Chaos' Heir

Chapter 1369: Time

Improving so quickly and meaningfully was a novelty for Khan, but he was hardly in the right state to rejoice. He was aware of those changes and how they helped his training session, but his mind kept wandering into subjects too grand and profound to put into mere words.

Khan’s strange mental state prevented him from feeling pretty much anything proper of an individual, but that didn’t apply to Liiza. The previous event had perplexed her, and something far more shocking followed.

Despite knowing that Khan was absorbing a whole planet, Liiza couldn’t help but be surprised when she noticed that the celestial body was shrinking.

At first, it was nothing more than a hunch. After all, Liiza was too small and had too limited a perspective to study the event. Even her location went against that inspection, making it harder to spot.

Yet, Liiza wasn’t the same as before. Her hunches involved inexplicable instincts that spoke to something deep within her very existence, bringing awareness about the event before she could spot it with her bare eyes, which she eventually did.

The scene was indescribable. Liiza had seen her fair share of shocking events and had heard tales of similarly stunning stories from Khan. However, nothing vouched for the power level they had reached more than the images reflected in her bright white eyes.

The horizon receded, getting closer, curving into Liiza’s glowing gaze. It almost seemed Khan’s [Blood Vortex] was pulling it to him, compelling it to get in line and wait for its turn to be devoured.

Of course, the [Blood Vortex] did not do such a thing. Despite the additional snake heads and their joint suction force, Khan couldn’t move planets.

Instead, the planet moved toward Khan, displacing entire quadrants while adjusting its size to facilitate the training technique. The celestial body was his to take, so it behaved accordingly, helping where it could.

Understanding the process didn’t make it any less shocking. Liiza and Khan had met when they were less than first-level warriors, powerless to affect the sunlight’s tragic effects and change the Elders’ minds. They had been nothing more than leaves dragged by winds, trapped into mighty forces they couldn’t hope to oppose.

However, the married couple could now affect the Elders, forcing them to tiptoe around Khan and Liiza’s will. The whole universe’s intricate political array had them at its center, moving and changing at their mere words.

Even natural disasters weren’t impossible to oppose anymore. Khan and Liiza were the catastrophes the universe had to fear. Nitis’ sunlight would have had to bow down to them now, just like that azure planet was doing.

The realization of that stark change was eerie, profound, chilling, and breathtaking. It was the difference between ants and gods, something Khan and Liiza had to make their peace with and balance it against their most basic and mortal drives to avoid losing sight of what they truly cared about.

After all, Khan and Liiza had seen the dangers that achieving a superior level of existence brought.

The Elders were one of such examples, becoming so detached from mortal lives that they could only consider the Niqols as a whole, becoming blind to the individuals.

The Nak were an even more extreme example. That species saw the entire universe as disposable, only caring about the mana’s evolution.

To make matters worse, the Nak truly believed that and, in a twisted, inhuman sense, they were right. Individual, puny lives were simply inconsequential to the well-being of their superior energy.

That actually was the fate of every evolved warrior, something Liiza knew and had warned Khan about. Their union should have been impossible for those exact reasons.

Khan and Liiza should have become individual existences, detached from mortal emotions. Otherwise, they should have remained weaker beings, content and fulfilled with their mutual pure love.

Seizing both demanded a steep price, which grew steeper as the couple achieved even higher levels of existence. Yet, Khan and Liiza had to keep each other human. They had to because they were a family. They had to because their lives belonged to their daughter, and she would never be inconsequential, no matter what the universe demanded from them.

The planet kept shrinking, and that trend even accelerated due to Khan’s increasing attunement with mana. Yet, Liiza diverted her attention from that majestic event, pulling back her head and one arm to stare at Khan’s hair.

A sweet smile broadened on Liiza’s face when she spotted the many braids falling from Khan’s head. She even immersed her fingers in his hair to caress it, suppressing a giggle at the sight of the result of her childish but affectionate habit.

Liiza and Khan were basically gods, but also still mere kids in love, and her feelings intensified during her caresses, distracting her from her more profound, inhuman thoughts.

Liiza almost couldn’t believe how much she loved Khan. He was the man who kept making her laugh despite all the pain he carried. He was the man who didn’t have anything to give, so he offered the entirety of himself.

Khan was the man who had taught Liiza cold and the solution to it. He had ignored the barriers between species for her, saving her from her solitude and a fate worse than death.

Liiza’s attention briefly fell on her hand immersed in Khan’s hair before returning to him. Her smile grew more profound but no less loving as she leaned on his back to reach for his right ear, whispering soft words that he was in no condition to address.

"[Now that I am like this]," Liiza muttered, "[I have hope to grow old with you]."

Liiza wasn’t only talking about her evolution. Reuniting with Khan had altered her future, changing the path she was meant to walk. Her ice had moved to different fields, giving her existence aspects that could hope to match Khan’s monstrous genes.

"[Time has opposed us in the past]," Liiza continued. "[Now it will be on our side]."

Liiza couldn’t refrain from kissing Khan’s cheek, knowing he was powerless to respond to her feelings. Yet, his gaze suddenly regained focus, and his head turned toward her, uttering words of far scarier implications.

"[They are coming]," Khan warned.