Immortal Paladin

[POV: David_69]

It was over before Fang Liuxian’s scream could form.

One heartbeat, he stood aloft, radiant wings spread wide, his aura flooding the dome. Next, his body exploded into gore. Feathers torn asunder. Silver wings ripped into tatters. His chest burst outward in a shower of flesh, entrails scattering, raining crimson across the battlefield.

It had taken only a single step, and the deed was done.

Dave’s form blurred with Flash Step, crossing the gulf between them in an instant. His claws tore through flesh and divinity alike, rending Fang Liuxian from the inside out.

The Animal Soul rumbled within his mind. “The Divine Transformation will be temporary. You are not compatible with me, not truly. Make it quick.”

Dave obeyed.

He summoned the hybridization technique he created, layering two of his Ultimate Skills: Holy Sword and Heavenly Punishment. Their quintessence he forced into his claws, merging the divine light with the raw force of judgment. His hands became reapers of creation, golden arcs erupting with every strike.

What remained of Fang Liuxian was shredded utterly, bones pulverized, flesh annihilated, and spirit broken into dust. Not even a corpse survived.

Dave canceled the hybrid skill with a slow exhale, retracting the blaze of quintessence back into himself. He let the light recede, absorbing the remnants into his core.

Quintessence was precious, rare, and irreplaceable. They were the currency of Ultimate Skills. Even for him, capable of weaving mana and qi into sparks of it, recovery was painstakingly slow. To waste it on anything less than annihilation would have been folly.

His feet touched the ground lightly, power retracting slightly from his being, though his furred body still radiated the storm of a True Perfect Immortal. For a moment, silence reigned. Shortly, it was followed with laughter.

“Ka ka ka ka ka~ ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

It came not from his comrades, nor the angels circling above, but from within them. They were cackling in a hollow and manic manner. The sound reverberated across the golden dome until every angel was cackling with the same twisted voice.

“USELESS! USELESS!” the angels shrieked as one, their many throats carrying the same distorted cadence. “THE HEAVENLY TEMPLE WILL PAY FOR BETRAYING MY TRUST! GUARDIAN!? WARD? MY DEFENDER! USELESS! HE CAN’T EVEN LAST A SECOND AGAINST YOU, CHILD OF DA WEI!”

The heavens shook with their chorus, maddened and echoing. “USELESS, I DARE SAY! USELESS! USELESS! USELESS!”

Dave’s golden eyes narrowed. The voice was one he had heard before, though twisted now with venom and scorn.

Yi Qiu lowered his fists, his eyes sharp as he looked toward Dave. “Who was that?”

Dave’s tail lashed, and his voice came low, edged with certainty. “Aixin.”

The angels’ chorus dwindled to a hum as Zai Ai’s shout cut through the dome. “It’s you!! You corrupted my disciple!”

The voice that answered rolled from a thousand throats yet belonged to one. It carried an almost porcelain clarity, innocent and deranged at once, as if spoken through the hollow of a mask.

“CORRUPTED?! ME? HOW DARE YOU!?” Aixin thundered through the angels’ voices. “I AM AIXIN, GODDESS OF LOVE, DAUGHTER OF HEARTS OF HEARTS. YOU WON’T COMPREHEND MY GREATNESS, MY MEANING, AND MY LOVE!”

Her tone was rapturous and terrible; the syllables warped like light over oil. The angels remained aloft, feathers unmoving, and speaking with the single cadence that made Aixin’s presence omnipresent and inescapable.

Dave said nothing to argue. He only nodded once to his companions. “Let’s go.”

Then he blurred.

Divine Speed braided with Zealot’s Stride, gold flaring beneath his boots. The world narrowed to motion and purpose as he hurtled toward the city’s heart. The angels did not pursue him. They held their stations, circling like a living crown while he ran through their midst as if through an empty cathedral.

It did not take long. In the center of the Nameless City, the Summit Hall rose: a wide dais crowned by columns and a vaulted ceiling that drank the golden light. On the dais, motionless as sculpture, lay a blonde woman in pristine white robes. The fabric hugged her like a promise; her hair was a spill of gold around a face pale as bone. She seemed both asleep and held, an image of serenity that did not belong amid the ruin.

He felt the weight of his Lord’s voice inside him. “Not yet,” Da Wei seemed to whisper. But Dave’s fists tightened; Joan had always been his first concern.

