Chapter 288: Karma (VII)

Fwooosh…

Somnus’s body suddenly convulsed as his right foot began to crumble, breaking apart into fine black dust that scattered into the air like ash.

His screams were gone now, replaced with a thin wheeze, the sound of a god’s essence tearing away piece by piece.

Finally…

It took a while.

The others froze. Their divine senses told them what their eyes refused to believe.

“…He’s… he’s dissipating,” muttered the God of Flames, his voice cracking.

“No…!” Shadow’s pupils shrank, sweat dripping down his brow. “If Somnus dies here, he’ll—”

“The authority,” the Lightning God growled, horrified. “He’ll gain the God-killing authority!”

Fuck… they noticed it.

In an instant, panic turned into violence.

BOOOOOMMMMM!

A storm of power erupted all at once.

Tendrils of shadow lashed out, flames roared like a tidal wave, bolts of lightning speared down from the sky.

Even the Netorare God unleashed his twisted aura, all of them converging on me at once.

The ground shook as if the planet itself were about to split.

I staggered as their combined weight pressed down on me, my ribs cracking under invisible force.

My mouth filled with iron.

“—KUHHH!!”

A geyser of blood burst from my lips, splattering across Somnus’s face. My glowing eyes flickered slighly.

But then… Somnus’s fading body… stopped.

The dissolution slowed as his missing foot began to knit back together, threads of divine light trying to force him back into existence.

They were saving him.

Keeping him alive.

I gritted my teeth, fury boiling in my chest.

No.

I need to kill him… even if that’s the last thing I’ll… no.

My eyes narrowed slighly.

I simply need to kill him, and that’s all.

『 ✯Moon Mark ✯』

A moon mark was carved on my forehead, igniting a silver glow that across my veins like molten fire.

The light burned through the darkness pressing against me.

[ – 5 months of lifespan… ]

The notification burned across my vision.

My chest tightened, but I shoved the thought aside. Time wasn’t what I lacked. What I lacked… was restraint.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the ground.

BAANG!

My chaotic energy exploded outward, shattering flames, shadows, and lightning as it swallowed their attacks whole.

My body was torn open, my arms flayed by their divine powers, but I held Somnus pinned under my hand, twisting his soul tighter and tighter.

His flesh began to dissolve again, starting now from both feet, crawling up his legs.

His muffled wheeze returned, his eyes wide with unbearable fear.

“NOOO!! STOP HIM!!!” The God of Flames roared, sending another wave of fire.

The others followed suit, their attacks slamming against me in a constant barrage, every hit feeling like my body was being torn in half.

“Kaaugh…, ugh!”

Blood gushed from my mouth, spilling freely down my chin, painting my chest crimson.

’…Fucking hell.’

Right now, my body was a ruin… cuts ripped across my chest, gashes down my arms, one eye nearly swollen shut from the constant strikes.

Blood poured down in rivers, pooling beneath my feet, soaking into the dirt until it turned black.

And still…

I laughed.

“—HAAHH…! HAHAHAHAH!!”

It ripped out of me, tearing through the battlefield like thunder.

The gods froze mid-strike.

That laughter wasn’t sane.

It wasn’t even human anymore. It was the cry of something that enjoyed being torn apart, something that found joy in agony.

Lightning speared into me, ripping open my shoulder.

A torrent of flame scorched my side, the smell of burning flesh filling the air. Shadows dug into my ribs, twisting, tearing.

I staggered, spine bent, vision trembling, but my hand never left Somnus’s chest.

His body was crumbling faster now, his divine essence spilling out like smoke, rising in wisps of black that were immediately devoured by my chaotic energy.

“NO… NOOOO! STOP, PLEASE!!” Somnus shrieked, his voice finally breaking, high and panicked like a cornered animal.

His legs were gone up to the knees, his torso beginning to split apart like glass under pressure.

The other gods screamed over him.

“HE’S DYING—!!”

“HE’S REALLY GOING TO GAIN THE AUTHORITY!!”

“ALL TOGETHER, CRUSH HIM!!”

CRACK!

SPLURT!

Their combined powers smashed against me like a tidal wave.

Bones shattered.

My skin split open until I was barely holding myself upright, blood flying with every breath.

My body literally screamed to fall apart.

But I only threw my head back and laughed louder, numbing my pain with desperate shouting.

“KEEP GOING!! TEAR ME APART! RIP MY FLESH, BURN MY BONES!!” My voice cracked into a mad roar.

“BUT HE’S MINE TO KILL! HE WON’T ESCAPE ME!”

My glowing eyes burned bright again, no longer dim, but searing, alive with frenzy.

Somnus clawed at my arm, nails snapping, his screams shrill and broken.

“S-STOP! I BEG YOU! MERCY! MEEEERCYYY—!”

His pleas only fed the fire in my chest.

My smile stretched too wide, my teeth stained red.

“Cry louder, god,” I whispered, my tone twisted with joy. “Let them all hear how a god dies.”

His torso began to break apart, ribs splitting into particles of light.

The other gods could only watch in horror, even as they rained destruction down on me.

They could feel it.

The thread of Somnus’s divinity… snapping.

