CRACK!

Another one of Shang's swords broke.

SHING!

One of Shang's tentacles was cut off by the Archivist's floating sword and torn apart.

As Shang's weapons slowly started to vanish, more and more attacks hit him.

With fewer weapons, Shang couldn't defend himself as well anymore.

Kali glanced at Gregorio.

Gregorio didn't show any reaction.

By now, Kali wasn't certain anymore whether or not she had judged Gregorio's demeanor correctly.

She had thought that Gregorio trusted Shang's power, but maybe he had just grown apathetic to the outcome.

Kali knew Gregorio, and she could imagine that Gregorio felt quite some regret regarding supporting such a monster.

Gregorio was not telling Kali to watch, but he also wasn't telling her to interfere.

If Gregorio trusted Shang's power, he should have told Kali and Linastra that they didn't need to worry.

Yet, he wasjust doing nothing.

Kali looked back at Shang and noticed that his speed of regeneration wasn't nearly fast enough to keep up with the new images.

Then, Kali looked at Abaddon and realized that he was about 70% done.

At this moment, plans formed in Kali's mind.

The Archivist didn't care who won. He only cared about killing the Child of Calamity.

So, when Shang died, the Archivist would also leave.

This meant that they would only need to fight five Emperors.

And when Abaddon became a Mage Emperor, that wouldn't be a problem.

Even more, Shang, this ridiculous monster, would be dead, giving Abaddon sole power over Aterium!

After some calculations, Kali realized that Shang would die when Abaddon was only 80% done.

At that moment, all the Emperors would immediately attack them, and with Gregorio's apathetic mindset, it was very likely that he would only watch.

'The warrior needs to survive for longer,' Kali thought

The next moment, Kali looked at Linastra, who nodded back.

BANG! BANG!

Kali and Linastra shot towards the Emperors and attacked them.

With fury and hatred, the Emperors stopped attacking Shang in order to deal with Kali and Linastra's attacks.

The Archivist glanced over, but he wasn't worried.

The Child of Calamity had lost over half its limbs, and it couldn't defend itself from the Archivist's attacks anymore.

The only thing Kali's and Linastra's interference accomplished was to give Shang a bit more time to live.

Naturally, the Archivist knew that this was exactly their goal, but he didn't care.

The Child of Calamity would die, and that would be all that's important.

As Shang grew weaker and weaker, the Archivist glanced at Abaddon.

'A new hegemon will be born,' the Archivist thought. 'Will another period of suppression follow?'

The Archivist had always been incredibly powerful.

In fact, most of the time, he was the strongest being in Aterium.

Yet, whenever a true hegemon appeared, he became helpless.

The last hegemon had been Lucius Volstad, and the next one would be Abaddon.

'A restart wouldn't be so bad,' the Archivist thought.

CRACK!

Part of Shang's torso broke off, and he gritted his teeth with aggression.

The next moment, Shang screamed in unwillingness and rage.

"You did this!" Shang shouted at the Archivist.

"You are the reason why I can't attain world domination!"

The Archivist only looked at Shang with a serious expression.

The next moment, a malicious smirk appeared on Shang's face.

"If! can't have it, no one can!"

At that moment, the instincts of all the present Emperors screamed at them.

The Archivist narrowed his eyes, and the intensity of the Horn's sound multiplied.

Cracks appeared on the Horn. Obviously, it couldn't withstand so much Mana.

"I hope you all die!" Shang screamed.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Shang's body exploded.

The Emperors did their best to resist the strike, but they quickly noticed that they didn't need to.

The Archivist somehow managed to divert the explosion.

Instead of destroying everything around Shang, it exploded towards the south as a wave.

Beside the Archivist, his I-Iorn turned into dust.

A legendary and ancient artifact was destroyed just like that.

This artifact had contained the powers of the most powerful beast that had ever lived.

But the Archivist didn't regret the loss of his artifact.

If he hadn't sacrificed his Horn, nearly 20% of Aterium would have vanished.

Now, only the middle southern edge and some water from the Eternal Ocean vanished.

This was far better than the alternative.

Some moments later, the explosion vanished.

Shang had died.

The Child of Calamity had finally died!

The Archivist took a deep breath and threw another glance at the future hegemon, Abaddon.

Abaddon glanced back.

He didn't seem worried.

Kali and Linastra were resisting the violent attacks of the Emperors, and they were quickly losing ground.

Abaddon was already over 90% done.

Just a tiny bit more, and Abaddon would become a Mage Emperor.

The Emperors became more and more anxious as they strengthened their attacks.

Two of them quickly shot past Kali and Linastra right toward Abaddon.

Abaddon glanced at Gregorio.

Gregorio didn't do anything.

He still just looked forward like none of this had anything to do with him.

Abaddon narrowed his eyes at Gregorio.

BANG!

Bina Ching's Spell was being deflected as Abaddon summoned a powerful domain.

Abaddon had stopped absorbing Mana.

Abaddon wasn't helpless, but during a fight, he couldn't absorb the Mana.

In fact, it was even worse.

When Abaddon used Mana, he was forced to use the Mana he had absorbed, and this Mana couldn't be regenerated.

If Abaddon fought forjust half a second, he would have used up all the Mana he had absorbed in the past seconds.

Then, it would basically be impossible for him to break through.

Linastra and Kali looked at Gregorio with rage.

Why wasn't he helping?!

Why wasn't he doing anything?!

Didn't he know that he would die?!

The Archivist turned to look at the battling Emperors.

Maybe, a hegemon wouldn't be born just yet.

And maybe, that was actually for the better.

The fighting intensified.

The Emperors attacked with more and more fervor.

Suddenly, Bina Ching and Isis Neweston stopped attacking Abaddon.

Abaddon's Mana had dropped by a lot, which meant he would need several more seconds to absorb enough Mana to become a Mage Emperor.

The next moment, Bina Ching, Isis Neweston, and Jenny Greenhouse all fired their most powerful Spells at Linastra Boomwitch.

Linastra's eyes widened in shock and horror.

CRACK!

Her Mana Shield broke.

Forjust a moment, time seemed to freeze.

BANG!

The next moment, Linastra was burned into ash by Jenny Greenhouse.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

An incomprehensible amount of Mana exploded out of the place where Linastra had just been.

For the first time in hundreds of thousands of years, the Mana of an Emperor had been dispersed across the world.

The next moment, all five Emperors focused on Kali.

Yet, for some reason, Kali didn't seem very worried.

That was because Kali had realized something.

Linastra had been under an asynchronous Life Connection Spell with Shang.

When Linastra had died, Kali realized that Linastra should have actually already been dead.

After all, Shang had also died.

This could only mean that Shang was still alive.

The next moment, Kali glanced at Gregorio, who still seemed apathetic.

Gregorio knew what was happening.

The heroes had defeated the Child of Calamity.

The heroes had killed one of the traitorous Emperors.

The heroes had stopped the new hegemon from reaching the Mage Emperor Realm.

Now, the heroes finally had victory in their grasp.

They had done it!

They had survived!

The world was saved!

Gregoriojust sighed.

Even after all of this, he felt bad for them.

After all, they had once been his friends.

"Hahahaha."

A silent laugh.

All the Emperors stopped attacking.

The Archivist's eyes narrowed.

The next moment, they all looked at the ground.

Just now, the laugh had come from down here.

"Hahahahahaha!"

The laugh became louder, and by now, it was unmistakable that this laugh came from Shang.

The Emperors became terrified.

And then, the Event Horizon Empire started to shake violently!

"HAHAHAHAHA!"