Ch 196 – Supreme Emperor of Life and Death
A being appeared in the void of space. His hair was long and gray, and both of his eyes gleamed with a silver-gray luster as his smile brimmed with joy and excitement.
In front of Isaac, he saw the dead corpse of the solar lion that has already shrunk into a ball of flames like a small star the size of a building. Right beside Isaac, he stares at one of the gargantuan tentacles of Bahamut and patted it gently, feeling the countless myriad laws that were on Bahamut's body.
His smile turned gentle while sighing with nostalgia: "To think in merely a year, I would already be just a step away from entering the realm of gods, the very same realm that my original self took a thousand years to reach."
A loud growl cried, yet one could clearly feel the deep feeling of love and loyalty from the beastly growl. Isaac smiled, and his eyes shifted back to the ball of flames with an ominous light.
"Are you ready?" Isaac suddenly said all of a sudden. His body which was mostly gray in color suddenly underwent a change.
His originally long gray hair suddenly turned white, and his pair of eyes also turned white. His gray clothes fluttered lightly, and they also turned white. An immense feeling of vitality and life can be felt from his body; his mere presence alone caused the law of life to resonate in the surrounding area.
But this should be impossible, as only God Beasts would have laws imprinted onto their bodies, though that would only be applicable to normal people. Isaac was a cheater, and so is Nox Aeterna. Back then, when Nox found himself inside a god's dream realm, his potential was stimulated under the immense threat to his life, causing the law of dreams to be etched onto his soul.
Isaac Deathwill would of course be able to easily find a way to do the same, especially when he has his own personal god beast to derive data from.
At the same time his hair and eyes turned white, a crack in space suddenly appeared right in front of him. Through it, an immense aura of death erupted. Not only that, but even the law of death in the surrounding area also resonated!
Slowly, from the crack in space, Isaac saw a skeleton's hand poke through. As more and more of the skeleton's body appeared, the aura of death continued to grow, until finally…
"Isaac Deathwill?!" Angelica cried out in shock.
She was a True God, a being far beyond mortal beings like Isaac! She has countless methods to deduct future events, and using her countless cheats gathered from countless champions she chose all throughout her countless worlds, her ability to inspect the future and see what lies ahead is at a terrifying level already!
While she was indeed trapped and weakened to an immense degree, she should have been able to see this coming without exerting any hint of effort. She finally realized what that strange feeling was.
"I can't see Isaac's future? No, I can't even inspect anything about him other than surface-level info!" Her eyes widened in shock, she gasped and continued: "How? How come I haven't noticed this for so long? In fact, what is even stranger is that I haven't been actively trying to see Isaac's future since the very start! No, wait… Is it because his future self has reached a terrifying level that allows his past self to avoid my methods?"
Countless theories played in her mind within moments. While she was indeed a True God of Divinity and has grasped the 'Truth' of her law within her home galaxy, she's also a special entity, a cheater! She wields powers far from the constraints of the universe she was in, which allows her to show unique abilities that would normally be impossible.
Due to her special ability to bestow and take away cheats to other beings, her array of abilities is mystical beyond compare. But now, her mystical methods couldn't work against Isaac.
A burst of ear-grating laughter erupted, and the skeletal figure fully appeared; the crack in space closed behind it. The figure had a pair of black smoky eyes, wearing a scholarly black robe that covered the majority of the skeletal figure's body. The aura of a peak demigod expert can be felt, in fact, the aura even felt beyond the level of peak demigods already!
The two beings stared at each for a split moment, before the skeletal figure responded: "I'm the Emperor of Death, of course, I would be ready!"
Both clone and original now found themselves in the same area. The corpse of a god beast lay beside them, while a god beast also stood motionless beside them. And yet, even when surrounded by godly beings, both mortal figures remained calm and collected, as their eyes flashed with brilliant light.
"Let's start," Isaac said with a serious tone.
The Emperor of Death nodded his head, and without any hesitation, he stretched out his hand at lightning speed toward Isaac's chest.
Angelica widened her eyes once more, as she saw the Emperor of Death pull out a golden sphere from Isaac's chest! The golden sphere pulsated with brilliant golden radiance, and one glance alone would show its peerless value. The moment it appeared, a radical change instantly occurred in the surrounding area, as the laws of reality reacted in all sorts of ways to its mere presence.
Space-time warped, light bent, gravity reversed; it was truly a mystical sight, yet in spite of all of that, both Isaac and the Emperor of Death remained calm.
Both beings stretched out their hands, grasping the golden sphere with a single hand each. A strange power coursed through the two figures, and they stared at the corpse of the solar lion with each having a mad grin worn on their face. In tandem, both had their souls ripped out from their bodies due to the golden sphere's strange power, and their mortal souls hastily flew toward the solar lion's corpse.
But in the next moment, the normal process of Isaac sacrificing a portion of his soul to revive another being and turn them into his servant suddenly changed.
Both Isaac's and the Emperor of Death's soulless bodies suddenly transformed into clumps of white and black light respectively. As it happened, both of their souls that has been pulled out of their bodies halted, and they shot back toward the golden sphere!
