Hearing Tal Rasha's bold words, combined with the blazing soul fire in his eye sockets, Chen Xu was also infected by his heroic spirit.
In any case, the planned skeleton hero army formation drill had been disrupted and could not continue. So, he changed the program on the fly: the demon soul collector Tal Rasha versus the Hell Archduke Beholder.
Since they were already here and had borrowed the venue from Heaven, they couldn't just do nothing and run back to the Undead Dao Court. That would be too embarrassing.
Thus, without another word, Chen Xu responded to Tal Rasha's request with action.
The talent 【Off-Duty】 was activated. In an instant, Kunpeng's Eternal-tier realm was transferred over, and the vast energy within its body was injected into Tal Rasha.
This incredibly massive energy exploded within Tal Rasha's body. Grayish-white flames shot out from his eye sockets, and his robes were torn to shreds by the sudden surge of power.
“Is this Brother Kunpeng's energy? It's... so satisfying! Heh heh heh heh!”
As a soul mage, Tal Rasha naturally possessed strong control. With only a brief moment of adaptation, he quickly mastered the energy.
Then, a rainbow-colored light shot into Tal Rasha's body—it was the Exquisite Heart that had helped Kunpeng and Sindragosa break through.
Within Tal Rasha's hollow ribcage, a heart filled with apertures abruptly appeared.
Since he had no flesh, the Exquisite Heart connected directly to Tal Rasha's soul. This allowed him to bond even more deeply with the artifact.
The wild energy that had been under control began to spill uncontrollably from Tal Rasha's eye sockets once more.
Furthermore, Tal Rasha's body began to twitch and tremble.
“Heh heh heh... such a wonderful feeling. It's... madness!!!”
Tal Rasha let out a roar that sounded more like a berserker than a mage.
After the roar, Tal Rasha swung his lantern and vanished from the spot.
The next instant, he appeared high in the sky, right in front of the Eternal-tier Beholder, Aug.
Aug looked at the skeleton that had suddenly appeared and instantly perceived Tal Rasha's situation.
“Strange skeleton. You managed to borrow an Eternal power that doesn't belong to you. Is it because of that mystical heart in your body?”
“Ha! You're actually not afraid of me?”
Tal Rasha raised his lantern and waved it in front of Aug.
“Did the wails of your kin not cause you to feel any fear?”
“Only ants gather in swarms.”
Aug's giant eye suddenly fired a ray, instantly shattering the lantern in Tal Rasha's hand.
“And the strong are like the stars in the sky.”
Faced with Aug's rude behavior, Tal Rasha twisted his wrist and replied.
“I don't like stars; they're too lonely. But I quite like you, little Beholder.”
“Carrying that lantern took a lot of effort. You'll have to pay me back with another one.”
Aug remained silent, instantly firing multiple rays that blasted Tal Rasha backward.
“Ant, do not think that just because you were lucky enough to be touched by starlight, you can compete with the greatness of the blood moon.”
“True Eternal power is not something an ant like you can challenge.”
“Oh, is that so?”
Tal Rasha teleported back in front of Aug. Those rays had failed to harm him.
Although Tal Rasha did not specialize in defensive spells, Kunpeng's massive mana reserves allowed him to be recklessly wasteful. He used several times the energy Aug expended to manifest an energy shield, easily blocking the rays.
“But your attacks are weak and powerless. It's like...” Tal Rasha paused intentionally, tilting his skeletal head and lunging forward until his eye sockets were pressed against Aug's eyeball. A small stream of mana flowed from his socket onto Aug's eye membrane.
“...it's like you're scratching an itch for this ant.”
As the words fell, Aug seemed provoked by Tal Rasha's speech and actions.
Without any warning, a hexagram array covering the sky and earth appeared. A ray filled with the aura of destruction shot out from it, instantly engulfing Tal Rasha.
This array was far larger than the one Aug had used to attack the skeleton mages, and the energy it contained was on a completely different level.
And it didn't end there. In addition to the massive hexagram array, tens of thousands of small eyeballs suddenly appeared in the sky.
These eyeballs varied in shape and color, but they all looked toward Tal Rasha, who was submerged in the giant ray, and fired a multitude of beams at him.
Below, inside the heavenly fortress, Priest Netherx looked on in surprise.
“In just a few seconds, with a few words and a single close-range provocation, he made Aug—who is an expert at manipulating emotions—use two ultimate moves in a row.”
“This skeleton friend is indeed stronger than me in some regards.”
“But can he withstand a berserk Eternal-tier Beholder?”
