Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign-Chapter 441: Flicker, Crack, Shatter

Ezra steadied his breath, Skyfall’s hilt firm in his grasp.

The sentinel loomed before him, its translucent frame shimmering with refracted light.

For a moment, the chaotic shifting of platforms, the radiant whirlpool below, and even the beams of light felt distant.

All that mattered was this creature—this damned creature seeking his demise.

The sentinel’s star-shaped head flares once more, its core glowing with intense energy.

Ezra’s instincts scream in warning, and he crouches low, using his peripheral vision to anticipate the incoming attack.

Fwoosh!

A yellow beam surges toward him, the air crackling with heat as it passed inches above his head. Ezra doesn’t falter.

Whilst crouching, he launches himself forward, closing the distance between them.

The sentinel responds with precision, its green barrier materializing just as Ezra swung Skyfall in a downward arc.

The fiery blade strikes the barrier with a resounding clang, causing sparks to fly in all directions.

Ezra grits his teeth as the barrier holds firm, but he isn’t done yet.

Pivoting on his heel, he spins for into a second strike, channelling more energy into Skyfall.

This time, the impact causes the barrier to flicker and dim slightly, a grin forming on his face at the sight.

The sentinel shifts its stance, its star-shaped head swivelling unnaturally.

Beads of energy gathered around its core, and Ezra’s eyes narrowed. It was preparing something big.

"Not on my watch."

With a burst of movement, Ezra leaps to the side just as a light beam erupted from the sentinel, cutting through the platform where he had been standing.

This time, the beam doesn’t stop—it slices through three more platforms before dissipating into the whirlpool below.

Ezra lands hard on a nearby platform, his knees buckling slightly from the force.

"That’s new," he muttered, shaking his head. The sentinel, undeterred, begins advancing toward him, its every step calculated and deliberate.

Ezra’s mind races. The creature’s green barrier is formidable, but it isn’t impenetrable.

His eyes scan the sentinel’s frame, searching for anything that could be a vulnerability.

That’s when he notices it—small cracks forming at the base of its star-shaped head, likely from his earlier attacks.

A plan began to form in his mind.

The sentinel fires another beam, this one a vivid yellow, aimed directly at Ezra chest.

Sidestepping, the heat brushing against his skin as it passes.

He retaliates with a flurry of fire slashes, aiming not at the barrier, but at the platforms beneath the sentinel.

The sentinel tilts its head, seemingly confused, as the platforms began to wobble under the force of the explosions.

Ezra doesn’t stop. He keeps hammering the platforms with precise strikes until they begin to give way.

The sentinel stumbles, its movements momentarily disjointed. This is all the opening Ezra needed.

Channelling every ounce of his energy into the blade, it heats up, showcasing a furious red along its black surface and blade edge.

With his expression calm as water, Ezra charges, leaping onto the sentinel’s platform just as it steadies itself.

The creature raised its green barrier once more, but this time, Ezra’s ready.

He swings Skyfall with all his might, colliding with the barrier in an explosion of light and heat.

The barrier cracks under the force, and thanks to his persistent nature, Ezra succeeds in shattering it.

The sentinel reels, its translucent body flickering as if struggling to maintain its form.

Ezra didn’t hesitate. He drove Skyfall into the crack at the base of its head, twisting the blade as he poured his energy into it.

The sentinel squirms as its body began to fracture, trying it’s best dislodge the blade as light spilled from its wounds, growing brighter and brighter until—

Boom!

The sentinel shoots a dazzling burst of prismatic light at point blank range, pushing back both opponents.

Ezra shielded his eyes, the force of the explosion nearly knocking him off the platform.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ezra spots the sentinels figure falling straight into the whirlpool below.

Breathing heavily, Ezra stands gallant and looks toward the exit canyon. The path was clear.

"Well," he said, a tired grin on his face, "Good bye and Good riddance"

Without wasting another moment, he began making his way across the remaining platforms.

Though his body ached and his energy reserves were low, he felt a surge of satisfaction.

