Shattering stone

As the worm dashed towards the rift, Maven conjured multiples spikes made of stone that blocked its path. The best collided against the earth's spikes and was stunned for a brief moment before continuing.

Yet, this small time window was all that Maven needed. He quickly finished another one of his spells and hands made of earth surged from the ground and held the worm in place.

The worm struggled to break free from the hands' grasp, yet, no matter how much it tried the hands held on firmly. Maven kept the momentum and with his right hand raised conjured a wind blade.

Magnus saw Maven's onslaught and was about to press forward to reinforce him when he saw Seth grasping his head in the distance. He halted his advance and observed Seth.

Magnus frowned as it didn't look like Seth was faring too well. Magnus was clueless about what made Seth act like this, yet, it was clear that he wasn't faking his actual state. -" Seth can you keep fighting?" Magnus tried to communicate with him, however, only grunts of pain came from Seth.

-" Something strange is happening to him, I can feel Qi inside him that is similar to the one of the Purple Eye." Maven who was conjuring spells non-stomp suddenly spoke.

-" Similiar Qi?" Magnus froze as he looked at Seth. " Was he corrupted too? When did this happen?" Magnus exhaled a deep breath as he faced Seth, if he truly was being corrupted this could mean trouble for them.

-" I'm not sure, but, for sure it was before the worm appeared, maybe even longer. Most of it is already refined, so there is a chance that this happened even before he came to the forest."

Magnus perked his eyebrows as he listened to Maven's information, if what he said was true this could explain how the Heigong knew about the treasure here. -" The Heigong is truly daring, to even use this type of energy to cultivate, what were they thinking?" Magnus couldn't help but feel pity for Seth.

Magnus knew how helpless it felt to be stuck in the beginner stage of the Saintly realm for so long, after all, he too was struck there. Only a small handful of cultivators could reach the Saintly realm, yet, even less could progress any further. He only knew Maven who broke through the middle stage of the saintly realm.

-" Sigh, What should I do? Does he represent any danger?" Magnus felt torn, on one side killing Seth here would be beneficial for the Eternal Sun Sect, yet, preying on someone during such situation felt wrong.

-" The amount of purple Qi inside he is too little for it to completely corrupt him, if he keeps fighting there won't be any danger."

-" If he keeps fighting? So what if he surrenders to the power?" Magnus knew that Seth's state wasn't so good just by hearing his agonizing grunts.

-" The most dangerous aspects of Deities arent corruptions, but, temptation." Maven looked solemn as he spoke. " Even your ancestor couldn't escape the temptation of the Deities."

Magnus body flared up in flames as Maven spoke, he felt that Maven was disrespecting his ancestor. -" Are you comparing Aurelion to Seth?"

Maven shook his head, Magnus was still too sentimental towards his ancestor, -" Being tempted isn't something to be frowned upon, even I too feel for the temptation of a deity." Maven closed his eyes as he focused on the worm again.

Magnus watched dumbfounded as Maven resumed his attack barrage in full force, He felt confused by what he said. From what Magnus knew Aurelion achieved the Demi-god realm before passing away. How could someone so close to ascending to godhood fall for temptation? Was Aurelion tempted before reaching the Saintly Realm? Was his breakthrough to the Demi-god Realm related to this deity who tempted him?

Magnus clenched his fist as questions washed over him. -" How do you know this? When did you fall for this temptation?" Magnus completely forgot about Seth and approached Maven.

-" If you want to know more, we should finish this first."

Magnus nodded and opened his arms widely. The sun image shone behind him once again. -" Solaris Intertitus." Solar flares flashed and began to gather above Magnus head.

The energy from the sun formed a small sphere that fell on the tip of Magnus finger. He aimed his fingers towards the head of the worm and launched the small sphere.

Maven who was constantly bombarding the gargantuan beast with countless wanter and wind blades saw the small sphere approaching and took distance. He knew that the firepower of the Eternal Sun Sect spells was second to none.

Even before his sphere reached the worm, Magnus was already in the middle of preparing another one. As the second sphere was formed the first one reached the worm. The small sphere looked harmless, yet, when it made contact with the beast's body the sphere expanded and consumed everything inside it in a sea of fire.

Maven waves his hands again and five gigantic earth spikes pierced the worm body, making the beast unable to escape the sphere radius. Magnus attack was so strong that even Maven eath spikes melted, so he conjured them again and again.

When the first explosion started to diminish Magnus threw the second sphere. Magnus looked pale as he began to form the third sphere. He took a deep breath and a sun tattoo began to shine faintly on his chest. This spell cost way too much energy for him to keep using it like this.

-" I don't think that another one will be necessary." Maven who never stopped piercing the worm with his earth spikes suddenly said as he pointed upwards.

Magnus looked to the sky and saw that the Purple Eye in the sky was twinkling, the rift around it too began to diminish. Magnus took a deep breath and dispelled the sphere that had just begun to form.

-" I never expected that I would find Savatra and Ihphef pawns in my first descent to this realm" As the rift began to close the Purple Eye began to speak. " I Shall leave a remembrance for all of you."

As the eyes finished speaking the already grueling roar of pains from the worm began to grow even larger. Magnus and Maven looked in the direction of the beast who still was engulfed by the flaming sphere and saw strands of purple Qi flowing out of it.

The Qi gathered just under the Purple Eye and formed a strange-looking purple stone. As the rift was about to close the stone shattered into thousands of small pieces and flew in all directions, almost all of the pieces pierced the space and completely vanished.