—–

As the Mother of Artificial Life realized that even the robot specifically designed to kill the Heavenly Empress wasn’t working and that her power was rapidly overwhelming her, she instantly decided to escape.

Because the Domain didn’t belong to the Heavenly Empress entirely, as both of their Domains were clashing, there wasn’t anything binding her or forcing her to remain here; she instantly thought it wasn’t worth her time and effort to slay her right now and that she would be much better off planning something for the future.

And yet, right as she was about to leave the Domain Clash entirely and leave the Heavenly Empress fighting her mechanical children as diversion…

CRAAASH!

A massive mechanical arm smashed her Cosmic Soul back into the Domain, as the Constellation could swear she saw a brown-haired human right before she was struck down.

The force of the blow wasn’t anything to scoff at either! It carried so much power that a part of her Cosmic Soul was instantly shattered!

She felt a great deal of pain at that, something that not even while fighting the Heavenly Empress did she feel until this point.

“T-That’s…!”

And then she appeared, entering the Domain unaffected, looking at the Constellation with a serious face. The one that pushed him down and also the culprit behind the death of the King of Steel, whose cosmic presence had disappeared completely.

“Did you think I was going to let you escape?”

Anna smiled, her eyes glowing bright blue and gold, resembling small nebulas or even spiraling galaxies of their own; her presence as a whole screamed Constellation, yet she was still confined as a “Mortal”.

“It’s you… What happened to the King of Steel? And how were you able to even hurt my Cosmic Soul? This is… incomprehensible!”

The Mother of Artificial Life rapidly reassembled a new mechanical body, reinforcing its defenses towards its limits by creating a mighty alloy made of cosmic metals.

“The King of Steel? He’s dead; I killed him.” Anna said nonchalantly. “He thought he could descend, despite the risks, and kill me by abusing his overwhelming strength as a Constellation. A grave mistake.”

“He’s… dead?!”

As the Constellation realized the situation she was in, the Heavenly Empress finished killing the last of her children, vaporizing them with her powerful Heavenly Golden Flames of Hope Arts.

“Anna?! You’re back!”

She realized Anna had arrived out of nowhere, as she smiled lightly, realizing her adoptive daughter’s presence had grown tremendously compared to just a few minutes ago.

She felt her powers growing immensely, and even her Cosmic Energies had reached new heights… It seems that what Anna had said was true and that it was possible to absorb Constellations once slain.

Of course most normal Mortals would go insane or explode, dying on the spot if they tried to absorb a Constellation’s Story and Cosmic Soul…

But Anna possessed the Trait [Reader] allowing her to easily comprehend any Story she read and instantly absorb it without repercussions, a special ability of this Trait she had only realized existed after her battle against the King of Steel, but that was always present, even when she absorbed Uroboros as well.

“Yeah, I came running here after I defeated that Venerable Robot and its Constellation. Is this guy giving you any trouble, Mom? I stopped it from trying to escape!”

“Not really, but I might have been taking my time slaying it, so it tried to escape, huh?”

Mother and daughter chatted as the giant tentacled robot moved back several meters, intimidated by their gigantic Auras, releasing a pressure that even its weakened Cosmic Soul from having descended into a Lower Plane was beginning to tremble in fear.

“T-This cannot be…! The King of Steel was defeated—no, he died! A mortal that can slay Constellations…! I had heard rumors, but to think it’s true…”

“Yes, it’s true,” Anna said. “Now, will you die already? We’ve got bigger problems to deal with.”

Anna summoned her swords, from her Photon Katana, her Axe Sword, Gram, Oblivion, and even Qin Xiuying. Each sword was distinct and powerful on its own, their powerful and unique auras converging into her Myriad Self Arts, combining into a single and powerful {Myriad Divine Sword Intent}.

The power of Myriad Self Arts wasn’t just to create clones of Anna or something; it was originally designed by Anna as a necessity to combine all her disparate powers, weapons, and equipment into a single power, which will grow as she adds more to it.

Ultimately, Myriad Self Arts would also help her learn and assimilate Skills, giving her the power to use them without the need to activate the Skill itself, or perhaps even to have it!

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And this {Myriad Divine Sword Intent} was born from this convergence between her many different swords, which most other swordsmen would struggle to combine their powers.

“Calm down, Anna,” the Heavenly Empress stopped her overly eager daughter. “That Constellation… Don’t you remember that Trial? She was the one that gave Song the Demon King Seed, wasn’t she?”

“Ah, that’s right!” Anna gasped. “You created that Seed, didn’t you?!”

“The Demon King Seed?!” The Mother of Artificial Life asked. “Hah, so this is what it’s all about… Yes, I gave it to that child, but I don’t possess the power to create such a powerful item. That is something only Void Rulers can make. And my Master gave it to me so I could hand it to the boy… He was the perfect vessel for it after all. By turning him into the Demon King, our victory was guaranteed, and you were all forced to retreat! The plan was made by my master, but I was the one that masterfully executed it.”

“She’s so damn proud about it, it makes me want to cut her into pieces…” Anna groaned, her eyes zapping with electricity.

“Do you know of a way to extract the Demon King Seed or outright revert them to their original state?” the Heavenly Empress asked.

“What?”

“I am asking you a question. If you answer it satisfactorily… And if you provide help, I am willing to forgive your life and even protect you from the wrath of your master,” the Heavenly Empress tried diplomacy.

“Wha…?! Wait, Mom, this won’t work! Constellations aren’t like this!” Said Anna.

