Chaos' Heir

Chapter 1560: Dust

A blast of incredible proportions expanded as far as the eye could see, obliterating anything in its path, its scorching fury seemingly having no end.

The pillar of scarlet, eradicating energy reached as far as the place’s orbit while stretching into the other battlefield, destroying the many overlayered lands and digging into their foundation.

The blast also crashed on the central mountain, clearing anything that surrounded it, restoring its floating state. That huge structure even shook, but the tremors quickly subsided, failing to inflict any damage.

The pillar shone for a long time, adding warm redness to the world, but its energy eventually began to run short. Its size gradually shrank, abandoning the orbit and retreating to its place of origin, until it disappeared altogether.

That retreat didn’t remove the redness. Melted and forged True Chaos shone with scarlet shades all over the battlefield, too hot even to release smoke. A boundless, perfectly flat, burned plain had formed, expanding everywhere in the far distance.

The high temperature made the area unapproachable, but the world slowly cooled it down, removing the red shades, restoring that True Chaos to a simple pitch-black state. The immense plain remained in all its flat purity, but the worst seemed to have gone by.

Actually, there was a trace of impurity in that immense plain. Someone stood at the center of that perfectly flat surface, unmoving, dark, but definitely alive.

The Maker looked completely unharmed while gazing at his now-empty hand. His magnificent technique was no more, but he kept studying the spot where it had once been, lost in thought.

After a while, the alien lowered his hand and diverted his gaze, pointing his scarlet eyes at a relatively nearby spot to his side in time to catch its surface burst upward.

The explosion was small, only creating a tiny blemish on the perfectly flat plain. Yet, the hole was big enough for a humanoid figure to crawl out of it, or at least what was left of that body on the verge of falling apart.

There was virtually nothing intact about the newcomer. The entirety of his skin was black and charred, featuring cracks all over. He had no hair, half of his right leg was missing, some fingers were gone, and part of his insides were in the open, unable to bleed due to the cauterization.

However, despite that terrible state, the newcomer was alive and crouched to the flat surface while the unburnt chunks of his insides released a hiss only the Maker could hear.

A horrid process visible to the naked eye followed. The charred layers of flesh fell off the burned figure, including the cauterized chunks of the exposed organs.

Rosy, reddish tissues became visible, and blood spurted out without the cauterized membrane around the widespread injuries. Still, new flesh also grew, quickly replacing anything the figure had shed.

The process didn’t stop at the flesh. Bones, tendons, and muscles regrew, filling what the previous blast had destroyed. The missing leg and fingers reappeared, regaining their superficial skin, returning to their original state.

At last, thick blue hair grew from the just-restored skin on the no-longer charred figure’s head, becoming long and hiding his face while he remained crouched on the ground.

Then, a hoarse, loud breath resounded, followed by even louder coughs that culminated in retches. The figure puked charred chunks of tissue that had remained stuck inside his body before ultimately lifting his head, illuminating the Maker with his glowing blue eyes.

Khan hadn’t felt that hungry, exhausted, and drained in ages, but only focused on steadying his breath for now. His strength quickly returned, allowing him to stand up while he wiped his mouth with his arm.

Khan didn’t feel good at all. He couldn’t after what he had been forced to survive and recover from, but his glowing eyes remained firm when they looked deep into the Maker’s.

The alien matched the glowing gaze before looking away, wearing a helpless smile that a sigh followed.

"[What makes you fight sounds interesting]," The Maker admitted, speaking through his strange whisper.

"Ther-," Khan said, only for his hoarse voice to get in the way, forcing him to clear his throat before resuming. "There’s more to my life than my mission. It’s why I could convey so much."

"[I see]," The Maker muttered, a pensive expression dawning upon his face. "[There is power in that, too]."

Khan didn’t reply. Honestly, he only wanted to lie down and rest, but the war wasn’t over, and that opponent had earned the right to his attention.

"[Were you serious]?" The Maker eventually wondered. "[Would you have really let me join your side]?"

"Why not?" Khan responded, shrugging his shoulders, hiding how sore they felt. "You wouldn’t have been the strangest being to join me anyway."

The Maker chuckled, glancing at Khan again. "[Maybe in another life]."

Khan matched that bitter smile, not knowing how to feel. On the one hand, the Maker was his enemy, his destined nemesis. However, he was also his counterpart, reflecting much of what he could have become.

"I’ll build an organization that can welcome you, too," Khan promised. "I’ll take your will so that it will never disappear."

"[Promises are wasted on me]," The Maker scolded. "[Our concepts of life are too different for your words to hold any weight]."

The Maker diverted his gaze again, glancing at the horizon.

"[And your promises are worthless if you can’t defeat my dear Father]," The Maker continued. "[He is stronger than you can even imagine]."

That was indeed worrying, but Khan sealed the thought in the back of his mind. It was too late to do anything about it anyway.

"[But I wish I could have seen that organization of yours]," The Maker sighed, lifting his hand as if trying to search for his spell again. "[I guess this is what regret feels like]."

Then, a crack opened on the Maker’s figure, and another followed, triggering a chain reaction that ended when the alien’s body lost its structural integrity, turning into black dust that blew over the perfectly flat plain.