Become A Member At My Patreon For Access To Bonus Chapters Or Even Multiple Chapters A Day!
» Patreon.Com/LordArchduke
------------------
The Eye of the Abyss was finally sealed and expelled from the laws' body. After tens of thousands of years of slow consumption, this threat was finished within a single afternoon. Yet it didn't take the defeat quietly.
"You're finished! Your Aetherium Empire is finished! When the Demon Emperor leads his army onto the Endless Continent—"
Nobody was listening. The eye kept going anyway, cataloguing the Burning Legion's centuries of conquest across thousands of planets, each slaughtered race a credential. Haru was already elsewhere in his own mind, watching the bloody light, the origin of Abyss Law, sink into his forehead.
Along with it came something useful: once the integration finished, the evil power of the Abyss would no longer be able to touch him. A reasonable side benefit.
The Eye suddenly stopped mid-threat.
"What did you do to me?" Its voice had changed, its fury stripped out, replaced with something rawer, "My origin. It just… disappeared. What are you?"
Haru said nothing.
"How can a Human God devour the core origin of an Abyss Artifact?" The Eye's panic was almost interesting to observe. It cycled through possibilities, landed on the only one that made sense to it: no alien creature had ever mastered the Divine Law of Abyss without being 'converted' by it. Therefore, it said, "You're one of us! You're a demon hidden under a human form!"
The panic flipped to something like excitement. A demon who'd sabotaged the Emperor's plan was confusing, yes, but a demon was 'family'. There was still a conversation to be had. Maybe even forgiveness.
…
Phoebe had also seen the bloody light. Just as she was about to warn Haru, the origin core tore free and flew straight into his forehead. She stood very still for a moment. Then she arrived at the same conclusion the Eye had.
She turned to run, but Celestia was faster. The Space-Time cage, golden and absolute, snapped shut around the Forest Goddess before she'd taken three steps. It was woven through with the Space-Time Law. Phoebe threw herself against it. The cage didn't budge.
She kept trying anyway, not out of any real hope of breaking it, but because the Spirit of Arboriel's Laws was still out there and every second she spent trapped here was a second she couldn't help.
"You killed Miltonic and Dantean." She said between her attempts, "You destroyed a hundred thousand Demonic Gods. Why would a Demon do that to his own kind?"
"Forest Goddess." Celestia's expression didn't move, "Don't blaspheme My Lord. He is the God of Creation. He is not a creature of the Abyss."
Phoebe stared at her, "I watched the origin of Abyss Law fly into his body. That power belongs to the Dimensional Demon Race alone. In all of history, no outsider has ever absorbed it without being converted. What other explanation is there?"
"The depth of my Lord's power…" Celestia said, "…is not something you can measure."
Silence.
The Eye, sealed and motionless, said nothing. It had run out of frameworks. Human or demon, it genuinely didn't know anymore, and that uncertainty sat worse than the defeat.
Not far away, the Spirit of Arboriel's Laws had been listening. Piecing it together.
An attribute-less natural Godhead, capable of accommodating any Divine Law without any conflicts. It existed in legend, and it was something the Endless Continent's Laws, ancient and vast beyond comparison, might have the power to generate. Haru was from the Endless Continent.
That explained this incident, yet it did not make the ominous feeling in her chest go away. Celestia had imprisoned Phoebe, the Eye was sealed and Haru was still standing motionless, eyes closed, unreachable. He was integrating the origin of Abyss Law, which meant that his Divine Power was completely locked up until the integration was finished. It was as if he was just a statue for now.
That left just two Supreme Gods between her and freedom. Moreover, the clock was running in both directions. Her strength was recovering with every passing minute, but so was the risk that Haru would finish assimilating the Abyss Law first. She had days at best before her power climbed high enough that even Haru added to the fight couldn't suppress her. The question was whether she had enough of those days right now.
There was also a problem. As the Spirit of a planet's laws, she couldn't leave the planet, but within it, she could disappear so completely that finding her would require tearing the entire planet apart piece by piece. All she had to do was get clear and she started moving.
"Spirit of the Laws." Celestia's voice echoed, "There's nowhere to go. When the Lord finishes, you'll be given a future. Stay where you are."
"A future." The Spirit repeated, her voice had gone dry, "How generous."
"Stay."
"Yes, yes, of course. Absolutely."
Without missing a beat, the spirit agreed, then it turned and sprinted.
------------------
Become A Member At My Patreon For Access To Bonus Chapters Or Even Multiple Chapters A Day!
» Patreon.com/LordArchduke
Member Shoutouts (Mythril Tier and above):
Shinto (Adamantite)
Grant Thomas (Adamantite)
MagnusA (Adamantite)
PetMeSenpai8 (Orichalcum)