Book 18, Highgod – Chapter 9, Battle!
“Linley Baruch?” Odin immediately knew who this person was. Linley’s reputation in the Yulan continent was simply too great. In terms of status, he was on a higher level than even the War God and the High Priest had been on in the past. After all, Linley’s accomplishments were simply too legendary.
Odin’s face was ashen, and he stared fixedly at Linley, grinding out one word at a time, “You dare to come!”
“If I don’t come, how am I going to kill you?” Linley’s voice was like ice.
“Ha..haha...” Odin laughed from sheer rage.
The deaths of his brother and his son had caused Odin’s rage to rise to the heavens. In addition, he knew what Linley had accomplished. Nearly two thousand years ago, Linley had just become a Deity. As Odin saw it, no matter how great a genius Linley was, he would at most be able to become a Highgod. To fuse profound mysteries?
That wasn’t something that could be done in such a short period of time.
In the instant in which Odin laughed from rage, his entire body transformed into a blur, instantly appearing before Linley. With a ‘crunch’ sound, Linley’s body was struck and sent flying outside of the palace. Odin let out a cold laugh towards the outside of the palace, then flew out as well.
“Linley and Emperor Odin are battling...”
Immediately, all of the ministers within the hall flooded outwards. Even many of the palace maids and attendants ran out as well. All of them looked about wildly and also towards the skies, hoping to see Linley and Odin. But they saw nothing.
“His Imperial Majesty against Grandmaster Linley...who do you think will win?” The ministers discussed this amongst each other.
“With a wave of his hand, his Imperial Majesty destroyed half of the imperial capital of the Yulan Empire. Given his power...he will definitely win.”
“Grandmaster Linley has disappeared for two thousand years. Given his dominating talent, he’s definitely grown even more powerful.”
Just as the many ministers were chatting amongst each other, suddenly, a terrifying explosive sound rang out from the corner of the imperial palace.
BOOM!
From afar, a palace suddenly blew apart, sending countless pieces of rocks and tiles shooting everywhere at high speed. When these pieces of rocks smashed into the palace walls hundreds of meters away, they smashed giant holes into them. Countless miserable cries could be heard as well as many helpless maids and attendants were struck by then. Some had their heads smashed apart, others had their limbs severed...
But the ministers continued to stare into the skies.
As for those Envoys who were being guarded by the palace guards, they were watching as well.
In the air above the Odin Empire’s imperial palace, Linley and Odin had come to a pause. Linley was in full Dragonform, his entire body covered with draconic scales. He stared coldly at Odin with his dark golden eyes. As for Odin, a look of disbelief was on his face. “Imp...impossible. Impossible!”
The exchange of blows from earlier had completely stunned Odin.
“Material attacks?” Linley said coldly. “I understand that you are specialized in the Edicts of Death. Why don’t you use those attacks?” Linley realized through the exchange of blows with Odin that this person was only using wind-type Laws, and was emanating a wind-type aura as well, with no hint of a Death-type aura.
Based on what Linley knew...
This Odin, reputed to be the ‘Vile King’, was an expert who specialized in the Edicts of Death.
Odin gritted his teeth, staring fixed at Linley. “Against you, I don’t need it! I’ll let you know...what regret is!” After speaking, his body suddenly moved as a tornado sprang into being out of nowhere. Odin, in the center of the tornado, charged towards Linley with an aura of power that seemed capable of destroying the world, landing a powerful knife-edge palm blow against Linley...
“Crackle...”
A clearly visible crack in space appeared...but this was a material plane. Highgods were capable of easily shattering space here.
“Laughable.” Linley didn’t even dodge. He just charged at Odin, allowing this ‘knife-edge palm’ to land on his body.
“CLANG!”
When the knife-edge palm blow landed on Linley’s body, a metallic ringing sound could be heard. A faint white smudge appeared on Linley’s draconic scales, but that was it. This absolutely stunned Odin, leaving him gaping. But Linley seized the opportunity to reach out with his draconic claws, grabbing Odin by his right shoulder and giving it a vicious twist...
Riiiiip.
Blood and flesh flew everywhere, as the right arm was directly ripped off.
“Whoosh!” The draconic tail came sweeping over as well, moving as fast as lightning.
