Road to Mastery: A LitRPG Apocalypse

Chapter 458: End of the Line

The arena was strewn with the lifeless bodies of once almighty Elders. Dozens of rulers of the galaxy painted the sand with their blood. The people watching all over the galaxy were frozen, unable to believe such a thing could really happen, while the B-Grades in the arena—the only ones remaining—were speechless.

The Supreme Ancestor had laid in cryogenic sleep for hundreds of thousands of years to protect his faction in the case of such an emergency. Yet, even after he’d awakened, he’d been unable to help. He had to watch his descendants, the faction he’d spent his entire life building, be demolished before his very eyes.

What was helplessness? This was helplessness!

“I will fucking kill you, Jack Rust!”

More sparks erupted all over his body. He was like an old god clad in lightning, a thunderstorm taken physical form. He threw himself at Jack, uncaring about anything else. Jack charged back, then abruptly disappeared.

He reappeared before the last remaining Ancestor. This was a leonine of the Lonihor family, clad in their tell-tale plate armor and surrounded by divine warriors. He knew this was coming—he braced himself. Half the warriors raised their shields, while the rest charged at Jack to delay him.

Jack pulled back his fist. Reality itself was sucked inside. The energy compacted continuously, becoming so dense it almost collapsed the fabric of spacetime around it, and then exploded right as Jack let loose his fist.

Eva Solvig flashed behind him and smashed a palm of Purity into his back. Jack endured it. His fist exploded on the divine warriors, obliterating them all. Shiny spears and shields flew everywhere. The energy of the Supernova broke through their defenses and fell onto the early B-Grade Ancestor, shattering his armor and Dao both. He flew away—dead.

A rush of power fled into Jack’s body, abruptly stopped. He’d reached Level 380, where the System would withhold any extra energy until he developed his ninth Dao Fruit. He couldn’t get any stronger during this battle, but that was fine. He was enough.

However, Eva Solvig’s attack had ravaged his back. He felt the life inside him diminished, like he’d swallowed molten iron. A terrible emptiness filled his being. He lost his breath, sent flying away, his heart struggling to keep beating. It was only afterward that the Life Drop’s energy flooded him again, refilling the gap.

Jack breathed heavily. Just a single attack from Eva had almost taken his life. Instinctively, he felt she was a cut above the white-cloaked man and Supreme Ancestor. Which was natural—she wasn’t a native cultivator of the barren Milky Way galaxy, but a high-level Envoy of the Hand of God. She was also the daughter of the late A-Grade Elder Purity. The resources she’d enjoyed were incalculable. Moreover, she probably hadn’t reached the end of her potential—of course her strength would be greater than others at the same level.

Jack turned around, finally slowing down a bit. Only the three late B-Grade cultivators were left—everyone else was dead, their bodies littering the sands of Jack’s Gladiator Titan arena. All three enemies stared at him with hatred. Jack smiled.

“Round two,” he said, then charged.

The Supreme Ancestor roared and rushed to meet him. Eva flew beside him, while the white-cloaked man remained far away. Jack exchanged strikes with them. He was on the losing end; not only was he one against two, but the spacetime around him was heavily constricted, limiting his movements. He gradually retreated, keeping his safety.

Even after seventeen levels, this still wasn’t easy. But it was manageable. And, since he could survive, Jack could see a plan.

Lightning flickered on his skin. In the next moment, it burst out, an armor of purple sparks swimming over his skin. The Supreme Ancestor’s eyes widened. “The Thunder Body! How can you… How can you have it!”

Jack smiled, not responding. He exploded with speed. He was suddenly stronger and faster than before—so much faster, in fact, that the world seemed to warp around him, and he could barely control his own body. His punches flashed like thunderbolts. He was still in the Life Drop battle transformation so he possessed four fists, each roaring at the limit of speed.

