My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger Chapter 882 - 883: No Gods Under The Heavens
Previously on My Living Shadow System Devours To Make Me Stronger...
Becoming a deity proved arduous, particularly when it wasn't a destiny one had picked for themselves.
Lazarak entered the world as a god. He held no control over it. One instant, he lacked existence entirely, and the following moment, he just came to be.
His essence arrived alongside him. He never selected to embody good or evil, never picked the route to follow or the weaknesses to carry.
His essence dictated it all. It stood fixed and unyielding, beyond his desires.
This evoked Damon's conviction for him.
'We are not asked to be born.'
Still, as Lazarak surveyed the war altars strewn throughout the realm, a sense of thankfulness washed over him.
He felt relieved to have emerged as a serene deity. He appreciated that his essence spared him the urges for domination or slaughter.
At times, he pondered the reason behind the Goddess of Doom crafting a god of tranquility amid a realm submerged in conflict.
Among everything, he held seniority. He came first.
Tranquility predated conflict.
Lazarak despised the way serenity served as an excuse for battle.
Exhaustion gripped him. A profound weariness.
Why wouldn't the realm just pause and find calm.
The issue lay straightforward.
Resolution eluded simplicity.
The pillar.
"Are you already weary, traitor god?"
Seraph Null's voice resonated within him.
The dark cluster composing Lazarak's form had diminished from the relentless injuries he'd suffered. Yet Seraph Null fared little superior. From his nine wings, Lazarak had ripped off five, leaving the inferior deity with merely four.
"You're holding up no stronger. In fact, since I'm not aiming to end you, you're exerting every effort to end me."
Lazarak rejected the notion of claiming lives. It served as his method to stay untainted, free from conflict's grasp.
Far beneath their clash, the fight blazed on. Shouts of agony. Wails of dread.
"You've let your brother down, traitor god. Though, what else to anticipate from a feeble deity?"
Seraph Null bellowed while his wings crashed against the dark cluster, shadows unfurling over the heavens.
The halo fastened to his shackled form emitted radiance, lending him a sacred glow.
Lazarak regarded him steadily.
"Let him down? As the elder kin, I ought to feel the disappointment. Does he remain bound to conflict still?"
Seraph Null's wings tensed as a cosmic gale burst forth. Reality splintered, rifts in space ripping wide as he climbed upward, hauling Lazarak along to the high layers of the air, where a shield divided the realm from the starry emptiness above.
"Conflict defines him, just as captivity defines me. Your fixation on serenity defines you. If he's enslaved, then you're chained too."
Lazarak divided his essence, shadows reforming into a colossal serpent-dragon, sinuous and immense, bearing two gigantic wings. The beast clamped onto Seraph Null's wings.
Seraph Null lifted his arm.
"Halt."
Lazarak's shape decelerated, as if invisible bonds restrained it. He broke loose from the command, but Seraph Null struck down, severing his wings. Shadows poured from Lazarak's form.
The ebony cluster plummeted.
Divine essence splashed upon the realm.
Wherever it fell like rain, the terrain suffered eternal corruption. Those it contacted crumpled, convulsing as their forms contorted, mutated, and exploded.
"Jahahaha."
Seraph Null's laughter rang out.
"Now it can truly be claimed that you ended them."
Lazarak glanced below while his shadows regrouped.
Seraph Null ascended further, his chains rattling.
"You always claim you avoid killing, but you're forever involved. Inform me, in your uprising, how many souls do you believe perished? You might not strike the blow yourself, but demise trails in your wake all the same."
Lazarak remained quiet.
Seraph Null's wings flapped leisurely.
"You're a coward. Not for shunning kills, but for allowing others to handle your grim deeds. I've clashed in endless wars. I've breached numerous boundaries. Yet I stand tall, declaring that I, Seraph Null, have battled. And should I perish, I'll go with the honor of a deity devoted to conflict."
Chains shaped into triangular bindings as he directed them toward Lazarak.
"And you? Survey your surroundings. This chaos stems from you. You won't end a life, yet you summon demise. Isn't that the truth, god of rest?"
Lazarak lacked a mouth, but the words left a sour sting.
"You're correct. I am a coward. And this entire slaughter rests upon me."
His shape started to alter.
"I'm a disappointment. I can't safeguard a thing. I'm involved. I've long recognized that. Yet it alters nothing about the necessary path. Maybe I can't intervene. But I no longer must."
His shape tightened, remolding into a human figure.
"I've witnessed those destined to mold this realm. Those who'll forge legends. You might think deities will dominate eternally, but this belongs to humanity. Below, mortals' offspring are etching their destiny."
Lazarak's role had concluded.
He had observed Lyn and Sithara. Those pair would transform the realm through their visions and brilliance. They would depart this base plane and ascend to Aetherus. They would establish a grand hub of wisdom and instruct future eras.
He had observed Damon.
Regardless of how often he stumbled, he would ascend and press onward.
He had observed Damon's allies as well.
Every one shone like a beacon.
A lone light gleaming in an endless void.
"You're observing them too, right?"
Lazarak extended his arm. Enormous dark chains soared skyward. Upon breaching the celestial dome, they anchored to the very firmament.
Seraph Null went rigid.
"What is this? Some incantation?"
He fixed his gaze on Lazarak.
"You can't possibly overcome me with that."
Lazarak seized the chains linked to the firmament.
"The age of deities has concluded, Seraph Null. We've stepped into the radiant era of mortal kin."
He tugged.
Panic surged in Seraph Null's gaze as the firmament started to lower.
Lazarak's icy tone reverberated.
"I'll drag the firmament down for humanity, letting them grasp the skies."
"This is my incantation."
The firmament stirred.
"No gods beneath the firmament."
The clouds, the very expanse above, were pulled earthward.