Immortal Paladin

[POV: Da Wei]

I hovered in the vacuum of space above the designated arena, watching as Fan Shi and Zhu Shin claimed the first kill. The sight should have reassured me. Instead, bitterness settled in my chest and refused to leave.

My gaze remained fixed on the fragment of the Tower protruding from the Hollowed World while the battle unfolded beneath me.

Supreme Heart floated opposite me with his usual infuriating grin. He never wasted an opportunity to dig beneath my skin.

“Maybe you are not as perfect a ruler as you thought yourself to be?”

“I never claimed to be perfect,” I replied through gritted teeth.

That much had always been true. I had never believed myself flawless. Yet I did believe I had been fair. I had built a haven in a universe ruled by tyrants and exploiters, carving out a place where the weak could live without kneeling before monsters. Whether others called it arrogance or conviction did not matter. I knew the ideals that guided my every decision.

I forced my emotions into stillness before they clouded my judgment. Heart wanted exactly this reaction. He had reached into the Hollowed World, plucked out a soul consumed by resentment, and nurtured it into a weapon aimed directly at me. Worse still, he had armed that soul with divine techniques that reflected my own legacy. Every spell Fu Ru wielded had been chosen with malicious intent, as though Heart wished to twist everything I had built into something hateful.

“Isn't it exciting?” Heart continued. “To feel mortal? To know you are not absolute? To stand before uncertainty without knowing what comes next? Or how the story ends?”

“And why,” I asked evenly, “would I find that exciting?”

He laughed as though I had told a joke.

“Oh, pshhhh. There's no need to be humble. You are strong, Supreme Bearer, but you're still too wet behind the ears. The fact that you can't enjoy this moment shows how inflexible you've become. It isn't easy being people like us, and I don't mean the responsibilities that come with our seats of power. Even when the universe conspires against you, you have to enjoy the moment. Smile, Da Wei. Grit your teeth and laugh in the face of annihilation before taking another step forward without hesitation.

“That is the easy part. The hard part is surviving eternity without allowing it to hollow you out. Back when I first laid eyes on you and the man standing before me now... nothing really changed. In a way, I'm disappointed. If you continue down this road, eternity will break you the same way it broke Supreme Death.”

His words drifted through the empty void between us before fading into silence.

Heart always had a habit of wandering into cryptic lectures that sounded profound only because he believed they were. His judgment meant little to me. He had no right to question my convictions or the path I had chosen. If anything, his speech revealed more about himself than it ever did about me. Behind every criticism lay the regrets he refused to confront.

I lowered my gaze toward the battlefield.

A stretch of forest covered the Tower floor, scarred by countless battles. My champions continued fighting across the terrain they had painstakingly prepared, yet the outcome had already begun slipping beyond their grasp.

They were going to lose.

I no longer needed to look into the future to recognize that truth.

When I first summoned Fan Shi and Zhu Shin for this contest, the future had been obscured as though hidden behind a thick veil. Too many variables had existed then, preventing even my authority from seeing clearly. Now the possibilities had collapsed into a single, unmistakable direction.

Heart followed my gaze.

“They understand formations,” he said. “They're talented enough to control a battlefield against ordinary opponents. Unfortunately for them, Loki has lived through more lifetimes than either of them could imagine. Experience triumphs over talent. Their greatest strength will become their greatest weakness because they'll insist on fighting him on terrain they think they control.”

His words carried no arrogance.

Only certainty.

I looked beyond the combat and toward the ruined villages scattered throughout the forest. Homes had burned to ash. Fields had been trampled into mud. Countless innocent lives had vanished before the contest had even reached its climax.

A frown settled across my face.

“Oh?” Heart said, noticing it immediately. “Is that sorrow I sense? Don't tell me you're grieving for those villagers. Surely you understand they're only manifestations of recorded history.”

Of course I understood.

This was far from the first recorded timeline I had encountered. My thoughts drifted to the fractured history of the Hollowed World, to another version of myself who was once trapped inside a preserved past among different people. Those people had existed once. Their lives, joys, and suffering had all been genuine. The passage of time had transformed them into echoes, but echoes born from reality remained worthy of respect.

I turned toward Heart.

“Pray tell,” I said coldly, “who was responsible for their deaths?”

He shrugged.

“Your Zhu Shin, of course.”

“No.”

The single word carried enough force to wipe the smile from his face.

“Zhu Shin killed Fu Ru,” I continued. “The monk you created. Fu Ru was the one who bound his own soul to those innocent villagers, dragging people who had nothing to do with our contest into his own survival. Zhu Shin merely severed the chain Fu Ru forged.”