"What's happening?! They actually stopped the cheat's power?" Angelica muttered with surprise, but also curiosity.
In the next moment, space around the strange event warped, and countless demigod figures appeared one by one! In the lead was Nox Aeterna, whose eyes glowed brilliantly with rainbow light. All of the demigods stood motionless and watched the two souls collide with the golden sphere, mixing with it and transforming into a larger golden sphere. Seeing that, Nox Aeterna stretched out his hands, and from all the demigods that appeared, traces of light of varying colors shot towards the golden sphere where both clumps of white and black light rotated like the moon hovering around Earth.
In the next moment, Angelica widened her eyes with shock as she sensed what happened: "He's attempting to ascend!"
All throughout the area, a mystical change occurred. A strange suction force erupted from the golden sphere, and all the demigods let themselves get dragged into the golden sphere without resistance. Only a certain few demigods were left, including all of those who have cheats like Clover Fourleaf and Immortal King.
Not only were the bodies of the demigods absorb, even the corpse of the solar lion was quickly absorbed, but the suction force didn't stop!
The remaining demigods quickly disappeared from the area, as they all appeared outside the solar system. Bahamut roared loudly, his body expanded like shadowy darkness, and within moments, encapsulated the entirety of the solar system.
But as if they were incurring heaven's wrath, the laws of reality warped and God Beasts of different laws charged out from nowhere.
"When a mortal ascends to godhood, they would normally break their core and produce a strange force that can even assimilate the laws of reality. Due to that, the world they are in would normally retaliate as the mortal attempting to ascend would essentially steal the laws of their home world to form their own inner world. But this… This is Isaac trying to absorb the entire star system he is in by using Bahamut as the medium! So many God Beasts, even my own ascension wasn't as grand as this!" Angelica cried out in shock upon seeing the countless God Beasts that appeared.
This wasn't the wrath of just a single world, this was the wrath of an entire solar system, a star system that is about to be wiped from the face of the universe to become Isaac's inner world!
Normally speaking, this should be impossible, as even the most talented mortals could only hope to assimilate an entire world as their inner world, but Isaac is trying to absorb an entire star system from the get-go! Not only would he have multiple worlds from the very start, but he would also have an entire law star! Constructing a law star is one of the hardest steps in a god's cultivation, it is akin to an entire civilization finally colonizing their home star and advancing to a type 2 civilization!
If he were to succeed, Isaac would start with an immensely deep foundation that would catapult his cultivation speed to an incomparably fast level!
But he was faced with a tribulation of multiple God Beasts, as a mortal, he would of course have no way to deal with them. But unfortunately for the retaliating star system, Bahamut was on Isaac's side!
Bahamut was already near star-level, facing these god beasts who are at most large world-level, Bahamut can face them confidently without a hint of fear.
After a quick fight, the god beasts were quickly slain and entered the darkness to be absorbed by the golden sphere. After doing so, the twin balls of white and black light suddenly reacted, as if a certain requirement has finally been met.
The twin balls of light slowly approached the golden sphere, forming a spiral of light and darkness. The closer they got to the golden sphere, the faster they spun in circles around it, like two stars quickly approaching a black hole.
Countless laws resonated in the area, as even a large portion of Bahamut's body was already absorbed into the golden sphere. But most of all, the aura of life and death continuously got stronger in the surrounding area to an unprecedented level.
"This… this is like how when one comprehends the 'Truth' of a single law, they can exert the mysteries of other laws to a certain extent. Due to the law of life and death, all of the other laws absorbed into the golden sphere resonated in a mystical way!" Angelica exclaimed with surprise upon seeing both the laws of life and death seemingly taking control of all other laws.
Slowly, a voice called out from nothingness as the golden sphere underwent another change, "Life and Death, in my eyes, are the supreme laws of reality. Without life, how can beings even comprehend what laws are? Without death, how can progress ever occur? Without life and death, how can the universe ever flourish? In my eyes, life and death are the emperor of all laws, even above fate and destiny! Can destiny create life without life? Can fate control the fate of beings when there are none to begin with? Without life and death, can fate and destiny exist? Without life and death, can the universe exist?"
The golden sphere slowly absorbed the twin balls of light and darkness, fusing into the golden sphere as the sphere's form slowly change. From a clump of myriad colorful lights, it slowly took on a humanoid form, and from the clump, a figure appeared.
And upon seeing the figure, Angelica muttered with trembling eyes, unable to hide the shock from within: "Neither dead nor alive; neither man nor beast, having both an inner world and laws etched onto their very body. The aura of both life and death resonates from their body, an aura that dominates all other laws in the surrounding area like a supreme emperor that stands high above all!"
Instantly, a name popped into her mind, a name given to every godly being to ever exist like their own personal title that was created solely for them by the universe.
The God of Life and Death: Supreme Emperor of Life and Death.
AN: This chapter has 2134 words.
I can almost say goodbye to this dumpsterfire of a novel, just a few more and I can start anew.
(December 3, 2022 – 373rd day of writing)