Each trial pushed him closer to his limits, and each victory proved he was capable of surpassing them.

As he made his way to the exit canyon, Ezra pauses to take one last look at the construct behind him.

The shattered remains of the sentinel were gone.

"Another tenacious bastard" Ezra mutters, rotating his arms to get rid of the soreness.

But as he would take another step forward, something stirred.

The whirlpool of light, previously subdued, flared with renewed brilliance.

Ezra turns just in time to shield his eyes as a burst of blinding light erupted from the whirlpool.

"What the—"

The air crackled with energy, and Ezra’s instincts screamed danger.

His senses rang as an object shot out from the radiant depths, landing with a heavy thud on the platform before him.

It was the sentinel.

Its once-damaged body is now pristine, its star-shaped head whole and gleaming with renewed menace.

Ezra’s jaw tightens as the creature locked onto him, its core flaring brightly.

"Of course," Ezra mutters, with an expression that said he had seen it all at this point.

The sentinel lunges, its movements faster and more aggressive than before.

Ezra parries its strike, the force of the impact reverberating up his arm.

He leaps to another platform just as the sentinel’s head began glowing and without even waiting to confirm the beam’s colour, Ezra makes a dive.

A searing beam scorched the air behind him, narrowly missing his precious buttocks.

Landing face-first on the platform, he rolls, slipping off its edge and onto the platform below.

Falling on his feet, Ezra finally has some breathing space.

Gasping, he takes a glance at the whirlpool below before glaring at the sentinel as it prepares for another assault.

"All that light," Ezra growls, his voice tinged with frustration as he put the pieces together, "Only helped you recover. Fine then, I’ll take my time to recovering as well"

Fed up and annoyed’, Ezra activates <Gatekeeper>, bolting to the sovereign universe just as the sentinel would hit him with another beam.

---

Materializing on Planet Ketta, Ezra lay sprawled flat on his back, with his chest heaving as he caught his breath.

He smirks, confidence surging through his body despite the exhaustion.

"At first, I was apprehensive," Ezra remarks, facing the empty sky. "But now? Now I know how you fight"

At the start of the battle, he felt outmatched, but now he understood the sentinel’s patterns, its vulnerabilities.

"I don’t need a higher cultivation to beat you" he mutters, sitting up slowly. "And I’ll prove it by smashing your head apart"

Just right away he got some sleep...

Turning to his side and his eyelids begin to close, a random thought came to him.

"Since I’m always sleeping here," he mumbled, "I should bring a bed next time..."

---

Waking up hours later all refreshed, he does the usual, stretch, clean his body and change clothes, before heading back into the secret realm with determination blazing in his eyes.

It was time to conclude the battle with that crystal menace, and this time, he intends to thoroughly crush it.

----

Arriving, Ezra spots it on a platform still searching for him and immediately conceals himself before leaping across multiple platforms to get in a good angle to attack.

Getting to the said spot, he concentrates his energy in his hands and just as he would transmit into Skyfall, he cancels the concealment, as attacking while concealing took waaaay too much energy.

As expected, the crystal senses his presence instantly and turns towards him.

But at that point...it’s already too late.

*Slash*

Letting a potential fire slash, it crashes right it’s ridiculous starshaped head seconds later, not giving it time to release a green beam.

*Bam!*

The surrounding platforms quiver as the strike hits!

CRACK!*

A crack is heard, following another burst of light, this one slightly less brighter than the last.

Covering his eyes, Ezra catches the sight of the sentinel just as the light recedes.

It lay fallen, with one knee on the floor while its right arm lay over its star head, rubbing it.

Peering closer, Ezra breaks into an evil smile.

The creature’s star head had cracked, with a good portion of it having broken off, laying on the platform like random glass shards.

As he was smirking, the sentinel’s entire body flashes with deep red light, which recedes after ten seconds, to which the sentinel then stands.

Turning its gaze upwards at the one who made it like such, it instead meets another energy strike, rapidly approaching.

Using the green light to protect itself, the light wobbles, the sentinel control over it no longer refined.

