Defiance of the Fall

Zac was killing two birds with one stone . He needed to vent the unbearable amounts of Oblivion before his Soul Aperture was overwhelmed , and he needed to deal with the incoming threats . Perhaps you could say three birds with one stone , even if the last benefit levied a painful price across his body .

Skin tore and bones snapped as deadly force pushed him out of the inner mantle and the collapsing star . A second shockwave followed the first as the black sun expanded . The explosion accelerated Zac , turning him into a streak of black .

A streak that moved right toward the golden sun in the distance .

Zac breathed out in relief upon seeing his guess had been true . Only one consciousness with a strong mark of Life had inspected him as he approached the deathly star . Similarly , none of the Life-attuned Beasts targeted him with killing intent as he moved on the splinter . Why would they? Life and Death didn’t mix , and having two opposing suns locked in orbit made cultivation harder . The Life-attuned Beasts would probably have destroyed the deathly sun themselves if they had the strength .

Then , a creature finally emerged , and Zac’s heart shuddered as he prepared for the worst . The thing was an enormous elemental , slightly resembling a jellyfish . Dozens of intensely golden lights shimmered in its - head , - and its long tendrils crackled with powerful bursts of Life . Its aura was a match to the Gwyllgi’s , and Zac could feel he was at the center of its attention .

Zac gritted his teeth , preparing to use another salvo of Oblivion to meet the Beast King . But the thing passed him by , only spitting one of the golden lights in his direction before moving on . Zac was confused at first but soon realized its goal . The jellyfish was targeting the Gwyllgi’s Beast Core , which had been thrown far away by the supernova .

The Late-stage Beast Core had emerged almost unscathed from the clash . Only a few small marks could be seen on the core’s surface , though it had lost much of its accumulated energy . Zac hoped the explosion would disintegrate the core and cripple the beast , but this situation wasn’t too bad .

A Late-stage Beast Core of such a powerful beast was undoubtedly an amazing cultivation resource for the jellyfish . It could probably use its opposing element to hone its core , just like how Zac cultivated using his Nine Reincarnations Manual] . Better yet , it belonged to its biggest rival , making it too tempting to ignore .

Zac could probably destroy the incoming attack with another burst of Oblivion . But he wanted to use as little Oblivion Energy as possible since paying the splinter’s price with outside resources wasn’t easy . He had no birdcage with souls to drain to fuel the destruction . Instead , he threw out a large boulder filled with Explosive Talismans and Miasma Crystals before turning into an Abyssal Wraith with Void Energy .

Using his Void Energy prevented most Oblivion Energy from sneaking into the Skill Fractal , but he still left a trail of Annihilation in his wake . A huge explosion erupted behind him as light and boulder collided , and Zac sighed as the small sphere emerged untouched from the clash . It veered toward him like a bloodhound .

He kept going , crashing into the Life-attuned flames . Searing pain filled him as Life poured into his body . Some aspects of his Void Vajra Constitution carried over through Quantum Gate] , but an undead being’s inherent revulsion toward Life trumped the effect of his Body Tempering Manual . He might be the Draugr who could best resist the poisonous rays of Life , but being in the middle of a Life-attuned sun was asking for trouble .

Yet Zac pushed on , using Void Zone] to give himself some breathing room as he dug deeper . The light was almost upon him , but Zac was ready . A huge eruption of Oblivion consumed the light , creating a hundred-meter energy vacuum as everything was annihilated . The shockwave pushed Zac closer to the core , and he relaxed when his Specialty Core activated without giving him any trouble .

Life replaced Death as Draugr became human , and the burning flames closing in on him were no longer very threatening . The true threat came from the jellyfish far in the distance , who finally realized Zac wasn’t satisfied with wrecking just one of the suns .

Unfortunately , it had already made its move against the Gwyllgi . The jellyfish tried to hit its old nemesis while it was down and was now getting its just desserts . The Gwyllgi obviously understood what was going on , and Zac laughed when he saw it opt to block the jellyfish rather than target him again .

He pierced into the star using Oblivion , making much greater progress thanks to the overwhelming amount of energy in his body . The shard sensed the intrusion of its fated nemesis , and powerful waves of Creation pushed toward him as the Remnant fought back . Zac could tell it had detached already , shooting toward him like an arrow .