DSAW Ch.379

Chapter 379 – The Final Battle (2): Soul Realm

 

Tu Ran, who was facing him directly, looked at the ruler in such a sorry state, with only one thought in her mind. Weakling.

She thought it, and she said it aloud.

“You’re just a weakling who can’t even self-destruct.”

Hache Bulu was so enraged that his hair almost seemed to explode. He stared at Tu Ran with intense focus, his voice dark and grim as he spoke, but not to her. “Her goal is to destroy the future of the Rulers, to ruin the efforts the Rulers have made over thousands of years. Are you not coming to help?”

He was speaking to the leaders of the Green-eyed and Red Crown tribes who were watching from the back.

The leader of the Green-eyed tribe, habitually resting his hands behind his back, lowered them. He felt that Hache Bulu had a point, but he still needed to ask the opinion of his temporary ally. He turned his gaze to the other direction, where the leader of the Red Crown tribe, who had escaped separately with him, was standing.

At that moment, the leader of the Red Crown tribe also looked over. Their eyes met, and the leader of the Green-eyed tribe instantly froze.

The Green-eyed tribe was particularly sensitive to all forms of illusion in the universe, especially their leader.

Seeing the leader of the Red Crown tribe approaching, the leader of the Green-eyed tribe couldn’t help but take a step back. A golden barrier formed in his hands and rose in front of him, blocking the Red Crown leader’s advance. He spoke out, “Who are you?”

The leader of the Red Crown tribe instinctively raised his hand to touch his hair. What had once been thick, flowing waves of hair was now sparse with only a few strands left. His mood immediately soured. “You dare to blow her up blow her up, I’ll show you your ancestor!”

Before he finished speaking, a huge fireball crashed into his golden barrier.

Amid the sparks flying, the golden barrier shattered like fragile glass, splitting into several cracks and shattering into pieces, falling apart.

The burly leader of the Red Crown tribe charged through the shattered barrier, delivering a powerful punch to the face of the leader of the Green-eyed tribe.

The Green-eyed tribe leader didn’t have time to feel the pain. He quickly raised a new barrier to protect himself and grabbed the steel fork his subordinate threw at him, stabbing it toward the leader of the Red Crown tribe.

The two leaders wrestled fiercely.

The sudden appearance of a human from an unknown world engaging in a fight with Hache Bulu had already left many representatives confused and uncertain.

Now, the leader of the Green-eyed tribe and the leader of the Red Crown tribe were inexplicably fighting each other. The representatives from various worlds were left in a daze, unsure of where to focus their attention.

Because they had been so absorbed in the battle between Tu Ran and Hache Bulu, they hadn’t noticed the silent appearance of another Red Crown tribesman, dressed in black robes, who had appeared beside the leader of the Red Crown tribe.

The figure seemed to be familiar with the Red Crown leader, perhaps one of his subordinates. After a brief exchange, the figure turned to leave but suddenly tripped and fell at the feet of the Red Crown leader, their hand brushing against his leg.

Immediately, the leader of the Red Crown tribe became enraged and fired a fireball, incinerating the figure.

It seemed like a normal scene—the Red Crown leader had a bad temper, and whenever something didn’t go his way, he would incinerate someone.

However, what no one knew was that the soul inside the body that had been burned wasn’t just any ordinary figure—it was, in fact, the true leader of the Red Crown tribe.

Through the touch, a soul exchange had occurred.

Such a powerful ability was something the leaders of the Rulers World never would have imagined could appear in these lower-level worlds.

When his call for help went unanswered, Hache Bulu’s blue eyes darkened deeply. He stared at Tu Ran.

“What are you staring at?”

Her iron fist swung down again, sending a gust of wind that blew Hache Bulu’s hair back. He swiftly retreated, barely evading the strike. Despite the narrow escape, the powerful energy blast still left several gashes on his face, blood trickling down.

So close.

Tu Ran felt a twinge of regret. She rotated her sore wrist to relieve the tension, maintaining a focused gaze on Hache Bulu, unwilling to delay. She struck once more.

