Nelzahar, Hou, and the world itself, all were charging up one move that would decide all their fates. Hou needed to finish his moved before the world finishes it's tribulation and Nelzahar needed to survive.
The sky was churning, the clouds becoming thicker and darker. The light ign storm was turning from blue to purple and it was turning into tribulation lightning.
Tribulation lightning was extremely powerful, the stronger someone was going against the world, the stronger it was. Both Hou and Nelzahar were using resonance, both going against the world.
This meant the two both had tribulations which formed together becoming stronger than it's constituent parts. Whoever was hit by the tribulation would die with no chance of survival.
Nelzahar was using resonance and within the chaos of tribulation using whatever magic he could to strengthen the barrier spirit he stole from Hou. When he awakened as a cultivator, he did it by using a loophole, he did not know the method Yue had used. Nelzahar had to break his soul with a tribulation but stay alive and bond it with a weak spirit. His soul was weak and therefore he could not use the barrier spirit will to its fill potential.
He had to use magic to compensate and hope that he was safe in the astral world. While the tribulation was in the physical world, the two worlds were highly linked so he could see the tribulation forming through the astral world.
Hou was creating one final move to defeat Nelzahar and hopefully escape the tribulation. His plan was to make a massive hole in space through to the astral world, this should be against the world. Then the hole in space should expose Nelzahar and the tribulation's focus should move away from him.
After a tense ten minutes, Hou started his attack. He felt the tribulation was nearing it's climax and begun moving.
Various material moved through Hou and caused his glowing body to morph into space itself and turn into a mountain. The basis of his attack borrows the power of heaven and earth, this should reduce the tribulation's attraction to him.
Due to the tribulation being made from conglomerating the power of heaven and earth, Hou's move would be even stronger. This was a part of Hou's plan. He would make the tribulation grow as strong as possible to make his attack stronger.
Hou then punched forward, drawing his stability from earth and his power from heavens his fist moved through the sky.
A phantom fist formed around Hou's hand and broke through the air, shattering space. Then a second wave occured and the phantom fist exploded into a sun, breaking apart the sky with it's energy.
Them Hou did his final part, bringing together the five elements. Wood, Hou used a spirit will to cause life to flourish. Fire, the sun descended being fueled by life itself. Earth, the mountains prepared the crucible. Metal, a sword formed in the middle of the sun. Water, the sword flew out and quenched itself in a massive orb of fire.
Hou used the five elements together to form a pure elemental sword, which he then grabbed from afar. Hou held the sword in his hand and poured his remaining power into one last slash.
He swung the sword.
The cracked space stood still for a second... then it opened up. Like cutting threads the world unraveled and the astral world became visible. The world was shaking, the material world was being sucked into the astral and they turned into laws.
Trees flew in and shimmered, shattering into light. Earth was sucked in, turning into a wave of pure laws. Conversely the real world changed and the extra laws starting to effect the world's function.
Gravity shifted and the land started to turn to water. Everything had become alien and abnormal.
Nelzahar saw Hou swing and instantly tried to defend, using laws around him to create a shield that would redirect the force. The sword slash web t forward cutting the material world and opening up the astral world.
Nelzahar felt it and while it was strong, it was dealable. The force taken to destroy the world must've been too much and the attack became weak.
As Nelzahar was celebrating Hou finished off his attack. Hou, who was already merged with the earth partially, fully turned into the earth. His body turned to rock and he fell asleep. He had become a small rock.
He was completely hidden from the world and the tribulation changed it's target. It was almost done and now it changed to only focus on the crack in space and Nelzahar. It sensed Nelzahar was still in resonance and the lightning was released.
Purple cooling lightning shot from the clouds, piercing through the hole in space. It shot straight towards Nelzahar and before he could react it exploded.
Nelzahar was completely shattered and tied into natural laws which the tribulation used to fix the patch in space.
The world started to fix itself. The tribulation was over and the clouds started to part, the weird laws were becoming isolated. The laws would still be there in the astral world but now the world had isolated it into a special area, one where the laws are different and alien.
Hou however had taken a risk and completely turned into a rock. He was hidden from the tribulation but rocks could not think and so Hou could not turn back.
He was left as a rock in a random lonesome field. For thousands of years he was left on the ground. Around him the once mountainous terrain was now a long field of dark purple grass.
That was until a certain someone picked him up. An ordinary rock. Just a small grey pebble among many.
The man came from the sky, piercing through the miasma barrier. He descended from above, the miasma swirling around him, forming a cloak. He had purple hair with green eyes, and he looked at the floor and picked Hou up, bringing it to his mouth,
"Wake up."