Chapter 20: Chapter 20: Supernova

Throughout the intense flurry of attacks that decimated the surroundings, Ashlock believed the Winterwrath Grand Elder had the upper hand over the Ravenborne Grand Elder—which made the current situation more confusing. Within seconds the albino man lay on his back in a molten crater of blue fire with the tip of a black sword pressed against his neck. 

The Ravenborne Grand Elder gritted his teeth as he attempted to push the blade down to decapitate the man, but the Winterwrath Grand Elder held it millimeters from his neck with liquid white flames around his trembling hand, clasping the black blade. 

"You come to my territory, destroy my land, threaten me and try to steal my spirit stone mines? Pathetic." The Ravenborne Grand Elder snarled and spat in his opponent's face, "You are a hundred years too early to face me, child." His salt and pepper hair seemed to flutter in an intense gale as if it defied gravity as he stood over his foolish opponent without a hint of weakness.

The Ravenborne Grand Elder may have his opponent downed, but at what cost? From his vantage point, Ashlock could see the widespread destruction of the town at the base of the Ravenborne peak. Smoke blanketed the sky as if trying to smother out the screams of the mortals as they ran from ablaze buildings and ruthless cultivators hellbent on eliminating them just because they were under the rule of an opposing family.

On the horizon, at the edge of Ashlock's vision range—a snowstorm descended on the land—football-sized chunks of hail pummeled the town below, smashing buildings and pulverizing people. In the area the storm covered, Ashlock could see dots of blue flames surrounded by white and green flames. The Ravenborne cultivators were putting up a good fight, but they were heavily outnumbered by Winterwrath and Evergreen cultivators that had swarmed the city.

It was only now that Ashlock understood the true scale of these families. He could count hundreds, if not thousands, of cultivators battling throughout the town. In fact, was it even a town? From the tiny bit Ashlock could see, he would call it a town, but for all he knew, it could extend for thousands of miles into the distance.

Nevertheless, it was total chaos. During their godlike duel, the two Grand Elders had likely killed thousands of innocent bystanders, devastated family homes, and ruined livelihoods. Of the bit of the town Ashlock could see, almost half of it had been reduced to rubble.

For example, Ashlock could see a woman on her knees with tears streaming down her face as she cradled a dead child in front of a half-destroyed bakery with a collapsed roof from a block of ice, likely from the ice golem that had been destroyed moments ago. A few feet away was a male corpse with a sword wound through his chest lying face down in a pool of blood, perhaps the woman's partner. And she was not the only one. Similar scenes could be seen all around.

It was shocking and gruesome... but Ashlock felt nearly nothing. He may have been human once, but that was many years ago. His brain operated on human logic and reasoning but had the dulled emotions of a man-eating tree. 

It would be ridiculous for Ashlock to take the moral high ground over the cultivators and condemn their actions—especially after he has consumed so many people to fuel his strength. It was a hard truth to swallow, but this was a dog-eat-dog world with a different way of life than the one he had once called home. If he could choose, obviously, he would want no one to die... but that was a useless thought.

He was a bystander, a mere observer—until he had the power to change things.

Watching the situation from afar reminded Ashlock of the past. He had seen widespread destruction and misery on television after a devastating earthquake in some faraway country. But he had been numb to it, not even giving it a passing thought...

But for some reason, the fact the destruction wasn't caused by tectonic shifts outside humans' control—but rather by two angry men fighting over a spirit stone mine angered Ashlock in ways that were hard to describe. It just felt so selfish.

As an immortal tree, Ashlock had little care for human life, it was so fickle and would fade away eventually, and a new generation would take the place of the old. But ceaseless death over petty reasons didn't sit right with him. But what could he do? He was a small sapling at the peak of the Qi realm. He paled compared to these demi-gods that walked the same planet as him.

It was frustrating to be weak.

Ashlock suddenly didn't blame that elderly man that had stolen the seeds for his rude remarks about the cultivators. Evidently, they placed little worth on the mortals of this world and treated them as cattle to be farmed for taxes, so it was no wonder the mortals hoped they would die to the beast tides and leave them to live their mortal lives in peace.

