ALL NOVEL Chapter 168: The Lord's Justice!
Though blessed with extraordinary powers and innate talents that filled myriad races with envy, the Naifem are an unfortunate people—and it all boils down to the discrepancies between the Astral Pulse and the Ground Pulse, the Shootings Stars vs. the Caged Birds.
The average Astral Pulse Naifem lived 30 years and died brutally. But in those 30 years, they'd accomplish feats that for other species would count as legendary. Blood Longevity in ten years. Embryonic Wisdom in 30. Divine Power and Dark Glory. One new Divine Secret per decade.
The Astral Pulse blitzed through power levels at psychotic speed. Compared to those freaks, Vel was slow.
But it was precisely because of that slower pace that she managed to become a Great Sage—and at a speed that ranked number one anyway. The rest of her fellow Astral Pulse on the other end…don't even get to become Dark Preceptors.
No other Astral Pulse ever managed to.
The Caged Birds, however, were the definition of *slow and limited*. They could live for as long as they managed to, but in general, they would peak somewhere between Flame Refinement and Inner Accumulation. This created an environment where the exceptional but hopeless Shooting Stars went mad trying to enjoy their short lives to the fullest.
Abusing the Caged Birds to the point they had no choice but to rebel.
To change their fate, the Caged Birds turned to the dark arts, relying on their affinity for Space, Earth and Darkness to create the Complete Absorption Curse--a sinister hex that enabled them to consume the Soul Script of their victims.
Most of them went mad within three months of starting to use the skill. But those who managed to withstand the ruinous side effects…became the legends of their time!
Akamana is one such case, having relied on the Complete Absorption Curse for a millennium.
Kill, absorb. Kill, absorb. Rinse and repeat. All those souls stored in her heart. With every breath that she took trying to devour her from within. Those souls broke free at last, condensing into a tide of spectral energies that sprawled across the night sky as Akamana clawed at Caligula, tearing him to shreds with her bare hands!
"AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!" Caligula howled in grief. And though Ahriman was supposed to intervene on his behalf, shaken by their knight's demise, the genderfluid Wrathful God spaced out, letting Akamana vent her hatred in a gruesome gorefest.
"Gr-grand priest—" Ahriman started in an uncharacteristically deflated tone, but before the Antigod had a chance to plead for the Weaver's boy, Akamana healed him with an improved version of the Inversion Skill…before crushing his skull on the pavement.
"Ahriman, I've stolen from you twice already. Don't force me to make your life my third victim.
Caligula isn't getting away. No one can save him from me today. I will take my time to rip him apart…before reducing his soul into atomic particles.
Hateful! Now I really believe that you are the Weaver's son. It has to be. Except for that obscene degenerate, who could give birth to your kind of obnoxious waste?!
Weaver! Why do you hate us so much? It is you who created us! Did someone put a knife at your throat and force you to create the Naifem?! Why create then damn your own creation?! You are mad!
Mad!
When you think about it, really, all our struggles and sufferings can be tied to you. Because you are sick in your head, my family's gone! I hate you so much! Why are you doing this to me?
Damn you! Damn you!" Akamana went off, a typhoon of pure Divine Power and Dark Glory coiling upwards as she brutalized Caligula, slicing him up and smacking him all over the place till his face became an unrecognizable mess.
Here, she hoisted him up like a toy. Piercing through his chest to clutch at his corrupted Divine Root.
"Too much…just…too much," Caligula couldn't believe it. Why was that woman's Divine Power that overwhelming? Even with the Heart of Malice, he couldn't reach such heights. And the Dark Glory was just as tyrannical. Where was she getting all that power from?
It wasn't fair! No wonder his good old dad oppressed and monitored the Naifem so closely.
Horrifying!
Just…horrifying!
But so what?
Even as Caligula's Divine Root cracked in Akamana's hand, the mad god stayed defiant, challenging Akamana with a delirious grin.
"You're stronger, so what? I ain't Trajan. So long as my father breathes no one can kill me. Even Vritra failed. Vritra can't kill me but you can? Nonsense.
I will just reincarnate after some time.
Unlike your brother…destroying my soul…cannot end my existence! So go ahead, Akamana. Kill me, what are you waiting for? I can't wait for dad to bring me back stronger than ever!"
[The Weaver is dead]
A robotic voice reverberated throughout creation, warning myriad lives…of the Weaver's demise!
One moment, Caligula was cackling like mad, convinced that even if Akamana obliterated his soul, his dad would find a way to fix his Soul Script. It wasn't the first time after all.
But now…they say dad's dead? I don't want to believe it. But that voice…I know that voice! It's…the Lord's Emissary!
Caligula blanked out, and as his eyes stretched in confusion, Akamana broke into laughter, her sclera turning red as she raised her hand for the final blow.
"Ahh, justice at last. Praise…praise the Lord!"
"Wait, wait, something ain't right. This has to be a lie ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?
NO—nooo! Dad! It's really over like this? How could it be? Mithras…where are you? I still need to witness…your true vision of paradise!
No…Akamana dooooooon't—" Caligula squealed like a piglet. But Akamana showed no mercy, battering the mad god till only atomic particles remained!
"Idiot. You didn't even notice that Belphegor marked you with his Naiphilic Essence. In this life or another, you will never be able to harm another person again.
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I might have actually spared you an eternity of misery. Oh well," Akamana said with an oddly absentminded look. Dropping to her knees the moment next and smiling at the heavens.
"I praise the Lord for this day and the breath that I take. That we may all live on through you…in the One True Paradise," Akamana said the Lord's prayer, prostrating herself in reverence of the Lord…before turning towards the Gates of Malice and annihilating Ahriman's abominations with tides of astral energies!