Only then did he register what stood between him and the dais.

A grotesque totem.

The rest of his party arrived, Tao Long’s scales still glittering, Zai Ai’s mechanized dragon coiled in the air like a guardian, and Yi Qiu fanning sparks from his fists.

Tao Long’s voice broke the silence, hoarse with shock. “Isn’t that—”

Yi Qiu finished it for him, breathless, incredulous. “Da Wei!”

The sword Silver Steel had been driven into the stone floor, its blade buried deep. Atop its hilt rested Da Wei’s head, balanced and planted deliberately, as though mocking the reverence due to him. The face remained pristine, eyes closed as if in sleep, skin unrotted despite the blood pooling beneath. The stillness of it made the scene worse, the head appearing neither dead nor alive, simply trapped.

The sight demanded reverence and horror alike.

From somewhere deep within the fold of his Animal Soul, the voice came again, not loud but intimate, his Lord’s presence like a hand on his shoulder.

“It’s really not my best work, you know?”

Dave’s lips twitched; there was no humor in his face, but his tone was terse. “It’s not funny, Lord…”

“I needed to trap the angels here. The Hollowed World would have bled otherwise. These angels are dangerous. They can possess the weak, split, multiply, and worst of all: their strength scales with their foes. I bottled them so they would stay; containment is never elegant.”

Tao Long’s fists clenched so hard his knuckles went white. He looked at the head, then at Da Wei’s weapon, and the memory of a solitary figure battling angels flashed across his mind. His voice came like a crack of thunder, heavy with regret. “Last time I saw Da Wei, he fought those things alone… I never expected…”

A sorrow threaded through the words, anger at what was lost, anger at what was necessary.

Zai Ai stepped forward, porcelain mask set in an expression that could have been pity or calculation. She looked down at the blonde woman on the dais, then at the head of the sword. Her tone was steel wrapped in silk. “We finish what we came for.”

From the ether, a figure burst into being too abruptly for even his sharpened senses to anticipate. A familiar warmth, a fragrance, and a presence that struck him harder than any blade.

It was Joan.

But not in flesh. Her form shimmered, her body translucent like starlight. An astral projection. She reached out, her hand pressing against the furred breadth of his chest, halting him in place.

“You shouldn’t be here,” she whispered.

His golden eyes widened, his tail snapping behind him with raw agitation. “I came to save you.”

Joan’s hand softened against him, her fingers brushing his furred cheek. A caress that made his heart clench.

“I know,” she said gently, “but… You can’t. How would you fare against a Goddess like her, when the Voice that ruled, protected, and blessed you with its strength… failed to defeat her?”

Dave’s jaw tightened, his fangs bared. “I’ve grown stronger. And so has the Voice that cries within me…”

The Voice.

It had been the cornerstone of their world in Losten, the unseen force that guided the Champions, whispering wisdom and resolve into their ears as they fought the Great Enemy. The Voice that had chosen David_69 stayed with him through horrors unnumbered, and had not abandoned him even when he thought all was lost. Even here, now, the Voice remained.

Joan’s astral light flickered faintly. She lowered her gaze, sorrow threading her words.

“I resented them, you know…”

Her tone was hushed, but it cut deeper than any scream.

“When the world I grew up in… the world I loved, the world I swore to protect… lost the Voice… that was the worst day of my life. The Lost Gods abandoned us to the Great Enemy. We… we despaired.”

She paused, voice trembling as if burdened with centuries. “And then came an opportunity. To find you. To rekindle even the smallest flame of strength. And when I saw you, I saw hope.”

Her eyes lifted to his, bright even in astral haze. “Live, my cherished half. Live. Go! Find them. Bring them to this world. Help them rebuild from the ashes of my failure—”

“No!” Dave snapped, his claws curling, his body trembling under the weight of her plea. His fur bristled as he shook his head, violent and desperate. “If someone’s going to do it… Then it has to be you! Not me—”

Behind him, Yi Qiu’s voice intruded, dry as stone, though edged with an urgency that undercut his usual calm. “I’d hate to ruin the reunion between the two of you, but—”

The warning was swallowed by a new sound.

The angels. They began to convulse midair, their porcelain faces cracking with hairline fractures. One by one, they burst into dust. Each detonation echoed like hollow laughter, until their death-cries became a chorus of deranged mirth.

