The emperor landed on the seat behind him, his features contorting into a mask of grief and unrestrained fury.
"You are less than a dog, you damned artifact!" His voice cracked, his nose scrunching in pure hate. "My children! You made these heroes, my pride, suffer for fifty thousand years. But it wasn’t enough? What have you done to them?!"
Adam slammed his chair before the puppet answered, his brows twitching and his head throbbing after the short but demanding crafting.
"Don’t scream in my ears, old fool! Better. Don’t distract me if you want a chance at survival."
His eyes narrowed on the puppet’s curled beak as he controlled the giant.
Four hollow arms aimed at him, the round holes in the middle sizzling like cannons’ muzzles. The six others clutched three-meter-tall broadswords, their sharp edges humming in the wind as they moved in a defensive stance.
The puppet slapped his head, his eyes curving in amusement. "Hahaha. A puppet to fight me? The pinnacle of demonic craftsmanship? That’s the best joke I’ve ever witnessed." His voice chilled, and his smile didn’t reach his eyes. "Or are you wasting your last moment to provoke me? Fret not, void emperor. You’ll soon join your children in my stomach after I enslave the daring brat."
He gripped the Chronoscar and swung it before him. "I have a joke of my own. How does killing you with your own weapon sound?"
"Which weapon?" Adam scoffed in ridicule, the sword fading as he recalled it to his soul sea. "We’ll see who laughs in the end, you bastard."
Echoing his defiance against the despair forced on him by the emperor, the four muzzles turned blinding white, scalding arcs dancing on their surfaces. Golden lightning crackled in their depths before they melded with solar flames.
The puppet frowned before he shrugged. He was a weapon in the first place. Ripping this thin can to shreds with his bare hands would be as easy as breathing.
However, his eyes widened as he leapt back in alarm.
The ground exploded where he had stood a split second before, molten motes of soil and melted slabs erupting like volcanic fallouts. The grass ignited, sulfur and burned vegetation swirling in a waltz of ashes over the fuming pit digging a kilometer into the ground.
His eyes narrowed, a solemn frown creasing his brows. Aside from four blinding flashes, he saw nothing. Even the sound came after, making for an insidious attack. Were his spells that fast before?
Meanwhile, Adam cursed. How was the puppet faster than condensed solar beams?! "Shit!"
"You’ll get him with the next shot! Destroy the puppet, and I swear in my name, everything I own and more will be yours!" The emperor raged behind him, his fingers digging into his chair’s metallic armrests as his dignified face turned a hideous scarlet.
Adam clicked his tongue. He had hoped to damage the puppet while he still underestimated his golem. But speed alone wouldn’t suffice.
"I need to trap him with his own movement." He waved his hands, the emperor’s chair buzzing to life as sparks ran down the engravings connected to it. "You were a Dao integration realm overlord. You control the six-bladed arms to seal his movements!"
Even if he didn’t enjoy relinquishing control over his creation, the emperor was the strongest expert he had ever met. If not for his bizarre state, he didn’t doubt the weakened puppet would fall beneath his strikes. Therefore, he had prepared to use his wealth of battle knowledge in the only possible way.
The emperor shuddered as he felt his consciousness spread along the pulsing engravings. He clenched his fist, feeling the greatswords’ grips as if he were holding them.
"Who would have thought I’d wield a blade again," he muttered, his lips curling in grim resolve, eyes narrowing, and frame tensing.
Now that he had a way to avenge himself and his children, his powerless rage melted, replaced by a voice of regal solemnity—the voice of a sky beyond the sky whose battle instincts reawakened after millennia of slumber. "I’ll rip it to shreds. Count on me!"
Simultaneously, the puppet’s wings unfurled, shoving angry gales down. He pierced the wind like a demonic missile, green flames swirling around his fists.
He sneered as the bulky golem moved to meet him. Compared to the beams, its red arms were painfully slow. His eyes darted to the massive plates protecting it, understanding the focus of this pathetic imitation of his perfect self: defense at the cost of speed. Yet, could mere minerals endure his demonic flames?
Despite his confidence, his eyes narrowed as he swung his fist.
With a subtle yet meaningful wrist spin, the emperor twisted one of the arms. The broadsword whistled in the opposite direction, the wide pommel rushing to meet the blazing fist with minimal movement and exquisite precision.
A deafening shockwave burst from the impact, the wind pressure crashing on the golem. Yet, it towered unbroken, like its pilots’ determination, despite the sizzling pommel that dripped molten liquid on the armory’s wooden floor.
Even better, the emperor followed up with five slashes with the other arms, none aiming to cleave the puppet. After all, the speed difference was too high to hope for success. However, they all predicted a different scenario, sealing his options in a brilliant tactical manoeuver.
As the broadsword drew sparkling arcs around the puppet, Adam’s eyes blazed as he shoved the cannon arms at the puppet, energy already rumbling in their depths.
"We can do it!" He roared, the engravings hidden inside the arms flaring.
Six magic circles crackled with golden and dark colors as a solar jet erupted. Each time it passed by one, lightning accelerated the particles before gravity propelled it to the next.
Four condensed solar beams shot out, the air distorting in their wake.
Yet, the puppet snorted.
A veil of demonic flames spread around him, swirling in a burning defensive typhoon a split second before the beams vaporised him.
The centrifugal force dissipated their energies just enough to redirect them away.
They crashed into the palace, drawing its ancient rooms in flames as he roared in laughter.
"I killed you at your peak, pitiful emperor. You’re a mere consciousness stripped from its body and soul, and soon, I’ll devour even that. Don’t you regret opposing me? Don’t you envy the other Dao ancestors who knew better and hid in their blessed lands?"
The flames receded, revealing his disgusting smirk. "Ah, what a pleasant life you threw away to become a sacrifice. How much did your children resent you for all the suffering your decision brought them?"