<h4> 596 Hostility Blooms in Graveyards of Words </h4>


    The order of the spatial elemental ancestor traveled far and wide, reaching several light years away while losing nothing of its powerful charge. A single word that, after being spoken, united hundreds of thousands of different beings against amon enemy.


    Tongues of me joined into columns of fire capable of surpassing Xia’s heat, gusts of wind that merged into cyclones powerful enough to easily wipe away To’Han’s atmosphere.. Whips of molten and solid metal that fused into des made of powerful alloys that very few advanced species had discovered.. Storms that carried uncountable meteor-sized blocks of ice, and much more.


    Every type of elemental had suddenly be part of the one. Uniting with its peers into forming the most powerful expression of natural power the universe had ever seen. These catastrophic attacks traveled towards the retreating cultivators like the fingers of an enormous multicolored hand, closing on to their target into a deadly grip.


    Before they could reach the Warlord and his personal guard, however, these attacks merged once again. The enormous metallic des had fused into a single gargantuan spear, which aftering in contact with the column of fire essence, started glowing white and emit mes that soon spilled into the cyclone that covered it. Large boulders, massive icebergs, tongues of fire and lightning bolts danced around the white-hot spear in an odd equilibrium. A bnce that was very simr to the one reached by the elements present within the body of the Lord of Elementals.


    The cultivators turned to face the iing attack, and immediately, they realized that blocking it was not an option. Even the Warlord, usually calm andposed, was now wielding a sword, which he had unconsciously recovered as he felt the power of the attack.


    Kyle, shocked by the attack yet still able to maintain hisposure, immediately opened a small rift, behind which one could see a different patch of space upied by uncountable space ships. “Come on, we need to leave!” He shouted with urgency to a group that still had not recovered from their stupefied state of mind.


    As they heard Kyle’s words the members of the Warlord’s personal guard reacted. In an orderly hurry they headed towards the portal, yet, before the first among them could even reach it, a rainbow colored ss individual appeared in front of them.


    “Dare use space in front of me? How insulting!” the ancestor of the spatial elementals yelled before bringing his palms together, only separated by a few inches of empty space. This small space represented the portal, which gradually closed as the two iridescent palms continued approaching one another.


    Kyle, a veteran cultivator at the godhood stage of immortality, promptly attempted to resist the powers of the ancient spatial elemental, but in just a moment he realized that that would be impossible. What injecting more of his power into the constructed portal allowed him, was to solidify his control over it, but, s, his opponent’s abilities went beyond that..???


    Soon, the space under Kyle’s control began to morph, closing rapidly.. And there was nothing he could do to prevent it. He could still feel the control over the closing portal, yet its nature appeared to change under his control. In his mind, the uninterrupted action of taking over a patch of space, and creating a rift, produced the opposite reaction. He was closing his own portal.


    Nih noticed Kyle struggling, but there was nothing she could do to help, for their opponent was controlling space in a way that went beyond the understanding of a cultivator.


    “Start the formation!” She yelled before falling on one knee, and cing the palms of her hands on top of therge sword. Immediately, bright threads of immortal essence began to appear, expanding outwards in unique patterns that expanded first over the sword’s steel surface, then across the patches of space that surrounded it.


    In just a moment, a round formation waspleted, over which appeared a light blue dome-shaped barrier.


    This barrier, while impressive, was trembling underneath the pressure of the elemental’s collective attack, which followed the group of cultivators as they retreated. The wall created by her powers alone was clearly not strong enough to bear its strength. Luckily, this formation was never meant to be used by a single cultivator.


    Seeing the formation being ced, the remaining cultivators steadily followed suit, simultaneously falling on their knees, and just like Nih, cing their palms on top of the sword. The threads of immortal essence thickened as constant streams of power were pumped into the formation, exponentially increasing its strength and, by extension, its barrier’s durability.


    The elementals’ attack continued its advance, creating screeching sounds asrge boulders mmed onto the immense spear, exploding into ming rocks that illuminated the ominous cyclone. Anyone who had the luck to see this attack would not be able to conceive the idea of blocking it.


    A devastating power of nature unleashed against a product of human creation. A barrier of immortal power that despite its impressive durability, still showed signs of weakness.


    As the two finally met, no st was created. No shockwave, no explosion, no fragments flying everywhere into the endless depths of space. Instead of bashing against the thick barrier, the collective attack had changed shape upon contact, encasing the entire formation into a-like sphere of natural essence, with the formation at its core.


    On this construct’s surface the elements soon began to behave in a natural way. Water formingkes and seas, earth, wood and metal creating vastnd masses, and wind covering the into a nket which would asionally cast lightning on its surface, starting fires that scorched the earth before being doused by the rain.


    This, rtivelyrge in size, quietly condensed into a smaller shape, squeezing its core with the overwhelming power of nature. Yet, nature as presented, appeared to be feeble. Lacking depth. A profundity which the elemental ancestors soon added. Space, darkness, fire, earth, wind.. Not one ancient elemental held back, adding the primordial nature of their element to the construct’s weight.


    In the’s core, the cultivators were struggling. The immense pressure was unlike any they had ever felt before. A power that constantly chipped away at the barrier, forcing them to repair the damage by spendingrge amounts of their power.