“Silence, Anna,” said the Heavenly Empress. “The plan we made… has a chance, but it’s not guaranteed. We must first try to find as many ways as we can.”

“…” Anna remained in silence, glancing at the Constellation’s Avatar. “So? Are you going to stare? You cannot escape the Domain. And we can kill you. Choose your answer wisely. As a machine, I am sure you can already calculate a way for you to survive. Now tell me, which one is it?”

“That’s…” The Constellation remained in silence. “Unfortunately, there’s no way to revert a victim of a Demon King Seed, unless you can quite literally go back in time, but even then, the original victim wouldn’t be cured, but a parallel version from a new timeline. Reversing time on the victim itself won’t work either; there’s no Time Magic capable of reversing several years in a row. They will remain as the monsters they’ve become until the day they die. And… even if I knew of a way to help them, do you think I would ever tell you how? Not a chance. That specimen is a perfect creation, my child now. I would never wish for him to go back to his lesser, fleshy form.”

“You fucking bitch…” Anna grew furious but remained mostly calm as she glared down. “Mom, we have to—ah!”

“I see…” The Heavenly Empress released an Aura of pure Darkness, surprising Anna. “I shouldn’t have even asked you, huh? Okay then… Anna, stay out of this. I will personally take revenge for my son.”

“But…!”

“It’s fine,” the Heavenly Empress glanced at Anna, suddenly smiling maniacally. “I can take care of trash like this easily.”

“A-Ah…!”

Anna felt an immense, evil pressure that she had never felt before from the Heavenly Empress, shaking her to the core.

Just like the Heavenly Demon had a bright side deep down… The Heavenly Empress had a very dark side too, one sealed for countless years.

Her darkness.

The repressed feelings within her, her Hatred, her Spite, her Frustration, her Suffering, her Agony, her Sorrow.

These Emotions the Heavenly Demon embraced, she sealed them away, reaching a state of tranquility and enlightenment.

But they never were truly gone, although she had reached a state of Inner Peace that almost made her comparable to a Boddhisatva, they were there.

Suppressed within her own Heart of Hope.

“M-Mom? What is this darkness?” Anna wondered, feeling her energies changing, fluctuating.

“This is… something that I never taught you,” the Heavenly Empress said. “Because this is a power I never wanted anybody to inherit… Turns out I am actually a failure, Anna… No matter how hard I worked, my heart… is too weak. Your father was right; I am a hypocrite.”

“…”

Her golden heart suddenly transformed, temporarily becoming pitch black with red colors; her Golden Flames turned black and dark red, with purple mixed in between.

Instead of Gathering the Hope of People…

Her Heart was now harnessing all of the Suffering, Pain, Agony, Hatred, Sorrow, and more within her.

While the Heavenly Demon only harnessed his own dark emotions, her darkened Heart of Hope did the opposite, channeling and absorbing the negative energies of the world.

RUMBLE!

And it turns out that’s much more than Hope.

“T-This power…! What in the world is this?! Has there been a Constellation with such a high concentration of pure darkness within them? No, this isn’t darkness as an element, but… negative energy, the hatred of humanity itself?!” the Constellation gasped. “Only the most… fearsome of Constellations could ever compare! However…”

She wasn’t going to get back down; her Cosmic Soul emerged from her body, rapidly exuding her cosmic powers, her full Cosmic Soul descended, transforming her and making her even larger and stronger.

The Domain Clash became even more intense, as her Cosmic Domain was twisted, transformed into a gigantic sphere of steel, wires, and circuits, where many more mechanical arms, tentacles, laser beams, cannons, and other weapons emerged.

“She still has barely used such a power; I can tell! She has been denying that! I have the advantage of raw power and experience! My calculations are never incorrect. Her death is close!” She thought. “Her foolish decision of not allowing the other girl to intervene has become her death sentence! You cannot possibly hope to fight my entire power, Crane!”

Countless lasers were fired against the Heavenly Empress as hundreds of explosions engulfed her, constantly trying to destroy her by vaporizing her.

Such attacks would prove effective even against other Constellations themselves!

SLASH!

And yet…

BOOOM!

A slash of her sword, which had grown black and red, was enough to split apart all explosions and lasers; the energies contained within the long-ranged energy-based attacks were simply destabilized, blowing up the cannons themselves, as the Domain of the Constellation expanded and broke apart into pieces.

“I really thought I could hold back… I really wanted to simply not give in to this hatred and despair, but I can’t… Seeing my son like that and what you’ve done… And even worse, that you simply don’t even regret it and dare to claim him as your own son…?” The Heavenly Empress’s once calm and compassionate eyes were full of hatred and anger. “I can’t anymore… I will make you suffer. You won’t have a quick death!”

Anna felt her immense pressure expanding everywhere as her adoptive mother rushed forward, like a dark star, impacting on the gigantic, cosmic body of the Constellation’s Transformed Avatar.

BOOOMMM!!!

Countless pieces of cosmic metal exploded everywhere as her fierce, demonic sword began cutting and slicing through wires, cables, and circuits, inflicting as much pain as possible; the Constellation started to scream in utter agony.

“UUUAAARRGGHH…!”

“Feel the pain of those you trample! Suffer the agony of those you’ve made miserable!”

The Heavenly Empress roared, infusing suffering and agony into her blows; her foes felt it all with each attack, and every wound felt like a thousand different wounds. This was the ultimate form of “Pain” that Anna had ever seen before.

And it came from the gentlest person she had ever known…

—–

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep