"Ready!" Ezekiel's voice boomed outwards, reaching the ears of all within the tri-realm battlefield. Many cultivators on both sides felt their hearts pound with fierce emotions, one side throbbed with inexplicable horror and the other with profound excitement.
As his voice slowly dissipated, from the two realms, nine absolutely titanic ships emerged from the spatial void. They were awe-inspiring and impressive, far beyond mortal comprehension, each outfitted with a dozen planetary cannons capable of turning a planet into literal dust. These cannons littered the sides, poking out like barrels of a rifle.
As they arrived, they eclipsed all, creating a looming shadow like metallic gods. They were all emerald in color and easily exceeded the size of normal planets. Beneath their hulls were waves! These waves were silver and nearly transparent. The ships were cruising on spatial laws!
"Ready!" Ezekiel repeated, his eyes cold and his voice oozing with pure, unadulterated killing intent. It was as if he was asking not the ships but his enemies if they were ready to die. However, his gaze never left Dracula's figure in the distance.
The worldships planetary cannons started to thrum a deep and unfathomable sound. This sound became increasingly deeper and the cannons released fluctuations of destructive power. This destructive power caused ripples to radiate outwards that caused the hearts of all watchers to grow cold. No longer willing to stay, the fighters of Ezekiel's force hastily retreated.
The same was done by the Crimson Devil Realm's forces!
There was only a brief hesitation in their hearts, but when the first person took their leave in retreat, the others quickly followed like perfectly set dominoes. A tidal wave of cultivators made their way into their realm, hoping to reach their force's formation in time.
"Aim!" Ezekiel fiercely shouted, his dao aura erupting as he stood upright with a sharp gaze and imperious posture. A domineering light flashed as he fiercely flourished his sword. The worldships cannon's moved, as if linked to Ezekiel's consciousness and thoughts. All nine dozen cannons honed onto one area!
The tower that stood taller than all others in the realm! Standing atop this tower was a figure with blood-colored eyes.
Dracula!
The deep sound reached its zenith as it started to drown out all others. In the entire tri-realm area only the sound of energy gathering within the cannons could be heard.
"How did they obtain so many War Worldships?" Ariel's expression turned ashen as death, her eyes suffused with fear at Ezekiel's sheer ability to accrue treasures and allies that even their realm would find it difficult to overcome.
A single War Worldship with one cannon was astonishing for even a ninth-tier heavenly force to possess, but nine ships with a dozen cannons on each?! This felt surreal to her.
Just this power alone would triumph over all within the realm except her father. This originally was a war, but no longer. It felt more like an army of fully-armed knights facing an army of malnourished peasants.
"Ezekiel...the boy of fortune…" Dracula sighed. It was filled with the vicissitudes of years and regrets that he felt. "All retreat." Dracula gave the order, but in truth, it was a redundant measure. The vast majority of cultivators had already made their retreat, fanning away from the cannons line of sight and flying towards their respective forces' headquarters or the edge of the realm in fear.
Witnessing this, Ezekiel's forces unified in a grand roar! This roar rivaled the totality of the sound emitted by the cannons. The only two sounds that could be heard were a roar and a thrum!
"FIRE!!!" Ezekiel heroically thrusted his sword forward, his fist clenched and his eyes gleaming with murderous light.
Suuuu...
BOOM!!!
Nine dozen cannons shot forth pure destructive energy capable of leveling entire planets. This energy was compressed into balls the size of a small mountain and propelled at speeds faster than light!
The old man with steel-colored hair and illusory plantlife growing beneath his feet with each step appeared. His emerald-like eyes contained deep excitement as he chuckled, a tinge of madness within. He tapped out with his palm. To all capable of watching his movements, it was as if he had tapped out once, but in reality, he had tapped out millions of times within the span it took for the balls of destructive energy to travel half the distance between itself and its target - Dracula!
"Merge!"
As he thundered, the nine dozen destructive balls seemed to have been attracted by some profound heavenly law. With the swiftness that could not be described, the balls converged into one and turned golden! This golden ball was no bigger than a person, but it emanated such powerful fluctuations that only a few could actually keep their senses and eyes open!
Ezekiel's eyes bled due to this, but he continued to watch the ensuing events. Some were directly blinded by the golden light. It wasn't very bright, it could actually be described as bright as an average sun, but its rays destroyed all!
"Hahaha!" The old man laughed maniacally, his eyes filled with madness and battle intent. He didn't wait for the ball to land on the tallest tower, but moved forward with remarkable speed, his laughter echoing throughout.
Dracula's eyes remained calm, but his heart was anything but. "Ze'Ya, if this is your desire, then so be it." Dracula's words seemed to be directed at the old man, his eyes slowly suffusing with determination.
Waving both of his hands forwards, the tower he stood upon vanished. Between his glabella appeared a mark in the same shape as the tower! As the tower vanished, so did Ariel!
"Ariel...I would never risk your life when even I am uncertain of living. If I can not remove this threat for you, then I hope you, with fortune blessing upon you, become capable of living a peaceful life." His words contained deep sadness, but also deep resolve.
Ezekiel's eyes widened, blood leaking like rivers. However, they weren't suffused with surprise at Dracula's situation. No, this was already well within his calculations. What caused his eyes to widen was the tower mark between Dracula's brows. It had a faint familiarity to it.
BOOM!
From the moment the cannons fired to this moment, nearly an instant had passed. The small, man-sized golden ball collided with a thin film of crimson just a few miles away from Dracula!
This explosion was heaven-shaking, earth-shattering, sky-sundering, as the sound alone released soundwaves so vast that the heavens turned deaf and the world grew silent!
Ezekiel's eyes exploded into gore, his ears flowing with blood and bits of flesh. All the other cultivators suffered equal or worse damage, some even directly dying from the deafening sound, and a few near the epicenter that had their souls and body turned to dust from the intense vibration.
This was even before the true, utterly mind-blowing, heaven-destroying shockwaves were emitted!
It was like a tsunami of immense proportions had been summoned, smashing against any and all things within ten million li of the explosion! Lives were instantly lost, even entire forces that stayed near and loyal beside the Crimson Devil Realm's leadership were wiped clean.
All sub-realms constituted within range collapsed. No, it would be more accurate to say they were vaporized!
Only Dracula stood, a small, thin barrier protecting him and only him. His eyes calm and the tower mark at his glabella glimmering with faint traces of odd, dim light.
"That attack is like a casual one for us, so lets start the real battle! Come out and fight me, Crimson Devil Monarch! Come, come, come! Hahaha!" Ze'Ya appeared a mere few inches away from Dracula's barrier like a ghost, his palm raised. Although his words may hold some truth, to achieve this single attack, Ezekiel had expended a vast quantity of wealth that he could not produce again.
Dracula calmly waved his hand in response.
Ezekiel's eyes had already been restored, the damage to his ears healed, and his gaze fixed once more on Dracula. This will be a battle between Heavenly Monarchs!
He couldn't miss a moment of it!