Duality of Shadows-Chapter 1021: Ready For The Final Fight

Inside a newly built golden castle in a vast universe, there was a gigantic room at its top, connected to a great formation. Everything inside was covered by pulsating golden runes, and almost a thousand figures sat in lotus position, meditating deeply.

None of these figures were heroes. There were representatives from all genders and races, but each of them exuded a peculiar and powerful presence. Anyone who observed them would feel that their bloodline was connected to the world, as if they were people blessed by the heavens since birth.

This impression wasn’t entirely wrong. One day, they were blessed by Heaven’s Will itself and carried all its hope, as well as the desire for the heavenly laws. They were all former missionaries who decided to switch sides after realizing how impossible it was to defeat that enemy.

They were born with everything anyone could wish for: techniques, knowledge, bloodlines... Everything was granted to them.

However, when they faced the first insurmountable barrier... those who the queen considered useful, she personally came to convince them to join her. In the case of Mihkriel and many others, to her, they were just resources to be exploited. Unstable and mediocre people disgusted her.

The proposal for these few was tempting: they would keep everything they already had and would also live free from danger, able to roam the universes and have fun without fear. They just needed to complete a task assigned by the queen within a certain time frame. For them, this was something trivial; they could enjoy life in peace. Who wouldn’t choose that?

Of course, not everyone accepted the proposal, but 90% of the missionaries were won over by her. On the planet Alpenglow, only weaker missionaries remained, either cultivating there or having returned to receive a mission and waiting on the spot. This represented only a fraction of the missionaries, and Alm and Bruno knew this very well.

In that castle, all those former missionaries were focused on themselves. Inside each of them, in their souls, once existed a seed of Heaven’s Will, which sprouted and transformed them into missionaries.

Their most basic power was the connection they had with Heaven’s Will. However, when they turned to the queen’s side, she severed that connection, but took advantage of the unique change that had occurred in their souls and replaced it with her own will.

The abnormal bodies they gained, their extraordinary souls, and all the benefits they had received from the system remained. With just that, they were like dragons among mortals. The queen never worried about using them for great deeds, as she relied on her heroes and the Divine Inquisitors. But now, everything had changed.

In the middle of that place in the castle, a pair of golden eyes appeared. Then, the ethereal figure of a stunning winged woman materialized.

All the missionaries opened their eyes and turned toward her. She nodded and asked, "Is it possible or not?"

A man bowed and responded for all of them: "Sacred Goddess, we’ve made a small breakthrough. It is definitely possible. But we lack brute power. I fear only someone of your level can accomplish something like this."

She nodded curtly. "If you can do it, then we will. We don’t have time to waste. He has already gone ahead and obtained one of the three. I’ll start the plan; you won’t lack brute power...!"

Suddenly, she stopped mid-sentence, sensing something that left her stunned. She turned abruptly and vanished from the spot.

In seconds, she left that universe and arrived at the new underworld. Her gaze fixed on a distant region, and her eyes trembled, confused. It was the primordial chaos item that had been in that universe, where that hateful enemy had gone before her.

"How..." she stammered, but quickly realized clearly that the law and power of that item were almost nonexistent. Her mind worked fast; this was very suspicious. Still, she was sure it was the item called the Pearl of Chaotic Imagination.

Over time, the power of this pearl had infiltrated some of the queen’s universes. In the past, she didn’t bother to dominate mortal universes, but one day, a hero invaded one in search of something and felt that presence. Since then, she began controlling a few mortal universes to investigate. And indeed, one of them had been invaded, confirming the movement of the item.

She had already felt the law of this item before, and now, sensing the pearl, she noticed a faint trace of that energy, along with a slight mark of Heaven’s Will that existed in all items.

"Did he fail?" She began to believe this slowly.

For some completely unknown reason to her, that figure didn’t use the items he conquered and instead gave them to his allies. For this to be possible, it meant he didn’t forcefully dominate the items.

She imagined that the reason he didn’t force the domination was because of his lack of control over his own power. On the other hand, she was extremely experienced, especially in using her heroes as perfect tools for this purpose; she had molded them for this over the years.

