The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 217: A Battle Between Villains

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BOOOMMM!!!

Bing Xue quickly dragged her family down before they were to get caught in the huge explosion, as she felt the presence of a powerful deity within the shockwaves, mixing and fighting against the Darkness of the Dark Storm Dragon.

“So they have arrived, but I didn’t expect this to happen… Was I too focused on the battle?”

Bing Xue had been keeping a close eye on several things around the world, but due to having most of her hands occupied, she slowly lost the focus of the world around her to fight her foe, the Dark Storm Dragon, who offered a great challenge.

What she didn’t expect was that the divine entity that had appeared some time ago would suddenly show up and attack the Dark Storm Dragon, although it didn’t seem to be intentional but an accident.

“Those are…?!”

She quickly realized what was happening as she saw Galaxy Man and his little group of wannabe heroes, the Jade Star, Marvelous Woman, and Nightman, fighting against the Dark Storm Dragon, who had become a phantasmal being made of shadows, darkness, and void.

“There’s one missing, Speedwing, wasn’t he?” Merkite and Urbosa asked at the same time, still merged as one. After a lot of training, they could keep their fusion for about an hour a day.

“Wingspeed,” Bing Xue said. “But yes, he’s missing…!”

RUMBLE!

“Uuurrggh! U-Unhand meeee! H-How dare… you?! Ugh…!”

Galaxy Man groaned as he began punching and kicking the darkness with his fists and legs, all while the other heroes with him unleashed their powerful attacks.

“This Darkness… It is too powerful! I can barely try to keep it away!”

Jade Star screamed; his psionic projections of immense physical power were barely able to push the darkness a bit away from him. However, the tentacles made of darkness wrapped around his body again, aiming at his neck, asphyxiating him.

“K-Keep fighting! Dammit! Was this a trap from that bastard of Wingspeed and that guy that accompanied him?!”

Marvelous Woman punched the darkness with her fists and then summoned a sword of light, slicing it apart and sending shockwaves of light. She managed to push back the Darkness a bit, but more emerged from every angle.

“I-I cannot… purify this much Darkness! Ugh…! My Exorcism Artifacts aren’t even with me…!”

Nightman, an Exorcist and Detective, was perhaps the weakest of the group, as besides these talents, he was just a normal human. He had developed new Skills through the System, but it had been too little time for him to get strong enough.

“DO YOU TRULY BELIEVE YOU CAN STOP ME?! ARE YOU WORKING WITH THAT WOMAN?!”

The Dark Storm Dragon roared furiously as his phantasmal body transformed constantly, coiling around his victims like a lethal viper, his giant claws aiming at his new foes without hesitation.

“I’LL CRUSH YOU!”

His claws rushed down, slashing and tearing through the psionic armor of Jade Star, which he had conjured over his allies to protect them, rapidly beginning to shatter it.

Crack, crack…!

CRASH!

“Uuuggh…! Aaaggh!”

The first victim was Nightman, screaming in agony as the darkness began to twist his arms and legs, breaking his bones and infiltrating his mouth, nose, and ears.

“Nightman!” Marvelous Woman screamed. “BASTARD! LET HIM GO!”

She channeled the Divine Power of the being possessing her, who didn’t wipe out their minds or memories but simply made them “eviler” and loyal to him and his empire.

However, they still saw one another as allies they had to protect, and she rapidly swung her light sword, cutting the claws of the Dark Storm Dragon.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

Powered up by the mysterious divine entity within her that Bing Xue had already seen, she cut through the Dark Storm Dragon’s claws and then freed Nightman from the agony.

“URGH…! THAT SWORD…!”

The green and yellow-colored divine aura around them intensified as Nightman’s bones began to rapidly recover, and his arms and legs went back to their original positions with loud sounds.

“Nightman! Have you recovered?” Marvelous Woman asked him.

“I have; our Lord has given me great power,” Nightman smiled, seeing his body fully recovered. “We must prioritize destroying this entity. Our Lord seems unable to possess him or absorb him; he cannot join us and become one with him. Cough! B-But don’t let the Darkness enter your body! It seems to possess parasitic properties. I was barely able to… Cough! With the power of our Lord, to release out of my body.”

