Chapter 1636 A Warm Welcome! III
1636 A Warm Welcome! III
His original plan was to put as much distance as possible from the heart of the eternal kingdom, where the upper celestial realm and the three rulers reside.
Then, he would establish his void territory and start to absorb whatever leftover celestial energy came his way.
In this manner, he would ensure to get powerful, learn more about the kingdom, and be safe from most unigins since they would be forced to leave their territories unprotected.
"I don"t care if I lost it all to him." Hephaestus uttered indifferently, "The moment I retrieve the Exiled"s heart from you, I will be promoted to the upper celestial realm and be bestowed upon with a new territory closer to the universe"s heart...Even a hundred times the size of my current territory doesn"t rival a mere kilometer in the upper celestial realm."
When Felix heard this, he couldn"t help but knit his eyebrows and ready himself for a brutal confrontation.
He understood that Hephaestus came ready to either win it all or lose it all, which implied he wouldn"t let him go no matter what.
"All of this for celestial energy." Thor said with a deep voice, "It is something unimaginable."
"It"s expected, celestial energy is the only available source for unigins to get stronger." Lilith remarked casually.
In the eternal kingdom, celestial energy was water for mortals...Without it, there would be no life for unigins.
Unfortunately, being fair and giving equal amounts to unigins was nearly impossible. So, the three rulers had split the eternal kingdom into the upper celestial realm and the lower celestial realm.
The upper celestial realm was considered the dimensional pocket where the universe"s heart and capital territory outside the pocket existed.
Everything else was considered a lesser celestial realm and the majority of the unigins had their territories spread on them, with their cities, citizens, and such.
As for the upper celestial realm? It was big enough to be split equally among five unigins and at the moment, two territories were left in the open for anyone to grab.
They were Kronos and Lilith"s territories after they got banished to the outside universe many eons ago.
Lord Hades hadn"t even bothered to join the establishment of the eternal kingdom in the first place, so he had no territory in his name.
Territoriescloser to the source of celestial energy were everything as it allowed the unigins to collect the celestial energy and trade it for divinities, which could be used to either enhance their strength permanently or empower their abilities, divine equipment, or enhance their people"s strength.
Still, the main reason was its ability to raise their strength as it was the only source of purpose and enjoyment they possessed at the moment to forget the reality of their enslavement by the universe.
For ambitious unigins who wanted it all, getting promoted and obtaining one of those two open territories would enable them to join the celestial council and partake in major decisions by the three rulers and the rest of the upper celestials!
At the moment, recovering Asna"s core was the fastest method available and he was committed to getting it at all cost.
"Lilith"s powers are extremely irritating to deal with, but you are nowhere close to being such a menace as her."
Hephaestus said calmly as he watched Felix manifest multiple colorful symbols above his head, recognizing all of them and their effects.
Unfazed by the array of symbols and Felix"s empowered form after absorbing the supernova"s energy, Hephaestus extended his hand forward and a crimson metallic smith"s hammer appeared in it.
The instant Cyclope"s eyes landed on it, his breath was stolen away and his single pupil widened to the limit in utter awe.
"A divine weapon...A true divine masterpiece!" He stuttered, unable to even come up with a decent description of the weapon"s greatness.
Only now did he realize that calling his pieces of equipment divine was an insult to the name! Even his masterpieces were considered merely "decent" when placed before this gem.
Just as he was about to warn Felix about its danger, Hephaestus made his move!
In the blink of an eye, he was before Felix, swinging his monstrous divine sledge at his scalp, causing the air to break apart akin to a meteor piercing through it!
Felix, undeterred, met the onslaught with his bare fists, which were infused with a combination of evil energy and void energy!
Ka-booooooooom!!!
The instant the hammer landed on his defensive stance, Felix heard a crack and then he found himself sent flying at an alarming speed towards the golden gate!
Thuud!!
His back smashed against it loudly, causing the void citizens to turn their heads and gaze at their G.o.d with dumbfounded looks, having no clue when he even got there!
Before they could react, Hephaestus appeared in front of Felix and smashed him against the gate again with his hammer, sending a booming soundwave through the infinite expanse!
Then, both of them disappeared out of sight and appeared only in blinks here and there in the golden sky, trading nonstop blows with each other.
"I can"t see anything! They are moving too fast!" The Ruiner yelled as his pupils kept sliding back and forth rapidly, seemingly about to fall out of his eyes.
He wasn"t the only one unable to keep up...Even the primogenitors and elemental lords were left with eyes wide open, trying their absolute best to a.n.a.lyze the battle and figure out who was winning.
Alas...
"It"s impossible...unigin of fire is above 50 million BF while Felix should have crossed 30 million BF after absorbing the supernova energy," Thor remarked with a cold breath, "Our processing and reaction speed is a thousand times slower than theirs!"
Even if they wanted to spy on Felix"s thoughts to hear what was going through his mind during the fight, they would hear utter gibberish...His thought process was simply on another dimension at the moment as he was forced to keep up against Hephaestus.
Unfortunately, it wasn"t that easy.
Symbols were only good if their owner was good.
In this case, Hunger Symbol wasn"t able to drain Hephaestus of a harmful amount of energy quickly since his reservoir was on a different level.
Clash of Prides couldn"t be used when Felix knew that his pride belief would be in danger when compared to an ancient unigin born out of the most fierce type of energy, which matched his ambitious personality.
Felix didn"t dare bring out I am Supreme Symbol, knowing that if Hephaestus broke it apart, he would end up more weakened than ever.
Origin Symbol was able to weaken Hephaestus"s abilities a little, but not completely break them off to their origin level due to their potency and concentration.
More symbols were eliminated for the simple reason of Felix not being at Hephaestus" current strength level.
This prompted him to focus on raising it first in the quickest manner possible.
"I have to use Rampage to boost my strength!"
Felix kept trying to rile his buried anger and hatred within his chest after all the sh*t and trauma he went through!
He had to go this far since Rampage Symbol amplified his strength based on his genuine anger and if it didn"t cross the bar, the symbol would remain off!
Fortunately, all Felix ever needed to do was recall the day Asna was kidnapped before his own eyes and the way Lilith manipulated him akin to a child.
Those two experiences were enough to set his eyes ablaze and force the rampage symbol to infuse him with an untapped amount of strength!
The instant his strength was doubled, it finally allowed him to meet Hephaestus"s hammer blows with equal force, causing his fists to become a whirlwind of destruction, parrying the plasma beams with sheer brute strength!
Thud!! Thud!! Thud!!
Yet, he wasn"t done, Felix utilized the wrathful creation symbol, separating his form into seven clones, each sharing the same amount of power he possessed at the moment!
Then, he surrounded Hephaestus from all directions and charged at him nonstop. Yet, Hephaestus was able to take them all at once without suffering from a single attack, appearing like a master fighting seven students!
"You think your newfound power can match me?" Hephaestus sneered, his voice echoing with the force of a forge"s fire, "I was battling the better half of you while your galaxy was still in its creation process. Our battle experience can"t be bridged even if you spent three lifetimes fighting me."
As he finished speaking, he swung his sledge around him with increased ferocity, releasing a sea of plasma, causing Felix and his replicas to take cover behind their void barriers.
Felix, undaunted, replied with equal intensity, "Whether your battle experience is better than mine or not, I will always hold my ground."
The two combatants briefly separated, eyeing each other with a mix of coldness and defiance.
"Hold your ground?" Hephaestus replied coldly as he pointed his sledge at him, "Boy, the only reason you haven"t fallen yet is because of Lilith"s annoying laws."
"Let"s see if you will still believe the same after losing them."