Heart's expression hardened, his playful demeanor vanishing without a trace.

“I know,” he answered.

His eyes met mine without the slightest hint of remorse.

“But so what?”

I watched the battlefield below without blinking.

Fan Shi and Zhu Shin steadily narrowed the distance between themselves and Loki, yet the trickster refused to be cornered. He never met them head-on. Every pursuit ended with him slipping through another opening as though he had foreseen every movement before either of them committed to it. It reminded me of chasing a shadow that always remained one step ahead.

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I knew little of the Greater Asura Realm. My knowledge extended only to what I've glimpsed through the Ophanim, about how many of its divine beings had been shaped by Earth's ancient mythologies.

Whether those tales had somehow become reality or whether reality had inspired the myths no longer mattered. What mattered was that every story associated with Loki revolved around deception. If this world's Loki shared even a fraction of those legends, then my champions were walking toward a trap they could not yet perceive.

Even so, I chose to believe in them.

Fan Shi darted through the forest with impossible grace, her snake-shaped bangle unraveling into twin chains that lashed through the air like living dragons. Every strike forced Loki to alter his course while invisible ripples spread from her spiritual sense, quietly weaving mind spells into the battlefield. Illusions layered upon reality, distorting distance and direction in an attempt to cloud his judgment.

Zhu Shin gave Loki no room to breathe.

Crimson flames cloaked the bronze armor covering his body as he crossed mountains and rivers with overwhelming momentum. His Ego Weapon screamed through the air, every thrust carrying enough force to split valleys apart. The spear pursued Loki relentlessly, its crimson tip tearing open the landscape whenever it narrowly missed its elusive target.

Yet Loki simply ran.

He neither retaliated nor revealed a single technique.

Every retreat appeared desperate, but every desperate retreat somehow led him exactly where he intended to go.

Supreme Heart chuckled beside me.

"It seems this victory belongs to me."

I ignored him.

Instead, I studied the formation arrays hidden beneath the forest.

Fan Shi and Zhu Shin had spent the opening stages of the match scattering countless formations throughout the terrain. They had expected to dictate the flow of battle through preparation. Instead, Loki had quietly sabotaged nearly every minor array they had established, altering spiritual pathways with surgical precision until each formation became little more than an empty shell.

Only the grand formations anchored to the dragon veins remained mostly untouched.

However, even they were not free from Loki's tampering as he began to modify them one by one.

The dragon veins beneath the forest pulsed like arteries beneath flesh, and every pulse revealed another alteration. Loki had connected one dragon vein to another, weaving them into a single immense circuit that stretched beneath the entire forest. Each seemingly harmless adjustment strengthened the next until the countless formations merged into one colossal design.

Recognition dawned upon me.

It resembled the grand formation I had once constructed upon False Earth to destroy a Yama King.

Only this one had been twisted into something far more destructive.

...

..

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[POV: Loki]

Loki stood calmly atop the enormous dragon vein.

The chase had finally reached its conclusion.

Fan Shi emerged from the forest behind him without making a sound, her twin chains already glimmering with spiritual light. Across the clearing, Zhu Shin landed upon shattered stone, crimson flames rolling from his armor while his spear rested firmly in his grasp.

For the first time since the pursuit had begun, Loki found himself surrounded.

The arrangement between himself and Supreme Heart remained little more than a verbal promise.

That fact amused him.

There had been no binding contract. No heavenly oath. No absolute law compelling either side to uphold their end of the bargain. Everything depended upon interpretation, and interpretation always favored the clever.

Supreme Heart was infamous among the Supreme Beings for twisting agreements until they became unrecognizable.

Loki trusted him about as much as he trusted a starving wolf.

If he wanted the reward Heart had promised, then merely winning would not suffice. He needed a victory so overwhelming that even Heart would struggle to deny what had been earned.

And should Heart betray him regardless, Loki had already prepared another answer.

Of course, it remained to be seen if he needed to resort to such contingency.

"Give up," Zhu Shin said, leveling his crimson spear. "You are alone."

Fan Shi's eyes never left Loki.

"Don't lower your guard, General."

Loki studied them in silence.

From afar, he had watched their struggle against the monk. Fu Ru had forced them to reveal fragments of their strength, allowing Loki to glimpse the beginning of Zhu Shin's path toward sagehood.

Of course, that was not all of the power Zhu Shin probably wielded.

"I know," said Zhu Shin, allowing incredible amounts of qi to burst from within him. "I suggest you listen to the lass, boy. I will not hesitate to cut you apart with my spear. If you know what is good for you, surrender."

