Although he had rushed here as swiftly as he possibly could, by the time of his arrival, the ship that he had desperately been trying to board had already sailed. Throughout his journey to Enki XVII, he had constantly got updates from other worlds along the way, letting him know about precisely how dire his people's situation was. Saving his military force–and especially the second-strongest fighter of the Imperium–was imperative if they hoped to free themselves of their cage!
During his journey, Ziusudra had pondered about what kind of situations could be awaiting him at his destination, and naturally, he had also taken the worst case scenario into account. However, what had felt more likely to him at the time was either Shara having been forced into a passive, defensive state, or the enemy sneakily outwitting his Prime Grand General, wasting his time.
Then, when the protective 'bubble' surrounding Enki XVII dissipated on its own as soon as he made it there, his worst fears were confirmed. To an extent, he had been deluding himself earlier, hoping for a better outcome–but the barrier around the entire Imperium had long since given away the fact that they were outmatched.
'I can't sense Shara anywhere, but signs of his battles and even some of his remaining Energy can still be found. My military has disappeared in the same manner. Therefore, it's reasonable to assume this obliteration to be a result of the enemy's attacks. Everyone... is no more!'
Pausing right outside the world for a moment and letting his senses sweep through it in its entirety, his last remaining embers of hope died out. Shara hadn't been taken captive, he had been annihilated. Their enemy wouldn't negotiate, and all that awaited him was either victory or death!
'... I can't even remember when I last felt like this.'
His gaze a bit reminiscent, he heaved a heavy sigh, then shook off the doom and gloom. During decisive moments like these, any stray thought could prove fatal–and he knew it all too well. Within an instant, he had suppressed all distracting feelings, whether they be sadness or rage, fully focusing on his enemy.
'It's one person, and he's at the early Initial Ascension Stage? Wait, something isn't right here. How come I can sense such an overwhelming amount of Energy constantly being exuded by him? And this dread... clearly, he is far more than he appears to be on the surface.'
Furrowing his brows, Ziusudra made his initial judgement of the situation and immediately went on the highest alert. He was tempted to rush off to a different world and destroy the node there, then attempt to break through the 'wall' around his Imperium. Yet, he knew that it couldn't possibly be this simple.
'He's too calm. If what I just theorized actually was a valid option, then his gaze wouldn't be this tranquil. To him, I'm already caught...'
Steeling himself for a head-on confrontation, he utilized his peak Holos Acclimation Stage cultivation to wrap his body in multiple layers of Energy, then willed a huge chunk of it to transform into a blazing inferno. Combining it with fierce winds, he twisted it into the shape of a cyclone of destruction powerful enough to even rip apart the very space that it travelled through. Sending it out as a probing blow, he simultaneously stepped foot into Enki XVII.
In comparison to Ziusudra's attack, the continent-sized landmass that Theodore stood on was nothing more than a speck of dust. Yet with a simple thought, the cyclone which significantly surpassed the might of Planetary Destruction Cannons was frozen in its entirety, shattering and vanishing the instant after.
'I have to go all out!'
His eyes widening in horror, Ziusudra kept dodging the minuscule flakes of snow constantly appearing out of nowhere everywhere around and very often on him. Fortunately, as long as he was not entirely encased in them, ridding himself of them was not yet impossible.
On his Golden Cores, four mystical symbols lit up, respectively representing the elements of fire, earth, air and water, forming a resonance with each other. All throughout his Dantians, his meridians and the rest of his body, 'shadows' or 'echoes' of these symbols shimmered into view, further intensifying this resonance.
Not only did all of his Standard Attributes begin to skyrocket, but his ability to manipulate these elements also followed suit. Normally, he would not allow this artificial increase in power to balloon too much, as his physical vessel simply couldn't endure it and come out of it all unscathed. But left with no other viable option except for giving his all, he removed all limiters that he had previously set.
It didn't matter if it would take him hundreds of thousands of years to recover, or even if he lost this body. As long as he could triumph over his foe and eke out a continued existence, that was all that he could hope for.
The earth and sky trembled violently, the landscape underneath and the high heavens above twisting and turning until one couldn't really tell where one ended and the other began. If one's senses weren't powerful enough to perceive an area beyond Ziusudra's control, then it would be hard to tell where 'up' and 'down' even were anymore. Gravity in this region stopped working as normal, as if it had been cut off from the rest of this world's spacetime.
Violent storms combined with endless conflagrations, turning the entirety of this warped realm into a deadly replica of hell. Ziusudra's Energy was pulsing throughout it all, the symbols of the four elements flickering within, further reinforcing this domain of destruction.
But this instantaneous transformation of his and Theodore's surroundings was merely a side effect of activating his strongest Talent–he had not yet made a targeted move! This alone, however, proved capable of hindering the until that point falling snowflakes. The fire should not be able to melt them–and in all fairness, it only did so very slowly–but the particular resonance between the elements was what seemed to turn the impossible into the possible.
For the first time since he had arrived in the Imperium, Theodore's expression turned serious as he felt his ever-reliable Eternal Ice being counteracted by some sort of power of the same level.
