A blockade, huh? Weak. Well, that's to be expected. They sent a child to negotiate. They didn't take us seriously in the first place. We should have killed the boy. This is what happens when I show mercy.
Withering away any impurities over my kingly body, I couldn't be bothered to show much concern. While ten paragons are a lot, it's not like—
"And… you have a visitor."
"Me?" I pointed a little taken back.
Sharla nodded meekly. "A mister Richter is here to see you."
My blood went cold, and without hesitation, I pushed out my senses to the lobby, towards a silver hair golden eye man bleeding a terrifying celestial qi. He sat with his eyes closed, which opened the moment my intent reached him.
A familiar smile appeared as he rose. "Surely you do not fear me still, boy? We are family. You are the last line of House Lazarus."
"Send him in." I calmly said to Sharla.
The little shade bowed, and without hesitation, I banished Zanris to her chambers and withered away the scent of sex and fluids hanging about before I took a seat.
Poise upon my throne, the air grew thick and heavy. Like a mountain was upon my chest. I stared, if not glared, at the possessed Richter stepping in. With a cunning smile on his lips, he looked around with hints of disappointment visible.
"Is this how you live as King? Its… deployable. Where is the grandeur that kings are to carry themselves with." He shook his head and shifted his swordlike eyes that seemed sharper than the finest blade. "No. Tell me, how does it feel to live once more?"
"Who are you," I asked.
"We are family, my boy. Family doesn't vanish despite reincarnation. Your soul will carry your noble blood. One only needs to look inside."
My frown deepened. " So you're not willing to tell?"
"Names hold power, my child. They hold great power. Especially if you wish to challenge Moloch."
"The Fallen of Sacrifice!"
Richter nodded. " Indeed. When Gods die and carry unpaid debt, their souls go to him. A nasty Principality. But his all-encompassing power is something to be feared… and challenged."
"You… a fourth-level being wishes to challenge Moloch!"
"Fourth-Level? Ha! Funny. I was to be your Mother's husband, fool." My jaw opened, but before I could reply, Richter continued. " Odd how I turned out to be your Great Grandfather. Odd indeed. It's as if the Fates were involved. My grandson, for some reason, got to her first. Serves her right for killing me."
"I… I don't understand."
"How do you think the forsaken bloodline existed on Iluthath? We were banished, fool. Seven of us existed on Iluthath to protect the Entrance to Arcadia. But your Mother single handily killed all six of us. She managed to enter the Pool of Reincarnation to heal… but the rest of us… We lost our way… and our memories."
"Her injuries. So you caused it!"
He snorted. "Your Mother managed to hunt us all down; by the time I regained my mind, she was on her third child, and I was on my deathbed… I'm sure you can put everything together after that."
So that's what happened.
I sucked in a breath of bitter air, and my throat tightened as pangs of sorrow tugged at my heart. I know… My children were involved, but by how much… I don't know.
"I have no issue with you, boy. Your Mother won fair and square. Although, I wonder why they allowed such a bloody murderer in the Myriad Heavens in the first place. That might be the biggest mystery to me." He grunted, tracing his finger on his neck as if running his hand over an invisible line.
"Murderer?"
"That bitch was a bloody psycho. She's killed more people than the days I've lived. Realm Killer, they called her. She would fall like a bloody Fallen over the land, and terror would reign."
"Watch how you speak about her," I coldly warned. " Chaos Lord or not, I'll kill you."
"You? Please. You've already had an issue with the Hell, and now Winterpool is after your head." He chuckled and folded his arms. "Which brings me to why I am here. Moloch."
"The hell would I get involved with him?" I replied, sinking deep into my throne. I stared at Richter as if he was stupid.
"Because, my boy, once you open pathways to Arcadia. War will commence. A war that will ravage the Abyss, the Myriad Heavens, and Arcadia. The only ones who will win will be the strongest."
I almost spat. "The bloody Hell does that have to do with me? I've got Tenebrae, Zariel, and much more behind my back. We will survive."
