Star Gate

Chapter 262: Reawakening (III)

This was unbelievable!

The Silver Armor stepped through the air and returned to the ramparts. He looked out over a dazed group; even Violet Moon shuddered with horror and quickly withdrew. The soldier bestowed an imperial gaze upon his audience. Despite knowing that the moment he regained consciousness was the moment that his essence would start to fade away, he was still very happy.

Even if his awakening was due to this handful of trash harassing him and killing his troops.

“Has His Imperial Majesty returned?” The Silver Armor turned downcast when blank looks answered him from below. “It looks like... he has not... That follows as Battle Heaven has been abandoned...

“Has the Human King not returned either?”

There was still ringing silence.

“The Human King cannot possibly fail!” The Silver Armor’s sorrow deepened. Impossible! That was an invincible liege he spoke of, the overlord of the unbounded land, the sovereign who’d conquered the world!

“Is this world... still that world?” murmured the Silver Armor as he tilted his head to the sky. When he next gazed at those beneath, he laughed soundlessly at the looks of shock. “How weak, how very weak! Has the path of energy awakened once more? But... there is no future in this path!”

He seemed to be jeering about matters that had nothing to do with him, but shocked dismay blossomed on the faces of the expedition team.

The path of energy? The supernatural world?

The Silver Armor looked again and seemed to see something—he saw Liu Long, Li Hao, Liu Yan, and a few other martial masters...

“So... this world... is still that world...” He looked back at the cosmos with defiance and anger. “That invincible existence will not abandon us! The Battle Heaven Army will bring the fight to the firmament and return with glory holding the heads of our enemies!

“You weaklings encroach upon Battle Heaven, but considering that you are all from the human race...”

The soldier suddenly fell silent. The human race! What nostalgia that evoked... What did the world look like now?

He’d wanted to use this moment to obliterate the intruders. He could do so because the defensive system still operated! But the urge faded away when he looked at the empty city. Battle Heaven was... no more!

The city that I defend is... gone!

Is a city still a city when there are no people?

Downcast and lost, the Silver Armor laughed—or was he crying instead? Clad in armor, longsword in hand, he looked up at a sky that was devoid of anything to see. Yet he seemed to glimpse something—the enemy, that endless enmity.

“You... are on your own! The human race... human race...” The Silver Armor looked up with infinite sorrow and unbounded despondency. He turned back to the few remaining Black Armors by his side. This was no longer his era! It no longer belonged to him.

Based on prior preferences, he would have annihilated these intruders for their temerity. That was what the Battle Heaven Army would do. But when he saw martial masters and cultivators among the crowd... his heart softened. Even though the organ had long since decayed.

The human race!

As irritating as the path of energy was, wasn’t that also part of the human race?

This world and this time is no longer mine. What need is there to kill the humans of this era? Did we not once explore the primordial ruins of our time as well?

“Where are the troops of Battle Heaven?!” A roar rang throughout the ancient city!

Figures materialized in the outer city, as did two Bronze Armors. The call seemed to rouse their sentience. The Black Armors that’d lost everything in falling outside the city confines also trembled.

The Battle Heaven Army is here!

“Everyone, our era... is over!” shouted the Silver Armor with pain and grief. “The Human King did not return and His Imperial Majesty is yet gone. But enemies still walk the world! Are you willing to march on the firmaments with me once again?!”

“We are!” The entire city seemed to shake! Battle Armors that’d yet to die appeared one after another, recreating scenes of time past!

Li Hao and the others on the ground were slack jawed with shock. What... what was this? The city was coming alive!

“We fight!”

“We fight!”

“We fight!” Roars that seemed to hail straight from the ancient past rang throughout the city.

The Silver Armor could already feel it—his soul was extinguishing and his consciousness was fading away. The power of time and traces of years gone by swiftly accelerated his progress to death.

“If you see the Human King or His Imperial Majesty... Tell them... tell them that we still fight!” The cry reverberated in the crowd’s hearts. The Silver Armor pointed his sword at the sky and shouted, “We fight once more for the human race!”

“Kill!”

“Kill!” These armored soldiers seemed to be alive again as they raised their longswords and charged at the sky, even though there was nothing there. The Silver Armor began crumbling to pieces, as did the Black and Bronze Armors...

