PtM 18 - Chapter 44: Planesfall

The airspace above the planar core was a broken mess of ink, the five elements, and spatial glass. Giant rifts that were 5,000 kilometers long threatened to punish the six combatants for the slightest mistake.

“You can’t keep this up,” said Melody to the five. “If you continue this any longer, you’ll damage your hosts’ foundations and fail to pass your tribulations. And it won’t just be you who pays the price, but all your descendants on the lower planes. Think of them. Think of the children.”

“Don’t listen to her,” said Silver Fish to the four sisters. “She’s striking where you’re weak.”

“We won’t show mercy to her like we did last time,” said the Star-Eye Ancestor.

“We are aware of your desires, Melody,” said the Clockwork Ancestor. “And we sympathize with your position. But we have done what we set out to do. We gave hope to the inhabitants of the Inkwell Plane and found a home for a great deal of them. We facilitated the separation of the four continents and even took away the most population-dense locations in the Central Inkwell Sea.”

“I’m glad you’re finally seeing reason, sister,” said Melody.

“You’re no sister of mine!” the Clockwork Ancestor snapped. “I said we’d accomplished what we set out to do, but I didn’t say we were finished. Sisters?”

“I’ll go first,” said the Star-Eye Ancestor. A pulse of royal demonic energy emerged from her body as she broke the limits of her realm.

“You… you’re insane!” exclaimed Melody. “You’re intending to ascend after fighting me for so long?”

“Ascension isn’t difficult with the protection of my will brand,” said the Star-Eye Ancestor. “Moreover, this descendant of mine isn’t weak. Take this final parting gift from me, and may we meet again in the immortal dimension.”

She lifted her hand and pulled a thread from the fabric of existence. It was Melody’s thread of life, dark and inky, and connected to the core that was currently being contested.

“Star Fate Unraveling!” called out the Star-Eye Ancestor as she pulled on the thread.

Melody, who could no longer move under the pressure of a royal demon, could only watch as her thread of life was yanked out of her body.

“I’ll go next,” said the Iridescent Ancestor. A ball of iridescent heart flames containing a hint of undying glass flames appeared in her hand. “Iridescent Purgatory!” She tossed the flames at the immobile Melody, who screamed as the flames burned her in body and soul.

“Runic Rupture!” the Runebound Ancestor said next.

Golden patterns appeared on the surface of Melody’s skin. They isolated and trapped her natural Inkwell tattoos, then proceeded to rip them apart and explode them.

“Gold Song Annihilation!” yelled the Clockwork Ancestor. Her armor and twin blades began to vibrate with a deadly music that cut through armor, bone, and blood, demolishing what was left of Melody’s ruined body.

“You will suffer for all the pain you caused everyone.” It was Harmony who spoke through Silver Fish. As his aura broke through, and he became a royal demon inside and out, deep black lines appeared on his silver-and-red armor, along with spikes that shone with a thick aura of resentment. “Deep… Script… Retribution!”

All the pain, all the anger, and all the sorrow that Silver Fish had suffered… all the pain and sorrow Melody had caused to every inch of world he fused. It was all released from his armor in a single attack.

“Noooooo!” yelled Melody as her body was destroyed and her spirit heavily wounded. She teetered on the edge of destruction.

“Don’t let her escape!” yelled the Clockwork Ancestor. Unfortunately, they were too slow. Her wrecked spiritual form dove into the planar core, which began to rapidly transform with the arrival of its original owner.

“What a tenacious cockroach,” said the Clockwork Ancestor. “Should we give it another round?” She looked up warily at the skies, which were quickly filling with tribulation lightning.

“No,” said the Star-Eye Ancestor. “We must leave. We need to preserve as much energy as possible to support Harmony. Otherwise, Silver Fish won’t survive his tribulation.”

“What about those two?” asked the Iridescent Ancestor. “I can’t help but feel sorry for them.”

“I don’t think we should worry too much,” said the Runebound Ancestor. “That fox isn’t normal, and neither is that boy. There’s also a matter of the brush he carries.”

“Right, the brush,” said the Iridescent Ancestor. “How could I forget about the brush? You think we’ll see him up in the immortal dimension, then?”

