Chapter 21

In a never-ending battle, the world stood witness to how power and might determined the course of the world, the victor in the end decides, what's right and what's wrong. The last one standing, determined the notion of Darkness being evil and light being good. Still, amidst this eternal confrontation between the devouring Dark and Stealing light, shadows ever lurk in the cracks of their eternal battle.

Radahn lived a long life on the battlefield and he sometimes asks himself, why were history and records written? Why have scholars labored endlessly, to sum up, the experience of Kings, warriors, and peasants, all alike, when the same mistakes, the same patterns keep repeating, atrocities keep being committed, wars ever being fought, for nothing, as if an invisible hand, forever covering the eyes of the present from the past..

But now, after stepping past the threshold of life into death, then life once again. He'd like to call himself enlightened, for he realized that the golden order he once served blindly was not so bright after all, and that invisible hand was lurking behind that bright facade, ever hidden behind a set of rules and teachings, always watchful to keep that cycle going.

the reason behind its actions was vague, but what was certain was it wanted the preservation of its power and control. And now after being reborn, when he looks at the stars, their vague fate was reflected in his eyes, a premonition began to sprout within him, that some arrangement was imposed on the world as a whole, and that this universe might not be so different after all, only that, the motives behind the one stirring the pot were still unknown.

But in the end, Radahn knew what to do.

Azure Cloud Continent. Cloud's End Cliff.

BOOM!

Within the creeping darkness, a devil profound beast standing ten meters tall swung its tail smashing a giant rock to smithereens, it had the appearance of a reptilian creature, with strong elongated limbs that ended with razor-sharp claws. Its whole body was covered in pitch-black scales stained by some kind of sticky liquid. The beast had never seen light and had never smelled better prey than the one it was stalking.

It shifted its eyes from one direction to another as dark profound energy began emanating from it, when it felt its head getting heavier, a violet light spread, and the beast roared in pain, its claws pierced the rocky floor and began sinking.

ROAR!! 

Pain, it felt an enormous amount of pain with the sound of bones cracking. The beast's head crashed deep into the ground, creating a deep crater, it continued trying to claw its way out, but to no avail. Dark blood seeped out of its head, its eyes bulged out of their sockets, then finally it felt released when its head exploded splattering foul blood and white matter on the ground.

Radahn with his hand folded around his chest stepped down from the beast's head. Two years passed since he went to the Heavenly Sword Villa and ever since, he had locked himself in intense training, he stood within spatial storms training his physical body, he went down the abyss of Cloud's end cliff in search of a challenge, he tempered his soul endlessly, every second to him was there to test his limits one way or another, and today he was at the peak of Divine Soul Realm as he predicted would happen when he broke through to the next stage.

The second stage of the Divine profound realm entails the deification of the soul, which, to him, was an already completed process even before he came to this world. However, even though he directly skipped this stage, he still did undergo another soul-honing where his soul powers became even more tangible and powerful, he didn't know if something like this happened before. Still, he knew that his way to the divine soul stage gave him an unprecedented advantage over the others.

Resisting Dark profound energy was a huge feat for most cultivators, as it infects and corrupts everyone who didn't have the necessary strength to actively resist, but for him, his physical body was his greatest shield, ever since he broke through to the Seventh level of The Great Way of the Buddha, he knew that now, almost nothing could truly kill him, for he went past the stage mortals can never pass, due to The Rage God's blessings, but, he was unsatisfied, his predecessor who walked far longer than anyone on the path of Body Strength, Died poisoned.

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Radahn turned his head to the left, where this separate dimension extended for tens of thousands of kilometers, and heard a deep growl behind the veil of dark profound energy, but nothing could truly be hidden from his senses, behind the veil, a dreadful aura belonging to a Divine Spirit Primordial Devil Beast, creeped out around him.

BOOM! BOOM! 

The one-hundred-and-fifty-meter-tall figure of an abomination, a mix between a bear and a wolf, the entirety of its body was laden with fangs that glowed ominously, Radahn clenched his fist, the space around his fingers started to crack as if it couldn't withstand the simple action of his fingers.

' No, that would be too easy… I need another approach… ' He slowly unclenched his fist and went into a fighting stance. The beast, unable to hold back anymore, blasted off, creating four deep craters in its wake.

In a flash, it appeared before Radahn where it struck down with the weight of its entire body, intending to crush him to death.

Radahn stood his ground as he lifted both arms, flashing with violet light, when it made contact with the beast, it instantly covered it whole, and the heavy stomp fell down on Radahn lighter than a feather.

He pushed with his arms upwards, and the beast lost its sense of balance as it flipped over its back, Radahn teleported and appeared beside the long tail, he caught it with both arms, then lifted the weightless beast, when it was in mid-air it suddenly felt as if it became way heavier than before when suddenly the human began mauling it on the ground, dust rose up and painful roars echoed, along the sound of rock exploding, after a while, he threw the beast to the distance.

Huff, Huff

Radahn listened to the heavy panting of the devil beast shakily standing up again, still feeling disoriented from the repeated smashes. Its black bloodied eyes never left him, ferocious killing intent and insatiable hunger in its gaze.

'' Come Beast, allow me to send you on your way. '' He took a step forward, lowered his stance, and brought his right palm facing outward.

The Primordial devil beast snarled, the ominous fangs on its body shone with a dark hue, then began emitting dark profound energy covering its whole body, after which its silhouette couldn't be discerned. 