Loki laughed, despite himself. It had been quite some time since someone called him 'boy' of all things. "I admit, you wield a very impressive spear and cut an intimidating figure. You almost reminded me of my brother in his brutish ways. Sadly, you don't scare me one bit."

If anything, Loki was more wary of the woman called Fan Shi. Most likely, Fan Shi concealed even more powers than Zhu Shin. She had revealed just enough to appear dangerous while keeping her true cards hidden beneath an unreadable expression.

Moreover, Loki recognized that look in her eyes, since he wore it often himself.

A smile spread across his face.

"You both misunderstand something."

He slowly raised one hand toward the earth beneath him.

"I never intended to reveal my true powers."

His fingers clenched.

"I only intended to win with the minimum effort required to trounce the two of you."

The dragon vein erupted.

Spiritual light raced through every hidden pathway beneath the forest as countless modified formations awakened simultaneously. Loki allowed gravity to claim him, his body sinking into the dragon vein before vanishing into a primordial dimension filled with endless darkness.

Outside, the world screamed, and the earth split apart.

Mountains collapsed into widening chasms while rivers evaporated beneath surging spiritual pressure. Entire forests disappeared as violent shockwaves shredded everything standing upon the land. The formation reached every connected dragon vein at once, unleashing enough force to rend the battlefield apart layer by layer.

It resembled Ragnarok from the legends of his homeland.

The destruction continued without mercy, stripping away the world's foundation while even immortality buckled beneath its overwhelming power. When Loki stepped back into reality, the forest had ceased to exist.

Nothing remained except barren earth stretching toward the horizon.

He smiled.

"It looks like my vict..."

Cold chains wrapped around his body.

"Soul Rending Mandala!"

Fan Shi burst upward from beneath shattered stone, blood streaming from the corner of her lips as countless chains constricted around Loki. Spiritual symbols ignited across every link, each one reaching directly toward the soul rather than the flesh.

...

..

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[POV: Fan Shi]

The instant the grand formation awakened, Fan Shi and Zhu Shin understood what Loki had intended.

Without hesitation, Zhu Shin threw himself toward Fan Shi.

His crimson armor flared brighter than ever before as every ounce of his cultivation erupted outward. He embraced her before the catastrophic wave engulfed them both, raising his spear while countless laws converged upon its tip.

"Protect us, Warrior Maiden of Blood."

The world disappeared.

Everything touching Fan Shi became detached from reality itself as she chanted her isolation spell in an attempt to protect themselves.

However, it was futile. So, in an attempt to minimize damage, Zhu Shin voluntarily let go of the blessing of isolation to mitigate Fan Shi's qi consumption in maintaining her secret art.

The destructive force crashed against Zhu Shin like the end of creation. His flesh crumbled. His armor shattered. His soul fractured beneath the impossible burden. Still, he refused to release the technique.

Every heartbeat bought Fan Shi another fleeting moment of existence.

Every breath cost him another fragment of himself.

The secret art isolated her so completely that even the grand formation struggled to acknowledge she existed. The protection came at a terrible cost. The pressure seeped inward instead, ravaging her spiritual body until blood poured from every pore and her consciousness threatened to dissolve.

Even worse, Isolation blurred the boundary of identity itself.

For one horrifying instant, Fan Shi nearly forgot who she was.

When the destruction passed, she seized the opportunity without hesitation. Her chains erupted from beneath the ruined earth, wrapping around Loki before he could celebrate.

"Soul Rending Mandala!"

The chains tightened.

Victory stood within reach.

Suddenly, a quiet voice drifted into her ear.

"Don't get too ahead of yourself, woman."

Her eyes widened, realizing that the chains were wrapped around her. Confusion swept across her thoughts. The Soul Rending Mandala had torn a soul apart. Only, it had torn apart her own. Because it was her own technique, her spiritual body endured the backlash for a fleeting instant.

That single instant proved sufficient for Loki to exploit.

Invisible hands ripped her soul completely away from her flesh.

Her limbs lost all strength.

"W... what happened?" she whispered.

...

..

.

[POV: Loki]

Loki emerged from the distortion behind her, one hand already wrapped around her throat. His expression remained calm, almost disappointed.

"It's my victory."

Crimson radiance flooded his arm. The heat intensified until the surrounding air warped beneath its pressure. His grip tightened, and the divine flames condensed into a single devastating burst.

With one effortless motion, he tore Fan Shi's head from her body.

Silence settled across the ruined battlefield.

Only Loki remained standing.