“Most assuredly,” said the Runebound Ancestor. “Now let’s go. The Five-Point Tribulation Transcending Formation isn’t easy to set up.”

The Five-Point Monarchs then made one last sweep of the area before setting off into the void.

***

Rivers of thick primal chaos energy peeled off the planar core and poured into Cha Ming and Huxian. The former broke down the energy and repurposed it, while the latter devoured the energy and made it his own.

Cha Ming was undergoing a metamorphosis. His inner world was breaking through the limit of demiplanes and becoming legitimate transcendent planes.

As for Huxian, his flesh and blood was being constantly tempered, while his law tapestry of space and time was becoming more ethereal and intangible.

Crack! Cha Ming opened his eyes as the first of five worlds broke through. Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack! The other four broke through in quick succession. His rate of absorption of primal chaos energy increased over a hundredfold as these five worlds each forged a passageway through the void, which could be used to passively accumulate primal chaos energy for their own use.

Continents began to form. Oceans emerged between them. As their laws attained transcendent perfection, life began to bloom in every form. This wasn’t painted life, but true life. His inner world was no longer an imitation of reality.

Not only did the worlds themselves show massive changes, but their interactions did as well. A simple cycle of the five elements was formed between them, harmonizing the laws between these planes on a fundamental level.

A slow but powerful transformation began, and time even accelerated in the Clear Sky World to facilitate this transformation. Yet it was clear that even with thousandfold time acceleration, it would be impossible to complete this transformation unless several decades passed.

“The transformation was a great success,” Scriptorium announced. “We are now preparing for long-term maintenance, and it would be preferable if you could extricate yourself from this situation. By the way, I took the liberty to name the final transcendent plane. It is currently known as the Deep Script Plane, named after the divine ability that was condensed with the fusing of your fifth regalia piece. Your fifth divine ability is known as Deep Script Retribution.”

“Deep Script Retribution, huh?” Cha Ming said. His cultivation had undergone a great transformation. This was true in terms of laws, divinity, and spirit.

He immediately understood that Deep Script Retribution was a damage-absorbing ability that would empower one’s attacks. “What of the outside world? What happened while I was absorbing energy?”

Scriptorium went on to describe the sacrifice of all the remaining powers, and the current battle between the Five-Point Monarchs and Melody, along with the destruction of her physical body. “She won’t be able to escape this shell for quite some time,” Scriptorium explained. “Her energy reserves are much lower than they used to be, and she no longer has the support of her original plane. The advisable course of action would be to retreat.”

“No,” said Cha Ming. He pressed his hand on the sphere of primal chaos energy and began to collect even more. “There are still many inhabitants left in the Central Inkwell Sea. I want to take as many as I can.”

“Your brother fox rescued a fair bit on his own,” said Scriptorium. “Is it really worth it to risk it all for a few million more people?”

“It obviously is,” Huxian said, cracking an eye open. “It’s too bad we don’t have the time to do it, though.” A curtain of inky will washed over the area and suddenly dove into the sphere of primal chaos energy.

Cha Ming and Huxian pulled back as a projection of Melody appeared above the sphere, her eyes blazing with anger. “You two! You dare consume this monarch’s precious energy reserves? You deserve to die a thousand deaths!”

Cha Ming readied himself for a fierce battle, but Huxian simply crossed his arms. “Oh yeah?” said the fox. “What are you going to do about it without a body? You couldn’t hurt us even if you wanted to.”

“I have time,” said Melody. “If not here, then in the immortal dimension. Until then, you can get lost. Consider this a small mercy.”

An inky wave of will washed over them and forced them out of the planar core. Cha Ming and Huxian awakened in the outside world looking mightily peeved.

“And here I was hoping to get a bit more energy to accelerate my inner world’s transformation,” said Cha Ming.

“I got everything I needed,” Huxian said. “I can break through at any time.” He summoned a blade of space and time and attacked the planar core. “Darn. Not even a dent. I really hate leaving an enemy like this behind.”

Cha Ming frowned. “Let me give it a try.” He jumped up in the air and summoned the Sky-Propping Pillar. Three pairs of resplendent wings appeared on his back, along with the shadow of a fourth.

“Heaven Breaker!” Cha Ming shouted as he brought the pillar down. A projection of five transcendent planes and three moons appeared above him. He struck down with the entire weight of his inner world.

