Poison God's Heritage

The two of us, me and Meng Hao flew forward toward the fray, I informed the Wind King of our plan, though a worried and slightly disapproving look was painted on his face, he grunted his teeth and shot forward toward the Fire Lord.

"GOOD COME!" the Fire Lord said as he saw the resolve of the Wind King growing again. He wanted to fight, he wanted to fight a tedious and hard battle so when he wins and takes over the Vast Expanse no one would dare speak of his might and ability.

The pride of cultivators, to prove that they're stronger than everyone, and that they stand at the peak, they want to make sure that everyone respects their power.

However, a kingdom made my force, can only be taken down by stronger force.

And power and might are not eternal.

The Wind King clashed swords once again with the Fire Lord keeping his attention as the two of us approached closer and closer.

The heat from The Fire Lord was oppressive enough that my face began melting the closer I got, but I couldn't stop here, we were too far deep in this shit to back down.

However, I knew my body would turn to cinders if I gotten even closer, looking at Meng Hao, he was resisting the heat pretty damn easily.

I was surprised at first, but I realized that his fire attribute was helping him greatly in negating the effects of the Fire Lord's flames.

"I can't go on anymore," I said to Meng Hao.

"Then I'll move ahead!"

"Let me give you a boost," I said as I backed off and flew next to Meng Hao, grabbed him by the collar…

"Fist of Demonic Roaring Ki!"

With that, the energy of the Roaring Ki art, coupled with the Demonic aspect of Shen Mo's soul brought a furious might to my arm, and with a single swing, I sent Meng Hao flying forward far faster than his normal speed could allow.

The Wind King noticed the incoming human projectile and was about to ready up his part of the 'deal'.

He parried one of the Fire Lord's swings and instantly pushed the sword toward the Fire Lord's chest giving up on defending.

The Fire Lord was surprised for a second as he realized something was wrong. The Wind King overextended too much, and with such a broad and open swing, the Fire Lord can easily punish it, he didn't even need to block the incoming wind sword as the protection from the Metal and Earth Keys were enough to block it.

The Fire Lord didn't fully understand how this 'trap' and easily noticeable feint would even work, so he swung his spear at the Wind King, trading blows.

The spear had greater reach so it dug first into the Wind King's side causing a spray of blood to erupt along with the Wind King's mouth spitting a mouthful of it.

While the Wind Sword didn't even reach the Fire Lord's protective defenses because it wasn't there anymore.

For a fraction of a second, the Fire Lord's own surprised and perplexed expression changed to that of worry, as the hair on his back stood to no end.

The disappearance of the Wind Sword meant one thing, the Wind King never meant to sacrifice or trade deadly blows with the Fire Lord.

He had another objective, and looking at the still extended arm of the Wind King and what he had on his palm, a thundering realization struck the Fire Lord.

The Wind King shoved his palm with the Wind Key in it into the Fire Lord's chest. Forcefully imbuing the already unstable Fire Lord with one more Key.

"What's the meaning of this?!" the Fire Lord muttered before he sensed even more danger coming his was.

He turned and was met with Meng Hao's torpedoing body slamming right into him, with another Key.

The Water Key from Yuyu.

The words couldn't even leave the Fire Lord's mouth before he flared in a sundering and blistering heat that immediately turned Meng Hao's entire body to cinders and pushed the Wind King with blazing scars of flames and fire away.

The scene took no longer than a couple seconds to happen. And in that second a life had perished, and one of the mightier beings of the Vast Expanse lost almost all of his power in that exchange. All for one goal and one goal only.

"N-no!" the Fire Lord groaned.

"NO!"

He roared once more before the world itself began rumbling.

The Keys that have been separated for almost all existence had once again been combined. And no matter who one thinks they are, they cannot survive the power of the five keys that brought this very world to existence.

The gate that had once been the link to the Beyond, the gate that once opened upon this barren and empty plot of space to create what we now know as the Vast Expanse once again began materializing.

"I cannot allow it!" the Fire Lord roared trying to suppress the energy of the combined keys.

The gate was materializing faster and faster, and the moment it came to exist will mean the release of this prison.

But the Fire Lord was a big fish in a small pond. He would never allow such a thing to happen. If the Beyond opens up, that means that mightier, stronger and more powerful beings will have access to the Vast Expanse. Where he was once a fish in a big pond, the pond will start hosting whales is what he believes.

And he would be damned to let someone else take his toy.

The Fire Lord's body was unable to resist the power from the keys, and began breaking apart. Cracking like a pot of clay, with fissures appearing all over him.

We couldn't win. There was no way for us to win.

In terms of power, he was stronger than all of us combined. In terms of Qi, he had far greater ability than all of us. In terms of understanding and cultivation he was above everyone here.

Not even Soul Magic was his weakness as he learned it.

Winning was out of the question, there was no hope for us from the beginning.

Fighting an arduous, bloodletting, and deadly battle to the death with the villain who outclasses us in all aspects would make for a great bed time story.

But in the end, that's all it is, a bed time story.

The real world is different, if you're facing someone with that much ability, a heavyweight that outclasses you in every aspect, you have very few options, winning is not one of them. Running away is top of the list though, so is weaseling your way out of the situation.

But with the Fire Lord, who wants control over the whole Vast Expanse, not even running away is an answer.

So, if you can't win, what can you do?

You simply have to make sure you don't lose.

And the way to do that is definitely not butting heads with someone stronger than you, although anticlimactic, and might even be called cowardly, I can't pull out plot armor out of my ass and grow stronger by gaining some absurd understanding of some mystic law.

Shit does not work like that in the real world.

So, instead of hoping for something that is absurdly stupid to even think or rely on, all we needed to do was oversaturate the Fire Lord.

He was unable to beat us without the keys, and when he used the keys he powered up, and none of us could power up to compete, so, instead of trying to find a way to beat his newly empowered self… the most natural and simple way to defeat him was to simply give him more power.

A balloon can only hold so much air in it, and a cultivator can only hold so much Qi in them, and I was sure as hell, if he was barely able to control three of the keys, he would definitely not be able to control all five of them.

The appearance of the gate was a good bonus, but the whole purpose of this risky move was to simply overwhelm the Fire Lord.

And that was working pretty damn well.

Until now…

Shaking and shuddering, "You played it well. Hah! REALLY WELL!" the Fire lord's face began cracking up and more light began releasing from within him.

"Damn roach, can you just die…"

"This will undoubtedly kill me, Hah!" he laughed.

'I was getting worried, because if someone was about to die, they shouldn't be more…maniacal at least.'

"I can't stop the keys, they're overwhelming me, I can't make them stop, and I can't get them off of me. You played it well," the Fire Lord was more sane than ever in this statement.

And that got me more and more worried.

"But if I can't have it all! NO ONE SHALL!" his words were mixed in with a madness that only those who had nothing left to lose could have.

And thus he struck his chest forcing the keys to an overdrive.

"The son of a bitch wants to blow us all up!"