The rank 2 chieftain who wouldn't even be qualified to sit in the same room with Eon on a normal day now looked down into his eyes and smiled.
Eon, who wouldn't have even bothered to spare the weakling a glance, looked up into his eyes, a hint of pleading, bitterness and struggle on his face.
The chieftain didn't seem to care about those emotions. Nor did he care that whatever was left of the city that's now being destroyed by his tribe.
"No matter who you are, no matter how far you go, His words shall not be crossed." The chieftain drew a long breath, trying to control his face from contorting in rage.
Yet, he couldn't help raising his leg and slamming Eon's head into the ground with his heel.
The ground shook for a moment before dust rose and joined the mushroom cloud in the sky.
As the City Lord's face touched the soil, the last pillar of the city hall crumbled and fell. The final shining brick in the city went out and a bloody desolation filled the air.
"Blasphemers." The chieftain gnashed his teeth and raised his foot, stopming the man who reached the pinnacle of power in Eden.
Blood spilled out, mixing with the green aura of the time sliver and splashed onto Aion.
"I…" The eyes which were on the verge of dimming regained their light and the old man gasped violently.
"You…" One look at the strange man in front and the familiar aura coming from under his foot, Aion figured out the situation.
"Get your foot off my brother, you barbari—ugh!"
"Blasphemer!"
The chieftain's cane struck Aion's face, nearly cracking his skull open.
It should've been a slap on the wrist at normal times, but Aion was nearly knocked out. And if not for Eon who kept using the time sliver even now, he'd have died without a doubt.
"Weren't you so arrogant that you defied His will? Blasphemed the Creator! Descerated what should not be touched!"
The chieftain's face contorted, insanity, fury and disgust competing with each other to fill his expression.
Those words triggered Aion who snapped back even in his current state. "It's not blasphemy, you fool! It's discovery! It's enlightenment! It's the truth!
Origin is the key to breaking the prison of this univere. It's the thing that god doesn't own!
One day, I will crack the truth and find hi—arghhh!"
Two spatial blades with thousands of sharp teeth appeared over Aion and bit down.
The front half of his head was chewn into pieces and his body stopped moving.
Right then, the green light connecting the two brothers glowed and time flowed back.
Aion's face reappeared, but his dull eyes showed he didn't forget the pain.
"Glory to thee, Father!" The chieftain turned his gaze down at the head buried under his foot. "You were saving up aura to escape but had to use it to save your brother.
What fools you are! Blasphemy takes away intellect! The wise always follow His words."
Aion wanted to yell at those stupid lines but kept his quiet after realizing he's just foiling his brother's escape plan.
The chieftain noticed this right away. "Make no mistake. You might run from me, but you cannot run from death.
I am merely an agent of your death, a knife in the hand of the butcher. If not me, He will find someone else. His ways are unpredictable.
Praise His Glory."
A dazzling red glow appeared above the necks of Eon and Aion, materializing into space chains with a millions of teeth.
The space between these teeth was constantly compressed, collapsing into blackholes, making the weapon a divine killer.
Sensing the imminent threat, Eon mobilized every bit of aura he could muster.
The city shook for a moment and the last two members of Heaven tribe stood facing the Neveah chieftain.
In the blink of an eye, the whole army of Neveah gathered the chief.
Eon's body seemed to be on the verge of collapsing as he overdrew himself, but he firmly stood between his brother Aion and faced the entire Neveah tribe by himself.
'Aion, I'll buy some time. Escape.'
A quiet conversation took place between the brothers through their origin—a method which allowed secrecy even though they were greatly weakened.
'No, brother! You escape! I'll buy ti—'
'You can't! Only one of us can buy time. It's not you.'
'But!'
'Origin, that should be the key. If that bastard is going this far to bury us, it means we hit the right spot.
You can do it. So live. Avenge me. Avenge every one of us.
And this is what I devised with the sliver. My final prophecy…'
At his brother's parting words, Aion's mind nearly shattered and he desperately tried to think of a better solution.
But nothing came to mind. The genius researcher thought and thought, considering every possibility.
Everything seemed to fail. And time…was running out.
Time, which he could stretch as he wished with his powers, was not in his favor anymore.
Sensing his hesitation, Eon's voice rang, with a hint of cheerfulness that didn't appear in centuries.
'I promised her I'll keep you safe. And an elder brother can't let his younger one die before him, okay? You're not just living your life, you're also living mine. Cherish it!'
Eon stepped forward, dragging his mutilated body.
The weak gaze of the man changed abruptly and an indifference of a living god replaced them.
The momentum of a peak rank 2 powerhouse exploded like a hot water spring breaking the ground and shooting into the air and drowned every single Neveah tribesman in the city.