Until finally…

Crack…

Fwish…

The moment came.

Somnus’s body reached its limit.

“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHH, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

His scream tore through the canyon, higher and more broken than any mortal throat could ever make.

His face melted into light, his arms splintered into dust, his divine frame unraveling thread by thread until only his eyes remained, wide, terrified, and begging.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

His entire form burst apart.

A torrent of divine energy exploded outward, black and violet in color, hissing like acid as it tore through the air.

The canyon walls shook, splitting with cracks, the sky itself bending like glass under the weight of it.

All of it flowed into me.

Straight into my chest.

“AGHHHHHHHHHHH—!”

I staggered, clutching at my ribs as the divine energy forced its way through my veins, burning hotter than fire, heavier than any blade.

My wounds tore open wider, blood flying in sprays, but the energy didn’t stop. It swirled, coiled, merged.

And then….

DING!

Glowing words formed in front of my eyes.

[Low-level Divinity absorbed…]

[You have awakened… the God-Killing Authority!]

[You have awakened your own Authority: Karma!]

My ragged breath echoed in the silence.

The gods froze, their attacks halting mid-air, their faces pale, eyes trembling as they saw a strange crimson aura enveloping my body.

“…No…” Shadow whispered, his body trembling.

“Impossible…”

“God-Killing Authority… in a mortal?!” the God of Flames roared, but there was fear in his voice now.

“T-this… this is a nightmare… this shouldn’t be happening! Somnus is DEAD—he’s really dead—!” The God of Netorare fell to his knees, clutching his hair.

I lifted my head slowly, my face drenched in blood, my lips pulling into a broken, wild grin.

“He’s not just dead.”

My voice rasped, but every word carried like thunder.

“…His divinity is mine now.”

The ground beneath my feet cracked as black flames and silver mist curled around me, fusing, shifting, warping.

The aura wasn’t divinity, it wasn’t chaos, it was something entirely new, something that reeked of inevitability.

The power of Karma.

Every god present felt it.

A crushing pressure that didn’t come from my strength, but from something deeper.

The law of Cause & Effect.

And right now, it was under the condition of being used.

I simply raised my index finger, pointing at them.

“Since I’ve received all of your attacks… It’s only fair that you receive them back, no?”

A black and white aura enveloped my finger, curling up in a small vortex, just like yin-yang fishes.

『 ✯Authority: Karma

✯』

“Point-blank.”

FWOOM!

The world ruptured.

All at once, every spear of shadow, every torrent of fire, every streak of lightning, every divine strike that had shredded my flesh moments ago… reappeared.

But not as theirs anymore.

They had become mine.

Twisted, refined, and sharpened into a single beam that erupted from my fingertip.

The attack screamed like a dying universe, a tidal wave of their own combined might, magnified and bent back upon them by the law of Cause & Effect.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!” Shadow’s howl was the first to break, his body unraveling into black threads as the blast swallowed him.

“IMPOSSIBLE! HE-HE CAN’T—!!!!!!!!1” the God of Flames shrieked, but his words cut short as he disintegrated into ash.

The God of Netorare’s arms clawed desperately at the ground, dragging trenches as his voice broke into a sobbing wail.

“I-I DON’T WANT TO DIEEEEEEEEEEEE!” His body shattered into pink wisps, swallowed whole.

All twelve gods screamed.

BOOOOOOM!

The canyon exploded into a crater of light and sound, mountains flattening under the shockwave, the sky splitting open with veins of raw chaos.

And just at that happened…

There was complete silence for exactly thirty seconds…

“…..”

Where the twelve gods once stood, only drifting wisps of divinity remained.

Golden, crimson, and black motes of light hung in the air, swirling like helpless fireflies, drawn to me as though fate itself demanded it.

SHHHHHHHHHH!

They poured into me, one after another, searing rivers of power flooding my body.

My veins glowed silver, my bones rattled, my skin cracked under the sheer force, yet I endured.

[Low-level Divinity absorbed…]

[Low-level Divinity absorbed…]

[Multiple Authorities assimilated…]

[God-Killing Authority strengthened.]

[Authority: Karma—advanced to Mid-tier.]

I exhaled slowly, my breath coming out as a stream of silver mist.

My wounds were gone, and my aura was… different.

It was an aura of… inevitability.

“…So that’s what happens when karma comes full circle.”

I looked at my finger, still smoking faintly, and let out a faint laugh.

“This… was much easier than I thought.”

[…You’ve earned the qualifications to become a true god.]

“Huh?”

I raised an eyebrow at the system’s words.

It was the actual system speaking, not just a notification to say that my attributes had been enhanced or something.

[Now… would you like to activate your bloodline?]

My lips curled up instantly.

“Yes.”

[Are you sure? Once you activate it, every god will try to kill you once you step onto the Divine Realm, and even with that… would you like to activate it?]

My decision was made a long time ago.

When I promised myself that I would kill every damn god that threatened to take something from me.

Besides…

I still need to meet up with Elleonora.

I promised her.

And to do that…

I shall become the strongest existence in the whole universe.

Even if at one point… I lose what makes me…

…Myself.

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