Nightman spoke as he coughed large pieces of what seemed to be black coal but was in fact hardened and concentrated Darkness, which had been sealed within Nightman’s body and stopped from spreading by the divine entity possessing him.

“DON’T GET COCKY, YOU BASTARDS!”

The Dark Storm Dragon rapidly began to spin around, becoming a gigantic Black Heaven Storm like those that Fang Gu Lan could unleash, encompassing his foes and beginning to conjure giant spears and slicing attacks, covering their bodies with attacks.

FLUOOOSH!

Marvelous Woman, Jade Star, and Nightman tried to resist together, unifying their powers into an Aura combined with the deity that has possessed them!

TRUUUM!

A shockwave of divine primal power was released from their bodies, but it was not even enough for the storm to stop, as it continued spinning rapidly, their psionic armor shattering yet again.

“Your armor is breaking too easily, Jade Star!” Marvelous Woman said. “Make it harder!”

“Don’t get cocky; I am doing everything I can! That thing is simply ridiculous!” Jade Star clicked his tongue. “We must hold it back together!”

“Galaxy Man, fight that thing!” Nightman roared. “We are now one, so I will grant you my greater fighting experience, insight, and knowledge to fight better with your strength.”

“Thank you, my fellow possessed,” Galaxy Man smirked as his eyes shone bright red, looking reptilian.

They acted as if they were individuals, but their wills were only half their own, and the other half the being possessing them, creating unique beings.

The entity that possessed them, as Bing Xue could analyze, wasn’t controlling them completely, not because it didn’t want to, but because it seemed unable to.

“It seems whatever that thing is, it can only choose one main body to possess, which it has already done? The rest, it can only possess to an extent… But perhaps that’s what gives it the benefit of combining the original body’s strengths, mind, and experiences with his own and also sharing between one another, creating a Mind Colony of sorts…” Bing Xue analyzed.

BAAAM! BAAAM! BAAAM!

Several explosive shockwaves impacted the Dark Storm Dragon, blowing holes through his spiritual and phantasmal form as he groaned, his eyes widening as he saw Galaxy Man attacking him.

“NNGGRRHHH! WITH YOUR BARE FISTS…?!”

“Oh, I can do much more than that!”

Galaxy Man smiled maliciously and viciously, a smile he would never show to anybody, as he rushed towards the Dark Storm Dragon, gathering energy into his chest while punching and kicking.

The Dark Storm Dragon didn’t just let him attack him though, as he quickly harnessed the power he absorbed from Fang Gu Lan, manifesting seven-colored heavens, although their bright colors were very darkened now.

“I’LL SHOW YOU THE POWER OF A CALAMITY SUCH AS MYSELF!”

The Seven Dark Heavens converged together into a spinning tornado and then grew distorted, giving birth to Primordial Chaos, warping space around him and firing a massive beam with it towards Galaxy Man as the hero charged against him.

TRUUUMMM!!!

Galaxy Man smiled as he unleashed the cosmic radiation he had absorbed and harnessed into his chest, unleashing a powerful cosmic blue beam against the Dark Storm Dragon!

Both beams clashed against one another, making the entire sky tremble.

RUMBLE!

As this happened, the three other heroes rapidly freed themselves from the Dark Storm Dragon, attacking him from above, below, and behind.

“Hyaaaahhh!”

Marvelous Woman swung her Sword of Light with godlike reflexes and technique, a sword she inherited from her Ancestor, the War God Ares from her world.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

Slashes of light sliced through the Darkness, weakening the Dark Storm Dragon slightly while also annoying him. Despite how strong they were, they couldn’t compare to Bing Xue’s swordsmanship.

“Prepare yourself!”

Jade Star manifested the powers of his Jade within his chest, manifesting two massive cannons that he had seen giant spaceships have, charging them with energy and firing with everything he had.

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

“UURGH!”

As the explosions pierced through the Darkness, the Dark Storm Dragon let out a slight groan, although he still wasn’t completely overwhelmed yet.

His attack continued clashing against Galaxy Man’s beam, ultimately overpowering it!

BOOOMMM!!!

The beam of Primordial Chaos impacted Galaxy Man directly, a power and attack that could completely disintegrate most matter to a subatomic level.

“Galaxy Man!”

Marvelous Woman, Jade Star, and Nightman panicked, as they were unable to weaken the Dark Storm Dragon enough.

“Uuuggh…!”

Galaxy Man, however, was covered with bruises and burns but wasn’t dead; in fact, there seemed to be no lethal wound over his body at all, no giant hole through his chest, even less broken bones or lost limbs.

“He barely took superficial damage?!” The Dark Storm Dragon thought, gritting his sharp, phantasmal teeth. “Wait! Where is that woman at?!”

He quickly realized he had been desperately fighting these new fighters that appeared out of nowhere, and Bing Xue and her family were nowhere to be seen now.

After they destroyed his physical body and left him in this unstable, phantasmal state, they might have soon vanquished him.

But this happened, and they were nowhere to be seen…

“Where are they- Ah!”

He quickly realized Bing Xue and her family were down below, very far away from the battle.

And Bing Xue?

She was actually smiling.

“This is actually perfect,” she said to her family. “Those possessed heroes were also foes that we would have ended fighting against after the Dark Storm Dragon. But I am sure not everyone could have easily fought them. So let’s just let them fight one another instead. Let’s let them weaken each other, possibly killing their opponent. Whoever loses, it’s a win for us, and whoever wins, will be very weakened, don’t you think?”

“M-Mom…” Athena was surprised by her mother’s cunning side, but the girl nodded. “You’re right…!”

“So this is how we’ll deal with all these foes from now on?” Mursha laughed. “Well, I’ll be damned; it doesn’t sound too bad to me.”

“Not for all mom, but for this occasion, it sounds like the proper thing to do!” Kalana nodded.

“I would like to fight them myself, but… I’m exhausted,” Orion sighed. “Releasing all our power is tiring…”

“I know, you still lack a lot of practice and cultivation,” nodded Bing Xue. “For now, let us watch the battle, recover our energies, and reinforce our defenses. There are other things happening around the world as we speak, but that’s for my disciples to take care of. They must show me they’ve become worthy.”

“But what about the people that fell down there, mom?” Athena wondered. “The people riding that spaceship! They're still down there… We should go check them out!”

“If it were up to me, I would simply leave them; we don’t want more trouble than what we’ve gone through already…” Mursha said with her often-harsh remarks.

“Eeeh?! But mom!” Kalana complained.

“She’s not wrong, Kalana,” Bing Xue nodded. “Your mother is very right; we shouldn’t bother… But.”

Bing Xue sighed, gripping her fists tightly.

“I am not someone that simply doesn’t help others in danger,” she said. “I made an oath I would save and protect those in danger, just like we’ve been protecting these former enemies.”

She looked at the Immortals behind them, who were cowering in fear, still without knowing what to do.

“Bing Xue…” Merkite and Urbosa muttered at the same time, smiling lovingly. “We knew you would say that; that’s just the way you are, our love.”

“Hah… Well, if you hadn’t been like that in the first place, I wouldn’t have been helped. And my world would have continued being the playground of a mad god…” Mursha nodded. “And well, I also love you because you are that way.”

“Go wife! We will protect the Pagoda and these pathetic sheep,” Fiery Hair said, glaring at the Immortals behind her.

“Yeah!” Rainbow Eyes nodded.

“Athena, Orion, Merneith, Hekita, come with me,” Bing Xue said. “Everyone else, stay here. It won’t take too long.”

“Huh? Me? Sure… But why?” Merneith rushed to Bing Xue’s side through Ra’s Awakened Form.

“Ohh? Sure!” Hekita nodded. “I’ll protect my little siblings!”

“Thank you, big sis!” Athena said. “I’m counting on you!”

“I don’t need to be protected…” Orion grumpily said. “I’m not a baby anymore, big sis…”

“Heheh! To me, you two will always be my cute baby brother and baby sister!” Hekita giggled adorably inside her robot.

“You might be of help dealing with what we’ve got down there, Merneith, Hekita,” said Bing Xue. “I think I’m seeing a glimpse of the possible futures… And the best one requires your help.”

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