Chapter 108: River of Reincarnation

Chapter 108: River of Reincarnation

Word count = 1790 on 11/7/2023

A vast desert showcases the ruins of a mighty battle. Yet this battle was not of man against man but man against the heavens themselves. The final result showcases the desert's destruction with many observers finding no traces of the challenger themselves. Amongst these people are the representatives of the 2 nearby empires of Heaven Dou and Empyrean. Heaven Dou stands curious to what happened here as they arrived too late, meanwhile Empyrean higher ups knew what happened here and started to get worried over the lack of the challenger himself. All of them except 2, the first being Du Lie who has access to the Death Crystal in the Blood hall. The crystal itself has not shattered and the other being Bibi Dong who has faith in the challenger while she prepares for her own ascension.

Both sides undergo their own investigations as this land is technically no man's land since it's unusable for either empire, lacking in every form of amenities. The end result is the finding the final location of the last bolt of lightning. No signs of clothing or anything is left behind except a smokey outline of a humanoid figure that is quite tall. The average height of the person could be calculated with ease by tracking the various shadows and proposing certain poses to get the proper numbers. Both sides are able to come to a proper conclusion of who it is and retreat to their respective empires. Heaven Dou would await whatever news that Empyrean is willing to release soon enough. They have a good relationship with the Empyrean empire so this does physically sadden them that such a promising youth was struck down by the heavens.

Du Lie and Bibi Dong instead head to Blood hall to observe the death crystal, in anticipation. They both know that the crystal is bound to Xue Tie's life force and subsequent death rune. Bibi Dong is also meditating onto her own divinity, related to the Rakshasa god still as she did not want to be subordinate to Xue Tie by following his death path.

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In a faraway place that holds various buildings and temple-like structures on top of the very clouds themselves. There lies a middle aged man whose body is smoky and smoldering from the lightning struck that hit him but when it failed to outright kill him due to the toughness of the body, it brought him away into the divine realm where his body is undergoing apotheosis, transitioning from mortal to a proper god. If the man had spirit rings, they would have undergone changes to become fully gold as a representation of 1 million year old rings. But this person lacks spirit rings so it's only their body that seems to change…at least to an outsider's perspective.

On the inside, the man observes how the deathCore within his body undergoes a change to become more indepth in regards to death itself and the various aspects that make it up. This expands Xue Tie's own capabilities in terms of the variety of deaths he wants to inflict should he fight at all with it. The variety far surpasses the limits of his own original bloodline, the stereotypical function of death itself based on how it was portrayed in Elden Ring and subsequently implemented by Xue Tie for his trident's martial spirit long ago. Xue Tie stands in a daze as he absorbs the full knowledge of the change and what his new limits are before he regains consciousness.

"Cough. Cough cough. Ah that sucked, almost became brain dead there" He coughs a bit by reflex as his last memory was head butting the lightning and getting brain damage to the point he became a smoked potato. It was only due to the toughness of his body that he survived the ordeal but if he did not ascend and automatically be reborn as a god then he likely would just be brain dead. This dumps a lot of cold water upon Xue Tie's motivation as he praises his good luck that the process was automatic.

Xue Tie gets up as he feels up his body to register the changes that have occurred to him as he appreciates the function of his divine body as he feels that his body discovers the 'immortal' energy that makes up the Divine Realm. Now instead of spirit energy serving as the passive energy being used as the fuel for his death rune, it's now the immortal energy that is used as the fuel for an even more powerful form of death energy. Though he gets some sort of strange feedback from this form of energy as if other concepts are mixed in, making it more murky and not as pure as it used to be.

It's as if it's not DEATH anymore but something different.

What this is, he has no clue and has no time to further explore his new prowess as 2 figures float over from a distance. The first is a tall 'hefty' being wearing thick jeans with a striped shirt that is heavily stretched out and showing the owner's fat belly. On the top of their head they have a chef's hat and use a chef's jacket as a sort of robe that barely even reaches halfway around his body. Xue Tie noticeably pales in disgust at the conflict of clothing styles combined with the heavily obese visage of the first person makes him feel true fright that rivals the fear of his first death.