The planar core shook but showed no signs of damage, so Cha Ming repeated the process. He repeated it endlessly, because now, the Sky-Propping Pillar was perfect. It no longer contained any cracks, so he could perform Heaven Breaker indefinitely.

Whack! Whack! Whack!

He continued whaling on the planar core, summoning forth pieces of regalia in quick succession. First came the crystal-jade crown, followed quickly by crystal-gold gloves. Next came his glass-flame vestments, his crystal-gold boots, and finally, a translucent crystalline armor covered in a dense inky runic script.

Whack! Whack! Whack!

The planar core still showed no signs of moving, so Cha Ming channeled bloodstorm energy into the pillar. He spread out his clear rune sea to encompass what was left of the Inkwell Plane and used the plane’s own power to attack its core. Yet despite all his efforts, he wasn’t able to put a mark on it.

“Just let it go,” said Huxian. “Undamaged planar cores aren’t easy to deal with.”

“Well, I want to keep trying,” said Cha Ming. “There’s got to be a way.” For example, his law projection. He could feel the five components of his Crumbling Canvas working their magic on the planar core. The two entities were engaged in a conflict of laws, though unfortunately, Cha Ming’s own laws were lacking a special something: cohesion.

The problem with my law projection is that it’s five separate laws, thought Cha Ming. The natural next step would be to fuse them all into a single entity. He had a feeling that he would naturally reach this step once his inner world finished transforming, but by then, it would be too late.

Wait a minute! thought Cha Ming. I can’t merge them right away, but maybe I can accomplish this artificially. His clear rune sea had the ability to fuse him with the outside world and channel its strength. Could he not do this with his own inner world?

A spiraling sea of clear runes suddenly appeared in the world projection above Cha Ming. It spread throughout the five worlds and their constellations and the three moons, creating an extensive network. At its center was the core rune, “boundless.” It merged with Cha Ming and began to accept law energy from each plane.

“Um, Cha Ming?” Huxian said. “You might be biting off more than you can chew.”

“I’m fine,” said Cha Ming. “Better than fine.” There was still a problem with fusing the law energies together, but Cha Ming discovered that the Truth of Self-Wrought Creation could fix this.

His energy began to transform. His inner world sped up as the fusion of his inner world accelerated. The five laws of his law tapestry began to fuse, and at the center, where Cha Ming was located, a shallow spark lit up. That spark was none other than will energy, the core requirement for breaking through to sainthood.

“Let’s see how you handle this,” muttered Cha Ming. “Heaven Breaker!” He smashed down with the Sky-Propping Pillar and poured everything he had into it. He poured bloodstorm energy, the energy of the Inkwell Plane, and the energy of his inner world in. He poured in all five of his laws that were currently in the process of fusion, along with that single spark of will.

A loud crack sounded as the Sky-Propping Pillar tore through the planar core, shattering it. Dao origin fragments scattered to the eight directions, along with large chunks of planar core containing vast and boundless inky energy.

“Mine!” said Huxian, creating a net of space-time energy to capture a good half of the fragments. Cha Ming used his Dao projection to collect the other half. Only a single fragment managed to escape them, and unfortunately, it was this fragment that contained Melody’s remaining will.

“She got away,” said Cha Ming. “Too bad.”

“This’ll slow her down quite a bit,” said Huxian. “Are you all right?”

Cha Ming nodded weakly. “I’m fine. I just… have to do… one last thing…” He spread out his senses over what was left of the Inkwell Plane. Pockets of inky waters were spread out through space and barely holding on. “Protect me while I work,” Cha Ming said.

He sat down cross-legged and began to pull in these pockets of planar materials. They poured into the Clear Sky World, where they were immediately triaged by his five helpers and separated into living people and animals and unliving materials. The process lasted seven days, and by the end of it, Cha Ming was completely exhausted.

Only Cha Ming and Huxian were left in the vast void. “It’s done,” said Cha Ming. “And I’m so, so tired.”

“You did good,” said Huxian. “I’m proud of you.”

Cha Ming chuckled lightly as he closed his eyes and entered a deep slumber.

“I don’t have forever, you know,” said Huxian with a sigh. “But sleep if you have to. I’ll keep you safe.”