"But what if you had a true source of power? What if you had a predominant family behind your back? Your wife is with child, and if one of them is born with the Lazarus bloodline. All Hell will break out. A child of the Abyss and a Forsaken to boot! Such a child could destroy the Forsaken Progenitors."
Storming to my feet, a bloodlust I kept at bay with all my heart fractured the Heavenly Laws as it bled out of my pores. "I'd rather burn in the nines for all eternity. It was House Lazurus that committed atrocities against my Mother. When we arrive in Arcadia, Zariel, Zhu, and I will burn that fucking family to the ground. Not even the fucking dogs will be allowed to live. You and everyone you love and know will fucking die by our hands. Realm Killer? I'll kill your entire Karmic line!"
Richter sneered. "unfortunately, it's not up to you. On their sixteenth birthday, the day the Rite of Heaven and Earth is held, a Heartstone will be born, and with it, the bloodline of a single forsaken lineage will awaken." He turned, taking his leave. " Moloch will come calling one day… and you will come before me, boy. I promise you that."
I spat in response and fell back on my throne, fuming as an uncontrollable killing intent clung to me like rot; withering the stone around me, Sharla was forced out, leaving only silence.
"You did the right thing." Said the voice of Zariel from the great beyond. "Those that carry the blood of Lazarus will all die."
"And if it's one of my kids?"
Zariel's voice grew colder. "Then they are Snows. It will be the snow bloodline. House Lazurus is dead, brother. I won't settle for anything less. I'll keep an eye on this one… He could be useful. He'll lead us to that family."
Poised upon my throne for a long while, allowing my anger to fester, I rose, if not stormed to my feet, and flashed from the palace grounds to the outside, staring at the dead laws surrounding this base towards the hundred-thousand soldiers marching over a few million kilometers away.
Anger flaring akin to a trembling volcano, a vortex of spiraling darkness splintered the laws around me, transporting me to the end of the Eben forest or what was left of the forest after the Holy Spirits' attack.
Hellfire practically flared from the back of my throat, distorting Heaven whilst withering the earth. The army of men and women, carrying the insignia of the moon and sword, all became armed as divinity flared.
"Arsene Snow!" Some of the Gods beneath my feet muttered, their souls trembling to my killing intent.
The warmth over my cheeks crept away in fear leaving only death incarnate. Noctom flashed into my palm, bathing in dark nodes of storm light.
"Attack! ATTACK!!!" Howled the guards below. " Ready the Cannons Arm the—"
Commands echoing, the Crest of the Sin of Abyssal Pride, filled my eyes, empowering me to such a degree that I felt my body grow stiff. Viens painfully throbbed, threatening to burst at the divinity coursing through me.
I had fought a paragon. I had fought many of them. Killed Gods of various levels. I even faced the Holy Spirit and survived. My body is capable of adapting to anything. I've more hax than a two-dollar whores body count. And yet… And yet these little insects dare to invade my borders?
I employed the Concept of Supremacy and Eternity. And my blood-red eyes blazed as Noctem swept in a graceful horizontal arc; intent left my spear alongside storm light and struck against the army.
Death whipped over my eyes like a violent whirlwind as the enemy beneath my feet became atomized in but a second. There was no begging, no moaning, no signs of regret, only glistening shimmers of stardust and the utter devastation that tore apart the surface of Iluthath, splintering the earth, as my spear light created a canyon over two parsecs in length.
Billions of lives became lost instantly, wiped from the wheel of reincarnation as I gathered their souls into my palm.
"We'll see how you fare against a fucking devil. I'll kill you all. Challenge me? Me! Sharla! Where is the closest kingdom not under my control?"
Appearing by my side on one knee, she spoke. " Destroyed my Lord. You killed dozen of allied kingdoms as well as enemy kingdoms."
I spat. " Then where is the next enemy kingdom?"
"Towards the far east. There is a major kingdom of—"
Exploding off the air, I pierced through the clouds at such a speed the friction of space clawed at my body like air pressure, erupting in fractured laws as I came upon a large kingdom bathed in light.