Whilst his Eternal Freeze Talent was 'only' Transcendent-grade, it was deeply tied to the Winter Family, strengthening further as a result. Under most circumstances, it could put up a solid fight even against Supreme-grade Talents–therefore, to encounter something that could rival it in such an unremarkable place, and not while facing a fellow Heaven's Chosen...
'Behind this man, there looms the shadow of a major secret. I can't wait to uncover it!'
Intrigued by what he had discovered, he regained his smile. From all sides, Ziusudra's now manually controlled elemental vortexes were bearing down on him, yet instead of growing solemn, he had returned to normal. With a chuckle, he focused a little, moving far greater amounts of Energy from his Dantians into the outside world.
It didn't matter that Ziusudra had a kind of power at hand that could put up a fight against him–he himself had never entered Theodore's eyes, only his trump card's origin had done so. If the quality of their forces at hand were similar, then all that he had to do was to outclass his prey in quantity! And Energy was what he lacked the least.
'How could someone this impossibly powerful... even exist?!'
Having already given his all and feeling his body falling apart at the seams, once endless amounts of Eternal Ice burst forth from his foe's location, Ziusudra stared at the spectacle in disbelief.
It was well understood by him that there were different kinds of 'geniuses' out there, with those at the very top vastly outclassing the ones merely a step below them. Yet, as someone who had stood at the pinnacle for all of his life, he couldn't remotely fathom how a being like Theodore could actually be real. It was already absurd enough for him to be capable of threatening his life and forcing him to go all out.
But to squash his greatest efforts in a heartbeat whilst being more than two entire cultivation stages 'weaker' than him? That was something that he couldn't wrap his head round at all. And he would never get the time to do so.
Vast stretches of ice had replaced nearly half of Enki XVII, freezing it completely. Naturally, the elements-filled domain of Ziusudra had met the same fate, the man himself not being an exception.
As willed by Theodore, almost all of the Eternal Ice either faded away peacefully, or destroyed what remained of that dangerous realm. Finally, only one ice-encased body was left in front of him, the terror and unwillingness rigidly displayed on its features.
Usually, he would have annihilated this soulless corpse, but he wouldn't do so without an investigation this time. For now, he placed it down nearby, then ignored most of the notifications that had piled up and went straight to the newest one.
[ Existence's Foremost Calamity has activated.
There are multiple Talents to choose from. They will be listed in order from the highest to the lowest grade. ]
[ Ur Family Member (Transcendent):
• Carries the bloodline of the Ur Family, therefore acquired a Ur-related Talent.
• Ur-related Affinities: +9,999,900%
• Ur-related Technique cultivation difficulty: -99.999%
• Ur-related Technique cultivation speed: +9,999,900%
• Ur-related Proficiencies improvement efficiency: +9,900%
• Ur-related Laws comprehension difficulty: -25% ]
[ Foundational Element Conduit (Transcendent):
• Able to channel the Foundational Elements and resonate with them.
• The Endurance Attribute determines the upper limit of the channelling. ]
[ ... ]
[ (See More) ]
[ Will you choose one of these Talents or a fixed amount of Attribute Points instead? ]
The rest of the Talents weren't even worthy of wasting his time on, making it evident that these two came as a set. It was quite unusual for the grade of someone's Family Talent and that of the related Talent to be the same. That alone would already have caused Theodore to raise an eyebrow in amazement, but it wasn't even the most extraordinary part of it all.
'How come I've never heard of the Ur Family? And that aside, how is it that one of their members who is not a competing Heaven's Chosen is present in the event venue?'
The latter one of these questions was easier to attempt to answer. Based on the description of Ziusudra's Ur Family Member Talent, rather than having been born into this Named Family, he appeared to have acquired its bloodline and made it his own later on in life. As for how exactly that had happened, at this point, Theodore could not yet be sure–there were too many possibilities.
What was clear, however, was that the Ur Family had managed to interfere with the Heavenly Succession. Such a feat was neither unprecedented nor unthinkable, the sole puzzling thing about it was that it had been done by a family that Theodore was entirely unfamiliar with.
His education had been extremely thorough, and he could confidently say that he knew in detail about every single Supreme Pillar and Pillar Families, as well as all notable regular Named Families. That aside, he at least had read a short summary about all those that his family were aware of–which should have been all of them. But clearly, no less than one of them had managed to escape their notice.
'And not only that, they have amassed influence and power to an extent practically equal to that of a Supreme Pillar.'
One shouldn't be fooled by Ziusudra's Family Talent being at Transcendent-grade. Having acquired the bloodline in some unusual way would definitely not bless him with the same grade of Talent as a regular heir.
'Most importantly, if there is one, then there are many. It's still somewhat thinkable that my family has missed them somehow–but the Heavenly Empress should definitely know about them. After all, the Heavenly Dao has a record of them. So... what's going on here exactly?'
Glancing at the frozen body nearby, he decided to search it, in the admittedly likely vain hope of finding anything that could provide him with some semblance of an answer.