under normal circumstances, Hadrian’s vessel could easily overtake the spear-shaped Astral Mountain. Goldgnaw’s constant interference had slowed him so badly, however, that he had fallen far behind Kael.
“You still aren’t escaping? This is your chance!” Aethera snapped.
Kael was going to drive her insane. He had already been given several opportunities to escape, yet every time, he fled for a while before stopping to wait.
“I’m waiting for them to catch up,” Kael replied calmly.
“Why would you do that? Are you planning to enter Hadrian’s Inner Cosmos again?”
Aethera couldn’t begin to understand what he was thinking.
Flashes of light appeared in the distance. Hadrian’s vessel approached amid the tangled battle between Goldgnaw and the four members of the Machine Race.
Hadrian spotted Kael immediately. Confusion flickered across the organic half of his face.
Why isn’t this human running?
Kael swallowed the last drop of Immortal Spirit Liquid he possessed.
Just ahead lay the border of Machine Race territory.
The spear-shaped Astral Mountain came to an abrupt stop. Hadrian and the others halted as well, their expressions tightening when they saw what lay before them.
A colossal black hole, more than three thousand miles across, hung in the void.
Its interior was utterly dark, while its outer ring blazed with brilliant white light, giving it a cold, haunting beauty.
“Where else can you run, Kael?” Hadrian asked.
Even someone as powerful as Hadrian had to proceed cautiously. This close to a black hole, the slightest burst of excessive speed could carry him into its pull. Once his body touched the edge of that gravitational field, he would be dragged inside instantly.
Goldgnaw and the three Eternal Realm Machine elders grew equally cautious, deliberately keeping their distance from the black hole’s gravitational reach.
“Return to my Inner Cosmos willingly, Kael,” Hadrian said. “If you do, I’ll consider everything that happened before this forgotten.”
He still wanted to reclaim Kael, a supreme alchemist capable of producing Immortal Spirit Liquid. Had anyone else attacked members of the Stahler family, Hadrian would have killed them with a single palm strike long ago.
“Don’t be afraid,” Goldgnaw said. “Enter my Inner Cosmos instead, and the Broodmother will protect you.”
“You!”
Hadrian and his three elders glared at Goldgnaw, but none dared resume their battle so close to the black hole.
Its gravitational pull fluctuated unpredictably. No one knew whether the Origin Power unleashed in their battle might trigger another shift.
A small planet suddenly hurtled out of the distant void like a runaway beast, racing straight toward the black hole.
“Damn it!”
Hadrian vanished and reappeared dozens of miles away.
The small planet grazed past his former position before plunging into the darkness. A deep grinding sound followed as the enormous body was crushed, accompanied by something resembling a distant wail.
“Kael, I gave you my word,” Hadrian said evenly. “Refine Immortal Spirit Liquid for me for ten years, and I will release you. I do not break my promises.”
Kael sneered.
Hadrian might honor his word in other matters, but when Immortal Spirit Liquid was involved, the value of that promise was impossible to judge.
“If you’re capable of dragging me into your Inner Cosmos again, Hadrian, then do it. Otherwise, I’ll be leaving on my own.”
Kael’s body expanded in an instant as he activated Stage Twenty of the Fiendgod Transformation.
A multicolored spirit sword materialized in one hand, its blade more than a hundred yards long. Another hand raised Astral Mountain, while the Time Mirror appeared in a third.
Against an expert at Eternal Tier 9, these were the only three treasures Kael possessed that could make any difference. Everything else would be useless and merely waste his Spiritual Sense and Origin Power.
“You think those toys can stop me?”
Hadrian laughed and vanished.
He appeared in front of Kael as though he had teleported. Rather than striking with lethal force, he simply reached for Kael’s shoulder.
Kael’s spirit sword slashed downward.
The blade sliced through the organic half of Hadrian’s body, stopping only when it struck the mechanical half with a deafening clang. To an Eternal Realm cultivator, however, such an injury was little more than a scratch.
The Time Mirror shone upon Hadrian and froze him for an instant. Kael immediately dragged the enormous spirit sword back and forth, grinding it against the mechanical half of Hadrian’s body.
The shriek of metal against metal tore through the void.
Kael gripped Astral Mountain with his third and fourth hands and brought it crashing down toward Hadrian’s head.
Hadrian was an Eternal Tier 9 expert. He raised his left hand to block the mountain while his other hand continued reaching for Kael’s throat.
Astral Mountain struck with crushing force, bending Hadrian’s left arm backward.
Kael seized the opportunity and lunged.
The two giants grappled in the depths of space like a pair of street brawlers. As they struggled, Kael carefully controlled his strength and maneuvered Hadrian closer and closer to the black hole.
“No!”
Hadrian finally realized what Kael was doing.
The three Machine elders noticed as well. Two immediately broke away and charged toward the grappling giants.
“Is that human planning to drag the Patriarch to his death?”
The final elder prepared to intervene, but Goldgnaw rushed forward and intercepted him.
Two battles erupted beside the black hole. Countless sword auras, spheres of light, and energy beams spiraled through the surrounding space. Yet every beam was captured the moment it appeared, bending toward the distant black hole before disappearing into its depths.
Kael’s Grand Celestial Manifestation reached down from behind him. Its colossal hand closed around both Kael and Hadrian, then hurled them toward the black hole with all its strength.
Their speed increased sharply.
“What?”
Hadrian was horrified.
Both his body and soul were being dragged toward the center of the black hole, and he could no longer control his trajectory.
“Vessel! Come to me!”
His voice rose with panic.
Thousands of miles away, his flying vessel left a chain of afterimages as it shot toward him.
Kael seized the opportunity. The Grand Celestial Manifestation reached for the two Eternal Realm elders pursuing them and closed its massive fingers around their bodies.
The manifestation couldn’t restrain Eternal Realm cultivators for long, but neither elder could break free immediately.
“No!”
“Let go of me!”
The two Machine elders were dragged into the black hole’s gravitational pull. They unleashed six or seven different divine abilities in rapid succession, yet none could overcome the terrible force pulling them inward.
Kael, Hadrian, and the two Eternal Realm Machine elders plummeted toward the black hole.
In the distance, Goldgnaw knocked the remaining Machine elder away with a sword strike and stared at Kael in shock.
The Broodmother had ordered him to bring Kael back to the insect homeworld alive.
“You bastard!”
Hadrian glared furiously at Kael as they fell.
He couldn’t understand why Kael was so determined to drag them both to their deaths.
The black hole’s overwhelming gravity began distorting their bodies. One moment they were stretched impossibly long; the next, they were flattened, then compressed into rounded shapes before warping again.
Kael drew a deep breath.
His Chaos Spirit Root, Radiant Spirit Root, Spatial Spirit Root, and Magnetic Spirit Root activated simultaneously.
Four colors of light merged around his body, forming a protective radiance.
At once, Kael’s body stopped distorting.
Beside him, the bodies of Hadrian and the two Machine elders continued to stretch and twist beneath the black hole’s gravitational force.