Wardings of multicolored radiance seemed to cover this foreign kingdom's skies as I stared dead at the enemy.
They were ready to face me. No… that's not it. They felt the power of my earlier strike and prepared for the worse. Unfortunately, my single attack will never fade with the Concept of Eternity. It will remain at the peak, while your wardings will fade.
"Hold your blade, Demon!"
Hearing a strange voice, I didn't recognize Noctem erupted in a blazing of dark Abyssal Flames, shredding the laws to dust, resulting in clusters of Dead Laws. A draconic roar echoed from Heaven and earth as I called upon little Ty's blessing.
The light became damned, leaving only eternal night as my attunement to darkness and Hell seemed to merge into the divinity that took shape into a noble dragon covered in a blaze of flames.
I struck.
Noctem and I tore downwards with the bellowing dragon upon my spear and struck against the barrier, daring to block my path.
"NO!" Came the same voice from earlier, startling me a little as a cry from on high echoed.
Flames of Abyss Night stormed Heaven and Earth as they tore through the barrier, but just as the warding cracked like an egg, a newfound power exploded, blasting me out of the skies.
I swept through skies far into space as blood rippled out of my arm in streams.
"I said, hold, boy!"
"PRIDE!" I howled, glaring at the newcomer, stepping out of a spiraling vortex.
Suddenly thirty-three chimes of glass shattering echoed through my ears. Time froze over this Fourth Heaven, and as the laws receded and bent, twisting like strings, they shattered at the sheer might of my words as a spear, a blade black as the deepest night, demonic as the deadliest pit of Hell, congealed in my palm.
Fear splintered the air, but as the Concept of Supremacy took hold of my Pride, its aura exploded in a nightmare of hell light.
"Die." I howled, cleaving Pride downwards.
I didn't even see what happened, nor did I care, but by the time the radiance of light entered my eyes, the God that had blocked my strike was gone, leaving only fragments of his destroyed soul.
"..."
"... Arsene…" The voice of Lily rang out.
"..."
Staring at the void, at the light of the Bed of Chaos fade into nothingness, my jaw dropped as I felt souls, billions, trillions, quadrillions, quintillions, sextillions, septillions, octillion all race into Pride.
The radiance of the Bed of Chaos began to dim like a flickering candle.
"Arsene… you… you… my God…. You killed a Myriad God! And destroyed five percent of the Bed of Chaos." She went on utterly stupified.
Looking down at Pride devouring souls streaming in, I couldn't help but shudder at what I had done. Did… Did… Did I just use the power that comes from the 33 Heavens? Is this the power of Supremacy?
My soul practically froze in fear as my soul ran cold.
"I… I shouldn't have this power! How…"
"Pride is a weapon with the base power of the 33rd Heaven. It'll climb higher in rank the better the user is at feeding it. But you just—"
"I took ninety-nine percent of the blow." A disheveled Zariel said, appearing by my side. Clothe rustled and torn. He glared at me. " You realize I'm not the only God of Order, right? While I'm at the top of the food chain, some will go against my will to kill you. I can't always protect. Think! You, bloody idiot."
He snapped his finger towards the torn Bed of Chaos. "Do you know how many rules you just broke? Do you know how much hot shit I'm in! How much paperwork is this? Damn it, A—"
"Tenebrous." I swiftly corrected, knowing he was about to use my name when I recalled my deal with Tenebrae.
Zariel paused, and his eyes widened and contracted. "You…" He shook his head. "Brother, your a grown man. But I can't control your power anymore. I can't protect you as much as I'd like. You need to be aware of your power."
"That bad?" I whispered, bewildered by his dismay.
"The man you killed was a priest from the Cathedral of Eternal Flames; he was from the thirty-first, Heaven. Look, I'm a little busy with Mephisto. Just try to stay out of trouble. Fuck. You really like making enemies."
The concept of Supremacy puts any object at the peak of its current realm, but if the object has a base limit of, let's say, the fifth Heaven, it'll reach the peak of that said Heaven.
So Arsene's strike was at the 'peak' of the 33rd heaven.
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