Chapter 1279 Fifth
Dyon stood upon a gold formation, raining down h.e.l.l upon the Demonic Gorge. By now, his use of Soul Aid had reached such a scary level that his already formerly overwhelming soul strength had only become all the more so.
Since he entered the marital world, Dyon"s favorite array to use had always been his Weapon"s h.e.l.l array. Even with his master banning him from using his weapon"s hall manifestation, the ability was still powerful beyond belief.
In the beginning, it was a mere 3rd stage array, corresponding to the lower pract.i.tioner realm. However, Dyon made improvements to it until it shone a purple-gold and entered the 5th stage, or the lower master realm.
After Dyon found the [Dao of Array Alchemy] within the Elvin Tombs, he learned that the versions of the weapon"s h.e.l.l array he was using had several levels above to go. In the end, he was able to form a new version capable of destroying peak saints in a single strike, shedding its purple-gold color to transcend into the grandmaster realm.
However, it was also at that time that Dyon learned of the highest form of weapon"s h.e.l.l: [Judgement]. It was also then that Dyon understood just where the name "weapon"s h.e.l.l" stemmed from.
Broken into nine levels, [Judgement] was akin to nine levels of h.e.l.l, each new level delving into a more savage and depraved landscape. Within these nine levels of h.e.l.l, the first punishment was [Carnage]!
Unfortunately, the truth of the matter was that Dyon was still too weak to evoke the true strength of even this first level. Although his divine sense was far vaster than even more high dao formation experts, his energy grade was lacking the umph that was necessary.
As things stood now, Dyon could wield the lowest form of moon soul qi. Although its quant.i.ty was vast, its quality was far below planet soul qi and leagues from star soul qi. As such, it was impossible to bring out the full strength of these techniques despite having such a vast soul qi reserve. It was also for this very reason that high grade heavenly treasures could hide from his detection and why he had to rely on Little Rain.
Up to now, the only way Dyon could use [Carnage] was by purposely introducing faults into the array. By making it imperfect, he lowered its requirements, but also significantly lowered its power. The issue here was that his methods were crude…. However, what if Dyon found a systematic way to lower these requirements? For example… By using the very technique he had just learned?
Dyon no longer had to stumble around or strain himself to the absolute limit. He had gained the equivalent of a heavenly formula. All he had to do was enter his requirements and an answer would be calculated for him.
[Soul Aid], at Dyon"s current level, had four options open to him. Weaken, strengthen, slow, and accelerate.
Every tier of Soul Aid provided what its creator termed as "Degrees of Freedom". The higher tier you entered, the more degrees of freedom you"d gain. Since Dyon only had one part of this technique, he only had access to three tiers. But, within these three tiers, there were six degrees of freedom.
The first tier gave him access to weaken and strengthen. The second tier gave him slow and accelerate.
Weaken and strengthen were exactly what they sounded like. To a certain extent, Dyon was able to weaken a technique to a level he could use more comfortably, or strengthen one that had become too easy to use to the point of uselessness. As things stood now, he could control weaken to almost 500% and strengthen to about 5% for soul techniques. But, for non-soul related techniques, his degree of freedom was far weaker.
Essentially, Dyon can strengthen [Carnage] to 1.05 times its normal strength, or cut it to a fifth of its normal strength. However, although weaken lessened the energy requirements, unlike higher tiers of this technique, strengthening required more energy than usual.
Accelerate and slow were slightly more complex. Slow was another form of weakening, but in a very specific lane. It allowed a user to maintain the strength of a technique while lowering its energy use. But, the penalty suffered was the slowing of the technique. Simply put, one exchanged speed for lower energy usage.
Accelerate was another form of strengthening. In exchange for raising the energy requirement, one could increase the speed of a technique.
One could imagine how useful such abilities would be in battle, especially if layered. With Dyon"s split minds technique, he could calculate countless things at once on the battlefield and use these degrees of freedom with the utmost control. The demonic beasts below stood not a single chance against his enraged onslaught.
Even weakened to a fifth of its normal abilities, carnage was essentially an instant kill for lower celestial beasts and humans alike. The best part was that although he only weakened it to a fifth, the energy requirements had dropped to a tenth!
When Dyon realized this, he immediately layered the acceleration degree of freedom onto [Carnage]. Now, not only was [Carnage] almost twice as fast as it was in its peak form, its energy requirement was still only a fifth!
The blaze of red and gold spears lit up the skies, filling the Demonic Gorge with a river of blood.
Still, even at a fifth the energy requirement, it was still too much for the current Dyon to create hundreds of thousands of [Carnage] spears. But, a few hundred at once was well within his range now. If he paced himself, he could continue this onslaught for days if need be.
To supplement this small number, he used them in conjunction with his weaker weapon"s h.e.l.l arrays, cornering the beasts before delivering a final strike. From beginning to end, he didn"t take his gaze off of the enraged Demon Tiger King as Shere fought his subordinate.
With a final roar, Shere slashed the throat of the high celestial Blue Flame Demon Tiger, ripping his chest apart and swallowing his ma.s.sive several meter-long heart in a single bite.
Shere"s reddened eyes glowed savagely as blood dripped from her lips, it looked like she was ready to pounce again at any moment. But, it was then that her vision wavered and her steps fumbled. In the next moment, she tipped over, ragged breaths pumping through her chest. She was completely exhausted.
Dyon carefully placed Madeleine"s napping body into their shared room within the Demon Sage Tower before descending from the skies, making his way to Shere"s ragged body.
"Big brother…" Shere mumbled weakly. Despite the state of her voice, given her size, she still blew hot winds toward Dyon at several dozen kilometers an hour. Plus, there was an acute smell of death between her teeth, but Dyon didn"t mind it.
"You did well." Dyon said with a bright smile, catching Shere"s body as she shrunk into her human form.
With her in such a weakened state, it was impossible to use her bloodline abilities to enter her toddler form. So, she became the woman in her late 20s that she truly was, leaving Dyon to carry her bloodied, naked body.
Carrying Shere"s frail figure, he made his way to his remaining beast companions, the three of whom were barely conscious. They had been forcing themselves to stay awake in case Shere needed their help, but they were on the verge of completely giving way.
Looking at Shere"s body, the inexperienced Sen"s eyes widened. "She can look like this, but she insists on acting like a little girl? I"m adding her to my list of wife candidates."
Dyon rolled his eyes. Sen had no sense of propriety. Shere, Biibi and Linlin were practically his siblings, they had grown up together like brother and sisters. He really was too shameless.
Of course, Shere was an absolute beauty. How could she not be with her celestial blood? She even had a wild aura to her that reminded Dyon of Amphorae when she spoke of Dragon Hunting. Plus, her figure and curves were even more outrageous and blood rising than Madeleine"s, likely due to her b.e.s.t.i.a.l aura. But, no matter how he looked at her, Dyon could only see a little sister. It was the same way he looked at Little Lyla. No matter how devastating a beauty she became, she would always be his little sister.
But, clearly Sen didn"t care about such things. He didn"t find Shere attractive in her tigress form because he was an ape. But the beauty of a human was universal.