For a brief, brief moment, everyone—be it the chieftain, his loyal powerhouses, the army generals and the wild soldiers—glimpsed at death.
Most of the army fainted right away and all the divine rankers except the the Chieftain and a few rank 2s fell to their knees.
Their souls seemed to be burn as the image of a near godly being imprinted itself onto their memories.
A hundred, a thousand, and even a million years later, they wouldn't forget this fear.
Dear Father!
Who were they fighting?!
Was such a man really meant to be killed?
Any hint of smile vanished from the chieftain's face. Clutching his staff tight, the leader of Neveah stared at Eon with a cautious gaze.
It was difficult for him to accept the reality of a mere mortal, no different from himself, showing such magnitude of power.
'Lord Father, why did you allow this man to be so strong and kept me so weak? Did you make a…'
A thought that borderined on blasphemy popped up.
"Butcher? The butcher who won't even take action himself. All he knew was blowing up the corpse of a dead god, his own creation and catch us off guard.
He didn't win with a fair fight, he won with an ambush.
If even your god needs to be so timid when facing us—mere mortals who only started to scratch the secrets of Creation—what does it say about him?"
Those words crossed the line. Even the scared powerhouses tried to stand up and pounce at Eon.
The chieftain's mind blanked out for a moment before he pushed away all other thoughts.
No matter what, Lord Father was his reason for being. He chose the tribe of Neveah. He annihilated the strong enemies and gave them this blessed Paradise.
'He is always right. You are wrong!'
All rationale vanished from the chieftain's face and the city began to shake.
Tiny stones started to float and a huge vortex formed on top of the city, heralding the destruction to come.
Eon's green aura and the Chieftain's red flashed forward, about to clash when a cough was heard followed by a slap.
"Told you so!"
With a conspicious slap mark on his cheek, Aion was grabbed by the back of his neck and dragged away by a young man.
"Wait, what?!" Eon gave up the confrontation and chased after to save his brother.
Why was his brother kindapped now of all times?
"Who are you?" The chieftain chased Eon.
Was this guy an ally of Eon? Then another blasphemer!
"Didn't you die?" The most confused of all, Aion, looked at his 'test subject' with a mix of confusion and horror.
"Death? I used to pester her so much she doesn't want me around anymore!"
Logos felt like choking while Samsara chuckled and cheered in a girlish voice.
(A wild Varian appears).
——————
A/N:
No, no, no.
The book wasn't dropped, isn't being dropped and won't be dropped.
The author (who happens to be me), ahem ahem, took a decision to figure out the outline of the next book before this one ends.
Turns out, I underestimated what I want and overestimated how much I will do.
…And there were a few days where nothing happened. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
Okay, quite a few days.
…Quite a few quite a few days.
(Am I allowed to add one more Quite a few?)
After so many days of outlining/soul searching/mind wandering/procrastining, I see light at the end of the tunnel.
I have a more solid estimate of the new story. [It's turning out to be a big challenge. *nervous chuckles*]
I apologize for the stupid handling I did. I should've informed and not ducked my head into the sand like an Ostrich—guess I am an Ostrich now (always been?)
So…DPS will get an ending. The ending hasn't changed due to this break.
I have an outline, so there's little risk of problems arising due to the break. And if there are plotlines, characters to be wrapped up you think I might miss, please comment so I can take notice and ensure the story doesn't miss anything.
As always, I am welcome to criticism, sweet or harsh.
A date for the ending? I avoid giving dates as I seem to miss the deadline when I give one. Nearly every single time.
I'm sorry about that.
And I'm sorry for abruptly not posting anything—I hate that behavior myself—so, it's double the crime. Nah, triple that.
I totally don't mind if my behavior got you hurling a truck of curses at me. It's well deserved.
While I'm not giving a date for completion, I promise it's going to be soon.
(No dates, but I want to wrap everything before New Year. Operating word: WANT.
I don't want to set up flags but F***)
See you all soon.
PS: Save the curses for later—they'll be more effective when I start posting chapters and get back to reading comments.
Have a good day, everyone.
PPS: If you don't mind, I want to share some of the excitement I have for VR story.
VR, Heroes vs Villains, Gods.
A story encompassing these three plotlines—though they're really one big plotline.
I don't want to write a defense paper on why this is THE STORY.
I just…like the story. It's interesting. And I think I'm trying to write a story I want to read for myself.
Writing is what I'll do. I don't know what you think of it, even though I'll keep guessing. You gotta tell me.
And ofc…the story will speak for itself.
I have a lot of fun reading stories. Maybe a lot more than I should.
So, I hope you'll have as much fun reading my story.
Cheers everyone.