Odin hurriedly dodged, but despite how fast he moved, a deep wound was left upon his waist, with fresh blood dripping out of it. Odin stared at Linley, stunned. “How can your body be so...” He muttered, as his wounds quickly healed. Only, it took a bit of time for his severed arm to grow out.
“Too weak. Too weak!”
Linley said calmly. At the same time, he released his right hand, allowed the torn-off right arm of Odin’s to fall down from the skies, smashing into pieces on the surface of the imperial palace. The material attack Odin had launched, the one which had created the tornado, had caused quite a bit of destruction in the imperial palace. Those ministers had their faces smudged with dirt and ash, and they were hiding behind the protection of the palace guards.
“Impossible!” Odin bellowed, charging forward once again. Odin’s entire body transformed into a blurry sword-shape, and the illusory greatsword chopped directly at Linley.
Linley let out a cold, calm laugh. His speed suddenly increased dramatically as he dodged this sword attack, while at the same time delivering a mighty blow with his claws to Odin’s face. A large chunk of flesh was ripped off of Odin’s face, and he was knocked flying backwards.
“Too slow as well.” Linley continued. After having become a Highgod, Linley’s speed had improved dramatically as well, especially given how powerful his draconic body was. His speed was vastly superior to Odin’s divine wind clone. Odin wasn’t able to fight back at all; after all, Odin was only using his divine wind clone at present, not his strongest Death-type clone.
Odin turned to stare at Linley, his eyes filled with shock and rage. He wasn’t able to accept this!
“How can he be so strong?” Odin couldn’t believe it.
“Where is your Death-type clone?” Even as Linley’s words came out, Linley himself appeared before Odin, launching out his right leg in a kick that was like a decapitating blade towards Odin’s neck. Terrified, Odin frantically dodged backwards, but although he was able to dodge the kick, and before he even had the chance to take a breath, with a ‘bang’ sound, Odin was slashed by Linley’s draconic tail, which slammed against his waist.
Odin’s body was bisected into two. His bones and his organs all came flooding out from his upper torso.
The upper half of his body was knocked flying back.
“Aren’t you supposed to be very powerful?” Linley’s voice rang out.
“Bang!” Linley’s fist smashed against Odin’s chest, which split open like mud, caving in at Linley’s blow, fresh blood spewing out. However, Odin’s lower torso quickly began to grow out, and his left arm swung violently against Linley’s body.
“Aren’t you supposed to be the ‘Vile King’?”
“Bang!” A leg landed against that left arm, sending Odin flying away yet again.
“Aren’t you supposed to make me know what regret is?”
Linley landed a palm against Odin’s head, and Odin was shot out like an arrow, smashing downwards with a ‘bang’ into the stone floor, causing the entire ground to shake and split apart, while Odin himself was completely submerged into it.
Linley slowly descended, landing on the ground.
“Come on. If you aren’t dead, that is.” Linley said calmly.
From the very beginning, Linley had refrained from using killing blows. If Odin were to die so easily, that would be too merciful towards him. Linley clearly remembered how Odin had tormented his Boss Yale.
There were quite a few people watching this battle, and there were tens of Deity-level experts in the imperial palace of the Odin Empire. These were all Odin’s subordinates. They were watching in disbelief...their invincible ‘Vile King’ was being utterly trampled, without being able to fight back at all.
“His Imperial Majesty....” The senior ministers were all stupefied as well.
“Hmph. Your Odin Empire is finished!” Those surrounded Envoys of the Baruch Empire raised their heads high.
At this moment, a group of people watching this battle from afar in the sky flew over as well. It was Bebe, Wharton, Delia, Taylor, and some others. They all flew into the imperial palace. To them, the imperial palace was a place where they could roam about as they pleased. Nobody was able to stop them.
Reynolds, watching this battle, couldn’t help but shed tears. “Boss. Second Bro. Odin is going to die. Your deaths will be avenged!”
Right now, in the center of this ‘arena’, the earth lay cracked and shattered. A figure slowly crawled out from within. It was Odin. Odin’s body was now completely repaired, but his eyes were still filled with rage and disbelief.
“Any other ‘ultimate attacks’?” Linley laughed coldly.
