Immortal Paladin

520 Multiple Fronts

[POV: Alice]

The Mighty Duck carved through the dim currents of the Third Layer, its sleek hull shimmering faintly against the oppressive gloom of the Underworld.

Alice stood near the central deck, her gaze fixed ahead, posture composed yet burdened by the weight of what lay before them.

Around her, the remnants of their faction gathered. Horse-Face leaned against the railing. Judge Wang Yang’s rotund figure shifted with visible discomfort as the ship cut through turbulent currents. Pestilence, in stark contrast, thrived in the chaos.

At the bow, she laughed into the rushing wind she created with her own qi, her voice sharp and gleeful. “Ah, this is perfect!” she shouted, arms spread wide as if embracing the danger itself. “Charging straight through multiple layers, stealing judges, and running straight into Nidhogg’s nest—who comes up with such delightful madness?”

Her excitement carried through the deck, unsettling and contagious in equal measure.

Alice remained silent, though her fingers tapped faintly against her sleeve. Even if Pestilence was a Ruler of Laws, and by their side, Alice understood they were not guaranteed to succeed in the mission, considering the scale of what they were attempting. Two layers under hostile control, unpredictable resistance, and an escape route that led directly into the domain of a primordial terror. Yeah, they might be biting more than they could chew, but the Holy Ascension Empire always had a huge appetite.

Behind her, a sudden thud echoed.

Pestilence had turned her attention to Wang Yang, repeatedly kicking him with exaggerated flair while striking theatrical poses between each strike. “Come on, fatty judge, don’t slow us down now!” she cackled. “If you collapse mid-mission, I might just leave you behind as bait!”

Wang Yang wheezed, attempting to shield himself while maintaining a shred of dignity. “This is… completely unnecessary…!”

Horse-Face exhaled slowly, choosing not to intervene. Instead, he stepped closer to Alice, lowering his voice.

“There is something you should know,” he began, his tone measured but edged with irritation. “Your daughter… Gu Jie. The lass suddenly attacked me not long ago. No warning, no provocation. She struck swiftly and put me to sleep.”

Alice turned her head slightly, her expression tightening.

Horse-Face continued, clearly displeased. “It was not a spar, nor a misunderstanding. It was deliberate. I am asking plainly. Will she be fine handling her part of this operation?”

Alice drew in a quiet breath before responding. “I apologize on her behalf,” she said, voice calm but carrying a subtle strain. “Gu Jie has been… confused recently. Her condition has not been stable.”

Horse-Face’s gaze remained fixed on her, unconvinced. “Confusion does not usually lead to ambushing allies the way she did. Fucking brat pulled an Ascended Soul out of her pocket and unleashed multiple Immortal Arts on me. That isn’t nice!”

Alice sighed, thinking about how to open this up to Da Wei.

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[POV: Gu Jie]

Far beyond their path, within the desolation of the Second Layer, Gu Jie moved through a vast emptiness that seemed stripped of meaning itself. The Layer of Intent no longer resembled a functioning realm. It felt hollow, as if purpose had been devoured along with matter.

Chen Wei followed at a steady pace, his sword hovering beneath his feet as he glided through the void. Gao Fu remained slightly behind, her presence subtle, almost blending into the thin fabric of existence.

Gu Jie’s eyes glowed faintly as she scanned the expanse, threads of golden perception stretching outward into the nothingness. For a long time, there had been nothing to grasp, nothing to follow.

Then, at last, something emerged.

A small, distant planet appeared ahead, dim yet unmistakable.

Gu Jie slowed slightly, her gaze sharpening. “We finally found traces of civilization,” she said, her voice steady but carrying a hint of relief. “There’s still something left here. It seems that Famine is not foolish enough to leave the entire layer with nothing.”

Chen Wei’s expression shifted as he raised his hand slightly. “Be careful,” he said, his tone turning sharp. “There’s a Void Beast nearby.”

The warning came just in time.

Gu Jie’s body moved instinctively, her form twisting as she narrowly evaded a sudden distortion in space. In the same motion, her fingers flicked outward, golden strings erupting into existence as they lashed toward the unseen attacker.

Gao Fu vanished from sight, her presence cloaked instantly through a refined stealth technique.

Chen Wei stepped forward, his sword dropping from beneath his feet into his waiting hand with perfect precision. Without hesitation, he struck.

The void itself seemed to ripple as his blade carved through the hidden entity. The creature revealed itself in fragments, its form grotesque and unstable, flickering between existence and absence.

Chen Wei’s movements were clean and relentless. Each strike carried the weight of his past as the former vessel of the Supreme Void, his attacks cutting deeper than mere physical damage. The beast attempted to retreat into invisibility, but his blade followed it regardless, slicing through its shifting presence.

The battle stretched longer than expected, the creature’s resilience forcing him to maintain constant pressure. Eventually, its form collapsed entirely, dissolving into scattered remnants that faded into the void.

Silence returned once more.

