Dyon became covered head to toe in an intricately forged Dragon armor. Metallic feathers diligently coated every detail of his wings and his head became hidden in a dark, knight's helmet with an opaque visor over his eyes.
The Dragon Scale grew explosively in size, hovering over Dyon's left forearm like a magically connected shield.
His Presence was overwhelming, his momentum was unstoppable, and his confidence was unshakeable.
It was then that the ax, the weapon furthest to the right shook. Its double headed blade vibrated aggressively as the shadow of a man standing more than ten meters tall grasped its handle.
In the next moment, one man became nine before shooting forward as a speed only someone who had entered the dao formation realm could match.
The seven kitsune panicked, each pulling out a weapon of their own to meet the large man. It was only Head Void, the eighth kitsune, who didn't bother. He knew the truth about this tribulation and any weapon would shatter on contact… His fellow clansmen were doomed..
"[Titan Emperor's Will – Act One: Stage One]." Dyon's voice boomed, his body increasing in height to perfectly match the on coming giant.
A pagoda of black and red manifested behind him, perfectly melding into the darkened sky as a blinding light followed the opening of its doors.
The aura of a peak Spiritual grade ax flew into Dyon's hand, its illusory and dark body shimmering with the fierce will to do battle.
Dyon's divine sense bloomed to its peak. This Giant might be moving too fast for his body to react, but his soul picked up on its every movement.
What once was hundreds of meters suddenly became half of that, then a quarter. In an instant, the Giants were upon them.
Dyon's soul clearly felt the battle ax arcing toward him with a strength of thousands of men. His mind became tranquil as the rhythmic shattering of the Dragon King's seals rang in his ears.
His runic flames blazed, expanding the size of the dragon scale to several tens of meters toward the oncoming blade as he swung his own.
However… The beautiful counterattack he was imagining never occurred. The battle axe that had just been coming from the left suddenly disappeared and entered the Giants right hand… It was too late to dodge as the blade slashed into Dyon's right side, shattering all of the bones on half of his body.
In that moment, nine were attacked and nine showers of blood rained downward as nine bodies slammed into the ocean below.
Not even a second later, the nine giants fused, becoming two…
Dyon shot out of the ocean, coughing up buckets of blood, soon to be followed by Head Void. It was clear the both of them knew fighting in the water would only be a detriment. Yet, when Head Void looked around to see that his seven Clansmen were nowhere to be seen, a mournful cry escaped his lips as he turned eyes reddened with anger toward Dyon.
Head Void was a complete mess. Unlike Dyon, he didn't have armor rivalling supreme grade treasures protecting him nor did he have 10 years worth of accumulated and stored energy from a bull-bird. So, his left arm lay useless to one side. But, clearly, the damage he sustained was far less than Dyon. Unfortunately for him, Dyon's damage didn't last for long.
A blaze of white fire coated Dyon's black armor, giving him a beautiful appearance that seemed out of place in the bleak atmosphere.
In that one exchange, not only his bones, but half of his heart was obliterated into nothingness. By all rights, he should have died.
The Dragon King was very good at imitating weapons and armors, but it couldn't grasp the essence of them. It was for this reason that other than sharpness and durability, the Dragon King seemed like any ordinary weapon. It didn't even have the normal weight a weapon of such caliber should have until its seals were undone.
A true supreme grade armor would be able to disperse and reflect damage, some could even multiply and rebound attacks levied toward them. However, the Dragon King could only block.
Considering that it wasn't even remotely scratched even by that powerful strike, the vessel itself was impeccable even without hidden abilities. But, that wasn't enough.
Dyon fell out of his selfless state before rolling his eyes. 'Can't you be more helpful, Old Lizard? Who'd have thought that you would be so useless. It's no wonder Elder Daiyu and Loki almost killed me so many times.'
An ancient snort resounded through Dyon's mind. 'Even with the prowess of your body right now, you should understand that the weapon I forged is of the Energy Path. You can barely use 1% of its strength.'
'So what?' Dyon rebutted. 'Even if it gets heavier and sharper, it's useless. What kind of armor only protects itself?'
The two were having a spat, completely oblivious to the danger of the situation. Let alone the axe wielding Giant, Dyon had 8 more opponents to defeat. It also didn't escape his attention that the number of giants had decreased, likely meaning that they had fused and were even more powerful than before. The moment Head Void died, Dyon would be facing an opponent nine times as powerful as the one who nearly killed him in a single strike.
'How dare you look down on me? This weapon was forged with the Reverse Scale of a mighty Black Dragon. I am the Dragon King!'
'Is it? Then where's your Dragon Soul?' Dyon asked. He suddenly understood why the Dragon King could expand almost endlessly, even perfectly covering his ten-meter-tall body. If this weapon was forged by his reverse scale, even if Dyon grew hundreds of meters tall it wouldn't be enough. 'And why is yours of the Energy Path while this gold scale uses my body path flames to work?'
'I still have a portion of my Dragon Soul, I used it to help you against Elder Daiyu before he undid the seals on himself and it became useless. But, it's severely weakened in this state. The concept is the same as why that gold scale is of the half-step emperor grade, just like I was when I forged this weapon, yet you can't make use of it.'
Dyon fell into contemplation. The half-step emperor dragon soul may seem like nothing to Dyon considering he had an Emperor level Presence, but this thinking was wrong. Dragon Souls were the embodiment of sovereignty, and as such, were on a much higher level.
The True Gods of the Drago-Qilin Lands only had half-step King Dragon Souls, yet they were superior to human geniuses with King level Presences. The human equivalent to a dragon's half-step emperor was actually half-step God Presence!
'Unless I take over your body, I can't recover my Dragon Soul to perfection. It's the same for that bastard.' The Dragon King spoke, clearly referring to the golden scale hovering around Dyon's left arm. 'As for why we are of different paths, his reverse scale is still in its original condition, but I needed to access the energy path in order to sustain my soul here. Since he did not, it's why his soul is long gone. Without a body, it's impossible to sustain a soul with a weapon following the body path. But, energy is all around us, so there's plenty here to sustain my soul.'
'This is all nonsense.' Dyon said, clearly still unsatisfied. 'You're just drowning me in all of this to hide from the fact you're useless.'
'You're a fool.' The Dragon King snorted. 'Haven't you understood the purpose of this trial yet? Your understanding of weapons and armors is shallow. You believe that understanding a weapon will is just as simple as having a slight amplification to its output strength?
'What does it mean to understand sword qi? How does this differ from understanding saber qi? Or spear qi?'
Dyon's eyes glowed. 'You mean that ability where his axe switched hands yet somehow didn't lose any momentum?'
The Dragon King snorted, but said nothing more, going back to its nap.
However, that was all Dyon needed. The Dragon King's armor was useless to Dyon, but that wasn't the case for the Dragon King. If he had the ability to take over Dyon's body, the strength of him wielding this weapon would be beyond Dyon's imagination. And there was only a single reason why… An answer that seemed to revolve around the center of all that was in the Universe: Will.