The tree's wandering thoughts were interrupted by the mountain trembling, not his mountain but the Ravenborne peak. The pavilion that felt so close was being consumed by vines of green fire that crushed walls, grabbed people, and snapped them like twigs. The mortal servants were the first to perish, left to fend for themselves by their overlords.

However, the weaker cultivators soon joined the servants in death, as few could contend against the attack nor escape as the entire mountain had been overwhelmed and consumed by vines. Only a few cultivators could stay alive, Diana's mother included.

She stood defiantly in the courtyard of black trees, slashing at the relentless vines of green flames with her silver sword. She was enraged and screaming at a burly man with a straggly brown beard and fierce eyes that floated overhead. 

If his wild and buff appearance weren't a dead giveaway, the sickly green flames that poured out of him and into the vines below, alongside the crushing pressure he emitted on the surroundings, gave a clue that he was an Evergreen cultivator and a powerful one, likely a Grand Elder.

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The Evergreen Grand Elder didn't even give the angered woman a glance; instead, his eyes were on the battle between the Winterwrath and Ravenborne Grand Elders. Then, noticing the Winterwrath Grand Elder had lost, he clicked his tongue. "Useless bastard."

Shooting forward, he arrived beside the Ravenborne Grand Elder, and before the old man could react, his fist, growing with liquid green flames, smashed into his face, sending the Ravenborne Grand Elder tumbling back. 

"I thought you said you could handle the old man?" The Evergreen Grand Elder sneered at the albino man. "Has the Winterwrath family really fallen so far? Perhaps marrying my daughter to your son was a mistake..."

Ignoring the taunts and standing up, the Winterwrath Grand Elder brushed the dust off his white cloak. His scarlet eyes coldly looked in the direction the Ravenborne Grand Elder had gone flying. "Whoever said that old man had lost his edge is a fool." 

The Evergreen Grand Elder snorted and drew his sword. "Guess we fight him to the death together then—" 

A clang rang out, and the dust dissipated in a wave as two eyes of blue fire wrathfully glared at the Evergreen Grand Elder.

For the first time, the albino man showed fear. "He's going supernova!" While the Evergreen Grand Elder was still locked in a clash of swords, the Winterwrath Grand Elder didn't even attempt to assist his ally and instead dashed away, leaving after images and sonic booms as he went.

Ashlock had never heard the term before, but considering they were Star Core cultivators and blue flames were flowing out of the Ravenborne Grand Elder's eyes, ears, mouth, and arse, he could guess where this was going...

The Evergreen Grand Elder managed to smack the Ravenborne's sword away, but the man didn't care. Despite being stabbed and slashed, the Ravenborne Grand Elder lept onto the burly man and clung to him.

The Ravenborne Grand Elder was now hard to look at. He was blindingly bright, like a human lightbulb. His skin had started melting off, and it was clearly a suicide attack. 

The Evergreen Grand Elder screamed as the intense blue flames charred his skin and set his clothes alight. Then, as the Ravenborne Grand Elder turned to fiery sludge, the burly man broke free from the Ravenborne's grasp. 

"Entomb!" The burly man shouted, and the ground trembled as the crater rapidly filled in with earth and hardened into stone. 

Summoning his sword from his spatial ring, the Evergreen Grand Elder took the to the skies while chugging a bottle of pills. He seemed to be heading straight up, as high as he could. At this point, the Winterwrath Grand Elder was long gone, very likely out of the range of the attack.

"I wonder how Diana is doing?" Ashlock randomly wondered while he watched the scene play out. Would she be able to survive such an attack? But before he could look, he saw that the tomb of stone had turned from a dull grey to a molten red, and a second later, it happened.

The world went white, and Ashlock's {Eye of the Tree God} skill was abruptly canceled. 

His vision returned to the pleasant courtyard, but the sky was gone. Instead of a pleasant blue with white fluffy clouds floating by, there was a blinding white. In the distance, a column of blue flames transcended into space.

"Huh... that's weird—" The Pavilion walls exploded as a superheated wave of air smashed into the mountain. It continued, decimating the courtyard and slamming into Ashlock, causing him to lose consciousness.