In its original place stood the beast covered with a cloak made of pure flowing darkness, the only thing recognizable was its eyes, and they shone in red.

Then, without any warning, it vanished like a wraith, appearing before the puny human that made it hurt and lunged with a giant jaw open, intending to devour him whole.

Radahn waited patiently for the beast to come close, and when its snout was but a few centimeters from his palm, space began to ripple in front of him as he muttered 

'' Banishment! ''

 The beast's attack fell on the rippled space, doing no harm, in the next second the creature felt its perception change when the human in front of it suddenly started to get farther and farther to a distance it couldn't measure, the space around it seemed layered as countless other figures of it were mirrored between the layers.

After going farther deep inside, the scenery around it changed from the cliff's abyss to a space, with nothing around but that distant ripple in space, where the tiny figure of the human looked at it with cold eyes.

Radahn, eyes flashed violet and the beast felt the gravitational pull from a single minuscule point inside its body, it screamed in pain when an enormous amount of pain flooded its senses.

The gravitational pull kept increasing without stopping. Radahn brought his hands together and watched the space around the creature start compressing.

The tidal force of gravity assisted by the space compression, began folding the beast inward, its skin stretched and then tore open, and its limbs and neck were bent at an awkward angle as they got pulled inside its body. Then finally the beast died silently, its previous gigantic form converged into a miniscule ball of an enormous mass. 

'' Not enough, not there yet. '' Radahn sighed, clearly not satisfied by the result, he looked around for another beast to appear but no one dared to do so, the Primordial Devil Beast's pained roars made them for the first time get to know what fear is. 

After waiting disappointedly for a while, he began walking deeper within the abyss, although he looked like he was walking at a leisurely pace, every step he took put him tens of meters ahead of where he once was.

' What's this place? This separate dimension is clearly the work of a mighty being, but the beasts and the dark profound energy… is it the work of a devil? '

He didn't have an answer and continued forging on, with no one stopping in his way. Sometimes he would stop where he found some interesting ores and crystals which he would dig out and continue.

After what seemed to be an endless amount of time, but was only a few hours' trek, Radahn's eyes fell on a bed of giant flowers which haven't bloomed yet, the strange thing was that those flowers were trying to affect his soul, but to him what they were doing was akin to an ant trying to shake a tree. He didn't destroy them for he knew that some strange life forms with weird natures existed.

He came closer to the flower bed, drawn by the calm white light floating in the middle, he walked through the flowers, their smell was alluring unlike their powers increased in intensity in their midst, but that didn't bother him much until he finally stood in front of the white glow and wondered why of all the places he would encounter a young girl here.

Her ethereal body was covered by a white glow, she was extremely beautiful with silver hair and strange four-colored eyes that faintly shone, in yellow, green, blue, and purple. 

She looked at him curiously without saying a word. Radahn's face mirrored her curiosity.

'' From where do you come young girl? '' 

'' .. ''

He waited for an answer but the girl didn't respond.

'' My name is Xia Yuanba, can you tell me yours? '' 

'' .. '' Again, no answer. Radahn felt a bit irritated but still asked one more time.

'' You don't know how to talk? '' 

'' .. '' this time although she didn't answer, she did nod her head once.

' It looks like, she doesn't know how to speak. Is her soul-body the cause? ' . He pensively looked at her soul form, then at the flower bed..

'' These are a dangerous type of flower but that doesn't take anything away from their beauty, do you agree? ''

The girl nodded once more, her eyes never left him since he came here.

Radahn stood in silence for a few moments lost in his thoughts, and then he said

'' Do you want to leave this place? I can take you out if you want that is. ''

The young girl shook her head calmly, clearly refusing his offer. At that moment he still didn't understand the girl's purpose for being here or staying in such a harrowing place.

He sighed and lifted his hand, a violet light shone on it then condensed into a shiny crystal with ethereal wisps floating inside of it. He floated it next to the girl.

'' Here, take this, it's not much, but it can at least nourish your soul while you stay here ''

The young girl looked between him and the crystal, then stretched both of her hands and caught it, hugging it close to her chest. The soul power inside the crystal was of such high quality, that it made her close her eyes and enjoy it for a moment.

Seeing her act like this, Radahn smiled a little then turned around and created a portal intending to go back, but before he could step in, a rustling sound made him stop in his tracks.

He turned around to find a giant flower floating in front of him, he looked at the girl and asked 

'' Is this for me? '' 

The girl nodded her head without any expression on her face, seemingly as if she didn't have any emotions.

'' Thank you, and goodbye, may you be released from such a place'' Radahn waved his hand and stepped inside the portal, leaving the abyss in its eternal darkness, safe for one place where the girl looked at where Radahn had been, she looked back at the flowers, and they bloomed with a purple-dark light.

—-------- 

Leaving behind the mystery of the girl, Radahn returned to his quarter in Frozen Cloud Asgard, he looked around for T'iam but he didn't find her, this strange occurrence began two years ago when she would say that she was going out then disappear for a few days only to return after, exhausted, he asked her about it and her response was '' It's a secret '' so he left it at that. 

Radahn went to his chamber and lay down on his bed, his senses hovering over a specific place above Frozen Cloud Asgard.

' It took a lot of effort to find this closed spatial tunnel, someone in the long past must have used it with Dimensional profound stone… '

He closed his eyes and his mind wondered about the people living among the stars.

' Soon… we'll go there. '