The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 125: The Ancient Divine Beast Spirit Gods of Elios Awaken!

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It didn’t just happen with Mursha, but also with Peperina, Urbosa, and Merkite. The girls all saw it—this vision—as if time had stopped and as if nothing else mattered but the entity in front of them.

Upon their descent, they stood there, in front of them. Their bodies, completely composed of Divine Spiritual Energy, took the form of the many beasts that once ruled the wild world of Elios.

Before the malevolent cult created the Evil God of Destruction and brought upon Elios eternal chaos and bloodshed.

They were the true pillars of Elios, the Pillars of Life, representing the five elements that maintained the world.

Because of their tremendous power, the Evil God of Destruction could not kill them, and because Elios’ existence depended on their own laws, they couldn’t be slain anyway.

Instead, the Evil God and his cult decided to seal them within a temple made out of Divine Stone, a powerful Divine Seal that slowly sapped their power and transferred it to the Evil God.

And over the past three hundred years, they have lost plenty of their powers, even more so as the seal was only opened using a replica of the original key, weakening them even further.

However, what else could they do? The world was about to end; they had to act! They were weak now, incapable of keeping their forms for much longer.

They required a strong vessel to carry their powerful ethereal forms within their bodies—a contractor.

Unlike the Avatars of the Gods, who slowly had their souls consumed by the gods and turned into second bodies, the divine spirit beast gods were different.

They created a pact of mutual benefit where both parties were helped, and none lost anything.

Nonetheless, the people they chose were still skeptical, if not slightly afraid, of the responsibility of becoming their vessels.

“I know this is a selfish request, our children… But our world is in peril… We will give you everything we have, so please, help us save it… Help us save Elios…”

A beautiful and enormous phoenix made of bright golden light, and flames spoke, glancing at Mursha with eyes made of stars.

If Mursha wasn’t wrong, the being she was witnessing right now was an Ancient Divine Beast Spirit God, one of the very first beings to have created the world of Elios and maintained it.

“You’re… the Divine Beast Spirit God, {The Golden Phoenix of the Bright Sun}?”

“That is indeed one of the many titles I was given by my precious children.”

In other terms, this being was the literal god of the sun of Elios, a being that had created the sun from its own body to bring the day and all its bounties to their people.

The same scene was repeated three more times, but with different people and different divine spirit beast gods. In front of Peperina there was a beautiful white and silver-colored hare, with golden horns resembling antlers and sharp crimson eyes.

Its aura slowly formed into the shape of a bright white and silver-colored moon, emanating pink and purple moonlight everywhere. This beautiful yet enormous and terrifying being was also recognized by Peperina.

Of course she would recognize it, after all…

“Y-You’re the deity that my mother always prays to every time before eating…” she muttered. “The Divine Beast Spirit God, {The Gold-Horned White Hare of the Silver Moon}?”

“Precisely, my dear child…”

Meanwhile, in front of Urbosa and Merkite, there were two more Divine Beast Spirit Gods, both of whom resembled twins of one another: two enormous wolves, one white and another black. The white wolf had crimson eyes and a single black horn on its forehead, while the black wolf had golden eyes and a golden horn on its forehead.

The white wolf emanated an aura of life and bright white light; everything around it turned into plants and life; meanwhile, the black wolf emanated an aura of death; the world around him decayed.

However, the two together created a perfect balance where life did not die nor was born, balanced stagnation, life and death, twin siblings.

It was as if they were an aspect of Yin and Yang, but in another world, far different from Murim.

“Y-You’re…! I can’t believe it!”

“Woah, this is…”

Urbosa and Merkite could hardly believe their eyes, yet they immediately recognized these two primordial beings, of equal title to the hare that brings night and the phoenix that brings day; they were the wolves of life and death.

“{The White Wolf of Life and Harvest}?!”

“{The Black Wolf of Death and Withering}!”

The two wolves looked at their chosen ones, nodding.