“Ha… ha… ha… ha…”

The golden dome shivered with their mirthless chorus, as the ashes of angels rained like black snow upon the ruined Summit Hall.

From nowhere, Joan’s astral body was seized by an invisible force. Her figure warped, pulled violently backward, and in a blink, she was gone.

“Joan!” Dave roared, the growl rising deep from his chest. His golden eyes burned as his claws flexed, his tail lashing violently behind him.

Around him, the angels continued their macabre finale. One by one, their porcelain faces cracked and burst apart into clouds of dust, their laughter echoing hollowly across the ruined Summit Hall. Their disintegration was not freedom. Instead, it was a sacrifice. Their essence poured into the grotesque totem at the heart of the dais.

From within the Animal Soul, Da Wei’s weary voice thundered into Dave’s mind. “Destroy the head! It doesn’t matter anymore, destroy it!”

Dave needed no further urging. He lunged, his form a blur as he raised his clawed hand. Power surged, a deadly fusion.

“Hybrid Skill: Holy Sword + Heavenly Punishment!”

Golden light and divine judgment wrapped his claws as he struck at the planted totem, where Da Wei’s head rested atop Silver Steel.

But the blow did not land true.

A barrier erupted, the Shield of the Eternal, a golden dome flaring to life around the head, catching his claws mid-strike. Dave snarled, forcing through, and the dome shattered with a blinding crack.

Yet even as it broke, a second layer appeared. This time, silver, the Shield of Faith. His claws met it with a thunderclap, tearing it apart, but the first dome regenerated instantly. It caught his right arm, locking him within its glow.

Dave’s eyes narrowed in disbelief. This was no ordinary ward, for it pulsed with quintessence. It grew stronger each time it returned.

The severed head’s eyelids opened.

Through his Divine Sense, Dave saw it clearly: the essence of the annihilated angels was gathering, pouring like threads of light into Da Wei’s head.

From that mouth came a voice that was not his Lord’s.

It was Aixin.

“Swords of Revealing Light!”

The air screamed as dozens of radiant swords descended, glowing like suns. They impaled Dave’s body, piercing through fur and muscle, radiant light flooding his form.

“Binding Chains of Light!”

From each glowing sword erupted golden chains. They wrapped around his arms, his legs, even his throat, pinning him in place. For one breathless instant, Dave could not move.

He growled through his fangs, struggling against the divine weight. “Destroy the head!”

His command was all his party needed. They moved at once.

But Aixin had been waiting.

“What in tarnation!?” Yi Qiu barked, as the ground beneath him ignited with lines of runes.

Circles flared into being under his feet, each one woven into the next. Dave recognized the spell instantly: Spell Resonance, a spell that would allow folding a spell to be cast instantly from anywhere. Chains erupted from the glowing runes, wrapping around Yi Qiu’s arms and legs, locking the martial artist in place. However, that was not the end, as there was a second Spell Resonance that caught Tao Long with binding chains of light,

Still, Tao Long fared little better. His spear, taken away from his pocket dimension and brimming with lightning, was hurled with a roar. The weapon met the golden barrier trapping Dave’s arm, and for a moment, thunder devoured light.

The barrier shattered, but so too did Tao Long’s beloved spear, exploding into fragments of molten steel. And even as Tao Long pressed forward, fresh chains erupted from beneath his boots, binding him as well.

Dave grimaced, blood dripping down his chest where swords impaled him. “I can take it! Destroy the totem!”

Zai Ai did not hesitate. Her mechanized dragon reared, light gathering in its throat. A terrible hum shook the air as it opened its maw, a surge of destructive energy building until it erupted in a blazing torrent toward the head.

“Too late,” said Aixin. “Heavenly Punishment.”

The heavens themselves split to answer.

From the black storm clouds above, a colossal golden sword descended, passing through the dome. Its blade pierced Zai Ai’s dragon in a single devastating strike, pinning it against the earth and halting its breath. The metallic dragon burst in a pillar of light, destroying it in the process. It happened too quickly!

Zai Ai’s fate was unknown.

“Is that it?” asked a disappointed Aixin. “Struggle a bit more for me, worm.”

The golden chains empowered with quintessence rattled, burning against Dave’s fur and flesh, but he refused to yield. His muscles swelled, his claws gouging the ground as he roared, summoning every drop of will and essence.

“Divine Might!”

