Chapter 1651 1651: How Do You Intend To Defeat Us Both?
Chapter 1651 1651: How Do You Intend To Defeat Us Both?
Gustav finally got very serious.
He grabbed Nocturnis by the throat, kneed him in the stomach, shattering the deity's physical form into shadow dust.
He punched the dust, forcing it back into shape.
He slammed Nocturnis into an exploding nebula.
He crashed him through three orbiting planetoids.
He ripped a hole in space and smashed Nocturnis through it, letting him fall out the other side like garbage.
He teleported in front of the falling deity, grabbed him, and—
SLAM!
Drove him into the remains of a dying star.
The star flared wildly, devouring Nocturnis in white-blue plasma.
Gustav pulled him out before he disintegrated completely.
Only to slam him again.
Finally…
Nocturnis lay floating in space, broken, shriveled, barely holding form.
His once endless shadow aura flickered dimly.
"Fifty percent…" Nocturnis whispered. His voice was hoarse, weak and defeated.
"You're only… at fifty percent…"
Gustav hovered above him, eyes leveling calmly.
"You attacked my people," Gustav said softly.
"You hurt those under my protection."
He reached out and placed a finger on Nocturnis' forehead.
"And you tried to kill me while I was unconscious."
Endric, Ria, and Sersi had witnessed only a fraction of the battle.
But even that fraction was enough to make their souls tremble.
"This…" Ria whispered.
"This is what he truly is… this is the power of the Outworldly... and its not even at full strength."
Endric swallowed hard.
"My brother… isn't Mixedblood right now."
Sersi nodded slowly with a look of awe.
"No… he's something far, far beyond."
And far in the void, Gustav turned back toward the ritual.
His unconscious self was still protected and under the bubble.
A cosmic quiet that felt heavier than the crushing force of collapsing stars followed the absolute decimation of Nocturnis.
The deity of shadows floated like a broken smear of dark mist, barely retaining a humanoid shape. The embers of stars glowed faintly behind him, a shattered constellation born from the destruction Gustav's fists had wrought. Dim fragments of nebulae drifted around the two figures, muted like ash after a wildfire.
Gustav hovered before him calmly.
He had not used even a fraction of his full Outworldly authority. Only fifty percent of his restored strength… yet Nocturnis had been overwhelmed so badly he no longer looked divine.
More like a dying shadow clinging desperately to existence.
Gustav raised a hand toward him.
A gesture that meant one thing.
Erasure.
True erasure.
Not death.
Not destruction.
Not banishment.
A complete revocation of the concept of Nocturnis.
The deity's very identity, purpose, essence, memory... everything he was would be wiped from the cosmic ledger.
Even the idea of him would vanish but this also meant that shadows would no longer exist in the cosmos. Which meant Gustav had to seperate the deity from his cosmic identity to avoid causing irrevocable damage to the universe.
Gustav's fingers glowed with a quiet, uncontestable finality.
Nocturnis' trembling form should've been filled with fear and regret.
Yet the deity began to… laugh.
At first a strained, broken rasp.
Then louder.
Then deeper.
A booming cackle that echoed through the vacuum, vibrating entire starfields.
Even Gustav paused wiyh his hand still raised.
Nocturnis' cracked, darkened jaw split open in a manic grin.
"You think I didn't know your capabilities?" he mocked.
"You think I confronted you with nothing prepared?"
His laughter intensified into a mad, delirious and triumphant roar.
"You foolish Outworldly… you think I came here alone?"
Gustav didn't respond but the faint narrowing of his eyes told the truth:
He sensed something.
Something wrong.
Space suddenly tore open like a sheet of thin cloth under sharp claws.
A rift split across the darkness like a spiky scar.
Purple flame spilled from it.
Black lightning danced across its edges.
The void howled, recoiling from whatever colossal force pushed against it.
Endric, Ria, and Sersi who were still in the distance inside Endric's telekinetic bubble, felt the disturbance like a hammer to the soul.
"What… what is that!?" Sersi gasped.
Endric's eyes widened. "Something massive is forcing its way into our universe…"
"Massive?" Ria repeated. "Massive like a building? planet? A star? A—"
He didn't get to finished because the answer revealed itself.
Through the cracks, an eye appeared.
One eye.
Bigger than their solar system.
Followed by a horn of spiky cosmic bone.
Then a limb, shaped vaguely like an arm, made of layered obsidian with swirling galaxies trapped within its structure.
Then a torso… stretching wider than nebula clusters.
With a being of such scale, the concept of "size" felt meaningless.
This was another Ancient Executioner.