Li Hao and the rest could not understand the scene, they really couldn’t! The Silver Armor officer seemed to have been resurrected and then... did not retaliate against Violet Moon and the others. He didn’t kill them or attack any of the intruders. Instead, he raised his sword and rushed at the empty sky.

Who did they fight? Where was their enemy? What were they doing in their last moments?

Fear, horror, shock... All sorts of emotion wrapped around the expedition, including Li Hao. He focused on who the Human King or Imperial Majesty might be. Was it the figure that he’d seen writing the name of the city? Was his own ancestor, the swordsman who’d severed the self, once part of their august ranks?

Who did the Silver Armor advance upon? Who did he fight for? The human race? ...humans? So were there other races? Did existences like Black Panther count as monster spirits? Were they the enemy?

Countless notions floated into Li Hao’s mind as he stared dumbly at the soldier threatening the heavens. The young man was dumbfounded, he was lost.

Figures advanced through the air as they continued upward. They leapt, flew, and soared! Their swords waved as they charged the skies with unbridled killing intent! If these warriors had done so from the very beginning, less than ten from the expedition team would remain standing here today!

So powerful!

The outsiders finally sensed how powerful these soldiers were. Even the Black Armors had been powerhouses once. Li Hao felt that they were once martial masters and not Sunderers... but possibly Dominators!

Dominators as ordinary soldiers? The young man could barely contain his amazement. Had these soldiers declined to mere shadows of themselves after countless eons? Were they so much more in their heyday?

He remembered the look of contempt, disdain, and scorn from the Silver Amor. It was like the soldier had been looking upon ants, even when he gazed upon the Solars. Perhaps Solars were indeed just ants in his eyes, and he’d just been a higher ranking officer back in his day!

The Silver Armor in the sky emitted one final howl. “We congratulate the human race with the blood of the enemy!”

Kill!

Accompanied by boundless killing intent, Black Armors crumbled away as their sword qi shot into the clouds. Their qi shook heaven and earth!

Boom!

The Silver Armor rushed into the endless darkness with a loud rumble and vanished from sight. Only Li Hao saw that he fully crumbled away at the last possible second!

Dead!

Perhaps they died countless years ago, but he was fully dead in this moment.

The expedition was rooted to the spot. Hu Dingfang, a commander in the army, had nothing but shellshock as a descriptor for his mental state.

“What... kind of army... was this...” He couldn’t imagine! Just what kind of army had they been to wave their swords at the sky after so many eras and threaten an unknown enemy? They’d erupted with everything they possessed just for that final stroke!

As a commander, he was all too aware that such an army could not be overcome. They were invincible! For morale to still remain after millions of years later... Was this possible in the earthly domain?

Everyone was quiet in front of the inner city gates. Although the army was annihilated, no one was all that happy. The various powerhouses wore solemn expressions. After a long while, the Revolution King asked, “What... cultivation level was he?”

He didn’t know! The strength that the Silver Armor had brought to bear at the very end might be even stronger than a few Novas! Was that possible?

“Nova?” Hong Yitang swallowed hard. “Pro... probably?”

If that was the case, what of even higher ranking officers in those times? Their deputies? And their commander-in-chief? Just how strong were the powerhouses of the ancient era??

The scene had been unfathomable, and it’d resulted simply from a trace of consciousness left behind by an officer in command of thousands.

Was he really of the Nova level? He could be stronger!

Everyone committed an ancient military designation to memory—the Battle Heaven Army! A collection of troops who still advanced on the cosmos millions of years later.

Li Hao stared dumbly at the sky, thinking of the sword of his memories, the blow from the Silver Armor, and the move from the Black Armors...

The one from his ancestor had been hazy and appeared far away, but the one from the soldiers seemed to be fully grasped in hand. This was also a type of aura, one that forged ahead without looking back!

That was how a sword should be used.

The sword stroke that severed the heavens and the self was far removed from Li Hao, whereas the one in front of him was possibly the one that he should be pursuing. Even the one from the Black Armors seemed stronger than the one that Li Hao could bring to bear. This was a sword derived from fire and blood!

Killing intent of blood and qi. Was a swordsman that did not kill still a swordsman?

The young man turned over his reflections, whereupon someone broke the silence with an inappropriate question. “If he’s gone... and the sword’s gone... how are we supposed to enter the city?”