Chapter 1655 1655: New Age Of Deities
Chapter 1655 1655: New Age Of Deities
The other Gustav began flickering as cracks appeared along his form.
Fractures of light split across his chest as he turned his dissolving head toward the direction he had sent Endric which was directly with Sersi and Ria.
And in the next instant, he snapped his fingers.
POP.
Endric vanished again but this time along with Ria and Sersi.
They were safe.
As safe as Gustav could make them.
Gustav's avatar collapsed to one knee.
The Overseer appeared behind him with a slight look of shock that Gustav had escaped his grasp for even a second.
Gustav didn't look at him. Neither did he utter a word to him as his body was dissolving rapidly.
Light flaked off him like burning petals.
"Live… little brother," Gustav murmured.
In the next instant, his avatar dissolved entirely.
The cosmos fell into a deep silence so absolute it was as if the universe itself had paused out of horror.
Moments ago, Gustav, the Outworldly, the being who once stood above gods, who shaped galaxies with a thought, who altered reality as easily as breathing, had perished.
Gustav's severed head and torn limbs had been flung across space like discarded debris. His other form had dissipated into motes of light that vanished into the void.
It was done.
The unthinkable had happened.
The God-killer… the Deity-Eraser… the Outworldly… was gone.
And with his fall, the universe felt something unfamiliar... fear.
The combined cosmic superior beings who had fused into a singular titan that had pushed Nocturnis to desperation, stumbled.
Their massive gestalt form trembled as cracks of light fissured through its structure. Their unity faltered like flickering flames under a cold, crushing wind.
BOOM!
A shockwave suddenly erupted from where Gustav had died. Darkness poured outward, expanding in a rolling tide like spilled ink across a page. The titan of cosmic superior beings shuddered violently under the impact. Their collective consciousness fractured. The light that bound them flickered… shattered… and the giant collapsed.
In screaming streaks of multi-colored energy, the beings separated.
Thirteen figures with some tall as skyscrapers, others the size of humans, some glowing like stars, others covered in scales or fur... fell apart from the combined entity and scattered across the void like dying sparks.
They tumbled across broken asteroid fields and cracked cosmic fragments, coughing, wheezing, or gasping as their exhaustion caught up to them.
Nocturnis floated before them wounded. He was still bleeding dark ichor from the wounds inflicted during the fusion titan's last stand as well as all the damage Gustav dealt him.
His form was gruesomely injured but far from defeated. His eyes stared down at the scattered cosmic superiors with an emotion that could only be described as glee.
"Look at you…" he rasped with a voice that rippled through the vacuum like tendrils of cold. "Without your precious Outworldly… you are nothing."
The Overseer drifted forward beside him. Wreathed in shimmering light, his presence bent space like gravity made sentient.
His face which was an indescribable construct of radiance, was twisted in grim satisfaction.
"Order has returned," he declared. "The false age of mortals ends here."
The cosmic superior beings, despite their wounds, pushed themselves upright.
A reptilian warrior with crystalline scales forced himself to hover upright. "We are not done—!"
Nocturnis blurred.
One moment he was a hundred kilometers away.
The next—
SHRRRK!
His hand punched through the reptilian being's torso. A cough of shimmering blood spilled into space.
"You are," Nocturnis whispered.
His fingers clenched.
BOOM!
The cosmic superior exploded into fragments of light that dissipated instantly.
Without being merged, he posed no threat to the deity by himself.
A a six-armed insectoid woman with radiant wings darted forward with a cry of rage. Her wings vibrated, unleashing slicing ripples capable of cutting moons into smooth circular pieces.
Nocturnis didn't even look at her.
His shadow stretched, curved, snapped upward—
CHOMP
—and devoured her from below, leaving nothing but a fading echo of her scream.
Two down.
Eleven left.
The cosmic superiors panicked.
A giant spectral lion roared and charged with cosmic flames bursting from its mane. A mechanical entity with a thousand shifting plates opened its core and unleashed antimatter beams. A humanoid covered in blue star-fire hurled blazing spheres that detonated like collapsing suns.
It didn't matter.
Nocturnis blurred through them like death incarnate.
One swipe decapitated the star-fire humanoid.
One lash of darkness bisected the lion into raw cosmic particles.
One sphere of condensed shadow imploded the mechanical being, compressing him to a singularity.
Eight down.
Seven trembling.
The Overseer watched the massacre calmly with arms folded behind his back. "I have no interest in pesky rats."