“You arrogant rat!” Hache Bulu hissed under his breath.

The earth began to tremble. The hundreds of representatives on the outer edges of the arena, under the arrangement of Wuma Fenghua, were retreating in an orderly manner. The sudden quake threw them off balance, causing them to stagger and panic. In their haste, many couldn’t help but glance back toward the battlefield.

Countless eerie blue dots of light began to appear from the ground behind Hache Bulu, slowly rising into the air like spirits in a mystical forest. Hache Bulu’s body floated partially above the ground, his arms hanging loosely at his sides, his palms cupping enormous energy spheres.

The energy continued to surge toward the ground, and from beneath, an endless swarm of humanoid figures began to emerge from the earth. They rose like evil spirits, buried for years, now freed to roar, growl, and gnash their teeth as they charged toward Tu Ran.

Tu Ran’s fist was unable to descend, suspended just a few centimeters above Hache Bulu’s head. A massive, solid mental barrier blocked her attack, and at that moment, even [Space Cutting] had no effect. She could only watch helplessly as Hache Bulu summoned his ultimate trump card.

The Hundred-eyed Elf had once said: Hache Bulu’s most terrifying ability was his immense summoning power. The Bulu Sanda tribe’s racial gift was the ability to summon puppets—whether line puppets or paper puppets, they could materialize any inanimate form.

As the leader of the Bulu Sanda tribe, the puppets Hache Bulu summoned were the most powerful in the entire tribe. As long as his mental energy was sufficient, he could continuously summon puppets.

The seven shattered fragments of the Order Cube had granted Hache Bulu boundless mental strength, enabling him to summon a puppet army with astonishing combat power.

The representatives from various worlds had already been evacuated by Wuma Fenghua, leaving only the guards who followed orders.

A tidal wave of line puppets surged toward Tu Ran. Each puppet was three times her size. Using her current abilities to kill them would require an enormous amount of mental power, and even then, it would be difficult to wipe them all out quickly.

Reaching into her clothes, Tu Ran pulled out a mecha capsule and released the massive mecha.

Entering the cockpit, she swiftly slid her fingers across the control panel, retrieved a light blade, and maneuvered the mecha into the sea of line puppets, charging forward.

No matter how large the line puppets were, they couldn’t compare to a mecha the size of a hundred-story building.

Once the mecha was released, the entire arena became crowded.

Tu Ran moved like a merciless bulldozer, her thirty-meter-wide foot crushing the tiny line puppets beneath it. They resisted with all their might, but the effort only slightly delayed her steps, though it didn’t change the inevitable outcome.

If their bodies were solid, Tu Ran believed she would surely hear the satisfying crackling sound of bones breaking.

Unfortunately, she didn’t.

The puppets were merely made of the simplest of lines. Hache Bulu had temporarily granted them the ability to inflict physical damage, but once they couldn’t withstand Tu Ran’s steel-footed stomp, they would return to the earth.

From start to finish, the only thing consumed was Hache Bulu’s mental energy.

The light blade swung through the air, creating deep gashes in the ground. From the perspective of the guards, the cuts were nearly two meters deep, forming chasms that were impossible to cross.

The line puppets continued to crawl up from the earth, but Tu Ran’s target was never them. The light blade fell again, this time aimed directly at Hache Bulu. All her mental energy was concentrated on the blade.

“SSHHH—”

The blade collided with the invisible mental barrier, producing a harsh, screeching sound. Hache Bulu, at the center of the barrier, clenched his eyes shut, his brow furrowing in sudden pain. For just a moment, the line puppets, which had been climbing from the ground, slowed their pace.

The light blade was deflected, leaving the barrier intact.

“Heh, let’s see how long you can keep this up.”

Clang!
Crack!
Bang!
Screech!

Slash, chop, horizontal cut, diagonal thrust…

The mental barrier endured a relentless onslaught of attacks. Hache Bulu’s frown deepened with each strike, and his once blue skin began to pale noticeably.

