Chapter 451: A Fight In the Hollow Realm

The Hollow King tore the burning arm free and threw it aside as hooked fingers closed around his shoulder. He drove his palm into the Heavenly Lord’s chest and forced them apart with another burst of fire.

The creature that rose from the crater no longer resembled a man. Pale plates covered its swollen body and two crooked heads grew from its shoulders.

Several mouths opened beneath each eye as both heads turned toward him. Then the severed arm dissolved into light and flowed back toward its shoulder.

"So you’ve finally shown your true form. I knew the Heavenly Faction had something to do with that Primordial."

The Heavenly Lord caught the returning light and formed a new arm from it.

"Everything I do is for my true lord. He will make this world a better place."

"He is far more capable than you."

The Hollow King answered by closing his hand. Black flames rose from the crater and wound around the creature’s legs as he shot forward.

This time he aimed for the head carrying the red eye. His fist crushed through the first layer of pale plates, but the second mouth opened beside his wrist.

A blue beam struck him at close range and drove him through the ground. He felt it burning into his shoulder as he stopped himself and tore open the space beneath his opponent.

[Mystic Code Activated: Space.]

The Heavenly Lord dropped through the opening directly into the Hollow King’s waiting fist. His jaw broke with a sharp CRACK and the unfinished beam swept across the empty sky.

The Hollow King followed him upward as the flames around his legs spread to his chest. He kept striking the same cracked plates until they broke away and exposed the flesh beneath.

Red light gathered inside that wound and the blue eye suddenly turned toward it. The Hollow King felt the two powers draw together and immediately opened another passage behind himself.

[Skill Activated: Yin-Yang Explosion.]

BOOOOM!

The blast tore through his passage and threw him back into open space. A burning line cut across his chest while red and blue light spread toward the worlds behind him.

He could dodge the attack and let it continue, but this bastard had chosen that direction for a reason. The Hollow King spread both hands as his authority answered him.

[Authority Activated: Creation.]

Enormous walls formed across the blast’s path. The first shattered immediately and the second folded inward, but more kept rising until the spreading power was trapped between them.

The Heavenly Lord struck from above while he was holding the explosion back. A spear made from the same red and blue power pierced his side and carried him into one of the walls.

"How ironic!" The creature laughed through its broken mouths. "The Axiom Origin granted you the Authority of Creation. Now you use it while trying to destroy everything it built!"

The Hollow King gripped the spear lodged in his side. Blood ran over his hand as he forced Hollow Flames along its length and into the fingers holding it.

"You won’t live long enough to see what I create."

The Heavenly Lord released the spear and pulled away, but the wall behind the Hollow King had already changed shape. Its broken edges closed around the creature’s arms and dragged him back.

Then the Hollow King created another wall behind him and crushed the two together.

BANG!

Pale plates burst through the stone as the Heavenly Lord tried to pull free. The Hollow King sent his flames through every crack and burned away the red light gathering between the trapped hands.

The creature’s laughter finally broke into a harsh cry. It twisted one arm backward and tore it off to escape the closing walls.

However, the Hollow King was already waiting where it emerged. He caught its throat and drove it through the red and blue power still raging between the walls.

The force hurled them both across the darkness. His wounded side burned with every movement, but he held on while the flames ate through the plates protecting that twisted neck.

"You came here wanting to talk, so tell me who planned it."

The blue eye flashed and a blade pushed out from the creature’s chest. The Hollow King caught it with his other hand as it cut into his palm.

Instead of pulling away, he broke the blade and drove the broken edge through the red eye. The Heavenly Lord screamed as light poured from the wound.

Then every mouth began laughing at once.

"Well, since it has come to this..."

The Hollow King tightened his grip as the laughter grew louder.

"I don’t mind telling you what happened to your dear lover."

Far from their battle, Caelus entered another cloud of Progression Power beside the dragon’s tail. He had already extracted nine more nodes and this was the tenth.

Each had pushed him farther through the remaining Demigod levels. He had reached Level 10 at the previous node and could feel how close he was to leaving the rank behind.

Between those stops he had kept practicing with his Mystic Codes. A flame hovered above one palm while Origin Lightning curved around the other without touching it.

[Mystic Code Activated: Fire.]

[Mystic Code Activated: Origin Lightning.]

Earlier attempts had ended with the lightning breaking out of the shape he wanted. Now he could guide it through a narrow loop while holding the flame steady.

The analysis of Mystic Codes was still running. Every test gave him something else to examine and he wanted to understand them well enough to build spells of his own.

He let both powers fade as Sylvia entered the cloud nearby. She gathered a stream of light and slowly drew it into herself using Edran’s method.

Caelus waited while she took the power in, hoping this node would suit her better than the earlier ones. However, she had gained very little by the time she released the remaining light.

"At this rate the dragon over there might grow its flesh back first."

Her complaint made him smile even though the difference bothered him too. There had to be a better way to help her than leaving her here for years.

As he thought about that, he remembered Token Creation from the Tier 1 World. It had allowed him to turn levels and abilities into tokens that others could use.

He couldn’t assume it would handle this power in its current state. Still, improving it might give him a way to share what he gained.

[Talent Activated: Chaos Analysis.]

[Analysis Started: Token Creation.]

Once it appeared among his ongoing studies, Caelus reached toward the light around him and accepted the extraction prompt.

[Talent Activated: Endless Extraction.]

The cloud folded inward as streams of power rushed into his Divine Body. Their glow spread beneath his skin and grew brighter as more of the node vanished into him.

Power surged through every part of him until the pressure he had felt at Level 10 finally broke. The remaining light poured into the space beyond that limit and his presence spread across the nearby bones.

[Ding! Progression Power extracted.]

[Rank: Demigod → Mage God.]

[Level: 1 (1%).]

Caelus stared at the notification as the last of the cloud vanished. Then he brought a thread of destruction into his palm and felt how much more power he could guide through it.

[Authority Activated: Destruction.]

The thread grew at his command and stopped exactly where he wanted it. He laughed as he drew it back into himself, eager to see what he could do with a proper attack now.

Ten nodes had been enough to bring him here. For the first time since meeting Edran, he stood within the same rank as the Federation master. Well not the level, but he met the Rank Part.

He was about to return to Sylvia when something moved deep within him.

[Ding! The spirit of the Dragon of Destruction is active.]