Heavenly Opposers

Not only Alzeer, but the rest two with him, were filled with despair and hate. Hate not just towards the phoenix but also the heavens for the injustice they were in. They had lost all faith and were treading on the edges of collapse. Even Xiao felt burning anger in his heart as he looked at how humans were being treated like mere waste.

Soon, a phoenix scream was heard above as Amber descended beside Xiao. Her arms were bleeding, and her gaze turned towards them as she spoke in astonishment, "Why haven't you been evacuated?!"

Her voice was loud and anxiety-filled, but in return for her question, all she got was a confused look. Seeing it, she quickly understood what had happened, and her murderous eye turned towards the three who were looking at her with the same look. "You dare defy my orders?!" she barked, but before she could say anything, Naria did.

"Yes! we did! If you placed her life above even the children of our human race, then she needs to die along with this wretched race of yours!"

"YOU!"

Amber raised her hands to kill them, but before she could, a powerful Scylla arrived close, targeting Xiao and Yurou. Amber snorted as she waved her hands and burned it to a crisp, but it was not over as millions more were invading. At the same time, phoenixes were dying by the minute. Amber's eyes turned blood-red as she screamed to the sky, "Zorax, how dare you betray us! Even if I die here today, I will make sure to bring you with me to the afterlife!"

With that, she placed a barrier around them before she flew to the sky where a war of unprecedented size continued to wage on. The blood of many filled the ground, and the sky turned red. Some didn't die whole as they were devoured by the Scyllas, becoming their power. Immortals like moves to world-ending strikes were being hit here and there. Flames dyed the world, while death danced in the battlefield.

It was a war in which everyone fought to give their life. None backed down as they died willingly for a chance to see their loved ones survive. Xiao stayed there protected as he looked at this humongous war where stars and worlds were destroyed by the aftershocks. Within all this, he had once again been reminded of how small and powerless he truly was.

And once he thought of this, he once again felt a pull in his soul. Unlike the last time, he was now prepared as he appeared on the sword world with the cloaked being seated on the throne with a hand in its face, boringly watching as everything proceeded forward. Its blue sword-like eyes looked directly at Xiao as it spoke, "You're calm in the face of death, Gravewalker."

"What else should I do, scream and cry? What would that give me? This is merely the product of my weakness," Xiao calmly spoke to the being on the throne as his eyes wandered through the world. He knew that he and Yurou were on the tips of death. Right now, the fight was not at all looking good; thousands were dying in vain. None that were fighting had any way to help them as the war took their entire focus.

The only thing that stood between absolute deaths was the barrier that Amber set up, which was being weakened with each hit. Now, he was left alone in a war where even the smallest residual wave would turn him to dust. Betrayed by humans themselves, he could see that both he and Yurou should have been evacuated by Alzeer and the rest, yet they threw him into the war. Granted, their aim was Yurou, but it doesn't change the fact of betrayal.

And from what Amber shouted, even the Phoenixes were betrayed by someone from the inside. They might survive this due to the innumerable deep foundation they have, but the death of millions is not a far-fetched idea. He and Yurou will be part of this, too. Xiao raised his head as he looked at the being on the throne as he spoke.

"During the ancient times, there laid a powerful species. They called themselves the rulers of the sword. Their way of cultivating too was unique. Their total number in the vast cosmic world of cultivation only numbered 100, an insignificant number. But none dare challenge their might."

Xiao paused for a moment as he gazed at the being on the throne, who now had a nostalgic look in his eyes before he continued.

"Their way of cultivating was so powerful that even the heavens themselves trembled in their might. They called themselves the Centuriarchs, for they grew strong by crafting different worlds into swords, be it the sword in the ground or the one that one uses. All will bow to Centuriarchs, for they were the dream, king, emperors, and the gods of the sword."

"Any and all swords will bow into submission to their power. No man, god, demon, or angel dared face their wrath until the whole world of cultivation banded together to get rid of them..... No one knows the outcome; all everyone knew was that millions of worlds disappeared from existence while the Centuriarchs themselves vanished into the corners of history."

With that, Xiao stopped as he looked at the person that was lost within his mind, but soon, it shook it off as it... a Centuriarchs spoke.

"You're quite knowledgeable, Gravewalker."

"It's one of the main histories of the cultivation world that all know. How could it be forgotten when the trillions that went to fight never came back?"

"He..hehe...indeed those were good times."

The Centuriarchs chuckled. Xiao's eyes flashed as he looked at the millions of swords that created this very reality. Just imagining the powerful lives the person in front of him had taken shook him, but he was quickly broken off as he heard the one on the throne speak.

"It's similar, isn't it? The world always fears the unknown."

"Indeed, I think it's normal, though. The world always feared the powerful and the unknown. It only matters if you have the power to make the world tremble in your wrath."

"...."

"...."

For a moment, silence reigned before which the Centuriarchs spoke.

"Tell me, Gravewalker, what do you think of your journey till now? Angry? Disappointed? Or sad? At the fickleness of life that flips at any time?"

"You could say that I am feeling all of them, the disdain of the phoenixes, the will of the heavens that grants powers, the irony of how in the end, betrayal is the same for all. But in the end, I only came to the same truth I have always known."

"Oh? What's that?"

The Centuriarchs spoke with a twinkle in their sword-like eyes. Xiao bore deeply into its eyes as the feeling deep within his heart burst forth.

"Strength! Strength is the universal truth in them all! Be it from the disdain to the betrayal to the war, it's all the same as long as I have absolute strength! All of them wouldn't be a problem! I want strength such that even the cosmic gods would never think of hurting the people I hold dear..."

With his final words, Xiao calmed down as he bore deeply into the being in front of him, a being that was once called the Origin God Of Swords, a being that holds the very domain of swords that once cut through the very fabric of Fate and Karma, rendering the plans of the very cosmos null.