The Bloodline System Chapter 1680 1680: I Always Come Back
Previously on The Bloodline System...
Gustav transformed his hand into a sharp edge forged from pure Outworldly energy.
SWOOOSH—SHIIINK!
His slash ripped across the Overseer's torso, slicing through fifty levels of sanctified flesh, essence, and conceptual barriers. The gash exploded open, releasing swirling black miasma that oozed like toxic vapor.
The Overseer let out a piercing howl.
His cry ripped apart the remnants of reality, forcing nearby space fragments to crumple inward.
"You insolent—!"
Gustav drove his elbow down with force.
BAAAAAAAAAAAM!
The Overseer spun away once more, slamming into a floating mass of shattered dark matter.
Though reeling from the impact, the Overseer attempted a counterstrike. His arms stretched out, pulling together the turbulent, erratic leftovers of the powers he had seized.
"DIVINITY—"
Gustav's boot smashed into his jaw before he could complete the word, jerking his head to the side and halting the assault.
The stolen divinities of the Overseer fizzled and collapsed around him, resembling exploding pouches of searing essence.
"—ghhk—!"
"You're far too chaotic to even string together a coherent thought," Gustav's words resonated with crushing authority, delivered in an icy tone.
The Overseer bellowed and lashed out blindly with a fist swollen by numerous fused deity attributes, infused with reality-shattering might.
Gustav vanished in a blur.
The enormous blow hit empty air.
Gustav reappeared at his back and hammered both fists into the Overseer's spine.
KA-THOOOOOOOOOM!!
The Overseer's back blasted apart completely, sending chunks of godly flesh flying through space like wreckage from a exploding vessel.
He attempted another assault—hurling bolts formed from solidified divine principles.
They disintegrated the instant they approached Gustav.
He surged ahead.
Gustav's palm crashed against the Overseer's midsection.
WHOOOOOOOM!
A shockwave burst forth, generating waves of reality-warping disturbance. The Overseer's core twisted in savage spasms.
His hideous shape grew unsteady, contracting, swelling, blinking, and glitching as if faulty code.
"You…" the Overseer choked out, stumbling back, "…cannot… kill me…!"
"Kill you?" Gustav cocked his head. "You're not intact enough to grasp what death means."
Terror warped the Overseer's face.
Gustav's hand shimmered with a pinkish-red glow, unleashing a brilliant, commanding surge of energy.
He shoved it ahead.
The resulting explosion engulfed all in its path.
It shredded through principles, ideas, and abstract structures. It consumed leftover worlds, tore apart the stellar fabric, and caused the final unbroken star patterns to vanish eternally.
The Overseer's form split apart.
KAAAAAAA-BOOOOOOM!!!
He burst open like a bloated container of explosive godhood. His chest tore wide, fracturing like brittle ceramic under pressure.
And from within him emerged countless tainted deities.
Dripping with shadowy miasma.
Deformed.
Thrashing.
Shrieking.
Their shapes were grotesque, volatile, and leaking a muck of polluted essence that eroded the surrounding void. They dispersed like panicked vermin escaping a crumbling nest.
A few attempted to escape.
Others wailed in torment.
Still others started ripping at the fabric of being.
Gustav lifted one hand.
They all stopped.
Each tainted deity hung motionless in the air, frozen solid.
Some caught in mid-attack, others mid-escape, some mid-cry.
Gustav's eyes lit up.
His presence surged forth in a vast tide of supreme Outworldly radiance.
FWOOM—
His form released a shining surge.
It swept through the emptiness like purifying flames.
The tainted deities broke down at once, dissolving into flows of clear glowing energy.
Rays of brightness.
Dozens of them.
All streaming together.
All channeling toward him.
Gustav took in every bit of essence.
Every god.
Every twisted remnant.
Every final trace, including—
Nocturnis.
His dark silhouette shattered into indigo and violet light before dispersing like fog and streaming into Gustav's torso.
Just one deity lingered.
The Overseer.
He hovered there, partially demolished.
A huge void yawned in his chest, radiating escaping godly essence.
Each breath emerged as a ragged wheeze, as if his being was hacking itself to pieces.
He gazed at Gustav blending dread and resistance.
"Even… if you triumph…" he gasped, "…look around you."
Gustav glanced about.
Emptiness...
The cosmos had almost vanished.
Worlds obliterated.
Suns wiped out.
Existence splintered.
Realms crumbling.
Being clung by filaments slimmer than spider threads.
"Nothing survives," the Overseer coughed feebly. "You can't dominate ruins… Outworldly."
Gustav drifted closer.
And for the first time, a faint grin tugged at his mouth.
"You overlook one thing," Gustav stated evenly, "I embody the Outworldly."
The Overseer's eyes bulged.
"No—wait—"
Gustav pressed two fingers to his brow.
The Overseer seized up as all barriers he tried to raise shattered immediately.
Gustav's aura roared out with peerless force.
A twisting maelstrom of pinkish-red enveloped the Overseer.
His shape wailed as Gustav consumed him completely.
Unlike the Overseer's forbidden power, this absorption was pure.
Total.
Irreversible.
The Overseer didn't dissolve.
He didn't shatter.
He didn't erupt.
He merely ended.
His godhood, core, and abstract being were drawn in and obliterated through one flawless act of Outworldly devouring.
As the glow faded, no trace of him persisted.
Not a speck.
Not even an imprint in reality's rules.
He had vanished.
Eternally.
Quiet descended in the aftermath of ruin.
No stellar gales.... no universal hums... no godly reverberations.
Only Gustav drifting in the abyss of a fading cosmos.
Where vast star systems once blazed, faint, wandering grains of stellar debris now floated. The splendor of genesis had vanished, supplanted by infinite shadowy void.
Merely nine glows shone gently inside a shielding sphere close by.
Gustav reached out his hand.
With a click—
PWAH!
A lunar body materialized under his soles.
In an instant.
It formed a flawless orb, with intricate textures carved on its skin, pits emerging, strata of rock, ore, and stellar deposits weaving together.
He summoned air into being.
Weight.
Air layer.
A gentle gust that stirred over its face.
The sphere settled softly onto the moon.
Within:
E.E
Aildris
Falco
Elevora
Sersi
Ria
Xanatus
Endric
His kin.
His companions.
Those he vowed wouldn't perish.
He dispersed the sphere into safe motes and descended gradually, his feet meeting the moon's chilled ground.
He lingered solitary for a moment.
Then—
"GUSTAV!!!"
E.E's call broke with intense gratitude.
They rushed as a group, crashing into him in a fierce, urgent hug.
Aildris clutched his shoulder.
Sersi held tight to his limb.
Falco barreled into his midriff.
Elevora pressed her features to his torso.
Ria shook as he embraced from the rear.
Xanatus rubbed his nose roughly.
Endric held his sibling as if release was impossible.
Their hug's force might have pulverized a peak.
"You truly returned…" E.E said with feeling. "And pulled our hides from the fire once more…"
Gustav breathed out at last, showing an uncommon grin.
"As I said," he whispered, embracing them tightly.
"I always return."