He pummeled his opponents with strikes. The Supreme Ancestor roared but was pushed back. Eva unleashed waves of Purity which Jack broke through like a stone on the shore. He kept them both at bay, so stormy and fierce was his assault. The white-cloaked man finally decided to intervene. He rushed closer, then directly formed a spatial storm and tossed it onto Jack’s head.

Such a storm, if he wished it, could easily cleave through a planet. It was made of innumerable, invisible tiny blades formed of pure space which tried to tear Jack into pieces. Thankfully, he wasn’t unfamiliar with space himself. Though the blades were invisible, he could perceive their locations, dodging or dispersing them all. Of course, that slowed him down, allowing the other two enemies to regain their footing and renew their assault.

Jack turned his gaze to the white-cloaked man. From the very start of the battle, he’d been a pest. He would be the first to go.

Jack’s form blurred again. Enhanced by Thunderbody, he reached previously unthought-of levels of speed. Even these late B-Grades could barely keep up. He circled them rapidly, like a typhoon, and their strikes only met empty space. Jack became a phantom, creating afterimages not through space manipulation but sheer speed.

His three opponents huddled together while the crowd on the arena stands roared, shouted, and generally caused a ruckus. They rose from their seats to cheer harder.

Supernovas exploded. The three enemies worked together to resist, releasing shockwaves which bounced off the arena walls. The void shattered. Space shook. Reality was distorted, and the infinite particles of the Dao vibrated to the same tune.

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“Freeze!” the white-cloaked man shouted, using up a large amount of energy to constrict space all around them—only like that could he catch Jack. Unfortunately for him, this was exactly what Jack had been waiting for. At the exact moment when the white-cloaked man gathered his power, Jack appeared above him, smashing a Supernova down on his head.

Spacetime indeed froze—but the white-cloaked man’s head was pushed down, breaking his neck and bending his spine. The ensuing explosion burned his body entirely, and the frozen spacetime returned to motion just in time to let his body flop to the sands, dying them red as many others had done before him.

“Sylvan!” Eva shouted, her voice filled with increasing panic—not at his death, but at hers. “No!”

“Caught you!” the Supreme Ancestor shouted. To release such a powerful strike, Jack had stood still, and that instant was more than enough for a master to capitalize on. The Supreme Ancestor and Eva Solvig besieged Jack from both sides, alternating their strikes to not let him teleport away.

Jack had achieved a lot of things in this battle, but they all came at a cost. He was currently exhausted. His Thunder Body ability was barely holding on, and the only thing keeping him afloat was the constant stream of energy coming from Brock. Now surrounded, defending was all he could do, and the occasional strike that seeped through rocked his world.

His vision grew blurry. The world lost its sharpness. Defending became an instinct, and his arms slowed down as the lightning ran out around him. He was beginning to lose.

No, he thought. Not now. Not after coming this far!

Nobody was coming to save him. No one ever would. From start to finish, the only people Jack could depend on were himself and his bro. Brock had already done everything he could—Jack had to end this himself.

Pushed to the edge, he took a risk. He completely turned his back to the Supreme Ancestor, facing Eva Solvig entirely. He leaned into the attack even as a series of strikes landed on his back, piercing his body, breaking his skin and bones. He roared as he hurtled himself forward, through a burning wave of Purity, into Eva Solvig. All four of his fists crashed down together. The world was split in four—then erupted as one.

“QUADRUPLE SUPERNOVA!”

The impact was so massive that Jack went blind. His chest was seared by heat even as his back was devastated by the Supreme Ancestor. He flew backward, into the leonine, then both crashed into the far wall together. The arena flickered as if about to disappear. Jack felt half-dead. All his bones were broken.

Thankfully, he still had the Life Drop’s regeneration. When his eyes were restored, he gazed at a massive crater in the sand. Eva’s barely recognizable body lay in its midst, completely charred and broken.

So were Jack’s fists, actually. They were now slowly regenerating thanks to the Life Drop—even he couldn’t endure four supernovas at once. Moreover, he was mostly spent.