Gu Jie and Gao Fu reappeared nearby, their figures stabilizing as the immediate danger passed.

Chen Wei lowered his sword slightly, though his vigilance did not fade. “Stay alert,” he said, glancing between them. “This layer is crawling with Void Beasts. The ones here seems to specialize in stealth and ambush.”

Gu Jie nodded faintly, her golden threads retracting as her gaze returned to the distant planet.

The emptiness around them felt heavier now, no longer just barren, but actively hostile.

And yet, they continued forward.

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From a distant, almost inevitable perspective, everything was slowly coming together to fill a big picture where the Holy Ascension Empire would gain a sweeping victory.

The Hollowed World would quiet eventually, its devastation settling into silence once War and Famine concluded their rampage. In that aftermath, Ru Qiu and Jue Bu would stand victorious in the Seventh Layer, their dominion secured through sheer force of the players.

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At the same time, Alice’s perilous advance through the Fourth and Fifth Layers would bear fruit. Through negotiation, coercion, and carefully measured violence, the symbols of the judges would fall into her possession. Each acquisition would not merely represent authority, but a rewriting of the Underworld’s balance, shifting its ancient structure into something new under Da Wei’s banner.

Far removed from that path, Gu Jie’s quiet pursuit within the desolation of the Second Layer would also reach its conclusion. Amid the emptiness carved by Famine, she would locate what remained of the Judge of Intent and claim the symbol that had once governed purpose itself. That singular success would complete another critical piece of the greater design.

When all results converged, the scope of what had been achieved would become undeniable. Seven of the nine layers of the Underworld would fall under the rightful sovereignty of Da Wei and the Holy Ascension Empire. Only the First Layer and the war-torn Eighth Layer would remain outside immediate grasp, though even that absence would feel temporary. The symbol of the Eighth Layer would become attainable in the shadow of such overwhelming control.

Despite that dominance, the practical reach of Da Wei’s forces would remain concentrated. The Ninth and Eighth Layers, where his armies gathered in strength, would serve as the foundation of governance. The rest of the Underworld, though claimed, would exist in a state of transition, bending slowly under the weight of its new ruler.

The Underworld, one of the great realms within the Greater Universe, would be recorded as the first to fall completely under the expansion of the Holy Ascension Empire.

It would not be a quiet footnote, but a grand declaration of the Supreme Bearer’s war on the Six Supremes and his conquest of the Greater Universe.

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[POV: Da Wei]

The blows came faster than thought could follow. My body had been thrown across landmasses as if gravity itself had lost interest in holding me down. The Hollowed World blurred into fragments beneath me, each impact carving destruction into its already ruined surface.

Starshroud responded to my will, summoning the helm as the Hollow Star fused with it. Even with its protection, the ringing in my ears refused to fade, the turbulence rattling through my bones as I crashed from one continent to another.

Between impacts, I extended my Divine Zone as far as it would reach. Divine Word: Raise echoed repeatedly, overlapping with Blessed Regeneration as I forced life back into the countless innocent souls crushed beneath the collateral of my own flight. The irony did not escape me, though I had little room to dwell on it.

When two behemoths fought, it was said that the ants suffered.

In truth, ants would not even notice such a battle if it truly followed nature’s rules. They thrived in numbers, sovereign within their own scale. What unfolded here was something else entirely.

I did not feel like a behemoth.

I felt like something being used as a projectile.

War appeared before me again, his flaming sword already descending. I raised my hand and the Dark Veil surged upward from the earth, forming a curtain-like barrier that absorbed the initial strike. The impact rippled through it, but I had already moved.

Or at least, I thought I had.

He appeared at my left without warning.

I brought Silver Steel up just in time, the clash sending a jolt through my arms. Using Divine Step, I repositioned instantly to his opposite side and struck, aiming for the opening I created.

He parried without turning.

His movements carried an awareness that ignored direction entirely. He stepped back just enough to redirect my follow-up, his elbow striking the hilt of my sword and breaking the flow of my attack. Before I could recover, his foot pinned mine in place, anchoring me for a fraction of a second that proved costly for me.

The hilt of his sword slammed into my face.

Pain flared, but I caught his wrist before he could withdraw. Ophanim surged in my eyes, its rotations accelerating as I poured Divine Qi into it without restraint. The rhythm of the fight shifted as I forced my tempo higher, intercepting his strikes again and again.

Between those exchanges, I drove a Divine Smite forward.

He did not avoid it.

The attack landed cleanly, its force tearing through him, yet he advanced regardless. His flaming blade slipped through the narrow gaps in my armor, piercing straight through me as if my defense didn’t exist.

For a moment, everything stopped.

We stood there, unmoving, both of us impaled by the other’s weapon.

I could feel the heat of his blade burning through me, just as he felt the weight of mine embedded within him. My hand rose, gripping his shoulder to steady myself. “Hey,” I said, my voice rough but steady despite everything. “This is kind of fun, isn’t it?”