Netherx's fingers tapped incessantly against his scepter. Since he had been stationed at this fortress, he hadn't encountered anything this interesting in a long time.
Most importantly, Netherx knew very well that a Unique-tier Lord of the Undead was also watching this battle.
He didn't have to worry about the outcome of the fight at all; he could simply be a spectator. This was a rare and precious experience.
Meanwhile, Tal Rasha, covered by the rays, was constantly maintaining his energy shield while condensing a dark red stone in his hand.
This was a soulstone—a special soulstone that represented the Dao principle Tal Rasha had chosen.
The soul is the core of any living being.
Whether it be flesh-and-blood life, skeletal undead, flowers, trees, vast oceans, or mountain rocks—their forms differed, but they all produced souls.
This was a grand path, but it was also an extremely difficult one to walk.
Tal Rasha was not arrogant; on the contrary, he was very clever. He knew that with his current foundation, he could not step into the Eternal tier with the complete Dao of Souls.
Therefore, like many predecessors who walked the Path of Souls, he chose to focus on a small part to represent the whole. He sought his ticket to the Eternal realm through a minor branch, planning to expand it later.
The branch Tal Rasha had chosen was called Torture—Soul Torture.
The soulstone in his hand was fully condensed. Tal Rasha had etched a massive number of runes, Soul Dao principles, and a soul spell onto it.
As long as he could embed it into the Beholder Aug's physical body, it would pull Aug's soul and Tal Rasha's own soul into a Soul Domain.
This was an ancient spell originating from a Soul Dao Lord who was full of eccentricities.
Once a Soul Domain expanded, it could accommodate multiple souls, but only the soul that survived until the end could leave.
It was that Dao Lord's colosseum and the place where countless heroes had made their names.
Tal Rasha gripped the soulstone and slammed it into his own eye socket—the same one that had just touched Aug.
Then, he frantically channeled the energy from Kunpeng into his energy shield. The consumption rate was so insane that even Kunpeng had never been so extravagant.
In an instant, the energy shield detonated. A wave of pure, terrifying energy explosion swept through the sky, obliterating the surrounding eyeballs and the massive hexagram array.
Using the torrent of energy generated by the explosion, a rune lit up in Tal Rasha's eye socket, while a light flashed across Aug's eye membrane at the same time.
Psh!
Through runic teleportation, Tal Rasha appeared directly in front of Aug, his eye socket maintaining its previous position, pressed tightly against Aug's membrane.
The soulstone was thrust into Aug's eyeball, causing a trickle of blood to seep out.
“Agh!”
Aug let out a roar of fury.
But it stopped almost as quickly as it began.
The soulstone had been activated. The souls of both parties were pulled into the stone. A ring of dark green fire ignited, sealing Tal Rasha and Aug within.
Two torches stood on the ground—one connected to Tal Rasha, the other to Aug.
Only when a single torch remained would the shackles of the Soul Domain be released, allowing the survivor to exit.
Of course, legends spoke of another solution: if someone inside the domain broke through to the Unique tier and became a Dao Lord, they could ignore the domain's restrictions and break free directly.
After all, the creator of the domain was only a Unique-tier Soul Dao Lord.
However, this was merely a theory; no one had ever proven it.
Thus, today, only one between Tal Rasha and Aug would walk out of this Soul Domain.
After being forcibly sucked into the soulstone, Aug regained his composure. He quickly understood where he was, but he felt no fear.
If they were outside, he might worry if this disgusting skeleton had other tricks up his sleeve.
But here, in this Soul Domain, Aug was confident he would not lose to an ant borrowing Eternal power.
Thus, Aug began his mockery once more.
“Ant, you have completely enraged me. Since you have chosen your own grave, then I, a great Hell Archduke, shall bury you personally!”
“Oh? Then it is my honor?”
Tal Rasha showed no hint of fear. He even played along with Aug's words, reaching his hand to the top of his head as if removing a hat, and bowed deeply in a mock gesture of respect.
“But you might have to work a little harder. Besides me, over a hundred of your kin are also waiting for you to bury them with your own hands.”
Tal Rasha did not straighten his back. Maintaining his bow, he tilted his head up to look at Aug.
Aug's calm expression changed instantly. Through Tal Rasha's eye sockets, he saw the core soul fire.
Surrounding that soul fire were the souls of over a hundred different demons.
Aug could not understand it. Everyone in the Soul Domain was a soul body; how could Tal Rasha hide these demon souls within his own soul?
“Welcome to my stage. The play scheduled for today is a tragedy of kin slaying kin.”
“The actors are in place. Let us begin. Heh heh heh!”
Rate on N.U.