Now that the Outworldly was gone, the overseer was back to being unconcerned about whatever goes on in the universe.
The deity of darkness grinned, dripping black ichor from his talons. "Let them understand despair before they die. It makes their souls taste better."
A plant-like cosmic superior with her body shaped like a twisting tangle of bioluminescent vines tried to flee.
She didn't get far.
A hand of pure radiance formed beside her, conjured by the Overseer.
CRUSH.
Her vines shriveled and she was compressed into nothing.
A massive centipede-like titan, large enough to coil around a mountain, unfurled his spiked limbs desperately. "We were blessed by the Outworldly! Our existence—our power—comes from him!"
The Overseer tilted his head. "And now he is gone. All power granted by him fades."
Nocturnis' shadows descended like a net and ripped the centipede-like titan to shreds.
SHRRRIP
Pieces drifted into space.
The rest formed a defensive circle with bodies trembling as their eyes widened in horror.
A floating jelly-like being with swirling galaxies inside his transparent core whispered, "We… cannot win…"
A horned humanoid with molten veins spat blood. "We fight anyway."
A turtle-like creature with runes across its shell whispered, "For the cosmos…"
Nocturnis licked his lips. "Oh good. Continue resisting. I enjoy the chase."
And chase he did.
He vanished, reappeared behind the molten humanoid, and tore off his arm before impaling him through the spine.
Four.
The galaxy-core jelly tried to engulf Nocturnis. Shadows tore through him from within.
Three.
The rune-turtle cast a shell barrier stretching a hundred kilometers, glowing like a sanctum. Nocturnis tapped it with a single finger.
CRACK.
The shell shattered.
A beam of shadow erased him.
Two.
The last pair which was a winged woman and an armored beast with horns, charged the Overseer instead of Nocturnis, hoping perhaps the deity of light would be easier since he wasn't engaging.
He intended to take him by surprise.
The Overseer raised a hand.
A ring of light expanded.
FLASH.
Both were vaporized instantly.
Fifteen cosmic superiors.
All dead.
The universe trembled as their essences faded. Worlds where they were worshiped felt sudden cold. Planets they once protected shivered in communal dread.
Nocturnis stretched lazily, cracking his neck. "Refreshing."
"Are you satisfied?" the Overseer asked.
"For now." Nocturnis wiped cosmic blood off his claws. "It was quite thoughtful of you to let me handle them."
"Your cruelty serves a purpose," the Overseer replied. "Fear must be cultivated. Order must be restored. And the mortals must remember whom they exist under."
Nocturnis' smile widened.
Behind them, the darkness that had begun spreading after Gustav's death continued to bloom outward.
Vast tendrils blanketed the far reaches of space and entire star systems dimmed as if someone had lowered the brightness of existence itself. On distant planets, civilizations noticed their skies growing darker and trembled.
"See?" Nocturnis whispered. "Already the universe remembers its rightful master."
But the Overseer cut him off coldly.
"No. The universe remembers its rightful masters," he corrected. "For the age of deities begins anew."
A low rumble followed like thunder rolling across the cosmic expanse.
The Overseer lifted his arms and the cosmos reacted.
Light gathered.
Threads of radiant power expanded from his palms, stretching like luminous rivers through the void. They curved, split into countless streams, and dove into the distant reaches of space... seeking, unearthing, unlocking.
A horrifying realization dawned.
He wasn't summoning something new.
He was returning something ancient.
A chilling grin spread across Nocturnis' face. "So it begins…"
Planets shook... stars flickered.
Across the universe, hidden temples and sealed shrines lit up again... places that had been cold for over one hundred thousand years.
The Overseer's voice boomed, echoing into the heart of reality:
"Let those who were dissolved awaken. Let the pantheon rise from extinction.
The deities shall reclaim the cosmos."
Cracks formed in space as rents of divine power forced themselves into existence.
Hands emerged.
Claws.
Horns.
Wings made of gold and flame.
Eyes that glowed like miniature suns.
One after another, silhouettes stepped out of the fractures.
At first they were only in tens but soon they became hundreds.
The sky filled with silhouettes of beings so powerful that mortal minds would go insane just witnessing them.
Gods of oceans.
Gods of storms.
Gods of time.
Gods of beasts.
Gods forged from stars.
Gods older than galaxies.
Gods of destruction, chaos, dreams, war, rebirth, decay...