In other words, he had a much greater capacity and potential than she did, but he was still young and lacked competence. She believed this at least; it was hard to accept that she was inferior, and that was good for her ego.

Part of this thought came from her extreme arrogance, and another part from her anger and frustration over being humiliated and beaten last time. Clearly, he was much stronger than her, but in her eyes, he was still innocent and foolish. So, when she saw that pearl, she wanted to believe it: he couldn’t be perfect, after all.

"To hell with it, what could he possibly do with this?"

She spoke dryly, and then issued a summons to all her heroes. If he failed, that meant he was temporarily weak, and she would have time to take the item if she was fast. No time for hesitation, she had to act quickly.

In a minute, all the heroes burned their resources and rushed toward the pearl. They sealed it, and the queen transported it to her universe in less than ten minutes.

***

The whale, Ruri, and Meru waited a little while, hidden in the spaces between the underworld and the universe, far from the time distortion. The whale clearly felt the queen’s movement as she took the pearl, then smiled coldly and moved to a distant place with the two women.

Once they arrived at a safe location, they all entered the inner universe. Alm and Bruno then called upon all their allies, who were already there, ready to fight at any moment.

They calmly explained the trap set for the queen. Everyone listened and clenched their fists, already anticipating the events to come.

"The other two items will reveal themselves soon, possibly when a universe is naturally started. Before, I did this forcibly in some, but that was when the heavenly laws hadn’t stabilized at all. Naturally... I’d say this will happen within ten to a hundred years," Alm said seriously to everyone.

Bruno added, "She’ll start to get very confident after she gets the pearl. And depending on the situation, if she gets one of the other two, she’ll probably strike immediately so we don’t have time to grow even more. We also don’t plan on giving her time to set up more schemes. This will be our decisive battle. Everyone, get ready for the final fight."

Everyone roared fiercely, tightening their weapons. They had been working day and night for millions of years, waiting for this moment.

All the peace and relatively fair rules that existed because of the heavenly laws had to be completely destroyed for them to have a chance to defeat her. All life forms were forever affected by this... The consequences were impossible to predict, but they had to win.

Alm and Bruno moved to the planet Gloom and landed at their home, next to the two women.

As soon as they arrived, they immediately shut their eyes and turned toward a nearby mountain that hadn’t existed before.

"You lazy idiot, are you really going to ignore the coming battle and just sleep?! Everyone’s training day and night!" A winged figure in the sky roared: it was the Ziz, now completely recovered and with his body back in the immortal realms.

The mountain shifted, revealing the Behemoth. Its three horns framed its head, and its colossal form was covered with green moss and trees sprouting from its back. Its skin looked like a fusion of rock and ancient wood, with glowing veins pulsing as if the very earth was breathing.

This appearance was slightly different from the original. After Alm and Bruno altered the restrictions placed on the primordial beasts, they had all mutated into something greater, capable of cultivating to their maximum potential, just like the other cultivators.

The Behemoth, like all the other primordial beasts, brought forth other characteristics that had been dormant in them. Besides the laws of the earth, it now emanated supreme natural energy, capable of transforming a completely barren planet into a divine forest in no time.

Its body now reflected this, with plants growing on its skin and smaller, wilder, and more majestic horns covering its body.

"Hm? Fight? I’m not good at that..." Its sleepy voice echoed.

The Ziz roared, "What do you mean? You don’t want to defeat that woman who sealed you, you bastard! Don’t embarrass me like this."

Ruri and Meru laughed softly in sync. Alm and Bruno snorted but, seeing the Behemoth living peacefully, they didn’t care.

"I didn’t say I wouldn’t fight... or maybe I did, well, whatever. I’ll help, but in my way." Its voice boomed as it turned to those small figures staring up at it on the ground.

Its yellowed eyes pulsed, and then a strange, mutant aura of the earth erupted. A giant rune formed in front of it and moved toward Alm and Bruno.

The source of this c𝓸ntent is frёeweɓηovel.coɱ.

The two stared at it, incredulous... But when they focused on the rune...

"This is the Anti-life and Essence of Life together?" Bruno spoke, stunned.

These were the two extremes of the earth laws. Alm and Bruno could easily create one side of them now, but merging them was something completely different. Maybe, with a lot of effort and time, they could do it, but the Behemoth did it while sleeping, using its bloodline...

