"AAARRGHHHHHHH!"
The roar shook the void.
When the abominations that had spawned from the Heart of the Root saw Cain flash forward, they answered with hatred and madness. Thousands of them tore themselves free from the world-sized tumor, their screeches rging into a chorus of ruin. Each one pulsed with the power of a Prima Deity.
Though their forms differed, most of them shared the sa grotesque archetype, as though sculpted from nightmares that refused to agree on a single shape.
So resembled an unholy fusion of insect, dragon, and cephalopod -translucent wings stretched from skeletal fras, while masses of exposed, brain-like tissue throbbed across their spines. From their maws extended writhing clusters of chained tendrils, dripping with psychic bile.
Others towered like demonic titans, their muscular fras wrapped in flayed, diseased flesh. Jagged growths sprouted from their backs, and gaping maws brimd with spiraling teeth. Leathery wings beat behind them, their tails long and sinuous like serpents of living bone. And the largest of them were worse-behemoths with uneven limbs swollen to monstrous proportions, ending in claws that glead like obsidian blades. Their flesh was a patchwork of muscle, bone, and spines, pulsing with raw, unnatural energy. Their skull-like faces twisted in eternal rage, embodying the essence of predatory chaos. Even for Cain, the pressure was imnse. A Prima Deity was nothing for him, but when their number reached the thousands, things began to change. Their collective presence warped the void itself.
Luckily, he was not fighting alone.
The mont those creatures left the necrotic radiance of the Heart of the Root and entered the domain of the Nine Empyrean Suns Universe's Matrix, divine law reacted.
The golden lattice of creation flared, and the abominations scread as their bodies began to lt. Divine order corroded their essence, weakening them, though not enough to stop their advance. Their hatred was endless. Their will, absolute.
Cain's aura ignited, his power rising to et theirs. He was the Scarlet King, and his fury was the fire of collapsing stars.
He raised his hand, and a weapon took shape in his palm-a lance of gravity. Unlike the weapon forged with the Abyssal Scripture, this one was born of his new Alpha-Oga Overgod Dual Cultivation Technique, a fusion of Star Power and Law.
"Tidal Mass Lance!" With a roar full of might and power, he hurled it forward.
The lance tore through the void, dragging a torrent of gravitational tides behind it. The first wave of abominations t it head-on-and were obliterated. Bodies shredded into molecular mist as oceans of folded ti and compressed space swallowed them.
Then, as the weapon reached its limit, it detonated.
A black hole blood at its core, devouring everything in reach. The gravitational pulse consud the battlefield before collapsing in on itself, releasing a cataclysmic shockwave that blasted several more of the creatures apart.
For a heartbeat, the universe went silent.
Those who remained trembled, finally realizing the magnitude of the being they faced. Even through their madness, they understood fear.
But things did not end there.
The mont the destroyed abominations disintegrated, their corrupted bodies were seized by the Matrix. The divine lattice
devoured their essence, burning it into pure golden energy-and then, with purpose, directed that light toward Cain.
A surge of radiance flooded him.
Cain's eyes widened as he felt it, shock and awe flooding his heart. "This primal energy is even purer than origin energy that one could find at the heart of a Primary World."
With a throgut, that Primal Origin Energy fused into his body, refining his bones and enhancing his muscles. It was minimal, barely asurable, but it was just the beginning.
If each kill granted such power, this battle could beco more than survival-it could be ascension.
Duty still guided him, but now greed and hunger stirred beside it. The eyes of the Scarlet King glead with crimson purpose as he
accelerated through the swarm.
He appeared among them like a storm given form, his right fist glowing with infinite density.
"Anvilfall Strike!"
His punch shattered the void.
A black event horizon ford around his arm, expanding for countless kiloters before collapsing inward. Every creature caught within it was crushed into a single point, condensed smaller than a grain of sand-then annihilated in an explosion of decayed flesh and collapsing energy.
The Matrix reacted instantly, absorbing the carnage, purging it, and redirecting the purified Primordial Origin Energy into Cain. Instead of allowing it to simply strengthen his body, Cain channeled the influx into the Eclipse Monolith Inheritance. He was close to completing the fourth level, and if he achieved it, his physical endurance would ascend beyond comprehension. Sothing told him he would need it soon.
Even while his mind raced, his awareness never faltered. Combat was
instinct.
He spread his fingers, shaping his hand into a blade, and swung.
"Temporal Oblivion Edge!"
A colossal arc of condensed temporal energy tore across the void. Wherever it passed, ti ceased to exist-monts collapsed into nothingness, erasing existence itself.
Yet this ti, the abominations resisted. Their flesh shimred, their forms stabilizing against the onslaught, making Cain narrow his eyes.
"As expected, they're resistant to the essence of decay and death itself," he muttered, voice calm even amid the storm. "Even the Laws
of Ti struggle to erase them."
But hesitation was not in his nature.
He plunged back into the fray, carving a path through the horde. His every motion birthed destruction-collapsing suns of gravity, tearing waves of spatial distortion, spears of stellar fire. The abominations fought like rabid gods, flinging themselves at him without thought for their own annihilation. Still, nothing could halt his advance.
The Heart of the Root trembled in fury. Its malignant eyes darkened, and new ripples spread through the void. From its depths, fresh horrors erged-larger, stronger, far more terrible.
So were serpentine monstrosities with countless necks, each ending in a gaping, fang-filled maw. Their raw, sinewy flesh glistened blood-red, as if freshly flayed. Rows of black spines jutted from their coils, forming natural armor that glead like wet obsidian.
Others took on more humanoid shapes, though no mortal would
mistake them for anything but demons. Their bodies were carved from living darkness, their obsidian flesh glowing with rivers of rotting blood. Massive wings unfolded behind them, each feather a blade, each motion releasing a wave of decay.
Their forms were disguising, but the one thing that mattered to Cain was their power.
"ArchDeities." The voice of the Scarlet King was somber as the individual power of those monsters was dangerous, and they were hundreds marching toward him.
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