As he spoke, Linley’s body suddenly advanced at such speed that although Odin struggled to dodge, Linley’s leg flashed out and kicked him viciously in his crotch. An explosive, ripping sound could be heard, followed by Odin’s anguished howl as he was sent flying upwards before landing on the ground again.
“Where is your Death-type clone?” Linley stared at him emotionlessly. “What, would you rather sacrifice your divine wind clone than let your Death-type clone come out?” As Linley saw it, this clone of Odin’s wasn’t very strong. Linley’s true target was Odin’s Death-type clone.”
“You...you...” Odin stared towards Linley with utter hatred.
He wanted to kill Linley, but he wasn’t able to.
“Linley. You are vicious. You are a piece of work!” Odin said with fury. “But you won’t be able to kill me!” With a bellow, Odin instantly transformed into thousands of doppelgangers, all of which fled wildly every which way. This was the ‘Doppelganger’ technique of the Laws of the Wind. Seeing this, Linley didn’t even move.
Suddenly...
A blurry earthen yellow aura instantly spread out to a diameter of a thousand meters, and a terrifying gravitational pull was instantly applied to all of Odin’s doppelgangers. But of course, the other people within this area, such as the maids, servants, Reynolds, Bebe, and the others weren’t affected by it at all. “Bang.” “Bang.” A series of explosions could be heard as those doppelgangers began to implode from the terrifying pressure! Explosive bursts of energy rocked the grounds of the imperial palace, and the palace walls were once more damaged by it. The scene was one of utter chaos.
Linley’s most powerful technique...Blackstone Space! The gravity was centered towards Linley!
The only one of Odin’s bodies which had yet to explode was his divine wind clone.
This was normal. After having become a Highgod, Linley’s Blackstone Space had risen tenfold in power, far greater than it had been in the past. In such a terrifyingly powerful area of gravity, even Seven Star Fiends would find it hard to resist. If a body was too weak, it wouldn’t just sink downwards. It would...
Collapse and implode!
Bodies that were formed purely from energy had to be stable; if the stability was impacted and unable to withstand such a powerful gravity, the only result was collapse and explosion.
“Crackle...” Odin frantically tried to resist the gravitational pull, but his body continued to be drawn towards Linley’s.
“This...this...” Odin didn’t dare believe it.
“What, you still aren’t going to reveal your Death-type clone?” Linley laughed coldly. He had already sent out his divine sense, encompassing the entire Yulan continent. But Linley wasn’t able to find or sense the aura of Odin’s Death-type clone.
“I admire you.” Odin returned to his icy calm. “In two thousand years, you’ve become so very powerful. Your Gravitational Space is indeed formidable. Go ahead and kill me...” Odin actually chose not to fight back. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to; it was that he understood he wasn’t able to.
Thus, he chose death!
“You want to die?”
Linley snickered. “Have you forgotten what you did to my big brother, Yale?”
Odin’s face had a stunned look on it.
“Rumble...” Spiritual energy came sweeping out, and the ‘Spiritual Chaos’ affect was applied to Odin’s soul. Linley’s ‘Spiritual chaos’ technique was extremely monstrous by now...as a Highgod, he was able to cause ordinary Five Star Fiends and Six Star Fiends to enter a state of stupor.
And indeed...
Odin’s eyes grew dim and lifeless.
“So indeed, he only has the power of a Five Star Fiend. At most, he just barely approaches the power of a Six Star Fiend.” Linley’s appearance changed as he returned to human form, while at the same time, those white funeral robes appeared around him once more.
Odin just stood there dumbly.
Linley turned to look, sweeping the imperial palace with his gaze, then said in a clear voice, “Odin is no longer able to fight back.” As he spoke, Linley gave Odin a kick, and Odin, like a puppet, was kicked into the ground, not moving at all.
The experts who saw this all felt stunned. Clearly...Odin was unconscious.
“Now...the eighty two Deities within the imperial palace are all to come out. If you do not, the next to die will be you!” Linley’s cold voice rang out, while he also spoke out with his divine sense, allowing it to enter the minds of those eighty two. Those eighty two were originally the subordinates of Odin. Now, terrified, they immediately flew over.
Linley’s gaze turned towards Odin.
“Die? I will make sure you die in agony and humiliation.” Linley’s gaze was as cold and emotionless as ice.