Black Onyx - Phoenix Resurrection

Cut. Sharp. Cut. Slice. Tear.

I imbued the disk with my Intent and launched myself at Goruct, bringing the spinning blade at its chest. Its speed was greater, but we were too close for it to react. The surprise counterattack left it with no way of retreat.

The devastating cutting energy began digging into its chest, but the construct shifted its body ever so slightly, so that as the blade cut, instead of splitting it in half, it only took its right arm off. An instant later we were already hundreds of meters apart as we flew past each other.

I reabsorbed what was left of the spinning disc of destruction and clicked my tongue in annoyance.

[Tsk… I was going to say I got your nose, but apparently not.] I picked up the cut-off hand and taunted the enemy. [Is that all you got? Some guardian golem you are, heh! Now I can bitch slap you with your own hand!]

Goruct didn’t seem to react to my taunts and simply straightened up before its forehead split open and a beam shot at my chest. Predictable.

I summoned the mirror and the line of destruction was reflected, drawing a quick slash across the ground as well as the foot of my opponent.

[Oops, sorry!] I grinned and twirled the mirror in my hand. [That one probably hurt, huh?]

Unresponsive, the construct attempted to reabsorb its ruined foot, but that was something I could never allow. Tossing the arm and mirror into my new storage ring, I accelerated forward, blasting the golem with Magic Bullets. It didn’t damage it, but it was enough to push it away. I snatched up the metal appendage and safely stored it as well. Then I increased the intensity of the assault, chasing after Goruct as it ran significantly slower than before with missing body parts.

[Why are you running? Why are you running?! Hahaha!]

Sharp. Sharp. Cut. Slice.

My hand morphed into a blade, the conjured weapon imbued with something people called Sword Intent. It was the concept of cutting, slicing, and things like that. It was difficult to explain, but the gist of it was that anything imbued with it could cut. Even a giant log, if imbued with Sword Intent, could become sharp as a razor blade despite its rounded physical shape.

I honestly didn’t know much about it, but the Cultivators from the Brilliant Sword Sect sure did. I was just copying their technique blindly. It wasn’t often that I needed to pull out such a unique technique to fight. Usually, my power was enough. Usually.

I kept wildly swinging the blade as I chased, the construct gaining many nicks and cuts across its outer armor. It was unfortunately still too agile for me to land a proper blow, but since it was slower than before and I could finally keep up, it was only a matter of time before it collapsed.

Or it would have been, if it didn’t start to morph its body, creating a new arm and foot from the existing body mass. And of that, unfortunately, it had plenty to spare.

[Don’t even think about it.]

I squeezed a bit more juice for a quick burst of speed. Everything was happening in slow motion, but even then, for us, it was all happening extremely fast. The people escaping through the tunnel stood nearly frozen in comparison.

I tackled Goruct, ignoring the blazing beam that blasted a hole through my body, and began cutting. Chop, chop went my blade, and chunks of metal were flying everywhere. It was so weird fighting against a construct. It was entirely silent, with no emotions or panic anywhere. It just counterattacked, blasting the place where my core should be in my stomach, only for it to regenerate nearly instantly.

It fired off another beam, but that time I summoned the mirror again, cutting through its body completely. Like my flesh, its mechanical body shifted around, distributing the damage over a large area, practically nullifying the cut. A clever design.

[Stupid machine. Perish!] I ordered, my expression cold. My version of the Destructo Disk appeared above my hand, though smaller than the first one, and I began to cut. Like a circular saw it bit into the seemingly indestructible metal, and empowered by Intent as well as ludicrous amounts of Spirit Qi, it cut. Oh, it cut alright.

Chunks of Goruct’s body flew off, disappearing into my storage before the golem could reincorporate it into its body. For some reason unknown to me, the construct itself refused to enter. Something was preventing it from getting stored away, though I guess if that was a possibility, beating it would have been too easy.

Whoever the precursors were who built that thing were, there was no doubt they were masters at their craft. For a guardian to be active and seemingly in perfect condition even millennia later was praiseworthy, even though, unfortunately, I had to destroy it.

Finally, nothing remained of the golem but the drone that powered it. The diamond-shaped yellow prism tried to shoot me one last time, but I just gripped it, forcing my fingers under its shell, and ripped it out, revealing a pulsing white core.

It was almost too easy. Nothing like the previous time when I struggled to damage it.

Also, having learned from my previous experience, I punted the unstable core to the other side of the cavern where it exploded moments later. More of the ancient city was destroyed, the old buildings wiped from existence, but such was the price of victory.

The mansion, unlike the rest of the construction present, was in relatively good shape after the fight, if we ignore the collapsed entrance.

And as the danger was finally taken care of, I huffed and reverted to my human appearance. I was feeling quite spent after the fight, having used up about 80% of my stored Qi. And that was considering the fact my expenditure was much more efficient since breaking through to the Spirit Realm on top of having much larger stores than a common Cultivator. I probably burned through enough Qi for a dozen Cultivators of the same Realm.

I took a deep breath and then frowned. The air in the Underdark was already impoverished in terms of Base Qi, but inside the city, it was even worse. The place was like a wasteland. Even if I drained the entire cavern, it would barely make a dent in my stores. And what Qi was spent during the fight would need years to recover back to a usable level. I had no other choice but to convert some of the Soul Essence back into usable Qi. What a waste.

***

Having recharged my energy stores, I turned my attention to the ancient structure. As I approached, some people shouted for me to stop, to wait for the higher-ups before going deeper, but why would I?

I ignored those calls, the people responsible for them not daring to come anywhere close to enforce their orders. Cowards. Then again, I guess it was logical they didn’t act when they were like ants before an elephant. Any person present I could easily crush if the need for it arose, and they knew it.

I turned my back on the destruction outside and entered the large hallway like I had done some hours prior. Unlike before, I didn’t meet another drone. The gray stone walls were smooth and without any decoration.

Soon I came to another doorway, the stone carved with countless arrays, some no bigger than my pinky, though it was clear they were not in use anymore. The left wing was cracked as if something powerful struck it in the middle, splitting it into five pieces, though it still stood. The right side, however, was completely shattered, the rubble strewn across the floor.

I began to doubt the structure really was a mansion. The place reminded me more of a dungeon or something, considering the destruction clearly came from the inside.

As I crossed the door, the destruction became even more obvious. The cavernous hallway was filled with cracks, long grooves on the floor and walls, and parts of the walkway that had been seemingly melted a long, long time ago.

I came across rooms, some of them in a severe state of disarray, though others were still sealed shut, completely untouched. I pushed open some of the sealed doors and they gave way, whatever magic or mechanism keeping them sealed having decayed centuries ago.

I discovered what seemed like bedrooms with crumbling remains of what could be called furniture, as well as a few broken skeletons and desiccated mummies. Survivors of whatever happened? Maybe.

Opening a few more of the sealed rooms I found similar situations. Groups of remains, lone survivors, or their corpses, all of which were devoid of anything valuable or clues to what the facility was used for.

The main hallway split, parts of the structure leading to storage rooms, or at least what looked like them, though they all appeared ransacked, with broken shelves and scattered remains of crates and jars, with more bodies everywhere.

I was beginning to think some of them were probably guards, but considering some didn’t even have clothes, they were probably stripped naked after their deaths. Someone thoroughly cleared out the place.

A part of the building had completely collapsed, with nothing remaining of it, and I was pretty sure that did not happen from my battle with Goruct.

I turned and went the other way, still with much of the mansion to explore.