“I suppose I was once given such a title…”

“I dislike that title; I am not purely a being of death; I represent a cycle.”

Although they had so much to say, there was little time. The divine beast spirit god’s bodies were rapidly growing smaller, and the girls noticed this immediately.

“So you want me to become your vessel? But… you will not… um, take over me, right?” Mursha was nervous.

“There’s no such power within me,” sighed the Phoenix. “My dear child, why would I ever do such a thing? If it were up to me, I wouldn’t even request such a thing. But we’ve grown weaker, with most of our divinities stolen... There’s little we can do before… we fully… dissipate- Ugh…”

BAAAM!

The phoenix suddenly fell to the ground, growing weaker and slowly beginning to dissipate.

“No! Wait!”

Mursha ran towards him, looking at his tired face.

“It is fine if… you don’t want to… I chose you selfishly, and… if I die here… at least… please… save this beautiful world I once… made…”

“No! We’ll do it together, Father of the Sun! Please accept me as your vessel!”

The orc had no time to doubt or hesitate; if she didn’t take this opportunity, the world as she knew it might truly perish.

“My child… Thank you…”

FLUOOOSH!

The phoenix turned into glistening light, fusing with Mursha’s body and encompassing her with its divinity. Within Mursha’s body, there were now two souls: her own soul, developing its own divinity as a demigoddess, and a second soul, that of the Phoenix of the Bright Sun.

“This power…!”

“We are now one, my child... But there’s no time; hurry! We must defeat these beasts and confront that usurper! Only if we fight him and take away the power he stole from us will we be able to truly save the world!”

“So Bing Xue’s…”

“She has the power to slay him; that woman is incredibly strong. She can do it… But she’s merciful; she’s stalling for time, waiting for all of you to save the world. She knows that if she kills him now completely, the world will be left in an unrepairable state and will soon collapse.”

“So that’s why!”

“Now, please, my child!”

“Yes, Father Sun!”

Mursha felt the sunlight above and its warmth empowering her as her red hair suddenly grew long, reaching her foot and gaining several gold strands.

From her back, a pair of beautiful golden feathered wings emerged, and the rest of her body gained armor made of such golden feathers, made of divine spiritual metal.

Even her cursed axe was completely purified, transforming into a divine relic in the instant, shining with the radiance of the sun!

“Your axe… it contains tremendous powers!” the phoenix said. “I’ve blessed it with the last remaining divine power within me. From now on, baptized by the sun, your Axe is no longer cursed but a Divine Relic, the Sunshine Axe, Helios!”

Mursha held her axe tightly, feeling its tremendous power. The axe itself had a soul of its own; it was alive with her, together. She was no longer alone.

“Yes, I understand. Thank you!”

As she flew into the skies, the other three vessels also accepted the offers of the three other divine beast spirit gods. Much like Mursha, they saw them slowly growing weaker; if they didn’t act now, the divine beast spirit gods would die from the mere pressure the evil god exuded into the world.

“Very well, I accept your terms!”

“Thank you, my child.”

Peperina accepted the White Hate of the Silver Moon as the giant hare turned into light and moonlight, fusing with her body. Her blue flames turned silver and pink, and her size increased slightly, while she gained larger rabbit ears and a moon-shaped sphere behind her, surging from her very aura.

“If there’s no other way, then we’ll gladly accept you, right?”

“Yes!”

At the same time, Urbosa and Merkite also accepted the twin wolves of life and death. Their spiritual powers became one with them as their wild and wolf-like features changed.

Urbosa, who became the vessel of the White Wolf, had her fur turn white and black; she grew black horns above her head; and her eyes turned crimson red.

Merkite, who became the vessel of the Black Wolf, had her fur turn black and gold, with golden eyes and golden horns.

Their auras exuded the power of life and death, further combined with their original elements, and even more, their cultivation rank began to rapidly soar.