Xue Tie outwardly gags as he turns away from the figure. Veins sprout on the person's head. "Bastard, what is that look on your face? You stand before the greatness of the Food God" The now revealed Food God roars out, his voice slightly guttural due to the size of him.

"Ah, I apologize food god, it seems my own divine physique somehow has fallen ill upon seeing your magnificent stature" Xue Tie responds with an openly sarcastic comment. This causes the Food God to roar in rage as he spawns a frying pan in his hand. He moves to whack Xue Tie with it.

Upon seeing this Xue Tie turns around to face the hostile god again and with a stronger resolve, he raises his hand to block the downward strike from the pan. A resounding CLANG is heard from the impact but Xue Tie shows no change to his expression. The marble-like ground hidden under the clouds cracks a bit from the impact under his feet but no changes occur otherwise.

"WHAT??!!" the food god yells out in shock.

"Weak, just like all those fools you sent after me. None of you have any redeeming qualities which means that either your martial spirit carried you to your current state or the food god divine throne was handed to you on a silver platter. It's honestly quite pathetic how your current state reflects your strength." Xue Tie insults the Food god further while grabbing the pan itself so he can't swing it again. Not to say that he didn't try. He did but truly can't match the peak divine level physique that Xue Tie is currently sporting after his ascension.

The food god suddenly changes into a furious calm as he expected something like this after watching Xue Tie's progress for so long. His energy surges as it gathers around the pan and suddenly Xue Tie finds himself being lifted up with the pan itself. After quickly checking, he finds that his own weight has been vastly reduced and thus unable to maintain his presence on the ground.

He is suddenly slammed down onto the ground, from this position, the pan is lying down on top of him even if he is holding one of it's sides. He can clearly feel the weight of the pan has increased by what he has lost but doubled. His fingers on the pan start to burn as the food god unleashes a fire breath onto the pan to start cooking. Xue Tie is forced to take his hand off the pan just in case there are some other effects going on with the pan.

The Food God believes Xue Tie released due to pain for whatever reason and begins to wail upon him with the pan rapidly down at Xue Tie. This continues for a few minutes as a dust cloud rises up and the Food god takes a step away to not get dust on him.

"Watch out" The other figure in black robes with a hood covering their face yells out in a feminine voice.

The food god suddenly finds a figure standing before him with not a scratch on their body but a fist poised to hit them. This quickly connects into the food gods stomach and he rebounds off into the distance.

"That's how you properly hit something."

"Food god, you seem to be ignorant of ancient times. Within the annals of the divine thrones, the death god has always been a major god of the world as compared to the lowly food god such as yourself. I AM THE DEATH GOD. There can be false idols and usurpers who claim such a title but they can never possess the true divine throne that belongs to me."

"Isn't that right Reaper Goddess, Rakshasa?" Xue Tie proclaims out loud for the food god who is coming out of the rubble with a shiver down his spine. As for the Rakshasa Goddess, she scoffs as she states. "I have never claimed to be the goddess of death, I have always been the Rakshasa goddess and you too shall fall under my blade just as your ancestors have for their vile actions back in the day."

She raises her scythe and rushes forward to strike at Xue Tie when suddenly a pillar of light falls upon Xue Tie. All the other gods come forth upon the pillars revealed as they watch in splendor as a multi-colored river flows through the sky before dropping down to the ground before Xue Tie upon contact with the pillar of light. The river phases through Xue Tie who suddenly freezes with the various lights from the river attaching to him.

"HAHAHAHA, food god, you are truly lucky that the river of reincarnation has chosen him as it's next host, but that also means that you may never kill him…Granted none of us can anymore, " the god of destruction comes forward to praise the food gods good luck.

Rakshasa is confused as she has never witnessed this since she took her own divine position. "My lord, what is this river of reincarnation?"

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