*Bam!*

The strike clashes into him, pushing it back and breaking the solidified green membrane, something that hadn’t happened before.

Beyond less control, the strength of its attacks had reduced as well.

"Hahaha"

Cackling at the misery of his enemy, Ezra follows up with a barrage of energy slashes, to which the sentinel is forced to dodge by jumping over to other platforms.

"How the tables have turned" Ezra remarks, "I hope you like the taste of your own medicine?"

To this, Ezra lets off multiple energy beams towards the sentinel, hitting it multiple times as it approaches.

But Ezra doesn’t step off his platform or try to widen the distance.

Which checks out because he’s been wanting to smash the sentinels head open from the start.

Nevertheless, he avoids hitting its leg, lest it slip and fall into the whirlpool once more.

Within two minutes, the sentinel arrives on a platform parallel to Ezra.

Ezra’s eyes narrowed as the sentinel bolts towards him, its limbs morphing to look like jagged knives for better penetration and damage.

Finally face to face, neither side needed any words before getting straight to business.

The sentinel attacks and Ezra dodges, leaning to the side, but the sentinel’s strike grazes his arm, drawing first blood.

In Ezra’s eyes lay a ferocious glint. His desire to tear the opponent apart is clear as day.

No movement is wasted as both sides face off, each attack deliberate and precise.

A minute passes.

Ezra’s strikes had chipped away at shimmering surface of the sentinels skin, stripping anything ’pristine’ from its qualifiers

But he himself lay scathed with a gash on his shoulder and multiple cuts across his arms and two on his right ear.

Every clash sent shockwaves through his arms, the vibrations numbing his grip. frёewebnoѵēl.com

Ezra focused his attacks on its upper body, leaving it’s lower body for fear of the platform breaking.

"Damn it," he hissed, darting back as another crystalline limb slashed toward his midsection.

The cut on his shoulder throbs, but he ignors it, adrenaline dulling the pain.

They clash again, the sentinel’s narrow strike narrowly missing Ezra’s gut.

Twisting to avoid the blow, Ezra glides across the platform with practised precision.

He feints left, drawing the sentinel’s focus, before activating <universal concealment>.

His body blurs out of sight, vanishing, thus leaving the sentinel flailing.

Disgruntled, the sentinel swings wide, only to hit nothing.

In that moment, Ezra has leaps backwards onto the nearest platform, putting distance between the two, thus leaving the sentinel confused.

With steady breaths, Ezra positions himself at the angle parallel to the sentinels blindspot, his fingers tightening around Skyfall as he taps off the floor lightly, launching itself in it’s direction.

Cancelling his concealment, Ezra reappears directly behind the sentinel with Skyfall raised high.

The sentinel turns in response, seeking to attack...

Too late.

"Die!" Ezra declares, his weapon striking true.

Its crystalline head lay glimmering even while damaged as Ezra’s scythe came upon it.

The scythes lodges deep into the sentinel’s head with sickening crack, and for a moment, the world seemed to lie still.

Trembling violently, cracks rapidly form and spread outward like spiderwebs over the sentinels once-pristine form, with rays of light seeping from these cracks.

Falling to its knees, the sentinel let’s off a glow brighter than all others before, blinding Ezra for the umpteenth time today and then, explodes.

*Boom!*

The sentinel disassembles like a shattered mirror, bursting into an innumerable number of shards, each shard scattering like starlight across the entire construct, with many falling into the whirlpool below.

A few of those shards embed themselves into Ezra’s skin, causing him a little sting as he removes them.

Taking a deep breath, Ezra gazes on the fragments of the sentinel scattered around him...before breaking a big wide smile.

The joy his feeling seeing that walking crystal turned into a pile of shards is euphoric.

Who knew the demise of one’s enemies would be so fulfilling?

Taking his time to savour the euphoria while heightening his recovery, the cube encompassing the platforms suddenly shifts at it usually would.

Only this time, Ezra is unprepared.

The entire structure tilts, and Ezra stumbles, his arms flailing for balance.

"Oh come on!"