“Stop holding out. The fragment is already in your hand. Consume it, and I won’t stand a chance against you,” Tu Ran’s voice was laced with temptation, a stark contrast to her ferocious, blade-wielding image.

Hache Bulu knew exactly what Tu Ran was scheming.

The Hundred-eyed Elves of Wuma Star mostly served the Rulers. There were more than a dozen of them in his palace alone.

From the moment Tu Ran brought the fragment of the Order Cube into the Border City, he had been aware of her presence.

He hadn’t made a move immediately because he knew Tu Ran would come to him with the fragment in hand.

If Tu Ran had learned from the Hundred-eyed Elves how to end the chaotic cosmic order, then how could he, Hache Bulu, not know?

If the fragment merged into his body, he would gain the full power of the Order Cube. But at the same time, it would give this unpredictable human before him a chance to save the universe.

Though that chance required one condition—his self-destruction.

Self-destruction?

He didn’t believe he would self-destruct. He had no reason to. He had no weaknesses, no vulnerabilities. That was the truth certified by the Hundred-eyed Elves and accepted across the universe.

Yes, he would not self-destruct.

So why not consume the final fragment?

Hache Bulu’s mental energy was rapidly depleting. He wouldn’t last much longer. If the barrier broke, this human from Blue Star would pilot that relatively advanced mecha from the Haenden Star System and crush him underfoot—just as she had with the puppet warriors.

But if he consumed the final fragment, he would gain the complete power of the Order Cube. He would become the most invincible being in the universe. This human rat, even with the backing of countless worlds, her abilities, mental power, mecha, and allies…

None of it would be enough to defeat him.

Seeing Hache Bulu’s hesitation, Tu Ran decisively launched her final assault, aiming to push him over the edge.

Her increasingly fierce and relentless strikes weakened the mental barrier further. Cracks appeared, and Hache Bulu’s face turned ashen, a terrifying shade of pale.

At last, he made up his mind. With trembling hands, he retrieved the eighth fragment of the Order Cube and fed it into his mouth.

The eight fragments of the Order Cube, finally reunited within his body, merged into one. An immense, overwhelming energy erupted instantly, radiating from Hache Bulu’s entire being. His body glowed from within, and he slowly opened his eyes. Fixing his gaze on the mecha before him, he pressed his lips into a grim, sinister smile.

“Tu Ran, welcome to the Soul Realm.”

The moment she saw him consume the fragment, Tu Ran’s heart leaped with joy. Her plan was nearing its climax. She prepared to retreat and move on to the next step, but an abrupt wave of dizziness overtook her. It was as if her soul no longer controlled her body.

Her body felt unbearably heavy, while her soul felt light enough to drift away.

She watched helplessly as her vision shifted—from staring at the control panel to overlooking the entire cockpit. She had floated to the top of the mecha’s cabin, completely detached from her body.

Her body remained motionless in place, but her soul suddenly felt an immense, overwhelming pull. She struggled against it, but her weightless form offered no resistance. All her superpowers were useless. Helpless, she was drawn into the unknown by that powerful suction.

When she became aware of her surroundings again, she found herself in a strange place. Her feet were firmly planted on solid ground, and she took in the scenery around her.

It was an endless expanse of white—boundless and featureless. There was no way to distinguish the sky from the ground, nor distance from proximity.

It was as if she had been transported to the primordial chaos of the universe, where she was the only being in existence.

“Am I… dead?” she muttered to herself. She looked down at her hands, then pinched her cheek. No pain.

Tu Ran tilted her head back and let out a wail. “Am I really dead?!”

No way. Could it be that after merging the Order Cube, Hache Bulu could just decide who lives or dies with a thought?

His last words had been spoken too softly for her to catch. All she could do was guess from the movement of his lips that he had called her name.

He called her name—and then her soul was yanked out and sent to this ghostly place.

Tu Ran felt the urge to curse loudly.

If this were true, what had all her effort been for? A joke? If Hache Bulu found out, he’d probably laugh himself to death.

Utterly exasperated, Tu Ran flopped to the ground in the shape of a large “X,” surrendering to the situation.