Chapter 1515: Realm of Gods
Chapter 1515: Realm of Gods
Astraeus remained silent for a long time. He appeared conflicted, and sometimes, in pain. Arthur could feel the tremor in his hands and could see the fear in his eyes. He looked like a mortal, not a god.
"It’s the machine," the god said. "Yggdrasil is..."
Then, the world turned silent. Arthur squinted his eyes, as he could see the god’s lips move, but no sound came out. Realization and fear appeared in the divine creature’s eyes, and he looked upward.
In the sky above them, which was a blend of night and day at the moment, a pair of giant eyes manifested. They looked like an infinite number of rings, golden and white, interloping with each other. The pair of eyes was watching them.
A scream escaped the god’s lips as he collapsed to the ground. Arthur turned toward Astraeus to find him panting on the ground, clutching his chest.
"It seems I’m already being watched," Astraeus said with a weak voice, as he turned toward Arthur. "I don’t know if you will change anything this time, but... it seems I can only place my hopes in you to free us."
"Free... you?" Arthur muttered with confusion. The god wanted to say something more, but then, his form shattered like glass. Shards flew toward Arthur, but they passed through his body harmlessly.
He raised his eyes toward the sky.
The pair of eyes was looking down on him.
They looked into each other’s eyes, and Arthur could see something that terrified him. As for the creature, it looked at him with curiosity and a challenge.
Then, they vanished too, evaporating into nothingness.
Arthur remained in his spot for a long time. He was lost in thought, but at the end, he smiled and petted Fenrir. The wolf was rigid, probably scared of the pair of eyes that looked down on them.
"Secrets are beginning to unpeel, and it seems the realm of gods is no longer united. Astraeus might have sacrificed a lot just to warn me, or beg me to help."
"Why did it wish to meet you?" Fenrir said.
Arthur, however, was looking at a message from his legacy that told him the answer to that question. Astraeus was not here to chat, but to impart him with a little gift.
[You have received 10 Ichor Points.]
[You have been imparted with the Logos of Order (Complete)]
Arthur felt the power surge into his body the moment the shards passed through him. Maybe Astraeus wasn’t here to chat, but to help him kickstart his adventure in the Sovereign Path.
"This changes nothing," Arthur said. "I will destroy everything the gods throw at me and at our world. And then... I will meet them myself in the summit."
***
Inside the highest realm of the Sovereign Path, Devaheim.
Clouds parted ways as the golden rivers ran dry. The golden grass stretched endlessly around a pyramid that nested itself among the clouds. A terrible storm was brewing with the magnificent structure in the center.
Astraeus collapsed like a ragdoll on the highest platform in the pyramid. The golden floor moved to seize him, and raise him as if crucified. He winced in pain, and struggled to use his powers to regain order of the world around him.
Nothing answered him.
He understood his struggle was futile. The moment he descended to meet the creator, his fate had been sealed. However, he had used his good friend’s help to remain hidden until he met him.
Therefore, he smiled and turned toward the pantheon of gods. They stood on each side of a long path, looking at him with rage, confusion, and doubt.
"God of Order, Astraeus," a voice boomed deep within his soul. "Do you understand your sins?"
"How could I sin simply by meeting the man you fear?" Astraeus said with a grin, but he knew that his circumstances couldn’t get worse. "I understand that you panicked because of him. The one incarnation that has managed to reach this far in such a short time."
"Silence."
The voice boomed.
Astraeus complied, as even he feared the owner.
He looked at the man with giant wings on his back, and draconic skin covering his entire body. He wore armor made of lightning and carried a long spear of jagged bones.
"Your actions have defiled the agreement of non-interference, and the will of the creator," it said with rage visible in his eyes. "Is total annihilation of all realms what you desire?"
Astraeus paused. "No," he said. "But... I wish for freedom."
His words caused outrage among the gods, but some of them were looking at him with sympathetic gazes. Their will descended upon him like a mountain, threatening to crush his mind.
"Freedom?" a goddess asked with a sneer, one called Alaya Zexar, the Goddess of Fate and Ends. "It seems you confuse anarchy with freedom, poor soul. The creator is the sole person capable of controlling the Path. If his incarnation does so, then how would we protect the billions of lives living in our servitude?"
"That is enough, Alaya," the winged God of War said, shifting his gaze. "His Majesty wishes to meet Astraeus himself. His fate will be decided after entering the Court of Mysticism."
Astraeus paled at the mention of that person. He struggled again, but the golden energy restraining him was unbreakable. He was dragged in front of everyone, as he shouted the truths that no one dared to reveal, as they looked on with pity.
And then, the God of Order was dragged into a chamber that no one dared to enter. The doors closed, but his screams seemed to linger just a little longer.
"What are we to do about the incarnation?" Alaya Zexar asked with a frown. "He has already awakened the True Legacy. If we leave him unchecked, then..."
"And how would we harm him, without turning the world’s tree against us?" the winged god said with disdain. "We have brought him into the Path for one reason: the summit. As long as we can get him there... then Conquest will take care of the rest."
The gods seemed to relax at the mention of Conquest, their most reliable soldier. Then, they began to chat among themselves, forgetting about the god that had disappeared into the Chamber.
***
It had been three days since Arthur entered the Path. However, he had yet to see any signs of Oriole or Rae. Therefore, he roamed around with Fenrir, destroying altars and killing avatars.
The first time he met the avatar of a god was a novel experience for him. Arthur expected vessels to retain some form of willpower, but avatars were the complete opposite of that. The body became the medium to unchecked divine energy, and the one responsible for that seemed to be a small god from Devaheim.
Arthur stumbled upon the man in total coincidence after detecting abnormal levels of divine energy. Fenrir took two leaps to reach the small clearing where the avatar had descended, and he was already in the process of killing a group of ascenders.
His body turned pitch black like the night, as his eyes shone with golden power. Arthur used Void Walk to approach the avatar and summon his dagger, Nightmare. The dagger screamed, and the avatar did the same as it perished because of a stab to his heart.
As the body dissolved into a puddle of flesh and then began to rot, Arthur understood that this form of possession was far from beneficial to the host. The moment that the god detected danger, it abandoned the body and tried to flee.
However, a single stab allowed Arthur to erase the god completely. He had grown stronger after using the 10 Ichor Points to strengthen himself. After killing the avatar, he received an unexpected message.
[Your form is now Level 2.]
Arthur was surprised to see another Ichor Point appear. Combined with the two he had, he decided to unlock a new ability.
[Detachment: an attack capable of destroying the link between any two entities or objects.]
Arthur remembered his stances, and tried to execute them on a mountain. The mountain appeared the same at first, but began to slide sideways after a while. A few ascenders fled the scene after seeing the bizarre phenomena.
His Veyl form was excellent against the gods, but it was less versatile than his Solari form. In his relatively human form, he was capable of wielding insane amounts of Spiritual Energy.
Arthur used his latest ability, Spiritual Destruction, to reshape the Sovereign Path. To his surprise, his attacks didn’t yield as much destruction, as the Path seemed to have some sort of materialistic aspect, unlike the Spirits Realm.
His next avatar was found by Fenrir, who was an excellent guide once the night descended. The moonlight became its eyesight and its wagon, carrying the giant wolf like an invisible road in the sky.
It was a woman in a small village. Arthur found her devouring the soul of a small child when he arrived. The scene was both terrifying and disgusting. As she noticed his arrival, she smiled at him with white, flawless teeth.
"Want a taste?"
So Arthur gave her a taste of his dagger.