And this one was bigger and more terrifying than the previous one.
And unlike Nocturnis, this being carried no emotions.
He was pure function.
Pure destruction.
Pure execution.
Its voice echoed across reality without sound:
"OBEY THE SUMMON."
Nocturnis smiled wider.
"You see, Outworldly… I knew this day would come. I have been preparing for this battle for tens of thousands of years... I knew that by myself, I could not defeat you..."
The Ancient Executioner raised something in his titanic hand.
A crystalline object barely glowed brightly with layers of trapped souls, cosmic rules, and a spectrum of energies Gustav recognized immediately.
It was not merely a crystal.
It was a Core Sacrificial Conduit.
A forbidden relic from the era before Outworldly.
A catalytic artifact capable of transforming divine entities into pure conceptual energy.
"Nocturnis," Gustav said quietly.
"You understand what this means? What he is holding?"
"Oh, I do," the deity replied with a grin still stretching across his cracked face. "As much as I would have loved to defeat you myself... this was all a part of my plan."
Nocturnis' shadow flickered in anticipation.
"Because all of this was necessary."
Gustav frowned.
"Necessary," Nocturnis continued, "to bring HIM back."
The Ancient Executioner lifted the crystal higher.
At that moment, stars detonated prematurely...
Black holes pulsed violently...
Space-time buckled...
And even Gustav felt the change.
A power he recognized....
A power he had thought gone...
A power he had personally ended long ago...
Was returning...
"No—" Gustav murmured.
But the Ancient Executioner squeezed the crystalline conduit and it shattered.
The result was instantaneous.
The Executioner's entire body which was the size of a galaxy, infinite in density and complexity, began to collapse inward.
His essence was ripped from his being, compressed into streams of golden and violet energy.
He shrieked in submission, fulfilling Nocturnis command to be used as a sacrifice.
The collapsing energy formed a column of pure blinding, absolute and overwhelming light.
A supernova of divinity.
The shockwave tore through surrounding galaxies, vaporizing stars. Solar systems disintegrated. Cosmic dust was blasted outward like storm debris.
Gustav shielded himself automatically, erecting an expansion barrier that protected his unconscious body far across the surrounding.
"NO!" Endric screamed, shielding Ria and Sersi telekinetically as the aftershock vaporized space around them.
Fortunately, Gustav's shield had mostly covered them as well so they were fine.
Moments later, the light began to contract...
Spin...
Condense...
Forming a shape.
Until—
A humanoid silhouette appeared within the vortex.
Wreathed in bands of cosmic law and stars glowing in his large body, his eyes burnt coldly.
When the light faded…
The being stepped forward.
Gustav's face hardened.
"I erased you."
The being frowned. "I am difficult to erase."
Nocturnis burst into mad laughter again.
"Yes! YES! You understand now, Outworldly! His essence still lingered. I only needed a sacrifice powerful enough to reform him!"
The being spread his arms and space trembled, stars bowed, dimensional layers quivered.
Before the Outworldly first emergence...
Before celestial order had meaning…
Before deities were forced to obey cosmic neutrality…
There had been one who was above all the other deities.
One who other deities sought when there was a disagreement amongst their ranks.
He who was born from the primal core of the earliest universe.
He never really governed the deities but his word was absolute.
And in raw divine strength?
He surpassed every deity by light-years.
Even the Ancient Executioners bowed to him.
He was the only entity who ever approached Outworldly power—
not equaling it…
but approaching it.
He was... THE OVERSEER.
Gustav had fought and killed him before but that was when he had his full Outworldly power.
Now?
He was at fifty percent and Nocturnis was well aware that this will put Gustav at a disadvantage.
The Overseer's cold and emotionaless gaze fixed on Gustav.
"Outworldly…" his voice rippled through the cosmos like a verdict handed down on reality itself.
"You murdered my daughter."
Gustav remained silent.
"You murdered me."
Nocturnis chuckled, despite barely having the strength to move.
"You look nervous, Outworldly," he sang mockingly.
"Does it feel familiar? That moment… when you realized you had no choice but to kill him?"
Gustav's aura thickened.
"You brought him back," Gustav said softly.
"Yes," Nocturnis replied proudly. "I have spent so much time gathering the necessary conduits. My Ancient Executioners are just a means to an end."
The deity pointed a shaking finger at Gustav.
"Imagine my delight when I finally found a way. A method to return the Overseer to this universe."
Cosmic power swirled around him as yhe Overseer stepped forward.
"And now," Nocturnis voice almost trembled with delight, "your strength has not fully returned…"
His grin widened into something feral.
"How do you intend to defeat us both?"