But the Supreme Ancestor was in even worse condition. He possessed neither Jack’s robustness nor his regeneration—though the impact he’d received was smaller, his aged body could barely stand, and his wrinkled skin had ruptured all over. Black blood flowed from his mouth and limbs—only one arm and one leg remained intact, while the rest were broken.

This legend of the galaxy, the founder of a B-Grade faction who’d once reached the peak B-Grade, was finally at the end of his rope.

Jack stood up, shaking and ready for a final battle, but it didn’t seem like the Supreme Ancestor was up for it. His gaze was cloudy—Jack could feel weakness from his body, as if he’d already half-slipped into death. Perhaps it was unavoidable. The whole point of being eternally suspended was to return for one battle.

The Supreme Ancestor gazed at the broken fields of sand. The bodies of his descendants littered it—the ruins of everything he’d worked to build. He was old, too old—and, suddenly, he was alone.

The leonine raised his head and barked an ugly laugh. More blood flowed from the ends of his lips. “Who would have thought!” he shouted. “My life was a joke! Everything I built was ruined—everything I was is lost. Hahaha! Oh, Heavenly Dao! I never thought that at my final moments, even I would be forsaken!”

Jack was in no mood to argue. “Are you done?” he asked.

“Done? Yes, I am… I’m done forever.” The Supreme Ancestor gave Jack a deep, inscrutable glance. “I hate you more than I have ever hated everyone, but I acknowledge my defeat. I cannot kill you even if we keep fighting. In that case, I may as well die standing.”

Jack nodded. A hint of appreciation entered his eyes. “You fought bravely.”

The Supreme Ancestor sighed. He relaxed his Dao and withdrew his aura. He could always reactivate them, but it would take a tiny amount of time, and that was more than enough for Jack to kill him. He’d basically dropped his weapons. “I surrender, Jack Rust. You may do with my old body as you like. However, if there is something I may ask of you… Don’t blame my descendants. They were wrong to antagonize you, but most of them are innocent. Please, don’t massacre them. Let a bit of my lineage carry on. Show mercy.”

Jack did not reply immediately. His hand grabbed the leonine’s throat—who didn’t resist—then he carried his surrendered opponent to the center of the arena. The audience shouted for blood.

“I admire your resolve,” Jack finally said. “Unfortunately, the grudge between me and your descendants is far too deep.”

The Supreme Ancestor’s lip trembled. Suddenly, he wasn’t the legend of a generation, but a sad old man. “Must I beg?” he asked in a trembling voice.

Jack shook his head. “I once swore to my dead son that the name Emberheart would cease to exist. I cannot go back on that, nor do I want to. You were a brave man, Perilus Emberheart, both in life and in death—it’s just a pity that your descendants didn’t inherit your honor. I will not force you to watch them die. Go on first, and I will make sure they all follow you soon.”

The Supreme Ancestor’s eyes had never been deeper. “I understand,” he said in a weak voice. Jack clenched his hand and snapped the other man’s throat, then pulled the body into his space ring. To him, at least, he would give a proper burial. He deserved it.

Dark emotions welled up inside Jack. A war was taking place in his heart—he could sense that the moment when he chose between light and darkness was approaching, but he didn’t feel there was a choice, only an inevitability.

He sighed. He let the arena disappear, since the battle was over, and he quickly pocketed the space rings of Eva Solvig and the white-cloaked man—being Envoys of the Hand of God, they were the only ones who carried such things. He would inspect them later.

Finally, he turned towards Animal Planet. There was only a single high-Grade individual remaining—Artus Emberheart, who had not participated in the battle. Jack’s true enemy, the man he hated most in the world.

He flew back slowly, not worried that Artus would escape. Indeed—as he approached, he saw the leonine wrapped in golden chains. Brock was beside him, standing with arms crossed and a stare Jack couldn’t quite place.

“Hey bro,” said the brorilla. “Nice battle.”

Jack nodded. His gaze landed on Artus Emberheart.