"Hmpf... What a waste of talent," Alm murmured dryly.

Bruno quickly analyzed it: "This is excellent. It has the power to balance and nullify anything, similar to our Duality of Shadows law. But it has other unique properties."

The Behemoth snorted... Actually, it yawned as if it wanted to close its eyes and sleep. "You can have it, kid... Wake me up in a year, and I’ll give you a bit more..."

*BANG!*

It fell right there and immediately fell asleep. The Ziz was astonished, but indeed, the Behemoth wasn’t lying. It would contribute, but in its own way.

"Go get ready with everyone," Alm said, and the Ziz nodded, taking off.

Meru said her goodbyes and went after Sohum, eager to tease him. Her hope was that he would finally gather the courage to propose marriage to her father, but he seemed determined to create artifacts to defeat the queen first. In his mind, he could only be happy after defeating her.

Alm sighed, thinking about those two. Bruno then turned to Ruri, and she nodded, understanding before he even spoke.

"Yinou, Huying, and Huyang will be ready to fight," Ruri said calmly.

In these years, the Yin Chaos Dragon had created her new body and restarted her cultivation. She did this very quickly for... reasons. Yuan. She had grown fond of that Azure Dragon, who was no longer a young one, and chose to train him personally. There were second intentions from her side; Yinou was interested in those primordial eggs and saw this as a chance to get something she never had.

In the depths of her heart, she saw in that Azure Dragon a new perspective of the world. He was completely different in personality from the Yang Chaos Dragon; but she still liked his way. Beasts didn’t have many barriers to unite, if they liked each other, they’d go for it.

She approached Yuan, but he seemed a little too shy or too focused on his cultivation; he just treated her as his master and showed her the utmost respect. Along with the respect, came a natural distance. Seeing the situation, at one point, Ruri helped her with a plan.

The whale assigned a universe for her to care for, so Yinou would leave Yuan alone in his universe, separating from him after millions of years training him there. In the end, she struck the fatal blow, showing herself vulnerable and saying she didn’t want to go. He finally moved, realizing he didn’t want to separate either.

Then, she personally went to ask Alm and Bruno to let her go. They, of course, allowed it, but the two of them would have to stay together. Yuan was confused, but Ruri roared and gave him a beating to open his eyes; soon he understood, and finally, things flowed between them.

As for Huying and Huyang, they were reborn in their new bodies, but Lyra and Lieson chose to break through to the immortal realm together, so neither would win their dispute. Then, the contest shifted to see who could create more allies for the whale in her universe.

They felt like they were being manipulated, but their desire to beat the other... or maybe, this was actually a way for them to interact with each other. As long as the competition continued, they frequently met to provoke one another.

They couldn’t get along by instinct and repulsion; they were two opposites born from the same thing and naturally repelled each other. Redirecting their focus in the dispute toward something useful was a scheme by Ruri with Lieson and Lyra.

"And Runula?" the whale asked Ruri, who smiled joyfully.

"Her egg already left her body. It’ll take hundreds of years to hatch, so she can fight. The child of my pets will be born after master brings peace to the world," Ruri said proudly. Runula and Deryu finally managed that.

"It’s an advantage not having to carry the child in your body... But it’s something magical to feel so close while they grow inside you," she finished nostalgically, and her longing eyes turned toward Alm and Bruno.

Obviously, she wouldn’t leave them alone after just one. But now, getting one would truly be an absurd miracle; not that she cared, after all, they were immortal.

Alm and Bruno nodded, sensing her burning desire, but not feeling the least bit bothered by it. They had stopped rejecting what they felt; both liked being together... the problem was that Ruri had no limits.

Everything was ready for battle. In the years that passed, more than half of the primordial eggs had been used by the primordial beasts.

Many other primordial beasts were also born in the universes they created. There were many different types, and also many relatively strong Primordial Dragons. They grew up and were embraced by them.

Many primordial beasts and their offspring managed to reach power levels close to the others. Soon, they were all added to the army. The whale’s army was absurdly diverse, with literally all kinds of life forms, whether they were born mortal or primordial.