2309.Intercept

A snort tried to leave Divine Architect's mouth, but she suppressed it. She wanted to reject King Elbas' statement, but he was right. His fake quasi-rank 10 state carried a force that she couldn't underestimate.

The avatar vanished from the area without leaving any trace of its previous existence. King Elbas had burnt it thoroughly, and the other inscribed items couldn't do anything to stop his attack.

The exchange would generally push a privileged cultivator to change tactics, but Divine Architect didn't bother to send anything else. She had lost one of the creations, but the battlefield still had five of them.

Divine Architect pointed her arm at King Elbas, and her creations moved. The three-headed dog charged ahead, but three of the hydra's heads shot forward to stop its advance.

The telescope remained in the backlines and released its faint white ray. However, its ability appeared unable to pierce King Elbas' body now. Its ethereal energy couldn't go past the incredible heat that surrounded its opponent.

The cloud met similar problems. The item tried to surround King Elbas, but the heat radiated by his figure kept it away. The gas could only encircle him and burn while attempting to pierce his natural defenses.

The castle had it easier since it didn't touch the incredible heat. The structure turned ethereal and encircled King Elbas without activating any ability. It seemed that Divine Architect didn't want it to do anything yet.

The mirror remained in the backlines too, but King Elbas didn't forget it. In his mind, that item was the strongest asset in Divine Architect's possession, so he prepared himself for its imminent attack.

Of course, King Elbas' preparations didn't merely involve standing still. His world was burning, so he couldn't waste time.

Three of the hydra's heads had bitten on the dog's faces. The two sides appeared equally matched. The scorching golden surface countered the corrosive saliva, but things changed when fiery pillars came out of the scaled mouths.

Meanwhile, the remaining six heads spat violent attacks in their surroundings. There didn't seem to be a pattern in the massive pillars of golden light coming out of their mouths, but the situation was different in King Elbas' mind.

The castle's fabric flickered whenever pillars expanded in the scorching area. Cracks opened on its surfaces even if its structure was ethereal. King Elbas' power was so overwhelming that those ghostly materials couldn't help but suffer due to how close they were to the heat.

The telescope could avoid suffering during King Elbas' offensive, but its faint ray retreated due to his expanding domain. His influence had taken the shape of a dense golden halo that didn't allow any foreign energy in his surroundings.

The mirror remained outside that conflict, but the cloud couldn't imitate its approach. The gas was even closer than the castle, so the increasing heat burnt vast chunks of its fabric and reduced its overall size.

However, the situation changed again when Divine Architect's eyes flashed. The cloud ignored its burning fabric and reassembled itself to take the shape of countless needles that pierced the scorching domain and made their way toward King Elbas.

King Elbas ignored the incoming spikes and focused on the dog. The latter's heads were melting under the scorching rays spat by the hydra, but its overall structure was still holding strong.

That stability didn't last long. King Elbas slightly tilted his right wrist, and the spear disappeared. The weapon reappeared on the dog's belly, where it pierced its fabric until it reached the very center of its body.

There, the spear unleashed its fiery power. Blinding golden rays spread inside the dog and expanded until they filled every corner of its body. The creature stopped functioning for an instant before exploding into fuming shards.

Divine Architect didn't feel any disappointment when all the shards turned into powerless dust. They couldn't survive that scorching environment in that poor shape, and she didn't care enough about her creation to save it.

The needles pierced the explosion and approached King Elbas, but Divine Architect noticed something odd at that point. The hydra's head had disappeared, leaving King Elbas with nothing but his golden robe.

Divine Architect realized that her cloud had walked into a trap, but she also knew that it was too late to do anything about it. The golden robe unleashed a dense shockwave that expanded through a spherical trajectory and burnt anything that dared to stand on its path.

The shockwave didn't stop even after destroying the cloud. It expanded until it reached the castle's ethereal surface before morphing to imitate its shape.

The golden fuel replicated the castle while replacing its position. The final energy solidified at that point, and smoke came out of its fabric. A screech eventually resounded in the area, and Divine Architect's eyes flashed again.

The replica of the castle quickly crumbled and transformed into golden energy that flowed back toward King Elbas. His robe absorbed that power, and nine scaled necks came out of his back. The hydra returned, and its roar announced its small victory.

The ethereal castle had vanished, and the same went for the cloud. King Elbas had destroyed both of them with a single attack, and the event had appeared effortless.

Yet, Divine Architect knew how strong her creations were. She could calculate how much power King Elbas had to use to destroy them, so her confidence remained firm. She couldn't lose as long as things stayed like that.

King Elbas was aware of his opponent's confidence, but he planned to shatter it with his next attack. His right arm rose to point at Divine Architect, and the fiery spear teleported in his palm.

The weapon's movement generated a sharp and long trail of energy that shot forward. Divine Architect saw a giant slash flying toward her, but she ignored it while her attention moved to the telescope.

King Elbas materialized on top of the telescope, where he stomped his feet. His robe, spear, crown, and hydra's heads accompanied the gesture by releasing scorching waves of energy that fell on the item and ravaged its structure.

The telescope vanished in less than a second, but King Elbas found no happiness in his achievement. His speed had been incredible, and the same went for the power shown during the attack. Yet, Divine Architect had managed to follow his offensive.

The long slash fell on Divine Architect, but her ethereal barrier prevented it from reaching her body. Cracks appeared on the defensive technique while the golden energy expressed its might, and the former crumbled after remaining in that clash for a few seconds.

The slash tried to resume its flight and crash on Divine Architect, but its structure shattered at only one inch from her body. She didn't need to move since she had calculated that the attack would exhaust its energy before reaching her.

King Elbas didn't like seeing Divine Architect learning the limits of his final energy, but he knew that he couldn't do anything about that. His focus had to remain on ending the battle, so he performed another teleport.

Golden light accumulated in front of Divine Architect due to King Elbas' teleport. The movement technique was so quick that no rank 9 cultivator could react to it, but the mirror was an exception.

Before King Elbas could materialize, the mirror launched a wave of energy that intercepted him. The attack wasn't dangerous, but it still pushed him away and interrupted his technique before he could reach Divine Architect.