His True Divine Skill ignited. Power coursed through him, swelling his body further, his veins alight with radiant fury. The chains creaked, split, and finally shattered into dust.

No sooner was he free than he shifted again, his aura folding into swiftness.

“Divine Speed.”

With speed that bent perception, Dave blurred, his clawed hand arcing toward the grotesque totem where Da Wei’s head rested on the hilt of Silver Steel. The strike came with the weight of inevitability.

But Aixin’s voice rang cold through the hall.

“Castling.”

In an instant, Dave’s form switched places with the totem, his claws slashing at nothing but empty air. The head now rested where he had been standing a heartbeat before.

“Da Wei’s powers are truly fascinating. Absolute space translocation with an ally… is quite a rare thing. Moreover, the interpretation of an ‘ally’ is quite flexible too.”

Her voice dripped with amusement.

At the same moment, Zai Ai lunged, her porcelain mask gleaming, Raindrop moving in a blur. The saber slashed toward Aixin’s borrowed form, its edge weaving in a storm of arcs.

Dave’s golden irises narrowed. He poured quintessence into his Divine Sense, sharpening perception until every flicker of energy rang clear in his mind. Castling would not work on Zai Ai. She perceived Da Wei as an enemy, and Aixin could not trick the skill into treating her as an “ally.” If Aixin tried, Dave would preempt it.

But the goddess did not need to.

The angel-born weapons Zai Ai herself had crafted turned against her, shrieking as they pinned her in place. Blades forged from angelic essence stabbed through her robes, locking her body down in mid-movement. Her breath caught, her constructs stuttering under the betrayal.

“Hmmm… This is most fascinating…”

Dave would not wait. His claws clenched, and again he layered his strength.

“Divine Speed. Zealot’s Stride. Flash Step.”

In a blink, he appeared before the totem, his hand slamming down on Da Wei’s head. His claws glowed with white-hot essence as he poured his will into the strike.

“Exorcise!”

The power flared, sanctified light flooding into the totem, only for Aixin’s voice to lash out. “Nice try. War Smite.”

The retaliation blasted from the totem, a violent shockwave of knockback damage. Dave’s arm was hurled back, sparks cascading as he dug his claws into the stone to remain upright.

Then came Yi Qiu’s laughter.

The chains binding him cracked, burned, and melted under the sheer force of his battle aura. Flames erupted around him, blood qi surged, and his long red mane thrashed like a wildfire in a storm.

“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Our battle will be legendary!”

His voice rang with mania, echoing like a battle hymn. His eyes gleamed with untamed fervor as he lunged forward, fists raised.

Aixin’s voice rang again, sharp and immediate. “Castling.”

Yi Qiu vanished from his spot, switching location with the totem, now his fist aimed at Dave, only for Dave to snap his fangs in defiance.

“Castling!”

The totem switched with him instead, breaking Aixin’s ploy. Yi Qiu’s massive fist struck true, smashing down on the totem with devastating force. The ground ruptured in a shockwave, stone boiling as his flames ignited the air.

The head and the sword were flung skyward, spinning, their arc trailing light and blood.

Above, Tao Long burst into motion as he freed himself from the restrictions binding him. Lightning wreathed his body as he unleashed the fullness of his bloodline.

His body stretched, elongated, and scaled. With a roar that shook the dome, Tao Long became a colossal blue dragon, thunder rippling across his serpentine frame. His maw opened wide, and he unleashed a storm of lightning upon Aixin.

Zai Ai followed through as she gestured once, and the angel-forged weapons embedded in her crumbled into shards. Another gesture, and the pinned mechanized dragon of Zai Ai surged back to life.

It twisted violently in the air, its frame glowing with destructive arrays. Tao Long’s lightning breath ended, and the construct dove like a meteor. The mechanized dragon slammed into the ground where the totem had fallen, and then it exploded, its bulk sacrificing itself in a burst of golden fire.

The air burned, smoke and dust filling the air. Amid the chaos, Dave rushed to Zai Ai’s side. His claws glowed with healing light.

“Blessed Regeneration. Great Cure.”

Warmth flooded from his palms into her, closing her wounds, mending broken skin, and bruised flesh. The glow lit her porcelain mask as her breathing steadied.

Zai Ai wiped blood from her lips as she lifted up her mask briefly, her voice dry and steady. “Is it dead?”

From within Dave, Da Wei groaned. “Fucking hell… You just jinxed us, didn’t you?”