Defiance of the Fall

In their case , it wasn’t without their awareness . It was the price they willingly paid for their Dao , for their goals . They had severed pieces of their soul to feed the Remnants , much like some cultivators severed their seven emotions and six desires .

Was that what the Heart of Oblivion wanted to show him? That it was fine if he wanted to borrow their power , but a price had to be paid . That was simply the Law of Balance . It was a stark difference from the visions he endured inside the Orom World . Those scenes had been filled with hopelessness and defeat , like the splinters were trying to drown him in despair and doubt . His Dao Heart had almost crumbled then , and the experience was the main reason he’d been so eager to practice his Void Vajra Sublimation] .

Now , it almost felt like all that hard work was for nothing .

Had the Remnants realized his Dao Heart had grown far stronger since and instead opted for negotiation? Was it another trap , an attempt to steer him down a path of no return? Ultimately , it didn’t matter much , and this wasn’t the time to figure things out . The splinter had already entered his body , and Zac ushered it toward his Soul Aperture before it could unleash too much destruction on his body .

Meanwhile , he furiously rebuffed any Oblivion Energy that got close to his Duplicity Core . He even sacrificed some of his hold on the splinter to create a durable barrier of Mental Energy aimed at protecting the hatch .

The world sped up again , where an urgent warning of danger and shrieking fury greeted him . The undead Gwyllgi understood what had transpired , and its murderous intent was powerful enough to make the whole star quake . Not that it needed any help in that department . The splinter had infiltrated the Stellar Core for who knows how long , and Zac could sense how its vast energies were fast going out of control .

The situation inside his soul mirrored the chaos outside , with the splinter releasing torrential amounts of Oblivion while trying to break into the prison . Luckily , Zac had both experience and the strength of a Three Fates Soul this time around and simultaneously reinforced the prison and rebuffed the new splinter .

However , a chorus of madness and destruction threatened to overwhelm even his reinforced Dao Heart . The four splinters formed a powerful resonance , resulting in a far greater impact on his mind . And the more the splinter’s Oblivion tainted his soul , the harder it became to resist the corruption .

The screams of danger grew more urgent as a black sphere shot out of the Gwyllgi’s mouth and entered the ball of destructive flames already bearing down on him . The sphere made the fireball condense until it was no more than five meters across , just a small ember in front of the deathly sun . The aura it radiated filled Zac with terror . He’d grossly underestimated just how angry he’d made the Late-stage Beast King .

The crazed beast had actually spat out its Beast Core to reinforce the attack .

Doing so was an act of all-out aggression . The attack was extremely deadly , containing the full force of the Beast King’s cultivation base , yet it also carried great danger for the attacker . Damage to the Beast Core could mean millennia of weakness until the damage was repaired . If it broke , the Beast King was crippled . In other words , the Gwyllgi was putting everything on the line to kill him .

Seeing the situation , Zac opted to go for broke . Madness and determination gleamed in his abyssal eyes as he dragged the accumulating storm of Oblivion out of his soul , steering it into his hand . Pain wracked him as small cracks covered his skin , but there was nothing else to do . A beam of pure nothingness shot out of his hand and carved a tunnel straight through the Stellar Core . Zac rushed inside .

The sudden attack was the straw that broke the camel’s back , and the sun went supernova . The core exploded , unleashing a shockwave that tore apart space like it was made of paper . Zac was right at the epicenter , though pulses of Oblivion consumed most of the force crashing into him .

The same was true for the incoming attack . The Gwyllgi’s desperate move tore through the sun’s outer layers like it was nothing , but the following shockwave was another thing entirely . It was filled with the energy of a sun corrupted by Oblivion for who knows how long , and then further augmented by Zac’s outburst .

The two forces collided , forming spatial tears that stretched for miles . A scream of pain and anger pierced Zac’s already beleaguered soul , leaving a set of surface cracks across both Soul Cores . The sense of danger had mostly abated , proving his plan worked .