    While seemingly in a desperate situation, however, they all appeared to be able to maintain some level ofposure. They were in danger, but they had a job to do.. A job which theypleted without even thinking of the possibility of failure. And that was because of the being that was with them.


    As they did their part to maintain the barrier, the cultivators sneaked peeks at their leader, the Warlord, who was standing at the barrier’s edge with his eyes closed. What he was focusing on, they could not tell.


    Back in the elemental’s army, the creatures of nature looked at their work. A nowpleteary construct that, except for its shrinking mass, could easilypare to To’han. A small garden which, if real, would one day see the birth of life, a gift only offered to the few celestial bodies which could reach true equilibrium.


    Still, not all of the elementals were satisfied. ρ???????? ?


    The ancestor of the spatial elementals, whose power the cultivators were feeling more than any other, turned towards his peers, then ordered, “Put all your power into it! Their barrier is still holding!”


    As his control over space epassed the entire small, he could feel the pressure added by each elemental within the elemental’s army.. And because of that, he had been able to notice that of all the elementals that had contributed to the attack against the cultivators, some crucial members had been holding back.


    Specifically, the ancestors loyal to the Lord.


    They had not let his words, or the words of the dark ancestor dictate the way they would behave. They had the Lord’s orders, and the fact that they weren’t unwilling to ignore them, even if to follow superior members of their own kind, was driving the spatial elemental insane.


    “Push it!” he added before focusing all of his power into the attack.


    The lesser elementals, perfect inprehension yet not ancient and powerful enough to be ancestors, followed suit. Hundreds of thousands of beings focusing the entirety of their power into crushing a small group of cultivators. Their ancestors, however, did not apany them.


    “STOP!” ordered the figure of a colossus of stone with a gritty voice. “They are to be captured and brought back to the Lord. Those are our orders!”


    The spatial ancestor was dumbfounded. In nature, a regr elemental would respect the superiority of a non-elemental. They were wolves! Proud creatures which honored themon dog with majesty, mystery, and prestige. Yet, this ancestor of the earth element.. Someone whose peers were hunted down for sport, had outright rejected his wishes. That, he could not bear.


    “DO AS I ORDERED!” The spatial elements bellowed in pure rage, loudly enough for his voice to travel so far, that his words were heard by the Immortal Armada, which awaited weeks of travel in the distance.


    Suddenly, arge sphere of clear ice with a liquid core, and pale vapor surrounding its cold surface approached the two, stopping right by the ancestor of the earth element that had just spoken. “There is only one being we take orders from!” The ancestor of the water elementals dered.


    “Youpdog! He speaks for the good of our kind! You should-” added the dark ancestor,ing to his peer’s support.


    Noticing how both the spatial and dark ancestors were beginning to lose theirposure, the ancestor of the light elementals immediately interjected, appearing like a ghost in between hispanion and the Lord’s loyal men. “Calm down, all of you!” he said, putting an end to the angry outburst of the spatial elemental.


    He then turned towards the other ancestors, who had now regrouped, and were staring at the two with suspicion and hostility. The words spoken by the both of them had not gone over their heads.


    In an attempt to calm everyone down, the light ancestor added, “While they have been captured, they are unharmed. I will not allow you to bring them to the Lord like this. It’s too dangerous. We need to at least injure their leader, and kill the rest.” he said, trying to negotiate an oue that would give them a chance to act, while also feigning loyalty towards the Lord of the Elementals.


    Unfortunately, while reasonable, his words did not appear sincere.. Causing the elemental ancestors to be alerted.


    What this new level of alertness allowed the group to realize, however, were the changes that were taking ce within the constructed. Specifically, therge crack that had formed on the’s surface. A vertical rift that split the world into two, and at the bottom of which emerged a faint pure light.


    The light elemental gasped. “Stop them!” he shouted with urgency.. But it was toote. The crack expanded, straight and well defined, like a cut.


    Soon, the damage was beyond containment, and the small fell apart, splitting into two perfect semi-sphere.. But that was not all. Whatever had cut the in halves had now emerged, revealing itself as a crescent-moon shaped white de which traveled towards the enormous army of elementals at a mind boggling speed.


    Powerful beyond understanding, no form of power was able to stop this de, as it cut through anything in its path before finally reaching the beings at the front of the army, the elemental ancestors.


    The light elemental, first in line to be hit, stared at the iing white de. The sheer sight of it filled his mind with a feeling of doom, as he realized that it was toote to even think about dodging, or parrying. The only thing he could do was to instinctively move his arms in front of his chest, and brace for impact.


    Whatever impact he was waiting for, however, never came.. For the de of pure immortal essence had dissipated just moments before striking him, leaving behind arge white mist that covered the entire elemental army. When this mist dissipated, secondster, the elementals were finally able to see what happened to their prisoners.


    Where once was a group of cultivators hiding behind a formation, now was a single middle-aged man, standing next to an open rift while holding a hilt attached to a molten de. His de had not survived the attack he hadunched.


    As the elementals struggled against the newfound awareness of the middle-aged man, he too calmly stepped into the portal.. but not before grinning at the agitated figure of the light elemental.


    The rift closed behind him.