Chapter 1670: Coils of Perdition The descent of the serpents may have wiped out a vast number of lives, but due to the fact that the essence of those lost lives was not consumed by them and the Great Desert was destabilized, it meant a significant number of these immortals could be resurrected. Those who could not return were either too weak or had perished entirely; the feedback from the power of destruction had proved too much for their dimensional powers to handle. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖 And so billions of immortals began to slowly rise out of ashes, but they were smart about their resurrection and chose to return far away from the desert. By coincidental stroke of fate, the immortals who died turned out to be the lucky ones. Death shielded them from the full collapse of sanity caused by the descent of the serpents. For those that survived, only a few were able to keep their minds intact, and all were Old Ones. Lila Black resurrected herself too close to the Great Desert, and her eyes looked around in panic for her brother. Kacius was supposed to be far from the battle, but the wave of devastation at the end was too great, and should have reached him. Her eyes saw a lone figure kneeling in space, surrounded by the broken corpses of a million immortal mages, and her eyes lit up as she recognized her brother. ’That big doofus still found a way to survive after all.’ Ignoring the call of the other immortals when they saw that she was heading towards the Great Desert, Lila blinked her way through space and time and reached her kneeling brother. His strong heartbeat, unlike a mage’s, poured through their familiar bond. She stopped beside him, placed a hand on his shoulder, and then peered at the Great Desert. Those mysterious creatures that descended from above were linked to certain rumors that had been flying around Reality about an unknown power battling against the Primordials. She was curious, but a haze of power surrounded the Great Desert, one that seemed on the verge of shattering. Something told her she did not want to see what lay beneath. "Brother, let us leave this place. This battle is not for us and would never be. I was wrong to think we could make anything out of it. Reality is infinite, brother, and we can find a home somewhere inside its vastness, and it does not have to be here." She was speaking to her brother, yet a tear was dropping from her eye. Lila blinked in surprise, and then she allowed her mind to come to terms with the realization her soul had made the moment she laid her hand on her brother’s shoulders. He was gone, and what remained was a shell. Lila sighed and sat beside him, looking at his slack features as if memorizing every inch of his face. Gently closing his eyes, she kissed him on the forehead and watched as he collapsed into ash. A haunting cry exploded from the Great Desert like a creature made of metal being torn to pieces. Turning to the desert, she saw that the haze from the explosion had been blown away, and she could see the dance of madness happening inside. "Lila Black, there is a call for retreat to the central dimensional zone. We are to observe and take note of this new party... Lila, are you listening to me?" Ignoring the voice of her master, whom she had followed into this battle while dragging her brother alongside, she knelt by the ashes of her family and observed the battle in the desert. She was willing to finish what her brother could not. It was the least she could do to honor his memory. ® Although all of the Ouroboros Serpents were technically the same age, Rowan had manifested them in different periods, and Divus was the first Serpent that had emerged from his blood. In all things, she had always led them, including taking charge and consuming the first Primordial Beast they had come across and claiming a name. She was a bit surprised that Bahamut had begun devouring the desert before her, but she understood that he was opening the way for her to finish her feast. He was the youngest, and somehow he had become the second to claim a name. When the serpent descended, their only concern was feeding Divus and destroying the desert, and they had placed nothing before their sight. Not the immortals or the shades of the desert, not even Nemesis. To the Origin Ouroboros, there was only one enemy, and that was the Primordials. So, when Bahamut was attacked, his statement was factual: Nemesis would die. If this entity had stood aside, then the serpents would have ignored it, but by attacking, it became prey. Once again, Divus watched Bahamut lunge forward. This time, he was not attacking the desert but Nemesis. She knew that after consuming the previous Bahamut, their youngest should be the strongest amongst the six of them, but he did not use the power of his name; instead, he favored his body. This was the right path, the pure path unique to them as Origin Beasts, but as of yet, their strength was still nascent, and utilizing their name should be the best option. However, Bahamut was stubborn and would seek to battle with his flesh anytime the opportunity called for it. Bahamut blurred across space, as he struck like a whip. His body coiled around Nemesis with the gravitational force of a billion black holes. He had wrapped around Nemesis numerous times, until the guardian of the desert was hidden under his coils. What emerged from that infernal wraps was the shriek of Nemesis’s armor and the dull crunch of his bones and flesh as they were placed under reality-breaking pressure. The spaces within his coils kept shrinking as the pressure grew to such impossible heights that space and time collapsed into crystalline shards, shredding Nemesis within into tiny chunks of matter, and the pressure continued increasing. From within the coils of Bahamut where nothing should be able to survive, the angered voice of Nemesis emerged, first as a whisper before it increased to a roar. "I am... THE DESERT!" A sudden lack of essence and pressure swept through the entirety of the Great Desert, and the quiet sighs of the countless shades of the desert vanished. It was as if all of the desert’s power and potential had been taken away, and what was left was not a mystical land but an ordinary desert. From within the coils of Bahamut, a light erupted that was so bright it was able to penetrate through the scales, flesh, and bones of the Ouroboros Serpent, making it possible for someone on the outside to see the body of Nemesis being reforged under the pressure exerted by Bahamut, like diamond being squeezed out of coal. A bright line emerged from Nemesis’s hand. This was its blade, which had collected all of the memories buried here in the desert. At this moment, the power erupting from this weapon was so great that it seemed to have faintly touched the limit that Reality could hold. A vast Tribulation cloud began to gather over the desert, and a power of rejection erupted with intense force. Nemesis pushed against Bahamut’s coil’s force, sliced down with the blade, and the Ouroboros Serpent was cut into multiple pieces. As the blade cut through dozens of coils, Bahamut gave a furious hiss and began to collapse. Bursting out of Bahamut’s hold, Nemesis twisted his hand, and his blade collapsed into a great burning chain, twisting his torso like a marionette. Nemesis lashed the burning chain across Bahamut’s throat. The Ouroboros Serpent thrashed, its cosmic scales cracking and collapsing under the impossible heat and power within the chains of Nemesis, its divided body spasming and collapsing the desert, unable to reconnect and heal for the single slice had cut through the regenerative factor of the serpent. In a single astonishing move, Nemesis had subdued Bahamut, and if the serpent refused to use the power of his name or he came alone, then the narrative might change... but Bahamut was not alone. Divus had held back the others, hoping Bahamut would let go of his stubbornness and use the power of his name, but she was far too softhearted to watch her younger siblings endure pain for long, so she decided to lead by example. Calling upon the power of her name, Divus’s body grew a size bigger and then she exhaled. The power of Divus was one of Unmaking, entropy itself. Although she did not have access to the full might of the previous Primordial Beast, she had the weight behind this power that could boost it to terrible heights. This power was at the ninth-dimensional level, and Divus forced out a wave of unmaking, which turned the sands into screaming antimatter. Time and space were melted into a viscous sludge, reducing everything in front of her into quantum static. Nemesis growled in anger and crossed his arms, half of his burning chains transforming into a shield, which barely finished assembling before the breath of Divus slammed into it. The collision created a shockwave that tore the Desert in two and shattered every dimensional barrier around for billions of light years. Nemesis and Bahamut were flung into the distance, stunning them both. Divus grew pale. Channeling a Primordial-level attack was extremely draining, but she was already recovering rapidly, while the rest of her siblings charged forward like the apocalypses that they were.