The fusion between their Auras and Souls continued, rapidly reaching its peak!

“Oh? What’s this?”

“Interesting…”

And even more, the two wolves quickly realized both women were pregnant; within them was another soul already, a body with three souls.

“You can feel them? That’s our kids!”

“Please protect them, our lords!”

The wolves nodded, their divine spiritual energies veiling and protecting the developing embryos with great power.

“We shall do more than just protect them.”

“These children are destined to be born and become great beings.”

“Let’s give them everything we have too.”

“Yes, the future is in their hands.”

FLAAASH!

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.

.

“What’s wrong?! Weren’t you acting like you could defeat me at any given moment, woman?!”

The Evil God of Destruction laughed as his titanic arms clashed against Bing Xue. The Heavenly Martial Empress easily parried his blows and slashed his body apart with her sword, cutting him into pieces as she unleashed a domain of crimson infernal flames, the clouds above her turning red.

“And I can.” She said with confidence, closing her eyes. “{Primordial Heaven Soul Blade: Red Heaven Inferno}!”

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

The body of the Evil God of Destruction exploded into pieces, and as his screams reverberated across the skies, the infernal flames of the red heaven consumed him entirely.

Yet it was not enough.

FLUOSH!

His body rapidly reformed within seconds, the ground below and the heavens above restructuring him completely back!

As long as his divine soul remained, he would be immortal!

“Hahahaha! Pathetic and foolish attempts such as those will not get you anywhere! I do admit you’re strong, but not enough!”

“I could kill you; I seriously can. But if I destroy your soul, your connection with the world will also be destroyed, and the world of Elios and its pillars, which you stole from other gods, will collapse,” sighed Bing Xue. “If to destroy you, I must sacrifice a world... then I would rather buy time until those truly destined to defeat you come to me.”

Bing Xue was powerful; she knew she could destroy him if she wanted. However, the aftermath of this destruction would create a cataclysm that would end the world.

She could easily turn back time by a couple of hours, but the conflict would always end in the same way. She could attempt to refill the world with her life energy and ki to restructure it below other laws too.

But then she would become bound to the world through her soul, chained to it and unable to leave, or else she would risk it being destroyed.

And unlike Eclipse, she wouldn’t be able to give this power to someone else either, as the world would be restructured almost from zero.

She couldn’t take on such responsibilities.

And if there was another way to do this, then she would gladly take it.

And right now, they are here.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

Four people, overflowing with the last remaining divine spiritual powers of the first pillars of Elios, are right behind her.

“Bing Xue! We’re here!” Mursha roared.

“Sorry for taking so long!” Peperina said.

“We had to make sure those monsters wouldn’t bother anybody anymore!” Urbosa smiled.

“This is our world, so naturally, we have to save it ourselves!” Merkite nodded.

“W-What?! How did you come here?! And... is that THEM?!” The Evil God was shocked. “You were unsealed?! IMPOSSIBLE!”

The Evil God of Destruction immediately recognized the Auras of the pillars.

Although there was one missing.

And that’s because he was somewhere else, within Bing Xue’s Inner Realm!

"Good, it looks like everyone is here now…” Bing Xue smiled, glancing at the Evil God. “Oh, right… There’s another person I wanted you to meet, dear god.”

FLUOSH!

A portal to her Inner Realm opened as a gigantic beast made of gold and black metal, covered with green and crimson diamonds, and overflowing with the power of both the supreme spirit beast god and the divinity of the evil god emerged.

“ROOOAAARRR!”

It resembled a chimera of a bat, a lion, and a dragon; this was Bing Xue’s latest creation, a new god for Elios, one meant to replace the Evil God.

“I present you with my new child!”

“My Divinity…! Within a Divine Beast Spirit?!” the Evil God gasped. “No… How did you…?!”

“Enough with your questions! Let us begin, shall we?” Bing Xue smiled. “Today, you will give back the world to its people!”

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