War’s laughter came immediately, deep and unrestrained. “Oh, it is,” he replied, almost gleeful. “Admittedly, it’s sad I have to lower my strength for you, just so I can have fun. I must say, this really took me by surprise.”

I drove my heel forward and released a War Smite at point-blank range, the impact detonating between us with a violent surge of force that hurled him across the horizon. The air fractured in his wake as his body tore through layers of atmosphere, only stopping when crimson flames erupted behind him. Wings of burning ruin unfolded from his back, vast and jagged, stabilizing his flight as he carved a molten trail across the sky.

I did not waste the distance he created.

The Hollow Star pulsed above my helm, its abyssal glow feeding me with a constant stream of quintessence that I immediately refined into Divine Qi. The energy coursed through my body and concentrated into my eyes, where Ophanim awakened fully. Rings within rings spun in layered motion, each rotation sharpening my perception beyond linear time.

Foresight was never free.

Every glance into the immediate future demanded payment, and the cost scaled with the weight of the existence I observed. War was not merely powerful; he was fundamental, a being anchored deeply into the structure of conflict itself. Under normal conditions, he would have remained a blind spot, an untouchable gap in my vision.

Here, that limitation dissolved.

Faith surged endlessly through the Hollowed World, feeding my Divine Zone, while the Hollow Star provided a near-limitless reservoir of quintessence. Together, they allowed Ophanim to function without restraint. The future unfolded before me in branching paths, each one alive with possibility.

War moved again.

I saw it before it happened.

His wings contracted, then burst outward as he launched forward with overwhelming speed, his flaming sword cleaving through space itself. I stepped into Divine Step, vanishing from the present moment and reappearing along a thread of predicted motion. His blade passed through the space I had occupied, splitting a continent behind me in two.

The land screamed with pain.

Molten oceans surged upward as the crust ruptured, forming towering waves of fire and water that spiraled into the sky. I extended my hand, and authority over this world as its owner answered. The rising catastrophe bent to my will, reshaping into a massive tidal force that I hurled toward him.

War did not evade.

He flew straight into it.

His sword ignited brighter, carving through the tsunami as if it were nothing more than mist. The collision erupted into steam and flame, shrouding the battlefield in a boiling storm that obscured everything except intent.

Through Ophanim, I saw him emerge.

I met him head-on.

Our blades collided again, the shockwave tearing open the clouds above us and exposing the fractured heavens beyond. The sky itself began to split under the strain, jagged cracks spreading outward like a broken mirror.

He pressed forward relentlessly.

Each strike carried weight beyond physical force, embedding destruction into the fabric of reality. I parried, redirected, and countered, weaving Divine Smite into my movements while maintaining the rhythm Ophanim dictated. Every motion I made aligned with a future I had already glimpsed, each decision shaving away uncertainty.

Even so, he adapted.

War twisted his body mid-exchange, abandoning conventional angles entirely. His elbow drove toward my throat while his blade reversed direction in the same instant. I caught the strike with my forearm guard, but the impact still forced me downward.

We crashed into the ocean below.

The surface did not hold.

It collapsed under the force of our descent, forming a massive crater as water displaced outward in a perfect ring that grew into a global-scale tsunami. Before the wave could settle, he was already moving again.

His hand seized my armor and dragged me through the ocean floor, carving a trench that stretched for hundreds of miles. I responded by driving Divine Qi outward, detonating the seabed beneath us and launching both of us back into open air.

The battlefield shifted once more.

We landed on another continent, though “landed” felt inaccurate when the ground shattered instantly beneath our feet. Mountains folded as if made of cloth, their peaks collapsing into valleys that no longer existed seconds later.

I advanced this time.

Divine Step chained into itself as I closed the distance, my blade flashing in a sequence guided entirely by foresight. I struck high, then low, then redirected mid-swing as Ophanim revealed his counters before he executed them. Steel met flame repeatedly, each clash sending fractures across the surrounding terrain.

For a brief moment, I gained ground.

Then he smiled.

War allowed one of my strikes to land, my blade cutting across his torso, only for his gauntleted hand to clamp onto my shoulder in the same motion. He pulled me in, closing the distance I had tried to control, and drove his knee into my midsection with enough force to rupture the air around us.

I felt the impact ripple through my entire frame.

Before I could recover, his sword came down again.

I raised Dark Veil instinctively, the shadow barrier erupting upward just in time to intercept the blow. The collision split the continent beneath us entirely, creating a chasm that extended beyond the horizon.

We stood at its edge for a fraction of a second.

Then we moved again.

The battle stretched onward, from one shattered landmass to another, across oceans that no longer remained oceans and skies that could no longer hold themselves together. Every exchange escalated the destruction, every clash rewriting the geography of the Hollowed World.

Through it all, Ophanim continued to turn.

The future remained visible.

And yet, despite everything I saw, despite every advantage I forced into existence, one truth became increasingly clear.

War was enjoying this far more than he should have.

Such a smug fucker, that guy.